NO ACES UP MY SLEEVE

(A SHORT-SHORT STORY)

The day I was born Lady Luck adorned me with a life of notoriety. I was an instant celebrity. Why my fame? I inherited the name of a man who laid claim to a fortune founded by his father's father's father in the California Gold Rush Days playing hocus-pocus poker with, I do believe, four aces up his sleeve.

That's how the family fortune started and each generation, through crooked manipulation , kept the money flowing, knowing how to cheat and steal and wheel and deal but do it all quite legally. It all came down to me to continue the legacy of the founders of the dynasty, based on the theory that thievery is the only way to play the game and gain the fame.

To this day it's a mystery of high finance history how it all began. My family owns a chunk of every industry that controls the world's economy. I do believe my granddads all had aces up their sleeves.

In spite of my descendants my friends are kings and presidents, movers and shakers, fakers and takers who dictate how and why a million people die and wars are fought and won and lost and how much oil will cost and they manipulate the rates and dine on fine wine and eat out of solid gold plates while non-white nations live on starvation rations, where babies die of dysentery and old folks have no hopes and dreams all because the laws are such that some have too much and some have not enough. They all die alone with nothing they could call their own.

I want to atone for all the sins my forefathers wrought and spend what little time I've got to help the have-nots share the pot with such as I whose world is based on chicanery and trickery of the enslaved majority.

I once sold my soul for a pot of gold. But now that I grow old I grieve for the dispossessed and all the rest who have to live a life that's second best. I pray that they believe I no longer have aces up my sleeve.

MANY WARS WE'LL NEVER WIN

Iraq and Afghanistan. Endless wars proceeding, succeeding according to plan---theirs. not ours. Bush's no-plan plan since the wars began was a sham. Win the enemy will. The more they kill, the higher the bill we'll pay from now till judgment day.

Factor in our dead GIs, our economy, color it red. The rights we've lost, the misery that meets each dawn, the incompetent, stupidity of GWB and Company, the deficits of death go on and on.

There are other wars that affect the lives of those involved in the war on poverty. if you're financially secure you can feel for the poor but don't have to endure their endless insolvency.

The war on drugs tugs at the purse strings and heart of all. That and the war on crime plagues us all the time. We fight pornography because it threatens morality and our humanity.

Our war on disease affects all families. Our goal: a pain free population. Will we win? Probably not. As fast as science finds a cure for this and that, another fatal disease tips its hat.

These battles we face have no place in our society. We're hardly beginning to see the light as we fight these blights upon civilization.

DAY AFTER DAY AFTER DAY IRAQ LIVES ARE BLOWN AWAY

How can a nation survive hundreds slain day by day and thousands alive wracked in pain who will bear the scars of this insane wars until they die? How can their loved-ones dry tearfilled eyes, endure in an insecure hell on earth? How little can life be worth? God knows why! Does He REALLY know or is that cliche just a bald faced lie?

The tragic statistics are unrealistic but real. How can Iraq deal with the dead piled high waiting to rest in a blood drenched land of shifting sand while the men who lit the fuse refuse to choose the only way out? To them, victory is sweet; to admit defeat, to put it mildly, would be indiscrete.

'We must," said Bush, "stay the course even if things get worse." Instead, he should have said:, "I led the way into a war where thousands died because I lied. I tried to turn a dictatorship into a democracy. I failed miserably."

Yet this incompetent president still serves and has the nerve to prolong the dying while trying to increase his rating in the polls. And he'll pull all the dirty tricks of politics to achieve his unbelievable goals.

How many more souls must die, GWB, before you agree to call it quits?

SHOULD I BELIEVE IN GHOSTS AND ANGELS?

It has been said angels are a fabrication, borne of God's imagination, a creation like no other Godly manifestations. Let me explain: they were never once live humans who died and decided to rise to a higher plane. Some believe souls go to the land of Angeldom. Some come to another conclusion, But let's end all thIs confusion. God says Angels are not of the sod but fashioned by the power of the golden rod which only works, you understand, when held in His holy hand

So if God insists Angels exist because the rod held in His fist grants Him the power to create; who am I to negate that claim to the Creator's fame? The fact that most Angels do good should settle the score forever more.

But how about Ghosts? God said and I quote: "Ghosts, good or bad, once had bodies, bones and blood they left behind to enter the After Life. They drift around confounding such as we with tricks of ghostly magicry and play their ghostly games much the same as when they were alive.

Except, as spooks, they walk through walls, nature never calls and whether males have balls or participate in late night sex beneath the sheets with their sweets is a matter too complex. No doubt, in the next life we'll find out. But for now, let ghosts boast of their love affairs, whether they wear underwear, and choose to use condoms when seeking spiritual satisfaction.

Most ghosts just want to haunt and go boo-boo to frighten those who don't believe they can do what they do. Good ghosts were good people most of their pre-death days. Those bad in life are just as bad as they had been when they were skin and bones except their moans are more severe. They spread their fear, then disappear.

Those who were good remain the same, but play a different ghostly game.
They protect those who least expect their assistance or recognize their existence in this world of reality where a logical mentality rejects spirituality.

The next time you play host to a friendly ghost or a guardian angel, welcome them as friends you'll meet again when your life on this incarnation finally ends, Of course that all depends on where you go. You'll never know until you get somewhere out there.

BORN OF INNOCENCE. AND THEN?

Infants are born with brand new, innocent eyes that open wide to each surprise that comes into their young, still unsung lives. Their first awareness is of ma and pa and all who come to ooh and ah in their face and embrace them lovingly in this world that welcomes them to be members of the family.

They find peace, security and purity in this place called "home." They start life with a cry and soon learn by shedding tears and filling ears with the sound of their newfound voice that they can get on demand anything that is their choice.

They don't understand why mothers comply so quickly to their cry. But mothers know best. She presses them to her breast, They instinctively reach for the warm, fluid and coo and suck so lucky to have this source of food and drink. They intuitively know this is a gift of love that will grow and grow. In time they'll learn to crawl and stand and walk and talk just like big people do, They'll lean how to express their love for you.

But as life goes on it will slowly dawn on their new awareness that many of their peers could care less about what benefits others in a grown up "Me and Mine Society." WE will cease to be a priority. Nothing will again be free. Mother's breast will no longer supply the peace that money cannot buy. Only gold that's bought and sold, stocks and bonds and willing blondes and women of varied shades of skin and hair. will sell their soul on a roll of the dice or a price that's right on a drunken night.

What has happened to our youth when truth, honesty and integrity were hallmarks of reality and democracy had not succumbed to a hip hypocrisy? When family love could not be bought? When what was what meant allot?

Some had patriotic pride, defied the rest and tried their best but the failed prevailed and----well, you know the rest.

GOOD DEAL ON THE DOLE

Bad or good news, depression or recessioin, win or lose, you'll swill free booze, have extra sex if you choose, you don't have to buy it, just keep it on the quiet when you try it. If it leaks, just deny it. You're in luck. The big bucks flow in. Dough in the bank, Thank you, Mister Treasure. Working for you is quite a pleasure.

You're on the dole and in control. Your job's secure . You'll endure for four years or more as a partner in the company store. What they pay is chickenfeed, but it opens the door to the place you really want to be, where you can feed your need for gold and greed.

Where can you find all this largesse? Yes! Yes! Yes! I thought you'd guess, As a member of the U, S, Congress! God bless! A job that's heaven sent. Perfect for the incompetent. Ideal for the heel with sex appeal, the phony, full of baloney, denier with pants on fire, the guy (or gal) who will fail, but prevail until they kick out the lout or slap him/her in a luxury country club sort of jail.

Integrity for sale for ex-Democrats and the GOP! This is what we call democracy! Three cheers for hypocrisy.

MORE TAX DOLLARS DOWN THE DRAIN?

I do not understand how we can even plan a multimillion dollar gift to Pakistan, a land where Queda and Taliban, on the border of Afghanistan, are determined to destroy democracy . It would be like throwing tax dollars in a garbage can.

This is a place which faces threats from Islamic hordes, where crime and greed supersede law and order, where politicos and tribal chiefs support enemies of democracies.

With all the taxes that it takes to try to make Iraq like the U.S.A., the waste misplaced on foreign soil to placate the Lord God Oil, the bribes we give to win hostile tribes to our side, the aid we've paid that made friends only while the dough kept growing and flowing into seas of graft and greed, after it got lost with no account to amounts of this and that. while crooks cooked the books, grew rich and fat. How how can we even think of doing a thing like that?

When will we realize money buys friends and loyalty only as long as we pay the biggest price to make them make nice? Will our enemies become our friends? It all depends on how often the loans are made and there's no demand they be repaid. Until a "loan" becomes a loan and we alone are not the only loaner. Until the spenders pay us back, let them see red while we get back in the black.

ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A CRIME...

We were once a nation not feared, but respected and revered. We stood proud and tall, more blessed than all, the champion of the West. We were a land of peace and brotherhood, where dreams could come true. Its colors---Red, White and Blue---were the answer to a prayer. It was the good old U. S, A.

But then there occurred an absurd, unheard of crime and the land of our forefathers was no more. The person guilty of deed, need I remind? GEORGE WALKER BUSH. The non-elected, shamelessly selected criminally protected incompetent president.of the home of the rock-bed of democracy.

Since his first inauguration as leader of this troubled nation, accused but never prosecuted, he became the undisputed head of a gang that sang "My County tis of thee" while plotting to steal its liberty. And with complicity of like-minded men they have all but wiped out our Bill of Rights, disobeyed the Constitution, trashed traditional institutions dedicated to the sanctity of these United States.

Fortunately, the world can again learn to respect our land as the caretaker of democracy, the symbol of a nation free of tyranny, if we replace those who disgraced the U. S. A.

We all must share the blame and shame for the death of more than three thousand GIs and all those wounded and maimed whose lives will never be the same. And by facing hard reality and practicing painful frugality we can regain our solvency, dissipated by a war initiated by GWB with the quiescent acceptance of we, the constituency. If the U, S, A . can go back to the way it used to be, it will again be the bedrock of democracy.

THE DEVIL WILL EVEN UP DUBYA'S SCORE

I can't believe I've reached eighty-four and with each tick-tock of the clock I'll be one second more. Each twenty-four hours make one day less I have to second guess the poops in power. They're turning this once OK bouquet into a wilting flower. It will bleed Earth of all its worth and leave it behind with all the crap that GOP sap has in mind as he turns this space, once First Place, into a SHILE OF PIT for demons to devour,

The Grim Reaper's never late so each minute I'm still here may be my last before I exit. I'd best get going, even knowing what I try ain't gonna a help a bit to convince this Twit who's responsible for it to admit he done did it and deserves the credit, every bit of it.

Dumbdubya thought he was smart to start the war that upset Iraq's applecart which will end not with a sigh but with a FWHIMPER and a WART. Even though he's lost it, because he caused it and it cost a lotta dead GIs and billions of bucks, that that schmuck stuck UCKFUP, born again idiot SHEECE OF PIT must pay for it. Need I say more? When the devil comes knocking at Dubya's door he sure as hell will even up the score.

DEDICATION TO A PERFECT DAY AT STONE RIDGE, NEW YORK

When the sky is blue and the clouds are few and the sun is bright, but not too hot, I meditate on what I've got and what I'd
give to live each waking day in this serene carefree way.

I marvel at the towering trees, feel at ease in a gentle breeze, give thanks for the birds and honey bees that sting a bit but bring a bit of sweetness to a land thyrice blessed that is home to my family that means so very much to me.

WILL WE KILL THE GOLDEN GOOSE OF MEDICARE?

Could Medicare some day be just a fading memory, an experiment of good intent thats spent it's last cent trying to reinvent itself? Will it succumb to MD greed and don't give a damn mismanagement? It will kill itself unless it pays doctors less and moves to make them prove they seek pay for only what they do and do not set out to screw the system systematically.

As a senior citizen who honestly claims aches and pains and strains to understand the bills that fill my daily mail, I fear I fail to recall all the treatments they claim they did on such and such a date after making me wait an hour or more for the minute or two they take to write the prescript and ship me off to the pharmacist.

That "in depth consultation," thorough examination, detailed explanation of what ails me, I fail to see, justifies the fee for time and expertise the MD submits to Medicare and the BS to Blue Cross. I'm at a loss how much he's reimbursed for what is actually done by a first year student nurse.

This scene's repeated daily everywhere where there's assurance Medicare and private insurance will pay without trying to justify the lie perpetrated by the guy who has a degree in medical chicanery. With the padded bills and the kickbacks.from pharmaceuticals for Rx's for expensive medications, no wonder the MD can afford those pricey vacations,

With dread and fear docs knocked Medicare, Medicaid and private plans that made them rich---$50 to treat an itch. A hundred bucks, check or cash, to smear stuff on a rash. A symptom here, a pimple there, cat scan that man, why not? It's covered by his plan. A tiny pill. The price will make the patient ill when he sees the bill. No sweat. He'll get better quick when co-pay pays him back for being sick.

DUBYA; DOWN, NOT YET OUT, STILL HAS CLOUT

It's been written and is no doubt true, a lame duck president on his way out still has a lot of clout and can persuade Congress to string along with his proposals, right or wrong.

He can be the most incompetent, ignorant president, but as long as he's in command and demands support for his obsessed insanity the party loyal will obey. He's still Boss. Any loss he suffers can redound on the electability and ability of the constituency to regain power lost to the adversary. Some choose to defend the loser out of blind loyalty or while they're in a state of denial.

In addition to damage Dubya might maneuver as the reincarnation of Herbert Hoover, what he accomplished in the past will last long after he's gone. This failing, still prevailing president, has stepped on toes or stuck his nose in places others ranked as sacrosanct. He's managed surreptitiously to rob, bit by bit, what's left of our democracy. Good or bad, once law's are passed, sad but true, repealing them is hard to do.

Do you understand how things stand? Once you elect a president bent on doing what's right, he's got an uphill fight to undo what the previous regime managed to ram through. Give him your support. Let him have his day in court. He'll have a helluva job to do. He'll need your to help him see it through.

THE LIBBY RAP AND ALL THAT CONSTITUTIONAL CRAP

Libby beat the rap so wrap him up in the Constitution with all the other Dubya crap and toss him in the republiCAN garbage of this stinkin' administration that has a reputation for trashing history and recycling democracy into hypocrisy.

Remember WHATergate when Nixon saved himself from a conviction for mixin' crime and politics by quitin' when it got too hot in the White House kitchen? He swore on prime time he did no crime and was no crook. By denying that he let the whole world know though they couldn't prove he was a crook, he was a first class SCHNOOK.
That, in my book, is even worse,

The Nixon Big Dick got out real quick when the plot got thick and the fear he might be called to testify he wasn't the guy who lied to save his hide made him want to go and hide. So he faced disgrace and left the place where shame is just part of the political game.

Now impeach reaches out for DC and GWB, serial killers of three thousand-plus GIs and maiming of many, many more gals and guys who gave up eyes and limbs and other parts to cater to the whims of these two not so smarts who didn't have the guts to risk their butts to do their bit in that Shoreaan kit.

It's predicted if one or both are convicted, Bush while out on bail awaiting jail, will do a Libby deal. And as others, part of this misadministration, face a long vacation in a federal pen Bush will come to their rescue time and again.

Remember when Dubya said he had political capital to spend? Bet he saved it for the bitter end to save his end and the rears of more who helped him mind the store.