The little blue flowers in that picture were popping up in a field behind my house. I took the picture on a warm day last week. They must have liked the sunshine.
I wish there was more sunshine in the halls of government these days. I, like so many others, am so tired of the stalemate in Washington that has led to this long government shutdown. And I agree with Michael Bennett, Democratic Senator from Colorado when he spoke on the Senate floor:
“How ludicrous it is that this government is shut down over a promise that the President of the United States couldn’t keep? This idea that he was going to build a medieval wall across the southern border of Texas, take it from the farmers and ranchers that were there, and have the Mexicans pay for it isn’t true. That’s why we’re here.”
As I said in a previous post about the fight over the border wall, this dug-in-the-ground standoff has got to stop. People in Congress need to put party politics aside and do what needs to be done. tRump needs to accept the fact that border security can happen without needing an extra $5.7 billion to do it.
According to an editorial in The San Francisco Chronicle, the departments of Homeland Security and Border Patrol are already the highest funded departments in government, and they are not spending our money wisely. U. S. Customs and Border Protection hired a consulting firm, Accenture, at a fee of $300 million over five years to hire more border patrol agents. After ten months the government had paid the company for than $13 million to complete a grand total of two hires.
Another factor to consider is whether we need to build an actual wall. There are many miles of barriers across our Southern border already in place, and we could take the rest of that $300 million promised to Accenture to actually hire the border patrol agents directly. Prospective agents could interview with Homeland Security officials the same way other worker interview directly with managers, not through an outside agency adding more cost to the whole enterprise.
Ending today on a light note. A friend sent me this little ditty the other day and I thought I’d share it.
Folklore poem:
One fine day, in the middle of the night,
Two dead men got up to fight.
Back to back, they faced each other,
Drew their swords and shot each other.
If you don’t believe this tale is true,
Ask the blind man,he saw it too.
More about this ditty, as well as others, can be found HERE
When I read the ditty about the two men in the fight, it reminded me of one my husband used to recite. “I Met a Man Who Wasn’t There.” The following is just the refrain:
Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away…
When our kids were very young, they would puzzle over this for quite a while.
That’s all for me for today, folks. I have a quiet weekend planned this week. Staying home for the most part. What about you? Whatever you have on your agenda, I hope it is something fun and entertaining. Be happy. Be safe.