Throwing Trump off the ballot
Way back in 2020, when Donald Trump and Joe Biden were vying for the office of President of the United States, one of the things that was claimed by Democrats was that Donald Trump posed a grave threat to Democracy and the only way to save it was to elect Joe Biden. Well, we did that and now Joe Biden is President. Now as the 2024 election is approaching, there are Democrats who want to keep Donald Trump from running for President entirely by keeping him off the ballots of as many states as possible.
Regardless of your personal feelings toward Donald Trump, isn't keeping him off the ballot and not letting the people decide the opposite of Democracy?
But perhaps you think that people are too stupid to be allowed to pick their own leaders and while I think that's a valid argument, it's still anti-democratic.
But then, have we ever really picked our own leaders, we have two political parties that give us a choice between 2 people. Haven't the political parties really picked our leaders for us, and we just decide which parties' choice we want, and it doesn't really matter which one we pick.
Now that I'm really thinking about it, we've never lived in a democracy to begin with so whether Donald Trump's name is on the ballot or not it really doesn't matter and anyone who claims you need to do something to save Democracy is lying to you.
White Privileged Fences
Ignorance is bliss
To only those who sit
In the comfort of white
Privileged fences
You cannot pretend
That you're better than them
While you perpetuate hate
Under guise of "just rest"
Looking away
Won't erase what's been done
But it will make it easier
To forget it's all wrong
To forget that your neighbours
Don't just live down the block
If we don't care for our people
There's no reason to stop
Power will keep tripping
Bombs will be still dropped and
Our families will keep on dying
Unless we all take watch
Stare at it until it hurts
Because it fucking should
Bear witness to the wounds that you
Ignored like they didn't exist
I feel each shockwave
It rips through my soul
My ancestors are mourning
They beg for no more
No more babies should die and
No more parents should cry
No more prayers said at night
Asking just to survive
It shouldn't be radical
For our future to be
Bright, full of hope
And empathy
For no human is free
Until we all are you see
There's no celebrating life
While killing carelessly
The blood on our hands
Will never run clean
Yet we keep on cheering
For the "American Dream"
For ignorance is bliss
For only those that sit
In the comfort of white
Privileged fences
#FreePalestine
The Culmination of Two Years’ Languish
Looking back, those eighteen months felt like decades. And it wasn’t a calm, easy time, the kind of time that can verge on boring when one has to seek excitement to feel the old, pink pump chugging.
Perhaps it was a carried-over feeling from the previous few years when upheaval uncovered not the rich soil in which to plant a prosperous future but rather a boggy stench of slush that we squeegeed into the new decade.
Spoiled elder youths muddied the Slip-n-Slide, leaving a sopping green mess to mark us, we of the forgotten generation, we that promised ourselves we would throw the whole thing out before we let it get ruined. To be fair, one could suppose that the other side viewed themselves much the same way, and maybe they were trying to throw it all out just as we’d promised ourselves. They almost succeeded.
A mess soothes, its familiarity securing one’s perimeters, one’s capacity to withstand and withhold; but it’s an amoeboid barrier. We control what passes through, stifling the variety of stimuli until we believe that nothing exists besides what we allow in. In those boggy months, stagnating in what seemed a perpetual storm of misinformation and fomented fear, the variety of stimuli decreased further. We were left to choose between the horrifying truth and the horrible, sometimes-intentionally inaccurate, lie; made to feel unbalanced when considering rational ideas, unhinged when expressing genuine concern for devastating prospects.
And when the others, those that drained the water leaving nothing but the unskimmed muck behind, began to bear the brunt of their ignorance and belittling, they blamed the government for their condition.
These—who perceived a piece of cloth over one’s face more devastating than the deadly condition that the cloth prevented—didn’t blame the entire government, each branch given a list of grievances with specific demands to improve our collective situation. No, it was simultaneously more pointed and amorphous. Only certain political factions were labeled “government.” And with that label came the modifiers “corrupt” and “elite" and “oppressive.” They twisted suggestions and mandates for safety into evidence of control and barbarism and worst of all in their estimations, anti-nationalism. Their personal identities and love of self, tied so closely to their sense of entitlement by virtue of being born in an arbitrarily and violently formed area of the planet, they could no longer distinguish between their own needs and the desires of the ruling class. And, don't misunderstand: there was a ruling class.
There, costumed in the fineries of their respective statuses—half-naked and painted, a malignant manifestation of the crux of American cultural appropriation; decked with dingy denim and beer-scented beards and bras; or boringly quaffed with cookie-cutter business casual slacks and loafers—they stormed the castle of perceived slights and imaginary injustices.
They called for the Deaths not only of those who represented and fought for disparate ideological legislation (women and minorities, mostly), but also of those whose recent words and actions weren’t harsh or vainglorious enough for these self-appointed liberators of the most liberated and protected sector of the population to justify their violence (up to and including the VP of the USA).
They, who railed against peaceful protests of police brutality and flew black, white and blue flags on their trucks as they rammed pedestrians, beat officers of peace with the emblem of the country, defiled red stripes with the red blood of their protectors in a vain presumption of oppression. Clamoring for chaos in the guise of liberty, they split symbols of Freedom like firewood and shattered declarative encasements, exposing fragile parchments of history to the mired air of the moment.
Boasting their conquest, they posted photos and videos of their fight against the fair and legal election of a president. Unable to accept that they were not in fact the silent majority, they transformed themselves into the worst of what they purported to despise: lawless, unjust, uncivilized, violent. They returned to work with a feeling of elation, of being seen and heard, of making a difference for the betterment of the country, incapable of understanding that they would not be the heroes of the hour. And nothing came of the boastful promises; none of the rallies they threatened formed. None of the representatives they harangued were unseated or prosecuted for fictitious crimes. No new macabre conjectures made their way to mainstream news: no gay frogs, no pizza parlor cults, no reptilian extraterrestrials running the shadow government.
The following year, January 6th became a meme. The devastation, death, destruction, and defilement transposed into another e-symbol of self-congratulatory virtue. When the indictments began, propelled by self-recorded evidence of high crimes, it wasn’t front-page news. No hordes of cameras waited outside halls of justice for the details of the trials. No 60-minute specials laid bare the intriguing back story of the individuals in an attempt to understand the psychological underpinnings of these crazed devotees.
Perhaps the lack of coverage was for the best. Relegated once again to snapping toothlessly, stuck in a swampy pit of their own making, without a trainer to praise their myopic destitute desires and violently asinine actions, they sank more slowly and more quietly than they had risen. Still there, in the murky shallows they wait, hoping to once again be relevant, even if their only contribution is destruction.
For the Dow
Two weeks in, and Price is slumping
The gas is cheap, but no one's pumping
CEOs resigned and dumping;
We don't want to die for the Dow.
POTUS says two weeks suffice,
And he'll help states if they play nice
Lieutenants claim they'll sacrifice, but
We won't die for the Dow.
Nurses burn like Salem witches
For asking for clean, sterile stitches
Scientists wind up in ditches;
We won't die for the Dow!
"Aegrescit medendo!"
While Doctors' protests crescendo
And Corporatists thrive on innuendo, but
We won't Die for the Dow!
While fairly sure that this will end
And hoping not to break but bend
We solemnly our lives defend, for
WE WON'T DIE FOR THE DOW!
(3/25/2020)
“He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.”
--Adolf Hitler
I know a guy who has a dog. He says his dog is trans. Seriously. He's been in the tree business for a long time. He's not a landscaper... he's an arborist. I've known this guy and his dog since said dog was a puppy. The dog has a penis. Boy dog. Arborist, however, gets angry if you don't accept that his penis-toting dog is a girl.
I heard, recently, a man made an observation, roughly saying: If you're 18 and you think you're actually a member of the opposite sex, you have a mental illness; while, if you're 8 and you think you're a member of the opposite sex, your mother has a mental illness.
Let's talk about dogs, in comparison to cats, in their relationship to people. Cats are, for lack of a better word, lame. Dogs, however, are cool. When you come home to a dog, the dog greets you at the door, thrilled to see you, ready for camaraderie, eager to please. When you come home to a cat, you wonder if the cat is even there. At best, the cat looks to see who opened the door, but keeps its distance as apathy and distrust both outweigh curiosity. The simplest thing, calling your pet by name, should elicit an act of loyalty... like, showing up. Dogs will come when called; cats may or may not care that you're speaking at all.
Dogs are easily trained, even by lay people, to perform simple tricks. Patient dog owners can teach them more advanced tricks. Cats are also easily trained--they can sit, roll over, play dead... oh who am I kidding? I can't even type this with a straight face. You need the patience of Job and a blow gun to get a cat to learn it's not allowed on the kitchen counter.
With dogs, playtime is anytime. Fetch, run full-speed with no apparent goal, learn new tricks, go for a walk... anything that involves wagging a tail, dog is ready. Cats are bit less playful--their playtime is really just practicing at killing something for fun and leaving its corpse behind for someone else to deal with.
Dogs are great protectors. If someone strange approaches your home, the dog will let everyone, including the stranger, know that something is amiss. If overseen by a cat, the house is fair game. The cat will likely stow itself away under a bed, and this hiding space will commonly be used whenever a stranger comes near, or if friend drops by, or a neighbor, or someone who also lives in the house.
Dogs are used in police work, search and rescue, handicap assistance, and in multiple government agencies including those countering drug smugglers and human traffickers. A cat will climb a tree, then find it's too scared to climb back down the same tree.
I know, you're thinking these comparisons aren't totally accurate. There are instances where cats have attacked people or animals who threatened a family member. Some cats can do wonderful tricks. Some greet their people at the door when they come home. On the flip side, some dogs are useless as guardians. Some dogs hide when people visit. Some little inbred Chihuahuas will bark at someone they've lived with literally their entire life. These exceptions prove the rule. A cat that comes when you call it by name... cool cat. A dog that does not come when called... lame dog. A cat that does tricks... cool cat. A dog that does not do tricks... lame dog.
In short, the coolest cats are the most like dogs; and the lamest dogs are the most like cats. They each have their idiosyncrasies. They are so common within their respective species that they are well-known to pet owners everywhere--not set in stone, just common traits. We love them regardless of their individual traits. We accept them for what they are, even if they suck and don't come when we call.
What's the difference between similes and metaphors? What little kid, at play in a swimming pool, would shout out using the simile, "I'm like a shark!" when he or she plays as such? Wouldn't happen. It would always be the metaphor, "I'm a shark!" Most people recognize that, regardless of the confusing metaphor, the child isn't actually a shark. Some people, however, are confused by metaphors--they think the child truly believes the shark thing. They think it's cute and encourage the child to be a shark all the time if that's what they want. Others may be convinced that the child actually is a shark trapped in a human child's body--the result of a rare mistake made by God. In unique cases, the parents of a child, with extraordinary swimming skills, will have fins surgically grafted onto the child's body (because that is the only logical thing to do) and demand that everyone who does not acknowledge the child as actually being a shark is guilty of some sort of hate crime.
Some people see gender roles and demand that they mean absolutely nothing. They believe that stereotypical activities associated with gender shouldn't even exist in the minds of contemporary human parents. They insist that physical appearances are the least reliable means of determining sex. Those same people will then witness a little boy playing with dolls and pour every ounce of energy into transforming that boy, mentally and physically, into someone who looks and acts like a girl, contradicting everything they hold to be true about appearances and gender roles.
There is an awesome and unique beauty in finding a cat that acts like a dog, but no matter how much it acts like a dog, it will never, ever... ever, ever, ever... be a dog. We do not need to graft dog features onto an awesome cat just because it satisfies our need to have something that acts like a dog also look like a dog. Let's just accept that some cats act like dogs, without demanding that those cats actually are dogs stuck in cats' bodies and we have to surgically alter them in order to satisfy our desire to have things fit into the categories we despise.
The arborist doesn't do work for us anymore. Why? Because we refuse to play his ridiculous game with his male dog, and he won't do business with anyone who doesn't accept his fantasy as reality. He was mad. He said he doesn't understand why people won't accept "her" for what she is.
"This is hypocrisy of the highest order. Why should eight billion people in the entire world be forced to change their hearts, to accept your false reality, when you, alone, couldn't even bend to accept true reality?"
It may be the single most dangerous attitude to have ever been instilled into the minds of a generation: "And you don't have to change a thing, the world could change its heart." --Songwriters: Warren Felder / Andrew Wansel / Coleridge Tillman / Alessia Caracciolo
hired a babysitter
appears I hired a babysitter
unintentionally, but I did
I didn’t know I needed one
but on a ballot they were hid
my kids seem independent
the spouse and I both okay
we manage and we function
but apparently we have no say
was our educations inferior
or some decisions not divine
thought our goal to be successful
but I guess we got out of line
so we scratch and we ponder
all our way under a microscope
the sitter dismisses and reteaches
but when challenged we’re the dope
10/30/2021
Sleeping Beauty
Wake up! Wake up!
Who ever you are!
Wake up from this coma you’ve
been brainwashed into so hard.
The propaganda you have been
fed your entire lives,
Has now made you sick
and now some have died.
The cost of waking up from this coma
has been a terrible waste.
Now beware, they see you are becoming
more awake!
This was not in the programming,
this wasn’t supposed to take place!
If you out there wake up more to your power,
then harder it is for them your minds,
your souls, your wills to devour!
Do not allow these liars and thieves
to steal what is yours!
They are killing your children, your elders and your planet, teaching you it’s alright.
Telling you to calm down because your not really understanding what you’re seeing in the light.
When I’m reality you should be fleeing!
The elitists, the politicians and the hush men in their employment, these are the ones we need to be wary of because this is their enjoyment.
Take up your arms my friends.
This is about greedy power at its darkest hour.
Those at the top care not about those
whom they devour at the bottom.
Open Letter/Open Statement
Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t Income Tax Evasion a federal crime? Isn’t that what Bezos, Musk, and others are doing? Hell, Al Capone went to prison for that ... or do you have to be a criminal before the Feds step in and do the right thing? If the average working stiff did what billionaires have been doing, you can bet your bottom dollar they would be in prison.
There has been so much talk about another stimulus paymment. As to a next stimulus payment and additional monies for social security, that won’t happen until after the current package gets passed and even then, it will be under reconciliation as Republicans will do all they can under McConnel’s leadership to thwart everything Democrats do.
And if Republicans do that, they seal their fate in the 2022 elections as it will show no support for the American people and their needs.
Between the House and the Senate; people like Jordan, Gaetz, Andrew Clyde, Taylor-Greene, Nunez, Cruz, Marco Rubio, Graham, Stefanik, Tuberville, Cotton, Kennedy, Rick Scott, McCarthy and McConnel all need to go. Sadly those who are Senators and not up for reelection will still be around for a few more years. There are also five open House seats, two of which are related to deaths three others who resigned. The House can add to that with Democratic leadership in 2022.
If you really want change -- a change that can reflect positively on the future of this country, get rid of the swamp rats. The same people who denied January 6th was an insurrection. The same people who back Trump. The same people who will not support you -- the American people.
I rarely, if ever, talk politics here, but keep in mind one very important factor: no Republican supported the last stimulus package. When they did, it was only when Trump was president, and Demmocrats supported that.
At the rate things are going, I fear the days of bipartisanship is and will be a thing of the past. Democratic Senators are calling for bipartisanship but the Republicans aren't responding
We can all cite the fact we are in debt, of that there is no mistake, but I would rather be in a financial debt than be out of a home, a job, food to eat, or children to take care of. It has been touted that with either another stimulus check or recurring payents (for a set period of time), it would reduce the poverty level for over sixteen million people. So ask yourself if you want to get out of debt first or out of the poverty line first.
And Trump’s prediction he will reclaim the presidency in August? On September 1st he will make this announcement: “That was all fake news. I meant next August.”
I AM ANGRY!
American sons and daughters are being deployed like mercenaries overseas to countries having civil wars that have been going on for years!
We don’t need to be drawn into another stupid “Conflict”
Case in point the Shia Muslims have their point of views on the proper way to live and worship Allah, and the Sunni branch of Islam has their own ideas of what is the best way to live and worship Allah.
So because they disagree these two groups of children of Abraham think fighting and killing is the best way to solve their problems!
Really?
In the thousands of years that humans have been on this earth, people still haven’t learned that the answer to the ancient riddle isn’t
“how much better can we
improve our killing skills?”
The answer is,
“ Look how far we have come
since learning how to negotiate
and work through our differences!”
In Palestine, both Israelis and Palestinians can get together for a few days for some of the most beautiful horse shows one can ever see. It’s a beautiful thing, all for the common love of the Arabian Horse.
If that can happen there, why can’t people find common ground together and stop all of this hatred and fighting.
Before the Houthis took over Yemen, the country was struggling. Now it’s even worse.
What has been made better by all the fighting?
Dead women and children laying all over the streets? Dead men defending their children?
WHO IS MADE BETTER?