If I Could
If I could find the quiet word
Never thought or even heard
If I could live with spirit lifted
So all felt loved and gifted
If I could be a source of happy joy
And never, give cause to annoy
If I could find the rhythm and rhyme
I would sing it out loud all the time
If I only could …. I certainly would…
Irony and Fate
Irony is a bitch, with little thought
While Fate a future carefully brought
As Irony cackles in our head
Reminding us of what we once said
Fate whispers of a future time
A future fair, and of synoptic rhyme
For Fate is a lady of balance and grace
While Irony is wild with smirking face
Fate has a twin that may intertwine
Thus finding company as they align
While Irony remains lonely, bitter and cold
As it seems, from stories that’ve been told
Many poles have indicated that Americans believe that Trump is better for the Economy than Biden. This is largely due to the continued extraordinary claims Trump has made about the success of his economy pre-COVID, and the recovery underway. In fact, he claims to have “built the best economy ever”. These claims may be persuasive for some, but are not factual. His first three years (pre-COVID) indicate a growth rate of 2.5%. This is middle of the pack in historical performance. However, the real question in front of us at this time, with an election just a month away, is whose policies would be better for the US economy in the coming years?
A highly respected and independent source of economic analysis and modeling is Moody Analytics. They have carefully modeled four scenarios:
The results show that a Biden win with Democratic Congress is the best case scenario for the US economy, and the worst case scenario is a Trump win with Republican Congress. The full article can be found via this link, it is definitely worth the read. https://www.moodysanalytics.com/-/media/article/2020/the-macroeconomic-consequences-trump-vs-biden.pdf
The summary economic results can be found in these two charts extracted from the article:
My takeaways from this article include the following:
I hope this is useful as you consider the facts and policy differences of the two candidates for President.
The Bear
He’s looking around, slinking
Always hungry, always thinking
Of a way in, and what he’ll find
For our house is big, but our mind
Is lazy and our attention to the locks
And alarms are as miss-matched socks
So varied and so many ways into our life
He tells another story, a way to cause us strife
Undermining our faith and belief, of what we know
So that in our house, in our minds it starts to snow
And it is we who hibernate, we who give in
To a stinking ugly bear living with us again
As we slumber and dream of past images of glory
While believing in a wretched, bear-given story
We are now as weak as goldilocks, quietly asleep
In what has become his house,
…. for we gave in, without a fight, without a peep
The following website link shows fall coverage prediction across the USA, with a sliding calendar… Mr. Mike Fessler sent this to me, and I think it is pretty cool.
The Contest
Sports beautifully have winners and losers
Complete with joy of winning and sorrow of loss
Borne by the efforts and passions of competitors
Living within the bounds and rules of the game
We who play, those who coach, and spectate
All know that there is no perpetual winner
And we root for the underdog to perform
As if to rise, as Phoenix from ashes of defeat
We cheer performance, but are moved by feats
Of sportsmanship, that show the humanity
Of this game of life, and camaraderie of contestants
And we boo the ones who cheat us of this experience,
We despise and ban the ones that bring hate
And violence that represents the worst of us
Because we don’t want to see, this worst of us in us.
Sports shaped our psyche as Nation
It is how we first defeated the notion of Nazi
Superiority, and replaced it with American
Determination in 1936, giving us a lesson
In resolve, in how to win…. we love these stories.
We love who we were then and can be today.
We carry that notion of fairness into our contests
Of a political nature, and we know ideas matter
We know discourse is necessary, we cannot be
Divided, though they may try.
We can not be cheated of fairness
We are all playing in a game with rules we agreed
So very many years ago.
We are protecting the democratic principles
We are supporting each other because we
Know that we need each other.
Without players there is no grand contest,
Without compassion there is no democracy.
We must seek understanding and empathy
As we are part of the greatest sport ever.
When it is over, let us congratulate and shake each others hands!
This is One Way Mister
I’m only going one way
I cannot go back I say
Until I go forward or around
If that is a way to be found
In a world of happiness and dreams
In life’s complicated streams
Can you believe in tomorrow’s ever
Changing possibilities or maybe never
It seems too outrageous to hope for,
Yet in its time it will knock on our door
As tomorrows always and sometimes seem never do
But this tomorrow means hope for me and you
If ill gotten reason left us today
Leaving us only one more way
To open this door to tomorrow
To embrace an enlightened morrow
I’ve just published a short book in time for the last two months of campaign season. Much thanks to my brother Dave, who helped with final edits.
Thunder and Rain
The thunder and rain this morning
Play a symphony of sound,
Bringing life-force water to earth,
Fostering growth of trees,
Grass and flowers for the sake of
Beauty of the land for just us
And too, for the bees that coexist
In a dance of fertilization and honey
It is a beautiful world in all its seasons,
In all its climes and all its glory!
Labor Day 2020
Union Job
I was just a kid really,
But a union job was big-time,
You had to know someone.
I didn’t realize that at the time,
The environment was frightening,
But the money was good.
They show you the ropes in a moment
Where to punch in, what happens if you don’t
That is, punch-in or out.
They show you the break area
Picnic tables on concrete with a few vending machines
God-awful coffee, that I learned to drink to stay up the first night.
They show you the bathrooms
I still have nightmares
Having to go, and there are no non-filthy ones available.
Dude I started with got the paint line
Sounded scarier than what I got.
I worked the warehouse, loading trucks
With aluminum siding of all types
In long boxes picked from cavernous warehouse.
Put on long carts, pulled by way too fast fork lifts
Driven by crazy people that feared nothing.
The carts were backed into tractor-trailers
We unloaded as fast as we could, never fast enough.
The eye loops for the hooks on the trailers
Bruised our shins, the old guys had disfigured legs
The young guys limped until they became more nimble.
Hands dried out from the cardboard and cracked.
The dust and dark and dingy trucks had woad flooring.
They had holes sometimes. but we filled them with boxes anyway.
Lunch was a half-hour, they had it timed, perfect
Two beers and a ground-round from local bar.
Pre-ordered and consumed in heartburn inducing rapidity.
We worked the night-shift – usually about 14 to 16 hours.
Overtime pay was what everyone wanted.
I’d team up with Jimmy sometimes, he was 4 years older than me
That made him an old-man… he sang in a band on weekends.
We would sing together while picking in the warehouse
House of the rising sun… seemed oddly applicable.
I learned to smoke cheap cigars, because that’s what everyone did
Cigars or cigarettes .. but when you are loading, cigarettes slowed you down… Cigars burned the inside of your bicep when you were lifting boxes over your head.
Monster of a guy was second in state arm-wrestling.
Naturally I challenged him, my knuckles were bruised hitting the picnic table top… didn’t do that again.
You get along, or they get you out.
Two fights and you’re fired.
First fight gets you a week off without pay.
To get rid of someone, even these guys thought was dangerous
Two people picked fights with him over a few week period…
We all pitched in to pay for the week off with pay for each pugilist
I feared being asked to fight someone… I was happy to pay my share.
It was a world and a community all its own.
The pay was good, but they went on strike anyway.
The factory moved away, and I went to school and found other summer jobs… yearning for an education and a future.