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Why So Many People Loathe Congress


This column for Mr. Hightower supports my statements about paying attention to Congress rather than the big elections, too many of forget that Congress enacted a law that they receives a cost of living increase each year so they do not have to publicly talk about it and at the same time keep that information from us the taxpayers who pay them.MA

Jim Hightower
Uncle Sam wants you. Not the symbolic Uncle Sam, but Sam Johnson. Although he’s been a member of Congress more than a quarter of a century, it’s unlikely you’ve ever heard of him. He’s a lawmaker who holds a congressional set but just sits in it, achieving so little that he’s unnoticeable. But Look out, Johnson has suddenly leapt into action, and we all need to take notice, because this Texas Republican has unveiled what he calls his “plan to permanently Save Social Security.” To get you to support the plan, Uncle Sam wants you to believe that this successful and very popular retirement program is “going bankrupt”. He knows that’s a lie, but he hopes it’s a big enough lie to panic you into doing anything to save the program. Then, to make his particular plan easy to swallow, he coats it with another lie, claiming that he’s merely “modernizing, updating and ensuring” the benefits and solvency of Social Security, which a big majority of Americans count on to avoid living out their golden years in stark poverty. In fact, conniving old Uncle Sam’s plan is to “save” Social security by gutting it. The congressman’s press release announcing his “reform act” doesn’t even mention the key fact that it’s entirely a scam, based o making worker keep paying the same 12.4 percent tax on their wages but getting drastically less paid back to them when they retire. How much less? It would range from about 20 percent less to 69 percent less, adding up to a total cut of 11.6 trillion in promised benefits to America’s workers.
It was bad enough that a so-called public servant would slap the middle class with such a raw deal, but worse that he tries to do it so dishonestly. Maybe he just doesn’t care – after all, having been a congress critter for 28 years, not only can Johnson draw a big social security check, but he can also get more than $70,000 a year from his congressional pension. What a deal. For Uncle Sam that is. For nearly half a century now, America’s middle class working families have been pummeled by corporate greedmeisters and their political henchmen. Haven’t they been punished enough?
No, says House Speaker Paul Ryan. Along with Uncle Sam and other top Republican leaders of Congress. Ryan intends to slash the little bit of retirement that middle class and low income workers depend on. And ultimately, Speaker Ryan is out to kill our social security program altogether, piously preaching that dependence on such public “entitlements” weakens our nation’s morality. Entitlements? Social Security isn’t a welfare program-regular working people pay a large percentage on every dime of their wages into the Social Security pension fund year after year. They earn their retirement. Morality? Social Security embodies America’s core moral value of fairness and our society’s commitment to the common good. And it works- before it was enacted, half of all American’s spent their “Golden Years” in poverty. Social Security has saved the great majority of us from old age penury. Where is the morality I taking this earned retirement and modicum of dignity from millions?
Besides a sermon on the morality of entitlements should never come from a Congress Critter’s mouth. Speaker Ryan himself wallows in a mud pit of Congressional entitlements that working stiffs couldn’t imagine: A $223.500 annual paycheck, free limousine and chauffeur, a maximum-coverage health plan, a tax-paid PR agent, lavish expense account, free travel… and, of course a platinum level congressional retirement program funded by the very taxpayers who’s Social Security he’s out to kill. Yet Ryan wonders why Congress’ public approval rating is plummeting toward single digits.

Jim Hightower is a National radio commentator and author

Not My Intention, But!!!!!


I is and was not my intention to spend much of my time on the TOTUS (DOTUS) however the issuances from the White House are coming too fast. The recent immigration ban, the installation of a right wing racist above the  seasoned military of the Joint chiefs, the selection of a trio of advisors who can hardly put together a coherent sentence. Those items being said, we are heading for a potential 4 year headache of epic proportion . We can expect little to no help from the Neer Do Wells in Congress since aside from a few have been waking around with their heads up the chute for years. Since the election of the “Boy I Wonder”, the Alt Right thinks they are! The backers of Trumps (voters) at least some of them are experiencing voters remorse and it will get worse as the years go by. The correct action is as follows:

  1. do not re elect the same Congress people.
  2. Do your homework-find out what the truth is not what the candidates tell you.
  3. Get your ass out and vote
  4. Understand that this is America and immigrants started this country so we are all the result of immigration forced or otherwise!   Remember if you stand for nothing you will fall for anything.

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How Did Groundhog Day Start?


Every year on February 2, crowds gather at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to watch a groundhog emerge for the day. You know the drill—if he sees his shadow, bad news: There will be six more weeks of winter. But if he doesn’t see a shadow, spring is right around the corner.

In reality, groundhogs don’t make the best meteorologists, and poor Punxsutawney Phil doesn’t have a great track record (as of 2016, he’d made the right call just 39 percent of the time, according to Stormfax). So how did the bizarre tradition of Groundhog Day get its start?

The roots of Groundhog Day aren’t as random as they might seem. The beginning of February marks the halfway point between winter solstice (the shortest day of the year) and spring equinox (when night and day are about the same length). Pagans would celebrate February 1 or 2 with a festival of light to mark the start of spring. Gaelic legend says that if the goddess Cailleach wanted a long winter, she’d make the day bright so she’d have sunlight to gather more firewood. But a dreary day she’d stayed in because spring was on its way.

Medieval Christians adopted the festival and handed out candles. The feast day falls 40 days after Christmas, marking the end of the period when Jewish tradition would have considered Jesus’ mother unclean after giving birth. (Learn about the surprising histories behind your favorite Christmas traditions.) She would have been allowed to worship in the Temple again, so February 2 is also considered the day that baby Jesus would have been presented there for the first time. One old English song connects the day to the weather:

“If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Winter has another flight.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Winter will not come again.”

Eventually, Europeans started looking to animals’ hibernation patterns on Candlemas to predict the weather. Some watched to see if bears would come out of their dens, while the English looked for hedgehogs, and the French waited for marmots.

Germans, whose tradition said a badger would walk out of its hole if there was snow but retreat back inside if the sun was out, brought the custom to the United States. The Pennsylvania Dutch gave it their own twist by replacing badgers with groundhogs, probably because the hibernating animals were so common in the Keystone State.

In 1887, watching for Punxsutawney Phil became an official event. Since then, other cities have started looking to their own groundhogs, like New York’s Staten Island Chuck and Georgia’s General Beauregard Lee. Whichever furry forecaster is your trusted favorite, cross your fingers for a speedy, shadow-free spring.

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“It will not get better”: Former Bush administration official has a warning about President Trump’s administration


A short read that sums up a Trump (TOTUS) Presidency and its effect.MA

Ex-Condoleezza Rice aide Eliot A. Cohen also has strong words for conservatives who are working with Trump
Matthew Rozsa

Topics: Donald Trump, Eliot A. Cohen, Frank Lavin, Lezlee Westine, richard w. painter, News, Politics News.

Yet another former official for President George W. Bush has gone on the record criticizing President Donald Trump — this time it’s Eliot A. Cohen, who served as a counselor to former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice from 2007 to 2009.
Trump’s first week as president has already been marred by a “dark and divisive inaugural speech, extraordinary attacks on a free press, a visit to the CIA that dishonored a monument to anonymous heroes who paid the ultimate price, and now an attempt to ban selected groups of Muslims,” Cohen wrote in The Atlantic. He pointed out that “because the problem is one of temperament and character, it will not get better.”
Cohen predicted that Trump’s poor character and choice of advisers will “probably end in calamity — substantial domestic protest and violence, a breakdown of international economic relationships, the collapse of major alliances, or perhaps one or more new wars (even with China) on top of the ones we already have.” Cohen continued, “It will not be surprising in the slightest if his term ends not in four or in eight years, but sooner, with impeachment or removal under the 25th Amendment. The sooner Americans get used to these likelihoods, the better.”
He went on to condemn his conservative friends who are thinking of working with or even for the dangerous new president.
“For the community of conservative thinkers and experts, and more importantly, conservative politicians, this is a testing time,” Cohen wrote. “Either you stand up for your principles and for what you know is decent behavior, or you go down, if not now, then years from now, as a coward or opportunist. Your reputation will never recover, nor should it.”

That said, Cohen ended his article on an optimistic note: “In the end, however, he will fail,” Cohen predicted. “He will fail because however shrewd his tactics are, his strategy is terrible — The New York Times, the CIA, Mexican Americans, and all the others he has attacked are not going away. With every act he makes new enemies for himself and strengthens their commitment; he has his followers, but he gains no new friends.
Added Cohen: “He will fail because he cannot corrupt the courts, and because even the most timid senator sooner or later will say ‘enough.’ He will fail most of all because at the end of the day most Americans, including most of those who voted for him, are decent people who have no desire to live in an American version of Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey, or Viktor Orban’s Hungary, or Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Cohen is not the first former Bush administration official to speak out against Trump. In an opinion piece for The New York Times posted earlier this month, former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard W. Painter slammed the president’s numerous conflicts of interest:
“He continues to refuse to release his tax returns, even though many of his cabinet nominees will have to disclose theirs in order to get confirmed by senators skeptical of, among other things, foreign business entanglements,” Painter wrote. “He also did not announce a divestment of ownership interest in his businesses, even though this is a step that his own cabinet appointees will have to take in order to comply with a federal conflict of interest law. Instead, Mr. Trump will simply turn management of the businesses over to a trustee chosen by him, and to two of his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric. This is not a separation at all, and from a conflict of interest vantage point, it won’t work.”
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Similarly Lezlee Westine, who served as White House director of public liaison and deputy assistant to the president under Bush, endorsed Hillary Clinton in August. Although she didn’t directly attack Trump, her reasons for endorsing Clinton seemed to indicate that she was concerned about Trump’s lack of experience.
“Our nation faces a unique set of challenges that require steady and experienced leadership,” Westine said. “That is why today I am personally supporting Hillary Clinton. She has the expertise and commitment to American values to grow the economy, create jobs and protect America at home and abroad.”
The former political director for president Ronald Reagan, Frank Lavin, returned to the themes of Trump’s character when endorsing Clinton that same month.
“Trump falls short in terms of the character and behavior needed to perform as president,” Lavin wrote. “This defect is crippling and ensures he would fail in office.”

Matthew Rozsa is a breaking news writer for Salon. He holds an MA in History from Rutgers University-Newark and his work has appeared in Mic, Quartz and MSNBC.

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Were We Always So Ugly?


This past year in the campaign season, we have seen and heard some the nastiest rhetoric and lies possibly since the beginning of our country . To start we as voters have all been dissatisfied with what Government does, did and possibly will do. Is it possible that our own participation ( or lack of) is a cause? My opinion: it is! So many of us fail to look at or try understand how one (1) issue affects other people even if we do not live in the same states or cities. Our part has been low voting, uniformed voting and not voting. It seems that many have embraced the new President’s talking points and rhetoric. This type of speech making is as ugly as we can get (hopefully) but has no substance beyond exciting the crowd. The lie appears to be the norm and it is still going on now that the TOTUS is in place. His actions after taking the office appears to be in the vein of a school yard bully who wants what he wants with no idea of what his wants will do to all of us. Campaigns have gotten uglier each time and we (voters) have allowed it and encouraged it. My question: Were we always so ugly?  Going back to 2008, the ascension of Barack Obama gave us a small peek inside the door of racism and intolerance. During and after that campaign that door was flung open to show that we have elected officials pushing the race , religious and women’s issues. These are the same folks we have allowed to continue in office in spite of their obvious issues with how we live. If these representatives were truly working for you, we would not have the President we have today. The tacit encouragement in the rise of  “TOTUS” was in part allowed because the Congress wants what it wants and needs to validate its lack of action. The future is in flux but once settled (if at all) the result could be at the least an economic downturn, at the worst a very unstable economy across the world. The talking heads that now explain the actions of the new President are no more than snake oil salesmen with government jobs. The Dupublican Congress has jumped on the bandwagon possibly out of fear of the new President or have they?. We have only heard from the top leadership so far and only on the House side. Where does the Senate leader stand on all of this? or is he taking his usual wait and see safety net? The latest actions by TOTUS is just the beginning of the tarnishing of the American image in the world and the abrogation of American civility.

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The Other Shoe


The slide to anarchy has begun. President Trump has begun his breakdown of the American way. The great white Dope has signed an executive order banning Muslims and firing the acting attorney general because of questions of its legality. It appears that the new President is actually running  (ruining) the country like his businesses. It is unfortunate his supporters will find out the hard way  what the rest of us already knew and suspected,  he is not capable of running the country. His picks for his cabinet, his selections for other high posts in his administration speaks volumes as to where we will end up. We can only hope that the Neer do well Congress has enough initiative and intelligence to realize that no matter what they as a party think, this president is  inept and potentially dangerous. Even in writing this I feel we have a hard row to hoe. This type of government is not what the  framers of the Constitution envisioned. What is left for all of us to do is write, call and demand a change (impeachment?) in leadership. We potentially have a “Sith Lord” in command attempting to rule with impunity. How long will it take before our 535 step up and do the right thing as they should have done before the election?

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The Trump Effect On America.


Donald J. Trump’s campaign  and Presidency will and has had an effect on politics. Remember the “fake news” put out by the Fox group for many years regarding President Obama et al and picked up by Trump prior to running? Now Trump is evoking the “Fake news” mantra  regarding his actions. He has further attacked John Lewis for his opinion on the legitimacy of the election in light of possible interference by outside hackers. I believe that the Trump Presidency is more a statement of the dissatisfaction with Government aka Congress than the Presidency but many people do not realize it yet. The real issue with this Presidency will be the divisive actions by the ruling party of Congress. These neer do wells will cause harm to all no matter what sub genre of Republican or Democrat you are. The rise in racism in America can be directly laid at the feet of President elect Trump. The campaign rhetoric tacitly gave approval for the alt right, extremists of all sorts to ply their trades. Those trades being hate, some of it under the guise of religious right. It is not too far afield to think that the next 4 years will be a testament to the strength of  the America that believes that all of us were once immigrants and over time have come to be Americans. We will soon be hearing more tweets than information about what is happening in the White House. 140 characters will never take the place of a press conference. In the background will be the self serving Congress removing anything that benefits the Citizens of America who do not have deep pockets. The party goes on as the New administration tweets, and talks in superlatives. The new political language is now superlative non answers and artful dodging of questions. There is the idea of health care for all except the repeal of “Obamacare” aka Affordable Care Act which will affect many of his supporters who currently have coverage and do not realize that the two items are the same. We have now a TOTUS instead of POTUS who will do what ever it takes to further his agenda with no regard to the long term effects of his actions. This is unfortunately the person who will represent America in the world.

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Donald Trump, The Radical Right Is Setting You Up In Washington!


This post from Russell Simmons speaks directly to what the Trump Presidency could mean. MA

Russell Simons

01/26/2017

I know we haven’t spoken since your run for office. The truth is, I never thought you would become president. I’m sure the comments I made publicly and to the press against your platform broke our friendship apart. That said, I still have some advice for the man I used to consider a friend. You are being set up.

I am convinced you are the Trojan horse. The extremists in the Republican Party and religious right have been praying for a long time to put a candidate in the position to turn back the tide of our forward push for justice and equality, which is in effect the American dream. The pendulum of consciousness always swings towards compassion and justice. There are moments that it swings back but once given a taste of freedom the people will thirst for it and will not let anyone take that away. African-Americans will never again be slaves, women will never again lose their right to vote or go quietly back into the coat hanger days, the LGBTQ community will not go back into the closet, the right to worship as we see fit will not be taken from one — you will have to strip it from everyone.

No American president has ever entered the Oval Office with an agenda so set on trying to undo the civil, social and political gains for equality that have been so long fought. And now we are bracing to have all of our victories overturned. Those lowest common denominator radicals of the Republican party have you locked in a role to do their bidding.

You came into the race as a strong independent voice and now you are going down a path of having the mainstream Republican party impeach you for many of your questionable choices that some of them support privately, but don’t want to carry the weight of.

I find it hard to believe you are comfortable going down in history as being impeached as the president who was taken out for Russian ties or signing off on the Dakota/Keystone pipelines benefiting a company you held stock in? When this happens where will they be? They will tell the American public it was all on you as they reap the rewards of some of the worst decisions a president has made for the people he is supposed to serve. If you are impeached, Vice President Pence will have the position he has always wanted with all the dirty work done for him without having lifted a hand. And in the best case scenario for you, which is you stay for the entire term, you will leave a legacy of heightened racial discord, massive environmental destruction and the shame of having repealed legislation that promoted equality and fairness for all Americans. You will continue to be shunned and protested against by the majority of citizens who will blame you for your radical and dangerous attacks on everything America stands for.

My advice to you is don’t let yourself get played by these suckas in Washington. Or we, the American public, will all pay for your naivety. We will be left to suffer as individuals who must deal with racism being accepted again, women being treated as second class citizens, the aftermath of immigrant families broken up and deported and an environment that will succumb to the mounting crisis of climate change. Future generations will be in an irreversible position of not being able to sustain the Earth they live on. You will be forgotten and dismissed by the radical right when you are long gone. A foolish blip in the big story of a sad American tragedy.

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TOTUS


It is evident that we are in for a rocky four years of governing, we have a President who seems to have no idea of the job he has taken on and seems to believe he can govern alone. Add to this a neer do well Congress and you have a perfect cocktail of ineptitude.MA  

Donald Trump’s Profound Laziness Is Already on Full Display
Jay Willis
January 23, 2017 9:27 AM Getty Images
Welcome to the first “fake it ’til you make it” presidency in American history.
President Donald Trump’s first three days are in the books, and they proved exactly as horrifying and surreal as the last 18 months that Candidate Trump inflicted on America. On Saturday, while on an official visit to Central Intelligence Agency headquarters—and in front of a memorial honoring the men and women of the intelligence community who died in service of their country—Trump rambled angrily about his “running war with the media,” just moments after trotting out newly minted White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer to shout delusional, easily disprovable lies about, of all things, the number of people who attended his inauguration. What’s clear is that unapologetic propagandists now occupy the White House dais, and for the next four years, Americans will be governed by officials who remain wholly uninterested in earning their trust.
Trump’s obsession with crowd size is emblematic of his most crippling insecurity: He has no creativity, no originality, and no clue what to do next. His desperate craving to be liked runs so deep that, as he transformed from political outsider to major-party nominee to president-elect, he began shamelessly borrowing ideas from the types of respected, popular politicians that he wished he could be. His wife’s address at the Republican National Convention lifted entire sections from a speech delivered by the previous First Lady. He stole an inspiring photograph of giddy, euphoric crowds taken at the inauguration of his predecessor, because no such crowds attended his. Even the smallest subjects cannot escape this creatively bankrupt laziness: When planning the inaugural ball, his people requested an exact replica of the cake President Obama had made four years earlier. So, yes, Donald Trump kicked off his presidency by plagiarizing a cake.
The little indiscretions are funny, but they are more revealing than entertaining. For years, the Republican Party has solemnly pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act, that dastardly albatross responsible for making healthcare available to 20 million previously uninsured Americans, as soon as they are given the chance. Every serious GOP presidential candidate—including Trump—made their plan for replacing the ACA a central tenet of their pitch to prospective voters. On his first day in office, Trump’s version of delivering on his promise was issuing an executive order that “directed” federal agencies to try really hard to make Obamacare go away.
It is the policy of my Administration to seek the prompt repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148), as amended (the “Act”). In the meantime, pending such repeal, it is imperative for the executive branch to ensure that the law is being efficiently implemented, take all actions consistent with law to minimize the unwarranted economic and regulatory burdens of the Act, and prepare to afford the States more flexibility and control to create a more free and open healthcare market.
This isn’t leadership. It demonstrates no coherent vision. It’s a feeble, feckless, empty gesture, the kind you make when you (1) know you’re supposed to think that something is bad, but (2) also aren’t really sure what that thing is and can’t be bothered to read the Simple English Wikipedia article describing it, either. Even Trump’s omnipresent campaign slogan—”Make America Great Again”—shows just how brutally bereft of original ideas he is. It’s the sort of vague, aspirational nonsense that one would expect to hear from a man who learned everything he knows about being president of the United States from watching other men play one on TV.
Of course, no newly elected president steps into the White House fully prepared for the myriad challenges he or she will face. But Trump is unwilling or unable to grasp his shortcomings, and instead appears prepared to mask them by employing a two-pronged strategy: Come out with strong, forceful takes on substantively irrelevant subjects that he can easily understand, and glibly borrow from others when it comes to the hard political decisions that Americans expect him to make. This patchwork, smoke-and-mirrors approach to governance isn’t sustainable, but so far, it’s all he’s got.

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The Show Begins


Many of us know or have heard the theme to a cartoon show called “The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour” but as a reminder  the Lyrics are listed below:

ARTIST: Jerry Livingston and Mack David
TITLE: Bugs Bunny Overture (This Is It)
Lyrics

[From Television Theme Song]

Overture, curtain, lights
This is it, the night o’ nights
No more rehearsing and nursing our parts
We know every part by heart

Overture, curtain, lights
This is it, to hit the heights
And, oh what heights we’ll hit
On with the show, this is it

Tonight what heights we’ll hit
On with the show, this is it.

This is just an introduction what the next 4 years will bring. The current flap is over how many people were in the National mall, this was contested on air by the Trump talking heads in spite of photographic proof to the contrary. It appears that we will now have a wave of superlatives instead of facts on what the administration is doing, will do or has done. Looking at what is happening right now and what has gone before we need to prepare for talking points instead of facts. I fully understand that Trumps’ rise is due to his “telling it like it is” but the reality is that “telling it like it is” can come back to haunt you as it seems to be doing even now. The true reason for Mr. Trump’s  ascension is the dissatisfaction with the Government over the past 10-20 years. The “Government “as a lot of folks see it is the President, wrong, the Government is the Congress ,those people we vote for election after election who do very little on our behalf no matter what they tell us. Our elected officials for the most part take the idea of ” when we want your opinion. we will give it to you” to a new level and continue to offer obfuscated information that strokes the public ego while continuing their poor governing ways. No matter what party you associate with , it is wise to push your representative to do what is correct but first you must decide what you want as opposed to what is needed for us all and what is possible. Remember that what you ask for can bring unseen issues that will adversely affect you later with the blessing of your representative. Keep in mind that the people who represent us in Government do not have job issues (save our vote),medical coverage issues or retirement (pension) issues thus it is in our (voter’s) best interest to research the person who represents you now before the next election cycle, you may be surprised what you’ll learn.

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