Tag: GOP

Feeding The Insatiable Monster

The monster in question is the War Department….while all departments of the government are being cut to the bone and valuable programs are being sidelined the Pentagon smiles and wants more money.

The eyes of a new generation were opened in an episode that seemed like dark science fiction for those of a certain age, and an unyielding nightmare regardless: a genocide streaming into smartphones around the world in real time. Many American eyes were opened for the first time to the reality not only in Palestine, but in the places in the world that are meant to be forgotten, where the U.S. and its allies may tread at their will and pleasure. At the center of this system of license and aggression is the Department of Defense, as it is now euphemistically named. What we call “defense” spending in the United States is actually spending on weapons and war-making, and it has continued its unabated rise in both red and blue presidential administrations.

The U.S. spends far more on its military than any other country – it spends more than the next nine countries combined, and as a share of GDP, its military spending far outpaces that of other rich countries in the G7 group. The Department of Defense is massive, “with $4 trillion in assets dispersed across fifty states and over 4,500 locations worldwide,” and its sheer size is at the heart of pathological accounting failures in recent years. Last November, the Pentagon flunked its seventh audit in a row, again failing to properly account for its budget – over $800 billion. A Stimson Center policy brief published last July called the Pentagon’s wild spending “a budgetary time bomb set to explode in the next twenty years,” noting the explosion in Pentagon spending in the years since 9/11. “Adjusted for inflation, defense spending has increased more than 48% in just the first 24 years of this century.” The U.S. imperial military is a truly global enterprise. According to data compiled by political anthropologist David Vine at American University, there were about 750 bases outside of the United States as of 2021, scattered throughout the world in 80 countries and colonies. Vine points out that given the “sheer number of bases and the secrecy and lack of transparency” around the information, a complete list is impossible:

https://original.antiwar.com/David_DAmato/2025/04/08/the-all-devouring-machine-pentagon-malfeasance-and-insatiable-empire/

Pentagon has no cuts and no problem getting more than they want…..

So far, the only agency that seems to have escaped the ire of the DOGE is — don’t be shocked! — the Pentagon. After misleading headlines suggested that its topline would be cut by as much as 8% annually for the next five years as part of that supposed efficiency campaign, the real plan was revealed — finding savings in some parts of the Pentagon only to invest whatever money might be saved in — yes! — other military programs without any actual reductions in the department’s overall budget. Then, during a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on April 7th, Trump announced that “we’re going to be approving a budget, and I’m proud to say, actually, the biggest one we’ve ever done for the military . . . $1 trillion. Nobody has seen anything like it.”

So far, cuts to make room for new kinds of military investments have been limited to the firing of civilian Pentagon employees and the dismantling of a number of internal strategy and research departments. Activities that funnel revenue to weapons contractors have barely been touched — hardly surprising given that Musk himself presides over a significant Pentagon contractor, SpaceX.

(counterpunch.org)

Like I said all departments are suffering from the drag of Elmo and his scalpel (DOGE)…and yet the War Department is untouched by all these senseless cuts….they get money shoved up their butts without question…..to illustrate my point….

House Republicans will seek a $150 billion Pentagon spending hike as part of their party-line megabill, according to three people familiar with the process, granted anonymity to describe private deliberations, abandoning a lower defense target and aligning with plans set by their Senate counterparts.

The upward move by the House is a win for defense hawks, who have been pushing to use GOP’s control of Congress and the White House to maximize military spending.

The House Armed Services Committee will debate its portion of Republicans’ reconciliation package next week when lawmakers return from their recess and committees begin to advance their respective sections of the sprawling domestic policy legislation.

A budget framework that cleared both chambers earlier this month proposed $150 billion in additional defense spending on the Senate side, while the House settled for a lower $100 billion Pentagon goal. The instructions for House committees in the budget blueprint, however, can be waived with the same majority vote needed to pass a final bill.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/23/house-gop-pentagon-spending-bump-00307100

It is so sad that the rest of the country means so little to Little Donny and his GOP…..while children go hungry the defense industry gets everything they want, whether needed or not, just to keep the money rolling in for their campaigns (to me it is still a bribe).

When will people come first and not what the Fat Cats want?

Thoughts?

Side note–did you see that after 2 disastrous security breeches Hogsbreath has installed a new internet line to by-pass security?

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had an internet connection that bypassed the Pentagon’s security protocols set up in his office to use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer, two people familiar with the line told the AP. Known as a “dirty” internet line in the IT industry, it connects directly to the public internet where the user’s information and the websites accessed do not have the same security filters or protocols that the Pentagon’s secured connections maintain. The existence of the unsecured internet connection is the latest revelation about Hegseth’s use of the unclassified app and raises the possibility that sensitive information could have been put at risk of hacking or surveillance.

What is this fool’s game?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Game Of ‘Hide And Seek’

There has been some problems for the GOP when they return home and have a townhall so the peons can feel included in the process….in other words the townhalls are scaring the crap out of the GOP….

For the past six weeks, we have witnessed just how far President Donald Trump is willing to go to reshape America in his dystopian vision. Now we’re witnessing Republican fear of having to account for that reshaping.

Trump signed more executive orders during his first month than any president in over 40 years. USA TODAY has reported that there are more than 100,000 federal job cuts already. Half the country is, understandably, concerned, and they’re speaking out about it.

As a result, GOP lawmakers holding town halls nationwide are having to answer for Trump and Elon Musk’s reign of chaos – even in deep red districts. Instead of facing those criticisms head on, Republicans have decided to hide.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/03/05/republican-town-halls-anger-trump-musk/80865368007/

Time to hide from the public and only focus on the Robber Barons…..

NBC News reports that House Republicans have decided to “hit the brakes” on all this town hall rigaramarole. They’re “weary and wary,” says the article. And the party leaders are saying “oh bless your hearts!” and “oh you poor things!” and saying they shouldn’t do town halls anymore if they’re scary, and they ARE very scary:

Party leaders suggest that if lawmakers feel the need to hold such events, they do tele-town halls or at least vet attendees to avoid scenes that become viral clips, according to GOP sources.

A GOP aide said House Republican leaders are urging lawmakers to stop engaging in them altogether.

Hate those viral clips where a voter tells their congressman they don’t like getting fired from their important jobs so that a South African terrorist and his team of young incels can lob nuclear bombs into the very functioning of the federal government under the obviously fake auspices of “finding fraud and waste.” Some of those voters even suggest that Republican congressmen have power to do something about it, if they’d pull their mouths off Donald Trump’s anus long enough!

https://www.wonkette.com/p/republicans-quitting-town-halls-to

Just yesterday another GOPer had a run in with his constituents….

Things did … not go well for GOP Rep. Chuck Edwards at a town hall in Asheville, North Carolina, this week as he was grilled about cuts made by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. ABC News reports that the Edwards town hall, held in a college auditorium and attended by hundreds, got so heated that security eventually had to escort Edwards out of the building. “You don’t get to do this to us!” one attendee yelled at Edwards during the gathering, which the AP notes was 90 minutes of Edwards enduring “a constant barrage of jeers, expletives, and searing questions on Trump administration policies.”

I don’t want to hear about your latest week in your office,” said one constituent who pressed Edwards on Trump’s push to squeeze a mineral deal out of Ukraine, as well as on Trump’s apparent plans to annex Greenland and Canada. Another furious attendee was shown being led out of the meeting by security after directing that fury toward Edwards. “And you wonder why folks don’t want to do these town halls,” the “visibly exhausted” lawmaker said at one point, per the AP. The incident in Asheville comes after the head of the House GOP’s campaign unit instructed Republican lawmakers earlier this month not to hold any more in-person town hall meetings, due to public backlash, per Politico. Edwards apparently ignored that order.

How long can they hide?

Will they show some cajones and face the people or will they hide in their office like the scared cowards they are?

A political game of hide and seek…..now the GOP faithfvul will have to depend on misinformation and conspiracy theories to try and understand what their elected leaders are up to in this time of political chaos.

And sadly they will probably get away with it.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

GOP’s Newest Spending Bill

It is the magical time again….the shutdown clock is ticking and the drama begins…..the Repubs have authored the newest version of their stupidity….

House Republicans on Saturday unveiled a bill to keep government funded for six months, a blueprint that would boost allocations for defense, make cuts elsewhere, but largely retain funding levels set last year by President Biden. Congress has to pass something before midnight Friday to avoid a government shutdown. The proposal would go around the usual budget process, shifting some of the power to set spending from the appropriations committees to the Trump administration, the Washington Post reports. Democrats immediately denounced the plan.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee said the bill is a “power grab for the White House and further allows unchecked billionaire Elon Musk and President Trump to steal from the American people,” per the Hill. Democrats said the continuing resolution would make it easier for Musk and his Department for Government Efficiency to slash the government and its employees. GOP staff members said the House leadership coordinated the bill and its release with the White House. Speaker Mike Johnson is moving toward a vote on Tuesday despite the lack of Democratic support, per the AP, trying to put the pressure on them. “I don’t like CRs,” Rep. Ralph Norman said. “But what’s the alternative? Negotiate with Democrats? No.”

The 99-page bill:

  • Increases spending: More would go toward veterans’ health care and defense. Republicans said the defense budget would be about $6 billion higher than in fiscal 2024 but below amounts previously agreed to for fiscal 2025.
  • Decreases spending: Non-defense programs would be cut by about $13 billion compared to fiscal 2024, Republicans said. The Internal Revenue Service would be hit, they said.
  • Excludes: Disaster relief for the recent fires in California, as well as funding for community projects that lawmakers deliver to their districts. There’s nothing in the bill about the debt ceiling issue.
  • Leaves intact: Benefits including the Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid programs aren’t touched. Those programs aren’t regularly reviewed by Congress, and funding continues. Most of government spending, in fact, is not addressed in the bill, per the AP.

At least for now the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will survive another day.  I was surprised to read that there is nothing in this about the debt ceiling….was that just an issue when Dems were in control?

The fun will begin when it goes to the Dems….and history tells us that they will pick at it…..but maybe they will play ball this time around…..looking for that elusive bi-partisanship.

Stay tuned….more to come….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribe”

Is It Anger Or Outside Agitators?

The glory that is our Congress, especially thye GOP, have been having townhalls after a month of His Highness’ program to ‘save America’ and it has not been going so well….Georgia, Tennessee and Missouri townhalls have shown the anger that has been leveled at the Reps when they are at home (these are just the ones that I know off first hand there may be more)…..and now the GOP has slammed on the brakes on such meet and greet with the peasants.

Well, we guess Republican congressmen have tried this town hall thing and it went poorly for them, so now they’re going to go back to hiding from voters. It’s not like they believe in democracy or answering to their constituents anyway. What’s the point of Donald Trump’s and Elon Musk’s fascist Nazi takeover if Republicans have to be held accountable or face re-election? As Trump said on the campaign trail, just come out and vote this time — he was talking to white supremacist Christian nationalists — and you won’t have to vote anymore, ever again.

No more people who jeer at you and tell you to fuck yourself when you tell them their unemployment is all part of God’s glorious plan. No more people to scream at you to do your job or get offended when you say them asking you questions is just like January 6. Don’t these peasants understand their congressman’s job is to help Dear Leader usher in a new golden age dictatorship of autocracy and Nazism?

NBC News reports that House Republicans have decided to “hit the brakes” on all this town hall rigaramarole. They’re “weary and wary,” says the article. And the party leaders are saying “oh bless your hearts!” and “oh you poor things!” and saying they shouldn’t do town halls anymore if they’re scary, and they ARE very scary:

Party leaders suggest that if lawmakers feel the need to hold such events, they do tele-town halls or at least vet attendees to avoid scenes that become viral clips, according to GOP sources.

A GOP aide said House Republican leaders are urging lawmakers to stop engaging in them altogether.

https://www.wonkette.com/p/republicans-quitting-town-halls-to

In typical fashion the GOP is blaming outside agitators for the problem….because apparently they want to believe that their assaults on the people’s lives is nothing for them to get angry at so it must be those damn outside agitators.

First and foremost….who are these ‘outside agitators?

Does GOP seriously believe that their actions could not anger anyone of their faithful?

This way they do not have to actually hear in person from people upset with them or their clueless leader.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

New Budget In Waiting

The Senate awaits!

The Trump people in the House have voted and approve the budget deal and one GOPer voted against it….

With a push from President Trump, House Republicans sent a GOP budget blueprint to passage Tuesday, a step toward delivering his “big, beautiful bill” with $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and $2 trillion in spending cuts despite a wall of opposition from Democrats and discomfort among Republicans.

  • House Speaker Mike Johnson had almost no votes to spare in his bare-bones GOP majority and fought on all fronts—against Democrats, uneasy rank-and-file Republicans, and skeptical GOP senators—to advance the party’s signature legislative package, the AP reports. Trump made calls to wayward GOP lawmakers and invited Republicans to the White House.
  • The vote was 217-215, with a single Republican—Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky—and all Democrats present opposed, and the outcome was in jeopardy until the gavel. “On a vote like this, you’re always going to have people you’re talking to all the way through the close of the vote,” Majority Leader Steve Scalise said before the roll call. “We got it done,” Johnson said afterward. Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva did not vote, the Washington Post reports.
  • Next steps are long and cumbersome before anything can become law—weeks of committee hearings to draft the details and send the House version to the Senate, where Republicans passed their own scaled-back version. And more big votes are ahead, including an unrelated deal to prevent a government shutdown when federal funding expires March 14. Those talks are also underway.
  • Democrats during an afternoon debate decried the package as a “betrayal” of Americans, a “blueprint for American decline,” and simply a “Republican rip-off.” “Our very way of life as a country is under assault,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on the steps of the Capitol.
  • The Republican majority in the House is so tight that confirmation hearings for Rep. Elise Stefanik as US ambassador to the United Nations have not been scheduled, the New York Times reports. “I had 220 Republicans and 215 Democrats, and then President Trump began to cull the herd,” Johnson said Monday. “We have a one-vote margin now—smallest in history, right?”

How nice that the GOP has a budget offer….but does anyone see this helping our deficit problem.

Two simple solutions that NO one in Congress wants to grapple with….raise taxes and cut spending…..but Congress is not paid to use their commonsense they are paid to take orders….but not from the voter.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The President….The Congress….A Clean Sweep

The votes were in and Trump won the general election by a substantial margin….and the country is screwed……The GOP too control of the Senate…..and the country is f*cked……and now the news the GOP has gained control of the House…..and the country is royally f*cked.

That’s right the news is in about the anticipated control of the House…..

Republicans have won enough seats to control the US House, completing the party’s sweep into power and securing their hold on US government alongside President-elect Donald Trump, the AP reports. A House Republican victory in Arizona, alongside a win in slow-counting California earlier Wednesday, gave the GOP the 218 House victories that make up the majority. Republicans earlier gained control of the Senate from Democrats. With hard-fought yet thin majorities, Republican leaders are envisioning a mandate to upend the federal government and swiftly implement Trump’s vision for the country.

When Trump was elected president in 2016, Republicans also swept Congress, but he still encountered Republican leaders resistant to his policy ideas, as well as a Supreme Court with a liberal majority. Not this time. When he returns to the White House, Trump will be working with a Republican Party that has been completely transformed by his “Make America Great Again” movement and a Supreme Court dominated by conservative justices, including three that he appointed.

Still, with a few races still uncalled the Republicans may hold the majority by just a few seats as the new Congress begins. Trump’s decision to pull from the House for posts in his administration—Reps. Matt Gaetz, Mike Waltz, and Elise Stefanik so far—could complicate Speaker Mike Johnson’s ability to maintain a majority in the early days of the new Congress. The Republican majority also depends on a small group of lawmakers who won tough elections by running as moderates. It remains to be seen whether they will stay onboard for some of the most extreme proposals championed by Trump and his allies.

And they now have a new bible….Project 2025….

The world awaits the damage that will be inflicted on it by a Trump administration….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Has 2025 Lost Some Luster?

The big deal story of this election has been the word of the Heritage plan to control the country, Project 2025, I have written about it with the hope that people will pull their heads out of their butts and see what is in store if Trump comes to power yet again.

But since few paid attention to my take I shall give you another take on this wildly fascist plan….

In talk about what a second presidential term for Donald Trump might bring, one name has become the shorthand for all the horrifying things that might await: Project 2025.

It’s been called “authoritarian” and “dystopian.” It’s the talk of TikTok. Some Democrats see it as the ace in the hole that could save President Joe Biden’s struggling reelection campaign. But Trump is now claiming, implausibly, to know nothing about it.

So what is it?

Project 2025 is the conservative movement’s detailed and specific plan for what the next Republican president should do with his power, including its preparation to put that plan into action. Basically, it’s an attempt to make the second Trump term way more organized and effective than the first.

Organized by the right-wing think tank the Heritage Foundation and advised by more than 100 conservative groups, Project 2025 has put forth a 922-page list of policy recommendations, going agency by agency in the federal government.

It is not a pie-in-the-sky policy agenda full of bold but empty promises. It is crafted to be a list of things the next president’s appointees really can do, put together by many people who served in top posts under Trump last time and could well do so again. (Project 2025 is also collecting a database of names of conservatives who could take jobs in Trump’s second term.)

https://www.vox.com/politics/360318/project-2025-trump-policies-abortion-divorce

A new survey shows that the public is slowly seeing that the plan is not what this country needs….

New polling out on Tuesday suggests that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s best hope for Project 2025, the far-right policy agenda that at least 140 of his former administration officials helped craft, was that most Americans would remain unfamiliar with it.

Over the past month, though, a growing number of voters have learned more about the 900-page plan spearheaded by the right-wing Heritage Foundation — and public opinion of the agenda has plummeted as it’s become more widely known.

Progressive polling firm Navigator Research found in a survey conducted between July 11-14 that 54% of Americans were familiar with Project 2025, which calls for the weakening and eradication of federal agencies and the consolidation of power with the president, the elimination of job protections of thousands of federal employees, and the withdrawal of mifepristone — a pill used in a majority of abortions in the U.S. — from the market.

That’s an increase of 25 percentage points from Navigator’s poll on Project 2025 just one month ago, said the firm.

Just 11% of people polled viewed the agenda favorably, while 43% had unfavorable views — a 24-point increase since June.

A New Poll Shows Project 2025 Gets Less Popular the More Voters Learn About It

Another report along the same lines…

https://www.commondreams.org/news/project-2025-2668798316

I just hope that as it becomes more and more known the public will turn completely against this ‘plan’ that flies into the face everything this country stands for…..and I hope….

It looks like Project 2025 has lost a leader….

The director of the Heritage Foundation’s controversial Project 2025 has stepped down following strong criticism from Donald Trump’s campaign. Paul Dans, one of many former Trump administration officials involved in the project, played a leading role in drafting the 920-page blueprint for a potential second Trump term. Kevin Robert, president of the conservative think tank, said they are “sticking to the timeline” of concluding policy drafting after the party conventions, the Hill reports. “We are extremely grateful for his and everyone’s work on Project 2025 and dedication to saving America,” he said of Dans.

“Our collective efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels—federal, state, and local—will continue,” Roberts said. The project, which proposes, among other things, boosting the power of the executive branch and replacing civil servants with conservative political appointees, has been repeatedly disavowed by Trump, reports the AP. At a rally earlier this month, he said it came from the “severe right” and some of its proposals are “seriously extreme.”

  • In a statement, Trump campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said the campaign “has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the President in any way.”
  • They added: “Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign—it will not end well for you.”
  • The AP reports that Trump campaign reps did not respond to requests for comment on whether the Trump team pushed for Dans to step down.
  • Vice President Kamala Harris has made attacking Project 2025 a key part of her campaign and she is expected to continue doing so despite Dans’ exit, CNN reports. “Project 2025 is on the ballot because Donald Trump is on the ballot,” campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said. “This is his agenda, written by his allies, for Donald Trump to inflict on our country. Hiding the 920-page blueprint from the American people doesn’t make it less real—in fact, it should make voters more concerned about what else Trump and his allies are hiding.”
  • The Guardian goes into more detail on the project, noting that beyond the policy document, it has created a database of potential personnel for a second Trump administration and proposals to train them in a “Presidential Administration Academy.” Some of the policy document’s more controversial proposals include banning pornography and reversing federal approval of the abortion pill.

Apparently the luster is tarnished and has to go….but how far will it go?

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Where Does He Get This Sh*t?

By ‘He’ I mean VP nominee, Vance.

He has some wild ideas and makes one wonder where did he come up with this shit.

In 2008, a software developer in San Francisco named Curtis Yarvin, writing under a pseudonym, proposed a horrific solution for people he deemed “not productive”: “convert them into biodiesel, which can help power the Muni buses.”

Yarvin, a self-described reactionary and extremist who was 35 years old at the time, clarified that he was “just kidding.” But then he continued, “The trouble with the biodiesel solution is that no one would want to live in a city whose public transportation was fueled, even just partly, by the distilled remains of its late underclass. However, it helps us describe the problem we are trying to solve. Our goal, in short, is a humane alternative to genocide.”

He then concluded that the “best humane alternative to genocide” is to “virtualize” these people: Imprison them in “permanent solitary confinement” where, to avoid making them insane, they would be connected to an “immersive virtual-reality interface” so they could “experience a rich, fulfilling life in a completely imaginary world.”

Yarvin’s disturbing manifestos have earned him influential followers, chief among them: tech billionaire Peter Thiel and his onetime Silicon Valley protégé Senator J.D. Vance, whom the Republican Party just nominated to be Donald Trump’s vice president. If Trump wins the election, there is little doubt that Vance will bring Yarvin’s twisted techno-authoritarianism to the White House, and one can imagine—with horror—what a receptive would-be autocrat like Trump might do with those ideas.

Trump’s first campaign was undoubtedly a watershed moment for authoritarianism in American politics, but some thinkers on the right had been laying the groundwork for years, hoping for someone to mainstream their ideas. Yarvin was one of them. Way back in 2012, in a speech on “How to Reboot the US Government,” he said, “If Americans want to change their government, they’re going to have to get over their dictator phobia.” He had also written favorably of slavery and white nationalists in the late 2000s (though he has stated that he is not a white nationalist himself).

https://newrepublic.com/article/183971/jd-vance-weird-terrifying-techno-authoritarian-ideas

Vance has been labeled a ‘aristopopulist’….(love that title)….

An elite voice who understood the realities of working-class life, Vance became, for mainstream commentators, one of “us” who could speak about “them”, a guide to what many consider a mysterious species: poor white people living precarious lives.

In his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, Vance chastises white workers as once he criticised Trump: for blaming everyone else for their problems but never looking to themselves. The troubles tormenting working-class communities may partly be the product of globalisation and industrial decline but, Vance insists, speak much more to cultural and moral failings; workers given to indolence (“we choose not to work when we could be looking for jobs”) and a desire to play the victim.

“We spend our way into the poorhouse,” Vance admonishes the poor of Middletown, buying “giant TVs and iPads” and “homes we don’t need”. “Thrift,” he adds, “is inimical to our being.” Vance talks of “we” and “us” but really means “they” and “them”. There are, for Vance, two kinds of workers, the deserving and the undeserving. His grandparents “embodied one type: old-fashioned, quietly faithful, self-reliant, hardworking”. His “mother and, increasingly the entire neighbourhood, embodied another: consumerist, isolated, angry, distrustful”. Particularly undeserving are those on welfare, living a life of ease on “government largesse”.

It’s a diagnosis that, as Vance himself recognises, echoes the judgment many have projected on to black Americans. “I have known many welfare queens,” he writes, “some were my neighbors, and all were white.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/21/aristopopulists-like-jd-vance-can-offer-only-empty-promises-to-the-working-class

But you decide if this is a con artist or a legit person….

Will The Real JD Vance Stand Up?

If you vote for one then you vote for the other…..and this person should set off alarm bells in your head.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Will The Real JD Vance Stand Up?

We have the GOP VP nominee and running mate for Trump….and during his acceptance speech we heard all about his life as a poor boy from Ohio or was it Kentucky…..but was it a story told to fools or was he all that?

It is a Friday and what better time for an FYI feature I found an article by someone from the region and his story and what he thinks of the tale spun by Vance.

I was raised in Coal City, West Virginia and when Monday’s big news about Trump’s vice presidential selection was announced, I felt instant rage. I wrote to my friends:

“J.D. Vance was named Trump’s running mate, which means people are talking about his stupid fucking book again, in which a venture capitalist from suburban Ohio who spent a couple of summers in Kentucky praises himself for pulling himself up by his bootstraps and blames the continued poverty of his ‘fellow’ hillbillies on their poor choices.

“Instead, read literally anything else. Read Appalachian Reckoning which responds to J.D. Vance’s stupid fucking book. Read Demon Copperhead. Read Another Appalachia. Dump a can of alphabet soup onto the floor and read whatever comes out of that. I guarantee it will be better than J.D. Vance’s stupid fucking book.”

Vance fills me with rage, in part, because I’m a lot like him.

When viewed from a distance, the arc of my life looks remarkably similar to his. Unlike Vance, my story actually starts in Appalachia. I was born in 1997, one town over from Coal City which doesn’t have luxuries like hospitals. My parents were white but that was basically their only advantage. My father is chronically ill and disabled. After getting a hysterectomy, and on the advice of her doctors, my mother started taking OxyContin. This prescription turned into an addiction that would carry her to an early grave.

Like Vance, I was raised primarily by my hillbilly grandparents, especially my mamaw. Papaw had died years earlier from stomach cancer that was left untreated when he refused to go to the doctor because he couldn’t afford to miss a shift in the mines. Papaw left mamaw with a meager pension and a roof over her head.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/i-grew-up-in-appalachia-too-jd-vance-is-a-hillbilly-phony-caleb-miller-writes

Maybe he is not the ideal person that he wants the world to believe…..all politicians fudge their life story a bit no matter the party.

But you decide whether this is the guy you want to be a secondary voice of your desires.

This is the end of my reporting week and now it is time for all of us to go out and enjoy the weekend wherever you live.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

It’s Official! Let The Fun Begin!

Finally and mercifully the RNC convention came to an end…..this Majesty ended this thing with a speech of acceptance….OMG!~ the length…..92 agonizing minutes in total.

At first it was and acceptable speech and even thought there was truth in the desire for unity….and that was what I get for thinking things would change after the ear piercing.

Before we got the honor of his majesty we had to site through the boring speeches by the slithering throngs of Trumpites…..Hulk Hogan, the octogenarian wrestler, entertained the crowd of low intelligent morons by ripping his classic shirt off…I should go on….but why the speeches were a bunch of canned crap about the border and Biden and Dems and….well use your imagination.

Let’s move on to his majesty’s acceptance speech…..like I said a rambling mess of accusations with no proof of statement.

Here we go….hang on to your ‘nads.

Donald Trump accepted his party’s presidential nomination for the third time on Thursday and gave a speech written in the days after the attempt on his life. His was the longest televised presidential acceptance speech ever, at one hour and 33 minutes, ending at 11:05pm CT. The previous record belonged to Trump; he set it in 2016 with a 75-minute speech. With his ear still bandaged, Trump was joined on stage by the firefighter’s uniform that belonged to Corey Comperatore, who was killed at the Saturday rally. Trump touched on topics ranging from COVID and his classified-documents case to inflation and the border and went off-script repeatedly. Standout lines:

  • “Four months from now we will have an incredible victory and we will begin the four greatest years in the history of our country. … I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America.”
  • already know, the assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life. So many people have asked me what happened, tell us what happened, please, and therefore, I’ll tell you exactly what happened, and you’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s actually too painful to tell.”
  • “I heard a whizzing sound and felt something hit me really really hard on my right ear. … I immediately knew it was very serious, that we were under attack. … Bullets were continuing to fly and brave Secret Service agents rushed to the stage … and pounced on top of me so I would be protected. I felt very safe because I had God on my side. The amazing thing is that prior to the shot if I had not moved my head at that very last instant … I would not be here tonight.”
  • “Nobody [in the crowd] ran and by not stampeding many lives were saved. They knew I was in very serious trouble and thought actually most did that I was dead. They knew it was a shot to the head and they saw the blood. … The ears are the bloodiest part, they bleed more than any other part of the body, the doctors told me. … This beautiful crowd they didn’t want to leave me and you can see that love written all over their faces. … Bullets were flying over us yet I felt serene.”
  • “I will end our illegal immigration crisis by closing our border and building our wall. … We have to stop the invasion into our country that is killing hundreds of thousands of people a year. I will end every single international crisis that the current administration has created,” specifying Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza.
  • “If you took the 10 worst presidents of the United States and added it up they would not have done the damage that Biden has done.”
  • “I will bring back the American dream. You don’t even hear about the American dream anymore. With great humility I am asking you to be excited about our future, be excited.”
  • Trump said he was the first president in modern times to start no new wars. “There was peace in Europe and the Middle East. Under President Bush, Russia invaded Georgia. Under President Obama, Russia took Crimea. Under the current administration, Russia is after all of Ukraine. Under President Trump, Russia took nothing. We defeated 100% of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, something that was going to take five years, and I did it in two months. I stopped the missile launches from North Korea.”
  • “With our victory in November, our years of war and chaos would be over. … I could stop wars with just a telephone call.”
  • “America is on the cusp of a new Golden Age, but we must have the courage to seize it … we have to produce massive amounts of energy if we’re going to produce the new … AI needs tremendous, literally twice the energy that’s available now in our country, can you imagine?”
  • “Just a few short days ago, my journey with you nearly ended. And yet here we are tonight, all gathered together, talking about the future, promise, and a total renewal of a thing we love very much, it’s called America. We live in a world of miracles. None of us knows God’s plan, or where life’s adventure will take us.”
  • “But if the events of last Saturday make anything clear, it is that every single moment we have on Earth is a gift from God. We have to make the most of every day for the people and for the country that we love.”
  • “For too long our nation settled for too little … You have been told to lower your expectations and to accept less for your families. I am here tonight with the opposite message. Your expectations are not big enough. It is time to start expecting and demanding the best leadership in the world. Leadership that is bold … as long as our energies are spent fighting each other our destiny will remain out of reach and that’s not acceptable.”

What can I say?

Nothing has changed his rhetoric is the same as his 2 previous nominations….the call of unity flew down the political toilet.

I am still searching for the stats on his claim of hundreds of thousands killed by illegal immigrants…..so far nothing to confirm that POS.

He got as much mileage out of the assassination attempt as he could….he milked it for the all it was worth.

Finally I heard lots words but nothing I could point to as policy….promises that mean literally nothing but crowd fodder.

That was 92 minutes of pure crap but a junkie like me listened to it all and then had to visit the porcelain library….

Now I await the Dems moment in the sun….what will it be…Joe or his replacement?

Stay tuned

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”