This just in: Quite possibly my greatest disappointment to arise from the Trump presidency is not Trump’s behavior but rather, what our reaction to his behavior has told me about our country.

My plan now is to make a list of the things that people are willing to believe. Now, of course, I’m doing this from my Hero Castle high on the hill as I look down on the lesser beings however, let me say this, “I am far from being immune to believing in conspiracy theories.”

For example, I believed Bush had evidence of WMD’s in Iraq in spite of his inability to show any evidence. I once believed that Oswald didn’t kill Kennedy is spite of the fact that the only argument against it was that he made a better than average shot.

It’s easy to get caught up in these theories. Especially if everyone around you believes in them AND its a conspiracy that you “want” to be true AND you take no steps to investigate the validity because you don’t want to find evidence that is counter to what you want to believe.

Having laid out all of this “fine print”, let’s get to my list:

1. With zero evidence that a court would be willing to accept, people believe Trump when he claims the election was stolen from him.
2. People believe that there are actually people walking on the planet that know, for certain, the existence of God as well as his exact will for you with regards to behavior. There are millionaires today that exist simply because people pay them to pretend to be the spokesperson for the entity that created the entire universe.
3. People believe that COVID-19 is a hoax.
4. People believe that the Republican Party is not a corrupt money-grab but is actually a group of elected people whose priority is to represent the will of those that put them into office.
5. People believe that Climate Change is a hoax and cite as proof, there is still snow in the winter.
6. People believe that unregulated Capitalism is the best way to run an economy.
7. People believe that undocumented immigrants are the reason that all of the high paying jobs are out of reach of high school dropouts in the rural south.
8. People believe that vaccines cause autism.
9. People believe that wearing masks is a government experiment to see how easy it is to get the masses to do something that is completely unnecessary.
10. People believe that Trickle-Down Economics is something that actually works.
11. People believe that Donald Trump loves America because he said so.
12. People believe that Blue Lives Matter unless they are protecting the U.S. Capitol against insurrection. In that case, it’s okay to kill as many as you can.
13. People believe that the statement, “We need to find ways to stop gun violence in our schools,” translates into, “We need to take away everyone’s guns.”
14. People believe that the color of their skin (white) makes them superior to the color of the skin of other people (specifically, non-white skin).
15. People think “entertainment” shows like Hannity or Fox and Friends are the same thing as real news.
16. People think the Democrat Party is harvesting material from the bodies of children to create life extending potions for themselves.
17. People think the people that stormed the Capitol wearing MAGA shirts and hats were actually anti-Trump people that were trying to make Trump look bad.
18. People think only they are worshiping the right deity and everyone else that does not agree with them is wrong. This is only a problem when they try to squash those that believe differently. A ban on Muslims traveling to the United States for example.
19. People believe that mass shootings are government sponsored events to justify taking away guns.
20. People believe Donald Trump.

I could make a list of things people don’t believe. For example, people don’t believe that science is any more accurate than posts on Facebook. But, I’ll save that list for another day.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

“For three to keep a secret, two must die.” – Benjamin Franklin

Sure, I want the person that got the most votes to be the president of the United States. However, there is one group that I would choose over that majority.

If there was an entity that was so efficient that it could control tens of thousands of voting stations, voting machines, the US Postal Service, those overseeing voting and all of the other bits and pieces of the machine that is the United States, voting system…if there was an entity that was so efficient it could control all of these and change the outcome of the National Vote for president without leaving a single shred of evidence…I would want that entity to be in charge.

I don’t think that three people could successfully steal a twinkie from the local market without leaving any evidence; including security video surveillance. They especially couldn’t pull it off if the store was told “Next Tuesday, 3 people are planning on stealing a twinkie from you.”

Yes, Trump’s lawyers would stand outside a courtroom and claim they had all sorts of evidence. This was plastered all over the “Websites for the Gullible” and on Faux News. These same lawyers would then go into the courthouse and the following would happen:

Trump Lawyer: The election was stolen and there was fraud everywhere.

Judge: Let’s see your evidence.

Trump Lawyer: Well, we don’t have any but we will.

Judge: When?

Trump Lawyer: Let me get back to you on that.

The reason the lawyers would lie to you but not to a judge is that you can’t disbar them while the judge can. By the way, they never came back with evidence which is why 60 of these lawsuits were thrown out.

So, voter fraud never happened.

Sure, some guy tried to vote for his dead mom or some neighbor threw out another neighbor’s ballot. These guys are just stupid/idiotic outliers. I would take a bet that more people misspelled their last name on a mail in ballot than cheated on the election.

This should be clear and indisputable.

I guarantee it is clear to Trump and every single Republican that voted to ignore the votes of millions of Americans because “Their guy lost.”

Now, a mob attacks the capital chanting, “Merica!” “Hang Mike Pence” “Stop the steal.”

Where did they get these ideas?

The Republican Party and Trump. They promoted the anger with information that they knew to be false in an attempt to overturn the will of the American people.

And then they did the most amazing thing…

After the coup attempt, Republican seeing fingers being pointed their way said, “Hey, this is a time to heal, not make accusations.”

To this I say, “Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.”

Every single Republican that voted to overturn the election should be expelled and tried for sedition.

Every. Single. One.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

There is a 1-word answer to all of the following questions:

1. Why were protesters allowed to storm the capitol?
2. Who has been fanning the flames of racism and hate in our country?
3. Who has been lying to the American people about the election results?
4. Why did over 4,100 Americans die yesterday from Covid-19?
5. Why is Trump still in office?
6. Who blocked economic relief for months?
7. Who told you that Covid-19 was a lie?
8. Who enabled Trump at every turn for the last 4 years?
9. Who is actively working against a national healthcare system?
10. Who is actively working to reduce/eliminate Social Security?
11. Who opposes raising the minimum wage?
12. Who actively works to keep the opposition from voting?
13. Who thinks Climate Change is a hoax?
14. Who tried to overturn the election on Jan. 6th?
15. Who ruined the reputation of the United States around the world?
16. Who fights fiercely to keep big money in politics?
17. Of the two political parties, which do studies show, by far, act against the wishes of those that elected them?
18. Which political party leads the poorest states in the country (by far)?
19. Which political party doesn’t want to get rid of the Electoral College because then “the most votes will count.”
20. Which political party acts as if either (1) they are stupid or (2) they think you are?

The 1-word answer is: Republican

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

Trump is gone. The only thing left is for us to watch about 3 months of temper tantrums as Trump struggles to overturn a democratic process while complaining about how unfairly he’s been treated.

Here is what I want to see happen under Biden in no particular order:

1. Rejoin the Paris accord.
2. Overturn all of the environmental protections that Trump overturned.
3. Staff his cabinet with Republicans and Democrats. I like Warren for Sec. of Treasury. I think Budajudge needs to be in their someplace. I think the Attorney General should be from an opposing party. Obama would be a great Secretary of State…or maybe put his wife there.
4. Fix the tax code. This means repealing a code that benefited me; the one recently passed by Republicans. Tax businesses and the wealthy in accordance with dominant Economic thought…not with “how can I benefit my donors?”
5. Get money out of politics. So long as this does not happen…Trump will happen again.
6. Fix the rapidly expanding gap of income inequality. We benefit when we don’t leave people behind.
7. Fix college debt. I have only seen one plan for this that I like – one where you can pay off $10K a year by doing volunteer work.
8. Drop all of Trump’s tariffs. Tariffs have a role but Trump’s imposition of them was childish and worse than ineffective. They actually hurt our economy.
9. Racism off all kinds needs to be confronted…without rest. Hate against color, against religious beliefs, against country of origin, against political affiliation – there should be no room for this kind of hate in a modern society.
10. Restore belief in science. Fix the CDC for example. Climate change needs to be understood as something real. Economics is not just doing what you want without consequences.
11. The State Department has been decimated. We’ve lost experienced people but more importantly, we have lost global respect.
12. Call out and put an end to the birthing places of destructive thought. Fox news should not be allowed to call themselves news. Qanon, militias etc, all need to be dug out of their holes and discarded. We have aircraft carriers to fight other military enemies. We need to go after these misinformation sites with the same level of effort.
13. Invest in infrastructure. Yes, the debt is huge but, borrowing money right now is really, really cheap and we need a way to get people back to work. Don’t just sent them checks. Send checks to people that take a job to rebuild.
14. Fix healthcare. I don’t know how to do that but…we have several other countries that have figured it out so let’s ask them some questions.
15. Get rid of Gerrymandering
16. Get rid of the Electoral College
17. Rethink “2 senators per state.” For example, South Dakota has 2 senators which is about 1 senator per 450,000 people. In California, we have 1 senator per 20,000,000 people.
18. Our “balance of power” does not seem to work. A corrupt president can be controlled by Congress and the Supreme Court…unless…Congress is led by sheep like Mitch McConnel or if the Supreme Court is packed with partisan judges.

Now, every time I post one of these lists…I immediately think of things that I left out…But…this is what I have so far.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: I have been sitting on my hands for some time now. Once upon a time, I felt that the corruption in Washington was so subtle that I needed to point it out. Trump wears corruption and incompetence like a badge of greatness.

But that isn’t the real issue. As always, the issue is that Americans, at least some Americans, seem to be okay with his performance.

Just today, I saw a post that said something like, “We are lucky to have a president that works 20 hours a day for free trying to save us.”

There is just so much that is wrong with this. First, Trump is not working for free. Just by staying at his own resorts when he golfs he earns tens of millions a year. He actually charges premium rates to those that must stay at the resorts to protect him. Trump gets up early but doesn’t report to work until around noon; the hours before that are spent rage-tweeting at the television. He has a reputation for skipping intelligence briefings and seems unprepared for most of what is thrown at him on a daily basis; prefering to lie as if he knows something rather than actually bothering to know something.

Let’s face it… America is no longer great. Yes, we have a largest economy in the world but that wealth is only felt by a very few. Yes, we have the best doctors and hospitals, but only for those that can afford them. Yes, we are a democracy but 25 other countries have higher rated democracies than us.

Now let’s talk Covid.

Once upon a time, we were a great country and we did great things. Need a vaccine? No problem. We’ll put the best minds in the world to work on it. Need testing equipment? No problem, we’ll bend the economy to make whatever we need and it will be ready right now. Need leadership? We have the strongest leaders that elections can give us.

Today…we have an ex-labradoodle breeder in charge of finding a vaccine. He replaces the actual expert that dared to say that Trump should not be pushing snake-oil cures to the virus.

I taught leadership for 2 years when I was in the military. Trump exhibits ZERO leadership skills. None. He doesn’t accept responsibility. He berates people in public. He show no loyalty to those that have risked everything to stand with him. He does not trust those that work with him. He has no ability to listen to the advice of others. He is hot-headed, especially at times when a cool head is needed.

These lack of skills are self-evident. He should be out of office. People are dying because of his lack of leadership on the pandemic. He was warned months in advance. He did nothing. He was warned weeks in advance. He did nothing. He was warned that is was on our shores and he told the American public is would be gone by April. He just made that up.

Just like he makes up everything else he is telling us about the virus. He made up the idea of injecting disinfectants into our body as a cure. He could have consulted with experts but instead, he is shooting from the hip.

I have a book entitled Everything Trump Touches Dies. I think we can take that title literally. Our democracy is dying. Trump is killing it and he doesn’t even know it. He actually thinks he is doing a good job.

Trump is damaged goods and I’m not sure how much blame we can hang on someone that is as mentally gone as he is.

However, the Republicans that were briefed on the pandemic and then sold stocks while telling their constituents everything was fine…these people are the problem.

People posting that Trump is heroically working 20 hours a day for free…they are the problem.

Mitch McConnell saying that he wants to allow states that are predominantly Democrat to go bankrupt…is a problem.

Putting a labradoodle breeder in charge of what should be a Pandemic Manhattan Project…is a problem.

Just sayin.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: It has long confounded me that there are people that support Trump. I have a few theories. These don’t apply to everyone but there are enough separate buckets of rationale to create a fairly large base for him.

There are the racists.

There are the intellectually lazy.

There are those that benefit financially.

There are the evangelicals, which is really just a subset of racism.

Now I have a new category. A category that may be the biggest yet. A category that disappoints me the most.

This category is as follows: There are people that find Trump’s behavior acceptable.

Pretty simple statement. But I think it speaks volumes about the character of those that this statement describes.

These are bright, educated people. They are our neighbors. They understand what Trump does and says. They understand the impact that he has on our children, our families, our states and our country. They know what he has done to our standing in the world. They know the sideroad he has taken our country down; a sideroad to insignificance.

They know all of this and yet, they find it acceptable.

I don’t know how they can do this but I imagine that they are wonder how I can’t.

So now, when I come across a Trump supporter, I have a better understanding of the contempt that rises up within me; a contempt that is unwelcomed but hard to contain.

When I see a Trump supporter, I see someone that knows all about who he is and yet still find him acceptable.

To me…that is unacceptable.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: Trump is panicking about impeachment.

The facts are not in dispute. That he used his office for personal gain is not in dispute. That he held up badly needed military funds from Ukraine in an effort to extort personal favors is not in dispute. That he ordered those in his immediate circle to not testify or provide information to Congress as a way to obstruct the process is not in dispute.

What is in dispute is…why are the chairs arranged this way?

In other words, the defense of Trump has nothing to provide showing his innocence so Republicans have resorted to the Chewbacca Defense.

Now, in an effort to distract, Trump has taken to discussing low water pressure in bathrooms. He actually took the time to tell us how people can’t get enough water to wash their hands. He even said, at a presidential round table, on television, that people are now having to flush their toilets 10 or even 15 times. Here is the video…

What you missed was how the conversation continued after the video was over. I wasn’t there so this should be considered paraphrased and second hand:

Reporter: Maybe you have to flush so much because your poops are big.

Trump: My poops are the biggest. No other president has taken poops as big as mine. Many people have said so. In fact, the press, I call them the fake news media, has under-reported the size of my poops. It’s all a hoax.

It went downhill from there.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim