“On The House” by John Boehner , My Book Report

With a name like his, that’s spelled like his is, you’ve got to have a sense of humor – which he definitely does – given the way kids parody phonetically when you are growing up!

His first chapter was the most difficult for me to read because he came-off like a tattle-tale snitch against his colleagues’ perks! He betrayed himself and his Congressional members by outing their rather innocuous inside restaurant, Congressional bank and other fringe benefits, which I think he could have handled better; more friendlier to the legacy of “smoke-filled rooms” and all of that mysterious symbolism.  That was Boehner’s power trip boner; taking down legends like Charles Rangel and Dan Rostenkowski was shameful, IMO.

After that, the book became much more palatable, entertaining and almost autobiographic to read – with many photos! 

Regardless of his political party, this is one self-deprecatingly, often funny and pretty down-to-earth type guy (who tears-up a lot, adding to his credibility with this writer)!

There are many frank and amusing passages which produce laugh out loud moments during the fast paced read, which takes you inside of how our legislative branch works these days, and his road to becoming one of it’s recent leaders.  You’ll  learn Mr. Boehner’s four passions: The USA, golf and two others you’ll have to learn by reading the book!

Sadly, apparently, the only black American he ever interacted much with was President Barack Obama, because there isn’t mention of any others, except a brief sentence describing Vernon Jordan’s relationship to President Bush.  Boehner wrote  some things about Obama that I was surprised to learn!  I would have thought that President Obama would have been a bit more humble about his winning the majority vote twice, in an effort to better deal with and reach across the party lines according to the Boehner’s accounts.  He doesn’t even, at least, give him more credit for his unifying oratory skills!

His impressions of the 45^th President’s propensity to talk before thinking are spot-on.

The best chapter is the next to last, when he astutely talks about the relations between the press, government and citizens who consume it via a cautionary analysis regarding information overload and the potential for “weaponizing” of the news.  Instead of like when I was a music radio disc jockey, we’d play the save five songs (or so), sixteen times a day for “x” amount of hours and days to sell advertising via the spots contained therein.  These days, the songs are replaced with exaggerated and often unproven statements designed to “gin you up” – as Mr. Boehner writes – to get angry about something and keep you coming back for more of that poison.    Its a must-read chapter in this very readable book.

Its the fine print overlooked when government deregulated and allowed inside, the devil of corporate-controlled broadcasting, and specifically with regard to market ownership limits and radio stations specifically.

He ironically even touches upon the current unprovoked Russian attack on the peaceful country of Ukraine, almost as if he were predicting it! Wow.

4.5 golf balls 

Wallman

There’s a new villain out there…and he is nobody to marvel at.

The United States of American has been consistently “great”, with varying degrees, since 1776.  Wallman’s campaign slogan in 2016 was just a nationalistic ploy, in the mode of one of his heroes, Adolph Hitler, which set- up his modus operandi to bend our rules to the breaking point.

The world’s dictators like Putin and the guy in North Korea finally found a man so weak that they could whisper to him, “Then just don’t leave…”  and he’d try to do it.

He wanted to build a “wall” along our southern border with Mexico and played to those who complained that “those Mexicans” were coming across our border, “takin’ our jobs away…”

Now we have a “non-scalable “wall” around the people’s White House in Washington, DC, because Wallman thinks that he can stay walled-in and keep citizens who protest his overstaying his welcome away from the building after he pulls this coup-d’etat, in which he will use the military to enforce it against us. Suddenly, you can no longer see the White House from the street!  WTF?  Why would a lame duck President fire his Defense Secretary and replace him and others who quit the Pentagon in the aftermath of that with a bunch of lackeys? Maybe he is setting up his junta!

Talk about “bunker mentality”!  

I’d bet the con man is bluffing this scenario all the way to the end, as if sitting at some gambling table at one of his failed Atlantic City casinos.

I thought it very troubling that nobody picked-up upon the late-in-the-campaign speech and visit he made to Wilmington, North Carolina, which is the site of the only coup in United States history back in 1898, when a group of “white supremacists” overthrew the local government and killed many, many black American residents.   Wallman has been giving us signs that he would do this authoritarian tactic all along!

When he says there is “evidence of voter fraud” in our presidential election of this past November 3, what he really means is that his attempts at voter suppression in “key states” did not work. The reason they didn’t work is that enough Americans still have the common sense to be outraged by Wallman’s corruption and attempts to undo our checks and balances constitutional way of government and we came out and used the power of the ballot like never previously.

I don’t know what he has over or on those in the GOP, that more of them do not stand up to him and say, “You can’t pull that dictator shit here, Wallman!”  So, this is his plan to “make us great again”? By causing more angst and constipation of our electoral process; by not conceding with dignity?  Well, somehow, some way, by man or The Creator, he must be thwarted and evicted – and maybe given a room with bars in the front and window on its wall – before he overthrows life and legislative law, as we have always known it, in this land.

Unmasked (as usual, and a super-spreader)

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