Wednesday, June 29, 2016

The Old Jarhead's Seabag--my newest book now available!

The Old Jarhead's Seabag--my newest book now available!

This collection of short stories, essays and some recent poetry is now available on Amazon.
As with all my twelve books, the royalties go to charity--in this case the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.

Click on image to enlarge.

See my author's page for all my books:

Contents of The Old Jarhead's Seabag

Note that the short stories and essays were written between 1985 and 2016. Therefore, please excuse any elements that time has passed by.

Trigger Warning: Short Stories to Offend Every Variety of Genteel Political Correctness

The Price
The Hunt
Billy's Birthday
A Bit of Colored Ribbon
Acceptable Casualties
Endgame
Win One for Old Earth
The Identity Thief
The Supervisor's Tale
Pick a Winner
The Loser
Trial by Fire
Wheels of Love
Merry Christmas, Snake
The Lock
The Target

Essays to Make Pajama Boy Seek His Safe Space

Soon it will be Spring
Riding Along With Officer Al
Developing Influence
A Lung for Christmas: Local VA helped extend my life
Eight Books Every Presidential Candidate Should Read
Fifteen Tips for Making You the Indispensible Employee
Racism in America (With suggested readings)
It doesn't matter who you vote for
Fifteen Habits of Highly Effective Marines
Thirteen Things Obama Cannot Change by Executive Order
The Progressive Legacy
Turning the Economy Around
Economic Facts of Life
Fixing our electoral system
Press two for racism

Irish Pennants - Poetry
Most of my poetry is in my two other books, Old Jarhead Poems and Share the Cup. These were written post publication of those volumes.

Casualty Call
Mother Corps
I loved Heroin more than you
LCpl John Payne
Marine Air
Molon Labe
Sonnet for AJ
There's Nothing Dignified in Death
We will come for you
Who is “Iron Mike”?
You'll never be alone


Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Thirteen Books by Robert A. Hall

The Coming Collapse of the American Republic
And what you can do to prevent it

The Coming Collapse of the American Republic draws together extensively-researched details about four threats which are combining to destroy the future for our grandchildren: 1. The incomprehensible debt and unfunded financial liabilities of all levels of government; 2. The threat of uncontrolled, illegal immigration to our economy and culture; 3. The asymmetric war imposed on us by Islamic Jihadists; and, 4. The rise of China as a competitive military and economic power determined to dominate Asia. Taken together, these desperate trends put the survival of America as a united, free and prosperous country in great jeopardy. This short volume lays out the reinforcing nature of these converging disasters, details the existential threat they pose to American liberty, society and culture, and tells us not only how we got in this trap, but what the horror of a collapse will look like. And it offers a long, difficult and rocky path to preserve the country we have known and loved for future generations. All author’s royalties from this book are donated to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund to help wounded veterans. It has done relatively well for them.

Available at Amazon with many reader reviews
E-Book available at Smash Words:
Available at Barnes and Noble
But if you write me at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com, I'll be happy to send you a PDF of Collapse at no charge. And you are welcome to share it.

Fishes & Loaves: The Bread of Life Cookbook
Fishes and Loaves contains a small selection of varied recipes from members and friends of Bread of Life Anglican Church in Madison, Wisconsin. We hope you will enjoy these recipes and be thankful for the bounty put before you, when so many in our world suffer from hunger and privation. All proceeds go to Bread of Life Anglican Church, Madison, WI

The Old Jarhead's Journal
Random Thoughts on Life, Liberty, and Leadership

The Old Jarhead’s Journal is a collection of Random Thoughts on politics and life and Conservative Political Essays, mostly published on the author’s blog, including the essay “I’m Tired” which went viral on the Internet in 2009, “The Hall Platform,” “This I Believe,” and “Why I’m a Republican.” While they will be of interest to conservative thinkers, they are collected here in book form as a service to readers who wish to give a copy to a favorite liberal and watch his or her head explode. All royalties are donated to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund. Former Staff Sergeant Robert A. Hall served from 1964 to 1968 in the US Marine Corps, including what he calls “an easy tour” in Vietnam. He later served another six years in the Marine Reserves. In 1972, he graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in government and was elected that November to the first of five terms in the Massachusetts state senate, earning an MEd in history at night from Fitchburg State University while a senator. In 1976, he was nominated by both parties. He retired undefeated to become a successful association executive in 1982, a profession he is being forced to retire from in 2013, due to advancing Pulmonary Fibrosis. He has published hundreds of articles, opinion columns, short stories and poems, plus several books, including The Coming Collapse of the American Republic, C.Y.A. – Protecting Yourself in the Modern Jungle, Advice for my Granddaughter, and Old Jarhead Poems, which received the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s Robert A. Gannon writing award for poetry in 2012. Royalties from these books go to charity.

The Old Jarhead's Seabag
This collection of short stories, essays and some recent poetry is now available on Amazon.
As with all my twelve books, the royalties go to charity--in this case the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.

Note that the short stories and essays were written between 1985 and 2016. Therefore, please excuse any elements that time has passed by.

Trigger Warning: Short Stories to Offend Every Variety of Genteel Political Correctness

The Price
The Hunt
Billy's Birthday
A Bit of Colored Ribbon
Acceptable Casualties
Endgame
Win One for Old Earth
The Identity Thief
The Supervisor's Tale
Pick a Winner
The Loser
Trial by Fire
Wheels of Love
Merry Christmas, Snake
The Lock
The Target

Essays to Make Pajama Boy Seek His Safe Space

Soon it will be Spring
Riding Along With Officer Al
Developing Influence
A Lung for Christmas: Local VA helped extend my life
Eight Books Every Presidential Candidate Should Read
Fifteen Tips for Making You the Indispensible Employee
Racism in America (With suggested readings)
It doesn't matter who you vote for
Fifteen Habits of Highly Effective Marines
Thirteen Things Obama Cannot Change by Executive Order
The Progressive Legacy
Turning the Economy Around
Economic Facts of Life
Fixing our electoral system

Press two for racism


Advice for my Granddaughter:
For When I'm Gone


Advice for my Granddaughter is a short, east-to-read guide that will light the path in a chaotic world for that tween or teen girl in your heart. From the Secret of Happiness to the Secret to Avoiding Poverty, from Reputation to Contentment, from Education to Driving to Drugs to Tattoos, this loving Grandfather draws on a wealth of life experience to provide a sure hand on the helm for the future of the girl he loves. Your beloved girl will be able to return to this slim volume again and again to help her make good decisions. (And it wouldn't hurt the boys in your life to read it as well.) $8.99.

All author royalties from this book are donated to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation.
(Also available on Amazon, but the PFF gets a larger royalty when you order from the publisher, CreateSpace, though the price is the same. http://www.amazon.com/Advice-Granddaughter-When-Im-Gone/dp/147004238X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329403803&sr=1-2)
Discounted on Barnes and Nobel
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Advice-for-my-Granddaughter?store=book&keyword=Advice+for+my+Granddaughter


Advice for Boys: From an Old Marine

CreateSpace, 2013

Advice for Boys is a short, east-to-read guide that will light the path in a chaotic world for that tween or teen boy in your heart. It is a companion book to the author’s Advice for my Granddaughter for girls. From the Secret of Happiness to the Secret to Avoiding Poverty, from Reputation to Contentment, from Education to Driving to Drugs to Tattoos, this wise old Marine draws on a wealth of life experience to provide a sure hand on the helm for the future for Boys. Your son or grandson will be able to return to this slim volume again and again to help him make good decisions. All author’s royalties are donated to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, which gets a larger royalty if you order directly from CreateSpace.

Eddie Grabowski's Gift: A Marine Christmas Story

Published by Create Space.com
Eddie Grabowski’s Gift is a short novella, with an old Marine’s lessons on life, love and giving. All author royalties are donated to the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation to support the National Museum of the Marine Corps. The MCHF receives a larger royalty when you order directly from CrateSpace.com

The Hand of the Prophet: A Novel of Islamic America, 2053



By the year 2053, large parts of the United States have fallen under the rule of fanatical, home-grown Sunni Muslims, who have established the Islamic Republic of America, an Islamic theocracy under Shari’a religious law. Dhimmis (Christians and the few remaining Jews) are a minority. California is a separate Shi’a country. Several Western states form the Mormon Republic, while some southern states make up the Christian Confederacy, both holding out against the Islamic conquest. The rest of what was the United States is part of the Islamic Republic of America. The novel is set on the dairy farm of a Muslim family, and in the fictional town of Tinch Mills, Wisconsin, where a low-grade guerrilla war is disrupting life. The Lutheran Resistance, known as bandits or Crusaders by the Islamic government and local Muslims, is attempting to overthrow Islamic rule and Shari’a law. Technology and the infrastructure have regressed due to the fighting, the ravages of the war that established the Islamic Republic, including the destruction of Washington, DC by a “dirty bomb,” and the backwardness of a strict Islamic society. Gasoline is rationed and expensive, electricity not always available, and times hard. Transportation is often by horse. Child marriages are common and a form of slavery, called “bonding,” is a feature of local society, both based on the “perfect example” of the Prophet Muhammad, who married his youngest wife at age six, held slaves and revealed that Allah made sex with slave girls lawful for Believers. Women are, as required by Shari’a, very much second class citizens, and homosexuality, adultery and apostasy are capital crimes. Now, the Christians are the terrorists. All author’s royalties from this book are donated to a charity to help wounded veterans.


Old Jarhead Poems:
The Heart of a Marine


Old Jarhead Poems is a collection of traditional verse about Marines, the Corps, courage, war, friendship and freedom written over more than forty years by a Marine. Many of these poems have been previously published in Leatherneck and other magazines. Those who love the Marines, respect courage and dedication or who admire traditional poetry about the old values will find this small volume a treasured keepsake they will return to time and again. All author’s royalties from this book will be donated to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund to help wounded veterans. Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran, a former five-term member of the Massachusetts state senate and, since 1982 a successful non-profit executive. He has been widely published on political and management topics, plus a sprinkling of short fiction and poetry.

Update: Old Jarhead Poems was awarded the 2012 Marine Corps Heritage Foundation's Robert A. Gannon writing award for poetry.
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7362663422037727028#editor/target=post;postID=672715748071097444

All author’s royalties from this book are donated to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund to help wounded veterans.


Share the Cup: Poetry of Love and Life

All author royalties are donated to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. (The PFF gets a larger royalty when you order direct from CreateSpace.) Cover blurb: Share the Cup is a collection of traditional, structured poetry, including many in the sonnet form, written over a period of almost 50 years. A companion book, Old Jarhead Poems: The Heart of a Marine was published in 2011 and was awarded the 2012 Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s Robert A. Gannon writing award for poetry. Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran, a former five-term member of the Massachusetts State Senate and, since 1982 a successful non-profit executive. He has been widely published on political and management topics, plus a sprinkling of short fiction and poetry. This is his seventh book. In 2006, he was diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis, an eventually-terminal lung disease that kills as many people each year as breast cancer, which now requires him to use oxygen. However, at the time of publication, he was still working full time.


CYA: Protecting Yourself in the Modern Jungle
This book was recently reissued at a lower price, with all royalties going to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. Cover blurb: CYA is “Advice with an attitude.” Hall's flip, humorous style will amuse you, but while you are being entertained, you are likely to pick up several tips on protecting your person, home, career, family and reputation which will save you a lot of future grief. Pithy and easy to read, this short book will make a great gift for people you care about who need to do a little more CYA in their own lives. The advice will help them long after the laughter fades.
Now on Kindle for $2.99!



Chaos for Breakfast: 
Practical Help and Humor for Non-Profit Executives


Chaos for Breakfast: Practical Help and Humor for Non-Profit Executives is a collection of my association management articles, and, thus, will be of interest only to those who manage non-profits. It’s $24.95 or five bucks less if you are a member. It may no longer be available in print, only as an e-book.


The blurb, which they wrote, says: How to Know When It's Time Go. Murphy's Laws for Associations. Must There Be Metrics? How to Wreck Your Association in Only One Year. 10 Rules for the Care and Feeding of Volunteers. From tongue-in-cheek musings to straight-ahead advice, it's all here in this collection from an exec who has been there, done that, and earned his stripes. Go ahead. Have a little humor with your breakfast. Quantity discounts are available for this ideal gift for staff, board members, and volunteer leaders. This book is also available as an e-book.

It’s actually sold fairly well, and it pays good royalties, with 50% going to The Center for Association Leadership, 50% to the Orthopaedic Research and Educational Foundation, and the rest to me. Which is why I didn’t write a math book.


The Good Bits: 
The Marines, The Massachusetts Senate and 
Managing Associations. 


My first book was The Good Bits: The Marines, The Massachusetts Senate and Managing Associations. It’s a collection of short stories from my life, which I put together so my granddaughter, Britnye would have them, published by a print-on-demand publisher for $14.99. I have about reached the break even point, so all royalties will now be donated to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund (It brought in $22 in 2011.) I think it will be boring unless you are a member of my family or know me well, in which case it will be really boring.

Note that it's on Amazon, which charges even more than the publisher.

*****

Well, I have to go write to the publisher of that matchbook cover and see if I can get my money back on their You can be a Famous Writer course.

Oh, and, no, they don’t give me free copies to give away any of these. I have to buy any copies I use for promotion. Sorry.

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Brexit


Thursday, June 23, 2016

Guest Post: Global Warming. By R. J. Del Vecchio

Global Warming. 
By R. J. Del Vecchio

First, I am a trained and long-practicing scientist, and I look at data dispassionately. Just the facts, the data, the logic, please, and we try as much as humanly possible to push for objectivity and suppress any emotional reactions we might have.

When the subject of what is properly called Anthromorphic Global Warming (AGW), that is, planetary warming caused entirely by human activity, came up years ago, I was immediately interested. As a chemist I know that the CO2 molecule is excited by sunlight and generates heat, thus a rise in atmospheric CO2 concentration was a logical suspect for the possibility of warming.

However, the Romans had a saying about poisons, that dosage size is all important, and that's very true.  You can kill yourself drinking too much water, or taking too much salt, both of which are essential to life.  When it comes to CO2 and warming, it turns out that all the calculations show that you need a high concentration, like a few percent, of it in the air to really trap enough heat so that the planet can't reflect it back out to space fast enough and the temperature must rise over time.

However, the level of CO2 has gone from under 300 parts per million to just about 400 ppm in the last hundred years or so.  Even at 400 ppm, that is actually 0.04%, and nobody, even the most fervent believers, will maintain that such a level of CO2 can, by itself, warm the planet.

So how do they all make the dire predictions we've seen?  By the theory that a small rise in CO2 brings on a large rise in water vapor in the atmosphere, and the H2O molecule is the one, at actual percentage levels, that will trap all the heat.  Only problem is that there is total ZERO data supporting this theory, and on a planet with 2/3 of its surface covered by water, hit by the sun, and whipped up by winds and waves, it would seem really more likely that other factors are what control planetary humidity.

Can the planet be warming?  Sure it can, we're still coming out of the last ice age.  But the best data we have on planetary temperature is from the millions of satellite readings, and they show no serious trend in temperature climb for the past 18 years.  The believers call this "the pause" and have no explanation for it.

If indeed warming is underway, and that is possible, it is very slow, and related to things other than human produced CO2. Since India and China and other parts of the world aren't even really considering slowing down their use of coal and fuels, nothing we can do will make any difference, other than to raise the price of energy here, cost us all more money, make us less competitive internationally, and make the fat cats who want to run the "carbon exchanges" billionaires.  The right answer to whatever warming there is will be breakwaters, dikes, levees, etc, which human beings have been able to make for a very long time already.  Thinking we can somehow stop and reverse whatever warming is going on for the planet is like the ant running up the elephant's leg with intentions of rape..... way, way too ambitious!

Some references I recommend (out of a list of over 200 I've collected)




Del is a friend and brother Marine. This is posted with his permission. ~Bob

Friday, June 17, 2016

Must Read: America In Free Fall. By Victor Davis Hanson

Must Read: America In Free Fall. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: The contenders for president reflect the loss of confidence of the times. Bernie Sanders is an avowed socialist. Yet scan the record of big government redistributionism here and abroad—from Chicago and Detroit to the insolvent Mediterranean nations of the European Union and failed states like Venezuela—and there is no encouraging model of socialist success. Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic nomination—if she is not the first nominee in American history to be indicted, on possible charges of violating federal intelligence laws, and perhaps perjury and obstruction of justice. Donald Trump has neither political experience nor a detailed agenda, but has charged ahead on the basis of his vague promise to “make America great again”—a Jacksonian version of Obama’s equally vacuous 2008 promise of “hope and change.” President Obama, in response to attacks on his record by Trump—and by Bill Clinton, who has spoken of “the awful legacy of the last eight years”—is entering the campaign to brag about the current economy. But to do so, President Obama must ignore a number of liabilities that are soon coming due. 

Read this: "The West and the Tyranny of Public Debt"

I addressed this problem in my short book a few years back: The Coming Collapse of the American Republic: And what you can do to prevent it. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5

All royalties go to a charity to help wounded veterans. For a free PDF of this 80-page book you can read on your computer, write me at: tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Forget gold--invest in canned goods and ammo. ~Bob Hall

Pet Victims


Thursday, June 16, 2016

Self-Identify


Wednesday, June 15, 2016

World's Greatest Health Plan

http://www.goodmaninstitute.org/topics/health-reform-bill/

Pete Sessions and Bill Cassidy have titled their health care legislation "The World's Greatest Heathcare Plan." I can hardly object. It has just about everything I and my colleagues have been advocating for the last 15 years.

At our website you can find the 12 bold ideas (6 of them have never been proposed before in any bill or any Republican plan) and links to short white papers explaining each of them. Also you can find 25 Obamacare problems that the legislation will solve.

This is a BIG DEAL. Pete Sessions is Chairmen of the Rules Committee and is thought to be the second most powerful member of the House of Representatives. Bill Cassidy is probably the most knowledgeable person on health policy in the Senate.

Under the Sessions/Cassidy health reform legislation all of the broken promises of ObamaCare are kept with an approach that minimizes and streamlines the role of government. These include the promises of universal coverage, cost control and protection for patients with pre-existing conditions.

The Republican approach has no new taxes, no new spending and a massive amount of deregulation.

For details, see my post at Forbes

--John Goodman

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

The Coming War in the American Southwest

This is weird. When readers click on the links, they get page not found. When I copy and paste in my browser, it takes me to the page. More trouble, but they are worth it. ~Bob

The Coming War in the American Southwest

The below articles by Tom Kratman are well worth reading. He expects there may well be an Hispanic insurgency, backed by the drug cartels, to detach the Southwest from the United States, putting it nominally under Mexico, but actually under the cartels. Few will, alas, believe him. Humans have a bias, despite overwhelming evidence over the centuries, to believe that the way things have been is how they will always be. Many, perhaps most readers, even those not of the Social Justice Warrior persuasion, will recoil. But if the survival of the Republic is at stake, and the lives and freedoms of your families.... ~Bob

Reconquista, Part 1. By Tom Kratman

Reconquista, Part 2. By Tom Kratman

Reconquista, Part 3: Detachment of the American Southwest from the U.S.
http://www.everyjoe.com/2016/04/25/politics/reconquista-detachment-american-southwest-from-u-s/#ixzz492niKaev

El Imperio Contraataque (The Empire Strikes Back). By Tom Kratman


El Imperio Contraataque Part 3: The Three Bad Roads to Victory. By Tom Kratman
http://www.everyjoe.com/2016/05/16/politics/fighting-war-retain-southwest-us-three-bad-roads-to-victory/#ixzz48vU3YC6O 

El Imperio Contraataque Part 4: An Ounce of Prevention…By Tom Kratman
http://www.everyjoe.com/2016/05/23/politics/war-retain-us-southwest-ounce-of-prevention/#1

El Imperio Contraataque Part 5: Or Maybe More Than A Single Ounce of Prevention…By Tom Kratman

El Imperio Contraataque Part 6: Community Justice AKA “The Worm in the Wood.” By Tom Kratman
http://www.everyjoe.com/2016/06/06/politics/fighting-war-to-retain-american-southwest-community-justice/#1

The Rise of Our Own Shadow State. By Tom Kratman

Tom Kratman is a retired infantry lieutenant colonel, recovering attorney, an occasional contributor to my blog, and an outstanding author of military and science fiction, including the A Desert Called Peace series. I expect that in 20 years they will move his novel Caliphate to the history section. His latest novel, The Rods and the Axe, is available from Amazon.com for $9.99 for the Kindle version, or $25 for the hardback. A political refugee and defector from the People’s Republic of Massachusetts, he makes his home in Blacksburg, Virginia. He holds the non-exclusive military and foreign affairs portfolio for EveryJoe. Tom’s books can be ordered through baen.com. ~Bob





Never Either


More immigration


Monday, June 13, 2016

More information about the Orlando Jihadist murderer


www.jihadwatch.org has compiled a lot of information that you will probably not see in the murder-apologist media:

Looking for the motive of the Orlando Jihad attack?


The coming wreck

The day is fast coming when liberals will have to decide if they wish to defend gays from murder, apostates from execution, accused adulterers from stoning, little girls against having their genitals mutilated at four and being married to old men at nine, and women against a suffocating blanket of oppression and complete male dominance, or they wish to defend multiculturalism by defending these abominations against a supposed "Islamophobia."

The Democrat Platform


Sunday, June 12, 2016

Sadly timely


The meme I created yesterday was sadly timely, given the jihad slaughter in Orlando.


Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Trump Dummy?

I think that a comedian or ventriloquist could get a lot of millage with a Trump Dummy that only said Trump type things. "I'd like to punch him in the mouth." "In the old days, he'd be carried out of here on a stretcher." "Believe me, when I said Hillary would be a great president, I didn't know I'd be running." "Yes, I cheated on my wives with married women, that's one of the perks of being hugely successful and rich." "I'm highly educated. I know words. I have the best words." "It was very unfair that the NCAA didn't put Trump University in the final four. We'd have had a huge win." "Why do I have to repent or ask God for forgiveness, if I am not making mistakes? Looking at all the losers around here, God should ask me for forgiveness." "Church? I said I drink the wine, I eat the cracker, the whole room was laughing."

Letter to Senator Marco Rubio

June 8, 2016

Senator Marco Rubio
284 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC, 20510

Dear Senator Rubio:

I was an early supporter. I purchased two bumper stickers for my car, one of which, enclosed, I held in case my 2002 Toyota gave up the ghost. My support was not worth much fiscally, as I had to retire due to pulmonary fibrosis in 3013 for a lung transplant, and am living on Social Security and savings, so am not a contributor of any significance. But I promoted you on my blog, www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com (over 11k page views last week), to my local GOP contacts and on Facebook.

I am disappointed and disillusioned that you would endorse long time Hillary Clinton supporter, friend and contributor Donald Trump. I'm a lifelong Republican. I was a volunteer for Nixon at 14 in 1960, and for Goldwater at 18 before joining the Marines in August, 1964 and heading to Vietnam. In 1968, I was a college student and supported Nixon. In 1972, I graduated from U-Mass with a BA in government in June and was elected to the Massachusetts Senate in November, defeating a Democrat incumbent by nine votes out of 60,000 in a 4-1 Democrat district, last won by a Republican in 1938. I was reelected four times by large margins, even being nominated by both parties in 1976. In 1982, I was the Republican whip when I decided to retire undefeated. I have campaigned for many Republicans since. I have never voted for a Democrat for President. I will not vote for a life-long liberal this year, not Hillary, and certainly not Trump.

Donald Trump is not a Republican, not a conservative, not knowledgeable about issues, lacks a firm position on anything and is not a decent person. He has only two core values: self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment. I believe you have diminished yourself in the eyes of conservatives and decent people, and tarnished your reputation and political future. I refer you to my essay: "22 Reasons Principled Conservatives Can Never Vote for Donald Trump." which is achieving some circulation. (And Hillary is just as bad, though it's a toss up which will be worse for the country.)

Whatever Trump now says or does you have made your responsibility.

Sincerely,



Robert A. Hall
Massachusetts Senate, 1973-83.



Sunday, June 5, 2016

Satire: Trump at the Bat

Satire: Trump at the Bat
(With apologies to Ernest Lawrence Thayer)
Robert A. Hall

The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the GOP that day.
The score stood four to two, with but one inning left to play,
And then when Cruz died at first, and Marco did the same,
A pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

Conservatives got up to go in deep despair. The rest
Clung to the hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, “If only Trump could but get a whack at that—
We’d invest in Trump U, with The Donald at the bat.”

But Carson preceded trump, as did Christie for God's sake,
And the former was a hoodoo, while the latter was a cake;
So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat,
For there seemed but little chance of Donald getting to the bat.

But Carson let drive a single, to the wonderment of all,
And Christie, much despised, ate the cover off the ball;
And when the dust had lifted, and men saw what had occurred,
There was Chris safe at second and Ben a-hugging third.

From five thousand Donaldcrats there rose a snarling yell;
It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
It pounded on the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,
For Donald, mighty Donald, was advancing to the bat.

There was ease in Trump’s manner as he stepped into his place;
There was hauteur in Trump’s bearing, an orange smile lit Trump’s face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he flipped his famous hair,
No stranger in the crowd could doubt he'd knock it out of there.

Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt;
Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt;
Then on the mound Hillary ground the ball into her hip,
Hubris flashed in Trump’s eye, a sneer curled Trump’s lip.

And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
And Donald stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped—
“Very unfair," the Donald cried. “Strike one!” the umpire said.

From the benches of the Trumpbots, there went up a muffled roar,
Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore;
“Punch the umpire in the mouth!” shouted someone in the stand;
And it’s likely they’d have killed him had not Trump raised his hand.

With a smile of faux charity great Donald’s visage shone;
And amid the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;
He signaled to Benghazi Hill, like her email the spitball flew;
But Donald still ignored it and the umpire called, “Strike two!”

“Rigged!” cried the maddened thousands, and others answered “Fraud!”
But one scornful look from Donald and the Donaldcrats were awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
And they knew that Trump wouldn’t let that ball go by again.

The sneer is gone from Donald’s lip, his teeth are clenched in hate,
He pounds as though a protester his bat upon the plate;
And now Hillary holds the ball, and now she lets it go,
Believe me! the air is shattered by the Donald's Yuggge blow.

Oh, somewhere in this world the sun is shining bright,
The wall still waits its building, and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,
But there is no joy in Nutville—mighty Donald has struck out.

(Lest you be confused, I consider Hillary Clinton equally odious, equally corrupt, equally meretricious and equally unfit to be sewer commissioner, never mind President, as Donald Trump. To friends who say that by not supporting Trump I'm handing the election to Clinton, I reply, "Not at all. By not supporting Clinton, I'm handing the election to Trump." Each will be a disaster, though of different type, to the country. It's just that with his out-of-control NPD, Trump is easier and more fun to 

Friday, June 3, 2016

Wonderful Story

"Flags of Our Fathers"
Lisa Gomez, of Phoenix, loves our nation's flag. Her father served in the army and her son is currently serving as a U.S. Marine. So, while at a flea market a couple of months ago, she bought an American flag. When she got the flag home she discovered a small card within the folded flag, indicating this flag was a burial flag for Donald Peigh, who served in World War II in 1942 and 1943.
Lisa said when she saw that card she knew she couldn't keep it.......it belonged to someone's family. So, she went online and tried for weeks to find Donald Peigh's family. All she knew was that Donald Peigh was born in Hamlet, Indiana.
So she turned to the local CBS television station for help. The station was able to learn that Donald Peigh was buried right here in the valley...in Scottsdale.
So, yesterday, on Memorial Day, Lisa Gomez carried that flag to Donald Peigh's grave site. She thought she'd pay honor to this man, a veteran whose name was tucked into this folded burial flag.
When Lisa finally located Donald Peigh's grave site she was surprised to find a young woman standing there. When she approached, and asked the young lady laying flowers on the grave if she was a relative, she met Donald Peigh's daughter, Patti, who was paying holiday respects to her father.
Lisa, holding that still folded flag, extended her hands and presented the flag to Patti, saying "this belongs to you", then told how it had come into her possession.
Patti Peigh was stunned. For eighteen years, since that flag once rested atop a veteran's coffin, the family had looked for their father's burial flag.
Lisa and Patti stood at Donald Peigh's grave and, for the first time in many years, only happy tears flowed and fell on the grave. Patti said she knew her dad was smiling down from heaven....happy to see two ladies from military families coming together in a rare moment of happiness for a holiday most often marked by grief.