Tag: Politics

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Well I guess the establishment Democrats were really spooked…

After all, what better way to make sure people vote Democrat?

I’m speaking about the SCOTUS leak.

1979 was the last time a leak like this occurred. This time, the leak couldn’t have better timing.

The other half, a former cradle Democrat, (Now a confirmed Independent,) still gets emails from the Democratic Party. In recent weeks, the number of emails has gotten to the point that it’s “Select All” and “delete” every morning.

Every single one of these emails is asking for 5 bucks here, 10 bucks there, help as much as you can, even a dollar helps, and not one of them mentions volunteering to help the Democrat Party. It’s all about money and the emails always say the same thing.

“Our Democracy is under threat.” Doom and gloom. “If the Republicans win the House and the Senate, our way of life is over…”

Really?

I think the other half said there were 15 emails like this yesterday. Most of them asking for support of candidates from states other than the one in which we reside.

My question is how can anyone donate to a campaign for a candidate which they don’t know, haven’t heard of, with no information other than a (D) after their name?

That’s not informed donation. That’s donating glitter to make the best posters for a Prom Queen or King for a high school you don’t attend.

But it explains how politicians throw obscene amounts of money behind a shitty candidate. Then when the candidate demonstrates they’re a vapid moron, the politicians can say, “This candidate was backed by popular opinion and money, they had the support of the people…”

Yeah, right!

I gather in this case, the fundraising wasn’t going as well as the Democrats wanted. They needed the big guns, and the leak of a draft decision on Roe v. Wade was just the kind of thing that would turn on the money spigot.

We’re already seeing the reporting decrying this ‘Horrific assault on Women’s rights’ and yet more calls for packing the court. Protests in front of the Supreme Court have started, barricades are going up, chaos ensues.

Aren’t those protests the beginning of an insurrection? Just asking…

This morning I’ve seen some articles saying this is the beginning of an all out assault on LGBT… lmnop rights, and the rights of the poor.

What better way to weld Women, People of Color, LGBT, and Progressives, into a single voting block?

I wait with anticipation to see what the shrews on The View say. They always have something stupid to say about stuff like this. I’ve gotten in the habit of not reading anything they say while I’m drinking my morning coffee.

I’ve damn near drowned one too many times.

The really sad thing is, this strategy might just work. Hundreds of thousands of people who were leaning toward a more conservative vote may instead choose to pick their local equivalent of AOC.

The Democrats may win and hold onto power in Congress. If they do, the insanity will continue for another two years.

That’s not to say that the Republicans would be any better. Most of them can’t seem to find their asses or morals with both hands and landing lights. They’re as much part of the problem as the Democrats and the whole lot of them should be voted out.

We need a fresh start. We need people governing us who are not part of the establishment, who are not bought & paid for. We need people who know what it is to wonder if their paycheck will be enough to put food on the table.

Folks who know what it’s like to eat off of chipped Melmac plates and use free gas station glasses. We need people who’ve given their portion of dinners to their children. They’re the ones who have a direct interest is turning the economy around and making decisions that help everyone.

It’s time the governance of the country was turned back over to the common people. Those who do not have Harvard or Yale law degrees but who do have common sense, know how to balance their checkbook, and live on a budget.

I’d bet these people can propose laws that are as good, or better than the jackasses in power now. With the help of the Supreme Court those proposed laws can be analyzed for Constitutionality, modified as needed, and then passed or defeated in Congress by a group of like minded common folks.

It might not be better, but at least it would be honest and representative of the people our government is supposed to serve.

I care nothing for Roe v. Wade. I don’t believe it is, or ever was, a Constitutional right.

No matter how you cut it, it’s killing a child. I’m able to stomach abortion in the first few months, but I absolutely can’t condone late term, or the more horrific, partial birth abortion.

If I condoned those, then I might as well condone full retroactive abortion too.

What’s the difference between inducing labor in the last trimester and killing a potentially viable child, or a woman pumping out a child in a dirty bathroom, then dropping the child in the nearest dumpster? The first one, a clinic and medical staff make money. The last one, is child abandonment and a crime.

Frankly, I see zero difference, other than money changing hands.

What would retroactive abortion look like? Say up to age 18, either parent could “Abort” a child. I bet there’d be a lot less trouble in schools.

“Hey Joe, where’s Billy?”

“Oh, Pricilla aborted his ass a month ago. She caught him rubbing one out, and he got a “D” in Home Economics. She dropped a hair dryer in the hot tub after the championship game.”

“Sorry man, he was really great on the football field. You gonna make another one?”

“Nah, I got snipped about 10 years ago. Don’t want any more mistakes like the last two. Especially not with Pricilla!”

“Huh, That why you’re selling the house?”

“Yep, we don’t need the space…”

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I Do feel a little sorry for him

I honestly didn’t know that Obama was going to be at the White House. Not that it matters to me at all. I still feel a little betrayed by Obama. I truly thought that he would deliver on his promises when I voted for him. By his second term, I was completely disenchanted because I’d come to believe he was yet again another President who was into the power not the people.

It’s not Obama I feel sorry for. It’s Biden. Just because I think Joe Biden is an incompetent senile old fool, doesn’t mean I can’t feel sorry for him as a human being.

Watching the videos of the Obama visit, it was pretty sad to see Biden trying to interact with the shakers and movers.

Biden was clearly the unpopular kid at the prom. I kept waiting for the pigs blood to pour on him, (if you haven’t seen the original Carrie movie you might not get that reference.)

The fact that I was reminded of a movie genre that deals with cruel high school cliques by the “Movers & Shakers,”in Washington D.C. probably says as much about their behavior as it says about my high school experience.

I wasn’t one of the pretty people, I wasn’t particularly popular and not in any of the “cool kids” cliques, but I was necessary.

I was the guy who knew how to get things done, who to contact for certain illicit things, and how to make some troubles just disappear. I guess I was The Mechanic, I would get my hands dirty so that the cool, rich, and privileged dilettantes didn’t have to… But I didn’t work for free.

Unfortunately Biden isn’t even that.

He’s the kid whose parents made him go to the prom, “stag” because they thought it was important for his social development. He’s the wall flower, the kid sitting alone at the furthest table who is totally invisible. He’s the joke, the “poor kid” from the wrong side of the tracks, wearing a hand me down suit, instead of being able to rent a tux.

One advantage of my “Mechanic” role was that from the shadows I got to watch people. I got to observe the social fabric and how cruel a smile from some people can be. I also wore a tux to the prom that I didn’t have to pay for. (I’ll do this thing that you ask, but one day you’ll have to repay the favor… Ahh capitalism!)

Biden reminded me of the kid at the dance desperately wishing to be noticed and wondering if he could leave and walk home before his parents come to collect him.

Biden has become the crazy unpopular old uncle at the family reunion. Invited because he’s family and no one knows how much money he’s got stuffed in his mattress, ignored because he’s got nothing to say. He’s always invited, treated cordially for the first 15 minutes and then handed a tall glass of vodka and sent to the kids table.

It was there for all the world to observe.

At the press conference Biden was discarded once his usefulness ended. Obama was introduced, and Biden wandered around begging for relevancy. Hoping for crumbs from the cool kids table.

Biden has never learned even the crumbs are doled out carefully.

Remember, the Biden administration crowed very loudly about the “adults” being in the White House again.

Uh huh, right!

That’s why I feel a little sorry for Biden. The realization that you’ve been used and thrown away is always a bit soul crushing. In his case, the sting may not have much of an impact because of his cognitive decline.

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Beware the echo chamber…

After two years of more of less isolation, perhaps we’ve all fallen into our own personal echo chambers.

It’s not intentional. It’s simply what happens in isolation. There will be those who say we’ve not been isolated because we have the internet and the news, etc. But we have been isolated from people and friends who challenge our beliefs.

It’s the personal interactions, it’s the people we care about, our friends, family, etc. who add balance to our thoughts and opinions. Without those people challenging us, we fall into patterns where it’s far too easy to self validate what we think and as humans do, we assume that we’re right.

COVID has provided a perfect storm in this regard.

No matter how egalitarian we try to be in our news absorption we inevitably develop biases and preferred news sources. It could happen because those sources have pretty people, or entertaining pieces, or that they simply validate what we’re already thinking. Eventually we choose those sources that we’re comfortable with. Then we narrow our focus to only the comfortable.

Without discussion and interaction. Without people we respect and care about pushing back and saying, “Well this report here says thus and such,” it’s easy to create an echo chamber and not notice it.

I’m guilty… Are you?

That’s not about laying blame. None of us should feel threatened by this realization. It’s just a sign post that says, “Hey there, we need to do better.” None of us are perfect, but we all should at least aspire to keep walking that path and get as close as possible.

The problem with echo chambers is they feed division. Everyone walks around with their own entrenched beliefs and they defend them.

How many people have said, or been heard to say, “You are wrong and I don’t want to be friends anymore,”? Isn’t that the same as a dating profile saying “Republicans don’t contact me,”

That’s not healing, that’s not being open minded. It’s in the discussion of even closely held beliefs that validation, or error is uncovered. Sometimes neither validation or error is uncovered but the discussion provides enlightenment.

The enlightenment I’m talking about is understanding what drives the core belief. For example. Just because someone was tried for a crime and there was nothing uncovered in a trial that was legally actionable. It doesn’t mean there was nothing there in the first place. It may mean that someone was skating along the boundaries of the law and they were clever enough or lucky enough to stay just out of reach.

Al Capone is a good example. For years the FBI and other law enforcement knew Capone was in charge of a massive criminal organization. They could never actually pin anything on him directly. They didn’t have sufficient evidence and no matter how many times they arrested Capone, the case always fell apart. Until the IRS got involved. Then it was a whole new ball game.

Maybe, a way forward for all of us, is to have those uncomfortable discussions. But both parties really need to listen.

That’s the hard part, listening and divorcing yourself from your beliefs for a time. That way, you can get into the head of the other person thereby understanding the factual or not so factual underpinning of why they believe a certain way about something.

It doesn’t matter if you agree or not with their belief. What matters is that we all acknowledge that no-one is an idiot for thinking in a way we don’t agree with. It’s just that we each put “facts” together in some kind of order that makes it possible to cope with the world around us.

I’ve written in these pages that I personally think something was amiss in the most recent election. For that matter I could make a case that something has been amiss in elections going back decades.

When I’ve said that I thought the most recent election should be investigated. It wasn’t to depose Biden and install Trump. I honestly don’t care about which of the two is president.

I’m not even sure if constitutionally Biden could be removed at this point. I don’t even want to consider the chaos that removing a Biden Administration and installing a Trump Administration would cause. I guess I’m more of a, “Well, we’re here now, we just have to muddle through,” we have to do better next time. I don’t like Biden. I personally think he’s incompetent, but Harris is no better.

I as a voter, don’t like being placed in a situation where I feel that I have to choose the devil or the deep blue sea.

That doesn’t mean that I’m pro Trump. I personally think that he did some things that were beneficial for the country in the near term but I don’t have enough knowledge of politics to be able to project how those near term benefits play out over time. I’m willing to acknowledge that perhaps the folks who were screaming about his policies know, or knew something I missed.

When I say I think we should look at the elections, I’m saying that from a perspective of fixing what’s broken.

How do we change the system to make sure that the next election, everyone feels confident enough in the system that they believe the results represent the will of the electorate? I’d like for everyone to be able to comfortably say, “I didn’t like the result but that’s okay, because the system was fair and it works.“

I’d be willing to bet that average folks on both sides of the political gulf could get behind that. The politicians might not like it all that much, but the people they’re supposed to represent might like it a lot.

It hit me, that folks might not understand the nuance I’m talking about. I’d like to see a disassembly of the voting process to find the bugs and plug them. That would be a big task, and it would take representation from all parties, not just the big two. That’s also why I’m in the near term pro voter ID.

I’m not about preventing someone from casting their vote. I am about preventing someone from casting 20 votes. Yes, it would be inconvenient to have to present ID to obtain a ballot. but the benefit outweighs the inconvenience. God knows, I remember how slow it was to write a check and present ID in the grocery store line.

I’d like to see the next election, be clean. I’d like for there to be no margin for a candidate to do what Trump did this last election. We should remember that before Trump, there was Al Gore claiming the election irregularities.

Folks call it “The Big Lie”. I call it a warning sign. How about we figure out a way to eliminate the possibility of “The Big Lie” altogether? That seems like a worth while enterprise doesn’t it?

I’m amazed how many people have Trump living in their heads rent free. I’d prefer to push him into history and deal with what is in front of us. Yes, I acknowledge that Trump is living in my head rent free too. I try very hard to only let him have a cheap studio apartment with a leaky toilet. It’s hard to do because there’s so much media attention still focused on him.

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Time to take a deep breath – Did Biden say we’re putting troops in Ukraine?

In remarks to the 82nd Airborne Biden did his usual rambling type of speech. It’s Here if you’d like to read it for yourself. I personally find that reading his speeches, like listening to them, makes my dang head hurt.

You’ve been warned…

The part of the speech that made my blood run cold was this:

And — so, you know, with the Ukrainian people — Ukrainian people have a lot of backbone. They have a lot of guts. And I’m sure you’re observing it. And I don’t mean just their military, which is — we’ve been training since back when they — Russia moved into the — in the southeast — southeast Ukraine — but also the average citizen. Look at how they’re stepping up. Look at how they’re stepping up.

And you’re going to see when you’re there. And you — some — some of you have been there. You’re going to see — you’re going to see women, young people standing — standing the middle of — in front of a damn tank, just saying, “I’m not leaving. I’m holding my ground.” They’re incredible. But they take a lot of inspiration from us.

Remarks by President Biden During Visit with Service Members of the 82nd Airborne Division. March 25, 2022

Did President Biden just say to the world, including President Putin that the United States was going to deploy troops?

Wasn’t that one of the things that Putin said was going to trigger a vigorous, Possibly nuclear Russian response?

I’m used to idiotic saber rattling. But DAMN!

If you’ve poked the bear and managed to not get eaten, it’s probably not a good idea to poke the bear again.

Thus far the Russian / Ukraine war has been largely an affair between two affiliated countries. Ukraine was, after all part of the old USSR. The tipping point for Putin, (if there is a geopolitical one,) appears to have something to do with the possibility of Ukraine becoming a NATO nation.

I doubt seriously that NATO would accept Ukraine, but that’s a different issue. Putin on the other hand has reason to prevent Ukraine becoming part of NATO.

NATO troops sitting that close to Moscow would give Putin endless headaches and he would likely perceive it as an ongoing threat. It’s a little too close to home. I go so far as to say Putin is telling the world, “Not in MY backyard!”

The long history between Russia and Ukraine is too intricate and soaked with too much blood for me to begin to understand the underlying issues between them. That’s the job of political historians and I’m so not qualified.

I have begun to think that Zelenskyy and Putin may well be cut from the same cloth.

I don’t know if there can be a peaceful resolution to the conflict between the two countries. That’s for diplomats from Ukraine and Russia to work out, Send some decent and savvy ambassadors to assist in brokering a deal, but keep Biden himself 10,000 miles away.

Who knows? It might be something as simple as Ukraine saying they won’t join NATO.

I feel compassion for the Ukrainian people that have been conscripted, killed, displaced, and had their lives and homes destroyed.

I however, don’t think that it’s smart in any way for The President of the United States to add fuel to the fire.

I’m not ready for World War III. I haven’t finished building my hyperdrive!

Joking aside, we need a strong cogent statesman. We do not need a President that isn’t respected, (or perhaps feared,) by the leaders of the world.

There are reports that the Saudis aren’t taking calls from Biden, and other reports that suggest General Miley is not having his calls returned by his counterparts in Moscow.

It bodes ill that two former superpowers heavily armed with nuclear weapons aren’t talking with each other.

We can only hope at this point that Biden did not mean what he said in his remarks to the 82nd, and that the world leaders assume it was a doddering senile old fool speaking.

Who knows, it might be the one time when Biden’s apparent state of mind does some good.

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Its Baaaack…

Hunter Biden’s laptop is back in the news.

Apparently, The New York Times walked back its claims that Hunter’s laptop was a Russian hoax. The Times is now saying the laptop and the information it contained is authentic.

Politico also ran a similar story that the laptop in question was part of a disinformation campaign. I don’t think they have retracted their stories yet.

NewsGuard claimed that there was no way the information could be verified. They, however were talking about the New York Times original article.

I’ll admit, there are intelligence organizations that could have spent the time to put together something as intricate as the email chains contained on that laptop. They could have put together a bunch of the videos and pictures too. They could have forged the text messages easily.

The question I always asked about it was why? Why would Russia expend such significant resources to paint a known drug addict, even if he was the son of a presidential candidate, in a negative light?

If the Russians were behind Trump then it would make sense that they’d try to keep Trump in office. That being said, the general thought pre-election was that Trump was going to win.

Unless the Russians knew something that the general public didn’t. Was it that the Russians were worried Biden was going to win?

That makes no sense. If the Russians were interfering in our election process, and they were backing Trump then it would have been pretty much a “Lock” Trump would win.

On the other hand, If the Russians were not significantly involved with Trump but instead wanted to return to the Obama/Biden era where they could engage in their expansionistic goals, then again it makes no sense for them to have expended the resources. Had the laptop been taken seriously pre-election it could have derailed the Biden campaign and undermined the Russian expansionism.

Then there’s the data on the laptop itself. The email threads I was able to read before the data disappeared were boringly routine. Yes, the emails were talking about the business of making connections with the “Movers & Shakers” of various governments but once you get past the shock of that, it was boring routine scheduling and money transfers.

The videos were shocking, but the male in the videos (whether it was Hunter or not,) was very consistent in his voice patterns. His speech had the proper accent for someone from the northeast. Moreover, the sounds he made during sex were consistent.

Let’s be frank, we all know that during sex, we make sounds that are pretty unique to us. Ask your spouse, and you’ll find that there’s a certain pattern to your breathing, a slight guttural vocalization, a particular sound that you only make pre-orgasm. If your spouse is paying attention, they’ll use those cues to get you there, or back off so that the fun continues.

The male in the videos that I saw demonstrated the same patterns over and over again. This doesn’t prove it was Hunter, but it does suggest that it was the same guy. I can’t say too much about the women in the videos, there were many, and rarely did two videos have the same woman or girl.

If you want an example, watch some porn. Choose one particular performer, watch several movies they’re in, and listen. You’ll see what I mean. It’s more prominent with males in porn because “The Money Shot” is often repeated from different angles.

All of this led me to believe that the laptop was in fact authentic. It’s no one thing, it’s the intricacy and consistency.

On my laptop, I do things the same way. I have habits and patterns that are like a fingerprint. The way data is laid out is recognizable to me. I can grab an unlabeled data storage device and know it’s mine just by the way information is stored.

It’s my opinion the volume of information on the laptop, and its associated consistency couldn’t have been created by a hundred Russian agents. It looked more like one person over time.

I’m not saying that a disinformation campaign is impossible, I suggest that it is unlikely.

If we believe that the laptop is in fact Hunter’s. Then it opens a nasty can of worms. Was Hunter brokering access to his father, The Vice President, during the Obama years? If this is true then do we have a Sitting President who is compromised?

That was the fear during the Trump administration. Isn’t that possibility what triggered the first impeachment proceeding? Do we have a smoking gun so to speak that points to graft, corruption, pay for play, and all the things of which Trump was accused?

Is it possible that Congress had all the “right” crimes but the wrong man?

It’s unlikely that anything will be done about it at this point. Biden is one year into his term, Congress took almost three years to impeach Trump and. they were fast walking the process. Congress will no doubt drag their feet in any impeachment proceedings for Biden. I’d bet that we won’t know the full impact of Hunter’s laptop for at least 8 years.

By then the laptop will just be a minor footnote in history.

The question is this;

If this laptop had belonged to Eric Trump would it have been swept under the carpet?

The question is rhetorical. We all know that it would have been front page world wide.

The larger question is;

Why? Why do we allow this difference? A crime is a crime. That is supposed to be absolute, not money, leader, or party dependent. The FBI has had the laptop for almost 2 years, yet there have been no arrests and very few subpoenas.

Lady Justice is blindfolded for a reason. She’s supposed to represent the best of equal justice under the law. She’s not supposed to see race, or wealth, or power, or anything at all, except was the law broken.

Our Justice system is supposed to enforce the law absolutely. Exceptions may be made in extreme circumstances, (such as self defense), but exceptions should never become the rule.