More Word Chains

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More Word Chains

D. S. Mitchell

Playtime

It’s playtime here at Calamity Politics. I love word chains, with a little politics thrown in. Hope that doesn’t bother you. Of course, I know you love politics, or you wouldn’t be reading Calamity Politics. Check out the following:

I can change lead to gold by changing one letter at a time, lead, load, goad, gold.

I can change less to more by changing one letter at a time, less, Tess, toss, moss, most, Mort, more.

I can change dog to cat by changing one letter at a time, dog, cog, cot, cat.

I can change find to lose by changing one letter at a time, find, fine, line, lone, lose.

I can change head to tail by changing one letter at a time, head, heal, teal, tell, tall, tail.

Thank You

I want to thank Rod L. Evans, PhD for the word chains, which I took with his permission directly from his great book, Tyrannosaurus Lex. Please look for it.

As a political commentator I must ask, can Donald Trump can change prison to pardon by changing one letter at a time?

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TRUMP SHELL GAME

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Trump Shell Game

By D. S. Mitchell

Putin Land

Calamity News and Politics doesn’t want you to grab the pitchforks and torches yet, but that could become a necessity. The noise around the Trump White House and it’s growing descent into Putin Land is quite alarming. Just because I’m a liberal. I’ve noticed red-necks are always quick to label me a “red” or a “commie.” Strange considering I’ve never even met a Russian. Since Trump began his campaign, the United States political scene has been dominated with Russians. Unheard of in American political history.

A Long Time Here

I’ve been around the U.S. political scene for a long time. I was born in 1946, I was small, but I remember Truman as president. The campaigns of Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, Carter, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, Obama and now Trump are still vivid. Not once, did I ever hear any of these men, until Trump, espouse a Russian dictator as a great leader. Putin is a criminal who is known to kill his political enemies. And Trump thinks Putin is  “an amazing leader”. Peculiar to say the least.

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Basement Hideaway?

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Basement Hideaway

By D. S. Mitchell

Here at Calamity Politics I try to be proactive. In that sense of proactivism, I wrote the following letter to Mitch McConnell on the subject of health care:

3/2/2017

Dear Senator McConnell,

If you have a new health care plan, let us see it.  It’s our lives, our health care, that is on the line, not yours.  You by reports, have great health care. If it is a respectable bill, show it.  If it is a worthy replacement of for the Affordable Care Act, bring it out into the light.  Don’t hide in a darkened room in the Senate basement.  Show your work.  Let’s talk.

Sincerely,
D. S. Mitchell
www.calamitypolitics.com

Let’s see if I get an answer. I have my doubts, that I will receive a response from the leader of the Senate. He prides himself in being the “grim reaper”. Unfortunately, on health care that is a sad and sickening title. I am ready to talk. Lets stop all the political bantering and have a real discussion. I don’t want to hear McConnell’s typical rhetoric. I want to hear real discussion, real bi-partisan discussion. Health care is a right. Everyone deserves to be healthy. Health care should not be tied to the size of your wallet or the quality of your employer’s health care plan. Let’s fix this broken system. Let’s move toward Medicare for all.

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SESSIONS RECUSES OVER KREMLIN-GATE FIRESTORM

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Sessions Recuses Over Kremlin-Gate 

D. S. Mitchell

A Progressive Agenda

I am admittedly a Liberal-Progressive. Calamity News and Politics is a known progressive political blog. Calamity has a serious agenda. My agenda is to put Democrats and Independents in office at all levels of American government. I am working to make that a reality in 2018. And, maybe, that is why I find the Republican trash that keeps blowing up in my face, really irritating. Such as: Paul Ryan had the guts to say, “the Dems have their hair on fire for no reason.”  Ted Cruz says, “It’s a nothing burger.”  “Keep moving.  Nothing to see here,” advises a grinning Mitch McConnell.

A Thing Of Interest

It seems many high-profile Republicans just can’t figure out why the people of the United States are interested in finding out the facts.  It has come out that  Attorney General Jeff Sessions, despite sworn testimony, had at least two meetings with the Russian Ambassador while he was acting as a surrogate for the Trump campaign. That information is big news, only to those outside the Republican party.

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Trump’s Tuesday Speech

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Trump’s Tuesday Speech

D. S. Mitchell

I gave myself a couple days to digest what the ‘teleprompter’ president said in his speech to the joint Congressional Session on Tuesday.

The most as a political observer that I can say in his favor is that, Trump did lower the volume, he dropped some of his inflammatory rhetoric, and whoopee, he mostly stuck to his prepared speech.   It is obvious, the bar has been set so low by this huckster, that him sticking to a topic, evokes cheers.  How quickly we abandon quality for showmanship.

Nothing has changed.  Trump and his buddies intend to break all the toys, and then have Daddy buy new ones.  I guess that’s what a school yard of billionaires does for fun.  Steve Bannon clarified his “deconstruction” of the government plan last week, to a wildly cheering C-PAC crowd.  Trump this week, has just refined the presentation, and legitimized it, by a speech before Congress.

Here’s what’s coming.  The White House crew, and the Republican ideologues in the House and Senate will break the backs of all the government departments, ravage health care, destroy Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

I don’t know about you, but it takes my breath away.  Simply put, these spoiled billionaires don’t care, or understand, that millions of people’s lives are affected by their every action, and the action of these government departments. I know a lot of folks that depend on the services of the government and it saddens me to imagine the potential results of their actions.

I believe, a great individual is a person that can easily imagine himself in the other person’s shoes.  That’s the foundation of empathy.

Come on, guys.  Put on the other guys shoes, if he’s got any, and wear them for a day, or a week, or a month. There was a remarkable book written by John Griffin, Black Like Me which was published in 1961 that recounted his trip across the deep south, after he had his skin tone darkened, so he could effectively pass as a black man. His vivid memory of the white man’s “hate stare,” was painful. I truly believe, if each of us lived another man’s life, if even for a short time, we would quickly find compassion and respect.

Watch Calamity Politics for the latest political news and discussion.

Join the Resistance

Dar

Trump Writes Last Chapter of ‘1984’

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Trump Writes Last Chapter Of ‘1984’

D. S. Mitchell

If you have failed to notice, Calamity Politics is a Progressive-Liberal political blog and Michael Moore is my favorite ragamuffin film maker activist. Recently, Moore was on Hardball, doing a segment with Chris Mathews, where he sarcastically described a new last chapter of ‘1984’ being written by Donald Trump.

In this new imagined chapter, apparently, Donald Trump convinces the populace, that up is down, and down is up.

I laughed, but I knew that doublespeak was now part of the accepted political rhetoric. Love you Michael. If as a reader you want to do something to help the resistance, check out Michael Moore’s website. He offers several suggestions to help you make your voice heard, and lists scheduled events that might tickle your need to RESIST and PERSIST.

Join the Resistance

Dar

A WHITE HOUSE MOST FOUL

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A White House Most Foul

By D. S. Mitchell

As you most know, I started the Calamity Politics political blog to vent my frustrations and keep from losing my frigging liberal mind. I try to focus on news and facts and also try to support my statements with at least two sources. With this post, I’ve thrown all those established behaviors to the wind.

1.)  Images of the newly emboldened and empowered ICE agents, handcuffing and loading people into vans, without access to legal representation, reminds me of the Nazi’s rounding up the Jews seventy five years ago in Germany.  Obviously, hate lives on.

2.)  I had a husband once.  He believed, “if you repeat a lie,  enough times, most people believe it.”  I am more of the,  “You can fool all the people some of the time.  You can fool some of the people, part of the time,  but you can never fool all the people, all of the time.”  I believe we are about to find out which theory holds water.  I’ve got my fingers crossed.  There’s a lot at stake here, 240 years of our constitutional democracy.

3.)  There is a stench rising out of  Washington, D.C. that is so foul it has reached me here on the West Coast.  I have never smelled anything so disgusting, except the odor that hovers over a rendering plant in mid-August.  The possibility that a presidential candidate would co-operate with a foreign power, one that our country has sanctions against, is truly sickening.  That despicable cloud of corruption now hangs over the entire United States,  extending from coast to coast.  Republican investigating chairmen (Nunes and Burr), admitted yesterday, that they had, at White House urging, attempted to divert media attention from the Russian investigation.

Right here, right now, I want the world to know, that I personally believe the appointment of an Independent Prosecutor is essential.

4.)  The unrelenting attacks and insults against the media, by President Trump, are inexcusable and dangerous.  A little contention is good, but what is going on is unprecedented.  Since when does the top liar in the country have the right to accuse anyone of being “fake.”  The fabricated accusations by Trump are disgusting and unnecessary.  Trump’s assault against the fourth estate must stop. I’m not a great fan of George W, but let me tell you, I was so damned glad to hear him discuss this issue on the Today show yesterday, you would have thought he was a Democrat.   I was nearly cheering.  Fuck, yeah!  “The press in an indispensable part of our democracy”.  Go George, go.  Thank you, 43.** As an aside, Mr. Bush,  I had no idea you were such a talented artist.  The several paintings I’ve seen recently are amazing.  Beautiful work.

5.) “Who knew, health care was so complicated?” President Trump expressed Monday, February 27, 2017.    OMG.  Well, at least now, he admits, not everything can be solved with a tweet.  We are number 42 on the world health care service effectiveness list.  That’s a pathetic placement.  “42”?  That means 41  other countries in the world are doing it better than we are.  Seriously, 41 other countries provide both  better and cheaper health care for their citizens than we do here in the United States.  Has anyone thought to go to the  number 1 country, or number  2 country; and see how they do it?  Boy, that’s where I’d start, if I really wanted the best for the American people.  Let’s find out how to do it right.  We can still learn.

6.)  In 1973, Richard Nixon declared, “there can be no whitewash at the White House.”

After, protests and investigations, Nixon finally resigned, before impeachment.  I wonder if President Trump will resign, or whether he will order military defense of his position.  Don’t laugh.  Just because it hasn’t happened, doesn’t mean it can’t, or won’t.  Thank you Founding Fathers, for the Second Amendment.

Join the Resistance

Dar

Defending Civil Liberties in the Digital World Against Trump Threats

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My friend, and super techno-geek, Jane, brought a magazine to the house and showed me an ad that had caught her attention. I thought it was interesting enough to comment on it here, at Calamity Politics. So, remember it is an advertisement, but the questions it brings up are noteworthy and in need of deeper political investigation and discussion. I will not be doing any research on the matter, and will assign that research task to my readers if they are interested. If a reader learns something interesting be sure to pass it on to us curious bystanders. To tell you the truth, I am so busy trying to keep up on the political news each day I barely have time to walk the dog.

This post was taken from an ad page by Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org/defend-users):  Although an ad, I thought the issue was serious enough to bring it to the attention of my friends and readers.

“Incoming President Donald Trump made campaign promises that, if carried out, threaten the free web and the rights of millions of people.  He has praised attempts to undermine digital security, supported mass surveillance, and threatened net neutrality.  He (Trump) promised to identify and deport millions of your friends and neighbors, track people based on their religious beliefs, and suppress freedom of the press.  And he (Trump) wants to use your servers (the technology community) to do it.”

EFF is “calling on the technology community to unite with EFF in securing our networks against this threat.

ENCRYPT:  Use HTTPS and end-to-end encryption for every user transaction, communication and activity by default.  DELETE:  Scrub your logs.  You cannot be made to surrender data you do not have.  REVEAL:  If you get a government request to monitor users or censor speech, tell the world.  RESIST:  Fight for user rights in court, on Capital Hill, and beyond. **(When you stand with users, EFF will stand with you).  EFF has fought for the rights of technology creators and users for 26 years, through four different presidential administrations.  As a nonpartisan nonprofit, we combine litigation, activism, and software development to defend civil liberties in the digital world.”

“Finally,  The future of our democracy depends on the Internet that is free from censorship and government surveillance.  Together we can ensure that technology created to connect and uplift people worldwide is not conscripted into a tool of oppression.”

Join the Resistance

Dar

Word Chain

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WORD CHAIN

By D.S. Mitchell

Political blogging requires mostly research and the desire to tell the world you have political ideas. Ideas you want to share with people. I try to provide discussion, analysis and relevant topics from current U.S. political news.

Sometimes, I like to play, so for this session here are a few word chains, related in some twisted way, to the current political situation. LOL.

I can change black to white, by changing one letter at a time:  black, blank, blink, clink, chink, chine, whine, white

I can change give to take, by changing one letter at a time: give, live, like, lake, take

I can change tears to smile, by changing one letter at a time: tears, scars, stars, stare, stale, stile, smile

I can change poor to rich, by changing one letter at a time: poor, boor, book, rook, rock, Rick, rich

I can change hate to love by changing one letter at a time: hate, rate, rave, cave, cove, love

Thank you Rod L Evans, Ph.D (taken directly from his book Tyrannosaurus Lex)

Fun and amazing, huh?

I wonder if Donald Trump can change treason to impeach by changing one letter at a time, or impeach to imprison?

Join the Resistance

Dar