Thursday, August 30, 2018

The Courage to Fight for Convictions

As I posted about yesterday, Sen. Schumer decided to allow Trump and the Republicans to approve 15 lifetime judicial appointments, without any debate. Schumer just gave the Republicans those judges. A debate could have lasted past the mid-term elections when the voting math could have stopped some of those appointments. But Schumer didn't want that fight and just gave in allowing those appointments to go through unchallenged. According to the report, because it was more important that the Senators get home instead of put up a fight. Yet, Democrats want to convince me to vote for them to stop the Trump, conservative power grab of our government. You failed to show me you are going to fight for the convictions you claim to believe in.

There are all sorts of examples of Democrats unwilling to fight for the convictions they claim to champion.

Sen. Warren voted yes to approve Dr. Ben Carson as the head of HUD. What? Dr. Carson was going to be confirmed no matter how Ms. Warren voted, but why did she vote yes? It's not just a Democratic voting for a Republican as a cabinet member, that's nothing new. But to vote for a person so obviously incompetent to hold such a position is more than curious. Did she just give in to the inevitability of Carson's win? I have to think that she knew he was not capable of holding such a position. Since Carson has been the head of that department Sen. Warren has had nothing but negative things (indeed insulting things) to say about Carson in public. Why bother Sen. Warren, you voted FOR Carson to be the head of that department. Where is the courage of your conviction? Or maybe you believe Carson was a great choice to head that department.

Trump and the Republicans wrote a new banking bill. By the experts accounts this new banking bill puts America at risk of another financial crash by eliminating decades old regulations and allowing a wide open structure for bank corruption. Something the Democrats, rightfully, blamed the 2007 crash on Republicans for because of loose banking regulations. Yet, many Democrats voted for that new banking bill and it is now law. Why would Democrats vote for that bill? Yes, it would have passed even without any Democratic votes. So did the Democrats receiving bank lobby money just vote yes to stay in good with the banks?  What happened to Democrats convictions that those kind of poor banking regulations were the cause of the 2007 financial crash? I guess a little lobby money was more important than their convictions.

 When Sen. Obama was running for president in 2007 he told Americans he supported a single payer health care plan for the nation. Polls at the time showed 75% of Americans approved of the government stepping into the health care insurance to make sure all Americans had access to health care. After Obama won the presidency and the health care debate was in earnest, Obama decided to back the ACA plan instead of single payer. When asked why he would not back a single payer plan Obama said; If we were starting from scratch he would support single payer, but, he said, we have a decades old employer backed system and it would be to difficult to just dump that system and start over. Where was his courage to fight for his convictions? Not to mention, the experts said that is just  what was needed to be done. To dump the old  system in favor of single payer. Instead the negotiations with Republicans to come up with the ACA ended up with a horrible health care bill. So now the Democrats are left defending a system full of problems and can't fix it because they spent all their time trying to defend it from being thrown out by Republican vote. We need a much better national health care bill. We could have had one if Obama had fought for one and he had the majority votes.

There are MANY other examples of the lack of fight Democrats show for their pronounced convictions. And they keep begging us to vote for them.

What I read on blogs and hear on the daily partisan news is hate for Trump. Well deserved given his immoral and criminal administration, but no talk about what the Democrats stand for, or better yet, the fight they are willing to put up for their stated policies (convictions).

Democrats, you will have to show me a more serious attempt to govern and fight for your policies, if you want my (and millions of other) votes. 

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Democrats Bow To Trump

By Jennifer Bendery and Igor Bobic

WASHINGTON ― Senate Democrats just gave a huge gift to President Donald Trump: They agreed to expedite votes on 15 of his nominees to lifetime federal court seats because they wanted to go home.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) had lined up votes for all those district court nominees last week. Normally, Senate rules require up to 30 hours of waiting time for each nominee ― something Democrats typically take advantage of to delay action on confirming Trump judges. But Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) cut a deal with McConnell on Tuesday to bypass the wait times and let them all get through.
Why? So Democrats could get back to campaigning and focusing on winning re-election in November. The Senate is now out of session until next Tuesday.
Of the 15 nominees, six were confirmed by voice votes on Tuesday. Another one was confirmed on a recorded vote. The remaining eight will get quick votes next week.
It’s a major win for Trump and McConnell, whose No. 1 priority is filling up federal courts with conservative judges ― many of whom are incredibly anti-abortion, anti–LGBTQ rights and anti–voting rights. Trump has gotten 26 circuit court judges confirmed, more than any other president at this point in his term. Another way of putting it: 1 in 7 U.S. circuit court seats is now filled by a judge nominated by Trump.
Add that Trump put Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court and is poised to get another justice through, Brett Kavanaugh, and you’ve got a president drastically reshaping the nation’s courts for generations.

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This is the kind of garbage that makes people vote non-democratic. The Democrats deserve to lose votes over this kind of political cowardice. 

Winter Weather Forecast for 2018 - 2019

The "Old Farmers Almanac" predicts a much colder than normal winter.

"The Farmers Almanac" (a different publication) predicts a much warmer than normal winter.

NOAA predicts normal to slightly warmer Winter weather.

The Almanac's use a "secret" equation based on Astrology and planet position. NOAA uses computer generated predictions.

All the weather bureaus came out with their Winter weather predictions this week. It seems there is much disagreement between them. Maybe that's what you get with unpredictable weather patterns during an era of climate change.

I advise keeping your eye on your local (territorial) 5 day weather forecasts.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Trump Exhaustion

Trump has far outlived his remarkable election win exuberance. Polls tell us that Americans have had enough of this demagogue and I'm sure Trump would lose an election if held today and he will surely lose in 2020. For those who hope Trump will be out of office before the next election don't bet your house on it. Trump will not resign like Nixon and legal charges will probably take the rest of his term to come to the courts. Republicans still hold majority and seem unmoved by the illegality, or immorality Trump continues to subject America and the world to.

Democrats have a long list of abuses they want to go after Trump for, even after he is out of office. Certainly some things must be changed and erased and only Congressional and legal action can do that. We must be careful. We don't want revenge to be a priority in future America post Trump. There is just to much important work to be done.

Is Trump America's gutter? Can we finally admit that we have hit the gutter and must change our ways and thinking to climb out of the hole we have been digging for decades? Who will have the moral strength to lead us out of the gutter? I'm not convinced Americans think we are in the gutter. I think Americans will have to go through much worse human suffering before they see the need for change. That's sad.

Even the younger generation doesn't see how deep our desperate situation is, but they will. They will have to live with the negative effects of our selfish mistakes of the last few decades. We pass to them the crummy government we have built. Imagine the hardship they will confront with the government we have left them, even if they are serious about changing things, and there is no evidence that they are serious about changing things.

This will not be the century of America. Most of this century America will be wallowing in its own mistakes as other countries take leadership of the world. Our military might will not stop the progression of a non military change of world leadership. Will that new leadership protect and progress the freedom for humans as America has for centuries? It's hard to imagine.   

Saturday, August 25, 2018

John McCain Dies

John McCain, as an elected Republican politician, supported many ideas and policies I strongly disagreed with; not to mention he brought Sarah Palin into national politics.

                                                                              BUT

John McCain served his country in the Congress and in the military, and was handicapped for the rest of his life for the former. He also was one of the few who pointed our during a run for the presidency of the United States (as a Republican) that Trump and the birthers were totally wrong and racist. The word hero applies to John McCain.

Friday, August 24, 2018

A Nice Home


This is not an operating church, but a private home renovated from an old stone church. I could easily live in such a structure. Although I would need to win the lottery to renovate such a structure for modern living.

I knew a guy who once lived in an old church and liked the layout very much. His bell tower was an observatory. It was like a mini castle. It also had a graveyard adjacent to it, which is also fine with me. One of the quietest places I ever lived was next to a graveyard.