trump kicks koch's in the balls (#3469)

     The somewhat beauty of having an idiot as a president are the times when he cuts his own head off to spite his nose. It is beautiful to watch. As trump has dissed the koch's and their previously conservative bankrolling as insignificant and underwhelming, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/koch-and-trumps-tug-of-war-for-the-gop/566396/, trump's chances of fending off our democratic blue wave in November just got dicier. First off the koch's are not funding the challenger to a vulnerable democratic senator in North Dakota which is helpful in that with positive advertisement for the democrat there the koch's are signalling their unusual party flip. I would not expect this to last past the trump regime but for now we democrats will take it.
     The 2018 election midterms are most dangerous for us democrats as we have many senate seats in red states this time that are up for reelection and under normal circumstances we democrats would expect to lose some of these seats. But with trump acting as irrational as he is within his own party we are starting to see the real rifts within it and an opportunity to stave off senate seat losses. The timing couldn't be more perfect in that we democrats now look likely to limit the loss of senate seats and may well come out of this election with the senate majority. The same can be said for the house of representatives. Any loss of financial backing trump is allowing through groups like the koch's will only further make it harder for sitting republicans to remain in office.
     The lard that resides between trumps ears is keeping him from realizing that he is not the all powerful Oz. So when the voting comes this November in 98 days he will be facing a wave that he has in most ways foundationally built. It is only through his arrogance, brutal policies against the we the working middle poor class and condescension that we have taken all we are going to take from him and couple that with his own internal republican party infighting, we are looking a a better than even chance of taking both houses of Congress. I know the senate will be tough but I have some faith in we democrats who will come out and vote and also I have faith in trump to continue to divide and demoralize his republican party.

Finally, 99 days until the Blue Wave hits (#3468)

     I have been waiting for this day almost as much as I have for November 6th. For me getting under three digits is the real beginning of the end for trumps and republicans. Now it is just watch the days peel off until the election and we have new majorities in the House, Senate and state houses. The blue wave is coming and the only thing left to doubt right now is the force that brings the blue wave in. As we have seen from polling that is at least consistent the wave will be no less than what traditionally happens to the party in power. But even more so is the fact that the special elections leading up to this moment have gone mostly toward democrats is a harbinger of an even better than historical failing for republicans.
     What is also helpful to our wave is the complete lunacy of trump and his policies to stomp on us the working middle poor class at every turn. He may be fulfilling his dream of making working people pay for not being wealthy but when the voting time comes he will have few friends left to keep his majorities in Congress. He will have his base and they will stick with him despite any and all crimes he commits but those who were swept up in the fervor of his appointment as president have all but left him due to the broken promises and the utter divisiveness of his character and behavior. He is being exposed for the ruthless brutal coward he is and it is not a pretty sight. It is in fact embarrassing to all who are objective.
     Along with the despicable trump are his republican cohorts who are the ones who are up for election this cycle. Many in the Senate and House are vulnerable now because they sided with trump and his plans to punish the working middle poor class for being alive. He despises those of us who are the vast majority of our nation and his inability to respect and lead for us is and will be his downfall. That his republican party congressional leaders have taken on his persona as it pertains to we the working middle poor class is going to be their downfall as well. They will pay either more than usual or very heavily and it will all depend on how big our blue wave will be.

Never stop doing what is honorable (#3467)

     What we have now is a bunch of republicans telling us that what we see and hear isn't what we see and hear. Sort of like an episode of the Twilight Zone. What is up is down and what is left is right. Well I don't see any value in listening to anything republicans have to say, especially since they have proven over and over again that they do not care for us who are the majority of Americas in the working middle poor class. So while republicans try to lie to us about reality they can only achieve their goal if we listen to them. I prefer to block out what they say and slowly stew in my anger at them while preparing to oust every damn one of them up for election this November and beyond.
     I may have heard trumps voice 5 times for very brief moments since the last election and it wasn't by choice. Nothing that lying cheating piece of garbage has to say is worth any second of my time. Neither do I give any other republicans the benefit of the doubt when it comes to vocalizing words. I have had enough of it and will not waste another second of my time on any of them. I will read sometimes what others conclude from their remarks but only for a summary as I know already that republicans are a virus and allowing oneself to get to close to them for too long can infect one. I prefer to do honorable things not be told that fantasy is reality and my ability to conclude is not real.
     It isn't as if democrats are perfect, but by a far and wide margin they are far superior to any republican currently operating on the public stage. I will listen to what democrats have to say because they are so closely aligned with almost always doing honorable things that it draws me in. No one is perfect and neither are democrats but I can excuse a few incorrect conclusions when the vast majority of their conclusions are spot on. I will never let the imperfect stop me from working to make things more perfect. With republicans the whole party is riddled with dishonesty, greed and deception and the only positive way to deal with them is to vote them out at every election. It is beyond time for them to be discarded since they do not understand nor pretend to understand what it is to be honorable.

Death penalty for treason! (#3466)

     I am no one who would say this lightly or without careful thought. I hate the death penalty in most cases because it is used haphazardly. There are few purposes for the death penalty and one of them is for selling out our nation for a reward. This is essentially what many of the trumps have done. They have taken remuneration in several forms from our enemy in exchange for treating them as our ally. The sheer audacity of it is as well is further evidence that trump has no loyalty to our nation, of which he is the appointed president. I am absolutely flabbergasted at his disregard for our national values of which hs is supposed to be the main defender.
     From what is occurring now it is simply unacceptable to let the trumps off with life in prison. They must be made an example of through the courts and then with a penalty of death. No one going forward, if our nation survives, should ever consider the traitorous path the trumps have taken as a choice without death hanging over their heads for trying. I abhor killing as a general rule but when the killing time does come we must not shirk our responsibility to reality. We can only live in a civilized society if we make rules that cannot be broken without penalty. I know others will say that life in prison is as much a punishment without death, but I disagree. Death is not being alive and it serves as the most fearful deterrent available.
     There cannot be any doubt to the act of treason especially on this scale and it's punishment. The death penalty is the correct response to those who would sell out our trust and our futures. As we move further ahead in this current time we are finding out more and more evidence of the trump treason. He and his cohorts will get their day in court so that the evidence speaks the truth and the punishment fits the crime. What I am saying here is that when the treason is proven, the punishment must be death. In no way shape or form should treason ever be a forgivable crime with rehabilitation as a value. Death is the proper punishment for treason and when proven that is what the trumps should inevitably get.

Will trump resign? (#3465)

     I had thought resignation was possible early on as trump became aware of the difficulty of the job as president of the United States but he somewhat surprised me by not resigning earlier. But with the mounting legal difficulties and the nation turned in an overwhelming way against him he may just resign to get out of as much of it as he can. His ego on the one hand will try to stop him from leaving the most powerful position on Earth but his ego as well is so damaged by the hatred he has drawn on himself that his internal struggle may go the way of resigning. For all of America and the world at large it would be the best outcome.
     It may well come down to those who have stuff on him forcing him to stay on but the damage to himself  he is continuing to amass is just too much. Yet as we have seen in the recent past, death awaits those who don't obey putin. So I may be just wishful thinking here but I still think that with all the damage he is doing to himself and his republican party they may force him to barter a deal with putin that let's him survive his resignation. Otherwise the election on November 6th will be a massacre for republicans. Which by the way I am all for since a purging of republicans from our political system is long overdue and any lessening of that would be a shame.
     If trump doesn't resign there are many legal troubles for trump that will debase and shackle the rest of his appointed presidency and that may be just fine as well. However, what may come before the November election is still a jeopardy for us and hopefully we can stir up enough dissent within the republican ranks to keep things from getting uglier. Stopping the supreme court appointment until after the election would be a critical victory for us and if at all possible it should be our number one priority besides getting out our vote. Either way with trump though, if he resigns well and good. If he stays on then he will become an Albatross around the neck of the republican party and usher in it's demise.

The trumps are going down (#3464)

     The best strategy for republicans in elections is to attack whatever democrats are advancing as policy or the candidates themselves. But this election there is nothing for the republicans to attack. The republican party is in total control of legislation so therefore they are setting policy and the candidates they would attack aren't on the big stage, they are just congressional candidates and most of them are the challengers who aren't in office at the moment. So the fallback position for republicans is what? How do they take the spotlight off of their insane policies and change the narrative to put it on the democrats instead?
    Well the answer is to start a war. Yet even that is not working out well for republicans as they are in disarray and cannot even decide who the enemy would be. Yes, seriously, republicans would start a war, not out of America's interest but out of the republican party's interest. So that is not going to happen at least in the foreseeable future so now what do they do? Well what they have been doing for about a year now is very little to nothing. If they were counting on their accomplices the russians to hack them some more victories that is not going to happen either since we are now all aware of that trickery. Besides that there is tremendous enthusiasm to vote this time around on the democratic and independent side for moderate and liberal candidates.
     So with no policies to attack and no specific general election democratic candidate to smear, or war to start, or hidden hack to rely on, republicans are left with defending their policies. Which in a perfect world is what they should have had to do to begin with. But that is all that is left to them since none of their usual trickery will work this election cycle. With that in mind and with all the constituents who have been hurt by the republican dismantling of our democracy you can begin to see just how badly republicans are going to lose in 103 days. I know it is still about 3 months away but it is still much closer to the election time than it was a year ago when this all became clearly about to happen.

Keeping the pressure on republicans (#3463)

     There are 104 days until the midterm elections and there is no time left to dawdle. The republican party is behind the eight ball at the moment and they are going to try like hell to turn that around putting us democrats behind the eight ball. Well we cannot let them do that. There is little left for the republicans and their russian operatives to try to make democrats look guilty about so we must not give them any chance to at all. Especially since republicans have controlled all of the government from the presidency, house of representatives, senate and the supreme court. So in no way are republicans not responsible for all that is occuring on their complete watch.
     But what has worked in the past for republicans when they didn't have complete control is to blame democrats for not letting them install their policies. Well they have complete control and have installed their policies so that excuse won't fly with anyone who has a logical and/or common sense mind. Their next option would be to attack democrats as weak and disorganized. Well as we have shown, our strength and organization is mighty with upset after upset occurring during the special election season leading up to the midterms. So that won't work, so what is left? Well the lies about anything that they can think of is next and the lies will be coming in the form of false accusations about any and all things that appeal to the working middle poor class, which is the foundational base of our democratic party.
     The republican party will attack social security, medicare/medicaid, food stamps, unemployment, the Veterans administration, women's rights, living wage issues, the environmental protection agency, they will also attack voter registration rolls to purge eligible democratic and independent voters. Also the republican party will try to conflate a war, through trade tariffs or any other excuse to saber rattle against those who we previously had treaties with. This republican administration led by trumps and supported by leaders in the republican party congress have no doubt as to their right to be the leaders of our nation regardless of what we the voters have to say about it. They would start a world war if it meant they could keep power. That may sound like it is unfathomable but like all things republican, nothing is off the table when it comes to their delusionally perceived right to be greater than the rest of us.

Being my inner child again (#3462)

     12 years ago today I started an adventure that was vaguely familiar but nonetheless memorable enough for me. I let my inner child take over my life and with it the the adult mess I had created started it's dissolution from my life. I was in a bad way in that my choices were being led by my insatiable appetite for escaping reality. A mental and physical addiction to blunting my emotions and my memories. Well I got a wake up call that stuck and with it being my main motivator at the time I was able to change who I was becoming into who I was at the beginning of my life. I recaptured the essence of my inner child.
     I started looking at reality with the same inquisitiveness that I began life with. I allowed my mind to boldly go where I had previously shunned away from. Instead of surrendering to my biases, fears and prejudices I examined them. What I had been doing was cowering from what reality might tell me instead of confronting reality to learn what it was. I was living my adulthood in a shell of my own making and it was keeping me from growing while making me ill with my ministrations. I realized that I had hit one of those life changing moments where I was deciding to either get on with living or keep on with dying. I chose to live and to do so my inner child had to take control of my life.
     That bright eyed bushy tailed youngster within me is now at the helm. I always liked that kid and now he is back being my genesis. I remember my younger youth and the great desire to be an adult. Yet what I had experienced back then as being adult was not the best of examples. So as I gave way my youth to the adult guide of my life all the wrongs and cynicism I had learned came with me. I lost who I was in that exchange. I see that as clearly as the sky now. But 12 years ago I turned again and instead of continuing with the corrupted version of adulthood, I went back to being my creative caring child persona. Now I have the benefit of experience this time around with my child self leading and it makes all the difference in the world because I get the best of what my youthful hubris brings while being able to filter out all the rubbish that I learned as to what was an adult.

We all should be living through our hearts (#3461)

     I was raised a bit on the rough side with a few physical detritments that tempered my ego. I was able to survive my early life through cunning and strength but it wasn't easy. So I know what it is to be arrogant with a chip on my shoulder. Having to put on the appearance of being a tough guy in order to move around in circles that didn't suffer fools. But all of that was a strategy to make it to my maturity. I am here now and as such don't need to pretend to be something I am not. I am a decent honest person who didn't have the opportunities to express that like I should have been able growing up. What I had learned from all that was that I am not mean nor cruel but I am instead kind, curious about knowledge and caring.
     It is my heart now that guides me to my decisions and actions though. I don't have to be something I am not, in fact I have to be what I am. Don't get me wrong, I am still a hard man when it comes to the tricks and cons of life by those who are selfish, cruel and ignorantly uncaring. But my outlook is one of a positive nature where the doubt of things is still questionable. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, is a good rule to live by especially since not many can even fool me once. I learned what it takes to be duplicitous and can read the tell quite easily. So those who are more innocent than guilty get my attention while those who are taken with the grift get nothing from me.
     The heart does not lie, nor does it steal or cheat. It is the most perfect paradigm to express care and love while also being vulnerable. It is in the downside of vulnerability that many choose not to live by their hearts because the pain of loss and dishonesty is great and long painful. Yet, as a human being it is our greatest attribute so not living by the heart is a compromise I am unwilling to make. To care and to be cared about is amazing and it is simply what living is all about. Finding that my thoughts and actions are centered on what is best for all of us gives me the guidance I need toward every breath I take. It is the most excellent way to live while also being me and what all that encompasses.

The dishonesty of the few make the hardships of the many (#3460)

     The republican credo is obvious. Take for me and the hell with everyone else! It has served them well in creating the largest income inequality gap in history, https://money.cnn.com/2017/09/27/news/economy/inequality-record-top-1-percent-wealth/index.html. While the top 1% hold 38.6% of today's wealth the poorest among us have not seen their wages increased. So the cycle of the top 1% gaining more wealth while the bottom 99% loses more wealth continues. It is the greed of the American soul that supports the policies of republicans that has brought this about.
     It must be a comfort to them to ignore reality and the hardships their greed brings despite the evidence of it all around them. The term cognitive dissonance was coined to exemplify this phenomenon. When these republican politicians and voters tell themselves that they are special because they know how to acquire wealth and the ones who don't are not worthy of any consideration, they successfully remove any guilt due to their actions. They have found a place in their minds where justification of the acquiring of wealth outweighs all other considerations. They conveniently acuate their thinking without being objective about all the factors. In other words, if I tell myself that I am right it doesn't matter what reality says.
     Remember, the republican party is a minority party yet they hold all the power of our government. How does this happen? They use desperate measures outside the realm of decency and respect. They take what is greedy and hateful and create an illusion into a desire. We the electorate are responsible for not making republicans pay for their trickery and instead we are fooled enough by it. When a nation has lost its ability to defend it's compassion then this type of thievery is enabled. We not only will not defend our compassion but we are now condemning it to weakness and foolishness in the name of some type of superiority I have yet to witness. We are all human beings and the difference between the ones who want it all and the ones who have little left is the republican idea that only a few are worthy while the rest are inconsequential.

I didn't play life safe (#3459)

     I am surprised that I have lived beyond my expectations. I say this because growing up I didn't take the easy road of life. I played hard and worked at hard jobs during the span of my life. I have put myself in so many dangerous situations even those without forethought. My life has been full of adventure and unbending free will. Yet I am older now and prone to being more careful about every movement each day than I did in a month of living in the past. No longer am I the carefree soul who felt no need to bind myself to anything of value. I lived on the breeze and for me it was enough.
     I sit here this morning remembering the past like it was a movie of excitement with packed action. I don't know why I couldn't settle down and father a family but it obviously wasn't what I wanted. Because I would have made it happen if it were so. There is the love thing that needed to be there for both of us so that may well have been the overriding reason for me not settling down. Yet, in my soul I hadn't felt the allure of having my own family for most of my life. Life itself was enough to keep me entertained and convicted to doing my own thing. It is strange for me to be writing this but as is the case each day, I write what is on my mind.
     Back to me still being alive. I am alive and in fact not so unhealthy that I couldn't at least make another decade. I have been wounded in my soul over trump being installed into our presidency but despite the wound I will recover after we have neutered him and then sent him packing. My energy is still constant although tempered by age. I don't have that gusto for life like I did in my earlier years but my resolve is as it should be. As hard as I lived and played I am lucky I am still around. It may have something to do with the other times in my life that I dedicated myself to knowledge and enlightenment. I also have much care for our species as well as the other species that inhabit our planet. I would not recommend my life template to anyone because it was all mine and we each need to find our own way.

The republican party is trying to make treason reasonable! (#3458)

     The die has been cast. There is little to no doubt that the russians hacked our election in 2016 and will again in 2018 and the republican party doesn't care. They are the ones benefiting from it so they are welcoming the chance to gain power while being the minority party. I said that correctly. The republican party has thrown out our fair and just system of voting in favor of cheating to win. Now this is not a surprise to those of us who have been screaming our heads off to warn of this behavior by republicans but to those who are republican voters it doesn't rise to the level of their disgust with their own republican party. Instead they shrug it off and vote for republicans anyway.
     As long as their republican party is in control the republican voters are showing that they will allow their party to do most anything in order to maintain control. That now includes their republican party committing treason. Still a vast majority of republican voters hold that even if Russia hacked our elections in 2016 they would still vote republican. They want what they want even though the majority of us don't. The mindset of the republican voter is one of control and that will not change given the means to maintain that control. So there is no reason to assume that proof and trials of republicans colluding with Russia will change the voting pattern of the republican party members.
     We cannot shock the republican party into changing it's voting desires. We cannot believe that shaming them and calling them out will do anything to stop their madness in voting for traitors. What we the rest of us must do is vote like every non republican on the ballot is our true ally and give the republican party no votes at any position on the ballot. We who are patriots of American democracy must find our courage and defend our nation against the cowardly power ambitious republican party. The republican party is no longer a political option, they are instead the means by which our democracy may be destroyed from within.

Breaking manafort and cohen (#3457)

     The time is coming when the beans will be spilled on trump and the two key figures to spilling the beans are manafort and cohen. They are the insiders who have the information needed to make the case of collusion and treason against trump and other key republican leaders. What Mueller is doing is closing the gap on possibilities for these two conspirators and their narrowing options are becoming clear even to them. They no longer have the myriad ways of snaking out of charges against them as Mueller has made them moot as time goes by. So the time is coming very shortly where both manafort and cohen will have no other choice but to save their own skin regardless of the threat of trump and putin.
     It may be another month or so but hopefully before the November election we get the real bombshell indictments we have been waiting for. Right into the trump inner circle where the real weasels hide. I know for a fact that their fear is real and they will not be able to hold their tongues once Mueller puts it to them. That trump is going down is inevitable. His arrogance and stupidity cannot defy the precision of the Mueller investigation. Like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar so is trump when it comes to his crimes. We can see most of them just on the surface so the evidence of them will be easily enough exposed. The one wild card is putin and what lengths he will go to to protect his foreign asset trump.
     But I have a clue that Mueller and others in our intelligence agencies already suspect putin of trying to erase the frame that has trump in it's sights. So extra care will be taken as to putin's penchant for poisoning his foes. The rest of course will take it's now certain course and the exposure of the republican party and the head of it trump the con man is just weeks from now and it will be because Mueller has broken the silence of manafort and cohen. They are the key to ending this nightmare of a struggle to defeat our democracy through collusion and treason. What would be the most satisfying in this the breaking of these two despicable criminals would be the timing especially with the election just before it.

Our democracy is a sham under trump (#3456)

     The gall it must take to be as dumb as trump is and for him to think he is smarter than the rest of us. I am astounded that trump is still in power yet not astounded as well. His republican enablers are still protecting the liar in chief and we must do what must be done through our vote. It does now, except for a hope from Mueller, come down to us the voter. 46.9% of us didn't bother to vote in the 2016 election and if we don't change that trend toward a much lesser percentage we will find that our democracy will be replaced with a dictatorship of sorts. Enough is now known about the clown trump and his republican partners to understand the stakes come November 6th.
     Not only are our world allies being dismissed and condescended to by a dolt but we are being aligned more closely with our enemies to democracy. This is what trump and the republican party is doing. Remaking us into the image of an authoritarian state. Life as we know it will continue to change for the worse and we like the metaphorical frogs in the slowly boiling pot while stay oblivious to our democracy being torn apart. The sheer audacity of our appointed leader working to undermine the values of democracy right before our eyes and then telling us that he isn't is consistent with his inability to be intelligent about his lies and his treason. Yet his republican party refuses to do anything to stop him.
     So again, it is down to us the voters to stop him and his conspirators running as republicans in the upcoming election. There is no need to distinguish between good republicans and bad republicans because there just aren't any good republicans left. They all fall in line behind their leader who is by all accounts unworthy of being followed unless one wants to be a conman and a traitor. I don't use these words to describe trump and his republican party lightly. But in the moment I take to pause and consider my word choices, I see no other way to word it other than to call it what it is. I see the evidence before my eyes and here the lies coming from their mouths so in light of that I don't need an interpreter to tell me what the conclusion is and for the rest of you who see the same things you must be on the same page with me and know that our democracy is being dismantled right before our eyes.

If there wasn't an election coming up republicans would still back traitor trump (#3455)

     Do not be fooled by republicans coming out with their false outrage over trump fawning over putin. They read the polling. They know that they must denounce trump now because of the election in 112 days. Like flake revealed yesterday, he is outraged at trump but holding up his supreme court nomination is a bridge too far. This contradiction is emblematic of all republicans. They want their cake and eat it too. So traitor trump should be allowed to appoint a supreme court justice even though he is in putin's pocket. I am trying so very hard to find the logic here but for the life of me I cannot find it. So like senator flake, the republican party shows their false outrage at what they already knew about trump in order for them to practice the illusion of "saving face" with the electorate.
     Again, do not be fooled. These very same republicans have tried to thwart investigations into trump and his foreign collusion with putin since he was elected. They have not furthered any noteworthy bipartisan investigation into the treason of trump and associates we see right before our own eyes. But now they are outraged that trump is a democracy bashing want to be dictator. Their words ring so hollow and only come out after careful planning on how to word their false disgust. They now know that trump went too far in his collusion with putin and now must fake their defense of patriotism. Yes, fake their defense of patriotism to America. That trump is a scourge there should be no question but to let slide his enabling republican party would be to our eternal shame.
     When November 6th does roll around none of us should vote for any republican on the ballot. And if no one but a republican is on the ballot then we should mount a write in campaign for any other party candidate willing to serve. The end of this internal destruction of our democracy must end and it must end quickly. If not immediately through criminal charges then by the ballot box. Again, again, again do not be fooled by republicans who are suddenly calling trump out for his treason. They are only using it as a strategy in order to get reelected and we will be stuck in the same muck we are now but with none to blame but ourselves.

Our passive and/or aggressive obstruction of trumps (#3454)

     We must obstruct the trumps and their agenda, of this most all we fair minded citizens agree. It is to the level or degree of obstruction that we must find to fit with what we individually see as acceptable. I have heard from both sides of each extreme as to what we find as acceptable and the only conclusion I can come to is that those two extremes, when within the bounds of normalcy, not necessarily etiquette, have valid points as to their effectiveness. The subtlety of our obstruction can be as small as refusing to buy products from the right wing corporations that fund republican politics. The argument there is that keeping our finances, what little we have, from being used against us is wise and sound. In just that passive form of obstruction we find it a mighty tool as right wing corporations are hurt most by a dwindling profit margin.
     Other more passive/aggressive forms of obstruction come in the acts of contacting representatives at their workplace and demonstrating our views in the form of protestations. It is a time honored tradition for a democracy to rise up when it's citizens wishes are being left out of policies that affect them. This form of obstruction is widely popular with an unsettled citizenry as a focal point for the expressing of our anger and a determination to oppose. I cannot think of a better way to reach out to those who are supposed to represent us and make sure they feel a rebutted heat of their condescension toward us. The larger the crowds and the longer the protests make for a better way to get the point across about our frustrations with their representation.
     Then there is a more aggressive form of protest. Where the actual representatives are booed and heckled in the public square wherever that may be. At a store or restaurant, no matter, as being in the public eye is part of being a public servant. With many of our representatives, most exclusively republicans, we find that they do not respond to our demands that they address our questions about their decisions. They make their decisions without our input and then do not make themselves available to interact with us about them. So there are those of us who seek them out in the public square and attempt to interact with them or if they choose to flee, follow them while questioning their decisions. I see no wrong in any of the scenarios since being a public representative is accepting that they are accountable to the public despite their desire to hide from us.

Eventually trump will be tried for treason (#3453)

     I don't know when it will happen but it will happen. There is just too much evidence piling up that points to trump having chosen treason over patriotism. I don't say this lightly either. I dislike trump as much as anyone but the dislike isn't the impetus for my claim. It is his insatiable desire for power and his unscrupulous behavior to attain it. He is a scourge of a human being who has never indicated that he cares about society on whole. What he has indicated that he cares about is power and wealth. So for him to rise to his current position without the aid of Russia is to me an unfathomable thought.
     He will not and will never allow the truth of his collusion with Russia to be known so he will do all in his power to hide it. He thinks he is clever by allowing the Mueller probe to continue because he has gotten assurances from his collaborator putin that there is not enough evidence to prove his guilt. The want to be dictator trump by himself is not intelligent enough to pull this coup off without someone like the tyrant putin to plan it for him but even the tyrant of Russia is not smart enough. So the facts will come out with enough proof to show the nexus between trump's treason and the collaborator dictator putin to allow us to eventually hold him accountable.
     What trump doesn't understand is that he has had help in getting this onerous thing done and that help will be his downfall. His loyal acolytes will find themselves prioritizing their own skin and make all that loyalty to trump moot. Such is the nature of nefarious men/women, and in the final analysis they have no real allegiance to anyone other than themselves. Nefarious men/women are not courageous nor are they honorable. So to expect them to fall on their swords to protect a tyrant is laughable. They will give us themselves and trump to save themselves from the worst of what can happen to them. They are hollow men and women who would rather turn on trump than to protect him. The time for the traitor trump to be held accountable gets closer and closer with each passing day.

I don't affiliate with anything that is less than my values (#3452)

     I get that I can't always have what I want so I do compromise within my values to make sure I get something for all of us but when I am given the choice of compromise that is without honorable value, I disassociate. I will not be in an association or group that has not my values at it's heart. Much like the republican party of today. I have never been a republican but I have family and friends who are and if they still today cannot justify to themselves and me that the republican party doesn't represent them anymore and will not leave, then I leave them. I don't care who or what they are to me they no longer exist if they cannot keep a base of personal value that reflects what is best about us.
     This loyalty thing that most seem to be unable to detach is mind boggling. The one that most troubles me is the one where they use the argument that " we have always voted republican and so have our family". Well my family growing up always voted for democrats but if democrats had become a party of racists, misogynists and likely traitors I would disavow them in a New York second. I have no loyalty to a party that does not represent what is best about us. I would never be part of a group that has so much hate in it as to be only about hate. In fact I wouldn't allow myself to be part of any group that had less to do about helping and more to do about taking. My heart is a good one and I won't let any association make my heart sick no matter how loyal I had been in the past.
     Sometimes I think their loyalty to the pernicious republican party is more about habit than it is about agreeing with their policies. We Americans are lazy and dumb so much of the time that we are not good examples of wisdom and caring. So we fall into habits that make us feel the illusion of being smart and confident when all the while we are taking shortcuts by following the tune of some pied pipers. Instead of helping the disadvantaged, and I mean disadvantaged, we throw money at charities instead of rolling up our sleeves and getting directly involved. We are so much above the dirty masses that we by our own ignorance and uncaring help plenty to create. We Americans can do so much better and the world is wondering why we don't.

The overwhelming pernicious nature of trump (#3451)

     The only good that comes from trump toward anyone else is only a side effect of him doing something good for himself. That is not a good nature it is the opposite. So those who defend trump as some messiah are either delusional or incapable of logical thinking. I prefer to think it is a lack of logic since most don't take the time to even know what the definition of logic is. But as to trump the evidence is clear and in no way can it be disputed from an objective point of view. He is incapable of sacrificing in ways that don't involve him getting some advantage or privilege. That is his nature and he embraces it as his special talent.
     In a world of king of the hills he is achieving like none before him. His ability to dismiss care and compassion for anyone other than himself is indicative of a lack of empathy for anyone who isn't patting him on the back and telling him how great he is. Even then it isn't empathy he feels just some sort of twisted loyalty that is not his usual disdain for everyone else. I will say this though, he loves him some dictators. If a dictator is especially good at stifling freedom and liberty for his citizenry the more trump likes him and wants to emulate him. That trump admires men who will use souls for anything as long as they get what they want tells us that trump is not done trying to become more like them at our expense.
     How we Americans will survive the trump experiment thrust upon our democracy has yet to be determined but the trend towards a huge negative impact is so far uninterrupted. There is still time for some foreseen or unforeseen event to upend the apple cart if you will and thus change the trajectory of our democracy's dismantling but the chances are slimmer and slimmer as the days move forward. Albeit the Mueller probe does hold out some hope for us. Regardless though we are being led and trained by a madman in the sense that he does not care about our daily lives improving. He does care about his own daily life improving and it is not a stretch to think that it will get worse for us and better for him before his time in our lives is over.

Seeing to myself today (#3450)

     With nothing too important to say, I guess today is about me and how I will take care of myself. It is just a few days short of 12 years for me of not having any alcohol or smoke, cigarette or pot like substances. I also am feeling better physically even though my bumps, bruises, pulls and tears are nagging me on a constant basis. I know that getting older has much to do with the physical ailments and rightly so but I must slow down a little bit to keep from adding more pains to the pile I already have. I find that when I am outside doing yard work that I have a chair handy so that I can sit and perform some of my tasks while giving my legs a break from all the standing and bending.
     I will be outside again today keeping with a hedge trimming project I have been on for about a month now. Little by little it is taking shape and the long overdue care the hedge has needed is starting to come together. I won't go into why this hedge is so troublesome but lets just leave it at it has been long ignored for decades. It has been seasonably hot as well up near 100 degrees every day so getting out early and doing what I can is essential. At least the temperature will only be in the 80's and 90's by the time I am done. No shade either so the sun will be beating down on me. I have a wild growth that has found it's way into the middle of the hedge so a precise removal of that wild growth is in the plan for today.
     The political news of the last almost 2 years has taken it's toll on me and surely many others so I will not be paying attention to all the bad news that republicans keep dumping on our heads and instead will comfort myself with the knowledge that in 117 days we will be voting again, sooner for we mail in early voters. So diverting my attention to entertainment today and possibly some inner house chores will be the agenda for today. I need to remind myself of just what it is that I am fighting to preserve and enjoy that to the fullest as much as possible. The best of what we have in life isn't always the most expensive nor the most complex, sometimes it is just sitting down and enjoying the view of our magnificent planet and it's abundant life.

America's riffraff is the new normal (#3449)

     Gone are the hopes and dreams of enlightened souls here in america as the worst of who we are as a whole is now in control. What the end game of this will look like is speculation on my part since I won't be around to see it but I can say this much it will not be progressive modern nor benevolent. Instead it will look more like the hunger games than a thriving democracy. Our system of elections has failed us and the realization should not be lost on those of us who have given all of our effort to put what is best about America forward. Knowledge, and the enlightenment we gain from knowledge, will now be only for those who can pay for it and then define it to fit their agenda. The rest of the working middle poor class will have to scramble to find any semblance of education that befits the human species as a right.
     The republican party will have done this and those who vote for them are accomplices as well. There is no shirking the responsibility that has come from ideology that has hate as a priority over compassion. The rest of the world had better make sure their democratic institutions are stronger than America's otherwise they will be next to feel the loss of their soul like we the many here in America do. I am not quite yet resigned to our fate but the odds are not in our favor so some miracle must be in the mix for us to pull ourselves out of our coming previously unfathomable destiny. It is apparent now that the deck has been stacked in favor of regressive republican policies for the next several generations. There is little that can be done but hopefully something will change the trajectory of our abysmal fate.
     I don't know what else I can do here in my little blog to warn of the impending suffering that will come upon we the working middle poor class but I have been doing so as a clarion call to wake up and see what the republicans are doing to dismantle our nation of prosperity and equality for all. Yet each year as elections come and go the same trend toward republicans occurs. I for the life of me cannot understand the necessity of being uninformed when everything about our society is readily available to comprehend. Are we so immature as a nation as to not care about our future or the future of our children? Apparently it is something along that line because we are entering into a dark time for the United States of America.

Civil disobedience (#3448)

     Civil disobedience is in reaction to unfairness, unjustness and unethical acts and means that disenfranchise part or most of our society. What is left if all the power resides in the ones being uncivil? Are we to lay down and accept the unfairness with no grumble or defense? When we are captive to the ones who are taking from us or our society are we to make nice and protest by not golf clapping? I see no future in being docile when republicans are ruthless, cruel and inhumane. There comes a time in everyone's life when they come to the realization that fighting back in any way possible is the only option left. This is one of those times. We are not yet at life or death but those options may be next if we do not resist with all we have now.
     I have heard from some who are concerned about aggressive protesting, in their faces protesting, because it isn't dignified nor civil enough. Yet we who do believe that protesting in their faces is just what is needed are not persuaded to play nice when nice is not a word the republicans choose to define their policies. I am a civilized person and for the most part am in agreement that civilized manner should always rule the day. Yet the day is not being ruled by civilized behavior from republicans. So the old adage of fighting fire with fire is reasonable. When republicans change the rules to fit their agenda no amount of playing nice will suffice. A punishment must come down on republicans in order for them to understand that bullying or forcing their agenda on the many of us will not continue.
     That it has already started is our own fault for not fighting harder earlier to prevent it and make republicans pay for their unethical behavior. But to rein ourselves in now because our disobedience to the force of republicans is uncivil, to me is moot. I do not fight a fight with my hands tied behind my back. I fight with my fists at the ready to strike and not stop striking until the battle is done or I am demised. I will always go back to being civil when the fight is won but to not fight on even terms with the republicans is to secede to their victory. I will not stop fighting for democracy and as long as republicans keep trying to take it away from us there are no rules to be civil about!

Hey republicans, we can move beyond unnecessary suffering (#3447)

     It is as if republicans believe that life has to be about suffering no matter our ability to end it. If given a choice they would choose suffering as a value. It is at the foundation of all of their policies and behaviors. Some kind of screwy religious angle as well. I, for the life of me, am so familiar with suffering that I cannot fathom the idea that others would not hate suffering as I. I know there are some sufferings we are not yet able as a species to rectify and abolish but we are there on so many others but will not give ourselves the opportunity to conquer that which we are able. There is a stagnant fear that is infesting our minds and souls that keeps us from taking the mantle of the most amazing species yet to ever have existed.
     There was no species before us that has come to be known that was of a greater possibility. We are it yet we are so afraid of being it. We fall back on the mysteries of myth in order to find a safe harbor for us to live with our fear with some comfort. Instead of fighting our fears and conquering them we are content to be ruled by them and give away our natural right to evolve even beyond our current amazing status. I for one am a fierce fighter for our species because I recognize that when we are not afraid we are mighty beyond measure. I know that we are capable of discovery and attainment beyond what we today can even imagine.
     When I hear the saying of "the sky is the limit" I shudder to know that we are even beyond that and the the universe itself cannot contain us once we put our abilities to it. Yet during my lifetime I am always anxious for us to get going toward that paradigm but we may not make it to get started during my lifetime. It will hopefully start soon after my demise but my hope is that the sooner the better will be our destiny. Just like the manifest destiny cry of past centuries held for us to expand beyond our horizons, the future is that as well and it is limitless. So why let ourselves wallow in suffering if it is a choice for the most part? Why indeed republicans!

We will beat trumps (#3446)

     He has the upper hand now but soon he will find his reach very limited. In 121 days his luck will have run out. We will have to suffer through whatever he can accomplish over the next little while but after that his day in the sun will start to cloud over. We will be that cloud in the form of a blue wave that comes crashing down on his plans to make us insignificant. He wants the power for himself, not through us but from himself only. He admires the dictators in that they keep their power through being brutal and ruthless and if trump has his way he wouldn't hesitate to make us suffer the same way.
     But we are still a democracy and as such this coming November we will exercise our voting rights and focus deeply on voting for democrats everywhere on the ballot. It will be a night of victory for us because we were denied that right November 8th, 2016 through means other than democratic. I don't necessarily trust polling after what happened 2 years ago but they do tell us one thing, that we democrats are not complacent like we were in 2016. We are steadfast and ready, waiting for the chance to unseat the republican enablers that have installed trump. We are still growing in numbers and are vigilant in our approach to midterm election day. Not only will we vote but we will vote in numbers not seem from democrats for a midterm election.
     Because we know what it is like not to show up at the polls on election day and we are smart enough to not want the result of that to happen again. Not only that not happening again where republicans win the minority and still get the majority, but we want the majority back as a way to stifle the trump agenda for the next 2 years if Mueller is unable to take trump down. We need a big victory on midterm election night so that we can force trumps to bargain with us the working middle poor class on equal terms. Whatever it takes to get our majorities in the Senate and House we must be willing to do even if it means working our butts off for democratic candidates that are not ideal in our own personal thinking.

After trump, we will find our way back home (#3445)

     Listening to Winwood and Clapton perform their classic hit reminds me that with trump, this too will pass. I was anxious after his installation in 2016 that we would not survive him and his belittling conman ways but it seems come November we will begin to reverse his theft of our American dreams. We Americans are now awakening from the lull we were in. That trump has given us that is the only silver lining. How long it takes us to find our way home is our dilemma but we will do it no matter how long it takes. Getting back to where we were before the trumps will be a big lift and maybe not in the rest of my lifetime but it will occur.
     America has a big black and blue eye from the punch trump has given us but we will not mask it and instead admit our weakness. For if there is one thing that gets us back on our feet faster it is in facing the truth of our culpability. We allowed a most nefarious creature to be lifted up high by a republican political party that has nothing much at all to do with democracy. We Americans did this to ourselves. We are fallible and there will be no denying it. We are not some chosen race or creed of folks destined for greatness above all others. We are as simple and foolish as any who would be king. We will learn from this and it will be painful for awhile until we get back to being a good forward thinking humble nation.
      A nation that reaches out to all and to the stars with the same vigor we have for our own lives. To be as selfish as we are now is inconsistent with progress and modernity. I have always been a child of the future and no doubt most all of us are. Living in the past and being satisfied with the present is not American it is anti-American. We are the force behind what could be an imagining beyond our wildest dreams but first we must shake off the shackles of hatred and greed. Enough really is enough. More than enough is a waste and makes for a hardship for others. We Americans have better within us and it will be time to show the world soon. The end time for this crazy paradigm is near and every day we close in on it is another satisfying breath for me.

The psychosis of being a trump apologist (#3444)

     It would be humorous if it were a play. You know some far fetched comedy that defended the absurd while denigrating the factual. A sort of inverse reality where up is down and Alice is all of us. Yet we are not laughing at some comedic fantasy out of the mind of some playwright. We are living in the era of trump and republican nonsense. More so it isn't by accident or bad luck. It is an orchestrated attempt to justify the metaphorical incontinence coming from the mouths of trump and his republican enablers without admitting there is a problem. The timing of this tragedy, not comedy, is that the alignment of power for republicans in government is in full force.
     So now all the guffaw and horse manure they have been measuring out to their base is what they must govern on and in conjunction with the trump ego they are finding it difficult to connect the dots between their mess and the bigger mess trump is spewing. So explain away republicans how trump is making our nation better while he is actually making it worse. Keep the cognitive dissonance down to a mild roar so as not to draw too much attention to all your inconsistencies of claims and conclusions. Fall back on your personal republican favorite of fear mongering so as to avoid having to explain, without logic, how logical your policies are for our national benefit.
     I know how much I would sell my soul for if I were a republican apologist but it seems that my price would never be met because it would be far too high. Today's apologists are more eager for the work and will sell their souls for less than the 30 pieces of silver Judas is claimed to have bargained for. For me to commit my integrity to shame and disrespect I would need much more than just some trinkets republicans are offering yet they have an endless supply of takers to choose from. I wonder sometimes if it is all worth it then I remember that there are more of people like me who won't sell their soul for trinkets than there are those who will.

That trump republicans have normalized lying is revealing (#3443)

     I can't tell you how many times I have heard a trump supporter talk about a lie as if it were the truth. Even when faced with the truth the trump supporter still calls it or the messenger a liar. Talk about up is down in this current reality. So even trying to talk to a trump supporter about facts or truths is a total, and I mean a total waste of time. In fact I don't talk to them anymore because honestly there are many less frustrating things to do in the short time I have left on Earth to do. Especially when I can talk to those who are still forming an opinion based upon objectivity and not some corrupted illogical subjectivity.
     So I do as I have been doing for the past several decades and that is to continue to put the facts out there as well as I can. I am not perfect and sometimes I let my own preferences get in the way of truths but I am quick as lightning to correct myself when I am made aware or realize my mistake myself. But for the most part I am right on with my expressing of facts and since I am not as creative as I was when I was younger I just do as well as I can with making known that which is fact and truth as best I can. I have no alternative or ulterior motive for being a promoter of facts and truths, I am just concerned that our species is too vulnerable to conmen/women who gain some hidden value in being dishonest. That irks me!
     As each day moves forward another batch of lies are dispatched so that we have become so weary of calling them out that we just start to ignore them as they disseminate within our society. Soon they are being bandied about as fact or truth with little to no investigation as to their validity. So many lies by all the trumps and their cohorts that there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to combat them all. You know the old saying right? "A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on." Well with enough lies traveling around it is so difficult to sift through them and call them out for being lies. I look at tit this way, since for the most part the liars are republicans I just accept that everything they say is a lie and work from that premise. Proving their claims are truth is much easier and faster, when that rarely occurs, than trying to disprove their constant lies.

Today I am reminded to fight for our democracy like never before (#3442)

     Instead of being proud of my country I am concerned for her. She is under attack from within by a pile of unscrupulous characters who have no good intent for her. The only intent they have is for their own pleasure and wealth. Our nation is secondary to them as long as they can have what is most desirable to them, their way! Well I am no reed in the wind. I am a buttress and stalwart protector of democracy, especially our democracy here in America. It by no means is perfect and up until the last nearly 50 years has been steadily moving forward toward perfection. But in those last nearly 50 years a corruption at the heart of our government has been diseasing and disrupting our goal to become a more perfect democracy.
     This corruption has been hiding in the conservative party and now as republicans have the power they so nefariously have acquired they are coming out in droves showing themselves for the cowards and thieves that they carry in their souls. The hijacking of our democracy is in full motion with the trumps and the corrupt republican party. So what can I do as just one being who is not fooled by their rhetoric nor their lies? I can speak out about them and in my personal life distance any of them from any part of my living. Family friends etc... it doesn't matter who they are if they are supporting the dismantling of our democracy then they are my enemies. There is no compromise in this battle and the only way they will win against me is to bury me.
     Yet I am a tough old coot and I have no time for niceties when the lines are so clearly drawn. I always think of Nathan Hale and his last words of  "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." I feel the same and in my own small way will live by his quote to my last breath. Because it isn't about me it is about the future. I am fortunate that I have lived my life and what is left is just extra as far as I am concerned so fighting against the worst of what has brought a cancer to our American democracy is my duty and my solemn promise. So as our nation grows another year older I am still grateful that it does and if we want it to grow another year with democracy then we had better get serious about defending it against all enemies foreign and especially now domestic.

trumps is out to kill abortion rights (#3441)

     Let there be no doubt as to what trumps are trying to do here with abortion rights. Every potential nominee he is going to offer for the kennedy seat that will be vacated at the end of this month is an anti-abortion believer. The problem we have here is that it isn't just about the delicate question of abortion, it is about a woman's right to define her own life. This isn't just about abortion rights it is about women's rights. As we have seen before with the trumps women are not held to a standard that is in respect the same as what trumps hold for men. For trump's women are not an equal partner in the sharing of freedom as men.
     So not only are the current abortive rights of women being assailed but so is a continued process of putting women further back in their attempt to gain equal rights with men. This is the republican agenda as we now know it. Unjustified viewpoints that would keep more than half our population from realizing their pursuit of happiness on equal terms with men. The idea that in the 21st century and 3rd of America that we still cannot come to the final realization that we all have a right to define our own lives is disgustingly abysmal. The enlightenment of the many has not yet superseded to the foundational fore as our guiding principles. We still have the few little minded and self absorbed who are making policies for the rest of us to adhere.
     In my lifetime I had expected that social issues of diversity and tolerance would have been settled and our only struggle would be to raise our species out into space where we can utilize our magnificent abilities. Yet we are not at that launching point yet it seems. The greed and power hunger that is rampant still among our civilizations is the dirge that is shackling and binding us to the worst of our past. The many rest of us cannot imagine our dreams while the few of us are wreaking havoc on them. In a democracy it would seem easy enough to quell the few by not allowing them to advance their ideology of separateness and greed yet we somehow are unable to distinguish the best we could have for ourselves over the nonsense and suffering we so easily accept.

The forces against trump and republicans are marshalling (#3440)

     What does the republican party have left in the intellectual department? guys like hannity and jones who are more dropout than wise. Most all the smart people who had a little bit of a conscience have left the republican party and are now fighting alongside democrats to oust their former associates. It is revealing to me that guys like Schmidt and Will who at least could argue with some validity that republicanism has some value are now unable to do so and are no longer part of the republican party. Oh republicans still have their basement haters in ingraham and limbaugh but those types are more racist and misogynist than logically objective.
     So what does the republican party offer to its staunch supporters? Mostly they demand party loyalty because they necessarily don't need to offer them much of anything else except the age old demand of trust us to do what is right for you. Most republican voters have left behind their ability to think for themselves because of their own low self esteem and admitting now that they cannot think wisely for themselves would show them a fool. Well one thing for certain about staunch republican voters, they would prefer to be thought foolish than to actually show they are foolish. Pretense is their hope and nothing short of a drastic loss in their lives will ever change that. Well they may be headed for a drastic loss given the no care the republican party has for their loyalty.
     So the rest of us who are are able to think for ourselves and are not psycho/sociopathic like so many republicans are banding together to form an opposition to the trumps and republicans. It is massive our banding together. Not only do we have a majority of the working middle poor class that is adversely affected by the trumps but we have a boatload of the wealthy who cannot fathom such hate and oppression coming from the republicans. We will see a lot of that coming together in the next 127 days when we as a nation go to the voting booth and realign the power of Congress. Yes, I am calling for the blue wave to take down republican majorities in the house and senate so that we begin to stop the republican agenda of hatred and the dismantling of our democracy.

128 days until the end of trumps begins... (#3439)

     It seems like yesterday that I was happy about there being less than 200 days until the midterms. Well it is now down to 128 days and I am even more excited. For one thing I have to be since the constant barrage of bad news from trumps can be overwhelming at times. Especially this latest move by justice kennedy to help trump elect another right wing conservative to the court. But aside form the neverending bad news we have a countdown to when we can vote again this time to change the leadership in the house and senate. 128 days until we begin to stop the madness that has been our collective nightmare come true for the majority of Americans.
     There will not be any electoral college in the midterms. The majority vote on candidates running for office will be the final arbiter of who wins or loses this coming election. The trumps have little to campaign on since all their attempts to change our democracy have come at the expense of the working middle poor class. They have helped the wealthy get even more wealthy but most of them were voting for trumps anyway. Because if you don't know by now most of the wealthy put their pocketbooks profit above their duty to our nation. They will let the treasonous acts of trump slide so that they can continue to reap financial gain.
     We the non wealthy are not so fortunate with trumps controlling government. We are the ones being forced to cough up what value we have left so that the wealthy can continue to grow the income inequality gap. Our pockets are empty but that doesn't stop trumps from demanding more from us to give to the wealthy. There will be another push by trumps before the election to cut taxes further on the wealthy. All this in order to cripple even further the working middle poor class. That trumps are so against us is not in dispute. Now if we can find a way to combat the racism that trump is utilizing to split us apart we will have then found our way back to being the melting pot of the world and a force for good beyond our own generations again.

We need public trials for treason so the truth can be shown! (#3438)

     With all the disinformation being perpetrated by they right wing there is no other alternative than to have open public trials of those we know have colluded with foreign powers to hinder and undermine our democracy. There is no other learning tool for all Americans to understand than being frank with everyone regardless of the facts that come out. I have had it with all this secrecy and privilege we give to pampered officials who have wholly abused the public trust. No more can we function as an information society if we don't expose our dirty laundry as just that! When outlets for information like the fox network can rewrite facts and truths to fit their narrative of upheaval within our nation then we need to counter with public trials.
     Not only public trials but public punishments that warrant deterrence. We are not a nation that is above becoming corrupt and we should not be hiding behind an image that denies that. Our legacy with our democracy must say something more than we survived. We must not only rebuild where it has been damaged but we must further its noble cause with advancements that reveal how proper our democracy works with all of our citizens. No one else in the world will want to emulate the democracy we have now so let's change that by exposing our metaphorical sores and letting them heal through the bright light of sunshine.
     We must also punish news outlets that stray from the truth to serve an agenda that is demonstrably anti democratic. Our democracy is one to behold if we protect it with all our might. No one should be allowed to not be part of our society and voting process who has the rights of citizenship. There have to be rewards for voting as well as punishments for not voting and they must be significant. We have learned over time that our human species is adept at being lazy or uncaring unless otherwise motivated. So as we motivate ourselves in other areas of life so should we do so in the most important part of what makes us a society.

Put more pressure on us and we will respond in kind (#3437)

     The coming bluewave just got a boost from republicans. Every time they institute a policy or make a decision to further harm the majority of Americans who vote the more the likelihood that it will backfire on them come November 6th. Those who weren't already engaged to make a change in party leadership come the next election are finding themselves motivated to join the rest of us. There is only one political party that is in a constant state of doing damage to our ability to pursue our happiness and it is the republican party. Their insatiable agenda to destroy the social safety net, make life harder for the working middle poor class and their killing off of rights and values inherent within a democracy are waking up those who were not paying attention.
     Much like the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, the sleeping American bear has been poked. We the people who are the American bear are now awake and on guard and swiveling our heads around to take in all the damage done and damage proposed. We know who the enemy of the American people are and they are the current republican politicians and judges who have decided that not all people are equal to begin with. Their anti-democracy viewpoint is now being seen and reported on by those of us who care to stop them from taking our country down in flames so that they can enrich themselves. Their lies, blame and denials are not working now since they are the only ones able to make and implement policy.
     The arrogance of the republican party is going to be their undoing. They think they are invincible now and are acting accordingly. But what they don't get is that although we the American public are slow to anger and give retribution, when we get to that there is going to be a pain served up to republicans they will not soon forget. So their time is coming and it isn't coming too soon. Restoring America back on track with our allies and undoing the trump/republican agenda will take some time but it will all begin this coming November and continue until we have righted the state of ship here in America. The republican party is near it's end but don't try to tell them that since they think they are just getting started.

We are mostly all still alive! (#3436)

     My worst fear after seeing that trump was going to be handed the presidency was that he would kill us all out of his greed and stupidity. Well we are not all dead yet and for that I am grateful. Seriously! I haven't felt this way since the nuclear drills back in the Kennedy presidency when we were dutifully hiding under our desks in drills for the likely nuclear event. That didn't happen but only because we stood up to Russia and forced them to back down. This case with trumps is different. We Americans are not united against a foreign enemy, we are split against a domestic one. Still, there are more of us who are not of right wing ideologies who are democratic out there so we still do have a chance to stand up to the trumps and force them to back off just like we did with the Russians in the 1960's.
     With daily evidence coming in that our nation is going to be stripped of it's decency and rights, it is no less than critical that we who would prevent the trumps from further damaging out democracy must take to action. The formula is simple, obstruct, protest and vote. There is nothing less we should be doing. Put aside all of our own personal ambitions and our minor differences within the democratic party and let's put an end to what trumps are doing. Make no mistake about this as well. The trumps know that we only have so many opportunities to unravel their hateful and destructive agenda and they are going all out to stop us from doing it. They know that they are outnumbered if our voters come out and they will take steps to remove our voters from the voting rolls.
     Yet we can stop them now if we all just stop what we are doing and focus on the most important time of our coming lives. Reenergizing our base and adding more to it with a clear and loud voice to bring democracy back to America. The trumps have enlisted their Russian cohorts to help them along into making America more like them so the task we Americans have is a tall one. The very essence of America is now in jeopardy of becoming a scurrilous one. Instead of forcing the world to improve life for all, the trumps want to take us down to the level of the worst of governments. That is how trumps see the world, we Americans not as the example of what could be but instead as just another small minded country willing to treat it's citizens as chattel.

Can decency keep us from destruction? (#3435)

     As the trumps continue to break apart our democracy will our own decency prevent us from the forceful response we need to combat the breaking? Will we sit idly by and watch because that is how civilized citizens act toward the will of their leader? Will our civility be the undoing of us if we cannot stop by any means the ongoing trump disaster? How do we reconcile being beyond enlightened when we are being herded by a neanderthal? It is like the conscientious objector who knows that killing is wrong on all levels but in order to protect life itself and the values that life demands the killing must occur. That is how we reconcile war and the brutal nature of it that is beyond civilized and enlightened.
     The hard work of standing up to the worst of our society demands that we the civilized find it within ourselves to muster a strength and conviction that supersedes our own personal wishes. Our democracy is sacred and nothing on Earth should come between us and it especially if that nothing is something and it is from within. I will not abdicate my ability to fight for what I believe in when that belief is our own priceless democracy. Countless souls of American citizens have already given their lives to protect the greatest democracy on Earth and why should I be any less than those courageous souls? I am a civilized man who wants democracy and its working principles for all of us not just for some of us.
     When the time comes for all of us to face our fears about not only our own skin but the skin of our heritage going forward it will need to be decided what to do. For many of us we have already decided what tack we will take because the time is shortly upon us if we continue to do as we are told by the conmen of the republican party. I am not advocating any violence upon anyone. What I am advocating for is the mindset needed for it when the need arises. We are not in some dream world where all is well and good. We are on a battlefield now and the fighting is rather more like little skirmishes but those skirmishes are leading to an all out thrust by the trumps to take the most precious gift we Americans have ever been given, the lifeblood and treasure of our descendants who laid down their futures in order to pick up the sword and keep our democracy alive.

If trumps take due process he also takes our democracy (#3434)

     It didn't involve me so I didn't care. Infamous last thought of countless people who found out the hard way that if we don't all protect ourselves we will all be unprotected. Our democracy gives us that and keeps the wolves like trump at bay so that our form of government survives again the ravages of those who would be king like. What is due process? "The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution each contain a due process clause. Due process deals with the administration of justice and thus the due process clause acts as a safeguard from arbitrary denial of life, liberty, or property by the government outside the sanction of law",-Wikipedia. In other words it is our legal safeguard to have our day in court.
     In other countries due process is not given and those who would be charged of a crime have no way of rebutting the charges. Due process is our ability to have a voice in any governmental accusation against us. Imagine a scenario where trump wanted to silence his critics, you don't have to imagine that in trump's case since it is already fact that he wants to silence his critics, but without due process. He could simply charge anyone of a crime and that person would have no judicial review to defend themselves from the crime whether it was true or not. So be in fear of speaking out against trump lest you be caught up in the middle of the night and hauled off to either some dark hole or worse. Because if there is no due process you are guilty just by being charged.
     So for you who still think that trump isn't all that bad and still better than Clinton it is time for you to stop being naive and look at the facts. With trump there is a real chance democracy will not exist after he is done with us and if that is the case he will try to be like his buddies, the worst dictators on the planet, and keep authoritarian power up until he is dead. Racism and misogyny are not worth the loss of our freedom and hopefully you who support trump will finally get that we are all human beings and not greater or lesser than each other based solely upon our gender or skin color.

Stupid is stupid does (#3433)

     I appreciate the movie Forrest Gump for giving us this little phrase which is exactly how I perceive trumps. There is no denying it given the full body of evidence we have gathered since he was officially appointed as President of the United States. From one stumble toward another this guy has shown that his ability to objectively rationalize through reason, analysis and conclusion is missing key parts of the equation. Specifically the reason and analysis parts. He makes a decision based upon polling or right wing advice and then forces it whether or not his republican party or the nation wants it. He alone is the "decider in chief" as he sees it and it doesn't have to make sense regardless of whether it is helpful to us.
     His rationale changes as well on many different policies given the blowback he gets from us the citizenry or his own party. Not only does his rationale change but it goes from supporting his policies to not supporting his policies given the strength of the metaphorical wind that blows back against him. In other words he truly is like the reed in the wind that is subject to the direction of the wind. His inability to see more than one or two moves ahead when declaring what is best for our nation puts us at a real disadvantage. Since most if not all of the world is further along in their vision for their policies. We truly have in my opinion the stupidest president currently on the face of the Earth in charge of the greatest democracy on Earth, well at least the greatest democracy on Earth for now debatably.
     This time of trump and the systematic control of our nation by his enabling party the republicans will go down in history as the most inept political administration and the most despicable given it's utter disdain of democratic values. When trump was first installed I gave us Americans little chance of getting past his control without all or most of us dying before he was removed. Now I feel our odds are better given we are closing in on the midterm elections where we can neuter the republican party from the ground up. There is much we can do us sane Americans who have been held hostage by this conman and his duplicitous republican party. I look forward to that November 6th day in 2018 with all the hope I can muster and am at least not as fatalistic as I was on November 8th, 2016.

The hollow pride of America, racism! (#3432)

     That trump even was elected and is still in office is a tribute to the racism that America has never corrected. The Civil War may have abolished slavery but the underlying intent of slavery never went away. Cruel people using other people as their property. We have a different form of slavery now in that workers are now becoming more beholden to their corporations and companies through other collusive practices like low wages and health benefits only achievable through acquiescing to boss/owner fealty. The trumps and their republican party willing accomplices have undercut national programs that would have lifted all out of such associations that mainly benefited the wealthy.
     So now we the people are left with only what large corporations and other associated companies are willing to offer us instead of us having the wherewithal to choose between legitimate competing ideals. This is all done because the wealthy, trumps and republicans see the American experience as not one where we are all in equal pursuit of our happiness but only one where the wealthy, trumps and republicans dictate what we should or shouldn't have as our happiness. Their master/slave ideal is now becoming more modern and in less than obvious ways. Yet it is still the concept of master/slave and an entitled feeling they get from controlling the lives of others like they are gods.
     That is is now open for all the world to see is a silver lining in that the terrible secret of the portion of cruel hating American public is secret no longer. Not all of us are haters and racist but too many of us are and with the control of the whole of the American government within the grasp of the racists denying it any longer is moot. So now not only are we who are not the hollow prideful racists fighting against the stench of hatred that has too long been embedded in the American hateful heart but the world is now on defense against them as well. With an election coming in 135 days hopefully we the true pride of America, the non racist melting pot patriots, will begin to turn around the levers of power in America back to the democratic party so the real purge in 2020 can finally relieve us from the disease of this despicable lot of Americans who have finally been exposed as the ill America never addressed.

We should help, not harm (#3431)

     Someone asked, can't we all get along? Sure we can but we must stop harming each other first. Just stop! Then we can all start to get along. This isn't rocket science here, it is how we treat each other in a civilized society. We all know how to do that but too many of us are not willing to be civil and respectful. I will at minimum listen to what others have to say about issues that are important but when what they are saying is harmful then I stop them from going on further with me. I won't accept harm when help is just as easy or as hard to achieve. So although I want to get along with everyone, their ideas or beliefs often are enough to get in the way of that because of the harm they represent.
     I know otherwise really good people who are so involved in doing harm and they don't even recognize it. So it is hard for me to let them go out of my life but it is what must be done when all I have tried to open their eyes to their own harmful actions is rebutted and ignored. So those I do get along with are ones who have recognized as I have that no harm is good and only help is the solution. How we treat each other fairly is dependent upon how we think and then act, and if harming others is what they are doing then they get no get nothing but the back of me. So although the goal is to get along with everyone the practical matter is that some do not want to stop harming.
     What we accept into our lives is what we represent out to others. I will not be a party to those who are not helpful when they can be. I am not a party to those who choose to do harm because they think the harm is good. Never is harm good. Never. Even in sentencing of criminal behavior it is required to deter harm at will but that is not a good thing it is a necessary evil thing. So those who would wonder why we can't all get along look no further to how we treat each other to find your answer. Figuring out what harm and help is shouldn't be too difficult even for us Americans who are so above learning new things. Our arrogance at times hinders us but if it really matters to us then we will learn to know the difference between harm and help and then be one less human who is making it difficult for all of us to get along.

A man of shame and a man of hope (#3430)

     The republican party has their leader and he is a shameful lout. He is in the process of tormenting migrants both parents but especially children. Undear leader trump has no empathy for these folks fleeing worse conditions only to find themselves treated like livestock under the trump regime. Unlike Obama who had the honesty and decency to care about these migrants who had little to lose by coming to America where hope still existed, well at least until trump took charge, now no hope is what they are finding. In fact less than hope as their children were ripped from them and sent to who knows where and even given drugs to "calm them down from their forced separations".
     Under President Obama, migrants were at least given the respect of staying together and not treated as felonious criminals. It is a misdemeanor to enter our country illegally, not a high crime much like what the trump administration and its officials commit daily. So singling out the migrants as despicable infesting desperados is indicative of what the trumps really must feel about themselves but transference is their mantra so that is how they roll it up. With the mindless serfs over at fox news obviously blaming everyone on Earth for what the trumps are doing you can see how the shame of it all rests squarely with the republican party and trump most of all.
     Now President Obama took care to respect those coming to our nation as refugees, not so much criminals and rapists like republicans project. President Obama, an elected president, not an appointed one, also held out his hand to comfort those who were victims of nefarious deeds that led them to flight. Realizing and rationalizing that we are all human beings who make up our world and that being a decent human being is above the criteria of being a hateful one republicans have wholly embraced in their leader trump. The man of shame is trump for his vile reactions to those who are in pain and suffering while President Obama is the man of hope who reaches out his hand to lift up those who are most needing of a comfort.

We Americans are inexcusable (#3429)

     The majority of us who vote democrat are not so bad at being human but we are only about 27% of the total American population. The other 73 or so percent are what's wrong with America. About 26% of the total American population continues to support a ruthless thug like trump and other republicans no matter what they do in office to us and or to enrich themselves. It makes no difference to that percentage that always votes for republicans. But for me what I still cannot grasp is why nearly 47% of the eligible voting public doesn't even bother to vote.
     It is like they just don't care who does what to whom. That in itself is disgraceful and inhumane but right now we have a republican party that is incensed at decency and the rule of law. So for that large percentage of folks who could vote but who don't vote I have no justifiable words to use about what is wrong with them. It is inexcusable that outside of those who vote for democrats there is a larger percentage that either hate people who are not like them or just don't care to care. What does that tell us about what makes up the character of America? What are we fighting to maintain and what is worthy of that fight when most of us are unworthy of being honored?
     I hold out hope that this coming election in November that the previous nearly 47% of voters who didn't vote will actually decrease sizably and a new era of caring and not hating will come to the fore. But in about 139 days we will find out and if that is so then good on America for waking up and standing tall for the greater good. But if not and the same status quo of today continues after the November election then we all may just as well resign ourselves to the fact that we are a miserable lot of folks less worthy of what most of us think we deserve. We will have become the feckless hollow humans we seem to see in anyone but ourselves. A reckoning will come and it will be deserved if we are less than human like the current republicans and non voters.

The depth of trumps depravity (#3428)

     It isn't just that trump is a depraved soul, it is the depth of that depravity that is even more disgusting. Surely his first attempt to blackmail democrats by kidnapping children from migrants and holding them hostage so that he can gain a benefit, it is that once he was caught out with it he has since doubled down and continued to treat these children in a most disturbing way. I knew trump has always been a con man of various degrees but by this latest inhumane gambit of his, he puts his grifting actions into a whole new category, extortionist with malicious intent. He has moved from being a white collar criminal to one of a felonious demented serial nature.
     As the whole world watches his strategy to blackmail America by stealing innocence from innocent children so that he can acclaim himself successful has reached no boundary any American president, appointed or elected, has ever attempted. The vile despicable nature of his behavior toward these migrant children and their parents will forever be the shame of America and never allow us to confront the nefarious natures in the world around us lest we be rightly called hypocrites of the first order. Our moral leadership in the few remaining areas of dignity has been utterly destroyed by trumps and their incessant hatred for others.
     Now I know that trump's depravity is not just skin deep it is omnipotent throughout every molecule of his body. He cannot fool me again with how low he can go since I now see him as one of our species' most despicable life forms ever to have been evolved. His due will come in the form of Karma and the just rewards of his due will rekindle hope in me that even when our most disgusting open wounds of a human being is exposed we will find a way to heal that returns our better natures to leadership and action. Time and space are relative and what the ignorance of trump hasn't yet discovered is that his time will come and it won't be a place of honor!

Does America have a heart left in it? (#3427)

     The trumps are going to continue to take children from migrants and not only that they are looking for ways to keep them from their parents and relatives for longer periods of time. All in the name of how trump's negotiate. Normally when a compromise between the political parties is reached both sides gain something they want beyond what they already have. But these are not normal times with republicans in control. Instead, republicans are taking from what America already has and demanding what they want in exchange to let us have back what we already had. Sound familiar? NO? Here let me explain it another way.
     Using the children, republicans take them from their parents and then demand that they receive a benefit for it in order to return the children. Does it still seem vague to you? Let me try it this way then, The republican party is being despicable and will only stop being despicable if we give them what they want. Kind of like a petulant child throwing a tantrum that unsettles everyone in public until they are given what they want. So it is that republicans will not stop separating migrant children from their families until they get their benefit. So basically kidnapping children and then demanding a ransom for their return. The republican party expects that this will be a winning strategy for them, destroying lives for profit, for the upcoming midterms.
     So in 140 days we will know if the tearing migrant families apart strategy is a winnable one for republicans. In this scenario where republicans see themselves as coming out ahead in November because of their child kidnapping policy then we will know that America has lost whatever heart we all thought it had. If that is the case then our shame as human beings will be incontrovertible and the downfall of our civilization at hand. When we reward bad behavior then we have fallen from being a noble striving species to one where we cower and covet as a rule and the end of us is assured to come from those who do not compromise on the dignity, respect and principle of democracy.

The incontinence of trumps and the slow evolution of his supporters (#3426)

     We have seen through Twitter just how unstable, ignorant and out of control trump is and the fact is that this man/child has no ability to mature as a human. He is still in childhood mentally and emotionally. His most obvious behavior are his many tantrums aimed at anything that may suggest or accuse him of harm. There is no self control here that passes for genuine leadership. The far right who helped get trump appointed to the presidency are as culpable of being an angry mob with no ability to think through the choices they make. They like that trump just does things without pussy footing around even though what trump does is cruel, thoughtless and self adolating.
     His base, who are angry, ill informed and selfish find that there is no one as close to them in their actions and thoughts than trump and no amount of reason, logic nor common sense will penetrate their god ordained trumpian image. So wasting time reasoning with them truly is equivalent to burning money. But what can occur for them to see beyond the shadows inside their illusory caves is for trump to continue to do what he is doing. He is putting pressure on his base by denying services to them that they thought would never be taken from them. He is insinuating himself in trade tariffs that hit them in their wallets. Because if anything can get through to a trump supporter it is to take services and money from them when they are unsuspecting.
     Of course trump will blame democrats for all of his failings and most of his supporters will believe him but some will not and a wedge in his support will eventually cleave the illusion. It is only a matter of time before trump hits the tipping point with his own base. They have expectations for him and what they have yet to experience like the rest of us is that trump doesn't like to be held to account. He is his own master and no one is above him especially those who were gullible enough to buy into his rhetoric and lies. The trump supporters will learn the hard lesson they refuse to learn through logic and common sense and it will hit home hard with them when they do.