MY REPORT

I have been thinking about what to write. I didn’t want it to be political. I figured in the next few months there would be plenty to think/write about. But then I played poker last Friday night and Tony issued his 2 recent pieces; I figured I better chime in. The conversation while playing poker is always lively, but civil, sometimes. We are a mix of democrats, republicans, & centrist. This past Friday it got a little heated and someone walked out. Thank God we had 5 players so we can continue the game with 4. Because poker is so much more important than politics.

The conversation continued. This time I am trying to defend why I thought Donald Trump was not good for this country. Not that I think Joe Biden is great, but it is working. As Tony mentioned, by all accounts the numbers are looking good for the economy. Yes, retail prices are higher, but in my opinion, that was expected after COVID, and manufacturers and suppliers are taking advantage of a situation. Retail prices go up year over year. Manufacturers cut the weight or size of their product and don’t lower the price. We went back and forth about potential presidential candidates. Of course someone brought up Michelle Obama. I mentioned how I thought she was intelligent. They almost lost their minds. They told me how intelligent Trump was. All they could relate his intelligence to was how much money he had and his businesses. Even though he has filed for bankruptcy many times, he lies about what he is going to do and has cheated many in his business dealings. I guess that is the art of the deal.

I was asked if I thought the recent court ruling in NY was fair to Trump. I said I thought it was high, but if it was based on some calculation for how much he gained in income with lower interest rates, then I suspect it was fair. “But no one got hurt, the bank approved everything and all the money was paid back”. Well, that is true. The bank did follow its own procedures, but it is an individual’s responsibility to be honest in their data. Not use different real estate categories to change a property’s value. Falsifying business records is not a federal crime, but it is a State crime in NY. Trump inflated numbers, the bank dropped those numbers according to their procedures (They were still higher than the actual value), Trump received lower interest loans, and pocketed more money because of lower interest payments. What is more important is that it doesn’t matter what I think. It matters that 2 parties went to court by judge, not jury, and the judge ruled. Are we now not supposed to believe the courts? Law is what our democracy is built on.

I was challenged on a few issues that I could not answer honestly or was not informed on, so I said I would need to look into it. By the end of the night, I had a few things to look into. They said I needed to do my research, which I would, and promised a report back to the group. Here is my report. I’ve added a few things in my report that piggyback on Tony’s recent post as well.

I was asked if I thought Donald Trump loved this Country. My answer was absolutely not. He only loves himself. They couldn’t believe it. They reminded me that Trump did not take a paycheck. I reminded them that he would be paid every year after he left office as part of his retirement as President. They actually thought that Trump not taking a paycheck made him patriotic. All the while his corporation was making money from foreign governments at some of his real estate holdings. As quoted in The Week magazine “Trumps presidency was so riddled with conflicts of interest as money flowed to his businesses from Saudi Arabia, Quatar and other foreign governments, and now that civil judgements and legal fees threaten his fortune, he has more interest in selling out the U.S interest to the highest bidder”. They told me Trumps net worth went down while he was president. Now, I personally don’t think that Trump not taking a paycheck is the reason his net worth went down. If it was, then he is not as great a business person as he thinks. Matter of fact, I’m not sure how anyone could verify his net worth without auditing his tax returns (which he has never released). Maybe Tucker Carlson stated on his show that Trump lost net worth while president. I can tell you this, I don’t believe either Trump or Tucker Carlson.

Then they tried to tell me how much he supported veterans. I said oh yea you mean the ones he opened a military university for, squandered all the money and didn’t provide the veterans anything. That was a fraud just like him. And as Tony recently reiterated, his verbal disdain for prisoners of war and service- disabled veterans is irresponsible. When in France, Trump wouldn’t even visit the graves of fallen soldiers. He said they were an embarrassment. Even Trump’s Chief of Staff, General John Kelly was discouraged with Trumps outward disdain for certain military members. See link below

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/02/politics/john-kelly-donald-trump-us-service-members-veterans/index.html

This is all from someone who skirted the system and never wore a uniform. Trump loves this Country.

Of course, the conversation took a turn towards the January 6^th insurrection. Yes, it was an insurrection, not a casual visit to the capitol. I reminded them that leadership is everything and the comments made by the sitting President were taken as directives by the people listening to him. Calling for the hanging of the vice president & speaker of the house, is not something a sitting president does. Leadership Is Everything! I told them that Hitler was a great leader. You could hear a pin drop. I followed by saying he was a great leader, but a terrible person. He convinced a group of people to do things they would never do. Great leaders, but terrible people (Putin, Kim Jong Un). I guess that is why he honors them so much. I told my poker group that nothing would have happened that day, if the sitting president did not have a rally, and respected the peaceful transfer of power as those before him. I was asked if I had seen the videos of police officers escorting the Q-Anon Shamon around and checking doors. I was asked if I saw the videos of guards opening doors, standing by and letting anarchists in. I did not and could not respond to their concerns. So, I did my research and looked for the videos I had not seen. Low and behold, Tucker Carlson had several clips showing capitol police escorting the Q-Anon Shaman around the building, checking to see if doors were unlocked and coming upon several other capitol police. No one arrested an individual who was said to be a threat. I could not find video clips of officers opening doors and letting anarchists into the capitol. I’m sure they were there. I mean if Tucker Carlson says it is true, it must be true, right. He did say the election was stolen, only to find that the courts said it was not, the company he worked for lost a major lawsuit and he lost his job, but it must be true. I would have questioned the guards that escorted the Shaman around as well as those who allowed anarchist into the capitol. Then I would have fired them for dereliction of duty. Though Tucker Carlson says he reviewed 40,000 hrs. of video supporting his claims, it looked like he only had a few hours if not a few minutes worth of video supporting his comments. All at the same time (as Tony pointed out) there are thousands of hours of video showing people breaking windows, busting open doors, climbing walls, and attacking guards, but this was a peaceful demonstration.

Someone in the group did ask if I believed in climate change, and I said yes. Unfortunately, the conversation turned to another topic and I did not have a chance to answer. So, my answer is yes. Climate change is not the difference from one week to the next. That my friends, is WEATHER. The change in temperature over a 50-100 year period or longer is CLIMATE. And the data shows that overall temperatures are rising over those periods of time. Weather events have increased. If you don’t believe that, then get your head out of the sand or your ass. Now some of you may say that it doesn’t matter if temps change that little over that long of a period. I say that shows the type of person you are. If you don’t care about the temp changes over that period of time, it’s because you don’t care about what happens to this world once you’re gone. As long as you get what you can get, who cares what happens when you are gone. That is very American.

Then I was asked this question; “What do I think is going to happen if the militia takes over”. My response was “The militia? Who is the militia?” The person asking the question said, “The military”. I said, the military does not act on their own. The National Guard would only move on their respective Governor’s orders or by order of the President if activated. The regular military moves on the orders of the President. Our military is governed/directed by civilians. That is why we don’t have military coups like other countries. If we have a military coup in this country we are fucked! Civilian oversight of the military was done on purpose. Our founding fathers were brilliant.

I was hoping the conversation would take a lighter tone when I mentioned I was going to a Drag Brunch on Sunday. I was asked if any kids would be there. I politely reminded him that children under the age of 18 were not admitted and most (I never say all, unless 100% sure) child molestations were committed by straight men or priest (as Tony loves to point out). I won’t even go into the fact that they thought you could fix someone who is LGBTQ just like you fix alcoholism, drug abuse or other diseases. That is an entirely different discussion. So, I find it hard to believe why people are so afraid of those that dress in drag. The audience was made up of (and they took a poll) a mixture of straight men, straight women, gay men, bi-sexual, and lesbian women. The age range was from college students, to Jen & I (60 & 61 respectively) and a few individuals older than us. It was part comedy show and part performance (lip singing/dancing). At one point in the performance, one of the drag queens mentioned that there were girl scouts selling cookies outside the restaurant where the show was being held. The drag crew had a few members of the audience dance with them and help collect dollars as they danced. The drag queens took the money collected (a little over $200), went across the street and purchased as many boxes of girl scout cookies they could. How can they do that? That is not right. Shame on them for being human. 

I almost typed the entire piece without a curse word.