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John Jackson
It seems like I always respond to Jim’s posts, so, Jim, I’ll see your doe and fawn and raise you a young buck.
I live in a small town in central New Jersey only five miles as the crow flies from the very center of Trenton and about 50 miles from both New York and Philadelphia, but I can assure you that deer are alive and well and living (everywhere) in New Jersey. This shot was taken from my deck – most days I see deer in the backyard, usually in groups of three or four but at times I’ve had as many as 13. The deer are beautiful to see but they are voracious in consuming landscaping as well as flower and garden plants - the only reason there are flowers in this picture is that deer don’t come on decks (yet). And many forested areas in New Jersey will not have any significant regrowth or succession of trees when the current ones die because deer are basically devouring all the saplings.
Fred asked for a rant and since Tim usually throws out the first bomb for our side I’ll give him a rest and say that while deer are a mixed blessing here in New Jersey I wish I could say at least that much for our current President. Justice Kennedy’s retirement has been much in the news along with Mitch O’Connell’s supreme hypocrisy in scheduling a vote 4-1/2 months closer to this year’s election than he was comfortable in doing for Obama’s nominee in 2016.
But the issues the new and more conservative court will consider (and the longstanding precedents they are likely to ignore) are probably too complex too discuss in a forum like this, so I’d like to ask a much simpler question - why do we tolerate a President who lies constantly, almost daily, and sometimes multiple times a day? Here’s an example from two days ago (although I’ll bet there are even more recent examples) – Trump was at a rally in North Dakota and, in his usual modest way, he asked the crowd how amazing it was that he had carried Wisconsin in the 2016 election - the first time a Republican had done so since Eisenhower in 1952!!!!!!. Well (duh) that’s correct only if you don’t count Republican wins there in 1956, 1960, 1968, 1972, 1980 and 1984.
Although this lie is factually a whopper, by itself it’s of little consequence and it’s unlikely to bring down the Republic. But Trump lies all the time, about matters large and small, and it poisons our national debate when the man who leads our nation, and represents us to the world, shows no regard for the truth.
Trump supporters excuse his behavior, saying they look beyond his “bombast” and his “unconventionality” but this is neither of those - it’s “lying”. He lies if he thinks it will help him get what he wants – even about things that can be easily fact-checked and shown to be lies.
I’m really concerned about what’s happening to our country – this isn’t the usual Republican-Democrat thing we’ve lived with all our lives. I wasn’t a happy camper during the “W” years but it was nothing like what we have today and, believe me, I’d kill to have W lead us now.
There’s an old saying that bad leaders divide us, and great leaders bring us together. This guy is dividing us like no other.
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