columns – The Creative Chronicles of Dave Stancliff

Trump’s Mercenaries Lead Assault Against Environment/American People

sue_for_victory_poster-rb4f66633af804d6880458805341773a2_6z7_8byvr_512 Even now that he’s president, Trump thinks he can get away with bullying people and groups.

Using his stable of mercenary lawyers and his new-found bully pulpit, Chump thinks he’s going to last for four-years.

It’s worked thus far, but he’s straining his legal resources with over 75 unresolved personal lawsuits, and defending himself against allegations of obstruction and colluding with the Russians during the 2016 election.

In his latest assault on our environment, Don the Con, unleashed his pack of soulless legal minions on Greenpeace over its part in protecting the Standing Rock Reservation from a corporate pipeline that threatens to pollute the native-Americans only water supply.

Marc Kasowitz, his personal lawyer in the House and Senate investigations, has his own legal company and it’s representing Energy Transfer Partners (the pipeline owners).

Just so you know, Trump has $1 million dollars invested in the company’s stocks. Sound like a conflict of interest?

Of course, it is. Chump’s whole presidency has been a primer course in flaunting ethics, rules, and laws put into place to protect americans and our legal system. With his flock of legal vultures, Donny has been getting away with everything from not showing his taxes, to obstructing justice by interfering in the Russian/ Trump Campaign investigation.

The people who voted for Rump are going to suffer the most from his reluctance to lawfully continue funding the current healthcare plan when Congress failed to repeal or replace it.

You know how much Hump cares about his core followers? He’s announced that he wants to let the whole healthcare system – Obamacare – fail. He hopes it’ll crash and spite everyone – including millions of Americans who didn’t vote for him.

But it all falls back to the way Bump parades through life – seeking adulation – and lashing out at anyone that doesn’t believe in his sick agenda. So he’s always kept a stable of hired mercenaries, leting them out like a pack of rabid dogs when things don’t go his way.

But the Orange Mango-In-Chief is going to reap his karma. As he defends Nazis and KKKer’s a seismic backlash is running through the country. When the investigations come to their conclusions, I don’t expect it to be good news for Donnie Little-Hands (his native-American name).

As It Stands, Chump’s motto has always been Sue For Victory, not Make America Great Again.

Silence is not Golden: Stand Up To ‘Unite the Right’ Rally

If we work together Love will trump Hate

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Photo Author

Fibonacci Blue from Minnesota, USA

Update: 11:00 a.m. PST – State of emergency as white nationalist rally in Charlottesville turns violent

Thanks to Trump, the alt-rights national recruitment program in America is thriving.

Today, Neo-Nazis and KKKer’s will take over the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia. The event is being called “Unite the Right.” It’s a siren call to fascists, racists, Neo-Nazis, Klan members, and anarchists.

Organizers are expecting 1000 people to attend. Perhaps more, if their pre-rally recruiting did well. Some are calling it the biggest racist rally in recent memory.

While there have been dozens of far-right rallies since Trump’s election, this will be the first major, national rally run by the alt-right’s openly white nationalist wing.

Charlottesville has seen multiple white nationalist rallies this year. The first, a May 2017 daytime event, was followed by a nighttime torchlight photo-op.

Led by alt-right poster boy Richard Spencer, attendees chanted Nazi slogans like “blood and soil.” The second, in July, was a KKK rally.

The white nationalist rallies have been ostensibly held to oppose the removal of a statue of former Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee. But don’t kid yourself; it’s not that the alt-right gives a tinker’s damn about history, but they do know how to exploit it for their agenda.

Some progressive groups will be there to counter-demonstrate. Hopefully, it won’t turn into a riot. Americans are not particularley happy right now with how things are going; the threat of a nuclear war with Korea, and Trump’s racist immigration policies have set the stage for a high level of tension right now.

The last thing this country needs is idealogical warfare turning into massive street fights across the country.

Counterprotests serve as an immediate denucication of a current event – like this hate rally – but they are not the answer to the problem. The answer lies in sharing the truth about these groups.

Exposing the hate in the alt-right movement is not hard to do. Countering it takes more than a one-off protest against a current event. Silence is not golden when it comes to opposing hate.

We all need to voice our oppostion to this wave of hate through whatever means are available to us. Nearly everyone has access to a computer and social media. We can all write our legislators and voice our opinion.

Finally, most importantly, we can all be examples of tolerance by the way we live, and how we interact with others.

As It Stands, call me old-fashioned…but I believe love trumps hate.

An Old Expression/Response That Will Leave You laughing

portrait me & shirley

Got a big smile going on today?

If not, allow me to toss out a few crumbs of jocularity for your entertainment.

My wife and I (photo) have been married 43 years as of August 31st. We’ve stayed together this long because we communicate and both have a good sense of humor.

One night, I remembered an old expression my Dad used and spontaneously decided to share it in a moment of frustration.

It was one of the funniest expressions for exasperation I ever heard. More on that in a moment. To this day, it still ranks in my top three retorts.

History. The whole family was in the car driving to the beach (1960) and my mother was thoroughly breaking Dad’s chops over trivial things:

“Why can’t you speed up and go around that idiot?”

“Why are you slowing down… the lights still yellow?”

The four of us kids were in the back seat, forced to hear the constant pick, pick, pick of my mother’s complaints. This went on for nearly an hour before Dad could no longer hold it in anymore.

It was a quick retaliatory response. Stunning in its directness;

“Margaret… would you shut up? Your ass sucks canal-water!”

There was a stunned silence, then we kids burst out laughing. My mother didn’t seem to have a response. She made funny little gurgling sounds (they may have been growls). I had trouble getting my breath, I was laughing so hard.

A moment in time.

Which brings us up to the time when my wife, Shirley, and I were working on putting together Christmas toys for our three boys. Bikes and benches. Hundreds of screws and nuts and bolts. No sleep until the job was done.

It was a recipe for disaster. For whatever reason I blurted out, “Your ass sucks canal-water!” At first I thought she was going to throw a wrench at me. But, to my surprise, she burst out laughing and wanted to know where I heard that expression?

With pride, I said my dad and told her the story. When it was over she said “That’s cute. Now don’t you ever say that in front of our boys!”

So much for tradition.

As It Stands, life is full of laughs, you just have to recognize when.

Blasts from the Past: Columns Shared

Controversial columns by Dave Stancliff

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Hello everyone!

I thought I’d share some of my columns that ran in The Times-Standard in Eureka, California. My column, As It Stands, kicked off in 2008 and ran through 2014.

A Look Back

As It Stands: This column’s genesis, anniversary and gnarly toes Good for a few laughs.

As It Stands: Getting Your Pet A Rabies Shot? Think Twice, And Get Advice

Note:This originally ran in the Times-Standard and this publication picked it up. Seen as controversial.

As It Stands: Meet ALEC: a wolf in sheep’s clothing

This column is still relevant. These guys are in charge of Congress.

As It Stands: ‘People Power’ is more than a slogan today

I discussed the killing of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old black male, by a neighborhood watch captain. It highlights the deep racial divide that existed (probably still does) in Sanford, Fla.

As It Stands: Speed Kills — so why is meth still scourging our society?

Sadly, this issue has only gotten worse since I wrote this column in 2012.

As It Stands, by now I’m sure you figured out that I’m keeping that column alive by morphing it into this blog. Hence, The Return of As It Stands.

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Fibonacci Blue from Minnesota, USA

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As It Stands: Getting Your Pet A Rabies Shot? Think Twice, And Get Advice

Note:This originally ran in the Times-Standard and this publication picked it up. Seen as controversial.

As It Stands: Meet ALEC: a wolf in sheep’s clothing

This column is still relevant. These guys are in charge of Congress.

As It Stands: ‘People Power’ is more than a slogan today

I discussed the killing of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old black male, by a neighborhood watch captain. It highlights the deep racial divide that existed (probably still does) in Sanford, Fla.

As It Stands: Speed Kills — so why is meth still scourging our society?

Sadly, this issue has only gotten worse since I wrote this column in 2012.

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