Jeb Bush may have just cashed his check

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Ed.

Ex-Governor Jeb Bush has become so unpopular with conservatives that he is no longer considered a viable 2016 Presidential candidate. Marco Rubio is pulling far ahead of his former mentor and seems to be the front runner for 2016.

At the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington, D.C. this morning, Mr. Bush urged social conservatives in the audience to support comprehensive immigration reform because, “Immigrants are more fertile, and they love families, and they have more intact families, and they bring a younger population.” Without immigrants, he said, the country’s population will decline and the economy will suffer.“Immigrants create far more businesses than native-born Americans,” Bush told the gathering.  "Immigrants create an engine of economic prosperity.”

The comments immediately rocketed throughout the web, drawing massive blowback fire from  Republican leaders. 

As Alex Seitz-Wald wrote in Salon this afternoon,  "If you're already inclined to distrust Bush, and you’re already worried about immigrants taking over the country and displacing the native native-born Americans, then Bush is basically confirming all your worst fears by telling you that he thinks immigrants are better than you: They’re better at business, they’re better a having families, they’re more valuable to the economy — they’re even younger."

The most baffling part of all this is why a fairly astute politician like Jeb Bush thought this would fly.  He was already being relentlessly hammered on several fronts for his stand on immigration reform.  It will be interesting to see how, and if, he can dig himself out of this new hole.

---o0o---

Poem: One of those days

By Jack Brummet

It was one of those days
Where the darkside Jiminy Cricket

Kept landing on my shoulders
To whisper redrum redrum...

You don't have to take that.
It was one of those days

Where my smile felt like a rictus
and I lied every time someone asked

How are you?
It was one of those days

I'd rather have skipped
But I trudged on

Dragging my wooden leg
Behind me.

It was one of those days
Where I wouldn't have been shocked

To have a Buddhist tell me
Don't get mad; get even.
         ---o0o---

Giddyup: Lion Riding

circa 1930 - click to enlarge

---o0o---

Poem: The Quest

By Jack Brummet

It’s all one story—
A ragged shape-shifting tale
Of incredible coherence and constance,
Encompassing all you know,
All you don’t know you know,
And all you one day will know.

There is more
To be seen, tasted, heard, and felt
Than can ever be known or told.

Our myths flourish and spread,
Person to person,
And the mysteries of the seas and skies and stars
Fill our collective conscience
With mystical scenes,
Quests, and tales of greatness.

These myths, tales, and fables
Cannot be invented, ordered, or denied.

When you strip away the stage flats, makeup, and costumes,
It’s all one story
Starring our private heroes and dreams.
                     ---o0o--- 

Poem: [The trouble begins]

By Jack Brummet

The trouble begins,
and usually ends,

When you make an unplanned transition
From an initial flying state

To a subsequent not flying state.
Falling per se is OK.

The hitch comes the moment
Falling becomes not falling,

Or, what the pros call
The uncontrolled landing problem.
      ---o0o---

Louis Armstrong serenades the pyramids

By Jack Brummet, Music Ed.

In 1961, Louis Armstrong was on a State Dept. tour of the middle east.  He and his wife Lucille stopped by the pyramids, and he broke out his horn, for a "photo op" no doubt. . .nonetheless, a great photo.

---o0o---

A sweet photo of Leo Tolstoy with his grand kids (1909)

By Jack Brummet, ATIT head image archivist 

The site on which I originally found this photo had a caption about Tolstoy telling the kids a story.  In the course of clearing the photo (for copyright issues), I discovered it's a public domain image from TinEye, Wikipedia Commons, and other sources.  The photographer is unknown.

---o0o---

Alien Lore No. 250 - The big reveal: former Canadian Minister of Defense acknowledges alien presence on earth

By Jack Brummet, Alien Lore Ed.

A conference took place last month, convened with the hope and intention of calling for change on current governmental disclosure policy to the public.  Paul Hellyer, former Minister of Defense of Canada revealed at The Citizen Hearing on Disclosure that:

• ET Species have visited and still visit Earth: (Zeta Reticuli, Pleiadians, Orions), or, in short, The Greys

• Tall Whites (a species of Greys) are living on US Airforce Property

• A Cabal existed consisting of the Military Industrial Complex, Builderbergs, and various Cartels

• There were shadow governments controlling much of this information--the ruling elite, Rockerfellers, President George H.W. Bush, and others. I don't know if they mentioned the Trilateral Commission, but they did name the Rockefellers, a name usually associated with that possibly mythical organization.

   

The hearing committee panel was not some conglomeration of Wackos and UFOlogists, but included   Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (Rep., MD); Congressmen Merrill Cook (Rep., UT); Congresswoman Darlene Hooley (Dem., OR); Senator Mike Gravel (Dem/Lib., AK); Congresswoman Carolyn Kilpatrick (Dem., MI); and Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (Dem., CA).

Among the 30+ people who presented eyewitness testimony, documentation and expertise were respected scientists as well as UFOlogists: Dr. Edgar Mitchell (NASA, Capt. USN, Ret.); Nick Pope (Former Ministry of Defense, UK); Dr. Sun Shili (People's Republic of China); Oscar Santa-Maria (Col. Ret., Peru); Dr. Steven Greer; Daniel Sheehan JD; Linda Moulton Howe; Capt. Robert Salas (USAF, Ret.); and the notorious Stanton Friedman (Canada).
 Paul Hellyer, the former Minister of Defense of Canada is the first cabinet member of a major G8 country to state publicly he believed and had seen proof of alien visitations to earth.

---o0o---

One hero sings about another: Waylon Jennings' song "Bob Wills Is Still The King."

By Jack Brummet, CW Ed.

Waylon Jennings' tribute to the Kings of Western Swing, Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys.   Interestingly, the Rolling Stones covered this song a few years ago...and did a bang-up job. He is beloved in Texas, and the other 49 states.   I saw Asleep At The Wheel perform a Bob Wills tribute show--at a beautiful auditorium at the University of Texas when I was in Austin a few years ago. It was heartbreakingly good, and so is this...one hero singing about another hero.

---o0o---

LBJ shows his gall bladder surgery scars at an impromptu press conference

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Ed.

In 1965, LBJ was released from the hospital after gall bladder and kidney stone surgery.  LBJ being LBJ, he stopped for the press, and instead of answering questions, pulled his shirt up and gave one of the strangest presidential photo ops of all time.  I can almost hear him narrating this...

---o0o---

Poem: Takebacks

By Jack Brummet

1
You can withdraw it
Marginalize it
Forget it

Hide it
Lie about it
And deny it three times before the cock crows.

2
You can snigger about it
Weep about it
Shout about it

Hide it under a bush (oh no)
Sing the blues about it
And  sweep it under the rug.

3
You can get an ulcer over it
Jump off the Aurora Bridge over it
Lose your family over it

Lose your shorts or mind over it
And pretend

It never happened.

4
You can dream about it
Run away from it
Rationalize it

Psychoanalyze it
And drink it away
But you can't take back love.
---o0o--- 

Down in the Dumps by Mark Roberts a/k/a Markrobla

Down in the Dumps is a public art series by UK-based artist Mark Roberts, aka Markrobla, that features figurative sculptures that look like people stuck in trash cans. Appearing to have dived head first into the public waste bins, the disembodied pair of legs lifelessly dangle in an awkward position leaving one to wonder whether a person has actually wedged themselves…

---o0o---