Trump-Trhitler to Meet with Mitt Romney

I read that Trhitler is meeting with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney this coming weekend. I'm going on record saying he's gonna offer him Secretary of State.
I'd be OK with that, as long as Mitt secures some autonomy.
Good move on Trhitler's part to reach out to those who would have liked to have seen Mitt run again.
Also smart because it sort of takes Mitt out of a possible primary challenge in 2020.

Trhitler & DJ Mikey P, Radical Christian Terrorist

For the record, I have coined the term TRHITLER to describe the abomination that shall be the American president for the next four years.
I would call for his impeachment but DJ Mikey P is more offensive and a radical Christian terrorist.

The Only Thoughts I Can Muster

I want to give up.
I don't want to speak anymore.
I'm tired of the fight.
I'm tired that truth doesn't matter anymore.
I'm tired that ignorance is championed.
I hate that the country I once loved so dearly has chosen hate and division.
I hate that I have violent thoughts in my head toward those electing them.
Yet if I quit and allow them to silence me, they win.
I can only hope for failure and complete collapse.
And my voice of descension will not be muted.

Tragedy & Heartbreak

To borrow a phrase from the Millennials, I can't even.
This is embarrassing as a nation. We are slowly proving to the world what they've always thought we were.
I don't even want to be an American at this time.
Unbelievable.

Illinois Senate

Congratulations Tammy Duckworth on election to US Senate from Illinois!

North Carolina and Florida?

Some very interesting things happening in Florida and North Carolina. Stay tuned.

Vermont (and Indiana and Kentucky)

MSNBC calling Vermont for Secretary Clinton!  Indiana and Kentucky, not surprisingly, Trump.

If Trump/Pence Wins. . .

If Trump manages to win, I'm not entirely convinced it isn't an elaborate scheme by the GOP to get the religious fundamental radio DJ Mike Pence in as president, hinging on a secret promise from Trump to resign. Tricky Christians!

Donald Trump Is No P.T. Barnum

Donald Trump Is No P.T. Barnum
November 5, 2016 by Nick Yaekle
Donald Trump loves to portray himself as a great businessman and someone who is very smart, but everything about him and his entire life and empire is built with cheap steel and gilded facades.
A pride and joy is his book, The Art of the Deal. We now know the book was written entirely by someone else and that writer has explained the contents of the book and the presented ‘deals’ changed many times, often daily, depending on what new idea Donald came up with during the time they spent together.
Nearly everyone that has done business with him, worked for him, known him, from lawyers to accountants, builders to personal friends, universally speaks of the deceit, lies, and outright revision of actual events that Donald likes to pass off as fact.
During this campaign, it has become evident that Donald doesn’t have a tenuous relationship with the truth, but he has no relationship whatsoever. Granted, the Republican Party, no friends of the truth themselves, handed him, yes, they did not Hillary Clinton, a fabricated conspiracy of the email scandal (personal business was mostly handled on it, and according to State Department manual unauthorized electronics for State business was not forbidden in all circumstances) but Donald has managed to allow right wing nuts jobs like Steve Bannon and Roger Stone and Alex Jones (I mean, these guys make Rush Limbaugh seem rational, sane and insightful) not only have his ear, but influence him and his campaign message.
As far as the Republican Party goes, Trump has done nothing to further them in future pursuits. He hasn’t expanded the tent of supporters, he’s actually lost a good deal of the actual establishment vote, and those he has attracted, many of the same the tea-party wing brought in, are leftover racists and uneducated that would have voted establishment anyhow. And much like Lyndon Johnson’s famous quote when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed regarding losing the South for Democrats for generations to come, I am fairly certain Trump has finally lifted a hammer and actually drove a nail home; the nail in the coffin for any Republican hope of capturing the growing Latino, women, and immigrant minority vote.
Trump seems to subscribe to a theory of “the truth is what I tell you the truth is.” He has attempted, and has been successful in some circles, of redefining what the actual truth is.
Sure, there is corruption in politics. But I believe it’s safe to say that the corruption is Washington is nowhere near what Donald has been a part of since inheriting his fortune and empire from his father, who inherited it from his mother.
His self-touted intelligence seems to be publicly missing in action. He claims how smart he is and in some cases, despite having no military experience (he got multiple deferments for Vietnam for alleged heel spurs, which he ‘can’t remember’ which foot was affected) other than a private military school in upstate New York for high school, yet says he knows more about ISIS than the generals. And let’s assume that is marginally correct, where did that knowledge come from? My guess is with his pal, Vladimir Putin.
And I’ve often thought that Donald is truly a master of marketing. But after more thought, I’m not sure that is true either. Yes, he has had some success parlaying the image of being a successful businessman (despite four major bankruptcies totaling nearly $4 billion USD) into other ventures lasting a few years each, but long-term. But it’s truly a lesson in trying anything until you make it. Really what he has done is throw his self-created name and image onto products created by others and relies on the naiveté of the public to blindly support it, based on the image he began creating in the 1980s of a wealthy and successful businessman. It’s worth nothing, that with a few exceptions, even the buildings and hotels bearing the Trump name have been solely marketing schemes, buildings owned by others and that bought into the image he made and thought it would help their buildings. I imagine that will soon change as we start to see more and more businesses with the Trump name begin to eliminate it.
This run for the presidency is nothing more than a giant stroke to the ego for an aging man, with no real legacy to leave behind. Nearly all successful titans of business and industry leave a lasting legacy and a wealth of public works behind. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have twice donated their entire fortunes to foundations for the betterment of mankind. They’ve also managed, each time, to climb back to the same value of wealth as before. Rockefeller, Getty, Carnegie, Ford, Edison, Morgan, they all used their wealth in some manner for the good of mankind and to help others to achieve a better life for themselves and their families.
Trump is ending his career by championing hatred and bigotry and by further dividing our nation. He fancies himself a cornerstone of successful American businessmen, but the truth, the REAL truth, continues to rear its head, unaffected by Trump’s phony claims and over-the-top self-acclamations. Instead of erasing any wrongdoing in his career and justifying it through career-end good deeds, his insecurity leads him to continue to judge those he sees as ‘competition’ or contemporaries based on their net worth (even though the only true look at his net worth we have is leaked tax returns that essentially put his worth under one billion, generously). If you notice, he isn’t confident in verbally or even ‘Twitterly’ attacking those who he KNOWS has a higher net worth than him, like Michael Bloomberg or Mark Cuban, and especially Gates and Buffet.
What Trump has managed to do successfully in this campaign is create a new audience for what is sure to become a media empire bearing his name (although I’m willing to bet with little of his own money) that will cater to the conspiratorial musings of those like-minded uneducated and ignorant right wingers who cite Fox News, Brietbart, and Drudge as credible sources of news and information, despite an absolute universal knowledge outside the deep South, backwoods, end of dayers, that most anything reported in those venues is baseless, factless, and most times, completely fabricated from a table of anger-hucksters.
P.T. Barnum famously quipped, “Every crowd has a silver lining.”
Trump’s may be gold, but make no mistake, his intention was never to be president. It was to create a mindless audience to sell his and his fraudulent friends in the info-tainment world of cable ‘news’ ridiculous ideas and that new venture, Trump TV or whatever self-thinking, self-aggrandizing name they decide to give it, will be wildly successful for a few years, like all of Trump’s ventures, and thankfully, like the man himself, will fade away into comical oblivion.
It’s just a shame the stupidest among us have allowed him to divide a nation that was on the brink of new found greatness as we embraced our unique differences and headed back into the top of all things the world over!

A Lame Duck President? or Supreme Court Appointments?

Lame Duck President?



Legally, there is no such thing as a lame duck president. The US Constitution does not state that a president loses his or her powers that come with the office during any time in their term. Tradition usually serves that a president signs multiple pardons on their last day in office, often minutes before they leave the Oval to head to the Inauguration, thus avoiding the need to justify or defend should there be controversial ones among them.
And should the need arise, the president can deploy any means of national defense up until that last minute as well.
The same for all the duties of office, whether traditional or not.
And it is not only a preemption of their constitutional duty to give a fair, up or down confirmation to the president’s Supreme Court nominee, but it is dangerously close to anarchy and a certain sign of corruption. Yet they make it seem normal and acceptable by simply refusing.
And to make their intentions worse and in a grand gesture of mockery of the American people and our Constitution, several key Senators have already stated they would not allow a vote on any picks by a President Hillary Clinton, either. In a speech yesterday, President Obama rightly asked the question, “So what, are only Republican presidents allowed to choose Supreme Court justices now?”
Apparently, that’s how they want to protect their over thirty year control of the nation’s high court.
And it is incredulous and criminal.
Here is Article II, Section 2 of the US Constitution:
The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.
He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.
The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.

It is clear they have an obligation to give advice and to consent, something they have done neither of.
The right and Republicans have been using the language ‘lame duck Supreme Court appointments’ in their campaign literature and in doing this, they are essentially creating a false sense of knowledge and wrong education to the American electorate.


Recently, I received a simple checklist from some right wing nutjob group with the word Faith in their title, and among the things they listed, were lame duck Supreme Court appointments (but watch how quickly their minds would change if a Democratic controlled Senate were to do the same thing to one of their president’s picks), Abortion on Demand, and the craziest, ‘Support a law protecting the First Amendment.’

Ok, let’s be clear: the First Amendment protects itself.
Let’s look at the text of the Amendment:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
This is an Amendment often times misunderstood.
It doesn’t mean you can blindly say anything about anyone without proof and without repercussion. It means the government shall not infringe on those rights.
Now, let’s take a closer look at why those in the ‘Faith’ group take issue with this.
They are the ones who claim their religious freedom is being infringed upon because the Supreme Court decided gays can get married. Period.
Now, the Court was plain, as it is with any church, they are not requiring any church or minister to perform these ceremonies. Frankly, I can’t imagine any gay wanting to get married at a church where they are not welcomed.
What the Court didn’t grant, and it should, is that businesses are required to serve people, regardless of their religion. Mike Pence in Indiana tried passing a law that said businesses were immune from serving gays if they had a religious objection to it. But since when did we allow your religious belief allow denial to others of something you have no idea about?
What this all says is what I’ve said all along: the Republicans make stuff up to have issues to be against. They’ve created the hate toward people of color and gays and immigrants and toward liberals. They’ve used the fear of their God to put them in line. Just today, I read a Catholic church in San Diego sent flyers to their parishioners saying if they voted for Hillary Clinton, who “is Satan” then they were going to hell. Literally! A Church sent this to its flock! Unbelievable.
The outrageous so-called First Amendment Defense Act is just another way of attempting to suppress the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, not to protect religious liberties. They have no idea what threats to religious liberty is until they live in a country where they’re actually suppressed, usually through the acts of imprisonment or murder. No one is telling them they cannot worship how they please, they just can’t use the guise of religion to hide behind while trying to hate groups of people. It’s not working out so well for business or reputation in North Carolina. And churches that preach they are about love yet support maniacal and prejudicial propaganda like the First Amendment Defense Act should be stripped of their tax exempt status and forbidden from using the name of Christ in their dirty deeds.
The Faith literature flyer I have included in this post is just another example of misleading their basket of deplorables into thinking things are worse than they are. They offer nothing but fear. And it is fair to ask why. Because the big money would stop flowing if these pariahs to democracy were not able to push the agenda favorable to business. And the guns, God, and fear beliefs have nothing to do with the politicians, as they’re people of no faith or morals. But they know their mindless flocks find these things important and fear of denial of these things is the only way they can keep the ignorant among them active and engaged and keep themselves elected.
Politics used to be dirty. It’s always been deceptive. But now, instead of only playing on the weaknesses and foils of their opponent, the Republican Party has institutionalized fear mongering and the fools that subscribe to their monologue of hate and anger are, by and large, too stupid to see they’re being used as pawns in a rich man’s game of chess.

This Is America 2016, Not America 1950:
Coal Miners & Clinton
-Nick Yaekle, November 3, 2016

I met a coal miner and member of the United Mineworkers of America today. He was fifty years old and had been through a series of jobs over the course of his career. Hailing from St. Clairesville, Ohio, he had first been a steel worker, and when NAFTA was passed, three days later, the company shut down the plant and moved the jobs to Mexico. He blamed NAFTA, and implicitly, President Bill Clinton. Then he worked for eight years at a rubber chemical plant. A South Korean company bought the company and closed all operations around the world except those in their homeland. And now he’s a coal miner, and specifically mentioned ‘she’ in reference to Secretary Clinton’s comments about ‘shutting down the mines and putting coal miners out of work’ from months ago.
I didn’t engage him in back and forth conversation. I wanted to hear him out. He wasn’t vitriolic, just practical. And he was a breath of fresh air.
I completely understand and empathize with his plight. Sadly, the jobs he’s had are among the most stressful to the health and some of the hardest. But trade deals or no trade deals, because of the pay expected for the element of danger and risks involved, these jobs were going away anyhow. Trade deals at least insured we got something for their loss.
I will be frank: I have never been a huge fan of NAFTA. Not when it was first floated, not when Republicans and Democrats wrote and passed the law in Congress, not when President GHW Bush supported it and certainly not when President Clinton signed the legislation into law. I happened to agree with Ross Perot when he famously quipped, “That giant sucking sound you hear? That’s all your jobs going to Mexico.”
American companies, like ones around the globe, cannot compete when their labor costs are fifty times undeveloped nations. And American workers deserve and expect high wages. From a business standpoint, it was necessary.
Coal is bad. No matter how many seemingly reputable people the industry puts out there to try to defend it, coal is awful. It is awful when burned and it is awful to mine. Not to mention the damage strip mining is doing to the natural beauty of the land. Clean coal is indeed an industry created myth and in fact, is often thought to be worse due to the ‘cleansing’ process it goes through which actually produces little to no less toxins when burned. So the quicker we begin to plan for the eventual elimination of coal, the better. Training these workers in other fields and creating an industry to replace it is the only solution. I imagine by the end of my lifetime, coal will be banned in most nations as a source of energy, much like wood was made obsolete by coal and other forms of energy.
A calculated and well-planned transition to a combination grid of solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear power is the only solution to the growing concerns. Beyond the environmental and overall start-to-finish health concerns of coal, it is largely a non-renewable source that will eventually run out. Not having a plan for that day is irresponsible and insane.
My grandfather worked in a factory for nearly forty years and retired with a decent pension. Six years ago that GM plant closed down, they tore it down, and built a casino in its place. It’s sad, but that generation of America is gone. On the upside, should all of our manufacturing still be in place in this country, the price we pay for everything would be five times what it is today. The generation that is directly being affected by the closing of plants and factories and mines and mills may never understand this. They are a hard working bunch who supported our nation through the tough times after World War II. But the brutal truth is, we cannot allow their cynicism toward change to alter the course that the generations coming up face.
It’s bullshit to say someone is going to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. Not going to happen. Granted, some industries may see a slight return of jobs due to other factors, like the North Carolina furniture manufacturing industry, that has benefited some from high costs of shipping cargo fuel and higher wood prices in China, causing the companies to decide it’s cheaper to produce here again rather than there. But that’s by and large a cottage industry that didn’t employ enough people in the first place to make much of a difference except to the families involved.
Big business know that Trump isn’t going to bring jobs back. That’s why he continues to get support from them, as well as other Republicans up and down the ticket. They understand campaign hyperbole. The average American voter doesn’t, which is why they repeat and believe everything they’re fed. Their intellect makes the easiest tagline sound like a solution.
The right likes to spread the lie that Secretary Clinton is dishonest, despite countless independent studies showing quite the opposite. She has done everything she could to maintain integrity and honesty, regardless of specific minor items they try to truncate and use as ‘proof.’ It’s odd how when she comes out and states the plain truth, they vilify her for it and suddenly they believe her. But when she states the truth and they don’t like what she says, they claim she’s lying. I know, it simply defies any logic, decency or honesty and is allowing them to redefine what the truth is to many of their supporters, cynical so much that they have instantly become scientists and can decide what’s true or not in all aspects of academic disciplines!
It’s difficult to accept change, especially when what’s being changed is not only your way of life and the way you put food on the table, but something that is generational. If your father was a coal miner and you are a coal miner, it might seem logical that your child, too, may become a coal miner. But times change. In 1960, there were no jobs on the internet or in IT. Manufacturing computers probably meant you worked for Texas Instruments and assembled bulky calculators or cash registers. There were no life coaches or personal trainers and you got your nutritional information either from your doctor or you simply believed the companies selling the products, because, after all, why would they not tell the truth (Tobacco industry)? Our country must continue to move forward, lest we be left behind. And partisan politics being played with every aspect of our lives is what will be the eventual downfall.
The good old days never existed. In 1920, they said good old days, referring to the late 1800s when feeding the horse meant putting fuel in your transportation. In the 1950s, the 1930s were the good old days, when cars were much simpler to repair, although slower and much less affordable. In the 1980s, the good old days may have meant when a sales person hand wrote receipts and called in credit cards or just checked a published list if the card was good, rather than using a computer. Every generation finds a bullet point to refer to why they days gone by are better than the ones we live in today. But we have no idea how great we have it.
If we have disasters, we have a government to provide aid instantly. The people don’t go hungry and die and turn on one another. Our riots are cakewalks compared to the civil wars erupting in nations all over the world.
We’ve moved on, by and large, and if we took away any of the things these obstructionist right wing folks are harping about, they’d be the first to complain about that.
The influence of powerful special interest groups intent on roadblocking progress for other groups of people based on their own beliefs or religions or under the auspices of ‘making America great again’ or ‘good old days’, are nothing more than closet racists, homophobes, misogynists and xenophobes, hell-bent on making America white again, and going back to the days when they didn’t have to hear about racial injustice or feed the incredibly ignorant line that ‘Race problems have worsened because of Obama.’ And perhaps they have. But that’s only because the white America that is incensed that a black man leads our country have decided to pursue that path, not because of anything blacks did except stand up for what is right. I have so little tolerance for that type of rhetoric that I’m ashamed to say I have no regard for their life or opinion whatsoever. And not because I’m closed minded. But because they have no foundation of intelligence or reasoning to support their beliefs other than idiotic and ridiculous personal opinion. And it’s fine to have that. But do NOT attempt to legislate your opinion or faith. Follow your beliefs and faith, but I will not stand for you pushing them onto me at all. (And it’s important to note, with regard to same-sex marriage opposition from the religious and evangelical right, they cite the Bible and God as their reasons for opposition to it, but cannot tell me how that affects them, nor will they address how they choose to tackle one issue that is of little mention in their Bible, yet allow the entire Biblical code fall by the wayside, because, well, it’s easier to grow all my vegetables in the same garden, cotton/poly blends require less care, and because I love football, therefore it’s ok to touch the skin of a pig. . .plus that’s the Old Testament.) Yeah, we know. We may not all follow your Bible, but we familiarize ourselves with it, much more than you do and we often do it on our own, rather than allow some religion organization tell us how to believe and interpet!
Thankfully, America 2016 is not America 1950. The sooner our younger generation begins to collectively understand how to work the system of government we have, with two parties, the better we will all be, as this generation coming up seems to be the most accepting, diverse, and open-minded generation to come along in the history of our country.
I’ve been asked many times why I am a liberal Democrat. And it’s a tough question to give a quick and concise answer to. I’ve attempted to tailor one over the years to give the understanding to whom I am speaking without hesitation. And this election cycle has done a lot to my sense of justice and integrity, solely from the desperation and lunacy from the Republicans. But the one takeaway from this blemish on our presidential elections is I now have a simple, understandable, clear, articulate answer to why I am a liberal Democrat:
Because I have a heart and a brain!

The Republican Party Is Dead & They're Taking America With Them

note FROM THE-VOICE: This was written over a period of days, sometimes in airplanes, airports, meeting rooms, hotels, and other places. I am not promising exact coherent trains of thought or proper grammar or punctuation. I planned on editing it, but the rigors of working opposition research on the 2016 campaign have rendered that impossible if I wanted to get it up prior to the election. The FBI’s intentional meddling in this election one week prior to the election date, started by the director and with cowardly anonymous agents speaking to Brett Breit on Fox last evening, made it important to post this even if only one person reads it. The Republican Party has no ideas or interests that aren’t supported by big religion and big business so they’ve buckled down during the last week to make Trump appear sane and logical, managing to reign him in and revert straight back to the only issue they’ve had traction with, which is the wholly made up issue of a personal private email server, not her State department one, and sadly, this has brought the poll numbers within a statistical margin of error and created tension and fret among many Democrats, afraid the GOP will somehow pull it off, with or without Russian help. The entire Republican Party is an outdated, dying, anti-everything organization, desperate enough to pull out anything including lies and half-truths in order to push their historically inept candidate and ‘revert things back a hundred years’ party platform.

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS DEAD and THEY’RE TAKING AMERICA WITH THEM
By Nicholas Yaekle
November 1, 2016

The 2016 US presidential election cycle is unlike any seen in modern American politics and is only the beginning of the created, vitriolic campaigns that the right and Republicans will be running over the course of the next few cycles.
The erosion of a white-ruled, white male privilege class is finally coming to an end, and the length those threatened will go to has only begun to have its surface scratched. With ‘news’ organizations rushing to be the first rather than most accurate, and will little or no reporting of the truth, it has become a challenge for Americans to get true reporting.
Redefinition of words. Confidential does not mean classified. You don’t get to call yourselves ‘news’ if you provide a conspiracy theory-laced opinion program. Truth! Because one doesn’t like what the truth reveals, doesn’t mean you get to call it lies. Donald Trump has lied so many times, and lied about lying minutes after lying in some cases, that he ridicules those who use his own words against him and blames the bias of what he and his party call a ‘liberal’ media. The truth, not your version of the truth or an Op-Ed in a newspaper’s version, but the truth, knows no bias! If I say one plus one is two, that is truth. But you can’t say one plus one is three, and then defend it as the truth! And you can’t later go back and say what you meant to say is one plus one is three if you add another one. It doesn’t work that way.
Blatant and flagrant disregard to order and Constitutional obligation, then blaming a president for using the legal means at his disposal (executive order, namely) to move forward when an obstructionist Congress refuses to do their duty (among many other things, Supreme Court nomination process and passing a budget). It is also important to point out that President Obama has used executive order much less than any president since Grover Cleveland in the 1880s, averaging 32.8 per year as of early 2016, his eighth and final year. Most presidents average 118 per year.
Double standards are not a method to unity or betterment of our country. Suggesting it was ok for previous Secretaries of State to use a private email server for private correspondence not related in general to your duties at the state department, but not ok for one who stands a chance to become president, is not only libelous and slanderous, but also not part of your job as a legislator.
Creating additional false narratives such as the Benghazi attacks responsibility, when in fact it was the Republicans who cut the funding to all embassies around the world in yet another effort to delegitimize the current president, and bragging about it is not ok, regardless of whether the 40% that support your one-sided efforts say so or not. It’s about being right, not about using the legislative branch to smear and destroy.
Gerrymandering. I can’t even BEGIN to get into that one.
Here is what it boils down to outside of losing the ruling white male class: Two candidates in modern Republican history should have won the presidential elections without any electoral or voting issues whatsoever- John McCain and Mitt Romney. Had they remained the moderate Republicans that the American people liked, and not changed their entire philosophy to align with the far-right Christian funded Republican Party facets, their path to victory would have been unprecedented. Let’s not forget, Romney was a governor of the bluest state in the nation, Massachusetts. Far-right Republicans don’t win statewide office there. Had Governor Romney run as president, he would have won. But instead, I both cases, we got a Democrat. . .and a BLACK Democrat at that. And then their heads exploded. But instead of seeing the writing on the wall, they allowed the far right’s far-right to come in under the auspices of the ‘tea-party’ moniker, further establishing themselves as the keeper of the white flame and of special interests, people be damned. It’s the political equivalent of driving your car to a cliff and the front tires roll completely off, but you’re ok because you have rear-wheel drive and could easily back up and be safe. But what did the Republicans do? They allowed the militant far right Christians and Confederate-inspired tea-party to push on the gas and drive forward. And while that has cost us vindictive and flagrant obstructionism from the Mitch McConnells and Paul Ryans of Congress, it predictably has also led to the near absolute destruction of the Republican Party. And in fairness to President Lincoln, they should refrain immediately from referring to themselves as the party of Lincoln. Because Lincoln would flip flop quicker than Mitt Romney on Romney/Obama-care!

They’ve recently amped up their attacks on all things Obama by pontificating on the rising costs of Obamacare, which is still markedly less expensive than COBRA or the non-existent GOP plan. Why? Because the President’s job approval ratings are finally beginning to show the truth- he’s been the single most successful president since FDR. And those are some pretty big shoes to fill. And considering that President Obama has had nothing but admitted obstruction from the House and Senate, this feat is unprecedented. I will save his list of fixes and accomplishments for a letter of thank you later, but it is so significant that the truth is not something the deplorables Secretary Clinton rightly spoke of cannot accept it. There is a difference between the truth and what you want. And a seven year old should be able to determine the difference.
I know what the Republican Party platform says they stand for, although none of the presidents they’ve had in the 44 years of my life have ever tried to implement most of them, but I challenge anyone claiming Republican affiliation to ask: what does my party stand for? Is it all code and dog-whistle for the actual anti-everything they stand for? What has the Republican party done for me or anyone I love that has made our lives better or protected us or our rights in some way?
Here is how I can answer that, even from a layman’s terms. They’ve made the second amendment their biggest cause. Big deal. Why are guns THAT important? And don’t feed me that protecting yourself crap, because any foreign army that would rise up would not be remotely frightened by your squirrel shotgun. I received a flyer in the mail the other day from some religious group that decided I cared about their made-up opinions on issues. Among the items on the list was an imaginary issues of “Believes in protecting the first amendment freedom of religion act” (as they assume that religion is under attack because some of us think it’s not ok to use religion as a tool to strip others of their rights) and “believes in abortion on demand” (as though I can push a button with no consequence on my TV remote control and end a pregnancy within my body, which should not be legislated by anyone) and the most appalling and completely fabricated issue of “Believes in lame duck Supreme Court appointments.”
The last one is just another way of saying we don’t want follow the constitution if we think it may not suit what we want. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A LAME DUCK SUPREME COURT APPOINTMENT! In fact, there is no such thing as a lame duck president. The president, per the sacred Constitution, is elected for a four year term, two may be served, but no more than 10 years. Nowhere is anything written as law or order or rule that a president suddenly loses his ability to do his job during the fourth year of his term. In fact, if the president wishes to pardon someone one minute before the next president takes the Oath of Office, it is perfectly within their duties, obligations and parameters to do such.
Sadly, many people getting that same flyer may not understand. It should be criminal for groups claiming they are for Christian values and for the righteous to use lies and bearing false witness in order to sway a political election.
But my point is this: the Republicans seem awfully interested in the lives of others, and dictating and legislating what they can and cannot do. Not from a standpoint of law and order or for the protection of others, but to protect and project their own views, beliefs, and views at the expense of others. Gay marriage has nothing to do with the church or protecting it and if you are a person of faith, should have no bearing on how you are judged on your final rollcall. They are the first to criticize a Democratic president for not intervening when a Christian missionary is breaking the laws of another country and prosthelitizing their faith abroad, but are also the first to call for a ban on Muslims because a person claims Muslim alleigiance when shooting and killing people (thanks to that second amendment they so readily hold onto). So protecting religious liberty is ok as long as that religion is Christian and Jews, so long as the Jews don’t say anything when I tell them Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays!
They’re against the gays in pretty much anything they do. They’re against the Muslims. They’re against the blacks, unless they ‘act white’ and pull up their pants, and then they are only ok if they agree with them (ie Colin Powell). They’re against helping the lesser among us, despite Jesus’ plea to do so. They’re against a woman’s right to choose her own health decisions, and are willing to allow them to go undiagnosed with cancers that are remarkably deadly, just to prove their point (defunding of Planned Parenthood, which gets no federal money for abortions anyhow). They’re against government regulation on business, but also against socialized medicine to help care for the people who are ill because they removed regulations. They’re against climate change, because the fat cats at major corporations tell them it’s a myth and if they vote against them, they will fund their next campaign (and likely buy a million of so copies of their latest ‘autobiography’ thus ‘legally’ lining the politician’s pocket. They’re against allowing immigrants into the country, unless of course they are right-thinking European white males, despite the famous words on the tablet of the Statue of Liberty of ‘give us your tired, your poor.’ (But I assume they’re against this because France gave it to us, and they all know the French are a bunch of ‘pansy cowards’ carrying purses and chomping on fancy breads and cheeses). They’re against universal healthcare, but cut and defund Medicaid every chance they get, because, after all, if they force you to have a child you didn’t wish to have, you should have to pay for it or just let it suffer. They’re against funding the government, but love to spend big money on military supplies. They’re against farmers and cut subsidies to farmers, presumably because they know the farmers are going to vote for them regardless (and the Republicans are constantly voting against the legislation for farming subsidies, then say they had to because they don’t believe in spending, with a wink and a nod to a blind man). They’re against science and innovation because “God.” Yeah, that sentence makes as much sense as their sentiment for why they’re against it. They’re against education, because after all, an educated society is likely not a Republican base. They’re against the Mexicans, unless they clean their house, hotel room or mow their yards, and sometimes they like them because of Chipotle. They’re against criticism of the country because it damages our nation and the hallowed core of our republic, unless they’re raping the constitution by refusing to confirm or hear testimony of a Supreme Court nominee. They’re against the filibuster is the Democrats are in the minority, but suddenly eliminating it would have grave consequences on our country when they are in the minority. They’re against tax cuts for the middle class and average Americans, but campaign saying they will cut taxes. . .and they are not lying. But the taxes they’re cutting are ALWAYS on the top 1% of earners, and they use the idiotic and often-proved unsuccessful ‘trickle down economics’ theory ruse that because the rich are paying less, they’ll spend more and by default, the taxes on the middle class will go down. (In fact, the opposite has actually happened each time a Republican president has tried to implement this ridiculous theory, which I believe was never even meant to be an actual thing but something a marketing group the GOP hired to give the illusion it would work).
What are they for? Unlimited gun ownership, and oftentimes citing required ownership. They’re for keeping the elite white in charge, throwing a bone to the lower class white male, and forming a strange bed-fellows situation when Cletus somehow thinks he and Donald Trump are on par with one another and that the feeling is mutual.
They’re for requiring prayer in school, but only if it’s Jesus Christ, their Lord and savior (and of course, let’s forget the fact that Jesus as not a Christian and never heard of Christianity).
They’re for keeping ‘the blacks’ in their own neighborhoods, because, after all, they don’t want to wake up one morning with the sudden ability to dance and unwillingness to work.
They’re for the government keeping their hands off me and mine, by God, unless it’s the government telling the homos they aren’t allowed to marry or serve in the military or letting them work anywhere they want or telling women what they have to do to their bodies, then they reckon it’s ok.
They’re for building a wall to keep the Mexicans out. Except for the millions they and their benefactors hire illegally and under the table each year that they can pay cash in small amounts, without declaring to the federal government. They can stay. But only if they agree to continue to work for a dollar a day.
They’re for hunting and fishing on all lands, but not for protecting the woods and streams they live in from trillions of gallons of toxic waste the companies filling their warchests are dumping into them.
Other than that, it’s difficult to tell exactly what it is that Republicans want to do or how they want to help anyone.
Do they think it’s just a job they go into, punch a clock and leave?
Did they run out of ideas? Or did they ever actually have any?
I am creating a ‘hit-list’ if you will. Mind you, this is not a list of people to kill, though for the safety of real democracy I couldn’t shed a tear if they did.
Not only for the obvious partisan bias, but for the brazen acts of blatant lying, actual leaking of classified information, and for gross negligence in fulfilling their actual duties as lawmakers.
Trey Gowdy- Has spent his entire career in the House trying to discredit and dismantle Secretary Hillary Clinton’s reputation, heading multiple committees to try to pin the deaths of those at our embassy in Benghazi on her. Some $10 million dollars later, the proof is not there because there was never any indication that proof was, as it was not a SOS call. He also serves on the next guy on the list’s committee.
Jason Chaffetz- An absolute embarrassment to his party, if truth be told. As Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has taken it upon himself to spend the better part of two years ‘investigating’ Secretary Clinton’s emails in a voyeuristic manner, obsessed with finding a single detail that he can leak from top secret documents he subpoenas from the FBI. Incidentally, his pal Gowdy is on his committee. Hatchet men and GOP Yes-men at their worst! It is also noteworthy that he withdrew his reluctant support to Trump when the ‘grab ‘em by the pussy’ tape was released, but after the controversy died down, reestablished his endorsement. Cowardly and a man without principles.
Mitch McConnell- The single biggest obstructionist in the history of the US Senate. His vow to fight and block everything Obama was not just a threat, but something he has managed to perfect with the least effective Senate in history, having the longest breaks and shortest sessions, and having championed absolutely nothing to better anyone in the country. And they wonder why they have had such a revolt with the core turning on them and nominating Donnie Trump.
And any member of the US Senate who has blocked the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court citing ‘lame duck president’ and stating the American people should have a voice. The American people DID have a voice and we elected Barack Obama twice with this in mind. Now, with the prospects of Secretary Clinton becoming president being greater, they are coming out slowly that they will continue to block any nominations by a Democratic president, not even having the courage to stand by their previous statements. This is a textbook case of sore-loser syndrome. And it should be grounds for immediate imprisonment as they are not fulfilling their duty. (I’m specifically talking about John McCain, Ted Cruz and Richard Burr, but all in that boat apply, Senator Grassley!)

It has been said enough, but the Republican Party has become the party of fear. They campaign on the fears of people, largely fears they have created themselves. They’ve been telling the base they’ve created since 1980 that the Democrats were coming to take their guns. Every election cycle, the NRA puts ads out saying this. But in spite of the fact that there have been opportunities with a Democratic controlled White House, House and Senate, this has never happened, or even tried. What the Republican Party has become is the party of those uneducated or unwilling to see the forest for the trees and need someone to do it for them.

Change is inevitable. Trying to block change has never worked well for any people, country or government in the history of the world. We no longer live in a pre-World War I isolationist world. What happens in the backyard of a country in the Middle East is known about instantly on a farm in Idaho. And what happens in that same back yard has very real implications throughout the world. Since Nixon, the Republican Party has tried to convey an image as being the ‘grown-up, responsible, adults’ at a table of radicals. This was for one reason: to curb change and allow things to remain at the status quo. Nixon often spoke of the ‘great silent majority’ which was an early dog-whistle and code for ‘most whites’ in the nation. We shouldn’t be a nation vested in the special interests of any group; we should be a nation of one people. The white population that bucks this and uses the racist language of questions such as ‘why isn’t there a white pride month?’ is intent on ‘winning’ the self-created race war and maintaining not only power and control, but the ability to dictate what others should do. If black people and gay people and immigrants were afforded the equal opportunity and playing field from the start that this majority of white people are, there would be no need. But being the product of the American education system, learning about anything black was exclusive to slavery and a brief lesson on the civil rights movement including Dr. King, things we should never have had to have anyhow, had things been equal from the start.
We all pay for the sins of our fathers. America isn’t finished paying for our sins simply because we elected a black president. In fact, those still living with their own inferiority complexes when related to the black population have energized themselves to become a part of this tea party leftovers movement, simply for one reason. Their hidden racist views were challenged and they didn’t have the mental or intellectual ability to reckon with them. I know of many lifelong Democrats who became Republicans, interestingly, with the nomination of Barack Obama. He expressed and holds the exact same views all Democrats in the last twenty years have held, with one blaring difference! There is no other way of viewing this. And if there were, the fact that he has, by all numbers, been the single most effective president of the past 70 years, they’d have come back on droves to support Secretary Clinton and the Democratic Party in their quest to continue a trend of upward prosperity and growth, and not trend toward another term of the Bush and Reagan policies that have been the stalwart of the party since 1980.

You have to spend money to make money. This is true in all aspects, no matter how benign. If you work, you must spend money on clothes and gasoline to get to work. The same is true in government. Claiming, as their platform does (although deeds may be another thing), that they are for eliminating government spending is the worst case for allowing our nation to move forward ever. Other countries are busy investing in their infrastructure, taking cue from the FDR policies that made America the global power and envy of other nations that it is today. But once that commitment is made, you cannot just cut funding and expect it to continue to flourish. Bridges are failing, built some a hundred years ago. Roads are not as efficient as they were as more traffic drives on them, therefore it is imperative to invest in them. Water maintenance and sewage and drainage pipes are often times fifty or more years old. Neglect of anything causes more wear than daily use. Government spending does not always mean a bad thing. Our collective federal income tax SHOULD be used to help the people who paid it, whether in Louisiana or Texas, California or West Virginia. Creating government jobs still creates jobs and those folks pay taxes and have some guarantees down the road. The theory that big business that creates some jobs have any loyalty to their employees whatsoever is long gone. Companies cut benefits at will, offer no real pension plans as before, and see employees as expendable as the factories they build to take advantage of tax breaks before closing them down, and either moving to another state to reap the benefits of tax abatements for another twenty years or just ship the production to another country and import products. Again, employees be damned.
And in spite of this, Republicans support and take money from these businesses, because they realize the money they get will sway the fickle minds of the American people much more than what the companies are actually doing.
The far-left also has become a factor in this election cycle is destroying what the Democratic Party has slowly built through incremental change over the past thirty or forty years. The fringe leftover supporters of the failed Bernie Sanders campaign think it best to go all in, all at once. They choose a couple of issues to complain about, not seeing the greater good in a system that may be broken, but is what we have. We are not a socialist country and are far from even being on the track to it. They fail to see the importance of American intervention in the world’s conflicts because they do not want us to be the nuclear and military superpower that we are. Our military is why Hitler didn’t take over Europe and why Saddam Hussein didn’t occupy Kuwait on his path to Middle East domination. We protected the people in Bosnia, helped Afghanistan fight the Russians, Taliban and al-Qaeda. We kept the Soviet Union from dominating Europe. We are the single biggest reason China and North Korea hasn’t formed an alliance to take over Asia and beyond. And these things matter because we don’t want to see women and children anywhere have to stand in front of a line of soldiers with guns, watching their family and friends being slaughtered while waiting on their turn. The far-left fails to see the need for diplomacy and negotiation and they refuse to see that their opposition to the left furthers the advancement of the right, separating the two of us that are more similar. And the right capitalize on that remarkably. The ideas the Green Party, for example, exhibit may be good and something most of us liberals wish for, but we understand how to spend political capital and realized a long time ago, the fantasy of eliminating the use of political capital is as much a dream utopia as Communism is. And rather than work together, they have created a movement that will stand no chance to win or accomplish anything, short of the possible spoiler of handing the election to the right. And some of them spout off that Democrats blame them for these problems- the proof is being displayed with factions within the Republican Party and the tea party. Yet their utopian view of how they think the world should be does not allow them to see reality.

In this election cycle, we’ve seen more about polls, from the primaries through the general. The idealistic Bernie supporters continue to sell the narrative that polls show Bernie would win and would be winning. What they fail to understand is Bernie was largely not vetted during the Democratic primaries, namely because the Democratic National Committee rightfully never fully accepted him, as he registered Democratic only to run in the primary. That said, and with attention to the teetering in the polls, it’s important to understand one thing: By and large, polls make no real difference at the end of the day and do only a fairly accurate job of gauging the national popular vote. And on the whole, the popular vote is relatively inconsequential.
California has nearly forty million people. It’s a fair and safe bet, Secretary Clinton will win California’s Electoral College 55 votes. And she could easily win 30 million votes there, should the entire population vote, I suppose. That said, she could win two votes and Donald win one, and she gets the Electoral College 55. It may take the GOP eleven or more states to win that many votes and possibly even more to take home 55 electoral votes.
I am the first to be critical of the Electoral College. I hate it. I think it is the single worst election vehicle in any democracy. When we nation-build or help nations set up their own democracy, there is a reason we generally do not pass onto them the Electoral College. I understand that it was once needed in order to allow states to be fairly represented, but the idea of two senators from each state allows for that now, and if they all did their jobs rather than the bidding of their partisan causes or parties or the interests of big business and fundraising, that would be sufficient.
Let’s not forget anytime soon that Al Gore won the popular vote by over a half million votes, but, in large part due to the illegal act by the Supreme Court, lost the electoral votes by five, 271-266. So popularity of the people, or actual votes, matter somewhat less than polls would have us believe.
Secretary Clinton, if she holds the ‘blue wall’ of states that have consistently voted Democratic since 1992, would have 242 electoral votes. If she wins Florida, it’s over. If she wins Pennsylvania and manages Georgia or North Carolina, she wins. Trump would essentially have to sweep Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina to be in the hunt. And individual polls in Pennsylvania show her leading by between 6-8 percentage points.
My home state of Ohio is more troubling. Too many gullible, non-loyal, and easily swayed so-called independent voters, who are more likely to believe false ads and internet memes than to actually look at the issues. Saying we can count on Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati isn’t realistic, as many within these regions are still holding onto Kentucky and West Virginia roots and the fear the Republican party has sold them is too great, and unfounded, to overcome. I think it’s important to note that Ohio consists of a good number of West Virginia and Kentucky transplanted families, many of whom fall into the uneducated bracket of voters in the state.
Utah, oddly, could also be the spoiler that Trump didn’t anticipate when he called their favorite child, Mitt Romney, a loser. With the introduction of Evan McMullin in that state, as well as a popular Gary Johnson, the Republican vote will likely be split, perhaps spoiling Trump’s pipe dream victory (although the McMullin factor could also play a much greater role, if the Trump stars align and he manages to pull even in electoral votes, and McMullin wins Utah, sending the electoral votes to a tie, in which case the Republican controlled House of Representatives are free to choose whomever they like, even voting for Mike Pence as president!),
I like to feel confident that the American people as a whole can see that the Democratic Party, while not perfect, has successfully led a positive economy during two separate administrations, both largely in spite of a hostile and obstructionist Congress. Our Democratic presidents have been forthright in their policy and have largely righted many wrongs. They’ve appointed, or attempted to appoint, fair and non-agenda-chasing justices to the Supreme Court. They’ve been far more transparent than any Republican has and haven’t blindly led us to wars for the sake of bolstering the military industrial complex. Any civil unrest during the incredible and successful administration of President Obama has only been caused by those on the right with a chip on their shoulder because a black man is in office, because gay people were finally afforded one of the last things on their list of rights they’d long been denied, and because the threat to their long cherished, and often unrealized, white privilege is somehow being ‘taken away’ in their often uneducated and deeply troubling, moldable minds. I’ve heard critics say that Obama’s presidency has been bad for race relations. The truth is, the only thing negative this has done is bring out those cowards from the shadows to protest and scream from the mountaintops their displeasure. If the man were white and a Republican, they’d promote him to Saint status and build monuments to him. But the simple fact that Trump’s entire campaign and slogan, Make America Great Again, is simple dog-whistle code for another of their slogans, ‘take our country back,’ which means put the black man ‘back where he belongs’ which is in the shadows, in poverty (then blame the Democrats for the largely black inner-city poverty issue, even though it’s Republican inaction and obstruction causing the problems) and away from the spotlight and public eye. They aren’t fooling me or anyone else with even half a brain.
Gerrymandering. Dealing in false information. Creating scandals to defame and ruin reputations. Holding accountability at different standards for different candidates. Spending millions of taxpayers’ dollars to investigate things (Benghazi and emails) that they can never manage to find guilt in (while also not doing their real jobs, but somehow finding time to spend almost entire sessions of Congress to ‘investigate’ and create narratives around Benghazi and emails- Jason Chaffetz and the criminal Trey Gowdy need to be ousted quickly and held accountable for the millions they’ve spent not doing their jobs). Scaring people for over thirty years regarding the ‘imminent’ taking of their guns and their God. These are but a few of the methods that Republicans have used to try to keep some control. They recognize they are an obsolete party with outdated ideas and a track record of doing absolutely nothing to move our nation forward. They are the forty-something dude hanging out at the newest, hottest nightclub in town, trying to stay abreast of the current trends and maybe even ‘dabbing’ every now and then, in a vain attempt to be relevant and relatable. Thankfully, it isn’t working on the millennial generation any more than it worked on me and my fellow Generation Xers.
The only thing holding them together is the older generation who falls in the Christian Coalition category, the irrelevant anti-abortioners, the racists and homophobes, scared apparently that their own love and obsession of a black man’s penis will come to light, and frankly, those too stupid to see the trickery and bamboozlement being perpetrated upon them by the big business-backed conservative movement. I mean, do any of them believe Trump, the party’s appropriate on so many levels, standard bearer, can remotely relate to them, their problems, or causes? He speaks of outsourcing, but admits as a businessman he did it to make money! I mean, how plain can it get? He heralds to fight this, but this is him! A blind man can see it. And let’s face it, the man ate Kentucky Fried Chicken with a knife and fork! How could the south even BEGIN to like a man who does that? The actual, non-comedic, symbolism makes George H.W. Bush’s obliviousness to a grocery store scanner seem acceptable and not remotely out of touch with the American people!
I’ve heard and seen many people saying lately ‘If you’re a Republican/Voting for Trump, I have no interest in being your friend.’ I understand this sentiment. Democrats and liberals, we don’t hate you for being who you are. If you’re white, straight, Christian, none of these matter. It’s when you use any of those things to try to justify keeping someone who is not those things down, that you become an issue. And when your platform includes things specifically hateful and designed to diminish or eliminate the rights of others, there is a problem.
I have no solutions for the Republican Party. And any ideas I might have, I’m not inclined to share them with them anyhow. But when the Democratic Party became too non-confrontational and stopped using the same dirty tricks and ammunition the Republicans were using (Michael Dukakis’ campaign comes to mind) we had to regroup and learn to fight back, as unsavory as it continues to be for us, in order to not be walked all over during every election and to prevent the GOP from taking us back to pre-Civil War days as much of their platform and actions show, let alone the words of many in their basket of deplorables.
The narrative in this election that has been sold that both candidates are equally hated and untrustworthy is an example of the media creating a thought within the minds of Americans, simply because it has always looked like she would run away with the election, regardless of who they ran against her. They’ve successfully managed to convince many Americans she isn’t trustworthy, with no basis but a private PERSONAL email server. Hogwash. No person ever comes to office with the lifelong service and dedication to change and the betterment for people than Hillary Clinton, a woman who for twenty years was polled as the most admired woman in America. This shows how easily the American people, who view themselves as among the most informed and fair in the world, can be swayed.
As I’m writing this, a new Washington Post/ABC News poll was released showing Trump with a one point lead among likely voters. Other averages of polls are still showing her up six points and up eleven in Pennsylvania.
That said, and my previous comments regarding polls, let’s look at an electoral scenario based on likelihood.
Here are the states Democrats are likely to win, commonly called the Blue Wall States:

CA- 55
NY- 29
IL- 20
PA- 20
MI- 16
NJ- 14
WA- 12
MA- 11
MD- 10
WI- 10
MN- 10
OR- 7
CT- 7
HI- 4
ME- 4
RI- 4
DE- 3
VT- 3
DC- 3
These states total 242 electoral votes. That puts her within 28 votes of a victory.
Here are a couple of scenarios on the path to victory:
Win FL- 29.
It’s over. She wins.
Now let’s rule out OH-18, FL-29, NM-5, NC-15.
VA- 13
NV-6
CO- 9
Grand total there of 28, the magic number, and she wins.
If she carries VA, CO, and NM, she is one electoral vote away, which places great emphasis on NV particularly, as they have trended more toward the center lately. This would also lead to Utah again rearing its head and coming down to whether McMullin and Johnson play enough of a role. If Trump loses Utah, or if somehow the GOP manages to swing the election toward themselves by casting Utah’s electoral votes as Trump rather than McMullin, it’s full on Constitutional crisis and outright revolt.
If she somehow doesn’t win PA, she would need VA, CO, NM, and NV to capture 33, then need either Ohio or Florida.
If I were advising Secretary Clinton and her campaign, I might suggest they urge anyone supporting them to vote for McMullin, thus taking votes that really aren’t going to make a difference for her in a state she’s likely to lose, and giving them to McMullin, who is within 2 or so percentage points of Trump, denying him the coveted ‘needed’ votes in Utah that every Republican has carried since Lyndon Johnson last won the state in 1964.
I may have briefly mentioned this earlier in this op-ed, but Trump’s pandering to the religious right is exactly what’s wrong with what American Christians truly are. I follow the word of Christ more than they do, and I have no religious affiliation whatsoever. But I am familiar with the Bible, Christian doctrine and the teachings of Christ. And they often are echoes of all other major world religions in how to treat those not as fortunate as some of us. And while they harp and scream about the ‘sanctity’ of life, they sure have no interest in helping those they praise once they’re born. And no Bible verse speaks to me more than Matthew 24:24 when thinking of the religious right’s overwhelming support for Donald Trump, a man with no religious background or history of faith. Matthew 24:24 says, “And there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and she great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” Feigning religious faith and even appearing completely out of place while attempting it, let alone not knowing the proper way to refer to books of the Bible (Corinthians), is a surefire sign that someone doesn’t know shibboleth from Shinola!
The Republican Party began their descent with the Watergate Scandal. They had a chance to redefine themselves, and they did.
The came out against what they referred to as the ‘counter-culture’ and positioned themselves as the elder statesmen, or responsible grandfathers, of America. And that was the birth of white national protectionism, based on the premise there was a race war, largely created by them, and they needed white, straight, Christian males to be the backbone of the country in an increasingly multi-colored nation. Their pride of America being called a melting pot began to diminish when people of all faiths, colors, religions and nationalities began to slowly overtake their stronghold on American power. They enlisted the NRA to help shore up and create a greater divide in the south, and iced that cake by allowing Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and their respective organizations who label themselves churches but act as surrogates for the GOP, to put the literal fear of God into those evangelicals and guilt them into voting for Republican candidates to ‘protect religious freedoms,’ as long as your religion was Christian and you were in-line with their doctrine and those people, often ones who look toward religion as an easy explanation rather than having to use proof or thought. The final piece to their racist, xenophobic, homophobic, misogynistic puzzle was solidified with the election of Barack Obama, and their call to arms was the beginning of the end. Then the tea party formed, bringing those farther to the right and oftentimes out of reality altogether. And the racists came out of the woodwork, but not too far, as their actual cowardice might show, just demonstrating to the world the lengths this party will go to in order to maintain a perceived white power structure.
Keep your religion. If it works for you, fine. But work on getting yourself to heaven, I don’t want to go with people like you. Stop trying to bring your view of heaven to Earth; one would think you’d be happy enough knowing you could spend time in eternity with those like you, instead of cherry-picking the things you think heaven will be like. I can only hope you get to see a God and that God is a gay, transgendered, Black Muslim who hates guns and fried foods. That would be a heaven I would happily visit.
With the news last Friday that FBI Director James Comey has decided to interfere with a presidential election by recklessly indicating there might be something in something if they look at something that might maybe relate to something related to Secretary Clinton’s perfectly legal private PERSONAL email set-up but they can’t tell soon, and then his odd release today of a 17 year-old file pertaining to a pardon by President Bill Clinton to Marc Rich (completely irrelevant to anything except interfering with an election), it’s clear Trump is right about one thing. This election could very well be rigged. But it’s Republicans like James Comey who are putting their thumb on the scale and sabotaging American democracy. Strange, isn’t it, the two times in over two hundred years that there is clear and evident election tampering and it’s been a Republican controlled Supreme Court in Gore v Bush and now this. Comey should be locked up and some of the torture Donald Trump is fond of bringing to our justice system, used on him. Politics and partisanship aside, Attorney General Lynch should recommend to the President that Comey be fired from his supposedly unbiased job at the head of the nation’s highest law enforcement agency.
Over 300 economists came out today flatly stating Trump’s economic plan would spell disaster for the US economy. So go ahead America, put him in office. Apparently the three other times since 1980 that you’ve sent Republicans to the White House and they wrecked the economy wasn’t a lesson learned.
I remain 100% confident that if all is fair and no election day hacking occurs, Secretary Clinton will stay the course and be elected the 45th president of the United States. She will attempt to work with Senate and House, regardless of who controls it, whether they wish to work with her administration or not. What I’m not confident in, is the memory of the American people to hold those obstructionists in the Republican Party accountable, as they’re too swayed by slick Koch-bought television ads, and vote those un-American patriotic-pretenders out of office!