This just in: Trump, the pandemic, the death of John McCain…all of this and more has revealed something about the soft underbelly of America – That being that fearful people walk amongst us.
These fearful (aka angry) people often call themselves Evangelicals. They think of themselves as Patriots. They are racists. They have temper tantrums when they don’t get their way. They believe in conspiracies and think “facts” are optional.
Gather all of these people into one room and you’ll find one common thread…they are all Republicans.
You can’t argue with them. I stopped trying a long time ago.
There is only one thing to do; only one way to make their whining fade into the background.
VOTE!!
If you want laws enforced…vote out Republicans.
If you want hate to be addressed constructively…vote out Republicans.
If you want rationale and thoughtful government that is equally representative of all Americans…vote out Republicans.
Not voting is the same as voting FOR a Republican.
This just in: I have Trump fatigue. There is just so much wrong with this man. There is so much “evil” that it would be hard for me to come up with any comparable historical figure. It’s obvious to me. It’s obvious to everyone. Let’s stop playing nice.
Occam’s Razor says, “This simplest solution is always the best.”
To me, this means no overly complicated things. What you think you are seeing is really what you are seeing. There is no man behind the green curtain.
Trump is a criminal. I say this because nearly everything he does has a criminal flavor to it. His university was closed due to fraud. His foundation was closed because he was using it as a piggy bank. He is in legal trouble for tax fraud, election tampering, and dozens of other equally major crimes.
In 2016, Trump’s elder son said, “We get our money from Russia.” The next thing you know, the Mueller report finds that Trump was working with Russia on his 2016 campaign. Once elected, Trump would hold meetings with Putin where no other American was allowed in the room. He offered to let Putin interrogate Americans. He praised Putin for invading Ukraine.
Now, he was found to be in apparent violation of the Espionage Act which is intended to stop treason. He was found to have classified data, a lot of classified data, stored in sheds at his residence. This data, of the most sensitive nature, was classified higher than Top Secret. He was asked for it. He denied he had it. When they went and got it….he said, he had declassified it in his head as was his right.
My question is, “Why did he have this at all?”
Could it have something to do with Putin? Could it have something to do with North Korea which exchanged love letters with him? Could it have something to do with Saudi Arabia which invested $2 billion in Trump’s son-in-law and recently hosted a golf tournament at one of Trump’s courses? The same Saudi Arabia that Trump claimed we should share nuclear secrets with?
Would Trump sell out his country for personal gain? Does he seem like the type of person that would toss his closest allies under a bus to keep his head above water? Certainly seems that way to me. But, maybe asking his lawyer, Cohen, about this. That’s the lawyer that Trump “barely knew” when it looked like he was turning on Trump.
It is my view that Trump is probably guilty of every crime that we think he “may” be guilty of. That’s the simplest solution. Alternatively, he just has a long string of bad luck; of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and unknowingly spending his life with people that exhibit criminal behavior.
Finally, let’s not forget his enablers – The Republican Party.
If I know all of this about Trump, then they know it. They know it and yet, they support him.
The party yesterday filed an article of impeachment against the Attorney General for having the nerve to go to Trump’s house and take back the highly classified secret documents Trump had illegally stored in a shed in violation of the Espionage Act.
Let’s stop pretending.
The sooner Trump and his enablers are gone, the sooner we can get back to the business of leading the world.
This just in: I read today that about 8,800 elderly die every day. They are more likely to be Republican than not. Also, every day, 11,000 young adults reach the age of 18 and become eligible to vote. This age group tends to be predominantly Democrat.
This is not a new phenomenon. The Republicans have been losing membership constantly for the last 2 decades. The ranks of Independents and Democrats are growing. The only way the GOP can stay in power is to (1) Gerrymander to allow the minority to rule the majority or (2) Squash opposition voting through a variety of suppression techniques to allow the minority to rule the majority or (3) Keep their base fired up and angry so that they make sure they vote.
None of these have anything to do with serving the public good. NONE.
Trump gets a search warrant served. He claims the FBI planted fake evidence. The Republican Party says the FBI is corrupt and should be defunded.
That is who they are.
I was a Republican until about 2005 when I noticed Bush lied about WMDs in Iraq.
That made me skeptical. It made me stop trusting elected officials, from either party.
Instead, I turned to fact-finding. This is way, way different from waiting until I hear what I want to be true and then clinging to that.
For example, the FBI wanted to investigate Hillary. I questioned the wisdom of the timing but it never occurred to me to call the FBI corrupt because they were doing their job. In my view, if evidence said she should be investigated, then she should be investigated.
Back in the day, when I was a Republican, I liked them because they “stood up for American businesses.” They wanted to get rid of regulations. They wanted to stop taxing the rich, claiming high taxes would make the rich stop trying.
When I became skeptical when I started to look closer, I found the following: The Republican Party will support any position that (1) enriches its members and/or (2) helps it to stay in power. They were passing tax cuts for the rich simply because the rich paid them to do that. They cut regulations because companies paid them to do that.
Pay attention. That’s my recommendation. Forget what “tribe,” you think you belong to. Think about how you would like things to be done and they pay attention; not to words but deeds.
This just in: There has been a lot of news over the last few years about frustration with government and the possible end of Democracy. I think this really comes from all of us not seeing consequences for illegal behavior by our elected officials.
This is about to end.
Specifically, it is about to end for the Party of Corruption, also known as The Republicans.
For years, Republicans have had a platform that consisted of two basic issues: (1) stay in power at all costs and (2) prevent the Democrats from achieving any success. Nothing about governing, In fact, if you take a look at the only two things the Republicans “accomplished” over the last decade, you see (1) a tax break for the rich that added $8 trillion to the national debt and (2) the overturning of Roe v. Wade. To be fair, I think they also named a couple of post offices.
Let’s look at how that tide is turning.
Last night the FBI executed a search of Trumps home. To do this, they needed a judge to see enough information that he was convinced there probably was a crime. The FBI is run by a Trump appointee. And Biden, Schumer and Pelosi were not informed so there was no political issue here.
Alex Jones of Infowars is forced to pay nearly 50 million dollars to the families of Sandy Hook after he spent years claiming the mass killing of kids was “fake news.”
Last week Congress passed one of the most significant spending bills in the last 20 years to fight inflation and climate change.
Unemployment is at near historic lows.
Gas prices are continuing to drop.
Sweden and Finland got our approval to join NATO, an organization that has maintained world peace for over 70 years. BTW, Trump tried to end it.
Steve Bannon is probably going to jail.
Some gun control passed a couple of weeks ago. A good start.
Kansas went to vote and shot down an anti-abortion Republican referendum by a margin of 2 to 1.
I saw a comment online last night: “I prefer presidents that don’t get raided by the FBI.” This is jab at Trump’s comment, “I prefer soldiers that don’t get captured.”
Fox News is scrambling to make this a big nothing burger. They complain that this is political because it is so near the election cycle and could never happen to Hillary; forgetting the FBI announced an investigation into Hillary 11 days before the election.
Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy sent a tweet threatening the Attorney General over the raid.
Trump supporters are getting their diapers all bunched up. They are actually complaining that the FBI is investigating a possible crime. An FBI run by a Trump appointee.
Republicans are imploding and online, the rest of us are gleefully watching them squirm.
Why are we so joyful?
We are celebrating that things are getting done. We are celebrating that congress is governing. We are celebrating consequences for illegal behavior.
It’s been a good last few weeks. Let’s hope it continues.
This just in: There is a difference between saying something and doing something. This is not to say either is good or bad; they’re just not the same.
Republican: “We support our troops” then vote to not give veterans healthcare. Note, this bill has been supported by Republicans in the past but they now oppose it because the Democrats brought it up.
Republicans: “We support our police” then celebrate the attack on Capital police who we just doing their jobs on January 6th.
Republicans: “We are Constitutionalists” then work tirelessly to make sure they can overturn elections that result in non-Republicans being elected.
Republicans: “This tax bill will enable you to fill out your taxes on a post card,” then pass a tax bill that does nothing other than cut taxes for the very rich and explodes the national debt.
Republicans: “We need to let the people choose the next Supreme court justice so we will wait several months until after the 2016 election,” then rushed Brett Kavanna’s appointment through before the FBI can follow-up on several accusations.
Republicans: “We will not rest until this gun violence ends,” then sends thoughts and prayers as a proven ineffective solution.
Republicans: “Joe Biden is to blame for high gas prices” all the while knowing that in a capitalist economy, the government does not control prices or production.
I know we are all sick of politics but don’t fall into the trap that “they all do it” because they don’t.
Abortion is now not allowed in many states because of Republicans.
We have out-of-control gun violence because of Republicans.
We are doing virtually nothing to combat climate change because of Republicans.
A big chunk of Americans falsely believe the election was stolen from Trump because of Republicans.
Donald Trump will get away with trying to overthrow the government on January 6th because of Republicans.
Chip manufacturing is still mostly done overseas because of Republicans.
Racism is now acceptably mainstream because of Republicans.
Voting by minorities and the poor is now difficult because of Republicans.
Healthcare is far worse than most of the industrialized world because of Republicans.
Russia is a welcomed influencer in our elections because of Republicans.
I can find no redeeming qualities of today’s Republican Party. None.
This just in: Three seemingly unrelated topics have brought me to this moment. First, I’m reading a book (more on that in a bit). Secondly, the Supreme Court decided that a minority view of the unknowable will of God is correct and thus, a 10-year old rape victim must carry a baby to birth. Thirdly, tomorrow (7/12) we get the first pictures from the James Webb telescope.
Let’s start with the telescope. I saw a preview of one of the new pictures. It shows a portion of the sky equivalent to holding a grain of sand at arm’s length. In it you can see hundred of galaxies. How big is a galaxy? Well, it take about 100,000 years for light to pass from one end of our Milky Way galaxy to the other. For larger galaxies, it can take millions of years for light to make the journey. In short, we on Earth are insignificant.
Now about the book I’m reading…In it, a woman living in the Dark Ages gives birth to a child with a cleft lip. Just as she is wondering what to do, her dad comes home an announces that her husband and his horse died when they fell into a frozen river. That night, the dad comes to her and takes the child. Times are tough and that little boy will make it tougher. Plus, what kind of life could such a child expect. The dad leaves with the child but returns with it later. He had put the child on the ground and left it for the wild animals. However, he quickly went back and picked it up; unable to let it die. The villagers heard about this and drove the family out of the village that night using pitch forks and torches. The boy was obviously cursed and was certainly the cause of the father dying in the river.
Side note: I took a course in Philosophy where the instructor was fond of saying, “Mystery therefore magic.” In other words, if it couldn’t be explained, it must be God’s will.
The villagers feared that the baby may be a demon. Fear makes people do strange things, like drive a family from a village where they had lived for generations. It’s as if they thought, “God will smile on us when he sees how we drove away the demon.”
This is similar to the thought that must have accompanied sacrificing a virgin to a volcano. “We don’t know what God wants but maybe this will do the trick. Best to be safe so go ahead and give her a little push over the edge.”
Back to the telescope. You can look at these pictures and think, “Yes, the universe is really big but God still doesn’t want me to masturbate” Never mind that the more likely reason you are told to behave a certain way is that some people want to control others. This is why religion invented hell after all. The sheep think, “Well, there probably isn’t any hell but I think I’ll push her into the volcano just to be sure. And tithe always tithe.”
So now we have a cornucopia of abortion restrictions. None of these laws are based on science. None. Not one. All are based on control. Control and instilling the fear needed to ensure control. “God will make sure my harvest is good if I make that little girl carry her rape baby to term.”
In my view, the universe notices and so, if there is a God, he/she notices. But, neither the universe nor God cares. The universe experiences our experiences, without judgement. We are stardust. We started as stardust and we will end as stardust. The physical laws of the universe say this is so, thus, it is so. Or….and I’m just saying, you can listen to someone that will push your daughter into a volcano to win an election.
This just in: I can only report about what I hear on Fox news because I am unable to tolerate more than just a few moments of their propaganda.
What I’m hearing is this: The January 6th commission is a partisan attack job on Trump. It is unfair because Trump is not allowed to refute the claims being made. Also, the evidence being presented is just hear-say and not real.
So, let’s go through this a bit.
First of all, this is not a partisan (one party) commission. There are two Republicans on the committee and one holds the number 2 position on the committee.
Next, Republicans were invited to have more representation on the committee but the Republican leadership in the House refused.
Next, almost without exception, those testifying on TV are Republicans.
Next, a very large portion of the hearings are video recordings taken in full context. Also, copies of existing emails, memos and transcripts are being shown. This is not hearsay but rather hard evidence.
Next, several high profile Republicans had declined invitations to appear before the committee. Some are even defying subpoenas issued by the committee. They claim the commission is a one-sided witch-hunt but then decline to publicly and under oath, to set the record straight.
Several Republicans have responded to subpoenas and actually shown up only to take the 5th which means they refuse to testify because they may incriminate themselves.
Trump has complained about not getting equal air time. The committee has said, and I have seen them do this on live TV, that Trump can appear before the committee at any time. They will give him all of the time he wants. The only catch is…he has to be under oath.
Trump declined.
In short, there is no “other side” to the story. We are being shown the facts by the commission and all we hear from the other side is denials on Fox News which is a far cry from presenting facts while under oath.
Now, I don’t expect the above to change any minds. One Republican testified, “I have a friend that is very smart and he loves Trump. He thinks the election was stolen. I went through all of the issues, one-by-one to demonstrate what he was hearing was false and that the election was fair. In the end, he said he understood everything. When I asked if he still thought the election was stolen he said, “Yes, because in spite of your evidence, I believe in my heart that Trump won.” Note: This is my best recollection of what was said.
This just in: I have seen several online conversations about why people like and don’t like Trump. The consensus seems to be that they say, “We like his policies” without being able to name any policies. The other finding seems to be the unspoken, “I fear non-white and non-Christian people as well as people from other countries and Trump will openly fight to squash their place in society.” In other words, they are racists but don’t want to acknowledge this so they like Trump because he will openly do what they only think about but never act on. Racism by Proxy.
There is only one thing I like about Trump…he could get things done.
Now, before you go off on this statement, let me clarify. I don’t like the things he did but I do have to admit that he always seemed to find a way to get it done. Also, I don’t like the methods he used (trying to overthrow the government etc.) but he got things done.
So, me saying I like that he got things done is sort of like saying, “I like his tie.” The statement says nothing about how I feel he is the worst example of a human being I can think of and he has done more to bring down our country than any other person in the history of the world.
On the other hand, I like what Biden says. I seem to share his beliefs in many cases. I think he is a good person and really wants what is best for the country; putting country ahead of self in every instance.
Still, he doesn’t seem to be able to get things done. For example, the Supreme Court seems to be going down a list of Republican goals and ticking them off one at a time. I’m talking about abortion, gun control and the inclusion of religion into politics.
Biden can’t fix health care. He can’t get infrastructure passed. He can barely keep Europe on track when it comes to keeping Russia in check. I think he was slow to act on inflation, (not that he could have done much). I think he is checking boxes, much like the Supreme court (talk about gun control…check. Talk about abortion…check) but nothing is getting done.
Yes, he doesn’t get stuff done because of the opposition. But, the opposition does not always have to win. We are not a country that benefits when the minority rules. He has the House, the Senate and the presidency.
He needs to start getting shit done!
So, who do I like? Trump or Biden? I would take a broken toaster over Trump. If Biden is the best alternative, I take him in a heartbeat.
Now for a video…
This is one of the songs I dance to in the morning.
This just in: There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to the causes and cures for inflation. Some are more important than others. Some causes and cures that we want to avoid, exist only because we don’t have the political will to do the right thing.
Inflation, in its simplest form, exists because we are willing to pay more money for something that we once paid less for. We do this because we have to or we do this because we want to. It really doesn’t matter.
Why would we “have” to pay more? Usually there are two reasons for this. First, it could be that those controlling the production of some necessary good have made the decision to charge more. This occurs when a few control the production of something vital. Let’s call this Cartel. We pay more for this good in spite of the price increase. This “lack of impact” on demand by a price increase is a measure of the items “price elasticity.” Price goes up and demand remains constant means the produce has low price elasticity. Gas is a good example of this. We buy it no matter the cost. You may say, “I drive less and thus price has impacted me.” This may be true but energy costs don’t just impact individual driving. Energy costs control the costs of nearly everything you will touch today. You will still touch them, you will still buy food, you will still watch TV etc; regardless of the price.
The second reason we “have” to pay more is scarcity. As a product becomes more scarce, the price for that product will go up. Now, we can choose not to buy the product and this may lessen the meaning of “have” to pay. However, if we want an electric car and there are not enough of them to meet demand, we will “have” to pay more to move up in the waiting line for that car.
Scarcity and Cartel dictate that we will pay more. Paying more = inflation.
On the other side of the coin. Sometimes we are willing to pay more simply because the value of a given amount of money has dropped for us. When you have a little bit of money, maybe you eat a lot of Ramen Noodles. Then when you win the lottery, you eat steak and ice cream all day. The more money you have, the less each bit of that money means to you.
We are now in a long overdue phase of wage increases. Wages have been mostly stagnant for the last decade but now they are on the rise. People are making more and so, they are spending more. They are no longer holding onto their money as tightly as they once did because each dollar now has less value. This puts more and more money the economy. More money means that money is worth less…to the economy. Thus inflation.
The Federal Reserve has a tool to combat this. They raise the interest rate and thus people will borrow less money. This is very effective since we don’t only spend the money we earn. We also spend the money we borrow. Since it is now more expensive to borrow, people will borrow less and thus, the amount of money flowing through the economy is lower. This will slow inflation.
So, how would I fix this?
First of all, I’d keep making incremental increases in the interest rate. I expect the Fed to continue doing this for at least another year.
Secondly, I would open the borders. I don’t mean literally, throw open the gates. I mean make it easy for foreign workers to enter our country. Don’t make them all citizens but somehow make them tax-paying contributors to our economy. If we want to unclog the production bottlenecks that are causing the “scarcity component” of inflation, we need the labor. Let them in. Politically, neither political party is interested in solving immigration. This is too convenient an issue to blame on each other. However, we can create growth without boundless wage growth which contributes to inflation. For example, and I am only making this up on the fly: An immigrant is granted a worker visa. They can stay in the county for as long as they hold a job. They pay taxes which fund schools and medical costs and such. Their wages, as a immigrant worker, can be no more than 90% of a worker that is a citizen. They can also make up no more than 10% of any given workforce. In this way, we are not taking away jobs and we are allowing for wage growth with some dampening effect.
Lastly, hold the feet of energy companies to the fire. They have spend decades getting subsidies. Stop that cold. Put an upper limit on profits. Yes, this is putting a control on a capitalist industry but, its for the greater good. In fact, we do this sort of thing all the time.
Or, we can do nothing. Don’t raise interest rates because we don’t like that. Don’t increase the size of the national labor pool because those new people are not white. Don’t regulate an industry because you think unregulated capitalism is a good thing (spoiler: It’s not).
We can always do nothing.
“Nothing happens until something moves.” Albert Einstein
This just in: Every state agrees that Trump lost the election. More than 60 court filings that challenged the election have been thrown out due to lack of evidence. Investigators hired by Republicans found no evidence. Trump’s inner circle, including his family members and the Attorney General all agree that Trump lost the election. About this…there can be no doubt.
So, everyone knows that Trump lost the election. Let’s take this as a fact, which is it. AND, knowing that everyone knows, what does it mean when…
Trump claims the election was stolen. He knows it wasn’t. Everyone told him so and there is no evidence. So, when he tells you this, he knows he is lying to you. Furthermore, he expects you to be outraged and in support of his complaint. The bottom line is that he is in direct violation of the Constitution.
When a congressman or senator tells you this even though they know its untrue, they have two goals: (1) They are pandering for the support of those that can’t accept that a fair and democratic election resulted in their guy losing and (2) They want to use the prospect of fraudulent elections to create laws that will restrict the opposition from voting. What they are really saying is that the Constitution only matters when they win.
When Republicans tell you they believe the election was stolen, they know they are lying. What they are really saying is, “I don’t support a democracy where my opinion isn’t the popular opinion.” While this is an anti-constitutional stance, they will be the first to demand their right to own unregulated guns no matter how many school shootings there are.
Everyone knows the election wasn’t stolen.
Everyone that tells you it was stolen is lying about it. They are lying right at you.
Note: I say “everyone knows” when there is a portion of the population that doesn’t bother to check on anything and rallies behind whatever they want to be true as if it was actually true.
