Bump's Stump

I've a grandson that has been exposed to political liberalism a ll his life. In it's modern version the words "left wing" means the liberal side of politics, and "right wing" describes the more conservative side. In our two party system each term may be used to describe a member of either party. Believe it or not, there are a few conservative Democrats. Today, the Democratic Party has become  overwhelmingly "liberal" and the Republican Party more conservative.  A t times it has been difficult to find enough reasonable cooperation between parties and that is, unfortunately, how it is today.  With President Trump now in the saddle, the Democratic Party has refused any level of cooperation -  and our government has slowed to a walk. The simple explanation is probably the correct one. The hard left wing, usually members of the Democratic Party, allows no other point of view. They each consider moderate and conservative opposing ideas to have n

A disheartening situation has hit our family. A cousin, one that we don't know very well, has reached 93 years of age. Most of the Chapman family made it to the mid 80's, but Mary Lou Chapman has managed a few years more. And, she's not gone yet. Mary was unmarried her entire life. She grew up in a good home, was well educated, has always hd a good job, and has enjoyed pretty good health - until just a few years ago. While she is still very much alive, I sometimes speak in the past tense as if she had already died. Mary is either confused or in her own little world now. She began losing some of her sparkle a few years ago. At first it was mild memory loss, and then mild hearing loss, and then drifting in her speech as she lost track of what she wanted to say. Her Doctor said it was a mild dementia coming on with old age, and nothing to worry about yet. A few month's passed by before she began to have problems driving herself to the market and appointments and so forth,

The speed of progress is astounding.  Watching television a few days ago I listened to Mark Cuban talk about subjects that I know little about. It was fascinating. He started with cars. Automatic cars. Driverless cars. Cars that think for themselves. All of which ended with a conversation about "artificial intelligence". Frankly, some of the discussion went right over my head.  He began talking about the growth of computer knowledge and abilities that will result in the power to exponentially grow. Ultimately the amount of knowledge will exceed that of human beings. At that point "artificial intelligence" will control human beings.  Mr. Cuban stopped there and asked "when this happens in the future, and it will, where will human beings fit in the composition of the universe".   Several brilliant minds have been working on the answer but no consensus exists - except one. The transition from the dominance of human beings on earth will end will be

I'm eighty years old. Several Presidents have come and gone. Some good. Some not so good.come and go. A few were excellent executives and a few were not.  Now, out of the blue, comes Donald Trump. The Democrats cheer and the Republicans go back ask themselves 'what just happened'?  The Democrats watch their candidate turn to dust. Dishonesty and corruption laid her to rest. Bye bye Hillary. America has endured eight long years of the radical, liberal and  progressive politicians. Our sleepy nation finally agreed that they were attempting to destroy America. Our character, traditions, Constitutional government and international stature were sliding faster and faster toward big government socialism. The foundation of our freedoms that we worked so hard to establish were being undermined before our eyes.  Our recent President Obama gave us eight years of faulty direction. He trashed the government with misguided appointments that steered America onto the ultra-liberal

A group of guys, some wealthy, some smart, and some that were neither, dreamed of a government  elected by the citizens it governed, and then refreshed periodically with term limits and newly elected representatives. To protect the new government from its self they divided it into three parts; the executive branch (President), the congress (Senate and House of Representatives), and the judicial (Supreme Court). Each of these divisions was to oversee the other two and was empowered to override. The guys made a few mistakes which were corrected as the government grew larger but there have been, in 235+ years, remarkably few corrections. The original government structure was distilled from previous governments and strongly linked to ancient philosophers, the Judaeo-Christian religion and ethical and moral teachings, and the factual  experiences of history. This foundation was negatively influenced by the oppressive demands of the rulers of the countries the guys came from. The primar