Tag Archives: politics

General

So, about yesterday’s hearings…

I wrote about them before they started and now, a day later and for what it’s worth, I’ll reflect on them:

James Comey’s appearance didn’t really do all that much to alter my already dismal opinion of Donald Trump.  Sadly, I’ve experienced people like him before and someone far more clever than I noted that Trump’s modus operandi is to first try to charm people to his side and if that doesn’t work they bully and if that doesn’t work, they sue.

The whole point is this: Trump is in this for Trump and in his primary field, real estate, this has served him well but when dealing with the country, it simply doesn’t work.

So far we know Trump clearly has some kind of cozy relationship with Russia/Vladmir Putin and, I strongly suspect, knew full well Putin and his people were doing their best to screw with Hilary Clinton’s campaign.  Further, Trump’s associates have had contact with the Russians and some have kept those meetings secret, which is now coming back to bite them.

Having said all that, Mr. Comey deserves, IMHO, a certain amount of derision as well.  While I can sympathize with his discomfort and caution at dealing with Trump, I still feel he stuck his foot in it with regard to Clinton’s campaign and, further, feel he had a larger hand than most in bringing the nation to this point.  His idiotic letter on the eve of the actual election, then retraction, hurt Clinton’s campaign more than just about anything Trump did to that point.

Thing is, we are where we are.  One can gnash one’s teeth and wish this had happened or that had happened but, again, we are where we are.

Hopefully we’ll muddle through this mess and people in the right places will ensure the skies will clear up after a fashion.

In the meantime, I’ll do whatever I can, which is what everyone else can do: Vote.

Educate yourselves.  Try to understand the issues and which side of the fence you feel most comfortable on.  Once you understand this, further educate yourself on the various candidates for office and who you feel will work for your best interests.

Don’t get stuck using one news source.  Try to become rounded.

Read, watch, and analyze.  Try to do so with as cool and clear a head as you can.

Maybe getting a Donald Trump president is a blessing in disguise.  Maybe people round these parts and in the world will realize the seriousness of following their political systems and recognizing their place within it.

Maybe.

General

Difficult to avoid politics today, 6/8/17

For those within and outside the U.S. and who are fascinated by this stuff, today ex-FBI Director James Comey testifies at Capitol Hill.

From the looks of things, Mr. Comey, hardly a snow-white figure on his own (whether he likes it or not, his impact in Trump’s Presidential victory is statistically notable, as per Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com), gets to talk about what he obviously felt was an attempt by President Trump to influence him on his investigation of the Russian attempts to tamper the election…as well as the various odd things his aids did with the very same Russians prior and after the election itself.

It should be interesting…if it weren’t so sad.

General

Oh my…

Its getting really hard not to get political around these parts, as much as I am loathe to do so.

Politics, especially nowadays, are incredibly polarizing and if you’ve followed my writings for any length of time you know where I stand.

Having said that, to those who are on the right, politically, I can’t help but wonder when you look at all the news floating out there about President Trump and, especially of late the resignation/firing of General Flynn and the hints at collusion between Russia and Mr. Trump’s people, does it not at least make you a little queasy?

Just a little bit?

I mean, its been roughly three weeks since Donald Trump has become President and the news cycles have been filled with mostly bad, worse, and terrible news regarding his Presidency.

Going back to General Flynn, this is the sort of thing he did back on the campaign trail…

I especially love the very first words he utters in the clip above:

We do not need a reckless President who believes she is above the law.

Wow.

Projection much?

I may have noted this before, but in my other life, I studied Psychology and one of the most interesting “defense” mechanism I encountered was that of Projection.

In a nutshell, Projection is used by people to defend themselves “against their own unconscious impulses or qualities (both positive and negative) by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others.”

So therefore when General Flynn talks about a “reckless” President who believes herself “above the law” and then looks at what Mr. Trump has done in the past three weeks, can we not agree at the very least it has been reckless and there has been a disregard for the law (“So-called judges”)?

This isn’t unique in General Flynn.

Donald Trump often used this, insulting others with phrases that seemed more apropo to himself.

We’re only three weeks in, folks, and with General Flynn’s resignation/firing for having talked to the Russians before the actual election and then lying about having done so the media and members in Congress are beginning to wonder the exact extent of Mr. Trump’s relationship with Putin and the Russian power base.

Perhaps the biggest unanswered question, and a frightening one it is, is this: Did Donald Trump and his staff know that Russia was trying to sabotage Mrs. Clinton’s campaign by hacking her people’s computers and then releasing the information to the media?  Did he not only agree to this but encourage it?

And if that’s the case, what does it say about our media when there were hints about this already there, during the election, and no one seems to have taken them seriously until now?

Frightening, frightening stuff.

General

Better to laugh than cry…

Gettin’ political again, so for those who are faint of heart, look away!

To the rest: So yesterday Kellyanne Conway, President (wow that’s hard to write) Trump’s campaign adviser was interviewed by Chris Matthews and said the following (the clip I’m including does a good job at pointing out the *ahem* inaccuracies in her statement)…

To quote Ms. Conway: “Masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre”.

Which, of course, set off a hilarious twitter reaction, many of the responses which can be found here:

Kellyane Conway literally fabricated a massacre to Justify Trump’s Immigration Ban

To all the twitter writers posted in the above article, my hats off to you.  You’re creative, ingenious, and, especially, hilarious.

It’s so hard to point out any one twitter reaction as the best of the lot so you’ll have to trust me: They’ll all worth checking out.

Do so, now!  That’s an order, son!

General

Alternative Facts…

A few days back (Sunday, to be exact), Presidential Aide (I don’t know if she has any other formal title) Kellyanne Conway, while on Meet the Press and while being asked about, well, see for yourself:

And thus a line I’m certain Ms. Conway would desperately love to take back, “Alternative Facts”, was born and much ridicule was to be had with her Orwellian use of language.

Speaking of which:

1984 Skyrockets on Amazon.com after “Alternative Facts” Controversy

Frankly, I don’t know what to make of Ms. Conway.  Maybe I’m projecting my own feelings upon her but, at least to me, she seems like a fairly smart person yet there’s something so terribly, so clearly …wrong… inside her.

Perhaps she’s like a lawyer who’s assigned to defend a client they know is guilty as hell and a terrible person, to boot, yet value their job to the point where they will provide as strong a defense as possible.  Perhaps I’m over-simplifying it, but it’s their job, not them.

Yet note the first things that come out of Ms. Conway’s mouth in the above extended clip, how she threatens the press right off the bat.

The ridicule heaped upon her and the administration for the things she said in the above interview, especially the “Alternative Facts” quote,  is well deserved, again IMHO, yet I can’t help but feel a great unease.  Are these people for real?  Just how far are they willing to go to argue their view of reality, which, of course, simply isn’t?

Unlike the ridicule coming from the internet, George Orwell’s 1984 was far from a “comedy”.  At its core it was a truly terrifying horror story.  The idea of a dictatorial government taking total control of its citizens and, effectively, making them sheep should terrify everyone, and the idea they can create their own reality and force their people to accept it is perhaps the most frightening idea of them all.

Up is down.  Black is white.  Fighting for peace…

Alternative facts, indeed.

We’re not even a week into this new presidency.  What exactly are we in for?

General

Hello darkness…

So today, January 20th, 2017 we here in the good ol’ US of A inaugurate our latest president and we enter a new era full of optimism and hope that…

Who the f#$k am I kidding?

When George W. Bush was elected president following Bill Clinton, I feared the worst and it proved to be the case.  Not only did George W. Bush not get the popular vote, but there is still a legitimate, IMHO, case to be made he didn’t win Florida either.  It was the meddling of the Supreme Court, most specifically the conservative judges, who bent over backwards to give Mr. Bush his presidency.

Granted he won re-election but this too was a close shave and I know there are those (perhaps a little less legitimately) who suspect there was some hanky-panky going on in Ohio which gave him the edge over John Kerry (personally, I feel Bush the younger benefited mightily from shenanigans the first time around and a weak candidate in Al Gore and benefited from a weak candidate in Mr. Kerry the second go around).

Regardless, by the time Bush the younger’s terms were done, even the most steadfast Republican couldn’t even mention Mr. Bush’s name in any way, shape or form, lest they hurt negatives.

When Mr. Obama came into office, the country was a mess and, despite incredible odds, considering how much “help” he was afforded by the Republican side, he managed to clean up much of Mr. Bush’s mess.  I do not believe Mr. Obama was a perfect president, but at least he was smart and tried to do the right thing despite the wall of opposition he constantly faced.

Today we inaugurate a person that, incredibly, actually makes me long for Mr. Bush.

In Mr. Trump’s presidency, I fear we’re about to enter another period of great harm.  Even if we were to ignore the racist, misogynistic, narcissistic, and just plain stupid things Mr. Trump say, his cabinet picks are, for the most part, a damn unpleasant joke.

In his picks we have a who’s who of individuals who either have conflicts of interest (some very major), a history of sketchy financial dealings, or are idiots.  Rick Perry, the nominee for Secretary of Energy, admitted he didn’t know what the Department of Energy was about.  Every time Ben Carson opens his mouth, I wonder if his resume (he is supposedly one of the better neurosurgeons) was invented whole cloth…or if he’s one of those idiot-savants who knows one thing really well.  Then there’s Betsy DeVos, a woman who was nominated to be head of the Department of Education for no other reason than that her family is very wealthy and has contributed mightily to the Republican party (she’s also the one who felt guns should be allowed in schools because, I kid you not, they may be needed to repel grizzly bears).

It’s a complete shit-show and not only will the United States be dealing with this, sadly so too will the rest of the world.

I started this post with a famous movie quote and I’ll end it with another.

I’ll try to be optimistic.  I’ll hope Mr. Trump surprises everyone and turns out to be not as bugnuts crazy as he seems.   And if he is, I hope the darkness he creates is quickly followed by light.

General

When you’re wrong you’re wrong…

A couple of days ago I pointed out a CNN segment which featured a bewildered host interviewing what I assume were a group of Trump voters and was shocked when one of them, a woman, noted how she believed “millions” of “illegals” had voted in the election and that President Obama actually encouraged “illegals” to vote.  You can see the full CNN report (and clip) here.

In referencing this clearly misinformed (I’m trying to be polite) voter, I noted:

Look, its easy to knock the woman in this group for the absolutely stupid things she claims are true.  I suspect the others in that group, though not much footage is offered of their opinions, are also Trump supporters.

The reality is…I feel sorry for her.  I truly do.

Well, over the weekend we had another, far more scary reaction to bogus news.  This article by Kevin Bohn, Daniel Allman, and Greg Clary also appeared on CNN:

Gun-Brandishing Man Sought To Investigate Conspiracy Theory

I’ll try to offer a brief encapsulation of the story, though I urge you to read the full article:

When the John Podesta emails were released via Wiki-Leaks, there was mention of Comet Ping, a pizza establishment, that was an apparent spot he and others frequented.

From this the conspiracy theorists (I won’t even begin to guess how their minds worked this particular theory out) weaved a web that stated this establishment was somehow hiding a child sex ring, no doubt supervised by those evil, scum-sucking liberals.

Enter one Edgar Madison Welch, 28.  He entered the establishment brandishing a weapon (perhaps an assault rifle) and was eventually arrested.  Thankfully, no one was injured during this very scary event.

Why did Mr. Welch show up at Comet Ping with a weapon?  From the above article:

“During a post arrest interview this evening, the suspect revealed that he came to the establishment to self-investigate ‘Pizza Gate’ (a fictitious online conspiracy theory),” the police department said in a statement.

I felt sorry for the mis-informed middle aged woman who was so damn certain “millions” of illegals voted.

Based on the above incident, maybe I shouldn’t be so damn nice about the spreading, and believing, of mis-information.

Maybe its time to hold those who spread such idiotic rumors to account.  Especially before someone, a very real someone, gets hurt.

General

And this is why we’re going down…

I really didn’t want to see the CNN video below but was curious about its headline: “Trump supporter claims stun CNN Anchor.”  So I saw it.

Sigh…

Look, its easy to knock the woman in this group for the absolutely stupid things she claims are true.  I suspect the others in that group, though not much footage is offered of their opinions, are also Trump supporters.

The reality is…I feel sorry for her.  I truly do.

It’s so easy to prey on people’s fears and/or desires and whip up their emotions with bogus stories and alarmist fare.  Clearly this woman has lapped it up, believing that a) millions of “illegals” voted for Clinton in California and b) that somehow President Obama encourage these “illegals” to vote.

Her proof?  She claims it was on the news and, to be fair, the CNN anchor did find a bogus “news” story that presented the second claim on (where else?) a Fox News report.

Yet I stand by what I say: I feel sorry for this woman.  She views the news (apparently any news) as something that is truthful in its presentation when, sadly, this is becoming less and less and progressively even less the case.

I’m not saying all news lies, but one has to judge the news from multiple sources.

The fact of the matter is that if President Obama had actually encouraged “illegals” to vote, don’t you think that would be smeared across all news networks?  The fact that it appeared on only one (discredited) news article should make you skeptical of it at best.

Yet for some this will become a truth and when its in your head its difficult to remove it.

The other day there was a “hot” video presented a Trump supporter in Florida (why does my state seem to be the focus of so much weird stuff?!) getting incensed because the barista at a Starbucks wasn’t giving him his coffee quickly enough.

The Trump supporter went off on her and, well, see for yourself…

So your immediate reaction is: This guy is a jerk, right?  When the anger died down (somewhat) we have this…

Note a couple of things in the above news video:

First off, the man is a lot more level headed and offers an apology for his behavior, even though he still feels he was discriminated against (hey, that’s his opinion and if indeed he did wait 20 plus minutes for a coffee and it wasn’t delivered, I’d probably get angry too, though I doubt I’d jump to this being caused by discrimination).

Secondly, as the report ends, it is noted the man suffers from some kind of issue (mental?  Who knows) and admitted to the reporters he was off his medication at the time of the confrontation.

So I’m inclined to give the guy a pass.  I very much think he’s wrong in assuming he was “discriminated” against.  I mean, come on, does he have a “I supported Trump” tattoo on his forehead?  How the hell did the barista know his political tendencies?

It’s so much easier to chalk his anger being related to just plain old poor service, something everyone can relate to.  That being the case, he did apologize for acting on that.  But to use a loaded term like being “discriminated” against?!  That’s victimization example “a” in your all-too typical right wing hot air handbook.

In a very long, roundabout way what I’m saying is that I can understand people being guided by misleading -or outright lying- in the media or in right wing sources, many of which create a reality about them that doesn’t exist.  What scares the crap out of me is when decent people (again, the man above did apologize and it looks like he was genuinely ashamed of his reaction…either that or I’m completely misreading him) fall prey to these emotions and act out on them..

I can’t help but feel these people helped elect a man who will prove himself to be completely unfit for office and, ultimately, a detriment to the very people who voted for him.

Having said that, I’m willing to give him at least a little latitude to prove me wrong.

Which is more than I can say about the latitude many gave President Obama when he was twice elected.  And I say this as someone who did not agree with all the things he did/is doing during his term.