The Tweets of Trump -- Woodward; NBC; Obama.

The Economy is soooo good, perhaps the best in our country’s history (remember, it’s the economy stupid!), that the Democrats are flailing & lying like CRAZY! Phony books, articles and T.V. “hits” like no other pol has had to endure-and they are losing big. Very dishonest people! @realDonaldTrump

The Democrats would make you think

that economically we stink.

But truth will out, and I'll prevail

(if I can just stay out of jail!)

***********************************

“It is mostly anonymous sources in here, why should anyone trust you? General Mattis, General Kelly said it’s not true.” @SavannahGuthrie @TODAYshow Bob Woodward is a liar who is like a Dem operative prior to the Midterms. He was caught cold, even by NBC. @realDonaldTrump

Even NBC agrees

that Woodward's hat is full of bees;

He couldn't write the truth if he

saw George cut down that cherry tree!

*******************************************

“President Trump would need a magic wand to get to 4% GDP,” stated President Obama. I guess I have a magic wand, 4.2%, and we will do MUCH better than this! We have just begun. @realDonaldTrump

I do have a magic wand, guy;

it lets me soar up to the sky,

where never a stat

looks grim or too flat --

and Pence brings me hot pizza pie!

a tide of brown leaves

Listen to the children

And now, he imparteth his word by angels unto men, yea, not only men but women also. Now this is not all; little children do have words given unto them many times, which confound the wise and the learned. Alma 33:23

When children teach their elders it's because the angels high

whisper in their tender ears that Jesus Christ is nigh.

The tiny words of children have a purity that slays

the top heavy pretensions of the pundits in these days.

To confound stiffnecked prejudice and make the heavens sing

listen to the children gathered 'neath His loving wing!

Fishing for Squid in the Gulf of Thailand

The municipality of Ban Phe is located on the Gulf of Thailand, and is mostly known as the gateway to Kho Samet -- an island two miles offshore with beaches of crystalline sand so pure and white it looks like sugar.

Ban Phe is also a major squid fishery. For miles up and down the coast gutted squid are laid out on bamboo racks to dry in the sun. They are occasionally sprinkled with sugar and crushed chili peppers during this process, and, since they are not screened off from insects, thousands of flies also land on 'em to add their own inimitable tang. The end result is a savory squid leather that is either run through a mangle to allow for easy mastication, or cut into small pieces and fried in palm oil until it plumps up into an exquisite appetizer, or even a main dish when served with sticky rice and a bowl of fish sauce mixed with lime juice and sliced mouse shit peppers (the literal translation of their name 'prik khii neuw.')

An English teaching job brought me to Ban Phe back in 2007. I had a room at the school, which was literally half a block from the beach, so I could spend the early morning hours luxuriating in the milk warm water as the tropical sun exploded over the misty blue waves. Then I walked up from the beach to a thatched hut that served freshly caught shrimp and crab sauteed with mung bean noodles and a fried duck egg on top. For just seventy-five cents. That was my breakfast. My life there was, in fine, an equatorial idyll. 

One fine day my Thai girlfriend Joom suggested we go in with several other couples to hire a fishing boat for a night of squid dipping. It not only would be romantic, she purred with an arch look, but we could buy a portion of the catch for a few satangs and dry them ourselves. (There are 100 satangs in a Thai baht.)

No sooner said than done. Joom was a very sociable creature and she rounded up five other couples for a night out on the Gulf of Thailand. The boat we hired was called 'Water Sprite' and looked about as sea worthy as the 'Minnow' from Gilligan's Island. The captain had a villainous scar across his cheek -- no doubt from a buccaneer's cutlass slash -- and his crew were a sullen lot who grumbled in a continuous monotone until several cases of Chang Beer arrived to be put on ice. Then they brightened up considerably. Since most of the men passengers on board that night were British expats they used most of the beer (that part which the crew failed to extract first) to make shandy -- a popular English tipple that consists (in Thailand, at least) of half Fanta Orange and half beer. I wouldn't touch the stuff with a barge pole -- but Joom enthusiastically lapped it up with the rest of the passengers until they were all as jolly and sloppy as frat boys at a hazing.

We unmoored just before midnight and chugged out into the inky black for several miles, then dropped anchor and prepared the spotlights. You don't use a hook or a large net for squid. You just shine a bright light down into the water and they rise up by the thousands, thinking it's the moon and so time for some frenzied mating. Then you just dip your net down into the spawning slimy hugger mugger and bring up a few dozen at a time. We were hauling them in like gangbusters at first -- until several sharks showed up. Then the squid, which up until then had been content to thrash demurely around in the water, decided that our boat offered a better chance of survival; they flung themselves out of the water by the hundreds and lay flopping and expiring around us like a translucent and funky carpet. Ironically, I was the only one who couldn't keep on my feet -- all the shandy swilling Brits kept their heads and navigated the deck with cool competency, while I did circus pratfalls by the dozen. By the time we got back to Ban Phe the sun was just breaking through the early morning mist, and I had to be helped off the 'Water Sprite' by a giggling Joom, who gave several hearty nautical belches in response to our fellow passenger's farewells. When we got back to my bungalow I greased up with a camphorated Tiger Balm that had my black and blue skin tingling agreeably, and then went to bed. 

Joom offered to stay and cook me some fresh squid with kaffir lime and coconut milk. I didn't like the tone of sly pity for my landlubberly behavior that I detected in her voice, so brusquely told her to just take the doggone squid to her brother's farm house and set 'em all out to dry. 

Glowing with anger (and several large contusions) I was not about to be cajoled by her coy looks and insistence that some fresh squid soup would help me feel better. But at last, just to get her out of my thinning hair, I acquiesced. As she began puttering around the kitchen I shouted at her from under my silk coverlet --

"And don't put any mouse shit peppers in it, either!" 

seedlings in the grass

seedlings in the grass

waiting for the rain and snow --

such slipshod timing

shriveled rose flower

shriveled rose flower

stands proudly above green leaves

as summer retreats

Sunday morning

a Sunday morning

with a solitary bird

that watches my walk to Church

Who can glory too much in the Lord?

Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel. Alma 26:16

To praise the Lord with love and cheer

is what will keep His spirit near.

The Father of our being knows

how to protect me from life's blows;

and when an evil mischance falls

and God ignores my doleful calls

like Job of old I'll raise my voice

not in complaint but to rejoice.

Like ant to mighty pachyderm:

His vastness makes my faith more firm.

Return of the Frozen Dinner -- A Tweet from Trump -- Ralph Lauren -- Escaping Poverty

Frozen dinners are on a hot streak.

Sales of microwavable meals are rising at the fastest pace in a decade, drawing attention from food-company executives otherwise struggling with falling sales for well known but outdated brands.  WSJ

Eating frozen dinners is a perilous pursuit;

most of 'em taste like a bit of unrefined raw jute.

But if you undercook 'em, you can have 'em on a stick --

But either way the end result would make a caveman sick.

*********************************************

Apple prices may increase because of the massive Tariffs we may be imposing on China - but there is an easy solution where there would be ZERO tax, and indeed a tax incentive. Make your products in the United States instead of China. Start building new plants now. Exciting! @realDonaldTrump

Make it in the USA or you will foot the bill

to keep the country going and not crash to a standstill.

I'll give you tax incentives if your widgets you will coin

not in Chinese sweatshop but a plant down in Des Moines!

*********************************

NEW YORK — At the end of his 50th anniversary show in Central Park, Ralph Lauren cried, and the audience stood and applauded. At the beginning of the elegant dinner that followed, Oprah Winfrey toasted the powerful symbolism imbued in his work, reflecting not only his own American success story but that of so many others. By the time guests drifted off towards the hazy lights of the city, they had the undeniable sense of how big, how defining and how magnetic fashion can be.

WaPo 

I've never been too dernier cri; I dress more like a slob.

I've never had relations with the fashionable mob.

I buy my clothes at Goodwill or some other cheap thrift store,
so Ralph Lauren can take a flying leap out past the shore.

***************************************

We keep hearing about an economy that’s referred to as robust or rip-roaring, which leaves a lot of people wondering how they missed out on the recovery. Earlier this year I began taking a closer look at how a state that’s leading the boom has 20% of its children living in poverty. In L.A. Unified, the number is 80%, and at one elementary school I’ve been taking a look at in the San Fernando Valley, 20% of the students are homeless.  Steve Lopez in the LATimes.

Real poverty is a gulag,

that follows you round like a dog.

The struggle to rise

only ends when you dies --

it's how we got to demagogue. 

tender behemoths

I know elephants

from Thailand and the circus --

tender behemoths