Tag Archives: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The Rise of the American Left and Nina Turner: What Her Win Would Mean

Posted on by under Election 2022, Election 2024, Political commentary, Re-blogs

Today I would like to share another post by our new blogging friend Quentin over at WeTheCommoners.  Quentin talks a bit about some of the up-and-coming new faces in the Democratic Party, or the ‘Left’, and then he posits that the new blood in the party needs to stand firm, that they aren’t being forceful enough and have been afraid to utilize their power.  Now, up to this point, I fully agree with him … the Democratic Party as a whole needs to be more forceful, not allow the ‘other side’ to walk all over them as they are so often doing these days.  But he takes it a step further and there is a point where I’m not quite 100% in agreement with him.  However, I want you to read this post with an open mind, for he makes many excellent points that should be given thought, so I won’t express my reservations just yet … perhaps later on in comments.  Thank you, Quentin, for a very thought-provoking, well-written post!

The Rise of the American Left and Nina Turner: What Her Win Would Mean

The American left has slowly risen in power. Would Nina Turner’s potential win in Ohio give them the energy they need to fight their own party?

By Quentin Choy

July 27, 2021

If you’ve paid any attention to American politics over the last five years, you’ve noticed several upstarts on the political left.

An unknown Senator from Vermont almost defeated Hillary Clinton and the Democratic machine in the 2016 primaries.

A young bartender in the Bronx defeated a 10-term Congressman. Over in the north Bronx, a high school principal defeated the chair of the House Foreign Affairs committee just two years later.

Please read the rest of the post by clicking on the link!

They Walk Among Us …

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2020, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants

Some days I wake up and wonder if I dreamed all the lunacy that is part of the United States today.  And then I pick up my phone, check the news, and … nope, not a dream, just a horrible reality.  And then I wish I could just stay in bed, not ever get up again.  I have a feeling that the founders of this nation would be deeply ashamed of some of the people who inhabit it today.  More than a few times I’ve thought perhaps we would have been better off to remain under British rule, for obviously we are not capable of self-governance today.  Just a few examples …

Unfit

Marge Green, aka Marjorie Taylor Greene, ought to be sent back home to Georgia until she can learn to act as an adult.  She seems to believe that the way to get her point across is to run after people shrieking like a banshee.  I mentioned once before that back in 2019, before she was erroneously elected to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, she ran after young David Hogg, a teen survivor of the Parkland school shootings, screaming questions at him and ultimately calling him a coward.  Hogg, more mature than Greene, kept walking and did not acknowledge her harassment, later saying “I was told growing up, it’s just better not to respond to bullies and just walk away.”  Which proves that at 19, he was more mature than Ms. Greene is today at 46.

The latest is that yesterday, Ms. Greene did the exact same thing to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, familiarly known as AOC.  Representative Ocasio-Cortez left the committee chamber slightly ahead of Greene, and Greene began shouting at her, yelling her name, and when AOC did not slow down or turn around, Greene became belligerent, speeding up and screeching that AOC was supporting terrorists (she specified that she was referring to Black Lives Matter), and screaming …

“You don’t care about the American people. Why do you support terrorists and antifa?”

Members of Congress are not going to always agree, they will have differences of opinion, and we always hope they will find common ground for compromise.  But this behaviour on the part of Marge Greene is simply unacceptable.  This is not professional, it is disrespectful, rude, and borders on criminal harassment.  I read an article last night that called Ms. Greene’s behaviour “extreme anti-leftist”.  No, it is not … it is juvenile, it is disrespectful, it is immature and the sign of a mind that is incapable of coherent thought.  Greene has never been qualified for her position and I suspect the people in her district in Georgia thought they were being funny when they elected her, but there is nothing funny about this – Greene is a threat and a danger to this nation.  GET.  HER.  OUT.

Lunatic

If you look up L. Lin Wood on Wikipedia, the first line tells you most of what you need to know:

“Lucian Lincoln “Lin” Wood Jr. (born October 19, 1952) is an American attorney and conspiracy theorist.”

Among his most famous conspiracy theories to date is that of The Big Lie, as Wood claims, despite mounds of evidence to the contrary, that “Trump had won the election with 70% of the vote, and that a secret cabal of international communists, Chinese intelligence, and Republican officials had contrived to steal the election from Trump.”

On Tuesday, Wood stood in front of a crowd in South Carolina and said …

“Donald J. Trump has never conceded…because he won the [2020] election. So be cool—it’s all going to be good in time. Donald J. Trump is still the guy the military will call for the code if they need a first strike. Joe Biden is not the President of the United States.”

Somebody needs to lock this man away before he causes irreparable harm to his family and himself!  Perhaps he and Marge Greene could share a padded room together!

He went on to say that Trump secretly invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807 before leaving office and can begin “cleaning things up” in the United States whensoever he desires. Per Wood, Trump will be the instrument of “God” when he does so.

No, Lin, the military will not call on the former guy for a nuclear code, and in fact, the former guy doesn’t have access to the nuclear codes anymore!  And if he is an ‘instrument of god’, then your god is evil incarnate!  Surely people aren’t so stupid as to fall for this bullshit?  And no, your former guy is naught more than an instrument of a deranged set of minds, people who cannot separate fact from fantasy.

Murderers

On January 6th, thousands of white supremacist and other potential murderers stormed the Capitol as the Congress prepared to certify the election results of 2020.  They erected a noose outside the Capitol, they went in chanting “Hang Mike Pence”, and it was later said they planned to drive all members of Congress into the underground tunnels and gas them to death.  These are the facts.

On Wednesday, a number of people testified about that day before Congress, including Representative Andrew Clyde from the state of Georgia, who said …

“Let me be clear, there was no insurrection. You would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.”

NO, YOU ONE-MAN FREAKSHOW!!!  No, nobody with a conscience and a brain would have thought that was a “normal tourist visit”.  There was a noose.  There were 140 police officers injured.  There were guns.  There was violence.  There were five people killed that very day.  There was a noose.  There was death and destruction.  These were jackfaces who had been encouraged by the asshole of a then-president to destroy the normal processes of law and silence our voices, overturn our election where WE THE PEOPLE voted for sanity, for compassion, for a president who had a fucking brain and the capability to speak in complete sentences!

The Republican Party can go down in flames for all that I care.  Mr. Andrew Clyde can hang himself in his own noose for all I care.  They are a lot of hypocritical jackasses and I hope they every one get what they deserve!

And speaking of those who attempted to commit treason on that fateful day … I loved this Randy Rainbow clip about none other than the empty-headed Josh Hawley …

Still More Tears Of Shame

Posted on by under Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

It’s a known fact that Trump only likes people who are Caucasian and who pay homage to him by approving of his antics and wearing an ugly red hat.  But he took his phobia  of ‘other’ a bit too far last week when speaking of four freshman democratic members of Congress …

“So interesting to see ‘Progressive Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly……….and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run.”

“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how…….it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”

The comment was sexist, Islamophobic, crass, and far beneath the dignity of the office he claims.  Nancy Pelosi appropriately chastised him …

“When @realDonaldTrump tells four American Congresswomen to go back to their countries, he reaffirms his plan to ‘Make America Great Again’ has always been about making America white again. Our diversity is our strength and our unity is our power. … I reject @realDonaldTrump’s xenophobic comments meant to divide our nation. Rather than attack Members of Congress, he should work with us for humane immigration policy that reflects American values. Stop the raids — #FamiliesBelongTogether!”

I concur 100% with Pelosi’s admonishment, and as always, I am stunned at the cruelty, the ignorance of the ‘man’ in the Oval Office.  But more than that, what appalls and confuses me is that those who support Trump, both in Congress and in the population at large, can hear his words and still think he is qualified for the office he claims.  NEVER before has a president been so crass, so uneducated, so disrespectful, and yet he still has a following of somewhere around 35% – 40%.  It is jaw-dropping.

I wrote the above yesterday, planned to make it the first of a couple of snarky snippets, but this morning I awaken to news that in the face of public outrage over his comments, he has dialed up the heat even more, and I decided this is to be the sole topic for this post.

He who uttered racist, hate-filled words directed at members of Congress based solely on their ethnicity, now “demands” an apology from them!  People … this is so very wrong.  As Speaker Pelosi said above, this affirms that his plan to ‘make America great’ is nothing more than a plan to make America white.  What an abomination … what a sorry excuse for a ‘man’, for a ‘president’.  His latest …

“When will the Radical Left Congresswomen apologize to our Country, the people of Israel and even to the Office of the President, for the foul language they have used, and the terrible things they have said. So many people are angry at them & their horrible & disgusting actions!”

If people are angry with the Congresswomen, then those people are immediately identified, in my book, as racists … terrible, bigoted racists.  That the ‘man’ who sits in the Oval Office uses this level of vitriol against duly elected officials in a branch of government equal to his own, is simply beyond belief, unacceptable.

The four members of Congress with whom he has taken issue are:

  • Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts
  • Rashida Tlaib of Michigan
  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York
  • Ilhan Omar of Minnesota

4-muslim-congressAll but one, Ilhan Omar, were born in the United States and are therefore U.S. citizens by birth.  Ilhan Omar became a U.S. citizen in 2000, at the age of 17.  Every one of them have as much right as Trump himself to reside in this country, and they have as much … nay, more … right to sit in Congress than Trump has to sit in the Oval Office, for they were all actually elected by a majority of the voters in their districts, and without the help of Vladimir Putin or an ‘electoral college’.

“If Democrats want to unite around the foul language & racist hatred spewed from the mouths and actions of these very unpopular & unrepresentative Congresswomen, it will be interesting to see how it plays out. I can tell you that they have made Israel feel abandoned by the U.S.”

Frankly, their concerns about Israel are justified and mirror my own.  Under Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has become a domineering bully, and Trump has fed the monster.

Only one republican in Congress found the guts to speak out against Trump’s diatribe, and that was a milquetoast reaction by Representative Chip Roy, who tweeted …

“POTUS was wrong to say any American citizen, whether in Congress or not, has any ‘home’ besides the U.S.”

All the rest of the republicans sitting in the Capitol today remained silent.  Their silence speaks more loudly than any words could, don’t you think?

Fox ‘News’ commentators Griff Jenkins, Jedidiah Bila, and Todd Piro laughed about Trump’s racist tweets.  They referred to them as “very comedic”.Fox commentatorsFortunately, other leaders around the world were appalled …

“Donald Trump telling four ethnic minority American congresswomen to “go back” where they “originally came from”. 1950s racism straight from the White House.” – David Lammy, Member of Parliament of the UK

“The President of the United States telling elected politicians — or any other Americans for that matter — to ‘go back’ to other countries is not OK, and diplomatic politeness should not stop us saying so, loudly and clearly.” – Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland

“I’ve heard it from racists and fascists. Never from a mainstream politician. Here you have the president of the U.S.A. using that same sort of language.” – Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London

“It’s an insult to the Statue of Liberty, America’s most famous symbol, an insult to the American values where migrants from all over the world are united as one nation under one law.” – Ibrahim Milhim, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority

“Trump’s racism is sickening. Any European politician who fails to condemn this has questions to answer & should be ashamed of themselves.” – Guy Verhofstadt, Belgian politician and member of the EU Parliament

Donald Trump is the shame of this nation, a wart that grows larger and uglier with each passing day.  He shames us all when he speaks such hateful, vitriolic words.  Today, I am ashamed of this nation, ashamed to be called an “American”.

Cruel And Inhumane …

Posted on by under Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary

aoc.jpg“This administration has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying. This is not hyperbole. It is the conclusion of expert analysis. And for the shrieking Republicans who don’t know the difference: concentration camps are not the same as death camps. Concentration camps are considered by experts as “the mass detention of civilians without trial.” And that’s exactly what this administration is doing.”

Those are the words of freshman Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on June 18th.  I fully agree with her words.  She has been taken to task by republicans, and even by Yad Vashem, of the Holocaust research center.  I have read the arguments, pro and con, and I still agree with Ms. Ocasio-Cortez.  The conditions under which we are holding people, particularly children, against their will and for no legitimate reason, is unconscionable, is a crime against humanity, and defies international law.  It is not much different from what the concentration camps in Germany were in the early days of Hitler’s regime, before the death camps.

What crime have these children committed?  None.  What crime have their parents, then, committed?  In most cases none, unless it is a crime to flee from violence and seek a safe haven for one’s family.

What, exactly, are ‘crimes against humanity’?  The United Nations Human Rights Council defines crimes against humanity as …

“… murder, extermination, torture, enslavement, persecution on political, racial, religious or ethnic grounds, institutionalized discrimination, arbitrary deportation or forcible transfer of population, arbitrary imprisonment, rape, enforced prostitution and other inhuman acts committed in a systematic manner or on a large scale and instigated or directed by a Government or by any organization or group.”

Warren Binford is a law professor at Willamette University in Oregon, and one of the few lawyers that visited a Customs and Border Patrol detention center in Clint, Texas, where 250 infants, children and teenagers are being held.  According to her report, these children are denied adequate food, water or sanitation.  Listen to what she said about the conditions in this facility …

There is a 1997 federal court ruling that came as a result of abuses dating to the 1980s, that strictly limits the government’s ability to keep children in immigration detention.  This is known as the Flores Settlement, and it requires the federal government to do two things: to place children with a close relative or family friend “without unnecessary delay,” rather than keeping them in custody; and to keep immigrant children who are in custody in the “least restrictive conditions” possible.

Trump has fought to overturn or circumvent the Flores Settlement, but it is one thing he cannot legally accomplish via executive order, so the republicans in Congress have proposed legislation that would effectively overrule the decree.  Last week, the government was in federal court to argue that it shouldn’t be required to give detained migrant children toothbrushes, soap, towels, showers or even half a night’s sleep inside Border Patrol detention facilities.  Yes, you read that right.

Arguing the government’s case was Justice Department lawyer Sarah Fabian who faced a three-judge panel.  Ms. Fabian was, as she should have been, shredded by the judges, for there can be no legitimate case for depriving children of the most basic necessities.  She hedged and deflected, lied and stuttered, and at the end of the day she looked like the fool that she is.  Take a look …

Her only real argument was that the Flores Settlement does not specifically list the items that must be provided in border facilities, and that it created a problem of “enumerating certain hygiene items”.  Circuit Judge William Fletcher responded …

“It wasn’t perfume soap. It was soap. It wasn’t high-class mild soap. It was soap. And that sounds like it [falls in the category] of safe and sanitary. Are you disagreeing with that?”

I wonder how Ms. Fabian would like to sleep in her clothes, on the floor, with only a piece of tin foil for a blanket, then wake the next morning unable to either shower or brush her teeth?  Or Donald Trump?  Perhaps they should have to spend a night or two in the conditions they have imposed on these children.

Six migrant children have died in the “protective” custody of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).  How many more … how many more must die before someone in the Department of Justice or the administration has the guts to stand up and say, “ENOUGH!!!”?  The federal government of the United States already has blood on its hands.  Donald Trump has blood on his hands and is as guilty of murder as if he had personally killed those six children.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is essentially correct, these are no better than concentration camps.  I hear my representative, republican Warren Davidson, referring to how “proud” we should be of our country.  His only concern these days is something or other to do with “cryptocurrency”.  I hear Trump say how he’s made this such a “great country”.  I disagree.  Right now, I am not proud of this nation … not one little bit.

Two For Twoday …

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Environmental Issues, Political commentary, Rants

I had every intention of writing a nice, calm peaceful piece this afternoon … something NOT about Trump or his minions, something either funny, promising, or inspiring in one way or another.  But then, a couple of things crossed my radar and suddenly I find myself beating the print off of my keyboard (literally, for I no longer have lettering on my ‘I’, ‘o’, or ‘n’ keys!).  So, I hope you’re in the mood for a few of my snarky snippets …

Non-Press Secretary Sanders leaves climate change to God …

Sarah Huckabee Sanders-1Sarah Huckabee Sanders was told by her boss not to bother with daily, or even weekly press briefings anymore, for the press don’t talk nice to her, and they don’t say nice things about da prez, so why bother?  So … I’m very puzzled as to what her job description is these days, why We the Taxpayers are still paying her the $179,700 annual salary, for she damn sure isn’t doing anything to earn it!  But now I know … she goes on Fox New talk shows and makes a complete fool of herself …

Earlier this week, newly-minted House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in an on-stage interview that we needed to act on climate change before it was too late. She noted that the “world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change,” referencing the tipping point after which scientists say it’ll be too late to address greenhouse gas emissions. She’s right about all that. And she’s especially right to point that out when we have a government that rejects climate science in addition to ignoring science in general.

So then on Tuesday night, during an interview with, of all people, Fox ‘News’ Sean Hannity, Sarah Huckabee Sanders decided that only God should be concerned about climate change, and that our government has bigger fish to fry …

“Look, I don’t think we’re going to listen to her on much of anything, particularly not on matters we’re gonna leave in the hands of a much, much higher authority, and certainly not listen to the freshman congresswoman on when the world may end. We’re focused on what’s happening in the world right now.”

Need I say more?

Come into my parlour, said the spider to the fly …

Remember back in July, when we learned that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, did not have the highest-level security clearance necessary to review high-level documents?  The reason was he kept messing up his security review, because he kept ‘forgetting’ to record interactions with a number of foreign officials, primarily Russians.  I had mostly forgotten about it, and I imagine you did too, but yesterday I saw this headline …

Report: Security officials rejected Kushner’s top secret clearance, but were overruled

kushner.jpegTurns out that two career White House security specialists rejected Jared Kushner’s application for a top-secret security clearance after Kushner’s FBI background check raised red flags, and there were concerns about his foreign entanglements.  Kusher’s family businesses leave him vulnerable to foreign influence, they said, and he has not satisfactorily explained some of his Russian connections.  Why is this guy even working in our government???  But wait …

Their supervisor, Carl Kline, who became director of the personnel security office in the Executive Office of the President in May 2017, decided to override their professional opinion and give Kushner the highest level of security clearance despite the concerns of the FBI!!!  Think about that one for a moment, folks!  And … not only that, but this Kline person has also overruled at least 30 other rejections of incoming Trump officials!  I want to know who those people are and what the objections were!  Is our government being infiltrated with Russian agents or those who are entangled with Russian agents?  Who knows?

Those who keep saying that the foundation, The U.S. Constitution, the rule of law, will protect us from a Trump-dictatorship need to think about this one long and hard.  Sure, there are rules in place, but Donald Trump has long since decided that those rules do not apply to him and his chosen minions!  Our lives, our future, are in the hands of a maniacal madman who believes the world is made only for him.