Message from Gabby Gifford

Today marks eleven years since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

On this devastating day, twenty innocent children were robbed of the chance to grow up. Six teachers who were simply doing their job never made it home from work.

I wanted to take a moment today to ask you to join me in keeping the families impacted by the tragedy in your hearts. This unfathomable loss is one that we will never, ever forget.

Shortly after the tragedy, I traveled to Newtown to spend time with families grieving an unspeakable loss.

We gathered in a living room filled with parents of some of the children killed in their classrooms, as well as family members of some of the teachers who lost their lives. After talking to every family there that day, tearing up at every picture of the innocent victims who lost their lives, I remember walking to a chair in the corner, collapsing into it and saying, “Enough.”

A few short weeks later, we launched our gun safety organization, then known as Americans for Responsible Solutions. I could have never guessed that ever since that day, we would have built a coalition of millions of people—just like you—committed to our mission to save lives from gun violence.

In the eleven years since the Sandy Hook tragedy, I can tell you confidently that the work we’ve done together has changed hearts, changed minds, and changed laws. But the fight isn’t over yet. We must keep up our work to demand more from our elected officials and get commonsense gun safety legislation passed.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

 It appears that no amount of reason, common sense, or abject stupidity are enough to keep Trump supporters from falling off the cliff. They will go to their deaths like lemmings following the hapless leader that they seem to feel is all in for them. He is, of course, not one whit interested in any of them, unless one of them is a good looking woman with very loose morals, then all bets are off. 

  His interest in people is to see what he can get out of them, not what he can invest in them. He will tell you whatever he thinks you want to hear without ever troubling himself with the truth. Donald Trump is one of the great perverses of the 3 great truths, It’s only a cold sore, I’ll respect you in the morning, I won’t cum in your mouth. 

  Now the latest and greatest is that the Supreme Court is going to intervene in the Trump trial and do it his way or at least let him off the hook. It is time to replace the members of the court if this is the case. They are supposed to have some sort of integrity but are showing little at the present time. 

  The Constitution was written so that the branches of government had an oversight from one part to another so someone should have a watch on the court. The executive branch has the oversight power and hopefully these trials will happen while the current administration is still in office. We know that Trump will have no trouble giving himself the green light in all matters as he has no integrity either politaly or as a human. 

  We may joke about it being time to seek another place to live but it may be time to seriously consider moving away from the US as there will be nothing left of this nation if that moron gets back into the Presidency.

  The arguments before the Colorado Supreme Court to keep Trump blameless really should be enough to cause that lawyer to throw up. Even Jeff Davis could run for President, we have the right under the Constitution to elect by popular vote whoever, blah blah blah. Truth is we do not have that right because we have a bunch of rich bastards buying the electoral college and making sure the person they want is being put in is in. If popular vote was all that was needed then Trump would never have made it in the first place.

  Then we get to hear of the dictatorship that is coming and all that crap. Next is the effort to blur the video’s of the rioter’s at the capital so they don’t get caught when the film is released by the speaker of the house. That is criminal activity to cover criminal activity, but that is okay because Republicans are doing it. 

  The support of the Right and the Evangelical group is amazing. Somewhere the people that are supposed to be fixated with truth have hung their futures on the tail of the biggest liar they could find, how does that make sense? It has to have more to do sucking up than truth. He tells them what they want to hear and that has to be more lies cause he knows nothing about the bible but the title. His knowledge of that subject is as limited as his understanding of the Constitution.

  He is making a big thing over some no doubt fictitious General that told him he was brave for debating Ms Clinton. In his mind it probably was brave as that was the first and possibly only woman he has ever had to confront that he knew he could not make her bow to his will or dynamic personality. If it had been possible he would have paid her to concede to his point of view but this was not one of those types of debates. His remarks about who called him brave is yet another slap in the face of all those that have served and if there is in fact a real officer that said that he was probably afraid of his mother.

  His cell phone from the WH is being used to add more fuel to the fire, and we still have to worry that the Supreme Court will let him off the hook. Should that happen they all need to be removed from the court and stripped of any entitlements they may have, the corruption in the Swamp is not better for having Trump in office, far worse.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

I am so very confused by the people that want to reinstall Donald the DumbAss and saying that their decision is based on the economy. In fact, I can’t comprehend how the people that insist that the Republican party is the party of fiscal responsibility and that the economy is better under GOP leadership. (Wow typing GOP Leadership was harder than I thought).

Let’s look at the numbers.

Federal budget deficits throughout Carter’s term remained at around the $70 billion level reached in 1976, but as a percentage of GDP the deficits fell from 4% when he took office to 2.5% in the 1980–81 fiscal year. Reagan left three major adverse legacies at the end of his second term. Roland Reagan the federal debt increased from 22.3 percent of GDP to 38.1 percent and, despite the record peacetime expansion, the federal deficit in Reagan’s last budget was still 2.9 percent of GDP. Under George H.W. Bush household debt grew dramatically during the period to a record level, rising from $7.4 trillion in Q1 2001 to $14.3 trillion in Q4 2008, an increase of $6.9 trillion. Measured as a percent of GDP, it rose from 70% GDP to 99% GDP. This debt addition was a driver of the housing bubble and crises that followed. Bill Clinton had budget surpluses for fiscal years 1998–2001, the only such years from 1970 to 2023. Clinton’s final four budgets were balanced budgets with surpluses, beginning with the 1997 budget. The ratio of debt held by the public to GDP, a primary measure of U.S. federal debt, fell from 47.8% in 1993 to 33.6% by 2000. President George W. Bush added $5.85 trillion to the national debt. That’s a 101% increase, putting him in fourth. Bush launched the War on Terror in response to the 9/11 attacks, which led to multi-trillion-dollar spending on the War in Afghanistan and the War in Iraq. Bush also dealt with the 2001 recession and the 2008 financial crisis.

The economy improved markedly under former President Barack Obama, from the start of 2009 through the end of 2016. Faced with the specter of another Great Depression in winter 2009, President Obama enacted a series of policies that helped the economy avoid that fate. The economy was growing again by the second half of 2009, and jobs followed suit by early 2010. Economic growth continued apace for the rest of President Obama’s time in office, and job growth logged its longest expansion on record by early 2017, dating back to 1939.¹ Employment opportunities improved, the unemployment rate fell, wages eventually increased, and household debt dropped sharply.

One of President Donald Trump’s lesser known but profoundly damaging legacies will be the explosive rise in the national debt that occurred on his watch. The financial burden that he’s inflicted on our government will wreak havoc for decades, saddling our kids and grandkids with debt.

The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office. That’s nearly twice as much as what Americans owe on student loans, car loans, credit cards and every other type of debt other than mortgages, combined, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It amounts to about $23,500 in new federal debt for every person in the country.

President Biden cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion during his first two years in office—the largest decline in American history. The economy has added more than 12 million jobs—more jobs in two years than any president has created in a four-year term—including 800,000 manufacturing jobs. The unemployment rate has fallen to 3.4 percent, the lowest in 54 years.

I could go on and on quoting numbers the diverge from what Fox news and the republicans want you to believe but I suppose those that want to walk into the night without a light will always do so. The republican claim to be the party of fiscal responsibility and small government but their track record does not prove that out. Now the small government party wants to tell women that they have no say in their own health care and if they get back into power, they will criminalize who you can love. (Not small government)

Sorry for boring you with numbers…

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

In the arena for getting away from the use of fossil fuel we could use natural geothermal power from areas around YellowStone to produce power without interfering with the park. The same is true of the ring of fire as well as that burning coal mine in Penn State. Why no one has not taken advantage of that opportunity is just nuts. That town had to have water mains and sewer systems in place and those would make great beginnings to a power system.

   Another issue that is major at present is homelessness. We have places that are sitting empty that could be used to house people on sections of military installations across this nation. It would take some effort to make those places be separated from the rest of the post if that is the way the installation is set up. Other places are open and it would not require that sort of rearrangement. Many of the buildings have dining facilities in them that would need to be manned to feed the people living there, and that could provide work for some of the residents. There are positive means to solve problems. We just need to look for them and then put the effort into doing something about it..

  There are over a million homeless children in this country and the question has to be why? Is this the result of separating children from their parents at the border when they tried to enter and gain asylum or some other cause? Regardless the reason the answer is not sitting on our hands and wondering what someone else is going to do about it.

  Gun violence, drug problems, racial issues, fights and tension over life style differences Each problem is solvable or resolvable with the use of common sense and some common compassion for our fellow humans. There is a contingent of our citizens that use the Constitution to move negative agendas forward. Gun violence is at an all time high because ownership of guns and poor regulation and no training are really primary causes for the problems. Correct interpretation of the order would limit the type and number of weapons that could be on the streets, as it stands a corrupt Supreme Court has been allowed to be bribed to allow the gun lobby to place weapons in the hands of any fool that wants one or more and shoot up whatever venu they see fit.

  Drugs are a big issue as well. People are ill, or in pain or believe themselves to be in pain, and because normal medications cost more than illegal ones guess which one they prefer to take. Of course they tend to take far more than is needed, it makes them feel so good, and they have a little booze with it, even better, and well the entire thing is just a bucket of crap. To keep it all in perspective you have to remember the little rhyme, “Candy’s dandy, but liquor’s quicker, and sex won’t rot your teeth.” Unlike meth of course.

  The wonderful Mr. Trump has promised to become a dictator if re-elected. If he does then is he going to have the same policy as the man from the Philippines, kill the drug dealers, all of them. Allow murder in open places, get rid of those with the odd life styles as well and carry the practice over to all that upset him in any way whatsoever.

Would love any thoughts on any of these topics.