Dwain Northey (Gen X)

MTG is the gift that just keeps on giving… In her most recent, what was supposed to be, slam against President Biden she compared Biden to FDR and LBJ. Wow that is quite the insult to of the most admired and policy prolific Presidents of the 20^th century.

Her slam was that Joe is finishing what these two giants stated with the New Deal and the Great Society both of those accomplishments helped average Americans…Oh the horror.

FDRs New Deal introduced major federal programs and agencies included the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Farm Security Administration (FSA), the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA) and the Social Security Administration (SSA). The New Deal programs were known as the three “Rs”; Roosevelt believed that together Relief, Reform, and Recovery could bring economic stability to the nation. Reform programs focused specifically on methods for ensuring that depressions like that in the 1930s would never affect the American public again.

Oh my god FDR was a monster… “But what about the Rich People?”

The New Deal, a reference taken from a campaign speech in which he promised a “new deal for the American people.” The New Deal focused on three general goals: relief for the needy, economic recovery, and financial reform.

What a bastard he was for looking out for the little guy.

Now let’s look at the other President that MTG refences and the unspeakable harm he did to the United States.

Johnson was John F Kennedy’s VP and ascended to the Presidency after JFK’s assassination and then was elected to the office in 1964.

The term was first referenced during a 1964 speech by Johnson at Ohio University, then later formally presented at the University of Michigan, and came to represent his domestic agenda. The main goal was the total elimination of poverty and racial injustice in the United States.

After JFK’s assassination he placed greatest importance on Kennedy’s civil rights bill, which became the focus of his efforts during the first months of his presidency. “No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy’s memory,” he said, “than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill.” In February 1964, after a series of amendments by civil rights supporters, the House passed a much stronger bill than the one that Kennedy had proposed, and the measure was finally passed by the Senate in June, after an 83-day filibuster by Southern opponents.

The Civil Rights Act, which Johnson signed into law on July 2, 1964, was the most comprehensive and far-reaching legislation of its kind in American history. Among its provisions were a prohibition of racial segregation and discrimination in places of public accommodation, a prohibition of discrimination by race or sex in employment and union membership, and new guarantees of equal voting rights. The law also authorized the Department of Justice to bring suit against local school boards to end allegedly discriminatory practices, thereby speeding up school desegregation. The constitutionality of the law was immediately challenged but was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1964.

LBJ outlined his domestic agenda in a commencement address at the University of Michigan in May 1964: “In your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society. The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time.” The Great Society program, beginning with the Civil Rights Act and continuing with other important measures passed during Johnson’s second term, was the most impressive body of social legislation since the New Deal of the 1930s. It encompassed measures designed to fight the “war on poverty,” including legislation establishing the Job Corps for the unemployed and the Head Start program for preschool children; new civil rights legislation, such as the Voting Rights Act (1965), which outlawed the literacy tests and other devices used to prevent African Americans from voting; and Medicare and Medicaid, which provided health benefits for the elderly and the poor, respectively. Other legislation addressed problems in education, housing and urban development, transportation, environmental conservation, and immigration. Johnson saw these measures as building on and completing the New Deal vision of Franklin D. Roosevelt; with their adoption the United States joined the ranks of the welfare states of western Europe and Scandinavia. However, the effect of these undertakings was soon vitiated by increasing American military involvement in the war in Vietnam, which had begun during the Eisenhower administration and was accelerated by President Kennedy.

Man, what a unamerican slime ball this guy was… upholding civil rights for African Americans and providing healthcare the poor and elderly…

Now of the senior citizen that currently resides in the White House.

Here are 23 of Joe Biden’s greatest accomplishments as president of the United States.

1. Passed the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package to increase investment in the national network of bridges and roads, airports, public transport and national broadband internet, as well as waterways and energy systems.

2. Helped get more than 500 million life-saving COVID-19 vaccinations in the arms of Americans through the American Rescue Plan.

3. Stopped a 30-year streak of federal inaction on gun violence by signing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that created enhanced background checks, closed the “boyfriend” loophole and provided funds for youth mental health.

4. Made a $369 billion investment in climate change, the largest in American history, through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

5. Ended the longest war in American history by pulling the troops out of Afghanistan.

6. Provided $10,000 to $20,000 in college debt relief to Americans with loans who make under $125,000 a year.

7. Cut child poverty in half through the American Rescue Plan.

8. Capped prescription drug prices at $2,000 per year for seniors on Medicare through the Inflation Reduction Act.

9. Passed the COVID-19 relief deal that provided payments of up to $1,400 to many struggling U.S. citizens while supporting renters and increasing unemployment benefits.

10. Achieved historically low unemployment rates after the pandemic caused them to skyrocket.

11. Imposed a 15% minimum corporate tax on some of the largest corporations in the country, ensuring that they pay their fair share, as part of the historic Inflation Reduction Act.

12. Recommitted America to the global fight against climate change by rejoining the Paris Agreement.

13. Strengthened the NATO alliance in support of Ukraine after the Russian invasion by endorsing the inclusion of world military powers Sweden and Finland.

14. Authorized the assassination of the Al Qaeda terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri, who became head of the organization after the death of Osama bin Laden.

15. Gave Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices through the Inflation Reduction Act while also reducing government health spending.

16. Held Vladimir Putin accountable for his invasion of Ukraine by imposing stiff economic sanctions.

17. Boosted the budget of the Internal Revenue Service by nearly $80 billion to reduce tax evasion and increase revenue.

18. Created more jobs in one year (6.6 million) than any other president in U.S. history.

19. Reduced healthcare premiums under the Affordable Care Act by $800 a year as part of the American Rescue Plan.

20. Signed the PACT Act to address service members’ exposure to burn pits and other toxins.

21. Signed the CHIPS and Science Act to strengthen American manufacturing and innovation.

22. Reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act through 2027.

23. Halted all federal executions after the previous administration reinstated them after a 17-year freeze.

Wow that’s terrible how dare he keep his promises to help the middle- and lower-income people in this nation.

So, keep it up GOP and MTG keep comparing Bidens Presidency and programs that are some of the most beloved policies ever enacted in the United States… I am quite sure that if your messiah Donny Dumb Ass ever gets back into Power and the GOP tries to strip all the benefits FDR, LBJ, JRB have given to the American Public you will be richly rewarded just like Marie Antoinette.

Thanks for suffering through a long rant today…and if you don’t know what Marie Antoinette’s reward was, look it up.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

   The people that work to count the votes need to be able to come to work and not be harassed by anyone for any reason concerning elections. They go through a screening process that verifies they will be true and honest in their completion of the task assigned.

   To have someone harass them because they want a certain candidate to win makes no sense. How would these people put enough fraudulent votes in the system to cause a certain outcome to win seems rather farfetched. That kind of interference should be treated as a felony with more than just jail time and a fine being part of the punishment. Take away that person’s ability to vote and drive as well. If a number of threats are received from a known support group, then have the candidate they support removed from that ballot. That would definitely cut down on the chaff as the polls.

   That action would be used to hurt other candidates as some of the less honest would figure a way to have an opponent taken off the ballot through cheating. I don’t believe that all the rats in the pack could hide their true loyalties so it would have to be done very judiciously.

   It truly seems that intimidation is the answer to all situations. Want a trial to go a certain way, attack the jury members, want a bill to be passed or killed, attack those that have a vote, and if you want an election to go a certain way you fall back on the one tactic you know will work, intimidation of all that vote. This is especially true if those voters have to go to a polling site and cannot just fill out the ballot and drop it in the mail or voter box.

   We can make all these rules about no food, drink, talking or whatever in the line and make it as uncomfortable as possible. Have the force patrol the voting site to make sure people are either obeying or being removed for violations to all the rules. Makes it very unattractive to vote and that is what we want, the few to stay the course the more likely the outcome for our candidate.

   The loser part of elections is that when the votes are counted and you win you get to celebrate and if you lose you get to concede, in private you get to pout. Being polite during the entire process makes for a much more civilized appearance to everyone, it may not get as much attention in the press as the finger pointing, name calling and back biting that has been present of late.

    The other part of the picture is that if your mouth overrides your brain someone may take you to court to make you prove the slander of eat crow. Not nearly often enough have we had a rubbish politician taken to court and then announced to the world that not only was this person wrong but he is also a liar and not fit to run for office again.

Lyle Northey (Silent Boomer)

The issue of public funds being used to support religious schools and organizations is currently directed at only Christian religions and the nation has far more religious people than Christians in it. That makes that policy wrong to start with. Separating religion from the government is the only way to keep the teachings and beliefs of a particular strain of that infection out of how we do business within and outside our borders.

Every country on earth that has religion as its primary tenet for the basics of its political system is a basket case of inefficiency and ignorance. Even deeply religious leaders of countries make for some really difficult people to deal with.

If we look forward and find that the religion of choice changes over time and one other than Christian takes the controls of the nation, we could very easily be back with Priest Holes and violence to further one over another. The nations under the Muslim faith are subject to having their neighbors watching to make sure they pray the required number of times, that women become second class citizens and that some very punitive laws are the norm.

The current situation does require that Christian churches, schools, and businesses owned by the church start paying taxes on their properties and all donations and incomes. The exempt status of donating to the church should be eliminated and the requirement for verification of training to teach should be required as it is in the public domain.

The founding fathers were aware of the religious wars of Europe and all the trouble it had caused and were wise enough not to allow religion to be one of the basics of our government, it is sad that todays elected leaders are too dumb to realize the same will happen here if given the chance.

Religion may have its place and it’s supposed to have been a driving force behind civilization and yet as it has progressed through the ages it is becoming not the glue that binds but the explosive that will tear us apart.

 Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

International leaders that are best known are already ruining countries, the ones they live in.

   Our beginnings were rough and took some time to smooth out. The man accredited with being the father of our country when elected President had to insist that his title not be King as that was what the war was fought about, to rid us of a King. Now we have more than one that believes they should be King because they believe they should be. My personal viewpoint is that all of them need to be shot and let it go.

   Do we have the most perfect government, most likely it could be improved as we all could. Our elected officials have seen fit to keep secrets from us, probably for our own good. But we have had plenty of information kept from us. They have passed some laws that make no sense, such as calling corporations people and giving them voting rights. For putting rules in place that allow one voice to stop something that 49 others agree with. Should that voice be heard, yes, so there are things that work really well with one another and things that do not work at all. The term Legally Drunk is one that causes problems. Being drunk is a physical condition that is normally considered unacceptable in society, so how is someone rated as legally drunk? This is a term that would normally be called an oxymoron. There are all sorts of those around another one is military intelligence which many say do not belong together. Another that is completely a misnomer is Republican Patriot. More to the point a MAGA Republican Patriot.

   The correct term has nothing to do with patriotism or love of country or thinking about democracy or much of anything except running around with one’s head pretty much stuck up ones ass. If not your own, then of your leader who is someone that would not piss on you if you were on fire. 

   If you have not figured it out yet you are a means to an end and that end can be the end of your career, end of your marriage, end of your freedom, your pension, or your life, it is all the same to the leader as he is totally concerned with only one person and that is the person he looks at in the mirror as he admires himself. Unfortunately, we are suffering from an appearance of several of these leaders at present. The domestic ones include the governors of several states and a couple that feel their brand of leadership belong in the President’s office. The one have more sway than all the others, no. 

   Are we currently looking at having our democratic government completely eliminated by the conservatives, very definitely. The current crop of conservative political individuals is to replace what we have with a government that spends it’s time and talents locking up those that disagree with them, encouraging people to spy and report on their neighbors, and putting women back in the place that was intended to be their station in life. They ban books, they deny rights of those that do not look like themselves, It is all being done so that old, rich white men can feel that they are still in charge.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been in the news a quite a lot this past week, mostly because our President is fully on board with strengthening the alliance not dismantling like the former guy.

For those of you that have heard about NATO but aren’t sure what they actually do here is a short history lesson…

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union.

Yes, even though the Soviet Union of part of the allied powers in WWII that helped save the world from Hitler and Nazi Germany, they very quickly became the Big Bad Wolf that was threatening Europe.

NATOs mission is to secure a lasting peace in Europe, based on its member countries’ common values of individual liberty, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

Those all seem like good objectives for a multi country alliance… so why is it that Donny Dumb Ass and his alliance of the willing (the ‘freedom’ caucus’) are so adamantly opposed to it?

Here are the current members of NATO.

The 31 NATO members are Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The ratification process for Sweden is ongoing. Ukraine applied for NATO membership in September 2022 after Russia proclaimed the annexation of its territory. Two other states have formally informed NATO of their membership aspirations: Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia.

The big kerfuffle this year was why they didn’t admit Ukraine into NATO… The easy answer is because of Article 5: The principle of collective defense is enshrined in Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in its history after the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States.

Ukraine joining NATO immediately was a non-starter because several NATO members—most notably Germany and the United States—are worried about what it would mean to bring a country into the alliance engaged in an active war. So this was always about finding the right space in between.

Trump and his ILK have issues with NATO because they say that we are the primary funders of the Alliance. Here is how NATO is funded NATO is resourced through the direct and indirect contributions of its members. NATO’s common funds are composed of direct contributions to collective budgets and programs, which equate to only 0.3% of total Allied defense spending.

More easily put each member nation give 0.3% of their defense budget to NATO…

Of member nations the U.S. has the highest defense budget; The current U.S. defense budget is for fiscal year 2023, the bill provides $136.7 billion, an increase of $9.8 billion above the budget request and an increase of $20.5 billion above the fiscal year 2022 enacted level. The second highest country was the UK in 2021/22, the UK spent £45.9 billion on defense, that is roughly $60 billion.

So just based on math it is quite obvious why we contribute more than let’s say Lithuanian which probably only has a maybe $10 million defense budget. If we didn’t have such a bloated defense budget, we wouldn’t contribute as much.  

Maybe since Russia has proven itself to not be a big a threat as they made themselves out to be there can be a joint resolution to lower the contributing percentage, but we will still be the largest funder.

The only countries that want to see the end of NATO are the school yard bullies, Russia being the number one offender. I am not a conspiracy person but those current members of our government and the former guy that want to withdraw from NATO (?) если обувь подходит (if the shoe fits).

Thanks again for joining me on the rant…