Republican Solution To Everything – “Ban It, Ban It, Ban It” – The Internet Is No Different

We now know how Republicans view the world. In their haste to make sure they gain total control, their answer to every social issue facing our country and our people is to ban everything they don’t like. Instead of holding meaningful conversations about issues like public education or civil rights, they simply pick out parts they don’t like and ban it.

In something weird, at least to me, if a book contains something they consider “sexual” or has anything to do with slavery being “bad”, the book must be banned. However, if a book explicitly describes mass killings, that book can sit on y0ur school library’s shelf.

We have reached a banning frenzy in our country. Yes, we do need to look at things that affect our children. But, instead of simply banning everything, why not hold discussions in an intellectual manner and come to real solutions to these problems.

Social media is in the crosshairs now. Yes, there are valid complaints about too many hours being spent on social media by our children. But, so far, I have not seen anything that really addresses the issue. Instead of looking at legal ways to make social media companies more responsible when dealing with our children, politicians only want to ban it.

In Utah, the governor signed two bills concerning social media and minors under the age of 18. The bills say that between the hours of 10:30 pm and 6:30 am children are banned from accessing social media. Okay, but how are you going to enforce such a law? How is the state going to know if a 14 year old is on social media after 10:30 pm?

Then the bills require age verification for anyone who wishes to use social media in the state. They also want to prevent tech companies from luring kids to their apps using addictive features. Of course, I haven’t found any definition of “addictive features” in the bill.

Again, just how is the state going to enforce the parental permission part? We know children are very knowledgeable when it comes to apps and computers. We also know that children have figured out a way around parental permission already necessary for children under 13 under federal law.

Now, parts of the bill do make sense. I have always been troubled by internet providers and apps tracking our every move on the internet. I am sick of looking up something on the internet and then getting bombarded with ads on just about every app I use about what I looked up. Internet companies are mining us for information in order to sell that information to others who wish to bombard us with their ads.

That brings us to a very dangerous part of this bill. For the first time, I actually agree with an internet lobbyist group who chimed in against this bill. Nicole Saad Bembridge, an associate director at NetChoice said: “Utah will soon require online services to collect sensitive information about teens and families, not only to verify ages, but to verify parental relationships, like government-issued IDs and birth certificates, putting their private data at risk of breach.”

That danger is not addressed in the bill. I cannot figure out any other way in which you can verify ages or proper parental consent without having to use these official documents. And, since hacking of personal information from the internet is a growing crime, how can the state require such personal information to be used to enforce this law?

Utah is not the only state considering such laws. At least four other red states are looking at similar bills. They all claim that these laws are intended to protect children from harmful effects from the internet. That sounds very likeable. However, they are very slim on just what they mean by “harmful” effects.

We must also look at the possibility of whether or not these states are really only interested in making sure children are allowed access only to “approved” sites. Are they really looking out for our children, or are they simply banning them from sites that politicians don’t like for any number of reasons?

We must ask that question because they have already passed laws that will harm certain groups of people and children. I mean, right now 22 red states are suing the administration over a law that bans free school lunches from being denied to LGBTQ children. These 22 states believe that if these children are LGBTQ, they should just go hungry. In Idaho, a bill that would have provided free menstruation products to girls in public schools was voted down. I guess girls in Idaho are expected to be “embarrassed” for having their period suddenly without any tampons available.

I am not arguing about not looking into how social media affects our children. I am all for it. However, we cannot simply use a banning process to try to solve our problems. The problem is that Republicans have taken to the banning process instead of coming up with real and meaningful solutions.

I guess the reason is because it is much easier to simply place a ban on things instead of using actual brain power to find solutions. Using brain power takes energy and imagination. It also means we can find real solutions.

Unfortunately, we know that Republicans are not interested in real solutions. If we fix problems, they don’t have anything to bitch about and play the victim over. Bitching and playing the victim are the only two things Republicans are good at.

The Dilemma Of Social Media

There has been a lot of talk about the internet. More specifically Social Media. This talk has revolved around a lot of things. Things like “censorship of conservatives” or “misinformation spreading” and a host of other topics. Also included in all of this talk is about children using social media. To some, it has become a major problem.

Now a Republican Representative has introduced a bill that would ban anyone under the age of 16 from using social media. The measure, led by Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), would require companies to verify users’ ages and allow parents to sue them if they fail to keep those under 16 off their sites. It would also empower federal and state agencies to enforce the standards. 

The bill represents one of the most stringent efforts yet to keep kids off major platforms, going far beyond more narrow bipartisan proposals to set up guardrails for kids online. Stewart likened the effect social media can have on children and teens to that of drugs, a refrain that’s becoming increasingly common in Washington. 

“We protect our children from drinking, from smoking, from driving. They can’t drive when they’re 12,” he said in an interview. “We should protect them from the impacts of social media.”

It is intended to open up social media platforms to liability for not “adequately” verifying a person’s age before allowing access to their platform. Companies have already poured millions of dollars into developing verification tools. However, these tools often fall short.

The basic question about these tools is just how can anyone be sure that the user is telling the truth? Just how does a social media platform decide who is over a certain age and who is not. We already know that teens and others can bypass such tools in many other situations. Often times the platform will ask the potential user to provide their birthdays. But, again, how do they know they are being told the truth?

Those who want to censor the social media based on age, can’t explain how their bill would stop people under the age of 16 from workarounds to join platforms. Then we need to ask if that is a violation of the right to privacy? Or, is it the government getting between parents and their children?

Carl Szabo, NetChoice vice president and general counsel said this: “Parents, not the government, not Silicon Valley, know what is best for their families. “Rather than doomsaying or trying to get between parents and their families, the government should provide tools and education on how best to use this new technology, not demonize it.”

On the other hand, this bill would cut off kids from positive digital resources. With the right’s war against transgender minors, this may be the only way they can find help and information is online. Especially if they have unsupportive parents or live in highly conservative areas. If you “can’t say gay” in places like Florida, where are these kids supposed to go for support?

The internet can be dangerous for kids. There are all sorts of predators and other problems associated with it. But, there are also very positive things online that kids cannot get anywhere else. So, is banning them from social media the real solution?

I have always thought that laws being passed to make everyone liable for the behavior of people is just a way to make it easy for lazy parents to not have to do anything. Instead of educating the public on the positives and the negatives of social media, we tend to just ban it from certain groups of people.

In a sense Stewart is correct. We do protect our children from all sorts of dangers like drinking, smoking and driving. Yet we do not protect our children from guns and violence in their schools. So, what makes social media different from everything else?

This country all too often wants blanket bans on things that children can gain access to. If anyone from the left or the right thinks something is “bad” we must ban access to it by children. We never look at what else can be done to protect our children. And, since when is receiving information something “bad”?

The can be dangerous to our children. It can also be something that can be used to benefit our children. There must be a balance between just how to protect our children from harm and allow them to use the internet and social media for their benefit. Banning the use by kids under 16 isn’t the right way to go, in my opinion.

When I was in my teens, it was illegal for anyone under 18 to purchase cigarettes. Yet, I didn’t have any trouble getting them. It was illegal for anyone under 21 to drink. Yet there wasn’t much trouble getting beer for parties. So, anyone can see that age bans don’t always work and never have.

I believe the real answer is to adequately educate our children and their parents on how this technology works and then the parents can decide which platforms their children can access. I admit, I cringe anytime I see legislation that bans certain groups of people from gaining information. I cringe when the right wing bans books because they simply don’t like the content.

I cringe when anyone decides that only their beliefs can be allowed to be disseminated to anyone else. That is censorship at its worst. Even worse, if you can ban kids under 16 from social media, what will you ban them from next?

Instead of knee-jerk reactions like this bill, we need to have dialogue and come up with reasonable measures to keep our kids safe online. But, we also must understand that what I believe may be dangerous to my kids may not be considered dangerous by another parent. That is why banning laws are not the answer.

A lot of things were “banned” to us when I was a kid. Things like cigarettes, beer, pornography, etc. but if we really wanted to get it, we could. It may not have been as easy as now with technology, but we could get it. That is a simple fact. This ban won’t do what Stewart thinks it will. All it will do is move responsibility for raising children from the parents to the government.

I am not taking the Republican view that it won’t stop it so why bother. Something can be done without banning people under 16 from social media. Besides, we have already seen, that if a national law like this is passed, we can expect states to pass even more restrictive laws. It has already happened over abortion and health care, especially for transgender youths. How long will it be before a state decides which platforms “meet the state’s standards” and which do not and ban those they hate?

If you really look at it, that is the next step. Education is the key to these problems. I have believed and taught my kids that if you “don’t learn something new today, you wasted the day”. Banning kids from social media helps to impede that learning. There must be a better way, we just need to act like adults and find the correct solutions.

 

Another Attack – Another Avoidance – What New?

• 

Well today kicks off what would normally be a very happy time, Christmas Week. People are finishing off their holiday shopping and getting ready for the day. We now have two vaccines approved for the COVID-19 virus. And, we finally have a meager relief package passed by the Congress.

You would think that things are starting to get just a little better. However, we still have the pandemic raging. The prediction of us reaching 320,000 dead by Christmas is ahead of schedule. If things continue as they have been going, we will reach that number by the end of today.

So, things are finally getting better on some fronts. But, we need to have things start getting better on all fronts. Yet, there is hope and reason for us to celebrate this holiday season, as long as we do it correctly and NOT travel around the country. That way, we can contain the damage to close to what it is now and not see another surge on top of this surge.

Although he keeps trying to overturn the election results, trump’s last day are upon us. That is also good news unless he goes off the deep end again. The new administration will be in place in one month. But, we cannot be certain trump won’t go off the deep end. There are reports coming out of the White House that say he discussed declaring Marshall Law in order to stay in power. That meeting supposedly was held on Friday, though he denies it.

But, the worst thing this week is the Russian hack into our computer systems. This hack was really an act of cyber war. The Russians attacked and hacked into several government agencies and into several large companies. Even Mike Pompeo, the worst Secretary of State we ever had said it was the Russians.

This attack is ongoing according to government cyber officials and it began back in the spring. These same officials, many of them appointed by trump, have said this was the worst cyber attack on our country in our history. Agencies across the government are scrambling to plug the holes, find out what may have been stolen and what is the full extent of the attack.

Mitt Romney said this attack was actually and “act of war” by Russia on our country. He worries that things like our electrical grid could be manipulated by Russia because of the attack. In any event, this attack seems to have been successful and is very dangerous.

This attack is no laughing matter. It is very serious. We know for sure that hackers gained access to computer systems used by Treasury, Commerce, State and Homeland Security departments and by the National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the American stockpile of nuclear weapons.

All through last week when the news was first broken about the cyber attack against us, we heard nothing from our dear leader. Why? This so-called president has shown once again that he is the biggest threat to our national security we have ever had in the White House.

Finally, over the weekend, trump broke his silence on the hack. Except, he wasn’t all that concerned about it. Nor did he want to say that Russia was behind the attack like everyone in Government who works in this field has said. Instead, trump tweeted that “it was no big deal”. He tweeted: “Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality. I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control.” 

That is not what his agencies and his intelligence experts are saying. That is not what his own Secretary of State is saying. But, what do we expect from a Russia-loving president in our White House? He has downplayed Russia’s interference in our politics and their continuous attacks on our computer systems for four years.

In his tweet he went back to his favorite meme in protecting Putin for his bad behavior. He tweeted: “Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream [media] is … petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!).”

Now, if I were a conspiracy theory nut, I would start making all sorts of accusations about trump and his infinity to assist Putin in his attacks on our country. Maybe, for example, all of that money he claims to have received from his supporters for his law suits against the election were really payoffs from Putin to allow this hack to take place.

After all, trump owes a grunch of money to several banks that are coming due in about two years. So, what would prevent him from taking money and turning his back on the cyber attacks? That is what most “traitors” who have been caught have done. They took payments from Russia in order to pay off debt or to “live the good life”. And they didn’t owe nearly as much as trump owes.

Again, this is just musing about what could actually cause a president to “blow off” a serious cyber attack on our country. I am not accusing him of anything, just asking some questions that I think we should all be asking. Why is it that whenever Russia does something like this, trump is the first and loudest one saying “it wasn’t Russia”? Why is it every time trump has a conversation with Putin, either in person or on the phone, there is never anyone from our side in on the call, including a translator? Why are all of these conversations private? What is being talked about that no one from even the State Department cannot hear?

That has been trump’s modus operandi when it comes to Russia ever since he took office. Yet, the Republicans in Congress have nothing to say about that. When something like this cyber attack does happen and trump says “it was no big deal” why aren’t they demanding to know exactly what happened and how and why? Why are they sitting mute, except for one or two, and letting trump get away with his apology for Putin again?

Once again, our president is siding with Russia. How can we expect anyone to take us seriously when our so-called leader seems to be in cahoots with the enemy? Common Mitch, where is your indignation over this whole mess? Why aren’t you screaming at trump from the rooftops? Why your continued silence?

As you can see, a conspiracy theorist could have a field day with this incident as well as the rest with Russia. But, since conspiracy theorists are mostly, not all, on the right wing of politics, we don’t hear anything about these kinds of conspiracies.

The real fact is that we cannot trust our president when dealing with our biggest adversary. We cannot trust the very person who swore to defend our Constitution against all enemies, because he doesn’t consider Russia, our biggest adversary, an enemy.

He is deep in debt. He knows lots of “secrets”. He appears to “love” Putin and all things Russia. That is why he needs to be watched very carefully once he is out of office. He should be watched very carefully while he ends his term, but that is far more difficult.

I have said it before, and I will say it again. Trump is the biggest threat to our national security either in office or out of office. It is just that simple.

And, the shirts keep marching along.

When All Else Fails – Throw A Tantrum

• 

Yesterday as we awaited more results from the election, we set another record. Over 121,000 new cases of coronavirus were reported. The irony, or real sad part of this, is that the vast majority of these new cases have taken place in “trump country”.

As these people went to the polls and voted for trump, their neighbors, family members and possibly themselves were being infected by the virus. A reasonable person would have to ask a simple question. “What the hell are you thinking?”

That question is not intended to be a “put down” to trump voters, it is just asking how can you support a man who doesn’t care about your health? How can you support a man who seems to like the idea that a pandemic is killing us, and especially his own supporters? Sorry, but I just don’t get it!

According to the CDC we now have over 9.7 million people infected and over 235,000 dead from the virus. According to Worldometer we have over 9.9 million infected and over 241,000 dead. We still lead the world in the number of people infected and dead from this virus. As trump would ask: “are you tired of winning yet?”

Since these new cases are mostly in trump country, that means rural hospitals are being overrun with cases. That means that the blue collar white workers and the rural workers are most at risk for catching and/or dying from this virus. Still, trump doesn’t care a bit. He won’t even talk about the virus. He won’t even talk about the hundreds of thousands of people who have died from the virus. All he wants to talk about is himself.

Speaking of himself, we have the election results still coming in. This morning, Joe Biden took the lead in Pennsylvania and Georgia. Both are very small leads, and if they hold as they are, there will obviously be a recount. Biden still holds a lead in Arizona and Nevada.

It appears, though not certain, that Biden is on track to lock up the election today or tomorrow at the latest. And, in usual trump fashion, he isn’t taking the news very well. He and his team have launched all kinds of suits against the election trying to get the results overturned.

These law suits have had no merit to them at all. As a matter of fact, there has been no evidence of any kind offered to show their claim has any merit. All they are going into court with is conspiracy theories and nonsense. As a results, the courts have rejected or tossed out almost all of their cases.

In Pennsylvania for example, they filed a suit claiming that their observers were being “locked out” of the process. But when questioned by the judge, it was discovered that their observers were in fact in the room and not locked out. But, they then charged that their observers were “too far away” from the counting process.

The State has passed a rule that made ALL observers to remain six feet away from those counting votes because of the virus. Both sides were required to remain that far away. But, I guess the trump observers were all part blind so they couldn’t see well enough. Talk about a suit being petty bullshit.

He and his campaign keep running to the microphones in select states claiming there has been “massive voter fraud”. Of course they are only claiming that in states he is losing. If there has been such a “massive voter fraud” going on during the election, then maybe we should look at the “massive voter fraud” that allowed Lindsey Graham win his seat. Or maybe we should look at the “massive voter fraud” that got Moscow Mitch reelected.

We aren’t because there hasn’t been any “massive voter fraud”. What has been happening is that the system is working the way it is supposed to work and the way it has always worked. Legal votes are being counted. They may not be counted as fast as some would like, but they are being counted. And, there has been not one complaint from either side documented of any evidence about any improprieties during this counting process.

The path for victor for trump is shutting down rapidly. If the results in Pennsylvania keep going the way they are, Biden will be declared the winner. The odd point in Pennsylvania unlike other states is that even in deep red counties where trump actually has won, the absentee ballots are going heavily for Biden. In deep red counties of Pennsylvania, absentee ballots are swinging in Biden’s favor by about 69 percent. That is what is helping Biden win Pennsylvania. Not just the heavily Democratic areas of the state.

If the trend continues in those states still left to be called, especially Pennsylvania, trump will lose his reelection bid. The popular vote has Biden up by around 5 million votes nationally. Biden has received more popular votes than anyone in history. We have never seen anyone receive this any votes nationally.

It appears that the majority of Americans have strongly rejected trumpism. However, too many trumpists still remain and still support him. That means no matter who wins the final outcome, the country will remain divided thanks to our dear failure-in-chief.

If you want to know just how bad things can get, just look at what got Steve Bannon, a rabid trump supporter banned from twitter because of his podcast. He said that Dr. Fauci and the Director of the FBI Christopher Wray should be “beheaded” and their “heads placed on a spike in front of the White House as a warning to the Federal Bureaucrats”. That is the kind of stupidity that has divided us so much and what trump really loves to hear.

I do have another question to ask. This question is aimed at all of the lawyers who are supporting and representing trump and his campaign in court. I am not talking about Republican suits, I am talking about team trump suits. The question is simple. “Do you really expect to be paid for your hard work?”

Don’t forget that trump has a very long history of not paying his bills. He will probably make all of these lawyers sue him and his campaign for their work in these law suits. If he loses those suits he will claim “there is no money left in the campaign coffers”. If they were really smart, they would have made the campaign pre-pay for their work. At least that way they would get some money from the deadbeat.

Hopefully by the end of today we will have a clear understanding if Biden is the winner or not. Hopefully by the end of today, we will know whether or not trump was ousted by the people. However, don’t expect it all to end once Biden clinches the votes. Our failure-in-chief will continue with his temper tantrum law suits hoping the Supreme Court will step in and declare him the winner regardless of what the people say.

In honesty I would be shocked if the Supreme Court would take such a step even as it is constituted. But, in today’s world of trumpism anything is possible. If somehow the Supreme Court does step in and overturn the results of the election, the Great American Experiment will come crashing down around us. It will all be over and democracy as we have known it will disappear from our shores.

In the meantime, we will continue to struggle along with our lives. We continue to struggle with the pandemic. We will continue to see our neighbors and/or family members die from this deadly virus.

And, we will not hear a single word from the man whose primary job is to “protect the people of the U.S” about any of it. All we will hear is how he “got cheated” because he couldn’t get enough of the people to believe in him.

His niece Mary said this is the first time in his life that he doesn’t have someone to “bail him out” or to “buy him out” of his own failures. He just doesn’t know what to do except throw a temper tantrum.

I like what former GOP Chairman Michael Steele said. He said the other day “It is time to let the spoiled brat stand in the middle of the mall and stomp his feet as we walk away from him.”

Yet, the shirts keep marching along.

Decision Day – Democracy Or Autocracy – That Is Our Choice

• 

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!

In One Sentence He Says One Thing – Then In The Next Sentence He Says Something Opposite

Living in a fantasy world must be really hard if you want to continue to be president.  In the last year alone, our dear leader has gone off the deep end so many times we can’t count them anymore.  But, if there was ever a description of someone talking out of both sides of his mouth every day, trump is that definition.

When you can’t stick to one subject and what even you consider the facts without changing them the next day or even the next hour, it is impossible to believe anything you say.  As a result, we have the most distrusted president in our nation’s history.

Our dear leader and his rabid supporters cannot get anything straight.  Their messages keep swerving from lane to lane like a drunk driver.  They don’t even pretend to care that they are all wet when it comes to any facts or even when their dear leader admits to have lied to the American people.  I guess the best way to show this abysmal lack of honesty is to look at a few things.

As the coronavirus continues to grow in our country and as we get much closer to the horrible mark of 200,000 dead, our president can’t get his message straight.  He even is willing to show his complete disregard for his caring about his own supporters.

The numbers are looking bad, again.  The CDC report show 194,000 dead.  But that number hasn’t changed on their site for two days.  Worldometer says we now stand at over 199,000 dead.  Yet, trump insists on holding large rallies and defy the rules of states in order to thumb his nose at the rule of law.

He was in Nevada the other day.  He held an indoor rally at a manufacturing plant owned by one of his buddies.  There were 5,000 people who reportedly attended the rally.  Almost no one wore a mask and there was no social distancing.  It was curious that on a video you can see people who were sitting behind where trump was speaking, as he walked up on the stage they started putting on masks.

I wondered about that.  If there is no problem with the virus spreading anymore, why did they have to put on a mask?  Well, trump gave us the answer in a show of disrespect for his own followers.  Review-Journal White House correspondent Debra Saunders asked trump about the possibility of his followers catching the virus at the event.  He didn’t bother to answer that question.

Here is the line of questioning from Saunders:

Aren’t you concerned about getting COVID in an enclosed room?

“No, I’m not concerned.”

What about people here?

“I’m more concerned about how close you are.

Sorry about that.

“Because you know why?  I’m on a stage that’s very far away.  And so I’m not at all concerned.”

He totally ignored the question about those who were attending the rally.  He just doesn’t care about them.  He even, as usual, made everyone of them sign a declaration that if they did catch the virus at the rally, they can’t sue trump or his campaign.  And don’t forget, his rally in Tulsa, OK was a spreader of the virus.  Herman Cain died from the coronavirus just two weeks after attending that rally while not wearing a mask.  Not a single word of sympathy to his family from trump.  So much for “caring” about his own supporters!

Then we have what trump is beginning to use as a second “campaign slogan”.  He is saying that he is going to “Make America Safe Again”.  But, that goes contrary to what he said in June when meeting with law enforcement officials.

The fact of the matter is that overall, crime statistics have been falling in our country for over two decades.  Violent crime does go up and down over the years for various factors, not all of which are really understood.  The one statistic that has grown sharply under his watch is hate crimes.  So, he could claim that he is doing a good job on that front.  But, no, he has to turn the tables and make it sound like our country is in horrible shape and only he can fix it.

But, look at that statement and the downward statistics on crime.  What he may really be saying is “Crime has been going down, but I screwed it up again.  So, you must trust me to undo what I have done to make America Safe Again.”  With that nice sounding campaign slogan, our dear leader is admitting to all of us that things have gotten worse under his watch.  And, he expects us to believe he is the right person to fix the problem.

Except, the polls show that Americans believe that he is the worst person to “fix” it.  Biden leads him in law and order voters.  Only 24 percent of Americans believe that trump has acted properly in handling of the current situation with the protests.  About 52 percent believe Biden would be a much better choice to put an end to the violence and fix the problem.

Next we have the wildfires raging across the Western U.S.  Yesterday, trump  paid a visit to California to “inspect” the damage caused by the fires.  Complete “suburbs” and towns have been burned off the face of the map due to these fires.  Dozens of people have been killed by the fires.  Thousands of people have lost everything.

So, during his “talk” with state officials, his best reply about how to keep fires from happening is “sweep your floors”.  Okay, well, most of the forests burning out of control right now are “federally owned” forests.  So, how come donny isn’t out there sweeping the floors?  Why isn’t the federal government doing what donny claims he has been talking about for three years?  Because then donny can’t blame someone else for his incompetence, again.

He was also asked about climate change and its effect on these fires.  In a sudden and totally predictable answer, he said:  “It will get cooler soon.  You watch”.  Just like he told us that the coronavirus “will disappear like a miracle”, he is now telling us that these fires will be okay because it “will get cooler soon”.

With over 98 percent of every single climate scientist in the entire world saying that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning is causing the climate change and that the planet is getting warmer, he said:  “I don’t think the scientists know”.

Well, trump hates to read anything without word bubbles above pictures.  So, how about someone showing him two pictures with word bubbles.  One would be a picture of the artic ice level from 1970 with the word bubble saying “this is normal artic conditions”.  Then show him one from today with the word bubble saying “this is how much climate change has melted the artic ice”.

He probably will ignore the message, but at least he would get his “briefing” about climate change in the only way he understands, by comic book.

Finally we have this.

Right around the time that it was reported by the Atlantic that trump called our fallen heroes “suckers” and “losers” this digital ad came out.  It is from the Make America Great Again committee.  This is an arm of the official trump campaign and is used to raise money for the campaign.

The ad says “support our troops”.  Except, there is a real problem with the photo they are putting out as “our troops”.  See, the fighter jets seen flying above the soldiers in the photo are Russian Mig-29’s.  That is right, they are Russian jets, not American Jets.

If you look real close that the soldier on the far right of the picture, you will notice that he is carrying an AK-47 which is a Russian riffle, not an American riffle.  It turns out this photo was something made by a Russian photographer showing Russian military in various places.

The photographer said he used Russian actors for the soldiers and used areas like Greece and Russia for the background in the photo.  He admits that the planes are Russian Mig-29s.

Now you can look at this ad two ways.  It was a total screw up by team trump, which is nothing new, or it was a deliberate attempt to show just whose troops we are supposed to support.  The only reason I even wonder about this is because of trump’s disparaging remarks about our troops and their leaders, not just in the past couple of days, but throughout his term in office.

So, as you can see with these very few examples, it is impossible to believe anything trump says.  He says one thing about anything, then in the next sentence he says something completely opposite of what he just said.

The man is so hopeless when it comes to the truth he probably set a new record for lies by telling four in one sentence.  On Saturday, he tweeted this out, for no apparent reason:

“Was Andy McCabe ever forced to pay back the $700,000 illegally given to him and his wife, for his wife’s political campaign, by Crooked Hillary Clinton while Hillary was under FBI investigation, and McCabe was the head of the FBI??? Just askin’?”

Lie number one.  Andy McCabe was never “given” any money for his wife’s campaign.  It was all given to her campaign fund.  Second lie.  Hillary Clinton never gave any money to the campaign.  Third lie.  All of the contributions to the campaign were legal.  Fourth lie.  Andy McCabe was not the head of the FBI he was the assistant director of the Washington Field Office.  There you have it.  Our Liar-in-Chief told four lies in just one sentence.

Well, the coronavirus did not “just go away like a miracle”.  Instead we are nearing 200,000 dead from it without trump caring at all.  When questioned about his followers possibly being infected during a rally he held, he ignored them and only said “I will be fine”.

As the Western U.S. suffers from wildfires, the best response trump could come up with to help put them out was “It will get cooler soon”.  He also ignored the fact that the forest floors he claims need to “be swept” are owned by the Federal Government, NOT the State of California.

He wants us to support the troops, but he uses a Russian made photo complete with Russian fighter jets and fake Russian troops carrying Russian weapons.

This buffoon actually want us to vote for him.  Then again, it is still early in the day, maybe this afternoon he will say we shouldn’t vote for him.  It would be in line with his other lies and falsehoods.  I can’t think of a single time when I heard four lies made in just one sentence.  So, no donny, I will NOT vote for you.  I will vote for a real American who loves this country and does not want to to make us a Russian Satellite.

And, the shirts keep marching along.

Even Big Time Losers Have Devoted Followers – Just Look At Trump

I have a confession to make.  I just don’t understand how anyone can support a total incompetent like trump.  I don’t understand what anyone sees in this man.  I am not talking about his rabid racist base in that confession, I am talking about normal people who call themselves Republicans yet continue to support someone who has never been a Republican and is not fit to be president.

Last week we discovered that trump “knew the coronavirus was deadly” yet did nothing to stop its spread.  We learned from his own mouth what he knew and that he was apparently “proud” of his actions, or lack of actions, concerning the virus.  His lack of actions have caused the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans.

We now have somewhere between 195,000 and 198,000 deaths from the virus.  The latest from the CDC says 195,000 and the worldometer says we are over 198,000.  Regardless of which you believe, we will soon see 200,000 of our fellow citizens dead from this virus.  It didn’t have to happen this way.

We learned that he called our fallen heroes “suckers” and “losers” because they were killed in World War I.  He continuously attacks our soldiers and their leaders.  He called “my generals” a “bunch of p….sies”. He also has claimed that “my generals are stupid”.  Yet, too many people believe his lie that he “loves our troops and veterans”.

Almost the entire west coast is burning.  The wildfires are raging out of control.  The west coast is in the middle of a heat wave, the forests are dry as dust, and he said nothing about it for over three weeks.  These fires are not the “result of not maintaining their floors” as trump claims, they are the result of climate change.

The west has been suffering through a very long drought.  It has fought more fires over the last several years than normal.  The reason is because the climate is getting hotter and that is causing these droughts and fires.  Yet, our president is “not bothered by climate change” he actually calls it a “hoax” just like he did the coronavirus.

The west coast is not alone in this problem either.  We have seen air pollution rise by over 30 percent since trump took office.  We have seen water pollution rise by over 25 percent since trump took office.  We have seen ground pollution rise by over 40 percent since trump took office.

These rises in pollution are no accident.  This president has done his very best to roll back every environmental rule or regulation to protect our water and air he could.  He pushes only using fossil fuels instead of encouraging the use of clean renewable energy sources.  Why?  Because he and his enablers get a whole lot of money from fossil fuel companies for their campaigns.

Even oil and gas companies and the auto industry have pushed back against the roll back of these regulations.  So why did he do it anyway?  Because he just doesn’t care.  He doesn’t care if you get sick and die.  He doesn’t care if your homes burn to the ground because of wildfires.  He doesn’t care if your children suffer from asthma caused by heavy air pollution or are poisoned by lead in your drinking water.

Yet, too many people look at this record and say he is so wonderful we need to reelect him.  They always say “he has done so much for us”.  But, when questioned about just what he has done, we hear cricket chirps not answers.  That is simply because he has done nothing.

This is the first administration in my lifetime that has not proposed one piece of legislation to Congress for their consideration on anything.  Not one thing has this administration prepared and pushed to get passed.  All this president does is hide beneath his bed covers tweeting out nasty things about his opponents and play golf.

Over this weekend, we even heard the latest “reason” for everything going so terribly wrong under trump and his administration.  According to the enablers it is all “Joe Biden’s fault”.  It was Joe Biden who did not respond properly to the coronavirus and that is why so many Americans died.

The chairperson for the RNC, Ronna McDaniel, tweeted this out:  “Joe Biden cannot run from his disastrous record responding to the coronavirus”.  That is really something.  Apparently, this moron who heads the RNC believes that Joe Biden is actually the president not her dear leader.  Why else would she tweet out something so stupid and put her name on it?

Last week we also learned that the White House has interfered and “changed” what the CDC puts out concerning the coronavirus.  That is not shocking since they are only worried that the CDC doesn’t tell us the truth but only what trump wants us to hear.

But, did you know that the man who leads this charge has no scientific background or knows anything about pandemics or that he has very strong ties to, get ready, Russia?  Michael Caputo, the HHS Assistant Secretary is the one who has been manipulating CDC reports to the public.

Mr. Caputo lived in Russia for over six years.  He was an advisor to Boris Yeltsen and even helped get him elected as Russia’s president.  Then, he helped clean up the reputation of one Vladimer Putin.  But, he also claims that doesn’t make him a Putin Stooge.  On the on the other hand he told the Buffalo News “that at the time, Putin wasn’t such a bad guy”.

That person he describes as not being “such a bad guy” was one of the heads of the KGB in East Germany during the 1980s.  He was also very pissed off when the wall fell and Russians had to leave Germany.  It was under his direction that the Stasi was able to commit so many crimes against humanity with Russia’s blessings.

Ask yourself this question.  How is it that so many people who have worked with trump during his last campaign and his administration have so many ties to Russia?  Is it a requirement that you have to have ties to Russia to be considered a candidate to work for trump?

Caputo has had ties and spread the false information from Derkach who was labeled a “Russian Spy” by trump’s own Treasury Department.  He worked with Roger Stone a convicted felon who bragged he knew Russia was the one who hacked the DNC servers in the last election.

Just look at some of the various characters who have surrounded our dear leader who have had Russian connections.  There is of course Caputo, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates and George Popadopoulos.

Manafort was trump’s campaign manager who also was an advisor to the pro-Russian Ukraine leader before he ran away from the country when pro-democracy protests forced him to resign.  And, Manafort said he wouldn’t accept a salary while campaign manager but owed a whole lot of money to Russians.  Who was paying him?

Michael Flynn made more than one trip to Russia.  He even sat next to Putin during a dinner for a state run media company during the last campaign while he was an advisor to that trump campaign.  He had lots of ties to Russia and pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian Ambassador before he took office as the National Security Advisor.

Rick Gates was Manafort’s right hand man.  He worked with Manafort both in the trump campaign and in Ukraine.  He was a key witness in the Manafort trials that got him convicted for several crimes.

George Popadopoulos was one of trump’s foreign policy advisors.  He was the one who bragged to the Australian Ambassador that Russia had lots of dirt on Hillary Clinton which triggered the whole Russia investigation.  He also pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

Besides these people, trump has surrounded himself with others who committed crimes or have been formally accused of committing crimes.  We have Roger Stone who was found guilty of seven felonies.  We have Steve Bannon who has been indicted for “stiffing” trump supporters in a scheme to rob them using a “wall funding” plan.  We have Michael Cohen who was found guilty of felonies including campaign finance law violations in which trump is an unindicted co-conspirator.

All of these people were not “fringe” players trying to make a name for themselves by being around trump.  They were all “key” players in his campaign and/or administration.  When have you ever seen an administration with so many people with close ties to our biggest adversary?  When have you seen any administration with ANYONE with so many ties to Russia?  The answer is Never Before Now!

Nancy Pelosi has said about trump, “with you all roads lead to Russia”.  Well, when it comes to Putin’s desire to destroy our nation, it seems all of “his roads lead to trump”.  Which is exactly why yesterday I said that a vote for trump is a vote for Putin.

This president has broken every promise he has made to the American people.  He said he would build his wall and Mexico would pay for it.  He has NOT built his wall, except for 3 miles of new fencing, and Mexico has NOT paid us a single peso.

He promised that “all Americans would get affordable health care with his plan”.  There is no health care plan and there are more than 20 million more people who than when he took office without health insurance.  They LOST their insurance when they lost their jobs due to the pandemic.

He promised that “I will rebuild our infrastructure like roads, bridges, airports, rail roads”.  Nothing has been done.  Not one new road has been built.  Not one new bridge has been built.  Not one new airport has been built.  He hasn’t even come up with a plan on how to do all of this.

This president is a total failure.  The only “accomplishment” he has under his record is that he has stoked division and hate among our people.  He has INCREASED the income inequality in our country.  He has caused millions of people to lose their health insurance.  He has maligned our military and its leaders.  He has maligned our allies.

But, he has cozied up to Putin.  Why?

As you can see, I just don’t understand how any reasonable person, how anyone with a working brain, how any person with any morals can actually support this LOSER.  If anyone knows the answer to that question, please write a book, you can probably make a fortune.

And, the shirts keep marching along.

 

Team Trump Is Showing America Their Plan To Change America

As our country marches forward towards having over 200,000 dead from a virus that trump admitted he knew was “deadly” but did nothing to stop it, his team, and he himself, are showing just what their vision of America is.  And, it isn’t the free, democratic country that we all love.  Rather it is a dictatorship with him at the head.  They aren’t even trying to hide that fact anymore.

In Nevada yesterday trump said we have a distinct choice between two visions of America.  He is actually telling the truth in public for once.  We do have two distinct choices between what our country will be going forward depending upon who wins in November.

First the pandemic.  The CDC numbers say we are sitting at over 194,000 dead from the virus.  Worldometer says we have over 198,000 dead from the virus.  Since it was reported, and not argued against by the administration, that political appointees were demanding and then changing CDC messaging to the public to “fit more with trump’s message”, it is safe to assume that the numbers from worldometer are more accurate than the CDC numbers.

That is a very chilling thing to consider.  The CDC has been the world leader in pandemic and health care decisions for decades.  It is the one agency that the entire world looks to for guidance.  But, this administration has bastardized it to become a “political tool” of them in order to make trump look like he is telling the truth when in fact he is lying through his teeth.  That is a major action of any dictatorship and everyone knows it.  As Hitler said, if you control what the public hears, they have no choice but to follow you.

Second we have trump trying to compare himself to Winston Churchill.  He claims that Churchill was keeping things under wraps and trying to reduce panic at the start of World War II.  However, that claim is totally bogus.  Churchill was very honest with his people about what they were about to face while trump was hiding the truth from us.

In one of his most famous speeches, Winston Churchill said this:

What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.”

This is what trump has been saying about the pandemic that he wants us to believe makes him a “wartime president”.  “It is all a hoax.  It will all go away by April when the weather warms up.  We have it totally under control.”

Maybe it is just me, but those two paragraphs just don’t seem to measure up the way trump wants us to believe.  That paragraph from Churchill came after a long speech about how bad things were.  It came after he told the people about having to pull his troops out of France.  He was honest and he was calling on his nation to pull together and fight a common enemy.  On the other hand, trump wouldn’t even acknowledge that we faced a very deadly virus that was about to kill tens of thousands of us.

Third, we have trump trying to make our upcoming elections null and void before we even get a chance to go to the polls.  He says “the only way I can lose this election is if the Democrats rig it”.  What he is saying is that we don’t need to vote at all because he has declared himself the “obvious” winner so why bother voting.  He has tried to totally dismantle the Post Office so mail-in ballots won’t get there in time to be counted.  He has threatened to “send officers to the polls to keep fraud from taking place”.

Those are both actions of a dictator who is terrified of losing the election.  But it gets even better.  His campaign sent out a tweet looking for donations because they have squandered their money.  The tweet was not a usual “please donate to our candidate” type of thing.  Instead they told us that we “must donate to trump or Antifa will be attacking your homes if Biden is elected”.

That is another ploy taken directly from the “dictator’s handbook on how to scare the shit out of people for no reason”.  There is no organized “Antifa” that is threatening to “attack your homes”.  The FBI says the real threat to our people is from “white supremacist groups” who pose the biggest threat of domestic terrorism our country faces.

Fourth, we have that wonderful convicted felon Roger Stone coming right out and “demanding” that trump “take control of our country”.  This clown has been convicted of seven felony crimes.  He is not in jail because his good buddy trump has commuted his sentence.  So, he feels free to spout anything he wants in defense of his hero and benefactor.

The convicted felon showed up on Alex Jones’ show “infowars” the other day.  You know Alex Jones, he is the conspiracy theorist who has been sued and lost those suits for spreading false information and defaming people who lost their children in the school shooting at Sandy Hook.  In that “appearance” the convicted felon said that trump should “declare marshal law” to seize power if he loses the election.

According to the convicted felon, there is only a “real winner” if trump prevails.  If he loses, then he should seize power and declare marshal law and enact the Sedition Act.  He says trump should send “federal authorities to seize all of the ballots from Nevada and make sure they are not counted”.

He also claims that trump should then, under the Sedition Act begin to “round up” his opponents.  He even has a list of people that he says must be rounded up right away.  They include:  “Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, ‘the Clintons’ and anybody else who can be proven to be involved in illegal activity.”  Like himself?  Oh no, he means if you say anything bad about trump, you are involved in illegal activity.

He also called for the immediate arrest of former defense secretary James Mattis for “sedition,” apparently because he feared Trump was unfit for office, according to Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward’s upcoming book, “Rage.”

He also says that trump should begin to “round up” all of the journalists who have “maligned” him since he took office.  He claims they should all be arrested and their offices completely shut down for “sedition”.

The odd part is that no one from the Pathetic Party has spoken up against these ravings from a convicted felon and good pal to their dear leader.  Which makes the one comment from a Republican, John Dean, very meaningful.  He said:  Stone wants trump to  “declare himself America’s dictator – what many Republicans crave.”

Sixth, we have Rudy Giuliani at the microphone again.  He was asked why he “did not know or understand” that Derkach was a known “Russian agent” when he was talking to him about getting dirt on Biden.  All Giuliani would say is the usual Sgt. Schultz answer “I know nothing”.  Sounded like Pence.

Finally, we have our own dear leader afraid to stand up to Putin.  It is becoming clearer and clearer from day to day that Putin MUST have something on trump in order to control him as much as he has over the last four years.  We have not heard anything from trump about today’s Russian meddling in our elections.  A FACT that our intelligence agencies all agree on.

We have not heard one condemning word about Russia arming our enemy in Afghanistan except to hear trump claim “well, we armed them against Russia in the 80s.”  We have not heard one word of condemnation about the “Russian Bounty” on our soldiers in Afghanistan and those of our coalition allies.  We have not heard one word of condemnation from trump about the Russian poisoning of Navalnay, Putin’s biggest opposition leader.

So, we do have a very distinct choice to make this election.  We can elect someone who will stand up and fight for our nation.  Who will follow the science in order to crush the pandemic taking our people’s lives so we can get back to normal.  Someone who will fight for social justice for ALL of our people.  Someone who will look to reform policing in our nation so no one is fearful of being pulled over by a cop.  Someone who will fight to help our nation lead the fight against climate change.  Someone who will fight to raise the minimum wage so millions of our working poor can get out of poverty.  Someone who will fight to maintain our democracy and our freedoms.

Or, we can elect someone who will divide us more and more with his hate and bigotry.  Who will make that hate and bigotry part of his second term policies.  Someone who will destroy our democracy from within.  Someone who is willing to consider ordering “marshal law” and start rounding up his opponents.  Someone who thinks police brutality is just fine.  Someone who disparages our soldiers and veterans by calling them “loser” and “suckers”.  Someone who will NOT defend them on the battlefield.  Someone who says the “election is rigged” yet tells his supporters to commit a felony and “vote twice” in the election.  Someone who seems to be under the control of our biggest adversary, Russian dictator Putin.

If you love our country.  If you love your freedoms.  If you believe in the belief of liberty and justice for all.  If you are a true patriot.  Then your choice is clear.  You must vote for Joe Biden.

On the other hand, if you like the idea of living under a dictatorship.  If you hate our country so much you won’t demand your leader protect our troops on the battlefield.  If you hate the idea of true justice and liberty for all.  If you like the idea of becoming a satellite of Russia.  Then you must cast your vote for Putin’s puppet, trump.  Just remember, a vote for trump is a vote for Putin.

And, the shirts keep marching along.

 

The “Law And Order” Candidate Keeps Breaking The Law

The election is just 60 days away.  And, it is apparent to me that trump has actually stopped campaigning, at least for now.  Instead of telling us what he plans to do about all of our problems, he instead is telling us he is the “law and order” candidate.  Except, he isn’t and I will discuss that in a bit.

The pandemic is still raging across the country.  Our Failure-in-Chief has made us a laughing stock of the world with his inept handling of the crisis.  He called himself a “wartime president” and was going to “wipe out” the virus.  He lost his war “big time”!

As of today, the CDC reports that over 187,000 people have died from the virus.  The Worldometer says that over 191,000 people have died from the virus in our country.  Now, in a normal life, I would trust the CDC numbers more, but this isn’t a normal life, it is a trump life.  Since trump has all the “numbers” being sent directly to the FDA where his hand-picked flunky is in charge and can manipulate the numbers, I don’t trust the CDC as much anymore.

In either case, to put this in some perspective, our dear leader has allowed the entire populations of cities like Columbus, Ga, Mobile, AL or Little Rock, AR to be wiped out. How is that for “winning”?  It isn’t what I would call “winning” but then I am not trump and I understand that “winning” isn’t wiping out the populations of American cities due to ineptness.

Then we have him trying to say that he is in perfect health all the while trying to claim that Biden is the one who is in poor health.  The funny thing is that his buddy Putin is using social media to tell us the exact same thing.  They are even using the same words that trump is using which tells me they are “coordinating” their messages.  That is called collusion with an foreign adversary.

Team trump is also using photo shopping to make Biden look even older than he is.  They are doing everything to say that he is too old to be president.  The odd thing is we know now that trump’s “mystery” trip to Walter Reed Hospital last year was more serious than we first were told.

In a new book about trump, the author, a New York Times Reporter who actually saw emails and notes in his research, says that Sgt. Schultz was “put on alert” in case the president needed to undergo some kind of procedure that would include being put to sleep.  That is all that was said about the “trip” to the hospital.

But trump couldn’t let it go at that.  He had to tweet that “I never had a stroke of a series of mini-strokes as it was written about”.  Only, that was never written about until after he tweeted about it.  Why would he tweet all of that if it never happened and it does not appear in the book?  Well, it is said that you can tell the truth when someone fights back against something that was never said.  In other words, since trump sent the tweets, we can probably believe that he did in fact have a stroke or a series of mini-strokes.  Otherwise why would he say he didn’t when no one said he did?

There has always been some worry about the president’s sanity.  There was that time a month ago when he bragged about his “acuity test” that he “aced”.   You don’t “ace” acuity tests.  They are designed to find out if you are in the beginning stages of dementia.  And, they aren’t given unless you may be showing signs of dementia to begin with.

So, why was it so important for trump to brag about this acuity test when no one asked him about it?  Because he is that stupid or he actually is in the beginning stages of dementia, that is why.  And, he seems to think that this acuity test is some kind of IQ test.  Why else would he brag so much about “acing” it.

Then we have that interview the other day with his mouthpiece Ingraham.  She tried very hard to keep him on track and not come across as so stupid.  But, she failed.  It was during this interview that we were told that some “nefarious” dark group was “pulling Joe Biden’s strings”.  It was like listening to someone claiming that the illuminati was actually “ruling the world” or maybe Biden is an actual alien from some weird planet in the galaxy.

We were also told that a plane “from a certain city” was full of “thugs dressed all in black with equipment” heading to Washington, DC.  He said a “prominent” person was on the plane and saw it all.  And, he “might” tell us all about it at some time in the future.  Well, we have gleaned who that “prominent” person on that plane was.

That Russian and trump loving Congressman from California, one Devin Nunes, was most likely the one who told trump about this bunch of “thugs” on the plane.  It turns out that Nunes was flying to Washington and had to change planes in Salt Lake City.  He claims to have seen a bunch of “dressed in black” thugs board the plane in Salt Lake City.

Of course, the whole “story” is an exact duplicate of a conspiracy theory that hit the internet about three months ago.  We have seen many conspiracy theories that claimed “antifa thugs” were “coming to get you” on the internet.  Except, no one ever showed up at the sites or cities where they were supposed to be “coming for you”.  Well, except for the stupid people with guns who believed that crap.  They showed up and discovered they were played for fools.

In that interview of course trump went off again about “massive voter fraud” being planned for the election.  He claims that vote by mail is a fraud even though he votes by mail.  Additionally, he casts a fraudulent ballot because he does not have a “legal residential address” in Florida where he is registered.  But, according to Florida law, that is okay with them.

That interview with Ingraham was really off the rails.  It sounded like trump was living in some kind of fantasy world and did not understand what was really happening in our country.  He sounded confused and unfocused.  All we heard was talking points with no substance behind it all.  It was really pathetic to listen to.  It even made me feel sorry for his delusions, well almost.

Finally, we have himself saying he is all for “law and order”.  Then in consecutive days, once in North Carolina and then the next day in Pennsylvania, he committed a crime in public.  In both states he encouraged his supporters to “vote twice” which is both a state and a federal crime.

On both occasions, he said:  “What you have to do is send in your early ballot and then go and make sure that ballot is tabulated or counted, and if it’s not counted, vote.”  I don’t know about Pennsylvania, but in North Carolina it is a felony to even suggest or urge people to vote twice.  If any of his people actually follow his suggestion, they face years in prison for voter fraud.

He continues to claim that vote by mail is voter fraud, then he goes out and encourages his own supporters to commit voter fraud by voting twice.  I grew up in Chicago and know the history of the fifty’s and sixty’s with voter fraud accusations.  But, not even there did any candidate so openly encourage supporters to break the law.  And, this comes from someone who claims to be the “law and order” president.

His fake attorney general isn’t surprised by his comments.  No, actually he has defended them.  He claims there is no problem with him encouraging his supporters to break the law.

This administration is by all accounts the most corrupt in our history.  More cabinet members have been accused of corruption and were forced to leave office than ever before.  More members of “team trump” have been convicted of actual crimes than any administration in history.  Trump’s own company is under investigation in New York for crimes of corruption.  His children face corruption and criminal charges.  But, we are supposed to believe that he is the “law and order” president.

The fake attorney general says that under this president “you will be held accountable” if you break the law.  But, that is a lie.  Just ask Stone or Flynn.  They broke the law and were convicted but are not being held accountable because they have trump protecting them.  Just ask trump himself.  He just broke the law not once but twice in public on national TV and is not being held accountable for breaking the law.

That is because there are many forms of law according to trump and his fake attorney general.  There are the laws that we all must follow.  There are the laws that the rich must follow, which are far fewer than what the rest of us must follow.  And, then there are the laws according to trump.  If he or his cronies do something, only trump can declare if is breaking the law.  And, his record shows that he determines that they did not break trump’s law so they get off.

In the next 60 days we are going to see and hear a lot more about this.  We will continue to hear about “law and order” all the while we watch trump break the law whenever he wants and his fake attorney general say “so what”.

In the meantime, we will continue to see our fellow citizens die every day from this horrific pandemic.  We will continue to see places like college campuses and schools become “hot spots” for the virus.  We will continue to be hurt by the economic turmoil.  We will begin to see evictions start to explode all across the country.  And, we will continue to see civil unrest because this president doesn’t know what he is doing.

Furthermore, we will have to continue to watch to see what this president is going to do next.  I really believe that he is losing the plot.  I am not sure what he is thinking, if anything.  The trajectory of his actions makes me believe this is not a “planned campaign” thing.  Rather it is more delusional thinking.  If that is the case, that makes him very, very dangerous to himself, the nation and the world.

No matter what our dear leader says, the election is not being “fixed” by his opponents.  The only party working hard to suppress the vote is his party.  No matter what happens, you MUST cast a vote this year.  You MUST do your civic duty.  You MUST help get rid of this man from office as well as all of his enablers.

I believe that if he and his enablers keep power, someone will be “coming” for you.  Only it won’t be that “radical” left he keeps talking about.  It will be him and his enablers.  The proof for this belief is that they are the ones who “scooped up” people from the streets without saying why the people were being detained.  They are the ones who put Stasi on the streets.  Think about that.

And, the shirts keep marching along.

Day Three Shows Us Mrs. Jackson Is Right America – It Is Time To “Search Your Heart”

Well, day three of the RNC is over.  I didn’t think it would ever end.  It was just as anticipated.  It was a “loyalty” test for all of the speakers.  They all heaped praise on our dear leader, except one.  He didn’t even mention trump’s name.  I don’t know if that was planned or just a mistake.

I am having a very hard time deciding which is worse.  Listening to trump read from a teleprompter like a first grader or listening to pence whenever he speaks.  I learned that if you are going to give a public speech, the audience can tell just how much you believe in what you are saying by how you say it.

Listening to pence does not make me believe he believes anything he is saying at any given time.  And, last night it was hard to believe he believed anything he said about how “proud” he was at being at trump’s side during the last four years.

There was also something else that always comes to mind whenever a bunch of Republicans get together.  You always hear them talk about “what we DID”.  You almost never hear them say what they WILL do.  That is because they have no idea what they are going to do.  All the believe in is what happened in the past.  That is the very definition of Conservativism.  Conservatives always believe that “yesterday” was always better and that “tomorrow” will never come or more importantly they are afraid of “tomorrow”.

That is why there is no platform for the RNC this year.  They decided to finally put their action where their mouths are.  They are letting us know that what happened yesterday is far more important than what happens tomorrow so they don’t even have a plan for tomorrow.  That has always been their belief, and this year they put it on paper, or rather don’t have paper with anything written on it.

The entire meme so far has been how wonderful trump has been.  They are telling us that the pandemic is over because trump did such a “wonderful” job in fighting against it.  They tell us the economy is “booming” because trump is such a “great” business man.  They tell us that the country is on a great path because trump has done, well, they haven’t told us what he has done for that one.

There were three very interesting items missing from yesterday’s day three.  The first was the pandemic.  They didn’t tell us that there are now 180,000 dead from the virus.  So, I guess he has done a great job on this item.  No other nation in the world comes even close to the number of dead from the virus as we have.  No other nation comes even close to the 5.8 million people affected by the virus.  So, I guess they are chalking up another “win” for trump.

Then there was nothing about the economic disaster we are facing.  I am not talking about the stock market like they want us to talk about because the stock is not the economy.  I am talking about the additional 1 million people who filed for new unemployment last week.  That makes about 23 out of 24 weeks that over 1 million filed.  The one week that didn’t have 1 million had about 964,000.  They hailed that as a great accomplishment.

We didn’t hear about the over 100,000 small businesses who closed their doors for good.  We didn’t hear about how they were forced to shut their doors because the administration rigged the small business part of the Cares Act so only larger companies with relationships with “large” banks could get the money.  As a result, hundreds of thousands of small businesses were completely shut out of the help intended for them.

We did not hear about the over 30 million Americans who lost their health insurance when they lost their jobs.  We did not hear about the 23 million people who are at risk of losing their homes.  We did not hear about any of these things because it proves that the economy is NOT “booming” like they want us to believe.

We did not hear anything about the social unrest sweeping across the country.  We did not hear about the latest police shooting in Kenosha, WI.  We did not hear about the 17 year old who shot and killed two protesters in Kenosha the night before claiming he was a “militia” and trying to “protect” property.  We did not hear condemnation for Tucker Carlson who just before the coverage of their convention started tried to “justify” the murders of this wacko kid.

We did not hear about another death in Minneapolis when a murder suspect was found dead while in custody.  We did hear that there must be “law and order” and we were told the protesters were anarchist.  But, we did not hear about how the Proud Boys have been raising trouble in Portland, OR.  They have infiltrated the protests ongoing in that city to start fights with the protesters.

When they succeed in starting trouble, the police declare a “riot’ and start firing off tear gas and charging into the protesters.  These “riots” have been started by right wing militia and the police have been standing by and watching it all take place.  As a matter of fact, over this past weekend they decided that they would no longer interfere with the fights or even try to stop them.  But, then again, the Portland Police have been known to be cozy with white supremacists in the past.  In case you are wondering, there are plenty of videos showing the Proud Boys instigating fights during peaceful protests.  Yet, nothing is being done about them.  The only “anarchists” are the protesters not the ones causing the problems.

We heard absolutely not one mention of Hurricane Laura striking the Gulf Coast.  NOT ONE WORD!  Hundreds of thousands of Americans were in deep jeopardy because of the category four hurricane about to ruin their entire lives, but no one last night could utter one word about it.  Their problem is that the very people being most impacted are “their people” not the “liberals” they hate so much.

The hurricane did come ashore last night in Louisiana.  We know that at least one person was killed.  That was a 14 year old girl who was killed when a tree fell on her house.  I am certain, but hoping against hope I am wrong, that there will be more deaths.  Yet, no one last night could even mention the tragedy ready to unfold on the Gulf Coast.  We didn’t even hear those magical words Republicans think stops all suffering, “we pray for the victims”.

This convention has been a bust, at least in my mind.  It has been filled with nothing that can be said was good, and it has nothing that can show what we can expect if we let them keep office.  It has been filled with all kinds of characters though.  We have the St. Louis couple under indictment for aiming loaded weapons at unarmed protesters who marched past their home and did nor said anything to them.  They were warning us that if Democrats win “mob rule” will take place in America.

But, one of the most putrid of the speakers was one Abby Johnson.  She is an anti-abortionist who claims to have once worked for Planned Parenthood.  She also claims that the vast majority of Planned Parenthood clinics are in minority areas.  Actually about 7 percent of their clinics are in areas more than one-third minority.  She claims she quit her job when she witnessed an “ultrasound” abortion on an African American woman.

Her problem is that she has told this story for years.  Yet, whenever anyone looks into it for facts, there is no evidence that this took place at all.  She claims the fetus was 13 weeks old.  Yet on the day she claims this took place, there was no abortion that was performed on anyone more that 9 weeks pregnant.  Plus, the only African American who had an abortion that day was only 8 weeks pregnant and no ultra sound was used.

So, her story is anything but truthful.  But, that isn’t all she believes.  For one thing, and she said this openly at the convention, that she believes in “household” voting.  It probably isn’t what you think.  What she is saying is that if the “husband” decides to vote one way and the “wife” another, she can’t vote because it is only his vote that should count.

According to her, in “a godly” household, the husband gets the final say on everything including a woman’s right to vote her own mind.  But, this is also a woman who says some other disgusting things.  She has adopted a “mixed race” son.  So, you would think she favors police reform so her son would not be profiled.  But, you are absolutely wrong.

According to this woman it is perfectly okay for police to profile her non-white son.  She said just before her big night at the convention that “it would be smart for police to be more careful around her brown son than her white son because statistics say brown people are more violent than white people”.  How would like to have this woman as your mom?  If I were her “brown son” I would be in court getting that adoption voided so I could get the hell away from her.

Of course the main theme of this RNC just like the main theme of the last 50 years of RNC conventions, is that “Democrats are socialists” and we are “real” Americans.  How many times have we heard this week about how if the Democrats win we will be “locked in our houses until we are subserviant to government handouts”?

How many times have we heard that Democrats want to “take away your guns and leave us defenseless”?  How many times have we heard that “Democrats want to take away our right to free speech”?  These are all the same quotes we have heard ever since Barry Goldwater was the Republican nominee back in 1964.  People are saying that this is all “new” to the Republican party.  It isn’t.  Look back and you will see it.

It was Richard Nixon in 1968 that came up with the “lets get the bigots on our side” with his “southern strategy” just a few years after the Civil Rights and Voting Rights bills were passed.  It was Ronald Reagan who started the whole “welfare queen” mantra as part of the Republican policy agenda.  It was George H.W. Bush who started the whole “Democrats want to let every criminal out of prison” crap.

No, this is nothing new.  What is new is that this is the first time that Republicans stuck their heads in the sand with a deadly pandemic going on around them.  It is the first time they stuck their heads in the sand when their leader treats bounties on the heads of our soldiers as not really his concern.  It is the first time when it was discovered someone was “arming” our enemies in a war they allowed their president to say “well, we armed them in the 1980 against Russia, so..”

Every person in America knows that the pandemic is slowly killing us off and spreading out of control.  Every person in America knows that the “new” guidelines put out by the CDC saying if you don’t have symptoms you don’t need to be tested even if you were in close contact with a positive case, going against ALL evidence to the contrary, is the result of “political” pressure from the White House.

Every person in America knows that we have serious civil unrest because of police misconduct and police brutality.  Every person in America knows that the economy is not booming but is in shambles with no clear end in sight.

Well, every person in America knows all of this except those true trump loyalists.  It is those true trump loyalists that have gotten speaking gigs at this year’s convention.  They support a dictator wanna-be and are ready to fall in line and do their duty even if it kills them to keep him in power.

Pence was right about one thing last night.  This election above anything else is about America.  It is about whether or not we keep our democracy or move to authoritarianism.  It is about the freedoms of our people or whether trump gets to decide which “rights” or which “people’ get to enjoy them?  It is about how our children will live.  Will they live in a free democracy or will they live under the thumb of a dictator?

It is about are we going to have a fair economy where everyone can “move up” or are we going to continue along the oligarch type of economy Republicans have already begun establishing?  It is about are we going to continue to have freedom of religion or are we going to be forced to live under laws determined by one sect of one religion?  Will “freedoms” be determined by our “religious” beliefs or by our being a citizen in a free country?

This election will determine if we are that “shining city on a hill” or if we are the “usual slum run by a dictator”.  That is the simple choice.  Our dear leader wants to be our dictator for life.  His opponent wants to keep our democracy.

America, it is up to you.  V O T E !!!!!!!

And, the shirts keep marching along.