politics

June 23, 2018

Shame On A Failed President and Congress

I never thought I would see the death of America, I grew up with the view of an exceptional America, a giant force for Democracy and human rights. A Democracy which spread the ability to solve the problems of poverty, disease, and over population.

I did not see the failure of these United States. I did not see racism return. I did not see an old, senile, racist, bigot, misogynist, crazy guy become president. Never.

You might think the Congress would prevent the desecration of the Constitution by a dictator. No. The Congress is complicit in the destruction of America. They are letting a mentally unstable man destroy the economy with a trade war and by stopping the inflow of taxes to support America.

The Congress is a failed branch of the government for allowing the filling of concentration camps, or internment camps, or gulags or reeducation camps. Take your pick. The man who wants to be Hitler or Stalin, is filling those despicable jails with people seeking asylum within the shell of what used to be the most important country in history.

#Resist can only carry us so far. We must take back the Congress with this next election, otherwise there will be no more elections as the current Congress works to shred the Constitution.

April 2, 2016April 2, 2016

Those Who Are Too Smart To Engage In Politics

Are governed by those who are dumber. Plato

What a feeling I awaken with this morn. Friday evening was the Anne Arundel County Central Committee annual dinner. A meeting of the most political of political people in politics. People who are the unseen forces behind the every Democratic Party Member running for any office. The people who watch CSPAN and listen to NPR, or are on NPR or CSPAN. The people who watch Prime Minister’s Questions.

Oh, and there were the elected too. Anne Arundel County provides the high power to the Maryland Assembly. The fight to keep Governor Hogan from going all Republican on Maryland rests with the Speaker of House, Rep. Busch. A few miles away is the now blinding white dome over the Congress. Several Maryland members of the Congress came to the dinner too. Rep. Steny Hoyer was great as usual. Our candidates to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski spoke well and gave good reasons to vote for either of them. Sen. Mikulski was not at the dinner to my disappointment.

The night was even more exciting because of the key note speaker, Rep. Elija Cummings. Oh the deep feelings he brought out. His speech was full and heartfelt, from his poor childhood and that of his parents, to today. He is the one man who destroyed Republican attempts to blame Ms. Clinton for Benghazi and pretty much everything else that has happened since the Romans left England.

He reminded us of what we are – Democrats. We can see what Mr. Weird Hair is doing, and why those voting for him do so. We are Democrats and we must never forget why so many are falling for the bluster and wild talk. It is up to us to make life better for all Americans.

For all the political power in the room, and there was a lot, we enjoyed a nice night together. In politics one often gives everything to achieve the win, or preventing someone else from winning. Long hard hours, constantly promoting your candidates, often calling people asking for money. You make the relaxation time your fun time.

Okay, politics is still in the air. Rather, politics is the air.

You have slogged through so far and want the candy. Today, there is no candy. Today is the “ask”. The point of all this is to lure you into getting involved in politics. Politics is the putting a stamp on an envelope. It is getting a nice walk on a weekend to meet fifty or one hundred people at their homes to hand them literature about a candidate. It is driving a candidate from one house party to another house party (you get to eat campaign food doing this). It is doing whatever you feel comfortable doing to help elect a woman or man you want to represent you.

A dinner, you pay a lot for, is a reward. No awards are given out. Maybe a shout out, but most likely not. The dinner is how political people take a break from politics. More politics.

A side effect is you might want to run for office too. That is a blast, at least for some of us. For others, not so much a blast as a drudge through the mud.

March 19, 2016March 19, 2016

“All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred,

comes invariably from people who are not fighting.”
― George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia

Today is one of those days, March 19, 2016, which places a thumb on the scales of good and evil. This day is one of those days which makes me sick to my stomach. Today is probably one of the days equal to all the idiotic days of idiotic actions by power mad and idiotic presidents combined. This is the day the VI Bush II invaded Iraq.

Oh, we all watched or read about his excuses to engage in a war against a country which had been made into a backwater by his father. We know the lies he spread to enter a country which was nothing more than an account in the budget of the U.S. Air Force. And, we know four thousand four hundred ninty-one United States military were killed for the VI and his criminals.

The war was for a guy trying to show how smart and tough he was. It was a war that the leftovers from the Vietnam War waged to show how they were right about Vietnam and Tricky Dick was wrong to negotiate a treaty to get our ass out of the beautiful country left wasted. It was a war for all the wrong reasons.

Think of Vietnam. The buildup to it is complex and the results were in a very different time. World War II had literally just ended. The Korean War was just at a truce and a line barely in place. And the Soviet Union was doing its best to rattle America. Add in Red China trying to extend its influence. A lot was going on in the world and in particular South East Asia.

Forward a few decades and we have the unelected president trying to show how he was tougher and smarter than daddy. His syncopates were more than willing to join in under his big umbrella. Need a reason to invade. Why not combine the attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001 with something. Unfortunately the only something to add in would be lies. So, why not use lies? We the citizens of the United States of America were lied to. The rest of the world was lied to in the United Nations Assembly. The VI got his war.

Fast forward button pressed to the current Republican Party. A party more often screaming and yelling and threatening to use American might to smuanch those they dislike than to negotiate a calm. They think that the U.S. military is to be used anytime they suspect a terrorist cell is around, even it is not.

Now that you are in 2016 (jesus alou this is a long time from my beginning) and the Republican Party is now a party of idiots, with several of the idiots who were with Nixon and the VI playing a supporting role, I can only guess at what would happen if the orange hair bully was elected president. Sure a few in the military would resign or retire rather than do his bidding. The majority would follow orders.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, the Baltics, India, Palestine, and many more regions would be in danger. He probably would not bother with Africa, his supporters do not care about black people. I am very willing to believe he would be attacking the world on his own, no other nation would lift a finger, other than to protest.

You want to know why this election is so important? That alone should scare people to vote Democratic. Domestically he has promised to make this the white supremacist homeland. Anyone except white, male and in the missionary position would be punished. Scared yet?

March 13, 2016

Trouble Right Here In River City

Music Man

Trouble, oh we got trouble,

Alice In Pool of Tears

Right here in River City!
With a capital “T”
That rhymes with “P”
And that stands for Pool,
That stands for pool.
We’ve surely got trouble!
Right here in River City,
Right here!
Gotta figure out a way
To keep the young ones moral after school!
Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble...

Yes folks, there’s gonna be a whole lot o’ trouble in Cleveland when the Republican’s face reality and it is a stain more dark than that of someone peeing in the pool. They have their unpopularly elected candidate. With more votes than their next unpopular candidate, who is also not welcome in the pool.

The media is finally turning on Trump, and it is showing in his actions. The only thing left to keep his name in the headlines is to do as he said he would, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters,” Shooting his voters is not a good thing, but encouraging bloodshed by his “supporters” is a good thing to him. Somehow I do not think his “supporters” are really his, they are the ones who would support any racist, misogynist, loud mouth. Wallace comes to mind.

Trump is just one of many who sold his soul to the devil for votes. He has exactly what he wants, international fame and glory infamy. He accomplished more than any television program could ever do. He wants the football to blast his way to the ultimate high. That is what is scaring his fellow Republicans. End civilization as the biggest of the big O’s for megalomaniac, narcissistic people like him.

The talking heads, the Jimmie Olsen’s, the political bloggers and even professional (bell rung too hard) athletes provide deep thought analysis of the Republican situation. The Democratic situation, which is many levels higher, is a more cerebral issue. The Republicans have a clown fight on their hands and cannot figure out which is the head clown with the full seltzer bottle and which is the clown with the wet face.

What will happen to the R’s in Cleveland comes down to which cohort do the Republican money men want to piss off most. The angry white men who support any Facist move, or at least any white supremacist group? The mainstream Republican voters who would rather vote for green fuzzy white bread than any of the clown car inhabitants? Or the rest of the U.S. and the world?

My guess is not formed yet. Sure, I could speculate now and then do a trump and say I never wrote that after proven wrong. But, I would rather pop more popcorn and enjoy sitting in the cheap seats watching the action. At least until after Ohio votes.

March 6, 2016

What Did You Do This Week?

Oh, I rekindled a passion which I now remember why I let it bank to a single ember years ago.

I finally pulled the plug on my main website (normal people do not even own one website, let alone four (I think I only have four)) and started the pain of rebuilding it on a new platform and in new languages. That is tech talk for I had to rewrite the website.

What-ME has been online since June, 1994. Over the years it has shown protests against three presidents. Numerous idiots who somehow decided they know more about how I want to live than myself. An untold number of sanctimonious types trying to force their religion up my rear. A great deal of pain from so many people dying of Hepatitis C. information regarding all sorts of things that I wanted to give out. Each year the banned book lists was a front page feature. And, it has been a way for an old programmer to keep up on the newest trends of software and the Internet.

Somehow twenty-two years of action brings back some very vivid memories. Abortion fights. Civil rights fights; campaigns for office, mine and others. A running body count during the Bush II Afghanistan and Iraq war because mainstream media would not. American Red Cross blood drives, I do not post much about my ARC Disaster Services work, that is best done by the ARC. Pictures of my pets, even the death of a microwave, purchased in 1977 and built like a tank. It worked for about twenty years before sputtering to a cold, silent end.

The political memories are what matter today and this year. Looking back at so many presidents and congresses that could have done more and done better and they all failed in so many ways. That is what brings me to my latest version. This time my blog is the front page of What-ME. Yes, I write more than what you see here, not much these days though.

What did we learn from yesterday? I think we are seeing that the smaller clowns have started poking holes in the blustery armor of the big orange clown. It is funny that two men of Hispanic background are running in the Republican world and are stating they are as against Hispanic people as Trump.

At least it is Cruz, not Rubio. Rubio would have been the image up against HRC and she would have not come off well. HRC and Cruz on television, she will be sitting pretty (so to speak).

What is to come of America if one of the Republican clowns wins the presidency? That is the one question that causes me to lie awake at night. It is a scary scenario, one I am working to not have happen.