Local Older Yahoo Makes Profound Proposal to Solve Election Dilemma

This election has turned into a dog and pony show of some magnitude, particularly on the Republican side with a display of one clown after another making statements so absurd one has to wonder if this is some backwoods high school junior class election where there is an out-and-out effort to elect the class buffoon. Sure Kasick could be a president and maybe Rubio or even Jeb Bush (who has no chance because he is a Bush with a brother who was one of he worst ever). They literally have nothing and those two with some potential are not getting much traction no matter how hard the mainstream media is pushing.

Among friends a question often surfaces as to why anyone would want to be president in this day and age due to all of the impending world altering issue seeming to be coalescing all at one time. Global climate change is for real as can easily be seen by the high tides coming up through the storm drains in Miami and flooding almost daily. There seems to be one storm of significance every week. (graph) Massive migration of people in areas of the world where populations have moved in to a situation of overshoot are frightenly visible. (graph) Numerous species are being depleted, including the fishes of the oceans that are commonly being used for protein supplies. Scientist are now speaking of the 6th great extinction event. (graph)

Then, it now appears that liquid fossil fuels are now REALLY peaking, particularly if the price stays below $40. This is a situation that is profoundly unsettling in view of the fact that none of the alternatives like solar and wind scale up and are by no means green. As fuels decline it will not be possible to maintain business as usual. Fuel and growth run in lock step---and uncomfortable situation.

In addition, our economic system is flopping on the grounded like a wounded animal in death throes. The debt level is so massive and the inequity in wealth so staggering the super rich are shivering in fear. This is not the end of it. There are 220,000 more people on the earth ever stinking lousy day and 2-3 million more Amurikans every year.(graph) Who the hell would want to be President.

So I am thinking about the Democrats and while I do believe that Clinton could be a president, just as Kasich or Rubio could be, but she is a Clinton just like Jeb is a Bush. She is locked at the hip with Wall Street and the big money gluttons of capitalism. Bill was no help with all his deregulation (banking)  and efforts at the globalism nonsense.

So I am left with Bernie. Sure, he is an idealist with a socialist bent but it is not like he is a communist.  Being a socialist is not like that portrayed by the right wing crypto-fascist. It simply means he wants the government to provide basic services at a reasonable cost for EVERYBODY. He has good ideas, maybe outside of the mainstream, but still reasonable in this wild-ass world with all it’s many pending problems. Even in my own 72 year old mind, I do worry about his age because 74 is a bit out there and most presidents serve eight years. 82? That is discomforting.

Here is the plan. Bernie Sanders should immediately announce, particularly if he runs well in the next two primaries,  that Elizabeth Warren is his running mate.  There is no question about her qualifications and her insight. She is a powerhouse, sorta young, brilliant and a wonderful speaker. With her waiting in the wings if something should befall Bernie, say what befell Reagan ( senility resulting in a shadow government), she could step right up and be a most wonderful president. If Bernie goes the distance of four years, great. At the end of that time he throws his support for her as President. I believe this is a beautiful thing.

As a result of this revelation (mine and I noticed a few others), I am suggesting that all of us step up and begin screaming loudly for Elizabeth Warren to enter into the fray as a vice president candidate. Send it out through social media. Let’s get her in the game now. The two of them are unbeatable and undeniable capable of dealing with today’s world.

    

Dealing with the bitter winter---The Polar Vortex

Getting Polar Vortexed

It is impossible to not notice Wisconsin is being polar vortexed once again. Today the high will not be going over zero and most reasonable people will be, in one way or another, gathered around some metaphorical stove grasping for radiant heat. This vortex affair also seems to bring with it a brisk whistling wind well capable of keeping the fishermen off ice, and winter travelers huddled  and hiding.

It blew in from the north, pushing aggressively south, leaving the local area smack in the middle of the most fierce force of nature. It is hard to know whose idea it was to do this but one would suppose it has something to do with Mother Nature----and her children. It is clear she, and I say she, not in a derogatory way nor with a sexist attitude, but in an affectionate tone not wanting her to target us again as if we were an unappreciative people. However, it seems this has been an interesting year in terms of El Nino and there may be some indication “The Boy Child”  has landed a right hook, maybe because he thinks we have been messing with the weather by using the atmosphere as a dumping ground for our garbage.

That would imply mother nature and her children, El Nino and La Nina, have the ability to think, that is react to a situation. The Mother of Nature gets honked off so she sends her ill-behaved children out to slap us around. Yes, this is nothing real new because this behavior has been going on for a long time even though she does seem to be having more disciplinary issues with the two snot-nosed brats.

It is also possible Mother Nature is also calling in a distant relative, El Vortexorino, who has for eons been hanging around up north just waiting to drift off to the south and dump on the same irresponsible people who are warming up the arctic with the same waste disposal issues. I can almost hear the banter, “You mess wit me and I’m gonna come down der and do some damage to youses pretty faces. You hear me.” While this is not the best scientific analysis, it would seem there may be some truth here.

For the moment, the Vortex has to be tolerated, maybe admired for it’s ferocity, and confronted with strict determination. We shall all walk into the wind, bundled, pockets aglow with heat packs, and limbs and bodies wrapped in down clothing, and constitutions committed to living in the this land of diminished light and intense cold. Each morning, the warm coffee and tea must be held tight in our holding hands knowing it will fuel us on our way into anything Mother Nature and her lousy, unkempt children and friends can offer. We are not about to be offended. We are strong.

There is little need here to be reminded of the saying from the 60’s, “I used to struggle to find out where it was at, then I realized the struggle IS where it is at”. Thus meaning, we all need to just step out there, embrace the cold, feel the sting of the winter wind, knowing it is the call of the wild, it is that which makes us strong, makes us know we are alive and if it does not kill us it will make us stronger humans.

This morning as we awoke here in Florida it was almost impossible not to notice the creeping chill that had filled the house. The central living space had dropped to sixty-eight and outside the thermometer said a bitter fifty-seven. To top that off, the news station out of Miami claimed it was only getting to the low seventies today. It has been so difficult reading about the cold knowing our fishing would require light jackets.

El Nino had brought this server weather to our party as we huddled around the breakfast table struggling to decide if we should initiate the fishing expedition under theses daunting conditions. We had to be strong and the thought of the winter wonders going on at home in central Wisconsin made it even more difficult. We so wanted to be back snowshoeing across the frozen tundra and fishing on hard water, bringing in the firewood, and scrounging for the last of the frozen turnips in the root cellar.

In a fit of desperation in the sixty-three degree temperature, we drifted out into the gulf in pursuit of Snappers, Sheephead, and Snook.  The taught lines of our flyrods almost appeared stiffened by the push of the breeze. The waves thumped against the side of the small dory boat adding to our struggle.  But in reality, all the years of character development in the north woods of Wisconsin prepared us for this outing, this fight against mother Nature and her children, this intense effort to catch fish under such conditions. More troublesome, however, was the idea that tomorrow we were headed back to Milwaukee, then to Amherst,  where we again would have to deal with another form of reality----the northern part of the polar vortex.