You touch anything republican it leaves a stain (#3100)

     To legitimize anything republican shows your lack of moral and ethical worth. Putting some tradition or your own advantage ahead of standing up to a menace shows that you are the reason we are in this mess with republicans and trumps in particular. I have no regard for republicanism and if you read anything I write you know that as republicans know it as well. I don't fear from bullies or psychopath/sociopaths, I stand up to them and dare them to make me cower to them. Never will I and it makes me smile to think of them as the little cowards they are. The republican party now houses as its followers the most vile, ignorant and despicable human beings we have here in America and those are the types who make my blood boil. Given the right opportunity I would love to take them out back and teach them a hard lesson.
     So when the little pathetic bullies announce that they are going to force things upon us I jump and dare them to try and call them what they are to their faces because let's face it, I would rather be dead than live in a world where they control our liberty, justice and equality. I am a patriot for democracy and nothing less will suffice. I grew up admiring Nathan Hale, Patrick Henry, George Washington, Paul Revere and the like of our Revolutionary War victory. These men showed me what leadership and sacrifice were all about and nothing that the current republican trumps have to offer comes close to their values. The republican trumps only bring a stain to our democratic ideals and the memories of those who fought and died to protect those same democratic ideals.
     So for those republican and trump apologists who think we must submit to them I say this, stop worrying over your own fear and start protecting the values our whole American ancestry stood to protect. Don't be the weak link in the chain that scares like a coward and high tails it when the bullies show up. Stand up and demand that they stand down, then act like men and women of courage and demand they resign or vote them out as quickly as possible. If America is ever going to get it's courage back it must begin here at home in reality and not in some fantasy video game!

Democrats build, republicans destroy! (#3099)

     Nothing has changed in the course of my lifetime as far as politics go. Democrats try to build a society where equity is the shining virtue and every time republicans stoop to dirty politics to destroy our attempts. It has become for me a battle of good versus evil. For no good reason can republicans justify their continued assault on a better society. They use keywords like lazy, dirty and un American to describe their hatred toward an equitable society while raising the differences between us as negatives instead of positives. The republican party has become for all intents and purposes the anti American party. Today I feel like if I should fly a flag from my house it should be a Russian one since this current administration says only positive things about Russia and not about Americans.
     Yesterday when 50 republican senators voted to take away Obamacare as a first step it shows also that it isn't just the presidential administration that has no regard for equity in America but also the Senate following the lead of a House passed bill to do away with health care for up to 32 million folks so that the super wealthy can have another big tax break. That is not being equitable nor is it being fair or just. We all have to live on this planet together and policies that reflect that are the ones that build equity among its citizens. Policies that don't reflect that are the ones republicans embrace such as taking from the least of us and giving to the wealthiest of us. A Robin Hood in reverse.
     How did we get here to a point where the thieves are running the show? A steady decline in our democracy is how. We let the courts tell us that lying is acceptable and telling the truth is less than virtuous. We let the republicans tell us that the melting pot ideal that made America great is actually what's wrong with America. We believe them for some unhealthy reason because we are too lazy to know the truth for ourselves. We are a sorry lot right now and I for one do not feel any pride in being a society that harms much more than it helps. My great hope for an enlightened advancing society is dashed and now I hope that we are able to stem the tide of loss before it takes us so far backward that there is no hope for a better world.

Another day another attempt by republicans to deny healthcare to over 22 million americans (#3098)

     It is unbelievable that republicans can keep getting away with harming American citizens and all we do is let them and then vote them back into public office. I am officially part of the most mindless republic our nation has ever evolved into. The disappointment of our collective conscience is what keeps me stymied. We see wrong being done and yet we don't seem to care. What is it with us? Are we so self absorbed with ourselves that we just don't care what is going on around us? Are we so gullible to think that harm is right and preferable? I am totally shamed by our current inability to put an end to the pain and suffering we are allowing to happen through republican politics.
     I have slowly come to realize that my generation will leave our nation worse off than when we inherited it. We shame the memories of the past generations who gave us the liberty and freedom of democracy through blood and treasure. We are not them now. We are the selfish generation that likes to have our own way at the expense of fairness and justice. We want our advantages and privileges at any cost, even to losing our humanity. We are not a society here in America to be looked up to as an example of the best of what a human being may become. In fact we are lowering our standards to those who are more criminal than hero. When many of us have to look to other nations for inspiration is when the facts of things here are desperate and unforgiving.
     I find no joy in this self examination of our society. I find shame is the one thread weaving its way through how we treat all of each other and how we view with disdain the future. Our punishing ambivalence is wreaking havoc on those who we wish to control. We are a democracy still with the liberty to be free and equal. Yet republicans are against that and instead want to take our freedom and equality and serve it to us as a treat for our behavior that complies with their narrow focus. The age of enlightenment is under siege by the barbarians who would take power and use it to bully the goodness right out of us. The worst part is we let them and for that we continue to be worse for it. It is time to change and let the best of who we are come out and that will take making the republican party an extinct entity.

The dissolution of American Democracy (#3097)

     The American way of life as seen through the lens of trumps is a disturbing one. Not only do they not see the melting pot that we are but they don't see fairness nor justice as being served in equal measures to all. Our American way cannot even be called democracy anymore since advantages and privileges are taking rights away. How often are the republicans conjuring up ways to deny American citizens fundamental rights? Every day it seems to me with denial of voting rights and subversion of laws and practices that benefit all. How republicans have taken the rights of women and subverted their authority over them is disgusting and repugnant. Now I use demeaning words to describe the acts of republicans but these words are not sufficient to describe their inhuman undemocratic philosophy.
     I will not even try to understand the republican concept of concluding since it does not square with logic or common sense. It is brutal and dominating as a rule and allows them some sort of ego boost that fuels their confoundedness. We are in the middle of a crisis here in America, at least to those of us who are defending democracy as our most cherished principle. The republicans are not satisfied with equal rights for all instead they are only satisfied with more rights for themselves. They care not how they get power as much as they care about having it. The republican party will lie, cheat and steal to win elections and if many of us are right they will also commit treason. Yet they have their delusional base who cannot fathom past racism and misogyny to be assuaged from their idolatry of republicans.
     Even evangelical leaders are swept up in the racist slogans of cleansing rhetoric as a call from Christ to follow the republican agenda at all costs. They have wrongly managed to form their belief to an afterlife that is directly linked to a salvation covered in the blood of the unclean. Yet in their fervor for an illusory ideal of their own making, they have fallen outside of what love and peace may accept. What the factions that are aligning with the trumps and the rest of the republican party all have in common is a lack of empathy for all and the disdain of others who are not them. Democracy is based upon equality and if we here in America cannot accept equality above all things then our form of democracy is an illusion that will eventually disappear into thin air.

I am spitting mad angry and it is because republican! (#3096)

     Every sour note in my life has the touch of republican politics. I mean nothing they do is a value as I see it. Yet I am in a country that values them. It is very sickening to me that my fellow Americans can only see what they want to see and not what reality is. Instead of finding common solutions to problems that makes everyone's lives better republicans are all about punishing and causing pain for their own benefit. I have never been more ashamed of my countrymen than when on November 8th it became clear they would rather have a carnival barking con man as president than an honest hard working woman who spent most of her life giving of herself to better the world. It is still incredulous to me that the ignorance of my country is as deep and long as it is.
     Well we are seeing how absolutely stunning it is to have someone as president who has no clue to helping anyone other than himself. Every where he goes he humiliates himself and our nation as well. He has no concern for the average working middle poor class American only the wealthy. His by your leave attitude with our greatest foreign enemy is another disgrace and as we are finding out his association with Russia as an accomplice in his winning the 2016 election is coming to a head. Yet his voters maintain an allegiance to him that defies logic and common sense. These are my fellow Americans who are so enthralled with the angry bully that no other consideration about facts is possible.
     Our American dream of equality of opportunity, justice and liberty are being assailed by the republican party and in collusion with too many American voters. That republicans are in a wholesale attempt to disenfranchise American citizens of their vote, in defiance of our Constitutional rights and state laws. Yet this does not seem to bother the average republican voter nor does any treasonable acts associated with republican politicians and the Russian influence in our last election. The republican party has thrown out the principles of democracy so that they can form a new government that doesn't answer to the will of the people. This is why I am spitting mad angry at the republican party and all their reality denying voters, friend or family!

Love and all it entails is worth fighting for (#3095)

     To be cold and calculating without the warmth of love is to be inhuman. We are all human so how is it that some of us choose to be not human? It is against our natures to be something we are not. Why cannot we just accept who we are and make the most of that? I struggle to find an answer for this dilemma of not being human when we are human. I will reiterate again that we are biological data processors. Yes, we are machine like in many ways thus we were able to conceive of the idea of a machine. We have memory, short and long term. We calculate, through logic with analysis, reasoning and conclusion. Our general senses allow us to intake information through taste, smell, touch, hearing and seeing. Our arms and legs allow us to move about on uneven terrain, even through the air, vacuum and water. We are durable in may ways although fragile in many other ways.
     Our minds are another amazing tool. We are able to through our memories accumulate information in a comprehensive manner. Compartmentalizing information into it's specific utility. Plus we take from our knowledge and add our imaginations to create previously unknown new paradigms of innovation. We are the most unique biological data processors in the known Universe. As we have already proven we can move outside our boundaries into the vast outer spaces. We have the mental capacity to adapt to conditions that are hostile to our needs to survive. We are a most malleable species and yet we have another quality that is at the core of our identities. We just don't procreate for the sake of species survival, there is love that exists within us to drive our motivations to live.
     The bonds we form with each other are more specific than just societal requirements. We intuit an attraction toward each other that is uniquely fulfilling. Because, besides us being these amazing biological data processors, we are compassionately driven. My heart rises and drops based upon my gains and loses in life. I feel joy at the arrival of a new soul to our existence while feeling sorrow and pain at the loss of a soul from our existence. Which makes me just like most others, striving to allow my curiosity it's due through my natural data processing while living my life through the spectrum of known emotions. These two dynamics of ours, our wonder and our care, are both part of who we are and for anyone to deny that right to another is why we have the mess we are currently confronting.

No remorse in the trump (#3094)

     It should be obvious by now that the trump man/child has a psychological disorder. I am not a clinical nor an analytical psychiatrist in no way shape or form but I can at least see the signs of his disorder. He can never say he is sorry and he doesn't feel any remorse for his actions. Hearing him speak is an assault on my idea of a public servant since his constant refrain is how good he is and how popular he is. I will let you draw your own conclusions about his mental fitness but to me he is as close to being deranged as I have seen from any public official in my lifetime. But what really bothers me the most outside his narcissistic behavior is his inability to find any fault with himself. No matter what he initiates as his great plan for America it is always someone else's fault when the plan is not instituted.
     The stories of him cheating 100's of contractors is not only factual but allowed him through a special tax loophole to write a huge sum off his owed federal taxes based in large part to his not paying those contractors, http://fortune.com/2016/10/08/donald-trump-taxes-contractors/. The lives that he disrupted and the businesses he put out of commission or made difficult to continue is overwhelming. But never do we hear he had a part in it. What I have heard from him is that he doesn't pay for substandard work. Well it appears that his definition of substandard is an epidemic for those who work for him while he conveniently collects a majority of their contracts for himself. Once a huckster always a huckster and if he is anything, trump is a huckster.
     He also has no remorse in general that I have seen. All his public comments are about the failure of others. He sees himself doing nothing wrong in all of it. Even when he hints at his own culpability it is with a slant that he did nothing wrong. He is in any other word a miraculous conception. Never wrong and always proud. His conscience is a void which leads to my conclusion that he has no remorse to give because he is devoid of empathy. Sound familiar? Much like a psychopath/sociopath but again I am not a clinical nor analytical psychiatrist I am just an observer who knows what remorse and owning my own mistakes is like.

Principles in the face of torture (#3093)

     What scares us most? Being tortured for disagreeing with the bully? Being outspoken enough that if he takes control of our government that he will hunt us down and torture the hell out of for his pleasure? I don't care whether that is even possible or not. I will speak out and deal with the consequences of my decision. Because I happen to believe in not some fantasy or belief system, but in what I value, like my principles. Being true to myself is the first cause of action for me. I care and I wonder and with those two things my life becomes an open book. Change is the one constant I can count on with most all things in life but not with the values that have founded my existence.
     So if the worst thing happens and I am made to suffer for what I know is right and good then so be it. I will not be silent nor a coward to my values. I will accept my fate regardless of its manifestation. Even since I was a young boy I have long admired Nathan Hale's quote, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." It has been an inspiration for me as a rallying point to protect my values no matter what. I had failed to do that for a period in my life when I got lost within myself but since I have reclaimed my identity Hale's example is a stalwart reminder of what sacrifice and courage can exemplify. The bully in the White House is not going to get an inch of withdrawal from me and instead I will advance on him with the truth for every word and every action he takes to further destroy the society that our brave foreparents built here in America.
     So ask yourself, what are you willing to endure to keep your freedom from tyranny? What are you willing to sacrifice in the face of horrible pain and suffering? What are you going to leave as your legacy here in this existence despite all that would make you stumble and fall? Answer these questions and then you will know who you are and what you are willing to do to keep that. No one said we would get to live a life of luxury and ease. Life is hard especially hard when the bullies of the world are at our doorsteps. So the proof of the pudding is in the eating of it as they say. What will you do to keep your rights as a free people in a democracy that is under siege? Find out now and then be that person that they write about 200 some years from now like Nathan Hale.

Obamacare hurdles another republican obstacle (#3092)

     Well we are down to it. Next week republicans in the Senate will put up a bill to repeal Obamacare without a replacement. Because this week they tried for the 3rd time to drastically reduce the effects of Obamacare and were stymied. The reason is because republican leadership is not trying to fix the minor problems within Obamacare and make it much better, instead they are trying to make it worse by throwing 10's of millions of folks off of it. Well not all republicans are of an extremely cruel and brutish nature which was enough to end the republican attempt to destroy Obamacare. So now we are at the point where republicans are throwing in the guise of trying to "fix" Obamacare by worsening it and instead are showing their real intent by just trying to repeal the law altogether.
     This is their last gasp to make good on their campaign pledges over the last 7 years to sabotage Obamacare. The republicans demonized Obamacare from its beginning with falsehoods to misinformation and now that they had a real chance to end Obamacare but their lies of the past caught up to them. Voters are realizing that Obamacare was actually a success in many different ways but especially in their own lives. So now what is left of the sometimes rationally thinking republican party has stepped up and put the brakes on dismantling Obamacare and from what I see already from outright repealing it. Which to me when this vote to repeal Obamacare comes up next week and is defeated will be the last attempt to end President Obama's signature policy to enrich the lives of all Americans.
     When the final vote is tallied next week and the repeal is defeated will be the opportunity then for some real progress on improving Obamacare instead of destroying it. The republicans will have to reach out to the democrats and finally ask for their input and cooperation in making health care a more permanent part of American culture. If all goes according to this tentative schedule next week we should start seeing signs of the Congress beginning to work in a bipartisan manner to not only stabilize the insurance markets but give some relief to those in the middle class who are struggling to keep health insurance at a reasonable cost. I would prefer a single payer public option type consensus but we are dealing with a republican majority and a criminal president so I expect little to come of a march toward universal health care but it should be progress that way regardless of how much.

In California, republican politicians are becoming conservative democrats (#3091)

     We know that conservative politics never does anything good for the working middle poor class at least for the last 50 years. So it makes sense now that since democrats control super majorities in both the state legislature and state senate that if republican politicians want to have any say in California politics they must engage with democrats on initiatives that democrats create. This is the reality for republicans who still have public office here. We democrats have shown that we want what is best for everyone in our society and we create policies that reflect that agenda. As a liberal progressive democrat myself I know that my fellow liberal progressives are relentless in our march to a more fair and equitable society. So as we push hard on the existing paradigms to transform them a space is created for conservative democratic republicans to join in and make sure that new policies are not coming so fast that they unsettle a smooth transition from the old paradigms.
     A sort of watchdog role where all the t's are crossed and the i's are dotted. What we can find here in California is a partnership of consensus that upholds free market principles while protecting and enhancing all the lives of Californians. This evolution of our politics here in California can only be a positive since we are all affected by the policies that are sure to come down the road. The republican party here in California has seen the writing on the wall not only here in California where they have been reduced to non factors politically, but in the national scheme of things as the federal republican leadership is failing to address the needs of our nation.
     It makes sense also that republicans here in California have decided to work with our majority democrats. The republican constituents in their districts are not given a voice in the laws that are passing and by working with welcoming democrats, republicans are finding that they can influence positive changes to legislation that would otherwise become law without them. These republican politicians are also finding that their democratic colleagues are not deaf to their concerns. This is what it is like now in California where politicians from both sides of the aisle can work together to craft legislation that moves our state forward in world leadership roles and helps to make the lives of all Californians more prosperous and safe. Keeping the free market available for all to participate in is a common theme that both parties wish to preserve and makes for a great starting point in creating legislation.

Religion's embrace of trump is heinous (#3090)

     If your religious leaders are going to lift up trump as a Christian and you do not as a whole tell them to stop the hypocrisy then you are by your silence agreeing with them. What does that say not only about them but about yourself as well? To out and out lie about trump as a good Christian leader is as far from the truth as you can get and it puts a crap smear on your religion as well. I have always known Christianity as being attracting converts with the word of God and not lying to them instead. The behavior of trump as a pussy grabber of married women and an adulterer as a husband several times would automatically disqualify him as a role model for young and older Christians to idealize. That trump has failed to pay so many of his employers and cheated them out of the fruits of their livelihoods is another strike against trump.
     That he has been caught on the record lying over and over is well documented and another strike against the principles of Christianity. His policies that favor the wealthy at the expense of the working middle poor class will cause deaths that are avoidable is unquestioned. His lust for wealth of his own is clear as he is shamelessly promoting his properties and making new deals to enhance his own economic portfolio. But for me the coup de gras is his embracing of a foreign political enemy to help him win the presidency in an ulterior fashion is the most outrageous form of cowardice I can imagine. However religion has stood by this disgraceful person trump and has even heralded him as some kind of savior.
     What religion is doing to itself in the name of trump is unbelievably selfish and naive. The harm religion is causing to it's attractiveness is immeasurable and unforgivable. But not the least of which is the harm that religion is doing to our nation by allying with a narcissistic bully trump who is bankrupting what is let of the working middle poor class and attempting to establish himself above democratic principles. Religion is a culprit in this current nightmare that is trump and for that religion will pay a heavy price because if there is one thing I know for certain if trump doesn't kill us first is that we will exact a price from him and his accomplices that will equal or go beyond the cost he has measured against us.

If you are afraid to die you are afraid to live (#3089)

     Get over being afraid of death because there is nothing you can do to stop it. Did you hear me? There is no magic pill nor some great discovery on the horizon that is going to let you avoid death. Nothing! So accept it and move on. The accepting part is hard as most people will just ignore the fact of death despite all logic and truth of it otherwise. This is where cognitive dissonance is at it's greatest. Most will just ignore the fact of death and somehow pretend that death won't happen to them. While they are doing this they are avoiding anything that may cause death because they don't want to die prematurely. Even living in a shell or denying their own sense of right and wrong. It is such a bubble of nothing that they are living in just so that they don't rock any boat that may be harmful to them.
    They say it is smart to avoid conflict so that they can live another day. Well I am not of that reasoning. I find that living my life as who I am and not as a strategy to avoid conflict is the proper way to experience the gift of life. I am not owed life, I was born and survived to this point by living my life, warts and all, within my principles for living. Which include the virtues of honesty, courage and willpower. When I see a bad or harm being perpetrated I don't run and hide from it, I step in and effect some type of change to diminish or end it. Fear is not a value to me, courage is. If I die tomorrow doing what is right and good then my life will be judged a success. If I live on after being a coward for not doing what is right and good then my life will be judged a failure. It is that simple for me.
     If we all don't find a way to conquer our own fears we are not of much value to ourselves or to others. We are just existing to be existing. Not an example of being of the greatest species known in the Universe. I was not alive before I was born so not being alive after I am born is nothing to fear. So why should I not live my life with the gusto of honor and nobleness? I have never felt more alive than when I was part of a solution and not part of a problem. We each of us has the ability to be great human beings but what keeps most of us from being great human beings is our own fear for whatever reason. Well I am here to say that fear is childish and immature. Grow up and be the strong woman or man you were meant to be and not the cowering soul who settles for what the worst of life will throw at us just to stay alive.

Intelligence versus animal (#3088)

     I had this struggle within me for many years but ultimately I realized that despite what many others told me I didn't "have" to be an animal by nature. I am the one who chooses who I am. When I was younger and still learning of myself I would do things akin to animal behavior and comfort myself with the thought that it was who I was and part of being human. but that was a cop out. I let myself act out as an animal because I could get some advantage from it. It wasn't instinctual like those many had told me, it was strategic. Which led me to understand that my intellect was the driving force of my life not some ancient set of behaviors others still cling hard to justify. Being self aware has a cost to it. We must accept reality as a consequence of enlightenment.
      All of us are now self aware so there is no logical excuse not to be factual and truthful as well. Those who are not factual and truthful are playing at something that is not correct and can only have an ulterior motive for their deceptions. This intelligence versus animal theme is akin to maturity against immaturity. We are not now living under extreme survival conditions like our ancient under evolved forebears. We are all living in or around modern civilizations for the most part and as such are recipients of its benefits whether we realize it or not. Everytime we drink from a bottle instead of from a stream we are part of modernity. Everytime we eat a meal from a wrapper and not directly from some fire pit we are part of enlightenment. The clothes we wear if not made from some animal hide is another fact of our enlightenment. We cannot claim to be an animal if we are still living in an apartment or house or driving a vehicle.
     All of us are intelligent it is just by degree that we are not all the same. Some of us embrace intellectualism with all we have and others fight against it despite illogical hypocrisies. I am a human being who at some point in the evolution of our species was related to the animal more than the intellectual. Those millenniums are behind us now and the animal aspect of who I was related has all but disappeared and the human being I am now is all intellect. Everything in my life, my behavior and what I think about is run through the filter of my logic and my personal principles of honor and nobleness. So those politicians who still propagate an animal survival of the fittest society are not using facts or truths.

The inelegance of ignorant stupidity (#3087)

     When embarrassing behavior is displayed and is not felt we usually associate that with a form of psychopathy and/or sociopathy. When embarrassing behavior is displayed by someone who doesn't feel the embarrassment and has been given privilege and advantage his whole life we may conclude that at least the person has been given a pass on so many of life's learning tests that he is actually oblivious to what earned respect and dignity are as living principles. In other words his ignorance of conceptualizing proper behavior is stunted. This person, trump, has likened himself to a demigod who has the rank and privilege above most if not all of humanity. His ego has grown such that he cannot allow the thought to come into his head that he is just another human being who has no greater claim to life than any other human being.
     So when he tromps around acting like some elevated soul he really believes he is. This is not an act with him, it is an expectation he has ingrained for himself. While he does his delusional dance of self importance, the rest of us view him as a clumsy oaf who has through hook or crook been given the stage to perform on. His inelegant actions are classic textbook bully and take. He is owed everything in his mind and those who would deny him his desires are the insignificant jealous types who deserve nothing from him. He has reached his purpose in life and no amount of self examination is required to check himself. He sees himself as king of the hill and everyone who would disagree with him is just a petty soul trying to knock him off his owed solitary perch.

     The stark contrast of a man who was president right before him, President Obama, and trump is clearly observable. From a man like President Obama who exemplified elegance to an oaf like trump who exemplifies inelegance the contrast couldn't be any clearer. President Obama was all about giving of himself so that the world would be a better place while trump is all about taking from the world to make trump's life better. I call it ignorant stupidity but in reality it is a way of life for trump since he believes he has arrived at a place where learning to be more is not possible. He is magnificent already and nothing he can learn will make him more. Well he is wrong and the rest of us can see it.

The final gasp of health care theft (#3086)

     The trumps are not quite done trying to steal health care away from at least 15 million people while giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us. They have the rest of this month and into next month to get their theft accomplished. So the fight to keep health care as an option for a significant percentage of the American populace is ongoing. We cannot assume that the inept republicans will sabotage themselves as they are already showing they can so we must also keep the pressure on the individual senators who have already signalled they are against the senate death care bill. 30 or so days of focused pressure from all levels is what we need. Everyone who cares even a bit needs to get in on this.
     The trumps and their acolytes will not relent since they are bound and determined to put their foot on the neck of the working middle poor class. These republicans do not care about the quality of life for the majority of us. They have written us off as like a deduction in a loss column in their books. The only people republicans care about are the wealthy. The bonus is they get support from the ignorant whom they can indoctrinate because of their lack of education and nefarious biases. I know I have some I have cast aside in my own family. This is not some play time that can excuse bad behavior. This is real and it affects the present and the future of our democratic society.
     So our duty to ourselves and others who are not as strong as we are is to fight on until the trump plan to destroy American lives is put down. Never in the history of our nation has so much destruction come in the form of an American entity, yet the republican party has shown that it will not stop it's abhorrence until the rest of us stop them. Our time is right now and should be focused primarily on keeping health care in a state of improvement, not dismantling. I know the Russia thing is going on with the treason and collusion aspects of it is important but that will move along fine enough but protecting health care needs us now and now we must be ready to fight to save it.

The pernicious president (#3085)

     The trump was given a gift through hook and crook and until we can find a way to expose that to take him out of office we are stuck with him in the meantime. What trump never understood or couldn't understand was that he was lucky to have won the presidency, even with the alleged rigging as it may be. He had a chance to be whatever kind of president he wanted to be regardless of the way he campaigned to win. Nothing would have stopped him from being a great and noble president but himself if he so chose. Once in office the president has the right and duty to do what is best for our American citizenry and the world at large. If trump had chosen to be a man among men he had the clear and legal right to do just that.
     Well we see that trump did not choose the high road and cement his legacy as president in the best of the tradition. Instead he choose the low road and has angered and harmed 100's of millions of American citizens with his hatred and greed. He chose instead to show the world what a tyrant would do and say if he were the President of the United States. How does one lose so much of his soul and still command so much respect? The question for the ages but undoubtedly it is underpinned by nefarious reasonings and reality defying propaganda in it's most artful form. Some of us have seen through the charade that is the carnival barker trump since he first stuck his head out into the public discourse. The effect of a quality education I can admit, but why others were so blinded to his vitriolic rhetoric is more closely understood when we find that a majority of republicans find that higher education is a harm rather than a good.
     The pernicious president trump is now up to his neck in investigations that have a direct link to his minority election and majority electoral college placement. Instead of taking the high road and putting all Americans first he has chosen to put his own self above all others and now is beginning to feel the wrath that his choice has evoked. The republican party has been trying to protect the trumps from their illegal law breaking but now even that protection is beginning to crumble. The most despicable presidency in modern time, yes even beyond the murderous duplicity of bush the younger and nixon is about to become the most pernicious of all thanks to trump and his inability to seize the moment and become an honorable man.

I have no tolerance for ignorant followers (#3084)

     Once again I got a glimpse of people who defend this current form of conservatism. I am amazed that they cannot find it within themselves to question facts as they are but instead argue around the edges avoiding the facts. I, at that point, remind them of how stupid they are and then it is off telling me how I am not a civil person of whose parents would be proud. Well, I kind of chuckle at that since I could care less what they think at this point and if foul language is their complaint they are still missing the point of the invective. So having given my best few seconds to them I cut them off from any further wasting of my time. I have no time to waste but it appears I just did give them a few minutes of it. More than they deserve since they are the ones who are enabling the trumps of the world to crush the working middle poor class.
     Listen carefully to me right now. I have a great affection for proper civil debate and legal/political argument but I have no tolerance at all for those who would use ignorance and/or false logic as a premise or a conclusion to justify intolerable policies. This is a time of great upheaval and for me to spend an ounce of energy being nice to the willfully ignorant is to enable them to think they are honest partners in the debate for our future. They are not and will be treated like the ignoramuses they are fully surrounded by my foul language to boot. I am angry at how gullible our nation hass become so the quickest way for me to get across to those who are lazy and biased is to attack their sense of civility.
     Ignorance does not deserve respect nor any accommodation that allows them to stand on an equal footing or in the presence of at least modern enlightenment. Those who continue to be ignorant will get the back of my hand in conversation and should count themselves lucky I didn't disparage them as much as they deserve. This is a life and death time and no amount of pussy footing around is going help. Only the brazen truth given with a resounding retort will come from me. I have no time for those who choose harm over good. So I am a hard man, big fucking deal, get over that and look to the facts of things and then learn. I won't be around for much longer as my time is on the back side of life but the rest of you who will need to continue must make your stand and make it hard and fast!

Built on sand (#3083)

     The life of trump is built upon sand. How do I know? Easily enough, he makes up his mind based upon the prevailing wind. Now don't get me completely wrong here, he does have a brutal agenda to continue the destruction of the working middle poor class but when his overall plan is not working he finds room to blame others and then retreat from his positions of cruelty. The populace has a way of swaying him when he cannot go any further. Like the biblical reed in the wind, he can be swayed from side to side as easily as a floating leaf. There is only one absolute with trump, he is all about himself and his own enrichment.
     It does explain to me why trump can only get things done through executive order and not legislation. Because he is not a leader in the sense that leaders look to find solutions to solve problems for their constituents. The only problems trump tries to solve are the ones that hurt the majority so that he can help the wealthy. Even then he cannot seem to accomplish his goals because once again he is not built upon solid footing. He cannot stand against the tumult that his policies create in the political, economic and social world. As the shifting of his determination continues the fewer there are that will help him defend his agenda. They rightly know that he is a hollow and cowardly man/child who cannot defend his own bullying tactics.
     So the further we go along into the trump presidency the greater my relief becomes that he won't destroy what has taken us 241 years to build. My initial fear was that trump would be the monster I had thought him to be but what we are finding is that he is a monster in name only and has no backbone to fight for his destructive policies. Again, somewhat relieved. Yet I know that when he does finally realize his own cowardice he may try to make up for it with our blood and treasure through some scapegoat war. I am hoping that enough of us realize his impotency now and will just keep standing up to him not allowing him any room to fabricate a disaster with us as accomplices. We know now he is nothing more than a paper tiger so let us be vigilant in keeping him nothing more until his time for being done is upon us.

The republican party can only follow, they cannot lead (#3082)

     So this is what I see. Now that the intelligent president is no longer in office, republicans have no one to counter against. As long as someone was setting the pace, republicans could follow and like their usual intent argue the negative opposing point of view. But now they have no one to present an argument from which they could follow after to subvert. That trump is an ignoramus is now much clearer and that the republicans in Congress have the full majorities needed to pass or repeal any legislation yet still cannot get it done is more evidence of my claim. As long as President Obama was doing the hard work of creating opportunities for the American people, republicans had the option of waiting for him to do the necessary work and then set out to undermine it. Now republicans are forced to come up with plans and policies for the American people and so far we have seen nothing.
     It is much different being a leader and republicans are obviously showing not only us but the world at large just how inept and incompetent they are at any leadership skill. We cannot even get simple ideas from them let alone the more complex ones we were used to under President Obama. The republican foil in Obama is gone and now they are floundering as to who to blame everything on although they are still trying to blame Obama 6 months into the trump reign. Think of it like this, the spoiled child who rails at everything being done for him is now in charge and has only his railing to offer. It is a sad and embarrassing reality. Even the one thing that trump is arguably good at, creating more wealth for himself, is not going as well as he hoped.
     We have at least 3 and a half more years of this and I can only hope that we are around when the end of trumps and republicans come into being. They might through their sheer ignorance and stubbornness destroy what is left of America before then. I had expected they would since day one and even think of myself as already dead. I have no illusions of hope that the trumps and republicans will come back from their treasonous and cruel brutish actions so the alternative is grim to say the least. As we are being led by incompetents remember that nearly half our voting electorate and the electoral college gave this to trump so what does that say about the lack of intelligence in America and where it will take us next?
      

What is the problem? (#3081)

That is how I see my life in this existence. Always, what is the problem? I have to ask a question before I can understand what the answer may be. I do have an overall view of how life should be and from that I can work to figure out how to answer problems but first I need to know the question. This is how it is done. We cannot just snap our fingers and say everything should be like this. What we must do is take each problem we can define and make it not a problem based upon the greater overall view. People seem to think that life is too complicated or nuanced for simple solutions but I say life really is simple since we are all humans and we mostly have the same curiosity and compassion instincts. Psychopaths and sociopaths excluded of course.
     So why shouldn't all questions have some form of simple answer since we seem to be evolving and progressing in the same existence. I know that some are fighting the modernization of our human civilization but if you look at the reasons they are simply because of exclusion, inequality and lack of education. Those are easily fixable problems. We just need to stop being so competitive with our resources and make them available for all of us to gain opportunity. Merit will always be part of how we socialize and achieve but none should be left without a chance to be part of the great wonder of life in this Universe. So again, what is the problem? Mostly the main problem centers on selfishness and greed. Which seem to be staples of capitalism run amok.
     I get that we need a form of economic engine to push us out beyond our imaginings but we must not lose sight of the principles of inclusion and care. We have our greatest human instincts in curiosity and care so never will we advance without them. There is no problem that cannot be solved by the mighty human intellect and drive. We are an amazingly relentless species but we are only indefatigable because we have the best of intent behind our motives. So no more condoning selfishness nor greed. We do reward based upon merit but never at the expense of uncaring for the least of us. It is our great nature to be the most highly advanced species ever in existence and although we may not be the best at all things within the whole of species life, we are by far the most capable of solving problems when we remember to ask what the problem is.

The fighting spirit of resistance (#3080)

     "...the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"-FDR, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHFTtz3uucY. This is the way it is today in 2017, not just back in 1933. We have a bully type who shows no courage in the White House who would stifle our speech when it criticizes him. He has directly and indirectly threatened those who would call our his shame for all to see. Well this can have a dispiriting effect on the general populace since we have little to fight back with or defend ourselves with when power is put up against us. So many of us turn our heads and let the bully use his threatening bombast. But there are still those of us who put no stock in turning away and letting the hollow bully have his way. I have little but what I do have is what counts when adding up the cost of my own thoughts and actions.
     What is more priceless to me is the ideal set forth by the courageous American patriot Nathan Hale, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country", I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.. This is where courage to stand up and be accountable begins. This is still our America, and despite the way trump and his acolytes got elected, whether through hook or crook, we will not waver in our resistance to him and them. They have shown that they are not going to protect nor enhance solutions for the working middle poor class so what good are they then to us? Nothing comes to mind so ignoring them and being afraid of them is not the choice to make.
     So it comes down to this, let the fear of reprisal diminish and increase the courage of resistance. In our own ways we can make the term of trumps as hard and rocky as possible. I will not let America become a wasteland but on my own it is impossible. More of us have to remember the great courage our forefathers and mothers displayed back when challenges confronted them. We have the same opportunity now as the trumps are dead certain that many of us are not worthy of their concern. Well we have to make them feel that they are not worthy of our concern and no amount of threats from a cowardly bully will dissuade us from our intent to correct the mistake that is trumps.

Thank goodness that republicans are inept! (#3079)

     I will never forget the gut punch I felt on the evening of November 8th when the returns came in to elect trump and republicans to majorities in the House, Senate and Presidency. With those majorities republicans were in a position to pass any legislation by themselves, without democrats being involved at most any time they desired. All their dreams of destroying the "New Deal", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal, and then later the progressive medicare/medicaid/Obamacare expansions that also brought about regulations that were designed to keep our nation from destroying itself. These were the policies that republicans held in contempt and now clearly could be done away with given their new found majorities.
     Yet as we have seen so far, republicans in their attempts to destroy every program aimed at helping the working middle poor class have not been in their usual lockstep. Instead they are bickering among themselves as to which is the correct approach to annihilating progressive policies. Because what they didn't understand is that although their voters voted them in, their voters did not vote them in to destroy their lives. Another subject about not being able to connect the dots for republican voters but that is another discussion for another time. So the grassroots pressure republican politicians are feeling is keeping them from an out and out assault on what are arguably the best policies our nation has ever implemented. So even with their majorities, republicans cannot even destroy that which they have desired for more than 80 years.
     It isn't a done deal that republicans won't destroy what is left of progressive policies but the chances are slipping from their fingers. This is the year they needed to get their most damage done as next year is the beginning of the next round of elections and if anything republican voters are now more aware of what their votes mean when they see that republicans are going to be taking from them as well. With trump leading the way as the most corrupt and unintelligent president in my lifetime, the republican party has their hands full just trying to destroy our nation, which in light of all things is the task that should have been the most easy for them to accomplish. Again, thank goodness they are inept and in that ineptitude, they are actually doing America a favor.

On the subject of embarrassment (#3078)

     Embarrassment, a term that today is identified solely with the republican party. The trumps and the enablers that gave rise to their power are the genesis of this embarrassing moment in our nation's history. The republican party is not about duty and honor to our constitution or to our citizenry, they are about enriching themselves and harming others. Their ulterior motive is no longer secreted behind clever political campaign slogans or disinformation within the media. They are out there in full bloom in the public square now heralding their non democratic agenda as necessary to defend the sacredness of some illusion of an American dream. This American dream of theirs is not the bringing forth of opportunity to a melting pot society that would naturally be espoused in a democracy.
     No, this dream of theirs is a nefarious one based upon an ethnic cleansing model. Not only are their racial lines drawn but there are lines drawn between the genders and economics. A white supremacy movement that has always been marginalized in our country has now been given a public seat in the discourse of our nations business. The republican party has embraced the worst elements within our society to purge the melting pot ideal and replace it with segregation and oppression. Women who are still not given the rights like men receive are now finding that their rights are even more limited under republican rule. As to economics, the greedy wealthy have the backing of the republican party while the working middle poor class has nothing but contempt from trumps and republicans.
     Which leaves us with the appearance of a tyrant in control of our democracy and his inability to be civil and even modestly intelligent has left those of us who opposed him mightily embarrassed and ashamed of who we Americans are to the rest of the world. We Americans can no longer arguably claim that we are the leaders of the free world. Instead it appears we have fallen in line with some of the worst violators of freedom in the world. Know this, our collective embarrassment is only one aspect of those of us who oppose and are committed to ending the trumps and the republican rule of our nation. Although we are embarrassed we are not neutered. We will continue to work to get the trumps and republicans out of the public square as best we can any way we can that restores dignity and the earnest cause of democratic freedom.

Confidence out of ignorance is not to be admired (#3077)

     I have met too many souls who were brimming with confidence, so much so that others around them were awestruck and doe eyed. Confidence in and of itself can be intoxicating. Behind it is an assumption that the confidence is well placed. That whatever gave the person the confidence was an insight that had to be purely amazing. Well most of us know better. The only thing confidence means to me today is that there needs to be some explaining. I know that some of us are confident in how we approach life and how things could be if only... but that isn't what I am talking about. I am talking about the confidence that somehow we know more than others without having done the due diligence of mastering the logical sequence.
     Too many seem to think that their limited knowledge is somehow superior to those whose knowledge is vastly superior. We have a man like Stephen Hawking who is warning about the effect that denying climate change can have on our Earth, http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/hawking-says-trumps-climate-stance-could-damage-earth/ar-BBDGD7l, yet those with little more intelligence than a rock seem to think that they know better. Arguably the smartest man alive or the guy next door who thinks that climate change is a hoax. You decide! This is what has happened to our society on whole. Where intelligence is dismissed in favor of the ignorant. If I choose to be intelligent I am using the tools of science and laws of logic to learn and understand. If I choose to be ignorant, I am using my own perceptions and biases to decide what is truth and fact and what isn't. I personally would always choose the scientific/logical method over the uneducated one but it seems that I am not in the largest group of company.
     America is not an intellectual nation anymore it is an ignorant one. We have misplaced our humility and have instead taken up arrogance. In that arrogance we feel like we naturally know more than others because we are somehow special. We are living off the glory of our forefathers/mothers and like the spoiled children we are, we even elected one president, we dismiss those who are challenging our insipidly held beliefs. There is a rot in our nation and it has risen to the top. Will we survive this in America? The answer is still in doubt. Most of us don't even realize how utterly foolish we are being and if we cannot even see what we are how are we going to change it?

America, where selfishness breeds ignorance (#3076)

     We are not the most enlightened society here in America. Why? Because we choose to follow the persuasion of greed over humanity. Our faith in capitalism is greater than our faith in democracy. Which is the problem since our faith in democracy should always prioritize over capitalism. Capitalism is an economic model, not a political one yet we have morphed our capitalism into a quasi political formulation. It seems that capitalism is protected in every venture we Americans impose ourselves in at the expense of leaving democracy a distant second. Case in point, republicans are working overtime to limit the voting rights of Americans while at the same time trying to increase the rights of profit making enterprises especially those who contribute to their campaigns.
     We have already seen where the conservative republican majority on the Supreme Court has already given us rulings like Citizen's United and McCutcheon, whereas corporations are seen as people and money as speech. Yet human protesters are being denied speech that conflicts with the republican agenda, while our voting rights are being purged by republicans for the flimsiest of reasons that are not the truth of why they are being purged. Or the onerous way in which we are being forced to comply with unnecessarily stricter identification procedures often leaves citizens with no recourse to vote. Making voting harder while making money easier to be involved in our elections is wrong because we are taking the one vote one person ideal and throwing it away so that the wealthy can spend more of it's money lying to and confusing the overall electorate.
     The rigging of elections is in with republicans who control our government and they are not intent on losing power any time soon. They have an agenda that cannot see the big picture of democracy. They have instead chosen to see the big picture of capitalism and that capitalism is for them not for all. So republicans have been destroying the working middle poor class ladder for improvement for decades and when they are done the republicans and their wealthy donors will have what they have desired, a large pool of workers dependent upon them. The greed of capitalism is incubating here in America and the consequence of it is a loss of critical thinking and overall general knowledge. We Americans are dumbing down because America will not support the idea of modern enlightened thought. It goes against their destruction of the working middle poor class agenda as a rule.

The Universe is my sovereign (#3075)

     An allure of religion is it's dogma of a god who watches over us keeping tabs about whether we are good or bad. This paradigm of having someone to keep us in check is desired since most cannot control themselves enough to keep an eye on themselves. I get that and it shouldn't be some great revelation either. We see ourselves as too complex to be able to control our own thoughts and emotions. We also like that religion gives us second chances through a formal forgiveness process that has the effect of washing away our sins. The added bonus that we get to go to some kind of heaven as a reward for being obedient to the religious dogma laid out as a path toward eternal life. All of this sounds inviting to us mere humans so many of us grasp it as a shortcut in living life without having to think too much about what we are doing or thinking.
     This is the allure of religion and the satisfaction of us having a deity as a sovereign. Yet is it real? Well I for one see another way to think about living my life with a sovereign. Not that I need one but for the fact that I am a spiritual person I would hope that the spiritualism has a connection to something. That something for me is all that exists in the dimension I inhabit. Somewhat like the native American Indian, I see my connection to a sovereign as being the Universe, including all of nature that we live within and without. The known and the unknown is my sovereign and it exists in all the Universe. I am a part of the Universe both biologically and spiritually. While I am alive I am made up of particles that exist in nature. When I die I am made up in particles found in the Universe. The connection is real and not debatable.
     As opposed to religion where the tie is dubious and fantastic at times. So you won't see me praying to a god or hoping to go to a heaven, on the contrary, you will see me trying to shape the Universe with a bent toward good and intelligent, while knowing that when I die I get to go back into the pool of particles that makes up all things. From whence I came to whence I return. That is the spirituality of my essence and if anything it drives me to improve the makeup of what I now exist as. The Universe is my sovereign and if anything keeps me in control of myself it is this self awareness. I truly am the master of my being for the time that I exist as a life. I will shape who I am by being who I am without the delusion of sacrificing myself on the altar of any religion.

Our real human natures should make us all Democrats (#3074)

     This blog came into existence on the premise that we all have the same two general instincts, to care and to wonder. I know it is true for me as an example because although I have little patience for those who are evil in behavior, I still hope they will choose to change their ways. I know that my wonder or curiosity is real because I get excited every time I learn something new or get a glimpse of what is beyond my reality. These two dominant traits are supported by another lesser but no less important trait of survival. Not in the survival of the fittest sense but just to maintain and improve our species so that it can continue to evolve into some greater more advanced species of beings. From this I can evaluate all of life on Earth and in the space beyond. This is my road map for life and dictates who, what, where, how and why of life for me.
     Since I am an average member of the human race and we are all closely related, I can then add another premise to my calculation, we are mostly all experiencing what I have explained above, instinctual care and wonder as priorities. Surely we have not all thought this way before but let it sink in and while you are doing that I will try to explain the worst of our natures and how they come to be. First, when we are not living in the care and/or wonder of our instincts we are susceptible to be living in other instincts that have nothing to do with our true natures. these are the more familiar ones of greed, hate, power and selfishness. to name a few obvious ones. So by not being the caring curious beings we were born to be we allow for other more nefarious instincts to rule in their stead.
     So I spend my days caring about those things that deserve my time to care and even somewhat on those that are floundering but still have hope, while also being curious about all things that exist. Whether they have an understanding to them or whether they are still unknown. I question everything even the obvious within logic and common sense. The current boundaries of science and logic are what I have to work with and in the future those boundaries may be pushed even further out beyond what I can see now. That is the point of questioning which is wonder, or curiosity. Care and curiosity take up all my time so why would I allow for anything else to interrupt my living? I am a human biological data processor with senses that pick up information and a mind that can reason, analyze and conclude that is so complex that we are still trying to build computers to match. To care and to wonder, the two most powerful Democratic traits and who we all should be members of as well.

trump, the useful idiot to the cruel republican party (#3073)

     I have tried to give trump the benefit of the doubt about his personal intelligence but each time I do he shows me through some act or thought that he is not worthy of any benefit of the doubt. When in reality the man is not firing on all cylinders as an analogy. He talks sincerely about the opposite of what is actually occurring. I know he is a novice to the presidency but all presidents when first elected are novice to it. But what distinguishes trump from previous presidents is that trump refuses to listen to advice or increase his own knowledge on complex subjects. He is wandering around with his held beliefs and considering them as more important than facts. By surrounding himself with some souls who have the worst human nature this country has ever produced, he has shown that his disdain for intellectualism and modernity are real.
     That he would allow them to dictate the agenda for the American people all the while promoting their actions is surreal. I would not think him capable of masterminding this whole illusion but given the rules of logic it cannot be completely ruled out. But instead the more probable scenario is that trump is being manipulated to think one thing and pronounce it while another thing is actually happening. Most likely he is a puppet being strung along to be the voice of an ulterior nefarious motive long sought by the right wing extremists in our nation. The ones who would like to end equality, end equal justice and worst of all, end democracy. I believe trump is the propaganda face for spreading disinformation while the real work of dismantling our democracy continues mostly behind the scenes.
     All the actions taken by the trumps and the republican party have been to dismantle society as we know it. Not one original policy or program is offered to help the struggling working middle poor class. Everything has been aimed at taking more from the working middle poor class. This reforming of our nation is a cruel and brutish attempt to satisfy their illness of hatred and racism. The "cleansing" of society is their goal and if you watch with that eye, you will see the effects of it every time they act or speak. How these warped souls can claim to be the masters of reality while harming everyone and everything that is democratic is beyond me and how we let them into power is the most baffling consequence to occur ever in my lifetime.

The disgrace of conservatism (#3072)

     The face of conservatism has been exposed and it is an ugly brutish thing. Devoid of common sense and logic, it takes from those who are less capable of defending themselves and gives to those who are ruthless and unconscionable. It is a degradation of enlightenment while feeding off it's underbelly. The idea that a human soul could conclude with any debate or reasoned argument that being a conservative is a benefit to society is like playing at god without the compassion. First none of us has the right to harm another of us and second compassion is the other half of what a human is. Both violate honor and justice while being a disgrace to all who would embrace an empathetic society.
     With the trumps and his acolytes in congress and the judiciary, conservatism has taken our American society to a place of shame, ignorance and hate. The daily attacks on equality over race, gender, class and constitutional rights, the conservatives are showing that they are a mean and nasty paternal party with an aim to control. They were elected on false promises and now are in the progress of changing the rules of democracy so that they can keep the power they were elected to hold. The republican party is where the worst of conservatives congregate and it is at the altar of trump that they now serve. Never before in my years of my living have I seen such a blatant disregard for the rule of law and the formative principles of democracy.
     Our nation is at a crossroads in time that will define the fate of our nation. Our current arrogance in leadership will likely prove to be our undoing not only as a democracy but as a world power. We are alienating nations of the world who would be our allies and making them consider us as potential enemies. Our internal struggle at the moment to contain and bring to heel the out of control conservative movement is at hand and will make or break us depending on how the outcome swings. I cannot fathom the idea of the conservative republicans through the trumps and his vultures continuing to defy logic and rule of law but I may only be at the first stage of denial.

Well well well (#3071)

     It appears that for now the trumpcare destroying health care plan cannot get the votes to get through the senate. Although the effort to give up trying to destroy health care for tens of millions of folks is not over, it is delayed however. The longer the delay the better the chance that the end of the effort will come about. What we also learned is that the republican party is not completely devoid of common sense. Not that just a few senators gives us much hope on other issues but we do see that there is a line that some of them will not cross. But let me also say this, although some won't allow themselves to be ultra cruel, they are still cruel. So no pat on the back for any of them but a sigh of relief instead.
     It is even reported that rump himself has maybe seen that ending Obamacare is not the end of the world as a goal. So hopefully days will get better on the health care front instead of worse. Maybe even an effort to improve the minor fixes needed within Obamacare. I won't try to hope for a single payer system yet, that will likely have to wait until a democratic election victory in the future. As the single most hated policy by the republican party dwindles down to it's finality, republicans will refocus their efforts on tax reform in order to find their wealthy donors a a profit off the backs of the American working middle poor class but for now it doesn't look like they will get with trumpcare. Nothing set in stone quite yet but the main thrust toward destroying health care has been withstood.
     What has come out of this though is those who went on public record to put millions upon millions of American voters off of heath care rolls. It is like a self inflicted wound, where republicans gambled that taking away health care would offset a few losses in the next election. How utterly depraved and nonsensical. What in reality it did was not get them anything yet and still be blamed for trying to harm American citizens. Maybe this time the American electorate will hold them accountable as long as the American electorate gives a damn and gets out to vote. When we allow politicians to do harm to us and we do not hold them accountable for that is when the hope of a great nation to lead the world into a bright future becomes nothing more than an illusion.

Will what's left of the moderates in the senate kill trumpcare? (#3070)

     We are about to find out and that it is still possible is a gift as I see it. Normally republicans are all about destroying the legacy of Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton and especially Obama. All these fine democrats did was enshrine the social safety net into society so that the working middle poor class has a chance to succeed where otherwise they wouldn't. By establishing a floor by which most could not fall under, democrats said to the nation all may start out on an equal footing as best as possible. What conservative republicans want since the humiliating defeat of the Civil War, is to turn back the clock and instead of having black slaves, make all who are working middle poor class into their new modern form of slave.
     Republicans are against the social safety net as an ideological priority yet it seems that some republicans are finding it hard to destroy the lives of their constituents. It is these republicans that may now be able to stop the march of the more extreme republicans in their quest to dismantle government by and for the people. I could almost see the few moderates who are in the now extreme republican party changing their allegiance to party and joining the democrats because it seems they are in more of an alignment with them than their republican safety net destroying colleagues. How ironic would it be if three of the maligned republican senators switched parties and by that give the democrats the majority in the Senate.
     Enough of wishful thinking and back to the idea of moderates in the Senate killing trumpcare. There are two solid no's right now. That means that only one more republican moderate needs to make a stand. Heller and Collins are locked in no's. Will Murkowski, Gardner and in a alternate universe reasoning, Paul be the final one who makes the trumpcare go away? Time will tell but it is going to be clear by the end of the week. When given a chance to show their ideological purity by destroying any government program aimed at helping the working middle poor class, it seems a few republicans aren't as callous as the many of them.

Rural America, the land that time forgot (#3069)

     In rural America President Obama was in charge when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. In rural America President Obama was in charge when the financial markets imploded in 2008. Yet both of these events occurred while President Bush was in charge. So how come President Obama is to blame by those in rural America? Since it is a falsehood, why are so may believing it? Maybe because rural has yet to come to grips with it's racism? Maybe it's because they don't have the basic common ability to think critically for themselves and are much more prone to be told how to think? May it's some other reason to do with how loyalty to the republican party is never to be questioned. Or maybe it is because they don't like that democrats have stood up for minorities and the alternative lifestyle set. In any scenario, rural America is not up with the times.
     We are not some naive society that cannot accept that others are not what we want them to be. Yet rural America is still in that bubble of wanting to tell others how to live like them. What is even more troubling is that the idea of "do as I say but not as I do" permeates their way of living. I have always felt that attracting others to something was far better than forcing them. If I like what I see then I am attracted toward it. If I don't I move away because life is short and finding something I like is more important than bonding myself to what I don't like. Rural America has not allowed the idea of equality to come full force in their sub culture. Where those of color or identity are not given the respect of their own self. Yet that same respect is demanded of others by rural America.
     I already mentioned that life is too short and by that I mean we all need to find our own way without being told that we can't. Rural America has it's own tunnel vision about what life means and how it should be lived. That would be fine if it were put out there as an example, not a demand. So rural America continues to vote to make the rest of us suffer because they feel paternal about what our freedoms should encompass. Funny that they do because they sure guard their freedom to choose with a ferocity that which they disdain in others for doing the same. For rural America it is "my way or the highway" which to me is not what America is about so while they continue to live in the past with their condescension toward those not them, we Americans on whole continue to suffer from their inability to live and let live.

If we don't stop the trumps they will take everything from us (#3068)

     We are going to have to decide when we will take to the streets in order to save what we can. Because the trumps will not stop taking until they have it all. Our society is being dismantled before our very eyes and we keep letting it happen as if it will somehow magically stop. It won't magically stop and the trumps will keep taking. We are on the verge of losing Obamacare and medicaid with medicare and social security next on the horizon. Slowly but surely we are losing our voting rights as well and the time for voting the trumps out of office is either next election or we won't be able to do that either. The trumps will keep taking because they see America as a cash machine, not a sacred trust to the ideal of democracy.
     We have already witnessed the lengths the trumps (trumps=republicans) are willing to go as they began their initial assault on our society by aligning with our enemy Russia to seize control. We Americans are just innocent bystanders in our own mugging. So what will be enough to stop the nazi inspired takeover of our country? Sacrifice is the first order. We must stop enabling them. Whatever it takes to make the trumps life miserable and undesirable. We cannot legitimize them in any way shape or form. If we do we are just like the miserable cowards that they are. I have not nor will not give the trumps anything but the back of my hand. They deserve worse and surely fate and destiny is waiting to supply it. When men set out to do wrong they will be visited by it themselves in a karmic way.
     If we all have to stop in our tracks. Just do nothing in the face of the bullies in charge then that is what we must begin to do. We must all rally together as well because we know that there is strength in numbers and if enough of us band together then the trumps will have to retreat. But them retreating isn't enough. They need to be vanquished from any and all power and made examples of in the public square. Traitors and thieves cannot nor should not be given the honor of being leaders of America. We have a great history of standing up to the worst of what the world has offered and now we must stand up to what the worst America has allowed to grow in it's core.

America will never be the same (#3067)

     The harsh reality is that America will continue to lose it's progress under the thumb of trumps who head every major level of government. The trumps believe that government should not support it's citizens so programs like medicare/medicaid and social security, unemployment etc... are unnecessary. So while we are barely into the trumps reign we see every liberal progressive policy being attacked whether to diminish it or outright remove it. As far back as the 14th Amendment programs to bring us out of segregation and economic depression because these trumps see no good to a government that helps it's citizens. Even the trump plans to increase the military is not for the sake of our citizens, it is to protect the trumps and their wealthy donors interests and then allows them to use the rest of us as cannon fodder.
     The days of dreaming the American dream are coming to an end. Only those who have wealth or who are protecting the wealthy are considered to be worthy of being an American. It is troubling that we have gotten to this point through a questionably civilized process. The patriots to democracy are not the majority anymore but a minority. The allegiance to freedom and liberty provided through democracy are being replaced by an allegiance to money and the powerful that control it. The thought is not conjecture when the cabinet of trump is made to swear an oath to him as part of their job description. The trumps are heralded into this position by a corrupt house and senate leadership that would rather commit treason than to give up power.
     It makes no sense to appeal to our republican leader's better angels as they see themselves as demigods who don't serve the people they were elected to represent but instead to tell the people that they will get what the elected officials tell them to have. We are being led by a dictator who is making his political party into an accomplice to over throwing democracy. You may be fine with it if it somehow justifies your prejudices and biases but the rest of us are gearing up for a fight to keep democracy and America from being destroyed by the cancer unveiled in trumps.

Breaking out of the "I'm a rotten person" mode. (#3066)

     Well it seems that too many are voting for the worst candidates and party since the nazis of last world war. Why? I can only surmise that we feel we are deserving of punishment for some unpardonable crimes in our lives. It does explain why so may are clinging to religion as some form of salvation from their miserableness. Well let me be the first one, surely I am not, to tell you that you are forgiven and now move forward with a better way for life. There, all done! You see it is okay to have made mistakes it is what is called the trial and error of life. I have made my share but when it does seem that we get so low that we feel we are worthless is when we can "choose", and I mean make a choice, to stop what we are doing and do something else.
     Preferably something that has some redeeming value since we had pretty much exhausted the irredeemable ones. There is the secret to life in a nutshell. We can choose and when we choose we take control of who we are and what we want to be. All those mistakes in the past can become just memories with time, forgiveness and amends. We get to move forward without the burden of guilt constantly hanging over our heads. Surely we will have times of remorse for our "learning curve" but we won't be sweltering in it as a self imposed punishment. Look at who we have elected to lead us when we wanted to be punished. People who are so awful that they don't feel guilty when they do punish us all for their own gain.
     Another secret to life is that we are the masters of our own destiny regardless of what others do to change the course of our lives. Every day I make about 2 or 3 thousand tiny and/or major decisions in my life. All of them have an effect on how my day, present and future will affect my life. They are my decisions, not someone else's. So maybe in the past I have been a rotten person, but I learned and moved on and now I try to avoid being a rotten person with every decision I make. I am still human though and I do rotten things from time to time but I know in my heart that I don't do it intentionally and I am quick to amend my behavior and thoughts to stop any further rottenness. So when I look toward our future and vote with that in mind I see what we could be together, not how hard I should be punished because I am too weak to control my own existence.

Mandatory voting (#3065)

     It is time to institute mandatory voting. I say this because our society has gotten to the point where too many of us are not protecting our democracy with a care that would otherwise preserve it. Taking advantage of what our democracy offers yet not participating in it's basic necessity is to me "criminal". Therefore there must be a punishment that follows when an eligible citizen neither registers to vote nor actually votes. What else must happen is a benefit for those who do carry their obligation to fruition. Something like a increase in a tax for those who are not in compliance with their registering and voting duties and a tax benefit for those who do comply. Hit them where most seem to think from, their wallet and purse.
     Another thing that must happen is the reversal of Citizens United and following laws. Public financing of elections will keep the special interests out of politics and force the candidates to focus on policies instead of personal attacks and obfuscation. A recent case in point is the Georgia 6th special election this last Tuesday. Over 50 million dollars were spent on this election with a non stop barrage of advertising and door knocking and still with all that attention in a race of national importance only 49 percent of registered voters bothered to vote, http://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/voter-turnout-made-georgia-6th-district-runoff-look-like-midterm-election/JvuOXSaFvtnLC94E5mgnLK/.
     If several months of non stop campaigning in one district cannot bring out more than 80% to 90% of the voters then that is a shame. When the turnout is under 50% then what falls below shame? Well, a broken system is what! So if it is broke then let's fix it and fixing it seems to require a mandatory application. Regardless of how the vote turns out we are not getting a true picture of the direction we feel we need to take when only about half of us are involved in that opportunity to express our direction for our nation. Like we had with mandatory military service, the time has now come for mandatory registering and voting. Sometimes we need to lead our citizens to where they are forced to participate when that paradigm is the furtherance of democracy!

Losing races in red states isn't the end of the world (#3064)

     We dems put up a fight in both congressional races yesterday and for that the hope is strong for a 2018 reversal in the House and maybe even the Senate. Now I know it is discouraging to come close in these special election only to fall short. I get it. Yet with all my heart and mind I know the tide is turning. In Kansas, Montana, Georgia and South Carolina, with deep red districts that had special elections in these states, we dems were very competitive. So competitive that the winners were not a given. Although republicans won them all, they were not foregone conclusions. If there are now battlefields in the deep red districts then you know that the marginal and even districts could well come back to democratic control.
     Another aspect is that the Supreme Court is going to hear a major case involving gerrymandering that could well change the protections republicans have installed to protect their current congresspeople. Today, after the two defeats last night it may seem like we dems are just spinning our wheels but we are not. We were so far behind before and now we are almost on an even playing field. Almost, the Supreme Court case will make the field even if it strikes down the gerrymandering republicans manipulated to elect more of their candidates. I don't feel the sense of loss that a crushing defeat would bring, Instead I feel an even more enthusiastic determination to confront and push past the politics of austerity and segregation.
     That silver lining, the percentage of vote totals for our candidates last night and previously in the other special elections, were far superior to what we got in those districts just 8 months ago. The tide is turning from republican politics since that politics is only for the greedy wealthy. I still have faith in America despite the deep pockets of the republican donors who are constantly using their money to advertise falsehoods. When the agenda of austerity and segregation start to hit home with the overall American electorate the worm will complete it's turn. Never stop resisting and never give up. When you are right and are still not winning it only means that the struggle is real and deserves our every effort if we are to succeed.

The dawning of a better day or the continuing of a bad one (#3063)

     Today is the day Georgians in the 6th congressional district find out who their newly elected congressperson will become. The old way of doing things there in that district is up against a new way of doing things. The republicans have had control of that district for several decades and for the democrat to come in and make this race close is remarkable in itself. If however a win
for democrats comes about then a shock to the established republican party is at hand. The democrat had a slight lead going into today so already the signs are there for a major upset. That the republican candidate is not charismatic nor can lean on any real policy that attracts voters is also a factor. That the democratic candidate is charismatic and has numerous polices that attract voters is also a factor.
     But like we have learned over many decades of elections, American citizens do not often vote for their own best interest. Instead they vote along party lines like some mechanical bull that broncs predictably every time a coin is inserted. However this special election comes at a time when the republican party has been exposed for the harm they are and will continue to do to the working middle poor class. Maybe, just maybe this time enough voters will finally say enough and vote for their own best interests instead of loyalty to a party that they think still exists to make their lives better. There is no excuse now for any voter not to be informed about this special election. Over 51 million dollars has been spent in a ground game and constant media messaging blitz.
     So now we have arrived at the crucial moment when our nation through this election will show how we are to proceed. If republicans win this election then it is another narrative they get to propagate to their favor. If democrats win then the idea that trump has the nation at his back is fully exposed as a lie. Remember, this is a reliably republican district so a democratic win will show that the trumps have not the force of a mandate and instead they will be shown to be all wrong for what America needs. this election is crucial as each party has much to gain and even more so much much more to lose. I am hoping that the electorate in Georgia's 6th district will lead the nation back from the brink of destroying our imperfect but still best form of government, democracy!

America, not as much the land of the brave... (#3062)

     It seems that we have exposed ourselves. We Americans are not in an infinite supply of brave souls. Instead we seem to be a more afraid of what could happen than we are bold and brave in making what should happen. We have not carried on a legacy of courage that befitted generations past. We have bullies running our government and instead of standing up to them we bow our heads and scuffle our feet in a cowardly fashion. Surely republicans make the fear real in their threats to harm us but what we don't seem to get is that they are going to harm us regardless of whether we cower to them or stand up to them. The republican party has become the most hateful and selfish political party since our Civil War.
     Yet they are able to control us through their rhetoric of threats and lies. We fall for it because we don't want to rock the boat. Yet the boat is already rocking and when we are the next one thrown out of the boat is only a matter of time. So standing up to them is the only chance we have of actually throwing them out of the boat and then landing the boat in a safe harbor. But we are still not getting that yet so many will have to drown before and if the rest of us decide enough is enough. I feel bad for how our democracy got played by men who benefited from it then turned on it. The con men who have only one psychopathy, control all things they can get their hands on and disregard any harm they may cause.
     If we are to take back our legacy of being brave then we won't let the republican bullies continue to dictate the narrative of reality when their narrative is mostly fantasy. Government is here to serve all of us and if we cannot grasp that principle that generations have fought to maintain through democracy then we deserve to be taken over by the cruel and dishonest. We are not taught to be cowards but we have learned it by not being true to honor, respect and dignity. Time will tell the rest of the American story but for now history will show that our generation has yet to deserve the nobility our fore-parents fought and died for to gift to us. Our shame will be in not holding that gift dear and instead cowering to bullies who would take it from us every day of our lives.

Never take a day for granted (#3061)

     Two bad things could have happened yesterday but neither did. For that I again realize how fragile life can be and how at any moment life can go away. It is not like I had an Earth shattering experience and will never be the same person again. It is jut that I am once again reminded that nothing can ever be taken for granted and I mean nothing. I don't walk around like I am trying to avoid stepping on egg shells but I am mindful that I cannot take a second off from my life unless I am laying my head down to sleep. I know all of us are just marking time because we are mortal and in this existence all things alive will eventually expire. But when the unexpected occurs it throws everything out of whack especially our emotions. When the suddenly unexpected doesn't end in some tragedy then a relief that cannot fully be described descends on us.
     I got that relief in a double dose yesterday and this morning. So what I am saying is that everything was fine until two crisis' happened and neither ended in a bad way. My relief is truly felt and is deep and content. I suppose I am different now than I was before either crisis exposed itself and for that I am a more discerning person. The universe we live in is harsh by it's makeup so in order to make life more bearable for us caring and curious humans we need to create happier and easier paradigms for us to live within. Though it be harsh outside our control, inside our control there should be a single vision of making life the best we can without harming ourselves from the more petty inclinations we humans at times embrace.
     It seems that everything I write about comes back to politics. So it isn't any wonder that I have dedicated my life to knowing and understanding how politics works and what it represents. I am a liberal progressive by choice. Why? Because the liberal progressives see the future the way it should be and don't dwell on the myths, mores and superstitions of the past that keep us from becoming more enlightened about our universe, which is a physical place we live in right now. Not some fictional idea that only exists in our minds. So while I am alive today and thinking about how best I can serve humanity I carry with me a gratefulness that is deep and welcoming especially when no harm from what could have been harm occurs.

The rug may not be big enough (#3060)

     Sweeping the dirt under the rug is not a new idea. So when politicians do want their dirt to go away they metaphorically sweep it under the rug. However with the current crop of republicans in charge there is so much dirt that the rug is too small to hide it. There is no spot under that rug where any more dirt can hide. In fact, the republicans are at the point now of not trying to hide much of their dirt and instead are trying to explain why it is okay for them to be such rotten scoundrels. Somehow blaming it on democrats and President Obama or telling us the electorate that it is in our best interests to let break every rule if necessary so that they can decide what is best for us.
     The arrogance of the republican vision is playing out now as we see more and more unsettling news of laws broken and oaths disregarded by them. Yet they say that it is all necessary for our democracy to work? That in itself is another deception that they are hiding. They don't want democracy for us they want power over us. It is not some fantasy of which I speak. The only political party here in America who is actively working to deny citizens the right to vote through strict and difficult identification processes are republicans. The only political party that is trying to keep power by manipulating congressional districts through gerrymandering so that they can gain an unfair advantage is republicans. The only party here in America who are purging voter rolls of otherwise legally qualified voters are republicans.
     These truths are not that difficult to figure out anymore since it is now well established that republicans want a purer race of christian whites to have all the advantages and privileges of American citizenship. This is not democracy, this is a racially divided theology. The republican vision of "cleansing" our republic of the "others" is well underway with the attempted trump travel ban and the horrific crackdown on immigration. The arrogance it takes to pit one human being against another for some unfounded mental delusion is unheralded, unless of course you look at what Hitler's Germany tried to do just about 80 years ago. Our American republicans have sunk so far from democratic ideals that even sweeping the idea of it under the rug is now not so much a priority.