DICK CHENEY'S HALLIBURTON GETS RETRIBUTION, BUT...

Dick Cheney's Halliburton which mopped up in the Afghan and Iraq wars is suffering due to the low oil prices. That would normally be admirable based on their lousy reputation as a less than desirable company. However, the "BUT" is the fact that it has resulted in them laying off 9,000 from its payroll, innocent souls from a corporation with a long list of bad reps. I Googled "halliburton bad reputation" and came up with 34,200 hits. It dates back at least to 2005, after Cheney had left the company to become Geo. W. Bush's Vice President. In that year H exposed military and civilian personnel to contaminated water in Iraq. In another instance, they pled guilty to destruction of critical evidence after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010. The list goes on and on. Long before Bush bombed Iraq, H worked secretly with VP Dick Cheney for his alma mater to control the world's second largest oil reserves. In 2013 H made it into the top ten list of the worst companies alongside the worst of the worst, AIG.

So retribution is certainly due, although it is too bad it can't have more of a major impact on Dick Cheney.

ARIZONA SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO ACCUSED BY OWN DEPUTY SERGEANT

It is possible that the toughest sheriff in the country will be taken down a couple of notches. Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been exposed by one of his deputies, a sergeant no less. "Sgt. Brett Palmer testified that Arpaio had personally instructed him to continue enforcing federal immigration law after Judge G. Murray Snow had prohibited the practice," according to the Arizona Republic. The blustery Arpaio has repeatedly denied targeting Latinos in his county for meaningless charges simply to shake them down as illegal immigrants. Palmer also said, "the emphasis within the department was focused on public perception because 'it’s our duty to make the sheriff look good to the media and the public.'” Well he looks like crap right now and that undoubtedly will get worse when Judge Snow makes his final decision. Arpaio's reelections are a result of the hate in this state for illegal immigrants but this litigation could wake up some of the dufuses that have voted for him in the past. He runs for his 7th term next year.

ROBERT BATES CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF VIP PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT

Robert Bates, an Oklahoma volunteer deputy who shot and killed an unarmed black man, saying he meant to use his taser, was rewarded with a trip to the Bahamas. Let's back up first and mention that Bates, a 73-year-old insurance co. executive, allegedly bought his way into the Sheriff's Dept. job with a large contribution to his reelection campaign plus other amenities. It also helped that Bates and the Sheriff were close friends. His training has been questioned but some has now been substantiated, except the fact that he was not cleared to use the gun he shot 44-year-old Eric Harris with on April 2. But the coup de gráce was when Bates pleaded not guilty on Tuesday and asked the judge if he could go on a month's vacation to the Bahamas. Sure, the judge replied, as long as you're back for your next court appearance.

ECONOMY ON THE UPSWING-SO IS OBAMA

Working under almost insurmountable odds, Pres. Barack Obama has brought this country back from the brink with a significantly improved economy. A CNN/ORC poll found recently, "52% describe the U.S. economy as very or somewhat good, while 48% call it very or somewhat poor." These figures are a first for the Obama presidency but were a long time coming due to those odds. First, there has been a hateful Congress that opposed everything the President has done in the last almost seven years. A current example is the opposition of Loretta Lynch for Attorney General; it has taken 165 days and still counting. The other major odds he had to overcome is the massive damage done to the economy by Geo. W. Bush like the financial meltdown, two major wars, home market tanking, soaring oil prices, a shrinking dollar and more.

And what have Republicans accomplished during the Obama administration? Nothing, but confront and repel anything the President did. That's why the GOP Congress has an approval rating of 28%, disapproval of  67%.

MICHELE BACHMANN: WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT

This quote here says it all from one of the looniest people ever to crash the political scene. But she actually topped it exclaiming in a recent MSNBC article that the end is near--the Rapture to fundamentalists--and it is all Barack Obama's fault. Now the President has been blamed for just about everything from ruining the U.S. economy, which was clearly the fault of Geo. W. Bush, to playing footsie with Iran on the nuclear deal. But not causing the end of the world until batty Bachmann claimed the end is near, thanks to President Obama. Here's another of this screwball's quotes, "If we took away the minimum wage -- if conceivably it was gone -- we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level." But my favorite is, "Our movement at its core is an intellectual movement," talking about the Tea Party. Now that's the laugh of the century.

IS IT ADAM AND EVE'S FAULT PEOPLE ARE GAY?

The Bible says: Lev. 18:22, "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination." Also: Lev. 20:13, "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltness is upon them." But Matthew Vines, the president and founder of The Reformation Project and the author of "God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships" says God created Adam and Eve and then they fell into sin. His claim is gay and lesbian sexual orientation is "a sign of the fall, a sign of human fallenness and brokenness." Further, "having a same-sex orientation is not in and of itself a sin, according to the traditional interpretation, acting upon it is, because the Bible is clear, both in what it negatively prohibits and in what it positively approves." A & E weren't supposed to fall from grace but they did and everything has been mixed up since.

More on this later.

MITCH MCCONNELL THE WISHFUL OBAMA SLAYER

Time to resurrect this clown's comment. Mitch McConnell said in 2010: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." Flash-forward to April of 2015, Obama won a second term and the fruitcake Senator is still on attack. You would think McConnell would learn he's been outsmarted but, then, Republicans don't have this capacity. So what can I do now that I am Senate head again,he asks? Oh, there's Loretta Lynch who wants to be the first female black Attorney General. But President Obama also wants her for AG so no freaking way that is going to happen. And so the dysfunction of the Congress of the greatest country on earth continues under the control of conservatives.