The RNC — A Laugh A Minute!

Posted on August 25, 2020 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2020, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

I did not watch even a single minute of the Republican National Convention, nor do I plan to. I have enough troubles at the moment, without having to watch vomit-inducing speeches by some of the ugliest people in the nation. But, I read enough news stories and commentaries this morning to draw a couple of conclusions, which I shall share here with you today.

First, it appears that the Republican Party, or should I say, Donald Trump, has no platform. Their platform, such as it is, seems to be to turn Joe Biden … all democrats, in fact … into some sort of monster who must be feared. A few samples …

Joe Biden and the radical left are now coming for our freedom of speech. They want to bully us into submission. If they get their way, it will no longer be the silent majority. It will be the silenced majority. – Don Trump Junior
Joe Biden and the radical left Democrats … want to drag us into the dark. – Don Trump Junior
The woke-topians will disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home and invite MS-13 to live next door, and the police aren’t coming when you call. – Matt Gaetz
They want to steal your liberty, your freedom. They want to control what you see and think and believe so that they can control how you live. They want to enslave you to the weak, dependent, liberal victim ideology, to the point that you will not recognize this country or yourself. – Kimberly Guilfoyle (Junior’s latest paramour)
They’re not satisfied with spreading the chaos and violence into our communities. They want to abolish the suburbs altogether. Make no mistake, no matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats’ America. – the McCloskeys (the couple who pointed guns at peaceful protestors simply walking down the sidewalk)

There’s more, but you get the message, right? In 2016, Trump’s only real platform was fear-mongering, telling the less intellectual among us that we must be afraid of immigrants, for they are coming to rape your women, kill your children, and take your jobs. He painted Latinos as rapists and murderers, and Middle-Easterners as Islamic terrorists, in order to strike terror into the hearts of those who knew no better. “I alone can fix this,” he claimed. And this year is no different … just a different ‘enemy’ this time.

And along those lines, the speakers at the RNC went out of their way to claim that Trump is not a racist and the U.S. is not a racist nation, even as Trump refers to the coronavirus as the “China virus”, and Junior calls Joe Biden, “Beijing Biden”. Oh no, no racism here!

“In much of the Democratic party it’s now fashionable to say America is racist. That is a lie. America is not a racist country.” – Nikki Haley

Try telling that to the family of George Floyd, or to Jacob Blake, fighting for his life in a Milwaukee hospital.Last Friday, Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris was asked by ABC News’ David Muir in a joint interview with Joe Biden about various names Trump has called her recently. Her response should be an example for all of us when Trump and his cronies start with the name-calling and the lies. Senator Harris laughed.

Muir: “President Trump has referred to you as ‘nasty,’ ‘a sort of madwoman,’ ‘a disaster,’ ‘the meanest, most horrible, most disrespectful of anybody in the U.S. Senate.’ How do you define what you hear from the president?”

Harris started to laugh halfway through the question.

Harris: “Listen, I really – I think there is so much about what comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth that is designed to distract the American people from what he is doing every day that is about neglect, negligence and harm to the American people.”

I really think this is what we must all learn to do … laugh at the ridiculousness of the claims, then move on and focus on the positive, focus on Joe Biden’s candidacy, his platform, the things that will begin to heal the deep wounds in this nation. Trump & Co can only make those wounds deeper, more infectious, if we allow them to. Here’s an example for you …

I had to laugh at the part where Junior said, “Our founders believed there was nothing more important than protecting our God given right to think for ourselves.” Think? Junior? 🤣🤣🤣

They really are a riot … rather like an episode of The Three Stooges, only with really bad actors.

And if you want another joke, one speaker even compared Trump to George Bailey in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life!!!

And perhaps the most ludicrous of all, given all the irrefutable evidence of Trump’s campaign colluding with Putin and the Russians to influence the 2016 election, is this statement by Trump himself …

“We caught them doing some really bad things in 2016. We have to be very careful because they’re trying it again with this whole 80 million mail-in ballots that they’re working on. The only way they can take this election away from us is if it’s a rigged election.”

Remember, folks … LAUGH!!! If you don’t laugh, you might cry, and I understand that the tissue companies like Kleenex and Puffs are already working overtime to try to meet demand!

Let’s Do the One Thing Trump Is Incapable Of: FOCUS

Posted on August 3, 2020 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Free Press Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Re-blogs, Social commentary

We are bombarded with so much ‘news’ on a daily basis, much of it designed to raise our hackles, to speak to our worst nightmares, to instill either fear or a sense of hopelessness. Our friend TokyoSand reminds us that in order to win in November, in order to defeat the current regime and begin to restore some semblance of democratic principles, we must maintain our focus. She makes some excellent points that we all need to keep in mind. Thank you once again for your clear thinking and sound advice!

Political⚡Charge

How did you feel when you heard that Trump had suggested delaying the election last week?

Outraged? Scared? Angry?

I certainly saw all of these things in articles, opinion pieces, on social media, and in conversations. And people talked and talked and talked. I found it hard to be online, with so much fear and panic in the air.

It didn’t seem to matter when folks–including constitutional professors and scholars–pointed out that Trump can’t delay the election. That the only body that has that authority is Congress, and Pelosi and McConnell would have to agree to a new date. That just is never going to happen.

No, what I saw was people who WANTED to wallow in the fear and “what if” scenarios and dive deeper into the darkness.

Not to be mean, but I just don’t have time for that. I will respond…

View original post 475 more words

And now, a word from George Will

Posted on January 21, 2019 by jilldennison under Political commentary, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Our friend Keith has once again written a post that is thoughtful and makes some very valid points, with a little help from George Will. Thank you, Keith, for sharing these seeds of wisdom!

musingsofanoldfart

I have noted before the significant number of respected conservative pundits and editorialists who have shared concerns over the President. George Will, a long time conservative, is among those who see the damage being done by the man in the White House. Like other conservative critics, his voice should be one that is heeded by those conservatives who are not totally in lock-step with the President.

In his most recent column called “Trump’s misery is also country’s,” Will is hypercritical of both the policies and behavior of the current President. He is also not too keen on the current Senate leadership for not doing their job to govern, being too interested in acquiescing to the President’s commands.

As for policy, he cited several examples, but two jump out. He is critical of the Trump and the GOP leadership as he notes, “Except that after two years of unified government under…

View original post 322 more words

Fear of Immigrants?

Posted on December 30, 2018 by jilldennison under Global Issues, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

I am asked, “Why does Donald Trump hate and fear immigrants so much?” I have no readily available answer, but it sets the wheels turning in my mind … why does he? We know what he says, but we also know that is only hateful rhetoric designed to instill fear in his 30% – 40% base who must be kept in fear so that they will continue to cling to him, to support him. He says that those trying to immigrate to the U.S. are animals, not people. He tells his base that the migrants are murderers, criminals, and rapists and that we are in danger from them. But he knows better, for otherwise why would he feel safe at Mar-a-Lago or at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, both of which have undocumented immigrants on staff?

Why, then, does he fear them? The answer is that he doesn’t fear the immigrants … he fears losing his base if they ever figure out the whopping lies he has told them. His rhetoric about migrants is a tool, nothing more. Let us meet a few of the migrants that attempted to come to this country in the latest caravan … the caravan that Trump has wasted so much of our money sending troops to “defend us against”.

Meet Jennifer and her daughter Lucia. They fled Honduras because life there was very hard and had become increasingly difficult because of the persistent violence.

And here’s Junior and his mother Maria. Junior’s father was killed by gangs in Honduras.

And here is 17-year-old Maeli. She joined the caravan with her young son because she feared for their safety in Honduras. They’ve been largely met with kindness on the long journey north, but things have been tense in Tijuana. She and other migrants had been staying in a makeshift camp on the beach when a crowd of local residents threw stones at them.

And this is Juan Carlos, 16 years of age. The gang members that killed his two uncles in Honduras were pressuring him to either join their gang, else be killed himself.

Now here we have Nelson. Nelson is legally allowed to cross the border, and has three children living in Pennsylvania. So why is Nelson part of the migrant caravan? He said he wanted to experience the solidarity of the caravan, so he was traveling with them. He will wait until the rest are able to cross, he said, before he does.

So far, I haven’t seen anybody that looks like they are here to murder and rape us, have you? As I have said before, surely there are some unsavory characters who traveled with the caravan, but … people, look around the U.S. You want to see unsavory characters? Look at the “Proud Boys”, look at the followers of Richard Spencer … those who have swastikas tattooed on their bodies. Look at the white-hood-wearing cowards of the KKK who make their mischief anonymously, then run. Look, for that matter, at the likes of former Judge Roy Moore of Alabama. I could go on all day naming people in this country, citizens who were born right here, that I wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley.

Keith Luke, convicted rapist/murderer who “just wanted to kill non-whites”

So back to the original question. There is nothing to fear from these people and Donald Trump knows it because he has “illegal” immigrants working for him in his estates. Donald Trump is a racist, a bigot, and a white supremacist. Remember Charlottesville? He claimed the white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups who held that rally were ‘very fine people’. When he came under fire even from his own party for those remarks, he walked them back for one day, and then repeated them. But is he really a racist, or does it just suit his purpose to be one?

Donald Trump has disparaged Hispanics, African-Americans, Middle-Easterners, Asians … but the only time I have heard him speak of a white person in the same terms was if they were democrats or journalists or women or handicapped or Jewish. He puts down women every chance he gets. He denigrates and mocks the disabled. Remember his mockery of reporter Serge Kovaleski? It truly reminded me of something a high school freshman might do. Trump doesn’t just hate immigrants … Trump hates everybody. If you can do something for him … a vote, campaign donations … then he will pretend to like you. But the truth is that Trump thinks anyone who is not just like him is second-rate, and thankfully there are few who are ‘just like him’. In order to satisfy his own ego, he must de-humanize the rest of us in one way or another. In order to satisfy his dwindling base, he must keep up the lies that immigrants are dangerous, women and African-Americans are stupid, and so on.

I suspect that Donald Trump doesn’t fear immigrants at all, for they provide him with a much-needed platform to keep his base cowering and looking to him for protection.

Photos courtesy of the New York Times. For more, please see the original article.

Wise Words From A Wise Man …

Posted on June 29, 2018 by jilldennison under Election 2018, Political commentary, Social commentary

Last night President Barack Obama spoke at a Democratic National Committee (DNC) fundraiser in Los Angeles. He has stayed largely, and wisely, out of the public limelight and has had almost nothing to say for the past 17 months about the disaster known as the Trumptanic. Obama is a professional in every way, a man of heart and courage, a man who has always had the best interests of this nation and its people in mind. He is, however, planning to be a presence in the build-up to the November mid-terms, attending fundraisers such as the one last night, and helping democratic candidates in competitive races.

Let us take a look at some of the things he said last night:

“The simple message right now is that if people participate and they vote, that this democracy works. And if we don’t vote, then this democracy does not work.”

“The majority of the country doesn’t want to see a dog-eat-dog world where everybody is angry all the time. To a large degree, we are seeing a competition between two stories. . . . There’s the story that is based largely on fear, and there is a story based largely in hope. There’s the story that says we’re in it together, and there’s the story that says there’s an us and a them.”

“Fear is powerful. Telling people that somebody’s out to get you, or somebody took your job, or somebody has it out for you, or is going to change you, or your community, or your way of life — that’s an old story and it has shown itself to be powerful in societies all around the world. It is a deliberate, systematic effort to tap into that part of our brain that carries fear in it.”

“I would caution us from extrapolating too much from a bunch of special elections and starting to think that, ‘okay, this will take care of itself.’ Because it won’t.”

“I’m giving you the executive summary: Vote. Participate. Get involved. And do not wait for the perfect message, and don’t wait to feel a tingle in your spine because you’re expecting politicians to be so inspiring and poetic and moving that somehow, ‘OK, I’ll get off my couch after all and go spend the 15-20 minutes it takes for me to vote.’ Because that’s part of what happened in the last election. I heard that too much. Politics, like life, is imperfect. But there is better, and there is worse.”

“If what you are doing requires no sacrifice at all, then you can do more. If you are one of these folks who is watching cable news at your cocktail parties with your friends and you are saying ‘civilization is collapsing’ and you are nervous and worried, but that is not where you are putting all your time, energy and money, then either you don’t actually think civilization is collapsing … or you are not pushing yourself hard enough and I would push harder.”

“I am not surprised that instead of replacing what we had done with something better, they just have done their best to undermine and erode what’s already in place. Of course people are going to be angry about that, because if you had health care and suddenly somebody who says they’re going to make it better comes in and makes it worse, you’ll be pissed. You should go out and vote.”

“Reality has an interesting way of coming up and biting you, and the other side has been peddling a lot of stuff that is so patently untrue that you can get away with it for a while, but at a certain point, you confront reality. The Democrats’ job is not to exaggerate; the Democrats’ job is not to simply mimic the tactics of the other side. All we have to do is work hard on behalf of that truth. And if we do, we’ll get better outcomes.”

I think that no matter what your party affiliation, you have to admit there is a 180° contrast between the speech of Obama and that of the current occupant. Professional vs. clownish, quietly impassioned vs ridiculously vulgar. Listen to what he is saying, please, be proactive, work toward a better future for this nation than what we are currently facing. Most of all, in a word:

The Wall That Donnie Didn’t Build …

Posted on April 3, 2018 by jilldennison under Political commentary

Okay, folks, I want everyone to repeat after me: We do not need a wall to secure our southern border. Period. It is a damn shame that all of us … bloggers and paid journalists alike … are spending the bulk of our time these days trying to peel away the layers of lies and fraudulent claims by the ‘man’ who claims to be president. To an extent, he uses all this b.s. as a smokescreen, a distraction from Robert Mueller, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. But to a larger extent, the reality is simpler: Trump simply does not know how to be honest. He has spent so much of his life telling lies, that it is his norm. Unfortunately, he is now in a position such that his lies, if people in key decision-making positions believed them, could cause all manners of grief, leading up to and including an all-out war. And so, we all keep doing our best, wasting entire days, digging for what’s real and trying to shine a light in the dark corners where the truth has been hidden behind the web of lies.

The latest? We are back to the bloomin’ border wall between the Southern U.S. and Mexico. A superbly ridiculous idea at its inception, it has become even more so. To recap, though … does anybody remember how he kept saying Mexico would pay for the wall? We all knew he had no leverage, no power to force Mexico to pay for something that had no benefit to them. And Trump knew it, based on a conversation he had in August 2017 with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.

“But the fact is we are both in a little bit of a political bind because I have to have Mexico pay for the wall – I have to. We cannot say that anymore because if you are going to say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to meet with you guys anymore because I cannot live with that. I am willing to say that we will work it out, but that means it will come out in the wash and that is okay. But you cannot say anymore that the United States is going to pay for the wall. I am just going to say that we are working it out. Believe it or not, this is the least important thing that we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important talk about.”

Translation: You know you’re not going to pay for it, and I know you’re not going to pay for it, but let me keep saying it for a while, and then it will fade away.

But in Trump’s mind, that wall must be built regardless of who pays for it. Why? Because he remembers fondly how his supporters kept chanting, “Lock her up! Build that wall!!!” And he is as aware as any that some people don’t like him … really, really don’t like him … and that his very survival depends on those chanters staying happy.

Now, the problem is that there is no need for a wall, and most of us know that, so how can he justify paying for it with our money. We don’t want a damn wall! We want health care, we want clean air & water, we want better schools and affordable college, we want a myriad of things, but a wall is not one of them. Even the chanters didn’t really want a wall … until Trump convinced them that Mexicans were “bad hombres” and were coming to rape, pillage, and take their jobs. None of which, of course, has a shred of truth. So, since there is no need for the wall, no possible justification, Trump must create an illusion of a need. Which means he must lie. And that is exactly what he has done, yet again.

On Easter morning, while the rest of us were hiding/finding coloured eggs and chocolate bunnies, peeling veggies for later in the day, and relaxing with family, Donnie-boy was tweeting. (One has to feel a little sorry for his youngest son, Baron, for it seems Trump forgets he exists!)

“Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release. Getting more dangerous. “Caravans” coming. Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!” — 9:56 AM – Apr 1, 2018

“Mexico is doing very little, if not NOTHING, at stopping people from flowing into Mexico through their Southern Border, and then into the U.S. They laugh at our dumb immigration laws. They must stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. NEED WALL!” — 9:25 AM – 1 Apr 2018

And that stupid tweet actually garnered 125,000 likes!?!? Ah well. The point here, though, being that it is not true. None of it. Nada. Ni siquiera un poquito.

First, why must the word ‘democrat’ always be prefaced with an insult by Trump & Co? I am perfectly able to refer to ‘republicans’ without an offensive preface. This is offensive and highly unprofessional for a ‘man’ in his position. Second, ‘catch and release’ is an unofficial protocol first in use by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that began … oh, let me think … in 2001 under republican President George W. Bush. Hmmm but the “ridiculous liberal democrats” get blamed. And it is not a law, simply a protocol, the way things are done, and it started because ICE didn’t have time to be chasing down every immigrant that crossed the border for periods of up to six months.

And third, Trump claims that Mexico is doing little or nothing and that great “caravans” are headed our way and we must be afraid, very afraid. Just yesterday, the Mexican government broke up a caravan of nearly 1,000 from Central America, as they have done in the past. The government disbanded the group, issuing humanitarian visas to some, and giving the rest 10 days to leave or apply for permission to stay in Mexico. Below is a picture of some of the people from that ‘caravan’ …Scary looking bunch, eh?

Donald Trump, my friends, is lying to us, just as he always has and just as he always will. He uses fear tactics to get us to buy into his wall rhetoric. The bottom line is that the wall would cost us, the taxpayers, upward of $25 billion and would serve no purpose other than to assuage Trump’s ego. Congress realizes there is no need for a wall, since they allocated a small percentage of the cost in the budget, and put significant restraints on even that.

What Donald Trump has accomplished, however, is to once again anger the Mexican government. President Enrique Peña Nieto has already cancelled a planned visit. Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray came back with a tweet of his own:

“Every day Mexico and the U.S. work together on migration throughout the region. Facts clearly reflect this.”

It might, at this juncture, behoove us to recall that Mexico is one of our two logistically closest allies, as well as an important trading partner. Who among us would pick, pick and pick some more on our closest neighbor, knowing that there were plenty of enemies on the next street willing to do us harm?So, Trump is willing to use the lives of young people, the DACA Dreamers, as a bargaining chip to get his wall, for that is what this entire spate of ugly tweets boils down to. But let us not take our eyes off the real balls here: Robert Mueller, Stormy Daniels, and Karen McDougal, for those are the ones Trump is really afraid of. Those are the ones from whom he is trying to divert our attention. Focus, folks.

Filosofa's Word

Cogito Ergo Sum

Tag Archives: fear-mongering

The Wall That Donnie Didn’t Build …