We are getting creamed!  ISIS has taken us to the cleaners and it seems the war against them is lost.  This is the United States of America for god’s sakes.  There is not a country on the entire planet that can match our military might.  How can we be taking it in the shorts by a bunch of lunatics living in the 8th century.  Somehow there has to be an explanation.  There is just no way we should be losing any kind of war to any kind of transgressor.

This very scenario is starting to look eerily similar to one that transpired before.  I read about it somewhere, I think it was back in grade school.  I kind of forget.  It might have been high school.  Oh Ya!  I am starting to remember now.  There was this guy who came out of nowhere and took over not only his own country but several surrounding ones.  It was an extraordinary rise to prominence if I remember right, an unparalleled accomplishment in the annals of history.  Here was this guy, with absolutely no  formal qualifications, who somehow slipped through the cracks and took over a political group of extreme nationalists and become their leader.  He was able to capitalize on that coup and become the leader of his entire country by taking to the streets and working up the masses with perplexingly vitriolic speeches about a particular religious group that he felt was responsible for their country’s defeat in a previous war it had recently been involved in.  Do you guys remember this?  I think it all happened back in the mid 20th century.  I just did a little research and I found a picture of this remarkable individual.   Believe it or not, we have a similar rising star right here in America.  He has an amazingly comparable political background and is using amazingly similar acts of fomenting speachafying  to amazingly be tracking politically in the same manner his mid twentieth century mentor did.  I found a picture of him too.

Just so you see where I am coming from, here are those pictures of these two political look-alikes.  Test your knowledge of history and current events and see if you can identify which one of these guys lived back then and the one moving along nicely in U.S. political progression now.     

How did you do?  I kind of gave things away I guess.  Color film developing was pretty labor intensive in the mid 20th century.  Of course the guy in the black and white picture has to be older.  And if you recall in the end things didn’t work out so well for him or his country.  Maybe this other guy will study up on stuff and be able to maneuver history down a different path.  I kind of doubt it though.  History just has a way of repeating itself and I have to tell you this kind of history makes me kind of nervous.

Related:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/news/64909/donald-trumps-9-11-celebration-claim-widely-disputed

What an interesting development all this campus unrest has created.  So many memories for me.  Ah, the 60’s. and 70’s  Who can forget.  Protests galore.  Vietnam and flag burning.  Selective Service and draft card  burning.  Women’s rights and  bra-burning.   Gay rights.  Civil rights.  Campus rights and rules.  Academic restrictions and practices.  You name it and we were there for the revolt against it.  Compared to today though we were severely handicapped.  What we would have given for all the social media avenues available now.  Only thing is none of it would have done any good anyway on my campus.  All the screaming and shouting and phoning and texting would have lost traction and evaporated like always.  That’s because Creighton University suspended its football program in 1942.

Student Protest 1965       Student Protest 2015

Football rules.  Yale, Princeton- wake up!  You have the blueprint for successful  protesting right before your eyes.  Your rebellions need a serious upgrade.  Get your football team involved like those Missouri students did.  You should know this.  You’re going to school at Yale and Princeton for Pete’s sake.  What was your SAT score anyway?  Same goes with Ithaca College.  Oh shit!  Sorry.  I forgot.  Your football team sucks and you probably hope to keep the limelight off of that dismal bunch.  But Yale and Princeton, come on.  Your guys aren’t doing too badly.   I guess I don’t know for sure if records hovering just above mediocrity fill up your stadiums,  but that Ivy League tradition has to count for something.  I bet just like Missouri your administrators aren’t about to kiss off a million plus bucks by not playing a football game.  I know it’s the Ivy League and maybe contractually a million dollars per game is not exactly the standard that the league signs up for, but if your football team doesn’t show up there has to be some kind of very serious penalty, not to mention the lost revenue and fan hysteria.  You should grab that leverage by the balls and run with it.  You would get what you want before the sun sets.

The power of football is so glaringly obvious I am surprised it has taken this long for someone to utilize it.  Sure there is that ongoing threat of student athletes unionizing, but that shit will be tied up in litigation for years.  The real iron in the fire readily available to strike is not the unionization thing.  It’s simple modern student activism coupled with confusingly germane athletics.  If something is  bothering you, pick up your cell phones and get the word out to your football team.  They’ll give those administrators such a fucking migraine your demands will be boxed up and gift-wrapped and delivered right to your door.

Student Advocate  1965                                               Student Advocate  2015

The threat of a football game being canceled has so much potential.  Outside of a nuclear bombing,  from my perspective there is nothing in existence that possesses the negotiating leverage of football.  Its attraction is so powerful I think there is a distinct possibility we could harness that energy for the common good.  Every country in the world should have a football team.  And I’m not talking about that soccer shit.  That just won’t fly here.  Well maybe if we want everybody to take a nap it would work out.  I know that sport is huge everywhere except here in the U.S., but believe me if we get everyone on board with American football the sky is the limit.  We’ve already been infiltrating Europe with NFL games  If we are persistent enough we can get the whole world exposed and addicted.  It seems to me we are doing a pretty good job on that front.

When every country finally has its own national football team, the world is bound to be a better place.  If some country feels there’s some kind of shenanigans going on in another county all that needs to be done is to threaten to cancel the upcoming football game.  Dignitaries will be making phone calls and flying all over the place to broker a quick resolution.  And think about it.  If some shit-ball organization like ISIS comes around fuckiing with our football, the entire world will raise up in indignation and exact hell-bent revenge.  This is just one of my really good ideas that I think should be given some serious consideration.

My mother broke her hip so I am here with her in beautiful St. George Utah doing various things to help out with her transitions from her regular life to hospital life to rehabilitation life and back.  And she will be back.  She is remarkable.   96 years old and never complains.  She is still as particular as ever.  She has me running back and forth to her assisted living facility, where she normally lives without assistance, to pick up this and that for her stay in the rehab center.  It took me three trips to finally retrieve the correct white blouse she indicated was a complete necessity for stylish strutting up and down the hallways in her two wheeled walker.                                                 

Jimmy Walker- Funny              Johnny Walker- Not too Shabby     Wheeled Walker-Not Funny at all

More on that later probably.  I love St George.  The scenery is stunning and though I avoid the place in the summer if at all possible because of the relentless heat, this time of year the weather is perfect for me.  There is one thing you should prepare yourself for however if you some day do decide to visit here.  In this valley of the octogenarians what you will be completely bombarded with will be the constant presence of the Fox News channel.  I actually caught a break with my mother for awhile.  The various incapacitations of her predicament evidently caused her to kind of forget about Fox News and I was able to sneak in a considerable amount of football viewing the first few days.  That all changed yesterday as she settled in to her rehab accommodations.

Of course the next Republican debate is coming up, tonight as a matter of fact, and the entire Fox News organization is giddy with excitement since they are hosting the event.  I have to admit it holds some interest for me since the last one caused so much consternation among the candidates.  I’m kind of surprised some of them didn’t dial up their mothers on their cell phones and complain to them right up there on the stage.  It’s a debate.  Answer the questions.  Sure some of them are borderline ridiculous but behind most are the desire to find out if you are a nincompoop or not.

The big complaint from most of these presidential hopefuls was that the questions during the last debate were too personal or off topic, at least from what I can gather.  Personally I didn’t see a lot of that, but that’s just me.  But Fox News apparently got all lathered up about it.  I don’t know for sure because I never watch Fox News.  But that’s what I hear.

While shifting around uncomfortably in my chair listing to Bill O’Reilly last night, something he said caught my attention.  He was interviewing one of the moderators of the upcoming debate and of course handing out his advice on what the line of questioning the moderators should use.  He was insistent there should be some “entertainment value” offered, that there ought to be some “zingers” thrown out there to keep the audience’s attention.  And the moderator could’t agree more.  Maybe it’s just me but I think that is what all the complaining was about over the last one.

So you should pay attention tonight.  Maybe the moderators will take Bill’s advice and we will be in for a real treat.  I know I’ll be watching.  I’m here in St. George Utah.  I have no choice.