Republicans are defined not by what they love but by what they hate. As long as you’re a well to do, white Christian male who looks down on everybody who is not like them, then you’ll be accepted in the Republican Party.
President Obama campaigned in favor of closing down Guantanamo Bay in 2008 but did nothing to start the ball rolling. President Obama campaigned against holding suspects for trial without charging them with any crime. President Obama campaigned against the sort of serveilance President George W Bush was doing. But as the previous posting suggests - - President Obama is worse than all of that because he just Drones people he wants bumped off. But unlike the old days when the CIA brought in a hit squad for a surgical strike, if you Drone people you just bomb the whole area and nine tenths of the people who die are just innocent victims, civilian casualties, collatteral damage. President Obama has as his core value of not prosecuting Wall Street crimes and not sticking up for labor unions, but prosecuting whistle blowers more than any previous president ever did. The previous posting states that we have an assasination culture in America today that is commonly accepted. It's really as though President Bush never left office. So there really are no Democratic core values any more. President Eisenhower was more progressive on the subject of rights of Labor Unions and Social Security than is President Obama, who was at one point prepared to negotiate SS rights away. We get a glimpse of what Republican values are because Shawn Hannity said that three of his favorite Republican governors are Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Rick Scott of Florida and Bobby Jendell of Louisiana. All three of these governors are really awful. And if Donald Trump has plans to put any of these in his cabinet- - and you can add Governors Christie and Giuliani to the list- - then Donald Trump would have the Presidential Cabinet from Hell.
In the movie "Vaxed" they express concern about the MMR vaccine, which wasn't around when I was a child. It's for measles, mumps, and rubella. There are too many stories about children that were beginning to develop normally and then regressed once they got the MMR vaccine. Apparently part of the problem according to Hartmann is that they used to have separate vaccines funded by the government for the three individual diseases, but then there was some private company that combined the three vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella- - and it's the vaccine put out by this one company that's the problem. In other news they say that soon they will have a Northwest Passage through the polar ice cap because the ice has gotten so sparce in the poles such trips can be undertaken with regularity now, and conservatives would even consider it one good thing about global warming. In a third story, apparently they need slave labor now for soy and other crops because so many weeds have cropped up that are imune to the effects of Roundup made by Monsanto. Apparently the machines they have can't hunt down and pull out the weeds. I would imagine that with the passage of time we will have an increasing number of these super weeds.
If you can imagine yourself going back sixteen years to the 2000 elections I think we cal all agree that America was alltogether a more civil place. It was a "kinder, gentler America" where there was a lot more hope and prosperity than there is now. Think back to a time when there was no Tea Party. We didn't have the rampant racism and gun crazy culture. There was no 9 - 11 and Islam was just another religion. We weren't electronic addicts then. There were no I Pads, I Phones, and I don't even think there were I Pods yet. I was still living at my old apartment and was in "psychotherapy" with Eileen at the Fullerton mental health clinic. I took a single long bus ride there, Rout 25. I felt I was "going through the motions" but at least I was making an effort. My point is that I think today there is something of greater importance than "Core Republican values". It's called having a meeting of the minds and actually communacating and compromizing with each other. There was a time when this was actually possible in America because Clinton did it with the Republicans. Today there is such dangerous emphasis on "doctrinal purity". Back then I had a better image of myself but I think most Americans felt better about themselves. There was an expectation that if they ever lost their job there would be a better job just around the corner. We need to restore this psychological state in the Average American today. I myself didn't have money problems then, but part of it is because I'd gotten on housing and every May they would do an inspection of the apartment and you would go down to the housing office and fill out some forms and be set for another year. This morning at the breakfast table I was musing over the cultural shock I experienced when I was informed in June of 1969 after my Mom had gotten me on "Vocational Rehabilitation" of all things - - that the only jobs open to me were Goodwill which I toured and I concluded the print shop was the only job vaguely acceptable. But all those jobs were 75¢ an hour or maybe only fifty cents. And of course they wanted me to move out of my family home into a board and care place. Sometimes Al Kaders liked to do role reversals where he would be me and I’d try and be him giving the parody of myself advice, a totally futile effort. After all since Al Kaders and I never had a real meeting of the minds- - he would do these highly distorted parodies of me. And I had the additional problem of “How do I assume the role of an Asshole to give advice to a parody me myself?” But we live in a culture now of starvation wages where the last hike in minimum wage was under President George Bush of all people. But though the hikes in pay were slow in coming- - at least we got them. Remember when President Bush wanted actual immigration reform? Yes, he wanted to “bring these illegals out of the shadows”. It really seems like a long time ago.
In the movie "Vaxed" they express concern about the MMR vaccine, which wasn't around when I was a child. It's for measles, mumps, and rubella. There are too many stories about children that were beginning to develop normally and then regressed once they got the MMR vaccine. Apparently part of the problem according to Hartmann is that they used to have separate vaccines funded by the government for the three individual diseases, but then there was some private company that combined the three vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella- - and it's the vaccine put out by this one company that's the problem. In other news they say that soon they will have a Northwest Passage through the polar ice cap because the ice has gotten so sparce in the poles such trips can be undertaken with regularity now, and conservatives would even consider it one good thing about global warming. In a third story, apparently they need slave labor now for soy and other crops because so many weeds have cropped up that are imune to the effects of Roundup made by Monsanto. Apparently the machines they have can't hunt down and pull out the weeds. I would imagine that with the passage of time we will have an increasing number of these super weeds.
If you can imagine yourself going back sixteen years to the 2000 elections I think we cal all agree that America was alltogether a more civil place. It was a "kinder, gentler America" where there was a lot more hope and prosperity than there is now. Think back to a time when there was no Tea Party. We didn't have the rampant racism and gun crazy culture. There was no 9 - 11 and Islam was just another religion. We weren't electronic addicts then. There were no I Pads, I Phones, and I don't even think there were I Pods yet. I was still living at my old apartment and was in "psychotherapy" with Eileen at the Fullerton mental health clinic. I took a single long bus ride there, Rout 25. I felt I was "going through the motions" but at least I was making an effort. My point is that I think today there is something of greater importance than "Core Republican values". It's called having a meeting of the minds and actually communacating and compromizing with each other. There was a time when this was actually possible in America because Clinton did it with the Republicans. Today there is such dangerous emphasis on "doctrinal purity". Back then I had a better image of myself but I think most Americans felt better about themselves. There was an expectation that if they ever lost their job there would be a better job just around the corner. We need to restore this psychological state in the Average American today. I myself didn't have money problems then, but part of it is because I'd gotten on housing and every May they would do an inspection of the apartment and you would go down to the housing office and fill out some forms and be set for another year. This morning at the breakfast table I was musing over the cultural shock I experienced when I was informed in June of 1969 after my Mom had gotten me on "Vocational Rehabilitation" of all things - - that the only jobs open to me were Goodwill which I toured and I concluded the print shop was the only job vaguely acceptable. But all those jobs were 75¢ an hour or maybe only fifty cents. And of course they wanted me to move out of my family home into a board and care place. Sometimes Al Kaders liked to do role reversals where he would be me and I’d try and be him giving the parody of myself advice, a totally futile effort. After all since Al Kaders and I never had a real meeting of the minds- - he would do these highly distorted parodies of me. And I had the additional problem of “How do I assume the role of an Asshole to give advice to a parody me myself?” But we live in a culture now of starvation wages where the last hike in minimum wage was under President George Bush of all people. But though the hikes in pay were slow in coming- - at least we got them. Remember when President Bush wanted actual immigration reform? Yes, he wanted to “bring these illegals out of the shadows”. It really seems like a long time ago.
John Fugelsang
describes the Catholic Church’s policy on employment as “No knob – no job”. If the Virgin Mary were to come back to life
she’d be unable to say mass in a Catholic Church. Pope Francis is pondering whether women are
fit to be deacons. I thought they
already were. They are ordained pastors
but not Priests. Meanwhile George
Zimmerman is trying to sell his gun used to kill Trayvon Martin on Ebay or
whatever. He was kicked off of one web
site and is now trying for another. He
wants to sell the pistol with an opening bid of five thousand but hopes to get
much higher. No doubt Capitalism is a “core
value” no matter how distasteful. I can
hear Paul and Judy now saying “Capitalism is a sacrosanct value that trumps all
other ethical considerations- - just like corporations going to other countries”. I get a little disgusted when I hear the term
“core values”. Republicans are defined
not by what they love but by what they hate.
As long as you’re a well to do, white Christian male who looks down on
everybody who is not like them, then you’ll be accepted in the Republican Party. Paul Ryan in his little meeting with Donald
Trump wanted to make sure that Trump has the same “Core republican values” and
will nominate judges like Scelia and Clarence Thomas. This will make Shawn Hannity happy. Of course
there is an avowed racist at the head of California’s republican delegation for
Trump. Now Trump is coming under pressure to release his tax returns. Trump says he can’t release them as long as
he’s being audited by the government, but this like so many other things Trump
says is a lie. I’m finding after just a
week that doing the unthinkable- - voting for Hillary- is a lot more thinkable
than it was a week ago. I sense as Trump
morphs into Ted Cruz before our eyes more and more people like me who were
thinking of perhaps voting for Trump will change their minds and vote for
Hillary as the lesser of two evils. If
nothing else Hillary wants to raise the minimum wage to twelve dollars an hour
and perhaps fifteen. This will have an
appeal to people like me. Young people
are enthusiastic about progressive causes but they don’t get out to vote like
the old timers do, who vote for Hillary.
Most poles still show Hillary beating Trump, but neither side can be
complacent. If Trump morphs into Ronald
Reagan as Hartman says- - they laughed at Reagan too. But it’s if these far right people wave a
magic wand and are suddenly the greatest thing out there since sliced bread and
are somehow “just what America needs”.
You know, I remember sixteen years ago in 2000 when if Bill Clinton had run for a third term he would have won easily because he was that popular. And Vice President Al Gore in the tradition
of HW Bush- - appeared to be the natural and fitting successor to President
Bill Clinton. America was a very
different place then. There were no I
Phones and we weren’t texting each other constantly. There was no expectation then of a constant
state of war in the Mideast. I would say a great campaign slogan for this year would be "End this sixteen year long nightmare". I think that slogan is a winner.
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