John McCain is at it again. Blaming Obama for the killings in the Florida Gay Bar because he withdrew our troops from Iraq. He's forgotten that Bush Jr. negotiated that withdrawal. The man who shot all those people wasn't motivated by ISIS. He was a closet gay who couldn't deal with his guilt so he made a last ditch effort to save his reputation (and gaining entrance to heaven) by pledging allegiance to ISIS. McCain has a long record of making bad judgments dating from the Keating scandal , he then brought us Sara Palin as a potential Vice President, along with "Joe the Plumer" as a businessman who it turns out didn't even own a business. When running for President he praised
the Chairman of the FED Alan Greenspan who encouraged the deregulation of Wall Street which led to the economic collapse in 2007.  Remember his famous line "Drill baby Drill" when oil prices started climbing? We're drilling alright and the result is an over abundance of oil, earth quakes, and polluted ground water. When was the last time McCain was right about anything?

Trump is displaying some very troubling characteristics that are similar to -dare I say Hitler (?) and numerous other historical crazed tyrants and dictators in the past. The ranting and raving, blaming, inciting, attacking anybody who disagrees with him, cutting of the credentials of newspapers who dare to disagree with him, paranoia, outbursts of over the top rage, followed by periods of contrition, constantly bragging about himself, never ending self praise, constantly trying to convince himself that everybody "loves" him. This man is scary folks. Not only for his harsh actions and words- but for his apparent lack of emotional stability. Republican's need to step forward and find a new candidate to represent their party. Failure to do so will not only damage their party it puts us all in jeopardy. Any Republican who lacks the courage to speak out and refuses to endorse this man doesn't deserve to hold public office.

Trump shoots first and aims later AGAIN!. Sorry Don but the gay bar shooter was born right here in the good old USA! You might try getting your facts straight before you spout off!!

Sanders is letting his ego get in the way of his message. It's one thing to promote a socialist program but another to attack Clinton in the process. He can make his point without attacker her personally.

He says he's not starting a "movement" but that's exactly what he's been doing recently. He's got a right to go to the convention and try to get some of his progressive ideas on the Party platform - assuming there is enough support to do that. Unfortunately he's starting to sound like Trump- urging young people to vote against Hillary. In the process he's actually enhancing Trumps chances of winning. Sanders has become intoxicated by the sound of his own voice and if he doesn't stop attacking Hillary we'll pay a bitter price. After all it was Hillary who first tried to get Single Payer passed when her husband was in his first term. She was working to get Single Payer passed long before Sanders started to promote the concept.

Trump versus Bernie

I'm not sure how Trump can run on the Republican ticket when he's not a member of the Republican Party and I'm not sure how Sanders can run on the Democratic ticket since he's a registered  Independent . They're running very similar campaigns- both courting the disaffected and angry voters. Trump is running a classic "show business" campaign built on his back ground in professional wrestling based of hurling phony insults at "opponents" in order to get the crowd riled up. Sanders at 70 years old is appealing to young voters who want society to give them a free education financed by higher taxes on Wall Street Bankers. Neither candidate can find a nice thing to say about the people they are running against. Clinton has spent a life time defending her political actions and choices. She's smart. She's dedicated. She's worked in all levels of government but she's "tone deaf" when it comes to the voters. She's so steeped in the details of government that she loses touch with the concerns and needs of the average citizen. In a country of millions of people these are the best candidates that we've got to chose from? Nobody to blame but ourselves. How many of us would vote for a normal man or woman from our own ranks? 

                                                         Guns Guns Guns


These horrible shootings in America are becoming so common place that gun deaths in America are starting to match the violence in the Middle East. We don't need to worry about immigrants entering our Country with murder on their minds. We've already got enough of home grown local terrorists to worry about. Clearly the easy access to assault type weapons has to come to an end. Target shooting and hunting do not require assault type weapons. We require training and a license to drive a car so why would anyone object to requiring a license to own a gun? Even in the "Old West" movies the sheriff always made people take off their guns before they came into town. It's time for the politicians to have the guts to stand up to the NRA. The second amendment speaks to armed militias not personal assault type weapons for recreational use.

                                                   GLOBAL WARMING

Two degrees - that's all if will take to submerge most of Indonesia but the Republican Party is still in denial even though every other industrial nation on the planet, including China and Russia now accepts the fact that human activity is a contributing factor to global warming.

                                               TERRORISM

As horrible as the ISIS attacks in Paris were, the school shootings here in America are just as bad.- if  not worse. Those who want to ban all immigrants from Syria forget that every country, religion, and race has it's share of disaffected people driven by anger and bent on killing innocent civilians. Closing our borders to immigrants won't reduce or eliminate the number of insane zealots of any racial, national, or religious persuasion in our Country. We've already got plenty of home grown terrorists of our own. Don't forget that terrorism takes many forms, not all physical. In the run up to the next presidential election we're going to see every form of political terrorism imaginable as the candidates attack each other with deadly vengeance. Let's not fall into the same fear driven policy that occurred when we rounded up Japanese American citizens during world war two. It's hard for us to imagine what the daily lives of the citizens of Syria must be like. Say the wrong word, know the wrong person and your head is cut off. Bombs drop daily from the sky killing innocents and evil doers in the same blast. Fleeing Syria on over loaded rafts, or on foot across mountains and deserts- not knowing what the future holds for them, or what country will accept them. This is a large scale exodus of biblical proportions. These are deprivations that few of us will ever know- surely we can open our doors to those less fortunate than ourselves- even as our politician bicker like children. The attention that the religious based hatred and terrorism which is eruption like a plague in the Middle East is getting provides us with the opportunity to finally address the problem from a global perspective. This is a rare opportunity to address the problem as Global community of Nations bent on finally bringing an end to the argument about whose God is superior. Enough is enough!

Terrorism comes in many forms and flavors- all of them cruel. From cowardly school yard and social media bullying to the use of bombs and guns to kill and maim innocent men, women,and children- no matter what its form- people and groups who commits acts of hatred and intolerance violate every value that we hold dear as a species. We call ourselves "humans" and we define compassionate behavior by members of our species and being "humane". Terrorists actions are not "humane" and the people who commit acts of terrorism, in any form, forfeit their right to live among us. Military action,
retribution, and confinement, while necessary and justifiable, are only temporary fixes and will never put an end to terrorism because they don't address the root causes of the problem. Clearly we need a planet wide public conversation about the types of environments - be they poverty, religious oppression, political oppression, intolerance, lack of opportunity, or prejudice, which provide an atmosphere that promotes and encourages people to hate and mistreat one another. We humans pride ourselves on being above all other animals in terms of intelligence, social empathy, and conscience -yet we continue to commit acts as brutal as any other species on the planet. If our incredible intelligence and creativity only lead to more deadly brutality, violence, and intolerance how can we claim to be superior to species with lesser intelligence?

It's hard to know which is more toxic these days -  Religion or Politics. Every single day people all around the planet are killing and beheading each other in the name of their Gods and if that's not bad enough -religion has crept into politics making politics even more toxic that it already was. When are we going to stop judging one another and trying to impose our views on each other? What ever happened to "live and let live'? Where is the compassion and respect? Where is the "do unto others.....?"  We don't need to search scripture to know how to act. We don't need pass laws to know how to be honest and act properly. We teach our children to be nice to each other and to be polite and then we do just the opposite What kind of examples are setting for our children if we attack and insult one another? Religion and Politics are not contact sports. If you want to argue join a debate team. If you can't get along then move along. If you want to believe in a God - do so- but don't insist that everyone else believe in your God and don't pre-judge people who don't believe any God. Judge people by their actions not their beliefs.  Every living human soul who has resided on this continent was a migrant or descendent of a migrant from another continent. You and I don't have any more right to live on this continent than anyone else does. We're merely the most recent in a long line of previous members of our species who have occupied this drifting ice and water covered continent for the past 10,000 years or more. We're all short term tenants without ownership and the terms of our lease require that when our lease expires we leave the land in better condition than we found it. This amazing lush bountiful continent is home to thousands of species with whom we share its natural resources. Waste not want not. The choice is ours. We can leave this garden of Eden better than we found it or we can leave it worse than we found it. The choice is ours and it is ours alone. No other species has that privilege or responsibility.