I'm feeling philosophical about presidents

 

We didn’t like it much when Reagan was president.  Tax cuts for the wealthy.  Trickle down.  A rising tide lifts all boats….  Big deficits.

 

I don’t think we noticed much about George Bush, the elder.  Nothing really stands out.

 

We liked it when Bill Clinton was president.  We had budget surpluses for his last four years.  All we had to do is not screw it up.  He couldn’t keep his dick in his pants, but that wasn’t a big deal to us, we had peace and prosperity.  Others couldn’t wait to get rid of him and were thrilled when Bush got elected.  Now we could have someone “responsible” leading our country.  We hated it when “W” got elected.  We didn’t think he was very smart, but hoped he would be smart enough to surround himself with smart people.  I think he did, but that still didn’t work out so well.  He and his big-money cronies kind of wrecked everything.  Wall Street gone wild.  Tax cuts for the wealthy.  Trickle down.  A rising tide lifts all boats….  Oh well, we survived.

 

Obama got elected and we were thrilled again.  He inherited a fiscal disaster, but we thought he could turn it around.  He did get it headed back the right direction, but not all the way back to budget surpluses.  Meanwhile, slogans appeared like “Our country will never be the same again.”  So many people hate Obama, they can’t wait for him to be gone.  Oh well, they survived.

 

Now there is another election.  We think another eight years of progress under a democratic administration will have the economy sorted out again.  We’re concerned a republican will get elected and they’ll have their way with the economy and give it all way to their friends again.  Republicans are afraid another democratic administration will wreck the country even more than the last eight years did.  The election will finally happen.  About half of us will be relieved and the other half will hate it.

 

Oh well.  Either way, we’ll survive and so will all the people who think they won’t.

 

Javelina

 

A family walking right through our camp last week.

 

And those kids.

 

 

They just won’t stop messing around.

 

 

 

Snowy Egret

 

You looking at me?

 

You looking at me??

 

You should be.

 

Thought for the day

 

 

 

The Great Kiskadee

 

 

And the berry.

 

 

Gulp.

 

I think I get it

 

All this drama on the republican side of the race for the nomination.  The party thinks they’ve been hijacked.  They want to say one thing.  Their leading candidate is saying something else.  The candidate is leading at the polls.  The voters love him; the party officials hate him.  The leaders are banding together to stop Trump, but they’re trying to stop someone the voters want.  The voters have turned against their leaders.  The leaders are talking about fielding their own republican candidate as an independent.  How can it all sort out?

 

I see what the problem is.  Early on, the republican leaders encouraged a candidate, who has no business running as a republican, to stay in their party.  They made him promise not to leave to run as an independent, when that’s really who he is.  They did this to themselves because they didn’t want to take a stand and run a more traditional republican candidate against him, with him as an independent.  Now they can’t find a way out without running their own republican candidate as an independent!

 

It’s not Trump being a bad republican; he never was a republican; it’s the republican voters not being good republicans.  A good share of them love Trump.  The republican party is selling something that not all the republican voters are buying.  The republican party is really two parties, trying to look like one, and it’s not working.

 

Wild Kingdom

 

We weren’t prepared to see a bobcat and kitten walk right in front of our motorhome.  We took pictures through the windows and in the fading light.  They crossed to the vacant campsite right across from us.

 

Mom carrying something furry and dead.

 

She tosses it to the kitten.

 

 

The kitten carries the meal off into the bushes out of sight and eats it.

 

Mom waits patiently for the kid to finish,

 

Settles in.

 

 

 

Does a little grooming.

 

Even spots Henry in the windshield.

 

The kitten reappears.

 

And they go on their way.  No hurries.  No worries.