Higher tax rates for the wealthy (#3926)

     I and others have been saying that the higher the tax rate on the wealthy the more they are incentivized to create commerce. Their profit margins grow smaller under higher tax rates so they form more opportunities to try to get more profit. Instead of profiting off of just one or a few enterprises they would need to have more enterprises in order to maintain their ambitions.
When more jobs are available, the higher the wages are for the working class as the wealthy start fighting to get and keep their hard working productive workers.
     All of this and the increase in tax revenues for our local, state and federal governments to improve and upgrade our necessary infrastructures. Not only are we able to fund our schools, health care and other public works but we don't need to burden the working middle poor class with higher taxes. Because when more of us are working for higher wages our taxes on the higher wages increases to the benefit of our governments. A win/win situation for all of us and it keeps the wealthy from just sitting on their wealth in banks it instead puts that now idle capital to work.
     The only reason the wealthy got their lower tax rates is because they became lazy and didn't want to work to maintain their wealth. Instead they chose to starve our governments of taxes to the detriment of we the working middle poor class. For their shameless cause they should be punished with even higher tax rates than what the last, Eisenhower, republican president instituted, 90% on the wealthiest. Keeping money circulated in our economy and forcing the wealthy to create economic opportunities is how our democratic society and capitalism/socialism economic system can thrive.

The last few weeks have been a reminder... (#3925)

     I started a small but intense construction project on my house and it has reminded me of my younger days doing production framing (residential and commercial building carpentry). I have been a physical wreck these last few weeks just trying to facelift a small section of my house and yet when I was younger I did much much more during the days of the week and although I was younger and stronger I remember feeling this bad every night after work. I as a rule work hard when I work so I do to myself what I do to myself. But when I started out in framing houses I had to be better or a harder worker than the next guy if I wanted to stay working.
     This is somewhat problematic in that like today, non minimum wage jobs are not easy to find when starting out and the toll it takes on many of us is tremendous when we get older. I still believe that capitalism is a good thing when coupled with regulation and social programs, yet the hard of the work and the hard of my effort make for a lousy later life. Most of us growing up from my generation in the working classes, especially those of us not in a Union, didn't have health insurance. So not only did we work through injuries, aches and pains but we weren't able to get things diagnosed to prevent future medical complications.
     This has all come back to me as vividly as possible and reaffirms my belief that no American, especially a worker should go without health care. When I would get home in the evenings after a long day of building I would be so tired as to just struggle to get a shower, dinner and then go to bed. All to just do it all over again in the early morning. I appreciate being able to work with my battered hands but when the job is all you are living for it makes me wonder how I kept my sanity all those years ago. I still am kind of in awe of those who could take vacations from work when I don't believe I have ever taken a vacation. I have had time off between jobs but with no pay coming in it wasn't a vacation, it was the reality of desperation setting in.

When it is all said and done with trump the theft will be enormous (#3924)

     We already know that trump has taken from charities in the past to pad his own accounts but now that campaign funds are coming in he is delirious with the opportunities. Surely he must think that those campaign finance funds, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/poliltical-campaigns-18-million-trump-properties_n_5db7837be4b0bd61024fe1f1?ncid=engmodushpmg00000003, are just the tip of the iceberg for charging fees and rents associated with his properties. The conman trump is making sure the republican party is holding their donor events at his properties just so that he can make a hefty profit from it. What is also happening is that other venues not owned by trumps are now being snubbed in trump's wake.
     When the trump reign is done, the accounting that will happen will reveal not only a pattern of theft from trump but a reckless cavalier arrogance of him not caring. He has his protection in Congress, well not as much since we democrats took the House last year, but still the Senate is on his side, so he still feels invincible. The bastard in the Senate moscow mitch may be nervous about trump going forward but he won't let anything happen to him if he can help it. But like all things, change will occur and the archives of what really happened under trump will not be hidden from our view. We will get to see the trump effect whether he is alive or dead by then.
     So when it is all said and done the truth of things will come out and then we Americans can again lower our heads in shame for ever letting this lazy grifter ever get his clutches into our politics. Most of us fought against him but that does not absolve us of his victory over us. But what we can do besides seethe in anger is make sure that the true story of what happened is what history will show. Those of us who know our democracy is an evolving dynamic must take care to excise the cancer that trump has brought out in us and make sure it is eliminated from ever being a reality again.

The tide has turned on trump (#3923)

     It was heartening to see the banner calling for impeaching trump and hearing the boos as well yesterday at the Nationals home game against the Astros. The Astros won by the way but the bigger story it seems is the angst against trump. I applaud it and have been waiting for it for years now and it appears we have finally found our protesting footing. Never let a public opportunity to scorn this horrible trump person pass by. We are beginning to meld into our protesting form and it is a pleasure to see and a small moment of pride as well.
     For the last few years I had not given our nation much hope in defying the monster trump and his crushing political agenda against the working middle poor class. He seemed to cower our core so much that even with the early marches and protests there seemed to be a loss of will on our part. But lately with the impeachment inquiry underway and trumps falling all over themselves to implicate themselves the early resolve that many of us had is now blossoming into a full blown movement. The indications from the game last night and the loudness of the booing is indicative of our being able to finally come full throttle on ousting trump.
     The tide is turning against the trumps and their anti science when it suits their criminal thievery, and their denial of proper normal protocol when dealing with both allies and enemies. The jig is up so to speak on the value of trump's words and deeds and that has finally begun to sink in with the wavering non committal. The blue wave tsunami is alive and well and although we are still a little over one year from the next general election we are well situated to maintain our momentum given trumps penchant for playing fast and loose with the facts and our precious democracy.

Hope for the best but expect the worst (#3922)

     The first 30 days of the trump dis-administration I was reluctantly hopeful that he would turn from his campaign rhetoric and actually try to lead with all of us in mind yet there was not one day of those 30 that gave me hope that he would. I was anxious that he would not be a tyrant yet that is what he became from his very first day. Now after nearly 3 years of trump I have no inkling of an illusion that he is anything but what he presents himself as, a narcissistic pompous selfish hater who would rather kill people than offer them a helping hand.
     So much for hoping for the best. With trump there is no hope if you are a decent human being who lives life through respect and dignity. The only ones who find hope in him are the disillusioned and the dishonest. He gives them nothing but hope in realizing new ways to crush the life out of civilized behavior. So it is with no doubt at all that I just expect the worst from trump and try to mitigate it as much as possible. I haven't changed my outlook on life but I have had to change my actions. I give of myself more now than ever and despite the horror trump bestows on many of the vulnerable I still offer what hope I can to them.
     What little I have I try to share or at least do not get in the way of people just trying to survive with trump making life miserable for the downtrodden. I have empathy and I have been using it in force as a countermeasure to the condescension trump only provides. I am a friendly face who look upon people and smile with a hello. That has not changed and nothing trump does to us while he still can will change that. My anger at trump is deep and at this point irreversible yet my happiness will not be deterred because of him, instead my happiness is growing despite him.

trumps world is unraveling and it is about time! (#3921)

     All the trumps have done during the reign of donald the dumb is commit crime after crime and get away with it. How is it possible? Well he has low friends in high places and they all have a price donald the dumb can afford. Before you get after me for calling him dumb let me remind you that I have a zillion other worse adjectives to call him but have currently restrained myself. The dumb although totally accurate is a compromise. Dumbo donny is finding that although he holds the highest office in our nation he is not immune to his own arrogant behaviors.
     What normally happened in the world of trump is that he could use his lackeys and illusory resources to strong arm and manipulate his way out of tight spot after tight spot since his associates were as corrupt and easily duped as he is. Well the spotlight is on him and his usual shuffling away from disaster after disaster is impossible now. Also his usual cadre of stupid lemmings have begun to see that they are held in greater contempt than trump when they try to defend him. So instead of shrinking back under their rocks some of them are stepping forward and admitting their complicity and ratting on the king rat himself, dumber than dumb donald.
     So where does a disaster in human skin go from here? He must run away if he had any sense but he doesn't hence the dumb, so off to prison he will go when his pos ass is officially removed from his appointed presidency. Oops, I slipped with pos, oh well, truth is not to be apologized for. The time is coming soon enough and what is really kind of exciting to me in a karmic sort of way is that those who defend him still will also feel the wrath of we the people and their lives will also end up in a shambles and what I hope for is long prison sentences for them as well.

I can't get too dependent on new technology (#3920)

     This morning is a perfect example of my worries of being too dependent on new technology. My Internet has gone down again for the umpteenth time and although I have a backup with my smart phone it can only do so much of what has become for me as a daily ritual. I realize that absolving myself of all new technology is ridiculous as I am just like every one else who likes bright shiny new objects that improve our communication and activities. Yet I know that it would only take one catastrophic outage to disrupt my abilities to communicate.
     So having a back up like a land line for a second method of communicating is not much of a change as disruptions could easily affect them as well. Maybe a ham radio or walkie-talkies could suffice or greater focus on newspapers and magazines but something outside of the current all in devices has to be considered. I don't like that there isn't another form of communication available that doesn't restrict our usages to one behemoth system. As it is now we are all linked by satellite except for landline phones which go through wires to connect to each other. We still have postal service and real live person private messaging, but for the most part we are all being bundled up into the satellite communication delivery system.
     Under normal progressive life this wouldn't necessarily bother me but given the advent of trump and his distinct intent to disrupt anything that isn't all about him my caution is becoming a concern. In lieu of him going and we Americans changing our government so that would be tyrants have no place or form in it I have to consider other forms of communication as a necessity now. This is just my first thoughts on the subject and I haven't had time to process much about it but be assured I will because if we cannot continue with communicating with each other on our own terms we may well find that not thinking about alternative ways of communicating is another failure we cannot afford.

America's embarrassment continues... (#3919)

     It isn't just trump who by himself embarrasses our nation by the hour, it is his republican stooge party that has elected to Congress some of the most egregious human beings ever brought to birth. The idea of a scruple to them is as foreign as the text of our Constitution. These inhabitants of human flesh are not beings who have better instincts. They are without the basic normalcy the rest of us take for granted. We are often shell shocked when we see them do something that is beyond the pale of reasonableness because we have a hard time believing that they don't possess normal decency.
     Well with yesterday's circus performance by a splinter group of House republicans to "crash" a closed meeting we once again see the privilege they hold for themselves while denying that privilege to those who are not them. Enough of this embarrassing behavior from drunken juvenile like republican hollow men and women. It is really bad enough when, also yesterday, trump goes on the national stage and proclaims that Colorado is building a beautiful border wall when Colorado at its closest point is some 300 miles away from the nearest border with Mexico. I can hardly stand to hear and see about this type of news anymore as the trumps and the bootlickers who follow him are too much arrogant ignorance for me.
     We are 373 days from the next election and if we can just make it that long with the daily bullshit from trump piling up to our collective necks then maybe we will survive this gross failure on our part. We should have been better prepared for the 2016 election but many of us really thought that trump had no chance at all. Well we were proved wrong so this time around we won't be sitting back waiting to win we will be fighting hard for every last second of the voting. trump will be impeached by the House and if the Senate grows some balls and follows through and convicts trump then our time with him will be much shorter than the coming election. Either way he needs to be a footnote in our history as soon as possible or we will end up being a footnote in his historical account.

Those defending trump will pay dearly for it! (#3918)

     The political suicide now being displayed by republicans is about to get real. The election of 2020 is fully engaged and although it is little over a year away, November 3rd. 2020, the candidates are in full swing to get their base and donors on board. So those who are little trumps will find that backing an impeached appointed president who has other charges hanging over his head is not going to play well with those who are still being courted by republicans. No one can win with just their base and in this case, with republicans, their base is ever shrinking.
     But like those who decided long ago that trump was their man they are foolishly sticking by him regardless of the offences he has/is committing. Well that is fine by me since I advocate for all democrats and have no love for any republican policy. But to have a fighting chance to get re-elected or elected for the first time republicans need to see the writing on the wall about trump and his diminishing political returns. All trump has done these last 3 years is make enemies of our friends and friends of our enemies. Which by the way, our enemies are accepting of trump's friendship and admiration without reciprocating. We thought he would understand that but no!
     So as each day goes forward to the next election trump will be hit by even more bad news concerning his acts and behaviors and more and more independents will shrink from his sphere. Those die hard republican politicians who are either too savvy for themselves or are implicated with trump in some way will find that they are backing a failed candidate and if and when trump bails he won't be protecting anyone who has been loyal to him. Such is the nature of the con, yes even con your allies and friends as long as you get what you want. Well America will be getting what we want come election day and it will be the end of trump and the end of his loyal republican bootlickers.

Policies are the value, not the personality. (#3917)

     I look at the candidates from my democratic party, and there are many, and see not their shape and form but their policies. What do they want for we the working middle poor class? Do they even acknowledge us or are we their entire focus? Most all are in between there somewhere and finding the correct candidate for me will be my goal. I don't include the wealthy within my parameters because let's face it, they have had all the breaks for way too long and nothing more can be done for them without piling on more benefits they don't need and shouldn't have.
     So again, it is the candidates that focus their attention on the plight of the working middle poor that will get all my attention. Do they want a health care system that is either universal or leading to that? Do they want to raise the minimum wage to it's true value? Do they want to repair our infrastructure across the board? Do they want to end political corruption and anti-democratic practices that are now being used? Do they want to take care of our seniors and the young with sensible laws that enhance the last days of our parents and the first days of our children? Do they want to end discrimination and stop all attempts to infiltrate church with state?
     These are but some of the policies that I will investigate in order to properly vet our democratic candidate for the 2020 election. Not only for president but for all congressional, statewide, and local races. They will all be democrats that I vote for because the republican party has shown way too many times that they are not for the working middle poor classes they are for themselves and for their wealthy donors. So even though the noise from broadcast radio, television, and Internet sources will be full of lies and distortions about personalities and behaviors of the candidates I just tune that noise out and stick with the research I do on the policies each of our democratic candidates promote.

Liberal/progressive here! (#3916)

     If there is one way to define who I am it is through the liberal/progressive moniker. I am conservative in maybe two areas of my life but that has to do with my own personal characteristics and behaviors. For politics there is no conservative vision that excites nor enlightens my imagination, none! I am about what we could be while trying to be better in the present. How anyone could live other than that actually puzzles me. Our species is capable of so much but we seem to want to hinder that capability with a pettiness that is beyond my comprehension. I suppose I wouldn't want to know how that is justified as it is against all that is possible in my own thinking.
     To stoop so low as to even consider not being a forward life affirming being is never going to be an option. So reasons and excuses are nothing but roadblocks to our human manifest destiny. If you, every human alive are not full of being an explorer and discoverer of the unknown then your reason for living is moot to me. Life is a paradigm that should not be wasted being an asshole to people instead it should be a paradigm of wonder and why? I have spent mostly my whole life, except when I was drowning my pitiful self in alcohol, hoping to be part of the greatest vision I could imagine for our species.
     I wanted us to not only go to the moon when I was 13 but to go beyond that to other planets in our solar system and beyond that. I have been stuck with all the other motivated and encouraged baby boom youth who like me were frustrated that republican politics not only wanted to end our dreams of space and time travel but wanted to tamp down that very hope. I suppose the miserableness most of us feel at the waste of a lifetime of inaction toward moving out into the stars has caused many of us to become cynical about life overall. Yet for me, it is being angry at the republican party thieves who actually stole our future from us. My anger is in the form of political activism and if you are like me the end of the republican party is the only way we will ever get what is left of our dreams of exploring and discovering back.

Blue wave tsunami! (#3915)

     I don't care how the bots from the republican party and their Russian associates work to get us divided against each other. I really don't! What I care about is how we react to it. I for one just ignore much of it. That which I don't ignore I think about how we democrats had to put up with the same stuff last time and how it demoralized us not knowing it was a devious strategy by republicans. This time around we won't fall for the bait and instead just keep reminding folks that it is republicans who are tearing our democracy apart and it is we democrats who will stop them. No matter what those bots post about our candidates, I will vote blue no matter whom!
     There is no democrat who is as bad as trump so that is the conclusion of all analysis, dig it? There is no political party that is as bad a republicans so voting for every democrat on the ballot is an upgrade! So all the divisive noise we are going to see and hear between now and the actual voting is just that, noise. I can trust that the truth of things will get out but there will be some who are lured into the net of deception republicans are casting about. All I can say to them is that deep down in your soul and mind you have to know that the republican party quit being about the working middle poor class back when Eisenhower was president.
     Nothing republicans have done since Eisenhower, except nixon's one exception of creating the EPA, has been about the health and welfare of the working middle poor class. Nothing! So as the noise increases from every angle, because if there is one thing republicans have it is money, it is always reassuring to know that their money can only try to influence it cannot force any of us to vote for them. That is why our blue wave tsunami is going to happen because we were fooled just enough back in 2016 but we won't be fooled like that again in 2020. The anti-patriotism of republicans for their voting restrictions and denials to their foreign interventions on their behalf, will not be forgotten on the contrary it is an awakening for we democrats to mobilize like never before in a presidential election.

My body just can't physically keep up with my mind (#3914)

     I have been working on another window replacement project on my 68 year old home and although I just finished putting in a new window in my brother John's room, this one is much trickier and tiring for me. It requires my attention in ways that dwarfed the other window replacement. I know, how hard can it be? Yet the permutations with this one are numerous and require lots of thought as to how it will change as it affects many different features in the house itself. Electrical, interior ceiling height, interior wall coverings and the flooring has to change. Suffice it to say I have it all under control but what is getting to me is the labor involved is much more intensive.
     The window itself is not the problem per se, but the materials that I have to apply around where the window is now available, isn't cut a dry. Structurally I have had to augment the existing with a more secure frame in order to satisfy my own sense of safety since when this house was built I am not sure the building codes were as safety conscious as they are now. So reinforcing structure and adding more insulation to indirect walls to the window is also being upgraded. Moving electrical boxes to new locations and again upgrading the old two prong receptacles to three prong for future complete wiring replacement once the roof is addressed. Flat top roof needs to be pitched, but not with a hip roof but a gabled roof to allow for greater access into the attic area.
     The roof has to wait for funds before I tackle that problem because it isn't just about the roof as it does affect many other areas of the building besides just the top. But on this window replacement project the hard of it is the constant mind games I keep playing in my head at night in order to not only anticipate today's upgrades but also any future ones. I am just about to button up the project as only a few more days will have the outside completed through caulking and primer. The inside will take longer as I am changing the wall coverings from sheetrock to plugged finished plywood and wood trim. I got a bit of a smashed finger for yesterday's efforts and hopefully that pounding ache will subside soon along with the long nights of what ifs.

The republican Frankenstein is going crazy! (#3913)

     This is why no republican knows what to do. Their monster has become self aware and isn't being cozy with his creators. The republican party is so afraid of losing the presidency for decades to come that they will do anything to keep their monster in office. That is why they cannot live in reality and are bent over backwards to do anything to appease trump. So while our reality is continually eroded the republican party has it's eyes closed and is praying to whatever illusion they have for a miracle to happen. Well the only miracle that will happen is for we democrats to crush the republican party at the next election for its own good since it has already spiralled out of control.
     If trump can survive to the next election without short circuiting out beyond denial then we democrats have one focus and that is to vote for every democrat on the ballot and make sure every one of our voters votes! If the trump Frankenstein does go too far off the deep end for even the cowardly republican party then we need to make sure that he is removed from office in the most expeditious way. Either way though the republican party has already dug it's own grave and the only question now is if they need to dig it deeper.
     The whole trump for president fiasco has finally caught up with reality and we see that nothing is off limits or beyond law breaking for trump and his totally disorganized administration. For anyone to even call it a mafia style operation is an insult to the mafia. trump is nothing short of a spoiled brat who thinks he is invincible. So whatever else he does to cause harm and death to people who are not deserving of such must be countered with our all in effort to stop his presidency, immediately and force our constitutional safeguards into play. Nothing about what trump has done as the appointed president can be called honorable and the sooner he is done playing at being king the sooner our world can heal from his destructions.

Life is short so make yours count! (#3912)

     A very real hard lesson I have learned is that life is short and no amount of delusion will change that. It truly seems like yesterday I was just a young person growing up in a large confusing world. Now I am a man in his mid sixties and although I have memories galore, the time has flown past. Which is why I need to make this point about doing something with your life right now that will make your mark on not only our society but on your own memories of how you lived. We all hope to get old and live our life out in some less struggling comfort and when our physical and mental sharpness have dulled we may still have the great memories of our purposeful life.
     Make a stand for what you believe in and then defend that choice of yours with all you have. Be accountable to whatever makes your life worthy. I have my honor and principles to comfort me and that choice I made so long ago is still more comfort than any material thing. I fight for all of us not just myself or for things like greed or lust. I defend what is best about our species and never accept the worst. I am a hard man when it comes to fools and suffer them not a whit! Being human for me has always been about curiosity of all things and initial care for all beings unless any beings violate the "do no harm" axiom. Even the inanimate I care to protect like the soil, air, and water we have on our planet.
     Being like a superhero without any superpowers is good enough for me. Not only does it put me on the right side of what an enlightened modern human should be like but it leads by the example that no matter who you are or what you are capable of, doing the next correct thing is how we advance our species through time and space with confidence. That is how I live and it feels good to me, so find what makes you happy and causes no harm and you too will begin to be a value to our species and an example for all the children to emulate.

Begging for table scraps (#3911)

     I know I have had to go with my "hat in my hand" enough times to know that asking for help when there is a crisis is humiliating but nevertheless necessary. The reason it is necessary is because our society is so top heavy with the resources and capital that those of us on the lower rung of economics are often left with no alternative to accumulate for emergencies. Hell, I barely have enough at the end of each month to keep going, yet the whirligig of life keeps throwing struggles at my feet. So what to do? We have an election coming up in a little over a year and our democratic candidates are showing us whom of them is willing to fight for our revitalization.
     They offer great liberal/progressive policies of equality of opportunity and more economic options to succeed. None of them is running to harm us they just have different visions of what we need and how to attain it. This is the beauty of our democratic party. We are not out to harm the electorate like the republican party is configured. No, we have great visions of tremendous accomplishments that would lift all Americans up, yes even the wealthy whom feel so butthurt over not being able to keep trillions of dollars offshore in banks where no real turnover is available to our American society.
     No one in our current democracy and it's enlightened view of modernization should have to consistently beg for help unless that is there agenda. Most of us who do have to ask for help would rather by far have a pathway to help ourselves. We need to change our philosophy on the intent of society and the machinery to economic freedom for everyone not just for some. We democrats have the best of intentions and although sometimes it is difficult to explain the minutiae of how it works the idea that going to the moon was figured out once that was the plan. We have the same types of challenges with health care and reducing income inequality. Yet those types of challenges are the ones that need to be figured out and we democrats are the party to do it!

America's carpetbagging profiteers need to be stopped! (#3910)

     The only way to stop these opportunists is to vote their politicians out of office. The republican party has enabled them for too long now and at this very moment in time we need to uproot them from our politics. Since I was born under Eisenhower's administration I had no clue at such an early age how good a progressive republican could be and by the time I became aware Kennedy had just been shot and killed and later nixon came onto the scene. Though nixon created the EPA, he was truly a monster on the scale with shrub and now the scourge trump. No republican president, elected or appointed, in my lifetime has been worthy of anything that resembles respect.
     The reason why is because they all have one thing in common since Eisenhower left the presidency and that is to screw the American working middle poor class. Not one republican since has had the welfare and health of the American working middle poor class as a priority. In fact all republicans since Eisenhower have been trying mightily to take away what little welfare and health we have accumulated over time. You can see why republicans have to do everything illegal they can get away with just to secure electoral power in our government. Yet the tipping point has been reached as the republican party no longer tries to hide their nefarious deeds. Instead they flaunt them under the guise of whatever narrative fits best and then sells it to our ever increasingly dumbing down American electorate.
     So in the meantime while we, the working middle poor class Americans are fighting to keep whatever shred of respect and dignity we have the wealthy under republicans continue to steal our ability to be successful at upward economic mobility. The republican party has more money parked offshore sitting in bank accounts growing stale while our national economy is left with much less capital flowing through it. We need to get that banked wealth back into our society so that all the rest of us can work to have a better future. It will happen when we elect democrats to national office in overwhelming numbers because now it the time to take our pent up anger at the despicable republican party and purge our nation of this too long suffering nightmare!

All the bad apples in one basket (#3909)

     Still looking for a silver lining in all this trump era? Well that he could only hire the worst of people to fill his cabinet and advisory roles gives us an opportunity to end them all when trump goes down. They are all complicit in some form or other so catching them all up and serving them their just punishments will be a moment of closure for us. That trump will be ended is inevitable and his filth in human form will go with him. Purging our politics of the stench of ignorance and treachery will only make us stronger and put into place the type courageous patriots who uphold our laws and constitution before all else.
     The day is coming where the electoral college is no more, citizens united is no more, prohibitions on voting are dismantled and are no more, where women will be paid equally for the same work as men. These are but a few of the changes coming as well as the reversing of the income inequality gap and the raising of the minimum wage with health care for all. The days are bright in our future but we are not there yet. There is much work to be done in order to get there and ending trump and his cabal of sycophants is priority number one.
     If trump survives impeachment then the next best ending for trump will happen on November 3rd. 2020. He has alienated most all Americans in some form or another and him getting a majority of votes or as of now electoral college votes is less probable than not. Yet we can never take a break from working to make sure our votes are cast and counted correctly. We know that republicans have as a strategy to deny voters from voting and not protecting our voting apparatus'. Which makes being diligent on our part to make sure that we all vote and we keep some record of our voting choices. Nothing in the world is more important than this coming election and nothing should keep us from casting our votes for any Democratic candidate running to replace trump.

trump will pay heavily for what he did to the Kurds (#3908)

     Somehow, someway Karma will have it's justice for what trump did to the Kurds and is still doing. The wholesale slaughter of these brave allies of ours is so abhorrent that nothing will stop the retribution coming to trump. He alone made this happen without the advice of the senior leaders who are in the know about such matters. His unilateral decision to give our enemies the heads of our allies is the ultimate betrayal and solidifies the traitorous nature that trump embraces. There is no justification for this except that we can directly link trump's opening of hotels in Turkey as an obvious quid pro quo.
     The personal fortune of trump is being amassed off the shoulders of our citizenry and now severely from the shoulders of our trusted allies. The abomination that is trump needs to be stopped yet the efforts so far have been futile. How our democratic government became so exposed to a ruthless takeover by key republicans is another high priority concern. This is not an embellishment nor a game of little consequence. This is real folks and if we don't stop trump he will kill not only our allies but those of us who democratically oppose him. If ever there will be a time in our modern history where the attention and understanding of all our electorate needs to be focused on what trump is doing, it is exactly now!
     Not only should we all be prepared to vote every republican out of office but we need to find a way to stop trump from doing any more immediate damage to the Kurds and the rest of the world. Whatever we have to do to make trump stop being our leader is of the highest priority. His inability to be like a decent human being is not in dispute and his ability to act as a vengeful sociopath is also not in dispute. So we who are of the normal range of behavior and thought had better find a way to end the reign of trump before our own heads feel the last instance of a blade. Be afraid America, because if you aren't you are going to now what it is like to be his cannon fodder!

Is this truly the beginning of the end for trump? (#3907)

     Yesterday every court case with a verdict went against trump. It was a marvelous day for those of us who know trump is a vile creature who is in need of containing. The courts were especially harsh on him yet he still has avenues within the court to continue to haunt us with. Nevertheless we are on the offensive and with the impeachment inquiry in full bloom and criminals trying but failing to escape our outlook on ending trump from our political lives is getting better odds by the day. Though it could not come soon enough for most all Americans.
     the battering trump and his republican allies are daily taking is having a toll. Several prominent republicans are in step with democrats on the impeachment front while others are remaining silent and not defending trump. As the heavy burden of truthful attacks continue many more republicans will decide that it is time to cut bait and let trump go to his deserved fate. They have been holding out in hopes that the criminal trump will somehow wiggle out of this but they are finding that the time for wiggling out of this has passed. Which is on another front revealing in that those republicans who are silent now are just as bad as trump because they would stick with him regardless of his crimes if they could.
     I am well satisfied that the era of trump is about to close and a new era of democratic control is about to begin. Much of the damage trump has done has been by executive order so reversing those can be done almost immediately. The rest will take some time and some imagination but a reversal of all things trump may well be done before any lasting effect has taken hold. Even the supreme court situation can be undone with the right strategy and it definitely needs to be done. A breath of fresh air is waiting to come into our lives and when the stench of trump is gone is when it will flow to us.

When will people wake up! (#3906)

     Are you just unwilling to accept that the republican party has at its core been anti democratic? What will it take for you to understand that nothing the republican party does is aimed at improving all of Americans lives? Are you just incapable of understanding that every policy or program aimed at improving the living conditions of our poorest segment of society has come from either liberal or progressive policies? The republican party and its conservative roots are all about making life comfortable for the wealthy at the expense of those who are not wealthy, thus making their existence harder to survive and thrive in.
     Why on Earth would you allow yourself to vote for a republican when every policy they create is a detriment to democracy itself. Not only that they are the warmongers of the world. Easily capable of sacrificing your sons and daughters so that republican lives can be made not only more secure but more profitable. How hard is it to understand that you are just a pawn in their game and in their strategy your sacrifice is always, and I mean always, acceptable. We democrats who are not only liberal, but progressive and independent, have long realized that creating a better world for everyone is the only way to stop the continual need for war.
     But not republicans, they only see one solution, much like with hitler and the others of his ilk, and that is to eliminate all those who are not them. Based upon their criteria in deciding who is not them. Of course first before they eliminate all who are not them they allow some to join their ranks so that they can do the dirty work of destroying those who are not them. Which when done will give republicans the time to cull out the pawns for their elimination. The republican party is the most vile of political entities and it is long past time for it to be put to down for an eternal rest like other nefarious entities of our ancient past.

We need every elected office in America to become democratic (#3905)

     I cannot name one policy by republicans that I can get behind and cheer for, not one! So what does that tell me? It tells me that republicans do nothing for the average Carl's like me or you or anyone who is not wealthy. I say wealthy because the only ones republicans seem willing to help have so much wealth already that it is absurd that they the wealthy would need more benefits but there it is anyway with republicans. So by my meager figuring I conclude that no republican in public political office has anything to offer the vast majority of we Americas.
     Now I know there are republican voters out there who would vote for a fresh pile of horse crap before they would ever vote for a democrat but those people are not the mainstream of our nation. They are the outliers who for whatever psychological reason cannot grasp the intent of liberalism and progressive idealism. That helping all people seems to escape from their equations of comprehension. Their inability to conclude that all human beings are equal is another side of their intransigence to objective enlightenment. Whatever the cause of their limitations the effect is devastating to all the rest of us if we allow them to be the majority voters when the voting time comes.
     For our own part we the majority liberal/progressives are at fault for allowing the minority afflicted conservatives to sway over us during elections because we do not participate in controlling our own destiny. Much like this reality we are the ones who are letting republicans do this to us because we are not capable of feeling the shame that electing republicans brings. I was going to say we deserve this because we are doing this to ourselves but that wouldn't be the whole story. We let this happen because we are just not smart enough to know the simple fact that voting is the most crucial act and I say duty that each of us has in defending and protecting our democracy from the likes of republicans who have no such honorable principle in their lives to save our democracy.

The stink of trump is getting all over his following (#3904)

     To be a republican now must be something akin to being a slug under a rock. Nothing good that I can think can come of it. trump is a murderer in his heart and mind in that he tosses life away for nothing if it gets him the illusion of prestige or pockets full of money. People who previously were decent human beings decades ago are now complicit in voting for the largest turd to have ever been swirling in a toilet bowl. How can the love of loyalty be so compelling to them when death is the outcome of it? I have cast family members aside over their support for republican politics and this is the example of it.
     How anyone can still call themselves human or civilized and be a republican is the true meaning of disassociation. The disconnect is so obvious and unnerving to hear from like I said folks who were decent in their thoughts decades before. I am convinced that the stubborn nature of some has them spellbound and grasping at any straw that may make their decision to remain a republican valid. Cognitive dissonance is truly being deployed here. Like the Dunning Kruger effect, living in reality with an illusion in their heads. My family was large in the past but I have cut so many off because of their idiotic loyalty to republicanism that I have now only a small circle of family that I still call family.
     All of this highlights one major deficiency in our American educational system. That we are not teaching enough logic for people to be able to reason, analyze, and conclude on their own with an acceptable degree of wisdom. So many of our citizens have the lazy outlook to follow their favorite commentators opinions despite the illogic of those many commentators. Hatred, bigotry, misogyny are but some of the trigger points that somehow escape the uneducated and serve to further insulate them of their grasp of democratic values. All prejudices and hatred are learned experiences so again, the education of our nation is being degraded and has allowed for the stink of trump to reign over our nation like a stinking carcass that won't ever end.

The republican party is worthless! (#3903)

     Too few voices from within the republican party are capable of sounding out on the principles of our democracy while the majority of republican party are silenced in their defense of trump at all costs. They would rather trump burn our nation down than admit that they elected a mentally deranged greedy bastard! Even when a few voices emerge from within the republican party they are quickly either silenced or they reverse their criticism of trump almost immediately. It is as if they try a little bit to admit reality and then are strong armed back into the sheep pen with all the rest of the republican cowards.
     The only republican of recent memory who stood by his stand against trump and saved Obamacare was John McCain but alas he is no longer. For all intents and purposes the republican party is worthless and even worse a co conspirator in the devolution of all things that used to make America a bright and shining example of democracy. We are now a nation led by republicans who are on a downward spiral of treachery and deceit that is unprecedented in our modern era. The word modern is even under attack by trump and his bottom of the barrel cultish base. They would have trump maim and kill all who are not like them and then pound their chests and declare that they are the true and only beings worthy of American virtue.
     Yet as republicans destroy all that is what makes America, what they will be left with if they succeed is a dog eat dog world where eventually the king of the hill will be the last being standing. Wiping off the planet all forms of life that do not satisfy the subjective whims of the current madmen. Today he wants you as his ally tomorrow you will be the first one to die because you are no longer needed. Our many societies of the past have been thus, which is why we created democratic values, the same democratic values that republicans are so keen to end.

Changing out a window on the house today (#3902)

     When I first got this house, which the original builder of the neighborhood kept as his own back in the early 1950's, it was with some unique shall I say features. Yet in today's society at least one of those unique features has become a real eyesore and inefficient usage of space. A full height garden window in one of the bedrooms. It is a fixed window which is to say it doesn't open to allow for air flow. Well today I am going to peel back some of the aluminum siding from the 1970's on the front of the house in order to replace the antiquated garden window feature with a shorter sliding window. So instead of having a 6 foot x 7 foot fixed window, I will have a 6 foot x 3 foot sliding window.
     In about an hour I will begin and by noon I should have at least the material removed where I am working and the rough frame and window in place. Then it is to match the existing siding out front under the aluminum siding so that when later this week I pull back the rest of the aluminum siding off the front of the house all will look like the 1951 model it originally was. I will need to fill in both the outside and inside with insulation and wall covering below the window but that I will accomplish after I go get what materials I will specifically need. I have another window I am going to put out front where an outside storage room is but that will be later this week or next week depending on how much the garden window replacement takes out of me.
     I am kind of excited about the whole thing since building and remodeling, commercial and residential, makes up a lot of my past background. I was a framer for many years. The kind of work that is satisfying to accomplish especially when it is done properly and efficiently. All the little minutiae of sealing and caulking of the framing around the foundation plate, with care to the detail on the new inside casement and trim. The final look should be as naturally authentic to the existing, notwithstanding the new primer and paint, that only a professional eye should be able to see the difference. Any way my body is not like the elastic nature of my youth so I will feel this project especially keenly as nothing I do nowadays is without a physical price. Yet I am still smiling. :)

Pitting trump against republicans (#3901)

     Another strategy we democrats can employ to help our cause to defeat most all republicans is to do what they often do to us. That is to pit them against each other. There are still some republicans left in office that are mightily opposed to trump's takeover of our government. They have their own agendas for being in office and often their agendas clash with trump's twisted, corrupt ego. So finding those points of disagreement and highlighting them often gets them carrying the message of division within their party. As well as it shines a light on their anti middle, poor, working class policies. So not only do we get them fighting over how to proceed under their own leadership, which is to say not real leadership, and the horrible affect it has on most democrats we lessen their enthusiasm while strengthening our own resolve.
     There are many strategies available to us democrats but most important of them is to just tell the truth of the harm republicans cause us, as well as lift up our own message of rebuilding the working middle class. Our poor class is a direct result of republican policies and that has to stop. No one should have to live their lives in poverty unless that is what each person chooses. Creating real earnest pathways from the poor class to the middle class is our main goal and any policy that achieves that while also hindering the wealthy class from continuing it's expansion of the income inequality gap is our bell cow message on the economic front.
     On the social and political front our democracy has to begin breathing again. The republican party likes to think that corporations are people when in reality our democracy is the only thing that isn't biologically human, but is still human like. Our constitution is a continually expansive document that is evolving much like we humans. It allows us to grow into modernity through innovation, creativity, and enlightenment while itself shedding off the old outdated paradigms and designing itself to enhance our ever meticulous human natures. So as we look at all avenues to defeat trump and his republican backwards evolving lackeys we must make sure we are employing everything in our arsenal to beating the fear that republicans stew all of us in.

No time for being hesitant democrats! (#3900)

     The gauntlet has been thrown down by republicans so there is no question as to their intent. When they fail to meet the standard of a subpoena or summons then they are forcing the next move onto democrats. So make the next right move and compel them with not only a threat but with forcible consequence, to deliver either testimony of evidence. That means arresting them and or fine them to the harshest degree. There should be no wiggle room now that we know they are intent on obstructing and forcing us to act because of it.
     There is nothing left of the civility nor questionable time honored tradition of fudging around unlawful acts. This is very serious and nothing is more important to the survivability of our nation than a firm hand on the wheel of justice. All those who are not complying with congressional inquiries should be given no quarter. I understand that things are a bit complicated now with trump being the puppet master over his minions but the reality is if you are his minion he has set you up for the fall. We as democrats who are seeking the truth of things can have no doubt as to our role as swift and convincing adjudicators of justice.
     Which means we must take all extreme measures to keep the respect and dignity that the trumps are trying to remove from our Congress. The fiddle fucking around here must stop! Demand the deadlines be met on a certain day and then at 12:01 am the next day have the Marshall's or the Sergeant of Arms ready to arrest whomever is in delinquency of the deadlines. I cannot stress how important it is to be the cold steely eyed "executioner" when the time for it occurs. We must not accept the abhorrent behavior that trumps and his minions are portraying. They have to feel the sting of their unconstitutional acts and feel it harshly and now!

Just marking time now... (#3899)

     I never in my wildest dreams thought I would survive this long after trump was appointed president. You see I am always very critical of his criminal nature and he has always been a vindictive dick toward those who don't worship him. Luckily I suppose that my anti trump messaging has been so inconsequential to so many others of greater notoriety who are of the same inclination that I have not even felt a ruffling of my feathers over it. Yet I will not stop regardless of his not seeing me down here in the lowly depths. Because when it all comes down to it, it is the size of the bite in the dog and not the size of the bark, despite my mixed metaphors. :)
     My determination to lambaste the id of him is relentless. He has taken our democracy and turned it's principles into mush. But some hope is moving forward on ending him in whatever way is best so that our nation can then begin the long process of sweeping out the lies of republicans and correcting the wrongs done to our political and social structure. The debt our nation is enduring now under trump so that the wealthy can keep an abundant supply of low wage jobs available is beyond morally criminal it is also dehumanizing. Taking what enlightenment we have already achieved and turning it into a battleground to be defended. Well the impeachment probe should put a brake on the democracy crushing agenda of trump for now and that is welcome.
     As well is the looming national election where about a year and some days are left before the counting of votes removes the ass cancer trump and many of his enablers will occur. So we mark the time now with attention to detail in the impeachment probe keeping the pressure on so that trump cannot breathe through it's suffocating evidence and if somehow he survives impeachment the election coming will be the final nail in his well deserved political coffin. The waiting is hard but as we stay busy fortifying our positions to either indict trump out of office or vote him out with our blue wave tsunami, the wait will be worth it. Then we can begin to unravel all that he has spun in his web of deceit.

Do not debate the unprepared (#3898)

     I used to study my ass off preparing for a debate. What I learned long ago is that I needed to know not only my arguments inside out but also any rebuttal to them, thus the intense preparation. I only debate as a rule subjects that are in my wheelhouse and that way I am well ahead on knowing the arguments for my position. Then it is just understanding the opposition to my positions with logic and common sense. I suppose it is that way for any who would debate me on their positions that oppose mine. Fine I can relate to that since we are both using logic and common sense rules for making our points.
     Yet there are those who do none of this and still want to debate. They take talking points from others and make them their own without justifiably researching them for their validity and truthfulness. These folks I will spend zero time with. They are a waste of any effort to convince through argument of a superior or enlightened reasoning. Reason, analyze, and conclude, this is my equation for coming to rationalize my position on any subject. I am always open to consider concepts I had not previously encountered so that is the importance of debate, not to be right but to be open to any new understanding.
     None of us is all knowing but we can be well informed as to the best possible outcomes. Sure, being confident that a concept is truthful is one thing but proving it through the hard work of dissecting the argument in different ways, and it surviving is the process we have to follow in order to satisfy all participants that what is actually won through any debate was the actual strongest and most survivable outcome. Just saying that something is the best way is not debate, it is just some opinion that has been hijacked from someone else and until it passes the test of provability it is just more noise without structure.

No cover up for arrogance (#3897)

     The trumps are in a world of shit. For one thing they never even considered that they would be called out on their corruption given trump is holding the presidency like a kingship and he has his protectors mcconnell and graham running interference. Yet what goes up must come down and the inflated trumpian ego has reached its zenith. And it is at this point of halted ascension that his ego has begun to come back down like Icarus who flew too close to the sun with his waxed wings. The battle now with democrats calling for answers when the trumps have been negligent and criminal in their actions is increasing the descent speed of the trump ego. Soon there will be a mighty crashing to earth of what trump thought was never to be deflated.
     Such is the nature of the trump ego. He is still invincible in his own mind and the thought that he is failing is beyond him. He will fight with all he has and that includes the cover up of anything that may lead to his demise. But the cover up is much too late for him as the hounds of truth and justice are sniffing out his betrayals. So many metaphors but hey, it's my blog so I will do what I want to do. :) Today the House committees are gathering to coordinate their master plan for unearthing the rot that trump is trying to bury. As we move forward from today we will see the dominoes fall much like with nixon and his ill aborted effort to debase democracy.
     The arrogance of trump along with his illusions are prime for being exposed. Because the mature mind knows that the truth of things are easier to ferret out when the truth is abused by an egomaniac. I look forward to these dogs days before the next election now that trump is being forced to answer for his deviousness. The next election is less than 400 days from now and in the meantime we are going to be lifted in our spirits as trump is thumped down by the truth. It couldn't happen to a more deserving corrupted soul. All trump has done is line his own pockets while doing the bidding of those who have the real dirt on him and for that he will now pay!

399 days until the next election (#3896)

     I am not sure how the impeachment of trump will turn out but I know that the next election is closer to being. Whether trump is on the ticket or not it is still our best chance of changing the "leadership" in both the executive branch and the Senate. We will keep the House because there is no desire for a republican led House of any honorable repute. Of course I am hopeful that both trump and pence are brought down to their criminal levels through impeachment but in lieu of that the changing of our American dirty diapers is coming.
     399 days is now bringing us to within a little over a month of being less than a year. I am profoundly happy that I have survived this long to savor the countdown toward the end of trump and his ill manned cabinet. The end of mcconnell is another savory moment that I am hopeful to enjoy. Both have been a shit stain on our American reputation of welcoming and caring for those whose dreams of freedom bring them to us. The damage trump and mcconnell have wreaked is not insurmountable to repair once we have put them both out for their deserves.
     In 399 days there will be a celebration of such a magnitude that nothing in my lifetime will compare. I am absolutely certain that trump and hopefully mcconnell will be done forever more from dishonoring our American way of life and ideals. The sober reality of how important it is for all of us to participate in our own democracy will never be more clear and should be part of the process that kicks trump and his republican acolytes hard at the voting booth. It would not surprise me to see more than 70% of our voting electorate participate this time and without voter tampering and suppression by republicans should build our blue tsunami to such a height as to crush the republican party for generations to come.