Snarky … grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr … Snippets

Posted on April 3, 2020 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Tonight I have enough snark to fill an entire shelf, nay, an entire room! So, hold onto your hats and maybe open a window to let the heat out.

Save the masks for the docs & nurses!

Both the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control have said that surgical masks should only be worn by healthcare workers, infected people or those who are taking care of someone who is infected. These are the experts in the field. And, the fact is that healthcare workers in hospitals are desperate for masks to protect them when they are working with infectious patients, but there is a severe shortage of the personal protective equipment they need.

So, along comes Donald Trump and his wrecking crew who are expected to announce sometime today that everybody should be wearing a mask when out in public. Brilliant … the front-line doctors and nurses cannot get masks, but the government suggests that every Tom, Dick and Harry should be snatching them up for their own personal use, even though washing their hands is the far better option.

I think doctors and hospitals all across the nation should sue the federal government for putting their lives in danger. In fact, I hope they do. And no, I won’t wear a mask … I cannot, for I would choke to death with something covering my mouth. Take your mask, Trump, and put it where the sun don’t shine.

Impeachment caused WHAT???

The U.S. is now the hardest-hit nation on the globe by the coronavirus, thanks in large part to the bungling responses of Trump and his wrecking crew throughout January, February and March. Within the U.S. the State of New York has seen the most cases and deaths. There are a number of reasons for that, but Trump has his own idea … he blames it on his own impeachment! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

In a letter to Senator Chuck Schumer …

The letter was in response to one from Schumer requesting Trump to appoint a logistical expert from the military to use the Defense Production Act to properly allocate resources to the states. The utter bombast of Trump’s letter is enough to make one growl, but for him to refer to his impeachment as a hoax and then make the assumption that the coronavirus would not have become a problem had it not been for his well-deserved impeachment deserves a full-throated banshee scream!

Mail-in ballots? Why not???

The U.S. elections are exactly seven months from today. Given that we are told by experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci that we cannot even begin to predict when it will be safe for the nation to come to life again, many of us are deeply concerned about that November 3^rd election and are in favour of going to a Universal Vote by Mail system. Already, there are 27 states, including my own, that have no-excuse absentee voting, and in three states, all voting is done by mail. It isn’t rocket science.

Yet Trump and his wrecking crew are sitting on their fat arses on this one, debating, saying it may be too risky. I champion 100% mail-in voting this year for a number of reasons. First, it would ensure that we have an election. Second, I believe it would increase voter turnout significantly. Third, it would put an end to many of the voter disenfranchisement tactics used by republicans in numerous states, such as moving polling places, closing polls early, requiring voter I.D., etc.

One of their arguments against universal mail-in voting is that it would take time to get the systems in place. Only six states have no current accommodation for mail-in ballots … all other states already have the systems in place to provide and count mail-in ballots. But more to the point … time’s a-wasting! Okay, if it’s going to take time and effort, get off your arses and get busy doing it! Stop talking and balking, stop looking for excuses to take away our right to a fair and honest election and start developing the damn system! What the hell do you think we’re paying you for???

But I smell a rat …

The headline in Fortune reads …

USPS warns it might have to shutter by June as $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package provides no funding

And in Business Insider …

Lawmakers are sounding the alarm on the coronavirus shuttering the USPS by June

Now … how would mail-in ballots work if there is no mail? Now do you smell the rat?

To another issue, though, if the USPS were to shut down … nearly one million people in this country would not be able to receive their life-saving medication by mail. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Golf, anyone?

Looks like the ‘person’ in the Oval Office is planning a bit of golf this weekend, while the nation literally burns. The Secret Service this week signed a $45,000 contract (our money) to rent a fleet of golf carts in Northern Virginia, saying it needed them quickly to protect a “dignitary” in the town of Sterling, home to one of Trump’s golf clubs.

All of Virginia is under a stay-at-home order from Governor Ralph Northam, lasting until June 10. But that order allows golf courses to remain open … I suppose like churches in Florida, golf courses in Virginia are considered “essential”. Funny how words can have different meanings, depending on who’s using them, isn’t it?

An Economic Wakeup Call

Posted on April 2, 2020 by jilldennison under Election 2020, Political commentary, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Our friend Jeff over at On the Fence Voters is more of an optimist these days than I am, and has more faith, I think, in the human species, but I like to think that his hopes for our future will bear fruit. Thank you, Jeff … perhaps I need a new glass, for I think mine has a hole in the bottom that prevents the glass from ever getting quite half full. Good post, my friend.

On The Fence Voters

Will the world demand a more humane economy after this crisis?

Wherever you stand on the current Covid-19 pandemic crisis, I think we can all agree that life as we know it has drastically changed. We can agree to disagree on whether the types of mitigation deployed by countries around the world, including our own, will work or not. Frankly, that’s for another day.

But the economic reality about to hit us is real and disconcerting. How we deal with the calamity going forward may define our society and culture for generations to come. I want to look at what we’re about to go through from a glass-half-empty, glass-half-full perspective.

The half-empty part of this equation is what we’re about to experience. The economic pain that’s coming is something our country hasn’t seen since the Great Depression. Time is of the essence, and the over $2 trillion dollar rescue package…

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Filosofa Ponders …

Posted on April 2, 2020 by jilldennison under Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

If anybody had asked me late last year what effect a global crisis such as … oh, say a pandemic that spread at the speed of lightning … would have on the people of this nation, I would have answered that it would bring people closer together, cause them to set aside their differences and care about each other much as we did in the days following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. And I would have been oh so very wrong. I would have been giving the people of this nation far too much undeserved credit.

While I am no fan of George W. Bush, I must give credit where it is due. In the days following 9/11, he was a leader in every sense of the word, and it was in part his leadership that brought people together. He made it clear that we were all in this together, and that together we would survive. He grieved with us and gave us strength and hope to carry on. In the current crisis, we have no such leader, but rather a bungling oaf whose own desires will always be a higher priority for him than the needs of this nation.

Unlike 2001, today we have no real leader and rather than bring the nation together, Donald Trump has fanned the flames of discord. I won’t even delve into his very poor handling of this crisis from day one, for that has been covered everywhere ad nauseam. But it is beyond disturbing that he continues to operate under a philosophy of “divide and conquer”, even as the nation burns. What I find even more disturbing, however, is that some 46% of the people in this nation believe he is doing a fantastic job, when in fact he has let us down in the worst way possible. Rather than encouraging us all to help one another, to set aside our differences for the moment and work together for the good of all, he stands in front of the nation and casts blame. Blame the democrats, he says. Blame Obama, blame the governors of states who are trying to keep their people safe … blame anybody, he tells us, except him. He says, “No, I don’t take responsibility at all.”

But wait … isn’t leadership all about responsibility? Is that not what he was hired to do, to be responsible for the well-being of the country and its 330 million inhabitants? I’m confused … how can the “president” not take responsibility?

How is it possible that nearly half the people in this country approve of the job he is doing? What does this say about We the People? Does it say that those 46% are so determined to fulfill their goal of making the U.S. a white, Christian, and largely male-dominated country that they are willing to sacrifice decency, sacrifice the future of the nation? Are the people of this country so blind that they cannot see how he is putting his own self-interest ahead of the people of this nation? Or is it simply that in times of crisis, people take comfort in continuity, rejecting change altogether? Whatever it is, I am frankly disgusted and fed up with those who applaud him at this point in time. I’ve tried and failed to understand their motives.

Donald Trump will never be anything different than what he is today, a greedy, arrogant, narcissistic excuse for a man who cares for nobody and nothing other than himself. I might have expected that, given the circumstances we are facing today, some 90% of the people in this nation would be calling for his resignation, if not his head on a platter. But instead, more people than ever are gravitating toward him, hypnotized perhaps by his promises … promises that he cannot keep.

My biggest fear, something I fear far more than catching the coronavirus and dying, is that this newfound approval will carry forward into the election and hand Donald Trump another four years at the helm. That, my friends, would be the most disastrous thing that this nation would have ever faced. We cannot, must not let that happen.

Taking Sides against Dictators

Posted on April 1, 2020 by jilldennison under Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Sometimes we are so mired in the muck of our own troubles that we cannot, as the old saying goes, “see the forest for the trees”. Our friend David in the UK, however, has a quite clear view of the state of our nation today, and I’d like to share it with you this afternoon. Thank you, David, for your clarity and also for caring.

The BUTHIDARS

I quite openly admit to having pinched the piece above from my friend Scottie of https://scottiestoybox.com/, when I read it in the context of the elections due in the U.S.A in November 2020 I thought to myself surely most of these are basic human rights that should be granted rather than fought for these days..Surely we have enlightened Government if not enlightened management over our major businesses.

Not so here. Following the end of the Obama era Government, one of enlightenment and the attempt to establish a National Health Service for everyone which was bitterly rejected as being Socialism, the election was won by the joke.There was a groundswell of reaction against his opponent for having the temerity to be a woman but in the end Hillary Clinton still polled 3,000.000 more votes than Trump but lost on Electoral College votes.

Trump himself has a base of Evangelists who see…

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Good People Doing Good Things — Kleenex Is Included

Posted on April 1, 2020 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, Good people doing good things, Social commentary

If it’s Wednesday morning, then it must be time for us to go forth and find some … good people! Guess what? I found some! Surprised, aren’t you? 😉 I’m even providing the tissues this week, in case you’ve run out and found the shelves bare at the market.

And with that Dailey newspaper you get …

Greg Dailey delivers newspapers to homes in the central New Jersey township of Cranbury, but last week he did much more than toss rolled up newspapers. Many of the people on his paper route are seniors, and after one such woman asked him to start placing the newspaper against her garage, for she was afraid to walk down the driveway to retrieve it, Greg got an idea. The next day, he placed a note in all 725 newspapers he delivered …

My name is Greg Dailey and I deliver your newspaper every morning. I understand during these trying times it is difficult for some to get out of their house to get everyday necessities. I would like to offer my services free of charge to anyone who needs groceries, household products, etc. I will be shopping at ShopRite and McCaffery’s and can deliver the goods directly to your front door.

He left his number and email address. The response was immediate, and not just with more requests for his new service. Oh, there were plenty of those — nine of them, in fact, on the first day alone. But there were more emails from people who wanted to help the man who had offered his help.

They wanted to send him gas money for his Ford Focus. They offered to leave him food on their doorsteps to his family. Mostly, though, they just wanted to say thank you. Said one note …

“I know you only by the sound of your car in the morning and your good service, but your offer to help in our community is a step beyond. If you hear a little extra sound when you fly past our house, it will be us applauding and cheering for a good man.”

Greg’s service quickly became a family affair, with his wife Cherlyn, his three kids — Erin, Sean and Brian — and his mother-in-law Carol Krohn all involved. They used a Google document to keep the groceries organized, with every item highlighted on a receipt. They sort the items into separate bags in their dining room, and for safety, everything is cleaned with disinfectant wipes. Customers reimburse for the items, but there’s no charge for the shopping and delivery.

“Times are tough. Some of us should not be out of the house at all. They need produce. They need medicine. They need toiletries. I told one of the gentlemen, ‘I can stop at the liquor store if you want.’ His eyes went wide.”

The customers on his newspaper route can count on him. At a time when every community needs people to step up and help the people who need it the most, he delivers.

Handing out … lettuce leaves

Peter Darmos is a lawyer and businessman who lives in Melbourne, Australia, though he emigrated there from Greece as a child. One day last week, Mr. Darmos happened to pass by the unemployment office, CentreLink, and saw a long line of people waiting to get in to file their claims. He said it made him feel sick to his stomach, and he had to do what he could. He stopped and gave each of the people waiting in line $100 “to put some bread on the table for their family.” In all, Mr. Darmos disbursed some $10,000. He wished to remain anonymous, but somehow that didn’t happen. He says he’s hoping that others who have the means will follow suit …

“I came here as a six-year-old from a village in Greece and this country has been good to me. We can all hit the Centrelink offices across the country in 30 seconds today and hand out a lettuce leaf to each person in need so they can put some food on the table for their families.”

What’s in the envelope?

Skylar Reeves, who owns Rosa’s Pizzeria in Prescott, Arizona, was loading orders for delivery and curbside pickup Tuesday when the woman approached him, handed him the envelope, and then left. Reeves opened the envelope to find $2,000 in cash and an unsigned note …

“Hi there, As a neighbor and lover of Rosa’s, please accept the enclosed and use it as you see fit for your staff.”

Reeves said he was overcome with emotion, as he already has been forced to consolidate his three restaurants, pause his catering company and stop construction on his newest restaurant set to open next month. He also laid off nearly half of his 100-person staff, many of whom are friends, due to the virus.

With the money from the anonymous Good Samaritan, Reeves is asking his employees to bring him the bill that stresses them the most, and he’ll pay those bills with the envelope cash and his own money.

The Rocket Man delivers …

Elton John was in the middle of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour when the coronavirus called a halt to it. But, not one to let an opportunity pass him by, Elton is instead planning a televised benefit concert to support and pay tribute to medical staff in America who are on the frontlines battling Coronavirus.The commercial-free hour-long special, dubbed “Fox Presents the iHeart Living Room Concert for America,” will air at 6 p.m. PST (9 p.m. EST) on FOX on Sunday, March 29 and will also be broadcast on iHeartMedia radio stations as well.

Singer-songwriters including Alicia Keys, the Backstreet Boys, Billie Eilish, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, Mariah Carey and Tim McGraw will also make appearances from their homes and be included via clips filmed with their personal cell phones, camera and audio equipment, a release from Fox revealed.

Viewers will be able to make donations during the show, which will go to Feeding America and First Responders Children’s Foundation.

You all know I don’t watch much television at all, and have never seen the show called The Office, though of course I have heard of it (I think). One of the stars of that show is named John Krasinski, and he has started a ‘good news’ show on YouTube that I thought was a terrific idea!Last week, Krasinski took to Twitter and asked the world to send him any stories that made them feel good or smile.

“For years now I’ve been wondering why is there not a news show dedicated entirely to good news?”

So, he launched “Some Good News” (SGN) on YouTube to share all the heartwarming stories posted in the comments of his Twitter post.

These are challenging times in more ways than one for most all of us on the planet. I find it particularly heartwarming to see people finding ways to help others, even though they have their own troubles. We are, after all, all in this together.

The Expendable Elderly

Posted on March 31, 2020 by jilldennison under Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

Our friend Jerry over at On the Fence Voters shows us yet another way in which our so-called leaders are failing us during this time of crisis. Thanks Jerry — good post!

On The Fence Voters

In my semi-retirement years I work part-time at an assisted-living senior center. Almost all the residents there are past the driving age, so I drive them to their appointments. Before the COVID-19 era I also drove groups of them to outings in the residence’s bus. But we do, in fact, live in a new, dramatically different era. Now, I rarely drive any of them anywhere. Instead, my workdays now consist primarily of helping the housekeeping crew daily disinfect the premises. Everyone at the facility is dedicated to keeping our precious seniors as safe and healthy as possible at their age.

That sentiment seems not to be shared by our president and many of his followers. Many, such as Texas’ Republican Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, have suggested that for the sake of the economy, Americans need to get back to work; social-distancing needs to end sooner rather than later. If…

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Coronavirus Kills Its 1st Democracy

Posted on March 31, 2020 by jilldennison under Election 2020, Free Press Issues, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

Want to take your mind off the coronavirus, shortages of food and cleaning supplies, being imprisoned in your home and isolated from your friends & family? Well, I’ve got just the thing for you … here’s something even bigger to worry about …

On Monday, Hungary’s parliament passed a controversial bill that gave Orbán sweeping emergency powers for an indefinite period of time. Parliament is closed, future elections were called off, existing laws can be suspended and the prime minister is now entitled to rule by decree. Opposition lawmakers had tried to set a time limit on the legislation but failed. Orbán’s commanding two-thirds parliamentary majority made his new powers a fait accompli. – Ishaan Tharoor, The Washington Post

Granted, Hungary isn’t the U.S. and Viktor Orbán isn’t Donald Trump. Orbán had already corroded the state’s checks and balances, cowed the judiciary, encroached on civil society and the free press … much as Donald Trump has done to the United States.

Orbán has his supporters, too. He has been lionized as a nationalist hero for the West’s anti-immigrant populists and welcomed to the White House by Trump.It should be noted that congressional democrats initially included election reforms such as vote-by-mail, same-day registration and early voting in the $2.2 trillion ‘stimulus bill’ … measures that were struck down by their republican colleagues. Now, make sure you’re sitting down when you read what Trump had to say about those stricken measures that would have ensured we could all vote in the November 3^rd election …

“The things they had in there were crazy. They had things, levels of voting that if you’d ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again. They had things in there about election days and what you do and all sorts of clawbacks. They had things that were just totally crazy and had nothing to do with workers that lost their jobs and companies that we have to save.”

And now, my friends, I suggest you start to do some serious worrying about the November elections, for it becomes obvious that Trump and the republicans have little or no concern for our right to elect new leadership in November, and that they see voter suppression as their only path to power. I’ve been concerned all along that Trump would find some way to cancel or postpone indefinitely our elections, and nothing I’m seeing is alleviating those concerns. I believe that Mr. Trump is seeing the coronavirus pandemic as a very fortuitous event for him and his cronies.

In 1980, Paul Weyrich, an influential conservative activist, said …

“I don’t want everybody to vote. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”

Chilling.

We are running out of time to put in place policies and processes that would enable every eligible voter to cast a ballot, even in the event that the coronavirus remains a threat into November. The republicans are playing a game … a game with our lives, with our freedoms, with our rights to participate in our government.

Look again at what the Hungarian Parliament has handed to Viktor Orbán. The only thing stopping our own Congress from doing the same is the democratic majority in the House of Representatives.

It must also be noted that the emergency law also stipulates five-year prison sentences for Hungarians found to be spreading “false” information. Think on that one a minute. Who determines what is “false” information? Think how many times Trump has declared stories published by The Washington Post or the New York Times to be “fake news”. Or what about us bloggers? In such circumstances, historically information is considered ‘false’ if it contradicts what the dictator says. Facts and reality become secondary and eventually are suppressed.

There are checks and balances to keep what has happened in Hungary from happening in the U.S. But, many of those have been destroyed in the last three years. The Supreme Court tends to rule in favour of Trump, even when that ruling is in blatant disregard of the U.S. Constitution. The Attorney General has decreed that Trump is ‘above the law’ and can operate in whatever manner he sees fit. And the U.S. Senate basically affirmed Barr’s opinion when they refused to do their job and convict Trump of what were obvious abuses of power and obstruction of justice.

The U.S. Constitution, or any set of laws for that matter, is only as good as the people who enforce it. This is why the most important thing this year in the U.S. is that we have fair and honest elections on November 3^rd as scheduled, no matter what.

Profiting From A Crisis

Posted on March 31, 2020 by jilldennison under animals, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Rants, Social commentary

Thus far, eight states (California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New York, Oregon and Vermont) have banned single-use plastic bags in the U.S. Fourteen others, including Florida, have moved in the opposite direction, adopting laws to tie the hands of local officials. In January, New Jersey attempted to pass a law banning single-use plastics, but the bill failed. Why? Why aren’t all 50 states on-board with this legislation? Take a look at what plastic bags and bottles are doing …

And the answer to the question why all 50 states aren’t doing their part is simple … the GOP motto is: profit over all else. Profit is more important in this nation than people, than wildlife, than the environment … in fact, today’s profit is more important than life on earth tomorrow for far too many of our so-called ‘leaders’. I could expound at some length about this concept, but for today I have a single focus: those damn plastic bags that they shove down our throats at the grocery store.

Even though only eight states thus far have banned plastic bags, it’s a start, it’s progress. Environmental groups like the Sierra Club have raised public awareness and many of us now bring our own reusable canvas bags to the grocery and use reusable mesh bags for produce. Even with that, the stores have been very slow in finding packaging alternatives, so we still end up with unwanted plastic in our rubbish. Single use plastics account for around 20% of solid rubbish in the U.S., and only about 10% of that is recycled, so 90% ends up in landfills, rivers and ultimately the ocean.

Never let it be said that big industries, focused solely on profit, miss an opportunity to increase their profit, even at the cost of earth’s future. Enter the coronavirus. By March 18^th, the plastic industry in the U.S. had kicked into high gear. The trade group Plastics Industry Association requested that the US Department of Health endorse the idea that “single-use plastic products are the most sanitary choice when it comes to many applications.” A conservative nonprofit called the Independent Women’s Forum started running ads pressuring Washington state, New York, and California to reverse their bag bans. IWF’s ad’s claim: “Researchers say COVID-19 can survive on reusable tote bags for nine days. However, some state legislators are enforcing draconian bans on plastic bags, which might contribute to the spread of the virus and other harmful microorganisms.”

Many of the groups that have picked up these claims, including the Manhattan Institute and Competitive Enterprise Institute, receive support from the Kochs, the infamous family of moguls who made their fortune in the petrochemical industry. Now are you starting to smell a rat? The plastic industry’s tactics seem to be working: Maine’s plastic bag ban was supposed to go into effect on April 22, but it’s been postponed till January 2021. New Hampshire’s governor Christopher Sununu, who has misrepresented climate science, has gone further to use the state of emergency to temporarily ban reusable bags. Republicans in Washington state, New York, and New Jersey have been waging campaigns to reverse or delay the blue states’ bans because of coronavirus.

On Sunday, when I had access to daughter Chris’ car and could go to a grocery store a bit farther afield than the Kroger that is only a half-mile from my home (my van is not reliable and I go no further in it than I could walk home), I went to the Meijer store, a midwestern chain, hoping to find some of those rare items such as toilet paper and Clorox wipes that had been impossible to find at Kroger. A sign on the door warned that re-usable bags were prohibited, but I entered anyway, figuring to argue the point when I got to the check out. But a young manager stopped me almost before my posterior had cleared the automatic doors and informed me that I could not bring “those bags” into the store. I rarely give away pieces of my mind, as I have so few left, but he got a rather large piece. Enraged, I accused him of personally killing every fish in the ocean and also told him that the lives of his own grandchildren (he was only about 25) were on his shoulders, as he was ensuring they would die from lack of water to drink and air to breathe. I then indignantly stormed out and returned to my own Kroger, hoping against all hope that they had not implemented a similar rule. They hadn’t, but I was informed I would have to bag my own groceries, for they wouldn’t touch my bags.

Now, there are two things to argue here. First of all, my bags are a few million times less likely to have any form of germ, let alone a corona-bug, on them than that can of peas you see in aisle #12, or even the tomatoes you picked up in produce. My bags were wiped down with disinfecting wipes after their last use, and have resided in my locked van ever since. They are sterile! Every item in the store is germier than my bags!

The other thing, and the whole point of this post, is that the coronavirus pandemic is a short-term problem. Yes, a very serious problem at this time, but nonetheless one with a limited lifespan. Destruction of the environment is an ongoing problem that is shortening the hope for the continuation of life … any life … on earth every single day. Just because we have a serious problem with this pandemic does not mean we can ignore all the other problems in the world! The coronavirus has resulted in thousands of deaths and may even rise into the millions. I’m not making light of that, but there are 7.8 billion human inhabitants on this planet, and exponentially more other life forms that rely on us turning around the damage that has been done over the past 150-200 years. Plastics in all forms are part of that destruction, and single use plastic bottles and bags are one of the biggest culprits.

The re-usable bags aren’t the problem, but rather the excuse that is being used as the plastic industry seeks to profit from this human crisis. Once again, We the People are being lied to and tricked, and I for one am damned sick and tired of it. And for the record, I will never shop at Meijer again, nor any other store that attempts to force me to use their plastic bags! Excuse me … I need to breathe now.

About That ‘Stimulus Bill’ …

Posted on March 28, 2020 by jilldennison under Election 2020, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

Let me just start by saying one thing: No, Donald Trump, you have not done a great job. Thanks to your bungling and mismanagement, the U.S. is quite possibly in the worst shape it has ever been in. Thanks. It speaks volumes that a number of television networks are editing or refusing to air Trump’s daily bragging sessions, otherwise known as ‘updates’ or ‘press briefings’ because they say he is providing too much misinformation.

Yesterday, the House passed and Trump signed the “Coronavirus Aid Package”, aka bailout bill, aka emergency stimulus package. The U.S. government doesn’t actually … have … $2 trillion … to spend, being $23 trillion in debt (this works out to approximately $69,696,969.69 worth of debt for every man, woman and child in the U.S.), but Donald Trump has always used other people’s money to do what he wants, so that’s nothing new. But, let’s take a look at that ‘stimulus package’ and what’s actually in it:You’ll notice that big corporations are getting almost as much as individuals. Funny that, for the CEOs of the big corporations have plenty of money … in fact, they should be giving us money instead of the other way around. And you’ll also notice that education was just an afterthought. Close all the schools with no advance planning, no guidance or direction, and then throw them a biscuit.

But the thing I want to talk about today is that $339.8 billion for state and local governments. Or rather, the strings attached to that money.

Trump demanded that governors show deference to the administration during the coronavirus crisis, saying, “I want them to be appreciative. I don’t want them to say things that aren’t true. I want them to be appreciative. We’ve done a great job.”
Trump has sparred with a handful of Democratic governors who are asking for aid and medical equipment to help combat their coronavirus outbreaks, most notably Jay Inslee of Washington and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. On Friday, he called Whitmer “the woman from Michigan” and said “she has no idea what’s going on.”
Trump implied that he believed Vice President Mike Pence shouldn’t call them if they did not show the proper appreciation. “You know what I say? If they don’t treat you right, I don’t call,” Trump said.

I ask you, friends, is this the sort of person you really want leading the nation in a crisis (or at any other time, for that matter)? It isn’t Trump’s money … it is our money!

I remember a time when my children were little, and my son wanted something at the store that I couldn’t afford. I explained to him that I did not have enough money to buy it for him, and he responded, “But mommy … you gots a checkbook!” He was probably 3 or 4 at the time, so it was understandable that he did not understand the concept of banking and money. Donald Trump is 73 years of age and doesn’t it just seem like he should have figured this all out by now?

Another aspect of this ‘stimulus bill’ is that democrats insisted on a newly appointed Inspector General who would provide oversight in the disbursement of funds, especially the loans to businesses. The democrats intent was to ensure that Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin could not abuse the bailout fund. They feared that Mr. Trump, who has previously stonewalled congressional oversight, would do the same when it came to the corporate aid program.

Now, however, Trump is claiming that he can and will ignore the oversight provision. Two hours after signing the bill, Trump issued a statement saying that as president, he can gag the special inspector general for pandemic recovery, known by the acronym S.I.G.P.R., and keep information from Congress.

“I do not understand, and my administration will not treat, this provision as permitting the S.I.G.P.R. to issue reports to the Congress without the presidential supervision required.”

Checks and balances??? Congressional oversight??? Not for Donald Trump. This, folks, is the behaviour of a dictator. This is a Putin or an Erdoğan. This is not in any way, shape or form, in accordance with the foundation of law in the United States, the Constitution.

In light of his authoritarian ways, his unconscionable lust for power, and his complete disregard for the laws of the land, it is more imperative today than ever before that this ‘man’ be removed from office. It is more crucial than ever that we have a fair and honest election on November 3^rd no matter what.

Discord & Dissension – Part XI -The Climate

Posted on March 27, 2020 by jilldennison under Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Jeff & Jill's Project, Law and justice, Political commentary, Re-blogs, Social commentary

The single most important issue in the 2020 election (apart from unseating Trump, of course) is climate change. We have stepped back 20 years in the last three years under Trump, and quite frankly, time is running out. The earth’s resources are finite and we are using them at an alarming rate. For this, Part XI of our series Discord & Dissension, Jeff discusses where we are, where we need to go, how we can get there, and what happens if we don’t.

On The Fence Voters

While the Republican and Democratic Parties disagree on most things these days, nothing epitomizes the significant divide more than does climate change. And it’s not just those who sit in Congress either. According to a recent Pew Research poll conducted in February of this year, among Democrats and independents who lean to the Democratic Party, 78% said climate change should be a top priority.

However, among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, only 21% felt the same way. To put that in even more stark terms, Democrats view climate as a top priority by nearly three times that of Republicans.

And, it gets even worse when registered voters were asked whether climate change is a problem for the country today. 77% of Democrats/lean Democrat said yes, it was a huge problem, and 17% said it was a moderately big problem—a net of 94%. On the flip side, Republicans/lean Republican answered 13/27% for…

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