(#4747) 13 years ago today

      President Obama had been president for 11 days having just been inaugurated on January 20, 2009. That is when on January 31, 2009 I wrote my first bog post. I wasn't sure what I was going to do then but I knew I had to get things out of my head and down into print. I had no idea I would turn this new found outlet for my thoughts into a daily blog post but here we are. Now to be perfectly clear I did miss 4 days over the span of these 13 years but on the very next day of each missed day I posted 2 posts to make up for the missing one the day before. I guess I am OCD like that. lol.
     Yet as imperfect as I have been this daily blogging has been a perfect fit for me. Not only do I get to share what I think about this and that but I get to make points about who we are as a species and what we can do to become more like who we meant to be. I make it clear that we are of 2 major natures, compassion and curiosity, while attached to survival. All things flow from these 2 natures or lack thereof. So when People ask me why are other people less curious and caring, I say that they choose to be not who they are. Now it isn't a perfect answer but it is within the majority of us. There are some who are deficient in nature to be outside the choice model.
     I am no expert but I am conscience of my own experiences and a participant in society. I see what others are going through and can easily see myself in them. Still, I do not claim to know it all or be the most correct. Yet, I do challenge anyone to shake me from my point of view. This forum allows me to continue my quest to improve not only my own understandings but to show others that there is a way to understand existence without fear or myth. We are a curious species who care for each other in different ways. When we are doing that as a priority then all our troubles become few and further apart. My hope is for our species to be who we are naturally capable of, and not who we are manipulated to be.

(#4746) Keep deleting those spotify accounts

      We have the honor of our convictions to consider. Long ago I decided that I wouldn't be part of the machine that is tearing my democracy and my society apart. I shun those who are actively working to do this and I remove myself from those entities that do the same. I am not perfect at it but in general I am consistent. For instance, if an actor has come out and supported right wing idiocy I will not watch anything from that actor. If a restaurant donates to right wing causes that deny freedom to some then I will not consider them as an option for dining.
     There are only a few ways I can influence my love for democracy and for equality for all races and that is for me to deny to those my presence in their lives while also denying what few dollars I have from their misguided and harmful endeavors. I remove myself from their lives so that my life can be whole to my own ideals of fairness and justice. Some things are more important in life than being financially or culturally successful. Protecting our democracy and keeping the real nature of human beings intact for all human beings is one. I will not suffer being around those who wish to use me for their deviancy toward equality nor toward dismantling our democracy.
     So when Neil Young took a stand against spotify to remove his catalog of music from the platform because of right wing disinformation being spewed by a jackass on that same platform, I was happy about it. What Neil did was to stand on principle to remove himself from a deviant who he was being associated with. I am no member of a group of people that lie, steal, and cheat, for profit and now Neil has removed himself from that very same scenario. Other artists have joined him and hopefully many more will as well. There is only one way to stop a disease in our society and that is for all of us to condemn and remove ourselves from it's infection. Long live intelligent life and thank you Neil Young.

(#4745) Somewhat worried about our current senate majority

      After what happened to Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020, I have the same anxiety about two of our democratic senators who are really getting up in age. The less critical of the two is Dianne Feinstein. She is from a blue state that if something happened to her unexpectedly, she would be replaced with a democratic senator by the democratic governor of California Gavin Newsome. Which leads me to my main concern. If something were to happen to Patrick Leahy of Vermont, where The republican governor Phil Scott said in 2020 that if he replaced Bernie Sanders, who could have gotten a role in Biden's cabinet, he would put a left leaning independent in the senate seat.
     Now we all know that what someone says a while back under different circumstances should never be held as more likely since republicans often go back on their word. So my concern is that if something dreadful happened to Pat Leahy the republican governor of Vermont would likely advance an independent who would choose to caucus with republicans so that they would have a majority and take back the senate for the rest of this term. That would be disastrous with a supreme court seat being decided and ending all hope of a human infrastructure bill and a voting rights protections bill. Pat Leahy needs to find a way to keep his seat through the coming election and then the pressure will be off concerning an ill timed abrupt senate transfer of power.
     We democrats are already feeling the pressure of keeping the majority after the coming election and even now are feeling the pressure of keeping the majority before the election. Times are rather precarious and getting as much done as quickly as possible should be our agenda. The republican party will do nothing to help America further our agenda so going alone as quickly as possible should be our only priority. In the meantime we need to find a way to pass some voting rights protections that will get beyond manchin and sinema or the prospect of keeping that Georgia senate seat of Raphael Warnock will become a difficult if not impossible task.

(#4744) manchin and sinema had better get on board with Build Back Better!

      That manchin and sinema are now dead albatrosses around the neck of democrats the only way they can begin to remove themselves is to come to an agreement on the human infrastructure bill. They will always have that dirty dead bird smell to them but just how potent it is, is up to them. For the rest of us in the United States and around the world the need for climate provisions and child care actions are crucial. So maybe the two turncoats will have an awakening given they are both pariahs now and need some semblance of reconciliation with democrats going forward.
     The right to vote legislation is still an option in a different form but that may be too much to ask but ask we surely will but the human infrastructure bill is within reach and ready to go if brutus and mata hari can firnd their allegiance to the democratic party. I won't hold my breath over this as it took some real treachery for them to initially deny democracy a fighting chance plus their callous outlook on the working middle poor class. But hope does spring eternal and with at least sinema knowing that for now she has no shot at returning to the senate in 2024, if not otherwise already geared for a private position, may have to think long and hard about her future in public as a democrat.
     The next few weeks should give us some indication about what may still be salvageable out of voting rights protections and the human infrastructure bill. I expect there won't be any public displays of back and forth negotiating like last time and if an agreement is made, it will be done previous to any announcement. Those working the back channels now I hope are doing their best to make the two traitors to democracy understand that they are only digging a deeper hole by not working with democrats to make our society better. Their allegiance to the republican party through default is a disaster for them and a disaster for all the rest of us who love our democracy and want our citizens to have the best path forward in our pursuit of happiness.
     

(#4743) We are Biden's base and we aren't going anywhere!

      The republican party is a scourge to the land. Yet their narrative seems to stick because we democrats don't make the truth stick to them. Sure, some of us do but the many of us don't. We are either too busy with our miserable lives or we are too afraid of offending someone who has us captured in circumstance. So what to do about the narrative that democrats are no good at governing when the republican party is destroying everything in front of us and every thing we are trying to do to solve their induced problems behind us? We fight back and for one thing don't use their terminology. They say Biden's poll numbers are going down. I say republicans are undermining our efforts to keep people alive.
     They say that the economy is messed up with high inflation and lack of workers. I say that the republican party is keeping the virus alive so that it can harm working people and working people don't want to get infected and die. Inflation is a direct result of the virus slowing and stopping manufacturing and production to the point where costs rise because of lessening inventories. This is a direct result of not getting enough folks vaccinated. Which republicans are behind that nefarious effort. They say Biden's poll numbers are down. I say duh! Because the republican party is thwarting efforts to help improve them when they block legislation specifically aimed at the working middle poor class.
     But how can this be Carl, when if you say republicans are blocking and destroying our society that they are not being blamed? Well that is an easy one to answer because if the media doesn't accurately describe the truth of things the facts get lost in their narrative. For instance, Biden's poll numbers are going down as a headline without describing the nature of the drop. Increased fears of infections from the virus, lack of better paying jobs, no relief money for critical shortages in everyday Americans lives. These are all obstructions by republicans. So instead of saying Biden's poll numbers are going down how about say the real reason why our society is in turmoil is because of republican undermining of solutions offered by President Biden. Start defining the cause and not some random result because of it.

(#4742) We need to tame our wealthy or they will tame us!

      It isn't just the wealthy either, it is the front men who do their bidding. Much like trump was in the US and putin is in Russia. We need to put a wrap around them to stop them from killing people at their whim. We saw trump just let hundreds of thousands die from the pandemic because he didn't care to address it's seriousness. What we are seeing from putin on the Ukraine border is the same. He will attack and conquer Ukraine if he sees an advantage, politically and economically for himself. The same with trump as trump tried to corner the market on "cures" for Covid and an insurrection of our government. These types of bullies who are wimps, do the bidding of the wealthy.
     The wealthy like having unlimited resources flow their way. They are not democracy loving souls and instead would be much happier as oligarchs who can sway power with an electronic deposit. they don't want for all to have the American dream, instead they want all to be beholden to them. Now of course I am not throwing all the wealthy into this category but too many of them are and with their wealth and influence they keep political party's like the republican party busy doing their dirty work. If we cannot find a way to limit and reduce their influence and wealth we are asking to let ourselves be yoked to their vision of life, not a democratic one.
     Wealth is a measure of one's ability, good fortune and merit. Yet for wealth to also be a gauge for them to control our society is too much. We must put a cap on the amount of wealth any one person or entity can accrue. There are finite resources so we cannot have a few dominating the majority of those resources. We decide as a society how our future is to mature, not a few wealthy who only have their own interests at stake would define it. Not in the history of our United States of America have we had anything less than a democracy be our guiding governmental principles. For us to let that go now when the time to stop it is right now would be an epic failure on our part and a betrayal to all that our fore-parents fought to defend and preserve.

(#4741) Democrats are not perfect but republicans are fucking nuts!

      I don't know how much longer I can take this. We democrats promote policies that help an overwhelming majority of Americans while the republican party lies their asses off. Yet the republicans are assuming they are going to win the next round of elections this coming November. Not only do they think they are going to win but are already telling us what evil crap they will do when, not if, they get the power back. Now that is a confidence that has me dumbstruck. These republicans are the same ones who don't want democracy anymore and actually attempted coup to overturn the last election. They are also the ones who to a person denounce voter protections for all eligible American citizens.
     So they are crowing that they are going to win the next election. In normal logical times, I don't know if that ever existed here in the US, the party that has no policy agenda for the working middle poor class and was an insurrectionist party to boot would never even get 1 percent of the vote. Yet these cadavers think they will get the majority of the vote. It does speak to the ignorance of themselves and their base voters that they are even a viable alternative to a common sense caring democratic party. Yet here we are with an insane reality where the bad guys, republicans, get the girl, America.
     I know it is only January and much can happen in the meantime yet the arrogance of the republican party and the ambivalence voters seem to be accepting them is nonsensical. I am a rational logical person who keeps things simple so that I am understood when I call out the idiocy around me. Yet not even I can believe what is going on. People who are otherwise good and decent have let themselves be swept up in an irrational illusion of hatred toward others who they know little to nothing about. They are fed stereotypes and outright lies to feed this irrational hatred and now they are primed for voting for the republican party that is itself the real irrational, hating, anti democracy Americans, of our time. Do not be fooled by the republican liars who are claiming democrats are the ones who they really are!

(#4740) Still smarting from the backstabbing from manchin and sinema

      I have really tried hard to divert myself from the pain that manchin and sinema, and the republican party, inflicted on me personally and overall on our democratic form of government. I tend to take these subversive actions personally and feel the emotional crushing when it occurs. No doubt I am no different than the majority of us who were cast aside in the name of stupidity and callousness by republicans and these two unworthy figures within our democratic party. As time moves forward the actual physical feeling of betrayal and the gut punch feeling that went with it has subsided because I have to move on like all the rest of us.
     I have no clue as to how the rest of the politics in the senate will play out except to think that a cooling off period will prevail. With sinema being censored by Arizona democrats the mood in the senate may well take some time to cool off. But I know how Schumer is and he won't care either way. He will continue to push forward with voting rights legislation and build back better components for agreement. I expect that manchin and sinema will be less vocal about their agenda since they are feeling the wrath of we the people since their ill advised and traitorous vote last Wednesday evening.
     If I was a balloon last Wednesday morning full of air by the end of the night I was as deflated as a balloon could be. I still feel that way but with less intensity. Because although the pain smarted I have to move forward like Dr. King was wise enough to understand and counsel. We lost a really key battle in the war to save our democracy but the fight continues. It is as shameful as it could be for republicans to work so hard to deny voting rights protections through deceit and obfuscation but they see a vision where, despite their traitorous acts, they will still win elections. Which should remind us all that many of the electorate out there are not patriots for democracy like we think and they think they are.

(#4739) Know who you are in your core and then don't stray from that!

      I look around me and see so many people who have made noble courageous stands in their lives and then stopped being that person. It is incredible but understandable to me that they do. They knew who they were in that moment and then let it slip away like it was not worthy of keeping. I suggest it is a fear that overwhelms them so that they wither from their otherwise greatest event. We are not people who are one and done types. We get lost real quick from who we are when we shrink from who we are. There is no middle or different ground for us. We have to remain true to our virtues that inspire and defend the better and best of humanity.
     I know I have gone through that and the realization of it is crushing. I stood tall for what was right then backed off so to get away from the energy and power it required to stay there. I was scared and thought that my one example was good enough for the rest of my life. Well that is not true nor did my cowardice make it so. What I have figured out is that once a stand is taken there is no going back. I am who I am and no amount of pretzel logic will change that. It is refreshing by the way to know that being a warrior for the better and best of what humanity can be is the exact challenge I needed to fill alive and worthy. The fear that is always lingering in the background is now motivation for me to keep putting up the good and great fight.
     All of us need to get this part of our lives correct as quickly as it becomes an awareness. Don't change who you are because of all the insecurities we all carry around. Dismiss the insecurities and live in the courage of your convictions instead. Take no prisoners when it comes to defining your own life. If you are a rebel with a cause never stop being a rebel with a cause. If the cause is rectified then find another cause because correcting the wrong in life is your calling, regardless of the cause, and that is what will bring you to your best personage. It may be hard to be a fighter but if fighting is what is called for then the hard is just an obstacle to be overcome on your path to a just conclusion.

(#4738) How hard do we go after sinema now

     With a 50-50 senate and we democrats with the majority leadership, how hard do we go after Mata Hari sinema? We need her to stay in the democratic party for the duration of this Congress so that we don't hand the leadership of the senate back over to moscow mitch. Which could easily happen if we alienate sinema before then. I know how everyone feels because I feel the same. The anger inside me is palpable, yet the wisdom inside me is overruling my passion. But only for the time it takes for the next election to install a few more democratic senators, Around January 3, 2023. So I will have to bite off some of my tongue in order not to go full nuclear on her until then.
     Her term won't be up until the 2024 election results come in and she is either defeated in the democratic primary or in the general election. So there is time to hold my fire on her for the sake of the democratic agenda for the rest of this congressional term and then unleash upon her my pent up anger for her head shaking stance on denying voting rights when a solution was available to get around the republican party that caused the voting rights denials. Her contempt for the minimum wage is still stuck in my craw but the voting rights issue is beyond that and a real and possible threat to the continuance of our democracy.
     So I will lay low on my criticisms of her, not that I won't criticize her but I won't go full bore on her like I want to. I want to preserve with her and manchin remaining democrats through the end of 2022, so as to keep what little progress we can make with them possible. Never have I had such thoughts about a member of the democratic party that was on par with them being just like republicans. The worst of us democrats in the past had always been able to come around to argument and common sense sense. Not these two though and especially sinema who thinks somehow she is a wise old veteran of the senate even though she was just elected in 2018 to her first term. I can to a greater extent understand manchin but not one bit do I absolve him. But with sinema the dynamics are different and her penchant for being petty is to be considered.

(#4737) The death of bipartisanship was reaffirmed Wednesday night

     Even now Joe Biden gets it. I know he meant well and even offered some modicum amount of hope to we cynics who have known for decades that bipartisanship was dead. I write this blog under the name of "Man of Hope" so I at times still like to believe that the worst of us isn't the normal. Yet, that modicum of hope was always salted with the reality that it was just that, a hope, not a probability. Well after the votes from Wednesday night on voting rights protection legislation, something that both parties should be at the front of the line to protect, was defeated with no republican senator voting at all for anything proposed, the facts are clear that working together is an illusion not a reality.
     With the emotional loss of voting rights protections the plan now is to scramble everywhere with defining the narrative that republicans can only win when they deny eligible American citizens of the right to vote. If after that fact becomes universally known here in America and we democrats still lose the midterms then the reality will be that America is no longer a democracy. Because if the republican party can knowingly deny the citizens of America the right to vote and they still get a majority of the votes then the idea that enough of us care to want a democracy becomes the illusion. From Wednesday night until November 8th 2022, we will find out one way or the other.
     If somehow we Americans do end up fighting harder for our democracy and overcome the republican traitorous ambitions then the future will look bright for those of us who know that The United States of America is better as a democracy than a white nationalist government. Instead of being the United States of Inequality, we will have found ourselves with a great opportunity to bypass the manchinema and actually do away with the filibuster in the senate then all the correct things that need to be done will get done. Like admitting DC and Puerto Rico into our union as the 51st and 52nd states. Healthcare for all. Immigration reform. Reintroducing voting rights protections. Police reform. Minimum wage increases. The list goes on and on so get motivated and help elect at least 2 more democratic senators while holding the House and all our dreams may come true this coming November.

(#4736) The betrayal in the United States of Inequality

      My immediate reaction when it was brutus manchin's turn to vote for keeping the senate rules as they are with his yes vote was to slam down my arm on my armchair and let out a curse. I knew then that our democracy is now in peril. It was anti climatic when it was mata hari sinema's turn to stand up and bellow out her yes vote. Yet her ill defined bellow was indicative of her ignorance for all to see. I resolved to myself in that moment that despite those two and the other 50 republican senators who just played dumb to the effect they had caused, that I would be like Dr. King and fight on no matter the obstacle. Thus becoming more like my brothers and sisters of color who have had to deal with these moments for centuries here in the United States of inequality.
     The emotional range I experienced the last two days in the run up to the vote last night was full of hope but also expecting the worst. Yet when the worst actually happened it hit me like the night Bobby Kennedy was assassinated or when the vote count in Florida went against Al Gore or even recently when on election night it became apparent that trump would win the electoral count in 2016. A gut punch that nearly took my breath away. I am a fighter so I know what punches feel like. Some punches are nothing. No matter where they land the impact is barely noticed yet others like a cold cock, kick in the nuts, or a gut punch feel intensely debilitating. Such was last night when republicans, with help from brutus manchin and mata hari sinema voted to deny millions of eligible Americans, specifically folks of color, the aged and infirmed, students, and the poor their right to cast a ballot.
     I finally fell asleep after tossing and turning for a few hours and for the most part I slept through the night with little mental anguish. I suppose because despite my earlier hopefulness I anticipated the worst to such a degree that my mind and heart were reasonably prepared. This is now the next day and although I don't know what the immediate future will be to marching forward with resolve, I do know that I am ready to do so. For all of us who felt the same kind of betrayal last night we are hopefully even more determined to make republicans pay for their theft of one person one vote. As to the two democratic senators who voted with republicans last night I won't say anything about them but do know this every action has an inverse equal reaction. That will never be forgotten when it comes to betrayal!
     
     

(#4735) One hope left for our upcoming elections...

      I hate to say it but we are going to have to count on the state and federal judiciary to get us out of this mess that republicans, plus manchin and sinema, have made for our democracy. It really is more than a mess since it will be the end of our democracy short of a civil war or declaration of martial law. All it would take to avoid this is for 10 republicans to vote with democrats to pass a voting rights protection bill or for manchin and sinema to agree with the rest of their senate democratic colleagues and do a carve out of the senate discriminatory rule, the filibuster.
     I get why the manchin and sinema do not want to end the racist filibuster rule in order to protect minority rights but there will be no effective minority to protect if we do not protect voting rights. The logic is clear, by protecting the filibuster from a carve out rule the two democratic senators, manchin and sinema are allowing democracy to die. There really is no analogous simile that I can think of except maybe the old cutting off your face to spite your nose axiom. To save the filibuster from a carve out, which by the way keeps the filibuster intact for everything it currently covers, except now not for voting rights protections, will effectively end our democracy and the need for a filibuster rule to begin with.
     So it will be down to the courts to keep us from a self induced imploding. The republican party is being protected by the media so they are not held to account for their diabolical strategy to usurp power and make the many of us beholden to them and their white wealthy donors. Somehow the courts will have to muster the strength to call out these voter suppression laws with authority or the end result will be to leave nothing left for democrats to do but look at extreme constitutional protections that will attempt to combat the republican assault on our democracy. Either that or we go down as sheep who would not fight for the better and best that our fore parents bled and died for.

(#4734) The media just goes along like nothing is going to change with our democracy

      Watching the cable news this morning I don't see any warnings of impending doom from the republican attack on our democracy. Nor do I see any admonishing of Manchin and Sinema for their upcoming no votes on a filibuster carve out. Like everything is just honky dory. So as our democracy begins a great fall like humpty dumpty the media is just moving along with their mundane stories as if nothing is happening. I suppose I should have known they would downplay and ignore the reality of the death grip republicans are applying right now on the neck of our democracy because the media had stopped being about social justice and upholding democratic norms long ago.
     The big issue with the media is to make money and appease their owners, who are greedy conservatives, trump backing, working middle poor class haters. I will tune in over on Cspan2 this morning to watch republicans vote unanimously to defeat voting rights legislation and then watch two democrats, Manchin and Sinema tell the other 48 democratic voting senators to fuck off on passing a carve out to protect voting rights. This seems like I will be forcing myself to be depressed but that ship has already sailed. What I will be doing though is building up my anger to a point where both Manchin and Sinema will never again get the benefit of the doubt about anything they do for the rest of their miserable democracy killing lives.
     I will mark this day in history as the day our democracy died and although it has been being killed little by little for generations by republicans this is the day it truly is incapable of drawing another breath. We are doomed we democrats who have fought so hard for equality and equity. We will go out with a valiant effort in November with tremendous turnout but now that repuboic8ans in the states will be able to change votes, deny votes, and even overturn state elections we who have loved our democracy are now going to see its demise. I am older and not long for this world that is going to bullies and cruel masters but I feel so bad for the coming generations who will feel the brunt of our failure to protect democracy and all the good it affords to all citizens, not just to the wealthy and the corporate media whores.

(#4733) Today will be a hard day

      Today is Dr. Kings birthday and much of what happens today will be about his life and the struggle for voting rights he so gallantly fought for. Yet we have the manchinema in our democratic party that has so far stood firm against the fight that Dr. King gave his life for. These two hollow people, joe manchin and kyrsten sinema, two democrats who could change the arc of justice toward a better outcome have decided that they won't and instead will change the arc of justice toward the worst of what humans can be in a democracy. They will not fight for voting rights for all and instead will deny voting rights for many.
     Two people who are not worthy of anything of any good report. They need to be disgraced with every breath any of us take. Two people who have sold their souls to anti democratic forces. For what? I can't see what the great payoff is for being a traitor to democracy? What is their equivalent 30 pieces of silver? They can claim no moral nor political high ground by choosing to deny American citizens the right to vote! They cannot say that they are justified in their decision to disenfranchise what could amount to millions of voters losing their right to vote. Not republican voters per se but mostly black and brown democratic voters. Can you say racism is not involved by these two white senators?
     So as the recognition of Dr. Kings legacy is intoned by many, yes even republicans will try to embellish themselves through Dr. King, the underlying fact that manchin and sinema are letting the spirit of Dr. king down permeates the day. I have lived to see the day when two democratic senators chose the anti democratic vision of the republicans over the enlightened fighter of democratic ideals. The shame of manchin and sinema should never be forgiven and they should be cast aside when all the dust settles on the republican takeover of our democracy and a new white nationalist political paradigm becomes the new normal because of them.

(#4732) The roberts court will stink in the annals of history

      For a guy who wanted to have a good legacy under his leadership well that isn't going to happen. Between the ending of voting rights protections decisions of the last decade and the dumbest decision this decade of denying governmental power to keep our society safe from a pandemic, the roberts court is pooping all over the place. Next to come is the end of Roe where the church has taken over our secular society and is now dictating what equal rights mean, The label of worst court in history is forming in my mind. That roberts is not keeping this court on track with stare decisis and objective constitutional interpretation is his downfall.
     He can explain it any way he wants but the outcome of the votes are devoid of his excuses. He cannot control the right wing of the court and should quit pretending that he can. If any one should be arguing for an expansion of the court it should be roberts. But he won't because beyond all his posturing to being a non partisan objective thinker he is a conservative in his soul and that will always be more important to him than being a better person. Sure you can argue that he saved Obamacare and several other controversial votes he made for the public good but now the curtain has been pulled back and he doesn't need to use a strategy of faking objectivity.
     He will allow the conservative majority on the court to dictate the future of our society based upon their god driven agenda that by the way they believe little in. Yet by fake believing in a god they have drawn to them allies they do not want to let go of. For reasons other than principle and honor. Our future looks bleak with this court and for all the warnings we the many have been sounding about the republican takeover of our government the proof of that is in effect now. What can we do to change the outcome of the roberts democracy destroying court? We can vote every republican out of office and then pass laws that nullify the court and then pack the court through busting the filibuster and making life good again.

(#4731) The fucking national media!

      I see the headlines and they suck! Not because of how awful decisions are made by republicans and a few democrats, but because Biden has had a bad couple of days. So it's Biden's fault that the scourge of our nation the republican party and a few democrats are traitors to democracy? How is that? It isn't, and once again it proves how the wealthy owned national media is blaming Biden for the actions of the cowardly republicans and greedy wealthy media assholes! But if you control the narrative like the national media then you can spin this anyway you want. We know the wealthy do not want democratic principles to guide our democracy. Instead they want an autocratic society wherein they are the only ones, along with their republican bootlickers, to control our society.
     You even see it on the not supreme court decision to nullify Biden's attempt to keep workers safe. The republican controlled not supreme court has sided with the virus over common sense. The republican party is a disease and must at some very soon time be cut out of our lives if we the body politic are to survive with our democracy. The media spins this as a loss for Biden and a loss for other democrat politicians but in truth it is a loss for our citizenry. We are losing fundamental rights to have our government protect us from a raging virus over some absurd notion that individualism trumps collective protection. So in the dumb republican majority courts mind it is liberty to catch the virus and pass it on to others who are not allowed the same liberty from the virus.
     Does the media report this with the outrage that the rest of us out in the public feel? Hell to the no they don't and instead they focus on how Biden has lost. It isn't Biden's fault that asshole republican politicians and court members hate the working middle poor class. It is they who are at fault for these loses of voting rights and protections against a deadly virus. Our nation is a shameful one at the moment and it has nothing to do with democrats or Biden. This is all on the republican party and the wealthy media who would rather lie, cheat, and steal to keep power than be part of the great experiment called democracy!

(#4730) brutus joe manchin and mata hari kyrsten sinema

      As quickly as it positively began yesterday morning in the House to pass the John Lewis Freedom to vote act it abruptly ended just as fast as brutus and mata put their seal of disapproval on it coming to the Senate. The deflation by these two democratic senators was palpable. We all felt it as nothing less than a stab in the back and a betrayal of our democratic principles. Never before in my lifetime has such a non divisive issue been so thoroughly snubbed by the traitorous republican party and two members of our own democratic party. It is akin to being attacked by a foreign entity and these 52 senators deciding to do nothing about it.
     I am unsure as to how to proceed but I do know this that if these two senators and or any two republican senators do not change their professed votes then what the 2022 election will bring is chaos and disenfranchisement. The voter suppression laws already passed in the states are just the beginning of the landslide of voter suppression laws that are to come before the election in November occurs. With state legislatures just now starting to convene the voter suppression opportunities will be endless without the passing of the federal voting rights protections bill. For me this will all land on the head of brutus manchin and mata hari sinema. I have no hope that any republican senator would put democracy ahead of their own ambitions.
     So the vote that Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer had hoped would sway brutus and mata is still coming but I do not see how they will change their stated positions. For going forward this is what I can perceive. brutus and mata will forever be labeled as the destroyers of democracy in the annals of American history. But what we democrats must do is not give up and fight like there is no future because there will not be a future for democracy if we don't somehow outvote the republicans by such overwhelming numbers that the theft of our upcoming elections by republicans will be most impossible to achieve. Whatever we each have to do to get our vote to the ballot box is our number one priority and nothing else can dissuade us from doing just that!

(#4729) And so it begins...

      This morning the House will take up a "message" bill that combines the John Lewis voting rights bill and the Freedom to vote bill. It should pass the House through democratic votes and then be sent to the Senate. The difference here with it being a "message" bill is that it doesn't need to pass the Senate filibuster rule in order to be debated. However it does need to pass the Senate filibuster rule after debate but at minimum all senators will have to go on the record with a vote either for voting rights protections or against them. We expect that there will not be 10 republican senators who will vote to pass the legislation and when the bill does fail then democrats can go to the filibuster carve out formula and put their own members on record.
     At this moment it appears that both Manchin and Sinema will vote no for the crave out and then what happens after that is anybody's guess although I do believe the President has some economic actions he can take against states that have approved voter restriction laws. Regardless, both Manchin and Sinema will be on record with their votes so they will not be unscathed by the backlash that will follow. It is appropriate for both of them to be pilloried, along with their like minded republican colleagues, for their inability to protect democracy from those who are about to destroy it. I have long clamored for this to happen because it isn't enough for Manchin and Sinema to just say they won't vote for a carve out to protect voting rights it is necessary to put them on record for all time for the world to see!
     I am awaiting now this early morning for C-span to pick up the coverage of the House beginning it's work this morning just a few minutes from now and seeing the process for passing the "message" bill. I hope that both Manchin and Sinema are getting an earful as to their intransigence for voting yes on the filibuster carve out for voting rights protections and when the time does come for their votes that they have made a different calculus as to their historical positioning. Being labeled as a democracy killer for all time can have a residue that would force one to consider a different option. Be it as it may we will in the next many hours know the fate of our democracy!

(#4728) Our democracy deserves defenders, not destroyers!

      The democratic party has been trying to defend our democracy through legislation that would protect voting rights. The republican party has been trying to destroy our democracy by undermining voting rights in republican controlled states. There, you have the real world on today's politics. There is no dispute here just smoke and mirrors from the republicans who don't want you to know this simple reality. How can this be you say? How is it that the republican political party in our democracy is trying to destroy democracy? I can answer that through this simple explanation as well. The republican party cannot win voters over with their policies so they are trying to deny democratic voters the right to vote.
     I know it sounds absurd right? Why won't the republican party just forward policies that are attractive to voters and then win elections based on those democratic values? Because the current iteration of the republican party is not a true political party for the people. Instead they are a political party that is beholden and controlled by the wealthy and greedy. The current republican party has shed it's mask of pretending to support positive values and now instead are working to create negative confusion and chaos. So those who still support the republican party out of some blind allegiance or through an incompetent understanding of their worth need to reawaken to their own reality.
     If the many of us who grew up admiring our founding fathers are still motivated by their patriotism then we need to not only protect our democracy as defenders but we must defeat the destroyers who would take from us our democracy. There is no in between position on this. We either save our democracy or we lose it. It is another very simple fact. I cannot be more plain in describing the situation we are in. If you take our democracy for granted then be prepared to lose it. If you don't take our democracy for granted then be prepared to fight to keep it. In fighting we can do the easiest defense possible for now and that is to vote for all democrats on the ballot. Otherwise the reality we will have after the election later this year will be a dismantling of our democracy one.

(#4727) We will never forgive Manchin and Sinema if they fail us

      There are some things in life that are unforgivable and not protecting democracy with a simple yes vote is one of them. The duty of a US senator is to lead our democracy into a better place than when they found it. Just such a moment is upon us and it is not just some policy moment either. It is a democracy ending event if they fail to join their democratic colleagues in defending the right to vote for all citizens under the law. They will have abdicated their duty to our freedoms and liberties by protecting a senate rule that has no practical value in a democracy. All this rule does is stop the majority of good will democrats from not only passing much needed economic legislation but to protect the foundational democracy we live in.
     The shameless and treasonous republican party has rejected fairness and equality for US American citizens and cannot be counted upon to keep our society and our constitution safe. Therefore it is upon we who caucus in the democratic senate to push past the obstructionist republicans and force new laws that actually improve the lives of our citizens while making life more equitable in our society. A win/win if we can get both the voting rights protections bills passed and the human infrastructure bill passed. But we have 2 senators that are within our democratic caucus who think they are the only arbiters of our society and refuse to consider the devastating consequences of their failure to join in advancing American democracy.
     Manchin and Sinema are not only failing to advance our democracy but they are actually helping republicans to destroy it. They cannot seem to gather enough brain cells between the 2 of them to understand the corruptible complicity of their inaction. A vote is coming to pass the voting rights protection bill soon and when the republicans defeat it because of the filibuster another vote will follow afterwards. This second attempt will be to change the rules of the filibuster to allow for a simple majority vote for voting rights legislation. When Manchin and Sinema vote no on that and the vote fails is when the eternal unforgiveness begins for them.

(#4726) Is this the week that Manchin and Sinema agree to voting rights protections?

      Voting rights protection legislation is all coming to a head this week. Either we will see some positive movement on this crisis that republicans have instigated or we will see the republican party claim some twisted logic for denying voters the right to vote. One or the other will happen after this week is done. Senate majority leader chuck Schumer has given until MLK day or before, January 17, which is next Monday, for a vote to offer voting rights protections. So this week will give us an answer as to if Manchin and Sinema will agree to a voting rights protections carve out of the archaic senate filibuster rule.
     We democrats have been trying to get this type of legislation passed since early this last summer. 4 times the voting rights protection bills have been introduced only to be blocked by republicans who used the filibuster to block any consideration of voting rights protections. We know why. Since republican led states have been passing voter restrictions to keep democrats from freely voting. So why would the national republicans do anything to stop the red states from gaining an advantage? We know that the republican party cannot win elections if they are free and fair so that is their strategy to keep democrats from voting so that they can squeak out their victories.
     So when Chuck Schumer puts the voting rights protection bill up for a vote this week, no doubt all republicans will vote against it except maybe one. The result will be another voting rights bill blocked by republicans. So then Chuck Schumer will put up a vote for a carve out of the filibuster for voting rights protections and all 50 senators in the democratic caucus will need to vote yes for the rule change. We all  know by now that Manchin and Sinema are against a rule change to the filibuster but this time they will have to actually cast a vote to prove it. If they vote no then the Biden agenda is crippled and most likely lost. If they vote yes then the Biden agenda is given a fresh breath of air and the American people will get their democracy back.

(#4725) My favorite distraction

      I used to be a sports guy who couldn't wait for daylight so that I could go outside to some baseball/football field or basketball court in order to get my juices pumping and work on my skills. But that wasn't the only way I could change up my world as a distraction. As time went by the sports part of my life diminished because of aging. But when I was young I had another distraction that has not faltered over the years to any aging or time weariness. The sensation of an organized, mostly lol, noise called music. Now my favorite organized noise is rock music. Those of us of an age know of all the great rock bands from the early 60's to even now although not as nearly many now.
     The beauty of music regardless of the genre is that we have most all of the classics on recording. So digging deep into the archives we find 1000's of songs that bring such memories that we are taken back to a time that brings a smile to our faces and an invigoration to our souls. The remembrance of times past, evoked by songs that shook us to the core, is a by product of our love for particular songs. I listen to some classic song and back I go to a place where the first hearings had me utterly. My whole life's philosophy is shaped by the lyrics of songs along with a vast wealth of historic philosophical teachings. There is no doubt that the generation I grew up in could have been one of the greatest in the history of human time had we all not lost ourselves to the core of our musical beginnings.
     I look at my baby boomer generation and ask myself what the fuck happened to the many of us? We were a marvel at being part of the most insightful and imaginative music generation that helped direct us toward a new way of life. Yet time and space must have worn us down because not only did we not change the failures within our societies we began to help increase them. Not only am I disappointed in my generation on whole but I am in myself as well for not doing enough to keep us on a correcting path. Our music never let us down, we let our music down. We failed as adults to take the beauty and magnificence our music defined for us to a practical conclusion. I still go back and listen to our music so as not to let myself fail again and to keep up the good fight our music still inspires!

(#4724) How to separate from angry illogical republicans

      We all face this particular dilemma. How do we separate ourselves from family and friends that otherwise are kind and loving but have the political sense of a rabid dog. I know what I have done that helped me to move away from them. When they are family it is much more difficult depending upon our relationship with them. On the most difficult ones I had to bite my tongue several times and let them vent their nonsense but not agree with them by saying I don't discuss politics with anyone. I made a point of not disagreeing with them but also not agreeing with them. I just let them hear their own words and then changed the subject.
     Over time however I moved away from them. I missed them but I could not let them browbeat me into accepting their disjointed hateful rhetoric. When they were racist or misogynist I calmly corrected them by saying we are all the same so color and gender are not degradations nor privileges. I would stop at that point and then change the subject again. What that accomplished is the reduction to elimination of racist and gender comments in jokes and angry statements when I was present. I planted my flag on the idea that we are all the same. This is all about timing so making sure you can separate yourself from them while not harming you in ways that you depended upon them previously.
     It is always better to not be around people that proliferate hate and belittling as a rule. You have to find your own way in life so working to become independent of others is always a benefit to you. That way you can be who you want to be without worrying whether you will pay a price that is too steep too pay. The control of your own life gives you the opportunity to become who you are and that is the greatest feeling to have when you can speak your mind without fear of reprisal because family or friends hold sway over you. I am separated from so many of my family and friends because of their republican political leanings that not only hurt others but hurt themselves. I did that when I no longer was in their debt as to how my day to day life operated.

(#4723) The republican rot from the inside of our democracy

      Most all of my life I have been railing against the targeted nature of republican politics to destroy the backbone and muscle of America and now it is coming so that all can see who will look. From the denial of Covid procedures designed to protect us to open aggression aimed at our functioning democracy, let alone the decades of diminishing our working middle poor class of any equity and equality for all. From racial disparity to undermining women's equal rights, the republican party has been a scourge on democratic norms for nearly 70 years. My last 50 years of making the case that republicans are antithetical to modernity and enlightenment has mainly fallen on deaf ears.
     But that has not dissuaded me from finding an audience to converse with about the nefarious republican party. They strategically cloak themselves in civilized narratives that either downplay their agenda or mask it. They are a pompous lot who have lost the last semblance of conscious self criticism in order to fulfill their dire agenda to deny democratic norms with their tortured illogic. They will pat you on the back and say nice things to you but in their policies they show who they are. No increase in the well below poverty federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. No voting rights protections and instead voting rights limitations. I could go on but you get my drift.
     The republican party does not serve democratic ideals nor do their constituents who vote for them without considering their history. I have two cousins who said they always vote for republicans because that is what they have always done. Sad but true. They put their blind loyalty ahead of light of day logic. I don't know how to convince them otherwise but maybe Covid will do that for me. It is true that Covid is no believer in ideology so as they put their faith in a republican party that doesn't serve them so shall their risks be grave. It doesn't even matter to them that republicans are denying the vote and are trying to subvert our democracy. They just don't want to admit they were wrong, and break their streak of voting for republicans.

(#4722) The unvaccinated need shit on their heads!!

      My mother, who is still alive, has gotten used to the fact of my foul language and I suppose I should be grateful for that. :) Yet, nothing she has tried to get me to stop being a foul mouthed fucker has worked. :) It isn't that I don't understand her argument of being civil and discussing my disdain in a well mannered way, it is just I have tired that and it doesn't relieve the pent up anger I have at cruel, ignorant assholes. Plus, I find that being as crude as possible about the deranged seditious idiot society killers is a bonus so that they fully understand my position. Let there be a "no doubt" kind of understanding.
     Which brings me to the unvaccinated pieces of shit that inhabit our virus plagued planet. If only they would just succumb to their idiocy in way that is richly full of karma. Yet instead they survive and then infect others while taking up too many slots in hospitalizations that should otherwise go to those more worthy of medical care. You see I don't have any, and I mean any, sympathy for those who refuse to get protections through vaccinations and mask/social distancing practices. Why would I when they are the ones keeping the virus from being eradicated? I am no one's fool and will never be theirs.
     So if the virus won't end them outright I will call for their heads to be covered in shit. Because that is what they are, shitheads! It isn't enough for the butthole enablers of viral death to get a pass while the rest of us continue to fight this pandemic. They are the reason this pandemic is still going after 2 years. So any time I can call them some vulgarity I am more than ready to oblige. I am a good honest decent person except to those who want to kill me. Then I am a one man wrecking crew who has no fear of fighting, literally or figuratively, at the drop of a hat. I may not be the stud I was 40 years ago but never underestimate the power of my anger and it's utility in pushing me beyond the expected!

(#4721) The battle for the soul of the United States of America

      Who are we as a nation and will we become something far worse? I have been confounded over the decades how citizens can keep voting for the republican party even though they represent a harsh and cruel vision. They disdain others that are not white. They disdain women of all colors. They only pretend to love the fetus while hating the newborn. For the life of me I cannot figure out who we are as a people when the republican party continues to be a force in our daily lives and national politics. For me it is as simple as a fight between good and bad with the good being we democrats and like minded independents against the bad being republicans and independents that support them.
     If you think I am being overly dramatic just check my premises. The democratic party is about bringing equity and equality to our democracy while the republican party is all about destroying democratic norms and installing an autocratic form of government that gives advantage and privilege to the deserving within the white race over all others. Are we so devoid of modernity that we are allowing ourselves to become enslaved to class systems that grade human beings through prejudicial and illogical paradigms? Are we so devoid of humanity that being a human being is now antithetical to our real selves? I am dumbfounded as to how to think of our species anymore.
     This has been echoed for decades, we must destroy the republican political party and all of its benefits of doubt. There is no good in the republican party, period, there is only a hidden for the most part hatred of democracy because our democracy allows for all to participate. The republican party does not want that. They want a white nationalist party that crows of its successes, which are minimal, while denying and white washing their failures, which are plentiful. That a huge majority of us is not demanding the end of the republican party is a catastrophic dilemma that may well turn out to be the end of the good of our society because our society is too inept to know to protect its own soul.

(#4720) The urgency of now

      Getting a voting rights protection bill done in time for the new district line drawings and the upcoming primary elections is crucial. Otherwise the solution to the red states making voting difficult to impossible for American citizens will become our reality. It isn't that difficult to understand that the red states that are governed by republican legislatures are passing these restrictive laws through simple majority votes while Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are demanding more than simple majority vote to stop them. While these two democrats are democrats, they sure are acting like republicans.
     Thus the urgency of now. Both Manchin and Sinema must finally come over to join the rest of the democratic caucus in the senate to support legislation protecting voting rights. A senate rule should never outweigh the defense of our democracy and Manchin and Sinema should be aware of this by now. So this week and into next week work will continue to get legislation to the senate floor that will neuter the red state attack on our most fundamental right under a democracy, the right to vote. I hope that all those who support voting rights protections will do nothing else these coming weeks but fight for the upcoming legislation.
     The republican party as it is currently made up is not going to lift a finger to help those who would be denied the vote because the republican party thinks that those who would be denied the vote would likely vote against them if their voting rights are allowed. Think about that for a moment. We have a major political party working overtime to deny citizens the right to vote because they know those citizens will likely vote against them. The most egregious cowardly act by a miserable traitorous republican party, yet they persist to destroy democracy and the rights of American citizens. No doubt they should never again receive a vote on any level yet they have their base who will support them through democracy killing acts and seditious actions against our government.

(#4719) Voting rights protections take center stage this week in the senate.

      Today Chuck Schumer, the senate majority leader, will begin the process of getting a voting rights bill on the floor for a vote. Initially the vote will be on breaking the 60 vote threshold, otherwise known as the filibuster. Once the vote takes place and all 50 republicans vote against it as is widely predicted, because republicans do not want to protect voting rights and instead want to deny folks from the vote and gerrymander the heck out of our country, By gerrymander I mean draw districts that favor them at the expense of fairness and equity. Every 10 years after the US census new districts are drawn to reflect the changes to our states populations.
     With the republican party in charge of more than half the state legislatures they have passed many hundreds of bills to decrease voting opportunities and make it more difficult to have fair electoral districts. We democrats have tried to be fair in our apportionment of district inclusions and although some may not be perfectly fair they are at least consistent with a fair process. The republicans on the other hand are consistent in their blatantly obvious unfair and inequitable district line drawing. because not only are republican politicians corrupt in their actions their base voters are not holding them to account over it.
     So when the republican party votes down the bill Schumer presents the next phase is for a carve out of the filibuster for a solution. What that carve out looks like we will see this week. It may take longer for a final process to become clear but the hope is that enough of a motivation will be accrued to get the manchinema to agree to something that allows the voting rights protections bills to get an up or down majority vote. I am cautiously optimistic that something will happen but like all things manchinema the prospect of a deal coming from them is always full of disappointment. Yet the future of our democratic republic is on the line so I would hope they would choose to be patriots to democracy and help get a voting rights protections bill passed into law.

(#4718) The curious nature of not being curious

      I don't get it. I have been curious about everything most of my life so how can it be that some just don't care to know anything unless it is a survival mode moment? I wanted to write on this subject but have no clue as to how to define a human being with no natural instinct to learn. I keep coming back to psychology and broken behavior but that isn't it either. Just because someone has no emotional or broken emotional experience doesn't keep them from learning how to live in existence. It has to be something deeper in the soul that would allow someone to just give up on life and do nothing but rail at the sky and all under it with little to nothing of fact.
     I know that the sciences work because when I was young I began to apply, for instance, math and biology to my own personal problems and found that they were the solutions to my problems. So initially I was raised to accept logic and the sciences as fact and protect them as my foundation for learning. I have never once considered that they were not the foundation for understanding. Sure they are always being tweaked as to new knowledge but the base of learning has always been the sciences and their logical conclusions. All of that said, it is my curiosity that drives the motivation behind all my learning. So for me to not have that curiosity is to be incomplete and mostly irrelevant.
     Incomplete and mostly irrelevant, which is how I view anyone who doesn't show a modicum amount of curiosity in any pertinent way. But why do they not show that curiosity? How is it that a person can be alive in this existence, which is time sensitive and short to boot, and not be curious about everything around us? Are they so broken as humans that their minds are incapable of common curiosity? Or are they as stubborn as a mule who will not move another inch for no other reason than to just not move? Probably the latter since they eventually do move. I don't know and for that I am still curious as to why they are. I will have to live with not knowing for now and maybe somebody else can answer it for me.  later down the road.

(#4717) Manchin and Sinema can start the year off correctly by backing the Biden agenda

      A great way to start our year is to hear that Manchin and Sinema have agreed to deals on the human infrastructure bill and voting rights protection bills. There is no indication I have seen that this could happen but what I also haven't heard is any more denials by either of them during this holiday period of not backing them. Which gives me pause to maybe hope a little bit since it is like a cooling off period for both to be able to reassess their previous obstructive positions. I have no doubt that the backlash to their intransigence has been long and hard so maybe they will be seeing things differently in this new beginning of 2022. So much is riding on this election year that the pressure to get something done quickly will happen.
     However, I am no Pollyanna nor neophyte. The odds are that both Manchin and Sinema are still confounding to our party and gleefully perceived by the republican party. We will see in the return to the senate next week just how much either of them has moved toward saving our society and our political party they are members of. It is like a disconnect with them, a cognitive dissonance to a point where the real alternative of return to republican control rests on their remaining obstacles to Joe Biden and his majority fueled agenda. Neither Manchin or Sinema can claim any high ground here in the face of their prioritizing the filibuster over protecting our democracy and providing for our populace yet the do persist in doing so. It is my hope that they have seen the reality of their defiance and will acquiesce.
     This new year is just starting off, less than a handful of hours old but it can become a new year of great possibilities if the two currently illogical senators will join their other 48 "democratic" colleagues and pass the house bills waiting for them to back. Such jubilation will be felt if they do so and may even wash away all the bad feelings they have put upon we the people. I am for forgiving them if they choose to join us and although I won't forget what they put us through I will forgive and move on to happier days. Yet my wish for this to happen is not enough to make it so and if they continue to obstruct we all must put our shoulder to the wheel and move them forward beyond their own obstinance and inability to reason rationally.