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Tag Archives: current-events

What’s Really Important?


Who attends or doesn’t the inaugural and subsequent after party matter? The coverage on attendees has taken precedent over the hearings on cabinet appointees. The potential good or harm that can be done by these appointees is more important than the celebrants of a party. For instance : there is much talk of spending and taxing. It is a fact that no matter what is said about deficits and surpluses, you cannot spend money on infrastructure without revenue to back it. The revenue is and always has been gained through taxes. The taxes that many of us do not like paying or want to pay. It appears to be the general consensus that we pay too much in taxes but we still want what we want. Understand how America (and most of the modern world) works, every government has to be funded some how. This funding is usually taxes obtained by levies on payrolls, purchases or property. The current administration as well as the new one will have to address the issues of presenting proposals to use existing or creating new ways to finance the country’s needs. The barrier to this is and always will be the United States Congress. The political fighting has always been the biggest sticking point except for the few times where we had real legislators who understood how stuff should be done. You can be dissatisfied and unhappy about paying taxes but without them we would have no functioning government and possibly a worse method of financing the Government such as  confiscation of funds, goods and services. To address the question: “What’s really important?”, elect representatives who will do the job beginning with local, state and federal elections. Ignore the soaring rhetoric and so called “telling it like it is “because it is not “how it is”!

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Is This The Fabled “Hell In A Handbasket”?


It is unfortunate that the current ruling party of Congress is using fear to advance an agenda that will ultimately harm us all. It is of no consequence what you believe as a group or individual primarily because the ruling party will put forth the agenda that suits them (not us!). I understand that many people select a party affiliation based on any number of ideas (some factual, some not) however looking at the bigger picture you will see that the average time in office for Congress is 10 plus years. These long terms are the result of our rubber stamp votes each election season. If you go to a certain store on a regular basis because of convenience and that store does not provide you with the quality you want, would you continue to patronize them? Put this idea in context of voting for a Congress member. This is not an across the board condemnation of all members of Congress but the current leaders are not the cream of the crop but appear to be self serving lackeys. Now we potentially have a leader who could also be a self serving lackey in spite of his tweets! Our dissatisfaction could very be our own worst nightmare as many of us voted on the basis of superlatives and high sounding rhetoric. “telling it like it is” isn’t the same as governing. First “100 days” statements may prove to be more of a problem than the “new people” think.

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Just Remember


Just remember that this past election is not about race, wealth or lack of as much as change as hoped for under President Obama. While Obama attempted to make those changes , many Americans were not behind him. In not supporting him we allowed the neer do well Congress to continue their evil ways which created many of the ills that the non supportive voters were suffering under. Now we have Donald trump who “will drain the swamp”! The changes that will come will ultimately help or harm voters. Keep in mind that the Congress is powered by many of the same people who denied President Obama’s attempts at bettering the American voters lives. Remember the distracting rhetoric about birth certificates, religious affiliation and other things that had nothing to with Governing. The next several years will reveal the true nature of the long serving Congress and Mr. Trump meanwhile the American people who are so often cited will have to remember and pay close attention to what Government is doing in their names without their explicit permission.

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What To Watch For


This incoming administration will be interesting to watch for an assortment of reasons. To start the financial affairs of the President elect have yet to be sorted out. We need to look at the role of his family in the White house and beyond, the cabinet choices and if the entertainer really wants the job! No matter what is said on the campaign trail, no amount of glib talk, tweets or fast talking will run the Government (which is in reality is the job of the cabinet members). The long time hands on management method of running his companies may prove to be his worst asset. The President of the United States has to be free of all potential conflicts of interest in order to spend 105% of his time on Government work. There is no alternate method. When the reality of the job hits, we may see some really bad actions on his behalf and from the Congress. It is already evident that Congress is in free fall (no matter what Congressional leaders  say). To his agenda: his cabinet picks are the first step in “draining the swamp” for better or worse. Trump’s election while seeming to be a God send for the Dupublicans is a wake up call to all of us. The statements made during and after the campaign will be the movie that voters want to see and if it doesn’t live up to the hype, the Dupublicans, “conservatives” and Trump supporters will be the recipients of “surprise” shifts in national attitude. This  shift will become evident in the next General elections. Remember that Bernie Sanders was not as far away from Trump’s agenda except for the soaring , ranting and irrational rhetoric. I fully expect pushback on this but looking at what has occurred now and in the past I will be proven correct in total or part. It is well to remember that we have a Congress composed of  too many self serving people that we have elected to office too many times and who have  done things in our names to their benefit. Be cautious when you hear “the American People” in any sentence spoken by a member of Congress because we probably did not agree to or know about whatever it is.

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Congress Hates You!!


If you pose that question to any member of Congress and it will be denied, Presuming that  actions speak louder than words, consider  These points:

  1. The affordable care act (Obamacare) provided healthcare for a lot of people who did not have it and better options for people who did.
  2. The Congress (Dupublicans) stated at the onset of his Presidency that this President would get noting passed
  3. The  Congressional leaders (Snitch and John) stated that this will be a one term President
  4. They supported the idea that Mr. Obama was not an American and was a Muslim.                                                                                                                     If you consider just those things and align them with what actually occurred in the past 8 years you will see that Congress hates you!  The economy is growing and has grown (albeit slowly but growing), jobs are growing. Keeping In mind that the 2007-2008 crash was significant and unfortunately a surprise to many but the crash was building for years. Most of the sitting Congress was in place before and during that time. Many of them are still in place. The price of gasoline has dropped due to new internal oil sources. The result of the new natural gas and oil flows have greatly reduced the use of coal which affects the coal-producing areas and jobs but the use of coal was waning before that. None of the Congressional representatives have bothered to explain that to their constituents, instead they blamed President Obama for the coal demand dropping. These folks never tried to tie the health of the coal miners to the coverage available through  the ACA (Obamacare) . Our Government has to run by having Congress do their job and this Congress has failed in that for the past 15 years at the least. If Congress thought anything of their constituents they would have done and would be doing their jobs instead of posturing like the peacocks they are. The topper: an entertainer used many opportunities to state that President Obama was not an Americans and should show his birth certificate now the Entertainer is President elect and the Tweeter in Chief of the United States. Add to this how many anti Obama members of Congress did not want Trump now have to deal with him and his gang of children who have to respond everything said about them. All we can do right now is to “Just Keep livin’ (Matthew Mcconaughey quote).

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Prepare-Soit-Pret-Prepararse


The Trump effect has begun. It is unfortunate that our long serving Congress has been so poor in its representation of  the voters. With this new President it will certainly get no better in spite of the soaring rhetoric to the contrary. The congress has attempted 60 plus times to repeal Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) over the past several years. This is time wasted when they (Congress) could have addressed the issues at its original presentation as it is normally done. Now they intend to spend more money and time on repealing it and replacing it with an unknown. They call  this Conservatism. It is past time for the voters to stop acquiring labels on their political views as these are labels  propagated by the media and politicians to further their Own Ends. If you assume the label by the party of your choice you are operating under a false premise as the politicians of this country have one goal and that  goal does not include you! Politispeak is what is used to get your vote and many time these words sound good but mean nothing, by this method their words are the same as when you train your dog with a treat or “good boy”. Now we have a self-absorbed “commander In Tweet” who as I see it really did not expect  to win the office and is not so interested in it but does like the adoration as this has been his stock in trade for most of his life. The Dupublican Congress has decided for you what you want no matter what You want! This is not say the Scamocrats are any better however over the years we have fared better under them than the Dupublicans. It is time we as voters shuck labels and become  impartial to all parties in order to vote correctly for better government. The road to better government is in the hands of informed voters. As a side note: not one Congressional member is suffering from lack of salary or healthcare since the ACA (Obamacare if you will) does not cover them, isn’t the American voter worthy of the same level care?

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House GOP Enacts Rule Allowing Lawmakers To Fire, Slash Salaries Of Individual Federal Employees


It is odd that the Congress is not making moves to slash their own salaries. Just another reason to watch the Congress closely. MA
House GOP enacts rule allowing lawmakers to fire, slash salaries of individual federal employees
5:52 a.m. ET

Peter Weber
At the same closed-door meeting on Monday where House Republicans voted to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics — a move scrapped after a public outcry — the House GOP also adopted a motion by Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) that allows Congress to single out individual federal employees and eliminate their jobs or reduce their pay down to as little as $1, or cut specific federal programs, through amendments to the budget. The procedural mechanism, adopted Tuesday, is called the Holman Rule, named after the Indiana congressman who created it in 1876, The Washington Post explains:
Early in its history, the rule was used to eliminate patronage jobs, particularly customs agents, in the late 19th century before the federal workforce shifted to a nonpolitical civil service. The rule was dropped in 1983, when then-House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.) objected to spending cuts proposed by Republicans and conservative Democrats. Griffith, known as the unofficial parliamentarian in the hard-line conservative Freedom Caucus, sought to revive it out of frustration with an $80 million federal program that pays for the care of wild horses on federal land in the West. He considers the program wasteful. [The Washington Post]
Democrats and even some of Griffith’s GOP colleagues opposed the change, arguing that it could be abused to target bureaucrats for political reasons — Donald Trump’s presidential transition team has requested the names of federal workers who focus on climate change, for example — and will gum up the budget process with politically controversial, small-bore amendments. In a concession to skeptical Republicans, the rule expires in a year unless re-authorized. You can read more about the Holman Rule at The Washington Post. Peter Weber

Hey Joe, No Comment- Just A Report


This short blurb gives more focus than required had Joe said nothing. Mr. Scarborough being a “Faux news ” luminary appears to be embarrassed by a non story. Is there something to hide? MA 

Joe Scarborough is furious with journalists covering President-elect Donald Trump for how they characterized the appearance of both the “Morning Joe” host and his MSNBC co-host, Mika Brzezinski, at Trump’s New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Saturday night.
On Sunday and Monday, Scarborough sent a flurry of tweets blasting several reporters, taking particular exception to the suggestion that he had “partied” with Trump. Scarborough insisted he was simply there trying to land an inauguration interview.
The brouhaha emerged after Maggie Haberman, a reporter for the New York Times, noted that Scarborough and Brzezinski were among the high-profile guests at Trump’s “Gatsby-like” soiree. Though Scarborough disputed the accuracy of the report, the Times story had simply and accurately noted his attendance at the event.

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Criminals In Suits


The beginning of the war on Americans is about to start. The Ruling administration will show us what the previously seeming anti everything Congress can do for us or to us. The rhetorical time is past and now the actual work should begin. We should remember that the buzzwords do not always translate into action due to existing systems and laws. Newton’s Third law: “For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction” pretty well sums up how the government will run for the next several years. There are many non collective ideas in the air in Washington which may or may not land during this administration. The onus is on the Congress to do the work they have avoided for years. The old phrase: “put up or shut up” comes to mind as we now watch the events of government unfold. We as voters have an early opportunity in 2 years to change the tone and possibly the direction of the Congress no matter what party is in power. It is well for us to remember that we (voters) have the power to change our government no matter what the candidates for office tell us. If we just keep tabs on what our elected officials are doing, we have the ability to keep government honest(?). A point to remember is that Criminals wear suits too.

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Where We Go Wrong


The past election and current political news(?) coupled with the International issues have created a perfect storm of misinformation and potential mistakes yet to be made. Our new Government lead by the Conservative GOP will be scrutinized closely by all. Our part as voters is to simply pay attention to who we have elected , especially from the State to federal levels as these are the people who have and can do us (the voters) the most harm. No matter what you think your politics are, the elected officials we have in place are on a different path and have been for many years. Each person we elect is a cheerleader at first, once elected or reelected become part of the political system in order to get along. No matter what is said on the campaign trail, the reality of the political network colors what these folks do. In a correct Democracy this is not a bad idea but under the current system our Congress for the most part are no more than long term servers who do not serve anyone aside from themselves. If we look back at the many times the Congressional leaders have uttered words that should make us “woke”, we still ( some of us) believe or trust them. I am of the opinion that no matter how long a person has served in Congress, they are still not necessarily the best choice election after election. Each election cycle should have us looking at the incumbents with fresh eyes and with some idea of what they have done and said prior to that election cycle. Governing is a hard job and the higher you go , the harder it gets. Unfortunately our Congress has more of a “wait until you present something then I will critique it publicly”, rather than evaluate and alter it as needed to make it better for all of us. Through all of this, The congress still collects a 6 figure salary for less than a full year of work, enjoy a very nice medical and retirement package. It is the duty of each one of us to pay attention through what ever media source you choose to keep an eye on our elected officials and listen to them with filters that hopefully reveal the truth. I encourage all to forget party lines and labels, get the truth and vote for real. What we need are more doers and not headline seekers in Congress.

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