[William A. Baurle]

Originally Posted by Mark McDonnell

But I think maybe you frame discussions in such a way that people feel like you're setting a trap for them so you can say 'Aha! Not so lefty liberal now are ya?' Folks bristle at that...

That's exactly what I'm doing.

Mark, next to Nemo, Bill Carpenter, Matt Q, David Callin, and Mike Cantor, you are the most perceptive of all on the Sphere.

Folks should bristle.

Bristling is GOOD.

[William A. Baurle]

Originally Posted by Emitt Evan Baker

You can't dismiss Ann's last post as you do an expect anyone to take you seriously.

Emitt, you get the Gold Award for writing silly things. And by silly, I mean in the Monty Python fashion. I am NOT calling you silly. You are obviously a very bright person, who just has a tendency to write silly things.

Obviously, most of us here take me seriously. I'm a damn good poet, though I don't give a shit about paper/formal publication, which I think is a waste of time and....er...um...Paper (Insert Brian Regan voice on Paper).

You should ALWAYS take someone whose opinions and views differ from yours SERIOUSLY.

If I were in Germany in the 1930's, you're damn right, I would take Hitler and his gimpy henchman, Goebbels, SERIOUSLY.

Ya think Stalin should have been taken seriously?

Take Donald Trump VERY seriously. I say he won't complete his first term. With his high-school quarterback personality, he will burn out, eventually. But, in the meantime, take him very SERIOUSLY.

BUT - if and when he burns out, you and I get a real, smooth politician to replace him.

(And the peasants rejoiced. yay.)

[Emitt Evan Baker]

The worm in the fruit

I follow the long furrow that leads to the silent dead.
I dream of the snow, of the fiery horses,
of the winter of words.
I see burned woodlands, stranded vessels,
seagulls gripped by the ice.
I follow the river of blood and tears
that passes through unsettling ruins.
I smell the odor of predators, the urine
of the hyena, the fecal matter of young babies.
I write from a core of night.
I write from a trench drowned in mud.
I write with a rope at my neck.
The trap door already trembles beneath my feet.
I follow the cold marble that causes shivers
and sing a very strange and old song,
that says that today and for always
the worm is in the fruit.



Andrei Laude (translator unknownn)

[John Whitworth]

For what it's worth, I say the Donald will complete his term and probably another. It's not what I want (though it's really none of my British business, but it's what I think will happen.

[Emitt Evan Baker]

Not a chance. If he manages to survive another year, maybe even avoid impeachment, he has an unbelievable amount of criminal activity in his closet and has provoked thousands of investigative reporters, some of the best in the world, to do nothing but dig. We will have a progressive president in 2020. That is unless the vote becomes even more rigged than it already is. Progressive here is grey word and a mixed bag of compromises but still up from this present shame. Personally, I hope it will be Tulsi Gabbard. Not without some faults but, like Bernie, an actual person with a soul.

[Max Goodman]

Originally Posted by Emitt Evan Baker

That is unless the vote becomes even more rigged than it already is.

That's a big "unless." The effort to kick people off the rolls is well under way, and already it has scared thousands into withdrawing their voter registrations.

[Emitt Evan Baker]

Originally Posted by Max Goodman

That's a big "unless." The effort to kick people off the rolls is well under way, and already it has scared thousands into withdrawing their voter registrations.

I hear you.

[John Riley]

I don't think he'll survive physically for eight more years. He doesn't look healthy to me. If he does we will have a constitutional crisis and the GOP will have to decide if they are truly on the side of the plutocrats that are tired of being constrained by a republican form of government or will they preserve the U.S. system of government. Much will also depend on the position the army takes. Madison and friends knew the greatest possible threat to any republic came from the military. Eisenhower knew it as well, better than any president since. Will the generals movie in "to restore order" when the chaos Trump unleashes by his unconstitutional acts hits the streets? Now we have to ask what role Putin would play. Trump has done more damage to the safety and security of the U.S. in six months than any president before has done in four or eight. And yes, I know the stock market is doing well. That and the stronger economy Obama left him are part of the threat.

I'm convinced that Putin is getting what he wanted out of having operatives work with the Trump campaign. He knew it would be exposed, the slower the better, the way scandals are that involve the president. He is also savvy enough to know it's quite possible the unbalanced Trump, who cares for himself much more than he does the country, is capable of creating all sorts of destruction as it's revealed. What sort of price will Putin pay? Some sanctions? Russia has dealt with U.S. sanctions for decades. What does Putin get? He gets to watch the country he hates more than any other go through convolutions that threaten it's fundamental system and weakens it for decades to come.

[James Brancheau]

...mmm, nah.

[Mark McDonnell]

Originally Posted by William A. Baurle

Mark, next to Nemo, Bill Carpenter, Matt Q, David Callin, and Mike Cantor, you are the most perceptive of all on the Sphere.

Hey, thanks for including me in your top six Bill. And such lovely company! Though, with the whole list, it does have a touch of 'What Have The Romans Ever Done For Us?' about it. Y'know 'apart from the aqueduct, the roads, the wine ('obviously the wine Reg'), the sewage system, the baths and public health'