Trump, in 2016, complained about Clinton not accepting defeat with dignity, quoting Putin.
Oh, the irony.
Category: Political
Finally Found a Dead Person Voting
Officials finally found a case of voter fraud, where a dead person actually voted. According to Business Insider, Bruce Bartman, a 70-year-old resident of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, registered his dead mother as a voter and voted on her behalf for Donald Trump. Prosecutors say this is the only confirmed voter fraud they found in their county, after looking into hundreds of leads. The penalty, if convicted, could be as much as 19 years in prison.
Voter fraud is found to be rare in the US. A database maintained by the conservative Heritage Foundation identified 193 criminal convictions, civil penalties, diversions, or other official findings for fraudulent use of mail ballots between 2000 and 2020, a time period during which approximately 250 million mail ballots were cast.
Let’s remember this when Republicans claim having to rein in massive voter fraud when they try to make it harder for people, particularly the poor and minorities, to vote.
Nativity Scene at U.S. – Mexico Border
Since we are now separating parents from children when refugees arrive at the border, these famous refugees should make us think.
Foreign Children Really Didn’t Matter
Here is a Dr. Seuss Political Cartoon from 1941:
And the Wolf chewed up the children and spit out their bones…
But those were Foreign Children and it really didn’t matter.
80 years later, we’re stealing children from their parents, putting them in cages. But this time the Wolf isn’t Adolf.
Matt Gaetz Tweet for Trump to Pardon Himself
Gaetz tweeted that “The Left” has bloodlust.
The question I have: “The Right” asserts that nobody did anything wrong, including Trump. He just “fought to deliver for the American people.”
That, of course, is admirable and laudable.
So why do you need any pardons, for “everyone” to his “admin” to “himself?”
If there is no crime, but only fighting for the American people, within the law and order administration that it is, why are pardons needed?
Founding Fathers and Marxism / Socialism
Today I lifted this painting from Facebook. Here is the link with attribution and where you can buy a print.
Then, in the comments below, many people made positive references about the artist and others about what all had changed since then. Then I came across Leo Dorrington’s comment and a couple of answers:
It’s baffling to me, how there are apparently 70-some million people in this country now that think that Biden has somehow stolen the election by getting more votes than Trump. Also, where were those 70 million people in 2016 when it turned out the other way?
But more baffling is the association of socialism with Biden. Through the Covid stimulus, the Trump administration has “given away” more public funds to the country than any before in history, probably (and I need to do the math) more than all previous administrations combined. I don’t call that socialism, I call it good use of government funds during a severe economic crisis, even though not enough went to the working class and the businesses in jeopardy. I am not blaming Trump or his administration for this. But calling Biden a socialist in light of this seems ludicrous.
Attributing Marxism to Biden is just crazy. Dorrington obviously is just throwing the word around. I bet he has never read a word Marx wrote.
But 70 million people read these comments every day on Facebook.
I have a hard time excepting [sic] that.
Book Review: The Room Where it Happened – by John Bolton
We all know who John Bolton is, we all know how his tenure at the White House started and ended, and we know Bolton’s role, or lack thereof, in the Trump impeachment proceedings.
So I don’t have to tell you what this book is about, but I can rather focus on telling you my experience reading the book, about what I learned, and, most importantly, what conclusions I drew.
John Bolton has been around the United States government, and particularly foreign policy, for decades. I knew little about him, and I would simply have categorized him a “hawk” in line with the generally liberal sentiment in my usual circles. When I first heard that Trump was going to install him as National Security Advisor, I was deeply worried that his hawkishness would get us into new conflicts and would even further endanger our already very dangerous world.
I bought the book the day it first came out on June 23, 2020, and started reading it right away. But it is a long book, with detailed, journal-like narration describing events as they took place with sometimes down to the minute accuracy. It really does put the reader into the room where it happened. The book is very long, and takes a long time to read, so I had to interrupt reading it when Mary Trump’s book came out, so I could read that one right way, and then again I had to lay it aside to make room and time for Michael Cohen’s book. But I kept going back and I forced myself to slog through it, and I finished tonight.
Trump fought vehemently to have the publication of The Room Where it Happened blocked. I expected some type of tell-all book, but that’s not at all what it is. It basically talks about the United States foreign policy from the point of view of a man who deeply understands it and has lived it all his life. Since Trump has no understanding of world affairs and any matters that don’t involve him personally, clearly this book will “make Trump look bad,” not because Bolton says Trump is a fool or anything like it, but because Bolton allows us to sit in the room with him, and Trump, and Mulvaney, and Mattis, and Pompeo, and we can watch Trump make a fool of himself by showing clearly and overtly that he does not know what he is talking about, that he has no interest in governing and certainly not foreign affairs, and that he is as smart as the last person he talked to wants him to be. That was particularly dangerous and ludicrously embarrassing for our country when he “negotiated” with Putin, Kim Jong-un, Erdogan, Xi, and pretty much every other adversary of our national interests.
Bolton does not make Trump look bad. Bolton just shows us how inept Trump is for all of us plain to see. Unlike Trump, where his supporters always are quoted saying “he tells it like it is,” Bolton actually does tell it like it is.
Bolton is definitely a proponent of America carrying a big stick and operating from strength. Trump just thinks of himself being the smartest man in the room, and he tells us that all the time, and he thinks he is the big stick. Yet, Bolton shows us clearly that Trump was and is our most serious security risk, consistent with what we have learned from Mattis, McMaster, Coats and the entire national security establishment. I can see why Trump didn’t want this book published.
I know that a lot of Trump supporters have blasted Bolton as a traitor for writing this. Well, let me tell you this: If 3% of all Trump supporters actually read The Room Where it Happened, I’d be very surprised. To read this, you have to be very patient, persistent, interested in foreign polity, and tenacious. This is NOT AN EASY book to read, and I predict most people who buy the book won’t finish it. So let them blab about Bolton being a traitor, or let the liberals blab about him being a hawk. Neither side knows what it is talking about. They have to read the book first before I would take them seriously.
And here is my probably shocking conclusion: On a scale from 1 to 10, my respect for Bolton, for what I knew about him before reading the book, may have been around 2. It’s now at 9 or so. I actually believe he would be an excellent pick for Biden to choose for Secretary of State. It would ensure that our foreign relations would be rebuilt, corrected, and put on a secure footing. Our adversaries would be on notice and our security would be enhanced. By choosing Bolton for this critical slot, Biden would ensure consistency from the past, a strong presence in the world, and he could focus on the many domestic issues that need attention, without having to lose sleep about what’s going on in the world. I know this opinion of mine will shake up some of my readers, but I stand by it.
Now, of course, there is no chance Biden will do such a thing, and history will continue.
I gained a lot of respect for Bolton by reading his book, and his mustache doesn’t bother me one bit.
Big Dispute in the Chicken Coop
This allegory was posted on Facebook by a Trump voter I have very high respect for, whom I will keep anonymous:
Big dispute in the chicken house about the latest vote on “which is better – white or brown eggs”–more votes than chickens and some are too young to vote-some votes came from stew pot chicken and biscuits. They were cooked several years ago – some mail in votes were received after the votes were being counted. The BIG ROOSTER invalidated all the votes and said only those who can validate their eligibility to vote can be counted. Those who oppose this ruling are marching in protest outside the coop with signs that says “WE WANT ALL VOTES TO COUNT”– Some votes were found under the chicken house and under the feed barrel. some were in the mail two days after the election and were counted–such a mess.
Here are my thoughts on the various subjects:
Chicken and biscuits voting: Occasionally such votes are found, but it is actually very rare. They find onesies and twosies coming into the coop from time to time. It turns out that the chicken and biscuits votes are as often from white meat chicken as they are from dark meat chicken. I don’t think any coop counsel would object to discarding chicken and biscuit ballots, when they are identified. But no coop counsel has ever, in the history of chickendom, found enough chicken and biscuit ballots to overturn any election.
Some chickens are too young to vote: Same problem. Coops have occasionally found invalid ballots like this, but they are as often from white meat chicken as they are from dark meat chicken.
Some were in mail two days after the election: In those coops where ballots have to be mailed and postmarked by election day, nobody has a problem with discarding those ballots. Any coop counsel, when presented with this obviously illegal evidence, should and will discard those ballots.
Votes found under the chicken house and under the feed barrel: When you have to track 150 million pieces of paper in just a few days, sometimes stuff falls down the ladder, gets left in the barn, the yard or the feed barrel. This happens to ballots from white-egg chickens and brown-egg chickens alike. This does not mean that only the brown-egg chickens are dropping ballots.
Some mail in votes were received after the votes were being counted: Many coops legally allow mailing ballots to be received and counted after election day. Here is a chart that outlines the various coops and their rules. There is nothing wrong with that. That’s the law.
The BIG ROOSTER has had four years to make sure that the election system works, and according to the lead cock in charge of safeguarding the elections, they have been the safest and most secure elections ever. The BIG ROOSTER however didn’t like that the lead cock did his job so well, because the numbers didn’t work out for the big rooster, and all the hens are cackling now. So the lead cock is now stew.
Sad.
We now have four years of time to work out some of the remaining kinks with the ballots, not because there was widespread fraud, but because the crowing of the BIG ROOSTER that the election is rigged has confused half the chickens in all the coops.
Meanwhile, the hens are back to laying eggs, brown and white alike, all the roosters are crowing, and I no longer listen the the tweets of the BIG ROOSTER.
Movie Review: The Trial of the Chicago 7
The Democratic Party Convention in 1968 took place in Chicago. It was the height of the Vietnam War, President Johnson had increased the number of soldiers in the war, and instituted an increase of the draft. Every day, innocent soldiers died in Vietnam. Back home, many activists were incensed and called for demonstrations at the Democratic convention. As history knows, those demonstrations turned violent and bloody.
After Nixon’s election in 1968, the Justice Department of the new administration wanted a poster trial, and appointed a reluctant young prosecutor named Richard Schultz to come after who became known as the Chicago 7: Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, and Lee Weiner. They were all charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to protests that took place in Chicago. Bobby Seale, an eighth man, and a member of the Black Panthers, who was not involved, was also charged in the trial and was forced to participate without legal representation. His trial was eventually pronounced a mistrial.
The trial was a 6-month-long spectacle, accentuated by antics of some of the defendants who were not shy about displaying their civil disobedience.
Abbie Hoffman is played by Sacha Baron Cohen, the “Borat” guy, and I really didn’t recognize him until I checked the cast later. He does not have any noticeable accent and while Abbie’s role is somewhat comic, there is nothing comical about this performance. Cohen does a great job playing Abbie Hoffman.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 is one of the best movies I have watched all year. It features the corruption of the government, particularly the Justice Department, under a president with autocratic tendencies (Nixon) and his loyal Attorney General, John Mitchell. Yes, “the” John Mitchell who was later convicted and went to federal prison for his role in the Watergate affair.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 is as relevant a movie today in 2020, as it would have been back in 1970.
History does seem to repeat itself.
George W. Bush Reacts to Obama’s Victory in 2008
This is how a real president invites his successor:
I Don’t Understand 72 Million Trump Voters
I don’t get it.
What has Trump actually done? Promises made, promises kept? Really?
He was going to build a wall that Mexico would pay for. He hasn’t done that.
He was going to introduce a “beautiful” comprehensive health care plan within the first few weeks of his presidency. Nothing happened.
He was going to kill the Affordable Care Act. He didn’t.
He was going to implement a great and exciting infrastructure initiative. We saw nothing.
Yes, he delivered a massive tax cut which eventually added trillions of dollars to the national debt and will need to be paid for by our grandchildren. Great accomplishment! Giving away other people’s money to rich people. I didn’t see any tax cut benefits myself.
He did undo a lot of things that previous administrations built, more than I can list here. But undoing is not the same as building. Anybody can wield a wrecking ball. Not everybody can create and build.
He completely mismanaged our country’s response to the pandemic.
I don’t understand how 72 million people were happy enough with this performance to vote for him.
I really don’t understand that.
Der Unfähige Präsident – The Incompetent President
Emails are coming in from around the world – here is one from Germany:
Endlich werded ihr wohl Euren geisteskranken, Lügner und lächerlichen (in der ganzen Welt) unfähigen Präsidenten los sein. Amerika war unter seiner Präsidentschaft nicht mehr das, so wie ich es kennen gelernt habe, und genau so sieht es der Rest auf der Welt. Es ist nur schade das seine Großeltern Deutsche waren.
Finally you will be rid of your mentally ill, liar and ridiculous (in the whole world) incompetent president. Under his presidency, America was no longer what I got to know, and the rest of the world sees it exactly like that. It’s a pity that his grandparents were Germans.
Let’s Make America Rake Again…
…at Four Seasons Total Landscaping Company in Philadelphia, where United States Presidential Administrations go to get buried.
I think I’ll go out into my yard and rake again.
I have earned it.
Visualizing Voting Results
The conservative (red) side of the nation often likes to show this map which makes the election look like a red landslide:
However, this a map showing land, and land does not vote, people do.
Here is what the map looks like showing population centers, where the dots are sized according to the county population:
Data and graphic credit https://www.core77.com/posts/90771/A-Great-Example-of-Better-Data-Visualization-This-Voting-Map-GIF
This makes much more sense and gives a visual representation of the population centers in our country.
It does become obvious, however, that cities and college towns vote blue, the rural areas vote red.
Warning: This specific map is based on the results of the 2016 election – [note that Maricopa County (Phoenix, Arizona) shows red], but it gives a good idea regardless.
Cause and Effect: Per Trump, Testing Causes Cases
Trump likes to say that we don’t really have a problem. It just looks like a problem, because we see more cases than any other country because we test more than any other country.
To elaborate on that, I guess we could say that “testing causes cases.”
Well, testing does not cause cases. The cases need to be there before testing can find them. That would mean that other countries that do less testing find less cases, but the cases may or may not be there.
However, I can conclusively say that testing does not cause deaths.
We have the highest death count.
People die of COVID whether they have been tested or not.
None of Trump’s statements even make sense anymore.
Who are we kidding?