Our National Nightmare

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Friday March 24, 2017 · 4:46 PM PDT

2017/03/24 · 16:46

His mouth blared his self-imposed moniker - Mr. Negotiator. But Donald tRump, a unrepentant pathological liar, has no clue how the elements of governance interact and work, and so somehow seems to believe that government can be run and influenced as a business. His inexplicably naive presumption could not be further from the truth.

As it turns out, there are in fact at least six branches of government, listed below in increasing order of power and influence (provided normal political forces are generally in balance):

* Executive
* Legislative
* Bureaucratic/career civil servants
* Free Press
* Judicial
* An informed electorate.

If you have any doubts that this list is generally true, you might read up on the Watergate scandal (1972 -1974+). Reviewing briefly, Richard Nixon didn't resign when he initially was rightly accused of the coverup of a burglary. He didn't resign when half his staff had to resign in criminal shame over the course of a year. He didn't even resign after the House Judiciaty Committee voted out a slew of Articles of Impeachment and sent them to the House floor for relatively certain approval. Rather, he resigned mere days after the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Nixon had to release, unedited and unaltered, the tapes of his Oval Office conversations while contemporaneous opinion polls finally showed that 51 percent of voters wanted him gone. A few days later, he cried on TV, waved awkwardly to a crowd on the White House lawn, boarded Marine One, and flew off to California. As incoming president Gerald Ford was soon to point out, “our national nightmare (was) over."

Maddow Is Clicking with the Anti-Trump Audience

Dfetzer926

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Saturday March 04, 2017 · 1:26 PM PST

2017/03/04 · 13:26

Rachel Maddow, who has recently doubled her ratings, is totally on target. She recently divulged that her current strategy is to cover only what tRump DOES, and to IGNORE what he SAYS. In that way, she can continually highlight evidence of his ineffectiveness and unfitness to lead even a rural school board.

Maddow's recent pieces have cut to the heart of tRump’s inherent greed-jfocused corruption. As a result, he's being constantly forced to focus on distracting tRump's core voters from the truth that he's betraying every reason why they voted for him. And he's doing so every day.

Administration Rushes Headlong Toward Collision With a Wall

Dfetzer926

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Saturday February 25, 2017 · 8:26 PM PST

2017/02/25 · 20:26

As a long-time contractor working closely with federal and state governments, I'm skeptical of the near term schedule being bantered about for beginning work on The Wall. No doubt tRump is beating on the contracting agency affiliated with Homeland Security to rush this program, having suggested that Requests for Proposals might be released as soon as March 24 ( they didn't say which year). But government contracting does not function well when rushed. There are rules.

But partisan issues aside, Congress tends to pay close attention when big contracting dollars start to flow. Particularly so, even, when the project looks like a boondoggle to begin with.

Unless my experience has taught me nothing, the projected size of the project, more than $50B, dictates that competitive bidding will be required. Any attempt to award a sole-source contract vehicle in violation of federal contracting law and rules will result in instantaneous lawsuits and court injunctions to allow the universe of federal contractors to participate in the contracting process and the massive construction to follow, which will begin making headlines virtually immediately. And that's even before the overruns start

Typically, the government is leery of huge single awards (I.e., a single prime contractor with a plethora of subcontractors), even if a single award appears to be the most efficient way to accomplish the goal. This is because every member of congress wants to see a significant piece of the massive project find its way to their state or district. tRump may want the project awarded to one of his corrupt cronies, but the profile and magnitude of the effort, plus the potential for continuing bad press and investigations throughout the life of the project suggest that, at least on the surface, the rules will have to be paid more than just lip service. Typically for government projects of multi-billion dollar magnitudes, even low-tech efforts like a wall, just the award of prime contract(s), might easily take one year or more from proposal to award. Throw in some amended RPFs, delays requested by contractors and government, changes to requirements and specifications, resubmissions, Best and Final Offers, cost resubmissions, final negotiations, eminent domain legal tussles, injunctions, lawsuits, protests by losing vendors, general recriminations, and more lawsuits, it could be years before the first bulldozer turns over the first acre of soil near the southern border. And it's likely that piece of heavy equipment would be driven by a person of Hispanic heritage. By that point, midterm elections will have come and gone.

If you're anxious for The Wall, buy a copy of Pink Floyd's excellent concept album of the same name, which ironically ends by tearing down The Wall.

Before Dems Can Breathe Easier, WE HAVE TO GET OUT THE BLUE VOTE, UP AND DOWN THE TICKET!

Dfetzer926

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Saturday October 22, 2016 · 3:41 PM PDT

2016/10/22 · 15:41

There are no laurels to rest on in this election. Not yet, at least.

Polls are polls, and they affect our pre-election perceptions and expectations. But it's only the ballots that will count, cast by Americans of all parties, religious denominations, and diverse ethnic groups we’re blessed to count as fellow citizens. The election won't be over until the voters have spoken.

If you care about your country, your friends, your family, and generations yet to come, about their rights , and their abilities to enjoy the liberties and privileges you've enjoyed, YOU MUST VOTE IN THIS UPCOMING ELECTION.

If you already have a mail-in ballot and you have not yet voted, follow the instructions, fill it out, and mail it in ASAP. It may require additional postage.

If you plan to vote early, learn the dates and times to do so, get to your polling place, and VOTE.

If you plan to vote in person on Election Day, Tuesday, November 8, get there early, patiently wait out the lines, and let nothing and no one stand in your way. VOTE!

I don't have to remind you how important this presidential race is. But equally important are the various races for US Senate, US House of Representatives, and your state and local candidates who deserve your vote.

If the last eight years of obstruction by Congress have frustrated your trust in Washington, you have a chance to fix it: VOTE BLUE. VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS up and down the ballot.

Get out and VOTE!

Trump's Outrageous Accusations of Election-Rigging Threaten National Security

Dfetzer926

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Saturday October 15, 2016 · 10:30 AM PDT

2016/10/15 · 10:30

As of right now, the Republican Party shares, if not bears alone, responsibility for the threat of illegitimacy of the 2016 presidential election, and with it, the stability of the U.S. Government.

It's time, once and for all, for Speaker Ryan and Mr. McConnell to clear their minds, suck it up, and, finally, lead. It's time, once and for all, to renounce Donald Trump, his angry followers, and his outrageous accusations.

Although Trump may become, as he deserves to be, a lurid footnote to history, his ugly legacy and the sordid roles played by Ryan and McConnell could well be writ large in the first paragraph of the Republican Party's coming obituary: "begun gloriously with Lincoln, ended shamefully with Trump."

Guess What, Haters. You Just Wasted a Decade.

Dfetzer926

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Friday September 30, 2016 · 6:45 AM PDT

2016/09/30 · 06:45

Pretty soon Barack Obama will be gone, never again to run for office (well, maybe the next president will nominate him to the Supreme Court), and you will have to face the fact that you will have lost a whole decade of your life passing around conspiracy theories and whipping yourself into a frothy frenzy of hatred. All of you have lost friends, poisoned relationships with family members, and some of you may have even lost your jobs or your marriages due to your irrational behavior and obedience to an unending fountain of partisan propaganda.

You lost that decade wailing about Obama, the Communist Muslim socialist atheist Nazi dictator who was going to let the UN invade America, or install Sharia law. And don't forget the time wasted on failed conspiracy theories regarding death panels, birth certificates, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton coming to confiscate your treasured guns, Iraq's non-existent WMDs, and BenghaziBenghaziBenghazi. Even your partisan obfuscation failed.

Just think of what you could have accomplished if you hadn't wasted all that time.

You could have gotten a college degree, written a book, run your first marathon, or built a boat and sailed it around the world. You could have learned to speak another language -- wait, probably not.

You kept waiting for Obama to be impeached or for the GOP candidates to "take off the gloves." But they never did because your favorite stories were hoaxes, and the GOP can't take those hoaxes further because they can't impeach a president or win the White House based on hoaxes. No doubt you were also waiting for someone, anyone, in the White House to be indicted or arrested, like all those people indicted, convicted and jailed under Nixon, Reagan and Bush. But no dice.

Many of you will never recover from this experience. Physically and mentally, your health is possibly worse for having lost a decade to a frenzy of hatred. Your ability to reason may be permanently compromised, and nobody really wants to listen to your opinions any more anyway. Yes, you can successfully annoy the waitress at the diner, because she can't run away from a customer, but that doesn't mean she agrees with you or is even listening. Some of you will be going into nursing homes because people gave up on you a long time ago and nobody can stand to listen to one more day of your bleating about Saul Alinsky, who's been dead since 1972, or, sadly, the late Vince Foster.

Some of you have no doubt suffered financially from all the time you wasted hating Obama. But some of you may be forced to admit to yourselves that you have actually done very very well under his "anticapitalist," "communist," "dictatorship." You do know that the economy usually does much better under Democrats, right? Stock market way up. Deficit way down. Profits way up. Joblessness way down. GDP growth up considerably. All this is just the opposite of results during twelve years of the curiously lionized Bush family.

The upcoming years would be a good chance to start making amends to your friends and families, trying to rebuild relationships with the offended people in your life. Yes we know there's another election coming right up, and you could choose again to dive down the rabbit hole of insanity, but you could also choose to leave your families with a few memories of you acting like a normal human being. Of course, this being America, that's your choice.

And, if eventually there is another GOP president, bear in mind that there will be fatal embassy attacks under the GOP president, just like the dozens of fatal embassy attacks that occurred under previous Republican presidents. The difference will be that Democrats won't be jacking themselves into a frenzy of conspiracy theories, they won't be cheerleading for the terrorists, and they won't be trying to overthrow the US government because they don't like today's headline.

-----—

Thanks,, readers, for putting this diary on the DK Recommended List. I'm honored.

Manafort's exit brings Trump's campaign a breath of fresh danger

Dfetzer926

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Friday August 19, 2016 · 9:40 AM PDT

2016/08/19 · 09:40

Paul Manafort’s resignation from his brand-new and useless role in the flagging Trump campaign is possibly a relief for the rowers still in the lifeboat. They think.

Trump himself set Manafort gingerly on the dock with a cheery sendoff: Manafort had gotten the campaign to the point "where they are today.” That’s called damning with faint praise.

The Trump campaign may think that it's out of the woods, but to further burden the metaphor, they're just crossing a firebreak.

Since Trump wrong-headedly seems to think of a political campaign as a business deal, he hired Manafort as someone he knew to be just like him, possessing situational morality, understanding some of the methods necessary to do international business and, as a bonus, running foreign political campaigns for despots. As a result, knowingly or unknowingly, Trump ill-advisedly hired someone with significant baggage that happened to be much like Trump’s.

Though Manafort is history, the barely-contained stench of the Russian-connection remains a noxious ticking time bomb for Trump. His Putin relationship, whatever it may be, his daughter’s Putin connection with Putin’s mistress, whatever that may be, beg clear and thorough explanation. And if no satisfactory explanation is forthcoming, there needs to be satisfactory investigation.

Perhaps the New YorkTimes, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post are already all over the story. In any event, having the facts in this critical matter in the public domain before the first upcoming debate would be useful for voters who demand to know for whom, and for what, they are about to vote.

The Dim Don has called his vile attacks "jokes." No worries, Andy Kaufman - your legacy is safe.

Dfetzer926

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Friday August 12, 2016 · 12:34 PM PDT

2016/08/12 · 12:34

For the political novice, here's the way a tRump "joke"works.

1. He says what he wants his base to hear, knowing that Faux Noise will run the full story and the live audience reaction as well, if that reaction is properly supportive of tRump. Meanwhile, the sane faction of the country calls him out in a proper flaming blast.

2. All the usual suspects denounce tRump's pronouncements as irresponsible, bigoted, and whatever else may be accurate characterizations. Certain Republicans denounce but do nothing. Millions scratch their scalps in wonderment.

3. tRump waits a day while his devoted cadre (less devoted and smaller in number every day) spin a number of disintegrated tales.

4. tRump does not apologize, ever. Not even for his most egregious/disgusting diatribes.

5. A day or more later, tRump declares that either he never said what was distributed to millions of television viewers, or, alternately, his words were a joke, intended to be sarcastic,, or that the press is out to kill his chances for the presidency. BTW, press - you blew your chance to do that months ago.

6. Thanks to Faux Noise, his supporters don't hear the fuss, so they're happy because he called a target a bad name that they resonate to. The rest of us are merely mystified that the Republican Party hasn't simply duct-taped him to a pole in a dank parking garage and left him to be discovered by a non-existent custodian.

It may be a great strategy, but look at the polls. It isn't working.

The Don's lame excuses aside, he urged visions of assassination knowingly and willingly.

Dfetzer926

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Wednesday August 10, 2016 · 8:04 PM PDT

2016/08/10 · 20:04

First, a few facts:

1. Many Trump supporters have in the past year-plus said highly inflammatory things suggesting that liberals generally and specifically HRC, should be shot, lynched, maimed, wage boarded, or otherwise assassinated. Never once has the candidate attempted to admonish his supporters for this behavior.

2. Trump has incited and sanctioned violence at his rallies, leading to attendees being beaten, verbally abused, and physically ejected into hostile crowds. Never once has the candidate attempted to admonish his supporters for this behavior.

3. With full knowledge of 1 and 2, above, Trump took to the podium in Wilmington and suggested that his supporters do something to prevent HRC from taking their guns away, an outcome that neither HRC nor Barack Obama haas ever espoused.

Trump’s pronouncements were the perfect dog-whistle. He was able to claim one thing - innocence- and clearly signal other things to his violent, racist, and fear-engorged supporters waiting for the appearance of the Bat-signal in the heavens indicating that it was finally time to do WHATEVER WAS NECESSARY to protect their treasured 2nd Amendment rights and their caches of kill toys.

I differ with anyone's case that this was just the loose talk of 'Trump being Trump.' Once again, he looked for a fresh controversy to goose his limited voter appeal, and he chose to create yet another thoroughly offensive, dangerous, and disgusting one.

November 8th cannot come swiftly enough.

As Republicans prepare for their quadrennial frolic, they face a luggage dilemma

Dfetzer926

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Sunday July 10, 2016 · 10:36 AM PDT

2016/07/10 · 10:36

REPUBLICAN CONVENTION-GOERS! As you prepare fto unleash your frolicsome natures, you must beware that what went down at previous elephant shows won't be permitted this year. So as a public service, here is a slightly abridged list of items prohibited to take into the Cleveland Republican convention.

Air rifles/pistols/BB guns, paintball guns, blasting caps, switchblades, black jacks, swords/sabers (epees OK?), hatchets/axes,slingshots, metal knuckles, nunchucks, mace, ladders, glass bottles, ornaments (?), light bulbs, aerosol cans, ceramic vessel, cans, thermoses, umbrellas, tennis balls (what will the dogs chase?), sleeping bags, tents,mattresses, hammocks, stoves, coolers, backpacks, and a great big list of etceteras including drones, grappling hooks, sledgehammers, and containers of bodily fluids. This last item does not, fortunately include tears.

It's tough to go to a convention these days and still have fun, so holsters and elephant hats will probably be allowed.

You can't bring in a can of mace. Well, OK. But apparently you can bring in an actual iron spiked ball chained to the end of a stick - that kind of mace. And, ironically, even though you must leave your nunchucks at home, the entire hall will still be filled with numnutz. Go figure.

Hmmm. Water pistols are a no-no, real guns are fine. Pack light, just be sure to pack. Thank you, NRA, and stay safe, Republicans. The whole world is watching.

Assault Weapons are a Plague on Our Society

Dfetzer926

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Monday June 13, 2016 · 1:59 PM PDT

2016/06/13 · 13:59

We have been told that the security guard inside the door of the Pulse club was armed with a handgun, and that he was among the first to die early on that awful Sunday morning . It mattered not a whit that he was armed, because he was neutralized immediately, providing no deterrent to the shooter, armed with a nefarious hatred, a vicious plan, and an AR-15.

No reasonable weapon in the hands of a guard, not even another assault rifle, would be likely to prevail against the one used by the Pulse shooter. In fact, it borders on the miraculous that, armed with 700 rounds of ammunition as the shooter was, that all 300 celebrants at the Pulse did not die, or at least be seriously wounded, in yesterday’s attack. It was a horrible and unprecedented attack, simple in concept, perfectly executed, and the most deadly in our nation’s history. And it could be repeated anywhere, at ant time., at a church, a school, a Walmart, a shopping mall

In the face of an assault weapon, every one of us is a sitting duck. We are vulnerable everywhere we go, in every public venue. Security guards are powerless in the face of a motivated shooter who is able to deliver a torrent of fire in a confined space. Like the innocent patrons of the Pulse, we are all like fish in a barrel.

We are all vulnerable.

Assault weapons have but one purpose: to kill people. They have no purpose for hunting. no role in self-defense. Assault weapons are a menace to public health.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed a bill outlawing most assault weapons in the US. Ten years later, the law expired, unrenewed by a Congress unwilling to face a burgeoning lobbying effort and jeopardize the flow of abundant campaign funds from the gun lobby, now clearly under control of gun manufacturers. In the intervening decade, the assault weapon ban had been unsuccessfully challenged in the courts, unchallenged evenon Second Amendment grounds .

We owe it to our society to remove from it the scourge of assault weapons. Some of our citizens may want them, but our society does not need them. At some point, and I argue that such a time is right now, the safety of our populace far outweighs the wants of a few citizens and the pernicious greed of an unbridled gun industry. Assault weapons have once again been demonstrated to materially degrade our society’s greater good, our innocent citizenry’s rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

A Letter to My Conservative Friends

Dfetzer926

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Monday June 06, 2016 · 11:14 AM PDT

2016/06/06 · 11:14

Today, I got this article from a conservative friend, who distributed it to about 10 of his friends, including me.

Obama Credits Self for Economic ‘Recovery’

www.breitbart.com/...

"A lie told often enough becomes the truth."

Despite a forecast of 160,000 new jobs, the Obama Department of Labor announced that job creation in May plunged to 38,000, the worst monthly performance in 6 years.

www.breitbart.com/...

I felt compelled to reply, since I didn’t see it quite the way the article implied. So I wrote the following message back to “Reply All”:

Hello All --

Gee. a moth below projection. I'm not even going to try to explain this number. It's possible it's an anomaly.

But you're right. Obama's record does demand closer scrutiny. Maybe even some facts.

Some illustrations of that record are necessary.

** Let's look at job growth.

Note that in the eight years (2001 through 2009) of the tenure of gWb, a wartime president, America added a total of negative 462,000 jobs. That's an average job loss of 4,812 per month, over 96 months. Heroic effort. Couldn't add jobs even while fighting two wars.

Let's look at the jobs record of the man we love to label a national and international pariah. That communist, socialist, muslim, worse-than-Hitler, gun confiscatin' King of Kenya, Barack Hussein Obama. Let's see, now .... looks like a total of 22,334,00 jobs added over a span of 89 months so far for a monthly average gain of 251,056.

Obama’s tenure has added more jobs each month than twice the population of the city I grew up in. Sad;u. mpt many of those jobs went to that city.

Of course, we might rightly pray for a massive depression to erase these gains from our president’s legacy. For Obama to match gWb's job-creation record, our country would have to lose 3,255,000 jobs per month in the remaining seven months of his term. And that would be one BIG depression, one that presents no hint of occurring on the horizon. Personally, I can't bring myself to pray for such a leveling of the playing field.

Now for some additional texture:

** Unemployment rates under gWb and Obama

I'm still not feeling worse-off

Of course, these statistics must have come at the expense of our friends, big banks and other corporations. So records of corporate profits should tell the tale:

** Corporate profits:

Oops. Corporate profits tripled over the last 89 months. Let’s keep going.

** The stock market:

Uh-oh. The stock market has doubled over the gWb peak, and quadruped over the market that gWb left us in 2009. Oops again.

** Guns:

Guns sold since Obama's assuming office in 2009: more than 100,000,000 (through 12/2015)

Guns confiscated since Obama's assuming office in 2009: Zero (0)

I'm guessing that Fox News has not told this story. To repeat the line at the beginning of this thread:

"A lie told often enough becomes the truth."

Since this apparently favorable result cannot be attributed to any particular effort on the part of the government, it must be therefore simply blind luck.

I hope we all have the same great fortune surviving a Trump administration, patiently waiting while he makes America great again. That's when I'll be buying MY guns.

Regards from Your Friend.

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