Author: Darlene Mitchell

Deeply Concerned

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Deeply Concerned

By D. S. Mitchell

I am generally considered pro-active. I  tend to handle problems when they initially present themselves, not wait until I have a full blown emergency.  I learned this lesson from my mother, and it is a lesson that has served me well for my last 71 years of life. The Trump Administration, headed by Donald Trump, has not learned that lesson. And as such, we have a major set of scandals threatening to blow up this White House and its corrupt, narcissistic, Mafioso occupant.

Calamity Politics is a political blog bringing news to my readers with an often biting and sarcastic commentary that I hope is at least mildly amusing.  I pray daily for the Impeachment of Donald J. Trump and Mike Pence. Please join me in that prayer.

The last two posts from Calamity Politics have been about 1.)President Trump’s Conflicts of Interest issues in at least 30 separate cases, and 2.)Donald Jr’s. meeting with a Russian attorney in June of 2016

Although both scandals at first seem separate, after about a minute and a half  of thought,  I decided, No. These are very much the same story. The story of a family that believes they are above the law.  Corruption and coverup seem to come naturally to the Trump team. It must be in the genes.

Paul Krugman, writing for the New York Times on July 10, 2016 indicted the entire GOP, saying, “It’s not just Donald Trump: The whole GOP has become a post-truth party. And I see no sign it will ever improve.” Krugman continued, “Political spin used to have limits: Politicians who wanted to be taken seriously wouldn’t go around claiming up is down and black is white.”

In that same story, Krugman further asserted that “conservatives keep scaling new heights of dishonesty in their attempt to sell their reverse Robin Hood agenda, of tax cuts for the rich and pain for the poor.”

On July 13, 2017 Ross Douthat published an article in the NY Times veering back directly to Trump, blaming him personally for most of the negative press, “a good rule of thumb for dealing with Donald Trump: Everyone who gives him the benefit of the doubt eventually regrets it.”

The argument that Trump is a political neophyte and that he is still hanging onto the 1980’s vision of the two great powers co-operating and working toward a world of greater understanding has been dashed by the revelations of the last week from Donald Trump, Jr.

It is no longer arguable that there is a normal explanation for Trump’s seeming love affair with all things Russian.  Donald, Jr. in an admitted effort by the Trump campaign to gather negative information on Hillary Clinton met with Russian nationals.  Those attendees’ have now been shown to have serious links to the Russian government.  Several high ranking Trump campaign and family members were at the meeting, including Jared Kushner, Donald Jr., and Paul Manafort.

Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort had a meeting with “identified representatives  of the Russian government” in which, “it was explicitly promised that damaging information on Hillary Clinton would be supplied as part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

So, we know that the Trump insiders were willing to meet with an adversarial government, a government that is actively working world wide to undermine the power and influence of the United States.  The Trump team had every reason to believe any information provided in that meeting was likely to have been hacked–more specifically, stolen–to have come into Russian hands, in the first place.

A direct quote from the emails between Rob Goldstone and Donald Jr., indicate that Junior was not skeptical, but rather eager, and in fact enthusiastically welcomed the encounter saying, “if it’s what you say, I love it.” Never seeming to question, why would a foreign government want to help a particular candidate? What will be the eventual cost for such support?

To make it look even worse, the emails and statements by Junior did not come out until the pending  release by a media outlet of the same emails forced his release of the emails.  His story, flipped and flopped and has to this day not settled on the whole story or the whole truth.

Everybody in that meeting lied, or conveniently forgot about their little get together.  Douthat’s article states, “So while this is not direct evidence that the president of the United States was complicit in a virtual burglary, perpetrated against the other party during an election season,  is strong evidence that we should drop the presumption that such collusion is an extreme or implausible scenario.”

Just imagine that the Watergate burglars had been foreign hackers.  Think about it, seriously, when viewed that way, there is an entirely new image. Why does it seem different when the burglar has a crowbar to jimmy a window, or a burglar attacking from behind the screen of a computer.  My private information is actually far more valuable to me than a television set, a stereo, or a gold bracelet.

Is America Going To Accept Russian Interference In U.S. Elections?

Douthat concludes his piece, “anyone presuming his (Trump) innocence at this point should have all the confidence of Chris Christie awaiting his cabinet appointment….”

Finally, the conservative writer, and political analyst Charles Krauthammer  wrote for the Washington Post a scathing article on 7/14/2017 lashing out at the Trump administration saying, “Bungled collusion is still collusion no matter how you spin it.”

Krauthammer recounted that the White House for six months has claimed the Russian scandal was a ‘hoax’, ‘fake news’, ‘democratic hysteria’, nothing more than ‘innuendo’. “Yes, there had been meetings with Russian officials, some only belatedly disclosed. But, that is circumstantial evidence at best.”

Krauthammer continues, ” The evidence is now shown. This is not hearsay, not fake news, not unsourced leaks. This is an email chain released by Donald Trump, Jr. himself.  The Kremlin  is willing to share troves of incriminating documents from the Crown Prosecutor (error: Britain has a CP. Russia has a State Prosecutor.)”

When Donald, Jr., emailed back his willingness to meet, “he was in.” Once you’ve said, “I’m in,” it makes no difference that the meeting was a bust, that the intermediary brought no such goods.  What matters is what Donald, Jr. thought going into that meeting, as well as Jared Kushner and then campaign manager Paul Manafort, who were copied on the correspondence, invited to the meeting, and attended.”

Donald, Jr.,  told Sean Hannity that the meeting was “just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame.”

Krauthammer’s article asks, “A shame? On the contrary, a stroke of luck. Had the lawyer had real stuff to deliver, Donald, Jr., and the others would be in far deeper legal trouble.  It turned out to be incompetent amateur collusion, this was keystone cops collusion,   comically failed collusion. That does not erase the fact that three top Trump campaign officials were ready to play.”

“It may turn out that they did later collaborate more fruitfully.  We don’t know.  But even if nothing else is found, the evidence is damning.’

Krauthammer goes on to attack the Trump apologists who are claiming such interaction between the Trump campaign and the Russian government is “no big deal.”  First, the Trumpites have been telling us for six months that no collusion ever happened, and now they say: Sure it happened.  So, what? Everyone does it.”

“What’s left of your credibility when you make such a casual about-face?, Krauthammer asks.

Secondly, he states, “No, not everyone does it. It’s one thing to be open to opposition research dug up in Indiana.  But not dirt from Russia, a hostile foreign power that has repeatedly invaded its neighbors, that buzzes our planes and ships in international waters, that opposes our every move and objective around the globe.  What Donald, Jr.–and Kushner and Manafort–did may not be criminal.  But it is not merely stupid–it is also deeply wrong, a fundamental violation of any code of civic honor.

I leave it to the lawyers to adjudicate the legalities  of  unconsummated collusion.  But you don’t need to be a lawyer to see that the Trump defense — collusion as a desperate Democratic fiction designed to explain away a lost election–is now officially dead.”

Trump Issued A Tweet Claiming Donald Jr Is A Good Young Man.

Their stories change daily and sometimes hourly.  Head spinning deceit and lies to an unheard of extent. In fact, there seems to be no limit to the extent of the deception. A surrogate lines up “the story” and then one of the Trumps runs their car over the surrogates foot with a tweet, a statement, or an interview.

Trump has sent a Tweet from Paris blamed Loretta Lynch and the Obama Administration for wrongly allowing the Russian lawyer, Natalia Vaselnitskaya into the country.  Krauthammer swung back at Trump Tweets, calling it a “red herring the size of a whale.”

Is it all pathological? Or, are the shifting stories just an attempt to cover up an ever growing ugly scenario, that could get uglier and uglier.  With the Trump group it is hard to know. In fact, the two could easily overlap.

I have lived through 13 presidencies. That makes me really old and I have seen a lot. Some presidents I could ignore, while others I could not. I have for the most part felt we could survive a bad president, out of the thirteen there were a couple really bad ones, but the country survived and kept moving jerkily forward.

The Russians Are Here

But now, I’m deeply concerned. Not once did I ever doubt the patriotism of any one of those presidents.  Never once, did I suspect that the sitting president had interacted with a foreign power to win election to the highest office in the United States.  But now, I’m deeply concerned.  Never once have I heard a President deny an allegation for months and then when the lie was exposed the President said, “It’s politics, it’s a dirty business and everyone does it, it’s called ‘opposition research’.  Anyone would have taken that meeting.”

How do months of denials from the Trump block pivot from “nothing Russian going on here”, to suddenly in one tweet, morph into “everybody does it.”

I’m deeply concerned and I hope you are to. Join the Resistance. Do your part, call your elected officials, email the same officials, call them again, make your voice heard. Neighborhood organizing, and protesting back up your words.  Don’t give in to exhaustion or disappointment. The road is long and the challenges great, but together we can remove this cancer from the White House, but it will take work and commitment and a hell of a lot of phone calls.

Even Fox News commentator Chris Wallace seemed to question the Trump campaign activities saying, “This should not be Pro-Trump vs Anti-Trump.  If you are a fair minded person you ought to be concerned about the fact that we were repeatedly misled about what this meeting concerned.”

Wallace didn’t stop with that but instead encouraged “anybody who has inside knowledge  should come forward with every single contact they ever had with a Russian. Come clean, tell it now, let the chips fall where they may.  And in fact, if there’s no crime you’ll survive it.  It will be embarrassing but it is better than this trickle, this daily drip” of new undisclosed Russian contacts.

Join the Resistance

DarleneC

Trump Dances Around Conflict Of Interest Complaints

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Trump Dances Around Conflict Of Interest Complaints

D. S. Mitchell

On 6/28/2017 Jeremy Venook wrote an interesting article for The Atlantic that pointed to serious conflicts of interest between Donald Trump’s business affairs and his job as President of the United States. I am going to review, comment, and regurgitate some of his points. Venook points to numerous questionable Trump dealings and created a list of what he has identified as conflicts of interest. I ask any readers to please go to the Atlantic.com site and read the accompanying articles addressing all the items of Venook’s list. The list is at the end of his 6/28/2017 article.

That list is as follows: 1.) Clean Water Rule 2.) Real estate development outside New Delhi 3.) Golf course in Westchester county, NY 4.) Russian Trademarks 5.) Trump Organization Event Planner 6.) Saudi Arabia lobbying effort 6.) Golf course in New Jersey 7.) Meeting in Brussels 8.) Tower in Toronto 9.) Condos for sale 10.) Re-election campaign funds 11.) Second hotel in Washington, D.C. 12.) Property in Azerbaijan 13.) Trump Tower penthouse 14.) Resort in the Dominican Republic 15.) Chinese Trademark 16.) Mar-a-Lago meetings 17.) Defense Department Trump Tower rental 18.) Red Cross Ball 19.) Washington, D.C. labor dispute 20.) Palm Beach estate 21.) Trump Organization planned business expansion 22.) Hotel in Vancouver, B.C. 23.) Reality TV show 24.) Pipeline 25.) HUD grants 26.) Golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland 27.) Other billionaire NY real estate developer 28.) Indonesian politician 29.) Emirati businessman 30.) Virginia vineyard 31.) Las Vegas labor dispute 32.) Kuwaiti event 33.) Certificates of Divestiture 34.) Carrier deal 35.) Blind trust issue 36.) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac investments 37.) Phone call with Taiwan 38.) Deutsche Bank debt 38.) Properties in the country of Georgia 39.) Phone call and meet with Turkey’s Erdogan 40.) D.C. hotel 41.) Argentinian office building 42.) Companies in Saudi Arabia 43.) British Wind farms 44.) Indian business partners 45.) Envoy from Philippines.

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Scratching My Head

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Scratching My Head

D. S. Mitchell

Calamity politics’ mission is to share political opinions and comments on the urgent news of the day.  Our goal is to empower and connect people with a forward looking progressive agenda. I admit I often use the blog to release my own pent up emotions. It isn’t a crime, but it should at least be acknowledged.  Furthermore, I want it understood that I am a fervent  anti-Trump voice  and supporter of the Resistance. That said, today I am going to disrespect DonaldJ. Trump Jr. What the hell? Is this guy so attention starved that he wanted to bring a bunch of Russian tricksters and propagandists into the 2016 Presidential campaign to smear Hillary Clinton and impress Daddy? Is he so greedy for power that he would sell out the most sacred element of our Democracy, our vote, to a foreign power? Is he so stupid he needs help because he can’t tie his own shoe laces? Is he so used to operating outside the law that calling the FBI to report the intent of a foreign government to interfere in the US election didn’t even occur to him or the other attendees at this recently uncovered meeting. This whole story that is emerging about Donald, jr, and the lady Russian lawyer has me and most of the world scratching our heads.

The confirmed 6/9/2016 meeting, was between Trump, jr, Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner and a Russian attorney at Trump Tower and is the first known meeting between members of the Trump inner circle, both family and campaign staffers. The emerging story is grim and depressing when viewed as a family joined together to betray the United States; and in effect, mount a successful coup of the government; aided and abetted by a foreign adversary.

I am not surprised, but as more information is being brought to light my anger keeps mounting. How the fuck off kilter do you have to be to sell your country out? Too fucking immoral  and fucking disgusting to be anywhere close to the White House and the role of President of the United States, in my opinion. Trump must be impeached immediately along with his Vice President, Mike Pence.  OMG my hair is on fire.

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EPA Cuts Cause Potential For Real Harm

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EPA Cuts Cause Potential For Real Harm

D. S. Mitchell

Calamity Politics is a progressive political blog that’s main intention is to improve people’s lives. I’m here again, uncensored and irreverent, raising hell and screaming for attention. I know I’m about 3200 miles from Washington, D.C. but I pray people are aware of the perilous and irresponsible attack on the EPA that is taking place at the hands of the Trump Administration.  The Environmental Defense Fund states flatly, “No federal agency has been singled out for such a large and pernicious budget cut as the EPA”.

Approximately 90% of the American people support strong environmental protections.  It is an all hands on deck emergency if we will be able to stop President Trump’s efforts to gut the EPA budget, thus eliminating many core environmental safeguards. The government has been transferred into the hands of anti-environment extremists whose goal is profit through fossil fuel extraction over the lives of wildlife and our historic national park system.

Trump and the Congress seem to be on a mission to kill our national parks and destroy our environmental protections.  Many lobbyists are sent to Washington paid to convince legislators that relaxing restrictions on the millions of acres of National Parks land would be an economic boom for the country.  The goal seems to be directed toward shifting control from the federal government to the individual states, where those treasured resources can be sold, or licensed to the highest bidder for the systematic extraction of gold, silver, oil, gas, coal, and timber.

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Trump Lives In A Facsimile Universe

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Trump Lives In A Facsimile Universe

D. S. Mitchell

Last week President Trump set off another Twitter firestorm when he began a vicious  attack against MSNBC TV hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. Trump’s bad behaviors and odd proclivities have made for interesting chatter on their early morning political news show, ‘Morning Joe’.  The Twitter attack came after several months of negative Trump coverage by the two TV hosts.

The heat of the outrage following Trump’s disgusting attack came from a wide swath of the public, Capitol Hill and the media. At the height of the Kerfuffle, Joe and Mika came on their own show as “guests”. The pair answered  a slew of questions from their regular panel.

In short order,  I watched the story shift from Trump’s questionable  mental capacity to an even darker and more sinister sets of behaviors. Behaviors that support the James Comey’s recent testimony; threats and bullying being standard practice by the thug from Queens.

Joe and Mika told a hair raising tale ‘on air,’ of being excessively pressured, or  “blackmailed”, by several White House officials.   The staffers were demanding Joe and Mika call and apologize to the President, for their recent unflattering reporting of Trump on their show.

The pair described many ominous phone calls being made to their children and other family members threatening publication of an ugly National Enquirer story.  Mika stated that White House staffers made frequent phone calls to her, telling her to back off  the negative reporting of Trump.

Not only was there pressure to change reporting, but also to call the president and apologize.  All they needed to do was cave to the threats by the White House thugs.  If Joe made that apology call he was told the negative National Enquirer story would be scrapped.

Joe told his television audience that he had called Jared Kushner directly.  During that conversation  Kushner, confirmed, “All you need to do is pick up the phone and call and apologize, and the National Enquirer story will disappear”.  Joe said he refused to apologize, and things deteriorated into Trump making the subsequent disgusting tweets attacking the two TV hosts.

The Trump attack against the commentators soon segued to how can Trump control what is published in the National Enquirer and how is he using that power to control and manipulate reporters and the news itself?

It is well-known that National Enquirer, CEO  David Pecker has been friends with Donald Trump for decades. Despite Pecker denials of biased reporting favoring Trump it has been obvious for many months that The National Enquirer and TMZ are having a print love affair with Trump. And Pecker has been allowing his personal relationship with Trump to effect editorial decisions at the tabloid.

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66 Things To Smile About

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66 Things To Smile About

D. S. Mitchell

Calamity Politics presents progressive political opinions, predictions and speculations regarding the current U.S. political news scene. The Fourth of July, Independence Day, one of my favorite holidays. Its been a good day. I worked half a day, hung out with a couple friends while they did demolition on their new “used” home. It looks like a lot of work and a huge money outgo, but the place is in a great neighborhood and the house has great bones. After the fireworks I was too tired to finish my Independence Day post. So, here are ’66 Things To Smile About’:

1.) Hours at the library 2.) Remembering my reusable bags when I go shopping 3.) The Budweiser horses 4.) Summer Solstice Parties 5.) Wall art 6.) A room filled with music 7.) Houseboating at Lake Shasta, California 8.) A seaplane landing 9.) A lazy game of golf with the girls 10.) A bag of tennis balls for the dog 11.) A twisted toothpaste tube 12.) Animal cookies 13.) Elevator door opening just as you reach it 14.) Playing darts at the pub 14.) A new litter of puppies 15.) Roses growing up a picket fence 16.) Getting the local paper at the doorstep 17.) Breakfast with Tracey 18.) Antique car shows 19.) Having a plan 20.) Astoria, Oregon 21.) Air shows 22.) Girl’s softball 23.) Dancing with a great dancer 24.) Kids in the sprinkler 25.) Thrift store shopping 26.) Hot air balloons 27.) Upscale resale shops 28.) Loading the fishing gear 29.) River walks and Ocean Promenades 30.) Saturday Night Live 31.) Remembering a loved one with graveside flowers 32.) Inspiring a child 33.) The tingle of stage fright just before a performance 34.) Chasing rainbows 35.) Chintz curtains blowing through an open window 36.) Country stores 37.) Fresh baked bread soaked with butter 38.) Castles sitting high above rivers 39.) “Getting away” for the weekend 40.) Coconut milk fresh from the coconut 41.) Kah-Nee-Ta Resort 42.) Shiny firetrucks 43.) Plate size cinnamon rolls shared with friends 44.) Antique quilts on display 45.) Pressing Restart after a bad episode 46.) Hitting a home run 47.) Marching for a cause 48.) Seeing football teams wear pink for breast cancer awareness 49.) The Ferries of Puget Sound 50.) Vancouver Island 51.) Sidewalk dining 52.) Finding a childhood toy when unpacking boxes long stored 53.) Street rods 54.) Consciously stirring a conversation to avoid an argument with a co-worker 55.) One trusted and forever best friend 56.) A “Make Over Day” 57.) Wind chimes quietly tapping in the wind 58.) Catfish caught in the early morning and fried for breakfast 59.) Fortune tellers and Ouija boards 60.) Mexican tooled cowboy boots 61.) Beer in iced glasses 62.) Making, and then eating cannabis cookies 63.) Hanging an oil painting you did when you were 25 over the fireplace for a new showing 64.} The ‘mission’ you create with a ‘To Do List” 65.) Self help books, purchased, but never read 66.) A joke well told

Thank you for joining me for my weekly smile session. Remember to do your part; call Capitol Hill, fax and email your reps, write letters to congress, letters to the editors, tweets, blog, protest, run for office.

Join the Resistance.
Dar

Congress Doubts Trump Foreign Policy

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Congress Doubts Trump Foreign Policy

D. S. Mitchell

Calamity Politics is a progressive leaning political blog where we attempt to offer relevant and engaging political analysis and commentary, sprinkled with a bit of sarcasm and cynicism.  So, if you are ready, please join me as I examine the good, the bad, the planned and the unplanned on the U.S. political scene.  Some call it Mud Wrestling, I call it Russian Roulette.

Mieke Eoyang, a National Security Analyst at the Third Way, said, “I think it is setting in, especially in the Republican members of Congress, that they are not getting the kind of adult leadership out of the White House that would allow them to give deference to the White House”. Continue reading

To Believe, Or Not To Believe

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To Believe, Or Not To Believe

D. S. Michell

In 2015, after years of debate on the separation of Church and State issue, a Republican controlled State Legislature passed a bill authorizing the placement of a Ten Commandments Monument on the Arkansas Capitol grounds.  A group of fundamentalists raised $26,000 to fund the creation of the Ten Commandments monument. That monument was erected last week on the Capitol grounds at Little Rock, Arkansas.

Within 24 hours of its erection, the Ten Commandments came tumbling down, after being rammed by a Dodge Dart, driven by Michael Tate Reed.  Reed, posted a video of himself running into and destroying the newly placed monument. Reed reportedly yelled, “Oh my goodness—-freedom,”  as he rammed the 6,000 pound granite slab.  Reed 32, was arrested and secured at Pulaski County Jail charged with, criminal trespass, defacing object of public interest, and First degree criminal mischief.  Reed has subsequently been transferred to mental health authorities.

Reed in 2014 rammed another vehicle into a Ten Commandments monument at the Oklahoma State Capitol, in Oklahoma City, OK.  And, in fact, Reed is currently under court order to maintain mental health treatment and therapy.

Wednesday afternoon, maintenance crews were cleaning up the mess.  Arkansas officials intend to replace the monument as soon as possible. A state official confirmed the vow to replace the monument, “we won’t let this bitterness and hatred stop us.”

The separation of Church and State debate is not expected to tamper down in the near future. The ongoing, and increasingly loud dissension seems to increase as partisanship policies polarize respective groups.

Nationwide school boards, city and county hearings, state legislators and citizens are debating the place of religion in American life. One of the most contentious arguments centers around the display of the Ten Commandments and other religious invocations on public buildings and grounds. The display of the Ten Commandments has led to numerous legal battles and poisonous debate.

Through a spokesman, the ACLU issued a statement,  “We are committed to seeing  unconstitutional monuments struck down, but safely through legal means.” A group called Freedom From Religion, has threatened numerous laws suits across the country and have successfully had religious monuments removed from government properties in Mississippi and New Mexico.

My opinion is simple. You as an individual, or a business owner can decide to put religious decors, monuments, plaques on your property.

I as an individual do not want such religious monuments on my property, nor do I want any such affirmations on public property, EVER.

It’s a big week end here in my little corner of the world.  The annual HOA garage sale is going full force. People come from all over the county for this huge event.  The community picnic will be Sunday, another big event. The 4th of July, because it is on a Tuesday this year, is making it a really long week end, and thousands of tourists are flooding our beach side  community.  Traffic on our narrow little roads gets risky for walkers and bikers.

Calamity Politics wishes all my readers. HAPPY 4TH! Stay Safe.

Join the Resistance

Dar

Proud to

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“Proud to Say I’m a Liberal,” JFK

D. S. Mitchell

Calamity Politics is a progressive political blog where I address and comment on U.S. political  shenanigans and bullshit that happens everyday in Washington, D. C. Calamity Politics is coming to you today from hotter than hell Grants Pass, Oregon where it was a melting 107 degrees yesterday, and we are expecting more of the same for the next couple days.

Sadly, it seems to me, that “people” never vote for policy. Which is what effects their every day lives.  Instead, politicians have figured out that “people” vote for hot button issues, the candidate’s appearance and stage comfort being other factors.  There seems to be a total disconnect for many people.  The individual political party platforms state clearly the values and direction of that party.  Furthermore, the history of the individual parties actions when in power are a pretty reliable predictor of how they will govern.

Characters like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Newt Gingrich are continually ginning  up the right wing base with attacks against any and all “liberals” “lefties” “progressives”; and the “Democrats” specifically.

I’m proud to be a liberal if that mean, in the words of JFK, ” Someone who looks ahead and not  behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people—their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties—someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad. If that is what it means to be a ‘Liberal’— then I’m proud to say I’m a liberal.”

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Heartbreaking

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Heartbreaking

D. S. Mitchell

Calamity politics woke up early this morning to more health care debate on the the cable news channels. I have been making my calls to Senators and voicing my disgust for the emerging  disaster identified by many as, “TrumpCare”.

I have written several posts recently about the health care subject and again this morning Calamity Politics is urging political action by everyone.  If you’re reading this post don’t forget to write, call, protest, run for office, anything to further the Resistance.

One of the things that never gets people excited is organizing.  But, grassroots organizing is essential. Knock on doors, talk to people, ask them what they are looking for in a candidate, and find a candidate that matches what that community is talking about.  Whatever you do, don’t lose faith.  If you take a hammer and you hit it against a concrete wall, over and over again, that wall will breach.  We are that hammer.

The secret writing of the Republican health care bill was enough to convince many people of its dubious underpinnings. The opposition to the pending legislation by hospitals, nurses and doctors, American Cancer Society, Diabetes Foundation,  and reportedly 76% of the U.S. population is unprecedented.  Those factors alone should be enough for the Republicans to sense the way the wind is blowing, but they cannot get past the “Repeal ObamaCare” thinking.  If the Republicans are allowed to pass the TrumpCare bill many American citizens will suffer, maybe you, maybe your mother, or an uncle, a friend from work. Someone you know will be negatively effected if this bill passes.

Paul Ryan (R. WI) said he had dreamed of this bill, this moment, “since he used to talk policy at kegger parties, in college.”  Are you fucking kidding me? Someone who is still holding on to dumb ass, drunk ‘college kid’ ideas is drawing up national health care policy that potentially effects everyone in America either directly, or indirectly, makes me furious.

These folks are so removed from everyday life that they don’t even realize what they sound like. The other day Senator Lindsey Graham (R. S.C.) made the comment, “If we don’t pass a bill, we”ll  just wait until ObamaCare collapses.  Maybe then we can get something passed.”

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Senator Graham’s comments are both heartlessness and offensive.  Somebody has cancer, guess we’ll watch his treatment interrupted, his life turned up side down, and most likely his hastened death.  Why, when we have the technology to save his life? Because, some guy in college fell in love with the Ayn Rand idea of ‘me’ over everyone else, or an old guy that acts as if no action is acceptable. That’s like watching someone drown and you standing on the dock ignoring the event, and it’s potential.

Maybe you guys, back there in Washington, D.C. need a reality check.  Sometimes a bad ‘promise’ should be broken, and the Republicans have made some really bad promises over the last eight years., without any regard to the negative effect, those promises will have on a large portion of the American population.

Dar

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