Tag: GOP

Saturday’s Theme Music

Mood: weatherspeculative

We’re popping in on Saturday, August 17, 2024. Now remember, as a time-traveller, you won’t know anything about the future that you’re from while you’re on the selected travel date, but you will remember it all when you go back. Just want to ensure you understand the parameters.

It’s 66 F in Ashlandia, our destination for today, where the hills are brown and the beers are cold. Today’s high is said to be anywhere from 77 F to 84 F. Though clouds are sparse and small, they’re calling for rain this evening. Some say it’ll be heavy rain. There’s also an extreme fire warning out because thunderstorms with lightning are expected.

The air quality is good for now. No smells of smoke, no hazing of the sky. Super. Worrying that so many wildfires continue burning California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, etc.

Hurricane Ernesto is making landfall in Bermuda. Gonna be rainy with six to nine inches of rain predicted for them.

Colleges are wrestling with how to deal with protestors and free speech over the war in Gaza.

Of course Republicans are calling for probes of Gov. Walz’s China trips. The GOP are so laughably predictable and pathetic, screaming about tit for tat politics as a reason they shut down various measures to enforce ethics and then pursuing tit for tat actions. Funny how they didn’t give a shit about Gov. Walz’s trips until he became selected as Vice President Harris’s running mate. Yeah, they’re funny that way, especially Rep Comer, R-Jackass.

In more backward thinking, Georgia has misguided ideas that having ballots counted three times by hand is the best way forward.

We’re switching themes today, going from dance to colors. That excited The Neurons. Lot of songs with colors in their titles. They immediately fired up “Black Velvet” performed by Alannah Myles from 1989 into the morning mental music stream (Trademark trending). It’s a blues ballad about a young Elvis Presley. Whatever the subject, The Neurons love Myles’s voice and style. Hope you enjoy it.

Be strong and remain positive. Vote Blue in 2024. Coffee has kicked in, so here’s the music. Cheers

4

Monday’s Theme Music

Mood: Cleanairhappy

It’s come to this at last: Monday, August 12, 2024.

82 F here. It’s going to be a cool day, with temperatures pegging the mid 80s on their high point. Air quality is good. Lower elevations are in the green, with higher elevations creeping yellow and rising into the sixties. Another air quality warning has been issued but it’s blue skies and sunshine for now.

We were out delivering food this morning through Food & Friends. We then unironically went out for a late breakfast. Hence, the day’s late posting beginnings.

Just finished reading about the huge rally crowds greeting Harris – Walz. With photos and videos, and all manner of real-world evidence. You know how much this hurts Trump’s ego. He actually said, “I’ve spoken to the biggest crowds. Nobody’s spoken to crowds bigger than me.” Trump’s poor ego is stampeding around his skull, shrieking, “I’m the greatest! I’m the greatest! They can’t have bigger crowds. I may have taken deferments to avoid military service, but I took a bullet for America!” Imagine the anger building behind his sullen face as he witnesses how much better attended his opponent’s rallies are. Wouldn’t be surprised if we read later that his head ‘literally’ exploded, given his history of lying about crowd size and the paucity of attendees at his events this season.

We also have Trump — again — he’s not one for new ideas, is he? — trying to portray himself as ‘America’s hero’, returning to X to pull this one off. It’s bizarre what his fever mind conjures. He’s vowing to “obliterate the deep state.” That deep state only exists in his mind, along with his paranoid base. It is not out there.

I feel for them, honestly, because they’ve so deeply detached themselves from reality. The tragicomedy in this, though, is how the GOP sees this as their best option. This 78-year-old white man, the oldest official nominee in the nation’s history, is their idea of a leader. A convicted felon who repeatedly tells well-documented lies and fantasizes about a reality that doesn’t exist.

That is a GOP theme, though: pretend that it isn’t real and all will be good! Just wish away climate change, police murders, mass shootings, and social progress, and all will be well. Thoughts and prayers, that’s the ticket! Just pretend more of the nation isn’t on fire each year; that more frequent and stronger hurricanes and tornadoes aren’t taking place. Just fake it until we’re wiped out. It’ll be good.

Continuing with the dance theme today. Once I sipped coffee and thought, dance songs, The Neurons supplied the morning mental music streamed (Trademark spinning) with Fall Out Boy and “Dance, Dance”. The 2005 pop-punk-rock (popur(?)) song offers their frenetic take on high school dances and ego. It’s a fun, fast, busy song.

Stay positive, remain fresh and energized, and Vote Blue in 2024. Coffee has been guzzled. Time for the music video. Dance, dance! Cheers

2

Political Winds

Look out! The GOP has gone full Playground Mode.

Donald Trump calls Vice President Harris ‘Kamabla’. The GOP denigrates Gov. Walz as Tampon Tim.

It’s like they don’t have any policies to address. Sure, they scream about the border but it’s well-known outside of the MAGA world that Donald Trump and the GOP torpedoed the GOP-approved border plan. Yes, Trump screams about inflation but economists are pushing back and explaining, no, it’s not historic inflation.

As anyone paying attention realizes, Trump is using recycled ideas. These are the ideas that took him to the White House in 2016 and hasn’t gotten him anywhere else since then. Worse, as he attempts to deliver his insults and besmirch others, he sounds inept, incompetent, and incoherent. He appears befuddled. Old. Out of touch.

In comparison, Kamala Harris is vigorous, alert, sharp, awake. So is her chosen running mate, Tim Walz. Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, comes across as sneering and misogynistic.

The change from Biden to Harris brought a powerful pivot from how the Harris-Walz campaign responds to Trump. Whereas Joe Biden was from a different era and tried to remain above Trump’s insults, Harris and Walz boldly clap back. Trump and the GOP flail to find smart responses that reverberate with anyone. Hence, he calls her Kamabla.

Weak.

The differences between the two parties and their political candidates now are striking. That difference is galvanizing the Democratic Party while the GOP sinks like an old man trying to settle onto a lumpy sofa. There’s anecdotal evidence that Trump signs are disappearing from Trump country. They’re just not out there as much. It’s like Trump supporters realize that he’s a tired act, vaudeville in an era of Marvel movies. He’s peaked, and now he’s falling. My wife even theorizes that Evangelicals are quietly moving away from Trump. They achieved what they wanted from him for now: with Mitch McConnell’s help, Trump delivered a right-wing Supreme Court and they overturned established precedence, Roe v. Wade. She thinks they got what they want from Trump and now recognize him for the filth he is and are washing their hands of him.

What the right-wing SCOTUS delivered was a fundamental change that is disastrous. Conservative states dominated by men are running amok with anti-abortion laws that have fast lost appeal for the majority of the political body. Instead of attracting new voters, the GOP overreach is repelling voters. Further, after Kamala Harris was put forward by Joe Biden as the next POTUS, young voter registration surged.

I don’t have numbers and hard facts for all of this; it’s just a gut feeling. But my sense is that Harris-Walz is moving toward victory, and the GOP is in retreat. I mean, look how they have reacted to Project 2025 criticisms by trying to hide under rocks in parallel to Trump trying to deny he knows anything about it.

The MAGA GOP’s brand has been revealed to be reactionary, racist, and sexist. All their new ideas are old ideas. They offer leadership that wants to do the same things that failed before. Frankly, much of what they’re suggesting now, such as doing away with separation of church and state, or providing immunity to the POTUS, putting them above the rule of law, and curtailing voters’ rights and the opportunities to vote, is un-American. It might have been part of a past America, but we are now a modern America. Or we’re trying to be. Young voters at least are awakening to this, and it will show in November.

At least, this is what I hope.

2

A Good Piece

Project 2025 in Two (2) Minutes …

It’s hard to convey the breadth of Project 2025 and its reactionary intentions.

I guess a rewind is in order. What is Project 2025 and why am I worried about it? Here is Wikipedia’s opening take on it:

Project 2025, also known as the 2025 Presidential Transition Project,[3] is an initiative coordinated by the Heritage Foundation that aims to promote conservative and right-wing policies to reshape the United States federal government and consolidate executive power should Donald Trump win the 2024 presidential election.

That’s a basic summary. Further reading of the Wikipedia entry expands on the document and its purpose. However, the video which Scottie shared, that I’m now sharing, includes a two minute chapter by chapter summary of what each chapter outlines as the project’s intention. Easier than reading the entire 940 page document.

This is just one of several reasons why I’m against the election of the lying convicted felon known as Don Old Trump. Kamala Harris for President. Vote Blue in 2024.

0

Just Sayin’

It’s nobody’s business, including J.D. Fucking Vance, if my wife and I have children, and why or why not. Talk about intrusive government. Talk about petty. What a jackass. There are serious problems in the world, and this is what he thinks about?

Give me a fucking break.

2

A Dishonest Man, A Dishonest Speech

The GOP’s fall into a shithole party continues.

The RNC made it official and Trump accepted, both surprises to no one. The racist, lying felon is now their nominee for President of the United States in 2024.

As is standard, Trump gave an acceptance speech. As is standard, he regaled listeners with lies. As is standard, his supporters cheered. He and they need to tear others down and lie in order to make themselves look good because they are shitty leaders. History shows this.

Now, what comes to me is, does he and his supporters not really know reality? Is it possible, that they’re all living in a different reality than the rest of us?

My science fiction and speculative literature fed brain says, “Why, yes, it’s completely possible that some surreal quantum superpositioning between different realities are blending competing histories and outcomes.” On a more pragmatic level, my brain calls bullshit.

Listen to the analysis.

It comes down to values and facts. The fact is, the twenty-first century GOP values are mendacity, hypocrisy, and cynicism. We saw that on full display in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as those who warned against Trump and his character in the past, like J.D. Vance and Nikki Haley, turned around, smiled, and kissed his ass.

Voters who will embrace this GOP as their leaders are embracing mendacity, hypocrisy, and cynicism.

And if those are your chosen leaders, you should realize that the path being forged will be full of lies and hypocrisy, just as Trump’s speech is.

That’s hardly a shining example for the world as a bastion of freedom, prosperity, and democracy.

Vote Blue in 2024.

6

Simple Facts Matter

CNN fact checks the Republican National Convention

The facts matter but the GOP can’t win if the facts are being used; facts are against them. So, just as Trump has lied and lied and lied, and his sycophants consistently lie, the RNC presented lie after lie after lie during their great gathering this year in Wisconsin.

It’s all the GOP can really do well any longer: lie.

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Wednesday’s Wandering Thought

Governor Jim Justice said Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention, “The bottom line for why we’re here, the bottom line to every single thing going on in this great country today, is one thing. We become totally unhinged if Donald Trump is not elected in November.”

I think you’re already totally unhinged if that’s your position. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that others agree. Either way, the thought of the likes of you being totally unhinged is a damn scary idea.

You’re already the flippin’ unhinged MAGA party, home to conspiracy theories, unproven lies, and bizarre ideas.

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Tuesday’s Wandering Thoughts

We went out for breakfast this morning. Over at the next table, we heard a woman rave about what a great choice J.D. Vance was as a veep choice. “He’s so smart,” she enthused.

Sure, smart. I’d say Vance has the morals, ethics, and principles of a snake, but that would be an insult to snakes.

He has the same morals, ethics, and principles of Trump, though. They’re a perfect match and neither can be trusted.

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The Play’s the Thing

My wife and I watched a fascinating and troubling film called Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy. This documentary answers those questions so many of us wrestle with about why ‘christians’ embrace and support Donald Trump.

This is about poseurs claiming to be patriots and freedom-loving Americans setting out to tear down the nation as it is and its ‘liberal institutions’. Their ideal for freedom, the pursuit of happiness, and liberty is for you to behave as they want, full stop. Democracy and the Constitution aren’t important in their minds; it is about their religion and their false ideas that the United States was founded as a christian nation. The polarization we’re experiencing is a deliberate and coordinated cultivation of wedge issues. Donald Trump is not one of them; he’s a convenient tool to advance their agenda. The two sides made a deal. He agreed to supply the SCOTUS justices to overturn Roe v. Wade, and they agreed to support and promote him as the GOP candidate.

These are cynics who will lie to support their goal of a theocratic America, users and abusers who have declared war on anyone in the U.S. who is not part of their movement. They’re indifrerent to Trump’s morals, dishonesty, rapes, lies, and criminal convictions because he’s just a tool and works fine for them and their needs.

And after you watch Bad Faith, watch the Lincoln Project ad about Donald Trump and Project 2025.

Voting in 2024 is about saving democracy in the United States. That’s not just a slogan. A war is beng waged against democracy in the U.S. and Donald Trump is the tool we always suspected. We just didn’t realize how deeply organized and cynical the machinery behind him is.

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