The only other Junior I knew of was Junior Patriarca. He was the son of Raymond L.S. Patriarca the head of the New England Mafia. L.S., as Frankie Salemme referred to him, was a tough guy who ran the mob with an iron hand. No one in the mob could be murdered except with his OK. Vinnie “Jimmy the Bear” Flemmi and Joe “the Animal” Barboza met with him to get the OK to murder Teddy Deegan. There’s an FBI tape of the meeting. L.S. told them it was OK with him if they got the OK from Boston underboss Gerry Angiulo. It turned out Teddy got murdered; the Animal with Boston U.S. attorney Harrington and FBI agents Rico and Condon’s help became a government witness; he would testify against those involved in the Deegan murder. He implicated two Mafia guys who gave him the OK: Henry Tameleo and Peter Limone. They (or their heirs) would eventually get 25 million from the government.

Earlier this year Trump tweeted or said that North Korea (NK) would not be allowed to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). On July 4 in NK its leader Kim Jong-un thought he would give Trump a Fourth of July present. He fired off amid great celebrating and high-fives an ICBM that Trump set as a red line he not dare cross.

The next day the American and South Korea (SK) forces shot off some missiles of their own during practice maneuvers. This is fool’s play. All know that NK is not threatened by them.

We know that Trump was hopeful that Xi of China would solve the NK problem for him. A week or so ago he was giving XI a pass saying that he tried; more recently Trump complained China had increased its exports to NK over 40% over last quarter year. Even Trump recognized that Xi was hardly trying but was playing him. China needs NK as much as NK needs it. China recognizes in Trump that it is America that has the losing hand.

Trump has complained that SK and Japan should do more. He has called on his friend Putin for help. He has increased pressure on China. Nothing has worked. NK is Trump’s problem.

I owe an explanation for my disappearance. It was as sudden as it was unplanned. It is difficult to explain the reason. In one sense I could suggest that all of a sudden other things filled up my time so that I had no time left for blogging. That though would be only a partial explanation. A better one would be that I had some type of writer’s block; I found I had nothing worthwhile to write about. Or, at least in my mind nothing was present that I felt like sharing.

As I said this was not planned. I skipped a day, then two and then more until the idea of posting something no longer had a seat at the table of my mind. It was strange but when I hit that wall I never came back to this site until today. When I did I found it was suspended because I had not paid the host the annual fee.

There are three posts that went out in mid June. I had scheduled them in early May with the intent of revising them before they went out. Unfortunately leaving the site I forgot all about them and they went out automatically and not as a final product.

I wrote how  the article “Democrats lack strong voice amid Trump’s Russia investigation meltdown“ made me recognize  how old the Democratic leadership had become. It also points to the lack of appeal the party of the ancients has to younger folk and why the Republicans control Congress and most state governor offices and legislatures.

As devastating as that is it does not account for an even larger problem in the Democratic Party. It just so happened that the last two paragraphs of the article address it. The writers of the article Annie Linsky and Matt Viser hit the nail on the head. (or as my wife would say “hit the head on the nail.”)

They pointed out: “Democrats will huddle this week in Washington at an “ideas conference” sponsored by the left-leaning Center for American Progress.”

It seems to me the last place the Democrats would want to go to for ideas is a progressive think tank. It was funded by George Soros and founded by Clinton Campaign Manager John Podesta. Having seen the American people reject the ideas of this group why are they going back to them?

Is it because they don’t know what else to do with themselves? Is it once having felt the cheering of the crowds they have to go on and on until like the band in the movie  “This is Spinal Tap” there is no more crowd? While the Clintons cling to lost dreams of White House Riches the odor of corruption clings to them. Even aside that, even before the days when the folks from Arkansas decided to set up a foundation to enrich themselves, Hillary, the great white woman hope, was hugely unpopular.

Yes, she got three million more votes that Trump. Any normal candidate should have received thirty million more votes. Trump is right when he claims there was fraud in the election. There was. Huge amounts of it. The American people were defrauded out of having a candidate who did not have huge negative ratings. Trump has a 63% unfavorable rating while she had a 52% immediately before the election.  Two people widely despised ran for office; the choice was to hold your nose and pick the least unworthy.

“Democrats lack strong voice amid Trump’s Russia investigation meltdown“ read the headline of an article in the Boston Globe. When I read that I thought of Renee Fleming of Met Opera fame who I had just seen interviewed on PBS. She is 58-years-old.

She was asked by Jeffrey Brown what happens to the voice of an Opera star like her when she gets older. Fleming replied: “You don’t have the resilience, the physical resilience. So, if I sing a big performance, I don’t want to do it again the next day.” She said opera singers are power singers who have to be heard over all the chorus and orchestra without amplification. “When you’re young you can keep doing it and doing it and doing it.” 

Yes, as Fleming points out, as one ages the powers one once had begin to diminish. I was also reminded of a 1957 selection by a U.S. Senate committee of the five greatest senators in U.S. history. They chose Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, Robert La Follette, Robert A. Taft and Henry Clay. Those familiar with American history would agree that those men were the leading voices of their parties. Their careers in the Senate were long. The longest living of them was Clay who died at age 75. The others: Webster aged 70; Calhoun aged 68; Taft aged 63; and La Follette  aged 70. Except for Clay who was instrumental in bringing about the Compromise of 1850 the others were at their prime in their forties through early sixties.

Trump is hell bent on destroying America.

What could be worse than his pulling out of the Paris Accords.  First of all they weren’t binding but set goals.  Perhaps Trump did not comprehend that.  Whatever he did or did not know about the agreement is not the point nor is whether the agreement good or bad.

What is the absolutely worst thing is that it was the United States which fought tooth and nail to bring all the countries of the world together to reach this agreement.  We said here is the road to follow if we want to protect our planet. By hook or by crook, by twisting arms or handing out goodies, we did bring all of them along and they followed because we persuaded them this was the right thing to do.

Many of the leaders of these countries went along at great risk to themselves. And their reward for doing this was to see the USA cut and run. What does that tell the leaders of these countries about following America’s leadership

Plain and simple it suggests to any country which does think of following the USA’s lead better rethink that decision. So where is the leadership to come from now that the commitment of the USA is so shaky?

There was Donald Duck and Daffy Duck and now we have Daffy Donald. Who would ever think a cartoon figure would be in charge of the American policy. Thanks to millions of begrudgers America has entered into the comic book era.

Daffy Donald (DD) recent budget proposed major cuts in food stamps and other programs to help the poor. He wants to cut the taxes on the rich. Meanwhile we were treated to Melania-Antoinette’s response not with the verbal “let them eat cake” but its equivalent when she took her first outing in the Sicilian sunshine in a colorful floral applique jacket by Dolce & Gabbana that sells for $51,000.

She and her husband have the attitude of Leona Helmsley:“We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people do.” Is Melania-Antoinette taking over as “the queen of the mean”? Trump said about Leona, “Leona always liked having me around. . . . I was always asked to be [at her parties] and was always given a seat, usually right near her.”