Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law. (Goldsmith)

.....Of the presidential wannabees I've seen in the newspaper, I've come to the conclusion that we no longer have a democracy; that is if we've ever had one.  George Washington started us off as a plutocracy actually with democratic intentions professed in our Constitution. He was a very rich man who owned a plethora of slaves. And at this hour, only the rich can run for office in America.  (So, I decided not to throw my name in the ring.)  Or, perhaps we are an oligarchy where only a small cadre of wealthy families are running the country--especially if the name is Bush or Clinton or Kennedy or even Roosevelt. He went around in a wheelchair--so, I could get around in my walker if I were President.

....Most recently, Jeffrey Winters has posited a comparative theory of "oligarchy" in which the wealthiest citizens – even in a "civil oligarchy" like the United States – dominate policy concerning crucial issues of wealth-and income-protection.  The poor will remain poor, and if the Republicans have their way with Obamacare, the sick will remain sick. And speaking of protection of the innocent in this country, they are being killed, man, boy, and child by idiots who can't wait to pull the trigger on their guns thinking they were sold in Walgreen's toy department. And what is being done about it by the Plutarchs and the Oligarchs who control our country? Nothing. And why? Because the NRA'S can't resist shooting things or people. 

 

.....I see the flag of the confederacy still flying in the United States.  Those who like it believe that the Civil War is still being fought, and by raising their flag convince themselves that the battle is being won by them; and flying the stars and bars makes them feel better about themselves.  Shooting and killing Black Americans is a warning to them, that they better get back to their duties as slaves. Look what's happening in Africa. Wouldn't they be better off in the good ole USA? I learned that recently some nut on my side climbed a flagpole in Charleston, was arrested.  His fine for such a nasty gesture was $3000. (I figure that he is on my side because I was carrying a flag with 13 stars.)

.....I think that I will stop reading the paper. There are simply too many gosh awful crushing events happening in this world. I'll just do something I like. Por Exemplo: I will not toss any tea bags into Boston harbor because they are caffeine free.  Instead, I will join the Tea Party to get up a game of Canasta.

 

"The reward of a thing well done, is to have done it"

.....I just got off Joel's Book of Face.  I had no idea how to manipulate that devilish social confusing program.  I am certain the confusion arises because we are from different generations....and although the generation during the American Revolution had no name, except perhaps, "Patriots" who wanted nothing more to do with King George's taxing without representation.  You all know about the Boston Tea Party.  No, we are not talking about those rabble rousers in the modern Republican Party. We all know something about the incident on December 16, 1773, when Boston's Sons of Liberty dressed as Mohawk Indians and tossed 342 chests of tea from three ships into the Boston Harbor to protest the taxes imposed in the Tea Act.  But few people know that there was a sequel to the Tea Party--on March 7, 1774--probably because they grabbed only 16 chests of tea for themselves. 

 

.....and Boston still has the Patriots around smashing heads with Tom Brady leading them.  Just a coincident?

 

.....I'm trying to write a musical which will encompass the history, casualties of America's wars, and the music of the Generations since the Revolution.  Did I say I'm trying to write it?  I can admit that at my ripe age, it is damn difficult, but that is another challenge I will attempt.  The naming of the Generations began with The Lost Generation.  They were specifically a group of U.S. writers who came of age during WWI and established their literary reputations during the 1920s.  It was Gertrude Stein who named their generation as the Lost one. Hemingway used it in "The Sun Also Rises."  There were others who made Paris the center of their literary activities. They included F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos. E.E. Cummings, Archibald Macleish, Hart Crane, and many others...Lost, lost, lost. And by the 1930s, they were gone.   

 

......OK. This is the best I can do today. Need to see an M.D. today. Well, actually almost every day. I'll get back to you and give you a list of all the generations.  I'm sure you'll be waiting with baited breath.

"With stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain." (Von Schiller)

.....I've recently set up a "Trust" called "Norman and Rhoda Ross Revocable Trust."  You'd think I know something about Trusts, but I know little or nothing about them--or it, except that it is supposed to protect your assets from Probate. And I'm not certain about that either!  The attorney says that I should put my money into the trust.  Am I supposed to get a large bag and dump the cash into it?  That's about all I know about trusts.  Now where can I get a bag large enough for all the money I own? RH+ has a lot of bags that she got from Publix, our super market. Perhaps one of them will do.

.....At the moment, if I have a moment, I've completed all the research on the Revolutionary War, and I am ready to write the musical I will be working on.  I will run through all the "generations" since the beginning of America--their history, their war casualties, and their music.  So far I have "Yankee Doodle" as the song Washington's army loved the most.  Actually, they stole it from King George's British army.  This is the doodle with the feather in the cap called "macaroni"--not James Cagney's "Yankee Doodle Dandy", two different lyrics.  I don't know if I will ever finish writing this musical or see it performed.  Time will tell. Oh, yes, I've always wondered what a "doodle" is. My research cleared that up; it refers to a "simpleton".  The British sang it with derision, but the rebels enjoyed singing it about themselves before they got some fancy uniforms.

 

.....I'm not sure if this story has gone around the globe--the story of the killing of nine African-Americans in the church they were attending in South Carolina this past week.  They were all shot to death by a young man with hatred in his heart and a gun in his hand.  Now who is saying that it is "people who kill people" and not guns who kill people?  How many stupid people are there in this country?  And around the world for that matter?  Stupidity is running rampant on our planet, which indicates, according to Darwin, that in the evolutionary process, we humanoids have not evolved sufficiently; to the point where we are not beheading each other. However, Jefferson evolved OK; he wrote that "all men are created equal"; except for Blacks, Gays, Trans-genders, Lesbians, migrants, and the poor. 

 

About a 10th of my education--or less!

 

.....Here you are, JR: #31 Look Homeward Angel (Thomas Wolfe). #32 The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway). #33 Ulysses (Tennyson) #34 A Farewell to Arms (Hemingway) #35 The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Wilde) #36 All the Kings Men (Robert Penn Warren) #37 Lord of the Flies (William Golding) #38 The Naked and the Dead (Norman Mailer) #39 The Rubyot of Omar Khayyam #40 Paradise Lost (John Milton). 

.....These books--from #1 to #40 are the books I've read and enjoyed.  Little did I know that I was getting an education. Who needs to sit in boring classrooms with teachers who do not know their subject.  Someone who professes to be a teacher must immerse themselves into the body and soul of their subject.  It won't hurt to take a couple of lessons in acting and public speaking as well.  If you asked me now to tell you what any book is about, I doubt that I could tell you. I know, though, that it has taken root in my brain.  I still recall some memorable lines I wish I had written, such as "...the moving finger writes, and having writ moves on; nor all your piety and wit can lure it back to cancel half a line; nor all your tears wash out a word of it,"

"...A book of verses underneath a bough, a jug of wine, and thou, beside me singing in the wilderness; Ah, wilderness were Paradise enow.

Well, I don't want to get too pedantic here because Mikie may be listening, and I hate explaining things to him.  Most of  the time he will claim that I'm mistaken, whereas he has skipped over the nuances of our debate.