The Clinton Mandate

"Clinton’s lead is now 2,550,627. With this, Trump’s overall popular vote percentage drops to 46.3 as he tries to move further down the historically unpopular list.

Other points: Trump’s vote lead in Michigan is now down to 10,704. His lead in Wisconsin is down to 22,177. The fact of the matter is that while Donald Trump may still be our next president, there were a ton of people, even in “red states,” voting for Clinton. Trump’s vote lead in Texas is well under one million"

  DailyKos

Trump Loves Pakistan

He didn't a few years ago, now he does (maybe)?  Probably wants to build a hotel there.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a51130/trump-pakistan-prime-minister-call/?src=nl&mag=esq&list=nl_enl_news&date=113016

Generational

Doesn’t this sound like the way Millennials are described today? 

This is from a 2001 White Paper on Sales talent.  Those evil Gen Xers. 

 The Greatest generation said the same thing about the Baby Boomers and they said it about GenX.  Don’t get me started on those Jazz age kids with their Gin and crazy gyrations. 

“Back when I was young…people were more awesome, these young whippersnappers are lazy/entitled/irresponsible/etc”

Effort not slogans

To my fellow liberal types

Stop with the "not my President". I always HATED that when people said that about Obama because in truth he is everyone's President. And Trump will be, we only get one at a time. We didn't do what was needed to overcome his election, so unfortunately he is (will be) your President too.

Instead of pithy hashtag slogans, get active.  Give your money and time to Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center, Black Lives Matter etc.  Make a difference in people's lives, work harder to turn American AWAY from the racist, xenophobic, misogynist message of the President-elect.  Keep America great.  Not with untrue slogans, but with support for the causes of progessivism, freedom, equality, inclusion...

Why I hate giving American airlines my cash

I've had elite status in American Airlines for a few years now, actually it started with USAir and it was a good program then but has got nothing but worse since the merger.  I was often upgraded on USAir, not anymore, and the way they make your pay for upgrades now is crap, coupled with there ever decreasing focus on the customer, I can't wait to stop using them.  I have paying my own money (not business funded travel) every month for 5 years.  There relative suckiness was brought home again tonight as I fly on a United flight tomorrow on which I've been upgraded for free.   United recently matched my elite status on United based on my American Status.  I haven't flown United in years and despite that I was just upgraded, same thing happened with Alaska a few months ago.  Free upgrades on two airlines that matched my American Status but I have to pay for any upgrade on American or wait a ridiculous amount of fights to earn credits despite  spending 10s of thousands of my own cash.   United and Alaska have treated me better based on my American Status than American has.  I can't wait to be done with them and will be soon and will do everything I can to never give them a dime again.  United and Alaska treat me better than American does...

America's Manchurian Candidate

Trump encourages Russia to perform Cyberespionage

So, in the past few days:

Trump says he'll let Russia invade NATO countries

Russia hacks his political opponents emails and releases them

Conservative stalwart posits that Trump won't release his taxes because he's in bed with Russian Oligarchs

Now he encourages Russia to spy on his political rival.

How the FUCK is this guy being taken seriously?

Are people blind? Willfully ignorant?  How can they overlook such abhorrent behavior...even just those things above, but this is not even the tip of the Orange Iceberg.

Damn you Obama

Damn Obama...ruined the economy with his high gas prices....

Americans saved a collective $115 billion plus this year on trips to the gas station. The average licensed driver pocketed more than $550, enough to cover a lease payment or two. The average price for a gallon of gas never broke $3 in 2015, and it dipped below $2 in December, the first time that’s happened since the Great Recession in 2009

Read more: AP EXPLAINS: How much money you just saved on gas in 2015 - MRT.com: Top Stories http://www.mrt.com/business/top_stories/article_f53f7760-b254-11e5-932c-efc4c11af0b6.html#ixzz3wEwiJNZh 
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Not quite how Republicans Predicted it would go
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/02/25/10507857-gingrich-im-the-250-gas-president-obama-is-the-10-gas-guy

Remember when the Religious Right was always saying Hurricanes were a punishment from God?

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/06/us/2015-hurricane-season/index.html

"CNN)The United States hasn't been hit by a major hurricane in the past nine years, and it seems like that luck might continue."

God must love Obama...

Kansas: This is what happens when the Tea Party gets in power

Kansas-Come for the 16th Century approach to civil rights, stay for the bankrupt government.



http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/06/08/kansas_governor_sam_brownback_threatens_to_defund_judiciary_if_it_rules.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/05/kansas-furloughs_n_7523496.html

Brady Suspension

I was really surprised, I figured 1 game.  But you know if this was an NCAA program they'd be severely sanctioned for "Lack of Institutional Control"   This was real cheating. Premeditated violations of rules to impact the outcome of a game.  The product on the field.  A playoff product.  that's BAD for the NFL and in the end he had to be shown to be not above the law (don't worry the NFL will go back to penalizing any defender who gets anywhere near him just like it has for years).  

You may say it's small, but this was a playoff game, it's like changing the height of the basketball hoop or doctoring all the baseballs you're going to pitch with ahead of time.  

This isn't like "cheating" they talk about in college football or even the Patriots spying scandal this was changing the equipment of the game on the field to give an advantage.  Pete Rose has a lifetime ban and he never cheated in that way, hell he never cheated he was dumb but his punishment isn't for cheating during games.  

The NFL can NOT have it's product tarnished, even if Goddell didn't want to suspend Brady he had to to product the credibility of the league and the BILLIONS of dollars riding on fair contests. 

Guess what, you're not being oppressed

Give it a rest with the war on Christmas bullshit.

When I was growing up I remember getting Christmas cards that said, "Season's Greetings" and "Happy Holidays" and no one was oppressing Christians.  No one complained, but then again there was the Fox News/Right Wing outrage machine to convince people that everyone hates Christmas.  (I guess all those Christmas decorations in the stores at the same time the Halloween candy goes on sale is proof how oppressed you are)

So, if someone happens to wish you a "happy holidays" before you assume that person is taking a dump on the sweet baby Jesus take a look at your calendar. If the person saying this is saying it at the end of November, they're talking about Thanksgiving, Christmas and maybe even some other holidays.  They're not oppressing you, so put away your fake outrage.

If they are saying it to you in December, again before you assume that they want to burn down your church, again look at a Calendar.  7 Days after Christmas is another big holiday, it's called New Years.  Maybe, just Maybe when someone wishes you a Happy Holiday they might be talking about that other big ass holiday a week later.

And I know this one probably goes right to your sense of persecution, but I once worked in a retail establishment that served a large Jewish clientele (this was before Hannity and O'Reilly declared that a war on Christmas existed).  We said "Happy Holidays" to everyone to cover Hanukkah, Christmas and New Years.  GASP.  Heaven forbid we INCLUDE anyone else in your little War on Christmas pity party.  But there are actually people who aren't Christian, even some Jews...like your friend Jesus.

So, instead being outraged about how oppressed you are when EVERYWHERE you turn in this country it's NON-stop Christmas from Nov 1 through Dec 31, go work on some real social injustice in this country.  Stop complaining about immigrants and how horrible taxes are and why the benefits of those taxes you receive are so much different than the benefits others receive, go behave like your hero Jesus would.  Go wash some feet, go feed the less fortunate than you. YOU go celebrate the real lessons of Jesus instead of complaining about how much everyone hates his made up birthday.

And we all know how likely that is to happen..

Chronology of "the US doesn't torture"

So, I think it goes something like this over the past 13 plus years

US Authorizes torture
Publicly Government States "We don't torture"
Pictures come out, testimony of Torture
Publicly Government States "That's not really torture"
More evidence of torture
Publicly Government States "America doesn't torture, and we surely don't have our allies torture for us"
Everyone in the world accepts as fact that the US did torture, outsourced our torture and probably did more than we'll ever know.
Fast forward to today
Senate report proves we tortured and it didn't work
Publicly Government States "We don't torture, well maybe we did, but we got all kinds of great information out of it (even if we didn't), but we certainly don't talk about it"
Media is outraged that "Holy Shit, the bad guys will know that we tortured because they didn't know it before"
Media has no problem that the Government lied, continued to lie, possibly acted illegally to thwart the Senate investigation, but is really concerned that the people that have hated us for a long time, have engaged in terrorism for decades are going to find out that America tortured their friends, (because they didn't know it before?), but now they're going to be really angry at America.

Grow up idiots.  The Government tortured people, it didn't work, probably created more terrorists.  The outrage should be that we tortured and lied about it, not that this report proves it and was released.

ASU beat ND

I love to see Notre Dame get beat, especially after being so highly ranked despite beating no one worth mentioning.  Look at the records of the teams they beat if you don't believe me.  Nice job eeking out that win against Navy.

Anyway, the ASU coach once again got all preachy about God and how God has his hand on the ASU team.  No first of all, all of that God talk in sports is stupid and frankly should be an insult to anyone who believes in God, it assumes that God really gives a shit about who wins a football game.  But lets run with that idea for a moment.  Let's say God does care who wins a late season American college football game, what would it say about God that he favored Arizona State University over Notre Dame.  I don't know much about ND, but I do know that they have a lot of faculty and students who feel pretty close to God.  Ever been to ASU?  It's one of the most wild places in collegiate America.  Drinking, Sex, Drugs, while I"m sure exist at ND, ASU crushes ND in those areas.  It would seem like a stretch to me that if God was picking sides, he would pick Arizona State to win football games as ASU doesn't seem to follow a whole lot of the teachings in the Bible on a regular basis.

But hey, what do I know.  Maybe God IS a Sundevil

Robin Williams

I didn't really think I'd take to the Social Media to comment on Robin Williams death, but here I am.  As others have said he was always a part of my life.  From the time of Mork and Mindy up to literally 3 days ago when my kids were watching a replay of "Good Will Hunting" he seems to always been entertaining as long as i remember.

It seems that he might have killed himself and had been battling depression and as someone who has dealt with Depression a few times in my life, to the point of taking medication, I guess to some extent I identify with that battle, but clearly I never got to that point.  I never felt really suicidal so I don't pretend to know the extent of what he was going through.

I found Williams tiresome at times, those times when he was always on.  He didn't need to be, but I think fans expected it so he was always over the top, but he was a smart guy and was so funny just being funny straight without the wacky voices and sheningans you'd see in his late night TV interview appearances.

Another connection to him I felt was the movie Aladdin.  Not even my favorite work of his, but at the time this movie came out on VHS I was managing a Blockbuster Video in Massachusetts.  The movie Aladdin was played on the big screen and throughout the store daily.  Multiple times daily.  I ended up seeing that movie over 100 times, I've never seen another movie anywhere close to that.  I knew every word and to this day Williams' Genie makes me laugh.

I'm sad that a guy with so much going for him decided that dying was his last option.  I've known other people who've killed themselves and to this day their suicide makes me angry.  I'm sure the people that know and love Williams will be angry too as will all his fans all over the world.

RIP Mr. Williams

Ann Coulter rehashes some (most) of Chuck Klosterman's ideas from 10 years ago, Conservatives rejoice at her brilliance

A Tea Party acquaintance of mine sent me this article by Ann Coulter.  It sounded awfully familiar.

"Coulter's" piece
http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2014-06-25.html#read_more

Compare this to Klosterman's essay in "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs" called ""George Will vs. Nick Hornby" 


Although Coulter's xenophobia and dislike of people with dark skin is on full display, Klosterman's essay is free of that.

Where is the outrage?

http://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/index.ssf/2014/05/joe_flacco_working_under_impression_ex-rutgers_star_ray_rice_wont_be_suspended.html

Joe Flacco refers to a suspension of Ray Rice for knocking out a woman in an elevator as "Crazy" and he's not too concerned about it.  Come to think of it, no one seems to concerned with this football star commiting violence against women, but when a senile old racist makes racist comments in his own home the Sports Media machine talks about it nonstop for weeks?

Why is there NO outrage for an athlete committing actual violence against women?  Why?

ESPN?  CNN?  NFLPA?

It just seems less earthshattering

Yesterday, Oregon started allowing marriage equality.  As I tweeted, my kids are the same.  My youngest asked me in the car "Did Oregon start allowing gay marriage today?  Didn't that happen a long time ago?"  I said a judge found the law unconstitutional.  His response, "oh".  He could have been asking if it was going to rain tomorrow.  Clearly he doesn't understand the struggle that's go on over the past 40 years, but I think he looks at it like we look back other wrongs from the past, that it just seems so foreign to him to him.  As if "how could people think that way?".

It's not to say it's not a big deal, even I find myself getting less excited about these things.  Maybe it's the inevitably of it, or that it just seems so obvious that it's the right thing and I believe the world sees it that way too,, crazy fanatics notwithstanding.  I'm happy, and I'll be really happy when everyone has equal rights to get married, keep their jobs, get housing, etc.  Maybe successes have made me unexcited about more recent successes.

It was the same thing with Michael Sam.  I'm glad he was drafted, but for me his sexuality wasn't the big deal the media made it out to be.  He's clearly not the first gay man to play in the NFL and he won't be the last.  His courage to come out was the story, because he's going into a place that may not welcome him, but for the most part people did.  I'm sure he'll be called names on the field and it will be a big controversy, but I bet he is called names every day but that doesn't make the news.

I sometimes get the feeling that the reaction to Sam and to gay marriage is straight people patting themselves on the back for being so "open- minded".

I know the struggle goes on and that there are lots of people with hate in their hearts (no matter how they justify it) and that will go on, but the fact that my 13 year old son thought that same-sex couples having the right to marry seemed like the most obvious thing tells how far we've come.  It's probably not something I thought about when I was 13.

Salon becomes more unreadable to reasoned liberals every day

http://www.salon.com/2014/04/08/gentrifications_insidious_violence_the_truth_about_american_cities/

Another example.

As soon the author claimed that buying a property is "violence" I was lost.  There might be some legitimate points in the piece but when you engage in ridiculous hyperbole it undermines the entirety of the argument.  Why not just scream "Nazi" or "Hitler"?

It minimizes real violence as well.  I seem to remember some Salon outrage a few weeks ago when Bobby Knight equated something to "Rape".  Why doesn't this author receive the same amount of outrage.

Trying to shock us into making something worse than it really is by equating it to scary words that you expand the definition of is the tactic of the right wing, but I see it more and more on Salon...the new voice of the Left Wing Tea Party.

Another "family values" Louisiana Republican having trouble keeping the standard he wants to impose on others by law

Man, those Louisiana Republicans have a hard time staying faithful to their wives while telling everyone how to live their lives , at least this one wasn't paying for it …that we know of

But he says he's "sorry"

Vitter Paid for it...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/07/11/new-orleans-madam-says-sen-david-vitter-used-her-brothel/

Zealots strike again

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/22/a_terrifying_precedent_woman_to_be_tried_for_murder_for_giving_birth_to_stillborn/

So Mississippi is looking to try a poor black kid for murder based on dubious scientific evidence...does this really surprise anyone?  I mean, sure it does b/c when you read about it it's shocking, but that a Southern State would do this to a poor black kid, does that shock?

Can you imagine the outrage if some 30 year old housewife (let's call her White) in Connecticut was charged in the same way for those glasses of Chardonnay she had during her pregnancy?  You won't have to, because that won't happen. It sure as shit won't happen to a rich white woman in Mississippi.

The most shocking thing for me, is that this shit has continued to move through the courts over the past few years despite the dubious evidence and lack of scientific causation.  But according to all the Tea Party and Right wing fanatics, America isn't racist any more and we should all be free to do what we want without the government interfering.

Yeah right.