Profiles in Republican Hypocrisy

 I find it difficult to fathom how members of what calls itself the Republican party intend to retain their self appointed role as the "Law and Order" party. When you practice fealty to a now out of office President who never saw a law he couldn't ignore, it calls into question what you truly believe in. How do you portray yourselves as beacons of Justice and light when in practice, you abetted a man intent on ignoring our most Democratic traditions and came damnably close to discarding them in your insatiable quest to retain political power? 

      To stay silent in the face of injustice is to give an implicit approval of it. Whether it be the trampling of basic human rights or openly working to overthrow the legitimate Democratic process to instill your own preferred leadership, Republicans in concert with Trumpism have drifted to embody a Fascist party wannabe. 

       You can disagree with the New President and his policies, but 8 million more citizens voted for him than for your con man. What had made you so indifferent to the plight of the common citizen? Are you so fat and happy in your current situation that you feel letting a Pandemic run loose and allowing the economy crash, leaving millions of your fellow citizens sick, hungry, and fearful of their future is a situation you find bearable? 

     We know the former President had no empathy, but do you have to emulate that trait as a group as well? At this most dire hour, Senator Mitch McConnell is still holding up the Democratic process, stalling Senate confirmations of the New President's cabinet. McConnell is demanding power that he himself would never have granted. The simple Question is this, Why can't Republicans put aside their own selfish concerns and work for the good of the country? 

      NOW they want unity. Marco Rubio of Florida is the current media face of that hypocrisy. The Same man who wanted Hillary Clinton crucified after 4 Americans were killed in the Benghazi disaster is saying Trump should be forgotten after 5 dead in the Capitol Insurrection. By that standard, the only thing that matters is what party you belong to.

    A Capitol Police officer is dead, beaten to death by the mob, so where are the Republicans on "Blue Lives Matter" now? When one of their own is the instigating culprit, their reluctance and silence is damning. There probably are not 67 votes in the Senate to bring Trump to a deserved sentence. 

      History has a way of rendering verdicts that are permanent and never ignored or overturned. Senators like Hawley and Cruz, plus the more than a hundred Congressional lemmings who preached the great lie will not write the history of this tragic area, but they will be the ones it is written about, and it will not be flattering, it will be damning. Their only good fortune is they will not have to live that long with it, as it will live in infamy long after they have all passed.

   

Trump legal Dream Team discovers they have been arguing in wrong Court system

         In his personal search for Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman's killer election fraud, O J Simpson Donald Trump has been launching and losing court filings thru out the American Judicial system.  With so much imaginary fraud, why are all his cases being dismissed? Because they are trying them in the REAL Judicial system! Donald Trump is a reality show creation, so any cases involving him should be tried in the REALITY SHOW Court rooms!

          He could start in the lower courts, such as Judge Mablean, then go to the People's Court with Judge Marilyn Milian. From there he can move up to the three Judge panel on Hot Bench. If he fails there, then, and only then, can he go to what all Americans know is the TRUE highest Court in the land. That's right, JUDGE JUDY!.

           This election fight isn't over until America's greatest Jurist hears the case. I can't wait to see Rudy try to argue in front of Judy. She definitely won't let him pee on her leg! This is one skit Saturday Night Live really should give a shot.

Election Predictions for 2020

              IT IS all about Covid for some people. especially Women. Every poll, from every source, shows something that the Trump campaign knows is their Achilles heel. In every poll, Biden (and all Democrats in general) has the vote of between 52 to 58 % of all women in all age, racial, and income categories. When you consider that woman make up 51.8% of the registered voters in America, It makes the margins for Donald Trump in the swing states very narrow indeed. 

           You really need to only look at turnout in the Swing states and those with contested Senate races to see where the race is going. Biden will win the presidency with overwhelming electoral numbers. He will win Arizona, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, North Carolina, outright by 5 or more percentage points. I think IF he wins Florida, and it is announced by 11 PM Tuesday night, with that the game is over. I think he wins Pennsylvania narrowly, because the Democrats are pouring everything into turnout in Philadelphia. I think Iowa could go either way. I still put Georgia and Texas as leaning Republican, because while I do think it is possible, I see the Republican governors there continuing to tinker to find ways to suppress votes. Republican will likely win a few of those battles today, but 2 to 4 to 6 years down the road it will bite them in the ass.

There will be Consequences, but when the election is over, we will all still be American siblings.

        The Vitriol is off the charts. I can at least see a clear definition between Good and Evil. There is a small piece of what was once the Republican Party that is chomping at the bit for any reason to commit acts of violence against those they see as Trump's enemies. There is a larger chunk still calling themselves Republicans who, while not wanting violence, condones it by their silence, their acquiescence to Trump's bullying because it furthers their political agenda.  There are still many Republicans who are aghast at what Trump is, and have stood up defying him. That is why I say we can't and must not condemn all Republicans as a whole, only those whose hypocrisy and complacence to the evil before us is obvious.

      I am not here to discuss election outcomes today. I am here to point out that there is a faction in this country that will go to any lengths to keep power, including starting a violent class war. We can't fool ourselves... THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES.

      Donald Trump has hinted, no, threatened, that he will call upon right wing militia groups to protect his Presidency. We have already seen in Kenosha, Wisconsin and Portland, Oregon what happens when these groups are unleashed, with a 17 year old murdering 2 protesters in Kenosha and so called "Proud Boys" invading Portland to march around in a show of "White Power." The 17 year old's parents received a standing ovation at a Republican gathering. These folks have no qualms whatsoever about murdering other Americans they don't like the looks of. 

    We Americans will survive this trial, and we will see a side of ourselves that is shameful, but growing as a society sometimes means growing pains that can't be avoided. There are too many long simmering societal ills that are like boils on the skin that need to be lanced before they can heal. This means we must accept responsibility for our errors in the past and rectify them, We must own our sins before we can do true penance.

     The current inhabitant of Pennsylvania Avenue must eventually be held accountable for the violence that he incites. All further bloodshed must be laid at his feet. He owns this for every drop of blood that is spilled and penance, which I doubt would ever come from the narcissistic power mad bastard, should be the sole property of him and his cadre of enablers. No matter what happens at the ballot in November, there must be an accounting. Otherwise, Democracy in America is dead.  Hic Tyrannus vivit in aeternum. The Tyrant lives forever

Will Trump make the American flag the 21st century Swastika?

       Almost 40 years ago now, I served in the United States Army. It was a daily occurrence to salute the American Flag, Old Glory, or the Stars and Stripes if you prefer. In those days, and even in the not that distant past, the American Flag stood for something good, something proud, and was the symbol of that mythical shining city of freedom up on the hill.

       Our flag WAS a symbol of freedom. It welcomed peoples from all over our planet to our shores. it beckoned to them as a sign that under its shade they would kind find freedom and opportunity, in a country young and bold. A Country that would have many a growing pain, but the chance to grow with it and help it achieve even greater heights was there to be taken.

       The flag of my youth is no more. It is now waved in crowds of intolerant, isolationist, bigoted, and greedy self serving cultish louts who, while I still consider them my siblings as beneficiaries of our American freedoms, they are not the guardians of those same freedoms that previous generations sacrificed so much to protect. These "prodigal children" of our American family are recklessly endangering our Democracy with their allegiance to a false prophet presently in leadership. Watching them wave the same flag that was raised on Iwo Jima, and Omaha Beach on Normandy makes me sick to my stomach.

       The flag of before protected the weak, welcomed the homeless, and was the standard bearer for an American People that were always willing to help the rest of the World.  The flag of Nazi Germany featured the symbol of the Swastika. It is a geometrical figure and an ancient religious icon in the cultures of Eurasia. It is still used as a symbol of divinity and spirituality in Indian religions, including Buddhism and Hinduism.  Yet because of the Nazi regime, the rest of the world sees it as a reminder of the brutal Nazi Fascist government it represented.

        Could that legacy befall our beloved Stars and Stripes? Could future generations see our flag, and only remember America as Trump and his enablers are trying to permanently remake it? A Nation of hate and selfishness, where there is no kindness or empathy, only scorn and disdain for those seen as below those in power and their acolytes?

         The first Tuesday in November 2020 may be the last chance for American citizens to exercise their voice and stop the insidious, internal, and slow assault on our personal freedoms and the destruction of America's stature on this Earth.  I believe that most Americans are better than this. I believe that like Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" that rose up to engage the Great Depression and mobilized to defeat Fascism in World War Two, We have it within us to overcome the pandemic and put down the rise of hate on our shores. 

     If we don't, Old Glory will be just a footnote in history centuries from now, another symbol of what happens when a society succumbs to the temptation of its lesser demons, instead of striving to follow the possibilities of its better angels.

Vet ab Cave. (Voter beware) Part 1

         One of the advantages of graduating from St. Charles Borromeo College Preparatory School back in 1979 was the four years of exposure to Latin. The adage, buyer beware, is recognized by most folks as "caveat emptor".  This series of posts will explain a tale that offers a warning for all would be voters.

          Our (Fictional?) story begins a few days after election day, where a primary nomination was decided by a handful of votes cast out of several thousand. One disappointed voter made a phone call, asking how they could be sure their vote had been counted, because the candidate they had voted for had lost. This particular voter revealed they had given their Mail in Ballot to the candidate the weekend before the election to deliver for them. The Candidate had assured the voter that the ballot had been delivered to the County office on Monday before the election. There was no mention of if it were mailed or put in the drop box at the government building, just that it had been delivered.

           Thanks to the wonderful world of technology, the voter found out that their ballot was time stamped at say, 2:44 pm on the day before the election.  Also thanks to technology, there were digital surveillance files of all the folks who put ballots in the box. So lets stop there for a minute, and go back to the mail in ballots, and where they came from.

           IN Pennsylvania, any citizen can go on the state website and request a mail in ballot, as long as they have a state ID and can enter the number on it to prove who they are. There is no face to face real time verification, you just need that state ID and you are set.

           So what happened when looking up that voter's ballot to see if it came in on time, it was noticed that a whole bunch of ballots from that same general area (within a 2 block perimeter.) all came in at that time as well. To make an analogy to what a certain candidate said recently about certain precincts, more ballots were placed in the drop box than people came thru the door. Hmmmmm?

           So then someone decided to ask the state internet wizards to look at the origin of these ballots, and printed out a list that showed, who applied, what day, what time, and from what IP.

             Wouldn't you know that some of those dropped ballots were all applied for on the same days 5/18 and 5/19, from the same IP, and in increments ranging from 7 to 20 minutes apart. Also in alphabetical order.

         Just like someone might be going down a list and filling them out. So now some people in Government who are really concerned about voter fraud and ballot security are trying to determine if all these votes came from the same device. 

    The powers that be might have considered that perhaps a would be good Samaritan was walking the neighborhood that day using their phone to help folks who wouldn't have normally voted get a ballot and participate in the election, which is a guaranteed right of all citizens. (At least for a little longer)

     But it didn't happen in just that little area. It happened in another place, a building with subsidized rents for low income senior citizens, in another precinct in that same race. In that building, 12 people all applied for ballots on the same days (As the ones in the other area, 5/18 and 5/19)  All these applications were done within 2 weeks of election day. Getting them filled out and back in time to be counted would be cutting it close if you mailed them. Which may be why so many ended up in the drop box at the government center. There is another suspicious building presently being researched, and the list of suspect ballots being compiled.

      So here is what worries me about Mail in ballots, in particular, senior citizens in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Many need help getting and filling out ballots. What is to stop an unscrupulous staffer from collecting the ballots from all the residents and altering them to assist their favored candidate before mailing them? Or even, as they fill it out for the senior, telling them one thing while marking the ballot in another? You have dozens to hundreds of residents in some of these places who could have their ballots compromised , destroyed, or never sent before a deadline, and no one would really know.

      Anyone casting a vote by mail needs to personally fill it out, sign it, seal it, and if they have to can give it to someone they trust to mail for them. Your vote is yours, don't let anyone get between you and the certified poll workers and elections officials. When someone else handles your vote, you are ceding control over it. Unfortunately, some who would insert themselves in that custody chain do not have your best interests at heart, but theirs

       Vet ab Cave, Voter beware.

P.S. There is so much more to this story, so stay tuned.

          

Santiago and the vote Builder data.

         In the brouhaha over the primary election for the PA 22nd district State house district, candidate Enid Santiago is claiming data discrepancies thru what her campaign has gleaned on what is known as the "Vote Builder" data base.

          Vote Builder is a licensed product of the Democratic House Campaign caucus. It has the purpose of helping identify voters by their demographic in the precincts of specific races. For example, when Mark Pinsley ran against Republican incumbent Senator Pat Browne in 2018 his campaign had access to that info to compile campaign flyer mailing lists and target specific voters on specific issues.

           It is a good idea in principle, but in practice, it has flaws out the kazoo. It contains data errors such as multiple entries for one voter, having precincts in the wrong house districts, misspelling voters' names, and even having them listed as the wrong party. I could go on and on with why it is not a reliable source, but it does function as a good basic source for a voters' address, party affiliation, and age, so it's a good place to start. 

           But Vote Builder is only supposed to be used by those with specific permission to access it. Enid Santiago did not get that permission, nor does she have it. Incumbent Pete Schweyer's campaign had that access, the HDCC as a rule does not let Vote Builder be used against incumbents.

            So how did Santiago get that info? An unscrupulous political operative who helped direct Mark Pinsley's failed Senate race used their access to the data and assisted Santiago. 

             So not only is Santiago using  faulty, inaccurate data that she had no legal right to, she obtained it in an underhanded deceitful way.

             Not exactly the kind of honesty and virtue that voters need in their candidates. If you're willing to play fast and loose with rules and throw any ethical behavior to the wayside to try and win an election, I have to question where the moral compass is pointing, as well as just whose interests would be getting served if elected.  I know who gave Santiago the info and how they accessed it. Their actions are on their conscience, and any future consequences are theirs to deal with.

            One thing I know for sure in politics, is the people who get screwed over have long memories.