Saturday, January 7, 2017

The Only Mandate Trump Has Is To Get Richer


                                         Good Day World!

Let's talk about what a mandate is.

Our president-elect obviously doesn't know what it means when he claims he was elected by mandate.

Definition: the authority to carry out a policy or course of action, regarded as given by the electorate to a candidate or party that is victorious in an election.

For starters, when his opponent Hillary Clinton got 3 million more votes than him...that's not a mandate.

When 50 electors were found to be illegal...that's not a mandate. 

Evidence has surfaced for cause to challenge congressional ratification of the Electoral College vote which takes place today.

Yesterday, Alternet's Steven Rosenfeld wrote an article summing up the need to challenge the election results: 

“Trump’s ascension to the presidency is completely illegitimate,” said Ryan Clayton of Americans Take Action, who is promoting the effort. “It’s not just Russians hacking our democracy. It’s not just voter suppression at unprecedented levels. It is also [that] there are Republicans illegally casting ballots in the Electoral College, and in a sufficient number that the results of the Electoral College proceedings are illegitimate as well.”

To be clear. Trump is the most disliked president we have ever elected. His rise to power has Americans and the rest of the world worried.

So let's call a Chump, a Chump. Trump does NOT have a mandate... with the exception of getting richer.

Time for me to walk on down the road..







Friday, January 6, 2017

Rage Stalks the Skies and Roads of America


                                          Good Day World!

We're living in an age of rage.

People are pissed off to the point that nearly any inter-social action could turn into a fight.

Remember the Friendly Skies the airlines use to brag about back in the day? They're not so friendly now. We've even coined a phrase for what's happening: air rage.

Cases of "air rage," or incidents in which a passenger angrily loses control, have continued to increase in the past few years. 

Airlines reported 10,854 cases of "air rage" last year, according to the International Air Transport Association. That marks a 16.5 percent jump from 2014, when 9,316 cases were reported. 

Then we have Road Rage.

The cases of angry drivers continue to climb and are becoming more deadly by the year.

Toddler Dies After Road Rage Gun-Fire Hits Car

Nearly 80 percent of drivers expressed significant anger, aggression or road rage behind the wheel at least once in the past year, according to a new study released by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

We have brawls in shopping malls:

Nation-wide mall brawls Have Authorities Looking at social media.

So what is going on? People are a lot less tolerant for starters. The bottom line is most Americans are stressed out to the max.

This year's biggest stressor has been election anxiety. 

The American Psychological Association has released some preliminary data from its upcoming annual "Stress in America" report, on the nation's level of anxiety specifically around this election.

There's a thousand things that can seriously irritate a person in this fast-paced society. The ability to cope with them makes the difference between being happy, or full of rage.

In the end it's up to each one of us. 

Time for me to walk on down the road... 

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Trump's Billionaire Boy's Club Is Straight From Bizarro World!

Good Day World!

Trump's picks for cabinet positions and other key government positions have been stunning.

Think Twilight Zone or DC Comics Bizarro World 
where everything is opposite of the way things are normally done in this world.

If all of Trump's cabinet appointments get confirmed, it will be the richest presidential cabinet in our history. Even surpassing Warren Harding's corrupt administration (Think Teapot Dome Scandal). 

Trump's pick for Secretary of State, Rex W. Tillerson, who happens to be butt buddies with Russia's Putin, is supposedly going to represent the interests of the average American. Snap.

Not too mention he's an oil Billionaire who plans on profiting under the Trump Billionaire Boy's Club (once known as the President's Administration).

How about Rick Perry being appointed Secretary of Energy? How could you not laugh at this?

He's the guy who couldn't even remember the name of the department he wanted to get rid of (Department of Energy) during the 2012 presidential campaign (Live during a debate..."Ooops!").
And now he's going to run that department?

And how about Betsy DeVos heading up the Department of Education? Trump couldn't have picked a worse person to advance public education. She's all about private schools.

And how about Ben Carson for Housing Secretary? This is the man who told us that the Pyramids were built to store grain! He knows a whole lot about housing....right?

When it comes to a champion for white guys it's not easy finding a bigger one than Jeff Session who Trump thinks would make a good Attorney General.

Steve Bannon - champion for the alt-right - would be my choice for minister of hate, but Trump has taken him in as a chief adviser for the Billionaire Boy's Club.

You want more irony? Look no further than Steven Mnuchin as Secretary of the Treasury. Talk about leaving the hen house door open to predators!

Mnuchin is the former CEO of OneWest, a bank that critics allege acted more like a movie villain by locking out one homeowner during a blizzard and foreclosing on a 90-year old woman who sent a check that was short 27 cents!

When Trump selected Scott Pruitt (aka oil corporation bitch) for E.P.A. Administrator it was a real boon to the fossil fuel industry. Not so much for the rest of us as environmental regulations will disappear in the dust.

I could go on, but you get the idea. 

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

New Congress Tries to Close Independent Ethics Office - Fails This Time


                                             Good Day World!

It didn't take long.

The GOP's first attempt at covering their own corrupt asses by doing away with an independent ethics office in Congress failed.



"The move to effectively kill the Office of Congressional Ethics was not made public until late Monday, when Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, announced that the House Republican Conference had approved the change. There was no advance notice or debate on the measure." (New York Times)
Just hours after the first reports of the Republicans sleazy attempt to cover their corrupt activities was revealed a storm of bipartisan criticism stopped them in their tracks.

House Republicans met yesterday in a secret session and voted to do away with the ethics office. They did this despite Speaker Paul Ryan's objections.

Trump even tweeted it was a waste of time and to move on.

 It was an embarrassing turnabout on the first day of business for the new Congress. Their first attempt to pass a bill failed.

The hoped for show of force never materialized. 

How united is the Republican party? Apparently, there's contesting agendas.

It's kinda like listening to Dueling Banjo's  in the movie Deliverance, except in the halls of Congress instead of some hillbillies porch.

This assault by wealthy radical ideologues is only a sign of things to come from our new Congress. Unless of course, Trump becomes an obstacle while pursuing his own agenda.

Time for me to walk on down the road... 

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

People Are Curious Creatures

Good Day World!

People are curious creatures.

We have the ability to love and hate. 
We can be monsters or angels. 
We can be geniuses or morons.

Our capacity for destruction is without end. 

We kill off other life forms routinely. Either to eat, hunt, or to sell off body parts in the name of medicine or high fashion.

We pollute the planet and ravage it's resources without consideration for future generations.

Our only nobility seems to lie in the ability to recognize these failings and to try to correct them. 

When it comes to politics we are a country divided between the Party of Trump and Democrats (with a scattering of Independents, Libertarians, Green, Etc.) 

Our ambivalence towards our new president is reflected in a recent Gallup poll. Most Americans Don't Think Donald Trump Can Handle Being President  

So how did Trump get elected if people thought he couldn't do the job?

Gotta smack my forehead and go back to my original premise...

People are curious creatures.

Related: "Why Are We So Curious?"

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Monday, January 2, 2017

Note To Democrats: Make a Sweet Change From Sour Lemons

“Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.
 -Eckhart Tolle

Good Day World!

We may have situations in our lives when we feel like we lost something, when in fact it turned out that we gained something.

The Democratic Party needs to understand that. There's a lot of different factors that contributed to Donald Trump's stunning victory.

One of the biggest reasons was the party was not united. Bernie Sanders supporters couldn't stomach Hillary Clinton and the party itself had lost touch with the average American.

Losing to Trump was the biggest low point in Democratic Party history. Ivory tower liberals got bitch-slapped!

The good news? There's only one way to go from here...up!

Fact: The Clinton's no longer own the Democratic Party. It's time for a makeover.

The future of the party lies with liberal politicians like California senator-elect Kamala Harris, and Rep.Keith Ellison (D-MN). 
Note: Ellison is currently the top candidate for new DNC chair.

Everyone doesn't think Ellison is the best pick however:

Staunch liberal Dershowitz: "I'll leave the party if Ellison becomes DNC chair."

The DNC is going to have to change their tactics with minorities. It's time to go grass roots again and see what the majority of Americans are facing on a daily basis.

Liberal ideology is fine, but for the sake of reality and getting a plurality the party needs to listen closer to what people are saying.

Sounds simple, but it isn't. Reconnecting with a base from one century to the next has been fraught with challenges, as Democrats discovered this election.

If the effort is made, and the right people get into positions to create positive change, the American people can still be the eventual winners!

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Sunday, January 1, 2017

Happy New Year's (poem)

Happy New Years!

I'm starting 2017 off with a poem.

I also want to thank you for stopping by. If you're not already a regular reader, I hope you will become one.


A NEW YEAR

Be of good cheer
another year is here
let the past disappear
don't shed a tear
there's no need for fear
it's a New Year
Have a beer
for yesteryear
the future is unclear
keep hope near
create a positive atmosphere
and don't be insincere
face challenges and persevere
but don't develop a hard veneer
be of good cheer
It's a New Year.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

It's Time to Pay Up Donnie!

It's looks like there will be some prime real estate going on the market soon in New York City. Convicted rapist and former president ...