Day: December 15, 2019

Dark Days

Fandango38 Comments

These are dark days in the United States.

I am reminded of it on a daily basis as I read the latest news or watch it on TV.

I wish I had some magic wand. One that I could wave and wash away what has become of our country over the past three years, since Donald Trump ascended to what he certainly perceives to be his throne.

I travel down memory lane to saner times, where political norms weren’t obliterated every day, and where partisanship trumps and patriotism.

I think of that portrait of Barack Obama, the one that says “Yes, We Can” and it’s makes me sad.Obama Yes We CanI wonder how we so quickly became the “No, We Won’t” nation under the “leadership” of Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell.

No matter how things turn out, I will never feel forgiveness for those who have stood idly by, pretending that nothing abnormal or out-of-the-ordinary is happening in America, and who have enabled Trump to do whatever he wants to do.

Okay. Rant over.

For now.

Written for these daily prompts: Word of the Day Challenge (dark), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (daily), Daily Addictions (wash), Ragtag Daily Prompt (memory lane), Your Daily Word Prompt (portrait), and The Daily Spur (forgiveness).

Who Won The Week? 12/15/19

Fandango16 Comments

10CC3057-4EEA-4C80-B8C1-700C0FC6C906It’s time for another Who Won the Week prompt. The idea behind Who Won the Week is for you to select who you think “won” this past week. Your selection can be anyone or anything — politicians, celebrities, athletes, authors, bloggers, your friends or family members, books, movies, TV shows, businesses, organizations, whatever.

I will be posting this prompt on Sunday mornings (my time). If you want to participate, write your own post designating who you think won the week and why you think they deserve your nod. Then link back to this post and tag you post with FWWTW.

My pick for this week is the House Judiciary Committee for voting for two Articles of Impeachment against Donald Trump.

After spending two contentious, marathon days “debating” the merits of the two Articles of Impeachment presented to the House Judiciary Committee from the House Intelligence Committee, each article — one for abuse of power and one for obstruction of Congress — was passed by a 23 to 17 vote. The votes were strictly along party lines and not a single Republican managed to publicly concede that Donald Trump has done anything wrong. Not one Republican voted for either article.

So now the full membership of the House of Representatives will vote this coming week, probably Wednesday or Thursday, on the two articles. And I will be surprised if even one Republican will vote yes for either one.737BA30B-0BE5-411F-B6D7-BBF1DA7DFA46I do believe that the Democrats should be able, given their 36 member majority, to successfully impeach Trump, making him just the third president in U.S. history to have been impeached.

Then, the case will go to the U.S. Senate for a “trial.” The fact is that no president has ever been found guilty and removed from office as a result of a Senate impeachment trial. Unfortunately, the outcome of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is going to keep that statistic intact.

And now it’s your turn, folks. Who (or what) do you think won the week?

Song Lyric Sunday — Hey! Baby

Fandango14 Comments

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, Jim Adams has given us the theme “baby.” I engaged the Wayback Machine to dig up the song “Hey! Baby” from Bruce Channel.

“Hey! Baby” was written around 1959 by Bruce Channel and his friend Margaret Cobb. He performed the song for two years before recording it for Fort Worth record producer Bill Smith in 1961. It was issued originally on Smith’s LeCam label, but as it started to sell well, it was acquired for distribution by Smash Records, a subsidiary of Mercury. Channel’s roots were primarily in country music, but this song broke into the pop music charts and it went to number one in the U.S. in March 1962 and held that position for three weeks.

“Hey! Baby is a simple song about a guy who sees a girl walking down the street and asks her to “be his girl,” but she turns around and walks away, at which points he pleads with her to give him a whirl.

In 1987, “Hey! Baby” was featured in the popular movie Dirty Dancing. By the way, Bruce pronounced his last name, Channel, not like a TV channel, but like the French couturier Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, as in sha-NEL.

Here are the lyrics to Hey! Baby.

Hey, hey baby
I want to know if you’ll be my girl
Hey, hey baby
I want to know if you’ll be my girl

When I saw you walking down the street
I said that’s a kind of girl I’d like to meet
She’s so pretty, Lord, she’s fine
I’m gonna make her mine, all mine

Hey, hey baby
I want to know if you’ll be my girl

When you turned and walked away
That’s when I want to say
“C’mon baby, give me a whirl
I want to know if you’ll be my girl”

Hey, hey baby
I want to know if you’ll be my girl

When you turned and walked away
That’s when I want to say
“C’mon baby, give me a whirl
I want to know if you’ll be my girl”

Hey, hey baby
I want to know if you’ll be my girl
Hey, hey hey hey hey, baby c’mon, baby now

FOWC with Fandango — Daily

Fandango20 Comments

FOWCWelcome to December 15, 2019 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “daily.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

The issue with pingbacks not showing up seems to have been resolved, but you might check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.