The Great Hog Rebellion
Shorty lived across the ridge from me. We did a lot of things together. Played baseball. Rode his old horse like it was the Lone Ranger’s Silver. Climbed the mulberry tree and ate berries until we were mostly purple. Ate wild persimmons before they were ready and green apples. Painted our faces with poke berry juice and headed off into the woods with our homemade bows. Shorty taught me how to milk a cow. Pretty much the same way Tom Sawyer taught them boys how much fun it was to white wash a fence. I did manage to squirt him in the eye. And sometimes we would have us a smoke from the Salems Shorty pilfered from his Mom’s unguarded cigarette pack.
One day I was helping Shorty slop the hogs. About three quarters of the way out the path toward the hog pens, Shorty and me decided to stop for one of those smokes. We felt rather grown up in the moment. Menthol Salems. It was a brief moment of exotica within smelling range of hog pens. On that day, Shorty and me learned that hogs are not very tolerant of slow-poke waiters. We looked up just in time to see a herd of hogs, who had just busted themselves out of the pen, barreling down on us. We lit out like the proverbial bats out of Hades leaving our smoldering smokes somewhere along the way. Fortunately, those future smoked hams were interested in the slop buckets and not Shorty and me.
That was the great hog rebellion of 1964.
By now you have heard Senator Ted Cruz call out Mitch “Harry Reid” McConnell. There was no equivocation. He called the Senior Senator from Kentucky a liar – and more than once. Stating quite plainly the Mitch and Harry show continues. Reminds me of those great philosophers, “The Eagles”:
You can’t hide your lyin’ eyes
And your smile is a thin disguise
I thought by now you’d realize
There ain’t no way to hide your lyin eyes
For consecutive election cycles, Americans overwhelmingly voted to take power from one party and give it to another. We did it by sending men like Ted Cruz to the Senate. For the ears of the world, Senator Cruz made a bold move. Calling out establishment Washington for what it is. When we look back on this time we are likely to see that he endeared himself to the Americans who are mostly sick to death of establishment Washington. Let us just hope that when Mr. Cruz looks back over his shoulder he will not be the Lone Ranger in the great pachyderm rebellion of 2015.
There is another rebellion of sorts brewing in Washington. The Rainbow House, it appears, is working hard to dethrone the Clintons. Quietly though. Word is that Valerie Jarret (Communist) and defacto dictator is leaking details about Mrs. Clinton’s emails and about the Inspectors General who referred their investigations into the email scandal to the Department of Justice. The Rainbow House Department of Justice, oh my. Reckon they will indict? That would be fun to watch. Especially to see what the Clinton personal destruction team has held back about the Obamas. Would love to be privy to the inside conversations on this one. Just be wary of whoever it is that is being primed to swoop down and save the Democrat party – and the United States of America. Probably not Bernie Sanders.
One more developing rebellion I think. This one is on the people level. And it is against Planned Parenthood’s little shop of horrors. Will politicians do anything about it? Last I heard, good old Mitch would not allow a vote on defunding them either. So you and I will continue to fund the baby parts business. I think Washington does nothing as it does on most things. That leaves me to wonder how much longer before our streets are filled with fed up Americans, this one maybe being the proverbial straw.
That probably will not happen either. But you know what? My gut tells me that these past years and whatever happens within the coming months will forever change the political landscape in the United States of America.
I think Ted Cruz fired the bold shot heard around the political world. Will he stand alone? This country was born out of rebellion. It will take rebellion in some form to save it. Prayerfully a peaceful one.
© 2015 J. D. Pendry American Journal All Rights Reserved.
Category: Politics
Well, your gut is telling you true, JD.
We’re in for some interesting, and possibly unnerving times ahead, so keep your eyes focused ahead, not on the ground.
Oh, I’d love to see what really IS going on behind the magic curtain. But what if our spoiled snotty brat little bodaprez decides that he doesn’t want to do this any more (because he couldn’t just get his way on things like gun control, closing national parks – remember that?, etc.).
What if he just walks off the job and dumps it off on Biden?
Hey, can we get the ‘welfare to work’ program back in business? Who killed that? Was is sickslick willie?
Who killed off the PROWA, AKA “welfare to work”? Well, let’s see.
The statute limited able bodied single persons w/o dependents to 6 months of SNAP assistance in any 36 – for which I will give much credit to Clintoon, since he was instrumental in getting that through Congress during his Administration – but allows that requirement to be suspended by the POTUS during times of emergency. Those provisions were suspended in 2009. (Immigrant restrictions on SNAP were relaxed earlier, mostly by Congressional action.) And it wasn’t suspended prior to Jan 20 of that year. It hasn’t been reinstated.
States were given authority to suspend the “work” requirement in 2012 if they could meet certain criteria.
Who’s responsible for “welfare to work’s” demise? Many people. But for the majority of the damage – well, that’s happened after January 2009.
You do the math.
I am to the point that I don’t care how it gets fixed.
Just fix it!
Remember how when the Republicans knew they couldn’t stop Obamacare because of Harry Reid but they came up with different cute ideas? One of those ideas was proposed by Cruz… to make Obamacare apply to all members of Congress.
Well there is presumably nothing to stop them now, but all I hear on the matter is crickets.
Ted Cruz could hit a grand slam if he would reintroduce that legislation … it would make headlines and I think the majority of the country would support him all the way to the WH.
Yet, I bet he doesn’t .
Yeh….but TRUMP…might!!
Not necessary. As of 1 January 2014, Members of Congress and selected staff are now required to use the Abomination commonly known as ObamaCare to obtain their health insurance.
https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43194.pdf
Prior to 1 Jan 2014, Members of Congress and selected staff were eligible to enroll in the Federal Government’s health insurance system for Federal Employees (FEHB). As of 1 Jan 2014, that option went away, and they’re now required to go thru an ObamaCare exchange.
Good info, I was unaware. While researching your answer, I discovered that Cruz’s wife is currently on a leave of absence from her job at Goldman Sachs. I was also unaware of that.
While I have no doubt the information at your link is true, it appears that exemptions for Congress remain in place. Ted must have heard my bellyaching.
“The very people who wrote the law — Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats — wanted out of it. And this Administration was only too happy to oblige,” Cruz said in a statement Monday. “Today, the taxpayers subsidize their platinum plans while millions of Americans across this country have lost their jobs, have been forced into part-time work, have lost their health insurance, have lost their doctors, and are facing skyrocketing premiums,” Cruz continued. “Yet members of Congress retain their illegal exemptions from Obamacare, and it’s time to end the Washington favors that have gone on for far too long.”
Cruz offering the amendment to the long-term transportation bill would be a move sure to bring more contention to the process.
http://blogs.rollcall.com/hill-blotter/cruz-and-vitter-to-target-congressional-health-care/
Good on them. Time for them to take it in the posterior like the rest of us regular folks.
The times, they are a changing’, rather abruptly I might add. One avenue of thought seldom considered realistic might just be the last great hope. Don’t think for one moment it is not being bandied around.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2jh1_KxJww
Okay, but what is it makes anyone think that everyone in the North is a libertard? I’m not. I know plenty of people up in my neck of the woods who are NOT.
Just because that bunch of financially-incompetent, pantywaisted, candyasses has a population demographic, it doesn’t mean we’re ALL like that. Don’t paint me with that brush, or anyone else, just because of where we live. There’s nothing wrong with taking this country back from the people who want to turn it into a cesspool. If you piss off enough of us by forcing us to swallow crap, expect to have it spit back in your face.
Hmm… someone I know, who has forecast the possibility of war in the next 20 years may be more right than he realizes.
ex-PH2….No one has suggested those in the North are libertards, as you mentioned. If the South should be the beginning of a revolution, don’t you know it would never gain traction without the help of those like-minded souls up North? And don’t think for a minute ALL southerners would join in immediately. Throughout this entire country it will take those from all four corners to unite and put a stop to the destruction of this country. My point is this: this is becoming more a realistic possibility now more than ever before. We’ve all had enough!!!!!!!!!!!
You got that right, Jarhead. Dead on the mark.
I think that in any American Revolution in the near future, that the sides would not be geographically divided, nor even R VS D sides, but rather those who provide VS those who consume. There is no way in hell that those on the “free stuff” train would rebel against the status quo, and would even fight to keep it running. My preparedness is being geared in this direction.
Put another way – the producers vs the non-producers, with some retired producers thrown in. Within each group are survivors, those lacking survival skills of any sort, and those who simply lack the temperament to survive any threat to their little self-absorbed worlds. Would guess that the producers have a significant majority of survivors in their ranks, but the non-producers also have a good many.
It’s been a balance that the producers have tolerated for decades now – they/we are willing to put up with some degree of slackers because we intuitively know that some folks simply refuse to contribute and that will never change. Several factors threaten that balance now, not the least of which is the simple fact that folks are spilling across our borders intent on harming us, often with the training to do it rather efficiently. That known threat is not something we can tolerate or ignore in spite of our governments refusal to acknowledge it, address it, or fix it.
I admire Cruz as mush as I can admire any politician. He is the real deal, as conservatives go. As for the baby parts sales video, it was not spotlighted by most media. They HAD to mention it, did, and shoved it aside as quickly as possible. I heard part of the infamous conversation on the radio but I couldn’t stomach listening to it all. This is abortion. Those inconsequential ‘fetuses’ that interfere with the lives of some people and make the livelihoods of others, have body parts, not just so many cells and soft tissue. I sometimes think that the recoiling, distressed and agonized fetus that is ‘salined’ and then ripped from the womb should be mandatory viewing in every home and school in the country. It is so horrific, so ugly, so dastardly, so murderous, that abortions would plummet overnight.
As mush. Not Freudian. Not fat fingers. Just careless.
I truly hope you’re right, and I’m sure you are, Trump ignited a firestorm and awakened a fair share of people with his comments. I hope that Cruz and trump have thrown the proverbial spark or lit match onto gas-soaked kindling and things start turning for the better, I’m so sick of the status quo in DC it’s not even remotely funny!
The Senate today censured Cruz for calling that lying SOB, Mitch (Reid) McConnell, a liar. The reason a liar cannot be called a liar in the US Senate is a rule that was instituted after a 1902 Senate incident. It was a pip. SC Senator John McLaurin pronounced SC’s other senator, Ben Tillman, guilty of “a willful, malicious, and deliberate lie.” Tillman was near McLaurin, near enough to touch him—and did, with a fist to the face. All hell broke loose and, a few weeks later, a new rule was added: “No senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.” Read it again. The truth is no defense. It doesn’t have to be a false accusation. Just calling a liar a liar will do. That’s why Cruz was censured. he called a liar a liar. Tsk-tsk.
So they have rules to prevent the truth from being spoken? This is absurd. We need the truth to be spoken even if it’s painfull. Maybe a couple of fistfights on the senate floor will bring them back to their senses (doubtful).
We are so worried about hurting peoples feelings, and I understand that being cruel is wrong (thanks to my ex for that wonderful upfront and personal example) but dang it people, get a thicker skin, shoot straight (figuratively folks) and cut through the BS.
It’s past time for truth in Washington, it’s past time for truth from politicians wherever they may roam, and it’s past time the people of the US need to make our legislaters accountable for their un-truths.
If they had the intestinal fortitude to fist fight they would have the same fortitude to pass legislation that actually helps the American people instead of lining their pockets with favors from special interest groups. Besides McConnell is a two faced coward…..
Very good column, thank you JD. I have pretty much been a fan of Ted Cruz since he came into office and I hope he can stay there, someone has to be telling us the truth and I do not expect it to be the same tired old bunch. And just so Jarhead and Ex-PH2 know that just like most places not everyone in California or the
West Coast is liberal, there’s just not enough of us to make the needed changes but we keep trying. Semper Fidelis.
My biggest concern is that this liberal dogma may send people running to the same trap that the German people fell into, which allowed Hitler to manipulate them into Nazism.
Here’s a brief history of it. Some of it is very, very similar to what we are seeing now.
http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch16.htm
It’s not that I’m saying we WILL head in that direction, the financial mess that our government and other governments have become is in large part due to the spendthrift behavior of socialists. As Margaret Thatcher observed, ‘The problem with socialism is that eventually, you run out of other people’s money.’
Yeah, no kidding. To me, this is a very real concern and we must guard against it.
I am no conspiracy nut. I was totally into the financial news/blogs in 2007-2008 and to some degree I still am. I kept inventory of a lot of the things I read during the financial meltdown. I have a pretty good memory.
I recently watched the documentary “Inside Job” on a cable channel. I stumbled across it and watched it. I was pretty much blown away. They do a very good job of connecting the dots in a linear fashion. I highly recommend it and I would encourage anyone to watch it…and like I said, I am no conspiracy guy. You can see the whole thing for free on the web. Greece is just a few dominoes upstream of us IMHO.
I know. I had AIG stock, a lot of it, and never got the pro forma notice to vote on the reverse split. AIG lost in Starr v. USA, but whether or not I ever get my money back is in question and probably will be for a long time.
You’re right: Greece is just the tip of that iceberg. China is actually starting to flounder. It almost makes sense to start withdrawing cash to keep at home under the floorboards.
It really is getting around toward time to clean house.