THE RIGHT'S ASSAULT ON YOUR RIGHTS!

After Barack Obama was elected by a large majority of voters in America the GOP performed what was famously called an autopsy to find out what was killing their party.

They realized their base was shrinking. Not because of anything they were doing but rather because the so-called minorities of America were growing and they tended to lean more Democratic.

This scared the leaders of the party because it signaled the end of their reign over the masses in the same way Apartheid had ended in South Africa.

So quietly and insidiously they set out, not to change their agenda or make their party more minority friendly but to make it harder for minorities to vote!

On the face of it this would appear to be quite un-American but desperate times create desperate measures and as far as the Repubs were concerned the ends justified the means.

The GOP franchise was in jeopardy unless they disenfranchised African Americans and any other group they considered unfriendly to their cause.

But truth be told this was not really all that new. Ronald Reagan started the GOP's all out assault on unions, which have been considered to be bastions of Democratic leaning voters back in the 80s.

And his 'trickle-down economics' plan, which handed wealth to the already wealthiest among us in the hopes they would hire more workers and trickle some money down to the more needy, was aimed at keeping the middle class and poor down.

But by 2008 it became clear that this was just not going to be enough for the 'Right Wing' Conservatives to hold onto power.

Most white and affluent people tend to have no trouble voting, even though election day is on a Tuesday which happens to be a work day, because they can take a day off and not incur the wrath of the boss.

But if you worked in the mail room or any other entry level job taking a day off could be the difference between feeding your kids and paying the rent!

And do not expect the GOP to ever allow Election Day to be turned into a National paid holiday.

So the assault on the minorities, which were slowly becoming equal if not a majority in many areas, began in earnest.

Keep the Democratic voter away from the polls and you keep power. And if you keep power you can make it even harder for minorities to vote and you can cement your power for decades to come!

Red-lining and gerrymandering were in full swing across America, which allowed more Repubs to be elected in a state even though there were far more Democratic voters there.

But more and harsher methods were needed to keep the voter turnout down.

Some but not all of these tactics include:

• End early voting
• Close polling places, especially in minority areas
• Close polls at 8pm instead of 9pm.
• Have 'security guards' visible at minority area polling places
• Mail-in ballots MUST be received by Election Day &
• Destroy the ability of the USPS to deliver mail on time
• Use any method to shrink voter rolls
• You haven't voted in years
• We thought you died
• You can apply again but won't vote till next time
• We thought you moved
• Ditto above
• You need the new enhanced driver's license
• You don't have a car?
• How abut a gun license?
• You're an out of town student?
• You cannot vote in this State
• You must travel back to your home State
• You're a convicted felon in prison (Florida) so you cannot vote
• You paid your debt to society?
• So what?
• Before you can vote you must pay court & legal fees first

This last point is a GOP Rick Scott / Desantis gem since they will grant you your rights back if you can jump through the hoops they set up.

But they know most of the people involved are poor and will not have the cash on hand to pay what amounts to a poll tax.

"Gee, we are truly sorry but rules are rules!"

An even more insidious way of shrinking the Democratic leaning voter rolls was performed by the dt White House earlier this year.

Presidential son-in-law and all around piece of useless shit, Jared, noticed that Covid-19 was killing more people in 'Blue States' and advised dad NOT to act just yet.

In a way this sub human suggestion has backfired as dt has never admitted a mistake and never will.

So now that the deadly virus is affecting more 'Red States' and areas populated by his base he must continue to ignore its danger.

This could lower the turnout of his voting bloc so just in case he has taken to calling the election suspect before it even starts.

His statement that if he loses the election was rigged is reminiscent of every dictator since time began.

But no matter what happens this November the GOP has made the future their bitch by stuffing the nation's courts with the largest group of unqualified & young, very young 'lifetime appointed' conservative judges.

The Supreme Court already has one, if not illegally appointed judge, then certainly immorally appointed one in Kavanaugh.

If the GOP holds power in the upcoming election, and they are working feverishly and as usual insidiously to do so SCOTUS will almost surely become a solid conservative bastion for several decades.

The American dream is on life support and its only cure is a massive voter turnout.

VOTE THE DEMOCRATIC TICKET

TOP TO BOTTOM.

YOUR KIDS' LIVES ARE AT STAKE!

TO MOVE FORWARD REMEMBER THE PAST

As humans, it's eventually in our nature to accept a 'new normal.'
In many cases this can be good as in having to use seatbelts while driving or using a lavatory instead of a stream or field.
Many Americans have come to terms with the hopefully temporary 'new normal' of social distancing and wearing masks in public.
Admittedly washing ones hands often does not seem to be a terrible new way of life.

But too many other 'normals' that were new back when implemented should not have become so!

I offer the following 'normals' that have become old and need to be reexamined.


1 - Healthcare used to be affordable, although fewer and fewer people outside of government have lived long enough to remember that.

The 'new normal' is to weigh the benefit of getting or staying healthy against the reality of going broke to do so.

Too many are forced to make this 'Sophie's Choice.'

• The first health insurance most Americans had was Blue Cross. This non-profit plan made its debut around 1930 and afforded humans an affordable way to get their healthcare without having to sell their homes or declare bankruptcy.
• Blue Shield started around 1940 and the two merged in 1982 to form the familiar BC/BS (or BCBSA) health insurance giant.
• There were earlier plans, such as one in Dallas Texas that allowed teachers basic healthcare in association with Baylor Hospital but it was small and localized.
• In 1994 insurance companies were given the green light to make profits and all hell broke loose.
• Cutting out the middleman mentality of an accountant or an actuary deciding whether your life is worth saving must end!

2A - Education in America used to be a platinum system, at least in communities that were considered worthy by government which funded K-12.
The question is, why did we stop at 12?

• A truly great nation would want its citizens to be the best they can be and that should mean, at the very least, subsidized college, as in K-16 at the very least!
• The 'new normal' is 'for-profit' student loan system that makes higher learning unreachable for many and harms America in the long run!
• We have fallen so far behind other nations that it will take a generation to re-attain our status as a world leader.

3A - Programs that help law abiding Americans live healthy, fruitful and happy lives from cradle to grave are called social programs.
Many were implemented by Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression.
Then came the error (not a typo) of Ronald Reagan and cuts to all of the awful programs such as Medicaid and the war on Social Security.
The 'new normal' is to use the word socialism as anathema.

• Democratic President FDR's 'New Deal' and WPA saw a nationwide system of highways and other improvements come to life.
• Jobs and self respect returned to America.
• They eventually led to the greatest era of prosperity the country had ever known.
• These 'socialistic' programs helped us all and are sadly now in need of round two to repair them.

4A - Taxes are needed to run the government.
But logic dictates government can get more money by taxing the middle class because there are more of them than wealthy people!
And of course the wealthy are job creators.
The 'new normal' says the wealthiest among must get tax breaks and incentives to help the working class.

• And yet the country did it's best during the years after WWII when Republican President Eisenhower used the tax dollars garnered from his top bracket of 90% to move us into prosperity.
• Communities were built and thrived .
• None of the incredibly wealthy folk were hurt financially as they did their patriotic duty of 'chipping in' for a better, greater America!

And finally, one new normal that has been normalized and simply MUST be stopped is allowing a President free reign over the law and having his entire political party enable him to do so while they get rich with their criminal treasonous enterprise!

Thomas Jefferson said that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing.

In these cases the rebellion would be a great thing and for the good of the majority of Americans!!

Life is too short for us to continue accepting limits cause someone says they're so. Some things we cannot change but till we try we'll never know!*


* Thank you to Stephen Schwartz. You are not "Wicked."

ON A VERY PERSONAL NOTE

I just found out that my prostate cancer has returned and seems to refuse to be cured.
Nearly 20 years ago I was diagnosed and opted for radioactive seed implants to kill the cancer in my prostate.
They did the trick, at least for 18 years.
But when I saw the PSA rise I had my urologist take a look.
I opted for cryotherapy to freeze the unwanted cancer cells on the prostate but after 3 months of healing from the surgery the PSA level has returned to it's higher than acceptable number.
This means the cancer is back and possible spreading.
I will have an Axion Pet Scan to determine the extent of the deadly threat and to see if it is still containable.
As a pessimist I will not bother to type my thoughts about that but I will emend this post in a week or so.
I am typing this to see if anyone actually reads the blog (again, as a pessimist I doubt it) and will comment or send me private messages of support or even good riddance.
Watch this space!

WHO IS KILLING AMERICA?

Whenever there's a crime we look for the guilty one. But Agatha Christie famously showed us the guilty one could be a group, a large group of culprits, each with a different agenda. By now everyone with a brain who is willing to use it must realize that dt is not only NOT a president in the American sense of the word but a fool to boot and a well known criminal. But he was elected, or rather placed in the White House by a minority of Americans and an outdated dangerous system that has outlived its usefulness known as the Electoral College. So who dunnit? This time we don't need the prolific Dame Christie or her intuitive inspector Hercule Poirot to ideate who the idiot is rewarding. One clear winner is Vlad 'the Impaler' Putin who has desired the destruction of America for ages. With the ruination of our relations with the United Nations and our constant barrage against our former allies abroad America is no longer the leader of the 'free world.' Add to that the lifting of sanctions on Russia; The 'look the other way' attitude on their atrocities; The dropping out of Paris Accord on Climate Change; The end of the Iran Nuclear Deal; And the ease to which dictators around the World play him and you can easily see why Putin helped elect dt. The next clear winner is the GOP. Mitch McConnell must have known in advance that Vladimir and friends were going to work their magic when he refused to even meet with President Obama's choice to fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Court claiming that we should wait for the next president. Had he known Hillary Clinton would win he would have jumped at the appointment of the moderate Merrick Garland. But instead he opted to ignore Democracy and wait for the useful idiot to be placed in the White House. Then he started to fill every possible vacancy in America's court system with the least qualified conservative judges he could find. MoscowMitch, as he has been called and quite frankly acted, then went the extra mile of ignoring any bill from the Democratic Party by refusing to even bring it to the Senate floor for discussion, let alone a vote! And finally we come to the ultimate winner in this Orient Express from Hell, dt himself! Okay, not only dt but his entire extended crime family has benefitted by his 'above the law' presidency. Every person who has stuck it out working with this ego driven maniac has realized fame and fortune and seen their agenda carried out. Steven Miller despises foreigners, hence the fear of the 'Mexican caravan' headed for our border. Stevie Mnuchin loves money so he used tax payer dollars to take his wife Louise (would you take his last name?) Linton on his visit to Fort Knox where they fondled the gold bars. Larry Kudlow, who knows as much about finance as a dead tree slug, is advanced as a financial adviser and all around genius in dt's staff. AG Barr has not believed in the rule of law for decades but at least he was wallowing on the garbage heap of humanity until he penned his infamous paper or rather resume on how the President should be a dictator. He was rewarded with love and affection and free reign over the courts by dt. Giuliani, who had reached the end of his usefulness to the World, is suddenly traveling the World on our dime trying to dig up dirt on dt rivals. The dt scions who have enriched themselves beyond belief by selling access to the malleable moron. And of course the old tax dodger himself, Mr. Bone Spurs, the golfing 'What Me Worry' fool, dt! Sadly there is no way we the people will be able to arrest all the culprits who committed all the crimes noted above and so many more not yet mentioned but we can start to right the Ship of State by at least removing the ones we can from our government! To allow any of them to continue in their role as destroyer of America would be the biggest crime of all!

THIS SHOW MUST NOT GO ON!

There’s no people like trump people
They don’t mind that he lies
Everything about him is appalling
Everything he traffics in is hate
Nowhere will you find one more disgusting
When you’re discussing a candidate

There’s no voters like trump voters
They’re blind, deaf, and quite dumb
Even with a turkey who puts kids in jail
Takes healthcare from those who are quite frail
Still they will not vote by using U S Mail
And G  O  P stays mum

The virus, the treason, the lies that he tells
The idiots he’s placed in every court

The jobs lost, the lives lost, Our debt ceiling swells
Don’t seem to make a dent in his support

We simply must be rid of all these slobs
Let’s vote so we can take away their jobs!

There’s no people like trump people
They love Nazis and guns
If a foreign power wants to kill us
That’ll be just fine, he says okay
He will never really make a big fuss
He’ll say that we must
Move on today

There’s no right wing like trump right wing
Their heads are in the sand
Even when the science shows that they are wrong
Their lives are threatened; they won’t live long
They will sing their white supremacy hate song
And spread fear through the land

Hate and fear throughout the land!

MAGA HAS BROKEN (Song for 1/20/21)

A nothing has spoken
Like the 'first nothing'
Black men are dying
Just like before
Pray for salvation
Pray for our Nation
Pray that the voters will say nevermore! 

Sweep the elections
End all the GOP crimes
Take us to simpler
Less hateful times
Pray that our Nation
Finds its salvation
And peace and love will complete these rhymes! 

Bright is the sunlight
Bright is the new morn
Ending our dark times
With joyous dawn
Praise with elation
Our grateful nation
Dt is gone now, we are reborn!

Mourning has ended
Gone is that nothing
Health is returning
To our great land
Citizens singing
Freedom is ringing
Throughout the country with peace at hand!

VOTING RIGHTS ARE FIGHTING RIGHTS

When slaves were freed, they were allowed
To vote their minds and they felt proud 

Suffragettes in that same boat
Protested loudly to get the vote
But now Americans should be aware
The GOP’s not playing fair
They’re sending voting rights into mass graves
And trying to turn all citizens to slaves!
We cannot afford another tyrant for hire
Only voting will end this damn dumpster fire
The rule of law exists no more
For all our sakes show them the door!

DEMS ARE THERE FOR YOU - VOTE BLUE!

DONNY BOY

O Donny boy
Your polls, your polls are falling
And as they drop
Your future’s getting bleak

That sound you hear
Is prison guards a-calling
Where food is slop
And roommates not so meek

O Donny boy
Tis justice you'll be facing
And living where
The beds ain’t up to par

While in the yard
From wall to wall you're pacing
Begging for help
From cellmate Willie Barr