Bump's Stump

W e all know that there are serious problems with ou American political system. The federal government and national media have been telling us that we continue to lead the world in just about everything. Unfortunately, we do not. Measuring our status against other nations is difficult as it entails comparison of different attributes and characteristics. Comparisons are, at best, crude.  Surely, if we look, it's clear that America is no longer dominant among the world's communities.  For decades following the 1929 economic depression, America has enriched foreign industries at the expense of our own. We have subsidized foreign military powers while allowing the depletion of our own. We've defended other nations borders while, at the same time, not defended our own. We've spent trillions of dollars to subsidize unworthy governments, and let our own infrastructure to fall into disrepair.  The use of our economic power as a diplomatic tool may have been the correct ...

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-l...

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 ca...

He got elected yesterday. Amazing. His acceptance speech was fairly good but certainly not perfect. It sounded like a playback of his raucous campaign speeches, and it did hit all of the contentious topics that are bothering most Americans. As usual, his arrogance took the edge off nearly every topic as he spoke. He continued to promise aggressive action to cure America's many problems, and to do so immediately.  This impossible rhetoric was gratefully accepted with loud cheers voices and waving flags, but by only half by half of the audience.  Our new president is a tough old bird. Standing right in front of the Presidents of previous administrations he called them all ineffective and wasteful executives who have given away the country in order to enhance their positions, and avoid dismissal. He had no compliments or soft words for the political men and women that have lead America in recent years. He made it crystal clear that many of them have been lazy in office, in effe...

America has barely survived the worst President ever to serve in the office. Yes, Mr. Obama gets the trophy. There is about 60 hours left of his term in office and he is using it to sabotage his successor. This fits perfectly with his lack of character. Yesterday  he released four more terrorists that we were housing in Gitmo, and returned them to the middle east to fight us again. A bitter, petulant and stupid action. This  Mr. Obama is the same guy that commuted the sentences of more convicted criminals and more military prisoners during his eight years in office than any other President in recent memory. Now isn't that just great? Recently he threw out the sentence of the soldier that gave Wikileaks highly classified information that many people thought was responsible for the death of active duty soldiers. He didn't pardon the guy or declare that he was innocent. He just thought the sentence was too harsh. At the time of this traitor's trial most people thought the...

Racial bitterness. I wonder if the black vs white problem will ever be solved? I think Probably bot. It will never be resolved unless both sides can put it's the history behind them and start anew as equal neighbors, but is there always an extremist fringe on both sides that fester and fume and divide. They, on each side, include people that have a some public standing that allows them to  aggravate this sensitive division of races. These racist twiddles continue  deplorable racism in our society. In no particular order the aggravating group includes:  Rev. Jesse Jackson /  Rev. Al Sharpton /  Rev. Jeremiah Wright /  Barack Obama Former President /  Eric Holder Former Atty. General /  Congresswoman Maxine Waters /  Congressman John Lewis /  Danny Glover Actor /  Eddie Murphy Actor All of these people have been active for years trying to convince blacks they are inferior to whites. They have do their best to perpetuate the id...

History is filled with walls made to keep people in or out. Some have worked and others have not. The Israeli Wall helped the Israelis defend themselves, the Berlin Wall provided limited western access to East Germany long enough for them to establish the Russian government there, and so forth. Now America  wants to construct a wall between Mexico and the United  S tates.  The concept is that a physical wall will stop (or at least slow) illegal immigration from Mexico,  Central America, South America and elsewhere. President  Trump and his advisors believe it will succeed, and I agree.  Much of the wall has already been constructed and so far has shown only limited success. America must now complete the border and control legal access to America.  We all need to realize that illegal immigration will continue. We have about 8,000 miles of unprotected borders. The point is that illegal immigration and the overland route for the present flow of il...

Immigrants have become a dangerous problem. They pour into America in such large numbers that we can not absorb them without damaging the fabric of American society. Perhaps our government should decide what percentage of people can be absorbed annually without serious impact on our existing population..  If our population is about 300,000,000 and  we limit immigration to 2% (for example),  then the total number of immigrants allowed would be 6,000,000.  If we then allow only 2% of another country's population to immigrate to America, and then only until our yearly 6,000,000 quota is established. 1. We must not prohibit immigrants from coming, but we must establish a yearly limit. 2. We must investigate their record in the country they are from, and/or were born. 3. We must turn away all who may be considered a possible danger to others. 4. We must challenge anyone who appears questionable in any way. 5. The first (temporary) permit should expir...

Watched the Golden Globe Awards show last night. As usual, it was not a very good presentation. The host was his normal blah self and was largely ignored. The actual show itself was almost average - except when it strayed into political opinion. The Golden Globes, is not the place for anyone to use the microphone to advance or even mention politics. This production was filled with liberal political garbage. Should we not expect the audience, participants, and award winners to be happy and grateful, to thank those that helped them achieve their celebrity?  But a few award winners this year chose to be stupid.   The actors and actresses that were out of line were all, everyone of them, ultra-liberal Democratic Party members who are unhappy with the outcome of the recent presidential election. They truly believe the are superior and more politically knowledgeable than half of their fans and followers. They actually consider their celebrity has bestowed brillia...

After no more than two seconds of deliberation I voted for Donald Trump. Well, actually I voted against Hillary. She has proved over and over that her decisions have been wrong. She is a living example of political corruption and  and as far as I'm concerned she is a proven criminal is and disqualified for any sort of public office. Of course, Donald Trump was a gamble. An important gamble. There was no other choice. Like a number of Americans I have been on the sidelines for years as the Democratic Party pushed their left wing progressive ideas. They kept telling everyone that they knew the best way to run a government. Their ideas have generally asked the government to provide more of everything. In order to do so they keep adding to the government employment rolls and increasing the national debt. I'm not talking about wars and the military, but looking at most everything else. America came of age during World War Two. Following that awful conflict we became t...

A list of Twitters never sent. Short comments on whatever floats by, and as worthless as most of todays news. Todays news? Blood and guts, political, historical and economic facts all rendered progressive or conservative by unbiased reporters. Unbiased? Sure it is. But It's not only the media that has become unhinged, the elites of society have decided historical thoughts and ageless traditions are holding us back - and must be changed immediately. So say the empty headed scholars.   The universe arrived and nobody knows why or when. Can we agree on that? Our logic says it must have started. The curious person asks why? At some point man decided God did it - and you may use what ever name you chose for a supernatural supreme deity. From that conjecture we all evolved, and if we follow that concept everything that has transpired since is the result of man's ability to think, reason, pollute and destroy.  To turn this negative around we must create the scientific abilit...

A revolution is coming. The world's disadvantaged populations, are turning their anger towards lawful authority. All of us must pay attention. The causes are certainly more than discrimination, racial differences, and poverty. It  just isn't that simple. The most obvious basic cause is the gap (economic difference) between rich and poor. There is also a religious component of great importance - but is just that. A relatively small but important component. Christianity is increasingly a "tough sell" and  it's population of believers is shrinking.  Islam is a bit younger and is the victim of an internal schism between Sunni and Shite, and between peaceful expansion and militant aggression. Together, Christians and Muslims are discontented around the world. That's a bit harsh, but each has failed to relieve impoverishment and to bring peace and harmony to their adherents.  It is becoming apparent that the philosophic concept of spirituality is steadil...

Be forewarned.  My modest knowledge of history is on the surface only.   I've no real depth of scholarship. What follows is a simple set of recollections. I was very young when F.D.R. was President and the European war was gearing up. The industrial revolution was in full swing, and the war in Europe was threatening.  Sometime, perhaps it was about then, the American work force started to move faster to the cities to take factory jobs.  Rural America was fading while industrial America was waking up. IMMIGRATION In the early 19th century Europe, particularly England, was enduring hard times. The King's laws and onerous taxation was bitterly opposed. Work was hard to find. Money and food was scarce. Moving to another land offered a chance to escape and America seemed to offer the most opportunity. At the same time there was a strong movement of people in search of religious freedom. The Catholic and Protestant split probably started the movement, but ...

I'm a very slow reader. When a blustering Trump first hit the political road I thought he was some kind of joke with his ridiculous red hair mop and a Jersey boy gutter speech pattern. During  the following weeks he firmly, and not very politely, proceeded to accuse the establishment of gross corruption and dereliction of duty. He put his clumsy and angry voice to all of the national problems he could think of.  He focused on very progressive liberal Democrats whose actions have led us to the mess we find ourselves in. So sayeth Mr. Trump.   He went on to establish his (Starwars) ambitious  plan to:   1. To take back the White House from the      Obama/Hillary types 2.  To shake up and remove the corrupt politicians from the establishment 3.  Return America to invincible stature among the worlds nations. 4.  Bring back monetary support of our enemies. (Egypt, for example?) 5.  Withdraw our military protection of nations...