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.

I live more in my emotions than any of my cold calculations (#3059)

     This is what the republican party fails to get. That they are more human than machine. They have tried like hell to smother their empathy and care so that they can play the profit game to the fullest. The cold calculations it takes to harm some so that some others can gain is best done with as little emotion as possible. That is why republicans are seen as being inhuman, they choose to be so that they can gain on the backs of others' misery. Me, I am more emotional than a cold calculator. I actually care about what is happening with otherwise decent folks who are hurt both unintentionally and intentionally. What brings my anger to boil is the intentional harm others cause so that they can benefit. When unintentional harm occurs I empathize and try to imagine a policy that protects from that unintentional harm ever happening again.
     That is how I tick and so are my fellow citizens who make up the vast majority of the democratic party. We actually are about solving problems and sacrificing for each other. We believe in equality sure but we also believe in justice. Sometimes a group deserves more because they are so far behind and need the extra help to stabilize and move forward. Sometimes a group deserves less because they are already privileged and advantaged far beyond the majority. It is how a truly democratic society works that has the best intent of all of it's citizens. We utilize what we have in order to build a smarter and more caring society. That takes not only the cold calculation that is needed at times but it takes more heart and care than only some of us seem to be able to offer.
     Life is just too damn short for us to be so coldly calculating about it. Sure we are biological data processors but we are also humans who have cared to survive with each other and our fellow living creatures here on this planet. We love and we make happy like it is a gift to be cherished. Because we know what it is like to be part of the smiles and the camaraderie of social living. There is an inner need for us to be part of the whole of us. Which I have found to be the greatest need we have to a purposeful life. Don't get me wrong here. I love the logic and science a cold calculating mind can imagine but I don't see it as a pathway for profit, I see it as a pathway toward enlightenment for all to share and experience.
     

The turning of the worm away from austerity (#3058)

     The truth about austerity is starting to hit home. The reality of choking government down to the last gasps of utility have begun to show the citizens of America and world wide that less is not more. We design government as a tool to make our society better and more democratic, not worse off and less democratic, which is what austerity as a guiding principle accomplishes. The trial and error period for this foolish idea has now given us results that cannot be further ignored. The middle class in America has been effectively destroyed by redistributing taxes that once went to improving our society back to the wealthy, where the top 1% now own more wealth than the bottom 90%, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United_States.
     The best model to show for how austerity doesn't work when directly applied is what has happened to the Kansan economy. It has been 7 years of failures since austerity was first introduced statewide in Kansas. The results show not only no benefit from austere measures but worse so, a harsh cost to the fundamental state programs that should fuel any modern and progressive success. Kansas has spiraled down in productivity and even though it's wealthy citizens received an initial tax savings, their customer base was so hard hit that now their customers can barely afford to purchase from the wealthy. So what was a windfall in tax savings has been more than offset in business loss, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/zorn/ct-kansas-conservative-brownback-economic-disaster-zorn-perspec-0518-jm-20160517-column.html.
     Most of us who have an idea about how society should operate in a democracy have been calling this out since the Reagan days when the idea first came into actual policy. We knew back in the 1980's it wouldn't work because the premise for it's conclusion was wrong. When the wealthy have more money for doing less they keep that strategy. The only way to make the wealthy do more for society is to allow them less profit so that if they want more profit they must employ more people by expanding business. Somehow that little bit of logic has escaped the withering minds of the republican party for reasons that can only be nefarious in intent.

Behavior is a choice, own it! (#3057)

     There are few things in life we actually have full control over and how we act is one of them. Sure there are many reasons why we make excuses to act the way we do but the excuses are just that, excuses that we choose to define our actions. Sometimes we get into situations that force our actions or so we think. We always and I mean always have another choice than the one we think we must choose. I learned this a long time ago and struggled with it until later in my life when I decided that enough of struggling was enough. I chose to live how I want to live based upon what I hold dear as honorable and noble. Today my life is what I choose it to be and if it becomes not what I choose then I will change it. I like that about having a choice.
     I live one time and that is this time so all that I do must reflect who I am and not what I am forced to be. My reality won't allow it now. Everything I have done in the past is mine and whether I am proud of it or not doesn't come into the equation, it just is. So making excuses or denying behavior is unacceptable. All my life I have been searching for the why of things, well I know the why of me now. I am and I may be that if I choose. Which is what I am doing. The things of allure and fantasy are not given any quarter with me. I am not about what I can do for myself as much as I am for what I can do to make our world a better place. I have honor that way, not selfishness. I tried selfishness and it left me cold and hollow inside.
     So simply put, as my life is winding down I am content in that I have chosen to live as the best example of who I am. I still not without my stumbles but they are innocent in intent and never purposeful. I rectify and own my behavior whenever it deviates from my choices as it can do given that I am imperfect. There is no autopilot for me as life is too complicated and complex for me to think I can have a choice at the ready without having to ponder on it's effect to me and others. Life is constantly changing and that whirligig is unforgiving when I don't concentrate on the ever changing factors. Regardless though, I choose my behavior, it does not choose me and in the end I have found that wisdom to live by.

No fealty owed in a democracy (#3056)

     What happened yesterday was an abomination in a democracy, http://hill.cm/wFs4aym. The level of indignation I have for what trump did to his sniveling cabinet, and I say sniveling since they all cowered to his demand, is off the charts. It shows first that trump is an ego maniac who cannot live without being, shall I say, trumpeted? Second, it is also shown to us just how lacking in honor his cabinet is as they knelt one by one and praised him. Such a display of subservience to a buffoon is evidence of the members of the buffoons cabinets total lack of a spine that should be where their courage is. How humiliating for us to have to witness such a display of cowardice. It isn't as if their lives depended on it but it did underscore them putting their perceived power or what they erroneously perceive as prestige before their own personal, or in this case lack of dignity.
     The world got to see just how deranged the trump is in his expectation of how a democracy should operate. Yet we know this much, he doesn't think our national constitution is modern enough. In fact he thinks it is archaic and is bad for our nation, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-us-constitution-archaic-really-bad-fox-news-100-days-trump-popularity-ratings-barack-a7710781.html. Well he must constantly be reminded that he was elected by the electoral college, an outdated paternalistic system of control that allowed for the minority vote winning candidate to become president. So he has no mandate whatsoever and more so he is the one who is outdated and archaic in his understanding of how our nation operates in a democracy by his show of making his cabinet members, in a humiliating public way, show fealty to him.
     The trump does not want our democracy to remain considering his actions. It feels and proves like he wants to be an absolute leader who has no one to check and balance his decisions that effect all of us Americans and indirectly the world on whole. He admires the dictators of the world and lets them do as they will without any condemnation. But he has condemned our democratic allies and made a fool of himself and an unwanted partner in many of our allies combined policies. The worst dynamic from the election of 2016 is that our democratic way of life is now in jeopardy by a man who has more vanity than sense. If we Americans survive this coup of sorts it will be because we gave him no benefit of the doubt and instead stood fast and hard against every democracy destroying act he attempts to accomplish.

Memories of the past (#3055)

     I was reminded once again about the frailty of life. Every once in a while I am brought back to a place of dread, the passing of someone who I had memories of that were more inspiring than not. Most people I have known never reach the level of being an inspiration to me. But the ones who do leave a mark on me are honored and respected. It's like that familiar paradigm of looking around and seeing very little that I want to aspire to become and be around. Much like moving around when I was younger so that I could find something in life that captured my idealism and imagination. So I met a few people along the way that do very little things that somehow loom large in my order of things. The simplicity of being a good example is one of them.
     I can tell you this much and I know it to be true, there are those souls who live a life worthy of emulating that put an imprint on us that is forever part of our subconscious thinking and actions. When we know it is right we don't even think to evaluate we just know. As I get older these souls who have done this for me move on from this existence and when I know or learn of it, it leaves a solemn mark on me. This existence is still quite a mystery but there are a few things that are constant that for intents and purposes give me a sense of belonging. One being the shared experiences we pass along to each other in order to make life less uncertain and more a safe harbor. The chain of humanity when the honor of life is being forged is an amazing and fulfilling gift.
     Humanity and knowledge are just like the two greatest human traits we have, care and wonder. No matter which angle I take from how I am living life I always come back to the ideals of compassion and curiosity. So those souls who exemplify these two qualities surely make an impression on me and allow for me to continue to know that what is best about our species is our honorable thoughts and deeds. I am saddened that another has left this existence but that is the nature of life for now, where death is certain but hope and honor are not.
     

Respect is earned, not demanded (#3054)

     As the European elections in recent months have shown, the idea of austerity is being exposed for it's harsh demands on the working middle poor class. That in combination with the opposite effect it is having on the greedy wealthy is breeding a resentment that is now being activated upon. Along with the North American Canadians, France and now Great Britain are seeing an explosion of defiance against conservative austerity policies. We here in America are also experiencing a resurgent movement toward anti-austerity measures but we are just not there yet given the results of our election in 2016. But we are close and although our anti-austerity candidate won the popular vote we are still chained to an archaic paternalism known as the electoral college.
     Despite that though the anti-austerity movement is going forward and as new election results continue to come about the more it is realized. It isn't just anti-austerity that is being exposed and defeated it is also segregated views between the races. We here in America are truly the melting pot of the world but too many within my own white race are eager to be the only race. It is abhorrent to me and many like me but the facts remain that we have a sub group of white nationalists and segregationists that are vociferous in their fears of inclusion and the melting pot ideal. How they cannot logically understand that we are all linked as the human race is beyond my understanding and quite frankly an unknown understanding by me that I wish not to understand. It is illogical and immoral as well as unethical in the eyes of democracy.
     That is why I say that respect is to be earned, not to be demanded. There are those within the republican party who manipulated themselves into public power who think otherwise in ways that remind me of tyranny and authoritarianism. Well what these sick souls do not understand is that I and many more like me are not to be bullied nor pressured into breaking with our honored principles. We are not fodder for them to use at their pleasure. Instead we are like a thorn in their side willing to irritate and frustrate them when they choose to deny respect to our most revered article of guidance, the Constitution of the United States. No mere mortal can usurp the respect we have for that inspired document and despite their own arrogant narcissism, republicans will get nothing from us.

Good people rising up to confront the dirty rotten republican scoundrels (#3053)

     It seems that we liberal progressives, after being gut punched by the 2016 presidential election, have found our breath again. Everywhere I look I see us standing up and fighting back against the punishing republican party and their policies that make life worse for most of us instead of better. They do not have a good idea in their collective heads, only actions of destroying what has taken generations to achieve. The most egregious election outcome in the modern era for America and now I am happy to say we are not allowing it to get a foothold into dismantling our democracy. I am so proud to see our fighting spirit come back after the heartache of a questionable at best election result.
     It took me several weeks of soul searching to find my backbone again after having my little pity party about the election outcome. I had even entertained thoughts of leaving my country because my country no longer represented me our my values. But starting with our tough as grizzled leather governor, Jerry Brown, and his determined position of calling out republicans I began to get my fighting spirit back. I reexamined my commitment to democracy and decided that fighting for it right here in my own backyard was the only real option that reflected my soul. I gave myself a stern but successful talking to about the level of my commitment to democracy and how our citizens have always stood up to tyranny, Well this is my turn to make that same blood sacrifice in the name of a better nation that I know we truly are.
     So today some 7 months after the election I have been grounded in my attack against every republican who opens their mouth to disgrace the virtue of democracy. I have no time for filters nor civilized niceties when it comes to them. They are traitors to me and those who died to make our nation a better place for the whole world to admire and try to become. There are not a lot of the republican scoundrels out there but they are in key positions of our public government and private enterprises. they will be named and called out for what they are and what they are trying to do and for that I am loaded for monsters! There will be no mercy for those whose intent is to harm and destroy. They have just awakened the liberal progressive beast in us and for that they will feel the blunt end of that wrath!

The selfish dynamic that makes up republicans (#3052)

     The dark soul of the republican party member is one that cannot face the future. The future scares them with all their wild imaginings of what they think it will be like. So they fall back on what they do know which is the present and the past. That is why they fight against modernization, innovation and creativity. That is why they don't want an enlightened education to prosper among our citizenry. In fact republicans look to the past for the calming answers they need to fulfill their own selfish interests. They want us to be a separated species. Where they get to be on top of the pyramid and the others who are not them are there to serve them. They see we other humans as cattle to be controlled and manipulated with lesser rights than themselves. It actually makes sense to them and any perceived immorality can be overcome by their sense of a greater purpose being restored, ie... their safety and comfort.
     This is why they fight against democratic principles. It makes you wonder how these republicans can be so afraid of the future? Why are they afraid of what science and logic have to offer when we humans are the ones making the advances? My guess is that they are so afraid of their own imaginings that nothing, logic nor common sense has a chance against their already made up minds. It explains why they are willing to harm themselves in order to kill off democratic advances. They don't see equity for all, instead they see a survival of the fittest. Remember, they are driven at their core from fear, so trying to reason with them is the wrong approach. Reason is a principle of logic and logic is not to be trusted if it disturbs their view of safety and comfort.
     How do we break this fever of fear that republicans hold fast? I don't know for sure but this much I do know, I don't give them an inch in their quest to destroy democratic principles. I do not cower nor cater to their delusions of fear. Life is more important to me than being afraid of it. I am grasping at it and all it offers with both hands and will never shrink from it's challenges. I am bold and it is because I choose to be instead of being afraid. How do we get republicans to be bold as well? I had to find my own way and they will have to find theirs but in the meantime they are not friends of humanity and should be treated as such until they do understand that all we humans have the right not to be afraid like they are.

Selective bullying with the trumps (#3051)

     If you are trying to expose the truth about the trumps you will find yourself being pressured to stop. The trumps have taken to protecting themselves from scrutiny through intimidation and otherwise making life miserable for those who put the rule of law ahead of trump privilege. We are seeing it played out now in our media with all the evidence needed to begin a criminal and or impeachment case against the trumps being delayed or undermined by them and their cronies. The fact that Russia has been involved and putie is aggressively inserting himself in our fact finding narrative is also a factor. That many have died that were in the know of what and how putie operates is a reminder here that putie will not be questioned in conjunction with the trumps and he will use force and that threat to allay any investigation into his connection to the trumps.
     It is a classic case of thuggery we are experiencing with the trumps. They are unable to face the facts of their deeds and they don't want anyone else to even know of them. We are being guided by an elected leader who sees himself as a dictator, not as a servant of the people. If our democracy survives and that is a big if at the moment then it will be because we did expose the trumps to criminal punishments for acts committed in defiance of our constitution. Many think that we can politely work our rules of law to enforce and maintain our democracy, but I am not one of those. I am of the mindset that we are in a street brawl with the trumps and they are not honoring Marquess of Queensberry rules. Instead they are pulling every dirty trick in the book to keep their power.
     There are less than 3 1/2 years left in his elected term and if we don't keep fighting him every step of the way we may find that getting rid of him and his entrenched followers will be harder than ever imagined. The concept of manipulating the vote is not lost on republicans and with them in power it is likely that more is to come. They are like savages when it comes to holding onto what they think is their right to lead. There will be no debating nor logical arguing with them. They will say that the sky is butter if that is what it takes for them to keep power. Selective bullying aimed at those who violate the trump doctrine of disagreeing with them is now the rule not the exception.

The republican party must pay dearly for allowing the trumps (#3050)

     The republican party has brought us the trumps and for that they deserve to be punished severely! No republican running for office anywhere should be given our public trust. They have all been in cahoots to allow trumps so that they can gain power to further weaken our working middle poor class. Enough! Our American society specifically and the rest of the world generally are being put through an absurd reality where good is bad and ignorance is acceptable. The republican party and it's agenda to displace and denigrate souls through undemocratic methods is abhorrent and must stop as soon as is legally possible. The republican brand cannot nor should not be given mercy here. They did this with intent to harm and their premeditation should be met with a severe and effective response. Otherwise they continue to display a criminal recidivist tendency.
     The rule of law and an enlightened society is our goal but not with the republican party. They want to divest America of modernization and an educated masses so that they can use us as tools and cannon fodder when their greed for more strikes them. Their survival of the fittest mindsets with a large degree of racism is an abomination to rationality. They have taken the greatest democracy on Earth and turned it into their own private cash machine while making corporations as or more equal than human people. The idea that a legal document has now better rights than our human species is incredulous. That the republicans on the Supreme Court gave us this paradigm is indicative of how pervasive and inculcated hatred to subsets of biological humans has become.
     For the last several years my bog posts have been coarse, to be kind. I have been fed up beyond my ears with republican politics and I have given myself over to being as tempered as I can in being pissed off in describing them. The record of my anger at them is not because I am foolish or ignorant. It is because when I see harm, in this case with republicans, intentional harm, I have a duty to call it out and to try to stop it. It is in my nature to be a good fellow but until republicans are justifiably removed from any serious governmental positions I cannot sit idly by. The coarseness of my diatribes will continue until justice has been served upon the heads of all the guilty republicans who have made life miserable for our citizens and enriched themselves while doing it.
     

The new Christianity is a violent one (#3049)

     I can't count how many modern day American Christian pastors have called for violence against people who choose to live in a legal democratic way, http://www.politicususa.com/2016/06/02/christian-leaders-increase-calls-gun-physical-violence-transgenders.html. The Christian church has morphed into a breeding ground for hatred and violence in ways that I had never thought possible. The Jesus Christ I was raised to believe would abhor violence and rebuke any who would attempt it. But this new Christianity is not the same that I was taught in my formative years. No, this new Christian church is about what I call republican jesus. this republican jesus has no tolerance for the poor, the displaced, women nor those who are not white. How has this come to be?
     I can only assume that the infiltration of evils has been afoot. Where prejudice was previously discouraged as sinful it is now celebrated as triumphal. Where women were beginning to gain equal rights with men they now see the loss of those advances. Where the poor were to be regarded with care and compassion, they are now condescended to as unworthy of life itself. Where the real Jesus was of color from the Mediterranean region, the new republican jesus is white and damn proud of it. I can go on about the differences such as fidelity to marriage vows as previously being sacred but under republican jesus they are just suggestions or that where greed and power for the sake of greed and power were abhorrent sins to the old Jesus, they are now welcome as beautiful traits that exemplify the survival of the fittest mentality of the new republican jesus.
     To call yourself a Christian these days you have to be one helluva rotten person considering that the republican jesus would never have sacrificed himself for the sins of all. What is the point anymore of thinking that the old Jesus is still the model for Christianity when the old Jesus has been replaced by the republican jesus? The old Jesus, represented by Esau, has sold his birthright to the republican jesus, Jacob, who now controls the Christian narrative. So you Christians of today have broken Christianity and now you own it. Welcome to your new violent Christian faith you followers.

Downsizing in the era of trumps (#3048)

     Instead of being hopeful about the future before the last presidential election I am now frustrated. My frustration is because of the policies of the trumps and congressional republicans at large. Those policies are reflecting a desire to further enrich the wealthy through tax cuts, deregulation and removing and or shrinking social programs that the wealthy contribute financially toward. I am not one of the wealthy and even if I were I would still be frustrated at what the trumps are trying to do. Because I understand that we need a thriving middle class and a poor class with the ability to improve itself as easily and fast as possible.
    But I am not wealthy so all I can do is find ways to cut my simple existence even further so that I am not caught unawares to the cuts to policies that help may of us to survive through poverty. We all need basic things to survive unless we choose to be homeless or double up with other family members to keep from being on the streets, http://www.endhomelessness.org/library/entry/SOH2016. The shelter issue is critical but so is food, clothing, sanitation, transportation, education and health care. The ability to communicate and receive information through the airwaves is just as important. We must prioritize even these basic needs in the era of trumps. So downsizing our needs has to be addressed if we are to survive the trumps, and hopefully move on to a more enlightened governance.
     I am like most all people in that once I have attained a certain level of existence it is hard for me to reduce that. It is almost as if I go into denial just so that I don't have to face it's reality. Yet I have no other choice so once I get past my cognitive dissonance I am then ready to move forward as best I see fits my life. My frustration with trumps is deep though because I am not some healthy young man who can survive easily by changing my lifestyle or environment. I am limited in what I can or should do if I wish to live for any length of time. Where I can make adjustments to how I live it will be done by reduction not elimination. I am already at the basic level so there is little left for me to downsize.

No wiggle room for the trumps (#3047)

     I have zero tolerance for any and all trumps. They get nothing from me but my hatred for what they are doing to our nation and our citizens. They are deserving of the harshest criticisms and punishments allowable under the law. There will be no mercy, no benefit of the doubt nor any forgiveness of them from me ever. When I see the worst of what human beings can be and they deliberately choose to continue as such then there are no extenuating circumstances to assuage their punishments. Those who would give them benefits of the doubt are then not any friends of mine and will feel the sting of my rebuke of them as well.
     It is a right and good harsh stance I take. Nothing seems to be stopping the trumps from their crusade to destroy our American society by dragging it back to our most heinous past so instead of fretting about being a decent human being I am all in to take them down no matter what the moral cost to my own psyche. I am not religious so the turn the other cheek crap doesn't apply. I don't have to take into account a forgiving nature as a rule. I do forgive those who make mistakes and have remorse for their acts or thoughts and the will to change, but not to the intentionally criminal who have less conscience than an amoeba.
     If I am the judge of the trumps they will be punished so severely that any thought of another to do the same will be emblazoned into their heads that they will suffer the same fate. Not only will they be stripped of their resources and power but their humiliation will be exposed to every single soul who would care to gaze upon their pathetic example. None will be spared the harsh indignities of punishment to the fullest of the law. If you are complicit you are guilty as well. The best of who we are is being trampled by the worst of who we are and that must stop immediately. There is no other way than to bring down the hammer of the law on their heads in such a devastating way as to deter any further notions of following the trumps lead. No compromise on punishments for deeds that stain the essence of the rule of law.

Find your scientific core and live out from that! (#3046)

     I think of my mind as my core since it is where all the knowledge I have been given is stored. Now my heart has the emotional part of me wrapped up but my mind is where all my sensory perceptions go to make sense. When I think of my mind I am reminded that it is a biological wonder. It exists between my ears safely in my skull from most outside dangers. A safe harbor for it if you will. Given that it is so important to who I am and how I act and behave, It's safety is crucial to my existence. Given that I have established my mind as my core, it is from there that I begin and maintain my life journey.
    I am not some whimsical being who just appeared out of thin air. I was born to my parents who were born to theirs and so on and so forth. I am a generational link to not only them but to all humanity as well. What I possess is passed down to me from those who came before me and those of my current peers. I am like a sponge that takes in what is needed while squeezing out that which is of no value or nonsensical. My mind tells me to be logical about all things if I wish to be part of an enlightened society. Which to me is basic. However there are times when my intuition and my common sense takes me momentarily astray from logic if only to make more right than wrong. Logic and ethics mixed with morality can sometimes make for uncomfortable partners so with my mind as the referee, I may adjust my acts and behaviors to fit a more noble or honorable outcome when it seems that solely using logic cannot get me there.
     No where so far have I used any word that dictates I follow a belief system to guide my life. I am not one for mysticism, superstition nor myth as being at all helpful in deciding which course my life should take. I am a human being in a long line of human beings who like the other inhabitants of this planet are just trying to exist while trying to evolve to greater understandings. There is no magic in that only a kind curiosity and a will to explore that which I don't know yet. I am a biological data processor with sensory perceptions and as such I am not going to change what I am and what I was born to be. My mind is where my reasoning, analytics and concluding all take place so when I am in that formulaic sequence I am centered and always ready to follow my destiny.

The ignorance of arrogance (#3045)

     Another day and I am still alive. The trumps failed to kill me off yesterday so I get another day to call them out for being ignorant and arrogant. Although, long term the trumps did try to kill us all off with their denial of man made climate change and their inability to recognize that destroying our planet wouldn't harm us somehow. Apparently the trumps are the types that think they are invincible and that we need to accept their blind faith in their delusion. It takes a special kind of arrogance to believe that reality is here to be obeyed by them. That somehow they were given the keys to existence and can shape physics as they please. What is even more troubling is that they have no clue as to how they are going to do it but trust them when they say don't worry about it.
     I am a logical person with a mighty hell of a temper. I don't believe in magic or superstition as well as I don't believe in fairy tales or folklore that have come from antiquity with no proof to their actually having existed. The scientific method is one that was devised through the ambition of the human species. It is ours and ours alone on this planet yet the trumps treat it with such disdain as to not even acknowledge it when it is obvious and important to do so. Too many of us fall back into the comfort of religion and/or belief systems that have no logical application to the evolvement of facts and truths. They are hoped for wishes that help us suppress our fears. Well let me be absolutely clear here, being afraid is a childish thing when we ignore the cause of it. Much like a child who throws a tantrum when the child does not get it's way.
     The immaturity that not only ignorance displays but the arrogance to deny the ignorance or pretend that it isn't ignorant without scientific proof is the mantra of the trumps. Somehow through connivery these trumps got elected to lead our nation and the world by default. Well our nation is rising up against the trumps as well as the world is rising up against the trumps in the hope to limit the damage that the trumps are going to cause because of their ignorance and their arrogant refusal to logically consider what they are doing. The ignorance of arrogance is their path and trumps have chosen not to stray from it. Well we will bend that path so much that it will lead right back from whence they came!
   

There are no shades of gray with trumps (#3044)

     Moral dilemmas often come about when it is complicated figuring out what is the right thing to do. Sometimes just trying to stay alive is wrong and sometimes not dying is right. The bigger picture and the now are often in conflict with each other when we are faced with decisions that not only affect ourselves but many others as well. The difference with some is a conscientious one of ultimate sacrifice. The difference with others is one born of cowardly survival. Often between these two are choices that we mostly struggle with. Not so with the trumps. There is little to entertain us concerning their motivations concerning moral dilemmas. They have none that require a conscientiousness on their part.
     Instead they are driven by the idea that some are worthy of life and others are not. It is that simple with them. They believe that no one should be allowed to live who cannot live up to their expectation of what a human being should be. They do not follow the natural sequencing of evolution nor environment as factors in forming the human experience. They along with other logic deprived elitists feel that human nature can be molded to fit into a neat box and that those who don't "fit" are expendable. The horrific purging of humanity in order to "cleanse" for a new beginning. This is not unlike what the Nazi's tried to do in WWII in exterminating whole societies of what they called undesirables.
     You are either in or out with the trumps and no amount of compromise on the part of the undesirables is acceptable. There are no shades of gray with trumps, just right or wrong. The hubris of youth often sees the world as just black or white, yet we all know that experience shows us that very little in life is just one or the other. When maturity does take hold in the human experience we see that the "no shades of gray crowd" is childish and immature to the point of being destructive to the whole of humanity. When life revolved around a campfire in our ancient history it is more likely that right and wrong were often clear. But we don't live around a campfire any longer, we live in a modern enlightened society that requires of us to see all the shades of right and wrong and to apply them with a formula that enhances the democratic process, not the stubborn will of the childish!

The despot who is our illegitimate leader (#3043)

     Our democracy has failed us. Somehow the rich and powerful have pulled off a coup without us really being aware of it. They have worked to undermine our intelligence and our process for electing leaders. Through voter suppression and false information that we know of and conjectured fraud in vote tabulating, the fix is in and it is called trump. The republican party has been the vessel for this nefarious crime against freedom and liberty and they hardly deny it. They are an arrogant bunch who see themselves as the masters of the world and are not likely persuaded that they are wrong. Their champion, trump, is the epitome of the ridiculous and deathly vision. He has sold his soul to the wealthy and powerful and no amount of hope or wishful thinking will change his itinerary.
     He is a despot in every sense of the word. He is abusing his power as our leader while oppressing us to his whims. There is not a doubt among the many of us that his illegitimate rise to power is just another step toward a two class system, envisioned by republicans here in America. The wealthy and the poor are those two classes and no amount of hand wringing over it will save the middle class. The only change to this treasonous plan is to investigate, build evidence, vote them out and then prosecute them to the fullest extent of legal punishment. Not much can be done politically until the next round of elections in 2018 but we can continue to build our legal case against them. When the power has shifted back to democrats for the House and Senate is when we can then bring the kind of irresistible force necessary to ultimately crumble the plot of the trumps.
     In the meantime we need to stay steadfast in our resistance against them not allowing for any movement backward that further deteriorates our democracy. We must fight them on any and all levels where they are trying to implement their cruel and brutish agenda. The time is coming for the next round of elections and anything short of a victory for democrats in both houses will bot be enough to dislodge the republican party from the Presidency. We need our democratic avalanche to hit in 2018 in order to secure the fate of the disgraced trump and his acolytes who are now trying to cement their victory for the foreseeable future. Our democracy demands that our leaders be servants, not tyrants or despots!

The depth of republican party treason (#3042)

     Not a day goes by without some new revelation that republicans were in it up to their vulnerable necks. By "it" I mean collusion to commit treason against the United States of America. From accepting massive donations from Russian sources to finance their political campaigns to coordinating with Russians on how to undermine their Democratic opponents. That republicans would put our last great known enemy above American citizens is evidence enough that republicans care for only one thing, that being attaining and keeping power. Helping Americans with succeeding in their lives is not the republican agenda, stealing wealth and power is!
     Yet as we have seen, the republican party is not being punished for their actions and behaviors. In fact they are often rewarded by an electorate that has no interest nor care in what they are doing. It is like too many of our electorate cannot fathom that one of our American political parties would deliberately harm us. Their minds won't let them wrap their thoughts around it. Well the time for being ignorant or willfully dissonant is over. Real harm and irreparable damage is at hand and unless the majority of our electorate can come to grips with it we are headed for the dissolution of our democracy. Their is only one real act left we fighters for democracy have left to us, voting. Yes, we need to vote out all republican politicians who have linked themselves to the trumps or more notably to destroying the working middle poor class.
     Never in the history of our nation has such a simple solution been afforded us that didn't involve going to war with ourselves. If we vote for political solutions that enhance our democracy and involve all our citizenry we can turn back the tide of tyranny. It is a real tide flowing hard at us and if we don't make up our minds shortly that democracy is coming to an end then it will be too late for us. I for one will fight like those who we honor on Memorial Day to keep our democracy and oust every republican politician who is currently sitting in office or wants to be. Our democracy demands it if we are to keep it and the republican party deserves it's punishment for selling out our great nation for 30 pieces of silver!

Belief systems are killing us! (#3041)

     Let me state my stance here about belief systems. It is fine to have a belief system for one's own personal journey through life. I am spiritual in my heart and that tie with everything in and out of the Universe is my comfort in life. We all need some way to deal with the at times harsh realities and having a connection with someone or something greater than ourselves is often what we need. However, my spiritual bond with all things is not my public political stance. I am gifted with the luck to have been born as a citizen of a country that established democracy as it's guiding principle. So that no matter what, or not, each of our personal beliefs or spiritual connections we attach to ourselves, there is no discrimination.
     However there are many in our nation who are against each of us having the right to decide which or not if any comfort in the belief or spiritual sense we may choose. Instead they want to force us to accept what they think is the best belief system. Taking my choice away as to how I journey through life is not democratic, it is tyrannical. Let me also state here what a belief system is. In my words, a belief system is a hope. So hoping that there is a god or a spiritual connection out there is not a logical proof, it is more akin to an expectation based upon faith, not fact. So forcing anyone to accept that which is not a proven fact is brutish and mentally deranged. We should be forced to only accepting facts and truths instead. Why is it that too many of us have chosen to not only accept a belief system over fact, but to force others to accept it as well?
     My best guess is that there is a good but misguided intent behind it. Many see a salvation of sorts when we all are on the same page, the cookie cutter approach to living. The problem with this is that each of us is fiercely independent. We live in a finite existence and our time is short relatively speaking. So our first and best inclination is to experience life for all it's worth before our time is up. We don't want to side track ourselves from facts and truths of things. It is against our natures to live in a fantasy that we hope is true. Instead we fall back on our own better instincts of care and curiosity. We try to feel good and make others feel good while we search and learn about this existence. One more thing, more wars have been started over religious conflicts than any other reason. Consider that!

My justified uncivilized behavior (#3040)

     I know I have reverted to a crude and distasteful version of myself. It is strategic. I have not all of a sudden shown my true form as a nasty brutish out of control asshole. No, I have decided that I will no longer be civilized in my critique of worse assholes when I debate, argue or define them after they open their act and state their filthy intent. No one loves civilized society more than I do. I cherish the concept of adding to dialogue and thought in ways that invigorate our minds to greater understandings. Yet that is not what this currently is about here in America. I am one hundred percent behind the strategy to hit below the waist with the ones who would kill us if they had their druthers. So when I get a critique about the use of my language it is like me hearing someone tell me to be nice while they hack my head off. It doesn't logically compute.
     Another benefit of my unbound rants is that others can silently agree without crossing that line that I most joyfully rocketed over. I come from a beginning of rough and tumble life lessons that were more based in cruel and brutish lessons so the fact that I rose above that to make something decent of myself is evidence of my own desire to have and live in a better world. But when those trumps and a majority of the republican party take my desire to be civilized and turn it into a mockery through pain and suffering is why I now reach back into my past and become the ruthless speaker of truth no matter what crude language I use to describe them. My verbiage is not the point of my dialogue but it is now the angry vessel I utilize to deliver it.
     Eventually if I survive the trumps of the world currently in power here in America, I will gladly and humbly return to expressing myself as an enlightened normal intellectually advancing being. But until that comes back around the trumps and their followers will get the nasty brutish version of me as their reward for killing us without as much as a by your leave. Strategic, not devolving. I am just utilizing all of who I am or was to fit the horrendous narrative being thrust upon us without our consent. I am many things but what I would choose to be is honorable, noble and kind. When the time for that comes back is when I will be the best version of what makes me proud and what I hope can inspire pride in others. Until then though, it is the harsh brutish Carl who will tolerate nothing less than the best of what humanity should be.
    

Traitors, treason and collusion, the republican way! (#3039)

     If you can't win with your policies then lie, cheat and steal any way you can. That is how republicans win elections. But now they have gone a bridge too far. By aligning with the Russians, the republican party has sold out it's American soul for pieces of silver and the power to oppress people. I see it clearly but many as of yet still do not. However I am not the only one who sees it. Many of my like minded associates do as well. And here is the kicker, many of the previous republican voters are now seeing it as well. The republican propaganda machine is still operable and can still deliver victories like in Montana the other day but less and less are believing them while republicans are spending more and more not to lose more ground.
     The offenses of being a traitor through treasonous acts is coming to light regardless of how republicans collude to deny the evidence. There are enough checks and balances left in our government to keep the truth of things moving to the forefront. As the steady flow of truth is exposed to light the more the republican party cowers back to scurrying under the damp rocks from which their ideology spawned. But they will have nowhere to hide when the dastardly effects of their crimes take hold. We the American people may be a whole lot of ignoramuses at times but we can also resolve ourselves toward punishing those who would sacrifice us for their own pleasure and profit. There will be no mercy for those republicans who are caught out but continue to harm and and put in peril the greatest nation the known world has ever created.
     The agenda of republican politics is a nasty and brutish one. Make the working middle poor class suffer and pay an unbearable cost while giving the wealthy all the advantage and privilege that only benefits them. I am all for public humiliation and harsh penalties for those who do get their hands caught selling out our nation for their own enrichment. Treason has happened here with the trumps and the republican party and the time for them to pay for their despicable actions and behaviors is at hand. Memorial day is upon us and to think of those who gave their all to defend and protect democracy is in contrast to these current republicans who give nothing of themselves and everything from the rest of us for their own selfishness. The day of reckoning will soon be upon them!

Montanans fail the test (#3038)

     It is not as if Montanans didn't try, it is just that when the trying was done it still fell short of showing a decency that could have easily been expressed. They voted for the republican to represent them in Congress even though the republican backed the trump agenda. Now I know that less of them backed last night's candidate (8%) than did in November of last year for trump (20%), but given how much the trumps are destroying our nation I had hoped a majority of Montanans would have been less ignorant. Still though given the voting record of Montana as a deep red state some improvement toward enlightenment was shown.
     Yet there is little to celebrate other than the fact that a tide is coming in a backlash to trump and republican politics. While nothing much has changed since the House seat was already a republican one before the election and that the next general election will be here in less than 18 months, the feel of a Democratic wave is nonetheless real. I have been around politics long enough to know that it isn't common for our electorate to get it all at once. But the encouragement from Montana's failure to break the republican held seat is that it took a lot more effort than normally required for the republican to hold it. That is our encouragement. Folks are starting to see that the republican party is not for the working middle poor class.
     So on we go to California, (June 6th), Georgia and South Carolina (June 20th) for the next round of congressional special elections. No doubt the first democratic win will come on June 6th, as for Georgia and South Carolina they could be too close to call on their election night. But if the trend toward anti trump and anti republican policies continues we could be more than happy come June 21st. Always tricky though and the republicans will spend their millions on hiding their destructive nature and instead try to turn us against ourselves. We will see what the results will be but as long as republicans keep working against our interests the more many of us will stop supporting them. Let's hope the democratic wave finally hits this month.

The ignorance of the American electorate continues today or maybe not (#3037)

     By later tonight we will know just how far the awakening of the American electorate has proceeded, or not. The special congressional election in Montana will reveal the ability of the American electorate to think in a somewhat critical fashion. Over the last 4 months we have seen just how the republican party plans to deal with national politics and if loyalty to party is greater than loyalty to our nation on whole then the republicans will prevail today in a largely republican district. However, if the fact that republicans are seen as the party protecting the wealthy and alternatively the party that wishes to destroy the working middle poor class then maybe we will see a different outcome with the democrat winning the republican district.
     It is all a matter of degrees I hope and I also hope that the line between loyalty to a party that is against the republican voter is a line that has already been crossed. The republican in the race is for the trump agenda and is also now a criminal in waiting after his assault of a journalist last night and his being charged with misdemeanor assault with plenty of witnesses to prove the charge. But since many votes have already cast their ballots through the absentee process, we will have to wait and see what the election day republican voters will do. My guess is that many will still vote with their loyalty to a nonexistent narrative republicans have maintained through deceptive campaigning but I hope I am wrong.
     I have hoped in the past to be wrong as well and that did not work out then. Yet this time the republican narrative is harder to hide so my hope has some validity this time around. We will see by the end of tonight. How our electorate came to be so ignorant and abusive of the melting pot concept when the ill of our national economy is not on the working side but on the money making profit side. The wealthy have stacked the deck against workers and have effectively turned the blame back on us. Well the evidence is clear that we the working middle poor class are not the ones benefiting instead it is the wealthy and their republican enabling politicians. Will Montana wake up and vote today to end the ripoff that republicans have cleverly disguised or will we once again fall into the trap of staying loyal to a party regardless of how badly it treats us?

The fallacy of conservatism (#3036)

     Think about this. What has conservatism done for you? On it's own, nothing. Now if you think about what both liberal and conservative policies have in common, we can find unity. Both are for free enterprise, although liberal philosophy of free enterprise is a system of checks and balances that look to equalize the effects of free enterprise across the whole of society, instead of just to favor those who have power, like with conservatism. What else do conservative and liberals have in common? Private ownership. Now liberals know that private ownership is a treasured value but it is not the whole of what a democracy can succeed from. While conservatives believe that private ownership is above democratic values and more in line with a survival of the fittest doctrine that holds no such esteem for democracy.
     I tried to be fair here in giving conservatism a foundation that has value but even I could not accomplish that. So it is fair to say that nothing of real value from conservatism is not already part of what liberalism and progressivism offer. Now what else does conservatism trumpet? It is in opposition to change and or innovation. Look at how we as a nation and world are trying to adapt our technologies to climate change but cannot get most republicans to even agree that there is a problem. As to traditional values being a conservative mantra, I give you untold and told scandals by the hundreds with just republican politicians violating oaths of marriage to oaths of allegiances. So no, conservatives do not uphold traditional values unless of course they can be exempt from themselves. Liberals on the other hand believe in tradition as well as evolution of thought and behavior.
     So in the final analysis, it can be easily concluded that conservatism is a subset of liberal progressive thought. A far more crude and unfair model on it's own to be more precise. It is my contention that in reality we are mostly all liberal progressives, it is just that some of us, by degree, are more conservative in our approach and some are more expansive. Either way change and innovation only come about through liberal progressive thinking. Not only that but society benefits on whole because there are safeguards and procedures for applying our talents to all of what we do. Nothing of a societal benefit has ever come from conservatism while everything has advanced our society because it is and was a liberal progressive thought.

No legitimizing the liars, cheaters and thieves (#3035)

     Never will any republican get any legitimizing comment from me. Now every now and then one or two or three of them will do the right thing, however, doing the right thing once in awhile is not penance for all the wrong things that they are still doing. So when some are congratulated for doing the right thing I cringe because doing the right thing is an expectation not an exception. Congratulating someone for doing the right thing once in a while also sets a bad precedent. Like if I do a good thing once in a while I can then revert back and do wrong things under cover of the rare right thing done. Instead, I choose to lambaste those who do wrong and not lambaste those who do right. That way the expected right is passed over for a lambasting while the wrong doers get the full brunt of my anger.
     I may get some plaque as an award at the end of my life for doing a whole bunch of good things and at that time that is almost an acceptable tribute for not being an asshole. But that is all it means, I wasn't a full time asshole who hid behind some few good things in order to justify my own distorted sense of self worth. So no, I don't like it when a rotten person in or out of power does something good and then some start to hail them as decent folks. No, the decency is not earned by a rare occurrence of doing the ordinarily right thing. Decency is given when a lifetime of doing good things has been achieved or a pattern so entrenched in doing the right thing that not doing the right thing is unthinkable.
     It is like our current dilemma. We have a republican president and a republican congress that fits the bill for doing mostly wrong and occasionally a right thing. So by my calculus they get nothing from me but disdain and a calling out from me until their time in public service is either cut short, or ends with their terms being up. Either way, they will never be legitimate nor will their defenders ever be legitimized. If my existence on this planet is to be what I know is right and good then I will not ever compromise down from that right and good but instead force those who cannot nor will not embrace the best of who we humans are to reevaluate their position up from harmful selfishness.

I remain steadfast in my approach to non liberal/progressive voters (#3034)

     I still have no time in my life for those who would support trumps and their policies. I don't care who it is, close family or distant friend, their is no acknowledgement that you even exist. I am harsh that way but it is because I will not coddle nor put up with those who would support a republican party that discriminates against people of color, looks upon our mighty beautiful women as a sub class of humans and who think that the poor chose to be so. Why would I even consider associating with anyone who would make the republican party's policies the status quo? There is but one solid weapon I have against the many ignorant who are otherwise good people until they start thinking they know things that don't exist, and that is me.
     My presence, or lack thereof, in their lives is their reward or punishment. If they choose to want to help the working middle poor class instead of making life harder then they get to stay in my life. If they don't then they get nothing from me not even a recognition that they exist. I know it isn't much of an incentive or punishment but it is the only one I can control absolutely. There are too many people going through too many hardships this and every moment for me to ever forget what the republican party and their ignorant voters are making to happen. I am principled that way. I know many like me who know in our hearts that living a more virtuous life is not some dream but whatever reality we can make it. Sure the cynics out there know that they can get away with things instead of being honorable people but that is their choice, not mine nor like minded folks.
     We are the best of what humans can be when we see ourselves as all equals in whatever path we choose to take. The idea that some of us have the gall to place objections on others or obstruct their lives simply based upon their own unreal personal concept of reality, is despicable. This is what the republican party does. It takes it's own concept of reality which is not real and attempts to make the rest of us a supplicant to it. Whether through hardship or hate, they don't care. So if you choose to continue to support the worst of what humanity is by voting for republicans then don't ever expect to hear from or see me.

My hope grows each day I wake up anew (#3033)

     Well, I, we are not dead yet. I fully expected that trump would have caused some kind of catastrophe by now that would have inflicted mass deaths and casualties. It has been now well over 100 days and nothing horrible as to a devastating death toll has taken place. That could all come to an end at any moment as I see it but so far so good. Apparently we have just enough checks and balances left to keep the man/child from throwing us out there as cannon fodder. Not that he isn't trying to make our lives more miserable, we the working middle poor class majority in America.
But as to a widespread killing us off it has not happened yet.
     So my hope does grow now every day that I wake up that maybe we will get through this national nightmare somehow. I don't know how since their isn't much to civilized logic to draw from with the trumps. They seem to want to safeguard our enemies more than they want to safeguard Americans. Ironic isn't it? It would seem that things would make a whole lot more sense if trump was actually president of Russia. However that would never happen with the murderous putie in control over there. So with each day I feel less and less like the dead man I attributed to myself the day after the election and more like a living one who has no clue what our next near future will do to us.
     I will take the less dead and more clueless soul I am about the near future as a positive and with any kind of good luck and tireless effort, maybe all of us will actually survive to see an end to the trumps and a new beginning despite every trick republicans will try to pull to rig the election again in their favor. I wont get ahead of myself here with hopeful dreaming and instead I will keep fighting for the sanctity of our votes and the promotion of liberal/progressive policies and candidates. If I keep myself busy doing those things the time will hopefully keep marching on without many of us dying because of the trumps and their ignorant lust for wealth and power.

Enough of the trumps and republicans! (#3032)

     There is no doubt now as to the ineptitude, whether intentional or not, that the trumps have shown to having no respect for the idea of a "melting pot" nation. They as well treat our nation as their own little fiefdom filled with riches and glory at their disposal. They have taken what is best about our nation that has been built up over 240 years and tried to make it their own. This last election was not about electing a leader who is the servant of the people. Instead it was about electing a con man who is out to fleece the American people with impunity. We were fooled once again by the wealthy into thinking that the republican party was our savior. That we we allowed ourselves to be fooled is still to this day one of the most embarrassing and disgraceful events we have put upon ourselves.
     I include all of us in this even though nearly 3 million more votes came in for former Secretary Clinton. We did not do enough to make sure our elections were safe and free from external and internal influence. The "rigging" has been going on for decades through outside interference and internal voter disenfranchisement and we let it happen without raising the alarms to such a level as to force us to reverse the republican agenda of voter suppression and outright lies against republican opponents. We Americans deserved this horrible outcome because we fell asleep at the wheel of our democracy. We quit being the guardians of democracy so we could blissfully enjoy the fruits attained by our fore/parents. We didn't earn it but we sure as hell spent it like we deserved it.
     Now we must awaken from our stupor and put our shoulders back on the wheel of progress and push it back into a forward motion. This will require us to stop voting for the liars and cheats that have infiltrated and now form the foundation of the republican party. There is only one way forward and that is through a purging of every republican who is running for or currently holds public office. We need to get the democrats back into power in not only the Presidency, but the Congress and ideologically a liberal/progressive majority on the US Supreme Court. As well as return power back to democrats in the statehouses where the local politics stir the melting pot and give us our best solutions going forward.

The penalty for attempting to destroy our democracy (#3031)

     There should be no leniency when it comes to individuals or groups who act with the intent to tear down our democratic society so that they can enrich and empower themselves over us. Think about what is happening in our federal government. We have a scoundrel leading a pack of scoundrels trying desperately to hold onto power they dubiously attained. Why? Because they have an opportunity to not only bleed our federal treasury for favored contracts to themselves through their accomplices but they are in position to restructure our economy so that the working middle poor class is left with less opportunity to gain wealth while the wealthy are advantaged to gain more wealth. The ideals of fairness and justice are being stampeded in the name of greed.
     We are seeing this happen before our very eyes and all of us seem to be so stunned that we cannot think of how to stop it. We expect some magical entity within our government to step up and put a halt to it except that we have left or allowed all the power over any agency to stop the trumps in the hands of the trumps. Now there may be a glimmer of hope in that at least one agency is trying to defend the rule of law, which sides with democratic values more than it sides with enriching the wealthy even more. So some movement may happen that allows our judicial system to try and convict the trumps of their "alleged" crimes. I laughingly use alleged in parentheses because for me they are crimes when the products of their legislation and orders prove it.
     So now what do we do with these rotten souls who would have subjected us to a cruel and suffering existence if they are caught out? It is plain to me that deterrence in this instance is the appropriate tack to take in deciding punishment. Never again should a nation like ours have to relive this nightmare. So the punishment must be harsh and swift. Not only that but public so that all can see what a disgrace looks like and how we treat those who would try to undo the laws of an enlightened society. As each of these criminals is to receive their punishment remember that anyone who would wrong the whole of society should have no mercy when it comes to what they deserve. They would have inflicted their harm on all of us so their individual punishments are still far less than the total pain they would have caused.

My anger at republicans is real and justified! (#3030)

     If anyone at all knows me they can easily tell that I have little regard for those who are bad people. I don't tolerate them in my real life nor my Internet life. I tell it like it is without anyone's consent to how I do the telling. I am as real as it gets. Yet I do reserve myself at times in order to make sure that my anger is really justified. I have spent my more than 6 decades being a less than person to the republican party in their eyes. I don't know about you, but I was hurt by that at the beginning. However I have since grown in maturity and wisdom and can now see that their judgment of me was based upon factors that are not equal nor fair. So it has caused a change in me. Not only am I angry at them for being the worst of what Americans should see themselves as but I am angry at them for making me feel ashamed of myself.
     So when I go off on them without reservation to language or intent, it is because they have earned my wrath. For one thing, it isn't about what they do to just me. It is about what they do to all of us as a general rule. The most dishonest greedy political party ever to have gained a foothold into American politics is in control right now. They have aimed their long sought after agenda of killing off our middle class and corrupting our voting process so much that already too many eligible voters have been denied the vote because of republican restrictive policies, https://www.thenation.com/article/the-gops-attack-on-voting-rights-was-the-most-under-covered-story-of-2016/.  With republicans in control in many states the right to vote has been cut through fear and strongman tactics.
     So again when I go off on a rant of epic proportions it isn't because I am a feckless individual looking to draw attention to myself. No, it is because I am so angry at what is happening that I cannot fathom the idea of not screaming at the top of my lungs the treason to democracy that republicans are allowed to manufacture with impunity. I don't care for the value of my own life if the world I have to live in requires me to accept this current republican vision. Like our fore/parents who fought all sorts of attacks on our democracy with all they had to save it, I too am not settling for the worst of who our species are in the form of republicanism, and I damn well will let her rip when calling republicans out!

No civilized conversation with the nation destroying republicans! (#3029)

     Be nice? What the fuck! I got nice right here on the end of my fist is the nice I have for republicans. I have been telling anyone who would listen in civilized terms for decades that republicans are out to destroy our democracy and that didn't fucking work. I am pissed off right now because there are still some liberal progressives who think we can reason with republicans. Bullshit bullshit bullshit! They have got all what they have always wanted, control of our levers of power and they don't give a shit what any of us try to argue or debate them about. They are going ahead with their dastardly agenda if they can get past themselves.
     So the time for being nice or playing by civilized rules left many decades ago. We have to fight for every inch we can stop them from moving toward their agenda, which by the way is to destroy the middle class and make us all lower class while they enjoy the upper class. Get it through your civilized heads that there isn't a choice here. No amount of civilized discourse is going to change what they have dreamed of doing since the Reagan years. So sharpen your tongues and let her rip when you get a chance to let your voice out. This is not a time for niceties, this is time for the brutal truth of calling out the pigs for being the pigs.
     Remember, republicans want us to think that what they are doing is normal. Killing off our economy so that the wealthy are the only ones benefiting. Taking away health care making it a privilege not a right. Squashing attempts by unions to protect workers and bargain for living wages. Denying many the right to vote through economics and social prejudices. Making women feel like less than equals and turning them into pleasure vessels for men to use and toss away. This is the republican agenda and if you see anything normal about that then you don't deserve democracy. Meanwhile the rest of us have got to take the lead in stopping these fucking republicans no matter what lie spews out of their mouths. I got no civilized conversation for republicans except to tell them that I am coming for them with a vengeance!

Every republican politician must pay in 2018 for what they have done! (#3028)

     There are no more excuses republican voters have to justify their voting for the republican party. We have seen what republicans do when they control Congress and the Presidency. We have seen what republicans do when they control the Supreme Court. We have seen enough to know we don't want to see anymore! We Americans have always stood on the side of fairness and justice when we led the world out of it's dangers. Yet we are not that country anymore with republicans in control. As shown we are a sniveling cowardly bunch that strikes up friendships with our enemies of democracy and shun our true allies in the fight against tyranny.
     This has all come about because we voters have given the republican party a pass on them representing us for our concerns and instead have let them lead us with their concerns. The republican party has been bought by wealthy influences that take the representative of the people away and replaced it with representative of the wealthy. If anyone still cannot see this then eternal shame on them! For those of us who do see this then the time to stop being loyal like a non critical thinking human to the republican party is over! No more can we vote for people who refuse to address the concerns of the vast majority of us Americans, the working middle poor class.
     No more can we allow the wealthy to dictate what our society should look like or how it should operate. The republican party that represents the worst of the wealthy among us has nothing for the vast majority of the rest of us and therefore should not get our votes these coming special elections this year and especially the elections of 2018 and beyond. I don't care if you have voted for republicans as a tradition your whole lives, these republicans are anti-democratic so you must choose were your real loyalty belongs. Is it with our founders who created a democratic form of government or is it with these current republicans who want to take our democracy away and give all the power to the wealthy? Well?

Republicans in the House voted to take away health care for 24 million Americans (#3027)

It took 217 votes in the House for republicans to pass their bill to take away health care from 24 million working middle poor class Americans, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/3/15531494/american-health-care-act-explained. This is what the republican elected representative officials of our nation did. The 217 votes were ALL from republicans, not one democrat voted for this bill, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/4/15538596/house-republicans-pass-repeal-obamacare-ahca. Next year all 217 republican House representatives are up for reelection. So we the American people will have it fresh in our memories that republicans find that taking health care away from Americans who can least afford to lose it, is more important than making sure all Americans have health coverage.
     Republicans control the Congress and the Presidency so they easily could have passed a bill that made health care possible for all Americans but instead they choose to take it away from 24 million folks. Why you may ask would republicans do this? Well the answer is plain if you look at the effect of the bill those 217 republicans in the House passed. If it becomes law, the wealthy receive a huge tax break while the rest of us lose coverage and will pay higher taxes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonynitti/2016/12/15/obamacare-repeal-results-in-tax-cuts-for-the-rich-tax-increases-and-lost-insurance-for-the-rest/#305794c64cdf. So republicans have backed the wealthy, of which there are a little over 10 million here in America, http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/07/record-number-of-millionaires-living-in-the-us.html. That republicans refused to back the rest of us approximately 310 million who are not wealthy doesn't seem to concern them.
     Well republicans may have miscalculated this time. Although nearly half of the 310 million non wealthy will likely continue to not vote, http://www.essence.com/news/politics/election-statistics-over-46-percent-did-not-vote. The other half will and with the eye opening loss of health care for many of us the difference between republican and democrat will be crystal clear. Surely republicans will be counting on the propaganda their wealthy donors will orchestrate during the next election cycle in 2018, but not all wealthy are for republicans so many of those non republican wealthy will side with democrats and help offset the resources spent by the republican wealthy to create chaos in our decision making processes. The time is coming next year to make all the House republicans pay for their vote to take away health care for 24 million of us who can least afford to lose it.

Despite the trumps, we keep our dignity (#3026)

     No matter how hard that gut punch was to each of us on November 8th, 2016, we who felt it have not let up our struggle to limit the damage. We could have lowered our heads into our chests and accepted the defeat we all felt but we didn't. Instead we organized opposition to trumps like never before. We realized that the only hope we have of denying trump his agenda of destroying what is left of our working middle class was to disengage from any motion that helped the trump plan. Instead we moved to resist and protest against any and all of his heartless agenda. That republicans are aiding the alleged treasonous president has also invigorated us to rail against the republican party like never before.
     Our voices of reason and civil discourse are now littered with invective aimed at the lying cheating trumps and the republican party. We are not anymore the quiet reserved logical beings we had hoped all of our citizens would be, instead we democrats are angry and spitting mad at the direction the trumps and the republican party are driving their agenda. So we give them no quarter, no safe harbor from which they try to lie to us about their intent. We call them out on their lies and shame them in front of the public as if it were as natural as anything. We democrats have found our voices and the sound coming from us is not nice and easy but hard and fast. We will not tolerate the trumps and their America destroying tactics.
     I for one am hopeful that we democrats, aided by independents and some republicans who are now aware of their party's nefarious intent, are standing united in our opposition to trumps. There are some coming House elections which may prove the value of our opposition. If the election in the Georgia race goes to we democrats it will be the harbinger of things to come that we democrats all hope will come about. There is still time for us to do more to make these coming House races more secure if we can so we should not stop our opposition to the trumps until we can get them out of office and then turn our country back toward enlightened progress and modernization.

Campaign finance reform (#3025)

     The trumps came about because we allow private financing of our elections. If we only allowed public financing of our elections there would be exponentially less advertising that is false or confusing. We would be electing individuals based upon their ideas, not their smear campaigns. It is a simple concept to grasp but our supposedly most august body, the US Supreme Court, would or could not understand it. Instead they choose to make private financing easier so that more of the wealthy could control the narrative of our elections. Just to go further here the US Supreme Court also allowed for easing of voter protections for the states so that republican led states were able to restrict and purge more eligible voters off the voting rolls.
     I don't think it is a stretch now to say that the US Supreme Court is not our fount of wisdom nor our defender of democracy. Nowhere can you find democrats who are willing to restrict voting beyond traditional basic parameters like age of consent or criminal activity. However everywhere you can find republicans who are willing to not only restrict voting but to have tests implemented to weed out voters that don't think like them. All of this seems to get hidden behind the relentless subjection to advertising that focuses on dividing us instead of bringing us closer together. The republican mantra of divide and conquer is their number one priority because they do not appeal to our better instincts instead the appeal to our worst natures to get their votes.
     It is obvious to many of us what is going on but too many are fooled by the republican strategy of divide and conquer. So while the truth of things get little coverage the lies and falsehoods flood the news cycle and advertising slots in our media. If the wealthy were not able to spend enormous amounts of money to deceive us we would all be better off. The truth of things would be more readily available for us to consider and that is when I do believe we are at our best as a nation. The public financing of elections is past due and until we finally get it, we will keep getting the trumps of the world instead of the statesmen/women we actually deserve. It will not be easy supplanting the wealthy as they like controlling things but we still live in a democracy and as such we the people are or should be in control.