floundersgreatadventure

I just read an article on the killing of a wolf family in Oregon. They were exterminated by gunshot from helicopters. The male was known as OR4 and is considered responsible for the reestablishment of Wolves in Oregon. He his long time mate OR39 also known as Limpy (because of a badly healed leg injury) as well as two cubs are no more. They were killed because he supposedly killed calves belonging to a local rancher. Apparently Orr had been thrown out of his pack known as the Innaha Pack because he was old. Too old to hunt Elk and Deer so in order to feed his mate and cubs he took to killing lives stock. Now I’m not going to say nothing should have been done but if was as old as they say and his mate was injured they could of been trapped and relocated to a sanctuary. I don’t think gunning them down from a helicopter with high powered rifles is exactly fair. I mean he gave the calves a chance he was old after all. If they had set out on foot and tracked him down in a fair hunt well at least he had a chance. But to kill them from the air, those men were nothing more than killers that they claimed OR4 to be. I know farmers need to protect their property but I think in this case some compassioned would of gone a long way. This is a very sad Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

Those of you who read me regularly know that I live in Medellin, Colombia. Let me tell you some stuff about down here you might not see in your news up there. First the peace talks are stalled which means another of president Santos deadlines has passed and nothing will change. While he has been talking to the Farc the other rebel force the ELN has been busy recruiting members of the Farc that don’t want to work for a living. Not only that the criminal elements in the Farc controlled areas are also expanding their control. Here’s another little fact Colombia has at least three mosquito born diseases that have reached minor epidemic proportions. There way of controlling the problem is to spray nasty shit and remove standing water. One thing they don’t do is get some dam screens and put them in the windows. And here’s another thing this country is going through an energy crisis right now basically because they’re so dependent on coal and hydro electric plants for energy. This is in a country that has abundant sun and wind. For whatever the reason ( and we know it’s money) this country has done nothing in the way of promoting Solar or wind power as an alternative. They would rather charge surcharges to those who really can’t afford it. A sound a little like the energy companies in America doesn’t it? This is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

Well I’ve been under the weather for a week or so couple that with the complete lack of anything humorous in the news and you have the reasons for no posts. I really miss people like George Carlin. I think would have been the only person who could find humor in the political situation now. So I guess I’ll try to give you all a little chuckle or to. Let’s talk about age: do you know a seventy year old man’s definition of being able to multi function? It’s being able to piss and fart at the same time. Do you remember when you were young and you’d come home kick of your shorts across the room so they would lend on the closet doorknob and now you’re just grateful you remembered to wear shorts. A good thing is if you’ve been out late and spent all your money all you have to do is flag down a cop and say “ Officer I’m lost and don’t remember where I live” now that will get you a ride to the station where you can get a cup of coffee and call home. Also now if you forget an anniversary or birthday nobody will get mad they’ll just think you’re getting forgetful in your old age. When you’re old you don’t have tuck in your shirt or wear socks. Remember those hot dates where you took the lady home and watched a porn movie then tried to duplicate everything you saw. Now your date is snoring by the time you figure out how to turn the DVD player on. Well I hope I brought a smile to your face I’m going to see if I can find my way out of my office and get some prune juice in the kitchen. This is Flounder saying (I didn’t write this stuff) CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

It’s Super Tuesday where a lot of primary voting is done to see who the candidates are going to be. I personally have never met a person who has voted in a primary even when I was in politics. Primaries are more smoke filled back room politics then they are an excise in expression of the Democratic process. In Iowa and several other states they have what they call caucus’s where the candidates have to convince a few party representatives that they should be the man. That locks in the delegates who are going to the convention to vote for that person on at least the first ballot regardless of their feeling s about him or her. If they don’t get the nomination on the first ballot, something that rarely happens, then it’s back to backroom politics. We may have the best country in the world but that does mean it doesn’t need some improving. The only time there is a willingness to change is if it’s going to benefit the party of some faction within that party. If you’re an old guy like me, I’m 70; you’ve seen opportunities for the poor or low income people evaporate. There’s an old song by Jay and the Americans titled only in America. In is the line “Only in America can a guy from anywhere go to sleep a pauper and wake up to be a millionaire Only in America can a kid without a cent get a break and maybe grow up to be President”. Unfortunately that is largely untrue now. We are truly in the age of money talks and bull shit walks. The wealthy, which wouldn’t be wealthy if it wasn’t for the rest of us, now control our destiny. Now that really sucks and I’ve succeeded in depressing myself. This is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

I’ve seen lots of news reports comparing Donald Trump to Hitler. I think what your seeing is a more systemic problem that’s showing its ugly head now. Politicians have always been racist and I a lot of cases they don’t even try to hide it. As for the rest of the country when immigration was first brought forward by African Americans there were thousands of people who disagreed. Those people didn’t convert or leave the country they just did what Blacks had been doing they kept their heads down and waited. They believe they have found a kindred spirit in Donald Trump. This may be so but if he tries to implement some of his more extreme proposals he risks starting civil unrest unlike any we have ever seen. What makes Trump so dangerous (besides the fact that he believes he’s always right) is he has no idea what to do if he does say revoke Obama Care or build a wall. You see the thing is even if you’re a supporter of his and believe these things should be done he has no idea how to implement them. I don’t believe he can beat Hillary which means the possibility of 8 years of the same bull shit that’s going on now. I’m 70 years old and I have never seen an election where there is no possibility for change. Wait you say there’s Bernie. Bernie’s a good man with good ideas but there’s no way he can rest control of the government from Wall Street and the Koch brothers, if anything as nice a guy as he is his election could make thing worse in Washington. You see people seem to forget that the president isn’t a dictator he has to answer to Congress and the Constitution. Trump hasn’t forgotten do you think he won’t be making backroom deals that will benefit him and his rich friends. You know how many elections I’ve been through where the candidates have promised big change and we’ve all bit into it. They study people they see what’s the big issue is and they’ll put forward a plan to correct it. They’ll introduce bill in Congress and the public will relax and say see. but the Senate will want changes and will add Riders so by the time it gets to the President’s desk it’s just another piece of paper, not the game changing legislation they thought it would be. That’s my opinion but what do I know I’m just a cat. This Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

I’m sure you’ve heard about Trumps plan to build a wall to keep immigrants out of the country and his policy of banning all Muslims from entering the country. I guess he kinda forgot why the pilgrims came to America in the first place. It was a little something called religious freedom. All politicians complain of genocide by Isis and some northern European countries but somehow forget what happened to the Indians of the Americas you know the people that were here long before Europeans and others came to live. They were killed by the disease’s that were brought for which they had no immunity. Then they became victim to Manifest Destiny. That’s where people like George Washington thought it was our destiny to be top dog. So if we found Gold on their lands we either killed them or forced them off the land and on to reservations. It wasn’t just here it happened all over the Americas; some tribes were hunted to extinction others to near extinction. In the US they weren’t allowed to vote, or hold public office, or even get an education. People will tell look at them now they have Casinos they have education they’re doing great. That is true but it’s only a small percentage of the tribe’s members that actually receive the benefit s from these improvements. Where Casinos are concerned you only have to prove you have 20% Indian blood and you can get a piece of the action. Indians learned from the White man there tribal councils are great at screwing their own people out of stuff so that like the white man only the elite get to share in the bounty. We go around telling the rest of the world they shouldn’t do this or that but the original people are tossed aside and never even thought of anymore. It’s the same all over the world it’s the cause of the genocide that takes place in Africa where we all act outraged but do nothing as they kill each other and the mining and oil companies do business with the killers. People tell me I’m an ass hole because I don’t beloved in religion. Maybe I am but Christianity was greatly responsible for this genocide when the native population resented being told to convert. Remind anybody of how this story all started. This is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

On Friday Supreme Court Justice Scalia died in his sleep and within hours discussions appeared everywhere. Some were concerned with the effect his death would have on pending cases, others were concerned with whether or not the president would nominate a candidate to fill the vacancy or would he wait for the new President to do it. Both of those options are assumed to be politically motivated. One would assume if a Republican is elected they would chose a conservative candidate and the Democrats would chose a liberal one. According to most broad definitions a conservative is one who wants to enforce traditional values morality and social mores. A liberal on the other hand is one who is open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values. Well I like to think I have a little of both in me depending on the issue. But getting back to the replacement of Justice Scalia I would think term such as honest, fair and just are better labels for a justice. There has to be some way to remove politics from the decision. The Supreme Court is supposed to be the final word in interpretation of the Constitution. I believe politics should not be involved in those decisions and that labels such as Conservative or Liberal shouldn’t be applied. Another issue that was discussed was should there be a mandatory retirement age since when the very first appointments were made life expectancy was only around fifty years and the Justices are appointed for life. Well if you’re going to do that then you should also get rid of some of the old dead wait in Congress and the Senate and then maybe you wouldn’t see the terms Conservative and Liberal used so much. This is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

Well the game is over and it was sort of a snoozer but the Broncos did win and Carolinas quarterback Cam Newton sulked off into the sunset. My hope is this was Payton Manning’s last game so he goes out on top. He looked old during the game and if it wasn’t for the Broncos great defense he would have gone home a loser. I saw Newton doing his pre game stuff and he just didn’t seem to have the eye of the tiger if you know what I mean. I mean I could understand being a little nervous but he looked more asleep than anything else and of course as the game went on instead of getting angry he looked like he might cry. Speaking of crying I saw reviews of the halftime show that said how good it was but personally I think it stank up the joint. They said when Bruno Mars came on that the crowd was really excited. Well those people down front are told to be excited all I could hear was channels being switched. Next year they should try for a Led Zepplin reunion I mean they might need the money since it looks like they might lose their law suit about Stairway to Heaven. Plus having a Zep reunion would make the tickets worth their weight in gold. I watched the game alone so there were no distractions my wife took care of pop corn and beverages so for me it was great. I had to listen to it in Spanish and I can understand how some Latinos are confused by the game thinking it more complicated than it is. The reason is because the announcers are Mexican and don’t have a clue but think they do. Well that’s it for another year here’s hoping we’re all here for No. 51. This is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

Well it’s Superbowl Sunday and everybody is getting ready for the second biggest party day of the year. The game is almost secondary now. Especially to those who can’t afford to go. So we’ll call our friends and say come over to watch the game, when in reality we’re saying come over to watch the commercials and have a few beers. This is the 50th Superbowl and the 50th that I have watched. The first one was January 15, 1967 and I watched in the Rec Room of my basic training barracks at Fort Dix. The next day was my first day of basic training and my 21st birthday, great way to celebrate. After the first few the games became less exciting. That has changed in recent years much to my joy. The best one I’ve seen up until now was No. 23with the Cincinnati Bengals with Boomer Esiason and Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers won that game with a 92 yard drive ending with a pass from Montana to Taylor to seal the victory with 34 seconds remaining. That’s still the best finish I’ve ever seen. I hate to say this but I don’t expect the game to be close this year unless the Panthers quarterback Cam Newton gets hurt early. But I’ll be there in front of the TV hoping for a great game eating popcorn and drinking non alcoholic beer. I’ve been fortunate to see some of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the game, Star, Elway Farve, Kelly, Aikman, Montana, Marino, Stabler, Bradshaw, Dawson, and the great Johnny Unitas to name a few. I got to see the legend Lombardi coach and so many other greats. I know that we tend to put too much emphasis on sports making mere mortals into super heroes. But I think doing it once a year isn’t that bad. Enjoy the game this is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin Colombia.

Recently Republican candidate Ted Cruz was asked what he would replace Obama care with and didn’t have an answer. This is typical of all politicians that are asked this question. It the Republicans who have been most vocal about replacing it, but as of yet I haven’t read of any replacement programs that would be better or at worst equal to it. This to me is just another example the politicians in Washington being unable to put aside the political bullshit and actually do the job we elected them to and also pay them for. If they don’t like something let us here reasons other than it’s a Republican or Democrat idea and for that matter it would be nice if they both kept the banks out of it. Situations like this are why I hate all politicians equally. They care nothing for the voter only their political contributors and their own self interests. Right now some of my friends who actually read my blog are saying here we go again politics. When is he going to be funny again? Well I get my ideas for topics from the news and right now the funniest stuff is politics and it’s complete absurdity. I’ll try to do better with future posts. Please forgive any typos as I’m doing this without my glasses because I had some surgery to remove some cancer from my nose. Not to fear all went well I’m fine and will continue to post here along with my writing buddy Flounder. This is Flounder along with Jeff saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.