floundersgreatadventure

It’s that time again for me and fats to comment on something. Today I decided to be like a lot of the media and politicians and see what the Democratic Party can do to fix itself. I took a look at lists of potential 2020 Democratic p Presidential candidates. There are several out there I just scanned them because a lot of them I’ve never heard of before. So let look at some names we know. First up good old Hillary Clinton who will be 71 in 2020, she had stamina problems in 2016 and also was disconnected like the rest of her party form the voters. I don’t think she’ll run and I really don’t think she should. Next up we have Joe Biden who will be 77 in 2020 I think if he was to run it should have been 2016 I don’t think he has a chance in 2020. Then you have Bernie Sander who will be 78 in 2020 and they’re already throwing dirt at him and his wife now. I’m not sure at hi s age he want to go through the bull shit of a Presidential campaign. One of the youngest people mentioned is Corey Booker. I am fairly certain that after the Trumpster America is not ready for young Black man from New Jersey to be President. Some interesting names coming up are Michele Obama and Oprah Winfrey. Now Michele would be interesting depending on how much backlash still exits against women, blacks and wives of Ex- Presidents. As far as Oprah Winfrey goes I’ll refer you to the comedian Sinbad who once said he considered her the most dangerous person in America because a little knowledge is dangerous when applied to people. Our personal opinion is that there is someone out there that we haven’t heard from yet who can straighten this country out that the people can accept and I don’t mean the Trumpster or any of his minions. Well the next couple of years should be interesting pay attention or you’ll likely miss something important. Oh and by the way I’d like to see Senator Al Franken run just for the laughs.This is Flounder and fats saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

Ok it’s Fathers Day and I’m actually writing this on Saturday since we have family plans for tomorrow. This week was an exceptional bad one in terms of disasters. First as you’ve all heard a 24 story apartment went up in flames in London England and as of this morning 58 people have lost their lives. I’m not a fire fighter or arson inspector or anything else that might make me qualified to say what happen there, but I will say I’ve never seen film of a fire that climbed that fast or could gut a building in such a short time. it won’t make a difference to those that died but somebody did something that was really wrong in building the building. Second tragedy was a shooting that took place at a ball field in Washington DC, where Republicans were practicing for a charity event later in the week; several people were hit including the ranking member of congress Steve Scalise who was critically injured. What was even more tragic was the partisan reaction with both parties blaming the rhetoric of the other as the cause of the shooting. There was even a call from some rep from Kentucky to loosen gun rule in Washington so they could all carry guns to Congress. Boy that’s all we need crazy politicians walking around the capital all carrying guns. The third and final tragedy of the week happened out west and has become all too familiar. It was a work place shooting where a disgruntled employee shot and killed four people. Now I guess you want to see me write something about control or the lack of. But honestly I don’t know what to say. We’ve become a society where the use of violence to settle disputes seems to be the norm. No laws will stop this from continuing although some could make it worse. The why of this happening is way above our pay grade and we wouldn’t begin to know where to start. You can see why I wrote this the day before Fathers Day, it just didn’t seem appropriate for a day in which we honor our fathers. I welcome any commentary you may have on a answer to this situation. Maybe if enough of us start to discuss this in a reasonable way we might be able help put a stop to it. This is Flounder and Fats saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

Friday night Adam West the original TV Batman passed away at the age of 88. After I had read a lot of the tributes to the man and his acting skills, I started to think about comic books and their characters. Before I start I should tell you I had a very large comic book collection which I sold at deep discount to help finance my move to Medellin. During my collecting days I read up on the history of comics and I remember one book in particular which I think was published in the fifties. I don’t remember the title but I do remember it was more of a sociology text book. It showed how the characters reflected the event of the times. They mostly took in WWII and its aftermath the beginning of the cold war, it also showed how comic book faced censorship at the time and managed to avoid governmental censorship by imposing what was a comic book code of conduct. I decided to look at one character in particular and see if this was still true, at least the part about them reflecting the time we live in. the character I decided to use was Batman and just so you know I was always a big fan for whatever reason I just didn’t dig Superman. Batman has come a long way since Adam West played the character on TV. In the comic books he has become a much more darker figure and books that were written for youngsters are now be written more for adults. This reflects society because our Children are forced to face reality more now than before. The cold war made kids think they would never see old age this was expressed during the hippie generation. So young children grew up faster and faster, now they were adults and started looking for escapes from the world that was out there, of course many found it in drugs, booze and music. Still others sought it in literature and movies Syfi became more and more popular while comics began to reflect the somber mood of this new generation. While one new company, Marvel decided to concentrate on science fiction and fantasy, the older company DC but all its eggs into one basket called Superman. Its other main character became truly a Dark Night. But he was also a hero to those adults who were tired of being beaten down all the time, now they had a character that would punish the ones that need to be punished without the interference of politicians. This was also the period where in literature a paperback hero called the Executioner written by Don Pendleton and in marvel comics The Punisher was born. These two character suffered great losses and then decide to be Judge, Jury and Executioner all in one. Even the Batman was caught up in this. I sit around down here wondering how the comic book and literature in general will portray the events of our time, if nothing else it should be both sad and hilarious. This is Flounder and Fats saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

Well I might have mentioned that I’ve been reading a book titled The Hand Maids Tale. I started reading when it was recommended to me as sort of an Orwell 1984, the discussion of a totalitarian state and how it came about, now at least I know why I’m reading it. How this is accomplished is similar in both books and what is happening in the world today. I’m sure you saw the headline out of England where the Prime Minister is saying they’re willing to change human laws to stop terrorism. They are able to change laws and restrict the flow of information by using the fear that terrorism causes. The fact that England is the first to publically state this is somewhat ironic since the book 1984 takes place in England. People should be aware that terror is defined by Webster as a state of intense fear. Webster also defines terrorism as the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion. Terrorists don’t want to kill everybody they just want you so scared you’ll change your life and never feel completely safe again. How many of you that lived on the East Coast can say without a doubt that you changed nothing about the way you lived or thought after 9/11. The same would apply to people in Oklahoma after the bombing of the FBI building there. Which at the time was the largest and most destructive terrorist attack before 9/11and that was perpetuated by white Americans. When you lose that sense of security that allowed you walk without fear of the color of someone’s skin or the religious beliefs. You know become susceptible to voluntarily surrendering certain of your freedoms so that you may sleep better at night. I hope I’m wrong when I say that both of these stories have a chance to become fact. I’ll discuss this more in the coming weeks. This is Flounder and Fats saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

Well this has been a rough week for the world and the good old USA. There have been several terrorist attacks the last on yesterday in London, England. All this is making everyone very nervous and now they’re talking about controlling the Internet. If this would stop the terrorists I would be very happy, but it won’t. What will happen is censorship. In other words the people most affected by this would be the average user, whose ability to view information would now be controlled by politicians such a Putin and the Trumpster. Now there probably won’t be a lot of objections to this especially by those that support the afore mentioned idiots. Fear has a way of making people accept thing that seem in the beginning to make them safer but in the long run will actually make them more unsafe. Other people will support this simply by doing nothing. These are the people that don’t want to be bothered by politics because they don’t believe it affects them they just want to be left alone. They have their lives all planned out they don’t worry about health insurance or retirement. Now I have friends in both categories those that support the Trumpster and believe all the negative stuff is just fake news. These people flood Facebook and other social media with articles from alternate sources which are more fantastic then what they call fake news. My other group of friends just doesn’t want to listen to more bullshit and I have to admit a lot of what’s but out there is just that, the same old bullshit. And I have another group of friends that just take sides because their either Democrats who believe Republicans are the devil incarnate or Republicans that believe the same about the Democrats. I don’t live n the US so I have a unique perspective because I get to see news from a lot of other sources as well as talk to a lot of people other than US citizens. I worry about other things as well like what kind of world we are leaving for our children and grand children. Just because you have your life all set and don’t have a concern in the world or put more bluntly don’t give a FUCK, that doesn’t mean everything is going to be Ok for the next generation. I see so much of this in the way Governments go about their business and corporations count their profits. These people really don’t give a fuck about what’s going to happen to the world twenty years from now as long as they can keep the money flowing in. Now I don’t want you to think that I disrespect my friends with opinions other than mine. No sir, that’s what our country is all about differences and how we deal with them. My friends are my friends and they can think whatever they want and I will argue with them but I will always respect their opinion and remain their friend. Look I can keep writing this blog but its Sunday and I have a birthday party to get too so maybe we’ll continue this during the week and maybe we won’t. This is Flounder and Fats saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

I don’t really think anybody I know expected me to keep quiet about this. The Trumpster just too the United States out of the Paris accord on climate change. He claims to have done this to save American jobs and improve the American economy and to this I say BULL SHIT. The Trumpster doesn’t believe in the global warming theory he thinks it’s all a Chinese hoax. His interior secretary issued a order today to immediately start more oil drilling in Alaska. Now for the first part the majority of people in the worlds as well 99% of the world’s leading scientists all believe in global warming , but because the Trumpster doesn’t believe it there all liars and wrong. Congratulations Trumpster you’ve now made the United States an embarrassment in the world community. We can all sit around and watch China leap ahead of as a world leader. Geez what an Ass Hole he is. On the second part if I’m not wrong there is sort of an oil glut right now which has driven prices down. Now if the Trumpster’s plan is for an increase in fossil fuels which will create a need for more oil, as well as pollute the atmosphere. Then maybe we should drill for more oil. But as the rest of the world begins to develop alternative fuels it could mean we could end up like Venezuela. They have the largest untapped oil reserves in the world and are going broke. And guess who they owe the most money to. Yup it China and we could be next. I’m sorry I didn’t mean to ruin everybody’s weekend but it’s difficult to keep quiet when the world around you is turning to shit. This is Flounder and Fats saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.