Sorry Snarky Snippets … Sigh

Posted on August 17, 2019 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Political commentary, Social commentary

With apologies to all, Saturday Surprise is on hiatus for this morning. If perchance I find a bit of humour somewhere in my heart later today, you may see a ‘Sunday Surprise’ tomorrow. Meanwhile, I am filled with snarky angst, and so I shall share with you some snippets of snark, ‘k?

What an honour … NOT!

I wrote a few days ago about Trump’s rambling speech at the site of a new Shell facility in Pennsylvania where he turned what was to have been a speech into a campaign rally. It gets even better (where better is worse). The facility is Shell’s multibillion-dollar ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, Pennsylvania that is currently under construction. An ethane cracker plant is one that takes oil and gas and breaks it into smaller molecules, to create ethylene, which is used in plastics manufacturing. Not one thing environmentally friendly to see here, folks. But, to my point …

Take a look at the photo below to see how well-attended the event was by Shell workers …

A dedicated bunch, devoted to being good little Trumpeters, right? Only problem is that … well, take a look at the memo they received prior to Trump’s visit …

For my visually impaired readers, the relevant points of the memo are as follows:

All personnel will be bused to the Trump speech location. Prepare to stand for several hours. You will be standing through your normal lunch period. Lunch WILL NOT be provided.
No yelling, shouting, protesting, or anything viewed as resistance will be tolerated at the event. An underlying theme of the event is to promote good will from the labour unions. Your building trades leaders and job stewards have agreed to this.
Your attendance is not mandatory. This will be considered an excused absence. However, those who are NOT in attendance will not receive overtime pay on Friday.

So, in order to receive their overtime, they must attend a Trump rally, keep their mouths shut, play nice, and stand idly on their feet without lunch for several hours.

It was only a matter of time …

How many times have those of us with functioning brains said that guns in schools are a bad … really bad … idea? It was only a matter of time before it happened. Luckily, this time no child was shot, but it will happen … the clock is ticking.

It happened at Highland Elementary School in South Bloomfield Township, south of Columbus, Ohio. Vicky Nelson, the transportation director for the district, was one of those selected to carry a concealed weapon in order to “protect” the students. One day back in March (for some reason, this was not made public until just this week), Ms. Nelson had her 6-year-old grandson who attends the school, and another first-grader in her office when she left the office briefly to go to the bathroom.

When she returned, the gun (loaded) was on the desk … the children had found it in the desk and removed it from its ‘concealed’ location to plain view. This was a near miss but imagine what might have happened.

You’ll be pleased to know that Ms. Nelson has been removed from the school’s concealed carry program and that the school is “currently reviewing the concealed carry program.” More than once, I’ve envisioned a teacher leaving his gun in his desk drawer, stepping outside for just a minute, and BANG! It isn’t worth the risk, folks. Those teachers with guns are not going to stop a shooter with an assault weapon, and it isn’t their job … their job in such a situation would be to see to the safety of the children in their care, not add more bullets to those already flying around!

Prayers for WHAT???

A former co-worker posted a prayer request on Facebook last night. The reason? Three days prior, her television had gone out, the television repair person was unable to find the problem, and she was asking for prayers because she thought she had been “pretty patient for 3 days without t.v.” I nearly choked on my coffee when I read that … children separated from their parents at the border, kept in horrid conditions. People struggling to put food on the table, others living on park benches on the streets. People dying of starvation in third world countries. Air that will soon be unfit to breathe, and water that is becoming increasingly scarce. Families that cannot afford to take their sick child to a doctor. And this woman is asking for prayers for an effing t.v.??? Consumerism has run amok. I wonder how people like her will survive when someday Russia compromises our power grid and there is no electricity for months? Just thought I’d share that one with you … give you something to think about.

Oh yeah???

Trump held another campaign rally in New Hampshire on Thursday. When does this guy ever work? He’s always flitting about the country, playing to his masses, sucking up potential votes for next year … and we’re paying him for this??? Anyway, I just wanted to share with you one thing he said at the rally that really set my teeth on edge …

“See, the bottom line is, I know you like me and this room is a lovefest and I know that, but you have no choice but to vote for me, because your 401(k)s … down the tubes. Everything is going to be down the tubes. So whether you love me or hate me, you’ve got to vote for me.”

I would willingly swallow a cyanide capsule before I would vote for him.

Greenland is NOT for sale, but …

The current occupant of the big White House isn’t satisfied with just one nation to ruin … he is now seeking, so say certain of his aides, to purchase Greenland. Well, methinks li’l Donnie is in for a rude awakening, but you just don’t wake up one morning and decide to buy a country.

Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark. Greenland’s Premier Kim Kielsen stated in no uncertain terms …

“Greenland is not for sale, but Greenland is open for trade and cooperation with other countries, including the USA.”

Foreign affairs spokesman for Denmark, Soren Espersen, went a step further …

“If he is truly contemplating this, then this is final proof, that he has gone mad. The thought of Denmark selling 50,000 citizens to the United States is completely ridiculous.”

So, I think it’s safe to say that we won’t be buying Greenland, but what, even, was Trump’s motivation for saying, repeatedly, that he wanted his aides to look into it? Is there coal under Greenland that Mr. Piggy would like to get his hands on? Here’s one possibility …But, last night friend Ellen sent me the latest by humourist Andy Borowitz, writing The Borowitz Report for The New Yorker, and this sounds like a much better idea!

COPENHAGEN (The Borowitz Report)—After rebuffing Donald J. Trump’s hypothetical proposal to purchase Greenland, the government of Denmark has announced that it would be interested in buying the United States instead.

“As we have stated, Greenland is not for sale,” a spokesperson for the Danish government said on Friday. “We have noted, however, that during the Trump regime pretty much everything in the United States, including its government, has most definitely been for sale.”

“Denmark would be interested in purchasing the United States in its entirety, with the exception of its government,” the spokesperson added.

A key provision of the purchase offer, the spokesperson said, would be the relocation of Donald Trump to another country “to be determined,” with Russia and North Korea cited as possible destinations.

If Denmark’s bid for the United States is accepted, the Scandinavian nation has ambitious plans for its new acquisition. “We believe that, by giving the U.S. an educational system and national health care, it could be transformed from a vast land mass into a great nation,” the spokesperson said.

That “key provision” appeals, does it not?

Enjoy your weekend, my friends!

Kicking Off The Weekend With … ‘Toons!

Posted on August 16, 2019 by jilldennison under animals, cartoons, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Humour, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry

Wolf-Friday Hey friends! It’s Friday and time for the weekend. I don’t know about all of you, but I have found this to be an exhausting week. It seems we barely recover from one Trumpian abomination before we are hit with the next one. When does it end, we ask? It ends when we throw the buffoon out of the White House, but meanwhile we have to find a way to alleviate the pain, and today I propose we do it with a bit of humour. Needless to say, the political cartoonists have been working overtime this week …

Mass shootings have taken much of the spotlight in recent weeks, after the ones in El Paso and Dayton two weeks ago. The NRA and republicans (kind of hard to tell them apart these days) took up their usual mantle, claiming that guns aren’t the problem … almost anything else is, such as mental health and their new “devil”, video games …

guns guns-3 guns-4 COLOR guns-6 guns-7

When Ken Cuccinelli announced a re-write of the Emma Lazarus poem on the base of the Statue of Liberty, and claimed that the welcome of the tired, poor huddled masses meant only Europeans with plenty of money, the cartoonists fingers were itching. My fingers were itching, too, but mine were itching to wrap themselves around Mr. Cuccinelli’s neck, for I have no talent with a pencil!

liberty liberty-2 Bruce Plante Cartoon: Trump and the Statue of Liberty liberty-4

Trump continues his infernal trade war, though he did walk it back a step last week when retailers panicked at the thought of Chinese tariffs on certain goods right before they start buying up junk for the holidays. Meanwhile, though, the tariffs are hurting the U.S. as much as any, especially the farmers.

Bruce Plante Cartoon: Trump's trade war trade-war-2 trade-war-3

Mitch McConnell is always good for a joke or two. Funny thing, that he relaxed certain sanctions against Russia, and then Russia invested money into a factory in ol’ Mitchie’s home state of Kentucky. Add to that his refusal to even allow the Senate to consider legislation to put in place election security measures, and you can see how he came by the nickname of “Moscow Mitch”. I hear he isn’t too fond of the moniker … but, if the shoe fits …

Moscow-Mitch Moscow-Mitch-2

This week, the Idiot-in-Chief announced new rules that would weaken the Endangered Species Act (as well as the Clean Water Act), in the interest of the logging and fossil fuel industries.

Endangered Species Act animals-2

And lastly, just because I find this one fitting …

Trump-deflecting

Have a great weekend, my friends!

VOTE!!! – Part II — A Guest Post By Roger Jacob

Posted on August 16, 2019 by jilldennison under Election 2020, guest posts, Political commentary, Social commentary

This is Part II of a guest post on voting in the 2020 election, by our friend, Roger Jacob … Roger has a clear view from across the big pond of what is happening in the U.S. today, and has some words of wisdom, from a historical context, that we all need to hear. Many thanks, Roger, for your wise words, and for taking the time out of your own writing schedule to write this post for us.

USA Not Voting Is No Longer A Luxury You Can Indulge

Part II

The Unhappy but Unavoidable Basics

“Democracy is a very bad form of government. But I ask you never to forget: All the others are so much worse.”

This stirring and wise little statement is from the opening credits of each episode of the brief CBS drama 1963-1964 Slattery’s People. The outline being the local politics and a state legislator James Slattery.

Churchill’s earlier version was, one of his less erudite and not so stirring “Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”, which it is argued was not one of his own and probably explains why it lacks a Churchillian ‘something’

Thus when you objectively compare the other forms of government (or antics masquerading as government) the ask yourself this ‘Would I like to live there for the rest of my life?’. For make no mistake, in this current era of Human history of large aggressive states and huge corporations central government of a nation by a small group of people is the only alternative, unless you can find a very small piece of isolated land that no one wants and survive on it…while hoping no one finds valuable resources thereupon. You are dealing with a 7.7 billion sized very flawed but inventive species here, hiding out and surviving can be difficult.

On Democracy and more Unavoidables

Having to accept the fact that someone is going to run the place wherever you live and thus have an impact on your life, having a say in who gets there is an attractive option. As you are going to vote in people and not saintly beings there will be mistakes, flaws, compromise, disappointments and all the other baggage humans drag around with them. This is also unavoidable. This is the Current Reality. If you are looking for perfection in government. Sorry that era has not arrived yet…hopefully it will, if we survive that long.

Another facet of democracy is that folk who have very strong opinions will make sure they can get out there and vote. Now you may not care for the folk with the Strong Opinions, but if you don’t vote then they will have a disproportionate say in your life. Again you don’t get to avoid this. Yes you can protest, yes you can organise campaigns and you might win a few, but ‘they’ the elected of the ‘Strong Opinions’ will still be there and the only chance you will get to remove them will be at the next election.

This is how the flawed process of Democracy works. Participation is the only stable, civic way you can ensure it remains Stable and Civic.

Narrowing in. The USA in 2020

I address this portion to the citizens of voting age in the USA.

You will not need me to list, report or otherwise enumerate the controversial decisions, statements and persons who have appeared upon the political stage since the election of 2016. You have them burned into your memory and possibly your hearts. You know full well that the temperature of the political atmosphere has risen and thus increased the level of toxicity. You know, as I suggested before Consensus is a very endangered species, in some regions it is extinct.

Now it may be, it is possible that many of the folk associated with the current administration are not racists, homophobic, anti-minority, narrow-minded reactionaries or religious zealots. It maybe. However by the actions and statements coming out of the administration these views have been given an air of respectability, they can be howled out under the guise of the much-abused term ‘Free Speech’. There are people striding about the public domain who back in the 1960s & 1970s would have labelled ‘wackos’ and generally laughed at. Now they have far too many followers.

In this situation I will ask those of you who do not vote this very hard question. Are you content with that situation? Are you not bothered about what is happening along the US Mexican border? Are you at ease with the mass shooting? Are you at ease with the Hate-Crime and unprovoked attacks on minority peoples? Are you? Now be careful with your reply as you might feel inclined to reply to me, because whatever you write however you argue, I will be replying too … with those questions. For there is no option if you choose to stay in the USA. Are you content with this administration and its followers? Are you? Are you willing to stand by and do naught but simply write an impassioned piece in Social Media in the belief that somehow that will change things? For ‘they’ write impassioned pieces too.

We dial back to the previous post. And that that 60,000,000+ folk voted from this administration and rest assured they will vote again, and again, and again. This 25%-30% of the numbers. But they are not the majority…they were not the majority in 2016 … thanks to a narrow margin and a freak of your system they ‘won’. So do they truly represent anyone other than themselves. Are you content with these people telling you how the nation is going to be run. Are you?

For the non-voter by principal here is your paradox which in this case has to be answered. You might well have very strong views on government, which is why you do not vote. I will again come back to the earlier point. Someone is going to run the nation. Are you content with this administration running it, or would you rather chance another, and yes risk those disappointment? Some might say ‘better the devil you know’… Let me say from a study of American political history ‘Well folks, if you are content with a devil …’

This I will hammer home again, and again. Are you content? Are you willing to let things go on the way they are? Do you truly think that an alternative will be The Same? Do you? Are you willing to risk the lives and well-being of minorities to satisfy your own views? Are you content for them to lay there upon some allegorical petri dish while you muse over your own political philosophies hoping to gain some ephemeral moral high-ground. Sorry, but that is not the real world you are living in. Oh yes you can talk about change and I would not challenge that but in this climate you do not get the chance to make that change because it comes by steady, slow evolution and right now we are looking at a possible political extinct event.

Polemic? Yes of course. Because currently American politics is a place of polemics from both sides and in that toxic environment your way does not have a hope. Civil War does. But not yours. Not at this time. The atmosphere is too toxic.

Your only option to change is to get out there and vote.

Defeatism

This is something of fall-back cop-out which comes in many forms. Let us leave the lazy ‘What’s the point’ excuse, I’ve put up enough arguments against that in the above words. NO need to repeat. There are others worries. These needed to be address by activism

Gerrymandering- Yes, they will do that. You need a rather dull and stodgy UK style Boundaries Commission to guard against that and even then there is huffing and puffing. However you are in pre-war situation here and propaganda plays a part. Imagine the result when Trump’s dream gerrymandering has worked. For Trump 65,000,000. Against Trump 90,000,000. Imagine what the media and world media would make of that. It would be quite comic, and the streets would be clogged with protestors. And where is Trump’s mandate? Also that would have many a congress or senate member worrying about the next election.

Not Eligible – This is an old trick which was used in the South to keep ‘those people’ out of the booths when the local politicians were queasy about ‘good ol’ boys’ with clubs. This takes finesse as what would be required would be a strongly created website were folk denied the vote could register their names and the reason. Imagine millions of names turning up? Of course that does need, as I said a very good site.

The Russians – Yeah. That’s another old one from the European book of tricks. Influence the nation, or make you think they are influencing the nation and thus erode the feeling a vote will count. Get out there and vote and make a noise about it. As with the other two problems it is all about raising the opposition profile.

Summary

Your nation is on tracks for an extremist disaster. Trump is only a small part of it. The main issue is the polarisation. The only way that can be defeated is by The Active Moderate, who demands their voice be heard. The one who will not be silent, and the only way they will listen by is the counting of the votes and the voice of those who voted.

Anything else is quite frankly fluff the current administration will blow away with its own propaganda.

The administration’s supporters will vote you can be sure of that. By not voting you are simply supporting them and stoking the fires.

Are you content with that?

Are you comfortable with the persecution of minorities?

Are you at ease with the erosion of the environment?

Are you glad the rich are getting richer?

If you don’t vote out of choice, then you must be.

Stands to reason.

Note to readers: I will be re-running these two posts, as well as others, in the days leading up to election day. Meanwhile, feel free to use these to help try to convince people you may know who claim it is too much bother to vote, or have other excuses.

Israeli’s PM Netanyahu Is Siding With Trump And His GOP Cronies Racist Rhetoric/ Policies

Posted on August 15, 2019 by jilldennison under Global Issues, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Today, the world finds out that Donnie Trump and Benji Netanyahu are brothers in bigotry, in hatred of “other”. The first thing I saw when I woke this morning was that Trump was urging Netanyahu to bar two Congresswomen from traveling to Israel. 15 minutes later, my phone dinged with the “breaking news” that Netanyah had acceded to Trump’s wishes. This, my friends, is the epitome of racial hatred, of white supremacy, or religious exclusion. Our government is now complicit in religious terrorism. Neither Trump nor Netanyahu deserve the positions they hold, and I deem them both evil, greedy, arrogant beings. I will applaud when they are ousted from their positions, hopefully in leg irons and handcuffs. Thank you, Gronda!

Gronda Morin

REPS. OMAR/ TLAIB

I’m shocked at Israel’s officials decision to bar two Muslim US Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from entering Israel based on an August 15, 2019 demand from the republican President Donald Trump. Until August 15, 2019, the Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer had said US Reps. Tlaib and Omar would be allowed to visit Israel “out of respect for the U.S. Congress and the great alliance between Israel and America.”

On a personal level, I had literally started planning a trip to Israel, a trip that’s number one on my bucket list. I’m crushed because I can’t visit a country that’s trumpeting/ amplifying the president’s Trumpian Republican Party’s racist rhetoric/ propaganda that GOP officials have chosen to implement as their 2020 campaign strategy. What kind of country does Israel want to become?

If Israelis want an explanation as to why hate crimes in USA have risen dramatically…

View original post 1,351 more words

VOTE!!! – Part I — A Guest Post By Roger Jacob

Posted on August 15, 2019 by jilldennison under Election 2020, guest posts, Political commentary, Social commentary

A week or so ago, our friend Roger and I were chatting about how crucial next year’s election will be in the U.S., how it is likely to be the single most important election in the history of the nation, and how critical it is that every eligible person uses the power of his vote on 03 November 2020. Roger is a gifted writer with a strong sense of history, and when he offered to write a guest post on this subject, I jumped at the offer! Roger lives in Wales (UK) and I find that often, those outside the U.S. see our situation with more clarity than we who live in this muck every day do. What follows is the first of a two-part guest post titled:

USA Not Voting Is No Longer A Luxury You Can Indulge

Part I-

Motivations, Histories, Circumstances

Preface, Emotions and History

Firstly, I would not be writing this were I not for many years pro-American. I do not subscribe to the tired old ‘USA is the root of all evils’ jag. If you are going to be critical of the USA then you had better include sentences on Russia and China in your comments, they do not get a free-ride. The Three Big Powers. Big Powers are ugly in their dealings with the world. A brief read of the histories of Empires or Very Large Nations anywhere anywhen should convince you of that.

That said back to my relationship with the USA. The music, the humour, the variety, the enthusiasm, the can-do. I thought them wonderful, exhilarating. Dare I use the shallow phrase ‘I love(d) The USA!’. I still value its freedom of art, this vast sprawling inventive nation not shackled by clichés of faux-rebellion and cliques of the self-aggrandised and their followers smaller nations can suffer with.

This opening paragraph is essential to my argument. Because I care about the USA and I see its potential about to be ruined. Torn apart by the negative parts of the Human, those which History warns us have always been there and despite the myriad of examples still lurk, with dread patience. You, The USA is at one of the turning points many nations have encountered. You can journey on. Or you can implode. 2020’s Presidential election beckons.

2016 Election

Being a retired Civil Servant I promptly started checking stats and quite frankly became very side-lined. I will spare my fascination with numbers and give you some simple facts: Clinton = 65,853,514 Trump = 62,984,828. Whereas Trump is legally and constitutionally the USA president more people voted for Clinton. 245,500,000 Americans are 18 & over. Therefore, Trump was voted in by 25.6 % of the adult population. This in itself is not unusual, other than the fact that there is a minority president. Combined these show hardly a stunning mandate.

Ramifications

Because of the divisive nature of Trump there is at best a stubborn refusal for one side to see the other’s argument against or for him. At worse there is a loud, vociferous and toxic climate in American politics in which consensus has long since withered and there is naught but conflict. Trump has done nothing to assuage the opposition, in fact he has goaded them and relied upon his own loyal base to stoke up his confidence. Thus, widening the gap. Into such an atmosphere naturally the rabble rousers and extremists will turn up and prosper by feeding the supporters with a diet of anger, mockery of the foe and most of all hate (and rake in the bucks folks…notice how Bannon does not live in a shack or trailer park). This is always the situation prior to a civil or civic strife. A House Divided. You will see this phrase again.

Trump

People talk of Trump as if he was so great political operator with an inane sense of genius. This is not so. As businessmen before him he thought he could run the country like he runs his businesses and by woeful chance he appeared at a time when: (1) a portion of the population were reeling from having one of ‘those’ people in the Whitehouse for two terms (2) The culture wars were entering their fourth decade and getting hotter (3) The antics of ‘The Hill’ were getting on people’s nerves. Thus, Trump is but the manifestations of millions of people’s fears, angers (and in some cases) blind prejudices. As far as they are concerned he is their man and not (as he believes) the other way around. Thus, this vocal and furious approximately 25% now hold sway in the Nation. A multi-cultured, five time zone, 300,000,000 + population, politically polarised with easy access to firearms Nation. A more astute generation of politicians would have picked up on this and would be doing something to damp down the fires. Not Trump, bloated with the adulation of his creators he sees only them and their needs. Woefully ignorant of the forces which are at work. A House Divided. History beckons.

Warning

The entrenchments of both sides indicate those who are currently involved within the political processes, be they politicians, aides, activists or voters have in most cases already made up their minds. The nation has in round terms 123,000,000 voters willing to make their mark, to repeat there is a potential in round terms of of 245,000,000. The questions to ask at this stage are is approximately one-half of the population content to let (1) Their future be fought over by another divided half. (2) Thus, content to be told how Life is going to be by a subsequent victorious quarter. If you didn’t vote last time because ‘why bother’ or ‘my principals’ were your fall back reasons, ask yourself:

Are you really content with a quarter of the population dictating to you?

Do you really think in this toxic situation you or folk close and dear to you will not be affected some day, some how, some when?

In the next part we will discuss this in more detail.

Thank you so much, Roger! 😊 Stay tuned for Part II …

It’s Time To SPEAK OUT!

Posted on August 15, 2019 by jilldennison under Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants, Social commentary

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Emma Lazarus

The above is the text of Emma Lazarus’ poem, The New Colossus. She wrote the poem in 1883 to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, and in 1903, the poem was cast onto a bronze plaque and mounted inside the pedestal’s lower level. For more than 100 years, those words have been symbolic of what this nation stands for.

Three days ago, on August 12^th, this man …

Son of a Bitch, Ken Cuccinelli

… Ken Cuccinelli, with malice aforethought and in defiance of the very values that have heretofore defined this nation and its people, re-wrote a line in the poem. Mr. Cuccinelli revised it to say …

“Give me your tired, your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge …”

Mr. Ken Cuccinelli is, in the opinion of this writer, a Grade A Son of a Bitch.

He further claimed that the poem was intended only for European immigrants, not Middle Easterners, not Asians, and not Latinos. I repeat … Mr. Ken Cuccinelli is a Son of a Bitch.

It is against the laws of the land to change an author’s work without his or her permission. Emma Lazarus died on November 19, 1887 and thus cannot give her permission for the changes Mr. Sonofabitch has proposed, nor do I believe she would give permission. These changes are not in the spirit upon which this nation was founded.

The United States has made its share of horrific mistakes, starting with the enslavement of Africans early on, the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, the rejection of the St. Louis carrying Jewish refugees, many of them who later died as a result, the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki … We ought to have learned from those mistakes, but instead, today we have a so-called president who wishes to make this a “white, Christian nation” by rejecting refugees fleeing violence and terror in their native lands. He would build a wall to keep out Latinos from Central America, he would impose a ban on refugees from Middle-Eastern, predominantly Muslim countries, and he promotes and applauds racism and white supremacy on a near-daily basis. This week, he implemented new ‘rules’ to deny citizenship to immigrants who are struggling financially and are being assisted by government programs such as rent subsidies, food stamps, and Medicaid.

What’s next, folks? Think long and hard about this … Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Andrew Wheeler, Steve Bannon, Ken Cuccinelli, and a boatload of others in the Trump administration are bigots to the nth degree. They have no respect nor love for the principles on which this nation was founded, but their only concern is putting more wealth into the pockets of the already-wealthy at any and all costs to the people who are paying their way in the world. We are increasingly pawns being moved about on a huge chessboard by people who have no heart, no values, nothing but a lust for money and a sense of entitlement.

Will we allow them to re-write history by re-writing the lines on the base of the Statue of Liberty? If we do, then we should simply send that statue back to France, for we no longer deserve it. If we do, then we have stopped being the United States of America as it has been envisioned throughout its relatively short history. Perhaps in two years, it will be called the DSR – Divided States of Russia.

I began this post with the poem by Emma Lazarus. I shall end it with yet another well-known poem, this one by Martin Niemöller …

Martin Niemöller

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

This Is A Speech???

Posted on August 14, 2019 by jilldennison under Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Political commentary

The Idiot-in-Chief spoke to a group of people outside of Pittsburgh yesterday. We paid the costs for him to go there and give a speech, the title of which was “America’s Energy Dominance and Manufacturing Revival.” The title is a joke anyway, for the U.S. in no way dominates energy, and in fact we are failing to do what we need to in promoting renewable energy over fossil fuel energy. But, beyond that, the entire speech was a joke. Let’s look at a few of the things he said … my own snarky remarkys are in blue.

On the supposed benefits of natural gas over renewable energy: “When the wind stops blowing, it doesn’t make any difference does it? Unlike those big windmills that destroy everybody’s property values, kill all the birds. One day the environmentalists are going to tell us what’s going on with that. And then all of a sudden it stops. The wind and the televisions go off. And your wives and husbands say: ‘Darling, I want to watch Donald Trump on television tonight. But the wind stopped blowing and I can’t watch. There’s no electricity in the house, darling.’” Is it clear to everybody now that Trump has no conception of how wind and solar energy work, and that he is in the pockets of the fossil fuel industry?

On his love of trucks: “I love cranes, I love trucks of all types. Even when I was a little boy at 4 years old, my mother would say, ‘You love trucks.’ I do, I always loved trucks, I still do. Nothing changes — sometimes you know you might become president, but nothing changes — I still love trucks. Especially when I look at the largest crane in the world, that’s very cool. You think I’ll get to operate it? We’ll put the media on it and I’ll give them a little ride, right?” This is relevant to anything … how?

On pundits suggesting he might not leave office willingly: “Can you imagine if I got a fair press? I mean, we’re leading without it; can you imagine if these people treated me fairly? The election would be over. Have they ever called off an election before? Just said, ‘Look just let’s go, go on four more years.’ You want to really drive them crazy? Go to #ThirdTerm, #FourthTerm — you’ll drive them totally crazy.” Be afraid, my friends, for this is not the first time he’s alluded to overstaying his welcome.

On what Trump perceives as a trade imbalance with Japan: “They send us thousands and thousands — millions of cars, we send them wheat. Wheat. That’s not a good deal. And they don’t even want our wheat. They do it because they want us to at least feel that we’re OK, you know, they do it to make us feel good.” This remark is just so utterly stupid that I’m left stuttering. No nation is buying anything just to “make us feel good”! We’re talking international trade, not a game of checkers!

On the price tag of the presidency: “This thing is costing me a fortune, being president. Somebody said, ‘Oh, he might have rented a room to a man from Saudi Arabia for $500.’ What about the $5 billion that I’ll lose — you know, it’s probably going to cost me, including, upside, downside, lawyers, because every day they sue me for something. These are the most litigious people. It’s probably costing me from $3 to $5 billion for the pleasure of being — and I couldn’t care less, I don’t care. You know if you’re wealthy, it doesn’t matter. I just want to do a great job.” Trump is profiting “bigly” from being president! First, he and his children travel all over the world at our expense. Foreign dignitaries stay in Trump hotels when they visit the U.S. And here’s one for you … just yesterday, an article in Politico said that the U.S. Secret Service had spent some $20,000 at a Trump hotel in Canada when they had to accompany Trump’s eldest son on one of his hunting trips. Trust me, Trump is racking in the dough from this gig. He went on to ramble about such things as the Academy Awards, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren, once again referring to Warren as “Pocahontas”. It was, for all intents and purposes, naught more than a campaign rally, though it was intended to be a presidential speech at a new Shell facility that is nearing completion in Pittsburgh. And here’s the kicker … he took credit for Shell building the facility, but Shell actually announced the facility back in 2012, when Barack Obama was president. It had not a thing to do with Donald Trump.

The stock market is taking a hit today. I wonder who he will manage to blame for that … Hillary Clinton? Shaub

America and Guns

Posted on August 13, 2019 by jilldennison under Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Re-blogs, Social commentary

This afternoon’s post comes from Simeon Levine, a young man of 17 years living in Australia. Though he lives 9,500 miles away, in another hemisphere, and has only spent 17 years on this planet, Mr. Levine sees as clearly as any, more than most in this country, the culture of guns in the U.S. Thank you, Simeon Levine, for this post and for your generous permission to re-blog!

Levine Lowdown

On the 3rd and 4th
of August 2019, 32 people were killed and 51 injured in two separate mass
shootings in America. Hundreds of family members and friends left grieving, and
bystanders forever replaying the traumatic circumstance again and again inside
their heads. Communities destroyed by the loss of life, thousands fearful of
the future and millions left shocked and overwhelmed by the situation.

I am Australian. I
feel helpless. I can’t even begin to gain a comprehensive understanding of the
American system and the obsession with guns. In April 1996, the Port Arthur
massacre left 35 people killed and 23 injured, one of Australia’s largest mass
shootings, and one of the last mass shootings. After the massacre, Prime Minister,
John Howard, restricted the legal ownership and use of self-loading rifles,
shotguns and tightened recreational shooters guidelines. A “buy-back” scheme
was introduced, costing millions of dollars, but protecting the lives…

View original post 491 more words

Sources of Sighs

Posted on August 13, 2019 by jilldennison under animals, Bits 'n Pieces, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

As most of you who have followed this blog for any length of time know, I am a lover of animals. I have often said I prefer goats, bears, lions, snakes and spiders to most humans, especially these days. So, you might imagine the low-throated growl that has been emitting from me ever since reading the following headline this morning …

U.S. Significantly Weakens Endangered Species Act

First, he destroys the camaraderie of the nation, turns brother against brother, mother against child, and friend against friend. Then, he destroys the environment, not only of the nation, but of the entire planet, by reversing nearly every environmental protection regulation on the books and pulling the U.S. – against the will of the majority – out of the Paris Climate Accords. And now … now he is destroying the beautiful wildlife, many species of which were here on earth long before humans were, and all of which are more worthy of life than humans!The story:

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is a key legislation for both domestic and international conservation. The act aims to provide a framework to conserve and protect endangered and threatened species and their habitats. Under the current law, assessments about which species should be labeled as ‘endangered’ must be made solely based on science, without consideration for economic impacts. But, if the new ruling is allowed to go into effect, regulators would be forced to conduct economic assessments — for instance, estimating lost revenue from a prohibition on logging in a critical habitat — when deciding whether a species warrants protection.

David Bernhardt (Why are all of Trump’s minions like him: fat, old, white, male???)

The ruling appears to be in the interest of the fossil fuel and logging industries. David Bernhardt, Trump’s Secretary of the Interior, is a former oil and gas lobbyist who has long been a critic of the Endangered Species Act, saying that it places an “unnecessary regulatory burden” on companies, such as coal, oil and gas companies.

Environmental groups, Democratic state attorneys general and Democrats in Congress denounced the changes and vowed to challenge them in Congress and in the courts. But, as we have seen, both Congress and the courts have had very limited success in stopping the runaway train that is Donald Trump.Make no mistake … allowing thousands of species to become extinct will have a significant impact on this planet, as will allowing the fossil fuel industry to continue operating unregulated. The human species is on the brink of bringing about its own extinction, and frankly, I’m not so sure that’s an altogether bad thing! We are not trying to live in harmony with nature but are rather trying to dominate and destroy nature.

I have a terrific idea! Since Trump is removing the protections for both the environment and wildlife, let’s also remove the protections for Trump … protections, I might add, that we the taxpayers pay with our hard-earned money! No more Secret Service protection for Donnie!

And in other news … if you didn’t think that Donald Trump had brainwashed republicans before, this will surely convince you. According to a recent study by Pew Research, while most Americans continue to say it would be too risky to give U.S. presidents more power, the share expressing this opinion has declined since last year. Most of the change has been among Republicans – especially conservative Republicans. The study found that …

Currently, 66% of the public says “it would be too risky to give U.S. presidents more power to deal directly with many of the country’s problems.” About three-in-ten adults (29%) offer the contrasting opinion that “problems could be dealt with more effectively if U.S. presidents didn’t have to worry so much about Congress or the courts.” In March 2018, 76% of the public said it would be too risky to give presidents more power.

Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (51%) now say it would be too risky to give presidents more power, down from 70% last year.

The share of Republicans who say presidents could operate more effectively if they did not have to worry so much about Congress and the courts has increased 16 percentage points since then, from 27% to 43%.

There was a reason the framers of the Constitution put in place three independent branches of the federal government, a system of “checks and balances”, to provide oversight. Donald Trump has already largely trampled the Constitution in this area, for any time he cannot get his way through Congress or the courts, he simply writes an ‘executive order’, or circumvents the system altogether. And now, we find that increasingly, republicans are fine with that. At this point, I would say we are already experiencing an autocratic government, and teetering on the brink of a dictatorship. This is no longer just a nightmare scenario, my friends, but a clear and present danger. So yes, be afraid … be very afraid.

Stupidity And Guns Don’t Mix …

Posted on August 11, 2019 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

To brighten your Sunday afternoon, I bring you the tale of three stupid people. Now, I don’t make a habit of calling people stupid … I suffered a beating for using that word when I was about four or five years old and use the word only sparingly ever since. But, in the case of these three men, the word just fits so well.

Stupid … just plain stupid

Dmitriy Andreychenko of Springfield, Missouri, is a stupid man. He is a 2^nd Amendment supporter and he apparently keeps what little brain he has where the sun doesn’t shine.

On Thursday, less than a week after a mass shooting in an El Paso Wal-Mart that left 22 people dead and injured 26 others, Dmitriy Andreychenko decided to “test” his 2^nd Amendment rights. So, he loaded up for bear, donned his body armour, and walked into a local Wal-Mart store with an assault rifle, a pistol, and more than 100 rounds of ammunition. He didn’t intend to shoot anybody, he says, but was merely checking to see if his 2^nd Amendment rights would be “respected in public”.

His wife tried to talk him out of it, told him it was “not a smart idea”. He tried to get his sister to go along and record a video of the experiment, but she apparently had more sense than he, and so Mr. Andreychenko was left to use his own cell phone to record what he referred to as a ‘social experiment’.

People, understandably, panicked at the sight of a heavily-armed man in body armour, and the store manager immediately had an employee pull the fire alarm in order to get people out of the store quickly. Police were called and Mr. Andreychenko was arrested promptly and without incident, unless you count the police officer who was involved in a car crash on his way to the scene. But Mr. Andreychenko was puzzled by his arrest …

“This is Missouri, I understand if we were somewhere else like New York or California, people would freak out.”

I told you he’s stupid.

If convicted, he will serve up to four years in prison and face a fine of up to $10,000. Although Missouri is one of some 30 states that allows for openly carrying a weapon, Prosecutor Dan Patterson equated Andreychenko’s actions to yelling fire in a crowded theater.

I’m thinking I’m going to move to a country that doesn’t allow guns in the hands of stupid people.

And speaking of stupid …

Timothy James Ireland, Jr. of Toledo, Ohio, has also seemingly left his brain in a dark place. This one took his hatred of “other” to social media, posting on Facebook about U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez …

“She should be shot. Can’t fire me, my employer would load the gun for me.”

When contacted by police, Mr. Ireland said he was “very proud” of his post and admitted to owning a number of firearms and that he “always carries concealed”, or in other words, never leaves home without his gun.

Sigh.

Too much stupid …

This time it’s the owner of a gun store in Murphy, North Carolina, that sat on his brain. Doc Wacholz, the owner of Cherokee Guns, thought it was a good idea to put up this billboard advertising his wares …

Ol’ Doc was so proud of his work, in fact, that he posted a picture of it on Facebook, and even had bumper stickers made of it, which he sells in his store. He says he chose the four members of Congress for his billboard because, “their message of turning this country into a socialist country”. The four, known as ‘The Squad’, have come under fire from republicans of late, and have received threats against their lives because of the hateful rhetoric of none other than Donald Trump. See, folks … words have consequences … words matter.

The billboard has since been removed, but is not likely to soon be forgotten, since it went viral on social media.

This is the mentality we are dealing with in the U.S. It is an ugly place to be. I go out to a store or a restaurant and I find myself looking at everybody I see, wondering … is he packing a pistol somewhere on his person? Is he one of those fools who would shoot up the place if his food wasn’t to his liking, or if the store was out of his brand of coffee? You just don’t know any more. The framers of the Constitution never intended for us to have to live like this.

I will repeat once again what I have said so many times before. With every right comes a responsibility. It seems to me that the vast majority of gun-owners in this nation have shirked the responsibility and have assumed their rights to be unlimited. We can appeal to Congress to enact strict gun laws, but as long as the republican members of Congress are indebted to the NRA, it ain’t gonna happen, folks. And almost every republican member of Congress has, in fact, accepted donations from the gun lobby.

It is up to us, the people of this nation, to use our brains, to understand what the “right to bear arms” really means, to act with a conscience and a bit of good sense. In the immortal words of Forrest Gump: “Stupid is as stupid does.” And stupid is costing lives … lots of lives. Maybe mine is next, or yours. Think about it.

Filosofa's Word

Cogito Ergo Sum

Category Archives: Political commentary

Kicking Off The Weekend With … ‘Toons!

This Is A Speech???