A World Gone Mad in Book Five: Working Through the Maze 2018

There is a lot I want to put forth today before I throw myself into work (lots of work today!) but there is so much that it may come out as too much of a jumbled mess. That being the case, I wanted to state the THEME AND POINT before the fact so it at least gets stated.

VOTE. The United States got to this point because less than 50% of the population voted in 2016. Meaning politicians only needed 25% of the possible vote to win. This is how fringe groups, domestic terrorist cells, and literal monsters gain power. In a group of 10 people, I have no trouble believing that 2 are conspiracy fans. In a group of 100 people, I have no problems considering that 25 of them may not want what is best for the group at large. In a group of 1,000 people; it would make sense for 250 of them to feel like “outsiders.” The higher that number gets, the more believable it is that 25% can be a dangerous or out-of-touch group. 63 million people voted for Trump. 65 million people voted for Clinton. Over 90 million people didn’t vote at all. WE NEED TO GET PEOPLE TO THE POLLS IN 2018 and 2020!

First up, a brief look into some history and some initial terror.
Earlier into his Presidency, Trump decided that the White House would no longer keep a public record of Official Visitors to the White House. This was small, but important. It meant that if (for example) Coal Lobbyists were visiting the President daily, trying to convince him to ignore climate change in exchange for future campaign donations and loyalty… the American Public would not be able to discover this.
Then this month, Trump decided that the White House would no longer provide readouts of Official Phone Calls with Foreign Leaders. This is less small. Even for a “normal” president, to refuse to be kept accountable for his international dealings… that is a large middle finger to Democracy. But we don’t have a “normal” president. We have Trump, who is suspected of being connected to Russia.... whose recent dealings with Russia scream cooperation, complicity, and compliance. SO… theorizing here… let’s say in the Closed Door No Reports meeting between Putin and Trump… Putin told Trump how disappointed he was in Trump’s performance. That in order for Trump to accomplish his goals, Putin needs to work more closely with Trump. Trump eliminates all accountability records of phone calls with Foreign Leaders. NOW Trump can broker the deals he wants to.... “The United States will continue to support Russia’s re-inclusion in the G8, provided I get Trump Tower Moscow signed off with construction beginning in 2025.”
Add to that the White House’s VERY shady move to strategically edit the video of Trump’s press conference with Putin?
We have a President who has eliminated Government Transparency, has provided a Government-Sponsored hotline for Trump Businesses, and has taken to Orwellian levels of obfuscation, obstruction, and bullshit. This is how a democracy becomes an autocracy becomes a dictatorship.

Second, when I woke up this morning the big News Story being discussed by friends and family was “Immigrant Children Who?” Not only did THIS country deport parents, keep their children, and have NO WAY IN MIND for how to get kids back to their parents… we can’t even IDENTIFY some of the children! THINK ABOUT THAT! Even to those people who made correlations between Convicted Criminals and Refugees, this specific point breaks everything. If parents are convicted of selling drugs, the children are put into foster care (usually w/a family member but not always). We KNOW who those kids are. We KNOW who the parents are. When the parents get out of jail, we KNOW if they get to see their children or not. We are (honestly) ACTIVELY INVOLVED in determining if reunification should happen and how to facilitate that. In short: people seeking Asylum and their children are now being treated WORSE than we treat convicted felons. We have children that our government kidnapped… and we don’t know who they are, where they are, or how to get them back to their parents.
WHAT KIND OF MONSTERS WOULD BE OKAY WITH THIS?

My racist cousin to the rescue to answer that question. His response to that discussion, that outrage, that horror? Was to post the following:

So… yes, remember in November how desperately, passionately, cult-like in love with Trump the White Power movement is. And if you still don’t believe the White Power movement has enough members or momentum to give Trump everything he wants? Pay more attention. MOST of the Domestic Assaults I work on in this county… are in some way connected to the White Power movement. I would say at least 1 in 7, maybe 1 in 8 arguments that led to violence involve phrases like “White power!” or “You ain’t leaving the movement!” or “Race traitor!”

Let’s say that out of ALL the eligible voters in America… only 10% or so have White Power feelings… on some level. Not khakis and tikis but… think something like “Y’know, America would be a better place if there were less non-English speaking brown people.” 10%. That is still roughly 22 million people. Not a big number compared to the enormity of the United States. BUT those people see their President and his policies under threat. So you can bet all 22 million will be voting in 2018 and 2020. If 25% of the 90 million that didn’t vote had actually voted (and voted blue)… that would have been enough to cancel out White Supremacy’s voice in the elections. I’m not stupid enough to believe that we’ll get 220 million people voting in 2018 or 2020. But for those of us who believe this country deserves better.... can do better… we need to get our people to the polls. Clinton lost after receiving 2 million more votes than Trump. The assholes in power can’t pull that shit if the disparity becomes 10 million, 20 million, 30 million. We should see our elections getting 70 to 75% of people voting… you can’t say “I don’t have a voice” if you don’t exercise your voice.

Third, I turned on the news this morning to see what the weather would be like.
The weather is trying to kill us.
Massive wildfires spreading from California to South Dakota.
Iowa is still trying to recover from the spread of Tornadoes.
The East Coast is under water. Literally. Google live images of Pennsylvania and Virginia right now. Flooding!!
The United Kingdom and Japan are seeing fatalities because it is so hot.
Almost 75 confirmed dead in Greece as wildfire hits, as one said, “like a flamethrower.”

The evidence of climate change via extreme weather SURROUNDS US. Yet the POTUS and his GOP continue to deny climate change. They continue to deny the Kyoto or Paris accords. They turn their backs on the suffering of the world. What has kept them busy?

Well… the GOP is impeaching Rosenstein today. Or trying to. YEAH! Instead of impeaching Trump… who has pissed on democracy and all but sucked Putin’s cock on live TV… they are trying to impeach ONE OF THE GUYS INVESTIGATING THAT. Tell me again that you can support the GOP and call yourself a patriot in these times.

If that wasn’t bad enough? The party that claimed to have Elder Americans in heart?

“Legislation That Would Surreptitiously Steal Social Security’s $2.9 Trillion Surplus Has Been Defeated – But 97% of Republicans Voted For It”

(Washington, DC) — The following is a statement from Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works, in reaction to nearly every Republican member of the House of Representatives, as well as seven Democrats, voting for a Constitutional amendment requiring that all annual revenue and spending balance every year. The amendment failed to attain the two-thirds majority required to pass it into law:

“Every pay period, starting with our first jobs, America’s workers contribute to Social Security. The program uses those funds to pay all benefits and related administrative costs. Social Security does not add even a penny to the deficit, as Republican President Ronald Reagan so clearly stated when he was president.

When Social Security runs a surplus, Social Security holds the funds in trust. Social Security currently has a $2.9 trillion accumulated surplus, which was intentionally built up over decades to cover the retirement of the Baby Boom generation. In the guise of a so-called balanced budget amendment, 233 members of the House of Representatives just voted to pretend that the accumulated surplus does not exist.

That’s because the so-called Balanced Budget Amendment would ignore the past Social Security contributions and instead require all federal spending – including Social Security spending – to be offset by revenues collected in that same year. That means that Social Security would not be allowed to use its own $2.9 trillion surplus to pay out benefits.

By voting to mandate that income and outgo match for all federal spending every year, ninety-seven percent of Republicans just voted in effect, to default on Social Security’s $2.9 trillion worth of Treasury bonds. (Ninety-six percent of Democrats voted to honor their commitment to the American people.)

That 233 politicians would vote to raid the Social Security trust funds, never to repay them, is shameful. It helps explain the low regard the American people have for Congress. Fortunately for Social Security beneficiaries, the amendment did not attain the two-thirds majority required to pass the House. But those who voted for it are now on the record in support of stealing the American people’s earned Social Security benefits.”

In a more local grand display of GOP priorities… it may have come to your attention that Iowa was hit by tornadoes.

Marshalltown, where I currently live, is still trying to get shit fixed. The motels are NO VACANCY all over the city as people who lost their homes stay there for a place to live. The truth is that in a tragedy of this nature, everybody was hit. Lawyers’ offices were eviscerated, the Courthouse lost part of their Historical Roof, businesses were destroyed, and homes were obliterated. Many people lost everything.

Our governor Kim Reynolds came to “tour the devastation” and “visit the affected.”
Did she visit the Government Offices and Government Employees who went through that trauma? No. Except for the Fire Fighters who would have been better served being allowed to do their jobs, instead of doing Photo Ops.
Did she visit the homeowners and show empathy towards these people? No. She did not visit any individual homeowners; nor did she tour the residential areas of damage.
She visited the businesses! Because why visit PEOPLE in crises. They don’t fund campaigns, and it is an election year! She needed to visit the BUSINESSES to make sure they could get back up and running so they could (1) contribute to her campaign; and (2) rebuild in Iowa so as not to lose Jobs numbers. Always glad to see a governor (who graduated from college in 2016 while she was Lt. Governor) put her campaign and businesses as a priority after a devastating tragedy.