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Showing posts from June, 2021
  Everywhere I turn to it seems I have to determine if I am being lied to by some politician. Whether it is the border to critical race theory or infrastructure.   I should know better growing up in the 60s like I did and all the lying that we were told about the war in Vietnam. They made the public think that we could win that war when they knew all along that we couldn’t. It wasn’t until a thing call the Pentagon Papers were leaked to the Washington Post did the public learn differently. I now know that the watchdog of the government is the press. People will either think that the person that leaks information to the press is either a hero or a traitor. It is probably a combination of both. I will always believe that the public has a right to know the truth and that the government should never hide the truth from us. When I hear a politician demonizing the press I always cringe. They are our watchdog. It is their job to report the thing that out government is doing both good and ba
  Derek Chauvin has now been sentenced. He got what I would consider a light sentence with what I witnessed in that video. Floyd will never walk the Earth and Chauvin should get out of prison with still some life left. I still see people that are supporting Chauvin and saying that Floyd got was he deserved, not as many but still a few. Maybe I am warped but I always thought that the police took an oath and part of that oath was to protect and defend the constitution. No matter how you try to spin it after over 9 minutes of kneeling on Floyd’s neck not a single police officer there gave a damn about Floyd’s constitutional rights. That is the part that does not get enough attention. In our country even the criminals have rights. All of his rights were taken away with his last breath. I am not saying that he was a good man. The thing I am saying and have been saying all along that it is the job of a Judge and a Jury to convict and punish not the police. I know that there are times that a
As I am typing the Senate Republicans just filibustered the Voting Rights Bill, “For the People Act”. I have been stating that voter suppression and racism go hand in hand and I mean that. What is happening now is more than voter suppression and racism. It is an attack on the fundamental right for people to elect who is going to represent them and who is going to lead the nation. One of the arguments is that the States should be able to make up their own rules of how they want to run their election. That statement can sound pretty good but States are not coming up with the rules to run the election, a political party is and that political party happens to be the Republican Party. They are coming up with State rules to guarantee that they win. That is voter suppression and the Federal Government should step in to guarantee that my vote matters. As I have stated, I wake up and read Heather Cox Richardson’s daily posting on Facebook. I have always known the importance of knowing history
  What is all the big deal about Critical Race Theory? This is not a new theory; it has been around for over 40 years. Why is it an issue now? Yes, all theories are debatable but those should be debated by educators and historians and not politicians like Ted Cruz or Marjorie Taylor Green and people like them. It is an issue now so some white politicians can divide us more and they want to make points with Trump’s base? Race has always been a hard conversation for this country.   It has consumed our national conscience since before the Civil War. After reviewing the Critical Race Theory the single most factor that would upset a lot of the people is that is encourages us to talk about it and share stories of racism. That would be a hard pill to take when you have people that believe that they are not racist that actually are. I went to school with a guy that said that Trump saying that Mexicans were murderers and rapist was not racist. He was sure that some Mexican somewhere had murde
  We need to honor our heroes. This country has had a tradition of honoring our heroes, especially the ones that have protected democracy. This week the Congress voted on giving medals to the Capital Police for their role in defending democracy during the insurrection. This one should be a no brainer. There were 21 members of Congress that voted against the heroes of the insurrection. The 21 are:   Andy Biggs of Arizona, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Michael Cloud of Texas, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Bob Good of Virginia, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Marjorie Greene of Georgia, Andy Harris of Maryland, Jody Hice of Georgia, Tomas Massie of Kentucky, Mary Miller of   Illinois, Barry Moore of Alabama, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, John Rose of Tennessee, Matt Rosendale of Montana, Chip Roy of Texas, and Greg Steube of Florida. I had to type them all so they will be etched into my memory and I hop
This was inspired by Ted Cruz's disgusting desplay on Twitter. What does the American Flag represent? I know what it represents to me. To me it represents our Country and our Constitution. To me it represents freedom for all. To me it represents freedom from oppression. To me it is suppose to represent the truth, justice and the American way, as corny as that may sound now. When I see the flag at the start of a parade I stand out of respect but what I find now is most the people are not even paying attention or do not even know the etiquette of the first flag in a parade. The flag should not be waved to protest the oppressed. It should be waved in the defense of the oppressed. It should be the symbol of hope and equality for all. If you use it to protest the oppressed you may just be turning it into a symbol of hate. If you are waving to say, “I am a patriot” and you are not, you may just be turning it into a symbol of hate. Our flag must be flown to honor all of America not just w
  Biden has gone to Europe. Boy did he ever. It has been a long time since we have had such a positive influence on the world stage. Europe did not take to Trumps bullying tactics very well so Biden is like a breath of fresh air. Trump had a “go it alone” air about him and he was also a bully. Let’s face it nobody likes a bully unless you are the bully. Nobody likes to be bullied including most of the people reading this post. I have stated in many Twitter responses we are a stronger nation with strong allies. History bears that out. During the American Revolution we had a very strong ally in France. I wonder how easily our independence could have been won without them. The Atlantic and Pacific oceans gave us a natural barrier that had helped protect us for a while but the world has gotten smaller.   With the invention of the submarine the oceans that once protected us became a shooting gallery. Now with planes and missiles the world is now very tiny and there is no place to hide.  
  I Googled if it is legal for the US Government to spy on its own people. The general consensus was that it was illegal. Most of the articles I read were about the Government spying on anti-government groups and militias. So if it illegal to spy on the people that would bring down our democracy I would think that it is illegal to spy on people let’s say like Congressmen and Senators. Now it has come to light that the Department of Justice under the direction of Bill Barr subpoenaed Apple for the phone records of Congressman Schiff and his family including a minor. Barr then went before Congress and lied about it. How can you trust the Department of Justice if they lie to Congress? Accountability to the truth has to start at the top no matter the political fallout. I would think that the integrity of the Department of Justice and the law would be more important than being the Attorney General. Barr could have said “no” to Trump. He could have resigned or he could have made Trump fire
  We should have a lot going on but for some reason we have very little going on. We have the Insurrection investigation. We have the Infrastructure Bill. We have the Voting Rights Bill. All these things should be happening but they are not. Why? Mitch McConnell and the Filibuster. The fact that we do not have an Insurrection Investigation going on is just an embarrassment to the whole country. Not only should Republicans be embarrassed but the whole country should be embarrassed. Our Capital was breached by insurrectionist for the first time since the British in the War of 1812. This was not something you could compare to any race riot. Race riots are people that want to be included in our democracy and society in general and feel that they aren’t. This insurrection was from people that wanted to destroy a branch of our Government and put a dictator on the throne of the United States of America. There is a huge difference between the two. One group angry because they feel excluded f
  I was watching a recorded interview of a guy talking in the lobby of the Trump International Hotel In Washington DC on Jan 5 th . He was stating that tomorrow, Jan 6 th there was going to be fighting for the Constitution. Now, I don’t want to get into all the garbage about it being preplanned because that may be for another blog. What I want to discuss is where in the hell is this insurrection stuff in the Constitution? I have looked and I don’t see it. I am not a Constitutional lawyer like Ted Cruz but I looked anyway. That Ted Cruz bit is sarcasm by the way. I know there are people who think the Second Amendment was put there for the people to rebel against the government. I believe such great Constitutional defenders like Rand Paul and Matt Geatz have stated that much. More sarcasm. I don’t see where that wording is. Now it does talk about the Security of a free State. It does not talk about the rebellion anywhere. People will say that you have to read between the lines. I am so
  What a week it has been but I guess you can say that just about every week now. The filibuster is still intact. The Republicans are still playing down the insurrection. The pillow guy says that the Supreme Court by a 9 to 0 count will be reinstating Trump as President. Barr and the DOJ were illegally monitoring certain people in the news media. I do not know why this is surprising me. I lived through the Nixon administration. Now, the filibuster is a way for the minority to stop the majority of passing legislation. Is that a good thing? I don’t really know for sure. It depends on who is do in the filibustering and if you agree with them. I will say that the filibuster is not part of the Constitution. Our forefathers did not set the voting process with the filibuster; a simple majority was the good enough for them. I remember the movie Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. Jimmy Stewart’s character tries to stop legislation on the floor by continually speaking and not giving up the floor. T
  It is June now and hurricane season has officially started. They say we are going to have an above average season this year.   Just what we need, more climate disasters. Climate change is a real thing that most of the world accepts as a fact. There are a few deniers but they have become fewer and fewer. Of course you still have those people that say the forest fires are caused by Jewish lasers from space but what the hell. She may be serious, but some of us are just laughing at her. Now that June has rolled around Trump has stated that he is going to start up his rallies again. That is all we need is hurricanes and Trump blowing around hot air at the same time. He is planning a rally in Florida. Now the guy’s record for paying his bills is pretty poor so if I was a community that was going to have a Trump rally I would ask for the money up front. I will tell you that Trump rallies do bother me a little. Hitler held rallies and look at the results. Are Trumps rallies going to unite
  The News has been bouncing all over the place. We have Infrastructure, we have the Israel Palestinian problem, we have the Insurrection and the investigation or lack of, all the voter suppression bills, and we also have the Greene /Gaetz fiasco. On Twitter it is hard to keep up and on the National News sites, it is a lot to absorb. One thing for sure, it is going to be hard to be a one issue voter the next time around. The Infrastructure debate is an interesting situation. I lived in Wisconsin when Obama inherited that awful economy for Bush. One of the first things he did was push up projects for the improvement of our infrastructure. The Governor was Doyle and at the time he had them start the I 94 expansion from the Illinois border to Milwaukee, one of the heaviest traveled rural interstates in the Country. Things were moving along and then Doyle gets defeated by Scott Walker. Walker wanting to be the darling of the Tea Party halted the expansion when it was less than half finis