The Double rainbow over the Grateful Dead in Santa Clara last summer.

Thanks to my friend, and extraordinary photographer Beau Rogers who took this amazing image. Some context, this was June 26,2015 the weekend after the SCOTUS decision regarding gay rights and the weekend of Gay pride in SF.

Wednesday morning on CNN(TWX), Ted Cruz appeared to channel the film The American President, saying "If Donald wants to get in a character fight he better stick with me because Heidi is way out of his league."

In the film, Michael Douglas, portraying a bachelor president who begins dating, defends his girlfriend, played by Annette Benning, from a political attack, saying: "If you want a character debate, Bob, you better stick with me because Sidney Ellen Wade is way out of your league."

Really, you cannot make this shit up.

His wife in another year.

The guy is my longest known acquaintanceship, since 1959. Moved into the same subdivision three weeks apart. He and I, when we were ten and a guy knocked on both our doors and was offering guitar lessons. We both wanted to be Beatles, so we talked our parents into springing for them. My parents would only let me take steel guitar lesson (no rock and roll, no folk,only country) and his let him take electric guitar. I quit almost immediately, never to play guitar again. Grant kept at it and by Jr high was pretty good.

His Mom (she was a single parent when that wasn't cool) got cancer and Grant got shipped off to LA to live with his Dad, when his Mom was dying. Didn't see him for decades. Then one day at a blues festival they introduced the band and said his name! He was the guitar player, and a damn good one too. We were reintroduced and stayed friends ever since.

He and his wife were state workers and grant told me how he didn't chase music in favor of work and the security. He ran local Sunday blues jams.
I stopped in on one last week and he wasn't there. He hadn't been there a couple of weeks ago either, so I asked someone where he was. He told me that Grant's wife was diagnosed with some kind of aggressive breast cancer and that they were moving to Missouri for some kind of experimental treatment. WOW! So sad that was to hear. So close to the brass ring.....

That was Sunday night. I pick up the paper today and read a story about a guy,innocent as can be, that gets killed by a 19 year old asshole, in a car wreck Sunday night. In my and Grant's hometown. The 19 year old was being chased by police. The guy who died was Grant's brother, Craig. Wrong place, wrong time.

Now Grant has to deal with a move to Missouri this week and bury his brother and deal with all that goes with that, along with his wife having cancer.

You just never know do ya? Just when it looks like easy street, there is danger at your door. Poor guy.

When they compare moveon.org to the KKK makes me sick. Tell em you will stop watching and clicking.

"An Open Letter to My Republican Friends" -

Dear Cherished Friends,

The Republican Party has become intellectually and morally bankrupt, a mockery of its traditions — corrosive to our society, our civility, and our capacity to govern. This is not a temporary condition; it is woven into the fabric of the party. Unless and until it reverses course, you should take your votes and money and walk away.

I never thought I would presume to say this. I respect that your allegiance is rooted in considered beliefs and years of loyalty which, at the beginning of my political journey, I shared. I certainly don’t think I have all the answers, and I enjoy exploring our differences. You inform me, correct me and, most generously, tolerate me. You care, as do I, about the world we are leaving the next generations.

Our friendship far transcends our political beliefs. We share each other’s celebrations, enjoy each other’s successes. I value your advice. You’ve helped me through hard times, and some of you have helped my kids as well. You are loyal friends, generous members of the community, and deeply committed parents and grandparents. My world, and the larger world, would be a grayer place without you.

Knowing you as I do, I know that you are troubled by the direction of your party. Little wonder — you are mainstream Republicans whose mainstream has run dry. But I also accept that, for you, the Democrats may not be the answer — that you see them as feckless devotees of identity politics and too much government, don’t trust Hillary Clinton, and believe that Bernie Sanders would drive us off the fiscal cliff. I’m not writing to quarrel with these beliefs. Nor do I suggest that unchallenged dominance by the Democrats would serve the country well.

More here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-north-patterson/an-open-letter-to-my-repu_b_9497274.html

"Anti-Trump Protester Punched, Kicked At Tucson Rally" - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2016/03/19/trump-protester-hit-kicked-tucson_n_9508678.html

And it looks like the puncher is African American. Gladly, the cops cuffed him immediately.

WATCH: Thousands Protest Trump in NYC
Activists say Trump should back out of the race and call for national "Dump Trump" action.

Thousands of protesters gathered in Central Park across from Trump Tower today to protest the Republican frontrunner in solidarity with protesters in Phoenix, Arizona. (Chicago's protest last week successfully shut down a Trump rally.) The group Cosmopolitan Antifascists organized the protest. Members of ICE-FREE NYC, Revolution Newspaper and Millions March NYC. And the signs were as diverse as the subjects of Trump’s bigotry:


http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/dump-trump-watch-thousands-protest-trump-nyc-creative-signs-highlighting-true-new-york




Wonder how much media this will get tonight on the MSN?

Excellent read this. Out of control spending.

SNIP

MR: What are your thoughts about the current political climate?

CS: This is 2016, why are people still acting like West Side Story, with the Jets and the Sharks? Like John Lennon and Bob Marley and yours truly, we are one family of light. The sooner we can do away with flags and borders and all that division and separation, the sooner we will arrive at world peace and really, really, really heal the planet and each person with integrity of the highest dedication, highest compassion. There will be less graffiti and less trash and less crime. The prisons will not be full. But you have to embrace the concept that patriotism is prehistoric. It’s just that simple. We are one family, whether we like it or not, we are one. When I see the politicians acting like a Ku Klux Klan rally... A lot of the politicians that you see, you don’t see black people or brown people, you don’t see Mexicans or Jewish people in there, you only see a certain color. In the states, Hollywood’s really good at staging things. Look at the movie Wag The Dog. I live in Las Vegas. Everything about Las Vegas is staged. Every tree, everything is staged. It was just rubble a hundred years ago. It was staged. All of these politicians’ rallies are staged. They’re not real. Most of those people get paid to attend and to look enthusiastic. Can’t you see that?

MR: You know what’s ironic? They’re all calling each other liars, and they’re all right.

CS: Thank you for saying that! I think that in the future, we need one more app on Apple, an app that you put your thumb on and it reads your integrity, if you’re full of s**t and you’re a liar. And if you’re full of s**t and you’re a liar, you can not serve any kind of position to help humans. You can do other things, but if you’re going to represent the highest good of all humans, then put your thumb in here, just like you’ll do at the airport in the future. You put your thumb in here, you say, “Hello,” they look at your eyes and they can see everything about you. They can read the frequency of your intentions and your integrity. I’ve been pushing Apple to do this. Create an app that you put your thumb in and it reads the quality quotient of your integrity and intentions. That will eliminate all that wasted money on promoting liars and people would know integrity.

SNIP



MORE HERE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/santana-iv-chatting-with-carlos-santana-gregg-rolie_us_56e98478e4b044de2035079f