He is Really NOT Popular

Trump has never won an election.

This is not a lie nor misinformation. He lost both presidential elections by a lot of votes. By over three million to Clinton, by over seven million to Biden.  He did win the electoral college vote. However, the electoral college is not an election.

The electoral college was a compromise by the Founding Fathers to placate the slave holders so that they’d agree to the Constitution. It would give states electors based on population and states could count slaves as 3/5 of a person. Okay, it was also for taxation and legislative representation policies, but you get the drift.

He lost those elections because he is not popular. He has never been popular and so The Thurber Brigade thought now would be a good time to remind people about how unpopular he is. This was inspired because there recently was an article stating that Biden is unpopular, but that article seemed to avoid mentioning how much Trump is despised.

I don’t know of any presidents who have had protests against them in other countries except Trump. 

He was hated in France.

Germany despised him.

In England, they really despised him, with some of the largest protests the country has seen in decades. 

They so disliked him they created floats and a gigantic Trump balloon to deride him.

Even little Belgium was not a fan.

However, those were nothing compared to the protests here in the U.S.

Millions came out to participate in the Women’s March across the country.  “Welcome to your first day, we will not go away!” they chanted in Washington.

There were marches against his refusal to release his taxes.

Of course, there were marches against him for all sorts of other reasons.

There was a George Floyd protest outside the White House that so scared Trump, that he ran and hid in the bunker. The only president to ever seek refuge there.

So don't fret when you see the polls that show The Orange One in the lead or tied with Biden. As we near the election, people will begin to remember how bad he was, how incoherent he was and especially, how unpopular he IS. It's our job to make sure they do remember.

 

Imagine

Way back in ancient times (the 60s-70s) John Lennon's song "Imagine" became a theme/anthem for troubled times. “Imagine all the people living life in peace” he sang. For the past four years we've lived in troubled times. It seems fitting to imagine what it will be like to no longer have an orange narcissist in the White House.

😀 Imagine cabinet meetings where members don't have to go around the table praising the president 

😀 Imagine world leaders staying in hotels that don't profit whoever is in the White House
😀 Imagine a real religious man in office who actually goes to church and knows the Bible

😀 Imagine not giving away classified intelligence over dinner or during meetings in the White House
😀 Imagine world leaders not laughing behind his back
😀 Imagine standing up to Putin
😀 Imagine children not ripped from their mother’s arms and thrown in cages

😀 Imagine a leader who prepares with staff and experts for all telephone calls with world leaders
😀 Imagine not coddling dictators
😀 Imagine our allies trusting us again with classified intelligence 
😀 Imagine the world community looking up to us again and not pitying us
😀 Imagine competent people in government positions of power

😀 Imagine those competent people making decisions based on science and not on whether it pleased the White House
😀 Imagine no protests overseas when our president visits
😀 Imagine decisions based on science not gut feelings
😀 Imagine breathable air because policies are put in place to protect it and not help corporations pollute it

😀 Imagine having drinkable water for the same reason
😀 Imagine important dignitaries not having to wait two hours for the president to put on his makeup 

😀 Imagine military leaders consulted before making military decisions
😀 Imagine a coordinated national policy to fight the pandemic 
😀 Imagine policies based on how they affect people, not a corporation's bottom line
😀 Imagine working with allies on issues instead of going it alone

😀 Imagine making Putin pay a price for interfering in our affairs and elections
😀 Imagine not having the daily security briefing “dumbed down” 
😀 Imagine the president actually reading the presidential daily briefing

😀 Imagine not putting family members in important government positions
😀 Imagine not granting security clearances to those not approved by intelligence agencies 
😀 Imagine a president who shows empathy for those suffering 

😀 Imagine a president who is a role model and not someone you tell your children to not emulate 
😀 Imagine a president who doesn't promote products in the Oval Office
😀 Imagine a president who doesn't profit off of repeated golf trips to his own property 

😀 Imagine not having fast food as the food of choice for White House visits

😀 Imagine waking up in the morning and not wondering WTF the goofball has done now

😀 Imagine a president who will work with the states to solve the pandemic and not against them based on their votes

😀 Imagine people favored over profit

😀 Imagine traveling overseas and not having people ask us "how could you elect such a terrible person?"

Oh, I can imagine a whole lot of other ideas, but you get the picture. The national nightmare is about to be over. Imagine that.

         You may say I'm a dreamer
         But I'm not the only one
         I hope someday you'll join us
         And the world will be as one

Ahhhh, the sun is rising on a beautiful day (Jan. 20, 2021)

 

The Hiker

Colorado has some beautiful scenery, but what most people don't realize is that half the state looks more like Kansas than those stunning pictures we see in travel magazines. I know this well because of my family's vacations when I was a child.

My Dad always loved to travel. I think this wanderlust came from growing up on a small Kansas farm during the depression. About the only adventures his family might undertake would be a shopping trip to a nearby small town.

So as an adult, not only did he become a Navy pilot during WWII, he did a stint as a pilot after the war, then even after getting a family (and degree in engineering) would move from state to state after a number of years. Oh, not every few years but often enough that it was hard to establish strong roots.

Unfortunately, his type of travel for vacations meant putting the family in a car and driving somewhere. Oh, you would see things, but it was from the car. And the majority of the time our vacations were to drive to Colorado. This meant driving the expanse of Kansas (we lived in Topeka) to reach the mountains.

As you are drive through western Kansas you eventually enter Colorado. You have no idea you are in that state except that there is a big green sign you pass saying "Welcome to Colorado" (nowadays they seem to be made of wood). In other words, Colorado looks just like Kansas.

Of course, after about 30 minutes you would begin to see the tops of the distant mountains. After so many miles of flat plains it was really exhilarating to see those peaks, so the rest of the drive, which was pretty long and still in flat country, didn't seem that bad.

 
Once in the mountains the real adventure began. Oh, not because we did anything special, but because my Dad would always drive on these perilous winding roads—with thousand foot drops off the edge, a small two-foot rock wall the only barrier—and simultaneously stare over the edge of those cliffs.

 
In other words, we were never sure when we would be plunging over those cliffs to our spectacular deaths as he missed that next bend.  He never did though. Even though it freaked his passengers out his roaming eyes never resulted in an accident.

Oh, sure, there were turnoffs he could have taken to stop and look, but he wanted to keep driving. So the vacation mainly consisted of driving and looking out the window at those majestic mountains as they whizzed by.

However, there was always a little voice coming from the back seat begging to be allowed to get out and explore those mountains. You see, I am completely different than my Dad. I am a hiker. My idea of seeing something is getting out of said car and walking around.

I still vividly remember a time we were driving by some snow (it might have been a glacier) and convincing my brother into whining along with me to be allowed to go "see" that blazing white stuff. Dad relented and we two little boys ran up to the snow to frolic and throw snowballs. It was summer after all, so a snowball fight in July was pretty exciting.

To this day I still love to travel, but after 50 miles I am ready to get out of the car and start hiking. This can make getting somewhere a real challenge because every time I see a turnoff near some great scenery I feel this need to pull over and go see whatever is there. One trip along the Oregon/Washington coast took an inordinate amount of time because just about every 10 miles you would see something breath-taking that required exploration.

So when I plan a vacation these days, the question I always ask myself is "what kind of hiking can I get in?"

Last year, I hiked around Mt. Rainier

The previous year were The Grand Tetons

The year before: Olympic National Park

Even this year, when I decided to just take a short trip and stay in Portland, Oregon (just to escape the Texas summer heat) it was with the idea that I would take at least one day to hike around The Columbia River Gorge plus go often to Washington Park.

All this being said, my vacations have been solo adventures because usually my girlfriends knew of my habit of walking a lot. They knew that even a short trip to a nearby store could result in a stop by a hike-and-bike trail we "accidentally" passed on the way.

I am sure there are females who also have this wandering habit. After all, I have passed a number on the trails. But for now it seems I’ll be hiking along the various paths I come across by my lonesome.

I don’t mind.

(Of course I had to have a James Thurber cartoon about the wild too!)