Card carrying member of the ACLU (#3955)

     Well they did send me a card for giving them a donation. I didn't ask for one they just sent me one as a thank you for supporting their cause of fighting injustice. Fighting injustice seems to be a full time occupation now for the ACLU because republicans in power are prone to denying basic rights to our minority populations and making it difficult to overcome their denials. Like the case in Alabama where republican officials have passed laws requiring specific types of legal identification and denying other legal identifications. They demand that the citizenry have driver licenses or valid non-drivers licenses as a hard copy identification.
     When Alabama wanted to close most of the drivers license bureaus in predominantly minority areas they were thwarted by a federal investigation, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/23/us/politics/voting-rights-alabama.html. Now the latest form of repression comes in the form of voter purges. The reality that republicans are always in full steam ahead mode on denying voters their access to and ability to vote is the reason the ACLU is in a never ending battle to protect our most basic and fundamental right from being denied by republicans. If it isn't clear to you that making voting easier and much more desirable is the heart of what democracy is then you are not living in reality.
     That any of us have to be a card carrying member of anything that has a never ending fight to keep our rights to a democratic society is the problem. Not the ACLU nor those others who fight for their rights, the trouble is the republican party which cannot win elections without taking rights away from those who cannot defend their rights. There is no sugar coating what republicans are and what they are doing. They are stealing our democracy and transforming it into an advantage and privilege paradigm which only serves the wealthy and powerful. I am a card carrying member of the ACLU and I can always find a few coins to give them to fight the good fight of protecting our rights from the republican party.

What trump did to our allies the Kurds sickens me (#3954)

     The disloyalty that trump perpetrated on the Kurds so that he could get in favor of the Turkish strongman is reprehensible. Actually words do not contain the ability to express my complete and utter disgust of the fake human being trump. Leaving our allies behind on the battlefield to be slaughtered is a crime against the very fiber of my soul. I am no war hawk unless attacked or defending from death of others but this kind of treachery by trump is the worst of what we Americans are now known for. Never should an ally or fellow soldier be left behind. Never! Yet as a strategy trump and republicans decided that the death of our allies was a gain for our nation.
     Think about that for a moment. The death of our allies is a gain for us in the mind of republicans and their dishonorable leader. I cannot fathom what kind of hell the republican party has become and for the life of me the ones who cannot recognize the traitor trump is as astounding. The morality and ethics of the republican party has no anchor. They pick and choose their justifications from the blowing winds. There is no honor nor nobility to their quest to demean and destroy our democracy and the principles it hitherto fore had been built upon.
     If this is what America now stands for then the corruption is complete and the reversing of our democratic destruction is now impossible. If we do not wrest control back from the little dictator trump and his acolyte republican party then the shiny city on a hill will no longer exist. We will be known not for our liberties but for our treacheries. We will not be a beacon of democracy but a waste bin for hope. We will not show the world the example of what it is to be the best human species ever evolved, instead we will be the example of regression to the worst of our human natures for the sole benefit of the greedy and the power mongers.

No politics today (#3953)

     So I decided just now that this post and any I make today will not be about the horrendous republican party and their death wish on all that are not them. So while I will be talking about trivial things and funny captions and memes I won't be correctly insulting and demeaning as inhuman any republican who crosses my path. Just because they don't take a break from doing nothing but harm to all the rest of us doesn't make me want to retaliate today. I will calmly sit back and enjoy a day of leisure that we democrats fought hard and long for while the stupefying republican party does everything in its idiotic power to subvert and destroy all the good we democrats have accomplished.
     Taking a break from calling them the most callous unimaginative vulture cult that has ever existed will do my soul some good as it has been a sentinel at the outpost of rebuttal for all these trumpian years. Instead I will relax in the knowledge that we democrats are going to crush the very life out of republican come November 3rd. 2020. I can assure myself that removing my foot from off their necks and out of their asses will for one day give me a little reflection on just how much I need to continue defending against them come tomorrow. So I hope they appreciate that I took a day off from calling them the most corrupt slithering set of human beings ever to have crawled out from their rocks.
     In conclusion I hope republicans will also stop for at least a moment and reflect themselves on the true meaning of being thankful, yet I am no dope nor naive. Although I won't attack them hard today I know within them is not a democratic way of lifting up all when they are down but rather stepping on the heads of those of us who are not inclined to be a rogue nor beast. But enough of this kindness I am doing for them by not taking them to task on this thanking day. I wish all of us a calm peaceful day of hope while the republican party can find their own illusions somewhere between my kindness to them and the harshest concept of an imaginary hell they can find. :)

The good news is... (#3952)

     The good news is that the work I had done on my flat roof a couple of months ago weathered a harsh rain storm yesterday. The first rain we have had in many months by the way. I checked all the repaired areas from above in the house and no water anywhere. Of course and story that starts out with a lead like the good news is surely has a but coming. Which this story has. I found out the day before yesterday that my water pump had gone out and the two serpentine belt pulleys needed to be replaced. So careful shopping and as luck would have it I got all my new parts for right at about $100.
     I had the pulleys delivered to my house as they were out of stock at the auto parts store and they arrived yesterday. So my brother John and I began removing all the obstacles in the front of the motor that would let us get at the leaky water pump. After a few fits and starts we got there and again with some difficulty we got the bad water pump off. It was biting cold out there in the carport at about 4pm with the rain lashing and the wind blowing making the 40 Degree temperature feel like subzero. Anyway it was a good time to stop and we did so that today we could get a fresh start and put things back together with the new parts.
     If all goes well enough we should be done in a few hours with everything and me out giving my truck a test drive. It never ceases to amaze me how things turn on a dime out of nowhere. My truck has less than 60,000 miles on it so the water pump giving out was a real surprise but getting the thing repaired for about $100 is not bad for what it could have been at a repair shop, ie no less than $500. I can understand why the charge would be high because of the difficulty at getting not only to the water pump but the special tools needed to take it off. Luckily my brother john has special tools as his vocation was motor repair on cars and especially boats. What will today bring? Hopefully more rain so that I can at least feel good about my roof repair operation.

Truth telling (#3951)

     The rest of the honest world has no problem with proving we are not criminals. We supply facts and details about our whereabouts and links to other people as witnesses. Unlike with trump and his cabal of followers. They think that they can prove they are innocent by ignoring investigations and providing no details as to their whereabouts and associations. They have executive documentation that could further prove their innocence but they are unwilling to provide the documentation or themselves be a fact witness to absolve themselves of any wrongdoing.
     So what should we the rest of the world take from this hiding from the charges that the trumps are employing? Think of it this way. Say you or I are accused of a crime, how do you think it would go for us if we just ignored the subpoenas and refused to even be questioned by legal authorities under which we reside? No doubt our arrest would follow immediately and the presumption of innocence falls away. Well I feel the same about the trumps in that they are refusing to cooperate with the legal authorities and will not release that which has been recorded under the umbrella of public record. The fact that they are hiding evidence and will not allow themselves to be questioned tells me that they are guilty to some degree of the charges being levied.
     The innocent do not hide from the law. The innocent do not bury evidence that would absolve them of guilt if they were not guilty. Logic, the if/then paradigm, dictates that if a person acts like a criminal and refuses to defend themselves from criminal activities then they are most likely guilty of whatever charge is being forwarded. This is not space travel here. The guilty hide while the innocent work to provide all evidence to absolve themselves. So it is now going to be up to the Supreme Court as to whether the trumps are forced to hand over documents that they are hiding and testify under oath. I know that the Supreme Court is and should be wiser than me so the only course of action here is to make the trumps answer to the charges. If not then we can also conclude that the cover up of trumps is in full cooperation with the conservative majority on the highest court.

Unfinished house (#3950)

     The more I look at this house the more ideas I get for how I want it to become. I am of limited funds so I won't be getting anything done quickly but that gives me the time to study and figure how I want things. I have some options in what I am doing and it is kind of fun tinkering with how I may proceed. It is like each morning I stare at a particular area of the house and start to visualize an outcome and then modify that vision as I go. Sometimes even discarding the vision and giving myself some time to realize another vision. There is no rush on my part because for one thing I am secure in what is now as well as no one is pressuring me to change things.
     I tell people that this is where I plan on dying when that happens so the constant changing of this house to make it appealing to me is my purpose. There was so much work that had to be done since I first moved in about 7 years ago. I have accomplished quite a bit and although there is a ton more to do it isn't critical for me to get done. I have made it somewhat cozy here and repaired where absolutely needed so now I am down to a more aesthetic set of desires. Surely I am not done with necessary changes but they will expose themselves given a bit more time. Like the work I got done this last summer to patch on this flat roof where needed but the first rain will let me know how well that went.
     There have been a few bugs in the electrical system but my knowledge in that area has solved those issues if not permanently then at least satisfactorily for now. All plumbing issues are known and have been addressed yet still there are future issues that must be reckoned with like the water heaters and sewer. All in all though the outside appearance and weatherization has been addressed except the backyard siding needs to be upgraded. The inside is where the most work needs to be done if you don't consider the need for a pitched roof on this house. Most of the inside is modern enough but there are areas where I keep trying to imagine something different. This house, like me, is unfinished and together maybe we will finish each other as our time together grows toward our eventual ending.

We are still out of sorts (#3949)

     Try as I may I cannot shake the uncomfortable feeling I live with because of trumps. They have infected my soul with their never ending corruption and hatred of our American democracy. It is as if I am diseased by their very existence. I wish I were exaggerating but unfortunately I am not. Never before in my knowing has a longer period of pure disdain existed within my emotions for anything this infamous. The appointed trump and his lack of administering democracy is grating at the very heart of my soul. For me to wish anything, and I mean anything positive for him and his cabal of grifters, liars and idiots is long passed. I am one to give decent people chances to correct misbehavior but not with the willfully incomprehensible.
     There is a distinction in our species of those who see what we can do together and those who would never have such a thought. I had not thought that was true but it is correct isn't it? Some will never become fully human in the sense of knowing empathy and remorse. They only have their own inhumane sense of what is acceptable and with them that is fluid depending upon the circumstance. Luckily they are a minority and not the many. The rest of us see the hope in recognizing that we are all equal in our rights and opportunities. We get the message of the melting pot and instead of cowering from it like trumps we embrace it as our own.
     But for now with the trumps demeaning and condescending to anything that doesn't stand for greed and prejudice, we are left with muddling through to the time when we can put an end to trump and his ilk. I for one am counting each hour now instead of days because I have to find ways to fortify my own values lest they devolve into the retribution I so want to unleash. But for that ability to constrain myself there would be no difference between me and what trumps represent to the world. The time will come either in my own passing or the end of this insanity we are disgraced with and when that time comes, if I survive, maybe I will find that my "sorts" have come back into their proper place.

Waiting for the other shoe to drop (#3948)

     This time now between the alleged end of the impeachment hearings in the House and the next step is a sweet one. I say that because the end of the impeachment hearings is not a done deal. With a few maneuverings left by the impeachment committee several things could occur. First, just waiting and taking time allows for a few court cases to come to fruition and give the House more moves in their subpoena strategy. As well the time that passes brings to light new information about the bribery trump has instigated while adding to the damning evidence. As a bonus feature the pause now is just adding to the anxiety that trumps are feeling and that anxiety is what we need them to feel so that they squirm and relent.
     I love this time, not the holiday time but the impeachment time because for all the harm trump has done there is now a mechanism that is proving fruitful in exposing the underbelly of the trump criminal intents. The fact that trump is off balance with fear of being caught out legally he is not as disposed to destroying our democracy. His time is spent trying to defend the indefensible instead of calculating how to further cripple the working middle poor class for his wealthy donors and the vehicle of the republican party. We are also being treated to the close saboteurs of our nation who are sticking their greedy little necks out to defend trump.
     All of this with the backdrop of the next election looming so the boon now to we the American civilized people is a win/win twofer. The impeachment committee need not rush to any judgment yet until all avenues to get subpoenaed witnesses before them. At the moment we have time on our side and as long as trump is feeling the angst of legal pressure we should keep him there as long as possible. Because not only are we occupying space in his head over impeachment and those ramifications but we are keeping him from a free run to disrupt the rest of our democracy that still exists. Waiting for the other shoe to drop is my new favorite time of the year. :)

The give and take of change (#3947)

     Change is inevitable and not so easy at times but at other times it is easy and only requires the will to accept. I know for myself that I am settled into a routine at times and changing that routine is not welcome despite its necessity. So I do what I should and accept that nothing is deserved nor owed. A resignation to the endless churning of the wheels of progress. What unwanted change has taught me is profound. When I have changed from the safe harbor I built I find that my new view is even better. My life is like that most of the time because just when I think I know what it is about a new wrinkle appears to throw me off from my understanding perch.
     Which given the lunacy my life has been about for too much of it is probably and most likely a good thing. :) Yet still change can be unnerving and chaotic. However life is like that especially in a reality where 7 billion or so of us inhabit an ever decreasing land mass. So going with change has been my modus operandi because not going with change leaves me with worse options going forward. I am a pragmatist and can see the future through my own eyes so denying myself rational evidence is to me not to be borne! If the modernity and enlightened view does not prevail in our nation then the rest of the world will fall to lower levels of existence.
     So change I will and doing the hard of changing with a glad heart. I am no wise man nor some mystic who knows what anyone else should do but I do know myself and for me to cling to the past and or a bad situation is not going to happen. In my older age I am well aware that moving forward is the only option to choose and although it is a pain in the ass, at all times it is necessary to uphold the logic and honor of our democracy with the best nature of our species. The end result of changing is a fresh perspective from which to build a better vision for others to come along and accept and to build up as well.

I've noticed a change in my demeanor (#3946)

     Ever since the sondland hearing yesterday I find that somehow I have become more clam inside my soul. I must qualify that though because this morning I used a derogatory term against myself for doing a ridiculous thing. So not quite peace and nirvana within me as I need to definitely school myself on not using derogatory terms no matter whom I am using them on. But besides that I am much more in tune with a sense of calm that I hadn't experienced since November 8th, 2016. Nice segue correct? :) I immediately went into a funk that moved through many levels of disgust and downright anger until yesterday.
     With the appointed president's own ambassador flipping on the republican narrative to a truthful one the pieces of the corruption trump is being investigated for fell into place. This is the beginning and nowhere near the end as far as this corruption scandal goes but the basic facts of what happened have been established. There is still some republican apologists floundering around about showing perfect proof but in our own minds the evidence is clearly what it is being portrayed by in so many different testimonies. The corruption is taking the shape of bribery and no amount of nuance around the edges is changing that outcome.

     So with that evidence of a conspiracy being given yesterday somehow I have my bearings back. It is like I have been living in an alternate universe where up is down and the sky is butter. But now the birds are singing and the wind is gently blowing with the sun shining through in its majestic way. Life is back to normal for me and thanks to an inept trump and an arrogance that belies his fake persona, life is good again. The time will come for trump to pay his tab for all his infamy and this time he won't be able to stiff we the client. Maybe now the last years of my life won't be spent fighting to keep sanity in our lives and instead be aimed at making this world better that when I first got here.
     

Defense of trump, he doesn't know what he is doing but his handlers are keeping him on track. (#3945)

     I heard an astonishing defense of trump from slick rick santorum last night. He actually said that the people around trump dismiss about 80-90% of his demands. As if this is the solution to trump doing things that are unconstitutional and offensive. So all is well, nothing to see here. I still live here in America, not some fantasy land that republicans have devised to protect their power structure. If an idiot is in control and the advisers think they can control him then we are all doomed to whatever whim the idiot chooses to ignore as advice. Who are these advisers and I now I didn't vote for them to be the proxy president!
     That is their defense of trump for the impeachment proceedings. They are not going to convict him in the senate as long as they can claim that trump is really not serious when he says serious things. This type of nefarious defense will suit the republican party and most all their followers because it is most likely true with much strategic lying in as well. Actually trump does mean what he says and that is not to be devolved into something that doesn't matter given who is interpreting it. If we let trump get away with this defense of "I am an idiot but I am under control by others" well then we deserve to have him in our lives as a punishment for our own stupidity.
     I don't have the luxury of doing and saying things that have two equally plausible explanations and may pick and choose which explanations never harm me. Neither should our appointed president be able to simultaneously live in both the real world and make believe alternative one. He, trump is unfit for the duties of the presidency and no amount of incredulous illogical thinking will ever make it so. He needs to be held to account in the real world without the defense of "he only means it when it is correct", or otherwise he cannot be held to account at all. The republican party and trump himself are grifters to the core and their lame ass excuses are just another symptom of them being caught out and having no "real" defense for it.

Another day with nails going into trumps coffin (#3944)

     This is the season for hope and justice. I am not a religious person so the whole santa claus, christ on a cross myths have no sway over me but the impeachment hearings are a gift worth receiving. I mute the republican attacks on valorous American witnesses because I cannot stand the traitorous narrative republicans are trying to promote in order to protect their golden calf trump. But during the democratic questioning and witness statements I have the volume turned up in order to relish in the bravery of our courageous witnesses.
     The witnesses so far are foreign service officers who have all served under both republicans and democrats so for the republican stooge congress persons to disparage their decision to honor the subpoenas served on them is anti-democratic and treasonous on the face of it. But the democrats under the leadership of Committee chairman Schiff have so far been able to keep the narrative on the testimony and not on the republican attempts to muddy the waters. The truth will out if we can get the testimony that is sought and nothing the trump apologists can do to stop it will prevail.
     Many others of the trump administration have dishonored the subpoenas served on them and ongoing actions are under consideration as to making the obstructionists pay for their choice to dishonor our constitution. We are a democracy with a constitution that honors the valor and nobility of equality, fairness, and justice. With the obstructing republicans dismissing these values they are by default appearing as accomplices in the guilt that is still being laid out. Their actions to protect the appointed presidents nefarious strategy to coerce and manipulate foreign powers through blackmail to act as his proxy in order to undermine our elections in his favor will be included in the final conclusion of guilt by not only the appointed president but by those whom would lie and stay silent for him.

Be the best version of yourself! (#3943)

     If you are like me you need to see others do wonderful things in order to know what it is like to do wonderful things yourself. I am one of those trial and error guys for the most part so seeing examples of goodness and greatness helps me to design my own life along those same parameters. But I am not those whom I emulate, I am just me so finding out who I am was first on my agenda. Taking into account the totality of my life I start at my young age when my innocence was still abundant. I would watch others and see them fall short of doing the correct thing and get totally confused by it. But life taught me that not all nor even most were practicing the best of who they could be.
     Needless to say I got used up by many before I realized that doing the correct thing wasn't in the heart of many. So I began to build my cynicism as a wall to protect me from the ones who needed to help themselves before ever helping anyone else. But before that came about my heart was always in the right place in living a good and great life. What happened next after the cynicism is a whirligig of confusion and chaos. I was lost at sea so to speak and nothing I did brought any safe harbor to my shores. Living with the idea that the best version of myself was not the norm in a world full of different priorities left me rudderless and beholden to the wind of the day.
     Yet I found myself, the innocent version, again when I applied myself to higher education and understanding the nature of our species in given circumstances. I began to understand the demands on others as they tried to live a life of worth and that they often fell short and were as lost as I was before I got my understanding of who I was back. I was always a child superhero in my mind who would help wherever help was needed. I understood that my nature was a good one and that the only way for me to live my life with purpose and clarity was to reclaim my passion for being the best of who I was and could be. I took a long road around to find myself again and for anyone out there who is finding this same troubling but ultimately successful path I hope you find your way back to the best version of yourself much earlier than I did.

This is the political ending of trump! (#3942)

     I have sat here at my desk day after day since November 8, 2016 in a hope that I would see the end of trump in our lives. Well this is the beginning of that hope. This last week we have witnessed the first hand evidence being told by those who were there and negatively affected. The damage the trump administration has done to our government is overwhelming and will be the end of trump as our appointed president. It doesn't matter if the republican controlled senate does nothing to end his time in office. We the voters have seen enough of him to last us a lifetime and will see him no more come November 3rd. 2020.
     What else is clear is that his influence is shattered now not only here at home but abroad. Even his new buddies, the dictators of the world, laugh at him when they feel like it. He is like an island that is shrinking from the climate change of rising seas and his followers are the most desperate incoherent types left in our society. So the end of trump is now in full swing toward the final days left for him to hold sway over our society. I don't expect him to end his full term in the White House because he is running out of leverage and him resigning under some agreement with democrats is about all he has left. What the courts do after his departure is up to them but needless to say they will do something.
     My bones have ached for this time to begin and now that it has my bones are feeling relief and even a little premature joy. Because trump has been the worst thing to happen in our nation since I have been alive and that is some pretty heavy company he has with nixon and shrub. But trump is an egomaniac who cannot tell the truth even when it benefits him it seems. That our nation survived him and his lust to become a king is in no small part due to the resistance of folks like you and me and the abject failure of trump to logically organize his "coup". The republican party has helped trump to take our nation hostage and they too will be held to account when the time comes for them!

The final death throes of trump? (#3941)

     After yesterday's witness account of how trump bullied the state department so that he could coerce an ally into doing his personal bidding, trump had to go get his own real attorney, barr at justice to defend him. Everything I just wrote is evidence that this appointed president is struggling to change the narrative from the truth of his behavior and actions. He is desperate to point out some other shiny object for the rest of us to focus on because his own pattern of selfishness and deceit are too understandable to the world at large and makes him see himself for the fool and master harmer he is.
     With more damning evidence to be given the first of next week we the public will be able to cement our view that trump is a cad and bully who is not very adept at his coercive and intimidating strategy. He broke the law when he asked for something else on a personal level to harm someone who is challenging him in this coming election by using allocated funds to another country as bait. He isn't the god he thinks he is and when the impeachment vote comes it will be well earned by trump. He must be feeling the walls closing in on him but will he be able to withstand the pressure or will he thrash about before finally succumbing to his legal consequences?
     I think he will succumb because his nature is not one of a virtuous one. He will obfuscate and obstruct for now but others who are being sucked into his failing sphere will likely not hold to their loyalty to a man child who cares nothing for them. Some will go down with him out of some ill conceived duty that is secondary to our constitution and rule of law. So be it. But others will not and although they will still find themselves in legal jeopardy, they have a better chance to rehabilitate their lives for eventually doing the correct thing. These last few days have been fascinating in that watching the walls close in on trump has kept the rest of us hopeful that this unimaginable nightmare is finally coming to a close!

Will trump resign? (#3940)

     That trump complained that the impeachment hearings are tough on his family tells me that he is using his family as cover and that what he is really saying is that the impeachment hearings are tough on him. Because we all know that trump has little feelings for his family beyond their usefulness. Well today will be as tough on him as Wednesday was so we will see how the toll of all of this weighs his decision making. To me it has been fun for trump to be a bully with impunity and when the fun starts to wane then trump sinks into sulking, especially when he is caught out for lying and thuggery.
     Nothing would surprise me concerning the fate of trump at this moment and if anything him working behind the scenes to leave the presidency with some kind of immunity from further prosecution almost seems more than improbable. Yet I know how trump likes his persona to be adulated so him giving up is not attuned to that. Yet his fate is less certain now and he must be weighing all options. His bluster will not prevail any longer nor his threats regardless of how subtly backhanded they are. He is increasingly finding himself in a shrinking vice and the pressure he must be feeling will likely cause him to squirm.
     To what degree the squirming will affect his unstable rationale is yet to be determined but it has to be a big factor in any further option he chooses for his escape. He may try to weather the storm of impeachment much like kavanaugh did at the sham senate republican confirmation hearing but that would not fit his persona either. The radicalness of his character makes it very difficult to assess his next moves but let it be known that they won't be moves he wanted to make. We the American people through the democratic controlled House are making him face his ill deeds and it is not making him any more predictable yet he is in trouble and that is how we want him!

I am 64 not 20 anymore! (#3939)

     I am talking to myself but it seems I don't listen to myself in the area of physicality. I keep trying to do things that I did when I was in the prime of my younger self. I know this because after yesterday, I feel like I got run over by no small truck. Yet in a few days I will feel a bit better and sure enough I will go back to thinking I am superman, without the cape that is. lol. Yet as I do the efficient leveraging of a young strong man I do realize that if I don't it will be a much more difficult chore especially when I don't have the help required to do it like a 64 year old man.
     So I am caught between the reality of do it now or wait and do it when I have help. I am a stubborn soul and the winner of these types of choices is usually the now over the later. But then I pay for it with aches and pains that destroy my sleep and my ability to walk upright with any ease. But I don't ever seem to take into account this outcome of the doing it now. Yet the project is done and for that I find some solace in my suffering.
     I suppose I have some psychological disorder that prevents me from rationalizing my age and ability in the present with the hard task I am about to attempt. Or I am just not sharp enough mentally to accept that the price I pay is a heavy one. In my decision to get the job done physically my mental equation on the cost/benefit analysis takes a hike. I guess my lazy approach to reconciling my objective outcome is concerning. Yet the bravado I fall to is my old friend and constant companion it seems. As I get older I might have to accept that me being 20 in my mind is never going to change and if something befalls me because of it then that is just the price I will have to pay for my choice.

One less day in trumpland (#3938)

     I find that I am counting the days down every day because to me it is one less day under trump left in my life. When we got below 500 days I was beginning to get a good feeling that trump would not be re-appointed. When we got under 365 days I was feeling a bit giddy that if we survived the last year of his tyrannical reign we would be able to finally establish a democracy that represents most all of us and not just some of us. There will always be those who want no representation from democrats despite the good democrats do for them.
     They are the ones who will never be satisfied with our melting pot society. They are the ones whose hatred of those who are not them will never be put asunder. Those are the ones who find that taking from anyone for themselves is always right. Those are the ones who live in the fantasies of their minds instead of the reality of the nobleness of their souls. We democrats will never be able to represent them but nonetheless we try. For the rest of our society we look to make their lives better without harming them or anyone else. It is difficult sometimes but in the hard we find our greatest leaders who can overcome what others say is impossible.
     I so look forward to that day in the not too distant future when the trumps of the world are relegated to the sidelines of progress so the rest of us can move modernity forward. When the headlines scream of bettering achievements instead of nefarious ulterior motives. When the wealthy are not the gods of our society but just the fortunate who have a duty to the society that created their wealth. When the hard working are valued by the same rules that the innovative are. When the equality of all human beings is respected as a rule and not as an exception. One less day of trump makes for one more day of democracy that works in the greatest society ever to have been founded by our species.

trumps economy? Not so fast spanky... (#3937)

     The one trump talking point that seems to get lost on folks is that his economy is doing so well. Well the economy he inherited from elected President Obama is doing okay, but not as well as when President Obama was in office, https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2019/09/20/trump-has-created-15-million-fewer-jobs-than-obama/#74fed12c27ce. The appointed president trump has only slowed it down but not stopped it. So he naturally takes credit for it because that is what trump does, takes credit from others work while dismissing or transferring blame to others for his own work.
     With the trump trade wars with our trading partners at an impasse for the most part and different parts of our economy taking hits because of it, the future outlook is not rosy. So those who think that trump is creating a great economy are only deluding themselves. Plus the wages have remained low while the trump tax cuts for the wealthy only increased the demoralizing income inequality gap. When most of the profit is going to the wealthiest the rest of us are still scrambling for the leftovers and the prices of things continue to increase.
     So let the facts of trump's economy come out and then let his supporters defend his economy! The harm that he is doing in all other aspects of our society are not buoyed by the false notion that he is somehow an economic genius. If this next election does not defeat trump by one of the greatest margins in our election history I will be shocked and troubled. Especially given the republican penchant for obstructing voting and not protecting our election apparatus. When the most underpaying economy in our history is trump's hole card then he is not worthy nor should he be of being elected or appointed to another term.

Time to finish off the decaying republican party (#3936)

     The time is now to end the corrupting soul of the republican party. I say that as a rule not an exception. The chances given this ugly party have been numerous and each time given to them they actually become worse. So no more chances! The impeachment hearings will show that not only did trump lead his administration in disobeying his oath to our constitution but he instructed his lackeys to follow his lead. They, his administration now are of lowlife quality and were willing to break laws to keep in favor with their lord and master trump. There are very few republicans left who are actually trying to defend our constitution while still calling themselves republicans.
     So instead of working to clean up the republican party it would be much more efficient to end the republican party and refuse to acknowledge it's death cries. If anything our democratic party has taken on the mantle of what little good had been republican a couple of generations ago and now the republican party only stands for divisiveness and greed. The republican party quit being an alternative party and just became an obstructive one. They don't stand for anything that helps the working middle poor class and actually are working to deny the working middle poor class democratic values.
     When we need another political party in the future to help contest our elections then we can form new alliances that do not stray into the stinking field of hate, racism and misogyny. A new political party might correctly come from the democratic left to push for greater control in the areas of the military industrial complex and health care for all. Revitalizing our unions and creating a fairer economic system might also be attractive to a left of democratic party. Regardless though of that future possibility, we democrats now want to start fixing what is today ailing our social, economic, political and environmental paradigms. But to do that with great success the republican party must be ended.

The televised end of trump (#3935)

     All the major networks are planning to show to some degree the impeachment hearings in the House. The world will get to see democracy in action against an appointed president who sees himself above the law. In fact he sees himself as some sort of demigod if not an actual god. The fact that we democrats are holding hearings and that they are being televised shows the strength of our convictions when it comes to protecting our democracy and the rule of law for all and not just for most.
     Next week is when the impeachment proceedings are to begin and surely the world will tune in at some point in time to see how badly the trump administration and trump himself have behaved. The fact that our next presidential election is now less than a year away is revealing in that the worst of what trump has allowed and allegedly orchestrated himself will not bode well for his reappointment. I always call trump the appointed president because he did not win the popular vote and actually lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes. But since we have the ancient patriarchal system of an electoral college he has been able to manipulate himself into being appointed by them to be president.
     What trump had hoped to get away with in private will now be exposed for all to see. Which is the way things should be because the truth of things should be our greatest guiding principle in the administration of our government in our name. Many have fought and died for the right to be free of tyranny and oppression and this fact gathering impeachment process in the House will keep that paradigm intact. We owe it to all those who have ever raised a defense for democracy and spent their most precious gift of life protecting it. The long history of our nation has not been about the greed one can acquire from others it is about respect, equality, and opportunity for all.

The unlawful defiance of the trump administration (#3934)

     Every day it seems that another trump official has defied a lawful subpoena from the House of Representatives like it has no effect on them. So far that has been the case which for now lets them skip out on a lawful summon. However I know that there are punishments for not answering a subpoena and hopefully the House will direct those punishments quickly at the offenders. Because by not holding the defiant ones to account it encourages all of them to defy the subpoenas. The House must step up and not only act quickly on punishing those who will not come to the proceedings and testify but we democrats must respond in the most heavy handed way possible.
     The blatancy of the trump dis administration is palpable and if left unchecked will harm our democratic processes in myriad untold ways. This has been on we democrats to make the subpoenaed witnesses appear and we are doing a lousy job of it. But the time to act is still now so I expect that any courtesy we may have considered for them must now be dismissed and they have to be looked upon as hostile witnesses who somehow have entwined themselves into the trump web of deceit. One can only conclude that an innocent person would have nothing to hide whereas a guilty party has everything to hide including ignoring a summons from a subpoena.
     Every shade and angle of this current appointed president's behavior has a stench about it that defies the good with the arrogant. Well our democracy is better than ignoring good in the face of arrogance. We are Americans who throughout history have stood up to tyranny and the bullies of the world. Well we will stand up to the childlike bully we have in the White House because no one gets a pass when it comes to protecting our democracy, not even the appointed leader of our democracy. We can clean the clocks of the outside world that would harm us so we must also clean the clock of the inside infiltrator who is beholden to russia.

Our youth will save our democracy! (#3933)

     Those of us who are a bit longer in the tooth need to support our youth with all we have if they are going to succeed in protecting our democracy. In my mind there is no question that we the older ones cannot do it ourselves without the youth lifting us up. So here is the deep point of my post here, let them choose their path and then let us support them to do that. I keep hearing all these critiques of candidates who are not worthy of our vote running in the democratic primary. Well it isn't about us it is about what our youth see as there way forward. I will not utter a peep about who should be our candidate because I am not the one who will live under their policies and agendas for the next several decades, our youth will though.
     I had my youth already and the powers that be and the republican party took my choices away with the assassinations of both John and Robert Kennedy, as well as the possible later run for president by Martin Luther King. So now that this era of youth is of age and willing to vote for their candidates I am with them in whomever becomes our nominee. No matter who it is because our youth will decide who stays for the battle against trump. I will do all I can to support whomever comes out of our nominating process. My choice for the most progressive pragmatic candidate is whomever our youth finally agree on, period!
     It is our youth's destiny that I am fighting for and hopefully the rest of us longer living souls will be of the same mind. We must trust our youth to take us home with dignity as they trust their own knowledge that their future will affect their children's best interests. It is past time for us older ones to stop trying to get our way when that boat has already sailed. We need to get out of the way of our youth and let them show us just how intelligent and kind they are. If we keep trying to run the show we will find that our youth will go back to ignoring the demands of our democracy and republicans are just waiting for that!

Still high blue tide (#3932)

     Well the doubters are having to eat crow this morning and I say enjoy your well deserved meal. Anyone with a lick of sense would have seen this coming. There is always the initial getting away with things because of shock and other lame excuses but when republicans tried to tell us that shit don't smell we seem to have had enough of it. There are still pockets of ignorance out there with the Mississippi vote but they are the exception now not the rule. The blue wave coming is not stoppable, despite the vision republicans are getting with their heads up their asses.
     I am not overly confident here as I do remember the letdown and devastation of the expected victory and not getting it in 2016. Yet the surge from the ground afterwards has given me hope that the 2016 debacle was a one off. Our blue wave is here to stay and as long as we don't get cocksure about ourselves and our at times over zealous vision we will keep it riding high. There are many problems to fix and we can't do them all in the snap of the fingers. Time will have to play out but if we keep moving forward with a creatively designed and efficiently manufactured solution that works then our society will improve and benefit all who wish to participate.
     We democrats are good at enlightened thinking and progressing forward with our ideas of solving problems without the shackles of antiquity slowing us down. We need to be mindful of that and not the noise from the republican party who are only good at finding weaknesses and exploiting them to keep the powers that be in the luxury they are accustomed. Well we democrats are here now and our main objective is to protect our democracy from the republican/russian party and bring equality of opportunity to every paradigm of our society. Our blue wave is riding high because we democrats find that love is greater than hate and respect is greater than condescension.

Today is an important day (#3931)

     We have elections in several states today and for me the biggest one is in Virginia. the state house has been republican for quite a while but now it is on the cusp of being democratic for the first time in quite some time. The reason this is important to me is not only with a democratic governor and lieutenant governor ready to pass liberal/progressive policies but the redistricting that will happen in 2020 is being laid today. Whoever controls the House in Virginia will control the district lines. What we saw in 2010 when republicans swept to power and they controlled the district lines are still haunting us today. Their gerrymandering to the extreme caused for the minority republican party to be in control for nearly a decade.
     Well that should end today in Virginia as Virginians have been showing that they are tired of the austere and hateful approach that republicans demand. So when I get ready this evening to watch returns I am hopeful that Virginians will bring Virginia into a democratic modernity. The other race that is of some interest but may be a bridge to far to hope for is the governor's races in Kentucky and Mississippi. Both democrats are worthy candidates and have at least a decent shot at taking both seats. However these two southern states are not easily dissuaded from their republican ways and although the tide is against republicans right now It isn't easy to see us winning either or both. Yet hope prevails.
     The other state races offer some hope for the legislatures in each state to turn a bit more blue but not anything too optimistic here. Yet any and all races won by democrats is another step into the future for those states instead of staying in the past with republicans. I am not going to get excited by today's outcomes I am just going to keep working hard to make the 2020 presidential race all about electing democrats everywhere and anything that that supports that hope today will be nonetheless be most welcome.

Finally, less than a year until the election! (#3930)

     Okay, so it is only one day short of a year but for me it is a milestone. We are in the beginning of the end of trumps. No matter all the throes of despair coming from his supporters about civil war and hatred at the top of their lungs, all caps, the trumps are done. The polls are another thing to be wary of because we saw what happened last time and nothing about this years race lets me believe the polls have corrected their mistakes. What I do believe in is the anger that we Americans have for the russian loving republicans and their treachery to steal our democracy.
     There is no getting past the truth of how trump used russia to influence our elections last time. So anyone who would willingly support the republicans this time has deceit in their hearts. But this time they won't get a pass from me or any other democrat who has survived the trump coup. No amount of "let's be civil" will matter to us and the fact that republicans want us to accept them for just being an opposing political force is null and void. They are traitors and nothing short of harsh punishment is their deserves. This coming election will be about we democrats and independents who are either liberal, progressive, or both. there is no policy any republican conservative has offered that even comes close to a positive for the working middle poor class.
     Not only are republicans traitorous but they are trying to destroy our planet solely out of greed and ignorance. In their minds we the green revolution are just an attack on their wealth. They cannot see the dwindling forests for the few trees, literally! So despite all the noise that is coming and will come from the republican/russian party the truth of things have been told and although we get to see and hear more about the crimes of trump through the impeachment process we must not sit back at all for the next less than a year. I will sit back on election day when all the voting booths have closed. Until then it is all I have aimed at keeping our liberal/progressive message in policies at the forefront of our ever diverse societies minds.

No more profits off our misery dammit!!!!! (#3929)

     I am just plain tired of all the profit being made off our sick and infirmed citizenry! For profit health care used to be illegal. But a republican president, the notorious richard nixon changed that, http://healthoverprofit.org/2017/03/19/for-profit-health-care-used-to-be-illegal/. What kind of ghoul does that to people? A republican at heart is the kind! The republican party has been the worst of what humanity can become since its embrace of conservative policies. Conservative policies have no heart, just a big deep pocket for profits. Our democracy is being run roughshod over by the infecting of our capitalism by conservative viruses such that the fever pitch of greed has become common within our society.
     Well enough! Enough I say and I am not the only one saying it! This new generation coming up to the ballot box is one that has not known the virtue of regulated capitalism and positive social policies as a rule. All they have known is hardship and under appreciation, both in personal respect and in their wages. The time for them to add to the chorus of we whom have been screaming against conservative policies like austerity, deregulation and union busting is now. When this cycle of elections comes about starting next week we will see just how much we liberal/progressives have advanced our agenda. Common sense will prevail or we will not survive as a democracy.
     The fear of losing our democracy is real and many are feeling it with an angst. We each have only one vote and although one vote doesn't seem like much it is all powerful when the many of us do it together to affect positive change. There is only one demand that our democracy makes upon us and that is to vote. Too many have seen it as a voluntary act but when faced with the corruption and destruction of our society, voluntary act is not sufficient. It is a demand! We must all vote who are qualified and registered. There is no excuse that is acceptable to not voting and when we all realize this, we all will do whatever we have to do to make sure our vote is cast. Nothing must stop our resolve to vote and then we will see profit on misery go away!

367 days left until the next election day! (#3928)

     Because it is leap year next year it will be another torturous day added to the era of trump if somehow he escapes the senate impeachment verdict. The house will vote to impeach but the senate must vote by a two thirds majority to convict. If so then trump is out and pence becomes the new target for impeachment. However that turns out the coming election is a sure fire way of ending all that is trump and his despicable sideshow. The enablers of trump should be tossed out as well and with any good fortune we democrats ought to control government in every office at the federal level. Not only that but the many statehouses should go blue as well.
     At that time we can then look into impeaching one or two supreme court justices for their criminal actions in the past. That is for then but for now we have to endure the trump debacle as well as possible while putting the heat on him and the bright lights to his ulterior motives. There are plenty of bad acts by him to choose from but we must highlight the most egregious to our normalcy and constitution. We must never relent in our head on attack to his every move that is designed to weaken our resolve and inflict punishment on us for not bowing down to him.
     367 days is just one day more and then a full leap year he has to his appointed position. The last three years have been a miserable ache and pain in every sense for me and surely for the nearly 66 million who voted against him. The less than 63 million who voted for him surely as well has dwindled to far less than that if a vote were held today. His days are numbered and I am counting them down like a boss! What he gets after he is roundly defeated next year won't be enough to equal the harm he has done to our nation and our world. But the day is coming and what he does get will be given to him with a not a whit of care to his financial or physical discomfort!

Keep doing the next right thing (#3927)

     Nowhere in my life is there room for doing something out of step with the right thing. It, the right thing, has become my pattern. Surely I am not perfect and often catch myself acting or thinking differently than the next right thing but not with intentionality. Now some may say that my political views are not the right thing but I say back to them show me where any political policy or idea I agree with harms anyone other than those who would do harm. Please, show me and I will proudly defend my hope for all of us, not just some of us.
     So many in life are still looking for a purpose for their lives and given my experience with looking for a purpose let me say that helping anyone besides yourself is so much a powerful purpose as to dwarf anything else in existence. We, most all of us wonder why we are here in this existence but I say despite the why of it all there is the fact that we are here and what we do with this time does carry value. As we have seen with republicans like trump they don't hold to not harming others or to living by the next right thing credo. So if you want all the parts of who you are, your mind, body and soul to mesh into a harmonious coexistence then keep doing what is respectfully ethical, and morally objective.
     The time for playing fast and loose around the parameters of what we know as either right or wrong is nothing but a waste of time and leaves no good trail to follow. I am not one to push a particular philosophy on anyone but if we do no harm and allow our natures of curiosity and compassion to guide our lives we cannot fail to live to our fullest with purpose and little regret. I don't hold to any religious dogma or hoped for heaven but I do know I live here in reality and how I live is my example of fulfilling my own living destiny. That is plenty enough for me but in truth I wish we could have gone further into our space and time dominated Universe before my time to end draws upon me.