Esoteric Meandering Shouting Into the Void

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/roberts-faces-test-public-loses-confidence-supreme-court-rcna81349

Weren’t elected officials supposed to be beyond reproach? I thought that those appointed to lifetime positions absolutely had to be of the highest quality and beyond reproach.

I know that this is an old term, and many don’t know what it means so here is definition.

Beyond Reproach such that no criticism can be made; perfect.

“his integrity is beyond reproach”

With the current Supreme Court this ideal has been completely dissolved, that is unless the appointment is made by a Democratic President.

Current Justices Appointed by Democrats:

 Sonia Sotomayor, associate justice

Bronx-born Sotomayor attended Princeton University and Yale Law School, before going on to work as assistant district attorney for the New York County District Attorney’s Office between 1979 and 1984. After going into commercial law at Pavia & Harcourt between 1984 and 1992, President George H.W. Bush nominated her to the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.

President Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on May 26, 2009, and she took her seat on August 8, 2009.

Her appointment was held to a very high standard and her integrity was questioned by the Republicans mostly because of her race.

Elena Kagan, associate justice

Obama nominated Kagan as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on May 10, 2010. She took her seat on August 7, 2010. She has repeatedly voted in favor of abortion rights.

Prior to that, she was Solicitor General of the United States and served for four years in the Clinton Administration.

No scandals since being confirmed still had a hard process because of the 60 vote threshold.

Ketanji Brown Jackson

On the court since: 3 October 2022

How she got to the court: The first black woman to sit on the court in its 233-year history is also the first justice since 1967 to come to the court with extensive experience as a criminal defence attorney. Before the US Supreme Court, the Washington DC native served on the influential US court of Appeals for the DC circuit. She has two degrees from Harvard University and once served as editor of the Harvard Law Review. Ms Jackson has said she has a “methodology” to deciding cases but not an overarching philosophy. Some conservatives have accused her of being “soft” on criminals, pointing to her experience as a public defender and willingness as a federal judge to issue prison sentences below federal guidelines.

Her confirmation came after President Biden pledged during his presidential campaign to appoint a black woman to the top court.

Her confirmation was a simple majority because Mitch McConnel blew up the filibuster for Justices.

Those the 3 of 9 that are from Democratic Presidents.

Trump had 3 appointments in his short time in the Oval Office.  

Neil M. Gorsuch, associate justice

Gorsuch was nominated to the court by President Donald Trump, assuming his seat on April 10, 2017. He previously taught at the University of Colorado Law school, and on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. In his 10 year-tenure on Colorado’s 10th Circuit, he never ruled on abortion rights.

Was only appointed because Mitch McConnel held the seat open for nearly a year not allowing President Obama his right to fill the vacated seat.

Currently on the hot seat for an unreported real estate deal that sat on the market for years and miraculously sold to a partner in a large law firm that had cases in front of the court after Gorsuch was appointed.

Brett M. Kavanaugh, associate justice

Trump nominated Kavanaugh as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat on October 6, 2018.

He was previously Associate Counsel and then Senior Associate Counsel to President George W. Bush, and Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary for Bush. In 2006, he was appointed a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Kavanaugh has consistently supported abortion restrictions.

Who cried during his confirmation and is rightfully accused of sexual assault.

Amy Coney Barrett, associate justice

Barrett was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was nominated by Trump as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. She took her seat on October 27, 2020.

She was previously a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and before that she was a law professor at Notre Dame Law School, Indiana.

Barrett has previously argued that abortions aren’t necessary because women can always give their babies up for adoption.

Although she was praised by Republicans for being the first anti-abortion female judge appointed to the bench and is outspoken about her Catholic faith, Barrett so far has not revealed much about her views on Roe v. Wade.

Rushed confirmation after the death of RGB while the 2020 election was in progress, a 100% reversal of the ‘rule’ McConnel had put in place for President Obama.

Longer serving Justices appointed by Republicans.

Clarence Thomas, associate justice

President George Bush Sr. nominated Thomas as an associate justice and he took his seat on October 23, 1991.

The Georgia native worked as assistant secretary for civil rights, U.S. Department of Education and chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission during the 1980s. Between 1990 and 1991, he served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Thomas has previously tried to say that abortion rights were opened by the eugenics movement —a debunked theory from the early 1900s that said white Caucasians had superior genes. However, an author of one of the main works that Thomas cited about abortion discredited the judge’s claims in an article for The Atlantic.

Thomas is the longest serving Justice and is currently under scrutiny over non reported very pricy gifts and vacations from a wealthy republican doner. His excuse is that the reporting forms were complicated, and he misread them. I was under the impression that he was a judge and adept in legal paperwork.

Samuel A. Alito, associate justice

George W. Bush nominated Alito as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat on January 31, 2006.

Alito was previously appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 1990. He also has previous stints working for the U.S. Department of Justice.

The leaked majority opinions to strike back Roe v. Wade was written by Alito, who said it was “egregiously wrong from the start.”

John Roberts, chief justice of the United States

Robert is a conservative judge who was appointed by George W. Bush as chief justice of the court in 2005, taking his seat on September 29 that year.

The New York-born judge was previously United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2003, and formerly served as an associate counsel to President Ronald Reagan and in the White House. Later, between 1989 and 1993, he was the principal deputy solicitor general at the U.S Department of Justice.

He as of late does not seem to have any control of his court.

Thomas, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Barret are by no means beyond reproach and have for the first time in history taken a rights away from citizens.

The standard for justices has to be higher and the court need to be expanded, it has been done in the past and need to be done now. There are 13 district courts so by my logic there should be 13 Supreme Court Justices.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Joe Biden has officially stated that he is running for a 2^nd term as President of the United States. I know there are detractors in the Democratic camp purely based on Joe’s age. Yes, it is true that Joe Biden was born November 20, 1942, that means that he will be 82 years old in 2024. He was born when FDR was President and was elected to the Senate from Delaware when Nixon was in office. These are unavoidable facts that we can’t dispute but is his age a reason to disqualify him from continuing to serve in the role he currently holds. The current constitutional rules have no maximum age on the Presidency only that the office holder has to be 35 years old, and a U.S. citizen so based on that his advanced age does not disqualify him.

Let’s look at the republican current front runner DJT. He was born in June of 1946 so that makes him only 4 years younger than Biden. Although he claims to be an exceptional physical specimen of health, we have all seen his burger eating wide ass riding in a golf cart and know that isn’t the truth. I am biased but I have watched (the Donald) get out of breath walking up a ramp and need assistance going down one. On multiple occasions this manly man have to use two hands to raise a glass to his mouth. His supporters will bring up the fact the Joe fell off his bike, to that I would ask if they have ever seen Donald ride a bike?

The point I am trying to make is that neither party has a Derby winning champion in the stable both are of an advanced age although I would have to put Joe in the category of a healthy octogenarian where Trump fall more into the obese senior citizen group.

If these two are again our choice in 2024 let’s look at the record of accomplishments.

Trump cut corporate tax rates to historic lows, big win for the corporations. Promised huge infrastructure, never happened. Said he had a health care plan better than the ACA, still waiting. Promised to build a wall at the southern border, got roughly 10 miles completed. Ignored the pandemic and killed hundreds of thousands of Americans because of his hubris. Left office with the largest unemployment of any President in history and ballooned the debt trillions of dollars.

Biden has got unemployed to the lowest it has been in history, pass an infrastructure bill with the small margin along party lines. Passed the CHIPs act that will bring tech manufacturing back to the U.S.. Rolled out a hugely successful vaccine to company COVID. Ended a 20-year war in Afghanistan, that wasn’t pretty but was effective and little loss of life. This list could go on, but I think you get the point.

Biden is old that is a fact, but can he do the job? I would have to say resoundingly yes. He knows the system and has proven that he can get things done even with staunch opposition for the right.

But the question was should there be age limits… honestly, I think we should put some boundaries on age in government service for all branches. I think the Supreme Court should have term limits not forever lifetime appointments. With people living longer what should those limits be? I can’t answer that question, but I do think it is time for a generation that wasn’t born during or directly after the last world war to steer the ship. Generation X, Millennials, and Gen Z need to assert our position in the roles of leadership although as a Gen X some of my generation need to keep their mouths shut…I mean you Green, Hawley and Cruz you aren’t fit to serve so crawl back under your rocks.  

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/24/media/tucker-carlson-fox-news/index.html

As thrilled as I am that Tucker has parted ways with Fake News, sorry Fox, his departure in no way signals that the network will change its stripes. Carlson with all his winy accusatory questioning diatribes is only a cog in the disinformation machine.

Tucker Carlson only had in his prime-time slot starting 2016, the literal beginning of Donny Dumb Ass’s campaign for the office he held and attempted to destroy. In the excruciating 7 years he was an effective communicator of half truths and blatant bull shit and unfortunately far too many Americans’ tune into Fox. The sad truth is that when anyone is fed exclusively misinformation their grasp on reality is nearly permanently distorted. Carlson served his effectiveness, but his hubris caught up with him when he neglected to cover his tracks when admitting to the fact that he didn’t even believe his own bull shit.

I know prior to 2016 seems like a long time ago but does anyone remember who Carlson’s predecessor was? Bill O’Reilly who was the top-rated host in cable news was forced to resign after the disclosure of a series of sexual harassment allegations against him and an internal investigation that turned up even more. These contentious claims were embarrassing to Fox News and subsequently they forced him out.

Yes, one giant douche bag was replaced by a slightly less annoying more palatable version. O’Reilly in his hey day was the king of outrage and ‘conservative’ fury hurling trumped up accusations at the Obama White House.

According to the Daily Dot O’Reilly has 99 documented lies attributed to his time on air, here are the first 10.

1. O’Reilly bragged repeatedly he won two Peabody Awards hosting Inside Edition in the 90s. He won zero.
2. O’Reilly bragged that, woops, he actually had won a Polk Award hosting Inside Edition. He won zero of those, too. To be specific, the show did win that award—a year after O’Reilly stopped hosting.
3. O’Reilly then said he never claimed to have won a Peabody Award. He actually did make that claim, repeatedly, using the award as proof that Inside Edition was not a tabloid show but very good journalism. He later admitted to making the original Peabody claim, but now he just says the Peabody guys are unfair liberals.
4. Repeatedly claiming he’s “an average guy,” O’Reilly has claimed that he “came from nothing” and “you don’t come from any lower than I came from on the economic scale.” Actually, O’Reilly’s mother has repeatedly talked to the press about regular vacations the family took to Florida, that O’Reilly went to private school and college, and that they lived in an affluent New York suburb.
5. In 2006, O’Reilly boasted that he gets 6 million viewers every night. He got 2 million then. Today, he’s posting “huge numbers” because he’s addressing the Argentina controversy—so he’s getting about 3 million viewers on a night.
6. Responding to critics who say Fox News is too conservative, O’Reilly has long claimed to be a “normal guy” and a registered independent. It turned out, contradicting that claim, that he was a registered Republican.
7. He insisted that he is really an Independent and that when he registered to vote in 1994, there was no independent option and that he was “somehow assigned Republican status.” In 2004, comedian (now a senator) Al Franken went back and looked at O’Reilly’s voter registration form. Actually, there was an Independent option right next to the Republican box. O’Reilly had chosen Republican and then lied about it for the next decade on television.
8. NPR’s Mike Pesca reported O’Reilly’s political registration in 2001 on the radio. O’Reilly called it a “hatchet job” and said, “I’ve never heard of Mike Pesca.” Pesca had interviewed O’Reilly on tape for an hour for the report.
9. In 2004, O’Reilly said Iraq was producing chemical weapons in the run up to the 2003 Iraq war. They were not.
10. O’Reilly said Al Qaeda was working with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq even after the claims were widely disproven. They were not.

Why am I pointing out the O’Reilly was a lying douche because he was replaced by Trucker Carlson who is and was also a lying douche. This is the Fox model replace one with another, Carlson started out more palatable than O’Reilly but eventually turned out to be the same if not worse. Who is on deck, what smiling purveyor of bull shit will Rupert Murdock anoint with his scepter of hypocrisy? Time will only tell but if the successor is true to form, we can bet that they will also turn out to be prolific purveyors of distorted truths and misinformation

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/13/us-scientists-confirm-major-breakthrough-in-nuclear-fusion

What is our energy future? We are working hard for a zero-carbon future in hopes of continuing our tenuous foot hold on this tiny blue dot in the cosmos.

The oligarchs of big oil and coal have convinced many that there is no bridge from fossil fuels to renewable sources like solar and wind. Their argument is that our need for energy is so vast that only by continuing to burn fossil fuels, which is a finite resource, our existence will not continue on the trajectory that mankind is on. Hundreds of Millions of dollars are spent lobbying governments to keep the world turning using resources that push ton of carbon into our atmosphere. Here in the U.S. we even subsidize the industries that are contributing to global climate change. These corporations have even admitted to the fact that they knew that sustained burning of fossil fuels would change the atmosphere and cause an increase of global temperatures and loss of sea ice. Yet we continue to burn gas and coal to power our homes and drive our automobiles.

The push for electric vehicles has increased and technology has followed suit. There are still those who scoff at electric cars, but they are of the same mindset that rejected the horseless carriage and insisted that television would never be a thing.

Electric cars are a good start, but the question remains what about everything else that requires energy? Solar has been on the rise for homes and businesses and solar batteries have increased solar usefulness and longevity although it is still an expensive option for most. The government has rolled out programs to help solarize homes and that has been a great benefit that many homeowners have exploited. Sadly, there aren’t many multifamily complexes, apartment homes, that have integrated renewable energy into their business model. That has to be something that city planners in the future have to push for when authorizing new construction in their cities.

It is true that currently solar and wind cannot fulfill the energy needs of our every growing population but there is nuclear energy that has greatly improved over the past 50 years. The days of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island appear to be catastrophes of the past and new nuclear plants are cleaner and far more efficient. Around a quarter of the EU’s energy is nuclear and more than half of that is produced in France. In total there are 103 reactors operating in 13 of the 27 member states. In 2019, these provided about 50 per cent of low-carbon electricity. The amount of energy provided by nuclear is projected to nearly double between 2020 and 2050. To achieve this, new capacity additions reach 30 GW per year in the early 2030s. The amount of energy consumption that is in the form of electricity increases from about 20% today to about 50% by 2050.

If we can bridge the gap with nuclear energy until scientists can develop and stabilize fusion technology which has the potential to provide cheep bountiful energy in the near future, we may just continue to survive on this little blue dot in the cosmos.   

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/spacex-starship-launch-explosion-video/

That has to be the absolute best way to spin “Our rocket blew up”. Somehow Elon Musk having his Space X launch yesterday fail spectacularly has turned the subsequent explosion minutes after Launch into a success. Just the way Space X characterized the explosion of it rocket has to make the media persons high school English teacher proud.

This launch failure seems to typify Musk’s track record as of late… $44 billion purchase of Twitter that has now lost nearly half its value and upstart social media platforms gaining more followers every day. Then one of the biggest pokes in the eye for the Twitter faithful, legacy blue checks being summarily taken away and replaced by only those willing to pay the billionaires ransom of $8 or $11 a month for the privilege of putting their content on his platform which he is already monetizing. Good job Elon you just turned what used to be a status symbol into a scarlet letter.

As fun as it is to poke fun at the man who was once the richest man on earth there a lot of other professional rake steppers in the headlines.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-committee-hearing-b2323819.html

Representative MTG was summarily slapped down during a hearing this week for calling Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas a liar. This outburst caused her to be silenced for the rest of the hearing. Greene and her misinformation brigade want to spin the record amounts of fentanyl and high terrorism risk arrests at the border as an impeachable offence.

This is from ABC News.

The seizures include 50.6 million pills laced with the ultra-deadly synthetic opioid and 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder, the DEA said.

“These seizures – enough deadly doses of fentanyl to kill every American – reflect the DEA’s unwavering commitment to protect Americans and save lives, by tenaciously pursuing those responsible for the trafficking of fentanyl across the United States,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a statement Friday.

Somehow this is a terrible thing.

The Biden Administration with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, in 2 years, have stopped more drugs and more dangerous persons at the southern boarder than Trump magic wall did in 4 but that is a negative marks as far as the GOP and Fox are concerned.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/21/i-dont-think-he-cares-about-people-desantis-struggles-with-former-hill-colleagues-00093281

Ron DeSantis is one of the leading GOP voices that continues to step on his own dick, signing an afterhours 6-week abortion ban. Then not so quietly threatening to maybe build a state prison close to Disney World. This guy everyone thought was going to be the ayre apparent to the latest Republican dumpster fire is absolutely show the world who he is. Even the ravenous GOP aren’t looking for a book banning, homophobe at least not outwardly.

So, I would have to say the GOP is having a Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly and I couldn’t be happier about it.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Five takeaways from the Fox News-Dominion settlement

The Dominion -v- Fox settlement is a huge letdown. Financially it is a big win for Dominion but for Murdock and Fox the $787.5 million settlement will do nothing to curb their misinformation campaign. Hopefully the next lawsuit by Smartmatic, which is actually a stronger case, will produce more than just a monetary slap on the wrist for Fox (so called) News.

The prime time talking heads and the owner of the company need to be trotted in front of a jury and deposed for the world to see them for the hypocrites that they are. This settlement will only let them slip right back into the same old habits as before. I am sure that the judgement from the judge that Fox and its spokespeople were in fact lying to their audience will never be utter on Fox so their loyal minion will never know the truth.

Just like the monster they created DJT, Fox will spin the settlement as liberal bias and the settlement wasn’t because of wrongdoing but the right thing for the company because they weren’t going to get a fair trial. That is exactly the condescending tone Tucker will pose his inevitable ‘question/misrepresentation)’, “We all know that the liberals have loaded the courts… and we all know that the election was rigged… Those are the facts we know, Fox had to settle that way you can still hear the truth.”

Dominion should have demanded along with the monetary settlement that a disclaimer be shown at the bottom of the screen during all Fox prime time broadcasts the states (The programs you are currently watching are opinion and the ‘facts’ stated have not been checked or verified as being truthful.” I don’t know if that would change much because I can’t verify how many Fox viewers can read and since I don’t have that information, I won’t state any numbers.

Murdock is reportedly worth $12.5 billion. The Dominion settlement is less than 10% of his personal wealth not to include the assets of the Fox (News) network. This minor monetary inconvenience won’t do a damn thing and honestly, I could care less about the financial obligation I want the Fox viewers to hear out of the mouths of the talking heads they listen to that they flat out lied to them. This little hiccup will only embolden the radical right and their toadies to start and renewed holy war against the ‘Woke’ because they will spin the entire thing as unjust, that the liberals have slanted everything so now the real fight has to begin.

Those of us that don’t want to see this Republic fall need to be ready to stand up and continue to speak the truth because I know that (right) red hat mafia is only going to use this as a battle cry.  

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Fiscal conservatism is a political position (primarily in the United States of America) that calls for lower levels of public spending, lower taxes and lower government debt. Fiscal conservatism may also support limited periods of higher taxes in order to lower the public debt. It can include any or all levels of government, federal, state and local. Fiscal conservatism is typically justified in terms of economic efficiency (it assumes the private sector is more efficient than the public sector), and in moral terms with high spending, budget deficits, and high debt seen as indicators of corruption. In opposition to corruption fiscal conservatism develops classic themes of republicanism that emerged in the era of the American Revolution. Fiscal conservatism rejects the Keynesian policy of deficit spending.

Fiscal Conservatism was rhetorically promoted during the presidency of Ronald Reagan (1981-1989). During his tenure, Reagan pushed through economic policies which became known as Reaganomics. Rooted in a belief in supply-side economics, Reagan cut income taxes, raised social security taxes,(actually taxed social security for the first time) deregulated the economy, and propounded a tight monetary policy to stop inflation. Reagan favored reducing the size and scope of government because he considered it to be conducive to inefficiency and corruption; he especially attacked welfare. He proposed greatly increased defense spending (which he got), reduction in income taxes (which he got), and reductions in domestic spending (which he did not get). The result was a large increase in the national debt, economic prosperity, and rapid growth. Reagan also achieved a compromise on Social Security that reduced long-term federal spending.

However, by the end of Reagan’s second term the national debt held by the public rose from 26% of Gross Domestic Product in 1980 to 41% in 1989, the highest level since 1963. By 1988, the debt totaled $2.6 trillion. The country owed more to foreigners than it was owed, and the United States moved from being the world’s largest international creditor to the world’s largest debtor nation as investors around the world rushed to send their money to the U.S.^[8] Under Democrat Bill Clinton the federal government ran a budget surplus and the debt went down. The George W. Bush policy was to return the surplus to taxpayers by lowering federal income taxes, even as spending increased, especially for the Iraq war. Democrats attacked the Bush policy as a violation of fiscal conservatism.

Today’s Republicans are continuing to achieve recording spending the same move that Reagan succeeded in doing in his second term. Not only does the current GOP like to spend like drunken sailors when they hold the wheels of power, they always cry debt when they lose the reigns. And now true to form the Republican House is threatening to blow up the full faith and credit of the United States by refusing to raise the debt ceiling, which they have done without question when a Republican is in the White House, unless Biden cuts his own throat and defunds the very programs that have saved us from Dumb Donald’s 4 years.

How can the “fiscal conservatives” be so bad with money? Honestly because they don’t care and refuse to learn the lessons from history.

On January 8, 1835, President Andrew Jackson achieves his goal of entirely paying off the United States’ national debt. It was the only time in U.S. history that the national debt stood at zero, and it precipitated one of the worst financial crises in American history.

The elimination of the national debt was both a personal issue for Jackson and the culmination of a political project as old as the nation itself. Since the time of the Revolution, American politicians had argued over the wisdom of the nation carrying debt. After independence, the federal government agreed to take on individual states’ war debts as part of the unification of the former colonies. Federalists, those who favored a stronger central government, established a national bank and argued that debt could be a useful way of fueling the new country’s economy. Their opponents, most notably Thomas Jefferson, felt that these policies favored Northeastern elites at the expense of rural Americans and saw the debt as a source of national shame.

Jackson, a populist whose Democratic Party grew out of Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party, had a personal aversion to debt stemming from a land deal that had gone sour for him in his days as a speculator. Campaigning for re-election in 1832, Jackson vetoed the re-charter of the national bank and called the debt “a moral failing” and “black magic.” Jackson vetoed a number of spending bills throughout his tenure, putting an end to projects that would have expanded nationwide infrastructure. He further paid down the debt by selling off vast amounts of government land in the West and was able to settle the debt entirely in 1835.

Jackson’s triumph contained the seeds of the economy’s undoing. The selling-off of federal lands had led to a real estate bubble, and the destruction of the national bank led to reckless spending and borrowing. Combined with other elements of Jackson’s fiscal policy as well as downturns in foreign economies, these problems led to the Panic of 1837. A bank run and the subsequent depression tanked the U.S. economy and forced the federal government to begin borrowing again.

Using Keynesian deficient spending the U.S. is able to sell saving bond that are secured by the government and has made the dollar the standard in world currency. The current GOP has no intention of reducing the debt to zero as Jackson did. Their only goal is to cut any spending that will help the common citizen. Grover Norquist famously said, “My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” That is the autocratic policies of today’s GOP that way the corporations can assume control and the rich will get richer and the rest will live in abject poverty. No longer will the United States be a shining city on the hill, we will just be another corporate autocracy. That is not the America I served in, or the one I want to leave to the next generations.   

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

The news comment has been that as long as pathic 45 is in the news it is good for his  opposition and bad for his party. So maybe we should use his name as often as possible and make sure that all his laundry is on the line for all to see.

It really should be mentioned that in order to get where he is he has had to do a lot of not so nice things. We have seen people like him in the past go missing like union bosses and drug lords to name a couple. Will his be the same fate? It is hard to tell but it would not come as a big shock if it did.

The outcome of the 2024 election is a question, hopefully it will be an outcome that provides stability and reason to our government. With that said, do we have a way of ridding our congressional ranks of the obvious 4F category people that have been slipped in by massive maneuvering by the GOP. Perhaps we will see some movement on that side of the wall that brings them back to government with a purpose not dictatorship with greed as their driving force.

The current GOP has been likened to the death of the party of Lincoln, and in order for it to again function and govern the Phoenix must rise from the ashes. All of the powers that seem to have a stranglehold on the GOP need to be either realigned or eliminated and new supporters brought in. 

We have people that believe we cannot have a functional government without having God in the driver’s seat. Well all you need to do to prove that as a bad concept is look at the countries that have a religious leadership. They are poorly run, backward in attitude, keep over half of the population in virtual slavery and kill all those that disagree with the way they are doing things. We may need to be influenced by religion but we do not need to be ruled by religion. The books written to give power to a deity are works of men that had personal agendas that were self serving and one sided. The only reasonable way to run a nation is with consensus of all that reside within it. 

Laws and order need to encompass everyone regardless of ethnic difference, gender or anything else that seems to be a reason for separation not unification. Different makes for interest and learning should be a life long project not read this book and now you know all you need to know and if someone strays from the teaching in this book they are evil and need to be put to death.

At a certain point in life each of us should carefully consider what will our actions do for those that follow. As parents most want to leave a better situation for their children than what they inherited when their parents passed. I am not sure of when that point is, but if you no longer are going to pick up the check for the party then maybe you should not be holding the party.

If this life is all we have then consider that there is no reason for you to screw it up for the next generation. If this life is just a current stop over and an opportunity to learn and develop and move on to the next phase then you might want to consider what you are learning and will you need to be a better person in the next chapter or is being a bastard the best you can hope for.   

The people that make the most noise about follow the teachings of a Deity are the first to 

violate any semblance of order or devotion as they seek to get as much as possible from all that enter their realm of influence. The leaders of great religious organizations seem to be doing so much to elevate their own teaching and agenda’s and once they are comfortable in limelight they start to extend their influence and that usually brings them down. The downfall occurs when they attempt to enter areas that are controlled by people with very different views on power and influence.

The House is again making completely no sense as they are going to stop woke programs or influence in the Pentagon. Most of these rather uninformed or misinformed idiots don’t know what it is they are attempting to stop. The majority are most likely not of the 1% that have served this nation in uniform and they are proud of it just like Trump bragging about his contribution to the Vietnam War was not catching an STD from the hookers in Time Square. Isn’t that special, that goes out to all you bible toting bigots. If a member of your house was involved in the world’s oldest profession you would not have a thing to do with them, but someone who brags about his involvement you’ll vote for, must be your version of turn the other cheek, face or back side.

Banning books and burning books ordered by a governor of a state. This is an elected official that is accountable to the citizens of the state, the citizens are not responsible to him. If what he is doing call for a referendum vote and gets him out of office. The idea that history will repeat itself is not new and it appears to be true. 

The Pilgrims came here to escape religious persecution, and then set up societies that were devoid of choice of religion and they ended up with a mess. So today we have multiple religions attempting to run various parts of the world and the heavier the influence the poorer the conditions of the nation they are in. Religion may be a cure for some things that are wrong but it is like a cancer for other things. Currently if you are diagnosed with cancer the medical profession put  you on chemo and radiation treatments to kill the cancer. So they kill that cancer and give you leukemia now you have a lack of white blood cells and can not fight off a common cold.

Perhaps if a bit of common sense was used so that rather than kill one cancer giving a more robust variety a chance to invade, the cancer is brought to a manageable level and it can fight the more robust intruder and your system doesn’t have to work so hard to keep you alive. The method of total kill in a disease is like total control by religion, it makes no sense and it hinders advancement and very possibly cure. Denial that an event took place, think slavery or the holocaust, or that some people prefer to find happiness in the arms of someone of the same gender will not make these things go away, more likely it will get people to address those issues and make a bigger public scene than if they were accepted and respected.

Creating an environment that has neighbors spying on neighbors and no one trusting anyone is not good for your neighborhood, your community, your state or for the nation that encourages such tactics. As soon as something becomes illegal there will be someone that says they are going to see if they can get away with it, and for how long. Regardless of anyone’s personal view on any subject or practice we would all do well to consider if we really need to concern ourselves with it. If you do not want to drive faster than the speed limit, no one can force you to do that. If you do not want to go in a bar or pool hall, a strip club, a movie theater, a sushi bar, or a church no one can force you to go, and at the same time you need not stop anyone else from going were they choose unless they are a minor or not able to care for themselves.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Loki’s speech to the Germans, “Kneel before me. I said… KNEEL! Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It’s the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life’s joy in a mad scramble for power. For identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.”

I feel like the current autocratic wing of the Republican party honest has taken this line from the Avengers movie to heart. As a party they have zero inclination to Lead that is not in their nature their determination is to Rule. Ruling gives no quarter to dissent or debate, it only requires subjugation of the masses.

A ruler is detached from the people and the process and focused on the outcome. As long as results are produced, they don’t care how or how much the people suffered or sacrificed.

Sadly, even this is to far for the current Republicans because they don’t even pretend to have a result-oriented agenda their current mission. It appears is to turn the reigns of power over to corporations and the moneyed interests as long as they hold the power there is no concern of anything else.

The leader is focused on the people, process, and the outcome. But they are most focused on the people. They know that life is precious, and each person is a life, and they engage them so that their work is interesting or to alleviate their suffering to the extent that s/he can. They also understand that by shifting the process around, it can change a mundane task to a more emotionally satisfying task, and they look for opportunities to do that.

The Democratic party seems to be more interested in leading but that requires a level of cooperation that in our two-party system does not exist.

Our current President, Joe Biden, consistently reaches out to the opposition in hopes of some level of bi-partisan collaboration. His Democratic predecessor President Obama tried the same things with similar results.

Trump in the 4 years he occupied the office did little to nothing that would constitute what anyone could consider legislating. His apparent mission was to Rule while enriching himself for the position and continually keep his name in the headlines.

It’s astounding the level of accomplishments that the current occupant of the White House has achieved while not constantly having his name in the new lexicon. Apparently, that’s what a Leader does, works for the people he serves without incessantly seeking attention.

The similarities of how Loki craved the throne to rule and Trumps time in office are uncanny. Loki usurped the throne through trickery just as Trump held the seat of power via deceit and underhanded dealings. Undoubtedly if Donald would have achieved a second term he would have attempted to destroy the constitutional Presidential term limits and make himself President for life just as Xi Jinping has done in China and Putin has done in Russia.

We dodged a bullet in 2020 but I don’t think we are out of the woods yet. Even if Donald does not attain the Office of the Presidency again that are worse despots out there that are far smarter. The authoritarian Governor of Florida has designs on becoming President and he know how to pull the levers that Trump couldn’t find.

The right wants to call the democrats ANTFA, Anti-Fascist. I really don’t have a problem with that I don’t want to see fascism I this country or anywhere. From my understanding of history that is exactly what the Greatest Generation fought for, Hitler was a Fascist, Mussolini was a Fascist, Trump and DeSantis want to be Fascists, but they are currently disguising themselves as legitimately elected officials.

Review your history people that how it gets started.  ☹

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Conservative Circuit Judges seem to think that have been bestowed the authority to overturn rulings on a national level. I took civics in High School and College and don’t recall that a circuit court or state court judge had the power to overrule a national regulation.

Remember back in August of 2022 when a Florida circuit court judge unilaterally lifted the mask mandate on domestic flights nationwide? Yeah, that happened over the CDCs recommendation one lone judge decided that COVID 19 was no longer a problem. With all her years of medical and epidemiology training that made her a lawyer then a judge she alone decided that it was all clear.

Now there is a Judge in Texas, yes fucking Texas, that has decided that a medication that has been in use for 17 years that has been deemed less harmful that Tylenol by the FDA should not be allowed because it is an early abortifacient. That’s right another judge with countless hours as a medical provider and years of study with medicinal efficacy.

I never knew that a law degree came with so much medical training… hold on someone just told me that Lawyers and Judges don’t have any medical training. Doing my own reading I found that neither of these self-righteous Jurist even have an MPH (Masters in Public Health) but some how they have been ordained by God to make health decisions for 332 million people. That’s a great gig if you can get it.

I am still dumbfounded that Judges have deemed themselves the authority, ideological, moral, and medical no matter their individual training in any of these fields of study. Since when did we stop listening to science and peer reviewed studies and trust the opinion of a single person? I know dumb question… King Donny anointed a moron minority the purview to cast their belief on all others.

Since that seems to be that is way it is going, I have my judgment about mifepristone the first drug in a 2-drug regimen to stop an early pregnancy. Judges and Red State Governors, you have zero medical or pharmaceutical training, so keep your noses out of the health concerns unless you are reducing medical cost or passing laws that will improve the lives of those you feel you have a right to rule. If you want to ban a drug that can cause pregnancy and is less safe than mifepristone ban Viagra. It is a proven fact that every unwanted pregnancy, yes everyone one of them, as a direct result of a hard penis. So, by my calculations less hard penises, less pregnancies, less need for abortions.

The other maddening thing that I have to get off my chest is that the drug mifepristone and misoprostol which are used to end early pregnancy are also used to help expel failed fetuses in miscarriages. BTW misoprostol hasn’t been banned yet but just wait. Women have the right to their own bodies, but the ridiculous right would rather put every women’s health in danger for their ideological purity BS. Let put every male legislator and jurist to the test and have their side piece come to them and tell them they are pregnant with their child. I can bet that abortion is the first thing that pops into their minds.