Tag Archives: Washington Post

The Latest Polls …

Posted on by under Political commentary

I had a post written for this morning.  I am postponing it, for I am still debating on it.  But … that left me with … nothing for this morning.  So, I had in my archives a piece by Washington Post writer Jennifer Rubin from last week, titled “Americans as a whole haven’t lost their minds, but the GOP has”. I think it is well worth reading in its entirety, so I decided to share it with you this morning.

Jennifer RubinThere is only abysmal news for President Trump and Republicans in the latest Quinnipiac poll. Voters say Trump is not “fit to serve as president,” by a 56 to 42 percent margin. Voters disapprove (57 to 36 percent) of his performance (so 6 percent think he is fit, just not doing a good job). It gets worse:

Voters disapprove 57 – 36 percent of the job he is doing as president. . . . American voters disapprove 62 – 32 percent of the way President Trump is handling race relations. Disapproval is 55 – 39 percent among white voters, 95 – 3 percent among black voters and 66 – 28 percent among Hispanic voters. President Trump is doing more to divide the country than to unite the country, American voters say 60 – 35 percent.

The anti-Twitter sentiment remains high as voters say 69 – 26 percent that Trump should stop tweeting. No party, gender, education, age or racial group wants to follow the Tweeter-in- Chief. Voters say 51 – 27 percent they are embarrassed to have Trump as president.

More than 55 percent of voters say he is not honest and lacks leadership skills. Some 61 percent say they do not share his values, and 67 percent say he is not level-headed. Less than 40 percent think he is doing a good job on foreign policy, immigration, the environment or health care. A plurality narrowly approves of this handling of the economy and of terrorism.

There is no good news here for Republicans in Congress either. “American voters disapprove 78 – 15 percent of the job Republicans in Congress are doing, worse than their 70 – 25 percent disapproval in a June 29 Quinnipiac University poll. . . . Voters say 47 – 38 percent, including 44 – 32 percent among independent voters, that they would like to see Democrats win control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2018 Congressional elections.”

Americans it turns out:

  • Are not bamboozled by his NFL and flag histrionics;
  • Do not think it’s all the media’s fault;
  • Know he is not making America great (stressed and anxious maybe, but not great);
  • Have figured out he’s botching most policy matters — and is a bad person to boot; and
  • Don’t buy into his race-baiting act.

Americans are neither brain-dead nor moral vagrants. In voting for him many probably hated Hillary Clinton more, engaged in wishful thinking about Trump and/or figured incorrectly a rich guy and his friends must know how to do things. But they do not like him now, and that speaks very well of the American people.

The bad news is Republicans overwhelmingly like him, his policies, his distractions, his character, his racial appeals, etc. Among Republicans 79 percent approve of his performance, 79 percent think he is honest (!), 85 percent think he cares about ordinary Americans, 62 percent think he is level-headed (!!) and perhaps worst of all, 78 percent think he shares their values.

Now, it’s possible that having voted for him these Republicans don’t want to admit he is, as LeBron James eloquently put it, a bum. But it’s also possible that a declining share of voters identify as Republicans but that those who do, by and large, live in a Fox News-created political universe in which Trump is just the best. They refuse to see Trump as a bigot or an incompetent narcissist. They believe what he tells them about immigrants, the world and the “liberal elites.”

The question that many #NeverTrump Republicans or now former Republicans face is whether that GOP base has become so divorced from their own world view that they cannot consider themselves Republicans any longer. To be a Republican these days is to be at the very least an apologist for Trump and at the worst a cultist. Maybe these Trump fans were always there in the party, but now they are the dominant voice. That leaves a two-way struggle between stringent conservatives (e.g., Sens. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz) and Trump/Bannonites. Many disaffected Republicans have no Republicans to root for anymore other than a handful of members of Congress and a small batch of governors. They may like the idea of the GOP, but they cannot abide by the actual GOP of 2017.

It doesn’t seem possible that logic or experience will change the minds of the 75 percent to 80 percent of the GOP who remain in Trump’s quarter. (Some hope that Trump is like a high fever that will pass, leaving the patient back to being his old self; I think that’s unlikely, but it’d be nice if the fever theory turns out to be correct.) You can change a president or a presidential candidate but can you change a party’s composition? I find that hard to believe. Trump’s beliefs and views are their beliefs and views.

That leaves distressed Republicans and ex-Republicans with three options — recruit new non-Trumpkins to the GOP (but which Americans would want to join?!) to out-vote Trump’s base; start a new center-right party (with an invitation out to moderate Democrats); or set up shop across the aisle as the new Blue Dog Democrats. Much depends on the direction the Democrats take (will it be the party of Sen. Bernie Sanders or the party of Truman/JFK/Bill Clinton — policy-wise, that is).

In short, the GOP that was, is no longer, and we really have no idea what if anything will take its place.

poll

Breaking News: President Shared Classified Data With Russians

Posted on by under Political commentary

Last Wednesday Trump met with top Russian officials in the Oval Office. The Russian press was allowed in, the U.S. press was barred. This was noteworthy in and of itself, but in light of today’s news, it is more than highly suspect. Trump gave away highly classified information to the Russians on that day. Gronda, as I knew she would be, was on top of the story when it broke this afternoon in the Washington Post, and her post sums up everything we know to this point. This is too important to let slide by, so please take a few moments to read Gronda’s excellent post. I am sure she will update us as more information becomes available. Thank you for your excellent work, Gronda!

Gronda Morin

LAVROV/ TRUMP/ KISLYAK/ TASS WAS PRESENT/ IF ANYTHING UNTOWARD WAS SAID, RUSSIA HAS A TAPE RECORDING

The republican President Donald Trump seems to be on the downward roller coaster ride of self-destruction and the ride hasn’t ended yet.

Remember all the fuss republicans raised about the democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton having possibly placed classified data at risk while she was Secretary of State (2009- 2013) because she had used a private server to transmit and receive work product emails. Her intent to do this was never proven because as per the state department’s protocol, any classified data was supposed to have already been separated out to be used via other secured systems. As audits have proven in the past, a certain percentage of the data that Hillary Clinton worked on with via her private server would be retroactively marked classified and in this case, 3 pieces slipped through which had…

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Thoughts on Protecting Democracy

Posted on by under Political commentary, Social commentary

Yesterday I read what I consider to be the best editorial that I have seen since at least November 8th, probably longer. It was put together by the editorial board at The Washington Post.    It begins with the fact that Trump won the electoral vote, it is a done deal, and rather than keep arguing about how unfit he is for the job, we need to turn our efforts toward more positive courses of action. I share a few of the more relevant snippets:

“Above all, the task for those who opposed Mr. Trump will be to stand up for the democratic norms that he seemed to threaten during his campaign.

He continues to conceal his tax returns and other business information; he has not held a news conference since July; he has proposed no plan to disentangle his government responsibilities from his family business.

He threatened to take citizenship away from anyone who burned an American flag, a constitutionally protected act of protest. His frequent insults to the media, the Clintons, the casts of “Hamilton” and “Saturday Night Live,” Vanity Fair and so on seem beneath the dignity of the office he will soon inherit. For weeks he seemed mostly unperturbed by a rise in hate crimes since his election. And then there is his disturbing belittling of possible Russian interference in the election.

Those who opposed Mr. Trump should continue to call attention to these things — not to claim vindication, but to press for a different approach. The goal should be accountability, not automatic opposition. We do not root for Mr. Trump to fail; we root for the nation to succeed and prosper.” 

I agree.  The time for ranting and trying to convince his supporters that he is not qualified for the office, that he is a bigoted narcissist, and that the policies they voted for were just smoke and mirrors, more lies, is over.  Not because it isn’t true … it is.  But because it isn’t productive, and has proven to accomplish nothing in this world of post-truth.  I thought long and hard about this, and realized that it is time to subtly alter my goals toward staying on top of the things the Trump regime does that infringe upon our constitutional rights, and writing about those things, making the public aware.

Along those same lines, another editorial by Washington Post writer, E.J. Dionne, caught my eye  .  He starts out with …

“The most important political task of 2017 transcends the normal run of issues and controversies. Our greatest obligation will be to defend democracy itself, along with republican norms for governing and the openness that free societies require.

Preserving the gains in health insurance coverage achieved by the Affordable Care Act should be a high priority. So should preventing a shredding of the social safety net and stopping budget-busting tax cuts for the best-off Americans.

But even these vital matters are secondary to preventing a rollback of democratic values and a weakening of the institutions of self-rule, at home and around the world.

“A right-wing demagogue in charge of the world’s most influential repository of democratic values,” wrote Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf, “is a devastating fact.”

In 2017, supporters of democracy need to stand up resolutely in its defense. They must also be vigilant against violations of the democratic rules of the game, especially here in the United States. Keeping America great means protecting the institutions that have made our greatness possible.” 

I have seen a couple of studies that indicate citizens in western democracies are less interested these days in maintaining the democracies, which I find greatly disturbing. But that is a topic for another day.

Last week, Attorney General Loretta Lynch gave a speech, in which she said …

“There is nothing foreordained about our march toward a more just and peaceful future. Our centuries-long project of creating a more perfect union was not the product of fate or destiny. It was the result of countless individuals making the choice to stand up, to demand recognition, to refuse to rest until they knew that their children were inheriting a nation that was more tolerant, more inclusive and more equal. The way we achieved voting equality in this country was always from the community level up. It was the leaders on the ground who raised these issues, who had people out there on the streets, who had people out registering people to vote.”

If the senate confirms racist Jeff Sessions as Attorney General later this month, as they are likely to do, it is a given that he will not be as staunch an advocate for civil rights as Ms. Lynch has been, or others before her.  It is up to us all, then, to speak out when we become aware of moves that are designed to infringe on the rights of groups of people based on ethnicity, skin colour, religion, gender, or gender identity.  If the mainstream media, along with those of us whose words reach only a few hundred, all speak loudly and without letting emotions get in the way, without bias based on other issues, I think … I hope … we can keep our country from going back 50 or 100 years in time. For my part, I shall try to tone down my snarkiness … though, since it is a part of who I am, don’t look for it to go away completely.  I do, however, want my words to count for something, rather than being discounted as just the ravings of an angry Filosofa.

The Morning After …

Posted on by under Political commentary

Good Morning!  For those who may be wondering … yes, I did watch the debate last night.  It turned out to be not as much of a train wreck as I had anticipated, which I greatly appreciated.  That is not to say it didn’t have its moments, but overall it didn’t make me cringe too much, and I did get a few chuckles from it.  I watched it on my laptop, live-streamed on The Guardian’s website, and about halfway through I covered the left side of my screen (the side that Trump was on) with a sheet of paper, as I couldn’t take looking at him and his facial contortions any longer.

debate.jpg

Much better with Trump’s face hidden!

I will write further about it either for this evening’s post or Friday morning’s.  However for this morning, since I am writing this post-debate at 12:15 a.m., I do not have the time or energy to do all the fact-checking and reviewing in order to write sensibly about the debate for this morning’s post. Unless I want to stay up all night.  I don’t. So I will write a short post for this morning, and save the debate news for a bit later on.

I really liked an article by Greg Sargent of The Washington Post on October 17th.  The title of the article was:

REVEALED: The vast international conspiracy to stop Trump, in one chart

“The chart below represents the actual stated beliefs of the Republican Party’s nominee for President of the United States.

It is now clear that as a loss looms, Donald Trump will only escalate his rolling claims that the election is rigged against him. The conspiracy now includes the media, numerous women who allege inappropriate sexual advances, their friends and relatives, immigration officials, international bankers, and elections officials across the country.

Yesterday, Trump tweeted that “the election is absolutely being rigged” on Hillary Clinton’s behalf, not just by the news media, but also “at many polling places.” Trump had called on his supporters to monitor the polls in “certain areas” (wink, wink) where “bad things happen.”

The New York Times reports today that elections officials in both parties are rushing to reassure voters that the election won’t be “rigged,” and some fear violence. Anecdotal reporting and polling suggest many Trump voters believe his claims.

If Trump loses, he’ll likely continue to tell millions of supporters that the election was stolen from them, perhaps to maintain or monetize his following. Imagine Trump as a conspiracy merchant in the mold of Glenn Beck, who famously sketched out hallucinatory conspiratorial charts only he could understand.

In that spirit, I have created this chart, to help you keep track of the evolving global conspiracy to stop Trump.”

conspiracies.png

The details of each group of conspirators are in Sargent’s article, so be sure to follow the link to read more!

By the way … thought you might enjoy seeing the current electoral projection map by FiveThirtyEight as of tonight!  They are projecting Clinton with 343.9 electoral votes to Trump’s 193.4.  270 are needed for a win.  Lookin’ good, folks!

electoral map 10-19-2016.png

I apologize for such a short post, but it is now 2:00 a.m., and I hear my bed calling, so I promise to return with more about the debate and some of the more interesting moments, as well as the pundit’s take on it later on.  Meanwhile, I thought you might enjoy a bit of debate-related cartoon humour.

Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press

 

Freedom of the Press … Going, Going …

Posted on by under Political commentary, Social commentary

Donald Trump said Monday that he is “revoking” the Washington Post’s press access at his campaign events, calling the newspaper “phony and dishonest.”  In a Facebook post, the presumptive GOP nominee attributed the decision to the newspaper’s “incredibly inaccurate coverage” of him.

What started his vendetta against the Post?  The catalyst was a headline in the Post on Monday:  “Donald Trump seems to connect President Obama to Orlando shooting.”  There is nothing dishonest about this headline, as Trump made thinly-veiled accusations against President Obama saying that Mr. Obama’s response to the shooting meant “he doesn’t get it or he gets it better than anybody understands.”

The Post’s executive editor Marty Baron responded: “Donald Trump’s decision to revoke The Washington Post’s press credentials is nothing less than a repudiation of the role of a free and independent press. When coverage doesn’t correspond to what the candidate wants it to be, then a news organization is banished. The Post will continue to cover Donald Trump as it has all along — honorably, honestly, accurately, energetically, and unflinchingly. We’re proud of our coverage, and we’re going to keep at it.”

BuzzFeed, Politico, The Daily Beast, Univision, and The Huffington Post are among other outlets that have been blocked in recent months. Some journalists have described this as an emerging Trump “blacklist.”  Some of these publications, such as Huffington Post, have a biased slant, but Politico, founded in 2007, has a reputation for fair and honest reporting of all sides, and in fact at one time was considered to be slightly right-leaning.  And now the Washington Post which is among the most-respected publications in the U.S.  Donald Trump may well have just “cut off his nose to spite his face.”

At the start of his campaign a year ago, Trump had the press practically eating out of his hand and licking his boots.  His was the name that sold newspapers and drew viewers, and he was getting so much airtime that we barely heard from Clinton or Sanders.  Trump was lapping up all the free advertising, and while the press, like the rest of us, realized he was a buffoon, it was still attention, and any attention was better than none.  Now, apparently, he has decided to narrow the scope of his campaign coverage in an attempt to control what the public sees, to control his still-free advertising.

Journalists without credentials can attend Trump events by obtaining tickets available to the general public. But a Politico reporter, Ben Schreckinger, said he was ejected from a Trump rally in California earlier this month by a campaign staff member and a private security guard.  “Trump in his campaign has repeatedly tried to control the coverage of news organizations by denying their journalists access to his campaign events. We believe that is a violation of the basic right of a free press to report — and if the goal is to squelch independent journalism about Trump it certainly won’t work,” said POLITICO editor Susan Glasser in a statement.

Earlier this year, Trump vowed to make libel laws more punitive against the media if he becomes president. “I’m going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money,” Trump said during a campaign event in Texas. Hostile rhetoric toward the press is a staple of his events. “I would never kill them, but I do hate them,” he said of the press in December. “And some of them are such lying, disgusting people.”  Good to know he doesn’t plan to kill them, merely remove their voice boxes.

What Trump fails to understand is that his words, his exact words, are what the press reports.  One might think he would tone down his rhetoric if he does not want to see his own words staring at him over the breakfast table, but no, instead he expects the press to take his words and try to make them sound innocent and nice?  Or intelligent?  That is impossible to do when he spews nothing but stupidity and hate each time he opens his mouth!  To quote an old saying, “you reap what you sow.”  When you sow hurled epithets and fear-mongering rhetoric, hate-speech and lies, they come back to haunt you.  Surely in all his years in business, he has learned this lesson?

One cannot help but see the parallels between Trump’s rhetoric and the actions of Erdogan, Putin and other thin-skinned leaders who believe that the way to control their nations is to control and muzzle the press.  Though Trump’s power is limited at this time to restricting who, among the press, can attend his campaign events, imagine if the man were to be elected president.  Those who are leaning toward a vote for Trump in November are many of the same people who so actively and vociferously defend their 2nd Amendment rights.  I think you would do well to apply that same level of fervor to defending our 1st Amendment rights, for without a press that has the freedom to keep us all informed, we become a dictatorship no different than Turkey, China, North Korea or Russia.  If Trump has his way, the only news outlets allowed to cover his campaign by November may be Breitbart and Fox.  I look for more media outlets to be shut out in the coming weeks.  Never fear, as Politico is still managing to report everything Trump says and does,  I am reasonably certain that the Washington Post will do the same.  But nonetheless, this is a frightening sign of what would be to come under a Trump presidency.  For Pete’s Sake, Americans … WAKE UP AND SMELL THE DAMN COFFEE!

Hats Off to Bernie ….

Posted on by under Political commentary

Tonight is the official end of the primaries and caucuses!  Do I hear a collective sigh of relief?  Don’t get too happy, as now it is time to move on to the real mud-slinging, name-calling, screaming, ranting and raving, down and dirty phase of the election process.  Make no mistake, friends, it is going to be a long, hot summer. Tempers are going to flare, and I wouldn’t even be surprised to hear that the divorce rates and murder rates increase between now and November.

Tonight’s results appear to have planted Hillary Clinton firmly as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee, and of course Donald Trump was already the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party.  Both conventions would seem at this point to be a mere formality.  But then, the last several primaries have seemed to me a mere formality and I have wondered more than once “why bother?”

little-engineThat said, I think a special tribute is in order to Bernie Sanders.  I have tremendous respect and admiration for this man.  He ran a good campaign, a mostly clean campaign, for the most part comported himself with dignity and did not stoop to the level of the republican candidates.  He started out as the underdog that nobody took seriously, and even I thought he would never get to first base, primarily because of that label, ‘democratic socialist’.  But he did get to first base, then second, then third.  He reminds me of that classic children’s book, The Little Engine That Could … he never gave up and never lost sight of the goal. He always thought he could.

The pundits didn’t give Bernie a chance at the beginning of the primary season.  They referred to his as a ‘fringe’ campaign.  A year ago, Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post wrote: “Kim Kardashian Has a Better Chance of Being President Than Bernie Sanders.”   But Bernie, even after being told he didn’t stand a chance, never gave up and in the end, he made Hillary work harder to earn her nomination than she ever thought she would have to.  He proved them all wrong, and came damn close to that golden ring.

And he did it without the help of big corporations or lobbying groups.  Sanders rejected all forms of big campaign contributions as inherently corrupting, instead relying almost exclusively on a small-donor army that nobody thought could foot the enormous multimillion-dollar cost of a modern presidential campaign.  Sanders raised more than $77 million from those giving under $200 each.  The word for this is integrity.  He was determined that if he won the presidency, he would be beholden to nobody except the voters, the taxpayers, rather than that infamous 1%.

Bernie had counted on winning California tonight, but when the polls closed, Bernie had won only North Dakota (though as of this writing, Montana is still up for grabs), where he won 64.2% as compared to Hillary’s 25.6%.  The Democratic Party is calling for Sanders to gracefully step down and throw his weight behind Clinton.  Ultimately, this is what will likely happen, but for now, I am not so sure.  He has vowed to keep on fighting to convince the super delegates to shift their support to him prior to the convention in late July, despite rumours that he will lay off approximately half of his campaign staff later this week.

Whether Sanders cuts his losses and ends his campaign this week, or sticks it out until the convention, at the end of the day I believe he will give Clinton his full support and urge his supporters to do the same.  It is unimaginable that he would not do everything in his power to keep Trump from winning the election.

I conclude as I started, with hats off to Bernie Sanders for a game well-played.  I agreed with many of his ideas, disagreed with a few, and I think he would have made a very capable, qualified president.  You gave it your all, Bernie, and for a while there, we were ‘feeling the Bern’.

bern1

Little Donnie vs The Big Bad Media

Posted on by under Political commentary

A couple of old sayings come to mind today.  The first is something about ‘not biting the hand that feeds you’.  The second is ‘never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel’ – Mark Twain. And then there’s the one about ‘cutting off your nose to spite your face’.  Any and all of these apply today to the not-very-illustrious Donald Trump.  The press has, for the past 11 months, given Donald Trump hundreds, nay thousands of hours of free advertising.  My own belief is the media are the very reason da trumpeter has gone from being known as a silly clown to the republican nominee for the highest office in the nation.  He owes them, because he has not needed to shell out cash for advertisements … every time he opens his mouth, he gets free advertising.  So what does he do?

He bites the hand that feeds him, cuts off his nose to spite his face, insults those who buy ink by the barrel, and accuses the media of ‘making me look very bad’.  WHOA … HOLD THE PRESSES … nobody, I repeat nobody, needed to make Donald Trump look very bad … he is doing a wonderful job of that all by himself!  So what was the occasion this time?  The media actually had the audacity to do some fact-checking and call Donnie on one of his many lies!  Gasp!

trump-press-confThe whole thing started back in January of this year, when Mr. Trump held a televised fund-raiser, the proceeds of which were, he said, going to benefit veterans.  At the end of the day, he said that he had raised more than $6 million and that he himself was giving $1 million. Then just last week, the Washington Post and other media outlets asked Trump and his campaign for details about how much the fundraiser had actually raised and whether Trump had given his portion. When he refused to answer, the media went digging, as was to be expected … it is what the media do best!  But alas … no evidence was found that Trump had donated a single dollar to any veterans group!  After another call from the Post, Trump contacted James K. Kallstrom, chairman of Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, and pledged his $1 million.  Asked why he waited so five months to make the donation, Trump said that he had to check out the charity, but in reality his foundation had donated to this particular charity in the past, and the vice-chairman of the group, coincidentally, is the managing director of one of Trump’s hotels!  What a coincidence, eh?

Even the amount of the donations raised appears to be in question.  Trump declared on the night of the fund-raiser that he had raised $6 million, then this week he claimed $5.5 million, while his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, says it was $4.5 million.  On Tuesday, Trump denied that he ever said $6, even though it was plainly recorded for all to see.  Can anybody who has run businesses, some even successful, possibly be this stupid?  Never mind, don’t answer that.

PinocchioTrump finally did provide a list of organizations that had received donations, saying that most had “gone out some time ago”.  The Associated Press spoke or left messages with each of the organizations Trump named. Of the 30 groups that responded by Tuesday, about half said they had received checks from Trump just last week.  Several said the checks were dated on or about May 24 — the date of Trump’s interview with the Post — and shipped out overnight. So, the little boy who got caught in a tangled web of his own making, scrambled to untangle himself.  I just wonder, had the media not persevered, would he have ever made the donations, and if so, when?

All that aside, however, since we are, after all, accustomed by now to Donnie’s many fabrications and exaggerations, on Tuesday Mr. Trump held a press conference whereby he spent the majority of his 40 minutes lambasting those who had basically handed him the nomination just a few short weeks ago.  He chomped right down on the hand that had been feeding him, and methinks he is going to live to regret that one!  Until now, the media as a whole had done very little to dispute his lies, but I think that from this point forward we will be seeing a change in that attitude.  Trump referred to the media as “very dishonest” … and if you can tolerate yet another old saying, I see that as the ‘pot calling the kettle ….’.  Trump said: “The press should be ashamed of themselves. Veterans are calling me, and they are furious.  You make me look very bad.” He referred to reporters in general as ‘dishonest’ and to a specific ABC reporter as ‘a sleaze’.  Once again, the man certainly knows how to win friends and influence people, doesn’t he?

Although Trump claims that the reason behind his secrecy and reluctance to release a funds distribution list was that he preferred to make the donations anonymously, in the next breath he bemoaned the fact that he wasn’t being properly thanked for his ‘generosity’.

I forced myself to watch some 25 minutes of Trump’s press conference in preparation for this post.  All I saw was a man tooting his own horn, reiterating how wonderful he is for raising all this money, and how unfairly he felt the press was treating him.  By what … simply doing their job and checking his facts, holding him accountable?  One thing I noticed … four of his minions were standing behind him throughout the conference, and every time he made a critical remark, all four looked and one another and snickered.  Yes, they snickered like a group of high school kids.  Donald Trump’s campaign is built on a foundation of lies, bigotry, and self-promotion, and it has brought politics in this nation to an all-time low level of maturity.

Trump has made an enemy of the media, and they are indeed a powerful enemy.  I think, at least I hope, that the free pass he has enjoyed for the past year has finally expired, and that from this point forward he will be held accountable for the words that tumble from his mouth. Though I frequently rail at the media for their tendency toward sensationalism, and I still hold them responsible for Trump’s rise over the past year, it is times like this that I am glad our media have the freedom to do what they do, to investigate and call people on their untruths.  Let us never lose sight of the value in that, and let us never make choices that will impinge upon the freedom of the press.

A Pricey Cartoon and a Madman

Posted on by under Global Issues, Rants

I had a really good cartoon by Tom Toles of the Washington Post that I planned to share with you this afternoon.  Having spent the last ten years of my accounting career in the publishing industry, I am ever conscious of copyright law, so I always try to cite or footnote passages I might use from a publication, and I request permission directly from the publisher if I want to use a lengthier portion of an article.  So, I requested permission to reprint Mr. Toles cartoon on my blog, and here is the answer I received:

“Hi Jill,

Thank you for your request.  We charge $35.00 USD + a $12.00 service fee for blog use.  Let me know how you would like to proceed.

Best regards, Raegan Carmona

Raegan Carmona

Manager of Permissions

Universal Uclick”

Needless to say, I am not sharing the cartoon with you, however if interested, you can find it at this link: Toles cartoon  (Note that I can post a link for free!)

So, on to other things.  On 22 April 2016, President Obama, along with leaders of 176 other nations, signed the Paris Agreement, an international agreement within the framework of the United Nations, to limit the effects of global climate change by controlling greenhouse gas emissions, among other things.  It is complex and would require an entire post or two to explain the details, but for now, suffice it to say it is a step in the right direction toward preserving our environment.  Among some who claim that climate change is a hoax, the Paris Agreement is not popular, but they are a very small minority.  Today, 97% of all scientists agree that global climate change is very much real, that climate-warming trends over the last century are almost certainly a result of human activities, and that it is essential that all industrialized nations take part in developing policies and technology to help prevent further damage to our atmosphere.

Yesterday, 26 May 2016, Donald Trump gave a speech in North Dakota in which he said, in part:

“President Obama has done everything he can to get in the way of American energy. He’s made life much more difficult for North Dakota, as costly regulation makes it harder and harder to turn a profit. Millions of jobs, and trillions of dollars of wealth, will be destroyed as a result. That is why our choice this November is so crucial. Here’s what it comes down to. Wealth versus poverty. President Obama’s stated intent is to eliminate oil and natural gas production in America. His policy is death by a thousand cuts through an onslaught of regulations. The Environmental Protection Agency’s use of totalitarian tactics forces energy operators in North Dakota into paying unprecedented multi-billion dollar fines before a penalty is even confirmed. America’s incredible energy potential remains untapped. It is a totally self-inflicted wound. Under my presidency, we will accomplish complete American energy independence. Imagine a world in which our foes, and the oil cartels, can no longer use energy as a weapon. But President Obama has done everything he can to keep us dependent on others. A Trump Administration will develop an America First energy plan. Here is how this plan will make America Wealthy Again: American energy dominance will be declared a strategic economic and foreign policy goal of the United States. America has 1.5 times as much oil as the combined proven resources of all OPEC countries; we have more Natural Gas than Russia, Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia Combined; we have three times more coal than Russia. Our total untapped oil and gas reserves on federal lands equal an estimated $50 trillion. A Trump Administration will focus on real environmental challenges, not phony ones.

 

“Here is my 100-day action plan:

We’re going to rescind all the job-destroying Obama executive actions including the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule.

We’re going to save the coal industry and other industries threatened by Hillary Clinton’s extremist agenda.

I’m going to ask Trans Canada to renew its permit application for the Keystone Pipeline.

We’re going to lift moratoriums on energy production in federal areas

We’re going to revoke policies that impose unwarranted restrictions on new drilling technologies. These technologies create millions of jobs with a smaller footprint than ever before.

We’re going to cancel the Paris Climate Agreement and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs.

Any regulation that is outdated, unnecessary, bad for workers, or contrary to the national interest will be scrapped. We will also eliminate duplication, provide regulatory certainty, and trust local officials and local residents.

Any future regulation will go through a simple test: is this regulation good for the American worker? If it doesn’t pass this test, the rule will not be approved.

Policy decisions will be public and transparent. They won’t be made on Hillary’s private email account.”

(For full annotated transcript of his speech, follow this link) Trump speech 26 May – North Dakota

Amazing, isn’t it, that in one brief speech, riddled with lies and misconceptions, he just vowed to destroy every positive step that has been made toward protecting and preserving our planet?  He plans to explore for oil and gas on lands where such processes would threaten wildlife and ecosystems, re-invest in coal mining and production, increase the burning of fossil fuels.  His ‘statistics’ have all been proven false, and his policies, as they are stated, would hasten the destruction of our ecology and the environment of the earth.  Given that the majority of nations across the globe recognize the dangers posed by greenhouse gas emissions and have banded together, via the Paris Agreement, in an effort to halt further destruction of our earth, for Donald Trump to pull out of the agreement would certainly not gain us any friends in the global community, and would make the U.S. the subject of scorn and derision. There are complexities that would make it difficult to simply withdraw from the Paris Agreement, but not impossible. Such an action would be a tremendous setback.(Note that, while he claims he will ‘cancel’ the agreement, that would be well outside his power, as he has no control over the other 176 nations who signed the agreement)

Time and space do not permit me to print the entirety of Trump’s speech in North Dakota, nor to address his various lies and misstatements, but this is as serious an issue as any facing us today, so I urge you to use the link above to read it for yourself.  U.S. citizens absolutely must see that Trump is indeed a madman who simply cannot be allowed to become president of this nation!

Little Donnie’s New Playmate …

Posted on by under Political commentary, Social commentary

A week or so ago, I was not happy with the quality of my writing (I imagine we all go through that from time to time) and for a brief time (perhaps an hour or two) I considered giving up my blog.  But then I had an epiphany and I realized that if I did not write this blog, if I did not have this opportunity to pound the keys and vent my frustrations with today’s world, I would explode into a million little pieces and be scattered for miles!  So, the moment passed, and I am glad, especially when I see things like today’s latest in the ongoing saga of da trumpeter.

gun1Little Donnie Darkness got another … totally unexpected [sarcasm fully intended] … endorsement today.  Yes, folks, the NRA now thinks that Donnie Rump is the next best thing to sliced bread!  Okay, so it really is no surprise, given that there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that they were going to endorse Hillary Clinton who has been vociferous in her support of stronger gun regulation and declared that she plans to ‘take on the NRA’.  What is curious, however, is that, just as so many other groups have done this year, the NRA seems to have developed amnesia.  They forgot that he once supported an assault weapons ban and expanded background checks. In his 2000 book The America We Deserve he wrote that “The Republicans walk the NRA line and refuse even limited restrictions.”

So, what convinced the NRA to come out in support of Trump?  Granted, Hillary is their ‘public enemy #1’, but they could have abstained from endorsing either candidate just as easily.  Well, Trump promised them, just as he has so many others, a heaping dish of hogwash that he cannot deliver on, but I guess it sounded good to Wayne LaPierre, acting CEO of the NRA, and Chris Cox, chief lobbyist. Trump says he has a concealed-carry permit, he wants to rescind President Obama’s executive actions expanding background checks, he thinks assault weapons are tremendous, and he wants to make any permit you get in any state valid in the 49 other states, so people can bring their guns even where other states don’t want them. And as for gun-free zones, “My first day, it gets signed, okay? My first day. There’s no more gun-free zones.”  Sorry to inform you, Donnie, but there will always be gun-free zones … I know this, because my home is and always will be one of them.

Let us, just for the fun of it, pick apart Trump’s assertion about signing ‘it’ to do away with gun-free zones on his first day.  Interestingly, Huffington Post reporter Sam Stein contacted several Trump-owned properties, including his Palm Beach estate and private club, Mar-A-Lago.  Turns out that Mar-A-Lago, as well as Trump Hotel in Chicago and Trump Winery in Virginia are all … ready for it … gun-free zones!  All that aside, Trump will not be able to declare a moratorium on gun-free zones with the stroke of a pen, since gun-free zones exist as a result of legislation passed by Congress some twenty years ago, and the only thing that will reverse it is another act of Congress. And, given the hostility so many in the nation feel toward Trump, I should think he would welcome gun-free zones!

The NRA was once an organization dedicated to promoting gun safety, but that noble idea went by the wayside in the last few decades, and now they are just dedicated to promoting a culture of guns.  “They’ve encouraged people to think that gun ownership makes you self-reliant, independent, masculine, strong, capable, and patriotic — and anyone who thinks that 30,000 Americans killed by guns every year is a problem worth addressing must not be any of those things.” (Waldman, Washington Post, 20 May 2016).  Well, I guess that makes me helpless, dependent, feminine, weak, inept and a traitor to my country, because I absolutely abhor guns and will not knowingly occupy the same space as somebody with a gun.  When my daughter was but 5 days old, my husband’s brother came to our home to see his new niece.  He was drunk and brought his new gun with him to show it off to my husband.  I ordered him out of our home that day, much to the annoyance of my husband.  That is an example of how adamantly I hate guns, just in case anybody had doubts!

gun2.pngSo, the NRA has jumped into bed with Donnie, and I hope that it will be a very happy relationship for them.  Donnie will not be able to keep his promises, the NRA leadership is undoubtedly smart enough to realize that, but it really does not matter, as there is already very little gun regulation on the books in this country, and what there is more often than not is ineffective or not enforced.  It should be noted, however, that 90% of the people in this nation are in favour of stricter gun regulations, and that includes NRA members.  It seems to me that an organization that lobbies for policies that are contrary to those supported by their members is out of control.

Meanwhile, back at the reality ranch, even without the endorsement of the NRA, Hillary Clinton is also a candidate for president, and I hope that, if she wins the election, she will remain true to her promises to challenge the NRA and work toward more sensible gun regulations than we currently have.  The NRA tells its members that Hillary wants to abolish the 2nd amendment, but while she has certainly spoken out in favour of additional gun regulation, she has never given any indication that she would consider amending the Constitution to abolish the “right to bear arms” clause, nor would she likely be able to even if she were so inclined.  So, the NRA is also lying.  They and Trump actually make logical bedfellows, don’t you think?

A Bored Nation

Posted on by under Political commentary, Social commentary

The United States of America is a nation that is bored.  Yes, b-o-r-e-d.  Don’t believe me?  All you have to do is visit any of the social media sites and see what is trending, what people are talking about.  Now, if you remove all sources with the word ‘Trump’ of ‘Hillary’, you are left with what people apparently think passes for news, for importance.  Today’s topic?  The father of social media, Facebook.  An anonymous source apparently accuses Facebook of suppressing some conservative stories from the ‘trending now’ spot.  Rather than question the source, everybody … well, 85% of everybody … has jumped on the bandwagon, assuming the ‘anonymous tipster’ to be perfectly legitimate, and gone ‘viral’ with their criticisms of Facebook … on Facebook!

fblogoFirst of all … if you depend on Facebook or any other social media outlet for your news, then you are pretty much getting only one side, if that, of the story anyway.  Second, why would you believe this any more than you would believe that Jackie Chan has died … again … oh, but wait … most people do believe that every time they see it!  Third, what does it matter if Facebook leans more to the left or right?  Every news outlet does … think Fox (left-leaning) and Washington Post (right-leaning).  Facebook is not in the news business, it is entertainment, pure and simple, and their goal is that which will earn them the greatest amount of followers.  Nothing more, nothing less.

Even RNC chairman Reince Priebus and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune weighed in with Tweets and Twits.  Do these guys really have nothing better to do?  Facebook has denied that it is biased toward one party or another, and frankly, having seen plenty of ‘trending stories’ and ‘memes’ for both ideologies, I am inclined to believe them.  However, it probably doesn’t matter, as the idea is now firmly planted in the minds of the public, and once planted, it will live there forevermore … or until something more interesting comes along, say a new video featuring Beyoncé.

But, of course, the public is not content to stick with the topic at hand, nor, God forbid, try to verify the veracity of the source.  No … though the only allegation was that Facebook editors may have cut some conservative stories from the trending news feed, now Facebook users are claiming that their memes and posts promoting conservative values and candidates are disappearing.  This, I can tell you, is definitely NOT true, as I see so many of them per day that I eventually log off Facebook just for self-preservation.  Facebook is not hacking your account and removing your right-wing cutesy memes, my right-leaning friends.  Trust me, they are still there in all their glory! Before long I fully expect people to start blaming Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg for the disappearance of great-aunt Harriet and the swarm of cicadas in the garden.

Some have even given so much importance to this non-issue that they claim Facebook “could easily tip this year’s presidential election in one candidate’s favor.”  If that is the case, and I seriously hope it is not, then that is a very sad statement about the American voter indeed. Facebook’s ‘Trending Topics’ is intended, loosely, to be a compilation of those stories that appear to be of interest to the most people on Facebook.  If you want news, visit a news source, if you want entertainment, visit Facebook.  The two are independent and as such, are not interchangeable.