One Person's Absolute Control of Congress

One person, elected by the people in only one state, should not decide the fate of almost all Congressional legislation.

The right of Preferential Recognition (first recognition) by the presiding officer of the Senate (either the Vice President or a President pro tempore) given to the Majority Leader enables Mitch McConnell to block any legislation or nomination he does not like. 

Each session, hundreds of House bills go to the Senate, where they die because of McConnell's Scheduling Veto. Those bills never reach the Senate floor for a vote, even if most of the Senate supports any of those bills.

Similarly, McConnell refused to hold hearings on President Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland for a Supreme Court seat. For almost a year, that seat remained unfilled until a Republican president was elected. President Trump was then given the privilege of nominating someone else more to Mitch McConnell's liking.

But that right is not in The Constitution, it is not a law, and it is not in the Senate Rules. That right exists only because of precedent. Nothing is preventing the President of the Senate from recognizing someone else first. This alone would end McConnell's absolute control of Congress.

From: U.S. Senate: Floor Leaders' Right of Priority Recognition

"Later in 1937, Vice President John Nance Garner, a former Speaker of the House who valued leadership prerogatives, announced a new policy. Under the Senate rule requiring the presiding officer to "recognize the Senator who shall first address him," Garner established the precedent of giving priority recognition to the majority leader and then to the minority leader before all other senators seeking to speak. These two 1937 developments–priority recognition and front-row seating–contributed greatly to the evolution of modern Senate floor leadership."

From: How the Vice President Limits the Power of Senate Majorities

"Article I, section 3, clause 5 of the Constitution permits senators to select a President pro tempore to fill in as Presiding Officer when the Vice President is unable to do so."

"The leader was first granted priority of recognition in 1937 pursuant to a ruling made by Vice President John (“Cactus Jack”) Nance Garner while presiding over the Senate. But the 1937 ruling is not irreversible. Any Vice President presiding over the Senate in the future could just as easily break with past practice and recognize another senator in lieu of the Majority Leader."

From: What makes Senate leaders so powerful?

"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he alone decides what bills get considered on the Senate floor. When asked if the Senate would consider legislation to protect special counsel Robert Mueller, McConnell responded, 'I’m the one who decides what we take to the floor, that’s my responsibility as the majority leader, and we will not be having this on the floor of the Senate.'”

"The majority leader has the right of first recognition pursuant to precedent." 

"By creating the right of preferential recognition, the Garner precedent serves as the foundation on which leader power is based in the Senate today. Since any member can technically make a motion to proceed to legislation or a nomination under the Senate’s rules, being the first to do so enables the majority leader to set the schedule and control the agenda to a limited degree."

It is up to the Vice President to end the Scheduling Veto, strip Mitch McConnell of his dictatorial power, and make the Senate functional once more.

Why Biden And Not Trump?

** Coal production has declined 31% since Trump took office. Coal mining jobs are not coming back, because the practice of burning coal for energy is in a death spiral. Natural gas is far less expensive for utilities. There is nothing Trump can do about that except make promises he can't keep. 

** Abortion: Roe vs. Wade. In 1973 the Supreme Court ruled that the right to abortion differs in each trimester. In the first trimester, governments could not prohibit abortions at all; during the second trimester, governments could require reasonable health regulations; during the third trimester, abortions could be prohibited entirely so long as the laws contained exceptions for cases when they were necessary to save the life or health of the mother. 

States have increased restrictions by going around the Supreme Court decision, doing things like requiring that any doctor performing an abortion must have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. Most of these restrictions have been overturned already, but in some states, there is only one clinic performing abortions left. 

There is absolutely nobody advocating, as Trump would have you believe, that Democrats want to be able to abort a baby the day before it is to be born. That's ridiculous, and it completely ignores the ruling in Roe v. Wade. 

Nobody likes abortion, but taking away a woman's right to control her own body in the beginning of her pregnancy? Let's go back to the days of back-alley abortions and the untold numbers of deaths that resulted. 

** Hardly anybody is advocating taking away people's guns. What they are advocating is banning the sale and possession of weapons capable of mass murders along with 30 round clips. And advocating background checks. And advocating holding gun show sales to the same restrictions that gun shops have to abide by. 

As for militias, every state, territory, and D.C. has one known as the National Guard. They can be called up by governors, or in the case of a national emergency, by the president. The Second Amendment has a militia clause in it, though the NRA omits it in their quote of the Amendment. One drunk with a gun is not a militia. 

The right of gun ownership, like the right to free speech, is not absolute. If it was, states and counties and cities would not be able to have gun laws on their books. People have a right to live, too. 

** A 3 to 6-week shutdown? What do you think we had in the beginning? But now we have millions of people saying they have a right not to wear a mask. As long as they refuse, this pandemic will just continue to get worse and worse. 

You don't think the economy is taking a hit now? How long are people willing to delay a return to normalcy? So many countries took COVID-19 seriously. Unless they opened back up too early, they are the ones where there are few new cases and almost no deaths. 

But we have a president who was willing to let more than a quarter of a million people die because he wanted the economy up and running to increase his chances for reelection. 

And now it turns out that even people with mild cases are having devastating complications weeks or months after their infections which will affect them for the rest of their lives. 

This is not the flu. It is much more contagious and 10 times deadlier. Where are the right-to-life people, now? Go ahead and die for the economy, gramps.

** Trump brought jobs back to the USA? The few highly publicized deals to keep jobs here turned out to only delay the layoffs. Corporations sent jobs overseas because of cheaper labor. And the products coming back in this country essentially do not have to meet the standards required by law for goods produced here. 

It is only after products are sold that defects such as toxic contaminations or safety problems are discovered. Two-thirds of all jobs in the US are now service jobs.

Other notes:

Those high corporate taxes? A myth. That 35% tax rate is rarely paid because of tons of loopholes. One in five US corporations pays 0% in federal taxes. Small businesses and taxpayers end up paying the big bucks.

And the China tariffs? Tariffs are used to raise the price of imports to make American goods more competitive. To protect American industries. All that happened with Trump's tariffs was that the price of Chinese goods increased for American consumers. And since there were no longer manufacturers here in the US, there were few alternatives for those Chinese products. 

Tariffs are not a money-making tool. The only money taken in was paid by Americans.

So tell me how Trump helped with your job? Trump has not worked with Congress to get legislation passed. He merely signs them into law. Three-fourths of his Executive Orders don't actually do anything legally. What he has done is tried to wipe out every one of Obama's actions, including all those related to worker protections including wages, consumer protections, clean air, clean water, and clean soil. 

The EPA was established under Nixon when pollution was becoming a real problem. 

Rivers would catch on fire. Smog was choking cities. Toxic waste sites were becoming a problem and they weren't being cleaned up. Rivers were dying because of discharges into them, including by farmers. Poisonous insecticides were legal and they were ending up in our bodies. Lead contamination was lowering our IQs, especially those of children who were eating leaded paint chips. Asbestos insulation was found to be causing cancer. 

Trump has worked hard to shut down the EPA and eliminate all the progress that was made in cleaning up our water, our soil, and our air. 

One man in the Senate is capable of killing any House bill he doesn't like and holding up any nominations he disapproves of (such as Obama's SCOTUS nominee, Merrick Garland, who was acceptable to both parties). 

This man also vowed to hold up any Democratic nominee for the Supreme Court for the next four years if Hillary Clinton became president. That man is Mitch McConnell. He has killed hundreds of House bills each session just by never letting the Senate have a vote on them or letting his committees see them and come up with their own versions. 

One man controlling Congress. And the method he uses is not in the Constitution and is not in the Senate Rules. It is merely set by precedent. It's called a Scheduling Veto. The only bills he can't stop are emergency bills.

Republicans are not concerned with citizens except to secure their votes and convince them to vote against their self-interest. They are focused on the wealthy and on large corporations. But their narrative works to convince people that the laws they want will help them, and the laws that Democrats want will hurt them. They have convinced people that Dems are the tax and spend party and that they are the Party of God. 

Fiscal conservatives? Tell us another fairy tale. Republicans pledged to throttle revenues and to lower expenses. They have only managed to strangle revenues with their massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy and their corporate loopholes. 

No new taxes? How about some old ones? This country prospered while the top tax bracket was 91%. And note that the 91% bracket was only for income after a certain amount. Each bracket applies to only a portion of income. Income under a certain amount is taxed the lowest. Income above that and up to a certain amount is taxed at a slightly higher rate. Someone who is in a 91% tax bracket only has a certain amount taxed at that rate.

Worried about Social Security retirement and disability insurance? Or the federal deficits and the National Debt? Worried that Social Security is going broke and must be "reformed"? 

Is Social Security the biggest federal expense? No. It's not a federal expense at all. It is separate from the federal budget by law (but including those surpluses sure made politicians' budgets look better). 

The paper IOUs in the $3 trillion Trust Fund? They are interest-bearing US Treasury Bonds. The same ones that are used to fund every dollar of the National Debt. They are not instruments of theft, and defaulting on them would send borrowing costs through the roof. 

So what happens if Social Security benefits are cut or retirement ages once again raised? The date that the Trust Fund zeroes out changes slightly, and that won't be until 2034. There is absolutely no effect on federal deficits or the National Debt. 

That so-called entitlement is paid for by us and does not affect the budget. The Trust Fund handles all surpluses and deficits of the Social Security program. And the reason it was built up to $3 trillion is to handle baby boomer retirements. It's designed to handle times when payouts exceed the revenue from payroll taxes and the interest from T-bills. 

Social Security is supposed to have a projected solvency of 75 years, not 14 years. But the GOP has blocked routine adjustments to payroll taxes and salary caps (above which no payroll taxes are assessed). Why? Because they are ideologically opposed to Social Security. They don't make a profit on Social Security. They don't get to play with all that money. 

And companies think that the portion of payroll taxes that they pay comes out of their pocket rather than being a cost of having employees. Their portion is basically just part of our pay but structured so that we don't pay federal or state taxes on that money before payroll taxes are taken out.

The wealthy think that money is taken from them and given to others. But most of that money is gained by not paying their fair share of taxes, and by the corporations that they invest in paying employees poverty wages.

CEOs work hard to make sure their company stocks have a 15% rate of return because that is what industrial investors expect. That means CEOs' main focus is on profits. Not the future health of the company. Not the quality of their products. Not their employees' well-being. Profits. That's it. 

Meanwhile, worker's wages are stagnant, and to CEOs, employees are just another expense to cut.

Did you like that big tax cut bill under Trump? Paul Ryan gushed about how one employee was able to take her yearly increase in pay and buy a Costco membership. Meanwhile, corporations got almost $1.5 trillion in tax benefits.

Do you know why people have to sometimes work two or three part-time jobs to make ends meet? Because only full-time employees get benefits, including healthcare coverage. Part-timers don't get benefits, and often don't even get sick days. Another expense cut to keep company profits flowing.

Then there's the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as ObamaCare, a plan developed by conservatives (the Heritage Foundation) which is basically RomneyCare with 170 changes Republicans wanted, including the elimination of a public option). 

Before this act, medical expenses were the leading cause of all bankruptcies. It's still a major cause, but not as bad. 

Trump and the GOP are pushing for stripped-down plans with fewer benefits and more limitations, including not having to cover pre-existing conditions. They want a return to the way things used to be, where medical insurance was more like a coupon, benefits were routinely denied, and insurance companies were more focused on their 20% overhead (profits). 

Without a public option, we still have high premiums, very high deductibles, co-pays, donut-holes, limits, and exclusions.  All of which Medicare, and the proposed Medicare-for-all, have. There is no dental, vision, or hearing coverage (unless paid for separately). 

Almost all other western industrialized countries have some form of Universal Healthcare. And no country has decided to end their coverage. Nearly all Universal plans are single-payer, meaning that the government pays the doctors and nurses and labs and hospitals and clinics and medical equipment manufacturers. None of which are nationalized (taken over). 

People think our system might be preferable until they find out the costs. These countries still have private providers for electives paid by their patients. This is why Democrats are fighting for Universal Healthcare. It's not some socialist or communist takeover. It's about making healthcare available and affordable. 

Universal Healthcare eliminates the need for employer-provided health care coverage, which is another expense that keeps getting shifted to the employees, and is not available to people between jobs or to part-time workers, or to workers treated as consultants and not employees.

What are the goals of this generation's radical conservatives (more so on the federal level)? Do you think we should be heading back to a time of poorhouses, no worker's rights, no affordable health care, no minimum standards for health care insurance coverage?

Or no environmental or consumer protections, no protections from Wall Street shenanigans or bank speculations with depositor's money, no protections for people's retirement accounts, no anti-trust regulations or food and drug protections? 

Are you advocating no heating assistance for the poor, no Head Start for preschoolers, no community block grants, no infrastructure spending bills? 

Or advocating that Medicare be changed to private health plans with ever-increasing costs and fewer benefits, the elimination of women's healthcare, the defunding of Medicaid? 

How about no ethics oversight for government officials, inadequate pay for our military troops, the militarization of police forces along with inadequate training, no rights against discrimination? 

Or the right of states to eliminate provisions regarding pre-existing conditions, privatization of Social Security, worship of individual responsibility, and an abdication of social responsibility? 

Then congratulations. You fit right in with today's radical conservatives. 

So you think there is massive election fraud by Democrats? Let's list the ways the GOP has been cheating.

• Voter suppression
• Voter disenfranchisement
• Gerrymandering
• Voter ID
• Poll taxes (No voting until fines paid)
• Attacking absentee ballots
• Attempting to disqualify ballots only in Dem zip codes
• Making the process complicated & hard to comply with
• Dark money
• Having only one polling location in an entire city (reducing 300+ voting machines down to one)
• Running the election while you're also on the ballot
• Purging the rolls of Dem voters
• Lying about your opponent 24/7
• Blocking everyone on reservations from voting
• Blocking former prisoners from voting
• Sending out incorrect information about when & where to vote
• Eliminating early voting
• Eliminating drop boxes
• Understaffing the polling places in Dem areas
• Creating long lines in Dem areas
• Voter intimidation (people with guns watching)
• Putting malfunctioning machines in Dem areas
• Refusing to adequately fund election security
• Inviting foreign attacks on our election
• Insisting people vote in person during a pandemic
• Confusing & poorly designed ballots
• Having a propaganda tv channel to lie for you 24/7
• Sabotaging the Post Office
• Tampering with the census (reduced representation)
• Casting doubt on the process
• Claiming people are voting illegally
• Frivolous court challenges of votes

Original Comment in a post:

"So just curious and I'll be straight up right off the bat I voted trump for many reasons one I'm a miner which trump supports two I'm completely against abortion. 3 because I own guns 4. I believe a 3 to 6 week shut done will shut this country down worse then covid pandemic. 5 because trump brought jobs back to the USA. I don't agree with everything trump has done but he's helped my job out. Biden will affect my wallet shutting down mining oil rigs and union workers. I'm not saying this to start a argument but I would like to know why you guys voted for Biden so I can understand your side I'm not judgement any way just would like to hear someone opinions on why they did"

Until Jan. 20, Trump Is Still Dangerous

As long as Donald Trump is president, until Jan. 20, he's still dangerous. The last thing he wants is a successful Biden presidency, so he will try to cause as much trouble as he can. He may even create a crisis that would leave a warlike situation in Biden's lap. 

Trump knows what he is doing, and he does not care. We have a president who lacks human empathy and is willing for others to die for his personal gain.

Trump can never accept reality that is unacceptable for him. Trump doesn't have losses. So he denies it. Even if he were to go to jail, he would still claim that this is more proof of how he's been treated unfairly. His paranoia is never going to go away. It's always somebody else's problem. Trump is not only the innocent victim, he is the saintly victim.  

He has a total absence of loyalty. As soon as somebody challenges him, then they are the enemy. There's no recognition of other people as separate centers of initiative who can be valued. To him, a person's only value is what they do for him.

Trump is able to appear more in touch with reality when he is being worshiped. When he is challenged, however, his cruelty, sadism, paranoia, lack of conscience, incitement to violence and active pursuit of policies that kill people become obvious. He is a psychopath.

Donald Trump is incapable of guilt. In the most obvious and primitive way, often seen in very young children, he accuses others of exactly what he has done. Reversing the truth is a tactic used by psychopathic dictators.

Donald Trump has already killed people through his willful negligent handling of the coronavirus pandemic in order to improve his election chances. More than 120,000 Americans have died because of Trump's behavior. His incitements to racist violence have likewise caused deaths from racist crime. There is by now overwhelming evidence that Donald Trump cares nothing about anyone else's life.

It is extremely easy to manipulate Donald Trump, since he cares only about being worshiped and is indifferent to the truth or facts. If you worship him, then you control Trump until the next person worships him. There is every reason to think that he has been successfully manipulated by emotionally stronger leaders of other nations.

Donald Trump has no sense of empathy, care, concern for others, their sadness and loneliness. He has no feelings beyond those of the predator: sadistic triumph if he can defeat or destroy others, and rage and violence if he feels attacked or is at risk of losing.

Once he's out of office, he becomes your average psychopath, continuing to abuse workers and not paying people, and continuing to foment as much trouble as he can. Until then, he will still be extremely dangerous.

The above content is edited excerpts from the following two articles:

Harvard psychiatrist explains Trump's deepening paranoia and why he'll live in 'fantasyland till the day he dies'

Former Harvard psychiatrist: 'Trump is a psychopath who will destroy democracy'

More Kool-Aid Fueled Accusations

Took a long drink of the Kool-aid, did we? A believer in all of the conspiracy accusations and lies, are you? Just like you believe that Republicans are fiscal conservatives and believers in freedom. Allow me to waste your time, though I know you would prefer to believe in scandals and other "insider" info that makes you feel special.

Treason? Because of Uranium One? Really? Another GOP hoax never proven.

Fast and Furious?  ATF Phoenix Field Division.  Part of a broader program with a similar operation in 2006. Attorney General Holder cited for contempt only for failing to turn over some documents for which Obama asserted Executive Privilege. Documents were later supplied. Lower DOJ officials who had knowledge were forced to resign. Nothing like Trump's blanket refusals to cooperate, his suppression of all evidence, his failure to produce any subpoenaed documents, and his refusal to allow any witness testimony.

Doubled the debt? Obama took office AFTER the economy tanked under Bush and yearly deficits were already set to be 1 trillion per year no matter who won. And a recovery kept in first gear by the "Just Say No" and "One term president" Republicans. Sabotaging recovery efforts followed by claims that they have the solutions.

Benghazi. How many hearings? At least 10. How many convictions? None. Failures by the State Department and the Military? Yes. Senior administration officials ordered preparations and assistance which were delayed. A scandal? Yes. An Obama White House scandal? Hardly.

Illegal FISA warrant? The FISA warrants started out with calls involving Russia with no knowledge of who was on our end.

Politicized DOJ, FBI? No. Um, Trump's Barr and his getting rid of Comey to stop the Russia investigation. Now, that's political.

$85 million on 29 vacations. Compared to Trump and offspring and golfing and payments to Trump properties? Miniscule.

Weaponized intelligence communities. Yeah, one or two opinions in private e-mails. Compare that to Trump's refusal to even pay attention to briefings, and his disclosure of top secret info to Russians.

Fake birth certificate? No, fake scandal. Both short form and long form birth certificates provided. Giuliani's proof never materialized. Years-long accusations never proven.

ISIS support? Really? BS. Prove it.

Hillary's illegal server. Um, there were over 100 servers (not the alleged one hidden server) involved in supporting one non-government e-mail account. And every member of Trump's administration and family does the same "illegal" thing for which Hillary was never found guilty despite all of the congressional hearings.

Solyndra? The Inspector General's Office concluded that Solyndra officials used inaccurate information to mislead the Department of Energy in its application for a $535 million loan guarantee. The report also found that there were shortcomings with the DOE’s process of managing and approving the loan guarantee to Solyndra. Nothing like the systemic corruption and intentional sabotage by Trump's appointed agency heads.

How about accusations that Obama is a secret Muslim? As opposed to our amoral tear-gassing for bible photo-ops president.

Wake up and smell the stench coming from your own party. BTW, how's that cheaper, better, covers-everyone health care plan coming? Or Middle East Peace? Do you like the idea of defunding Social Security retirement insurance? A program with 3 billion in reserves (for baby-boomers) that the GOP has spent years sabotaging already because they want to profit off of it? Grow up.

Trump's Accomplishments

Violent crime dropped somewhere between 51% and 71% (FBI vs BJS) from 1993 to 2018. It rose between 2004 & 2006 and again between 2014-2016. So it fell for 6 of the 8 years of the Obama presidency. Ooh, but it rose for two years. The bum.

In 2019, El Paso (a border city) remained one of the safest cities in the United States. However, in 2018 22 people were killed in a massacre perpetrated by a white supremacist, doubling the annual number of homicides. As for undocumented immigrants, they are less likely to commit violent crimes than U.S. citizens, no matter what lies Trump would have you believe.

As for the First Step Act, while sentence reductions have been approved by judges, the Department of Justice (DOJ - part of Trump's administration) has attempted to block hundreds of eligible beneficiaries. The First Step Act was years in the making, and clarifies an act passed in 2010. The First Step Act was passed by Congress; Trump merely signed it. One signature versus active administration actions against the Act.

Trump signed a bill making CBD and Hemp legal? It was part of the 2018 Farm bill, and CBD is a derivative of low-THC hemp. It also only removed them from the definition of marijuana in the CSA. But CBD remains under the purview of the FDA, and in interstate commerce the FD&C Act (Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act) makes transportation across state lines illegal. Again these are low THC derivatives, THC being the component which gives people a high. And the FDA has only approved limited use of one CBD drug for medicinal use, which also prohibits it from being added to food products. I hardly think Trump would have vetoed the Farm Bill over the inclusion of the low-THC hemp provision. Counting this as an accomplishment is a farce. It's not like he legalized marijuana.

"Trump signed a law to make cruelty to animals a federal felony so that animal abusers face tougher consequences." The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act (PACT) is a bipartisan initiative that bans the intentional crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating, impalement or other serious harm to "living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians." But all states already had laws prohibiting cruelty; the legislation merely made it easier to prosecute across state lines. Again, this was a bipartisan Act passed by Congress, hardly an accomplishment, especially since Trump only works with one party, not both. His influence in passing the act was not present; he merely signed it.

"Trump’s EPA gave $100 million to fix the water infrastructure problem in Flint, Michigan." The Environmental Protection Agency fixing an infrastructure problem. Let's ignore the vast majority of the current EPA's agenda - removing regulations protecting our air, water, and soil so that businesses can ramp up pollution in the name of profits. That action was to protect people from a man-made problem in a highly publicized scandal.

"Under Trump’s leadership, in 2018 the U.S. surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest producer of crude oil." Oil production has been rising steadily since 2009, and the U.S. became the world's leading producer of natural gas that same year. What Trump's administration did was to relax rules, one of which was designed to limit methane pollution from oil and gas wells, and to implement the 2017 tax law which allows oil drilling in parts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Trump's leadership is in destructive acts, not constructive ones. The petrochemical plant he toured was planned in 2012, not during his term. His trade battles have limited energy exports, including to China. Any increases in production are in spite of his efforts, not because of.

"Trump signed a law ending the gag orders on Pharmacists that prevented them from sharing money-saving information." Once again, just a signature on a bill passed by Congress. The Senate passed it 98-2. Should Trump have vetoed it? Sure, let's let his signature count as an accomplishment.

"Low-wage workers are benefiting from higher minimum wages and from corporations that are increasing entry-level pay." State minimum wages. Federal minimum wages have not changed since 2009. Office of Management and Budget opposed a House-passed bill that would more than double the U.S. base wage to $15; it did not get by the Senate. Republicans have long opposed minimum wage increases, and have even proposed eliminating them. Trump taking credit for this is laughable. Just like his taking credit for an economy that he inherited. That's like blaming Obama for the 2008 stock-market and housing market crash. Just because Obama was elected in 2008 does not make it his recession.

Shall I go on?

If you really want to check out Trump's accomplishments, read transcripts of any of his off-the-cuff speeches and interviews. The man is a moron, hates briefings, lies constantly, doesn't read much, spews hate and racism, calls the press the enemy of the people, loves fascist and communist regimes and their leaders, orders departments to withhold aid from Democrat-led states and cities, doesn't recognize US territories as a legitimate part of our country (too many brown people), and has only accomplished his wall in the sense that most countries are now prohibiting travel to and from the US due to his mismanagement of COVID-19.

He has installed incompetent people as heads of departments whose main goals are the trashing of their agencies. He regularly insults people and calls them names, insulting their ethnicity, their perceived origins, and in general acts like a potty-mouthed child. His word means nothing. His promises of cheaper, better health care coverage that will cover everyone? Not even a plan for it. Instead, he is fighting the ACA every chance he gets. Oh, boo-hoo, a Republican Health Coverage Plan (RomneyCare) with 170 changes that the GOP demanded, yet signed by not one single Republican. Their own health care plan. The ACA. Not even a public option. And no, it didn't pass the Senate with 60 votes because the Democrats never had that super-majority because my Senator couldn't take his seat for six months due to his challenger dragging his election through court. It passed through reconciliation, a once-a-term 51 vote procedure.

His secret plan for defeating ISIS? Turned out to be a plan to put 100 generals in a room for 30 days and have them come up with a plan. Oh, yes, sheer genius. How about his shutdown of government that he promised he would take full credit for? He blamed every one else, just like he always does. 3 million illegal votes in 2016? By people voting, going out and putting on a mustache or hat, and going back in and voting again? Illegals that were supposedly bused in? Sure. Try 4. Including one person convicted of voter fraud for casting a provisional ballot. But let's now talk about his efforts to interfere with mail-in ballots. More voter suppression. Gee, I live in a place that has had only mail-in-ballots for years. Yeah, let's cut costs by removing sorting machines that do in one hour the work of multiple people for a day. Let's remove polling places and voting drop-off boxes. Don't want them minorities voting against the GOP, right?

Trump's incompetent relatives given jobs in a classic display of nepotism. How's that Middle East peace thing going, Jared?

Trump blaming Obama for not developing an antidote for a virus that did not even exist until 2019. What happened to All Lives Matter? Terri Schiavo had conservatives ripping off their pearl necklaces in their rage against pulling the plug. Now, old people should be proud to sacrifice themselves for the economy. An economy that will take far more damage because of Trump's inability to handle a health crisis.

On and on and on. Sure, keep touting them there accomplishments. I'm sure his ignorant base will eat up all the lies.

Conservative Democrat?

Alycia Gruenhagen. "Conservative Democrat." "Freedom-loving, patriotic, pro-life, pro-2nd amendment[sic]." 

Can you say, Republican? There are three candidates running for the U.S. House District MN-7. All are Republicans masquerading as Democrats. This is known as depriving voters of a choice at the ballot box. I would rather vote for a losing Democrat than a winning Republican calling themselves a Democrat. The radical conservatives have been perfecting voter suppression for years, and this is one more tactic in a long list of tactics.

I have followed "Conservative Democrat" Collin Peterson's voting for years. I have seen him vote for countless Republican bills with titles that are in direct opposition to the bills' contents. Two more "conservative Democrats" to choose from are two too many.

As a conservative, I'm sure you are all in favor of the recent shakeup at the USPS designed to slow down mail. I guess you would be in favor of the type of election we had in 2016, which your Commander-In-Thief said had 3 million illegal votes (people voting, leaving, returning wearing a mustache or hat, and voting again). He wanted to dispute the popular vote? Will he now claim fraud because of mail-in ballots if he loses in 2020? Tell him to make up his mind.

Do you know what it means to be a "conservative"? Do you pretend to be a fiscal conservative just like the bogus Republican claims?

This is what it means to be a conservative.

The Second Amendment is an absolute right. (How convenient to ignore the militia clause in the Second Amendment. Any drunk with a machine gun constitutes a militia.)

Global Climate Change is a hoax. (Do you know the difference between weather and climate? Do you even believe in science?)

Making Churches/Mosques/Synagogues tax-exempt is not a law regarding religion. (You don't want them to be tax-exempt on the basis of being a charity or an educational institution?)

Gay marriage is wrong. (Then don't marry someone of the same sex.) Regulations on businesses and corporations are wrong. (Then stop regulating against same-sex marriages and regulating women's bodies.) Better check people's DNA as they enter public bathrooms. LGBTQIA are deviants and undeserving of the same rights as others. 

Gender is not a continuum. People who are asexual are faking it. People with both sex organs are science fiction. Only one gene regulates gender. (How would you feel if straight sex was outlawed?)

We are a Christian nation. Dems want to take everyone's guns away. Women are second class citizens who shouldn't be allowed to make decisions about their own bodies. 

Conservatives are pro-life. (Pro-fetus, yes. After that, forget it.) COVID-19 is just the flu. 150,000 dead people are okay as long as the freedom to ignore public health guidelines such as social distancing and masks is not infringed. (Yeah, that's real pro-life. So much for Terri Schiavo.) 

Social Security is broken and in need of reform. Minorities should go back to their own countries (as if whites were not also immigrants)? Republicans are fiscal conservatives. 

Universal healthcare coverage is a socialist plot. (Do you even know the difference between socialism, communism, and fascism? Or what Democratic Socialism is? Hint: it's not anti-capitalism.)

The free market is inherently moral and self-correcting. Anti-pollution efforts are job-killing. Worker and consumer protections are evil anti-capitalist anti-profit plots. Financial advisors do not have to put their client's interests first. Leftists are amoral atheists.

Our budget woes are caused by entitlements and especially by Social Security. (Except that it is insurance which is separate by law and has its own revenue stream. BTW, those interest-bearing U.S. Treasury Bonds in the Trust Fund are not instruments of theft.)

Tax cuts for the wealthy will trickle down onto the peons (pronounced PEE-ons). It's okay for companies to pay so little that their employees need government assistance (a form of corporate welfare). One out of five major corporations paying zero in federal taxes is okay.

Maybe conservatives should be for Medicare for All. With its premiums, deductibles, restrictions, co-pays, doughnut holes, no coverage for Vision/Hearing/Dental, and a ban on negotiating drug prices. Or maybe just no Medicare at all. (Most western industrial western nations have some form of universal healthcare, with a combined population greater than the U.S.) 

We should allow an insurance representative between ourselves and a doctor. (Oh, sorry, that procedure is experimental. Sorry, you didn't disclose that you had acne as a kid, even though it was outside of the 10-year history we asked for. Oh, sorry, we deny a large percentage of claims with bogus reasons in the hope that you won't argue even if you are healthy enough. For-profit health insurance is great for healthy people.)

And here are a few other conservative choices. Student debt, myths about welfare queens, medical coupons masquerading as insurance, suspending children because they dared to reveal the lack of COVID protections in their schools, private prisons, for-profit courts, debtor's prisons ("Can't pay that? Oh, Contempt of Court and jail.").

Conservative lies just go on and on and on and on. Look us in the eye and tell us that you are a Native American or that treaties with indigenous people are meaningless. Tell us mass murders are a price of freedom. Explain how sex is binary. Tell us how our not wanting to be (or inability to be) a corporate CEO or business owner or hedge fund manager or inheritor of vast wealth makes us undeserving of health care. 

Explain how our troubles making ends meet is a result of laziness or poor lifestyle choices. Tell us how unpatriotic we are when we think things can be improved, or when we protest injustices or the slaughter of innocents. 

Explain why the kidnapping and misplacing of people's children on our southern border for the misdemeanor offense of illegal border crossing is justified (never mind that people wanting asylum are legally allowed to cross). And why migrant workers are not granted work Visas so they could just travel back and forth (oh, right, then employers would have to follow labor laws and pay more).

Conservative Democrat? And you want us to believe you?

Social Security Deficits Paid Through General Revenues?

What happens when Social Security redeems a Treasury Bond? Does that money come out of general revenues? Absolutely not. Treasury Bonds fund the debt. All that happens is that another Treasury bond is sold to keep the debt financed. Do you really think that the US Government could pay for that redeemed Treasury Bond out of general revenues? If they could, that would make the National Debt smaller.

Will the US default on Treasury Bonds? Those bonds are sold to grandmas and the Chinese and other countries and investors. Defaulting on Treasury Bonds that are backed by the "full faith and credit of the United States" would tank the US's credit rating and cause borrowing costs to skyrocket. Ain't gonna happen.

Those paper IOUs in the Trust Fund are Treasury Bonds, not worthless chits. Treasury Bonds are how the National Debt is financed. The fact that the Social Security Trust Fund bought some of them is irrelevant.

If you think Treasury Bonds are not real investments, then the whole $25 trillion National Debt is theft on a massive scale.

I don't know why Obama and company would assert that funds would come out of general revenues. That would mean balancing the budget by selling, you guessed it, Treasury Bonds to finance that extra expense.

Why people would claim that the US would default on Treasury Bonds? That's crazy. Unless they have an agenda. Unless they want Social Security defunded. Unless they wanted privatization and for people to have individual retirement accounts rather than retirement insurance. Private retirement accounts are subject to loss by fraud (think Bernie Madoff), theft (Leonard Cohen's manager stole all of his money and he had to go back to work in his 70's), bankruptcies (personal or corporate), and stock-market crashes. How many people lost their retirement savings in 2008? Yet, the financial sector would love privatization and to be making money off of all that retirement money no matter the risks.

Do you know how Mitt Romney made money? By buying companies and selling off assets, taking any cash assets, and saddling those companies with the debt for their own purchase. As long as those companies can limp along for another two years, it's all nice and legal. And do you know what some of those assets were? Company Pensions. They were sold to the underfunded Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. And suddenly the beneficiaries found their retirement payments cut in half. All part of vulture capitalism, nice and neat.

So don't tell me that private retirement accounts can replace Social Security, the most successful government program ever.

And how would privatization work? Were we to immediately disband Social Security, any disbursement of funds would fall far short of what people need. Plus, what happens to survivor's benefits and disability benefits? Social Security is insurance, and as such relies on a continuing revenue stream to keep it fully funded. Take away that funding (including the employer's half which is really just an employee's tax-exempt wages) and everyone except the rich is screwed.

Yes, the stock market crash under Bush in 2008 showed us just how much the rise in the stock markets was hot air. It also was predicted with the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 which had kept banking and investing activities separate. A crash was predicted to happen in 10 years. It happened in eight. The Frank-Dodd Act was supposed to reinstate the Glass-Steagall provisions, but most of the act was rendered useless by the GOP. Oh, well.

But go ahead and believe that the Trust Fund was stolen and that Social Security should be privatized. That's what the GOP is counting on.

Collin Peterson, Our House Rep In Congress, Wants To Trash Social Security

Ignorance is bliss. Cutting SocSec benefits or raising retirement ages will have absolutely no effect on federal deficits or the National Debt. SocSec is self-funded through payroll taxes and not general revenues; it is separate by law. The Trust Fund contains almost $3 trillion for one reason only - baby boomer retirements.

There are two reasons why Republicans want to get rid of Social Security. The first is that the financial sector wants to profit off of our retirements. The second is that companies think that the portion of payroll taxes that they are billed for is not our money, but theirs.

First, we don't need the financial sector sucking up 20% of the funds for profits. We don't need our retirements subject to stock market crashes, brokers churning accounts to earn commissions, or financial advisors and business managers stealing funds or investing them with Bernie Madoff. SocSec is RETIREMENT, SURVIVORS, and DISABILITY insurance. It is not a savings plan. Republicans don't like Social Security because they don't make a profit on it. Boo Hoo.

Second, the 1/2 of payroll taxes that corporations are responsible for paying are PART OF OUR WAGES! It's set up the way it is so that workers paying after-tax dollars on payroll taxes are not stuck paying taxes on the full amount of payroll taxes. That big windfall corporations are looking for by cutting payroll taxes is just them stealing from workers. It's not their money. It's our retirement insurance. Got it?

The only effect that cutting benefits or raising retirement ages has is to change the date that the Trust Fund zeros out. That's it. Surpluses and deficits go into or come out of the Trust Fund. NOT GENERAL REVENUES. SocSec can pay 100% of benefits until 2033, and only 80% for the 75-year solvency target of 2095. Why not 100% through 2095? Because Republicans have been blocking routine adjustments to payroll taxes and salary caps for DECADES. It's a manufactured crisis, and they are crying, "Reform!" And because the GOP is hell-bent on making a profit, they are trying to get rid of SocSec. It's against their ideology. Got it??

Social Security is the most successful government and anti-poverty program ever. And you just signed a letter of intent to screw it up. Are you ignorant, stupid, out of touch with reality, a closet-Republican, or just someone who is hell-bent on sending seniors and the disabled back into poverty and lowering their consumer spending? Trying to bring back poorhouses? Look it up. You are supposed to represent our interests. Look it up. What you are doing is insane.

Why don't you tell me how it is that defunding Social Security is going to help us? You signed onto the biggest corporate giveaway ever, and your solution is to pretend to care about deficits and debt by targeting a program that has absolutely nothing to do with deficits and debts? Justify why you sided with Republicans when you agreed to their rules at the beginning of a congressional session which called for REFORMING Social Security?

Do the rich not like contributing their maximum of $15,000 in payroll taxes when they take home a million dollars in income? Do you enjoy helping the GOP year after year after year with strangling Social Security? Do you think the 1/2 of payroll taxes that they pay is not part of OUR WAGES? Do you routinely lie about Social Security going broke, going in the red, that you are just saving our retirements and disabilities? Do you get a tingle when you lie to us about how trashing our security is going to make up for the trillion-dollar corporate giveaway when it's not even part of the budget? Oh, but lumping it in with the budget figures with all those surpluses sure made your budgets look better, didn't it? Biggest federal expense? No. It's not an expense at all because it's not part of the federal budget. Got it???

No new taxes? How about old ones? Please tell me how screwing workers, retirees, the disabled, the poor, and the sick are going to save your butts because of years of increasing corporate welfare? How about paying poverty wages so workers need government assistance? Is that not corporate welfare also? Are you trying to tell us that you and the GOP are fiscal conservatives? Tell me another joke. Justify this. I dare you. 

Coronavirus: The Truth

The fatality rate for those over 80 is 13%. The virus has a long incubation period (up to 14 days) where you are contagious but are not yet ill, and 25% never show symptoms. Many who get sick are never tested. Many who died were never tested and are thus not in the official death toll.

There is a severe shortage of tests and PPE. Health care workers who deal with COVID-19 are very short on supplies. FEMA is intercepting and confiscating states' orders for supplies. (Colorado ordered 500 ventilators; 400 were seized, and Trump gave a GOP senator credit for the 100 he let Colorado have, saying that it was the Senator's personal plea to him that resulting in Colorado getting those 100.) Apparently, your governor has to be nice to Trump before he will let you have ventilators. Remember, Trump decided that there should be a 50-state bidding war for supplies instead of a coordinated federal effort.

Those empty parking lots at hospitals are mostly because no visitors are allowed, and elective procedures have been postponed. Trump claims WHO kept silent. But December 31 of last year, there were 15 U.S. officials embedded at WHO with six others there assisting and two assisting remotely, all working on COVID-19. Senior administration officials also consulted with WHO throughout the crisis, including the HHS Secretary, CDC officials, and NIH officials, including Anthony S. Fauci and many others. Trump is playing the blame game to deflect criticism.

Per The Washington Post, Trump was accusing the World Health Organization of "covering up the spread of the coronavirus" and failing to "share information in a timely and transparent fashion." He declared he was cutting off funding for the world’s public health body in the middle of a pandemic.

Trump later called the WHO a "tool of China" and declared, “There’s something going on” at the WHO “that’s very bad,” and "I have a feeling they knew exactly what was going on.” [Fuck Your Feelings, as Trumpists say.]

The cutting off of WHO's major source of funding comes just as the virus bears down on less-developed countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South America, and South and Southeast Asia. So not only are American's dying because of Trump's lies and delays, but his lies will be killing people globally.

Russia is sending us supplies, half of which are a "donation." What will that end up costing us?

I realize that conspiracy theories are so much more attractive than the truth. And to most Trumpists, the truth does not matter. Trump exemplifies their attitudes about strong leaders and hatred of other races, and that is enough for them. They have a cognitive bias against truth; Trump's cult cannot be reasoned with. So I will understand if you continue to blame liberals and promote made-up conspiracy theories.

By the way, how's Trump's promise for cheaper, better healthcare that will cover everyone coming along? Or Jared's plans for Middle East Peace? Is Jared's background in real estate and Ivanka's merchandising experience helping them with their work on the Coronavirus Task Force? Maybe we should assign them instead to the Space Force.

Washington Post, April 18, 2020:  Opinion: Trump tells a damnable and murderous lie

Would Biden Be Able To Handle A Pandemic?

Fox & Friends Weekend' host Pete Hegseth talking with the regular hosts at Fox & Friends:
"Biden makes it clearer by the day that he could not handle the management of a pandemic like this."
-----------
Oh, yes. Trump is so much better equipped. All he needs to do is to shove responsibility onto others, blame and denigrate others, praise himself, and lie more than Kellyanne Conway. Then he can wipe his hands and be secure in the knowledge that he has handled the crisis by acting presidential as he has defined the term over the last three years.

Biden would have to listen to health experts, intelligence services, governors and mayors, economic advisors, his Cabinet, people who could coordinate a global response and advise him as to what other countries are doing.

He would consult with legal experts who know what he can and cannot do, and with heads of his disaster response agencies such as FEMA. He would listen to his pandemic response team who would be part of the National Security Council.

Biden would also decide how to be an example of how people should behave during a large-scale contagion. He has to give people hope while at the same time making sure that people are kept informed as to what exactly the situation is and what is happening.

Biden would have a much tougher time than Trump. It's clear who we would want leading us in a pandemic like this.

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

So Fox and Friends and their guest watch two hours of Trump at the podium for what is supposed to be the coronavirus briefing. They watch a man who cannot even handle reporters' questions without becoming angry and insulting, telling the reporters that they should be nice and ask nice questions and praise what he is doing, all without answering the questions. 

They see a man who lies constantly and makes up stuff. Who, instead of letting the professionals at the coronavirus briefing answer questions about the virus and the pandemic, continually put out misinformation that others must then try to correct. A president who tries to profit off the crisis by touting a dangerous and unproven quack cure that he and his family have a financial stake in.

Fox and Friends admire a man who wrongly claims absolute and total authority and who says that he will be issuing a paper on that (his proofs never materialize). Trump is someone who constantly attributes unnamed people with praise for himself, how he has saved lives and handled everything perfectly. On almost any issue he will say that the experts can't believe how much he knows. Or Trump tells us unnamed people have told him how wrong his enemies are. When challenged on facts he will sometimes say, "That's what I was told." Trump continually politicizes the issues and insults Democrats.

Biden talks about the federal government issuing guidelines, not orders, and they think he is doing a 180. Fox and Friends and their guest conclude that the racist idiot at the podium is handling the crisis just fine and that Biden hasn't a clue.

Would Biden flee north if he had to deal with a pandemic? Not unless he is dragging Trump's ass across the border for the Canadians to deal with.

Link to Fox & Friends bizarre rant

Our US Government, Trump, And COVID-19

The coronavirus has been renamed by Trump as "the Chinese Virus." His administration is now following the organizational principles and methods as listed in the dystopian novel "1984." Our current President, Donald "The Don" Trump, demonstrating the transparency and accountability and ethical standards of the Republican Party and its leader. 

Our president is a self-professed authority on viruses but doesn't know the difference between a virus and a bacterium. He is a braggart who insists on heading the Coronavirus daily informational briefings to deliver self-praise, accusations, denials, massive misinformation, admonishments, threats, insults, assignments of blame (to anyone but himself), alternate histories, racism, and propaganda.

Who, at these briefings, also gives repeated endorsements of a dangerous "cure" that has not been shown to work and which he and his family have monetary interests in. "What have you got to lose?" he asks, ignoring the fact that his cure is more likely to kill or harm than the virus itself. 

Who brags about his viewership ratings for the briefings on a pandemic that is killing tens of thousands of Americans. Who is more concerned about the economy than the dangers to the public. Who accuses healthcare workers of stealing supplies instead of admitting that there is a shortage of supplies. 

Trump is a person who does not understand what free speech means, what his duties under the constitution are, what bipartisanship is, what the meaning is of separation of powers and co-equal branches of government, what the limits on his "absolute" power are, what the role of advisors and experts is (especially as he thinks he is more knowledgeable), nor what responsibility and accountability mean. 

He is a person who gives disjointed, rambling and incoherent interviews, and who has trouble spelling and sometimes speaking. Who calls the press, "The enemy of the people," and declares that they should be nice and be positive and not ask the tough questions that are an integral part of their role as journalists in a "free" democracy. 

Trump, a man who admires and seeks to emulate dictators of authoritarian regimes. Who repeatedly spreads lies and hate and personal attacks on his Twitter account, the account that his administration has denoted as Official White House Correspondence. 

An ignorant man whose every falsehood is restated or spun or justified by his staff, who even go so far as to try to alter public postings or records to accommodate his lies. A man who continuously denies saying or doing things even when there are video and audio proofs of his actions. 

Who retaliates against anyone who disagrees with him or who tries to reveal his schemes and misdeeds. Trump, the President of the United States, seeking immunity from consequences and accountability.

Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States. A psychopathic narcissist with a cult following.

R.I.P. GOP? Don't Count On It

2008 - RIP GOP (Stock Market crash, Housing Market crash). Obama elected president. Then followed two years of Sen. Mitch McConnell's "Just Say No" campaign to make Obama a one-term president.

In March of 2010 the Republican health care plan, RomneyCare rolled out nationwide as the ACA. Not a single Republican voted for it (despite 170+ changes that they insisted on), and it was derided as a socialist scheme they called ObamaCare. In the fall 2010 elections Republicans ran on the platform that the Democrats could not fix the economy and that the GOP was the answer.

The GOP was revived in the House and Senate and spent the next 6 years trying to kill the ACA and trying to hamstring every effort to revive the economy while blaming it on Obama.

Obama spent those six years overcoming the GOP's continued efforts to block everything they could while continuing with McConnell's "Just Say No" campaign. Yearly deficits went from $1,413 billion in 2009 down to $585 b in 2016.

Trump's first year the deficit went up to $665 b. Last year's deficit was up to $987 b. 2020's deficit had been projected to be $1,083 b, but will now be much, much higher. The Coronavirus Relief Bill already passed will mostly benefit wealthy corporations and the 1%.

The GOP will be telling all sorts of lies in the next election, and even if they lose (Democratic fraud!), their spinmasters will make sure the GOP party is revived.

So, You Want To Write-in Bernie's Name On November 3rd?

You can protest and try to change things all you want before and after the election. But if you think a write-in vote in the general election on November 3rd will succeed as a form of protest, you are kidding yourself. On election day it comes down to two choices. Republican or Democrat. Are you really going to throw your vote away and let the Antichrist (religious or not, it's an apt moniker) win another term?

If Biden wins the nomination, a write-in vote (or a vote for the Green party) in November results in Rep +0 Dem +0. A vote for Biden results in Rep +0 Dem +1. See how that works? Might as well stay home and let Republicans win the election; they rely on fewer Dem votes to stay in power. Vote for Bernie in the primaries; vote for the nominee in November. Like it or not, we have a two-party system in national elections.

Biden is definitely not my preference. He is Republican Lite and who knows what else. But he is not a narcissistic psychopath with delusions of grandeur and a willingness to start a war as a distraction. Don't let the antichrist win.

COVID-19 - Spare Me Tears About Your Constitutional Rights

From an internet post:

In the beginning ... Give me liberty, or give me death.

Now ... Give me liberty unless there's a virus with a 98-99% recovery rate, then strip me of my freedoms, my job, my income, my constitutional rights, free speech and put me under house arrest.

98% recovery rate for COVID-19? [Update — the fatality rate is estimated to be 2-3%. This may be undercounted because there are many deaths where testing for COVID-19 was never done.] What is 2% of 331,000,000? 6,620,000 people. With a disproportionate number among people who already have respiratory problems (including COPD) or diminished immune systems (including the very young whose systems are not yet fully functional).

In some places in the world, the fatality rate is closer to 10%. Could we get to that figure if the medical system is overwhelmed (even more than now) and rendered useless? At what point do you think martial law should be imposed? 100,000 deaths? 1,000,000 deaths?

This, despite Our Fearless Leader's pronouncement, is not a bacteria, has never been a bacteria, and will not respond to any antibacterial drugs. This is a virus. Viruses are why there are vaccinations. To train the immune system before the real thing comes along.

Well, we don't have a vaccine, and we probably won't have one until next year. But go ahead and spread it to everyone you know. Go to those churches where people have gotten sick despite the proclaimed shield of faith.

I could go on and on about the lost months where little was done, or how having a 50-state bidding war for supplies is insane, but this is about personal responsibility and social responsibility. This is not a judgment from God, a punishment for not making people of different sexes marry only people of the same sex, a deity's wrath for recognizing women as human beings and not property, and it is not because men don't let their beards grow as was commanded in the Old Testament.

This is a virus. Blaming people or animals or laboratories or faiths, and naming it after the country of origin, does not change the current situation by one iota. Politicizing it only endangers people and encourages racist attacks on people who had absolutely nothing to do with its creation or its spread. Asking governors to kiss someone's ring before their state will be granted supplies is insulting, demeaning, dictatorial, and delusional.

But go ahead and cry about rights. While you are at it, go ahead and question why the coronavirus relief package is overwhelmingly a giveaway to corporations to the tune of trillions while precious little is there for people who have lost jobs and don't have an income and can't even get extended unemployment if they are lucky enough to qualify.

What's the verdict? 200,000 dead, or 6 million dead? A coordinated response or a 50-state scramble to figure out what to do and how to get supplies that every other state needs? Stay-at-home or go on spring break and spread far and wide the virus that has no known cure (quack cures for quick bucks don't count)?

This is not influenza, or the flu as it more commonly called. This is worse. This is at least 10 times worse. Up to 25% of people are contagious without ever showing symptoms. If you want to spread COVID-19, go ahead. Just keep the hell away from me.

Why Trumper's Complaints Are Hot Air

I have spent too much time trying to explain what it is that liberals really want, and why Trump is a disaster. I rarely get a reply or an acknowledgment. It seems that most Trumper's minds (especially Fox News viewer's minds) are closed. Facts to most of them are irrelevant. Too many just pass along links to made-up debunked posts. F**k your feelings?

A Christian nation? Dems want to take everyone's guns away? The Second Amendment is an absolute right? LGBTQIA are deviants and undeserving of the same rights as others? Women are second class citizens who can't even make decisions about their own bodies?

Social Security is broken and in need of reform? Minorities are told to go back to their own countries (as if whites were not also immigrants)? Reps are fiscal conservatives (as if)? Universal healthcare coverage is a socialist plot?

The free market is inherently moral and self-correcting? Anti-pollution efforts are job-killing? Worker and consumer protections are evil leftist plots? Financial advisors do not have to put their client's interests first? Leftists are atheists?

Our budget woes are caused by entitlements and especially by Social Security (insurance which is separate by law and has its own revenue stream)? Tax cuts for the wealthy will trickle down onto us peons (pronounced PEE-ons)? It's okay for companies to pay so little that their employees need government assistance (a form of corporate welfare)?

On and on and on and on. Look us in the eye and tell us that you are a Native American. Tell us mass murders are a price of freedom. Explain how sex is binary. Tell us how our not wanting to be.(or inability to be) a corporate CEO or business owner or inheritor of vast wealth makes us undeserving of health care? Explain how our troubles making ends meet is a result of laziness or poor lifestyle choices. Tell us how unpatriotic we are when we think things can be improved, or when we protest injustices or the slaughter of innocents. Explain why the kidnapping and misplacing of people's children on our southern border for the misdemeanor offense of illegal border crossing is justified (never mind that people wanting asylum are legally allowed to cross). Any why migrant workers are not granted work Visas so they could just travel back and forth (oh, right, then employers would have to follow labor laws and pay more).

And mostly, tell us why you are complaining about "doctored pictures and insults" in a humor site dedicated to moderates and liberals?

A reply to a post comment (since removed) in
Blue Mayhem (Political Humor for Democrats and Progressives)

trump's Military Adventure

No, we are not opposing trump's public assassination of an Iranian general because of hatred of him or because we don't care about our soldiers.

Try becoming familiar with Suleimani's history and place in the Iranian government. He was a leader of the Iranian armed forces, not some desert dweller hiding in a cave. There is nothing new in what he was doing. trump chose to attack, not just because of his gut reaction to news reports, but because he has just been impeached. He leads not by informed decision-making, but by "gut feelings."

He has no follow-up plan except for vague threats and promised actions that would be war crimes. We are not safer as a result of his actions. Previous administrations knew the cost of taking the general out would not be worth any perceived gain. Taking out just one man in Iran's vast military organization is not going to change anything.

First trump scraps the nuclear treaty with Iran in favor of no treaty but with increased sanctions to try to prevent what was already prevented in that treaty. His Art of the Deal is fingerpainting. Then he blames Iran for explosions that nobody thought were from an attack. And now he carries out a public assassination of a foreign official in a manner tantamount to a declaration of war, and his staff fumbles around for rationalization of his actions.

What is the evidence that Suleimani was actively planning an imminent major attack? We already know the assassination was trump's reaction to protests at an embassy, not knowledge of a future attack. He distains intelligence and disparages the intelligence services - all of them. Suddenly, he is a believer? During the impeachment crisis? Wow, what timing.

What was different about Suleimani's actions now instead of weeks, months, or years before now? Answer, nothing. trump wanted a war, and he is willing to risk WWIII to get it. He has shown repeatedly that he does not care for the soldiers under his command. Now we are scrambling to place additional protections around military forces and military installations and diplomatic facilities, while trump beats the war drums and puts our soldiers in increased danger.

He has alienated many of our allies, and now none of the remaining ones are backing him up on his latest blunder. Before he was elected, trump talked about Obama starting a war with Iran to increase his chances for re-election. And now what is trump doing in the face of his impeachment and an upcoming election this year? Starting a war with Iran. trump projects his faults and insecurities onto others, constantly blaming them for things he is guilty of. This act of war and his rhetoric following the act are just more of his classic behavior.

Do we dislike trump? The man who posted pictures of a women's march instead of his inauguration crowd, and bragged that his crowd was the biggest ever despite clear evidence to the contrary? Yes. This was on the first day of his presidency! And it's been downhill from there. Oh, but Dems just want a coup to gain power. Right. And if the coup is successful, won't former vice-president Pence, now president Pence, be surprised to find out that he is a Democrat? A coup is designed to put the opposition in power.

trump continuously displays ignorance about The Constitution, and the oath of office he took. Many of us figured long ago that he would try to start a war. And we are horrified to find out that we were right.

This is not about disloyalty, disdain for our military, or hatred of a con artist. It's not treason or pacifism or party loyalty or revenge or a wish that the election outcome was different. This is not about unity in the face of our enemy, or cowardice, or wanting to tax and spend and create a socialist utopia. This is about our wanting to stop one man from his continued efforts to trash our country and our democracy and drag us into a war that did not have to happen.

Iraq resulted in thousands of soldier's deaths, hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, and countless injuries from a war over a fictitious claim that weapons of mass destruction were being constructed. And now we are supposed to believe claims that a public assassination was needed to stop some vague threat? Gee, let's not be skeptical. Sure, the threat might have been real. But it's not a new threat, and this action by our leader solves nothing. And don't accuse us of wanting soldier's deaths, that is just ridiculous and a cheap attack.

You want to prevent war? Then don't start one.

Social Security Rant #822

Politicians include SocSec figures in their budgets because the surpluses from the buildup of the Trust Fund (to handle baby boomer retirements) made their figures look better. The Trust Fund was not stolen. Those pesky paper IOUs are interest-bearing US Treasury Bonds. That's how the $20-plus trillion debt is financed. The US is not about to default on bonds backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. The Chinese bought US bonds. So did grandma. A default would send the cost of borrowing sky high.

Just because bonds are how the US finances the National Debt does not mean Congress "stole" from the Trust Fund. It's a lie designed to shake faith in the Social Security Retirement and Disability Insurance program. The radical conservatives want to privatize our retirements because they want to make a profit on it. That's their ideology.

SocSec surpluses and deficits are handled by adding to or withdrawing from the Trust Fund. Nothing goes into or comes out of general revenues. Social Security has its own revenue stream. Payroll taxes and interest on the Treasury Bonds. People claim that Social Security is government's biggest expense. It's not its biggest expense because it is not an expense of the federal budget at all. Do they also point out payroll tax revenues? No. Baby boomers are retiring, so the extra costs will come from the Trust Fund. That does not mean that SocSec is broke or will be in the red as so many claim. Would you be broke with $3 trillion in assets?

This reply is long-winded because I want to make it clear exactly how Social Security works. It is not a savings plan. It is insurance. Congress is supposed to tweak the payroll tax rates and adjust salary caps (above which income is not taxed) to keep the program fully funded for a projected 75 years. The GOP has been blocking those adjustments in order to convince people that the program needs saving, that it needs to be reformed. So now SocSec is only fully funded through 2034, after which it can only pay out 80% of benefits through the year 2095. 2034 is when the planned drawdown for the baby boomers will zero out the Trust Fund.

So what happens when benefits are cut and retirement ages are raised? The date that the Trust Fund zeros out changes slightly. That's it. It does not change the federal government's budget deficits or the National Debt by one red cent. Oh, sure, politician's budget figures change, but only because they loved including SocSec surpluses to make their figures look better. In reality, the surpluses went into the Trust Fund. But now they are stuck because they don't want those planned-for deficits making their budget figures look worse. OMG, we need to reform Social Security! Cut benefits! Raise retirement ages! Save Social Security!

The financial sector wants to privatize Social Security because they want to profit from it. They want their 20% cut, just like the returns they are getting with health care insurance. I don't want my retirement in the hands of cons who are notorious for making people's retirements disappear. Remember Bernie Madoff and his pretend brokerage transactions? Remember Trump's revocation of Obama's executive order that financial planners must have the interests of their clients take precedence? Brokers who buy and sell stocks in their client's portfolios to earn commissions (churning) until nothing is left? Business managers who run off to tropical paradises with their clients' savings? In contrast, Social Security will always be there. Unless politicians take it away from us. Don't believe the lies. Vote for people who have your interests at heart.

Link to YouTube video (shared as a post on Facebook):

Trump Wants to Slash Social Security Disability Benefits—“This Will KiII People”