Day: June 21, 2016

Are Guns Really The Issue?

Nope….it is all about the appearance for the donors…..nothing else….

I had promised to let this shit go and leave that ranting to others of lesser IQs….I try to be good to my word, unlike so many that rattle on about moving on and keep repeating the same crap over and over and only because they do not like what someone else had to say in an opinion piece….. but sometimes there is no other choice but another piece….

After the attack in Orlando the dialog returned to the guns thing…..again a worthless effort and a huge waste of time…..

A divided Senate blocked rival election-year plans to curb guns on Monday, eight days after the horror of Orlando’s mass shooting intensified pressure on lawmakers to act but knotted them in gridlock anyway—even over restricting firearms for terrorists, the AP reports. In largely party-line votes, rejected were one proposal from each side to keep extremists from acquiring guns and another shoring up the government’s existing system of required background checks for many firearms purchases. With the chamber’s visitors’ galleries unusually crowded for a Monday evening—including people wearing orange T-shirts saying “#ENOUGH gun violence”—each measure fell short of the 60 votes needed to progress. Democrats called the GOP proposals unacceptably weak while Republicans said the Democratic plans were overly restrictive.

The stalemate underscored the pressure on each party to give little ground on the emotional gun issue going into November’s presidential and congressional elections. It also highlighted the potency of the National Rifle Association, which urged its huge and fiercely loyal membership to lobby senators to oppose the Democratic bills. “Republicans say, ‘Hey look, we tried,'” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “And all the time, their cheerleaders, the bosses at the NRA, are cheering them.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the Orlando shootings—in which the FBI says the American-born gunman swore allegiance to a leader of the Islamic State group—show the best way to prevent attacks by extremists is to defeat such groups overseas. Click for more on the story.

First let me say one thing….I TOLD YOU SO!

Now moving on…..the big story of these votes is not the fact that they were attempted but that all 100 senators were there to vote…..and for the first time this year.

All 100 showed up to vote on something that was going NOWHERE!

It is pathetic….these part timers cannot show up for work…it takes a worthless waste of time for them to show up…..if that is not the perfect example of how our government works then there is not one.

That’s it for the day….I will retire to my Situation Room and plan for my assault tomorrow on my readers sensibilities…..see ya!

Judging ‘the Lesser Evil’

If you are anything like me then you have nothing to look forward to in this election…..basically it is choosing between the lesser of two evils………there is only so much crap the American people can stand….the problem is they have not reached their full capacity as of yet…..

This election will be that election where the voter holds their noses and pulls the lever…….

The mainstream U.S. media rightly criticizes Donald Trump for his bigoted remarks about Mexicans and Muslims – and his know-nothing-ism on global warming – but wrongly ignores Hillary Clinton’s role in futile and bloody wars, Gilbert Doctorow notes.

There are many folks, including the editorial boards of several of our newspapers of record, who insistently tell us that the ongoing American presidential election is one of the most vile in the country’s history considering the venomous attacks that candidates have made on one another’s personal qualifications, morals, family members and — from time to time — even on specific political stands.

How this race really compares to elections past is hard to say. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth attacks on the military valor and medals of candidate John Kerry in 2004 were a pretty good marker in the “how low can they go” category of trashing one’s opponents. (Republican operatives, many of whom had ducked war service themselves, even passed out “Purple Heart” Band-Aids at the GOP convention to mock the severity of Kerry’s war wounds.)

Source: Trump v. Clinton: Judging ‘the Lesser Evil’ – Consortiumnews

No matter which way it goes…there will be at least 4 years of total crap….and the voter will have to go through this scenario all over again…..

Is it really that bad?

But why is it an election of “lesser of two evils”?

This year’s presidential primary has left many voters feeling helpless and alienated from their political parties, according to a new poll, which found that Democrats and Republicans alike want to see major changes in the way presidential candidates are chosen

The survey, conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and published Tuesday, reported that a full 90 percent of voters lack confidence in the country’s political system while 40 percent went so far as to say that the two-party structure is “seriously broken.”

Seventy percent of voters, including equal proportions of Democrats and Republicans, said they feel frustrated about the 2016 presidential election and 55 percent reported feeling “helpless.”

Source: Poll: 90 Percent Of Voters Lack Confidence In America’s Political System

This election has the voter, the serious voter, feeling helpless and unheard……they are feeling like the election is rigged….they have felt this way before but there is something about this election that is a knot in their stomach…..

Source: ‘Rigged’ 2016 Election Has Voters Feeling Helpless and Unheard – Truthdig

Lack of confidence by the voter…..and it has been a long time coming….but this election has brought the feelings of helplessness to the American voter.

Why Hasn’t Congress Authorized Force Against ISIS?

With all the conflicts we are participating in when was the last time any of it was authorized by Congress?  (play Jeopardy music here)…….when was 2001 Alex.

Since then we are fighting in engagement after engagement without a vote…..under the Constitution that makes they illegal wars and are subject to international law.

So why hasn’t Congress done their duty on this issue?  I mean they waste time on stupid votes and it would seem that committing American troops to a life or death situation should take priority over this Obamacare battle……but then I am an apologist so I would ask such a probing question…..

Maybe the American Conservative can help answer this question…..

This coming August, the United States will have been engaged in a war against the Islamic State for two years. Tens of thousands of U.S. airstrikes on ISIS targets will have been conducted, billions of dollars will have been spent, and several thousand advisers and special-operations forces will have been sent to Iraq and Syria to gather intelligence, train local forces, and prepare plans for the final thrust into the cities of Mosul and Raqqa.

All of this will have happened without the U.S. Congress performing its most important job under the Constitution: declaring war or passing an authorization for the use of military force. In a new lawsuit, one professor, one human rights lawyer, and a captain in the U.S. Army aim to force the issue.

Source: Why Hasn’t Congress Authorized Force Against ISIS? | The American Conservative

Read the article and then make your comment……please……

The Race For Number 2

Let’s stretch our imagination a bit this morning…..what if Clinton wins the general in November…..who will be her VP?

My opinion….Bernie’

s out…he would be a constant thorn in her butt and she will not tolerate that……so who do you think it will be?

The Wall Street Journal has revealed a list of potential running mates being vetted by Hillary Clinton, and it doesn’t include Bernie Sanders. Possible future vice presidents currently in the early stages of vetting include Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Labor Secretary Tom Perez, Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Rep. Xavier Becerra of California, and Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio. A national poll conducted by Bloomberg found Warren leads in popularity among Clinton supporters, 35% of whom wanted to see her as vice president. She was followed by Booker, Castro, and Al Franken. (Newt Gingrich was the most popular VP choice on the GOP side.)

While some Sanders supporters had been hoping for a vice presidential nomination for him, Sanders himself wouldn’t be interested in the position anyway, according to a source close to him. CNN reports Sanders would rather work to change the Democratic party from the Senate than be seen as a “sell-out” or Clinton’s “partner.” That may explain the interest in Warren, whose policies are close to those of Sanders and who could possibly bring some of his supporters over to Clinton. Bustle calls her a “shiny apple to Sanders’ orange.” Sources close to Clinton say the top priority for a running mate is someone who would be ready to step in as president, and that advisers aren’t really looking at what a nominee does for Clinton’s campaign in terms of demographics and geography.

My prediction is someone close to her neocon leanings……Warren is out….she may be asked but she will decline…it will crap all over her “progressive” bona fides to say yes…….Kaine will be the perfect yes man but he will not be asked…..that leaves the major Hispanics….Castro….a political family that has graveled at the feet of the Clintons….he is my choice for her VP

Any predictions from the readers?

The New Iron Curtain

Does anyone remember the term “Iron Curtain?”  If so where did it originate?  (insert Jeopardy music here)…….times up!

At the end of WW2 Winston Churchill said that there was an Iron Curtain dropping across Europe and it remained in use until 1991……thus the beginning of the now infamous Cold War…….

I bring this little shout out of history because it is happening all over a gain…..the NATO (US) and Russia are partnering up to form alliances against one another….NATO is putting more and mor etroops into Eastern Europe and Russia is beefing up defenses against the build up….ergo….a “NEW IRON CURTAIN”

A foreign army consisting of 31,000 soldiers from an anti-American alliance are conducting military “exercises” a few miles from San Diego. Hundreds of tanks converge on the Rio Grande, while jets from 24 countries converge in attack formation, darting through Mexican skies.

It isn’t hard to imagine Washington’s response.

Yet that’s precisely what has been happening on Russia’s border with the NATO alliance, as the cold war returns. Economic sanctions aimed at sinking Russia’s fragile economy, plus a propaganda campaign designed to characterize Russian President Vladimir Putin as the second coming of Stalin – or, in Hillary Clinton’s view, Hitler – have history running in reverse. Once again, an iron curtain is descending across Europe – only this time it’s the West’s doing.

Source: The New Iron Curtain – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com

And it does not appear as if this is an isolated incident…..a curtain is falling around the globe….it is almost looking like a game of “Risk”……

Will the election cure this problem?

Not a chance….period!