A New Batch Of Snarky Snippets … Grrrrr

Posted on December 10, 2019 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, Free Press Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

There are a number of relatively minor things that have cropped up in the last couple of days with seemingly the sole purpose of stirring my ire. So … you know what that means … it must be time for some snarky snippets, yes?

Let’s start with Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and some speculate next vice-presidential running mate for Trump in 2020. As governor, I had a great deal of respect for Ms. Haley. As ambassador, I had less, for she fell in line with Trump’s ideology, if he can be said to actually have one. She became one of his sycophants, and I lost much of my respect for her.So, why is she raising my hackles today? Well … last Friday she was being interviewed in a podcast on conservative Glenn Beck’s radio program. One segment of the podcast was about Dylan Roof who, in June 2015, opened fire in an African-American church, killing nine people. Roof was an avowed white supremacist who had posted pictures of himself posing with the Confederate flag prior to his attack.

Ms. Haley said …

“Here is this guy who comes out with his manifesto, holding the Confederate flag and had just hijacked everything that people thought of. We don’t have hateful people in South Carolina. There’s always the small minority who are always going to be there, but people saw it as service, sacrifice and heritage. But once he did that, there was no way to overcome it.”

Let’s call a spade a bloody shovel here. The Confederate flag never stood for “service, sacrifice and heritage”. It has always stood for a lifestyle that included slavery, the ownership of other human beings simply because of the colour of their skin. Period.

Ms. Haley’s argument was that the Confederate flag was noble until Dylan Roof made it appear to represent white supremacy. IT DOES represent white supremacy, fool! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, shot back on Twitter …

“Really, Nikki?! The Confederate Flag represented ‘service, sacrifice and heritage’? To whom? The black people who were terrorized & lynched in its name? You said it should never have been there. Roof didn’t hijack the meaning of that flag, he inherited it.”

Racism, folks … it’s alive and well in the United States of America.

Seema Verma has flown beneath my radar since she was appointed by Trump, then confirmed by the Senate in March 2017 to the position of Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This is the agency that oversees Medicare, Medicaid, and the insurance markets.Now, Ms. Verma came into the job with some conflicts of interest, and had the Senate done its job, she likely would not have passed muster. She is the founder and previous CEO of SVC Inc., a health policy consulting firm, which was acquired by Health Management Associates (HMA) just prior to Verma’s nomination to head CMS.

One of her first actions was to send a letter to the nation’s governors urging them to impose insurance premiums for Medicaid, charge Medicaid recipients for emergency room visits, and encourage recipients to get jobs or job training. In her role as CMS administrator, Verma spent more than $2 million of taxpayer funds on Republican-connected communications consultants and other expenses to boost her visibility and public image. She has made numerous speeches and attacks against the concept of Medicare-for-All … enough so that she is now the defendant in a lawsuit claiming she is in violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal officials engaging in political activity.

But what placed her on my radar was a trip she took back in August. She claims that jewelry, clothing and other possessions, including a $5,900 Ivanka Trump-brand pendant (that she owned one speaks volumes about her character, in my book) were stolen from her luggage during that business-related trip. Okay, fine … if that were me or you, we would file a claim against the airline and maybe, if we were lucky, get reimbursed for some small portion of it.

But, Ms. Verma decided that We the Taxpayers ought to reimburse her for what she claims was the value of her ‘loss’. To the tune of $47,000!!! More than most of us make in a bloomin’ year! And what sort of a numptie (been listening to my Brit friends too long) takes things of that value on a business trip anyway? And why is it my fault or yours? And why should we pay for her ignorance??? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Her claim included $43,065 for about two dozen pieces of jewelry, based off an appraisal she’d received from a jeweler about three weeks after the theft. Who takes 24 pieces of jewelry on a business trip, then fails to insure them? And the claim further included $2,000 to cover the cost of her stolen clothes, a $325 claim for moisturizer and a $349 claim for noise-cancelling headphones. My entire wardrobe does not consist of $2,000 worth of clothing. My moisturizer costs $4.99, and my headphones are Skullcandy, $29.99 at Best Buy! Just one more alligator in the huge swamp that Trump built.

Not to worry, though, for the federal health department that oversees her agency decided to reimburse her for only $2,852.40 of OUR money.

Owen Shroyer … ever heard of him before? Neither had I. He’s a host on Alex Jones’ Infowars program, which I thought had long since met its timely demise since being banned from Apple, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Apparently, they still exist somewhere on the fringes.

It would seem that there is no screening process for entrance to the impeachment proceedings, for Mr. Shroyer managed to get in yesterday. Moments after Representative Jerry Nadler, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, opened the hearing, Shroyer rose from his seat in the packed hearing room and shouted …

“Jerry Nadler and the Democrat Party are committing treason against this country! Trump is innocent!”

Police quickly removed him from the room, during which time he was livestreaming to his personal Twitter account and yelling at the top of his lungs …

“So I’m being arrested right now for disrupting Congress. I’m a criminal for my First Amendment rights.”

Is there any doubt in anybody’s mind that Alex Jones was behind this, that it was naught more than a publicity stunt? At what cost?

Oh, and by the way, Mr. Shroyer actually called for President Barack Obama to be lynched just this past June …

“Barack Obama is a treasonous…he belongs in jail. He belongs in Guantanamo Bay. I mean look, I’m not saying this should happen but Barack Obama, you know, find the tallest tree and a rope.”

All my life I have been a proponent for 1^st Amendment rights to free speech, but in the past year, maybe two, I have begun to re-think it. It has been abused so much, by so many unsavouries such as Mr. Shroyer, Mr. Jones, Mr. Carlson and a few thousand others, that I’m coming to believe there must be limits. As our friend Roger said to me the other evening, “Free speech is not a right; it is something which has to be earned.” I’m not so sure the people of this nation have earned it. Rather a damn shame for the rest of us who use our rights responsibly, don’t you think?

I had one more, but … I shall stop here and give you a chance to breathe. Make America great again, says Mr. Trump? I think not … I think he has placed the United States in the worst light it has been in in all of its 232 years.

Eight Years Ago Today …

Posted on August 9, 2018 by jilldennison under Personal

This morning, I found the above amidst my comments ‘n likes. My jaw dropped. Eight years? I’ve been writing this blog for eight years, since 2010? Who knew? Of course, in the beginning it was only used as another venue for my book reviews, as I was hoping at the time to work my way into being a paid reviewer. What could be better than getting paid for doing what you love to do anyway, right? But, things happened, times changed, and I somehow … I’m still scratching my head here … gave up doing book reviews, stopped working on my Ph.D., and became a political blogger! In truth, as I went back through my archives, I wrote only one post in 2010, and did not write another until 2012, when I wrote four, three of which were book reviews, including one of my favourites, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.

The anniversary notice and the subsequent realization that it had been eight years already gave me some food for pondering about this blog, my blogging family, and what it all means to me.

Today, I have over 2,100 followers, but I well remember the day somewhere around 2013-2014 when I did a fist-pump because I had progressed to 30 followers!!! I thought I was in the big leagues with my 30 followers. Until I ran into Jason of HarsH ReaLiTy, aka aopinionatedman. Jason had 56,000 followers and counting. He and I have since parted ways, for he didn’t much care for my political views, but he helped me a lot in those early days, explaining the ins-and-outs of blogging, giving me pointers, and re-blogging some of my work, for which I remain eternally grateful. I still don’t know how he does it, for he answers every comment, writes several posts each day, works a full-time job as a computer guru, and has a wife and two small children! I struggle to write two posts a day and answer most comments, usually at 3:00 a.m.! I hope I never get to 56,000, or I shall have to hire a staff.

The name? This blog started as jilldennison blog. Creative, huh? My friend Herb — both of us speak fluent Spanish — suggested I rename it Filosofa’s Word, ‘Filosofa’ being Spanish for ‘philosopher’, and ‘word’ being English for … well, ‘word’! I liked it and so, that is what I named it!

In April 2015, my blog took a turn that was to change its face entirely and it turned into a socio-political blog with the shooting of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. I remember that I couldn’t stop the tears, and I wrote about it as a catharsis, I needed to speak about it. Since then I have written only three book reviews. There goes my dream of becoming a paid reviewer, huh? And then, of course, in June 2015 came the tsunami that would turn this into a political blog – Donald J. Trump announced his intention to run for president. And nothing would ever be the same. Other events in June 2015 also played a role: The Supreme Court upheld subsidies for ACA (Obamacare) and most important of all, they ruled on Obergefell v Hodges, making same-sex marriage legal nationwide. Also in June 2015, a young man named Dylan Roof walked into an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, and started shooting, killing nine people, and we came to realize that the face of our nation was changing.

And so, this blog changed its direction and is what I consider socio-political commentary, though obviously under the regime of Trump, it is more political than socio! A few times, I fleetingly thought of giving it up, but in the back of my mind, I knew better. It was just a debate me, myself and I needed to have to get my head back on straight, for sometimes the topics I write about take a very dark turn and send me down the rabbit hole. So, what does this blog mean to me?

This blog takes up at least half, usually more, of my waking hours, and I would spend even more time on it if there weren’t such petty things as laundry, cooking and household chores to be done! What I do … well, I’m pretty sure I’m not convincing any republicans that Donald Trump is a bloomin’ fool, and as my friend Hugh sometimes reminds me, I am mostly spitting in the wind, or preaching to the choir. But, it gives me an outlet to share my thoughts, occasionally vent my angst. But the best thing to come from writing this blog? YOU!!! Yes you … if you are reading this post, then you are a friend, a member of my blogging family, and you are a very real part of my life. When I started this blog eight years ago, I never dreamed that I would meet such a wonderful and diverse bunch of people and that you guys would become friends. Yes, friends, just as much as any that I see on a semi-regular basis. Sometimes I tell you guys things that I don’t even tell my own family! (No, they rarely read my blog, and then only if I threaten to withhold supper!)

The future? Who knows? Obviously, the best laid plans, etc., etc. I suspect the U.S. political scene will continue to keep me busy for a few years yet, but time will tell. A relatively new reader, Ellen, has suggested that I add an archive section to my blog, which I think is an excellent idea, and I plan to do so within the next couple of weeks. Another reader, rawgod, has asked me twice now to feature myself in a ‘good people’ post, for he thinks I am a good people. I don’t necessarily agree with him, but I love him for thinking so, and he is rather insistent, so who knows?

I love you guys and want to tell you all how very much it means when I see that you liked a post or left a comment. And … well … 🥂 … here’s to another eight years together! Thanks to you all for sticking with me and for being such great friends!

A few links to the aforementioned posts:

Somebody Please Take His Pardon Pen?

Posted on May 31, 2018 by jilldennison under Political commentary, Social commentary

What do these two men have in common?

They are both bigots and haters, they have both broken the law, and they are both so well-loved by Donald Trump that he has used his pardon pen to exonerate them of any wrongdoing. Sorry, Trump, they are both ugly people without a shred of humanity and in my book, they are still guilty.

Until the reign of Trump, arguably the most controversial presidential pardon had been that of Gerald Ford pardoning Richard Nixon. Nixon committed a crime, rigged an election, and did not deserve to be pardoned. But I would argue that the pardons of Joe Arpaio and Dinesh D’Souza are even worse than Nixon’s. Why? Because Nixon was done, there was no way he was going to be allowed back into the political arena after Watergate. Arpaio, however, has been unleashed upon the nation and is now running for a seat in the U.S. Senate. D’Souza? Who knows what doors this pardon may open for him, and while it is too late for him to run for a congressional seat this year, I would not be surprised to see him on the ballot in 2020.

You already know about Joe Arpaio, and if you need a memory refresher, you can check him out here. So, let’s talk a little bit about D’Souza.

D’Souza is an uber-conservative political commentator, author, filmmaker, and convicted felon. He was an avid Obama-hater and in fact seems to hate anything and anybody associated with the Democratic Party. His crime? Campaign finance fraud. He donated 5 times the FEC limit on direct contributions ($5,000) by an individual to a PAC in the campaign of Wendy Long, the longshot Republican nominee running against Kristen Gillibrand for US Senate in New York in 2012. He did this by using his friends as a ‘pass-through’ for contributions of $5,000 each. Campaign finance violations are felonies, and D’Souza pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a $30,000 fine, five years’ probation, and eight months in a community confinement center (halfway house). D’Souza served his time, but only at night … he merely went there to sleep, and his days were unsupervised.

D’Souza is an intellectual who was once well-respected within the Republican Party, but in recent years has turned more toward conspiracy theories against Democrats, and specifically against President Obama and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

As I was writing this post, a news flash came across my screen that Trump is also considering pardoning Martha Stewart and commuting the sentence of Rod Blagojevich. Huh??? Did the man just wake up this morning and decide to pardon everyone?

Generally, those seeking pardons must wait five years from the date they are released from confinement before becoming eligible, and they must apply to the Office of the Pardon Attorney. Joe Arpaio never served a day in prison, thanks to Trump’s pardon which came shortly after he was convicted of criminal contempt of court. D’Souza was only convicted in 2014, and did not even file an application for pardon.

Martha Stewart, convicted in 2004 of insider trading and lying, doesn’t much bother me, for I consider her beneath serious thought. For the life of me, though, I cannot understand why Trump would want to pardon her. But Blagojevich was the governor of Illinois when he was convicted for trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama. Would Trump’s pardon allow him to re-enter politics? Let’s hope not.

The conclusion we can draw from this latest madness is that Trump believes that the laws are there for some people, but that they do not apply to him, and that he can decide to whom they do apply. Now, granted there have been questionable and controversial pardons throughout history. But those are in the past, and we are living in the present, the reign of Trump that I am seriously beginning to think of as the Second Reign of Terror. Is Trump pardoning these people to add to his list of loyal sycophants?

And now, I raise the question: Who will Trump pardon next? Whose sentence might he try to commute? Dylan Roof who murdered 9 people in a church in 2015? Can he pardon a murderer? Under certain circumstances, yes.

Article 2, Section 2, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution reads:

“The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.”

The only people he cannot pardon are those who are impeached, or those who are convicted of a state criminal offense. I have mentioned before that it may be time for some serious revisions to the Constitution. I repeat. The framers of the Constitution never, in their wildest nightmares, could have imagined the madman who now occupies the White House. They honestly trusted the American people with having the good sense to select only the best people to oversee our government. I have the greatest respect for the Founding Fathers, but … boy did they screw up on that trust thing!

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Eight Years Ago Today …