Every generation that comes along, all of whom have no sense of history, are easily aroused by the antics of the audacious few who think they should lead us. Passions and idealism are aroused to a point bordering on hysteria.

There is nothing new under the sun. Political antics of the past two years are nothing new. No political promise is worth spit, nor are most politicians.

Neither candidate is all that highly qualified to lead a parade, much less our country. 

What I don't understand, is Hispanics standing behind Slithery still, despite her party referring to Hispanics in general as Taco Bowl.

Blacks, ignored by their Democratic Party for 160 years except during election time, should start thinking for themselves and examine what their party has done for them, which is nothing that matters.

Good initial visit to Charleston VA medical center this morning. Visit was to establish eligibility for treatment, in order to be evaluated for my exposure to Agent Orange all those years ago. Thank you, Monsanto.

Incredibly clean facility, staffed by extremely polite and helpful, considerate staff, everywhere we went.

Sat down for my interview, which consisted of me providing basic background information. All that I provided, I could have done by me, from my home computer, 50 round-trip miles away, saving a minor parking fee and a major parking garage hunt. "Sorry our antiquated rules don't allow us to do that." "Well, if I go home and find proof of presence in the country, can I email it to this address you've so nicely provided me?" "Sorry, our antiquated rules don't allow us to do that."

Ten minutes with a very polite man, and I am done. Next step? Well......

My 214 shows 9 years 3 months overseas service. It does NOT show where. My Vietnam Service Medal listed on the 214, apparently only means I was somewhere in the neighborhood. Had I been awarded the Vietnam Campaign Medal, I would have been good to go. But I wasn't in Vietnam, ever. I was in northeast (B.F.) Thailand, not far from Hanoi, across the river from Laos.

"Can you prove that?" "um, I have a picture of me drinking a beer on a Thai gun boat on the Mekong one Sunday afternoon." "Nope, won't work."

"How about pics of me and my roomdog downtown NKP?" "Nope, won't work."

"How about my roomdog's name on the Wall?" "Nope, won't work."

"The nights I sat in a bunker armed to the teeth?" "Nope, won't work."

"Do you have copies of your orders to NKP?" "Oh, shit, yeah, those I had f'in framed......"

So, not ever having been officially at NKP for a year, not ever having called my parents at Christmas time "hi. over"; having never sent nor received mail; I apparently was not exposed to AO and thus have nothing to worry about.

F'N A......sigh.

This, folks, is a noteworthy repeat from 2010 publishing date, written by a retiring journalist of 49 years at the time, Charley Reese:
--------------------------------------------
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code. Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary police, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen and women, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 people out of some 312m, are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to federally charterd, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if the offer a politician $1m cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he or she votes.

The 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperte in the common con, regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and crixiticsed the President for creating deficits....the president can only propose a budget. he cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the house of Representatives for orignating and approving appropriations and taxes.....the Speaker and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 312m can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -by present facts- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists, is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red. If the Army and Marines are in wherever, it's because they want them there.

If they do not receive social security bur are on an elite reitrement plan not availabble to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, who they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They and they alone have the power. They and they alone should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Note: A black 65 year old Charleston SC man wrote to Post and Courier complaining about gentrification of Charleston. Included in his comments was a reference to a separate society for blacks and whites in America. My reply:
----------------------------------------------------------------

I love this letter. Brings to the forefront an opinion not often expressed here in Charleston, or around the country.

It raises an interesting question. Has integration failed in America? Since 1945 we Americans have: integrated our armed forces; ensured blacks the right to vote without restrictions, the same as white folks; opened up pools and schools, drinking fountains, bathrooms, busses, and boarding houses; established Affirmative Action programs to give folks a boost; finally got schools across the country and especially in the South, at all levels, by the early 1970s, to obey a 1954 SC integration order to finally actually integrate; seen blacks enter politics at all levels from school boards to governor to President, and succeed in changing their communities, states, and nation. None of this happened without civic involvement, marches, violence, injury, and death to both shades.

Fast Forward to 2016: We have a U.S. Congressional Black Caucus; Black Entertainment T.V. ; Black and White Ms. America contests; predominantly black colleges; private and charter schools established to circumvent the 1954 school desegration order. We still have serious inner-city poverty issues in every city, mostly involving black folks. Their neighborhoods tend to be devoid of banks and national-chain grocery stores, dependable bus service, taxi services, but somehow manage to have mass transportation systems of trains and expressways cutting through or overhead crumbling local facilities and buildings. We have serious issues nationally with our police department staffs and their attitudes towards black people in general and known criminal thugs in particular. We have municipalities using poor blacks as ATMs, consistently fining and adding additional fines and fees for simple traffic and yard appearance violations, etc.

I wonder what Dr. MLK, Jr. would think, should he be able to spend 24 hours in today's America. What would he think, of young black men, angry, armed, violent, acting without thinking? What would he think, of the horrible high school graduation rates of blacks, nationally, so much lower than whites? What would he think, of the lack of money not pouring into inner-city schools, while watching suburban schools with pools and planetariums and green practice fields and working HVAC systems ? What would he think, of higher interest rates for blacks for car loans, house loans, higher rental rates for apartments, lack of public transportation preventing blacks for getting to the available jobs? What would he think, of black teenagers wearing their pants so low their buttocks and underwear show, and of a high black teenage pregnancy rate, and the failure of blacks to form basic family values 150 years after slavery ended, yet still offered as an excuse and used far too heavily as a crutch, for not advancing further? His Dream, was of little black boys and little black girls to play and live together in peaceful brotherhood. We seem, we are, so far away from that reality.

I don't believe the picture is too bleak, but I will admit it is weak. Gun deaths in American inner-cities have risen sharply. It is not middle and upper class whites who are doing the shooting, nor the dying. It is young blacks.

Education, family values, setting life examples seem to be the way out of the morass. Separating the cultures and/or asking one of them to leave the country does not seem to be the right approach.

As has been the case with our national election system for decades now, the coming election has nothing to do with re-directing our govt, restoring the economy, taking care of the less fortunate, or repairing damaged foreign relations. That kind of thinking is for the uninformed, the lower classes, the unemployed, the blue collar slaves, which is most of us, make no mistake about that.

No, this election, as always, is about which candidate will help the Wall St. crowd. Bankers, investment companies, investors, stockholders, the rich who want to get richer, that ilk. It has been like this for some 40 years, minimum. The usurpation of the balance of powers that once upon a time, made our country great and enabled us to hold up the beacon of hope to the entire world, continues. 

The Supreme Court with its incredible decisions; the failure of Congress to act on anything meaningful, looking the other way as media and finance and other businesses grown into huge monopolies, eliminating their competition; a thoroughly open border that lets in who knows, while we valiantly guard the borders of foreign countries; an IRS incapable of compelling multi-billion and million dollar businesses from inverting themselves to avoid their tax responsibilities while at the same time expecting the use of resources and protection provided by the very govts they seek to cheat; inexperienced men put into the WH by the powers behind the throne, to be puppets for those in actual control.

We have had one revolution in this country over tyranny. Might be time for another. When our leaders double-speak and ignore us for the good of the few, it is time. When the two main political parties spend millions over several years and the best they can come with for presidential candidates, is these two, it is time.

I am not talking about marching in the streets, nothing violent. But maybe a gathering around Capitol Hill would work. It would hinge on whether we could catch Congress actually in session.
Last resort, is to stop paying taxes. Can't lock us all up, and the country would grind to a resounding halt. I know of no other alternative that is peaceful, effective, able to be done by the masses, than hitting our leaders in their only vulnerable spot-their wallets.

Treason
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 807; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, §330016(2)(J), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2148.)
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §§1, 2 (Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 321, §§1, 2, 35 Stat. 1088).

Section consolidates sections 1 and 2 of title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed.

The language referring to collection of the fine was omitted as obsolete and repugnant to the more humane policy of modern law which does not impose criminal consequences on the innocent.

The words "every person so convicted of treason" were omitted as redundant.

Minor change was made in phraseology.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am increasingly starting to believe this applies to presidential candidates, anyone who mishandles classified data, and anyone offering aid and comfort including recruiting in any way shape or form, to ISIS. Yet, our federal officials refuse to order the death penalty. Hell, we can't even get some 70 year old women into court.