Thursday, May 16, 2024

About Gaza

 

(2-minute read)

Dead civilians

            It seems like if a person says anything critical about what’s taking place in Gaza it is somehow antisemitic.  It isn’t.  The rapist Trump trash talks America practically every day but somehow, it’s wrong if we talk about what is taking place in the Israeli conflict with Hamas in Gaza. 

            There are too many civilians getting killed.  Period. 

            Yes, I know that civilians are collateral damage in war.  The current Israel/Hamas conflict that started Oct 7, 2023 is no different.[1]  However for Hamas, civilians were the primary targets.  Israel lost 1200 people in the attack with another 5,000 injured.  Hamas took 253 Israeli hostages.  Though Israel attacked Hamas in the Gaza Strip over 33,000 people have died, 13,000 of which have been children.  Even if you take out 1/3rd of the 33,000 as being Hamas militants a truly disproportionate number of civilians have been killed.  Some have died directly by bombings and other Israeli military actions.  Too many are starving to death!  The numbers I’m using aren’t static, they’re going up every day.

            Hundreds more have died in Lebanon and the West Bank.  Hundreds of aid workers have died along with medical personnel.  Just short of 100 journalists have died.  The one footnote that I have provides lots of numbers.  Too often humanity is reduced to a list of numbers.

            Palestinians are caught in the middle.  Hamas is a terrorist group that is operating out of Gaza.  For those living in Gaza under the direct threat of the Hamas terrorists it isn’t healthy to oppose their Hamas occupiers.  Hamas was counting on Israel killing Palestinians and Israel has obliged.  Over a million Palestinians are facing starvation.  Calling starvation “food insecurity” downplays what’s actually taking place. 

            Then there are all of the injured and displaced.  76,000 Palestinians injured.  Another 5000 Israelis injured.  1.7 MILLION Palestinians have been displaced.  90,000 Israelis have been displaced.  Palestinians don’t have any place that’s safe to run to.  Half their country has been utterly destroyed.  Again what has taken place is NOT anywhere close to what is often called a proportional response.  There is nothing proportional about what is happening. 

The Palestinians have no one to surrender to in this conflict.  I would say that Hamas is using the Palestinian population to shield their terrorist organization except the shield isn’t working.  Hamas doesn’t care.  And neither do the Israelis either or they would stop what they’re doing. 

            What do I know?  I’m just a retired factory worker.  I do know right from wrong.

What’s taking place is wrong.

https://yadayadayadablahblah.blogspot.com/


[1] https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-gaza-war-statistics-95a6407fac94e9d589be234708cd5005

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Freak Show

 

(3-minute read)

What's for dinner?

            Trump rallies are a f!cking freak show, from the parking lot banjo playing grifters and clowns to the opening speaker acts to the MAGA man himself, the creepy sleepy rapist Donald Vonshitzinpants.  Reality is suspended and the jesters have taken the stage.  Have you listened to his spiel in New Jersey on Saturday the 11th? 

            Trump talked about Hanibal Lecter.[1]  I’m not bullshitting you.  I’m not even sure Krazy Don even knows that Hanibal Lecter is a fictitious character.  Here’s the spiel from Orange Jesus about Lecter.

"Silence of the Lambs. Has anyone ever seen The Silence of the Lambs? The late, great Hannibal Lecter is a wonderful man. He oftentimes would have a friend for dinner. Remember the last scene? 'Excuse me. I'm about to have a friend for dinner,' as this poor doctor walked by. 'I'm about to have a friend for dinner.' But Hannibal Lecter. Congrats. The late, great Hannibal Lecter..."

-- Donald Trump

            Okay, that is some weird shit!  Trump was comparing immigrants (I think) to a murdering cannibal.  Quite the jokester.  The man is not well.  Notably he didn’t have quite as many mental glitches in this speech.  Trump may have backed off his medications or added a new one.  He isn’t sundowning as badly as he has been at his evening rallies.  Good things are being reported about a new Alzheimer’s drug, lecanemab.[2] 

            Trump also spent a few minutes reading a story about a snake.  I kid you not.  It was also a slam against immigrants.  BTW Trump employed illegal immigrants at Mar a Lago.[3] 

It’s the little things.

            There was a funny comment that Trump made saying that when people started leaving during his spiel that he might as well hang it up.  He said this while people were leaving in droves.[4] 

            Trump did his usual schtick at the Wildwood, New Jersey rally.  He whined, complained, lied, trashed America, he didn’t lose in 2020, windmills are bad, electric cars are bad, our borders are open, mass deportations, made vulgar comments, bad mouthed NATO, opposes mail in voting, thanked his Supremes, and made fun of people, like calling Chris Christie a fat pig as one small example.  He did talk about tax cuts and doing more of them.  The rich were the main benefactors of his tax cuts.  He told a group of rich oil barons that he would undo all of President Biden’s climate change regulations in exchange for a billion-dollar donation.[5]  (Bribery.)  Trump has proved time and time again that he can be bought. 

            In yet another lapse Trump talked about how great the economic recovery was, forgetting that President Biden was in charge of the recovery and that in the last year of the Trump administration the economy collapsed because of Covid and how he mishandled it.  (17m02s of the full rally video.)[6] 

            You know Trump should just put an accordion between his hands and he could play a little tune while he’s talking.  A little monkey wearing a hat and holding a tin cup could dance around on stage for people to give money to. 

            If you have seen or been to one Trump rally you have been to them all.  He makes the same claims that he campaigned on in 2016.  It’s kind of remarkable really.  Trump didn’t fix things that he said he would.  He did give tons of money to the rich and get his family in on the grift of the American taxpayers and foreign governments.  

            There is one thing missing from these Trump-needs-an-accordion rallies and all of his claims about being the greatest and that everybody knows it.

Reality.

https://yadayadayadablahblah.blogspot.com/


[1] Hannibal Lecter comments, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CwU-qOyYfM

[2] https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/07/06/1186225580/alzheimers-drug-leqembi-gets-full-fda-approval-medicare-coverage-lecanemab

[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/us/mar-a-lago-undocumented-workers.html

[4] Raw footage of people leaving rally, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ypuff6LcU04

[5] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/09/trump-oil-ceo-donation

[6] Full Wildwood video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_Ev6sNMDE0

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

MAGA is watching YOU.

 

(5-minute read.)

I used to be a Republican.  I am no longer a Republican as of the 2016 Republican primary.  I will never vote for a Republican again.  They made a fascist like Trump possible.

MAGA is watching YOU.

            Think that Senate and House of Representative races aren’t as important as the Presidential race?

            MAGA Senator Katie Britt along with other MAGA members introduced a bill that among other things tracks women that are pregnant.[1]  There is 1 woman in the 10 co-sponsors listed.  Expect other MAGA senators to sign on and vote for the act.  MAGA has a one vote margin in the House.  One.  Vote.

            I’ve covered pro-choice and pro-life issues extensively on my choices page.

There’s a lot of flowery language about help, concern, and support for pregnant women in the bill.[2]  It’s an anti-choice (anti-abortion) bill and in addition to creating a national data base on pregnant women it will duplicitously steer women to faith based anti-abortion services.  The bill would also provide grant money (tax dollars) to anti-abortion nonprofits.  Trump has to keep the evangelical Christian Nationalists happy.  If MAGA gets the White House, Senate and House there will be a national draconian no abortion ban. 

            As MAGA progresses in achieving their 1984 goals they will be charging women that suffer miscarriages.  Oh, that’s right.  They already are.[3] [4]

Yet another advancement of MAGA religious policies.

Policies of fascism

            It is the MAGA House of Representative and MAGA Senators that have enabled Trump and made his unique brand of fascism possible.  Trump now knows that the word fascist is bad so he has started calling President Biden fascist.  I seriously doubt that Trump knows what the word means.

            Policy.  Policies.  You know, it’s almost funny talking about Trump’s religious policies mainly because they aren’t his.  Trump doesn’t live the religious life of his Christian Nationalists.

            Trump is a rapist, habitual pathological liar, (Yes, I know that’s redundant but Trump lies a LOT) venal, pathetic, vainglorious, greedy, grifting huckster and  all-in-all a deeply broken human being.  Trump and MAGA apologists say that yes Trump is flawed but they like Trump’s policies. 

Therein lies the problem.  Those policies.

For the MAGA Congress, he’s perfect!

Decades of Republican policies made Trump and others of his ilk possible, like the policies of southern slave states that led to the Civil War.  MAGA be like Yeah, yeah, yeah, then they cheer and clap for his policies at his rallies!  They cheer and clap for his threatening rhetoric as well. 

We can go back to President Nixon to see where the slide into criminality and fascism started.  Nixon was another criminal that escaped accountability for his crimes.  He resigned from being President before he was tried in the Senate.  Ford became President because he had been appointed to fill the vacant position of Spiro Agnew who resigned from office as a part of a plea bargain.[5]  President Ford then pardoned Nixon, thus setting a very bad precedent.  (BTW Ford, a Republican Senator, was not going to vote to impeach Nixon.) 

As an interesting side note President Ford was never elected to the office of President or Vice President.[6]  Ford lost the next election to Jimmy Carter.

Nixon surrogates also derailed the 1968 peace talks of the Viet Nam War before the Presidential election in order to mitigate against any plans Johnson might have had for boosting Hubert Humphrey’s campaign with an “October Surprise”.[7]  Trump has followed in Nixon’s footsteps by torpedoing the border security as well meeting with foreign autocrats.[8] 

Anyway, that was the start of the slide of modern-day Republicans sliding into criminal behavior.  By Trump’s reckoning it’s perfectly alright for President Biden to use our government against his opposition.  Trump wants that policy to be the law.  Trump wants his criminaling to be…

Legalized.

Some MAGA policies 

            It’s true that Trump didn’t lie about getting a blow job like Clinton did.  Instead Trump lied about paying a porn star hush money after he fucked her and then covering it up so it wouldn’t be a campaign issue.  Trump lied about his months-long affair with a former Playmate and paid hush money to cover that up as well.  For Trump and MAGA lying is like breathing.

            Trump doesn’t actually spend much time talking about his policies.  He spends his time trashing America.  Trump says he would like to see an economic collapse as a part of his performance for his cult’s worship session.[9]  He spends a lot of his time whining about himself and complaining.  That’s what he did while in office.  Trump fully understands the gullibility and support of his cult.  But here are some of those policies:

  • Cutting taxes for the suffering rich is a policy.  It must be getting harder to employ illegal immigrant servants like Trump did at Mar a Lago.[10] [11]
  • Speaking of servants, that Trump wants to fire tens of thousands civil servants and replacing them with loyalists that pledge fidelity to Trump NOT America is a policy.[12] 
  • Trash-talking the Department of Justice is a Trump policy, along with undermining our government in general at every possible opportunity.  Like stopping a border security deal that MAGA Republicans negotiated with President Biden’s team.[13] 
  • Rounding up millions of Mexicans and putting them in internment camps is a policy.  A policy that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars to administer. Does MAGA plan on tattooing people right from the get go or will they wait awhile? 
  • White nationalism is a policy that Trump subscribes to. 
  • Undermining NATO for Puketin is a policy. 
  • Establishing religious control over a woman’s body is a policy.  Trump is proud to have done it.  He says EVERYBODY wanted it.  He says that a LOT.  Everybody doesn’t.
  • Negotiating with terrorists like the Taliban is a Trump policy.[14] 
  • Lying is a lifelong Trump policy.

These are just a few of Trump’s “policies”.

 https://yadayadayadablahblah.blogspot.com/


[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/critics-rip-katie-britt-for-celebrating-moms-with-handmaid-s-tale-like-proposal/ar-BB1mcdri

[2] https://www.britt.senate.gov/news/press-releases/u-s-senators-katie-britt-marco-rubio-kevin-cramer-introduce-moms-act-to-help-build-culture-of-life-support-women-strengthen-families/

[3] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-increasing-risk-of-criminal-charges-for-women-who-experience-a-miscarriage

[4] https://apnews.com/article/ohio-miscarriage-prosecution-brittany-watts-b8090abfb5994b8a23457b80cf3f27ce

[5] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Spiro-Agnew

[6] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gerald-Ford

[7] https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/yes-nixon-scuttled-the-vietnam-peace-talks-107623/

[8] https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4603410-donald-trump-nato-viktor-orban-andrzel-duda-david-cameron/

[9] Trump economic comments, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJMaPw82Tro

[10] https://money.cnn.com/2016/03/18/news/economy/trump-maralago/index.html

[11] https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/trump-breaks-his-silence-about-undocumented-immigrants-working-at-his-properties/

[12] https://apnews.com/article/biden-2024-government-regulations-democrats-6badc3b424b9eff3ba51e0ec35a8d824

[13] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/republicans-kill-border-bill-sign-trumps-strength-mcconnells-waning-in-rcna137477

[14] https://www.factcheck.org/2021/08/timeline-of-u-s-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/