How Marco Rubio Could Get Back in the Race and Win

On Super Tuesday, Marco Rubio looked into the eye of the camera and directly into the hearts of his supporters and stated firmly, "I will not drop out. If I have to get in my pickup truck and drive from state to state, I will."

Fast forward. Marco has dropped out.

My heart broke. Not because someone I believe in dropped out of the race, but more so he became another victim of the anger and hate. Proving once again nice guys finish last. I literally cried over the fact that his home state let him down. I also believe that early voting had a lot to do with that.

So why did Marco drop out? Does he not want to be the president? I firmly believe with my heart that he wants to be the president of United States and he is missing the perfect opportunity to be one.

Marco needs to make good on his promise to the American people and supporters, when he said he would get in his pick up truck, he should.

What? Are you insane? you ask. No. I am not. I know that sounds like a lot but I have a game plan for Marco. It's foolproof. It would work. And he would ‘trump’ Trump in his own free advertisement game.

The logistics of it all can be worked out and it’s a strategy that can be brilliant for him. The tough part is done, He's on the ballot in each state. 

Hopefully Marco's pick up truck can make a good road trip putting on 10,000 miles. Because that's what he would need to do. Double check his truck is in road worthy order. Then he needs to reach out to his supporters. Reach out to people and sign up five people in every state. People will. Five people across the state. These will be a Rubio reps. This person will provide lunch,and  if need be a place to lay his head, and a voice in the community. Even if Marco gets in the back of his pickup truck while somebody drives and he speaks on a megaphone yelling, "Here I am. Vote for me for president." Imagine what would happen.

The media would explode. Here is a man who believes in what he's doing so much that he follows his heart instead of following a superpac. We the people, the new superpac. A man who is putting it all on the line to be president and isn’t afraid to show how bad he wants it. This isn't just some man, this is Marco freaking Rubio. He already has a name. The news will eat him up in a good way. So much so, Trump will wallow in jealousy. They will show every move he makes.

From every Starbucks coffee shop stop to the local deli. "Looks like Marco is at it again," they would say. "Hittin it hard in Cleveland this week, Marco visited a local nursing home."

Yeah. Do you see it? I do.

He can do this. We can help him. Each person in each city picks five to ten places for Marco to visit. Then they send a press release out to news outlets letting them know where Marco will be. They won't be rallies, they don't need to be rallies, they need him reaching out to people. Put on a pair of jeans, a tee shirt and go!

His message, I am a man of the people, for the people. Hit the ground.

Grassroots is a powerful tool. Five to ten places in each city. From George's hardware store  to Sam’s Pizza, to Caraboo. It can be done. He will have an impact. He doesn't need to buy ads, his presence and fortitude will be advertisements. He doesn't need anything but spirit. And I'm willing to bet that this could work so much so that not only would I do all press releases, I would pay for his gas in his truck to make this road trip. I won’t need to though because he will gather momentum again. The good guy. We the supporters will rally all the way to the convention.  He needs back in this race if only to say somebody with heart  and soul still cares enough about this country to put it all on the line and lead.

It gave me 'Goosebumps'

Let's establish first and foremost that I am not a huge fan of kid movies or family movies. Such as animated features like Toy Story or anything like that. I cave in once in a while and take my grandchildren to a kid movie. But they're not my thing. Hence, why I have them enjoying horror flicks such as zombie and end of the world movies.

I escaped having to go see Goosebumps the movie at the theater. That now in hindsight was my error. I missed out on that experience.

When my grandson who is six suggested that we rent the movie on Amazon, I agreed. Seeing that I could just simply get up and walk away. I got a pizza, some popcorn, set up the living room, pressed the button and… Ugh! I bought it instead of renting it.

I believe I made that noise, too.

“No, Nennie, see.” My grandson said. “You are going to love this. I swear.”

Okay.

Before you think, why not just hit return? Let me explain. I do not believe in returns for creative projects. Call me biased. But somebody put their labor of love into that and whether I like it or not I purchased it. Anyhow…

I sat down next to my grandson and granddaughter and away we went watching the movie. I pulled out my phone, expecting to catch up on emails when suddenly I was thrust not into boredom but into the pleasant memories of the movies I enjoyed in my late teen, early twenties. Goonies, Monster Squad, Teen Wolf, Silver Bullet … Goosebumps delivered that same feel. Funny, exposing the naiveté of our youth while scaring us.

Wait. Stop. Back up. I restarted the movie because I wanted to give it my full attention. It was entertaining and as a writer, I found it dementedly enjoyable on another level.

The basic premise of the movie is RL Stine has hidden away because he protects a secret. The manuscript versions of his published books are magic and if opened, the manuscripts release the monsters from the pages.

Something almost every writer dreams about. “Oh, if my characters were just real.”

The cast was funny and engaging and made you care about the characters. Jack Black was just awesome and I hope his kids loved this movie.  I found myself laughing out loud and waiting anxiously to see what was next. It was so well done, that I couldn’t wait to watch it again and purchased a ventriloquist doll from ebay right away. I loved this movie and watched it three times already. I have placed this as a staple movie right along with Goonies.

It’s a family movie. Although I had to explain to my grandkids a few things. My 5 year old granddaughter asked, “What’s a manuscript?” I told her what they were and she asked if I had any.

“Oh, sure,” I told her. “Dozens in the bins in my closet.”

“Are they magical? Can we open them?”

“Um, yeah, but you may want to be careful considering I write about the apocalypse. You can release Frank (my hero from my sci fi series). But watch out for Iso Stasis, it has a big foot like monster.”

The questions didn’t end. Luckily I divide my manuscripts. End of the world, non end of the world. And I showed her and my grandson the bins. I left them staring with marked curiosity and went to my office. Telling them, “Remember, only open that bin,” I pointed to the non Armageddon ones.

A few minutes later I hear Violet scream, “Great! Oh, just great Boo. Now you released the Apocalypse!”

I laughed at how she freaked out and then it hit me. Goosebumps not only entertained us during the movie, it stayed with us after and that is what a good movie is supposed to do.

Healthy School Lunch VS Filling School Lunch

I’m probably gonna get slammed for this, but I have to ask. Is it more important that our kids eat in school or what they eat? In a perfect world, they would eat healthy, fresh food and toss out only the empty plate. But that’s not the case.

Admittedly, before this school year, my attention to Mrs. Obama’s healthy school lunch initiative was, ‘oh, okay, that may suck’. But really … it does suck. Maybe not for the privileged schools who don’t rely on government funding. But for those who do … lunch time is bogus.

The guidelines are strict, if you don’t follow them, you don’t get funding. Sure there are creative ways and tasty ways around the lunches, but a small school or low income school doesn’t have the funds or resources to get creative.

What they are left with are lunches that follow the guide lines. The lunch lady’s hands are tied.

Some kids get one good meal a day. They rely heavily on the school lunch.. One … and now, that one healthy lunch, their only meal, ends up in the garbage. We waste.

While the well funded, privately funded schools can tastefully dart their way around, low budgets are stuck with what they can afford. And it isn’t great. Whole grain pasta … is gummy. Kids won’t eat it. Whole grain pizza … really? Whole grain bread … dry.

Try as they may, the lunch ladies can only do so much with the guidelines and funding. Take a look at some of these lunches.

I have seen it first hand, volunteering in the cafeteria, I watch kids throw away more than they eat. The ones that eat all their lunches are the ones that pack. And I’ll tell you, the parents don’t follow guidelines, they follow instincts on what their children will eat.

I understand the need for healthy. And yes, let’s make sure lunch is balanced. The five food groups offered at every meal. But if a child will eat a plate of pizza and have a fully belly, to me it is better than a full plate going in the trash. A hungry child will not have a good day in school.

Kids have been eating school lunches for decades without issues.

The government can push healthy lunches on a kid, but if he or she doesn’t eat it, you can bet when they get home from school, they’ll chow down on junk. So what’s the alternative.

What a child eats should be a parent’s choice. Let the lunch ladies do what they do and make a good lunch, if a prent doesn’t think that lunch is healthy, let the parent PACK the healthy lunch.

Lots of pictures of Mrs. Obama eating at a school cafeteria, but I can bet if she had to eat the inner city, low income school lunches, she’d have a different attitude.

She doesn’t eat school lunches every day, our kids do.

By the way, I’m still convinced her healthy eating is a front. Bet me she has Oreos in her closet, Ben and Jerry’s in the white House Freezer and Dominoes on Speed dial. We just don’t know it.

400 Days (Movie) - Review and Ending theory

If you are like me, after watching the movie 400 Days, you immediately went on line to google the ending. You probably screamed at the screen and or just scratched your head. After watching the movie for an hour and a half, I decided to go back and watch it in pieces, breaking down the movie so I could rest easy about it.

Yes, I’m not kidding, the movie will drive you nuts because you think there just aren’t enough clues. But there are. It's well written and well acted.

If you haven’t seen 400 Days … STOP.  Watch it and come back. This entire review/explanation is full of spoilers. You have been warned. SPOILERS AHEAD.

400 days deals with a psychological experiment to test the effects of astronauts in space for long periods of time. It's a solid movie that will keep you entertained and guessing.

Hint one – Psychological experiment. That alone tells you it all. But they want you to believe, is it? Is it all an experiment or did the apocalypse really happen while they were tucked 100 feet underground in a simulated ship?

The film gave plenty of clues to explain the ending of the film.

SPOILERS

In the beginning, it is painfully obvious that the Doctor is a part of it. “Remember our deal,” the director says. Although, she explains later that he was reminding her to stay estranged from her boyfriend the captain.

Doctor chick, Emily, gives injections to the men. Not herself, she takes pills. In every experiment there has to be a constant. She is the constant. The pills help her keep clarity, while the injections cause hallucinations in the men. Hence why she keeps testing them.

Her supposed death, was a fake, if you recall she took extra pills, got dizzy and went to sleep. A set up.

Hallucinogenics cause a projection of fear or something in your subconscious, hence why Botany boy, Bug, kept seeing his dead son.— He wasn’t going crazy, seeing a ghost, he was hallucinating.  When he figures it out, the experiment snatches him away. Actually …. Emily helps with that. That’s why she disappeared briefly. Being part of the experiment, she had to step back so Theo could discover the blood bath. She had to get Bug out of the way.

Now for some things you may have missed or not thought of. When they have the explosions, the ship rocks. Dane Cook's character (My favorite and most well rounded) asks, “Are we moving?”

I believe they were moved to the stage.  Where everything was set up. The crew said the town wasn’t there before the experiment. So in the apocalypse the town appears with power?

Moon dust? Okay, serious, if the moon fell apart, there’d be a lot more damage than  rocks falling from the sky. How about tsunami’s? The computer read outs could have been duped by the experiment.

As a writer, we place the truth in a character. A glossary guy. But sometimes you may miss that the character is giving away the truth. We think he’s nuts or unbelievable. Dane Cook is that character.

He continually states it’s all part of the experiment, reminding the viewer that none of it is real. He does so passionately. Like shouting. "Dudes, listen to me. It 's not real." But we don’t pay attention, we’re too busy hoping it is not.

He states that all the towns’ people were familiar and were the reporters. He is correct. The reporters are credited in the movie credits as reporter 1, 2, 3 etc. But none of the townspeople get a credit. Because they would confirm they were also reporters.

The  big one, and the reason Cook disappears is he figured it out and recognized the town hottie as Miss February. She indeed was one in the same. The mag with her picture was done on purpose to see if he would remember, he did, he called them on it, he was taken out.

The final death scene, well, to be honest, maybe they were real, maybe not. One thing is for sure, it was nothing but an experiment, The surveillance camera view at the end along with the hatch opening and the sunlight coming in were, in my opinion, final confirmation.

I’m not saying I’m right, and you can double check what I put here, but I’m pretty darn sure the filmmakers left enough hints to let us turn off the movie with the certainty that it was all a big experiment. I liked the movie, I liked it more once I figured it out completely … at least to my satisfaction.

Bite Your Tongue: Trump is NO Reagan

I posted a simple question on my Facebook page – Why Trump? I wanted to know what people thought. One person responded that she believed (Not felt) That people saw him as another Reagan. What! No, she had to be wrong. Just reading those words sent me into a tizzy. Trump like Reagan … uh, can we say ‘Blasphemy’?

Believing that there was no way people thought that, at least the masses. I googled ‘Trump like Reagan’ and lo and behold, not to my surprise, the first thing that popped up was Trump comparing his campaign to Reagan.

Seriously?

Maybe I am taking it too much to heart. As a diehard Reagan fan, there was only one Reagan. And my fandom comes from the man he was, not even so much his politics. He was charming and funny. Trump is rude and obnoxious. Reagan had class, Trump needs to take one on manners. Reagan was strong, Trump is a mean bully. It’s like Prince Charming VS Archie Bunker, apples to Oranges. Sweet pickles to olives. There is no comparison.

Admittedly, I am not a Trump fan. I disliked him when the world disliked him. Remember when he was a joke? To me, he still is.

Any comparison to Reagan is blasphemous.

People talk about how Reagan wasn’t a politician. Really? Wasn’t he a Governor first?

Hey, Trump? You wanna ban Muslims? Kick out all undocumented immigrants, build a freaking wall? Conservatives like to forget that Reagan gave amnesty to 3 million undocumented immigrants. Yeah, he did.

To further educate Trump. Foreign Policy isn’t a policy that is foreign to people and they don’t ‘get’.

Our Nuclear triad is not a spicy new gum.

Granted there are a few similarities between Reagan and Trump and I begrudgingly mention.  They both had more than one wife, both are 69 running for office, they both worried about their hair. But could you see Ronald Reagan saying, “Yeah, my daughter Patty, I’d date her if we weren’t related.”? No! But Trump said that about his own kid. That’s wrong on so many levels.

But then again, his daughter is female. Trump loves women only if they look a certain way.

Reagan would never publically call or even admit to calling another woman a ‘fat pig’, like Trump. Let’s see, Trump claimed all women on The Apprentice flirted with him, blames Hillary for Bill cheating (So freaking male), dissed Carly Fiorina’s looks, called a female reporter a dog, said Meagan Kelly Bleeds from ‘wherever’ said a breastfeeding mother was disgusting for needing to pump her milk, and since ‘disgusting’ is his favorite word, let’s not forget Hillary using the restroom was disgusting. Like he never had to take a dump or a piss. What is he Kim jong un?

To twist-a-quote from Lloyd Benson, “I loved Ronald Reagan, I studied Ronald Reagan, you Trump are no Ronald Reagan.”

I feel much better now that I wrote this. I’ll step off my soapbox now.

Walking Dead Spoiler Splash S5E12

Hey all

In case you don't feel like going everywhere to gather up the information, my sources have gathered them all.

From multiple sources, including and not limited to, The Spoiling Dead Fans, Wetpaint, TV guide, for your reading pleasure here you go...

From our friends at The Spoiling Dead Fans

(THANKS GUYS) FOR some awesome pictures and other info, check out their site!

{WARNING SPOILERS}

TSDF EXCLUSIVE: tidbits for "Remember". The scenes/info may or may not be in order - Prime
Credit: Bill Nye the Spoiler Guy

- While Rick is walking through ASZ, there are two houses next door to one another. Aaron tells him they can have both. Rick, as a precaution, makes them all sleep in the same house in the same room for the first night. The leader of ASZ comes around and comments on them staying in the same house. The next day Rick talks about them not having to share a room.

-While Rick is in his new house he receives his first visitor. A shirtless Rick (yummmmm) meets Alexandra (character name not known) at the door. Right away she offers to cut his hair. Her son is around Carls age so they immediately have something in common. There are a few kids Carl's age and a girl that Carl may be interested in.

-Each person in the group is given a specific job. Daryl is the only person who doesn't have a job assigned to him and doesn't seem to like the place. He spends a lot of time on the porch (from the preview). At one point, he skins a possum even though there is plenty of good food to eat.

-The group is shown how to do a 'run'. A son of one of the community's leaders has a walker chained up, which ends up missing. It creeps up on the group from out of nowhere. One of them stabs the walker and the leader's son throws a fit (Lizzie anyone?). Glenn ends up punching the guy who chained the walker. The guy's mother thanks Glenn for teaching her son a lesson.

-In the house Carl is in he hears a noise upstairs. With knife in hand, Carl opens the door (from the preview). It's empty apart from some magazines which we find out later belong to the local kids. They used the house as a hangout. No walkers behind the door though. Carl is just imagining or thinking like his father; always on the look out.

-At one point, Carol mentions the group may possibly get weak if they stay at the community. They want to stay, but it's more of a concern they will become weak. Rick then says they won't get weak. He goes on to says that if the people in the ASZ don't make it, the group will just take it.

Note: the information is correct at the time of posting. As always, anything can change by the time we see the episode.

Credit: The Spoiler Demons

-The episode ends on the eve of the group's second night at the safe zone. The ending scene is the group talking about "becoming weak"(mentioned in our spoilers on Tuesday). Earlier during the day, Rick leaves the compound with a satchel to go exploring. He goes to the area where he placed his gun in the blender. Carl appears from behind the building. Rick doesn't seem bothered that Carl is outside the walls. Carl sneaks out to follow a girl who lives in the ASZ. She sneaks over the wall to explore. (Just like Ellie in The Last of Us game) Carl loses her and bumps into Rick. Some walkers come and the father/son tag team take them out. A walker grabs Rick's boot and Rick goes to stab the walker in the head but Carl wants to do it to prove he has balls.

-Alexandra Breckenridge, we confirm to be playing Jessie. She is the one who cuts Ricks hair.

-Deanna is the leader of Alexandria Safe Zone. She's an odd, older woman with blonde, shoulder length hair.

<><><><>

ALSO from our compilation goddess who gathered ALL the info 

1) Title of Sunday’s episode 5.12 is ‘Remember”; 5.13 is ‘Forget’.  Title of 5.14 – Spend!  Sunday night- Rick will finally lose the beard, which is in Norman Reedus’ custody! 

2 houses- all together the first night then we’ll see the split. Daryl has trouble fitting in of course and being comfortable. Carol  wiorries they will be “too soft” by staying at ASZ and Rick still has his guard up- he goes back and retrieves his weapon and we get Anthrax’s Scott Ian as a guest walker!

2.) Instead of Douglas Monroe leading Alexandria in the comic, we have Deanna!  Interesting twist and rumored to be Kate Vernon (Battlestar Galactica) but not confirmed.  Second female leader for the series after Dawn at Grady- both in season 5.

Other characters in Alexandria Safe Zone:

1)Alexandra Breckinridge-  casting code name “Samantha” which many fans expect to be the Jessie role from the comic. I think she’s definitely Jessie who will likely rock Rick’s world a little.

2) Michael Traynor – Nicholas

3) Elijah Marcano – Mikey

4) Ann Mahoney – Olivia (groomed Rick in the comic)

5) Corey Brill – Pete  (surgeon mentioned in The Distance, small role in comic)

6) Katelyn – Enid

7) Major Dotson - Sam

3) How does Rick’s group fit into life in the ASZ?  “That's absolutely the drama at the heart of the rest of the season.”  We know Carol worries in Sunday’s episode that staying may make them ‘too soft’; we know Daryl struggles to adjust to people and routine despite his successes at the prison.

4)  Season finale, episode 5.16 will be 90 minutes which means we’ll get around 60 minutes of show instead of usual 42-50. 

5) Official synopsis for 5.16 Daryl finds himself in trouble while out on a run. Meanwhile, in Alexandria, Rick and his group continue to feel like outsiders as danger lurks near the gates.  Title may be "How the Harvest Gets Home".

6) Anthrax’s Scott Ian appears as a walker Sunday night, and we’ll see Rick retrieve the gun he buried in the blender outside that shack! Greg Nicotero directs

7.) 5.13 - Forget: Rick and the group continue to acclimate to their new surroundings.

5.14 - Spend: Rick and his group face a number of challenges while trying to secure their new home.

Spoiler Splash - Walking Dead S5E11

Make sure you tune in this week to the Apocalypse Nana show, 9 PM EXT Prepper Broadcasting Network, when we will have a visit from the Spoiler Fairies.

In the meantime, let me share what I have found out.

{SPOILERS AHEAD}

Examine the sneak peak video for this week’s episode and look at second mark 22. Looks to me like Glen comes awfully close to being bit.

EDIT FRIDAY FEB 20 - Please visit Spoiling the Dead Facebook
Here is a tease of what they have
- Rick and Judith stay behind at barn, Aaron is tied up. Judith won't stop crying, Aaron offers some apple sauce which Rick believes to be poisoned.

From Wet Paint – This is the episode Rick loses his beard. So that tells me they arrive at Alexandria safe Zone. CORRECTION (As told by SpoilingDeadfans) Rick loses his beard in Episode 12, they only arrive at Alexandria Safe Zone.

So all that hoopla in the barn from the previews is just that.

So let’s deduct. We have seen from the previews that the group runs into trouble. We know from the GN, that Aaron (The clean and neat survivor) is not a bad guy, so who is after the group? Walkers or the Wolves? Wolves being perhaps AKA the Saviors from the GN.

Remember in Episode 5.9 we saw the graffiti on the wall about Wolves and the ‘W’ carved into the forehead of the walker.

Last week, I discovered that information I provided was also placed on another site first. A site I was honestly unaware of. So this week, I received info and was directed to that site.

Allow me to credit them correctly this week.

Thanks to The Spoiling Dead Fans (thespoilingdeadfans.com) I have the following information. Check out their site (Registration is appreciated) and also like them on Facebook. They have some cool info.

Including …

Eric, Aaron’s partner makes an appearance this week. Which again reiterates they get to ASF.

From The Spoiling Dead Fans facebook page (Credited to their own Obi Wan)

The scene opens with the group hanging out in the barn doing stuff and thangs. Daryl is cleaning his BFF aka his crossbow. Rick is sitting on the ground with Judith, while Carl is messing with a piece of wood off the barn's wall.

Maggie comes into the barn announcing to the group, "This is Aaron." Daryl immediately approaches the barn door and makes sure there is no one outside. He then conducts a nice little TSA frisk on Aaron. Maggie states that she has already searched Aaron and removed his weapon.

The group, wary of this stranger, surrounds Aaron with their weapons pointed at him. Awkward Aaron offers an awkward "hi". Rick asks Maggie for Aaron's weapon. She hands over his pistol and officer Rick assertively checks it for ammo.

Rick asks Aaron if he wants something from them. Sasha says that he has a camp that he wants the group to "audition" for. Aaron explains that he believes the group would be valuable additions to his community.

Aaron asks Sasha to hand Rick his backpack and says there is an envelope in the front pocket. Aaron explains he couldn't just come along without some proof that his community exists. He shows Rick a photo of his community which features large walls. He mentions that their walls are strong and nothing dead or alive can get in. He says that security and their survivors are their top priorities. Aaron also mentions that it is his job to convince the group to follow him.

Before Aaron can explain anymore, an unamused Rick walks straight up to him and delivers an unforgiving punch right in the face, knocking him out cold.

AND finally ….

Some interesting Easter Eggs from 5.9 and 5.10.

From 5.9 – Most of us know Glen’s fate from the GN (bludgeoned with a bat). I wonder if the discovery of the baseball bat during the trip to Noah’s home a foreshadowing of things to come for Glen.

From 5.10 – Perhaps it isn’t Maggie that commits suicide. Any one notice in the barn, that Sasha slept under a loop of rope. Foreshadowing maybe she’ll be the one who attempts suicide.

I promise to post as I find more out. Thanks for stopping by!