Dangerous Times Call For Cooler Heads And The Top 3 Republicans Aren't It

By D. DiFrancesco

As we encroach on a new year which will bring us a short eleven months until the 2016 Presidential election, I have to admit I am dismayed by what I am seeing out of the candidates on the right and by what I am seeing in the behaviors and attitudes of my fellow Americans.

In full disclosure, I am a liberal, progressive, lefty or any of a dozen other names that you may wish to use, but I am not unrealistic nor uncompromising in any of my views if they will benefit the majority of Americans in a positive way without taking a step backwards in time.  This brings me to my concerns as they relate to the top three candidates running for the Republican presidential nomination.

Let us start with the GOP front runner, billionaire Donald Trump.  Mr. Trump is running a self-funded campaign which he claims makes him beholden to no one.  While this may be true as it relates to

Image Courtesy: slate.com

external entities, he is beholden to the only person that he truly cares about and that is himself.  This self-funding, although refreshing seems to have granted him license to say whatever crazy misguided thoughts that happen to come into his mind at any given time. There are numerous examples of this such as his statement that he will build a tremendous wall on our southern border and have Mexico pay for it, he will deport all 12,000,000 undocumented immigrants that reside in this country, Mexico is primarily sending us their rapists and murderers and his latest, he is going stop all immigration of Muslims into this country.  None of these things can or will be done, they are impractical, unaffordable, un-Constitutional and or just a lie, but he has, as he refers to them “fans” that believe in him 100 percent.  He includes in this group blacks, women, Muslims and the LGBT community claiming that they all love him all-the-while spewing hate speech toward them.

Beyond this, Donald Trump is above all else one of the 1 percent, the economic elite.  He is about as self absorbed as one can get. What makes these blue collar working class people fall in love with someone who is part of the cause of our nation’s dysfunction and their downfall? It can only be ignorance in my view. If they believe that Trump cares even a little bit about their condition they are blind, mark my words, he only cares about Donald Trump and to Hell with the rest of us.

Politifact took a look at all of Donald Trump’s statements thus far during his campaign and found that exactly 0 percent of his statements were completely true while only 7 percent of what he says were mostly true.  This is capped by the fact that 22 percent are “Pants on Fire” lies and 39 percent of his rhetoric is completely false.  I suppose that we could refer to him as the Teflon Don since nothing he says, no matter how outrageous, inflammatory or an outright lie seems to affect him.  This in my opinion make this man very, very dangerous.  What he says not only brings out the worst in our fellow citizens, but he is setting us up for a foreign policy disaster all before he has even become his party's nominee.

Next on the list is the fiery evangelical Christian from Texas, Senator Ted Cruz.  The combination of evangelical Christianity and national politics is a highly volatile combination.  Mr. Cruz’s religious beliefs along with his unwavering views on everything from women’s reproductive rights to gun rights makes him a dangerous exclusionary force.  His views do not come close to representing the desires of the majority of Americans, but as he has shown over the past number of months, he does not care.  He has gained ground on the formidable Donald Trump, and has recently passed the former number 2 Dr. Ben Carson in the national polls. The draw of Cruz is quite perplexing in my mind; his ideas are fringe and will take civil and women’s rights back to the 19th century, he along with Trump want to pack the Supreme Court with ultra-conservative right wing justices that will only represent a small minority of Americans while reversing many progressive decisions that have been hard fought for over the decades, he is an extreme gun rights advocate, just look at his machine gun bacon video and he would love to inject theocratic ideals into the White House.  This will be the downfall of America as we know it.

Lastly, Dr. Ben Carson, what can be said about him?  Dr. Carson is a different breed of candidate, he is a renowned neurosurgeon and 7th Day Adventist with strong religious views that he spouts at every opportunity.  He has no political or foreign policy experience which I can only assume makes him attractive to many Americans who are looking for a Washington outsider.  He certainly is not like anyone we have seen before in modern day politics.  

This uniqueness may also prove to lead to his ultimate demise.  His lack of experience and peculiar mannerisms and views are gradually causing his poll numbers to drop.  Concerns over his lack of foreign policy experience and his unassuming personality do not lend well to a persona of strength.  Over the next few months we are likely to see Ben Carson sink in the ranks making room for a more seasoned politician, such as Marco Rubio to rise into the top 3, but we will have to wait and see if Ben can make a comeback...my bet is against him.

Whether you like our current president or not, I firmly believe that he has tried to do what is right for this nation.  No, he has not always succeeded, nor has he been perfect, but I believe history will show that he tried and had some great successes.  Let’s face it, he has been hammered by the media and the right wing since the very first day he took office.  I don’t know if it is because he is African-American, or that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, or that he had little prior political experience, but regardless, he has been far less destructive to this nation than any of the Republicans mentioned above will be.  

America has a very short memory, Bush and Cheney got us into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, they toppled leaders and destabilized the entire region, they are the reason that we have got ISIS to deal with today and for what...oil, oil and more oil.  There is no other reason that we would have an interest in that region of the world unless there was something economically beneficial to this nation.  These wars were started under false pretenses and yet when it came time for a change of administrations, Bush and Cheney were ushered out as heroes while Obama was inaugurated as the villain.  How does any of this make sense.

Now as we approach the end of President Obama’s second term there is little that can be done to right the wrongs that he has endured or to unchain the obstructionism that he has faced his entire presidency.  Instead we can only hope that cooler heads prevail in the upcoming election and that we elect another democrat, either Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders or Martin O’Malley in 2016.  None of the democratic three are perfect, Hillary comes with an incredible amount of baggage and history, though much of it I believe is fabricated for political gain by her opponents, Bernie proudly wears his democratic socialist badge as he always has which is a misunderstood by much of America and Martin is relative unknown, but a staunch progressive.  

No matter how you slice the political pie, any of the democratic candidates are immeasurably better than anyone being offered by the Republican Party in 2016 whether you choose to believe it or not.

Taking Pause to Ponder the State of our Nation

This post unfortunately is not a terribly upbeat, but I promise to write more positive posts in the months to come as we approach, what I deem as probably the most important election of my lifetime.

I am taking pause as I have been prone to do quite frequently these days.  I am pondering the direction our country is taking and it is quite troubling to me indeed.  

This world we are living in is uncertain, there is no disputing this fact.  We are being told to fear enemies that we do not understand based upon the word of our government and the mainstream media.  This mainstream media was entrusted to provide the American people with unbiased reporting of the events that stand to shape our lives, but they are failing.  We find them to be evermore sensationalistic.  They refuse to report on issues that are important to an informed citizenry in exchange for ever higher television ratings. Equal time has been pushed aside for partisan reporting which serves to give the viewers just what they want to hear when they want to hear it.

We have media on both ends of the political spectrum being used by political strategists to further their parties agendas.  We have well know examples on both sides of the political spectrum, Fox News on the right and MSNBC on the left.  These two entities primarily fill their prime time television slots with talking heads that carry a particular party line as though it is gospel, regardless of the truth. Unfortunately the American public has not taken it upon themselves to try to discern fact from fiction.  Instead Americans have bought into these one sided story lines, with each side looking at the other as an adversary that must be defeated at any cost.

What most don’t realize is that the wealthy and powerful are sitting in their ivory towers laughing at the average man, laughing because their money has bought these once cherished institutions and we as consumers are believing exactly what their money wants them to say.

We have been “told” to believe that endless tax cuts are going to revitalize the economy and create jobs in this country, but if one looks at history, the most prosperous times in America were times where corporate and personal taxes on the wealthiest of us were highest.  Have we not seen that when our politicians who are bought and paid for by the most privileged of us enact substantial tax cuts they typically only benefit the richest individuals and corporations in our country.  The difference is then made up by taxing, at ever greater rates, those that can least afford it, the working poor and middle class.  It happens over and over again and then these same politicians tell you who to blame for your station in life.  This is their plan...to gradually hand over the reigns of this country to those with means, providing them with ever more wealth all the while destroying those that are their means to said wealth, the working poor and the middle class.

Then we have been convinced by right wing politicians and the right wing media that America’s labor unions are evil, look at what has been done by Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin.  He has justified his assault on labor unions by making it illegal for unions to collect dues from non-union workers working in a union environment. He has turned his state into a “right-to-work” state in spite of lobbying done by Wisconsin’s workers.  Workers in these states now have little protection from being victimized by their employers.  

What most people today don’t realize is that union on not, the rights that you have as a worker in this country today are because of our labor unions. Just think of your 40 hour work week, workplace safety and child labor laws and say thank you to your local labor union, they are responsible for these and much more.. What is unfortunate is that our memory in this country is short.  If you think that the labor rights that unions have afforded us won’t be reversed over time by those that stand to benefit most, the wealthy, then you are living in a fantasy world. Workers rights are not in the corporation's best interest so why would they voluntarily choose to keep rules in place that would benefit you and me...it costs them money.  And lets face it, profits are their only motive in this distorted capitalist system that we live in.  Sadly, workers are backing in droves these union busting politicians at the expense of the own livelihoods, this makes no sense, but it is none-the-less happening across this country.

Next we have the takeover our our election process.  The brothers Koch are set to spend close to a billion dollars both directly and indirectly during the 2016 election cycle.  Please, please do not think for a second that they don’t expect to receive something in return. They are counting on convincing, or better put perhaps, brainwashing enough Americans to vote for candidates that they have paid for through their campaign contributions.  These candidates you can bet, are willing to propose and or back legislation that is favorable to their interests and it is very likely that their interests will not align with yours. You are fooling yourselves if you think that they can relate to your life, they cannot. The Koch’s and other of their ilk are spending voraciously to influence the outcomes of our elections.  Many of the ads that you see and hear are paid for in full or in part by these members of the billionaire class all thanks to the Citizens United decision made by the Supreme Court.

On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. Human beings are people; corporations are legal fictions.

The primary group working to overturn this ruling via a Constitutional amendment is movetoamend.org whose statement of purpose is:

“We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United and other related cases, and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.  The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law. In a democracy, the people rule.”

It is not fiction, nor a conspiracy theory put out into the media by liberals that the wealthy and corporations are buying our elections, it is a fact based on this and other rulings by our very own Supreme Court.  

Regardless of your political persuasion, you cannot possibly believe that our founding fathers ever intended for corporations to be considered on equal footing with you and I.  Corporations are simply legal entities that can be created and dissolved by the state, they are not living breathing beings.  That being said, common sense should dictate that corporations should have no access to our election system and certainly should have no part in influencing an election’s outcome.  They should not be able to make contributions to any campaign either directly or through political action committees (PACs) as large sums of money contributed by these entities tend to corrupt the election process.  As a result, even the most well intentioned politician becomes beholden to these behemoths.

Lastly, I would like to touch on the awful trade agreements that the United States has signed such as NAFTA, CAFTA and the currently “top secret” TPP agreement that President Obama is negotiating.  Every one of these trade agreements has contributed to American jobs being shipped overseas.  We have given unfair advantage to foreign nations by eliminating or reducing tariffs so substantially in America, that we can no longer compete with foreign manufacturers. These agreements are being urged once again by American corporations.  

Take a moment and think about it, who is it that would benefit the most from these agreements? It is not the American worker as they are the ones suffering from the fallout of these trade agreements, they are the ones losing their jobs, they are the ones who become the long term unemployed or underemployed.  It is corporations and the wealthy that benefit most.  These entities can have their goods produced overseas in countries where employees are paid pennies a day, work 12 hour workdays and have no protections.  Beholden only to their shareholders, they will do whatever it takes to increase profits regardless of who gets hurt in the process.

I could continue on with other examples of what I consider to be contributing to the downfall of America, but I think I have made my point.

We spend this past 4th of July celebrating by barbecuing, drinking and enjoying fireworks in honor of America’s independence, but this America is not what the founding fathers could have ever imagined.  We have given our freedom and independence away to corporations and the wealthy on a silver platter.  So many of us vote against our own best interests just as the elite hoped we would do.  We have become a nation of Zombies, contributing to our own destruction through our disinterest in the political process.  We no longer read in an attempt to try to understand the issues that plague this country, instead we watch and listen to partisan news never taking the time to hold them the least bit accountable.

Do not read this and assume that I don’t love my country, I do in fact love my country deeply, I’m just not proud of the direction that we have been heading over the last 30+ years

I am taking time to mourn all that we have already lost and all that we have yet to lose.  I will however, hope that Americans will wake up and realize that this coming Presidential election is about more than just electing a President, it is about the potential appointment of 3 to 4 Supreme Court justices and ultimately the survival of our Republic.  It is entirely possible that we will hand the billionaire class the keys to the kingdom if we don’t wake up and realize that they are fleecing America for their own benefit.  If we don’t stand up to these behemoths before it is too late, we will have no one to blame, but ourselves.

I look forward to your thoughts and comments in general regardless of whether you agree or not, just please be civil as I enjoy having intelligent conversations with my readers.

Did Santorum Call President Obama the "N" Word?

Republican Preidential Candidate Rick Santorum

In a speech before supporters in Janesville, Wisconson just days before the Republican primary Rick Santorum has seemingly put his foot in his mouth for what may be the final time.

Mr. Santorum appears to have called President Obama a "government nig", and then immediately changing the direction of his speech to stop himself.

A brief video of the section of the speech in question is available below.

See full story and video.

More Twists in the Trayvon Martin Case, Zimmerman Accuses Martin of Attacking Him

Trayvon Martin

The story of Trayvon Martin's death at the hands of George Zimmerman keeps taking more bizarre twists and turns all in the name of justifying his actions.

Regardless of Zimmerman's claims of self-defense it can't be disputed that he initiated the tragic string of events that lead to the death of Trayvon Martin.

The simple fact that he was following this young man in his car.  The recording of his own call to 911 states that when asked if he was following Trayvon, he said "yes" and was told not to follow him.  Then he exited his vehicle and confronted the boy.  The 911 call from neighbors in the area has the sounds of Trayvon screaming for help, followed by a gunshot and then silence.

George Zimmerman is now trying to turn the incident around and claim that Trayvon Martin attacked him, knocked him to the  ground and began pounding his head on the concrete sidewalk.  Although no evidence is available to corroborate his claim, had Trayvon actually done this it would likely have been out of fear and his instinct to survive in a situation which he perceived to be life threatening.

This police video of Zimmerman shows no signs of any injuries whatsoever.

See the video and read the rest of the story.