I’ve been a member here for a couple of years, and may have lurked earlier than that. I’ve been meaning to write a diary for several months, but there was always something which distracted me. For one thing, I’m working through the worst bipolar/anxiety disorder problem I’ve ever had. It’s entering its third year, and I actually was approved for disability the first time I applied last spring. Tip for anyone who needs to apply for disability: Have a doctor, med student or nurse fill the application out for you while you are hospitalized. I’m not saying you should go to the hospital gratuitously, but that happened to be my circumstance, and I have no doubt it was a huge “plus” for my case. Also get a good disability lawyer. They are paid only after you win disability, and get a percentage of your first check or checks.
Now for a couple of pertinent matters:
My first presidential vote was in 1980, for John Anderson. In retrospect, a terrible mistake. Jimmy Carter deserved my vote, for many reasons, but mainly to keep the “Reagan Revolution” from happening. Of course no one was aware of the rumor that the Reagan campaign, in the person of George HW Bush, negotiated with the Iranians to keep the hostages from being released prior to the election. It barely gets mentioned even today. Had we known prior to the election, it would have likely been a game changer, much as GWB’s AWOL revelations would have been if released sooner and given the credence they deserved. Even proper scrutiny after the election would have altered public perception of Reagan, GWHB, and GWB, and likely led to very different presidencies.
Perhaps this is why the infighting here gets to me so: We CANNOT AFFORD another Republican as president, not when the candidates and also the names of potential “saviors” from a Trump candidacy are worse than Reagan was, or GWB, in terms of the sheer malice toward virtually every group of people who are not Republicans. Indeed, even some Republicans are seen as RINOs and are vilified and primaried for daring to want to negotiate with Democrats; i.e., do their jobs as elected officials.
Then there is the “Hillary is a liar” statement, thrown around so frequently, and not adequately addressed with facts. Namely, the Politifact Truth o Meter listings. These rankings, which exist for each presidential candidate and other politicians as well, are quite detailed, if one chooses to click on the word on the left of the chart; i.e. True or Pants on Fire and see the individual examples and reason why they are ranked as they are. I will link each of the remaining candidates’ scores.
www.politifact.com/…
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Now for some analysis of the charts:
1. Not only does Hillary’s chart show she tells the truth far more often than she lies, 72 percent of the time in the three categories designated as truths, her overall score there is comparable to Bernie’s, who scores 70 percent in the three truth categories. So not only is Hillary’s score higher, but she has significantly more examples than Bernie does, which makes sense since she has been the more prominent politician, and prior to that First Lady. And a highly controversial one. The only really comparable example would be Eleanor Roosevelt. Imagine all the accusations she would have faced in the internet age! Even the television age. The lesbian rumors alone would be non stop. If anyone here is not aware of the concerted right wing effort to smear both Hillary and Bill Clinton with accusations of everything from murder, and dozens of them, to “trashing” the White House when they left it, I can’t possibly educate you about that in one diary.
2. Ted Cruz IS Lyin’ Ted. The problem for the man who calls him that, Donald Trump, is that Trump is an even BIGGER liar. Trump has only three statements rated as true, and a mind boggling 24 that are rated as “Pants on Fire” lies. PLEASE show this charts to the Trump and Cruz supporters you encounter. I’m sure they will sputter that Politifact is a left wing site that is out to get the Republicans. But besides being run by the Pulitzer Prize winning Tampa Bay Times in Florida, the left wing bias accusations can be countered by including John Kasich’s chart. Kasich scores quite well, especially for a Republican. I have yet to parse all the statements they score Kasich on as to their relevance to the presidency, or whether I disagree with the conclusions. But it does seem to indicate even handedness on the part of the Politifact staff. Indeed, when Rubio was in the race, his chart was rather similar, in that the truths outnumbered the lies.
That’s enough for one diary. I await your feedback.