I think I said something about staying on topic with each blog post. I feel like I need to say a few things though, and I'll start with the unbelievable disrespect the right has shown for President Obama for 8 years. Obama is a constitutional scholar and he is a good a human being as we've ever had for a president. He leads the right way--by walking softly and carrying a big stick (thanks Teddy). He tries to please everyone--to a fault, because all Republicans did was thumb their noses at him. Obama faced more obstruction than any president in history. And yet he still saved the auto industry, was able to get the ACA passed in order to get more people than ever on health insurance, he killed Bin Laden when Bush could care less, and he tried like hell to pass jobs/infrastructure bills. The GOP blocked everything either in the House or in the Senate by filibuster even when the Dems had a majority there. He spearheaded getting the Iranians to stop making nuclear weapons, and meanwhile Republicans are against that deal because they like sanctions better (and let's face it, because they want to go to war there to grab more oil). Most importantly perhaps is that he acted to increase our use of renewable energy to try to reverse climate change. All of it and people just still shit on the guy. The one thing that really ticks me off the most though, is that they keep saying he's a weak leader. The GOP wants a leader like Vladimir Putin, or Trump--bullies who are just alpha males. To them, alpha males make better leaders, despite the fact that ultra right wing policies are extremely dangerous to us all.
So Donald Trump has taken just a few of his intelligence briefings. You'd think that you would want to know who is plotting to terrorize us next or trying to influence our elections (ha), but the fact that he has time to spew shit on Twitter but not for those things scares the piss out of me. I'm still of the camp that thinks and knows that 9/11 was preventable. Not only did Bill Clinton warn George W. Bush about the fact Bin Laden wanted to strike in the U.S., but Bush infamously ignored his August 6, 2001 intelligence briefing that re-iterated just that. Five weeks later our country was changed forever, and we lost 3000 American lives. Then when W and Cheney lied us into two wars, we lost and continue to lose more, to the tune of 4500 more lives plus another 30K+ wounded. Not than any lives are more precious than others, but we've grilled Hillary up and down for almost 5 years about Benghazi where four Americans were killed. Why are we not investigating Bush and Cheney for lying to us and wasting all of those lives and money? Well, in part because Obama was too nice. But that's another story. But the bottom line is a president that is ignoring warnings makes us more at risk than ever.
I'm sick and tired of the same old GOP policy of trickle down. We have a recent example of how this doesn't work, in Kansas where Governor Brownback slashed taxes to almost nothing and expected prosperity overnight by then also cutting social programs. Kansas is a financial mess right now and yet this moron wants Trump to employ his ridiculous strategy nationwide. Let's also remember that this policy leads to market crashes (see Reagan 1987 and Bush 2008). States like Kansas and here in Wisconsin with extreme right governors, all they do is slash corporate taxes and give taxpayer money to corporations who then re-purpose that money to CEOs and stockholders while moving operations overseas. All of that leads to more wealth inequality which only leads to undermining democracy more every day.
Kellyanne Conway, just shut the fuck up already. We are not going to respect your boss just because you or he say he deserves it. Not only has Obama been disrespected to enormous lengths, Trump's values and actions and what he says only reinforces what those of us who know better think--that he's a horrible human being who should be nowhere near the White House.
And I'm sick and tired of Trump supporters making comments like "I am enjoying my cup of liberal tears....you lost, get over it!"....yes we lost, in large part because your party prevented large swaths of Democrats from voting. Also because of James Comey's timely work, and because of Russian hacking in order to hand your guy the White House. And let's also remember that Trump finished 3 million votes behind Hillary, so this was no fucking landslide in his direction. Fine, if these are tears, they are real tears not because our candidate lost, but because the one who won is so dangerous that we are legitimately fearing for the future of our country and of the world. So enjoy those tears, and I hope that you choke on them just enough to need medical care when you need it most and after your party has taken that care away from you. And to you Trump supporters, give me a policy you like other than "he's better than Hillary or Obama!" I don't think you can. So enough already, but prove me wrong and I will happily admit that here in a few years if we are all still on the planet.
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Hypocrisy and Extremity
Republicans are hypocrites. Big fat giant hypocrites.
I'm going to try reining in my desire to go off on rants and just focus on one or two topics at a time. But let's be real here--Republicans feel like they have the keys to the candy store, and they don't give a shit that they're about to inflict pain on any Americans that are not wealthy and/or extreme and powerful GOP players.
You want hypocrisy? President-elect Donald Trump, and Michael Flynn, the incoming National Security Advisor, think Hilary Clinton should be in jail because she had a private e-mail server and because she was accused of leaking classified information. Meanwhile, Flynn had a private e-mail server when he worked at the Pentagon as chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency. And Trump considered David Petraeus for Secretary of State. This one's a beauty, because this was Hilary's position from which she is accused but not found guilty of, you know, e-mails. But Petraeus actually gave classified info to his former mistress and hid it in the walls of his house. He pled guilty to this and was convicted. So why is it okay to have an actual criminal in that position but not one that was proven innocent (I'm not defending her completely, but I'm just pointing out the sheer hubris of the Republicans).
We find out that Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell wanted the classified info about the Russians hacking the election stay classified, and lookie here....his wife Elaine Chao was given a cabinet position by Trump. Meanwhile, the whole thing about Russian hacking to help Trump get elected is utterly terrifying. If that was something done to help Hilary, those two-faced bastards of the GOP would be all over her.
Speaking of which, Jason Chaffetz, head of the House oversight committee, had planned on more and more investigations into Hilary had she been elected, but is in no rush to investigate Trump for all of his ridiculous and blatant conflicts of interest, because he hadn't even been inaugurated yet. Really? But would he give Hilary that same courtesy? Absolutely not.
With every cabinet pick, I become more and more terrified. But the one that is Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson being the pick for Secretary of State is the worst by far. He and Vladimir Putin are tight, just like the hilarious SNL skit last night portrayed (yes, Donald, it's fucking hilarious). Between that and all of the pro-fracking, pro-oil, anti-clean energy extremist picks in the incoming cabinet, spells trouble for climate change research and let's be honest and just a little hyperbolic here--speeding up the end of the world as we know it. That's not to say of course that having a dumbass in charge of our country doesn't spell doom in any other number of ways, but this is just way over the top. Oh and having The Weather Channel's Kait Parker debunk a Breitbart story about the earth not warming is extremely therapeutic.
Every pick for that cabinet or everyone being considered are all extreme right wingers. Are you people that voted for Trump okay with that as well as everything I just wrote about here? Or are you starting to worry as well?
I'm going to try reining in my desire to go off on rants and just focus on one or two topics at a time. But let's be real here--Republicans feel like they have the keys to the candy store, and they don't give a shit that they're about to inflict pain on any Americans that are not wealthy and/or extreme and powerful GOP players.
You want hypocrisy? President-elect Donald Trump, and Michael Flynn, the incoming National Security Advisor, think Hilary Clinton should be in jail because she had a private e-mail server and because she was accused of leaking classified information. Meanwhile, Flynn had a private e-mail server when he worked at the Pentagon as chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency. And Trump considered David Petraeus for Secretary of State. This one's a beauty, because this was Hilary's position from which she is accused but not found guilty of, you know, e-mails. But Petraeus actually gave classified info to his former mistress and hid it in the walls of his house. He pled guilty to this and was convicted. So why is it okay to have an actual criminal in that position but not one that was proven innocent (I'm not defending her completely, but I'm just pointing out the sheer hubris of the Republicans).
We find out that Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell wanted the classified info about the Russians hacking the election stay classified, and lookie here....his wife Elaine Chao was given a cabinet position by Trump. Meanwhile, the whole thing about Russian hacking to help Trump get elected is utterly terrifying. If that was something done to help Hilary, those two-faced bastards of the GOP would be all over her.
Speaking of which, Jason Chaffetz, head of the House oversight committee, had planned on more and more investigations into Hilary had she been elected, but is in no rush to investigate Trump for all of his ridiculous and blatant conflicts of interest, because he hadn't even been inaugurated yet. Really? But would he give Hilary that same courtesy? Absolutely not.
With every cabinet pick, I become more and more terrified. But the one that is Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson being the pick for Secretary of State is the worst by far. He and Vladimir Putin are tight, just like the hilarious SNL skit last night portrayed (yes, Donald, it's fucking hilarious). Between that and all of the pro-fracking, pro-oil, anti-clean energy extremist picks in the incoming cabinet, spells trouble for climate change research and let's be honest and just a little hyperbolic here--speeding up the end of the world as we know it. That's not to say of course that having a dumbass in charge of our country doesn't spell doom in any other number of ways, but this is just way over the top. Oh and having The Weather Channel's Kait Parker debunk a Breitbart story about the earth not warming is extremely therapeutic.
Every pick for that cabinet or everyone being considered are all extreme right wingers. Are you people that voted for Trump okay with that as well as everything I just wrote about here? Or are you starting to worry as well?
Friday, November 25, 2016
Why I'm pissed off, sad and terrified
Seventeen days ago, our country elected a petulant man-child (PMC) to lead our country. Amazingly, there are enough people in this country who don't understand the ramifications of this. Most people I know went into a period of depression and anger....finding it hard to focus on work, or on anything because of feeling stunned that this PMC could actually be elected as the leader of the free world (free is a relative term in 2016, by the way). But what has followed for me and most liberals since has been more fear than anything. Well, fear, and wanting to fight back.
I've had all of those emotions swing back and forth and back again and forth again. But I usually land on fear, or more specifically, terror.
In past years, I've been hesitant to post my political opinions on Facebook or Twitter or anywhere else. But since November 8, I have decided to be silent no more. And I'm supplementing that now with this blog. I don't care if nobody reads it but me. I don't care if people take offense to it--especially right wingers, because much of what I'm feeling will be aimed your way.
So why am I afraid? Well, some of my Republican friends have suggested giving the PMC a chance, that maybe he will surprise us--you know, because he's so successful running his businesses. Well I'm sorry, but I will not give him a chance. He lost the popular vote by over 2 million. Two fucking million. I will not give him the benefit of the doubt. Because I know what kind of person he is and how he's run his campaign and how he's put his transition team and cabinet together.
The PMC put Michael Flynn in charge of National Security. This dude is brutally anti-Muslim, which is perfect for putting the PMC's initiative of not letting Muslims into the country--but extremely dangerous to foreign relations. We start banning Muslims and deporting Mexicans, and you don't think those policies will lead to more terror attacks? Nikki Haley, the sitting Governor of South Carolina, will be the ambassador to the U.N. She has as much foreign policy experience as I do. Dr. Ben Carson as the head of Housing and Urban Development, because, you know, he's black. And most ignorant right wingers associate blacks and urban as being one and the same. So instead of putting Dr. Carson in charge of Health and Human Services, the PMC puts him in a position where he knows nothing, save for growing up in the inner city (really?) and having patients from the inner city. Oh, okay!
Steve Bannon, the Breitbart guy and so-called founder of the "alt-right" movement, is the PMC's chief strategist. Bannon has been described as racist and anti-semitic. Putting a guy like this in that position is the kind of thing that empowers white supremacist groups like the one that convened in DC last weekend, and made no bones about the fact that they felt empowered under the PMC and saluted him the way Hitler's followers did 80 years ago. This is a bit too close to home. I have a Jewish wife and child being raised Jewish and I'm legitimately afraid of being targets.
Kris Kobach is an adviser on immigration. This guy brought us Interstate Crosscheck, the discriminatory group that claimed to fight "voter fraud" and instead wiped off huge swaths of voters in swing states that had last names that sounded African American, Asian or Hispanic, claiming they were voting twice across state lines. Really? Kobach is anti-immigrant, anti-gay, and an all-around jackass. But don't take my word for it. Read this.
Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. Betsy DeVos has ties to the Koch Brothers, who give gazillions of dollars to right wing causes that will slash their taxes, allow them to park money overseas and allow them to spew pollution into the air and have no regulations in place to stop them. DeVos herself is a charter school advocate. Well maybe that's not the right word. She wants to abolish public education in our country. I'm sorry, but education is right, not a privilege, in this country. And DeVos and her minions are going to try and bastardize it.
I could go on. But all of the people the PMC is surrounding himself with are dangerous. But the PMC himself is a problem too. He will not put his assets in a blind trust, and thinks the law protects him from running his businesses and combining them with public service. Let me repeat that--the PMC, who accused Hillary Clinton of being crooked over and over again, is quite literally being corrupt with all of these conflicts of interest, and doesn't really care. His campaign communicated with Russia, who helped him by using their propaganda efforts to sway the election his way. So when Russia invades another Crimea or Georgia, is the PMC going to be tough or is he going to let his buddy Putin do whatever the hell he wants, because he helped get him elected. If alarm bells are not going off in your head right now, you cannot possibly have a pulse or a conscience.
I'm afraid of people who got health care for the first time under Obama will have it taken away by whatever genius replacement plan the righties have in mind.
I'm afraid for women who will not be able to receive care that they need (and yes, sometimes, abortions) from places like Planned Parenthood because religious nut bags are feeling empowered to overturn Roe vs. Wade. You want small government? Stay out of womens' vaginas.
I'm afraid for LGBT people who fought for the right to marry and won, and now may have to face the fact that an all-GOP Congress will try to reverse that law.
I'm afraid of the PMC condemning and trying to control the narrative about him and the right, in the press. If anything the right is guilty of paying for their own narrative, making it so that they are afraid to print truth. This method of propaganda is very much a trait in dictatorships.
I'm afraid of climate change, and the fact that the PMC is a climate change denier and his team will pull us out of the Paris agreement. The rest of the world has to be looking at us with a big giant WTF, but also that we are refusing to do our part to transition to clean energy before climate related weather events and rises in sea level start to affect us in ways we never thought possible in our lifetimes. I'm afraid of this for my kid and for your kids and grand kids. Catastrophe is right around the corner if we ignore climate change in order to rely on fossil fuels for another 50 years.
I'm afraid of Medicare and Social Security being privatized-- another word for putting a profit motive on it, which won't ever have greed attached to it, right? This would never cause another market crash, right?
As I mentioned earlier, I am afraid of increased terror attacks because the rest of the world will become even more hateful and resentful of us. We will answer by more bombing and invading and spending money we don't have on those attacks. It's the Republican way.
I am getting the feeling that this blog post is already too long. I need to reserve my thoughts for more posts instead of ranting, which I can do all day.
But the bottom line is this. We are supposed to be a self-governed democracy, but big money in politics has turned us into an oligarchy, where the rich few rule our country with their money and their pet candidates and their bought judiciaries. We are losing our voice, despite running a candidate who won by over 2 million in the popular vote. We are being condemned for lashing out and protesting the PMC's election--told we are babies who need a diaper and a pacifier. Remember how the Tea Party began? It was in response to Obama being elected. Those same people are attacking our own freedom of speech and the freedom to assemble. They are also calling out people like George Soros for supporting protests. I'm sorry, but you can't call someone "evil" who is a Hungarian born Jew that survived Nazi Germany and who is a huge supporter of human rights groups. And for every Soros that supports left wing causes, there are 100 that support the right--i.e. mostly taking rights away from people and trying to silence them.
Can you tell I'm pissed off? This was a rambling post, and after this my posts will be more specific. But we cannot afford to be silent. We need to stop the PMC administration from even happening, if possible. It's dangerous, corrupt and if you couldn't tell from the reactions of most people the past seventeen days, extremely unsettling.
I've had all of those emotions swing back and forth and back again and forth again. But I usually land on fear, or more specifically, terror.
In past years, I've been hesitant to post my political opinions on Facebook or Twitter or anywhere else. But since November 8, I have decided to be silent no more. And I'm supplementing that now with this blog. I don't care if nobody reads it but me. I don't care if people take offense to it--especially right wingers, because much of what I'm feeling will be aimed your way.
So why am I afraid? Well, some of my Republican friends have suggested giving the PMC a chance, that maybe he will surprise us--you know, because he's so successful running his businesses. Well I'm sorry, but I will not give him a chance. He lost the popular vote by over 2 million. Two fucking million. I will not give him the benefit of the doubt. Because I know what kind of person he is and how he's run his campaign and how he's put his transition team and cabinet together.
The PMC put Michael Flynn in charge of National Security. This dude is brutally anti-Muslim, which is perfect for putting the PMC's initiative of not letting Muslims into the country--but extremely dangerous to foreign relations. We start banning Muslims and deporting Mexicans, and you don't think those policies will lead to more terror attacks? Nikki Haley, the sitting Governor of South Carolina, will be the ambassador to the U.N. She has as much foreign policy experience as I do. Dr. Ben Carson as the head of Housing and Urban Development, because, you know, he's black. And most ignorant right wingers associate blacks and urban as being one and the same. So instead of putting Dr. Carson in charge of Health and Human Services, the PMC puts him in a position where he knows nothing, save for growing up in the inner city (really?) and having patients from the inner city. Oh, okay!
Steve Bannon, the Breitbart guy and so-called founder of the "alt-right" movement, is the PMC's chief strategist. Bannon has been described as racist and anti-semitic. Putting a guy like this in that position is the kind of thing that empowers white supremacist groups like the one that convened in DC last weekend, and made no bones about the fact that they felt empowered under the PMC and saluted him the way Hitler's followers did 80 years ago. This is a bit too close to home. I have a Jewish wife and child being raised Jewish and I'm legitimately afraid of being targets.
Kris Kobach is an adviser on immigration. This guy brought us Interstate Crosscheck, the discriminatory group that claimed to fight "voter fraud" and instead wiped off huge swaths of voters in swing states that had last names that sounded African American, Asian or Hispanic, claiming they were voting twice across state lines. Really? Kobach is anti-immigrant, anti-gay, and an all-around jackass. But don't take my word for it. Read this.
Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. Betsy DeVos has ties to the Koch Brothers, who give gazillions of dollars to right wing causes that will slash their taxes, allow them to park money overseas and allow them to spew pollution into the air and have no regulations in place to stop them. DeVos herself is a charter school advocate. Well maybe that's not the right word. She wants to abolish public education in our country. I'm sorry, but education is right, not a privilege, in this country. And DeVos and her minions are going to try and bastardize it.
I could go on. But all of the people the PMC is surrounding himself with are dangerous. But the PMC himself is a problem too. He will not put his assets in a blind trust, and thinks the law protects him from running his businesses and combining them with public service. Let me repeat that--the PMC, who accused Hillary Clinton of being crooked over and over again, is quite literally being corrupt with all of these conflicts of interest, and doesn't really care. His campaign communicated with Russia, who helped him by using their propaganda efforts to sway the election his way. So when Russia invades another Crimea or Georgia, is the PMC going to be tough or is he going to let his buddy Putin do whatever the hell he wants, because he helped get him elected. If alarm bells are not going off in your head right now, you cannot possibly have a pulse or a conscience.
I'm afraid of people who got health care for the first time under Obama will have it taken away by whatever genius replacement plan the righties have in mind.
I'm afraid for women who will not be able to receive care that they need (and yes, sometimes, abortions) from places like Planned Parenthood because religious nut bags are feeling empowered to overturn Roe vs. Wade. You want small government? Stay out of womens' vaginas.
I'm afraid for LGBT people who fought for the right to marry and won, and now may have to face the fact that an all-GOP Congress will try to reverse that law.
I'm afraid of the PMC condemning and trying to control the narrative about him and the right, in the press. If anything the right is guilty of paying for their own narrative, making it so that they are afraid to print truth. This method of propaganda is very much a trait in dictatorships.
I'm afraid of climate change, and the fact that the PMC is a climate change denier and his team will pull us out of the Paris agreement. The rest of the world has to be looking at us with a big giant WTF, but also that we are refusing to do our part to transition to clean energy before climate related weather events and rises in sea level start to affect us in ways we never thought possible in our lifetimes. I'm afraid of this for my kid and for your kids and grand kids. Catastrophe is right around the corner if we ignore climate change in order to rely on fossil fuels for another 50 years.
I'm afraid of Medicare and Social Security being privatized-- another word for putting a profit motive on it, which won't ever have greed attached to it, right? This would never cause another market crash, right?
As I mentioned earlier, I am afraid of increased terror attacks because the rest of the world will become even more hateful and resentful of us. We will answer by more bombing and invading and spending money we don't have on those attacks. It's the Republican way.
I am getting the feeling that this blog post is already too long. I need to reserve my thoughts for more posts instead of ranting, which I can do all day.
But the bottom line is this. We are supposed to be a self-governed democracy, but big money in politics has turned us into an oligarchy, where the rich few rule our country with their money and their pet candidates and their bought judiciaries. We are losing our voice, despite running a candidate who won by over 2 million in the popular vote. We are being condemned for lashing out and protesting the PMC's election--told we are babies who need a diaper and a pacifier. Remember how the Tea Party began? It was in response to Obama being elected. Those same people are attacking our own freedom of speech and the freedom to assemble. They are also calling out people like George Soros for supporting protests. I'm sorry, but you can't call someone "evil" who is a Hungarian born Jew that survived Nazi Germany and who is a huge supporter of human rights groups. And for every Soros that supports left wing causes, there are 100 that support the right--i.e. mostly taking rights away from people and trying to silence them.
Can you tell I'm pissed off? This was a rambling post, and after this my posts will be more specific. But we cannot afford to be silent. We need to stop the PMC administration from even happening, if possible. It's dangerous, corrupt and if you couldn't tell from the reactions of most people the past seventeen days, extremely unsettling.
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