Trail of Tears, Kristallnacht...and ICE

Unless you are a true student of history, you more than likely cannot recognize the parallels between the 'Trail of Tears', Kristallnacht and the modern-day ICE raids taking place in broad daylight in our country today. 

And if, by chance, you are a red-blooded MAGA supporter...you'll turn a blind eye to those parallels until, perhaps, they come knocking on your door.   

If you're following current headlines, you cannot help but notice that more folks are getting directly involved by interceding in these events as they unfold. 

Eventually, someone trying to help may be hurt or killed. 

Once again, history is repeating itself. 

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“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” 

- George Santayana

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Golf balls...anyone?

For 40+ years, I worked for some of the largest financial services corporations and law firms on the planet. Looking at financial statements, crunching numbers and assessing risk were a part of what I did every single day. 

At one point, I had $1.0M mortgage lending authority. My signature alone. Been there, done that and I could write a book about what I've seen. 

So...it boggles my mind just a tad to understand how someone could blow through a net worth of $330 million in four years. Four Years!

Or better yet, why a purported billionaire needs to hawk golf balls for $35.00? 

C'mon Trumpeteers...help me out. 

I'll wait. 

Later. 

Once, Twice, Three Times A...

...LIAR.

I have posted this elsewhere, so without further adieu: 

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Sorry, folks, but I had to share this one.

Be it in a bedroom or boardroom, I truly wonder how many times a person has to be caught in an outright lie ( or 3 ) before they're finally recognized for what they truly are...someone who cannot be trusted.

***** With anything. *****

Here's one from the article linked below:

"Trump claimed last Thursday that gas prices “hit $1.98 yesterday in a couple of states.” That wasn’t true. No state had an average gas price below $2.70 per gallon on Wednesday, according to data from AAA, which reported a national average of about $3.17 per gallon. And the lowest individual Wednesday price found by the firm GasBuddy, which tracks tens of thousands of gas stations across the country, was $2.19 at a station in Texas."

And the cost of eggs is down ~93%. NINETY-THREE %. Sign me up!!!

I'll save the superfluity for another day.

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As I've offered before ad nauseum: Numbers don't lie...people do. What I have learned, and witnessed, throughout my 40+ year career is that if you throw out numbers, you'd better be damn well sure they have been triple-checked and run through the grinder one more time to be confident they are correct. 

Check it out for yourself. 

Fact check: Trump lies about the price of eggs, groceries and gas

Later. 

     

Earth Day (1975-2025)

~Fifty years ago, I was part of an environmental group @ Wilkes College that was working toward having a regional geological feature set-aside and protected. Known to locals as "The Tubs", it was created by glacial meltwaters - in whole or as part of a finishing touch - during the last Ice Age. It is now part of PA's state park/forest system.

From one of their websites:

"Seven Tubs Recreation Area is an outdoor recreational site covering 400 acres in Upstate PA. Seven Tubs got its name from the glacial meltwater that created potholes and filled up pools or "tubs" of water. The highlight of Seven Tubs Recreation Area is Wheelbarrow Run - a stream that flows through a ravine full of tubs that are gouged into the underlying bedrock."

Yesterday, while visiting northeastern PA to attend a viewing and a funeral for two longtime family friends, I stopped by the Tubs to check out recent improvements. It was especially rewarding to see how seeds planted decades ago have continued to flourish for future generations to enjoy.

Happy Earth Day to all.

Seek Not to Understand...

 

...but to trash anyone and everyone with opposing views.  

Go figure. 

My question...why? What does that accomplish?  

Hey, to each his/her own. Just remember...character counts. Facts count even more. 

Thanks to the actions of one man who went bankrupt SIX times (fact) and had Daddy save him from failure #7 (fact), the world financial markets are in turmoil...in some cases worse than in 2008. 

Trillion$ in personal wealth have been wiped out. Trillions. 

Understand that of which you speak. Otherwise, you'll be deemed irrelevant. Irretrievably. 

Later...

   From April 4, 2025. 

     

Deny, Deny, Deny...

Just curious: Whether it be under your roof - or within your circle of family and friends - or your co-workers - or your neighbors; how many times would you catch someone in an outright lie before you realized that they could not - or never - be trusted? 

How many? 

This latest SNAFU regarding the chat/text release of highly confidential military information, and the reactions (see title of post) that followed, is yet another example of the completely dysfunctional and totally untrustworthy group of (*insert description of your choice*) assembled in the administration of Donald John the Lesser's second term. 

Just FYI: All of those liars are easy to spot. 

Their lips are moving. 

...By Men with None

 

For no reason beyond the color of his skin, a man of honor has been dishonored by men with none. None. 

Quo Vadis, America? 

PROJECT 2025 - CHAPTER 13

         

I am in the process of doing a sentence-by-sentence review of Chapter 13 in Project 2025.

The topic of that chapter? The Environmental Protection Agency.

Per the headline and verbatim quote below, our current president claims he knew nothing about Project 2025, or the people involved...and did everything he could to distance himself from it. Seeing is believing... n'est-ce pas?

So, my friends, I pose a simple question: Was he lying? 

I'll circle back once my review is complete. 

Stay tuned. 

Idiots 'R Us (Correction: THEM)

Although I'm not expecting any feedback from the MAGA crowd, I'd really like someone to explain - at something above a sixth-grade level - why a purported mega-billionaire, who still hasn't released his tax returns, continues to hawk multi-colored hats, T-shirts, sneakers, membership cards (to what?), trips to Mar-A-Lago, visits to the White House...etc., etc., etc.

And every time he asks me for my opinion, I can't press SUBMIT without making a donation? Not. A. Chance.

In addition to having a copy of Adolf Hitler's speeches, titled "My New Order," in his bedside cabinet, I'm pretty sure he probably has a framed photo - perhaps even endorsed - of Bernie Madoff not too far away.

Still support him? Buying his bargain basement garbage? Consider yourself dupable beyond comprehension.

Here's a very small sampling of what I get almost daily.

Historic moment indeed. 

P.S.: He loves ME!   

The Power of One: SURGERE

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"From maple syrup and agricultural production beginning in the late 1700’s to the lumber and coal industries of the 19th and 20th centuries to the current day Marcellus Shale play, the extraction of the Susquehanna's natural resources has provided revenue to fuel both the earliest years of this new nation and, on a much larger scale, the Industrial Revolution that catapulted its growth into the present.

From the Journals of the Officers and Soldiers of Sullivan’s Campaign in 1779 to James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales to Robert Foster’s Tioga Waltz and Camptown Races to Sheshequin’s Julia H. Kinney Scott’s heartfelt odes to the Susquehanna, those past experiences spanning centuries can still be re-lived today through their words, poetry, and music.

Unless you have paddled the Susquehanna for thousands of miles and in every season, or travelled its highways and unpaved rural roads for more than half a century, or broken bread with those who live along the way...you cannot adequately begin to grasp the essence of what once was, what has been lost over the past three centuries, and what we can learn from all of their successes and failures." -

 DJW on 12/24/2024

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The passages above are from a letter I wrote in support of an environmental issue a few months ago. The last paragraph - in whole or in part - should provide anyone with the perfect context for my epitaph, and "you cannot adequately begin to grasp..." is a blatantly intentional understatement. It was my way of saying "you may be clueless".

And now, I'm witnessing the prelude to the next great rape of our nation's natural resources...and that is what I believe to my very core. 

So much for a quiet retirement...