Difficult Choices Regarding Government

 trump-vs-clinton

The last time that I voted for a USA president was in the Al Gore vs Bush, Jr. (the shrub in relation to his bigger and more adept daddy, the bush) contention. Since Gore would take my state of MA, USA, I voted for the Green Party candidate since that political group needed money in their coffers and clout in Washington, DC. … I had read that anyone doing so would support the green cause.

If I had lived in CA, USA at the time, I would have voted for Gore since it was an iffy, swing state. It was around fifty-fifty at the time with Gore vs Bush, I read prior to the election.

I have not ever voted since then. I can’t as a matter of conscience.

How can one vote for crooked person A or crooked person B? Why should one have to chose between the lesser of two evils? I simply can’t do so as I will not compromise my values and morals, nor my standards.

Perhaps I have a tendency to see the true natures of people, something akin to a high social IQ. It’s like looking at Dorian Gray in person  and looking at his painting in comparison. I see the discrepancy between the image and the truth, I guess.

The Picture of Dorian Gray – Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a philosophical novel by Oscar Wilde, first published complete in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. Fearing the story was indecent, the magazine’s editor without Wilde’s knowledge deleted roughly five hundred words before publication. Despite that censorship, The Picture of …

For example, Obama repelled me from the get-go during his first run for the presidency. Then I was shocked that he got a Nobel Peace Prize — a man who would do many more bomb runs that Bush, Jr., the liar about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

I have not ever voted since. I can’t as I hate wrongfulness.

How can one vote for crooked person A or crooked person B? Why should one have to chose between the lesser of two evils? I simply can’t do so as I will not compromise my values, nor my standards.

Perhaps I have a tendency to see the true natures of people, something akin to a high social IQ. It’s like looking at Dorian Gray in person  and looking at his painting in comparison. I see the discrepancy between the image and the truth, I guess.

The Picture of Dorian Gray – Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a philosophical novel by Oscar Wilde, first published complete in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. Fearing the story was indecent, the magazine’s editor without Wilde’s knowledge deleted roughly five hundred words before publication. Despite that censorship, The Picture of …

For example, Obama repelled me from the get-go during his first run for the presidency. Then I was shocked that he got a Nobel Peace Prize — a man who would do many more bomb runs that Bush, Jr., the liar about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Peace award? What? The receipt of such an accolade  is, obviously. insane!

Map shows where President Barack Obama dropped his 20000 bombs

www.independent.co.uk › News › World › Americas

Jan 19, 2017 – According to newly released figures, President Obama had already upped the number of bombs on foreign countries. ….. Yet Democrat Mr Obama leaves the White House having authorised ten times more drone strikes than George W Bush and having been at war for longer than any President in US …

Obama’s covert drone war in numbers: ten times more strikes than …

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/…/obamas-covert-drone-war-in-numbers-ten-t...

Jan 17, 2017 – There were ten times more air strikes in the covert war on terror during President Barack Obama’s presidency than under his predecessor, George W. Bush. Obama embraced the US drone programme, overseeing more strikes in his first year than Bush carried out during his entire presidency. A total of 563 …

And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ War is peace. – From 1984 : George Orwell quotations and quotes big brother truth and deceit
Now how could I possibly choose between corrupt Hillary Clinton or corrupt Donald Trump? All considered, I sent some of my friends the following emailed message. It shows about just how nuts US politics are. So here’s the email:

The whole article is good. It’s also scathingly accurate from a factual angle and, so, is worth the reading even if in short stints at a time. (It gives plenty about which to reflect.)

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/01/thomas-frank-obama-chose-wall-street-main-street.html

The person who sent it to me wrote: If you are unaware, I’m for single payer health insurance. But…I’m also for high taxes on junk food, including sugary cereals, candy, soda…, and enforced fines on pollution generation of all kinds. I’m for control of Pharma prices like in Canada and much of Europe & UK. I’m for large fines for risky behavior like cycling without helmets, unsafe driving, not wearing seat belts. 

Obama was supposedly for the little guy, the average folks. Trump was gonna drain the swamp. Seems the Demagogues and Repugrats are not much different. There are a few old school conservatives and independents like Sanders and Angus King of Maine who are exceptions in my opinion. – Steve

Excerpted:

PAUL JAY: We’re talking about how the Democratic Liberal League, the corporate Democrats are beholden to Wall Street and so on-

THOMAS FRANK: Yeah, well, that’s obviously the answer. I mean, these two things are related, you understand, Paul.

PAUL JAY: But the Republicans are even more so.

THOMAS FRANK: Oh, I know. I know. It drives you crazy this whole thing. Trump is out there … By the way, to get back to Trump, every conversation leads to Trump these days, Trump actually was banging Hillary over the head with Goldman Sachs, was actually using that against her, and now look who’s the Secretary of the Treasury. It’s unbelievable that they’re able to get away with it, but they are. How do they do that? Now, that’s a really good question. How does a party like the Republicans come off pretending to be on the side of the ordinary people? Well, they do. They do it again and again and again. This is one of their themes, is populism. It’s fake populism, but they’re very good at it.

————–

But the problem is that inequality got worse and worse and worse while he [Obama] was president. This is the consequences of not dealing with Wall Street. When you have the golden opportunity, and you drop it, this is the consequences. Inequality gets worse. What they call the labor share of the gross domestic product fell to its lowest point since we started measuring it, which means World War II or the ’30s. The lowest point ever for labor share of gross domestic product. That means what labor is taking, workers are taking as opposed to-

PAUL JAY: Share of the pie, yeah.

THOMAS FRANK: Right. As opposed to what owners, shareholders are taking. And it stayed there, and that’s Barack Obama that happened. You go around to these towns that we’ve been describing, these Trump voting areas, and you talk to people, you talk to working-class people, and they are furious with what is happening to their lives. And maybe it’s happening to them personally or maybe it’s not. Maybe they got a pension, maybe they’re retired, maybe they’ve got a secure job, but they can see it coming for their kids, that there are no good jobs anymore. Everybody knows it, and everybody is so angry about it.

So look at the Democrats. Here’s the party that should traditionally be in touch with that anger and speaking … They used to be the party of organized labor. They should know about this. Instead, they’re out there campaigning and saying, remember what Hillary was saying, America is already great. This is poison, this is toxic to be putting out that message in a year like 2016.

PAUL JAY: I was saying to you earlier, the night before the election, everyone thought Hillary was going to win, so did I. But the night, they did a final rally in Philadelphia, and Barack Obama was on stage next to Hillary and spoke, and it was all about the great achievements of the administration.

THOMAS FRANK: Yeah. This is the dilemma. Because they loved that man. They love Barack Obama, and they can’t acknowledge that the economy got worse under his watch.

[One in six Americans go hungry. We can’t succeed on an empty … https://www.theguardian.com/…/one-in-six-americans-hungry-cant-succeed-empty-sto...Sep 14, 2015 – Hunger impacts every American. According to the latest “food insecurity” numbers by the United States Department of Agriculture, 14% of all households struggle to have enough to eat. That’s 48 million of our friends, neighbors and fellow Americans.]

[The New Face of Hunger – National Geographic https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/hunger/ Yet one in eight Iowans often goes hungry, with children the most vulnerable to food insecurity. Photo of hunger … Hunger has grown faster in America’s suburbs than in its cities over the past decade, creating a class of “SUV poor.” Photo of hunger …. of Americans. One in six reports running out of food at least once a year.]

[Why Trump added billionaire Wall Street execs to his cabinet …www.businessinsider.com/trump-i-just-dont-want-a-poor-person-iowa-rally-2017-6Jun 21, 2017 – President Donald Trump on Wednesday night offered some insight into why he added several Wall Street executives to his Cabinet. “So somebody said, ‘Why did you appoint a rich person to be in charge of the economy?'” Trump told supporters during a rally at the US Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa …]

[SAME OLE, SAME OLE … Trump Picks Wall Street Over Main Street – The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/04/…/trump-picks-wall-street-over-main-street.htm...Feb 4, 2017 – President Trump fired the first round in his war against financial regulations by signing two executive orders on Friday. The first … That this is how he starts his tenure should confirm that Mr. Trump has no intention of taking on Wall Street. For people … It’s clear with his orders that he won’t take that choice.]

[What gets to me is that people thinking that they can switch political parties to get a change in leadership positions. Hahahah. Dream on. …Trump approval rating at 32% – CNNPolitics – CNN.com www.cnn.com/2017/12/07/politics/donald-trump-approval-rating/index.html President Donald Trump’s approval rating sits at 32%, according to a new poll released by the Pew Research Center, matching the lowest level in any poll on his approval since he took office in January. … Trump’s approval rating at 32%. Sophie Tatum. By Sophie Tatum. Updated 10:13 PM ET, Thu December 7, 2017 …]

[Donald Trump Approval Rating Continues to Fall | Fortune fortune.com › Leadership › Donald TrumpDecember 8, 2017. President Donald Trump’s approval rating continues to fall, and most Americans believe senior members of his administration definitely or probably had improper contacts with the Kremlin during last year’s election. That’s according to a new Pew Research Center study, which also found that most …]

[I don’t want to burst anyone’s little happy bubble, but let’s get real. Cognitive capture is a real phenomenon … Joseph Stiglitz: Obama’s Cognitive Capture — Real Time with Bill …www.real-time-with-bill-maher-blog.com/…/joseph-stiglitz-obamas-cognitive-capture May 2, 2015 – Joseph Stiglitz: Obama’s Cognitive Capture · May 02, 2015 / HBO. Bill Maher and Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz discuss how President Obama was influenced by the money that got him elected.]

[Moreover, around 90% of the people who I know want more homes and/or a bigger main home, more money, more privileges, more consumer goods, more travel to various spots around the world, more everything good for themselves … and the ones that are successful at using “the system” for their advantage are not about to power-share or make everything more financially and socially equitable so dream on if you think that Trump is any different … or the President before him … or the President after him. …. Whenever a space is vacated by someone with power and wealth, the void WILL be filled by someone of the same ilk — period. Joe and Susie Public NEED TO WAKE UP!]

[Weasels and Sociopaths | HR Examiner https://www.hrexaminer.com/weasels-and-sociopaths/ Jun 17, 2013 – As a lawyer, I deal with weasels and sociopaths a lot. Weasels and sociopaths love power. And money.]

[In dysfunctional societies, up to 20% of the people can be sociopaths. Do I really care if Social Darwinism is a repugnant, outdated notion? Look for yourself around and see what you see. Get out of The Matrix – Wikipedia .]

=====

I just now received an email titled “Politically Illiterate” from a group called The Resistance. Thank goodness that I don’t have on my conscience that I could have voted for Trump. Thank goodness that I didn’t vote for Clinton as an alternative.

The quotes from Michael Wolff’s new book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House are making their way around the internet. Among some of the more quotable clips going around are some very telling tales indicating the soulless, hateful environment within the walls of The White House.  An excerpt from the January 8, 2018, issue of New York Magazine tears away at any image of competency Trump and his administration have tried to project. We knew Trump didn’t know much about how Washington works, but he was more than politically illiterate, he was oblivious. He turned to Roger Ailes for help picking his chief of staff where his complete ignorance became immediately apparent:

Ailes, a veteran of the Nixon, Reagan, and Bush 41 administrations, tried to impress on Trump the need to create a White House structure that could serve and protect him. “You need a son of a bitch as your chief of staff,” he told Trump. “And you need a son of a bitch who knows Washington. You’ll want to be your own son of a bitch, but you don’t know Washington.” Ailes had a suggestion: John Boehner, who had stepped down as Speaker of the House only a year earlier.

“Who’s that?” asked Trump.

Okay, how daft do you have to be to not remember who the former Speaker of the House is? Especially after Trump gave Boehner’s Congressional Leadership Fund $100,000? 

Trump sold voters on the idea that he knew how to run successful companies. Yet when Trump finally picked a chief of staff, there still wasn’t a clear chain of command and those who dealt with him had to handle him delicately:

The truth was, Ivanka and Jared were as much the chief of staff as Priebus or Bannon, all of them reporting directly to the president. The couple had opted for formal jobs in the West Wing, in part because they knew that influencing Trump required you to be all-in. From phone call to phone call — and his day, beyond organized meetings, was almost entirely phone calls — you could lose him. He could not really converse, not in the sense of sharing information, or of a balanced back-and-forth conversation. He neither particularly listened to what was said to him nor particularly considered what he said in response. He demanded you pay him attention, then decided you were weak for groveling. In a sense, he was like an instinctive, pampered, and hugely successful actor. Everybody was either a lackey who did his bidding or a high-ranking film functionary trying to coax out his performance — without making him angry or petulant.

Sounds more like babysitting a spoiled child. Some of the details of Trump’s temper tantrums have emerged, and often they were spurred on by leaks. Turns out, one of the main culprits was the Orange Oaf himself:

If he was not having his 6:30 dinner with Steve Bannon, then, more to his liking, he was in bed by that time with a cheeseburger, watching his three screens and making phone calls — the phone was his true contact point with the world — to a small group of friends, who charted his rising and falling levels of agitation through the evening and then compared notes with one another.

As details of Trump’s personal life leaked out, he became obsessed with identifying the leaker. The source of all the gossip, however, may well have been Trump himself. In his calls throughout the day and at night from his bed, he often spoke to people who had no reason to keep his confidences. He was a river of grievances, which recipients of his calls promptly spread to the ever-attentive media.

Trump created his own prison within the White House. He fostered competition, but not with some Machiavellian strategy to elicit the best. No, Trump surrounded himself with self-centered, self-promoting sycophants who turned on each other. To add insult to injury, Trump spilled the beans after his burgers:

If Bannon, Priebus, and Kushner were now fighting a daily war with one another, it was exacerbated by the running disinformation campaign about them that was being prosecuted by the president himself. When he got on the phone after dinner, he’d speculate on the flaws and weaknesses of each member of his staff. Bannon was disloyal (not to mention he always looks like shit). Priebus was weak (not to mention he was short — a midget). Kushner was a suck-up. Sean Spicer was stupid (and looks terrible too). Conway was a crybaby. Jared and Ivanka should never have come to Washington.

It sounds like a horrible reality show, but the horrible reality is that this dysfunctional White House is making the lives of ordinary Americans worse and worse. And they are running their own office of American royalty, holding court, demanding loyalty and crafting cunning means of self-gratification all at the expense of hundreds of millions of Americans depending on them to address and solve problems.

Sally Dugman is a writer in MA, USA.

 

 

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