“A Heartbreaking Milestone”

Tags

Covid-19 Milestone, United States

No doubt most of my fellow citizens here in the U.S. have learned that we have reached the unimaginable milestone of having lost 500,000 people to Covid-19. 500,000 people. It’s difficult to wrap your brain around that figure isn’t it? That just about matches the number of Americans who gave their lives in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam combined. The U.S. death toll is the highest in the world and accounts for over 20% of the 2.5 worldwide coronavirus deaths. Were some of these deaths preventable? Absolutely. Just last week the respected medical journal The Lancet found that 40% of the deaths could have been avoided. It compared the pandemic in the U.S. to other high income nations and discovered much of the blame attributable to Mr. Trump’s “inept and insufficient” response to COVID-19, as well as decades of harmful public healthcare policy decisions. But meanwhile, while most of us are waiting for vaccines to become more widely available, we’re still politicizing mask wearing, social distancing and the vaccines themselves. And to top things off, there are about 31 million people who are uninsured. It’s unfathomable that a country who likes to think of itself as the “greatest nation on Earth” can’t take care of its citizens. If I sound angry and frustrated it’s because I am. For the most part, except for people like our frontline workers, and some instances of heroism and basic human kindness, this pandemic has brought out the worst in us. Selfishness, violence, and callousness that was breathtaking in its scope. And the continuing willingness to use simple lifesaving measures for political expediency is the height of stupidity. If we had any brains at all we’d take a long, hard look at ourselves and our reactions to the pandemic over the last year and change our behaviors and attitudes. Obviously that’s not going to happen. Anyway, you’ll be relieved that I’m stopping my rant now. I apologize, but I’ve been stewing about this all day. Just think though: 500,000 lives gone. People who had family, and friends. People who died horribly, afraid and alone. Many of them needn’t have, and it’s not over yet. If any of you missed it, here is President Biden’s Memorial which aired a few hours ago.

Hiding Behind Patriotism

Tags

Mr. Trump, Politics, United States

Members of the New England Patriots kneel during the national anthem Sunday. Photo: Billie Weiss/Getty Images

Well, once again the covfefe has hit the fan, courtesy of Mr. Trump, our fearless leader. All of you have seen and heard by now his staunch defense of the national anthem and his urging of sports team owners to fire any player who takes a knee while the anthem is playing. But here’s the thing. Have you all noticed a pattern emerging in Mr. Trump’s more outrageous and divisive words and actions? Every single time he creates a controversy there are other things going on. If he’s a master of anything, it’s manipulation and misdirection. So, whatever could he trying to deflect attention from this time?

1. The imminent demise of the Republicans’ second attempt, since Mr. Trump took office, to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Trump has been cajoling and threatening Congress to give him any kind of legislation to sign, no matter how many millions of people lose their insurance, yet once again it looks like this will be an epic fail. (Fingers crossed)

2. The the war of words between Mr. Trump and Kim Jong Un of North Korea. His unhinged insults and cavalier threats to annihilate another country which has over 25 million people, plays well with his base, but not the majority of Americans. 

3. The candidate he’s supporting, Luther Strange, in Alabama’s Senate primary is poised to lose tomorrow which will be quite the embarrassment to Mr. Trump.

4. There’s been a lot of new revelations in the past week regarding the Russia investigation, including the fact that Russian operatives used ads (at last count 3,000) on Facebook to exploit the racial divisions in the U.S. There’s also been new allegations against Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager. 

5. Remember Mr. Trump railing about Hillary Clinton’s use of private email servers for government business? Well, yesterday Politico reported that there’s now a bipartisan congressional investigation into Jared Kushner’s occasional use of a private email account to conduct government business. And it seems like he’s not the only one. Senior aides such as Economic Advisor Gary Cohn, Ivanka Trump, former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon have all used personal devices and email accounts for official business. 

6. Mr. Trump’s travel ban 2.0 was rolled out Sunday with surprisingly little fanfare. With this new version entry into the country by foreign nationals from Chad, Syria, Libya, Iran, North Korea and Somalia, will for the most part be suspended. Iraqi nationals are to undergo intensive screening. This will take effect October 18.

I have a short wishlist of things I’d love to see Mr. Trump doing instead of cynically using patriotism to attack sports players 1st amendment rights and further dividing the country. I know this is futile, but I can dream.

1. Stop insulting the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un and engaging in what amounts to a childish schoolyard taunting match. It’s not only embarrassing, it’s bringing us to the brink of war. Let the diplomats who know what they’re doing, try to find some sort of compromise.

2. Instead of remaining on your determined path to annihilate President Obama’s legacy, learn from this latest healthcare debacle. Echo Senator John McCain’s call for bipartisan teamwork to fix the parts of the Affordable Care Act that aren’t working.

3. Stop denying that there was Russian interference in our election. At this point, you’re just embarrassing yourself. There is no “deep state” conspiracy to overturn the legitimacy of your presidency. Let Robert Mueller and the Senate committees who are investigating do their job instead of attacking them and crying “fake news!” all the time. If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.

4. Puerto Rico needs you. After being devastated by Hurricane Maria, our fellow Americans need to know they’re not being forgotten. With 16 dead so far, no electricity, running water, fuel, or cell phone service, they are in dire straits, yet until singer Marc Anthony called you out on Twitter today, you’ve remained silent about their suffering. Right now you need to be “Comforter-in-Chief” and that includes not sending out tweets like today, finally acknowledging the work that needs to be done, while at the same time bringing up Puerto Rico’s debt to “Wall Street and the banks”. 

5. Stop using divisive rhetoric with racist undertones to tear apart our country just so you can rally your base which is filled with white supremacists. And, when you do make comments like you did this weekend and after Charlottesville, stop denying that these involve race. You’re fooling no one. Not even your supporters.

6. No more cries of “fake news” every time there’s a report that you don’t like. Yes, the media needs to be held accountable for truthfulness, but to accuse them of things like not showing your crowd sizes is ridiculous. Your continual heated attacks on them are also dangerous. It was bad enough when MSNBC’s Katy Tur, a well respected journalist had to be escorted from one of your campaign rallies last summer when the crowd of your supporters turned on her after you pointed her out, and called her a liar and a third rate reporter. Your attacks on journalists have only gotten worse and I am truly afraid that one of your less mentally stable supporters is going take things too far someday as a result of your words.

I have quite a few other wishes as well, including one involving time travel, but it’s getting late and I’m giving myself a headache. So I’m going to end this post by again sharing what sends me to my Happy Place.

C’mon! It just never gets old, does it?!

Election Day 2016

Tags

#ImWithHer, 2016 Presidential Election, United States, VOTE

Before you start reading, if you’re a fan of Donald Trump, don’t go any further. I really, really don’t wish to offend anyone.

Alright everyone. This hellish election is almost over. Considering how nauseating the last several months have been, I was feeling fairly comfortable with the way things were looking until a week and a half ago when the FBI took the unprecedented step of deciding that they wanted to live in “Trumpland”–Rudy Giuliani’s words not mine–and get involved in the election process and tilt things toward Trump. 

So the last several days I’ve been doing a lot of this:

And this:

My poor, poor husband. He REALLY can’t wait until this is over!

Look, I realize that the majority of us have either already taken advantage of early voting, or firmly have fixed in their minds who they want to see as their next president. So, this plea is for any undecideds or people planning to just not vote, especially if you live in a battleground state. While Hillary may come with some baggage, she’s also done quite a bit of good in her life, especially in regards to children, families, education, and women’s rights. Do you really want to see a man who has done absolutely nothing except make money for himself at the expense of others, become President? Trump is not only bigoted against just about everyone except for other elderly white men who were never POWs, but he has seriously dangerous ideas concerning the economy, our schools, women’s rights, climate change, immigration, the military, terrorism, and the way we interact with our international allies. For all the talk about Clinton’s supposed issues with telling the truth, Trump is a proven pathogical liar, but for some reason has pretty much gotten a pass on this. For those who look with distaste on the idea of Bill Clinton being in the White House again, albeit not as President, think on this: Donald Trump with the numerous and credible sexual accusations against him will be even worse. I know so many of us are fed up with the corruption in Washington, but for God’s sake, Trump will just feed into the quagmire. This is a man whose economic policies are so dangerous that 370 of our nation’s top economists have written and signed a letter asking the American people not to vote for him. This is a man who has more respect for the leaders of North Korea and Russia then he does our own. This is a man who just got the endorsement of the Ku Klux Clan’s official newspaper. Was anyone surprised at that? This is a man who has had the absolute temerity to come out and say that he knows more than our military in spite of the fact that he never served. This is the man who has pledged to sign the anti-LGBTQ First Amendment Defense Act. If you haven’t heard of this it will basically legalize anti-LGBTQ discrimination among businesses, employers, landlords, and even healthcare providers as long as they claim they’re  being motivated by their religious beliefs. This is a man who will do his best to make sure Roe v Wade is overturned and Planned Parenthood is defunded, sending women’s rights and control over their own bodies back decades. This is a man who boasts of building a wall and banning people as well as deporting ones who are already here, based solely on their religion and nationality. This is a man whose cries of  a “rigged election” and encouragement to his followers to “Stop the Steal” has resulted in lawsuits in multiple states to prevent voter intimidation. Just yesterday a judge in Ohio actually served the Trump campaign with a restraining order to protect people trying to vote. Donald Trump is not an anti-establishment knight-in-shining armor who is here to rescue us. He is a narcissistic and power hungry man-child who if elected, will have the capability to destroy this country and take the rest of the world with it. I know many will disagree with me but we’ve seen this before with Hitler. I realize that sounds overly dramatic, but I firmly believe it. Just as I firmly believe that we as a nation are better than this. 

So, on November 8th, I implore you, VOTE! In an election like this, every vote matters. YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

Save our country and show the rest of the world that we refuse to support a racist, homophobic, misogynistic, Islamaphobic, narcissistic egomaniac who basically got into this race because President Obama hurt his feelings two years ago. And if, God help us, Trump gets in, you may not hear from me for a few days because I’ll be busy doing this:

And this:

 And mostly this:

A Historic Day

Tags

Hillary Clinton, Politics, United States

Nearly a century after the 19th Amendment was passed, giving women the right to vote here in the U.S., Hillary Rodham Clinton has officially become the first woman nominated by a major political party, for President! I realize what a polarizing figure she is. I myself was a Bernie supporter, but no matter your views of her, I think we can all agree this is a momentous day!