Friday, October 14, 2016

The World is Not Trump's Locker Room

Trump is a menace to society. In fact, he puts the "men" in "menace".

I think men, in particular, should speak up and say, hey, I don't know what locker room you frequent, Trump, but you don't speak for how most men think, talk or act. I think it is vitally important that men rise up, en masse, and do this. For the sake of little boys everywhere to know that respect is the way to go. And for the sake of little girls, and the bigger girls among us out here, listening to all that has been swirling about on the media in the past two weeks, so that we know that the world isn't a totally terrifying place in which we aren't allowed to have boundaries. Even if there are a few terrifying men like Trump running loose on the land, we need to know that, one, we are allowed to stand up to them and say NO, and, two, most men aren't like that, and can be allies in creating a better, more respectful world for all people.

I have been heartened to hear a lot of men doing just that--speaking up and saying that Trump does not represent them. We need all of you guys to do that. Gandhi had it right: you must be the change you wish to see in the world. We all must. Part of that is speaking up and out, giving voice to decency.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

While Rome Burns...

I'm very sad and dismayed about our country and the world as I prepare to hit the hay tonight. Why? Because, instead of CNN et al. covering an important, positive, substance-laden rally in Miami today, in which Al Gore and Hillary Clinton discussed, in depth, her plans for tackling climate change, which was really news and really would INFORM voters about what one of the candidates stands for and will do if elected, and provide a clear contrast to her opponent, what are they covering tonight? "Trump slams Clinton..." Personal attacks and slander from Trump against Hillary. And tapes, tapes, tapes galore containing vile things that Trump spews. On and on. But no coverage of the actual issues (although, the fact that Trump is completely unfit for office, a con man, and a dangerous would-be fascist are all important issues to consider in the election, I will definitely give the media that, but couldn't they ALSO bother to cover a little SUBSTANCE about the huge issues facing our country and the world?), the actual policy differences between the candidates.

All the media cares about are sensational stories, spin, and ugliness. Why not cover the actual platform, policies and priorities of each candidate? Well, in Trump's case, he has none, other than banning entire religions, building walls, jailing his opponents, and "taking our country back from those people".  He specifically includes me as one of "those people", as he specifically said many times that Bernie supporters are "bad, bad people, folks" and "we are going to take our country back from those people". He SPECIFICALLY and clearly stated that at several rallies, when he verbally attacked Sanders' protesters or anyone he *thought* was a Sanders' protester.  It's all on tape.

Hillary, meanwhile, actually has very specific plans for how to fix what ails us, and make our country and our environment healthy. But does the news media cover that? NO. If they had any intention of doing so, they should have covered the ENTIRE rally in Miami today (which they did NOT), replayed it in part or whole throughout the rest of today (which they have NOT), and had their little panel of talking heads discuss it. They covered many, many Trump rallies in the primary season from start to finish. That is, in fact, how I know that Trump plans to take his country back from ME, specifically, as I am a "those people" and a "bad, bad people". So why don't they cover the fact that Hillary has the best, most ambitious plans to tackle climate change of any candidate ever, and that Al Gore was standing by her side, singing the praises of her plans today? Climate change is only the biggest issue facing humankind.

I guess that isn't as newsworthy as taped outtakes of "The Apprentice".

Monday, October 3, 2016

Pottersville in Perpetuity

Even though Trump is an orange disaster on two legs, his campaign is imploding before our very eyes, and Clinton is on the rise in the polls, I'm scared.

This is only October, and Clinton may be peaking early. I'm scared that all it would take would be, say, one terrorist attack, and suddenly the American people would go into xenophobic overdrive and fall into the arms of he who bellows about walls around the borders and banning all Muslims (which, by the way, is unconstitutional and should therefore disqualify Trump from being sworn in as POTUS, if he states he will do anything contrary to upholding the Constitution).

Michael Moore was on either CNN or MSNBC, either yesterday or at the crack of dawn this morning (what--my memory cells are shot), saying something I completely understood, as I feel the exact same way: he said he can't find the humor in the whole Trump-running-for-President thing, because he (Moore) is old enough to have lived through enough to know that it could actually happen--Trump could win. He said this isn't funny, this is basically extremely terrifying.

That's how I am feeling, too. Extremely terrified. It's not that I can't laugh at the humor of, for example, SNL's hilarious parody of the debate. When we lose our sense of humor, all is lost. But at the same time, I'm SERIOUSLY scared. It's been said so often that maybe it is not being taken seriously, but Donald Trump is unfit for the office of President of the United States of America.

So though he is tweeting and tanking and totally tailspinning, and I so want to REVEL in it...the Michael Moore part of me can't. I mean, speaking of Michael Moore, to this day, I cannot watch the first 15-ish minutes of "Fahrenheit 9.11" without breaking down crying, and we are talking sobbing. I remember 2000. Just a few votes can change the course of history. Even though that particular election was actually stolen by the FOBs (friends of Bush--like baby bro' and K. Harris), they probably would not have been able to pull that off, despite their best despicable efforts, had more people VOTED, and had some not voted third party in a crucial election with the best general election Presidential candidate of my lifetime running on the Democratic side.

We cannot allow history to repeat itself, as Trump would actually be, God help us, *worse* than shrub. WORSE. Than shrub! I know, I know, that seems impossible, yet it isn't--we are talking about Trump here: he'd be worse. And Hillary? She is running on the most progressive Democratic platform in history. She's not the "lesser of two evils", she's GOOD. So vote for her. Our country's life depends on it.

This is like 2000 on steroids, and the question is: do you want Bedford Falls or Pottersville? With shrub, with the 2000 election being stolen, we got Pottersville...but we're coming back from it slowly but surely now, and there is still time to save us. If we elect Donald J. Trump, there will be no going back: our country will become unrecognizable. Our constitution will be trashed. Trickle-down will be the law of the land, and we, my friends, will all be living in Pottersville in perpetuity.

Twitter version: for the love of God, please vote Clinton!

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Trump will "fix it" alright: fix it for the 1%, ruin it for the rest of society.

Wait a minute, let me see if I have this:

So Trump pays no taxes, his surrogate (Giuliani) is running around today proclaiming that makes Trump a "genius", and Trump is tweeting out that he understands the tax system better than anyone in the world and, wait for it, that..."I alone can fix it."

Oh, mark my words, friends: he'll "fix" it alright. He'll fix it so that the 1% pays no taxes and the 99% pays all the taxes. We will have no money flowing in for government investment into our society.

Since 1980, the repugs have been convincing people that "cutting taxes" is a populist thing that helps them. Really, it HURTS 99% of the people and it hurts our entire society (infrastructure, education, health care, environment, etc.: everything). Even if the 99% pay a tad less in taxes under repugs than under Democrats, they pay and pay and pay and pay for that in so many other ways--WE pay and pay and pay and pay for that. I couldn't even afford to have one single, solitary child thanks to living under the thumb of Reaganomics and this attitude of laissez faire cconomics my entire adult life. What we REALLY need is democratic socialism, but we aren't going to get that--not now. However, thanks to Bernie and us Berners, the Democratic platform has inched in a better direction than what we have now, and it is, in fact, the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party. So don't we want to at least be moving in the right direction, versus being steered straight off a cliff by Trump and the repugs, yet AGAIN? If we do, then we need to vote for Hillary!  When will the 99% stop buying the LIES we are being told by the 1% and stop thinking that "cutting taxes" is a good thing for us or for society as a whole? It isn't. It also isn't patriotic--everyone should pay their fair share, in order to have a healthy, thriving society that uplifts us all.

Trump's brand of "fixing" will be the dysfunctional, unethical opposite: the many will be working ourselves into the ground to carry the few on our backs. Trickle down economics is NOTHING but welfare for those very few at the tippy top, at the expense of everyone and everything else. Anyone who tells you anything different is lying to you.

It's trickle-down that put some Millennials "in their parents' basement": Hillary wants help them out, Trump wants to lock the door.

Trump is infuriating me this fine a.m.

Why? He's trying to run with Hillary's comments to donors at a fundraiser during the primary season, taking them--as have the media--totally out of context and trying to make them seem bad, even though, even out of context, they aren't bad at all--quite the contrary! What she was saying to her donors, during the primary season, is: she understands why a lot of Millennials are for Bernie. They are indeed "children of the Great Recession", as she put it.  This is not an insult! This is nothing that they caused, it is something that has impacted them--and all of us--greatly and, now some are indeed "living in their parents' basements"--that's just the reality:  many Millennials can't afford to move out of their parents' home, to get an apartment, condo or house. Again, she was NOT saying that this is their fault in any way, or anything for Millennials to be ashamed of!  On the contrary, she was TRYING to say she understands why they are frustrated and why a democratic socialism platform is appealing to them (p.s., it is appealing to them, to me--since 1981!--and to the millions of Bernie supporters of *all generations* because it is a functional, sane, ethical, healthy economic system and society, and it is what we desperately need to move to as a country, but I digress). She was saying this to donors, to say she understands where Bernie folks come from, why they (we) support him, and what they (we) want. She then went on to say or imply that she thinks it is idealistic and that "we" (meaning her campaign and her donors, to whom she was speaking) "don't want to discourage that". THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY ZERO WRONG OR OFFENSIVE IN WHAT SHE SAID.

This is just like the "Dean Scream" of an election past, or the mischaracterization in this election's primary of Sanders' supporters as "violent" at the Nevada state Democratic convention, when all that happened was a few merely "boo'ed" at the fact that proper process was NOT followed.  It is a FALSE NARRATIVE, being put out either originally by the media, or by Trump people and the media are running with it. Please, people, really listen to the entire thing she said and do not allow this thing to have legs.

But now we finally get to how Trump is infuriating me! He is now smearing Hillary, saying that she said that, and he is throwing in a bunch of other things that, as CNN points out, SHE NEVER SAID. And--the most smeary part, other than throwing in statements she never made--is that he is saying SHE was disrespectful to Sanders supporters with that statement. Now, I personally, as a profoundly passionate Sanders supporter, could indeed name you one time that she WAS disrespectful to Sanders' supporters during the heat of the primary season--but this wasn't it! At all. In any way shape or form!  In fact, she was expressing understanding for where we (especially the younger ones amongst us--but trickle-down Reaganomics, which this country has been dominated by for most of the past 36 years, hurts us ALL) are coming from and what we want, what our ideals are.

During the primary season, I listened to several Trump rallies--beginning to end, because God knows the media carried them all live in prime time, which they almost never did for Sanders or Clinton. Trump REPEATEDLY would single out protesters at his rallies and start snearinly, bullyingly saying: "It's a Bernie person. Beeeeernieeeeeeeee." Then he would go on to say, and I quote, as it never varied: "Folks, we are going to take our country back from these people. We are going to take it back."

As a Sanders supporter, I will never, EVER forget those words, or how chilling and seeing-red-inducing they were/are for me! YOU, Trump and your idiotic (sorry not sorry) supporters, are going to take YOUR country back from ME? So then this is not my country?

Do not forget, my fellow Sanders people, that Trump said that over and over and over again: he plans to take "his" country back from you, from us. Yet now he is saying Clinton was disrespectful to us by pointing out that the younger generation supports Sanders because they haven't had a fair shake?  How is that disrespectful?  I am hearing the OPPOSITE in that.  But from Trump, all during the primary season, I heard not only repeated disrespect, but outright THREATS.  Telling me as a Sanders' supporter, telling us as Sanders' supporters, that you are going to "take the country back from 'those people'", tells me that, in your eyes and under a Trump administration, this is not and would not be my country.  So how will you take it back from me, Trump?  Will I be going to a concentration camp?

I CRY MAJOR FOUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He who has threatened to take my country away from me and all Sanders' supporters is saying Clinton was disrespectful to us when she pointed out that the Great Recession hurt Millennials and limited their opportunities?

So unfair. SO unfair. I can't stand unfairness and this is it. Please think about the above and be fair.

Dream Weaver

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of my handful of true heroes.  Today, I have the day off of work, which I profoundly need.  I'm under...