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Tag Archives: Donald Trump

This Is For Real Folks!

October 29, 2012

Will the choices we make November 6th be based on reality or fantasy

Reality  meet  Fantasy

 

Well at long last we’ve arrived at the final week before the Presidential elections and the outcome looks like its going to be a close one.  Most people have made their minds up and supposedly there are still a few holdouts that haven’t been able to determine where the candidates stand on issues they feel are important to them.  Really?  Did they just return to Earth last week or have they been ignoring all political commentary and the debates for better TV fare like Real House Wives or Pawn Stars?

The economy is still the biggest issue for most people and many are basing their choices on how well they think Obama has handled the mess he inherited from the Bush White House.  Thanks initially to Bush’s Secretary of Treasure, Henry Paulson, Wall Street is prospering while many on Main Street have yet to get past this recession.  Yes, I know.  Obama has carried out the second part of this bailout but he didn’t completely abandon Main Street either.

Many voters will be unduly influenced by the distortions and lies they hear from the right about taxes being too high (they’re lower for 98% of us than they’ve been in fifty years) and debunked notions about Obama’s birthright and political philosophy.  Despite bringing many Wall Street types in to fill cabinet and administrative posts and continuing the Bush-era use of torture, keeping Guantanamo open and accelerating the use of drones in Pakistan, Obama is portrayed by the right as a radical who wants to impose sharia law.    Beyond all of this I have heard comments from people I love very much that Obama is weak because he “bows to foreign rulers”.  George W. can walk hand in hand with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia but if Obama extends a cultural courtesy to the man one time, as he did at the 2009 G-20 summit in London, he is somehow demeaning the stature of the American presidency?

Adding fuel to the doubts of some about Obama’s legitimacy to be president is a film recently released with the hope of exploiting this absurdity.  The movie, “2016: Obama’s America” written and directed by Dinesh D’Souza, is what one critic calls a “shaggy, piecemeal right-wing screed” and a “crude and sloppy … piece of campaign-season partisan hackwork”.   Part of the film deals with D’Souza’s attempts to exploit the fear of those duped by the nut-case, Orly Taitz, who claimed she had proof of Obama’s birthright as a Kenyan only to find out it was a forged, amateurish document.

But D’Souza’s scheme is much grander than Taitz as he tries to make the outlandish link between Obama’s “socialist” father and some anti-colonial notion that he inspired his son to spread around the world, I suppose that in the event he would someday became the leader of the free world.  After all, what father doesn’t think his son can be President of the U.S.   So what if the father in this case was an African national who gave his son an endearing American name like Barack Hussein Obama.  Some just dream deeper than others.  Others critics of this film have equally debunked the premises of D’Sousa’s.

Not wanting to be outdone and insuring that his ego doesn’t suffer, Donald Trump is back in the news again challenging Obama’s academic creds.  “The Donald” is a bit of a joke to even most conservatives so I won’t waste a lot of space on this here, but will encourage you to read Jean Calomeni’s Snoring Dog blog piece about this moronic move by the reality TV host.

Obama slams Trump on Tonight Show

I fear that well-intentioned people have been led astray by these huckster’s and to the likely detriment of our democracy in the future.  I have a young friend who posted the following on his Facebook page:

“I don’t care for Obama or Romney but Obama had his turn and didn’t do that good. So Romney it’s your turn buddy! Please do better then(sic) what we had to deal with the last 4 years!”

I just want to shake the young man and tell him that this isn’t a crap shoot.   This is like thinking your luck at a casino will change if there’s a different card dealer.  Learning all you can about poker is more apt to benefit a player than picking someone the casino selects.

Like so many others who have listened more to the angry and unfounded claims of political pundits rather than using legitimate fact checkers and reading a variety of sources that haven’t had their credibility tainted, my young friend is fixing to make a choice that has long-term consequences.  If in fact Romney gets elected and carries out his campaign strategy and promises, this young man’s grandmother’s prescription drug costs will rise once Obamacare is shut down and the “donut hole” comes back.

His own parents’ medical costs will be negatively impacted when they reach the eligible age for Medicare in about ten years if this safety net program becomes the voucher program Paul Ryan wants it to be.  He and his children will suffer the ugly consequences of climate change that are so connected to the increase of CO2 from fossil fuels having failed to implement policies that would convert to cleaner, renewable energy sources sooner.  We’ll all be getting a demonstration of this as Hurricane Sandy makes it way along the East Coast.  It will start to come inland today and meet another massive storm, becoming what weather forecasters are calling a “frankenstorm”.  This monster storm that will impact anywhere between 50-60 million people has possible climate change links from global warming.

The climate change link may be more than just more precipitation. A 2010 study found“Global warming is the main cause of a significant intensification in the North Atlantic Subtropical High.”  Climate Central’s Andrew Freedman explains a possible influence:

Recent studies have shown that blocking patterns have appeared with greater frequency and intensity in recent years….

While it is not unusual to have a high pressure area near Greenland, its intensity is striking for this time of year. As Jason Samenow of the Capital Weather Gang wrote on Wednesday, the North Atlantic Oscillation, which helps measure this blocking flow, “is forecast to bethree standard deviations from the average — meaning this is an exceptional situation.”

I don’t want to disrespect anyone’s decision on why they are voting for the candidate of their choice but I would find greater respect for those who do so for more concrete reasons based on careful study and conviction of beliefs.  In E.A. Bucchianeri’s novel, Brushstrokes of Gadfly, his fiery, idealistic heroine Katherine makes this observation:

“…they say if you don’t vote, you get the government you deserve, and if you do, you never get the results you expected.” 

As important as voting is in a democracy, it is informed voting that will garner better results and ongoing participation in the political process that ensures any likelihood that you’ll get the government you expected.

There will never be an ideal candidate that meets each person’s criteria and values and the 30-second ads during the campaign are not aimed at informing you about what you need to know.  Democracy is a group effort and one that extends beyond the voting booths.  Voting for or against someone because you don’t think he is American enough, or christian enough or hasn’t provided a silver bullet to make everything better is unfair to those of us who have studied the candidates and make choices based on the realties of this world as we best see them.

” … if describing what you want to see happen without providing any specific policies to get us there constitutes a “plan,” I can easily come up with a one-point plan that trumps Mr. Romney any day. Here it is: Every American will have a good job with good wages. Also, a blissfully happy marriage. And a pony.”   Pulitzer prize-winning Economist Paul Krugman

To emerge out of one’s emotional cocoon and make a long-term decision that comes from plutocratic influences and narrow ideological views is a fear that the framers had immediately following the days this country joined the world as its first democratic-republic.  To make a farce of it is to shame us all with those people around the world today who so desperately want to experience what it is like living under anything other than an iron fisted ruler.

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Six Facts About Mitt Romney’s Plan

Posted by in 2012 Presidential Elections Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

12 comments

Trump to the Tea Party – “Thanks Suckers”

May 18, 2011

                               

Phineas T. Barnum, the great showman, businessman and entertainer of the 19th century has falsely been accused of the phrase “There’s a sucker born every minute”. But Barnum loved a good hoax and making money off of it.  He never saw himself as a shyster assuming that people were willing to be fooled if it was done in dramatic fashion.  He made a lot of money doing this and left a legacy for himself that carries his memory beyond his value to the society that fell victim to his carnival dealings.

Donald Trump has taken this tact and for the last few months has been drawing in the gullible element within the GOP, especially Tea Party members.  Because he saw an opportunity to exploit a fabrication created by a handful of anti-Obama con artists and heard murmurs among their ranks to throw his hat into the political ring, he pounced on this sensation to not only stroke his huge ego but to hawk his fairly successful TV farce, The Apprentice.

In the end it was this realty TV fare that held Trump’s greatest interest and now those whose hopes were riding on his carnival act are left wondering if they were taken for a ride.  Some will not be able to see the writing on the wall even still because they simply choose not to.

Believed to have a skillful hand with money and how to make it grow, Trump is seen by overly ambitious types as someone to emulate, someone to guide them in their quest to be rich and famous.  What most people don’t see is that Trump’s success revolves around his ability to play up investments and getting other people to finance schemes that may or may not succeed.

With such visions running through their head some people are gullible enough to believe that wealthy people like Trump are smart and wise, not just in matters of money but in all things, including an ability to govern wisely and fearlessly.  Trump’s true skill it appears now is simply to listen to the fantastical claims others make about him and the views they hold and do what Barnum did – create the illusion of their fantasies and profit from it.

If this isn’t clear now to most of those people who thought Trump was nearest thing to the second coming then it never will be.  People will believe what they want and not even the obvious facts can dissuade them.  Such was the case of the Cardiff giant hoax, one of the greatest hoaxes of the 19th century that P.T. Barnum was an accessory to.

In trying to get what seemed like otherwise intelligent people to believe the giant granite figure found unearthed on a farm in upper New York state was an impostor, Andrew Dickson White, co-founder of Cornell University discovered that “in spite of all scientific reasons to the contrary, the work was very generally accepted as a petrified human being of colossal size” by seemingly reasonable people.  One “bright-looking lady”,  White noted “was heard to declare, ‘Nothing in the world can ever make me believe that he was not once a living being. Why, you can see the veins in his legs.’”   SOURCE 

These are the kind of people today who will not allow themselves to be a victim of Trump’s hoax to gain notoriety for himself at the expense of their gullibility and whimsy.  Nothing in the world can ever make them believe what Trump hyped about Obama’s American citizenship because they are zealots in the cause of hating everything Obama.

They, like Trump are unperturbed by how everyone else sees them because to such buffoons, it is everyone else who is lost and deceived with their “idol worship” for the Socialist Muslim.  It is the rest of mankind that are blind to the fact that Obama has robbed us all of some ideal of theirs of the U.S. Presidency.  The one singular difference between them and their own idol is that Donald Trump is laughing all the way to the bank while his supporters are left to find other ways to castigate Obama.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Trump were watching closely this next fabrication of theirs so he can once again swoop in to claim for himself that bit of false bravado that will keep him in the public eye and perhaps even generate a certain amount of revenue he can add to his perceived wealth.  P.T. Barnum would be proud.

Posted by in 2012 Presidential Elections, Society and Politics Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

3 comments

They Lie Because They Must

May 1, 2011

Question: Why do Republicans and Tea Partiers Keep on Lying?

A: Because Too Many People Would Rather Believe a Lie Than Admit They Don’t Know.

B: They can’t run on the truth

C: They know most voters are politically ill-informed

D: All of the above

You would pretty much be on the right path if you selected D for your answer.  Sadly though some people believe a lie simply because they choose too.  Orly Taitz and Donald Trump’s “birther” stance is some of the most recent examples of this.  But there actually is a fourth probability that incentivizes and encourages many lies from those on the right.

Now not all Republicans are liars and not all Democrats are immune from fabrications of their own.  Yet the scorecard being kept by fact checkers like PolitiFact.com and FactCheck.org show that right-wing candidates are currently way ahead in the count.

Here is just a recent sampling of the misinformation that goes out to potential voters on conservative broadcast radio and TV.

  1. Jim Martin, the head of 60 Plus, made [an] inaccurate statement in an interview with ABC News claiming that “ending Medicare as we know it happened a year ago in March … when Obamacare passed.”   SOURCE
  2. A viral e-mail has gone out stating that then-Sen. Barack Obama got a law “passed in dead silence” that allowed black farmers to file “unlawful” discrimination claims against the USDA totaling $1.25 billion?   SOURCE
  3. Conservative talk radio host Victoria Taft falsely claims customers will be hit with a  $250 fine if you’re caught leaving an Oregon store with a plastic bag, raising the specter of bag police.   SOURCE
  4. Republican Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos erroneously claims many states, but not Florida, are deficit spending.   SOURCE
  5. Again in Florida, Rep. Eric Eisnaugle, R-Orlando insists that Mickey Mouse was registered to vote in 2008 to justify passing a bill that could suppress the votes of minorities, women and young people.   SOURCE

Politifacts’ “pants-on-fire” rulings have consistently shown that conservative and Republican politicians tell the most egregious stories.  Currently, of the 20 listings in these rulings 18 are on comments made by elected GOP officials or conservative supporters.

 

The taint of believability exists within the minds of hate groups and even rational thinking people who simply want to believe such things without confirming them because it stigmatizes their opponents and increases the odds that elections will swing in their favor.

What happens when lies masquerade as fact is that people with extremist agendas get put in office and create havoc to the political process, often hurting the very people who naively voted for them.  Many in Wisconsin are ready to throw Governor Scott Walker out for killing bargaining rights for public workers; something he never stipulated in his campaign promises.  Also in Wisconsin, state representative Sean Duffy said he supported Medicare/Medicaid in 2010, telling voters “It’s just plain wrong to put our senior’s health and financial security at risk.”  Yet he voted for Ryan’s budget cut proposals that kills Medicare and Medicaid as we now know it.

 

There seems to be a concerted effort by an alliance of corporate friendly and religious fundamentalists who embark on getting themselves elected to public office with such distortions.  Their hope appears to be to re-direct policy that fits their narrower objective and rely on the short memories of the American public and their lack of will beyond a few months to overcome any threat of being removed from office in the next election cycle.

Though there may be some voter blowback in Wisconsin and a few other districts around the country where voters are unhappy with GOP efforts to kill Medicare over the next 10 years, the same cannot be said in those gerrymandered districts where conservatives have large and loyal followings.  There they tend to blindly pull the lever for the GOP regardless of whose in office simply out of a misplaced fear of Democrats and liberals.

Thus, right-wing extremists retain their posts overtime and become a constant threat to undermine the network of social programs that many disenfranchised groups come to rely on like the elderly, children and the disabled.  The country tends to swing conservative when there are tough economic times and when major social reforms like gay marriage appear to pose a threat to the status quo.

Scratch the surface of this discontent though and you will find the backing of corporate funding and a religious fanatical backing that is neither conservative or liberal, main stream religious or anti-theocratic.  The real power in this country, the religiously zealots and wealthy few, benefit from political conflict that they can ascribe bogus notions to while simultaneously touting the virtues of their candidates, who once in office throw off the facade and go after those elements that special interests oppose.

Corporate interests like those that block efforts to regulate financial mismanagement much like what occurred in the years leading up to the collapse of our economy in 2008.  Interests that block regulations that attempt to prevent industrial pollution that contaminate our air and water supplies while destroying the economic livelihoods of small farmers,  businesses and fisherman through takeovers by multi-national corporations.  Interest that want to kill Social Security so all that money can be re-directed to private interests that rely on the volatile swings in the market to secure one’s future, or not.

On the religious extreme you have candidates in nearly every state where efforts are being made piecemeal to roll back the rulings of Roe v. Wade in ways that actually create scenarios that are counter to the ultra conservative view about government over reach.   In Indiana for example the Tea Party candidates supported a bill that would “require doctors to inform women about the risks of abortion, including “the possibility of increased risk of breast cancer following an induced abortion and the natural protective effect of a completed pregnancy in avoiding breast cancer” even though the medical profession has pretty much debunked this view. SOURCE

In Texas, right wing advocates have taken over the Texas Board of Education and thrown out historical accounts that represent our tradition of separation of church and state while allowing the secessionist Jefferson Davis and the hateful Joe McCarthy to stand more favorably in history text books.

The Party that used to tout moral and family values has been taken over by extremists that pay lip service to such things but whose loyalty belongs to people like the Koch Brothers, the American Petroleum Institute and Dobson’s Family Research Council.

Is it any wonder that the one thing that would truly make us competitive in the global market is also one of the areas where corporate and fanatical religious interests are working diligently to undermine – Public Education.  Dumbing down the American voter helps more than hurts these moneyed interests and extreme religious views.  It is a means to a specific end for them.

 

So as we return to the question: Why do Republicans and Tea Partiers Keep on Lying?   It’s all about profits and the Rapture.  Lying may not be ethical but it does make for higher stockholder dividends for many in the investor class and bonus programs for corporate executives while the End-timers dream of the biblical apocalypse is being fulfilled.

Posted by in 2012 Presidential Elections, Budget Crisis, Economy, Education, Journalism/Media, Television Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

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