The Deficit, Spending, Our National Debt, and the Two-Party System - 8/29/2022

When it comes to the deficit, spending, and our national debt, both parties are to blame. The GOP is more inclined to pretend they're worried about it or to promise that they'll address it, but the plain truth is, BOTH parties are spendaholics. The only times that our deficit has grown more slowly or actually shrunk is when our economy is booming, firing on all cylinders and generating revenue through growth. But to hear the GOP whining about the effects of the recent green new deal bill falsely named as inflation reduction, or to hear them complain about the student loan forgiveness on the basis of deficit is at best disingenuous. Not that those complaints and concerns aren't valid, but simply that the GOP is no better. They just spend different, but they spend. And spend. And spend.

A couple are in a financial debt crisis. They make about $65K a year and have a small mortgage, two car payments, and a boat they make payments on, too, totaling $2000 per month, or $24,000 a year. That wouldn't seem to be a big problem, but each of them likes to spend. 

He plays golf every Saturday, and twice on three-day weekends. He regularly shops at Lowe's, Home Depot, and Harbor Freight Tools for all the tools he 'needs', and always has the newest cellular phone and electronic devices. 

She has expensive tastes as far as hair, nails, and clothing, and like him, likes to do her shopping. Her favorite pastime is spending Saturdays (while he is off golfing) at the outlets or boutiques with her best girlfriends lunching, shopping, and having a few premium cocktails. She loves Amazon, and they have a box or two delivered every day or two. After all, she knows all the stuff they 'need' for their home, and Amazon seems to always have a great deal on the right stuff at the right times. 

Together, their biggest expenditures are for vacations, especially those long weekends away at the lake with their boat, partying it up with their closest friends. Those weekends at the lake are amazing. Their cellphone plans total almost $200 a month, and cable, internet, and streaming video subscriptions total $273 per month when added together. It suddenly dawns on them that they have $90,000 dollars in credit card debt, spread across 7 or 8 different cards. She just found out she's pregnant with their first child, and he's been notified he's being transferred to a different location for work and starting next month will have a 35+ mile commute. They are in a very heated argument right now, as a debt collector has been pestering them about late bills. Each says it's the other's fault. Neither sees their collective spending of $110,000 a year while making only $65,000 a year as a problem at all, but both of them see the other's spending 'needs' as the root cause of the problem.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Republican and Democratic parties. ^^^^ Both parties think they spend on the right things Both parties spend too much. Both parties truly believe it's the other party's fault we're in this mess.

Redacted Affidavits and Rorschach Tests - 8/27/2022

What do you see? I see a Grateful Dead skull and crossbones album cover.

From the beginning everything to do with candidate Donald Trump as he came down the escalator, up until the present, Former President Donald J Trump's home raided to collect classified documents, if nothing else, he has been a human Rorschach Test. It's pretty amazing, actually. Most of you, Trump supporters over there, and Trump haters over there, are probably going to disagree with some or much if what I have to say, but I have to say it.

First off, I have read a number of editorials regarding the raid on Mar A Lago, and something I have seen stated time and again is that Trump brings much of this upon himself. I'd like to say "No way!" or to make a cogent argument against such statements, but I can't. Time and again he's said stuff that makes even me, a supporter ask, "What the hell did he have to say that for?" He is a true bull in a china shop and often says what everyone is thinking in a way that is sure to offend some, make others uncomfortable, and still others stand up and cheer, "Finally! Someone is saying what needed to be said!"

Another thing Trump has done and continues to do, is to challenge and defy the DC establishment and bureaucracy, aka "The Swamp". The Swamp includes establishment politicians from both parties who are getting rich, rich, rich while performing "public service". It also includes all the career agency employees. Theses are the ones who, unelected, wield power like an untouchable, independent, fourth branch of the government. This includes the IRS, the FDA, the DOT, and of course the CIA, DIA, FBI, and NSA. Trump has taken the opportunity to kick these swampers in the nuts every chance he's gotten. The swamp nowadays also includes a majority portion of the press and media, including big social media. And finally, last but far from least, the swamp includes the big money, the influencers who own the politicians and who call many, many of the shots in our government in D.C. None of them like Trump very much. The feeling is quite mutual. They collectively wield way more power than an ex-President. They're also unscrupulous and vengeful.

So, lemme get to the point. We don't know the facts. You don't. I don't. We often see what we presume to see. Everyone in the aforementioned swamp is working to undermine and damage Trump. Every single bit of it is. Some of you have great faith and trust in these institutions. I don't, but I concede that many of you do. And I have to concede, also, that Trump causes his own problems, which is where I started this piece this morning.

Trump was the President. As President he not only had access to classified documents, he had full authority to declassify them. I know some of you you don't think he was ever fit for the job, but that's neither here nor there. He had the job and with it he had declassification authority. He's probably going to say he declassified these docs. How in the hell are they going to argue that he didn't or couldn't or whatever? I don't know.

Trump believes he was unfairly targeted by Comey, McCabe, and the rest of them with the Hillary Clinton funded Russian Collusion hoax, which spawned the Mueller investigation. The entire swamp rallied behind this conspiracy, and many of you who are breathless at these new classified document revelations (revelations? really? what has been revealed? redacted revelations?) were equally so at the Russia hoax. You bought Hillary's lies hook, line, and sinker. Yeah, you did. Many STILL believe it. Well, this stuff coming out now is coming from the same people and with the same kinds of leaks and media flame fanning that characterized 2016-2019. It was a setup from the get go. This looks remarkably similar to many of us.

Did Trump have stuff at Mar A Lago that is still classified and that he shouldn't have had there? Very possibly. Was there wrangling and sparring, aka negotiations, going on about these prior to the raid that they don't want us to call a raid? Yeah, there was. Trump didn't give in to them. But why? I don't know for sure. You don't either.

Did Trump have some of the formerly classified documents that he ordered declassified in the fall (or was it winter) of 2020? I'm referring to Russiagate docs that show the swamp's setup of the whole scam. If you don't recall, I do. Trump ordered those docs declassified. He had full authority to do so from the get go. The problem is that some of you, like the swamp, never accepted someone like Trump as your President from the get go. You felt "resist" was a totally acceptable and necessary thing because you never saw any legitimacy in the Trump presidency. How much of that was because you believed the Russiagate stuff, and how much was just the shit Trump said over and over in ways that rankled you to your core? I contend you can't separate the two, but that the two combined to shade your perception of every single thing Trump said and did, and what he says and does right up to today.

The sense of Trump's illegitimacy from day one permeates the swamp totally and fully. Some of you, too, if you're honest. I am convinced that the folks over at the National Archives, the archivists who manage presidential documents and have for decades, have felt a compulsion to address the grave concern that this illegitimate and inappropriate, uncouth, anti-swamp warrior has presidential documents of which he is not and was never worthy of and now that he's gone they are taking no chances that he continue to possess that which he ought not to have had in the first place.

Trump is a political Rorschach Test. Some of you see nothing but evil and wrongdoing in every single thing he says and does. Some of us say, "Finally, someone who represents us!" There are very few people in the small area in between.

To some, what a redacted document says proves Trump guilty, to others, what is blacked out it proves a corrupt swamp is working overtime to frame him. There's not much there, but everyone is seeing what they want to see anyway.

I've got to ask. Why now? I can tell you there is a great deal of political opportunism going on here. This raid, the fight over these documents comes at an extremely opportune time. It's one thing, not the only thing, that has taken some of the critical focus off a Joe Biden presidency that had been flailing and wallowing. The Supreme Court's overturn of Roe V Wade helped Democrats some. The Student Debt forgiveness will sway some and help his favorability, too. But let there be no doubt, there is nothing better to energize the base for Joe Biden right now, and for Democrats headed into what was looking like a mid-term drubbing, than "Orange Man Bad". It works. They know it works. They are playing it to the fullest. The fact that President Biden and his spokesperson Jean-Pierre are calling Trump's MAGA movement fascist this week is no coincidence. I'm sure many on the left were delighted to hear them say it. You don't have the fucking balls to call me a fascist, because you know it's a goddamned lie, but you love love love hearing Biden and Jean-Pierre say it.

This is NOT just a political play for 2022 and 2024, though. I'm not that naive. Trump is the enemy of the left, and the enemy of the swamp. He is being attacked with the intent of destroying him and also his movement.

Canceling Student Debt, It's A Matter of Perspecive - 8/25/2022

If you have student debt, chances are you support student debt cancellation. Duh.

It's all a matter of how you look at it, a matter of perspective. I realize that.

I saw a post from a woman I follow on Twitter. She's a Mets fan. She posts in a little collection of Mets fans whose stuff I see regularly. In her comment she seemed to be genuinely perplexed that people couldn't see how canceling this debt would benefit her and many, many others like her. I didn't know anything about her, so I looked at her page this morning to see where she was coming from. It's clear she's a grade school teacher. It's a matter of perspective.

I read a post from another person. He asked, "If your credit card company chairman announced that he was canceling a part of your balance, would you say that's unfair to the other card holders?" My response was, "If the President of my credit card company called me and said “We know you’ve made your payments on time, so are increasing your debt by $10,000 because we are forgiving your next door neighbor’s $10,000 debt,” I think I just might levy an objection. It’s a matter of perspective."

Before I go further, let me offer that there are things that President Biden could have done that would have made me support this initiative. 

One: means test debt forgiveness recipients. Don't forgive debt to people who made plenty but spent their money on lots of other stuff who somehow can't find the money to pay off their student loans. 

Two: discriminate by degree. What fields of study lead to essential jobs in the community which don't pay a salary commensurate with the community's need for their services. Teachers, for example. Engineers, lawyers, doctors, etc., make enough to pay their loans. That Liberal Arts degree may make for a well rounded individual, but there's no appreciable need in the community for Liberal Artists.

Three: Make a public service payback provision. You're a doctor, lawyer, engineer, or liberal artist who doesn't qualify under provisions One and Two above? You can be paid back if you commit to community service in your chosen field or as a generalist of some sort. Figure out an hourly rate, per field of study, and require 1/2 hour to cancel one hour's worth of debt. For example, someone owes $20,000, and the occupational field related to their degree pays $50 an hour on average in their community. That comes out to 400 hours, times 50 to get to $20,000. In my scenario, 1/2 of the 400 hours would cancel the debt: 200 hours. That comment I made on Twitter applies here: if they're going to increase my debt by $10,000 in order to forgive my neighbor's $10,000, I'll feel better about it if for the next two years he'll be washing my car once a month, cutting my lawn every two weeks, and trimming my hedges once a month.

Four: make colleges and universities pay a portion of the debt out of their endowments. Let's face it. These institutions jacked up their tuition costs commensurate with the amount of money that was made available to students in the form of federally guaranteed loans and grants. The colleges and universities are a huge part of this problem. Not only did they jack up prices to claim this additional available money (same as auto manufacturers and EV rebates are doing right now), but I fully expect them to jack prices up again to claim this debt forgiveness windfall as best they can if they can.

Of course, none of what would make this acceptable to me is in there. It's not because this is a pure vote grab in an election year when Democrats are scared to death of November because our President is inept, has dementia, and is of their party. Lacking any of One through Four, above, I'm against it. But I don't matter. I'm not one of the votes he's buying, anyway.

Mitch McConnell and the Establishment GOP, Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys - 8/24/2022

For many years I felt the worst possible candidates for President were Senators and Lawyers. And the Senators who run often are lawyers. Lawyers are different. They're trained not look at issues and events through a moral lens, but to look at things through a legal one. "Can I justify this?" "Can I defend that?" Right or wrong are often far removed from the logic that supports or opposes their stance or vote on an issue. And a Senator, they're this upper house body which maintains a status quo. If I were to make a list of all the politicians I detest or have detested in the last 40 or so years, I bet a whole lot of them would be Senators. And a whole lot of those would be Republicans, the party with which I was affiliated for so many years. If there is such a thing as a "uniparty", it is nowhere more in evidence than the US Senate. Even in all the Mitch Rapp books by Vince Flynn that I like so much, the villain is often a Senator. Too big for his or her britches, and deeply connected to both the donor class pulling strings behind a curtain, and the bureaucracy, pulling the levers of power, unelected but empowered by tenure and invisibility.

Mitch is a clown.

 Before I go any further, let me get right to the point. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is a uniparty scumbag. He absolutely doesn't care if the GOP doesn't win back the Senate. As a matter of fact, I believe he wants to lose. It's so much easier to be the opposition party than the party in power. He can complain and carry on about not liking what's going on, to the delight of gullible Republicans who think he's sincere. But he isn't really opposed to much. It's a show. A charade. A deception. A farce. He's getting richer. His donors, the real unelected government, are happy. Life is good. Fuck the electorate.

Donald Trump? That bastard isn't beholden to McConnell's donors. That asshole questions the bureaucracy, thinking as President he holds power, that he has a say. We're so much better with a pliable puppet who was a Senator for many years who knows how the game is played and what the rules are. Well, he oughta, except that he has dementia.

Mitch McConnell, the Establishment GOP, the Uniparty, and the DC bureaucrats, aka "the swamp"? Not my circus. Not my monkeys. Most of em are clowns, anyway.

Really Bad Precedents - 8/23/2022

Last night I read an excellent article by John Soloman from his "Just the News" site. The article (link below) details how the Biden Administration has green lighted the investigation of President Trump that led to the Mar-A-Lago raid that has infuriated me and so many others. I want to explore with you some of the implications in my mind that come from all this. First, if you're interested, the Soloman piece:

justthenews.com John Soloman Article

 

If you don't read Soloman's "Just the News", maybe you should.

The first thing Trump supporters and even detractors need to realize is that among Biden supporters and Trump detractors, be they GOP establishment types or Democrats, is a core belief that Trump is corrupt. It's probably safe to say it's a compilation of reasons that drives them to this presumption of guilt.

First, there's his boorish, abrasive, inappropriate behavior and big mouth. Supporters may recognize that only the nastiness of a wolverine can confront the predatory and vicious attacks that come at every prominent Republican candidate. They came at Bush One and Bush Two, at Romney and McCain. They'll come at DeSantis or whoever is next with vicious attacks, too. Trump may be the only kind of a candidate who can stand up to the attacks, and does so the only way he knows how, by attacking his detractors just as viciously. It may be the only strategy that can withstand the attacks, but to many it's beyond unseemly all the way to unacceptable. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Then there's the fact he's a successful entrepreneur of significant wealth. There is a presumption among many, especially on the left, that every company and person who is highly successful financially is corrupt. To the socialistic and communist left, business is the daytime home of the boogymen that hide under their beds waiting to pounce when they close their eyes seeking peaceful sleep. Trump and his kind wait for just such moments to destroy the innocent and "helpless".

And lastly, his political initiatives, positions, and programs are at odds with all that is progressive and leftist, things that in their minds are all goodness. So someone like Trump who would challenge and thwart the good and beneficial progressive agenda must surely be evil and accusations of criminality are certainly befitting such an evil doer as that.

What I am telling you, is that underneath all these efforts to get Trump: in New York by a DA who campaigned on a "I will get Trump" platform, in Georgia, where Trump did the unconscionable by not just questioning an election he did not believe was conducted legally or fairly, and in DC, where Trump's efforts to drain the swamp were an affront to bureaucrats across the entire broad range of Federal Government agencies, is a core belief in his guilt. Guilty of what? Of something. Of anything. Of everything. It was the DC swamp that sanctioned and enabled the unprecedented Mar-A-Lago raid. The raid was indeed sanctioned by the White House, and Joe Biden is lying when he says it wasn't or that he didn't know about it. Joe is hiding behind a flimsy plausible deniability curtain, but anyone with eyes can see right through it. There are report Joe has been pushing AG Merrick Garland to "get Trump". Why would Joe do this, breaking with 200+ years of precedent? I just told you. Trump's a jerk. He's a successful businessman, which means inherently corrupt, and he opposes the left's agenda, which is clearly an evil thing for anyone to do. So he's got to be guilty and they just need to catch him. It's imperative.

Think about this: The Biden Administration waived Trump's Executive Privilege. Insanity.

Lemme finish by turning this around a bit. I think the precedent of going all in to destroy Trump is the absolute worst political thing anyone of any political party or persuasion has done in my lifetime. There is a new precedent, a third world dictatorship mentality being embraced on the left and by never-Trump conservatives like Liz Cheney. Do you think that Hillary Clinton, Joe "10% for the big guy" Biden, and the heroes of the left are any less contemptible to me/us than Trump is to them? Do you think the fact these creeps spend a lifetime in "public service" and are worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars is any less an indication of corruption than Trump's business successes (and failures) are? Do you think to a conservative that the left's political initiatives, positions, and programs are any less evil or contemptible in the eyes of conservatives? The answers are no, no, and no. This new precedent of using the apparatus of the government to destroy our political opponents is a bad one, a very, very bad one. It is a mistake, a mistake that clearly the people doing so feel in their hearts is righteous and justified in making. I got news for them.

What goes around comes around.

Trumpism, the GOP, and Matty P - 8/22/2022

There has been a lot of angst among members of the Republican Party over what Donald Trump did to it. I read the Wall Street Journal, and they've been particularly critical of Trump and Trump supporters, I guess because we're not being pragmatic and supporting traditional GOP type candidates in favor of Trump endorsed interlopers who would dare to challenge those same traditional GOP types. We're handing things to Democrats by not choosing the practical candidate from the GOP establishment in favor of someone who wants to overturn the GOP apple cart.

Before I go further, I have no idea why Trump endorsed Dr Oz. To me it was a terrible choice and I'm not a Trump mind-numbed robot. I'm not in PA, but if I were I probably wouldn't vote for him, either. So Trump endorsements don't control my choices. Back to that "GOP apple cart".

I'm not a Mitch McConnell fan. Not even a little bit.

Trump didn't steal me from the GOP. Let's get that straight. In 2014 I left the GOP before Trump came on the scene. At that point I was completely fed up with and tired of Mitch McConnell and the others like him. I did not believe they cared a bit about me, that they represented me, or that they were loyal to us as a GOP voting block. They were and still are sellouts as far as I am concerned. I might have tolerated same, but I got sick and tired of their weak feigned support of Conservative principals. They let progressives, liberals, and Democrats have far too many wins, and more importantly, far too many easy wins. They didn't fight for me. I never felt they did. I felt they fought for their own financial enrichment, period. So I left the GOP and became an independent. I figured 'let them see me as a swing voter'. Let them campaign for my support. Let them work for my vote.

Trump came along in 2015 and in 2016 I came back to the GOP to support Trump. I didn't come back because I was any more enamored with Mitch or Ryan or any of them. I came back to support Trump, who I believed and still believe represented me better and who I believe loves our country more than either of the two conniving establishments do.

So when the WSJ and establishment Republicans try to understand why I and others like me aren't lining up behind their choices for the GOP, which are 100% continuation of the establishment and a repudiation of Trumpism, I can only say my vote wasn't yours to begin with. Trump brought me and millions of others to the GOP to support him. He didn't bring us, nor am I here, to support your tired line of bullshit and your weak-asssed efforts where you pretend to support me, but to see you time and again cave in to the left and march to the orders issued by your owner donors.

We aren't divided because of Trump. We got Trump because we were so divided.

It's not Trump and Trumpism that is causing weakness and division. It is you, the establishment Republicans, who are shooing us toward the door because we won't sing along with the songs in your tainted hymnals. Figure out why we came in when Trump came along. Show us with actions first, words next, that you want to Make America Great Again and that you will put America First. Show us that you will fight the left's progressivism like relentless rabid attack dogs. That's not who your military industrial and pharmaceutical masters are telling you to be? Well, choose. It's them or us. I won't support you if you choose them. My vote isn't in your hip pocket. You can bet your ass it's not.

Liz Cheney, Good Riddance - 8/17/2022

I'm going to make this short and sweet this morning. I am delighted that Liz Cheney was defeated in her bid for re-election for her seat in the House of Representatives representing Wyoming. I'm going to give you, I suspect, a slightly different perspective on the whole thing than what you're getting from liberal or conservative media of all types. Follow along.

Good riddance!

 

1. January 6th protesters were well within their rights to protest the execution of the 2020 Presidential Election in its entirety. The fact that an election so important left so many of us with legitimate questions about the run up to, execution of on Election Day, and the counting is inexcusable. I'm not even going to list the grievances I know that I share with many millions of Americans. None of the grievances I have were conjured up by Trump. Not a one.

2. January 6th trespassers and rioters were wrong. The then President, Donald Trump, asked that the protesters act peacefully and lawfully, if I recall correctly. But some got carried away and did wrong.

3. Taking #2, above, into consideration, who were the instigators? I have seen many, many allegations that Capital Police and the FBI had undercover officers, agents, and informants inserted into the crowds of protesters. So far, so good. But here's the rub: some of these cops are alleged to have instigated illegal activities. I struggle with "entrapment" in that if you're not a criminal and someone suggests you commit a crime, to the largest extent, you own it if you do it. But it's not an undercover cop's place to incite, inspire, and encourage crime. "Let's go over there and do this!" "Let's go over there and do that!" According to much of what I've read, that is exactly what happened. It happened in Michigan with the absolutely phony Whitmer kidnapping. To what extent did it happen on January 6th?

4. And this is where I fall off the Liz Cheney bandwagon. She's a never Trump (fine if you don't like him, but not fine in a criminal justice situation wherein you put damaging Trump ahead of doing the right thing for all the other people in the Jan 6th situation). If the Republicans on the Committee aren't asking questions about the undercover cops and agents, then who will? The January 6th Committee was nothing more than a show trial to get Trump. Where Cheney had a chance to ask the questions me and many millions of others wanted asked: about the election and about the entrapment activities on January 6th, but instead chose to help Speaker Pelosi rid D.C. of Donald Trump, once and for all, that's where I decided she can go fuck herself.

Goodbye Liz. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Note: Having doubts and serious questions about the 2020 election, all the shady and questionable shit I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears isn't anti-democracy. Stop it with that bullshit. Cheney wasn't protecting democracy. She was trying to rid D.C. of Trump. I realize you have Trump Derangement Syndrome and can't differentiate between the two, but I wish you'd try.