Is There A New Disease Called “Collapse Of Christianity Syndrome”?

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On the pandemic front things are still improving. The number of new cases has dropped dramatically, but even more importantly, the number of deaths is now dropping fast as well. More and more people are getting vaccinated and things are reopening faster and faster. However, we still have those who are completely stupid lingering and opening their mouths and putting their feet inside.

George Carlin once said during a comic routine that “somewhere is the worst doctor”. He is right. By process of elimination you can find the “worst” doctor. But, we don’t need to eliminate anyone anymore. We have discovered the worst doctor in the U.S. His name is Rand Paul.

This worst doctor announced the other day that he will not get the vaccine because he has “natural immunity” because he already had the virus. He never said everyone else should get the vaccine, so his supporters don’t expect they need it either. This Kentucky doctor is an opthamologist. In other words, he is an eye doctor. I guess he believes that makes him an expert in epidemiology which is the study of viruses and pandemics. I would also guess the vision care in Kentucky improved since he took to the Senate.

Now for other news. This story has lasted for over 30 years. It takes place in that lovely state of Alabama. It was 30 years ago that the state tried to bar Yoga from being taught in Alabama public schools. The crime of Yoga was that according to the so-called Christians in the state it was “a gateway to Hinduism”.

That argument is so stupid on its face value that we really must ask a very simple question. “Are Christians so weak in their beliefs that they fear the encroachment of any other religion into their ranks and the total collapse of Christianity?” This isn’t just about other religions encroaching, it is about any belief system or ideas that don’t comply with their slanted view of their own beliefs.

Think about this for a minute. Yoga is used in the west as an exercise and mental regimen. It is healthy and helps you learn to focus your mental capacities which helps improve mental health. Yes, it is part of the Hindu religion, but it is not required to believe in Hindu in order to gain the benefits of Yoga. As a matter of fact, it is very mainstream in the U.S. I have practiced Yoga and meditation for years, but I am not a Hindu and won’t every become one.

But, these so-called Christians were so terrified about it they tried to get it banned from being used in public schools to help their children. They are so insecure in their own belief system that they fear anything they believe contradicts it. That is the reason for this madness over banning Yoga.

Now, after 30 years of this fight, it is finally legal to practice Yoga in the public schools in Alabama. Well, sort of. There are lots of “you cannot” in the law that makes it legal now. It is just another example of civil rights being rolled back in our country at the hands of Republicans.

For example, the new law states “Chanting, mantras, mudras, use of mandalas, induction of hypnotic states, guided imagery, and namaste greetings shall be expressly prohibited.” Students practicing Yoga will not even be allowed to use “Om” while meditating. “Om” is a mantra used in association with breathing exercises and stretches. OOOH. That must be really something we need to be terrified about.

Then, if a student wants to practice Yoga at school, they must have a “permission slip signed by a parent that also states the parent understands that the practice is connected to Hinduism”. You see, that little thing about being involved in Hinduism is a must. Everyone must be afraid of something that is not Christian. Obviously, Hinduism is a very very evil thing to be avoided at all costs.

We need to define this irrational fear. I suggest we call it Collapse of Christianity Syndrome. This Collapse of Christianity Syndrome is a sickness where the patient is so insecure in their own beliefs that they must make all other beliefs illegal or their religion will collapse around them.

We must also recognize that the whole premise of Collapse of Christianity Syndrome is real. Whenever something like being taught Yoga in school comes up, these people who suffer from this syndrome jump to the forefront in defense of their religion. We have heard it used about everything from Yoga to same-sex marriage.

Remember Christians telling us that if we allow same-sex marriage the institution of heterosexual marriages would completely collapse and every heterosexual couple would be “forced” to get divorced? Well, I am still waiting to see that collapse. One of the biggest reason for this fear is Collapse of Christianity Syndrome. According to them, Christianity itself was under attack by the very idea that same-sex marriage could even be contemplated as a right.

It is also in Alabama where there was a huge push to “outlaw Sharia Law”. There has never been Sharia Law practiced anywhere in Alabama that I can find in my research. But, Sharia Law is Muslim and it is therefore anti-Christian and must be banned in law so Christians cannot be enticed to become Muslims. If you really want to look at reality, antisemitism is rooted in this Collapse of Christianity Syndrome.

This Collapse of Christianity Syndrome is a major factor in everything connected to religion in our country. We hear it in the screams about losing “religious freedoms” because you cannot legally discriminate against someone simply because of religious beliefs. We hear it in arguments about same-sex marriage and about any social issue.

The fight over Critical Race Theory isn’t really about race or true history on the right. It is about what I refer to as “slave owner Christianity”. Critical Race Theory is considered an attack on that religion because it will let our children know the truth about slavery and racism in our country. That is what the Collapse of Christianity Syndrome patients are really afraid about.

When I was young, one of the favorite sayings was “keep the faith”. It is obvious that those who suffer from this Collapse of Christianity Syndrome did not “keep the faith”. If they had, they wouldn’t be so terrified that their little fantasy world would collapse around them.

This new law in Alabama shows us two things. Republicans are still working to eliminate our civil rights through laws that are unconstitutional. And, they are working hand in glove with the victims of Collapse of Christianity Syndrome to bar all religions and all religious practices that don’t fit their little world.

Every day, the Republicans are stripping our rights from us in state after state. It won’t stop until you vote these victims of Collapse of Christianity Syndrome out of state legislatures.

Decision Day – Democracy Or Autocracy – That Is Our Choice

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Today is the final day you can cast your vote. However, more than 232,000 people will not be able to vote this year. They can’t vote because they have been killed by the coronavirus. They all did not have to die. They did not all have to be infected with the virus.

They were infected and died because the president did nothing to slow the spread of the virus. He pretended it did not exist. He pretended it would “all go away”. He lied to us about how serious it was and simply did not care if you got sick or died from it. All he cared about was two things. First, it happened on his watch and made him look bad. Second, it got more press than he did.

That is the simple facts. He was not the cause of the virus. Nature was the cause of the virus. But, he is the cause that we have suffered more than any other nation in the world from it. He is the cause that so many of our people died from the virus. His inaction was criminal.

However, being criminal is nothing new to trump. He was impeached for being a criminal using YOUR money to extort a foreign government. He has flouted the emoluments clause of the Constitution. He has allowed every member of his administration to violate the Hatch Act by allowing them to campaign on government time and money.

As we head into the final day of voting, he is announcing his plans to disenfranchise millions of votes because they “won’t be counted by the end of today”. Let me tell you this. Never in our history has every state counted all of the ballots by the end of “election day”. There is always a lag between election day and final results.

This is because of absentee ballots, or mail-in ballots. They are required by almost every state to be “postmarked” by election day. That means they are not all in on election day. As a result, many of these ballots has historically been counted days after the formal election day. And by the way, millions of those ballots have been cast by military personnel stationed overseas.

But trump and his Politburo don’t want that to happen this year. They are afraid that for the first time, Democratic votes outnumber Republican votes because more Democrats requested absentee ballots than Republicans. As a result, they are prepared to make sure those ballots are not counted. The irony is that a lot of those ballots will actually be marked for trump. Yet, they don’t want them counted because they want to steal the election.

That is not my opinion. It is what trump and the Politburo have announced they plan to do for the last four months, at least. And trump even said so the other day. He announced that once the “polling places close I am sending in the lawyers”. He really believes he can stop vote counting and steal the election that way.

To be honest, I have more faith in our election process than trump does. I believe that the poll workers are honest people who are just trying to ensure that our election goes off just like they have since we became a nation.

Of course, the best way to head off this attempt to steal the election is for everyone to vote. The bigger the election win for Biden, the least likely trump will be able to steal it. We have seen record numbers of people vote during the early voting season. Almost 100 million people have already voted. That is more than two-thirds of everyone who voted in 2016. That is a good sign.

However, we cannot let up. If you have not voted, you must go to the polls and cast your vote. You cannot let trump nor his enablers or thug supporters to keep you from voting. If you love your democracy, your country and consider yourself a “patriot” you must go to the polls and vote. I does matter. YOUR vote does count.

As I have written before, every freedom and every right you enjoy living in our country comes from your DUTY to vote. Voting is not just a right. It is a civic duty because your voice is needed to make sure our system works. The more people who vote, the better our country will be and the better our democracy will work.

We have lived in hell for the last four years. Don’t kid yoursleves. We have seen children ripped from their parents who came here seeking asylum from violence. Many of those children have still not been reunited with their parents. We have seen those childeren placed in cages and forced to sleep on concrete floors.

We have witnessed a virus be allowed to run rampant through our society. We have seen our economy destroyed by that virus. We keep hearing that it was the best ever and that trump made it that way. That is a lie. He inherited a growing and healthy economy from Obama. Then like everything else he inherited, he ran it into the ground with his lack of action about the virus.

We hear trump claim he had the “best stock market” in history. That is also not true. As a matter of fact, the stock market grew less under his watch than it did under three of his predecessors. Under Obama the stock market grew by 62 percent. Under Clinton it grew by 62 percent. Under George H. W. Bush it grew by 45 percent. Under trump it grew by 42 percent. So, he is not the “miracle worker” for the economy he claims to be.

We have heard reports that Putin put bounties on the heads of our troops and the coalition forces fighting with us in Afghanistan. Our failure did nothing about it. He never even called Putin to warn him it better not be true or there would be consequences. He allowed this crime to take place with no concern for our fighting forces.

He repaired about 400 miles of his vaunted border wall, then called it “new” wall. In fact, he has built about 4 miles of “new” fencing. By the way, Mexico has not paid a cent to help build his wall as he promised us. YOU paid for this Berlin Wall. He took credit for a bill helping veterans who had trouble getting appointments at the VA. But, that bill was signed by Obama two years before he took office.

He has sown division everywhere he has gone. He has attacked Gold Star families. He calls our free press the “enemy of the people”. He attacks his own administration because they won’t all go along with his schemes to “lock up” his opponents.

He has given white supremacists and fringe wacko militia types the green light to attack any people of color they choose. He doesn’t care about equality. He believes that only white people have rights. He is an open rascist and doesn’t care if you know it.

These are just some of the evidence that we have lived in hell for the last four years. Today is the last day to vote him out of office once and for all. Every election we hear that “this is the most important election in history”. This year, that statement is true. This election we are not just choosing between two men and two parties.

This year we are choosing our future and how our children and grandchildren will live. Will we leave them a free country with rights and liberties, or will we leave them with a Soviet styled dictatorship led by a white supremacist?

Are we going to leave them with a society that is united and working together to make our country even better, or are we going to leave them with a society where the privileged gain everything and we lose everything?

Are we going to leave them with a society where the idea of “justice for all” means something, or are we going to leave them with a society where only certain people are subject to justice? If you are a “friend” or supporter of the leader, you are above the law.

Are we going to leave them a society that is diverse and strong and working, or are we going to leave them a society that is divided and some people are “not worthy” of their freedoms because of their color or their religion or their love life?

For the first time in my lifetime, we are being forced to choose between the America that is the oldest democracy in the world or if we are going to allow it to become a dictatorship and live under the yoke of oppression.

Are we going to live in a free society with equality for all, or are we going to have a country, as Lindsey Graham said, African Americans and women have a place in America only if they follow “certain rules?”

Our supreme leader and his Politburo want us to live in Lindsey Graham’s America. They don’t want equality or justice. They want pure naked power and we are to live as they tell us how to live. I say NO! I say it is time for the entire bunch of autocrats of the Politburo party to be shoved out the door along with their supreme leader.

I ask that you join the rest of free Americans and reject this autocrat and his enablers. If you haven’t already done so, go to the polls and VOTE like your life depends on it. For the first time, it just might.

TODAY WE CAN STOP THE SHIRTS FROM MARCHING ALONG!

America Under Trump Today – The Legacy Of A Complete Idiot

We keep hearing how everything will go to hell in a handbasket if Joe Biden is elected in November.  But, the reality is that we have already gone to hell under this administration.  Everything going on and the lack of response lies right at the feet of our moron-in-chief.  Here are some examples.

Covid-19 continues to ravage our country.  Today there are over 6.1 million people who have been infected.  There are well over 185,000 dead from the virus.  We still have no national plan to fight the disease.  We still do not have ample testing to find out who has the virus.  We still do not have ample medical equipment to protect our health care workers.

We do have a “new” advisor to the president on how to combat this virus.  Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist from Stanford’s conservative Hoover Institution is pushing the idea that we should “just let the virus spread” so we can get to “herd immunity”.  Of course that means that roughly 2.1 million people will die from the virus, but that doesn’t seem to bother Atlas, who by the way has no experience in handling infectious diseases.

We have seen this begin to play out.  The administration forced the CDC to issue “new testing guidelines” which says if you don’t show symptoms you do not need to be tested.  This sounds very nice, except with these “new guidelines” if you have been in close contact with someone who does have the virus and decide to get tested yourself, your insurance company is not required to pay for the test because the CDC says it is “unnecessary”.

Testing has slowed down dramatically.  As a result, schools that are reopening are becoming the “new hot spots”.  The University of Alabama, in just one week, has said it has at least 1,000 new cases of the virus on their campuses.  How is that for “herd immunity”.  Additionally, we have the first case in the U.S. of a person who already had the virus being reinfected with the virus.  So much for “herd immunity” protecting us.

Because of the coronavirus, our economy is in shambles.  The photo above is one example of people standing in line waiting to file for unemployment.  In the last 23 weeks we have seen over 1 million file for unemployment in 22 of those weeks.

We already know that over 100,000 small businesses have shuttered their doors for good.  We know that 41 percent of minority owned small businesses have shuttered for good.  That is because they never got any of the money intended to help them survive this pandemic because they did not have a “working relationship with a large bank”.  In contrast 17 percent of white owned small businesses have shuttered for good.

The unemployment stands at over 10 percent.  This could have all been avoided if our president took decisive action at the start of the pandemic.  Every nation who took decisive action at the start have reopened safely right now.  Their schools have safely reopened.  And, despite having some smaller outbreaks, they are able to control them.

These countries immediately shut down and their citizens went along with that plan in the name of public safety.  Their leaders explained just why they had to shut down.  They established robust testing.  They established robust contact tracing.  They have been able to crush the virus in their countries.

On the other hand, we are still suffering.  Our economy is suffering because people are still afraid and won’t go to the stores or want to return to work.  It is suffering because until we get a handle on the virus, we cannot reopen completely because of those fears.  Yet, our administration sits on the sidelines waiting for it to “all go away like a miracle”.  In the meantime hundreds of thousands of people are getting infected and tens of thousands of people are dying.

Civil unrest is still raging across our country.  We have seen violence break out in too many of our cities.  We have seen a continuation of the police brutality that sparked the protests in the first place.  And, as usual, when protesters and counter protesters are allowed to mingle, violence is near at hand and in this case at least three people have been killed.

I have been to many protests in my lifetime.  One of the first major things that police would normally do is keep the protesters and the counter protesters separate.  This helps avoid conflicts and violence.  That is not something we are seeing today.  Instead, police are allowing counter protesters to enter the protest area without anyone doing anything about it.

In Portland a man was killed.  That man was apparently a trump supporter.  He should never have died.  But, the Portland police allowed a “caravan” of trump supporters drive directly into the protest area.  Reporters in the area said the counter protesters were shooting paint gun balls at the protesters.  They were spraying the protesters with something that was either “mist” or some kind of “gas” or “pepper spray”.

The police, who are very quick to declare a “riot” when the protesters throw firecrackers, did nothing.  They should have had the area blocked off so the “caravan” couldn’t drive into the protesters to begin with.  However, we have seen too many photos of police “high fiving” militants with guns during these protests.

In Kenosha a white teen ager carried an AR 15 into the protest area without being stopped by police.  He killed two people.  Then he calmly marched around still carrying his weapon and waived and high fived police officers after he killed those two men and wounded another.  Police did not even bother to ask what the hell he was doing.

Residents of Kenosha have said they have seen “out of state plates” on vehicles roaming the streets.  The occupants are heavily armed and they “appear to be looking for trouble”.  And, that is exactly what this young man was.  Someone from out of state “looking for trouble”.  Unfortunately he found it.

We have not heard one word from our dear leader condemning the attack on these protesters.  We have not heard one word of condemnation from him about the shooter.  Instead his propaganda arm, Fox News, have been hero worshipping him for his actions.  Now, just to make sure he is able to stoke more violence, trump has decided to “go to Kenosha” tomorrow despite the fact the mayor and governor have asked him to stay away until things completely calm down.

In the last few nights, since the shooting, things have calmed down in Kenosha.  Violence has been almost avoided.  But, one of trump’s “we need to dominate the streets” speeches will only heighten violence again.  Which I believe he actually wants to happen.

Instead of trying to help calm the situation, our dear leader is doing nothing but stoking the flames of discontent.  He is shouting at the top of his lungs that it is all Joe Biden’s fault.  He just doesn’t understand that this is all happening on HIS watch and that HE is supposed to be the president.

Parts of Louisiana and Texas were devastated by Hurricane Laura.  Of course trump had to go and walk around in “support” of the victims.  Except he never spoke to one victim on his tour.  We were spared that nice shot of him tossing paper towels to victims like we saw in Puerto Rico after their horrible disaster a few years ago.

There was one interesting part of his tour.  Our dear leader in showing his “support” gave out signed copies of a photo of himself to those around him.  He even told one worker “you should put that on Ebay tonight.  You can get $10,000 for it.”  He also said he was not putting the name of the person he was giving it too “because that would drop its value”.

It must also be pointed out that in the middle of our worst hurricane season on record, trump took billions of dollars from FEMA to pay for his unemployment check scheme that hasn’t begun yet.  Meaning that FEMA does not have the resources they would normally have when something like this happens.  Where are they going to get the money they need to help the people recover?  I guess they need some of those trump signatures to sell on Ebay.

This is Donald Trump’s America.  We are suffering under a pandemic with no end in sight.  We are facing economic disaster if something isn’t done about getting control of the virus and there is no plan for economic recovery except wishful thinking.  We are facing civil unrest the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades and have a president who seems to think that is something he can use to get reelected.  We have natural disasters affecting our country and the best he can do is give out signed photos of himself and declaring they are worth $10,000.

After having to witness the Nuremburg Rally they called the Republican National Convention last week, we still haven’t seen anything this president can or will do to help the country.  We still see him only interested in himself and blaming everyone else for the total mess he has created by his ineptitude.

He may think that he is Richard Nixon running in 1968 as a “law and order” candidate.  But he is really Hubert Humphry, Lyndon Johnson’s Vice President, while unrest swirled in our streets.  As Humphry was in 1968, trump can and should be blamed for what is going on now.  That is the reality.

So, America today under trump is already worse than he says it would be under Biden.  Again, I guess he can claim another “win” for his administration.  No one crashed this country in so many ways as this fool.  Are you tired of winning yet?

And, the shirts keep marching along.

This Administration Is Committing Worse Crimes Than Russian Hacking

Day 1030.  

Well, well.  We now have the president openly showing just how racist he really is.  He goes so far as to tell members of Congress to “go back to the countries you came from”.  Of course, only one of the four women he was sending his tweet to was actually born outside the U.S.

And, as usual, the Republican Politburo is remaining deafeningly silent about the racist tweet.  As usual, they are sticking their heads in the sand and pretending that nothing was said.  Or, they are just as racist as trump is and is telling us that with their silence.

Oh, they are still going on about Clinton and her emails.  They are still ranting about the Russia investigation.  They still want to investigate the investigators of that probe.  But, that is about all they are doing.

I have a great idea for Lindsey Graham.  Since you are so wrapped up in discovering crimes, why not investigate the one crime that is playing out in front of us and no one wants to call it what it is.  It is called “Crimes Against Humanity”.

To top it all off, Lindsey, there is plenty of evidence for you to look at.  There is video evidence of what is going on.  There is audio evidence of people telling investigators how bad things are.  The evidence is right in front of you, and yet you remain silent about one of the most hideous crimes that can be committed.

But, no.  We don’t hear Lindsey Graham or anyone else on the Republican side saying anything about these crimes.  And, the Democrats have not even called these crimes what they really are.

These “crimes against humanity” are being committed every day along our southern border by our own government led by trump.  I will put it this way.  The horrible way detainees are being treated by this administration goes way beyond inhuman.  They are literally crimes against humanity.

And, the president, the vice president, the secretary of homeland security, the head of health and human services and the head of customs and border patrol are all guilty of these crimes.  I am certain that the heads of DHS, HHS, and CBP will all claim they were “just following orders”.  But, history proves that is not a defense.

We have seen pictures and videos of these detainees being packed into cages without room for them to lie down and get some sleep.  We have seen the videos and heard the reports from all sorts of watchdog groups telling us they aren’t given sanitary items like soap and toothbrushes.  They are not allowed to take showers.

There are no cots or beds to sleep on.  They have to sleep on the floor if they can find a place to lie down.  In essence, they are being treated worse than we treat animals in the zoos.  The reason for this treatment isn’t because they are so dangerous.  It isn’t because they committed some horrendous crime.  It is because they came here looking for a better life.  And, with the recent racist tweets as proof, because they are brown, not white people.

We saw our vice president standing in one of these “concentration” camps looking around.  We heard him say, “this is tough”.  We did not hear him condemn what he saw as inhuman.  We did not hear the phony Christian complain that “Jesus would not advocate for this treatment of his fellow man”.  No, we heard nothing about any of that.  We only heard “this is tough”.

We also know that the reporters who had accompanied the vice president were swiftly removed from the site.  That happened after the detainees were shouting about the lack of showers, proper food, and other bad conditions.

This administration, along with their abettors in the Republican Politburo, is committing crimes against humanity in our name.  They are using their racist beliefs to justify the mistreatment of people for what is considered a “minor” offense.

This administration is telling the world, in our name, that America is no longer a country ruled by law and order.  It is now ruled by racists who have no decency and are willing to commit crimes against humanity.

The Russia Probe was bad.  It showed how a foreign adversary could penetrate and influence our elections.  Especially when they get help from one of the candidates.  But, this is even worse than that.  This is allowing, by our silence, the mistreatment of people and crimes against humanity.

After World War II, there was the Nuremburg trails.  There the leaders of the Nazi party AND business people who supported their tactics were placed on trial for crimes against humanity.  Some of the evidence presented in those trials are the same that we see in these detention centers.

Evil is something that needs to be fought every day.  It is never satisfied.  It is never lazy.  When evil is defeated in one place, it will raise its ugly head in another.  We are witnessing evil come out in full force in our country.  We are watching our own president commit crimes against humanity and revel in the act.

There is no excuse.  There is no reason.  There is no justification for how these detainees are being treated.  The only way anyone can justify these crimes is by being a racist.  It is that simple.  It is that clear.  It is that un-American.

So, Lindsey Graham, if you are really interested in finding the true crimes being committed by this government, you can start with the crimes against humanity being committed by YOUR president.  Otherwise, you should just shut up!

And, the shirts keep marching along.

Trump’s Re-Election Plan – Be As Inhumane As Possible And Brag About It

Day 1007.  

It is often hard to decide exactly what to write about with this administration.  There is so much shit blowing in the wind, it is hard to figure out what it all means.  We have the issues with Iran brewing.  We have reparations being talked about in Congress.  We have an election coming up with the first Democratic debate just a few days away.

All of these things are worthy of discussing.  The issue with Iran is very serious because it could mean another war we don’t need.  Reparations is something that has been talked about for generations.  There are reasons to discuss them, and exactly what they would be or mean.  The election could mean the difference between keeping our democracy or falling into an autocratic government.

However, in order to really understand all of the issues facing us, we need to examine the problems that this administration has caused in our society.  We need to understand just exactly what drives this administration because that is drives their decisions on various issues.

The best place to look at the true inhumanity of this administration is to look at what is happening on our southern border.  We have all kinds of people coming to the country seeking asylum, or just looking for a better paying job.  The response from this administration has been inhumane at best.  That was highlighted by the family separation policy it decided to exercise.

That plan, and the fact that many people coming to the border are unaccompanied children has led to a real problem.  The answer from this administration has been to lock them up in cages without even providing the children with a bed, soap or even a toothbrush.

The inhumanity of this administration came to light this week when the Justice Department went into a Federal Court in San Francisco to argue that these children do not need those items.  They argued that allowing children to sleep on concrete floors with just an aluminum blanket, providing them with no soap nor even a toothbrush is making them “safe and sanitary”.

This hearing was the result of a District Judge’s order that the government must comply with the Flores agreement that was enacted in 1997.  That agreement says that children must be treated in a “safe and sanitary” manner.  Another District Judge ruled that soap and a toothbrush were part of that agreement.

However, the administration, led by Sarah Fabian, argued that those items were not necessary to achieve “safe and sanitary” conditions.  And, furthermore, they argued that the soap and toothbrush were not required since they were not explicitly included in the “original” agreement.

The court was stunned to say the least.  “Are you arguing seriously that you do not read the agreement as requiring you to do something other than what I just described: cold all night long, lights on all night long, sleeping on concrete and you’ve got an aluminum foil blanket?” asked Judge William Fletcher. “I find it inconceivable that the government would say that that is safe and sanitary.”

Judge Marsha Berzon asked Fabian: “You’re really going to stand up and tell us that being able to sleep isn’t a question of ‘safe and sanitary’ conditions?… You can’t be sanitary or safe as a human being if you can’t sleep.”

Fabian tried to argue against everything with one stupid sentence.  “One has to assume … parties couldn’t reach agreement on how to enumerate that or it was left to the agencies to determine.”

Fletcher responded: “Or it was relatively obvious — at least obvious enough so that if you’re putting people into a crowded room to sleep on a concrete floor with an aluminum foil blanket on top of them, that doesn’t comply with the agreement.”

He added: “It may be they don’t get super-thread-count Egyptian linen, I get that. … I understand at some outer boundary, there may be some definitional difficulty. But no one would argue that this [current situation] is safe and sanitary.”

As for soap, it “wasn’t perfumed soap, it was soap. That sounds like it’s part of ‘safe and sanitary,’” he added. “Are you disagreeing with that?”

Judge A. Wallace Tashima said that such items are “within everybody’s common understanding that if you don’t have a toothbrush, if you don’t have soap, if you don’t have a blanket, it’s not safe and sanitary. Wouldn’t everybody agree to that?” he asked. “Do you agree to that?”

This is total bullshit on the part of the administration.  They are locking up children in cages, making them sleep on concrete floors with the lights never turned off and without a proper blanket, not providing them with soap and a toothbrush and the arguing they are giving the children a “safe and sanitary” place to be.

All of this is not just inhumane, it is criminal.  We as a nation, led by this monster and his administration are now one of the biggest human rights violators in the world.  How could that be possible?  How can we as a nation stand by and watch as children are treated worse than we treat our pets.

This is exactly what you get when policies of a nation are based on hate and fear.  It is what you get when you don’t consider people of other races or national origins as human.  It is exactly what Germany got under Hitler, and now our own government wants to follow along that same path.

So far, we are averaging at least one death per month of children being held in custody by ICE.  When you look at the conditions they are forced to live in, it is a wonder we haven’t seen more deaths.

These children are not even being provided the same basic human necessities that we give hardened criminals who are serving in real prisons for things like murder.  They are being treated worse than anyone being held for any crime committed.  That is abhorrent.

And the inhumanity doesn’t end there.  The government has also stopped English language classes, recreational activities like soccer games and legal aid for locked up children.  To this administration, these children do not exist and do not deserve to be treated like humans.  Their rights are violated every single day, and our dear leader brags that is being “tough” on illegal immigration.  Another word to describe these conditions is “torture”.  And, trump is torturing children!

In the last two and a half years, under this president, our country has started down the long, dark, demonic path of inhumanity towards our fellow humans.  It has taken the path that leads to destruction of morality, decency and our democracy.

When trump claims that he has achieved “more than any other president” he isn’t necessarily lying.  Only what he has achieved is so despicable even dictators hid what they were doing.

When you go to the polls, remember these children languishing in trump’s version of hell.  Remember when we were once a nation that held up humanity in a positive manner.  Remember when we were a nation with at least some morality.

It is policies like this that trump is going to campaign on to get re-elected.  He is going to stoke the furnaces of hate and fear to keep his base happy.  In the meantime, real people will suffer inhumanity in the name of trump’s ego and desire for power.  It is time for him and his administration to go back to the sewers they crawled out from!

And, the shirts keep marching along.

Dear Leader Kicks Off His Reelection Bid With Nothing But Broken Promises To Show

Day 1004.  

Today, our dear leader is going to officially launch his 2020 presidential reelection bid.  I am sure he will tell his followers that he is the greatest president ever to live.  He is going to tell his followers how he has made “America Great Again” without any proof.

He will spice it up with attacks against his biggest threats to his reelection and use playground nicknames to make his point.  He will attack those seeking asylum in our country and rage against every “illegal alien” and probably most of the “legal aliens” as well.  He will go on and on about the Mueller investigation being a hoax.

It is time to look at what our dear leader actually accomplished in his three years in office.  Which he will probably either lie about or ignore during his rants today.  His campaign promises were wide and varied.  So, let’s look a few and see where we are.

The first and most important thing for him during 2016 was the Berlin Wall on the southern border.  He said time and again that “I will build the wall and Mexico will pay for it”.  Well, here we are three years later and not one brick has been put in place for his wall.  And, most importantly, he has not gotten Mexico to pay for it.  He wants the American taxpayer to pay for it instead.  He couldn’t even get Congress to approve any money when he had total control of both Houses and the White House.

The only work being done on the southern border “wall” is repair work that was planned before stupid even took office.  The only section of “new” wall was funded by a right-wing group and that is facing court actions as well.  Major campaign promise made.  Major campaign promise broken.

He promised a “massive tax cut” for the middle-class.  The Politburo did pass a tax cut bill.  However, the middle-class saw very little from it.  Instead, most of the middle-class actually have paid more in taxes than they did before the bill was passed.

Then, he promised during the battle to pass the bill that “every American would see a $2,000 increase in pay.  Everyone is still waiting to see that huge pay increase.  Instead, corporations who had their corporate taxes slashed by millions increased their profit margins by the millions without offering their employees any of that “extra” profit in pay increases.

Additionally, the working poor have seen no advantage from the tax cuts.  Again, most working poor are paying more in taxes than they did before.  While trump and his cronies see massive cuts in the millions of dollars, most everyone else is seeing more taxes instead of less.

Finally, he promised that the huge tax cuts he gave himself and other rich people would actually “shrink” the deficit.  Instead, our deficit has grown and grown and grown under his watch.  Our yearly deficit is looking at a trillion dollars.  We have never seen a deficit that high before trump.  Major campaign promise made.  Major campaign promise broken.

He promised to “replace” the ACA with a plan that would mean “every American would have health coverage” and that it would “cost much, much less than now”.  The only bill to reach the floor of Congress was the Republican repeal and not replace the ACA.  It would have eliminated the pre-existing condition protections under the ACA and do much more bad.  It failed to pass the Senate.

In his attempt to slash the ACA from memory, he refused to fund any advertising for the plan to the public during open enrollment periods.  Yet, the number of people applying for the protections increased instead of decreasing.

Since then, nothing has been done to even look at the ACA or health care in general.  As a result, more people are losing their health care benefits.  Rural hospitals are once again beginning to close their doors because they cannot afford to stay open.  These are areas that mostly affect his own supporters and he has done nothing to stop it.  Major campaign promise made.  Major campaign promise broken.

When he took office, the economy was picking up steam.  We were seeing growth that we hadn’t seen in several years.  The work done by the previous administration to save our economy was working.  He promised a 4 percent per year growth of the economy.  In total fairness, he hasn’t screwed it up yet, but we haven’t seen any 4 percent growth either.

However, this year he decided to start his trade wars in earnest.  He has clapped tariffs on many countries and has hurt a significant part of our economy.  The agriculture sector of our economy is being hurt the most.  Too many family farms are filing for bankruptcy because they lost their overseas markets.

Additionally, prices for various products have been going up because of the tariffs.  We pay the tariff taxes, not the companies who make or sell the products.  This has caused many sectors of the economy to begin to hurt under this senseless trade war.  Major campaign promise made.  Major campaign promise running about even.

Those were some of the biggest campaign promises made during 2016.  Not one of them have been kept.  The closest is the economy part, but that is hanging by a thread according to economists.  How far the tariff wars will go could depend on a continuing healthy economy.

So, what exactly are all those “wonderful” things that he claims to have accomplished in the past three years?  There hasn’t been a single bill to fix our crumbling infrastructure.  There hasn’t been a single bill to ensure health care for everyone.  There hasn’t been a single bill passed by Congress that does anything for the average person.

Since the Democrats took the House back in 2018, Mitch McConnell has not held a single vote on any bills sent to the Senate by the House.  His Senate has become a legislative graveyard and trump hails that as a “good thing”.

I can only guess what we will hear today.  We will hear about his announced plan today to “deport millions of illegal immigrants from the country beginning next week”.  That has always been his favorite target in politics.  Start everything and end everything raling against immigrants and those “others” who are “polluting” our country.

I am sure that we will hear him blame Democrats for not having an immigration reform bill for him to sign.  He will not mention that it has been the Republicans who have killed every single immigration reform bill for decades.  Including a sweeping immigration reform bill that had full bipartisan support in the Senate and died a quick death in the Republican House Speaker’s desk drawer about eight years ago.

We will hear about how Muslims are the true evil in the world and how they must be wiped out, somehow.  He will rale against Iran with whom he is trying to start a war.  He promised in 2016 not to get involved in useless wars.  Yet here he is trying to start a useless war with Iran.

There is a simple truth that should ring very loudly in 2020.  This president and his Republican Politburo have done absolutely nothing for the American people.  They have passed nothing to make our lives better.  They have tried to pass legislation that would have thrown over 23 million people off their health care and said that was going to be a “great thing”.

Under this administration our air pollution has gotten worse not better.  Air pollution has increased by 38 percent since trump took office.  Our water pollution has increased by 31 percent since he took office.  Our planet’s climate has been getting warmer and warmer year after year.  So, to prove he loves the planet, he took us out of the climate accord.

He has reduced or eliminated scientific research on climate change every chance he gets.  He has reduced scientific research on health care matters.  He said he would “eliminate” the opioid crisis, but has really done nothing.  He won’t even go after the pharmaceutical companies that pushed opioids on us in the first place.

The Republicans led by their hero will run a very ugly campaign this time around.  The only things you will hear out of their mouths will be “socialism” and “everything is the Democrats fault”.  They won’t offer any policies and they won’t offer any new ideas.  They just don’t have any.

The very fact that those will be the key issues for Republicans and trump in 2020 is the only proof you need to know they have done nothing since he took office, and that they have no plan to do anything if he wins again.

Since the Republicans took control of the House back in 2010, Congress has become the least productive Congress in our history.  And, each successive year, they topped the last session in inactivty and usefulness.  We have been shown that Republicans do not want to govern.  They want to rule.  That is why they are so quiet about our dictator wanna-be’s actions towards autocratic rule.

Yes, today our dear leader will officially kick off his reelection campaign in Orlando.  Besides lying to the American people once again about how wonderful he is and the nothing he has accomplished, there is one question that remains to be answered.  Will his campaign actually pay the city of Orlando for all of the extra protection stupid will require?  Their history so far is that they won’t.  What else can you expect from our sleezebag?

And, the shirts keep marching along.

 

Another Autocratic Step Taken In Alabama To Refuse Freedom Of Religion And Civil Rights

Day 969.  

The Republican Politburo in Alabama has decided to take the next step in establishing an autocratic government.  They came to the conclusion that civil rights and freedom of religion are not rights that the citizens of their state deserve.  And, through their actions, they are hoping the U.S. Supreme Court will agree with their autocratic ideals.

The state Politburo passed legislation that denies women, and only women, the right to freedom of religion and their civil rights.  They passed a disgrace of a law that has no reason to exist except to help establish an autocratic government.

This sham legislation is called the “Protection of Human Life” bill.  It will basically make any abortion in Alabama illegal.  Not only that, it says that any doctor who provides an abortion should be sent to jail for 10 years.

The law says that at any stage of pregnancy, there can be no abortion.  They didn’t even include an exception for rape and incest cases.  So, if a woman in Alabama is a victim of rape or incest, she will be unable to get an abortion.

This law is making abortion a felony under Alabama law.  There is no secret about why this bill was passed.  State Rep. Terri Collins (R), who sponsored the new legislation said:  “This bill is very simple.  It’s not about birth control or the morning after pill.  It’s about not allowing abortion once the woman is pregnant.  The entire bill was designed to overturn Roe v. Wade and allow states to decide what is best for them.”

What she is really talking about is she wants the state to determine what is best for their citizens and not allow the individual citizen make up their own minds based on the beliefs.  She doesn’t want the public to have any ability to make any decisions that is “best for them”.  Only the state can make that determination according to Collins.

The first problem with this law is that is in direct violation of federal law.  It removes the protections of Roe v. Wade for women who decide to have an abortion based on her beliefs.  It is currently an illegal law because no state can pass legislation that is in violation of existing federal law.  But, with the open intent of having this law go to the Supreme Court to have Roe v. Wade overturned by the conservative court, that is all that matters to these Politburo members.

Secondly, this is a violation of a woman’s freedom of religion.  The pro-life people claim that human life begins immediately at conception.  According to them, once an egg is fertilized it is a human being.  There is no actual scientific or medical proof for this belief.  It is simply based on religious beliefs.

There are millions of people from all religions, including Christian, who don’t believe that.  They believe that a fetus becomes a human being once it has the ability to live outside the womb.  There is no scientific or medical proof of that being true either.  It is merely a belief based on upbringing and religious beliefs.

So, by making abortion at any stage of pregnancy a felony, the state is telling all women who do not believe the religious theory that human life starts with conception, they have no religious liberty to act according to their religious beliefs.

Furthermore, the law states that if a woman is raped she cannot get an abortion.  She must carry the baby and give birth and take care of the child that was a result of a personal attack against her.  Another victim blaming thing from the Politburo.  That goes for cases of incest as well.

So, the woman not only has to live with the trauma of being raped, she now must also live with the reminder of her rape for the rest of her life.  All because the Politburo has decided she has no rights when it comes to her life or her body.

This whole law is all about control.  This law says that women are nothing but vessels for men’s sperm.  If she get pregnant, she must have the baby or go to jail for getting an abortion regardless of how she became pregnant.

This law is right out of the Evangelical handbook that women are subordinate to men and they should just shut up and have their babies.  Apparently, if a man forces himself on a woman and she gets pregnant, that is “god’s will”.

But, as I said, this is not about abortion.  This is not about birth control or the morning after pill.  This is about control by the state over the decisions normal people make according to their own beliefs.  This is nothing less than an attempt for the state to take control of our lives.

According to this law, and Republican Politburo that passed it, we do not have any civil rights or any freedom of religion unless the state approves of it.  If the state has a different idea about those rights, then the state has the power to strip us of our rights.

We have seen restrictive abortion bills being introduced all across the nation in Politburo controlled states.  Just this year alone, there have been over 300 restrictive abortion bills introduced.  And, abortion is not the only target of this autocratic power grab either.

Same-sex marriage is squarely in the crosshairs of the extremists.  They want the same kind of fight over same-sex marriage as they are waging over abortion.  These fights are in the name of religious beliefs, but that is a total sham.  They are really in the name of autocracy.

With their white nationalist buddy sitting in the White House and his two nomination for the Supreme Court sit waiting for these cases, they believe they will win the fight and they will have power over all of us.

If the fascists win this battle, there will be no stopping them.  You will see a host of civil rights go by the wayside.  You will see the freedom of our press threatened like never before.  You will see freedom of speech under attack if it doesn’t fit with the fascist view.  You may even see gun rights under attack.  Once an authoritarian takes control, the last thing they want is people with guns running around the country.

This legislation may be called the Protection of Human Life, but in reality it is a naked attempt for the state to take control of our lives.  It is a blatant attempt to eradicate free thought and freedoms that go against any authoritarian government.  It should be called the “Authoritarian Government Act”.

As you can see, authoritarian government isn’t just the dream of trump.  It is the dream of the entire Republican Politburo.  That is all they are interested in and this piece of shit called legislation is just another shot being fired across the bow of democracy and our way of life.

And, the shirts keep marching along.

Government To Remain Open – Trump Declares He Will Try To Destroy It

Day 869.  

In 2014 President Barak Obama issued an executive order to help reform our immigration system.  That was the order that included the Dreamers and protections for them.  Needless to say, conservative heads all across the country exploded!  Mike Pence who was the Governor of Indiana at the time made a speech at the Republican Governor’s Association shortly after the order was issued.

In his speech, he said “issues of this magnitude should always be resolved with the consent of the government.”  Bill Kristol thought so highly of that he shared it on twitter.  Pence also said: “signing an executive order, giving a speech, barnstorming around the country, defending that executive order is not leadership.”

Well, well.  The story has changed a bunch since 2014.  Pence, who has become Sergeant Schultz since taking office as our vice president, has changed his tune dramatically.  While he was Governor, he accused President Obama of trying to have an “imperial presidency”.

Some little bit of information.  The executive order issued by Barak Obama did not cost the country billions of dollars in additional spending.  He did not “go around” the Constitutional rule that only Congress can control the purse.

But, see, executive orders are only executive overreach when a Democrat uses them.  When a Republican uses executive orders, that is perfectly in line with his “powers”.  This current president has already issued an excessive amount of executive orders and there has been total silence about his “overreach” as opposed to Obama.

But, trump isn’t happy with just executive orders.  He just lost his battle over his Berlin Wall.  So, in his usual dictator wannabe habits, he has announced that he will declare a “national emergency” over the border issue so he can take money allocated to other things to build his Berlin Wall.

There are things to remember about all of this.  First is that there is no national emergency on the southern border.  As a matter of fact, illegal crossings are at a 40 year low.  Instead of taking credit for that number, trump has instead decided to use hate and fear to cause a made-up crisis.  That is why he thinks he can get away with his national emergency declaration.

Then we must remember that the Politburo actually was going to give trump $25 billion for his wall just two years ago.  However, that wasn’t enough for trump.  He demanded that the bill include cutting legal immigration in half.  That killed the deal.  Even most Republicans are against cutting legal immigration.

However, declaring a “national emergency” over something that is not an emergency just to take money to build his stupid wall is completely unconstitutional, in my view.  There is no need for a national emergency.  There is no crisis on the border.

With the exception of a few rational Republican Senators, the Politburo is beginning to fall in line with trump.  The spineless Senate Majority leader two weeks ago warned trump that declaring his national emergency was a mistake.  Now, in his usual roll over and play dead trick, he is perfectly fine with this declaration.

However, there are Republicans who are not in government right now that are warning this is a very bad idea.  They are afraid, rightly, that when a Democrat gets into the oval office, this precedent set by trump, will give them the power to declare some kind of national emergency for something conservatives would actually hate.

For example, climate change is a very real problem that Republicans try very hard to refute.  What if a President from either party takes office and decides to use a national emergency to force the move to clean, reusable power.  What if that president declares an emergency to take us away from fossil fuels completely.

The Politburo’s donor base, mostly the fossil fuel industries would be up in arms.  But, there really wouldn’t be anything they could do about the national emergency.  What if a national emergency was declared over health care?  There are a lot of things that could be used to change the direction of the country.

But, they would all be unconstitutional.  That is the point.  An Executive cannot usurp the power of Congress according to our constitution.  If the Politburo allows this president to usurp the power of the purse given solely to Congress, the chance of future overreach will become great.

Every single member of Congress should be standing on the dome and screaming at the top of their lunges against this proposed action by our dear leader.  They should be standing up to this moron for the sake of our democracy.

There are supposed to be three equal branches of government.  The executive branch is not allowed under the Constitution to usurp power just because he doesn’t like what he is getting.  That isn’t a democracy, that is a dictatorship.

If the Politburo doesn’t fight against this executive overreach, they are approving another step to demolishing our democracy.  They will actually be doing the bidding of Putin who is our “great friend”, according to trump.

Once trump declares his national emergency, the lawsuits are going to start flowing.  If he actually wins court battles, there will be more lawsuits because the landowners won’t be willing to give up their land for this stupid wall.

This national emergency fight will drag on for years.  And, in the meantime, trump may actually lose his reelection attempt and it would become mute because a Democrat would end it immediately.  So, why bother?  Only for political points with his base and nothing more.

One of the places trump wants to take money from is DOD.  Yet, the other day, there was a report concerning military housing.  It said that too many of our military families are living is substandard housing.  Instead of maintaining housing for military personnel as they did when I served, too many housing units are now “privately managed” by contractors.

This has resulted in many military personnel living in substandard housing.  The problem is that these contractors are not living up to their contracts.  There are structural problems.  There are problems with rodents.  There are problems with things like roaches.

The problem is that the military personnel living in these substandard housing have no recourse.  If a renter has major problems with their landlord, they can withhold rent payments to force the problems to be fixed.  But, military personnel don’t pay rent directly in these cases.  The military pays the rent.

And, since a lot of these housing problems are on military bases, local governments have no power to force the fixes that should be fixed.  So, we have military families living in substandard housing and trump wants to take money away from the DOD to pay for his Berlin Wall.  So much for “taking care of our military”.

The other thing he is eyeing is Disaster Relief funds.  But then, since he didn’t do much for Puerto Rico after the devastating hurricane and for California due to the major fires, I guess there is money to steal from this fund.  At least in trump’s mind.  So what if another disaster hits.

Too many people are sitting around and wondering if the Mueller probe will result in a “constitutional crisis”.  I am sorry to tell you this, but we have been in a constitutional crisis for at least two years.  We have a president who thumbs his nose at the rule of law.  He thinks he is the dictator of our country and not the public servant he supposed to be.

When trump declares his national emergency over a non-emergency, we will be in a full-fledged constitutional crisis.  He will be telling the American people their voices don’t count.  About 60 percent of Americans do not want his national emergency and about 57 percent don’t want his Berlin Wall.

Yet, he is going to force us to endure a constitutional crisis simply because he wants his stupid wall and will flaunt the Constitution to get his way.  That is bad enough.  But, since the Politburo is falling in line with him, the crisis will be even worse.

Fighting against this declaration should not be a partisan issue.  Fighting against this declaration should not be a political issue.  This is an issue over whether or not we wish to live in a free democracy that follows the rule of law.

Anyone who supports this declaration is fighting to help demolish our democracy, our rule of law, our civil rights and our way of life.  This president runs the most corrupt administration in our nation’s history.  Now he wants to take another step to form an autocratic government where he is the only law.

It is turning out that this dictator wannabe is actually a bigger threat to our country than even Russia.  He is doing the bidding of Putin to destroy us and make Russia the primary power in the world.  That is, in trump’s own words, “very sad”.  It is also very alarming!

And, the shirts keep marching along.

The Hollow Man Gave A Hollow SOTU – What’s New?

Day 561.  

Well, after last night’s SOTU by our dear leader, everyone is having trouble finding the right description of it.  Some are calling it “weird”.  Some are calling it “strange”.  His supporters are saying he “knocked it out of the park”.

As usual, what you thought about last night’s speech depends on where you stand on the political spectrum.  He did say some things that were true.  He did say some things that were misleading.  He did say some things that were outright lies.  But, that is what he usually does anyway, so that is no surprise.

I decided I won’t get into all of the “fact-finding” about his speech.  He used the same lies about the border situation that he has used for two years, so I won’t get into that.  He also said the economy was “better than ever before”.  And, he said that “our economy is growing faster than any other economy in the world”.  Those were outright lies.  There are about 3 or 4 countries, including the struggling Greek economy that are growing faster than ours.  Yet, it is true that our economy is on pretty good ground for now.

He went all Nixon as well.  He tried to claim that the Russia Probe will basically kill the economy.  He said: “you cannot have prosperity with wars and investigations”.  Funny how he equated wars with investigations.  Nixon tried a similar trick back in the 1970s, but it failed him as well.

No, we are in good shape in the economy for sure.  But, there are still far too many people being left behind.  And, believe it or not, it mostly his base that is being left behind.  There are still too many people needing to work two jobs just to make ends meet.  That helps keep unemployment down, but it does not help the working poor of the country.

But what was really lacking in his SOTU was details.  He talked about infrastructure.  He talked about health care.  He talked about a plan to end HIV and AIDS by 2030.  All nice things to talk about, and all nice things that should happen.  But, he failed to say exactly what his vision to achieve those goals are.

Just about every single president before him used SOTU to announce real policies with real plans to achieve those plans.  But, as usual, trump simply spewed forth words with nothing to back them up.

For example, when he talked about his AIDS plan, he said his budget would increase spending for medical research.  But, he failed to announce that for the last two years under his budgets, the CDC and other medical research groups had funding cut drastically.  Nor did he say just how much money he was going to request, or just what he considered appropriate funding for this goal.

He gave no indication as to what part of our infrastructure he wants to improve.  He said nothing about green energy as a way to keep energy costs down and help clean up the planet.  But, he did tout his fossil fuel plans as the best ever.

The simple fact is that carbon emissions from the U.S. has increased by over 38 percent since he took office.  Almost all of the regulations he claims to have “eliminated” have to do with clean air and clean water and clean land.

One of the biggest problems we have in our country is our electrical grid.  It is old and antiquated.  We still rely on gas and coal to fuel our electrical plants, and this administration is doing nothing to change that fact.  As a result, our air, water and land are getting more polluted by the day.

Clean, renewable energy is necessary for the future of our country, our economy and our planet.  Yet, this administration doesn’t want anything to do with that.  Moving to clean energy will be expensive.  But the long-term benefits will see a return on investment much quicker than people believe.  And, it will help save our planet and allow our coastal cities from being underwater within the next 50 years.

He said he wants to “fix” our infrastructure, but he failed to say what and how he plans to pay for it.  As usual for our dear leader, he has no plan, just talking points.

He went off again about his Berlin Wall.  He lied about El Paso, TX and its crime rates.  He said that El Paso, TX had one of the highest crime rates in the country before they got their wall.  Then, suddenly, the crime went away.  That is an outright lie and he knows it.

Since the mid 1990s, El Paso, TX was rated with the second lowest crime rate in the country.  When the wall there went up, the crime rate remained the same.  The Sheriff of El Paso was quick to point that out after the speech.

He talked about how immigrants are coming to kill us.  He spouted a lot of numbers about how many people were murdered by illegal immigrants.  This crime problem is true, but the numbers are dubious at best.  And, more people in our country are killed in hate crimes than are killed by immigrants.

He even, without claiming it, tied to make out that the attack on the synagogue in Pittsburgh was somehow related to immigration.  No, it was related to white supremacists and not immigrants.  But, he said nothing about doing anything to stop hate crimes.

He talked about a lot of things in a haphazard manner.  He mixed facts and lies together like he didn’t know better.  He talked about “unity” and then just 10 minutes later went off on a tantrum about “investigations” and how unfair they are.

He even didn’t understand what was happening when he talked about women in Congress.  The new women in Congress were dancing and high-fiving themselves.  He thought they were cheering him.  Unfortunately for him, they were cheering the fact that more women are now serving in Congress than ever before.

They were cheering that more women were serving their first term in office than ever before.  And, they were cheering the simple fact that all of these women are Democrats, many of whom defeated Republicans in the midterms.  There are no new women on the Republican side of the aisle.

What stood out was the diversity of one side of the aisle compared to the white male look on the other side of the aisle.  The Democratic side showed the diversity in our country that makes us strong.  The Republican side showed mostly old white men with sour faces.

Last night’s SOTU is hard to describe in a single word or adjective.  To me, it sounded more like a campaign speech than a SOTU.  He made sure he hit all of the fear mongering points that his base love, and talked in generalities about everything else.

In the hour and a half, roughly, that he talked, he offered no ideas.  He offered no plans.  He offered no policies.  He only proved that he has no clue on how to run a government or even what he wants done.

He is totally devoid of policies and ideas.  And, the Republican side applauded him simply because they too don’t have any policies and ideas.  If I had to use one word to describe last night’s SOTU, I would use the word “hollow”.  But, since it was given by the “hollow man” what else would you expect?

And, the shirts keep marching along.

On The Eve Of The Midterms – We Facing A Possible Catastrophe On Southern Border

Day 773.  

Things are not getting any better on our southern border.  Our dear leader has sent 5200 troops to the border because of those “invading” people of color and further says that “barbed wire is beautiful”.  He even said that number could go up to around 15,000 troops.

Then he said that if anyone throws rocks at the troops, they should consider themselves as under threat from firearms.  After huge pushback, he said he only meant they would be arrested, not shot.

I have confidence in my fellow vets who are being forced to sit on the border for a few months waiting for those “invaders” mostly made up of women and children seeking asylum.  I am confident that they will not do anything stupid.  But, there are certainly going to be some who think like trump and Republicans.

On Fox and Friends the other day, one of the Hosts said that “Democrats don’t want to talk about immigration reform.”  The true fact is that it is Republicans who refuse to talk about immigration reform.  What they want to talk about is “closed borders with no immigration by people of color.”

In President Obama’s first term, there was a bipartisan bill that passed the Senate with overwhelming support that would have reformed our immigration laws.  But, when it got to the House, it went into a drawer and was not debated, not talked about and never voted on.  The Republican Politburo in the House was not interested because it was a “reform” bill not an immigration “ban” bill.

With the exception of trump’s Berlin Wall, just about everything Republicans wanted to ease the illegal crossing of the border was there.  Things they love to talk about now, like e-Verify was in the bill.  But, Republicans in the House were not interested.  They wanted immigration reform to remain a political point until they got someone who would support their “ban” plan.

As a result, there is still a need for immigration reform.  And, the Republicans, especially this administration, is not talking “reform” they are talking “ban” instead.  So, when asylum seekers start a long trek to our country seeking safety, trump and Republicans call them an “invasion”.  Even though they are still several hundred miles away, they can’t wait to get troops to the border in a show of bullying.

The troops are there and they are in a conflict.  Military members do not have any law enforcement authority within our borders against civilians.  They are not allowed to “stop” anyone from crossing our borders except another army.  So, they can only do supportive things like calling on the radio to let the Border Patrol know people are crossing in their area.

That is mandated by law.  The military cannot, by law, do any enforcement activities against any civilians, even foreign, within our borders.  So, why even bother to send them?  Because it makes you look “tough”.  Our dear leader likes to look “tough” but he is a coward of the worst kind.

However, there is another factor that isn’t being talked about very much that could cause a whole lot of trouble.  This other factor could result in a real catastrophe on our southern border.  It could even result in the deaths of many of the people in the caravan.

That other factor is private paramilitary militias taking up spots on the border to “fight off this invasion”.  A planning report for Army Commanders leading the 5200 troops there say there are already about 200 members of these groups on the border.

The document says these groups “operate under the guise of citizen patrols supporting” border officials.  However, it also points out “reported incidents of unregulated militias stealing National Guard equipment during deployments.

One militia group, the Texas Minutemen, has 100 volunteers heading to the Rio Grande to block migrants now traveling through Mexico, leader Shannon McGauley told The Washington Post. The untrained volunteers plan to dig in along border spots with camouflage clothing, flak jackets, semiautomatic weapons, night-vision goggles and aerial drones with thermal sensing equipment to locate people in darkness, McGauley said. They’ll also come with camping gear and food supplies.

This isn’t the only militia group calling for volunteers to go to the border.  There are militia groups all along the southern border that are calling for “mobilization” of their “troops” to stop immigrants.  And, they are heavily armed.

Militia groups are heavily armed organizations that train members in paramilitary techniques.  They are often right-wing extremist organizations.  689 active anti-government extremist groups were named by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2017.  Of that number, 273 were militias.

A problem with them is that they are civilians who want to play army all of their lives.  They believe they are even better than the “real” army and they are almost all anti-government.  In other words, they are more like the “brown shirts” of old Nazi Germany than they are real military people.

These people are nothing less than an armed mob.  They are very willing to take the law into their own hands.  And, since they love pretending that they are “militia” type, they dress up in uniforms that are very similar to battlefield uniforms of our real military.  As a result, it can be difficult to determine who is a member of the real military and who is a wacko militia member.

Of course, the real problem with all of this is that there is utter silence from Republicans and the administration on this very real problem.  No one in this administration is telling these wackos to “stay away” from the border.  No one from this administration is warning that if they open fire on immigrants they will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Why is that?  Is this administration looking at these militias as their version of the old Brown Shirts of Germany in the 2os and 30s?  Are they looking at them as their paramilitary group to maintain their version of “law and order”?

Those are very legitimate questions.  What will happen if one of these groups take trump at his word?  What happens if immigrants throw rocks at one of these militia groups and they open fire on them?  Is the administration going to have them arrested and charged with murder?

What will happen if one of these militia groups opens fire and real troops are injured or killed in the fire?  Will this administration crack down big time on the militias or let them walk?

What will happen if one of the landowners along the border goes out and tells the militia to “get off my land” and the refuse?  Will the administration send in real troops to remove them for trespassing?

To me, these militias are nothing more than a group of failed military wackos who couldn’t meet the grade of the real military and now want to play “hero soldier” in defense of their own egos.  They have no business along our southern border.  They are only one more thing that could cause a real catastrophe.

This is the kind of thing that happens when the party in control of the government doesn’t have any real policies.  It happens when the party in power only plays on fear and hate.  It is what happens when they turn a blind eye to a potential problem that could easily escalate out of control.

The whole thing with these caravans can be handled quietly and peacefully.  It can go through the legal processes.  Some of the people seeking asylum might be able to get it.  While others will not.  Except, the law does not allow our president to make that determination.  Only the proper legal process can made that determination.

But, trump is terribly afraid that he might lose the House and maybe even the Senate in this midterm election tomorrow.  So, he needs to gin up his hate base in order to drive them to the polls.

This not about asylum.  This is not about immigration.  This is a blatant attempt by trump and Republicans to play on our most basic fears of those “others”.  This is an open attempt to get the racists to the polls to ensure their victory and their control of the government.

Tomorrow we have a chance to say no to this fear and hate agenda of trump and Republicans.  It is our turn to tell them that hate and divisiveness is not what we want in our country.

There have always been people who stoke fear, hate, divisiveness and prejudice in our society.  In the past, we have mostly kept them on the fringes of our society.  We have mostly kept their power low and allowed for real change and real progress.

Unfortunately, we now have a president and one political party that has embraced these fringe wackos as their “base”.  If they maintain control of our government, there will be no telling what damage they will do to our democracy and our country.

I have always stayed away from the phrase “this is the most important election in history”.  But, unfortunately, this time I can’t.  We are facing a crossroads right now.  Will we remain a free democratic society with civil rights for all?  Or, will we become just another country that falls to the hate and fear of a dictatorship?

Our Constitution has “checks and balances” built in so no one branch of government can be more powerful than another.  However, if one of those branches surrenders their power of oversight, then anything can happen.

So far, the Republican controlled Congress has surrendered their oversight powers over this president.  If they keep control what will happen?  I predict it won’t be pretty.

Tomorrow think about your children and grandchildren.  Think about what kind of country you want to leave them.  No matter how you think – VOTE!!!!

And, the shirts keep marching along.