Tag: Politics

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Ugh! The News and politics is already back to the Obama era.

I was reminded this morning why I’d lost interest in politics and the news during Obama. It wasn’t that I was actually disinterested, it was that no matter what, there was almost zero serious discussion about anything Obama or his minions did. Anything and everything was amazing and just wonderful. That makes me suspicious. No president, administration, politician, or government is wonderful and amazing all the time.

Just as it is untrue that anything and everything Trump did for the past four years according to the media, was; wrong, evil, bad, racist, or whatever negative descriptive you can think of.

Then I remembered the movie Protocol with Goldie Hawn. I’ll be digging it out of the library later today.

Just thinking about it made me smile, and I could use a laugh or two.

I honestly don’t give a runny crap about who is in power. But I absolutely care about fair play, and politicians that actually work for the people.

I don’t believe that we have either now and doubt seriously that we’re getting fair and accurate news reporting about the goings on in Washington DC.

It’s the imbalance in reporting that makes me question. Now that we don’t have a President that the media can target, the Media and many of the politicians have switched to targeting anyone who disagrees with the prevailing narrative, or who supported the former President.

This is not a hallmark of a democratic republic. It’s a hallmark of a totalitarian state.

I’d stopped watching the goings on in Washington during the last four years of Obama. Every time I sat down to watch the Obama press conferences or state of the union I found myself having far more questions than were answered. I found that I fundamentally disagreed with the direction then President Obama was taking the country.

Apparently so did many in congress which led to nothing but wasted time and money because nothing was getting done. I was very displeased with Obama’s use of executive orders because it felt very much like he was a King, not an American President.

To be fair Trump also used executive orders, but not the the extent that Obama and now Biden have.

I think we’re in for yet another four years of congressional deadlock and infighting rather than congress doing the job they exist to do. How long can a country survive doing nothing for the people? 12 years? 16 Years? 20 years?

About 1/2 this country no longer believes in voting. Not because Biden won, but because no-one in the courts would even hear the voices of the people upraised in protest.

Last week there was an article in Time magazine that essentially says there was something going on designed to make sure Biden won. Whether this collusion behind the scenes is illegal or not we will probably never know, because the courts will refuse to hear any cases about it.

The article is here. The article could be read to imply that votes don’t actually matter in this country anymore. But that politicians and corporate oligarchs are deciding our fate.

I’ll grant you that American politics is, and always has been a dirty business. That doesn’t mitigate the fact that a very large number of people were demanding answers as is their right and were dismissed like spoiled children from the dinner table.

That was insult enough. But those in power are compounding the insult with what appear to be blatant misuses of their power by continuing to silence all opposition, engaging in what looks a lot like settling vendettas against their enemies.

It hasn’t gone un-noticed that the nation is suddenly calmer, that protests and riots are no longer front page news. Many predicted this would be the case. It’s also worthy to note the SPLC has designated, (and the party in power agrees,) quite a few right leaning groups (note I said leaning, not right wing) as terrorist organizations, but that the groups responsible for billions of dollars in damage in cities nationwide have not earned a similar designation.

It is also interesting that states which had been locked down for COVID are opening up. One could say that is a result of the vaccine, but the timing is somewhat coincidental especially in light of the limited availability of the vaccine itself. Many also predicted this would happen.

I find myself once again wanting to turn a blind eye. But I’ve tried that, hoping that the problem would go away.

It didn’t work

I hoped that the politicians would correct the problem because it’s their job.

They didn’t.

I hoped that my vote still counted.

It didn’t.

I believed that the rule of law still held sway in my country.

It doesn’t

I thought that justice was blind.

It isn’t.

I’m a relatively moderate conservative leaning person. If I’m thinking things like this, I have to wonder what other more disenfranchised people are thinking. I wonder if Germans in pre-Hitler Germany were asking the same questions.

If they were, then along comes Hitler who promises them their place in the world. He promises to restore their national pride, and tells them he will make it happen, and has a plan…

We all know, or should know how that turned out.

Logically I have to ask, “What happens if a gifted orator comes along and manages to speak to the masses of disenfranchised Americans who are asking these same questions?”

Despite what the media pundits said about Trump being Hitler. We can all agree he wasn’t a gifted orator. Neither is Biden or Harris…

But what happens when a really gifted orator comes along?

Somehow I can’t get past the feeling that we’re all sitting on a powder keg and someone is playing with matches.

I can have that opinion, it’s been demonstrated time and again over the past four years that what we feel is true… Actual Facts be damned!

So I’m going to watch Protocol, and perhaps The American President both are sweet comedies and make me smile.

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I caught a deal…

I was wandering through the Apple TV Movies and noticed that Good Night and Good Luck was not only available, but on sale!

For those of you that may not know this movie, it’s a dramatization of Edward R. Murrow taking on Senator Joseph McCarthy while Murrow was working at CBS.

The movie was released in 2005 and I’d purchased a copy of it on DVD, but never replaced that copy once it was lost.

The movie has an all star cast, including amazing performances by Jazz singer Dianne Reeves.

Edward R Murrow

The subject matter of the movie is timely. It could be argued that Murrow was among the first victims of cancel culture.

He called out Joseph McCarthy at the height of the McCarthy hearings and essentially said what you’re doing is wrong and un-American.

For those who don’t know who Joseph McCarthy was, here’s a brief synopsis of what I remember from history.

McCarthy in the late 1940s and early 1950s chaired a house subcommittee that was supposed to root out communists that McCarthy said had infiltrated the State Department. You need to remember that the cold war was raging and America was just out of World War II.

McCarthy subsequently targeted LGBT people as easily compromised. His lasting legacy was that gay people were considered a security risk well into the 1980s.

Joseph McCarthy

McCarthy terrorized Hollywood, created black lists of suspected communists and through these black lists ended the careers of many average people, and writers, actors, producers, and journalists.

The movie mentions one journalist killing himself over the accusation that he was affiliated with communist subversives.

There’s a great deal more negative that the McCarthy hearings did. Look it up for yourself.

Although, in the context of today’s events, I do sometimes find myself wondering if McCarthy might have been right. Perhaps he was just 50 years ahead of his time…

I hadn’t seen the movie in many years, but remembered the jazz. So I bought it last night and sat back to be entertained. There was an irony in the movie because as I watched, I was struck by how the names, causes, and political party has changed but the persecution today is much the same. McCarthy was a Republican, but could as easily have been one of todays politicians of either party.

Edward Murrow, effectively won. But winning cost him his prime time Tuesday evening show. He went on to produce numerous shows until about 1960, and died in 1965.

I remember his voice from my early childhood. I don’t remember the context in which I heard his voice, only that it was distinctive. He was a true journalist, based on what I recall from some of the things I recall reading about him.

I ran across some of his writing at the UK library when I lived in KY. His words were clear and what he said was said plainly and directly. I don’t recall him being apologetic in his writing. What I think I remember most was his somewhat terse style and his eloquent use of English. I learned some new words reading him. (no, they weren’t dirty words.)

He seems to have stood by his words believing in presenting the truth of a situation as he saw it, but assumed that the audience was intelligent enough to draw their own conclusions.

I recall reading an apology to a viewer where he said something to the effect; “Reading your letter, I have rethought my position and you may be right. I apologize for any harm my words may have caused you.” That’s not an exact quote but I remember that it struck me how this fairly powerful journalist saw fit to actually put in writing that he’d reevaluated his position and told a viewer so.

After watching the movie, I still appreciated the vocals of Dianne Reeves. As I watched the credits roll I thought, “We need journalists like Murrow again.”

As is pointed out in one scene, Murrow tried to behave as if he was above editorializing, but he did editorialize to some extent. I thought it was interesting that he was portrayed as accepting the criticism and the consequences as part of doing business.

I thought about that, and have concluded we’re all human, we all editorialize, but a journalist is supposed to keep that natural tendency in check. They’re supposed to present the facts as dispassionately as they possibly can.

One line in the movie is, “We report the news, we don’t make it.” If only journalists still operated on that premise, we’d all be better informed and perhaps less prone to passionate outbursts based on half the information and our emotional response to it.

If you get a chance, check out the movie it’s 94 minutes of your life well spent. Especially if it makes you stop reacting and start thinking.

Oh, if you play the movie, your TV isn’t broken… The whole thing is shot in period correct Black & White.

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I’ve been seeing articles about AOC being triggered

AOC-by-evy-mages

The first articles quoted her as saying she didn’t feel safe with her republican colleagues.

Then she says she was triggered and fearful for her life.

Then we find out she wasn’t in the Capital Building itself but was in one of the offices adjacent to the Capital Building. These offices are connected to the Capital via tunnels.

Last week she’s saying that she was a victim of sexual assault, but refuses to name the perpetrator.

Now she’s saying that she was afraid that the rioters would get into the tunnels.

Really AOC?

Pick a freakin lane!

I’m sorry that she was sexually assaulted.

Although I have a certain doubts about the veracity of that claim. Having known several women who were victims of sexual assault. I find it hard to believe that AOC (of all people) refuses to name the person and have them strung up by their gonads.

I know, we’re supposed to believe all women. (Unless they have a credible claim against a certain sitting President, cough! Biden.) Then it’s fine to ignore the claim, the evidence, the woman, and marginalize her out of existence. That’s the way we do things now in the Socialist Democratic States of America. Right?

The thing that I would ask AOC is, “Did you pay any attention the the security briefings you no doubt had to attend when you took office?”

Those tunnels have existed for years, since long before AOC was an itch in her daddy’s pants. There are multiple security protocols in place to prevent a full on invasion, because if some force were to take control of those tunnels. it would require a major military assault to regain control. The best way to avoid that problem is to be able to close off sections that might be compromised. The better solution is to prevent the tunnels from being compromised in the first place. I’m absolutely sure that much thought has been given to this problem and many horrific scenarios have been played out to create protocols for the security of the Capital complex.

Those protocols have been considered and revised often over the years and by people much smarter about such things than AOC or myself. The fact that many Congressmen and staffers were evacuated to the tunnels suggests that they are more secure than the office buildings or The Capital building itself.

So what exactly was AOC doing during those briefings? Was she simply ignoring what was being said because she mistakenly thought it had something to do with Donald Trump? Did her hatred of him, blind her to the underlying fact that security is kind of a big deal in and around the Capital? Did she fail to consider that security has been functioning for at least 200 years, through multiple Presidents, even though the tunnels are more recent editions?

Further, how on Earth does she come up with her Republican colleagues would be a threat to her? I’ll grant you they might not like her. (Probably don’t.) But they would not see her come to harm.

I honestly dislike AOC. That being said, I would still tell her to come with me for her safety. I’d leave it completely up to her to enjoy my protection or not, in a battle, a fire, a poison gas attack, or whatever.

I believe you can choose your own fate and if you’re not smart enough to choose wisely, then it’s on you and you alone.

I doubt I’d take a bullet for AOC, and feel very sorry for her security detail because they’d have to.

Even though, I see her as a petulant child, and I think she’s among the absolute worst of our so called “leaders” I would not see her come to harm, if I could prevent it.

I’d suggest that she get some professional psychological help.

I say this because the level of fear and paranoia she’s been displaying, suggests a very damaged person. It is possible that she should not be in the position in the House that she now occupies because it is clearly far too stressful for her. If she chooses to remain in her position, her crippling fear will only get worse.

I can tell you this, had I been in the Capital during the riot, I’d have velcroed myself to the largest group of ex-military Representatives or Senators, regardless of their party affiliation.

I say this because they know how these things work, and when bullets start flying, their instinct is to protect. They don’t give a crap about your party, sexuality, gender, religion, or the color of your skin. They are about survival, and saving as many people as they can.

That’s my having faith and respect for military people.

That AOC doesn’t get this, says a lot more about her, than it does the people she works with.

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Right on schedule

This is what you get if you try to access Parler today.

For those who don’t know about the why… Let me summarize.

Twitter, Facebook, and Google, have been blocking people that they deem undesirable. They’ve been doing this for years if they decided that what you said was controversial or to borrow Orwell’s term “Wrongthink”.

I myself have been in Twitter and Facebook Jail for asking questions or stating my opinion about events in politics such as, my opposition to the Russian uranium deal, or speaking out against Sharia law in America, and once for questioning why we were having all the discussion about bathrooms, I was also lamenting the loss of urinals.

This according to Twitter & Facebook is “Hate Speech“. Though I said nothing hateful in my posts. I used no derogatory language, or foul language. I simply posted my opinion and as we all know opinions are like assholes, we all have one. (Although I’m sure Twitter would ban even that statement as it might be offensive to those who are literally asshole challenged.)

Twitter and Facebook consistently banned conservative voices, they banned any voices that questioned the dominant politically correct narrative or liberal Democratic policies and these companies were blatant about it.

An Islamic American could say that a raped woman deserved what she got and should be stoned to death, An Average American could not say that those who thought the woman should be stoned had missed the point of being in America and perhaps they’d be happier in their countries of origin.

Eventually Twitter and Facebook started banning a ever increasing number of conservative politicians, then they started banning politicians who were running for office. That got the attention of Congress and the various companies executives were called to the Capitol to answer questions.

In those hearings, Twitter and Facebook told Congress that anyone could create a competitive service. Everyone shook hands and across the country several entrepreneurs did exactly that. Parler and Gab being among the two most prominent.

Gab was never allowed on the Apple App store. They existed as a web site only because Apple found fault with the basics of the Gab philosophy. Parler on the other hand was able to get Apple approval and has existed on the Apple and Google Play store until Saturday 1/9/2021. When Apple announced that they were removing Parler. Google Play beat Apple to the punch removing Parler from their app store about 24 hours ahead of Apple.

There are many articles about the reasons for Apple’s move. I’ve randomly linked one of them here. The articles all read pretty much the same. One consistent phrase seen in almost every article is “Popular with Trump Supporters”.

A.K.A. Conservatives.

I was on Parler, I guess technically I still am on Parler while the site reconfigures. There are a lot of good people there. They have values similar to my own, they are generally patriotic and at least once a day if someone’s rage about the election boiled over there were numerous kind and supportive people who would say things like, “I know you’re angry, but this is why we have the courts.”

In all cases I witnessed, having someone kindly listen and remind the angry individual about the rule of law and that conservatives peacefully protest, that our Constitution provided protections etc. would calm the angry person back to reason.

I’ve followed several threads wherein Veterans cut off from counseling services for PTSD (due to COVID lockdowns) found solace because someone would engage with them not with hateful rhetoric but with kindness. Sometimes it was Vets helping other Vets and in many cases Professional therapists freely gave of their time using direct messaging to help a Vet or anybody get through a rough patch.

This was a markedly different experience than what I witnessed on Twitter. Twitter in the last few years has become a place of pretty vile vitriol being spewed at anyone who was different. Don’t be a conservative leaning Gay person on Twitter. You’ll be canceled and labeled a pariah. Think of it as walking into the DNC and declaring you’re a Republican.

Parler provides a place of free thought, free expression, and since freedom of speech is the rule, a healthy adult outlet where people can legitimately question almost anything and generally speaking get healthy feedback, not hate filled condemnation.

The last thing someone who’s suicidal needs to hear is, “Sack up pussy!” which happens all too often on Twitter, with absolutely no pushback from anyone.

But Parler has been painted by the media as a place of hateful insurrectionists. Funny, I’ve seen calls for protests, I’ve seen Proud Boys delineating rules for attending protests. “No weapons, no aggression, no hate, no yelling at protestors counter to your views.” The adult an unspoken understanding, which is accepted in all cultures is, “defend yourself if you must.” Apparently this is what now passes for hate.

Pulling Parler off the app stores wasn’t enough for the rabid mob. Amazon Web Services which if I recall correctly is a service companies PAY for decided that Parler had to go.

So they denied their contracted services as of Midnight Sunday 1/10/2021. Effectively booting Parler from the internet. They provided Parler zero time to move the operation to alternate hosting providers.

This is nothing less than Draconian censorship and flies in the face of the Big Technology companies saying “If you don’t like our way of doing things build your own service.”

Well Parler did build a very popular alternative service which was growing rapidly, and the big tech companies Apple, Google, and Amazon colluded to take the alternative away. Surely this would be prosecuted under the rico act if we had a fair and impartial court system.

Gab is still up, but due to the shear volume of now disenfranchised users (750% uptick in new users last I read) they’re struggling mightily to bring new servers online to handle the volume. Kudos to them!

I suspect that it’s only a matter of time before they’re under siege from the technology companies.

Google will be the first I suspect to attempt to make Gab unfindable on the web. Other internet service providers will follow suit because Google will intimidate them by threatening to make them unfindable as well.

If you can’t be found on the web, you’ll have a tough time signing up new customers. So Google will be directly impacting the web hosting sites income.

The common theme here is that conservatives, and supporters of President Trump, or the Constitutional right to free speech, are in fact being targeted.

As I’ve said before in this blog, I didn’t particularly like Donald Trump when he was elected. But even then I respected the Man, and the Office of the President. As time progressed I actually came to like Trump because he was exactly what he appeared to be, for good or bad, he was consistent.

Contrary to the media, he was not a dictator. (As an aside, Dictators don’t get Censored.) He garnered support from millions of average Americans because he was straight talking and more like them, than the other politicians in Washington D.C. That’s his appeal.

He’s not asking you to like him, he didn’t overly pander to anyone and was a businessman running the largest corporation on the planet, The United States Government. Sure he made some questionable decisions, who hasn’t? We all make questionable decisions from time to time. I’d submit that even his obvious mistakes endeared him to 70 million average “work a day” Americans.

Americans who by the way would have accepted Trumps defeat in the election if their concerns about that election had been treated with seriousness instead of dismissed out of hand, like the concerns of an unruly child.

The FBI is arresting with breathtaking speed the folks who breached the Capitol. But where are the arrests of the perpetrators in Portland, Seattle, or Minneapolis? Where are the prosecutions for incitement of violence? Why have Twitter and Facebook remained beyond censorship when groups freely use their services to coordinate the violence seen in these cities?

What happened to Hunter Biden’s laptop, have we seen an investigation there? For four solid years, we heard nothing but Russia collusion over a single phone call, and a false dossier. It was Joe Biden who bragged on camera about withholding aid to the Ukraine resulting in the termination of a prosecutor looking into illegalities with Burisma.

These things are not conspiracy theories. They are facts, supported by video evidence, and congressional testimony and witnesses.

In this light, can you see how average Americans might feel that the scales of justice aren’t level anymore?

We are indeed in a dark Winter, as Joe Biden said. But that Winter is not the Fault of Trump, his followers, or conservatives.

That dark Winter is arguably the result of socialism, cancel culture, censorship, and our Constitutional rights being assaulted not from an outside force but from within.

“When all government …in little as in great things… shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power; it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.”

Thomas Jefferson

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Jan 6th

Congress was doing what they were supposed to do according to (3U.S.C. §15)

And I submit that up until the capital was breached, so were many thousands of Americans. Marching in the streets of Washington D.C. These are people whose concerns had been dismissed by all of the appropriate legal means.

These people were there to support their President (not a crime). They were there to visibly show Congress that they were not faceless nobodies (not a crime). They were people with lives, children, homes, and reasonable concerns about the election (not a crime).

It’s easy for leaders to dismiss nameless, faceless masses. It’s a bit tougher when those people are right there demanding answers.

People died. Some reports say 4 some say 5. I saw a report from the Capital Police that said CNN was incorrectly reporting one of their officers died. That Capital Police report no doubt ended up page 20 of leading newspapers. It probably never made it to CNNs news desk.

That people died is tragic. That should never have happened.

The Capital has been occupied by protestors several times over the past century, and bombed at least twice. Almost always for the same reason, citizens seeking redress of their grievances, but being ignored by the politicians.

The faux “shock and outrage” on the part of Congress and the news media over the Capital having been occupied is disgusting and disingenuous. Especially since some of the fossils currently in Congress were alive, and If my math is correct were serving in the building at the time of the previous incidents.

There’s a brief Washington Post Article here describing the history of attacks on the Capital. I’ve seen a report that a group of African Americans occupied the Capital and were armed when they did it. There was an interesting picture, but no corroborating link to the the source article.

The building has been damaged far worse in previous incidents, than it was this time.

What I find really disturbing is the spin. There are videos of Protestors attempting to dissuade others from breaking windows. There are multiple eyewitnesses corroborating the videos.

So rather than a few perpetrators being called to account, all the people supporting President Trump and indeed Trump himself are labeled terrorists?

This offends my sense of fairness. How have we gotten to a place where one kind of protest degenerating into violence is labeled “Mostly Peaceful” but another kind of protest is instantly labeled “Terrorist“?

But it goes on. People randomly identified in the crowd outside the Capital are losing their jobs. For what? Exercising their first amendment rights? Then it goes further, the conservative voice in America is being silenced with ever more draconian methods.

In some cases these folks are citizen journalists who make part or all of their living by attending these events and reporting what they actually saw. These entrepreneurs post their video and first hand accounts on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, and the like.

Suddenly they’re banned on these platforms because they were at the protest, were identified in the crowd, and chose to report what they saw.

There’s no accusation of wrongdoing, no arrest, no trial, nothing…

Just Censorship. More voices silenced by what amounts to the mob.

We’ve seen this phenomenon with increasing frequency over the past few years, in online communities. Twitter “Shadowbans” and Facebook “suspensions”.

These bans happen when someone gets upset or offended by something someone posts. The offended party effectively runs to mommy (The Service) they cry and whine and get all their online friends to join in the whining and mommy summerly silences some poor person for a period of time.

It’s the online equivalent of the “timeout”. The problem is, very often the comment that caused the offense was taken out of context or misinterpreted in the first place. It doesn’t matter though because the damage is done, and the mob has been rewarded with a “Kill” so they’re self-righteous indignation continues on and on.

Where does this stop?

Reported by the gatewaypundit.com today

Mozilla, developer of the Firefox internet browser, has argued that more must be done to keep Donald Trump and other “bad actors” out of cyberspace, prompting many to vow to never use the group’s services again.

In a blog post titled ‘We need more than de-platforming’, the open-source software community said that Twitter’s decision to permanently ban Trump from its platform didn’t go far enough in weeding out “hate” on the internet. While blaming Trump for the “siege and take-over” of the US Capitol on January 6, the non-profit tech group argued that “white supremacy is about more than any one personality.”

“We need solutions that don’t start after untold damage has been done. Changing these dangerous dynamics requires more than just the temporary silencing or permanent removal of bad actors from social media platforms,” Mozilla wrote.

Apparently, it doesn’t. Because for these people there is no such thing as enough. There can never be any end to their grievances. For if there were an end, these people would have to face the fact that they are in fact far worse than what they were fighting.

I don’t need protection from hateful words or ideas, I’m quite capable of ignoring or avoiding these things all by myself. I’m beginning to think that I need protection from those who would force their “protections” on me, unbidden.

Apologies if I’ve been a little rambling. Chalk it up to “Dogieous Interruptus” A young dog in the house means there are no boundaries!