Bits Of This ‘N That …

Posted on August 16, 2020 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

I don’t feel too snarky tonight, for some odd reason. That said, I’m sure I can work up to it, but let me start with something positive (for a change).

A rare breed: A republican of conscience

On Facebook yesterday, I happened upon this post by Nebraska State Senator John McCollister. McCollister is a republican who I began following a year or so ago for he is also a moderate, a man of values and good conscience, one of the few republican legislators who don’t bow to the GOP/Trump/evangelical party line, but stand for what he believes in, has the courage of his convictions.

Senator John S. McCollister

This week, a bill to ban abortion passed in the Nebraska Legislature. I voted AGAINST this bill. It was patently unconstitutional and inserts the state between a woman and her doctor.

We’ve grown accustomed to “Republicans” being loudly anti-choice, but this WASN’T always the case.

Just 3 years after Roe v. Wade, public opinion polls showed Republicans SUPPORTED abortion rights even MORE than Democrats!

Republican First Lady Betty Ford called Roe v. Wade a “great, great decision,” and Republican Vice President Nelson Rockefeller CAMPAIGNED for abortion rights in NY.

But in the mid-70s a realignment started to occur. Republican strategists realized they could peel off Dem. voting Catholics and evangelical protestants so they leaned HARD into this issue. Groups like the Moral Majority formed and abortion became an easy way to motivate the base.�
No thanks. This is not the Republican Party that I belong to. I am under NO obligation to conform to your revisionist version of the party (who by the way, continually skirts science, the rule of law, and the constitution).

You can have Trump. I’ll take Lincoln.

We need to fund women’s health. Let’s work to make abortion rare, legal, and safe.

If only all republicans were like Senator McCollister!

Sleeping through the press briefing …

Trump gave another press briefing yesterday. Fortunately, I did not see it, was not even aware of it until after the fact, but a comment in The Guardian is telling …

“It’s not exactly clear what the point of this briefing is, apart from for Trump to tell America how great a job he thinks he is doing, while he trails Joe Biden in the polls.”

From what I’ve read, most of his briefing was blah-blah-blah … same ol’ same ol’ … lies, lies, and more lies. Patting himself on the back for his lies. Patting himself on the back for killing the people he swore an oath to protect … blah blah blah. But a couple of things stand out.

Trump says “we’ve done it right” when it comes to the pandemic. He says the US, which has the most deaths in the world from the coronavirus, is doing “very well” on the pandemic. He’s killed nearly a quarter of a million people and he’s “done it right”??? I. Think. Not.
Trump says DeJoy is “trying to streamline the postal service and make it great again”. Again, Trump admitted last week that he opposed aid for the USPS because he believed extra money would help the delivery of mail-in ballots. We don’t need “great”, Donnie … we need efficient. Just that.
He says there has been a “steep decline” in coronavirus cases across the US over the last week. But there has also been a steep decline in the number of tests performed … he failed to mention this. Remember when he said if we tested less, we’d have fewer cases? Apparently, that’s his solution … stop testing, then pretty soon we’ll have zero cases!

On that last one. Let’s be real clear … the reported number of cases has declined from 70,000+ per day to 50,000+ per day, but … in no way, shape or form has the number of new cases declined! Only the number of tests, thereby making the reported numbers … garbage. Assume, my friends, that we are seeing upward of 70,000 new cases each day, for that is the reality! You can slow down testing, and ‘reported’ cases will drop, but just because it isn’t reported, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist! A spade is a spade is a spade, no matter how much pretty paper, bows and ribbons you wrap it in! The United States leads the world in cases and deaths. Period. Thanks, Donnie.

Lies??? What lies???

And finally, a reporter had the nerve to actually ask Donnie a question, to hold his feet to the fire. A simple, point-blank question:

“Mr President, after three and a half years, do you regret at all, all the lying you’ve done to the American people?”

Of course, Trump couldn’t answer the question, but it damn sure made him squirm! Take a look …

The reporter was SV Dáte, the Huffington Post’s White House correspondent. As of July 9^th, the Washington Post’s fact checker had called out some 20,055 lies Trump had told from the day of his inauguration to present, so the question was certainly valid. Most people don’t tell that many lies in an entire lifetime!

New WordPress Block Editor 👿

They’ve been warning us, and it finally happened. A few days ago, WordPress in all its mighty wisdom, forced its new ‘editor’ upon us. Let me go on record here and now as saying the I abhor it. It has cost me sleep, for it now takes me an extra 45 minutes or so to get my posts to come out the way I want them to.

Inserting a picture used to be so simple … position the cursor where you wanted the picture, hit the “Add” button, and voila! Now, there is no “Add” button, so you have to select an “Image” block which then puts the picture at the bottom of your post. You then have to copy and paste it where you wanted it in the first place, then delete the one from the bottom of the post. And where the hell did my “word count” go??? Now I have to put the whole thing back into Word to get an accurate word count!

Unless you choose a “classic” block for your entire post, there is no way to indent a paragraph! Is this not the most ridiculous thing??? I’m sure there are some positives to the new ‘editor’, but I haven’t found them yet, and am unlikely to because I am wasting much of my time trying to fix what is broken! Bah HUMBUG WordPress!!!

On Trust …

Posted on December 27, 2018 by jilldennison under Global Issues, Political commentary, Social commentary

On Christmas Eve, Trump tweeted …The reactions from ‘round the globe told the true story …

Definitiv nicht! Grüße aus Deutschland! (Translation: Definitely not! Greetings from Germany)

Nope

By whom?

Hahaha that was so funny with a baby president can never be respected

Ha ha, Na mate you are mistaken!

As an European, I assure you it is not

Only when the all caps unstable President is gone.

Australia says nope.

Really? Did you resign?

Hi. Ireland here. Nope.

America will not be respected as long as Trump is in office. Resign.

And many more … 68,000+ comments, in fact, and as far as I could tell (obviously I did not read all 68,000!) not a single one was positive. While I could pick Trump’s two years apart and come up with hundreds, perhaps even thousands of reasons why Trump has, in fact, cost us the respect we may have once had, in the long run it all boils down to one single word: trust.Trust, along with respect, is the single most important element of any relationship, whether it is husband/wife, parent/child, friends, or on a grander scale leader/citizens. Without trust, a marriage will crumble, and by the same token a nation will fail if the people cannot trust their leader and if other nations cannot trust the one. The people of the United States cannot trust Donald Trump, nor those politicians who, elected to represent us are in fact acting in a manner contrary to our best interest.

Donald Trump has broken our trust in every conceivable way. It’s quite an accomplishment, really, that he has not once told us the truth, has not once acted in the best interests of our nation, of our citizens, of our allies. The odds were that he would accidentally do something right, make a true statement, somewhere along the line during his two-year tenure, but he defied the odds.

It is a terrible thing when the citizens of a country cannot trust an elected leader, and perhaps an even worse thing when no nation on earth trusts this country. Think about that one … we have let our allies down in a number of ways, and Trump has talked down to and denigrated the leaders of many of the nations who were once our trusted friends: Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, UK. He allies himself, instead, with nations that we should never turn our back on: Russia and Turkey.

Trust. It is earned. Or not. Trust can take years to be built and strengthened and can be destroyed by sometimes a single lie. How many lies has Trump told? Last I heard, based on a couple of different fact-checkers, he had misled or outright lied to the American people more than 5,000 times … in under two years! Must be some sort of a record.

Today, a large part of the government is shut down because Trump lied about his “big, beautiful wall” that “Mexico will pay for”. Those of us who are capable of coherent thought knew that Mexico was never going to pay for the wall, but Trump kept saying it and his followers kept believing. And now, he is asking us to pay for the wall that most of us do not want and for which there is no need.

Trust. It is so easily broken. Trump broke the trust of our allies when he announced he would pull the U.S. out of the Paris Accord. He further broke their trust when he failed to renew the Iran nuclear agreement. He has denigrated our allies and NATO. And now … he is pulling out of Syria and Afghanistan in a move that will further de-stabilize the Middle East and leave our allies to try to keep the peace.

No. America is not “respected again”. We have less respect now than … perhaps ever in the history of our nation. We broke the trust of the rest of the world, and Trump has broken our trust.

“The glue that holds all relationships together–including the relationship between the leader and the led–is trust, and trust is based on integrity.” –Brian Tracy

“Leadership requires five ingredients–brains, energy, determination, trust, and ethics. The key challenges today are in terms of the last two–trust and ethics.” –Fred Hilmer

From the mouths of those who ardently support the US President

Posted on August 7, 2018 by jilldennison under Political commentary, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Words of wisdom from our wise friend, Keith. I think we need to start a movement to put Keith’s name on the ballot for president in 2020!!! All those in favour say ‘Aye’.

musingsofanoldfart

I must confess, I do not expect many pearls of wisdom to come from a Donald Trump pep rally. The purpose is to get a supportive crowd riled up. The use of truth is irrelevant and unimportant. I am certain some truths find there way in, but per The Washington Post, at a rally in Montana, the rate of lying was a whopping 76%. That is actually higher than his recurring rate of 69% as measured by Politifacts.

Many of Trump supporters are fine people. To say otherwise is unfair. But, the blind acceptance of anything the man says does give me pause. The blind acceptance that all criticisms of the man are fake is equally troubling. Then, there are the more strident people. The Guardian interviewed several at last week’s Wilkes-Barre pep rally.

Among several interviewed, who felt the President was doing an “A+” job noting his accomplishments without…

View original post 496 more words

From ‘Alternative Facts’ to Rewriting History in Trump’s White House

Posted on July 27, 2018 by jilldennison under Free Press Issues, Global Issues, Political commentary

Just two days ago, I wrote a post about ‘alternative facts’, aka lies. I didn’t plan to revisit the topic this soon, but I came across an excellent editorial written by Jon Sopel, the North American editor for BBC, that confirms my take on the subject and provides some additional food for thought. I share with you his words …

It is time we sit and talk about truth and transparency.

Every now and then a few disparate things collide, and suddenly you see a pattern. And I don’t want this blog to come across as faux naïve. I’ve covered politics for long enough to know that politicians will try to shape and mould truth to best suit their purposes, to allow them to weaponise the facts that will give them greatest advantage.

And I know that politicians love transparency when it best suits them. But in the past two weeks, a line has been crossed.

Let me start with something seemingly minor. I was listening to the president and Theresa May at their news conference in the Chequers garden when Donald Trump, talking about Brexit, suddenly made the statement that he had predicted the result when he was at his golf course in Turnberry for the opening of his wonderful golf course the day before the EU referendum in June 2016.

I sat up with a jolt. I had been there with him on that trip.

We didn’t arrive until the day after the referendum. He wasn’t there on June 22nd. He was there on June 24th. I pointed this out on Twitter, saying it was a bit bizarre.

Now I can see as a bit of storytelling it works better to claim to have been the visionary who saw what was coming; I can also see that when you’re 72-years-old you might misremember dates and times. Who doesn’t do that occasionally? – although maybe not on something as fundamental as that.

Anyway back to my tweet saying the president was factually incorrect. Straight back shot Stephanie Grisham, who is the first lady’s director of communications, but more importantly at the time was Donald Trump’s press person for the trip to Turnberry.

She told me on Twitter the president was right to say what he had said – and she had the photos to prove it.So we produced the tweet from the president on the 24th saying “Just arrived in Scotland…” and from her saying that she had just arrived in Scotland.

Someone else found the flight manifest, confirming that the Trump private jet had arrived on the 24th. I fully agree a storm in a teacup. This is not the sort of thing on which world peace hinges.

But I struggle to fathom Steph’s motives. Why did she go wading in to defend a lie? And why when the proof was provided that she was incorrect did she not just say “fair enough – my mistake”.Psychology has a rather good word for this – “gaslighting”.

This is the Wikipedia definition of it: Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, making them question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, it attempts to destabilise the victim and delegitimise the victim’s belief.

From Chequers we now go to Helsinki, and another extraordinary news conference this time with Vladimir Putin. The whole thing was slightly surreal, made more so by the guy sitting next to me being yanked out by the Secret Service after it became clear to them he was planning some kind of protest during the news conference.

During the course of the Q and A, Jeff Mason from Reuters was called to ask a question. He wanted to know whether Putin had wanted Donald Trump to win the 2016 presidential election and had directed any of his officials to help him do that?

Vladimir Putin didn’t hesitate: “Yes, I wanted him to win because he talked about bringing the US-Russia relationship back to normal.”

It was quite a moment. But then I saw a tweet that Donald Trump put out yesterday to protest about how tough he was with Russia, which read:

“I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!”

So I referred back to what Putin had said in Helsinki a week earlier. But here’s where it gets super murky. All reference to that exchange between Mr Mason and the Russian leader has been omitted from the official White House transcript. In the official record it doesn’t exist.

Just a clerical transcription error? Well maybe – there is some confusion over the translation, but maybe it would be good to correct the record.

Now for another random event which happened yesterday. The White House has said that it will no longer provide information about when the president holds conversations with foreign leaders, as it has always done hitherto.

The accounts of the chats may have been anodyne and terse, but they were a useful tool to keep track of foreign policy priorities. And it was always useful to compare and contrast what, say, the Kremlin would have to say about the conversation compared to the White House. Now we will no longer be able to do that.

And so to the final thing. Donald Trump was speaking at a rally in Kansas City. And he came out with a memorable phrase that sounded as though it had been lifted straight from George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984. He said: “Just remember, what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what’s happening.”

Or it is. There is just a concerted – and sometimes it would seem – systematic effort to make you think otherwise.

Forget alternative facts. This is rewriting history.

If anything … anything at all … that comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth is true, then I am the Queen of England. ‘Nuff said.

There Was An FBI Informant Asking Questions Of President’s Campaign Team In 2016

Posted on May 20, 2018 by jilldennison under Global Issues, Political commentary, Re-blogs

For several days, Donald Trump has been claiming his campaign was spied on, infiltrated, by the FBI. To what end? Who knows. It is a paranoid delusion from the mind of a madman, if you ask me. As always, our friend Gronda is on top of the story with a nice summary of what is true and what isn’t, and what Trump’s likely goal is — to shut down the Mueller investigation. A man who is innocent does not act guilty, as Trump is doing. Please take a minute to read Gronda’s summary, for it clarifies the issue nicely. Thank you, Gronda!

Gronda Morin

Image result for cartoons of fbi informant trump

The FBI has been resisting providing the name of one of its confidential informants to GOP members in the White House and the US Congress because this would risk the informant’s life. But the GOP who are doing the president’s bidding could care less.

President Trump and his supporters including the US House Intel chair, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) are convinced that finding this man could derail the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe being led by the Special Counsel Robert Mueller III.

Image result for cartoons of fbi informant trump

As per a May 17, 2018 Washington Post report, “President Trump’s allies are waging an increasingly aggressive campaign to undercut the Russia investigation by exposing the role of a top-secret FBI source. The effort reached new heights Thursday as Trump alleged that an informant had improperly spied on his 2016 campaign and predicted that the ensuing scandal would be “bigger than Watergate!”

The fact is that there was an informant…

View original post 889 more words

Republicans Lied About The Conditions Of FBI’s Andrew McCabe’s Firing

Posted on April 3, 2018 by jilldennison under Political commentary, Re-blogs

If you had any doubt that our government has completely lost any and all integrity … you need to read Gronda’s post. We The People have been so duped that I almost hope for an invasion of Canadians to come take us over! Thanks Gronda!

Gronda Morin

Image result for photos of trump andrew mccabe TRUMP/ MCCABE

What else is new! “We the people” know that the republican President Donald Trump and his republican cronies will stoop to just about any low brow action including resorting to outright fabrications to cover for the Trump team. Unfortunately, this includes setting up a 21 year competent, dedicated civil servant, the former FBI acting director, Andrew McCabe to be fired just hours before he was scheduled to retire with his pension benefits, intact.

Here is the rest of the story…

On March 30, 2018, Frank Vyant Walton of the DailyKos penned the following report, “Andrew McCabe has emails proving the Republicans have lied about him”

Excerpts:

After Jeff Sessions decided to fire Andrew McCabe just hours before his scheduled retirement which denied him his full benefits package, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Mark Meadows (R-NC) claimed the FBI’s disciplinary office found that McCabe lied to then-Director James Comey about leaking…

View original post 395 more words

Not Another One … 🙄

Posted on March 31, 2018 by jilldennison under Election 2018, Political commentary

Pastor Mark Burns … ever hear of him? He is a televangelist from South Carolina, which should tell you just about all you need to know. Yesterday, Pastor Mark Burns threw his hat in the ring and announced his candidacy for the seat in the U.S. House of Representatives that is being vacated by Representative Trey Gowdy. Burns was, and is, a staunch supporter of Donald Trump. He claims he had usually voted Democratic, which included support for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, saying “I’m not ashamed to say that as a black man I wanted the first black man to enter the office.” But he later said, in 2016, he had “seen the light.” Of Trump he said “He’s a smart man. He knows authenticity. I believe he knows and recognizes real character.” Hey, Burns … if you really believe that, I have a beautiful bridge I’ll sell you real cheap!

Now, Burns is likely to fit right into today’s Congress, for he is a well-experienced liar. Here is just a sampling of his many lies:

Burns claimed to have held a bachelor of science degree from North Greenville University. According to the University, Burns attended only one semester.
He said he spent six years in the U.S. Army Reserve. He actually spent four years in the South Carolina National Guard, an entirely different and unrelated organization.
He claims to have attended Andersonville Theological Seminary, though there is no evidence of it and he is unable or unwilling to clarify.
Burns claimed he was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, a national historically black fraternity, but again, there is no evidence. When confronted with this one, he replied that he had “started the process” but did not complete even the initiation.

When confronted with all these lies on his church website, he admitted that he had lied and had unacceptably exaggerated his education, but said he was attacked because he is “a black man supporting Donald Trump for president.” Awwwww, pobrecito!

In addition to being a liar, he is not a very nice man. At a Trump rally in North Carolina, he mocked and criticized Bernie Sanders for being Jewish. In 2016, he retweeted a digitally manipulated image of Hillary Clinton in blackface. He was later interviewed on CNN and asked about the tweet. His reply?

“I think at the time I did my initial tweet was to reinforce my position as to point out why this particular candidate Hillary Clinton is not really good for the African-American community, because the Democrat party automatically assumes they own the black vote, they own that voting bloc. And because they already know that voting bloc belongs to them, very little change takes place.”

I didn’t sense any apology in there, but he did tweet a half-assed apology:

“I’m so sorry for the offensive #Blackface image of @HillaryClinton but stand by the message that we Blacks ARE being Used by #Dems for VOTES”

In my view, an ‘apology’ that contains the qualifier “but”, is no apology at all.

Back in November 2017, ahead of the Alabama special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, Burns actually defended Roy Moore, saying that morality isn’t the only quality that makes a good leader. This, from a church pastor? Wouldn’t you expect a self-proclaimed Christian to have a bit of a problem supporting a pedophile?

Mr. Burns also fails to understand the word racism, if this tweet from January is any indicator:

“Racism isn’t really about COLOR, Racism has always been about the HAVES verses the HAVE NOTS. And President @realDonaldTrump is raising the HAVE NOTS to the same level as the HAVES. In Today’s society, A Poor White Person gets treated the same as a Poor Black Person.” – 9:45 AM – Jan 24, 2018 · Easley, SC

SAY WHAT????

In announcing his intent to run for U.S. House of Representatives, he stated his reason, at least in part, as “We need to combat the leftist, liberal and even socialist ideology that’s dividing our nation.” Rather reminiscent of the speech he gave at the Republican National Convention in 2016, where he thanked God for “guiding [Trump], giving him the words to the unite the party, this country, that we together can defeat the liberal Democratic Party.” Unite the country? Did he really say that?

And good old Mr. Burns attempted to defend Trump’s recent remarks about “shithole countries”. I won’t even repeat his rationale there, for even after reading and re-reading it multiple times, it made no sense.

There are, at present, 13 other republicans running for this seat, and 4 democrats. It is almost a certainty that the district will remain in the hands of the republicans, since all 4 democrats are newcomers with no government experience … they include an electrician, a businessman, a graduate student and a financial expert. District 4, like almost all of South Carolina, is predominantly republican. Some believe that Burns has the best chance, due to his close ties with Trump. Let us hope that the voters are fed up enough with Trump for that alliance to work against, rather than for, Mr. Burns, for we do not need his ilk in the Capitol next year. He is exactly the type we are trying to get rid of!

A Session With Sessions

Posted on June 15, 2017 by jilldennison under Political commentary

Section 1001 of the U.S. Code states in part that:

“Whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the government of the United States, knowingly and willfully” falsifies or conceals information, including before a congressional committee’s inquiry, may also be fined or imprisoned up to five years.”

Section 1621 of the code states in part that anyone who …

“… willfully and contrary to such oath states or subscribes any material matter which he does not believe to be true” is guilty of perjury and shall be fined or imprisoned up to five years, or both.”

Better make room in the federal penitentiary for one Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions.

On Tuesday, 13 June 2017, Jeff Sessions testified, under oath, before the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating the various strands of connection between Trump, his staff, and the Russian government. He lied … under oath. There is no doubt in my mind.

Sessions said he couldn’t remember much of the details of his conversations or communications on the subject of Russia. “I may have had some conversations and I think I did, with the general strategic concept of the possibility of whether or not Russia and the United States could get on a more harmonious relationship,’’ he said, calling it “tragic’’ that the two countries don’t get along better. Either he is lying or he is so senile that he cannot remember his conversations … either way, he is not qualified for the position he holds.

“I’m not able to be rushed this fast. It makes me nervous.’’ Awwwww shucks … poor li’l Jeffy …

“I have never met with or had any conversations with any Russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election in the United States.”

Mr. Sessions initially told Congress earlier this year during his confirmation hearings that he had no contacts with Russian officials last year, but in March he was forced to acknowledge meeting the ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, on two occasions. A third meeting at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington D.C., reportedly took place in April 2016.

Sessions denied meeting with Russian officials at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington in April 2016, adding that he could not “recall” any such private conversations with the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, there. “If any brief interaction occurred in passing with the Russian ambassador, I do not remember it,” he said.

As regards James Comey’s testimony last week that he (Comey) had expressed concerns to AG Sessions about direct communications with Trump, to which Sessions did not reply, Sessions said, “While he did not provide me with any of the substance of his conversation with the president, Mr. Comey expressed concern about the proper communications protocol with the White House and with the president. I responded to his comment by agreeing that the F.B.I. and Department of Justice needed to be careful to follow department policies regarding appropriate contacts with the White House.”

Mr. Sessions repeatedly refused to discuss his conversations with Mr. Trump about the Russia investigation or Mr. Comey’s firing beyond what was in his recommendation memo about ousting Mr. Comey, which the White House released.

Sessions made it clear that he did not take kindly to the insinuations and accusations arising from the fact that he previously failed to disclose meetings with Mr. Kislyak. And he came to the committee in large part to defend himself against what he called “an appalling and detestable lie” that he had colluded with Russian officials. “I recused myself from any investigation into the campaign for president, but I did not recuse myself from defending my honor against scurrilous and false accusations,” he said.

I do not believe anything Sessions said. It becomes obvious to me that the term “under oath” has little, if any, meaning to the Trump administration of which Jeff Sessions is a part. Did he or did he not meet with Russian ambassador Kislyak on April 16^th? A straight “yes” or “no” question, but he cannot – or will not – answer it. Once he recused himself from the Russian investigation, why did he play a role in the firing of FBI Director James Comey? Does he fail to understand the meaning of the word “recuse”?

The time spent on Sessions’ testimony was time wasted by the Senate Intelligence Committee, for he answered untruthfully in some cases, and in other cases dodged the question with non-answers and evasions.

Fellow-blogger Gronda Morin has delved much deeper into Sessions’ testimony than I have the heart for, and for a more in-depth analysis, be sure to check out her post . And if you have the stomach for it, you can find a full transcript of Sessions’ testimony on Politico’s site.

What happens next, you ask? Who knows. The Senate Intelligence Committee indicated that they will have more questions for Mr. Sessions at some point in the future, and Sessions will likely be invited to testify before Robert Mueller at some point, but meanwhile … here is my thought, for what it’s worth: In light of some obvious ‘discrepancies’ in Jeff Sessions’ testimony, and some blatant lies prior to this point, Mr. Sessions should be temporarily suspended from his duties as U.S. Attorney General until the truth is known about his contacts and connections to officials within the Russian government. Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appears to be a man of integrity and would do well filling the shoes of the Attorney General in the interim. Sessions may then decide to ‘remember’ what actually took place and be truthful, or he can become permanently unemployed … his choice. Meanwhile, he should have absolutely NO contact with anybody in the Attorney General’s office, nor should he have any contact with Donald Trump. I believe there is more than adequate reason for this decision.

The lies among the Trump administration are piling up like dog poop and smell just as bad. We The People must demand some transparency from this administration, else they must be ousted … all the way up to the very top of the pile. I am tired of all the b.s., and I’m pretty sure the rest of the nation is too. And why are we not hearing cries of “Lock Him Up”??? They surely said it enough in 2016 about Ms. Hillary Clinton, who was innocent as a rose compared to this bunch of thugs.

On Red Herrings and Spin …

Posted on January 25, 2017 by jilldennison under Free Press Issues, Political commentary, Social commentary

Spin is a form of propaganda, achieved through providing a biased interpretation of an event or campaigning to persuade public opinion in favor or against some organization or public figure.

Red herring: a deliberate diversion of attention; something designed to divert an opponent’s attention from the central issue.

If you ever doubted that Donald Trump is a devious, sly ass, doubt no more! Moving with warp speed signing ‘executive orders’ to curtail freedom of speech and press, to cause untold harm to the environment and more, he is now focusing on … {drumroll} … voter fraud in the past November elections. Yes, you heard me right. He remains unconvinced that he, the great Oz, could possibly have lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes and is requesting an investigation that will cost taxpayer dollars, based on no discernible evidence. In a meeting with leaders of Congress on Monday, he claimed that between 3 million and 5 million ballots were cast that allowed Hillary Clinton to “illegally win the popular vote”.

Now, you may be asking yourself why, in the grand scheme of things, he cares. He did, after all, win the electoral vote, has now taken the oath of office, is sitting in the Oval Office as we speak, so why is this a bone of contention? Two reasons:

First, his ego. He simply cannot abide knowing that, in reality, he was not favoured by the majority of voters. His narcissistic personality disorder will not let him accept that he is not Numero Uno.

The second, and more ominous reason is that this is a red herring. This “voter fraud” issue is headlines in every mainstream news outlet today … big bold letters reading:

Trump seeks ‘major investigation’ into unsupported claims of voter fraud

Trump Promises ‘Major Investigation’ of Voter Fraud

Trump pledges ‘voter fraud’ investigation

The intent clearly being to distract us from other, more important but less noticed, news. Have you heard much about the allegations that Russia was behind the hacking of the DNC and thereby likely played a role in Trump’s victory? Not since he took office. Oh, there is an occasional story about it, but you almost have to go in search of it, and how many will do that, when there are all these other juicy stories about “voter fraud” and the great wall Trump is planning on the Mexican border?

In case you didn’t see it, both chambers of Congress have launched investigations into the alleged hacking by Russia, based on credible evidence from the intelligence community. Lawmakers have pledged to look “everywhere the intelligence tells us to go” in investigating Russia’s activities in the 2016 elections according to the committee’s chairman, Richard Burr — even if that includes links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. The leaders of the investigation warned the Trump administration that they expect full cooperation. Unfortunately, the investigations involve thousands of pages of documents and the process will not be quick.

Stories like voter fraud and the wall are manipulation of the press, and therefore of We The People. No, he has not banned the press (yet), but he is spoon-feeding them only what he wants them to have. Think of a person who makes his living picking pockets. If there is a great parade and you are standing on the sidewalk watching the horses, floats, clowns and bands marching down the street, the noise and activity will distract your attention from the man standing directly behind you who simply slips your wallet out of your back pocket. Trump’s voter fraud investigation is the parade, and Trump is the pick-pocket.

Earlier this afternoon, a good friend posted this on Facebook:

“All the crap coming out of the White House is so confusing. I don’t know what to think. What is true…what isn’t??? I thought our government’s checks and balances were good. But what’s coming out of the Washington is crap, lies, slander, drama, showdowns, ranting. It’s all so confusing. What can we do?”

This, my friends, is exactly what the current administration, particularly Trump, Spicer and Conway, are hoping for. In the five days since Trump’s inauguration, we have seen much spin, many red herrings and little substance. The intent is to disarm and confuse, and those of us who can, absolutely must use our voices to shine a light into those dark corners where the dirt is hiding. The press has thus far has not, in my opinion, done the job we need them to do. We need them to call out the administration on such issues as the pipelines that Trump plans to resurrect, the silencing of communication from the EPA, USDA, and HHS. We don’t care if Trump thinks there was voter fraud, we don’t care to hear his ‘alternative facts’ about the size of the crowd at his inauguration, and we do not care how his staff dresses. (Yes, that was actually “headline news” on The Washington Post today, and you can read it here!)

What We The People care about are his plans to:

Destroy freedom of the press,
Spin his ‘alternative facts’ until we are all too dizzy to seek actual facts,
Destroy our environment
Assist big businesses while forgetting about the voters
Curtail rights for minorities and others
Waste taxpayer money with a barrier wall that can only hurt our economy
Ban refugees and asylum seekers from the country
Stifle valuable information coming from the scientific community
Discredit honest journalism
Cancel treaties and trade agreements
Leave our allies insecure about our mutual relations

And the list goes on. I, for one, do not care about Trump’s ego issues, except as they interfere with good governance and our rights as citizens to know the actual facts, rather than his ‘alternative facts’. I call on the press to stop reporting only what they are spoon-fed in the morning briefings by Trump’s puppet, Sean Spicer. I call on the press to do more investigative reporting, to talk to people who have information, to dig as journalists did back in the days of Watergate, to report the things that Trump and his minions to NOT want us to know.

Friends, this is not my version of a conspiracy theory, this is not make-believe, this is not a story … this is history in the making. What would you like your great-great-grandchildren to read in their history books 100 years from now? Would you like them to read about the year 2017 and ask why the people didn’t learn a lesson in 1939? Would you like them to sit on your lap and ask you how you let this happen? Please, for the sake of humanity, for the sake of us all, use your voices … use them wisely …

The Adventures of Pinocchio – 2016 version

Posted on March 16, 2016 by jilldennison under Humour, Political commentary, Social commentary

I like fairy tales. Do you like fairy tales? Last week, I wrote about the “Little Boy Who Cried Wolf”, an Aesop fairy tale. This week (I wonder if fairy tales is going to become a weekly feature here???) I am writing about another familiar fairy tale, The Adventures of Pinocchio, by Carlo Collodi. Remember Pinocchio? He was a wooden puppet carved by an Italian woodcarver named Geppetto. Pinocchio dreamed of becoming a real boy, and alas, his wish came true. But, Pinocchio developed the very human habit of telling lies, and each time he told one, his nose grew longer. Now, of course this is just a fairy tale, a story, and in real life people who tell lies do not suffer an extended proboscis. Too bad … it would make it easier to spot the liars, but instead we must be diligent and check the veracity of that which we are told.

After a recent post in which I asked people to explain to me why Trump even has a following among certain groups he has targeted with his vile remarks, I was informed that people like Trump because they are “sick and tired of being lied to”, and that he “tells it like it is”. Needless to say, I was stunned and astounded, just before I burst out laughing! Oh, the irony!!! Well, let us look at the “like it is” that Trump has told:

• American Muslims celebrated 9/11 by the thousands.

“I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down,” Trump recently claimed. “And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.”

The report has been thoroughly debunked by both the police and the mayor in Jersey City.

• The Obama administration is bringing a quarter-million Syrians into the country.

“Our president wants to take in 250,000 from Syria … Think of it, 250,000 people. And we all have heart, and we all want people taken care of and all of that, but with the problems our country has, to take in 250,000 people — some of whom are going to have problems, big problems — is just insane.”

The Obama administration is planning to take in 10,000 refugees over the next year, and possibly a small additional number after that. It’s a fact that is well- and widely known, but Trump consistently ignores it.

• Syrian refugees are already flooding the U.S.

“Refugees are pouring into our great country from Syria. We don’t even know who they are. They could be ISIS. They could be anybody.”

In fact, the U.S. has resettled fewer than 3,000 refugees from Syria. We know exactly who they are, given the vetting process that requires refugees to wait up to 18 months and to pass multiple background and health checks before gaining admission.

• African-Americans are responsible for the overwhelming majority of murders of white people in the U.S.

“81 percent of white murder victims are killed by black people.”

More than 80 percent of white murder victims are killed by other whites.

• He and Vladimir Putin are buddies.

“I got to know him very well because we were both on 60 Minutes, we were stablemates and we did very well that night.”

Both men appeared in pre-taped segments. Trump was recorded in his New York office. Putin was interviewed thousands of miles away, in Moscow. Trump didn’t meet Putin.

• China is the big winner in the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership.

“[The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal] was designed for China to come in, as they always do, through the back door and totally take advantage of everyone.”

He was corrected by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) who noted that China is not a party to TPP.

When called on his lies by an interviewer, he responded with “Am I gonna check every statistic?” Ah yes, who has time to be bothered with those pesky little statistics and facts? Trump hasn’t apologized or backtracked on his statements. Instead, when challenged, he offers flimsy explanations and suggests he shouldn’t be held accountable — or simply insists he’s right despite data and facts to the contrary.

Statistical Summary of 111 Trump Statements by Pulitzer Prize Winner Politifact:

• True 2 (2%)
• Mostly True 7 (6%)
• Half True 16 (14%)
• Mostly False 19 (17%)
• False 46 (41%)
• Pants on Fire 21 (19%)

Now, support whomever you wish, vote as your conscience directs you, but please do not insult my intelligence by telling me that you support Trump because you are tired of being told lies, or that he “tells it like it is”. Oh, and by the way … regarding Pinocchio? Well, we are so familiar with the Disney version of the story that some of us may have forgotten how the story ends. Collodi originally intended the story, which was first published in 1881, to be a tragedy. It concluded with the puppet’s execution. Pinocchio’s enemies, the Fox and the Cat, bind his arms, pass a noose around his throat, and hang him from the branch of an oak tree.

Filosofa's Word

Cogito Ergo Sum

Tag Archives: lies