(#6236) I wish the US had a Zelenskyy and not a trump!

      The differences between the president of Ukraine and the president of the US is stark! 180° examples in leadership and character. With Zelenskyy Ukrainians get a man who is honorable and courageous. When the invasion of Ukraine by Russia started in February 2022, Zelenskyy was at a massive military disadvantage as over 250,000 Russian troops were at his northern border ready to attack key cities, including the Ukrainian capitol city of Kyiv. Zelenskyy for his part didn't hesitate to stand firm in his commitment to the Ukrainian people. He didn't leave with a plane full of treasure. He stood his ground and told putin there would be no Ukrainian capitulation.
     Zelenskyy was the leader whom Ukraine needed at that moment because he didn't go hide from the murderer putin, instead he organized his nation into a defensive stance and readied them for the Russian assault. His courage swept over the Ukrainian people as they also stood up in defiance to putin. Zelenskyy was no robber baron out to enrich himself while leaving his people unprotected. The opposite of what we have here in the US. We have trump who is the epitome of selfishness and lust. His character and behavior is filthy and full of allegations of horrible deeds! He is also an aggressor throwing missiles and other ordnance at his perceived enemies that are at best are just distracting questionable threats.
     That trump is similar to putin is an understatement. The parallel between the two is consistent. Both act out as tyrants with expected control despite the logic or law. Neither is a leader worthy of emulation unless one is a sinister simpleton. Where trump fails miserably as a leader Zelenskyy shines brilliantly as such. As trump tries to keep what belongs to others, Zelenskyy wants us to share what belongs to all of us. Zelenskyy is fighting for democracy while trump is wrecking ours! Zelenskyy is truly a leader and commander of Ukrainian perseverance to not only survive but thrive whereas trump attacks nations and then goes plays golf!

(#6235) The unease of the cost of living

      Just thinking about the title of this blog gives me a bit of a shudder. The cost we must pay to stay alive in some kind of natural normal way. How our societies have allowed themselves to be structured in ways that are more punishing than joyful. The ideal of the pursuit of happiness is less a starting point and more a destination to struggle to achieve. For me it always boils back down to capitalism. People making money off of other people wherever and however they can. Where good intentions are lost to a cost. Where helping hands are also into our pockets. The idea of decency and friendliness are also values to be bartered.
     I am no enemy of capitalism but I am an enemy of those who are quick to profit off the hardships of others. In the most egregious example we need only look to health care. Where the vast majority of the civilized world has universal health care for their inhabitants but we here in the United States of America must go through a system middlemen who don't actually do anything to provide health care. They demand profits so much so that many of us cannot reasonably afford health care like in other societies who don't capitalize off the misery and suffering of their people. But here in the US of A we don't care as long as profits come in despite the absurdity.
     There are other examples in health care here in America like separating out vision, hearing, dental from normal coverage. Like our eyes, ears and teeth are not really whole health interconnected medical issues. I settled on using health care as my primary example of how insidious capitalism can be in our society. But there are others paradigms. Like education, food and water, and housing. I don't wholly denigrate capitalism because I know that creative merit and work ethic are good byproducts of the capitalistic dogma but limits have to be in place so that capitalism doesn't threaten our democracy nor our human dignity.

(#6234) We have to motivate ourselves!

      Most of us have known this for many years. The unapologetic trump will never humble himself and admit he has ever done anything wrong. So no motivation for us there. He will also keep adding to the demoralization of our public trust through shady deals either covertly or out in the open because he feels no sense of authority to obey. So no motivation for us there either. He will keep trying to legislate restrictions and abolitions to our human rights while making our lives less positive and hopeful. So again no motivation there for us to feel secure. So the only way we are going to feel motivated is for us to get angry at his behavior and demands for us to follow.
     I got angry back in 2016 when it was going to be him and not Hillary. I was gut punched for the first several months and could hardly breathe. But not long after I moved on to anger. That anger has been with me in some form since. It reached a pinnacle when he tried to overthrow our government and no one could seem to stop him. Which we now know no one would. My point about the anger is that I could do little with it so I put it to use as motivation. I self motivate even when it hurts to do so. I know I must otherwise I will fail to be the human being I am so inclined to be. Pain nor suffering will stop me from working hard to stop the dangerous trump for how ever long it takes to do so.
     I will say this about self motivation. I don't need anything else to remind me of the duty I have to our society and nation. The trump takeover of our way of life cannot be allowed to continue one second beyond the successful solution of his removal. We the people of The United States of America have not yet found our antidote to him yet but with some more effort we may well be at the threshold of it. I often write about how trump drains me of my strength yet my destiny is not one of subservience. It is of conquering the wrong and making it correct. Which always leads me back to me finding my motivation even when things look impossible. I am the motivation incarnate for what I am fighting to protect!
     

(#6233) It isn't aging that is trying my soul, it is trump!

      I am still relatively vibrant even though I am in my seventies. I get urges and self motivations to apply myself to short and long term projects. I still feel young inside despite the evidence of my appearance being contrary. However, I have a big heart and that part of me is being crushed daily by the most vile leader America has ever been duped into voting into office. He is the epitome of a living nightmare. I am fully in acknowledgement that he will never change from his despicableness so there is no hope settled on that certain impossibility. So how do I and we cope with him when he still has much time left to dishonor and cause suffering in our lives?
     For me, it is not looking or hearing anything about him. The ignorance is a blissful paradigm. However I do need to stay informed as to his activities as they concern me and our nation. So through trusted second hand sources do I rely. Of course with several confirmations as possible. I am duped at times with hoped for outcomes but then quickly remove from my being the false hope. Otherwise I endure to live and not die under his shameful oppressive tactics. It isn't as bad for me as it is for others so I know I am fortunate that way but my credo is that if it happens to you it well may happen to me and that is unacceptable. Not that I am harmed in some way but that anyone targeted is harmed.
     My will to fight against this trump styled oppression is there and will remain so but it does take so much out of me as to make my bones sore. All that is good within me is brought to the fore in order to align with my resolve yet now it is so trying to my soul. I have faced trying times as a young man but then I had the vigor of youth and the determination of unlimited purpose. Even though I was emotionally drained by those early experiences I was still strong in my bones. Not so much now that I am much older. The aches and pains to my soul are real and can be arduously numbing. I am angry at this state of things and I know that some kind of change must occur if this feeling is ever going to stop!

(#6232) 4 years now putin has been killing his own people and Ukrainians!

      Ass of this moment 1.26 million Russian young men are no more. This is because putin is an ego maniac! 100's of thousands of proud Ukrainians are no more either because they showed courage and honor to defend their country from the war criminal putin! 4 years of living hell for Ukraine but also 4 years of Russians being duped by their soulless dictator who would throw their lives away if it gained him an extra meter of ground. Dirt is more important to putin than Russian bone and blood. How the Russian people have been unable to end putin in any way possible is a mystery to me. I know we Americans have little room to talk given our madman here in trump but he isn't killing us by a thousand every day.
     An all out campaign by the Russian people to save their young men is all they should be thinking about now not the dirt in Ukraine that is insignificant. Every eye in Russia needs to turn toward putin until they find him vulnerable to their narratives ending. To allow oneself to be cowered to submission is dishonorable and the lowest form of living by a human being. Life is supposed to be a pursuit of happiness, not a groveling acquiescence to shame and disgrace! Once one allows themselves, through cowardice, to kneel to vile and filthy obedience then one has no other option for living. Death would be preferable to being a neutered hopeless wastrel.
     The only power in this world is each of us. No one should be counted as cannon fodder for some other's perverted illusion. The Russian people need to stop what they are doing and start taking back their lives with leadership that embraces them not destroys them. Turn the kremlin and its inhabitants into dust and then rebuild with an ideal of hope and justice for all. It can be done and needs to be done otherwise a year from now I will be talking about more than a million and half dead Russian young men. When will their dead bodies finally hit home with the Russian people enough to take back their country from a murderer who won't stop murdering them for his ego?

(#6231) None of us has to validate our existence

      When I was younger I saw so much drama around me and couldn't relate to the mental and physical experience of it. I knew pain and suffering but not the kind that hit directly home in my life. Like when my biological father died when I was 6 it didn't seem to be real. I just kept moving forward in my life as if it never happened. He didn't live with us so it was a bit easier. But later when President Kennedy was assassinated I started to feel the sorrow and loss as a beginning justification that my life was starting to round out on emotion and thought. Yet it never really felt like my life was included in the drama around me. It was like I was living outside society while being smack dab inside it.
     I saw others deal with loss close to them and how their behavior and perspective changed. It was like seeing a different person from the one I knew. Again, like I wasn't part of the world I lived in. Not until drama and chaos entered my life did I understand that the validation I was looking for was an illusion, a temporary state that settled in for a while and then left after some time. It is weird writing about it now in that it was a longing to be part of some despair so as not to be left behind. To experience a maturing in essence to move beyond the innocence I was surrounded by. Funny that way of thinking then as I would now want none of the drama and chaos, only the innocence.
     Yet life is a strange experience as a human being. We spend most of our time inside our heads basically talking to ourselves. I laugh at myself a lot of the time now as that talking to myself really never goes away. So I play and have fun when inside my head ever mindful that I don't need validation, only opportunity to exist for as long as fate will have me. When I am not joking with myself I am thinking of ways to better life in the bigger picture. The joking inside my head comes out in words and is for the immediate and those around me who now know I can self deprecate with the best of them as a tool to enjoy the company around me. What the many don't know though is that my funny bone masks a deep passion for all of us that is never out of touch with searching for solutions for all that ails us.

(#6230) My whole life has been about enduring whatever wanted to destroy me

      There were moments when I was younger where I felt full of freedom and full of hope. Those moments are etched into my memory permanently. Where the carefree seconds turned into hours weeks and months. They were short lived however and have been surrounded by the nearly suffocating aspects of reality and responsibility. My mind doesn't just float on some imaginary cloud where inspiration and possibility coexist in harmony anymore. No, now I measure my life by the days within it that are left to me. How can I achieve some forwarded goal I have laid out for myself? This is my template for living now not some dreamy altruistic paradigm of thankfulness.
     I always do hope for the best but my experience is that the worst is usually my companion. So I have had to test the limits of my strength just to keep going on under my own expectations. I have withstood the barrage of hopelessness and despair only to reemerge stronger to cope. I didn't give in to the least of my human nature only to it's existence as not for me. I am a fighter in the sense that nothing is going to take from me that spirit. Not even me. So I endure. I buttress myself with the knowledge that I exist for something greater than what I can think or even know. I understand that this Universe of space and time is otherwise a gift that I will not treat unremarkably.
     As I further move into life I am settled on staying under the commitment to it. I will continue to endure and in that endurance fight with all that is left within me to exemplify my own particular contribution. In my soul I know I am not done making a difference beyond my own existence. I am no great nor very good product of life to behold. I am just me not giving into a lessening others would force many of us to accept. Because I know I am more than a lessening. The brightest and most sacred ideals about life exist within me. I have hope. I care about more than myself. I feel the manifest destiny of humanity and the heritage of humankind in my blood; forging into the future with clarity of purpose, courage, and noble intent!

(#6229) Meanwhile Ukraine is staying strong

      I have been remiss in my attention to Ukraine because of the mess trump is creating here in the United States. Fighting at the front lines in Ukraine had remained static these last several months with Russia pouring in meat waves of troops to gain only insignificant territory. However, Russia is running out of troops to sacrifice for little gain. So Ukraine has been biding it's time for the right circumstances to avail themselves for a counter attack. Those circumstances have recently become available and Ukraine is efficiently, in the last few days, retaking land it took Russians months to acquire.
     From early indications it appears Ukraine is not stopping it's counter attack any time soon. The Russian leadership failed to secure with defense fortifications recently land grabs so Ukraine retaking them has been swift and with few obstacles. Basically the Russians have been caught flat footed and have little options other than fleeing back toward more fortified defensive structures. Ukraine has had time now to develop weapons and warfare systems that negate much of the Russian advantage in armaments and troop levels. Ukraine is steadily cutting through Russian lines and encircling those who are caught unawares. The Russian military is archaic and not up to technological and innovative modern tactics. Ukraine is seizing upon this to push Russia where they are now vulnerable.
     The Russian propaganda machine presented to the world that they were winning their monstrous invasion of Ukraine when the truth is now being shown that it was a mirage they created out of desperation. Now the reality of their mirage is being torn asunder by Ukraine and their counter attack. Russia gambled and lost so Ukraine will take them to task for it. The false narrative of Russia as some behemoth of great power is just a shell of what they really are now. The Russians have lost more than one and a quarter million troops trying to genocide Ukraine and they are failing miserably. Ukraine is poised now to fight offensively instead of defensively only. Watch out Russia you may well be at a point where Ukraine is at your doorstep!
     

(#6228) A shimmer of light this morning...

      The US Supreme Court by a 6-3 margin has ruled trumps sweeping tariffs unconstitutional. Not all his tariffs are included in this ruling but a large swath of them. Now trump may well use other mechanisms to reapply the tariffs but his ability to do as he pleases is the big takeaway here. Beer boy and the 2 decrepit assholes voted to keep the tariffs as constitutionally protected but they were overruled by the slightly less incompetent other 3 republicans on the the court along with the shining 3 liberals who are in line with constitutional intent. But again the takeaway is that the 3 republicans found their backbone and defended the constitution over trump's imperialistic demands.
     What does this mean going forward? For me it is the crack in the armor of trump to portray himself as a strongman. He didn't destroy the court for ruling against him he instead accepted their decision. That was a real question to me. Would trump abide by a Supreme Court ruling of this magnitude or would he go apeshit and ignore the court with anger and retribution. He didn't do that and acquiesced instead. His persona of a tough guy just vanished and instead we see the frail belligerent hollow man. Each time he takes a hit on his authority as he perceives it, gives the rest of us minions in his eyes more courage to stand up to him.
     With today's news of the tariff ruling going against him and the National GDP numbers dropping precipitously a double hammer has come down on him. He has to know that he is in trouble and today may well be a further decline in his ability to ravage our society. I have been under the impression that for months now trump is going through the throes of diminishment and this morning further bolsters my opinion in that direction. So maybe more than a shimmer of light and possibly a full blast of white hot heat pointing us to the end of trump instead of the relentless flogging he seems to relish inflicting on us!

(#6227) Will republicans in the Senate be able to withstand trump's intimidation?

      The Senate has achieved enough votes from republicans, 50, to pass the voter restriction act that trump is fully behind. The problem is that the Senate has a filibuster rule that makes nay bill that comes before them pass a cloture vote, (which is a proceed to debate mechanism) of 60 ayes.. If it gets the 60 votes the voter suppression bill can then be passed with a simple majority of 51 votes. It is the cloture vote that is hanging up trump and his desire to disenfranchise 10's of millions of voters. He presents this bill as necessary to stop voter fraud. Of which there is practically speaking none. So the bill being presented isn't about fraud it is about making voting harder for his opponents. It isn't that difficult to understand why since he has alienated the American citizenry with his abhorrent behavior and lack of working middle poor class policies.
     So what trump will be doing over the next months is coercing, threatening. demanding and generally putting the republicans in the Senate under duress to eliminate the filibuster and pass his voter suppression bill. the Senate republicans who are on record for defending the filibuster will get the most attention from trump and has been the case for about a decade, trump ends up getting his way. In this case I suspect it will be the same. The republicans in the Senate know that if they eliminate the filibuster that the next democratic Congress will make changes that bypass them with no obstructive tool like the filibuster at their disposal. What trump will counter argue is that with this bill no democratic majority will ever win again.
     Will the republicans in the Senate fall for this embellished argument or will they surprise me and hold the line against the angered trump? Again, I think they will fold as they always do but I am not sure because Senate republicans really want to keep the filibuster. Senate republicans must also worry that the Supreme Court will find the bill if it becomes law unconstitutional. If so then they would have eliminated the filibuster for no reason at all. So many complexities to consider in such a short time as trump wants this bill to become effective immediately for the 2026 midterm vote. To me if trump is going to survive the democratic onslaught coming his way he absolutely needs this bill to survive and become law. Otherwise he will be toast going forward!
     

(#6226) I won't be watching the state of the union address

      I have no doubt at all that this years state of the union address will be nothing but lies and accusations. Plus a few demands as well. The lies will center around democrats and reality. The lies will disabuse logic and truths; with facts as casualties also. Nothing coming from inside the venal vile vapid vulgar trump will be of any interest to anyone who is a honest decent human being. I put myself in that category of being honest and decent. For those who I respond to daily who are trump apologists I say to you that when you defend the sinner without reconciling his sins you are the same ilk!
     There are some segments of our society that are not worthy of being in it. Such as those who steal the innocence and sexually harm children to satisfy their own lustful insanity. That trump and his close associates in the White House are filthy with this particular criminality is beyond disgusting which makes them shunned by me. For those who will watch the lying shit show of disgust I can only say that I hope you are not diseased by it all. The only way anyone should watch is to be able to report back the filth of it so that it is on record with those of us who will not give him even our ears. he wants more than our ears as most of us know.
     One factor in all this that is not being talked about is the idea that America is some kind of good wild west society. Well not so much as the ick of trump is allowed to stay while the good in our society is dismissed and called intolerable with violence and death. The wild west is not good, it is dishonorable with no courage to show. No one will hear this from trump. Instead there will be enough hogwash from him to fill a universal garbage dump. he will talk about how great America is since he took over and how the world praises him for his god like behavior and accomplishments. He will idiotically try to dazzle with brilliance but it will only be baffling with bullshit!

(#6225) Another day around the sun

      I am pretty empty at the moment and I only have an hour to write today's post. So free thinking it is. I put my earphones in and am listening to Elton John's Funeral for a Friend. The instrumentation relaxes me and allows my mind to wander. Which is exactly what I need this morning because there is no clarity on a subject. I have to work today starting early this morning and the weather is heavy rain all morning long. I drive so it isn't like in my past when I was out in the weather doing production work. But driving in the rain is a bit dicey given that so much of the driving is on the freeway going from one city location to another completing my assigned tasks.
     I  move vehicular equipment around for the business that employs me. Trucks and trailers. There has been a lot of freeway construction here in my hometown which makes driving a bit more dangerous. For the first several hours it is rush hour traffic for most folks just trying to get to work and of course there are always those who drive like daredevils for the myriad reasons. I just keep my cool and do my part to get from destination to destination while also being courteous as much as possible. Most people are the same and what could be more difficult usually is just a bit inconvenient.
     Outside of me working today is the usual mess coming from our nation's capitol. I get a reprieve from it when I am on the job because with driving my attention has to be on edge. I do get some relief that way until I get home and then see the what has happened in my time away from it all. I consider myself an OCD type because my habits and actions are sometimes all encompassing intense. But after 7 decades I have a good handle on me. I temper myself with the fact that although time isn't necessarily in my favor it will occur and the current morass of inhumanity will be behind us much like traffic when I am working. On these days when my mind is in a resting state as it were and no topic is front and center with clarity I get to experience the free flow of thought and how I present it out into the public like now.

(#6224) It is disturbing celebrating a President's day tribute with this creature as ours!

      No republican president deserves being honored in my lifetime except Dwight David Eisenhower who although a republican was a progressive that gave us among other things, a national highway system. No other republican president has been as worthy of being honored. The steep decline in admirable qualities began with nixon and although slightly less egregious with Ford, continued a downward slide with reagan, bush, and shrub through to the worst of all presidents in history, yes even worse than hoover, trump! So having a holiday to include this selfish dishonest pedophile criminal trump is beyond my ability to reason. Instead I try to think of the inspiring presidents in my lifetime of Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton, Obama, and Biden.
     These 6 presidents within my lifetime were steadfast liberal/progressives who put we the people first in their daily duties. We were not pawns to be played by the republican party, no, we were the reason for their efforts. Everyday of their tenures were hopeful for a better society here in America. Where enhancing the lives of the greatest engine of productivity in human history, the American working middle class, was priority number one. Not only giving greater opportunity to this class of folks but helping to bring the American poor into the American middle class. Raising the positive prospects of the vast majority of people in our society. These democratic presidents knew that helping the wealthy was illogical since they were already massively successful.
     Our democratic presidents got so much done despite every effort to thwart them by the republican party. Because the republican party knows that when the American working middle poor class is improving the republican party loses power. In case you haven't figured it out yet the republican party is not about helping the American working middle poor class. They are all about increasing the finances of the wealthy so that the wealthy will use their increased funds to keep them in power come election time. The republican party has no grassroots support that is percolating up because they are not admired. We democrats are the opposite. We inspire grassroots support from the many and that is how we will win elections based upon our desire to grow our society from the ground up!

(#6223) We get stronger as Leviathan gets weaker!

      I can feel it now like never before. A turning of the tide back at our Leviathan monster! The democracy destroying barrage against us is not going to plan for the worst president in American history. I never thought anyone would be able to unseat nixon as the most corruptible nor shrub as the most ignorant but it seems we have both those failures in one venal host. Along with this slithering creature we have his followers who are as deeply flawed as he is. There is a winnowing happening in the ranks of his followers but the diminished core of his rottenness is still dead inside and will not leave his Remora swarm.
     As expected with a downfall his strategy has been exposed. There is still some lashing out but the thrust of his serpentine agenda has been blunted. He has one more all in attempt to defeat we the people by denying elections but even that flailing attempt is a swim too far. He needs help from his previous cohorts but they appear to be shrinking to the point of being irrelevant. The sea creature still has his threats and coercion to apply but they seem less intimidating after so many already have successfully not flinched against his demands. We the people have found the way to stop him from his deviousness and all we need now is for that courage to find its way to his Suckerfish in Congress.
     What encourages me is that the sea dragon is waning in scaring us and is now seen as a hollow caricature of a weakening mirage. Our fear is his power and that is no longer in abundant supply. We the people have found our courage and are waiting for our representatives in congress to put it into action! The beauty of democracy is that we the people can coalesce around each other and then demand our mouthpieces speak to power! We are seeing more and more of this and it is heartening that we the people are reclaiming our duty from a negligent state. What Leviathan tried to do was take our souls from us and in some ways he did that. But now we know and anymore harm to us will be met with a will that will skewer the creature into oblivion!

(#6222) These next 8 plus months are going to be hell!

      The desperation coming out of the White House will only ramp up as we keep getting closer to the midterm election. If all we citizens are allowed to vote then trump knows he is done for. He knows that in a way that scares the already leaking crap out of him. So his big plan to redistrict isn't working out like he had hoped so now his plan is to muscle the weak republican party into passing a voter restriction and denial bill that he can use to disenfranchise 10's of millions of mostly democratic voters. Even though some of his previous voters have turned against him he thinks he can still get enough to save his majority in Congress.
     He may well be correct about that if he can get the Congress to pass his bill that effectively applies a poll tax for a right to vote. A previous Supreme Court decision in Harper v. Virginia Bd. of Elections | 383 U.S. 663 (1966), determined it violated the fourteenth Amendments Equal Protection Clause. But seriously, with the current Supreme Court made up of a majority republican affiliation do you think for one minute they will find this bill, if it becomes law, unconstitutional? they will bend themselves sideways in order to approve this dishonorable bill constitutionally. Which is why it must end in the Senate after already passing in the house on a solely republican partisan vote.
     Right now in the Senate a 60 vote threshold is needed to be attained to bring a bill forward for a vote. That is the filibuster everyone has probably heard of. If the bill gets 60 votes to move forward then it can pass and move to trump for signing with only 50 votes. However there is no way the democrats will help the republicans get to the 60 vote filibuster threshold. So republicans, who have been adamant about not ending the filibuster will get some heavy pressure from trump to do just that. A simple 50 vote majority vote can end the filibuster forever and then a simple 50 vote on the bill could be attained to pass it. Will republican Senators who say they will protect the filibuster be able to withstand the hurricane of pressure coming from the bellicose trump whose current desperation is inescapable?

(#6221) Most of us grew up admiring good and great people so what happened?

      Not only are we not surrounding ourselves with good and great people but we are working to surround ourselves with the worst kind of people. Not all of us for sure but too many are. How could we have been so misinformed as to the higher ideals of honor to allow ourselves to be drawn down into muck and mire? For example, trump has been twice installed as our president when the overwhelming evidence of his fraud and deviancy is mountainous. When I was younger even a small hill of evidence that clearly showed filthy proclivities was enough to raise the hackles of nearly everyone! Not today, too many would just ignore or defend the culprit despite clear evidence. What turned in our society?
     For me it was the dismantling of the "Fairness Doctrine", that allowed pseudo news organizations to lie instead of sticking to truths and facts; and a Laissez-faire attitude among our populace about logically learning and incorporating new information. In other words our society allowed itself to dumb down because learning with logic had become too hard apparently! So now we have become a nation of the gullible, the easily deceived. Some of us saw this happening in real time and called it out but the many more of us just didn't care because they were happy enough and actually enjoyed seeing other groups of people demoralized. Somehow, pettily, that made them feel better about themselves.
     A lot of things have gone wrong since the period of nixon, when the lies and misinformation really started in the republican party as a strategy. The outcome of those several decades of disinformation programming since then is now our current dilemma. There is no debating with those who cannot and/or will not understand objectivity as a guiding principle of logic. Fortunately there are still good and great people out there in our society and with some concerted effort their examples will return us to a time when admiring their lives was a value of integrity and purpose. For those who are not able to capture reality as it truly is there is only relentless truth to force them to reevaluate.

(#6220) We will know if we lost or saved our democracy in 8 months

      What happens in 8 months? The midterm national election. You may be saying to yourself that it is looking pretty good for democrats to win the midterms given the overwhelming success in special elections since trump took office. And as encouraging as that good news is and continues to be the bad news is that 10 of millions of us may not be able to vote by the time the midterms arrive. What you say? How is that going to happen to take away so many voters? Here is how. Yesterday republicans in the House voted to require strict citizenship rules that would affect around 70 million women. Men will also be effected but by a much lower number.
      What women will be facing is the fact of their name change when they married. Since their married name does not normally reflect their birth names they must show additional proof of their identity, and even then that may not be enough!. If not then they are  not allowed on the voter rolls. To put this bill that passed the House into context. Every 100 million votes cast produces about 30 some fraudulent attempts. So republicans are addressing a problem that is infinitesimal, with an solution that would nuke 10's of million of voters per election. Now anyone serious would never try to do something like this if they had half a brain in their heads. But it seems republicans are after more than just the appearance of stupidity, they want control.
     The republican thinking is that if they deny 10's of millions of voters from voting they have a better chance of winning in the coming election. I have always said this about republicans, they don't run for public office to help we the people, they run for office to control the power the office gives them. They are not from we the people they are from the cult of mastering all that is around them. We the people are just tools to be manipulated for them to achieve whatever inhumane activity that entertains them. Should the Senate pass this bill and it goes to trump he won't hesitate to sign it and then his dream of staying in power forever is at hand and effectively the end of our democracy!

(#6219) trump is mentioned over 1 million times in the epstein files

      I don't know how he recovers from this disaster but I do not look past the possibility. He has been slithery when it comes to being punished for his crimes. However, the crimes that are in the epstein files are not ordinary nor complicated. They are inhuman! How he has been linked to some of the most vile acts one human being could commit upon another, children specifically, is monstrous! No amount of pretzeled logic within any response he could give would alleviate the abhorrence he perpetrated. The filth of the acts against children is nightmarish and worse yet there are videos that capture his violence and the utter betrayal of their innocence.
     This should be the end of trump and his cohorts. There is no turning away from the criminality within these files. The protection of the files by his subordinates is now also criminal and should as well be adjudicated for punishments. What trump has done is not a value most of us Americans would consider. He is the cult leader of urges that define depravity and debauchery. His followers are of the same ilk and cannot pull themselves away from his decrepit nature. I can only associate them as having the same unchecked debased urges and he gives them license to lust in the same grooming psychopathy.
     I could never have imagined that trump was this depraved but I am a normal person not given to acting on filthy fantasies to fill my days. As each moment going forward is a revelation so is the suspense as to how this unfolds. In my hopes I expect federal authorities to say enough and put a stop to trump and his coconspirators. But we know trump has infiltrated every agency of our law and order protections so my hope seems nearly unlikely. The states bringing charges is next but that may take awhile. What clearly needs to happen is what is left of the decency within the republican party needs to side with democrats, even switching parties, to give democrats control of the House to start the impeaching and convicting process!

(#6218) It seems likely the epstein files will be trump's downfall!

      The rumors are swirling around the videos of trump with children in not a good way! But like all rumors they need to be either confirmed or debunked. I do believe we are getting closer to that intersection. Besides trump there are other people who are going to be exposed for deviancy in the coming weeks. Even some republicans who are in the know on the intricacies of the details in the epstein files are willing to disclose them if the majority of their party isn't. They know that crimes have been committed and those crimes need to be adjudicated. Victims have been saying for years that they were abused and  now we are getting to that point where they may start to feel closure through justice.
     We who have been siding with the victims and their claims are just as eager to see them get their justice as it upholds our law and order principles that no one is above the law! Many wealthy and famous will be found out and protecting them from their due deserves is coming to an end. It isn't just the United States that is investigating the horror within the epstein files it is becoming a world wide investigation with implications reaching far and wide. It seems to me that a cleansing is coming and the wealthy and powerful will be unable to stop it. Which should tell you many of them are in the files. You will hear scare tactics like world order will be disrupted and cause everyone great harm. Don't believe them!
     What a full release of the epstein files will cause is a purge followed by a purification. Our world is need of a reboot so that our democracies can better function without the sordid lies and behaviors the current system protects! The sooner we get the full epstein files release the sooner we get to know the truth of how our leaders betrayed not only our trust but their oaths to our constitutions. We the people can handle the truth. What we can't handle is the constant state of deception and ambiguity that the epstein file protectors sow through obstruction. The epstein files are the catalyst to bring to light the underbelly of the filth that is the world's dirty little secret!

(#6217) We the people will save our democracy!

      The republican strategy to control all 3 branches of government as a way to take over America was a failure. Sure they have power to influence our lives and make us do things we don't want to do but that power only exists if we let them use it. This strategy of republicans was supposed to collapse our will into submission. Yet it didn't. Instead it galvanized the many more of us into an actionable mode. The republicans couldn't control our voices not our feet in taking to the streets. The mechanisms of government are not enough to deny we the people of our human rights and the freedom to express those rights. The republican party is currently finding out that we the people are more than writings on a paper!
     We are the personification of those writings on a paper. It is as if republicans thought their game of checkers would be enough to thwart our much more complicated chess game of life. We are not all squares to be shoved into square holes. We are multinational and varied to the nth degree. So when we resisted their attempts to corral us as property to be used and abused we said no! Like the Japanese found out with their attack on Pearl Harbor, we Americans are not to be fucked with when we are provoked. Yet the republican party doesn't appreciate that about we the people. So as we the people are now awakened to the republican dishonorable attack on our democracy, the republican party is now directly in our focused aim!
     The beauty of we the people is our amazing diversity. We are the patchwork quilt of the best of what humanity would create. Our ability to function together despite all our cultural differences is the future of humanity. The human mind has always worked to take the best of what life offers and amplify that as our greatest evolutionary path forward. We grow together under the better and best of what we boldly exemplify. The manifest destiny of America is to advance beyond the inane and superfluous toward the intellectual and creative. The enlightenment to greater paradigms where our existence in life is beyond the necessary and forward toward more than the possible.

(#6216) I am seeing real positive action to climb out of the trump gutter

      To me it is obvious that the era of trump is declining. In such a way that it can be seen in every part of our society. The trumps still control Congress and the Supreme court but they are losing badly in the realm of public opinion. So much so that it seems like every special election happening throughout our nation is a large democratic advance in popularity. The republican party is in such disarray now that there current public office holders who are now refusing to run for Congress in the next election. This massive revolt by republicans is because unlike trump they see that republicans are losing the battle for the hearts and minds of most Americans.
     Even the Supreme Court is shrinking from its all out maga support. They recently allowed the new Congressional maps of California to remain. First they got it right but as has been the case with this trump aligned court, they could have made up some pretzeled logic to deny the maps while also allowing Texas to keep their new maps. To me it is a cautionary sign that this Supreme Court is backing down from a trump goal of becoming a dictator. The real true test will be when the court issues its verdict on the tariffs. If they are found unconstitutional then we know trump is toast!
     What heartens me most though is the undeniable support from our students and others that are showing in nonstop protesting our steely eyed resolve to demand better! Protests everywhere are occurring and it is refreshing that there is more than just one complaint. From the epstein file release to ice thuggery, to stopping all tariffs, and more, the protesters are relentless. We the people are the force that cannot be coerced nor put under knee bending duress! Either represent our interests or face the consequences of betraying us! The republican party has lost sight of what their job is in representing us. They think they should tell us what we want instead of the correct thing of we telling them to represent what we want; or get ready to pay a price that will put them in their deserved place.

(#6215) Life goes on despite the trump destruction

      I made a social media post this morning about what is up with trump's health but at the same time I am associated with friends who are feeling the possible demise of a loved one. I feel like I am inconsiderate in a way and so it is with me. I want to continue to obstruct and denounce trump but at the same time it seems I am insensitive to friends in my circle. It is a catch twenty type scenario where my intent wills out over my own sensitivities. No one has said anything to me about being insensitive but I am no fool about nuance and timing. I suppose me doing this post today is addressing the unspoken in a way that at least shows my care for those who are really important and my lack of care for those who aren't.
     They are not intertwined they are independent of each other. But as truth is the unending fate in life so are our lives. We make ourselves known by expressing the unspoken even when it is uncomfortable. Because we are human and anything we can do to keep not only ourselves, but others as well, safe and with comfort we must attempt. My conscious mind is still steely eyed when it comes to perception. I am no savant but I do know what I produce from me can be relevant to all around me. So it is important that I express myself on intent when it comes to the sensitive feelings of those in my circle. Doing an unjust harm is the last thing I would ever want to be my fate. Because we are able to define who we are and what we are about it is important to do so.
     In no way can I ever not indirectly ruffle feathers as it were of all that see or hear me. Yet if so the intent of it is not for those who are already in pain. I am only intentionally out to more than ruffle feathers of those who are brashly arrogant concerning the rights and freedoms of others. Even the silent ones who are as bad as the loud ones had better know they are not immune from my aim. Because to me there is only one real purpose in life worthy of championing. That being democratic ideals for the whole of the world we live within. The beautiful phrasing within our American Declaration of Independence about the "pursuit of happiness"; and a John Stuart Mill addition to that of "while doing no harm" is ultimately the goal for all!

(#6214) The list of 10 reforms Democrats are demanding to fund DHS

      Targeted enforcement-No masks-Require ID-Protect sensitive locations-Stop racial profiling-Uphold use of force standards-Ensure state and local coordination and oversight-Build safeguards into the system-Body cameras for accountability not tracking-No paramilitary police. In other words these are guardrails for proper enforcement actions while also aimed at protecting our populace from the criminal unruliness we have already seen from dhs with our own eyes. These reforms are not outlandish nor unattainable. They are actually pretty reasonable given the anger and frustration our there among our society. None of these is controversial but I suspect most all of them will be labeled as such by the condescending republican party.
     Again I don't know how this will play out during the short period that is left to fund dhs but it is my hope that we democrats stick to our intentions here and force republicans to accept these reforms. The only negotiating that should be happening is on the implementation of these 10 structurally sound policies. No negotiating on whether to include these reforms only on their application. We have the republicans cornered on this legislation and there should be no free pass escape route for them to exploit. These 10 reforms are needed to salve the wounds the trump republicans have created. Disgracing our nation as a thug bully with no regard to the rights of our own citizens.
     The timetable is short with current funding for dhs set to end February 13th, This gives us democrats 7 days to withstand the barrage of idiotic venom that will come from the republican party. What we democrats have though is the will of our citizenry on our side. We have the correct position to take and as such must stand tall and proud to defend every inch of it. To the republican party, no doubt they will show the world that their lack of care and mistrust of we the people is a never ending cycle which does not bode well for their party. For the next 7 days it is my hope that rebuttals by democrats to republican attempts to divide us and dilute these demands is worthy of our fight for democracy, liberty and justice for all!

(#6213) The demise of trump before our very eyes!

      2026 has been a continuation of trump themed disasters for our democracy but it has also been a surprise in that the epstein/trump files have been revealing the worst part of trump's nature. This revelation has been a real hardship for him as his supporters have suddenly caught on to his nasty criminal proclivities. They are finding out that continuing to support trump has a real cost to it they are becoming squeamish to pay. Along with a continuing blue wave momentum that threatens to annihilate them in the midterms, even republicans in office are shifting away from him. He still has his core believers but even they are just smart enough to know they are in some jeopardy.
     It isn't just the political climate that has turned away from trump. His health is on the wane and fast becoming an issue. He looks less than healthy for his age with obvious tells. How that plays out cannot be a good thing. As to the economy under trump it is in a stalled pattern of uncertainty. More and more previous world trading partners are moving on from the United States because of the unsound tariff practice trump is so enamored to embrace. Despite the obvious added costs from tariffs to the American consumer, trump is in denial that our consumer costs are rising.
     Front and center are the allegations that he is a pedophile of the extreme sort and that is not going away. He is losing special elections for the republican party by embarrassing margins. He is irrationally costing American consumers who are already strapped from inflation. He is bullying and killing folks in American cities with his heavy handed approach to dubious immigration enforcement. Even his abandonment of Ukraine to favor Russia is not sitting well with a vast majority of Americans. We are seeing trump for who he is after nearly a year in office and it is not what those who voted against him wanted. But now even those who voted for him are beginning to despise his nature and policies as well!

(#6212) The republican party is killing our democracy!

      The criminality surrounding just about every aspect of the trump cabal is being ignored by the majority controlled republican congress and republican party generally. Which means they are complicit in the trump injustice! You can quibble all you want around the edges of every disturbing revelation but the consistency of these revelations is undeniable. Clinging to the hope that every allegation against trump is fake, retribution, and or just coincidence is now a delusion. Protecting a criminal mind with lascivious intent along with verifying nefarious character and behavior is so long past a stretch as to put whomever defends him into the same category. Which is what I personally do.
     I will not argue nor debate those who cannot admit his dishonorable conduct, past and present. I just call them out for being his bootlickers as such. They get taken aback by my approach but their reaction to what I know as the truth is irrelevant for me and cuts to the chase in most of their initial responses. The supporters of trump at this point will get nothing of civil logic from me. They know what they are doing and are beholden to doing it. Nothing I can say or do will change their disservice to our democracy so they get nothing but ostracization from me.
     I have tried to reason with republicans ethically and morally to no avail. Not one ah ha moment. So banished to the crassest truthful form of communication with me they are cast. Like with anything that requires remorse, the one needing it must find their way to it. I cannot force them to choose to be human like, they must want it. As to the rest of us I wish us good luck as we attempt to thwart the worse of what republicans are still allowing trump to perpetrate on us all. Hopefully there will come the ah ha moment for them at least enough of them to begin to reverse the reign of trump and his democracy destroying inhumanity!

(#6211) The crossroads of aging

      Ignoring my own aging is not an option when it seems like too often something life changing is about to occur. The inevitability of growing older and losing physical and mental strengths is not for the weak. Having to accept a, what I will call a diminishing, is a real struggle. It is much easier for me to evaluate logically when it is happening to someone else than it is to evaluate my own devolvement logically. I tend to dismiss my slowly deteriorating abilities precisely because they are slowly leaving. Kind of like the frog in the slowly boiling pot not recognizing the rising temperature until it is too late.
     I get all the logic of how my own lessening is real but until it hits me in ways that are stark I tend to not notice in serious ways. I truly am a victim of my own incomplete personal analysis precisely because I am failing to accept my own mortality. It isn't from laziness or inattention, it is from not being used to winding down as it were. I have always been building myself up in mental and physical ways only to see myself as of late just maintaining and/or declining. Somewhat like a child throwing a tantrum I don't want to age! Aging is taking away from me possibilities that I have yet to come to know. In other words I am not ready to move onto another time line paradigm where doing less is a great part of the protocol.
     Now I am not at the age yet where life stops being purposeful and sprinkled with achievement. However, I am at an age where restrictions previously not even considered are now part of the calculus. The easing out of the rigmarole of life is daunting. Being thrust out of the rigmarole of life is nearly devastating. Both are occurring and neither is particularly welcome. I work hard to keep an order to my life that allows me to live as I hope but changes are keeping me a bit off my normal expectations. In my mind I am still nimble enough to continue to walk my personal tightrope but with fewer options as aging is becoming a greater obstacle to keeping my balance.

(#6210) Curing our ailment

      I was just thinking about how when we dislocate a shoulder and the pain is high, but the only course to take is to cause more pain by having a medical professional carefully pull the arm to relocate the shoulder. More pain to cause less pain. Now that reminds me of fusion, less energy to create more energy, Anyway, back to the subject. What we have in our body politic is a disjointed event that needs correcting. Trying to manipulate a cure to it outside the bounds of our procedures and practices is a dangerous consideration. we need to apply the proper method to the ailment so as it heals correctly without further damage.
     Which is why we need the republican party that is now in the majority of our government to do the correct thing and apply the laws that we have to our problem. That is the way out of this and could save the republican party going forward. To me it is a win/win situation where the ailment gets cured through impeachment and the republican party can claim a lot of the credit for saving our democracy. This particular ailment will have some blood letting aspects to it as the culpable that ignored and obstructed the actual fact of the ailment will have some cost to pay but that is how justice works regardless of wealth or political party.
     We may be trading one ailment for an other given the vice president is a jackal himself but the process is the proper one. One ailment at a time unless of course two impeachments occur nearly simultaneously if warranted. Then the speaker of the house johnson would inherit the presidency and that is again another ailment needing attention. At least there is a way to begin healing that does justice to our constitution. Considering there is an election in November that will at this point most likely change the speakership of our house possibly waiting to impeach until then is a way of altering the outcome for a more favorable healing of our body politic.

(#6209) A vote last night in Texas reaffirms our blue wave rising!

      We democrats were expected to win last night in the 18th Texas Congressional District and we did as the only two remaining candidates were democrats. The vote I am referring to is the vote for a state senate seat in Texas, district 9. No democrat had won this district in the last 35 years. As has been the case in nearly every special election since November 2024 is that democrats have been overperforming pundit expectations in wins and in close losses. The win last night in the special election for state senate was no different. A democrat will old this seat now because of a 15 point victory. Double digit increases for democratic candidates is a trend that is uninterrupted regardless the jurisdiction, win or loss.
     The message of these strong democratic gains, even in dark red districts, foretells the inevitable. The trump regime/cabal is in trouble with the electorate nationally. The consistency over many months of democratic strength has to be worrisome to all republican candidates everywhere. They were given notice by we the people that we were not in tune with their democracy destroying agenda but they didn't listen So they pushed forward with their trump agenda and achieved many of their goals. But that cost them and the cost is stifling. We the people have found our voice and with that we are also voting our voice.
     This coming midterm election is going to be a rout if republicans do not swiftly reverse themselves and stand on the side of we the people, The republican party has had many opportunities to realign their agenda but have been cowed into submission by trump. We the people will not be cowed and those who are cowed will find that they no longer have the majority support of we the voters. The blue wave election I referred to in the title is as real as it gets and will spare no one who is still standing in front of it. Know this, the blue wave is happening. What we don't know as of yet is how crushing it will be. I wouldn't bet against it being so massive that an absolute crushing of republicanism is its effect!