Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Donald Trump could be impeached by Progressives in 2018

The People speak

American University Professor Allan Lichtman predicted that Donald Trump would win the 2016 election for President, and he did. Well, not the popular vote by a long shot, but the electoral College which is all that counts. Lichtman did it with his system, “Keys to the White House,” one that has called presidential elections in the past. Not using the "Keys" this time, he made another forecast that Trump would be impeached before the end of his first term. Lichtman has put all this in his new book,  “The Case for Impeachment,” publishing on April 18.

The author indicates there are eight ways in which the impeachment could happen, using former cases like Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton to illustrate his conclusion. Lichtman points out guidelines that many people aren't aware of...
"You don’t actually have to commit a crime to be impeached. The House of Representatives basically decides what constitutes impeachment, and it could be any violation of the public trust, whether or not it’s a crime."
It was the Founding Fathers intention to put in place a mechanism that would allow Congress to keep checks and balances on the Oval Office and get rid of a "rogue" that saw fit to ignore the law. Nixon did and Lichtman believes that one of the reasons that...
"...Trump is vulnerable to impeachment is that he shares many of the same traits as Richard Nixon, and poses the same kind of threat to our constitutional system, our liberties and our freedoms."
But Peter W. Stevenson of the Washington Post reminds the Professor that Republicans control both houses of Congress plus the White House. Why would they want to mess with the balance of power by impeaching another Republican? Lichtman's reply is the people could demand it and since Donald John has no real connections in Congress, they could decide to cut him loose simply because he is a liability. It only takes a majority vote and since the Dems would no doubt be in favor, it would only require two-dozen Republicans to switch.

Stevenson makes the point that Republicans don't really trust Donald Trump, but they love Mike Pence, considered to be their Christian conservative dream for Congress. In some cases, Pence could be worse than Trump with his Tea Party ideologies that he would attempt to run the government with. I say attempt because I do believe the public would revolt as they have in the past when this radical faction gets too close to control. If the emails I get from this organization are any measurement of their sanity, Mike Pence is a part of a snake pit.

Lichtman alludes to past business dealings of Donald Trump and his many decades in the world of commerce. It's not pretty. He's flouted the law, been in trouble with the Department of Justice, broke the Cuban embargo in the 1990s, when that was a serious crime, and he has broken laws with respect to the employment of illegal immigrants, ironically contradicting his own campaign. Played fast and loose with the law, walked away from failed deals, and has had a serious problem with telling the truth, obvious in his campaign and in office, but also regularly before that.

Lichman makes a comment in closing that really sums up Donald Trump as a person, "His overriding pattern is Donald Trump first, and nothing else matters nearly as much." Yet today he is in the White House, put there by voters that I am not sure were informed enough to know what the hell they were doing; at least a vast majority of them. Donald John answered to no one in business but he has the American public trust to answer to today and that is what could bring about his impeachment. 

Monday, April 17, 2017

From bedlam to turmoil, a wrap-up from Trump Turbulence


A majority of Republicans think the economic status of black Americans is mostly their fault. The General Social Survey, a wide-ranging study of cultural and political attitudes done annually by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, reports that 55% of white Republicans agree with this concept while only 26% of white Democrats do. This 55% feel black Americans experience more poverty due to their lack of motivation and willpower. This sounds to me like the general population of the South I grew up in. Apparently little has changed.

Not exactly last week, but recent and on-going. The Democrats have a way of getting the issues they are interested in done amongst a Republican White House supported by a Republican Congress. The GOP needs the Dems to avoid a government shutdown at the end of this month. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), said...
"Republicans are going to need our help putting together the budget, and that help means we can avoid some of the outrageous Trump proposals and advance some of our own proposals.”
Trump, himself, seems to have mellowed since the repeal of Obamacare was shoved down his throat, or elsewhere. I keep saying it but just wait until 2018.

 It was Tuesday of last week that Sean Spicer effectively erased the Holocaust from history with his statement that, "... even Adolf Hitler did not sink to that level of warfare and was not using the gas on his own people in the same way that Assad is doing.” This was followed by the typical controversy that seems to go along with most everything the man says. He realized, of course, what he had said, but it is always too late and the damage has already been done. During the 2016 campaign Trump attacked Hillary Clinton using a Star of David on top of piles of money.

A week of Trump flip-flops. First, I hate NATO, then I love it. Then, China is a currency manipulator during his candidacy, in the Oval Office, China is not a currency manipulator. During the 2016 campaign, he didn't like Janet Yellen, said, she "should be ashamed of herself.” Once in the White House, “I like her, I respect her.” Conservatives don't like the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Neither did Donald John in 2016. Then he found it helped small companies so he would let it exist. It was several flip-flops that tanked John Kerry's 2004 Presidential campaign but DT seems oblivious.

A ranking of least and most popular U.S. Senators comes up regularly in the media and it makes one wonder if the purpose is to get rid of assholes like Mitch McConnell. McConnell is always at the top of the least liked, and it comes straight from a poll of his constituents. So why the hell was he reelected? Stupid voters or a weak Democrat running against him? McConnell also happens to be one of the most powerful members of Congress, and that is dangerous when it is a person who thinks only of himself and the Republican Party. But Bernie Sanders is first, because he's always for his country.

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Wealth without charity is obscene


While the United States holds the most private wealth in the world, over $60 trillion, it still has the widest inequity gap of 55 countries that were studied. That is because those with the money have no charity. Okay, maybe they give here and there to organizations like United Way, The Salvation Army, YMCA, St Jude Hospital, Goodwill Industries, among a few, plus their favorite animal shelter or rescue. But I am talking about real charity, sharing of the wealth. Sound Socialistic? Well it is, I am talking about Democratic Socialism of the Berne Sanders kind.

2015 was America's most generous year of giving ever, with donations from America’s individuals, estates, foundations and corporations reaching an estimated $373.25 billion. But here's the shocker. Individuals gave over 14 times as much as corporations did. And from my experience in junk mail fund raising, the single giver is often those who can only afford small amounts. All fingers point to a corporate world where CEOs are pushed for maximum profits and paid generously to get the job done. In many cases a lot of these reach the obscene level of common sense.

Corporate participation is one of the kinds of charities I am talking about and with profits over $6. One such individual is Warren Buffett, the head of Berkshire Hathaway and a legendary investor, who in 2013 complained that he was paying a lower rate of tax than his secretary. But this is offset by the fact that he gave $2.86 billion to charities in 2016. He had given $2.84 billion in 2014.
Bill, Melinda Gates in Africa
trillion annually, you'd think they might have a couple of bucks to spare. The other is wealthy individuals, that 1% that Bernie Sanders talks about.

Bill Gates of Microsoft is another billionaire who is a giver, especially with his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It occurred to Gates in 1997, that rather than making sure the world had computers, make sure the world is healthy enough to use them first; that's when he saw the impoverished living conditions of Africa. Back in 2013, Gates said, "I have no use for money. This is God’s work." He was referring to his intentions to eradicate polio. At the time he had already given away $28 billion to charity, and this would continue through the foundation in years to come.

There are others you can see here. But as long as there are 564,708 homeless on the streets of the United States, and over 43 million people are living in poverty, we're doing a lousy job. It seems to me that the corporations of this country should concentrate on these two issues as a goal to bring the U.S. to where it should be. New York and Los Angeles rank in the top five of homelessness worldwide. And the U.S. poverty rate is the highest in the developed world. C'mon America, we can do better than that, and it all starts with wealthy Americans and rich U.S. corporations.

We need more "healthy" wealthy people like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Democratic Party last dinosaur of politics


The Democratic Party still does not understand that it is a has-been. Like John McCain. They are so far out of touch that they don't even realize that they almost won a recent election in a heavily red section of Kansas...and with a Progressive candidate. It was "Berniecrat," James Thompson, a guy who was formerly homeless, joined the army and went to college on the GI Bill and got his law degree. Thompson was inspired to run by Bernie Sanders and "... talked about 'progressive values' like universal healthcare, education, and a $15/hour minimum wage."

He beat an establishment Democrat in the primary to run against the seat vacated by Trump's new CIA Director, Mike Pompeo, against the GOP candidate, Ron Estes. When it became obvious that Thompson was gaining in the race, the National Republican Congressional Committee poured in money as did big business. Thompson struggled on his own to raise $292,000 without the Party's help, 95% from individuals. The Democratic National Committee finally kicked in a measly $3,000. "His campaign requested $20,000 from the state Democratic Party and was denied."

Tom Perez did as many flip-flops as Donald Trump has lately, first stating that the Kansas race was one that they could win, then refusing to back Thompson until the last minute, and then with a miniscule amount of money. And then there was the laughable statement from the DNC that, "...giving Thompson money would have actually hurt his chances of winning, because then everyone would have known he’s a Democrat, and Kansans hate Democrats." I thought the double-digit IQs were all in the Republican Party. Thompson lost by 7 percentage points.

Bernie Sanders and DNC chairman Tom Perez are on a multi-city tour to "...rally Democrats around building a stronger party." Maybe I am overreacting but that appears out of line with the Bern's earlier statements on the DNC, especially since Perez was selected on Progressive Keith Ellison. Here's what Sanders told The Hill about his hopes for the DNC and a new Party...
"The best formula, in my opinion, is an updated version of the Kennedys. Jack, Bobby and Ted all combined an insurgent style of mobilizing grassroots workers and voters behind a progressive agenda that appealed to both minority voters and white ethnic and working-class voters."
I did a post earlier to indicate a need to get rid of the Democratic Party: "We need to say goodbye to the Democratic Party." It pointed out that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a Democratic Socialist, like Bernie Sanders and he is considered at the top of the list of great Presidents. I believe that Bernie Sanders should snub the Democratic Party, and make Our Revolution a movement that can't be ignored.

Friday, April 14, 2017

Republicans running North Carolina in double-digit IQs


In April of 2015 the Supreme Court made its decision to legalize marriages between same-sex couples. According to ProCon.org, it was...
"Obergefell v. Hodges" over whether or not gay marriage is a right guaranteed by the US Constitution, and whether or not gay marriages performed in states where it has been legalized must be recognized in states which ban the practice."
The Court ruled 5-4 "...that gay marriage is a constitutional right, meaning that all 50 states must allow it and that all existing bans are invalid. The decision concluded a decades-long battle over whether gay marriage should be legalized."

Pretty conclusive, I would say, from a conservative Court, with a decision that you would think even the double-digit Republican lawmakers in North Carolina could understand. But what stands in their way is a bigoted atmosphere within the state legislature that won't let go of the discrimination of anything that isn't just like them. Rednecks. The N.C, law called  “Uphold Historical Marriage Act,” is a bill arguing that the Supreme Court ruling “exceeds the authority of the court relative to the decree of Almighty God.” Now we're back to 'God made me do it.'

There are many right-thinking people in North Carolina who oppose the bill, realizing that they have already been through this crap once and don't need a repeat. Their even-minded reasoning chastised the bill...
"...as an unnecessary step that will stoke division in a state still reeling from the fallout of a controversial bill regulating which bathrooms transgender people can use."
"It was Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper who criticized the bill on Twitter, labeling it 'wrong' for North Carolina. 'We need more LGBT protections, not fewer.'” Obviously it takes a Democrat to understand the rights of individuals, no matter their race, color, gender or sexual preference. Stephen Griffin, a professor of constitutional law at Tulane University, agreeing with other Constitutional law experts, said it reminded him of "tactics" used in the 1950s and 1960s. If you recall, the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1968. N.C. Republican legislators should have had time to read it by now.

The bigotry against the LGBT community goes hand-in-hand with the racism that has existed in North Carolina for decades. The state is consistently listed in the top five racist states with PEI MAG most recently placing it at number five. But what is much worse is Southern Poverty Law Center's statement in Feb. 2017, "Organized hate is alive and well in North Carolina..." The SPLC has a "Hate Map" that shows 31 hate entities operating in North Carolina including "...the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Confederates, Skinheads, and anti-Muslim groups." These groups attack...
"...entire classes of people based on things like race, religion, and more."
Fortunately the number 31 puts the state just outside the top ten offenders, but what is more significant is the fact that the number 31 is 3.6% of all nationwide hate groups. North Carolina's population is only .33 of the total U.S. population, completely out of proportion when ranked with other states. I am picking on North Carolina because it is beyond me how lawmakers could be so stupid to beat a dead issue like this. At least Arizona learned from their Immigration Bill 1070; it is not going to fly so they left it alone.

Finally, in 2012, I did a post on VR Phipps, a Command member of the North Carolina Tea Party from Faison, NC, just east of Fayetteville. Phipps drove his "Hanging Truck," with Barack Obama hung in effigy around the country all the way to New York City. I had a couple of conversations with Phipps that were off the charts since he denied everything, including being himself. Finally ended the conversations with him continuing to deny he was a Tea Party member, but did admit he was a Republican. You can see the dialogue and Obama hung in effigy on my post here.

And North Carolina isn't the only state to challenge the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage. Arkansas did the same, but after strong resistance shot it down. "Legal experts said the legislation didn’t stand a chance." And the good news is that, "North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore, a Republican, released a statement Wednesday saying the bill would not receive a hearing this session." It's great that the thinking people prevailed...this time.


Thursday, April 13, 2017

The blatant hypocrisy of white evangelicals


81 percent of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump for President of the United States. That is the most powerful position in the world and these poor souls helped put someone in it who represents racism, all kinds of bigotry, is an admitted womanizer, and collects people around him as advisers with close connections to white nationalists organizations. If this is Christianity, I am glad I broke with it years ago. On the other hand, those who don't profess any particular religious (68%) voted for Hillary Clinton. My bet is Trump is 1/10 the religious person that Clinton is.

But in my book, religion doesn't make a damn bit of difference when running this country. There is, of course, the separation of church and state, which has been trampled over in recent years, but the values a President needs don't stem from the Bible, they come from the realization of what is right for this country and its people. Bernie Sanders had what it takes to do what is right for all the people, evening up the injustices bestowed on the poor and needy, even up to the middle class, by the wealthy and the Republican administration. Even some Democrats helped out.

Here's how Paul Djupe, of the Washington Post explains it...
"How did we get here? One answer is sorting. That is, people may reevaluate their religious membership when they sense political (or other) disagreement, leaving their houses of worship more homogeneous organizations. While this happens across the religious spectrum, here we highlight new evidence that disagreement over Trump’s candidacy actually led some evangelicals to leave their church."
In the latter, above, it was around 15% who felt that politics had become too divisive and left their houses of worship in the study done. Agreed, Donald Trump is the most divisive issue to drive politics in many years and the results weren't really that conclusive with Trump's support on a scale of 0-100, coming in at an average of 48. But then Clinton's was only 25, indicating once again that the wrong Democrat was nominated to run. But the big question is, what in the world could have driven that 81% to vote for a man that is so non-Christian in his values?

According to several surveys, Trump attracted the white, uneducated vote, which must have included at least some of those white evangelicals, perhaps like many others who voted Republican and were highly uninformed. The WP report also found that the evangelical clergy had very little to say about Trump in church, perhaps to keep from alienating the believers. And this no doubt is a rebuilding effort for the liberal and moderate church-goers who are fed up with the religious right. They come to church for the God experience, not the Donald John show.

Pew Research says that one-third of those who attend evangelical churches have less than a high school education and although this includes blacks, the latter is still a small amount of this population. I do not remember a hell of a lot about the specifics of my college education, but the one thing that higher learning taught me was how to find what I wished to know. Even before the Internet, I spent time in libraries when I was curious about something, not realizing at the time that I was actually doing research. And there is nothing more important than research in blogging

The downside of all this is that if we continue to have uninformed people going to the polls in each election, we will end up with results like a Donald Trump. A Mitch McConnell. A Paul Ryan. A Trey Gowdy. A Sarah Palin. A Ted Cruz. A John McCain. A John Boehner. A Jan Brewer. A Marco Rubio. A Newt Gingrich. A Darrell Isssa. A Steve King. A Michele Bachmann. A Joni Ernst. A Jeff Flake. I could go on all day but would just end up talking about a Republican Congress that has been a stumbling block to the good of this country since it took office. We need a change in 2018.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

How the hell do we keep explaining these gun deaths


There is no way. But at the same time, we still do nothing about it. In January of 2017, Trump made a series of stupid comments on guns and the 2nd Amendment, sounding almost as dumb as the NRA's Wayne LaPierre, about the sanctity of the 2nd, and bullshit like, "...the right to keep and bear arms is a right that pre-exists both the government and the Constitution, noting that government didn’t create the right, nor can it take it away." If he is implying that guns were around before the U.S. was a country, and before there was a Constitution, of course they were. They were used in a war.

But it was the Founding Fathers that felt the need for a 2nd Amendment at a time they still required protection from the British and there was basically no real police force to enforce the laws. People needed to protect themselves and having weapons in the home made sense. It doesn't now. We have a federal armed forces and law enforcement on the local, county and state levels. Sure, people are killed with guns on the street but that is because there are so many guns on the street. Get rid of all the guns and you get rid of the problem. But we know that will never happen. Is there an answer?

Here's an excerpt from a post I did about what the Founding Fathers really meant...
"It occurred to me recently that enough hasn't been said recently about the intentions of the Founding Fathers in the Constitution for the rights and restrictions of gun owners. With individual and mass killings by guns a regular daily occurrence, and the fact that even in light of the horrific number of deaths, including many children, the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) headed up by Wayne LaPierre, still maintain that the right to have a gun is more important than human life. LaPierre bases that right on the 2nd Amendment, given to us by the Founding Fathers. He claims it is inviolable."
And more on the same subject...
"Here's an incident of the typical thinking of a gun nut: In a tirade against CNN’s Piers Morgan, Alex Jones argued, 'The Second Amendment isn’t there for duck hunting. It’s there to protect us from tyrannical government.' Like this government could ever come together long enough to start anything, much less tyranny. It's a laughable argument and there's much in history to disprove the gun nuts. Truth-Out.org also reports first-hand documents from 1789 detail the First Congress' debate on arms and militia detail a constant theme: "the 2nd Amendment was created to protect the American government."
In one of the most egregious acts in the field of journalism, Jan Larson McLaughlin, the Editor of the Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune in Ohio, was fired for insubordination by the Publisher, Karmen Concannon. The reason, McLaughlin wrote an article about the NRA that was unfavorable but true, re. James Evans, a geology professor, for his email to State Rep. Tim Brown in which he called the NRA a “terrorist organization." McLaughlin found no problem with that and neither do I. But she was fired and the Publisher refused any comments on the matter. Read the editorial!

I am writing this post as a reaction to the most recent murder of, Karen Smith, a school teacher from San Bernardino, California, by her husband, also killing an eight-year-old student standing behind her. He too was was struck by gunfire. Apparently the eight-year-old that was killed, plus the other student who was shot, were simply innocent bystanders. The NRA and its gun nuts will now scream for arming every teacher in the country; guns are already legal with students in many classrooms nationwide. I can just see it now; OK Corral goes to school.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

God forbid I would agree with Donald Trump


Thanks to President Bashar al-Assad
If President Bashar al-Assad gassed his people in Syria, there is no doubt that he deserves to be drawn and quartered. IF. Then President Barack Obama in 2013, was in the same position as was Trump recently when he called the strike on the Syrian government. Obama backed off because of intelligence from James Clapper, of his national security team, that indicated the Assad government did not cause the attacks. Trump acted once again on visuals that portrayed the gassing, but did not wait for the follow-up intelligence to corroborate the strikes. The kind of thing that could start war.

The Huffington Post criticizes the general media, particularly CNN for relying on handouts from government sources for confirmations and not digging deeper to uncover sidebars that could change the direction of the investigation. Like the fact that where the gas was released, Khan Sheikhoun, was "...ground zero for the Islamic jihadists who have been at the center of the anti-Assad movement in Syria since 2011." The catch here is...
"Up until February 2017, Khan Sheikhoun was occupied by a pro-ISIS group known as Liwa al-Aqsa that was engaged in an oftentimes-violent struggle with its competitor organization, Al Nusra Front (which later morphed into Tahrir al-Sham, but under any name functioning as Al Qaeda’s arm in Syria) for resources and political influence among the local population."
The question arises, was Donald Trump, in his quick reaction, duped by Al Qaeda? It seems to be Donald John's MO to make his decisions based on visuals, and not always those that can be verified. And the experts are asking why would Assad "...risk everything by using chemical weapons against a target of zero military value, at a time when the strategic balance of power had shifted strongly in his favor." But there have been so many instances of gas attacks in the past, that it is hard for one to determine where to place the blame. Particularly including ISIS, Al Qaeda and all their factions.

The U.S. so far has placed the blame clearly on the Syrian government, along with Russia and Iran. During the Syrian War that has been going for about six years, the Syrian government has used chlorine gas regularly and along with chemical attacks some 1,100 Syrians have been killed. There are reports that ISIS has used mustard gas in the country. So, with so many different political coalitions at work, at the same time, in the same place, is there any way to determine who is responsible? Or is this exactly what Bashar al-Assad wants? The perfect cover.

So, what should be the strategy? Iraq had a dictator and George W. Bush captured him and later he was executed for similar atrocities. Russia was also involved in that country, and the U.S. still proceeded. If anyone could pull off another GWB in Syria, it would be Donald Trump. The big question is, would he do it right? To do that would require getting some sound advice, and to do that would probably mean going outside the current administration advisers. That wouldn't happen, but no problem, DT would just order satellite photos and take it from there.

HP's opinion of general media reportage...
"...outlets like CNN embrace at face value anything they are told by official American sources, including a particularly preposterous insinuation that Russia actually colluded in the chemical weapons attack; the aforementioned presence of Russian officers at Al Shayrat air base has been cited as evidence that Russia had to have known about Syria’s chemical warfare capability, and yet did nothing to prevent the attack."
And where does the final blame lie?...
"The real culprits here are the Trump administration, and President Trump himself. The president’s record of placing more weight on what he sees on television than the intelligence briefings he may or may not be getting, and his lack of intellectual curiosity and unfamiliarity with the nuances and complexities of both foreign and national security policy, created the conditions where the imagery of the Khan Sheikhoun victims that had been disseminated by pro-Al Nusra (i.e., Al Qaeda) outlets could influence critical life-or-death decisions."
Just how far are we from WWIII? 

Monday, April 10, 2017

PARODY: White House and Congress are a huge oyster bed


That's right. It was just discovered by an unknown scientist with a secret lab in Keokuk, Iowa, whose father once knew Ernest Hemingway. It was Hemingway's early work, A Movable Feast, about his life in Paris from 1921 to 1926, that got the father interested in oysters. The story goes, once you've lived in Paris, no matter where you go, you take it with you. During his writing on this particular day he decided to close up shop and order a dozen Crassostrea angulata, special offspring oysters from the sinking of a ship from the orient in a Portuguese harbor, along with a carafe of dry white wine.

And then when returning to the writing of his book, he professes his love for oysters in a sentence that his readers will never forget...
"As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and make plans."
What Hemingway did not mention in his book was that those slimy little creatures that slide down your throat like a body does in a water slide, did not have a brain. None of them do, only two ganglia or masses of nerves around their body, but no central brain. However, they are able to survive around higher mammals, even though they have no consciousness. Now there is some difference between lack of consciousness and being unconscious. The term unconscious is sometimes used to refer to people who are, well, just stupid.

The father, let's call him Clyde, was talking to Ernest one day in Key West and brought up the fact that oysters did not have a brain. "Get out of town," Hemi retorted, "sounds like some people I know in Washington." The father always made notes of his conversations with Hemingway, and they were kept in an old trunk in the Keokuk house's attic. He put an asterisk by this particular notation, knowing full well that someday it would become famous. And then along came Clyde, Jr. His father knew he had to get him out of Keokuk for an education because Clyde Jr. was smart.

He decided on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, that claimed 45 Rhodes Scholars, 81 Nobel laureates and 38 MacArthur Fellows. Should be a good enough school for junior, the father thought, and he was right when the son graduated magna cum laude. But Clyde Jr. was tired of the big eastern cities and yearned again for the Midwest. He returned to Keokuk and got a job working for a local doctor who also did research and seemed to be happy for the present. Then, one day after his father had died, he was rummaging through an old trunk in the attic. And there it was.

His father's journal, "My Talks With Ernie," whom Junior knew to be Ernest Hemingway from conversations with Dad. And he sat down right there and started reading. It was fascinating, he thought, Hemingway's love of oysters, and his dad's discovery through his reading that they had no brain. And the writer's comment about them reminding him of people he knew in Washington was just hilarious. He thought about who was in the White House now, Donald Trump. He reflected on a Congress that was, well, a Congress. BINGO! And then he had an epiphany.

 Junior had written his master's thesis on the octopus and their high level of intelligence. He had actually seen one unscrew the lid of a glass jar from the inside and perform various other feats of agility. What if I crossed an oyster with an octopus, what would I get? Probably a Donald Trump or a Mitch McConnell. He almost fell off the old rickety chair laughing to himself. And then it occurred to him, what if I crossed Mitch McConnell with Donald Trump, what would I get? I would no doubt get an oyster. He shrieked again with laughter, this time falling to the floor from the chair that collapsed.

Junior went right out and bought a dozen oysters, ate eleven of them and took number twelve to his basement laboratory. There he began an experiment that would eventually change the way people thought of politicians. He began to research connections between the oyster and legislators and uncovered a bombshell. A study had been done a few years ago that wasn't common knowledge for obvious reasons. Office holders, local/federal and oysters shared a common gene, a lack of consciousness. The gene that allows oysters, and politicians to survive in their own shell.

Clyde Jr., had finally answered the age-old question of just how politicians in general, more specifically Donald Trump and the Republican Congress, are able to perform their duties with absolutely no concern for what the American public really wants. Just close the shell and all is fine. Now, all thinking Americans today know why we are ignored, which doesn't help things, but at least we know. The President and Congress are our oyster.

Thanks to Ben Guarino of The Washington Post for the background for my post.


Sunday, April 9, 2017

Mitch McConnell deserves the firing squad


The McConnell maniac at work
Can you imagine the line that would form to take up a gun in the shooting party? There's Chuck Schumer to start with, then Elizabeth Warren followed by Barack Obama, most recently John McCain, and most notably himself, if he could be two places at once. There are more, many that hide their real feeling for this political mutant, because he is so powerful and has absolutely no qualms about what he does. As long as it furthers Mitch McConnell's sick agenda. I realize my proposal is cold-heartened, of course undoable, but I wonder how many Americans would join me in this?

Most of you know that I am an advocate of gun control and solidly against gun violence, but this scenario seems fitting for McConnell who in 2016, "...cut the legs out from a bipartisan effort to keep suspected terrorists from buying guns." Meaning simply that U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, is in favor of terrorists being able to acquire guns in this country. Say what you want, but that's the only way to define it. I know it all sounds bizarre but this is the way the mind of this deranged individual works. To take it even further, you wonder how long before he just becomes fruit loops.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “No majority leader wants written on his tombstone that he presided over the end of the Senate.” He added...
“Breaking the rules to change the rules is un-American. I just hope the majority leader thinks about his legacy, the future of his party, and, most importantly, the future of our country before he acts.”
But these aren't the words of Chuck Schumer. They were delivered "...in 2013, by then-Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), when Democrats pushed through a similar filibuster change for lesser nominations." It just illustrates once again how muttonhead McConnell will do anything, no matter its damage to the country, to get what he wants. Washington Post writer Dana Milbank wants Mitch McConnell's tombstone to read, "...that he presided over the end of the Senate." Milbank wants to also say this...
“'He broke America.' No man has done more in recent years to undermine the functioning of U.S. government. His has been the epitome of unprincipled leadership, the triumph of tactics in service of short-term power."
I'm just waiting to see his tombstone. 

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Fox: The nada news network


Who else? Bill O'Reilly
I can honestly, and proudly, claim that I have not watched Fox News in years. In my earlier days I might have strayed there when I couldn't find anything elsewhere. It wasn't owned by Rupert Murdoch then; he didn't buy Fox until 1985, from Fox Entertainment Group who owned 20th Century Fox Studios. A move from class to tacky and tasteless. 20th Century Fox was where MASH was filmed in the 1970s and 1980s. My wife met the entire cast of "Young Frankenstein" in the commissary during its filming in early 1970. Little did anyone know at the time.

Then in bursts the Rupert family acquiring the Fox Network and immediately spied not only a great platform for radical conservatism, but also a gravy train of revenue from not too bright conservatives that were dying for news but who wanted to remain uninformed. Meaning, they were anxious to look at something presented by the far left but nothing they would have to think about. Bingo, the new Fox News Network sporting people like Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Meghan McCain, Ben Carson, Megyn Kelly of Donald Trump fame, and of course Bill O'reilly. There are more but less famous.

Roger Ailes used to to be the head of Fox News and is generally credited with putting the network where it is today. Along with some outstanding personalities to beef up the ratings. But it was also Ailes that started the momentum for sexual harassment lawsuits. Not to be outdone, the most obnoxious person on the air, Bill O'reilly, decided to dip into the company inkwell, and these days the Fox channel is known as the place to go for female TV personalities who want to have sex. But they eventually get wise and turn t all into a money making lawsuit. O'Reilly is the latest on trial.

However, the poor double digit souls who watch Fox seem to eat it up, and the network seems to thrive even more because of the scandals. Shows you the mentality of its audience, and why Donald Trump is now President of the United States. Here's the pathetic story behind all this...
"The network just finished the first three months of the year with the biggest quarterly audience a cable news network has ever had. It’s watched more than any other cable network, including the entertainment ones, and O’Reilly leads the way. Fox is the home for fans of President Donald Trump and Trump himself, who frequently tweets about its shows and reporting."
There's really nothing else to say but...HELP!

Friday, April 7, 2017

Friday T-rump STUPID Roundup


After campaigning as the champion of the working class, Donald Trump has carefully organized an enclave of only the rich to advise him. "...disclosures showed that Trump’s top aides have generated millions of dollars from Wall Street, Hollywood, real estate and the media, holding a slew of investments that intensify the administration’s challenge in navigating potential intersections between officials’ personal finances and their policymaking roles." It all adds up to $2.3 billion. Being the Democratic Socialist I am, can you imagine breaking that up among the U.S. homeless?

Donald John's head of the Federal Communications Commission wants to halt small and rural Internet providers from offering subsidized broadband connections to low-income Americans nationwide. The reason given has to do with a Reagan era act called Lifeline, that provided subsidies for seniors, veterans and rural Americans that is more state run than federal. "Opponents of the decision said the move will limit struggling Americans' ability to choose a good provider, particularly in rural or low-income areas." Anyway you cut it, they're telling business what they can do.

The Daily Beast makes the statement that Jared Kushner is perhaps the only Donald Trump adviser that cannot be fired. Even if he starts WW III? And with the stupidity that surrounds this clan, and the fact that Kushner appears to be circumventing State department power, with absolutely no experience in foreign policy, I personally think it's possible. This all comes from the fact that former adviser, Roger Stone, claimed to host Alex Jones that Trump’s own son-in-law Jared Kushner was leaking information to MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough. Want to reconsider DJ?

What does Donald Trump do when his top adviser resorts to juvenile behavior, and it is with his second top adviser? But wait, there's another factor here; number one is his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Number two is Steve Bannon, the trusted white nationalist aide who Trump has placed a lot of trust in for advice. But now Bannon has been removed from the National Security Table, as Ivanks joins her husband in complaining about Stevo's ideologies and their negative effects on daddy's issues. Like Stan Freberg said: High School Ooh Ooh.

ISIS just described Donald Trump in Arabic terms as an "idiot," which is close enough to stupid to be included in this post. And there is a reason for this they use, saying he doesn't know anything about Islam. I doubt seriously if he is well versed on the faith, but this would explain his stupidity for banning entry to the U.S. of some predominantly Muslim nations by lumping all Islamists into one group of terrorists. "Trump has pledged to 'totally obliterate ISIS,'" according to a piece in NBC News. This bit of strategy no doubt compliments of Steve Bannon.

And finally, John Oliver, host of the HBO political talk-show Last Week Tonight, has dubbed Donald Trump's Russian connection as "Stupid Watergate." Oliver says it is, “a potential scandal with all of the intrigue of Watergate except everyone involved is really bad at everything.” If Donald John is really trying to cover up something, he's doing a worse job than Richard Nixon. Devin Nunes, is out, Mike Conaway is in, wearing a Trump "Make America Great Again" cap. Odds are he could be worse than Nunes but there's no doubt who he favors from the get go.






Thursday, April 6, 2017

Coal is for Christmas stockings


What the U.S. has to look forward to
Progressive, former developing countries like Chile decided to look to solar rather than stick with coal power. As a matter of fact, coal-fired power plants dropped 62 percent over the past year worldwide, according to a survey by the Sierra Club. The Washington Post reports...
An investor in Chile wanting to build a hydroelectric dam or coal-fired plant potentially faces years of costly political battles and fierce resistance from nearby communities.
 The environmental impact of coal is horrendous. As an example...

  • Coal-fired power plants are responsible for one-third of America’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. 
  • Coal combustion waste is the nation's second largest waste stream after municipal solid waste.
  • Forests are destroyed by mountaintop removal mining.
  • Coal causes a loss or degradation of groundwater.
  • Transportation of coal releases air pollution such as soot and can lead to disasters that ruin the    environment.
But the new U. S. President of Profit has decided we need to create more jobs at the expense of destroying the environment so he picks the coal industry as the next goal for all this increased employment. The problem with this is that the entire coal industry employs fewer people than Arby's. That's right, a U.S. fast-food chain has more people working for it than all the coal companies nationwide. But Donald John apparently doesn't see the ignorance in his efforts, because this is a passionate group and it got him top TV exposure. They like him, they like him.

Industry experts have pointed out repeatedly, that the coal jobs are extremely unlikely to come back. The plight of the coal industry is more a function of changing energy markets and increased demand for natural gas than anything else. Coal is basically dead, and from here on should be relegated to once a year Christmas stockings. Besides, from experience over the years, coal mining companies have placed minimum emphasis on safety with the former CEO of Massey Energy convicted of conspiracy to willfully violate mine health and safety standards in 2015.

It gets worse: "Coal contains minor amounts of the radioactive elements, uranium and thorium. When coal is burnt, the fly ash contains uranium and thorium at up to 10 times their original levels. And, its 500 tons of small airborne particles, can cause bronchitis, reductions in lung function, increased hospital and emergency room admissions, and premature death. It also contains arsenic, lead and mercury. Solid waste from a typical 500MW coal plant contains 120,000 tons of ash and 193,000 tons of coal sludge from the smokestack scrubber." (Excellent stats thanks to Sourcewatch.org)

Here's one. Trump is cutting back on Obama's environmental protections but then instructs "...federal regulators to rewrite federal rules to reduce carbon emissions." Are they different? Are they better? Or is this just a way to delay and eventually do nothing? I vote for the latter. Apparently a $39 million cost figure under Obama's plan can't be confirmed, but isn't saving the environment worth spending a significant amount of money on? The problems of the appalling conditions in China have been used to signify a need to take action in the U.S. before it is too late.

In total, the statistics may not be real but the problem of pollution in America is very real.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Hackers will get politicians web history and have a field day


If they can break into the National Security Council, they can find out what Senators and House members are doing online. It's just a matter of time and who has the bucks to pay for it. I choose Anonymous because of its known presence in the U.S. and the fact that they easily hacked into a security firm for charity donations which could translate into a budget to coop with other hackers to buy what they cannot hack themselves. Nothing is secure against these people when they make up their minds to do something. They lean left and would consider Republicans fair game.

ISP's are professing the fact that they will not sell our private information, but what if they don't have a choice? Suppose someone takes it?  And then there's the question of whether or not the two GoFundMe campaigns would buy the data from an illegal source. But it's really not important that there is a buyer if an organization like Anonymous has the information in hand. If they do, you can bet that it will soon become public. And you can bet that the GOP Congress, backed by Donald John, will make it impossible for anything to be obtained legally.

PC World reports...
"Still, providers of so-called marketing cloud services—think Salesforce and Oracle—track web users and develop extensive profiles based on shopping and web-browsing habits, said privacy advocate Jeffery Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy."
"It’s likely possible to buy the web marketing profile of individual politicians from a marketing cloud provider, if not an ISP, including the kinds of websites they like to visit, by targeting them using their general location and other publicly available information," he said.
 And then Chester added, “Let the web monitoring and surveillance of the politicians begin.”

But the recent congressional action makes it impossible for consumers to now opt-out in sharing, "...sensitive personal information, including web-browsing history, geolocation, and financial details with third parties." What this means is that the banks can now make hay with not only your money market account where the interest is paltry, but the Republicans have made it possible to sell everything they know about you. Both privacy advocates and one actor are attempting to raise the money to buy congressional names...
"In an effort to strike back against the Republican-led legislation to roll back the FCC privacy rules, advocate Adam McElhaney has raised more than $205,000 since March 25 to buy the personal history of top politicians supporting the resolution."
"Actor Misha Collins has raised more than $86,000 in the last six days in a similar GoFundMe campaign, although he’s well short of his $500 million goal."
What all this says is that the general public does not like the republican Congress.

Back in 2012 I did a piece on supplementing Social Security with junk mail. That year the industry was grossing over $4 billion on the names and personal data of American citizens, which I felt the individual should at least share in. Well, even privacy advocates wouldn't support me because some of their efforts were funded by the people I targeted. My point here is, if it was a $4 billion business years ago, it has grown since then. And the sale of financial data attached to a person is significantly more valuable just by its nature. The banks stand to make even more millions off this data.

Advocate Adam McElhaney, who has already raised $205,000 since March 25 to buy the personal history of top politicians, allows supporters to vote on whose web browsing histories they want to see. Number one is Paul Ryan, two is House member Marsha Blackburn with Mitch McConnell coming in third. The campaign is in its infancy and it's anyone's guess how much these people might raise. There is one down-side to this and that is the possibility this information could get in the hands of either Russian or Chinese hackers where the wheels come off as far as honor.

And of course there is the group that sponsored Richard Snowden, Tailored Access Operations who has 600 employees in the main NSA complex in Fort Mead, Maryland. If that's the case, they could literally embed their people in every ISP in the world. The site TurboFuture lists the ten "Most Powerful (Known) Active Hacking Groups" in the world and a reading of these makes one wonder if there is any reason to protect anything private. With the protection of secrecy and the tools available to these people, you have to believe 1984 is here...again.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Bernie Sanders "TV exploding online"


Those are the words of Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, on the video below that goes into detail on how Bernie Sanders is getting out the Progressive word. This is a must see.


Bernie Sanders is back and this time he plans to win


Elizabeth Warren-Bernie Sanders
When I say win, Bernie Sanders is already in overdrive to elect more Progressives in the 2018 midterms and, yes, I think he is shooting for the presidency again in 2020. But I hope that Elizabeth Warren will see the light and support his candidacy this time, no matter who the Democratic Party plans to run. And there is a definite difference between Democrats and Progressives, a point that is confirmed by the fact that Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, lost the election to an incompetent candidate who is also defined as a pathological liar by Sanders. The new Republican president, Donald Trump.

Just yesterday Elizabeth Warren  with Bernie Sanders introduced a new tuition bill that would make college education available to all,regardless of who they are. "Education should be a right, not a privilege," according to the Bern, an issue he has been promoting since first starting his 2016 presidential race. "The legislation includes a joint-bill in the House which would be introduced Wednesday by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn.," according to a statement provided to International Business Times.

This should arouse the Progressives out there who have been on the sidelines wanting something to happen. That includes me, and I am now ready to roll on to upending a Republican Congress to putting Bernie sanders and Elizabeth Warren in the White House in 2020. Don't laugh, conservatives, it has been some time now since the left has had this much reason for the momentum to get the right job done. With Hillary history, and Sanders as the most popular political candidate in the U.S. the cross-country fight for legislative and governor's seats will now be easier.

And the Sanders/Warren people aren't alone. Not satisfied that enough was being done, two major groups have formed to elect Progressives in 2018 and 2020. The first is Justice Democrats, started by the founder of the Young Turks, Cenk Uygur, who said that he was starting the organization because it needed to be done and no one else was doing it. The second is Brand New Congress which was originally started by a group of volunteers and staffers from the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. They want, "...to be a big tent for anyone who is tired of partisan politics."

The latest information is that these two groups recently merged, which is a good start for the new aggregation.

Somewhere in the future it will be necessary to galvanize all these efforts into one cohesive group that supports Progressivism in order to move ahead as a collective organization. NBC News takes us back to the 2016 convention to point out where the left might take us...
"But the more radical strain, which led hundreds of Sanders delegates to walk out of the Democratic National Convention in protest last summer, is still present on the left and emboldened by the loss of Hillary Clinton and their belief that Bernie would have won."
"Some are betting that the disaffected left is as or more interested in remaking the Democratic Party as it is in fighting President Donald Trump."
What is needed now is a defined structure to get there. And that is why all these splinter groups will have to bite the bullet and find one common denominator that will rebuild, or replace, if necessary, the Democratic Party with one that will serve the people and not a political clique. Corbin Trent of Brand New Congress said...
"The point is we've watched this party over the last decade lose over 1,000 seats, lose a national election to least popular nominee in history, Donald Trump, and now we've seen poll after poll showing the Democratic Party less popular since election day. What we think is the American people are ready for a new direction."
The American people were ready for a new direction in 2016, namely Bernie Sanders, proven by the fact that he won 23 primaries with 1,865 delegates, winning just one-hundred less votes in the Democratic Primary than Donald Trump did in the Republican Primary. But he didn't win because of the shenanigans of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which has now resulted in the firing of two top politicos. Unfortunately, Tom Perez heads the DNC now, instead of Keith Ellison, which is another result of Party hardliners. See, they will never learn.

Although Republicans profess not to be worried, they should take note of the fact that the Tea Party almost upended the Party in 2009 and 2010, proving that a grassroots kind of movement can be effective. But this will require the passion of all liberals, including those who regularly rally around the Party. Just after the 2016 election, I did a post, "What do Republicans have that Democrats don't?" and the answer was passion. Some of those that didn't like Hillary Clinton either didn't vote or for some stupid reason, voted for Donald Trump.

In that case the "Party" would have been better than what we ended up with. We are not in that position approaching 2018 and 2020, and there is plenty of time to build on your passion by looking at the daily antics of the Oval Office maniac. If this isn't enough to make you crave for a change to the kind of government you would get from Bernie Sanders, then you don't want to live in the kind of country I do. That, of course, is your choice.


Monday, April 3, 2017

Paul Ryan continues to pursue his health care nightmare


Paul Ryan
Paul Ryan, the shaky Speaker of the House, says he doesn't want to work with Democrats on health care. This was Donald Trump's idea, predicting Obamacare will soon go down in flames and Democrats will be willing to cooperate. Ryan feels that won't work but only has one more option and that is to unify Republicans. Here were Trump's words in a tweet...
"The Democrats will make a deal with me on healthcare as soon as ObamaCare folds - not long. Do not worry, we are in very good shape!"
Most political experts say this isn't likely to happen. As far as unifying Republicans, this won't happen as long the Freedom Caucus' Mark Meadows is running their show. Trump recently pushed Meadows to the point the latter had to stand his ground in defiance of Donald John who tweeted this recently...
The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don't get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!
Doesn't sound like unification talk to me. And here's something else re. all these Donald Trump tweets. Is the new czar of the universe afraid of a press conference where he has to face real people with real questions that ask for real answers? We know Trump's assessment of the press, but wouldn't you consider hiding behind his cell phone tweeting everything a bit cowardly? This runs hand-in-hand with his generous use of Executive orders instead of attempting to get his programs through Congress. Perhaps he just hasn't anything substantive.

Conservatives want to unify the Party again and Paul Ryan apparently believes now that is the only way the GOP will get anything done in this congress. Ryan's predecessor, John Boehner, fought the conservative right the entire time he served as House Speaker with no success. He finally just quit. Does this mean that the separation within the Republican Party is so analytically impossible to unify, that, as long as the GOP is in power, the government will remain in chaos? It looks like this might be the case looking as far back as the George W. Bush administration.

Here's an example of the inability to work together...
"But so far, Republicans haven’t proven that’s in the realm of possibility. Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) told reporters that the moderate Tuesday Group agreed Wednesday that they would not meet or work with Freedom Caucus members. 'If that call comes in, just hang up,' Collins said."
Chris Conover of Forbes says Trump will not repeal and replace Obamacare. Prior to this piece, he had cited partisan opposition and partisan rancor over the debt ceiling coming up soon, and now focuses on the fact that Trump himself is the reason Republicans will fail. Here's how Politico's Tim Alberta put it...
"faced with his first major test, the president failed—on multiple occasions and on many levels."
Sounds to me like a mandate on both the GOP control of Congress and Donald Trump himself. The question is, how long will the American people accept this utter nonsense from our government? DT was the least equipped in health care of all the competitors for the 2016 Republican nomination, remarks Conover. I would add that Donald John is the least equipped to be President of the United States based purely on his moral values and his contentious and freaked out temperament. The Governor's Conference even ridiculed him over his lack of health care knowledge.

It goes without saying that he doesn't even measure up to a novice in his understanding of the needs of U.S. health care. And back several years ago he highly favored the parallel to Obamacare, universal health care. An interview in 1998 with Stone Phillips...
Trump: "[I'm] liberal on health care, we have to take care of people that are sick."
Stone Phillips: "Universal health coverage?"
Trump: "I like universal, we have to take care, there's nothing else. What's the country all about if we're not going to take care of our sick?"
Here's a man who either doesn't know what the hell he's for, or simply says what he thinks the people want to hear in order to keep them loving him. It is no wonder that Paul Ryan has gone his own way to get the passage of a Republican health care plan. The problem here is that everything he has come up with so far is crap, agreed to by both Democrats and the GOP. Here's what New York Times reporter Michael Shear said...
"Mr. Trump — who sold himself as a winner who could turn around a country that 'doesn’t win anymore' — has endured a litany of missteps, controversies, resignations and investigations, all of which have dented his 'I alone can fix it' vow to remake government with businesslike efficiency."
No one believes that malarkey anymore but what is worse, in an additional remark by Shear who points out that the U.S. is in the slowest presidential transition in decades. Translated, that means that the good of our country has been put on the back burner, all because of one man. Unfortunately, he happens to be president.

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Mike Pence epitome of male version of Mr. Goody Two-Shoes


Mike Pence uneasy with all those legs?
You know them. They're all around us, those people who profess to be the hygienic individuals who wouldn't say shit if they had a mouthful. The Urban Dictionary says they are almost always women, and always go to church, professing their virginity and complete abstinence. I've known some who were absolute hypocrites; we called them "backdoor Baptists" in the South. Pastor comes in the front door of the bar, the Baptists go out the back door. Sometimes it is purely to set up a front to make other people think they are something they aren't and can't be. It's pathetic and it is demeaning.

Mike Pence always looked a little too good to be true to me. Believe the republican Party put him in there in the hopes that Donald Trump would quickly go down in flames and Pence is someone they can control. Well, Donald John could still implode but I am horrified over the possibility of Pence taking over the Oval Office. First of all, he is a dedicated Tea Party supporter, solid grounds for being removed from the planet. Second, the Huff Post reports that, "...unless he is with his wife, he won’t eat alone with a woman or attend an event where alcohol is served."

Oh. My. God! Mr. Goody Two-Shoes.

Is this what he thinks of other women, that they might wrestle him under the table, ripping off his clothes and seducing him between the main course and dessert? What kind of women has this man dated, or was he so shy and introverted he couldn't get a date. In religious circles this is called the "Billy Graham Rule," but where I come from it is called blatant sexism. How has Pence gotten this far in politics? HP says the Graham rule is, "...that men are little better than animals who cannot control themselves and, so, can’t, ultimately, be held accountable." Mike Pence? Don't think so.

In the Huff Post analysis of this practice by some men, it becomes apparent that not only is this something that is measured by a potential intimate relationship between men and women, but that these suppressed feelings by the male can often turn into hostility toward women, and particularly when the guy is the inferior one. It can also show up in the hiring process between the boss, a man, and the potential employee a woman. I personally witnessed a corporate scenario where a wife threatened her husband if he hired a woman the spouse considered too good looking.

The HP writer Soraya Chemaly has one of the best grips on the problems of women in the workplace I have ever read, deserving a full read of the article. She says...
"Today, women are still primarily responsible for children, do an average of two hours more unpaid work a week and make up three quarters of minimum wage workers. Thirty-nine percent of working mothers are sole providers for their families, compared to 43 percent of men, who are twice as likely to be making more than $50K and more than six times as likely to be making six-figure incomes."
Chemaly makes it clear that the current President and Vice President of the U.S. could not be further separated in their morals. Here's Mike Pence, the church going, family man fighting off the "evil temptress" to stay pure, compared to Donald Trump who "is one who sees all women through the filter of his sexual pleasure and violability, including, shamelessly, his own daughter," a phrase I couldn't resist from the author. Read it!

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Time to dump the Democratic Party...as we know it


The Democratic National Committee fired its entire staff. That even includes longtime Dem pundit, Donna Brazile, who just recently owned up to the fact that she had slipped Hillary Clinton debate questions based on her connections with CNN. Brazile had earlier fired Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was responsible for the Party being in the shape it is today. She stood by with her finger in her nose while Republicans took over political seats starting with city, county and state, all the way to the House and Senate, resulting in a loss of the White House. These people are a disgrace to the Party.

As The Blaze put it, "... a humiliating rout in an election that pundits widely believed would fall their [Democrats] way..." I am not sure just what good this will do, considering the guy doing the firing is a Dem hardliner. The Party couldn't see past their noses when Bernie Sanders tried to tell them that Keith Ellison was the man for the DNC job. They are, of course, both Progressives. And that brings me to the title of this blog, "Time to dump the Democratic Party...as we know it." As Kenny Rogers put it, "ygot to know when to hold 'em / Know when to fold 'em." Now's the time to fold 'em."

We need to revive the Progressive Party in the format of Bernie Sanders Our Revolution and make it a viable political movement that will give disillusioned Democrats/liberals a place to organize and establish a platform that makes sense to the modern day left. That said, did you know the Progressive Party was first organized in 1912 by Theodore Roosevelt after he lost the nomination of the Republican Party to his former protégé, President William Howard Taft. The Bull Moose version of the Party was dissolved in 1916. No more real activity until 2016 when the Bern came on the scene.

An early attempt at continuing the political positions of Bernie Sanders is by Cenk Uygur, founder of the Young Turks, who has started a movement called, Justice Democrats, whose goal is to put a significant number of Justice Democrats in the Congress. You can see their platform here. And to show how grave the situation was, here is Uygur's comment, "I was hoping someone else would do this, but when no one else was, somebody had to do it.” And of course there are the Progressive Democrats of America, who also mirror the Bern's movement. But so far, we're disjointed.

To correct this there must be a coordinated effort to officially structure a party apparatus that will withstand the organizational challenges of the developing members and the constituents. It will take a strong leader, and, of course, who better than Bernie Sanders? I do not think Sanders is too old to run in 2020, but if the consensus is that he is, there is Elizabeth Warren, and as a dark horse, how about Chuck Schumer? The Senate minority head even supported the Bern's pick of Keith Ellison to head up the DNC, who, unfortunately lost.

If we are to be ready for 2020, things must get moving pretty soon and it will take Bernie's organizational skills to ramp it all up. I will be a constant supporter from my blog and am sure there are many others like me, including the Young Turks. The cry is out there senator Sanders and only you can answer the call.


Donald Trump Says He Will Be Indicted On Tuesday

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