IRAN IS THE NEW NORTH KOREA

Now that POTUS thinks he has settled all our differences with North Korea, he has decided to move on and threaten Iran with annihilation. Those three old boys down there in bumfuck Louisiana are just itching to take on the Ayatollah--'cept of course they will still just be sipping their bourbon while a bunch of young Americans actually do the fighting.

What POTUS has succeeded in doing is letting Netanyahu loose to wreak havoc on the Palestinians.
Even as he does that, Netanyahu is compromising all the ideals that Israel was founded on as he begins to narrowly define what it means to be a Jew.  The ascendancy of the ultra Orthodox right wing in Israel has given him "permission" to target the Palestinians, allow more settlements, and allow the Orthodox rabbinate to define the nature of the country.

Moving on:

--On our most recent flight to the great state of Texas, we had a all female crew--both in the cockpit and in the cabin.  Kind of interesting.
--Two strong thoughts about attire coming from an expert in the field.  Men should not have cuffs on their shorts--way too weird.  Second, I have seen a woman twice in the last week who is at least 10 months pregnant (!) and wears a halter so that her belly is right out there.  What are we to do other than stare?
--Karl's Sausage Kitchen is well worth the trip to Peabody--simply has the best non kosher hot dogs I have ever eaten.
--Boston Globe--a big article about a raccoon biting a child.  This was in the same week POTUS tripped over his tongue in Helsinki.  Priorities?
--A factoid--The NY Times had an article in yesterday's edition about the bus station in McAllen, Texas.  This is the station where immigrants go if they are cleared by the Border Patrol.  They put 12 staff onto this two page story.  And the Globe gives us raccoon attacks.
--And contrary to yet another lie from the White House.  Both the Times and the Post are making money if only because of who is living in that white house.
--Words cannot do justice to the spectacle of our President interacting with Putin.  It is an embarrassment.  and there is worse--the Republican conservatives in Congress, who are virulent anti-Communists, are silent.  Not a peep from Ryan or McConnell.
--Did ya see that Beauregard toady joining in the "lock her up" chants?
--We have managed to lock up children and now seemingly cannot locate their parents.  Isn't that child abuse?
--Off to the west.  See you in September.

SPORTS TALK
--The French won the World Cup.  Hope you noticed that a significant number of the players were either first or second generation immigrants.  Wonder if the La Pen family noticed that.
--I'm all agog and trembling at the return of Mr. Brady and the boys.  But truly sickened by Mr. Bill and his arrogance.
--Red flops playing really well but Mookie is not the MVP.  My boys struggling mightily but did make some good trade moves.

Shalom

"1-YEAR OLD IMMIGRANT APPEARS FOR DEPORTATION HEARING"

Took me a while to come up with a title until I decided to steal a headline from the Globe.  You know that when you drain a swamp, smallish objects can get can swept away.  Like one year olds who have been separated from their parents and cannot explain why they are sad. And those 3 fuckwads in Louisiana sipping their bourbon and smoking their cigarettes --those guys are part of the base which needs to know that this is child abuse plain and simple.  This is not just a culture change; this is trauma.  And HHS cannot even locate all the kids.  How does POTUS explain all this to little Baron?

And a few other things:
--When in doubt, blame Obama or Clinton.  The indictments recently announced could have been avoided if only Obama had been tougher/stronger.  The reality is quite different and the lies only increase the damage done to the country's image.
--During the NATO summit, aside from his vile speeches, the person POTUS cozied up to was yet another bully--Erdogan (of Turkey) who has created a virtual dictatorship.  When Putin is added you have the Mo, Larry, and Curly of bully boys.  That's who our friends are--tough guys.
--Unlike the House Intelligence Committee (led by the idiot Nunes), the Senate's Intelligence Committee blasted the Russians and the Republican campaign committee. The work of the Senate was bi-partisan and supported the efforts of the Special Investigator.
--Trey Gowdy is an asshole and watching him and Louie Gohmert berate that FBI agent was pathetic.
--Pruitt is gone but Betsy survives and, if she has her way,  affirmative action will not be used as an admission criteria for colleges and universities.  They will just end up being campuses for the privileged.
--The Times and the Post are thriving in this environment.  Yet in the face of attacks by POTUS on the media (even to the point of refusing to answer questions posed by CNN reporters and bragging about it), the Globe devoted its entire Sunday editorial section to animals.  Seriously.
--On the much brighter side--it is good to have nerdy friends to help those of us with limited technology skill.  So thanks to RD who figured out our Amazon TV problem.  That allowed us to watch Mrs. Maisel which is hysterical.  And Bosch which is not.
--This week I am making my annual pilgrimage with BB to pay my respects to family no longer with us.  Bringing a special guest.

SPORTS TALK
I am decidedly not a Red Flop fan.  But now that we are post 7/4, I will say this.  They have some very good hitters.  The Yankees are power hitters but have no really good hitters.  I think both teams (except for Sale and Severino) have sketchy starting pitchers and I will take the Yanks bullpen.  But the big advantage goes to the Red Flops in terms of having a better 9 man batting order.

Aren't you tired of waiting for the Bruins to make that BIG trade?

Shalom

LIVES IN THE BALANCE

That's stolen from the title of a song by Jackson Browne.  It was released in 1986 so it is a bit more than 30 years old.  Go find the lyrics because it has not lost its bite.  I have been thinking a lot about that title and the lyrics over the last few weeks.  The decision, consciously made to reduce the flow of "immigrants" from the South, put the lives of children and their parents in emotional jeopardy.  Their lives were in the balance.  There now is a documented record of:  disrespecting children; demeaning the motivation of the people hoping to come into this country;  and fracturing the parent/child bond.  Even as the attempt is made to "fix it", there are no apologies.  A skeptic might think the color of their skin was also a problem.  Woody Guthrie nailed it with this line from one of his songs:  "All they will call you will be deportee".  They have become the other.

It only got worse when the SCOTUS voted to allow the ban on Muslims from certain countries.  Grouch voted with the majority in a 5-4 decision as did Kennedy who promptly retired giving POTUS yet another vacancy.  Why Kennedy could not wait until the mid-terms is beyond me.  Why he could not vote the other way is also beyond me.  Why the words of POTUS during his campaign were seen as irrelevant is beyond me.

Beauregard has announced that being the victim of gang violence or the victim of sexual assault is no longer grounds for your seeking asylum in America.  One of my parents escaped the violence of the pogroms in Russia way back in the day.  Lucky for me, she got here back then but might not have been allowed in today.

Odds and Ends:

--Old Mitch McConnell refused to fill a SCOTUS seat when Obama had one year left in his term--he felt with an election coming up, we should wait and see how the vote went.  Well we know how it went and we got Neil.  Think he will agree to wait for the midterms to see how that vote will go?
--I am not into civility and do not want to hear that we should be nice to Sarah Huckabee Saunders.  She has swallowed the kool aid and is a liar. Let her eat some place else.
--And for all the excitement about that woman in NYC upsetting a Democratic Congressman,  the Dems better get their act together pretty soon because they will not have an easy time in November.  I think Nancy has to go away.
--Did I imagine that IHOP is changing its name to IHOB--as in B for burger.  I think it was a dream.
--The soy bean farmers and the pig farmers are not happy campers now that other countries have specifically targeted their products for tariffs.
--But then there is some redemption as Paul Simon said:  "old friends sitting on their park bench like bookends".  I spent time with one of them a while back.  Went to kindergarten with him which means I have known him for about 65 years.  Important stuff,  that.


SPORTS TALK
When you watch the Euro teams in the World Cup, you are reminded of how immigrants have improved all of their soccer teams.  Mainly from Africa, the teams from Germany, Spain, Portugal, and especially France all have key players who are either the children of immigrants or immigrants themselves.

I might have a thought or two about baseball in a few weeks because it is not 7/4 as you know.

Shalom