Tag Archive: democrats


On the Death of the Grand Old Party

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August 17, 2022

The Grand Old Party is dead.

It’s been steadily heading in that direction for years now. But last night’s primary defeat of the most conservative member of Congress has proven, that whatever democratic values the party still held, they’re gone now. The Republican Party would be unrecognizable to it’s founder, if he could see what’s become of it today.

The party of Lincoln ceased to be ‘the party of Lincoln’ when Richard Nixon welcomed in the Dixie-crats (read: White Supremacist members of the Democratic party who felt left out once the Democrats became the pro-Civil Rights party).

The party of Reagan died when Donald Trump became the GOP standard holder.

The last true patriot (whether you agree with her policies or not – I absolutely do not), in the Republican party was given the boot yesterday.

Liz Cheney’s defeat marks the end of any notion that the current iteration of the Republican party has anything to do with what most people, regardless of party affiliation, have held to be “American” values.

What is left within the ranks of the GOP is a group of White Nationalists whose policies are not in line with anything that remotely resembles the aspirations of the founding of this country.

There was a time when I was firmly considered ‘in the middle,’ politically. I used to look at candidates from both sides of the aisle and voted based on what I believed would be best for either the city, the state or the country (based on which position they were running for).

And yes, I have, in the distant past, voted for Republican candidates in local elections, because I either felt they were more qualified, or had better ideas, than whoever they were running against. But I haven’t had any confidence in any candidate the GOP has presented in decades.

But there is no “middle” anymore. You are either pro-Democracy, or pro-Fascist Theocracy.

You either want to live your life freely, or you want to have every part of your life dictated to you by the government, based on your race, religion, sexual orientation, and ethnicity.

You don’t have to believe me. Go and listen to them. Hear what they are saying

They’ve made no secret of their goals. They are all shouting their desire to turn our country into a majority white Christian nation, where any man who isn’t a member of their religious, nationalistic, cult, is a second class citizen, and any women, regardless of race or religion, has no rights at all.

If you vote Republican, that is what you are voting for.

They have no helpful fiscal plans for the country, (unless you consider tax breaks for the wealthy and the eradication of Social Security and Medicaid helpful to you).

They are no longer the “old school,” “reasonable” Republicans willing to come to the table to make a deal that can help the citizens. They want to rule based on their bastardized version of their religion (their version of “Christianity” doesn’t remotely resemble anything I’ve ever learned about Christ or the religion he inspired).

What’s best for the citizens of this country is irrelevant to their goals.

I know many folks who hate the Democrats.

I am also aware that much of the abject hatred stems from the erroneous beliefs about the Democrats cultivated after years of listening to them being demonized by a propaganda machine created specifically to indoctrinate people who felt left out, into believing they were losing something when others gain anything.

These propagandists knew, as they all do, that people who were feeling insecure about their prospects in life, would cling to any lie that would lay the blame at anyone else’s feet other than their own.

It’s a tactic used by power hungry fascists throughout history.

Sadly, the audience at which these propaganda tools are often aimed, has rarely been curious enough to check the validity of the hateful claims being made.

The fear mongering was very effective, I’ll admit.

But now we really are in a dangerous place in this country.

We can either defeat the liars, thieves and grifters who have taken over the Republican party, or we can allow them to win and watch our country lose its core values and us, any semblance of ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’

There are many people in my life who I disagree with politically. But many of these people came from countries, or rather, they escaped, the countries with the very kind of policies today’s GOP wishes to install here.

I truly hope those people see what is happening. That they notice the parallels of propaganda being fed to them on a daily basis. That they actually hear what the members of the GOP are saying, and that they understand, we don’t have many places we can run to if the people currently running the Republican party ever gain power.

You’re either an American Patriot, or you are a Republican voter – You can no longer claim to be both.

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Why we can’t just “Let it Go”

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February 3, 2021

The other night, as I watched NY Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez describe the harrowing events she went through on 1/6/2021, like most decent people, I was horrified.

I’ve often told someone that unless you were present for a traumatic event, you really can’t understand what the folks who were actually physically there, went through – what they felt – the trauma they will deal with for, likely, the rest of their lives.

Every time, I’ve described the events I went through on 9/11 to anyone who wasn’t there, folks would respond with “Oh, I know what you went through, I watched the whole thing on TV.”

No. No you don’t understand. Unless you were physically in downtown NYC that day, you may have felt fear, confusion and anger, but you really don’t have a clue what it felt like to not know whether you’re ever going to see your family again, to sleep in your bed, to see your front door. You just don’t know that feeling. You can’t grasp that fear, that gut wrenching, mind-numbing, absolute fear. You don’t really know what it’s like to have your instincts kick in. To, in the moment, not even realize how scared you actually are. Or, how after you’re safe, and are in a position to process everything you’ve experienced, realizing, “holy, shit, did I really go through all that? How the hell did I even get through it?”

You may have experienced fear for those you loved who may have been there, but you weren’t there. You don’t know what THAT felt like.

And that’s what I felt when I heard AOC speak her truth.

I have no idea what she went through that day. I watched, as most of us did, on TV, as an angry mob attacked the Capitol. I was shocked. I was angry. I was stupefied. And, yeah, I wanted their blood and the blood of anyone who gave them the idea they had any right to do that. But I have no idea how it felt to be inside that building, hiding, knowing with ever fiber of your body that if the wrong person got a hold of you, you very well may end up dead.

I remember after 9/11, the way the country came together – despite political affiliation or beliefs – how we were collectively in mourning – how we were collectively pissed off at the people who did this. And while the perpetrators of the attack were all dead, the folks that sent them there were not – and we wanted those mother fuckers really bad. We wanted them SO badly, we started two wars to try and find them – one under false pretenses, even. We killed the guy who sent those people there. We’ve captured the folks who helped in the planning of it. It’s been 20 years since 9/11 and we STILL haven’t ‘let it go’ – and we really shouldn’t. Because we were attacked. The country was traumatized. People are STILL mourning those they lost in those attacks.

“Never forget” is an apt sentiment when folks attack you.

So why should we forget what happened on 1/6/2021?

Why the hell should we ‘let it go’?

We shouldn’t. There was an act of sedition. An insurrection. An attempt to overthrow the very Democracy we all claim to hold so dear. And while only one of the folks who perpetrated this crime is dead, and many are in custody, why shouldn’t we go after the folks who sent them there?

Unity?

Bullshit.

How do you ‘unify’ a country by letting those who incited an insurrection off without any consequences? How do you ‘unify’ a country by letting people who incited an insurrection know that they could get away with it, giving them an opening to do it all again – this time with a leader who isn’t a complete moron at their helm.

If a member of your family, say, one you didn’t agree with, decided to rob your home, because they felt you had something they wanted and it was unfair to them that you, despite earning what you have, had whatever it is they didn’t have, if they, along with some of their friends, wrecked your car, smashed your windows busted down your doors, looking to steal what you worked so hard to earn, would you just ‘let it go’?

And if they then told you, they were encouraged to commit that crime, by say, the head of their branch of the family tree, and they got money for weapons and travel from another member of that branch, would you let those people go?

If people aren’t held accountable for their actions, they will simply do it again – and next time they could succeed. Not in just overrunning our democracy, but they actually could kill more than just one brain-washed, deranged, asshole who tried to climb through a window to get to Mike Pence, or Nancy Pelosi – to kill one or both of them – because she was told they were enemies of the President she loved so much she was willing to kill for him.

This is insanity. This idea that we should just ‘let it go.’ We didn’t ‘let it go’ when, long after she’d given up her position as Secretary of State, the senate tried Hillary Clinton for Benghazi – and then all but buried the news when their investigations concluded that neither she, nor the Obama administration, were at fault for what happened there.

We didn’t just ‘let it go’ when Charles Manson sent his deranged cult members to murder innocent people. That cult leader died in prison, and he never murdered anyone. But he incited the murderers – and he paid for that crime, as well he should have.

So please, miss me with the ‘let it go’ crap. Yes. This country is hurting. We need bold legislation and funding to get us through yet another post-Republican administration crisis – and we’ll have that. The Senate will just have to do something it hasn’t done in years – work. They’ll have to not take random ‘recesses’ only to be called back to vote in yet another conservative judge, pass $3 trillion tax breaks for the wealthy, or hold another Benghazi hearing. It’ll be a change for them, I’m sure. It’ll be hard, but the Democrats are in charge, and I’m guessing their itching to actually do something they haven’t been able to do since McConnell took over – work for the people they represent.

And the threats coming from the likes of Lindsay Graham like “the Democrats better not call witnesses or we’re going to call in the FBI”? Hysterical. Please, do. Call in the FBI. Call in the DOJ. Please let us hear what they have to say about how they’ve been telling you all for two years that White Supremacists and the Q-Anon crew were the biggest national threat to our security and how Trump’s rhetoric was egging them on and empowering them.

Please, let us hear ALL the pieces of shit who stormed the Capitol tell us how they were ‘invited by Trump,’ and how when Trump told them he’d ‘see them on January 6th – it’ll be wild,’ they knew there’d be some violence – and how when he told them to march on the Capitol and that he’d be right there with them because if they don’t fight, they’ll lose their country, after two months of hearing the big lie about how the election was stolen from them, an election, mind you, roughly a third of those assholes DIDN’T EVEN VOTE in – they took it as ‘storm the Capitol’ – because that’s EXACTLY what he meant. Please, let us hear them tell us how his expression of disappointment in Mike Pence, and his abject hatred of people like AOC and Pelosi, led them to believe they’d be rewarded by him if they got rid of those problems for him.

Those aren’t threats to those of us who want to see these assholes pay. They are only threats to those who know they’d be implicated in these crimes. Who knows what witnesses will say about not only Donald Trump, but Lindsay Graham (who called the Georgia Governor to try and get him to not certify that state’s votes), or Ted Cruz, or Josh Hawley?

So bring that shit on. But don’t tell us to ‘let it go.’ Everyone who had anything to do with the events on January 6, and all the lies they helped spread, should be held accountable. Whether it’s via legal action, or whether it’s via campaign ads where their words, and actions, can, and will be, used against them in the court of public opinion.

What happened on 1/6/2021 didn’t have to happen. But the people who made it happen need to pay for it. Once they do, maybe we will finally ‘let it go.’

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Letter to Senator Gillibrand (sent via Email and Snail Mail, just because..)

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December 8, 2017

Dear Senator Gillibrand,

I am usually proud and very happy with the choices you make and causes you back on behalf of all of us New Yorkers. I’ve often considered you to be one of our brightest and most thoughtful elected officials, and have trusted that you have always taken into consideration what is best for us, not just the party, when making your decisions.

However, I am writing today to express my severe disappointment in your decision to request Senator Franken’s resignation. I understand we are at a fever pitch with the #MeToo movement, and the response on our side to victims finally having their voice heard has been overwhelmingly supportive. I am very happy about that. But, there needs to be a point where we differentiate between unapologetic, perpetual sexual predators, like Rep Conyers, verses a guy who acted like immature kid who saw breasts for the first time.

Senator Franken’s actions WERE creepy, and WERE inappropriate, but he’s like every man over the age of 50 who woke up one morning, in a new day and age, and suddenly realized “crap, I’ve been harming people for my own giggles for too long. I need to stop that.” And he did. Treating him the same way as we would a Roy Moore is unquestionably stupid and makes us, as well as the movement we’d like to see progress, look stupid and reactionary.

This need to raise pitchforks and hang every man who has ever made an inappropriate pass at a woman, while understandable, will end up backfiring on us, and the #MeToo movement.

Al Franken has been a passionate supporter of women’s issues. He has also been a royal pain in the neck to the GOP, who are now ecstatic because the guy they saw as the biggest threat to their leader, is gone.

Why not let this go to an inquiry? Let these women face him, or have him face his accusers and listen to how his actions hurt them? And then, if warranted, have him resign?

It’s this kind of reactionary, short-sighted, sanctimonious desire to gain some ‘moral high ground’ against a group of people with no morals, that makes the Democratic party a laughing stock, and why, as of yesterday afternoon, I am no longer registered to vote as one.

You could have used this situation with Franken as a teachable moment. It’s not like he was a threat to his coworkers, and I will guarantee you, you won’t hear about him trying to touch anyone’s derriere without permission ever again.

He’s clearly not a predator. The fact that you and Sen Harris, et al, can’t see the difference is why the Democrats will continue to lose.

Instead of focusing on Franken, what you should have been doing this week is poking the hell out of the Roy Moore situation. Heaven knows they have been spoon feeding you all the ammunition you need. Instead, you took out the only member of your party who had the balls to stand up to the bullies on the other side of the aisle. Nice going.

Sorry this is so long winded. Please know, I’m not the only one who feels this way. You have diminished my faith in your ability to lead with any kind of real focus. And your party has let me and many like myself down with this action.

Yours truly,

Miriam Greenberg

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Ladies and the Trump…

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April 29, 2016

Trump has a problem with women. He does. Believe me. My vagina dries up the minute I hear his gravelly voice spewing unintelligent bullshit only his “uneducated” supporters seem to understand.

I cannot respect a man who has zero respect for women beyond their value as sexual creatures. He even sexualizes his own daughter. Have you ever heard Trump talk about his daughter Ivanka?  Do you not gag every time he lasciviously brags about what a great body she has and how if she weren’t his daughter, he’d be dating her? On a side note, does he really think that a young, wealthy, successful business woman, who doesn’t need a green card, or his money, would ever date him, daughter or no? Puhleez! Has he looked in a mirror lately? Has he SEEN that face? Stupid and ugly – He’s lucky he’s rich or he’d never get laid. But I digress.

If all Trump seems to care about when listing his own daughter’s ‘achievements’ is her appearance, then what do you think his first consideration is when hiring females?

When Carly Fiorina was still competing for the GOP nomination, he went after her not for her horrible record as a business woman – he went after her appearance (“Have you SEEN that face?”). When Megyn Kelly challenged him during the first debate, referencing his previous attacks on women, he came back with a not so veiled reference about her attitude being a result of her “bleeding from her wherever.” And now, with Hillary Clinton appearing to be the one he will face in the General Elections, he comes out with perhaps the dumbest statement ever, claiming that the only thing she has going for her is that she is a woman.

Like her or not, and believe me, I don’t, she has a hell of a resume. He said if she were a man, she’d be losing? The truth is,  if she were a man, he’d be shitting his pants. It is because she is a woman that he thinks he can beat her. In the world of Trump, the man is always on top.  I’ve lived with a narcissistic douchebag who thought that he was the king of the castle and all women were subservient to him. I know of what I speak. If Hillary were a guy, Trumps balls would have shriveled up at the idea of going to battle with her. Hence his need point out her femininity, or her use of the so called “Woman Card.” In his mind, somehow pointing out that Hillary is a female weakens her, when in fact, it strengthens the resolve among women to NOT vote for his misogynistic ass.

And for all of you spewing that crap about wanting a president who isn’t so “politically correct” – There’s a difference between “Politically Correct” and common decency. So stop it, or I might have to remind you that most Trump supporters are viewed as white trash assholes who still wave a confederate flag while wearing white robes and burning crosses and bowing to some shit head who calls himself a “Grand Wizard.” So lets cut the PC shit. It’s not a matter of being PC or not, it’s a matter of respect. And nothing about Trump, when it comes to women, is respectful.

There are a million other reasons why I would never vote for Trump –  His embracing both the KKK and the American Nazi Party; His views on race; His proposed foreign policy; His proposed economic policy; His complete inability to act like a grown man instead of a toddler; His promotion of violence against those who speak out against him;  His lack of class; His proposal to get rid of the free press; His proposal to reinstate torture and ‘make’ the military do whatever he tells them to do; His proposal to get rid of both the EPA and the DOE (so we’ll have even more uneducated voters for him to swindle… but with the planet dying, we won’t have to endure him for TOO long).

The list goes on and on. And while those are all valid reasons, as a woman who enjoys being valued for her brain, I refuse to vote for a man who thinks that what he has (or doesn’t have) below his belt gives him any right to treat me as a second class citizen. Trump thinks Hillary has a problem with female voters? He clearly hasn’t seen the polls. At present, Hillary leads Trump in the female vote 66% to 33%.

I’m a woman who doesn’t like Hillary. I’m a woman who still wishes there was a real  path for Bernie to win the nomination. But I’m a realist. So, I’ll vote for her if she is the Democratic nominee,  because I’m also a woman who likes breathing clean air and drinking clean water; I appreciate well educated people; I love being a citizen of a country that has a Constitution we can all argue freely about; I would prefer my tax dollars be directed towards the improvement of our infrastructure, education and health systems and not towards paying subsidies to companies who don’t pay a dime in taxes; I will vote for Hillary, because the next President will be appointing one or more Supreme Court Justices, and I would like to see Citizens United overturned, Roe v Wade and Obergefell v Hodges upheld.  I’ll vote for her, because I respect myself way too much to ever vote for a misogynist like Trump.

As for the few women who will vote for Heir Drumpf, hey to each their own. They clearly enjoy being reduced to sex objects, who, if they aren’t as attractive as the daughter he wishes he could bang, he sees as nothing more than pigs and hags. They obviously love the idea of working their asses off only to earn about 75% of what their male counterparts do. They obviously have no problem with being treated as second class citizens or being told what they can or cannot do with their own bodies. They can’t possibly have read his Foreign Policy proposal that was released just yesterday. They obviously don’t care that his way of getting out of debt is by filing for bankruptcy. They clearly don’t mind being represented abroad by this thin skinned imbecile who would no doubt consider half of them too unattractive or old to hire at one of his firms. It’s a sad fact. But that’s fine, because there are more of us who are thinking of the country and the well being of women in the country than of our dislike of Hillary.

Obviously, 66% of us actually love ourselves and our country enough to make sure that Trump never sees the inside of the Oval Office from the business side of the desk. We may not all LOVE Hillary, but she, and her use of the “Woman Card” trumps the Trump card any day.

 

 

 

 

 

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What’s good for the Goose: Comparing Trump to Hitler (Slightly frightened at how easy this was)

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August 17, 2015

Starting with the 2008 campaign season, and then again in 2012 (and in between…and after…and to this day), we, the American Public, have had to endure a myriad of “Obama is like Hitler” comparisons.  None of which ever made any sense to anyone who actually knew anything about Hitler, or Obama for that matter.

When he first started to gain traction,  Obama was called a ‘brilliant orator, just like Hitler.’ When Obama would visit schools, the children singing to him were viewed as being “indoctrinated” (in to what exactly was never made clear).  Some folks even tried to equate, erroneously, and ridiculously, the Affordable Care Act to Nationalist Socialism.  A fact checker, not even a good one, could have easily shot down any comparison  (sadly, the only popular organization ever to try to even look into all the stupidity was “The Daily Show” and, well, it’s audience just laughed at the whole thing anyway, because seriously, comparing Obama to Hitler is like comparing a human being with Putin).  They, and by ‘they’ I am absolutely referring to the Right, were grasping at straws with the whole Hitler comparison, and yet, they were very persistent in the attempt.

Just a quote from one of my favorite members of the circus known as the Republican Party in reference to Obama care:

And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil. – Sarah Palin

So why bring this up now? With one year left, to quote Jon Stewart, Obama doesn’t “.. have that much time to take away Americans’ guns, declare martial law, and put hardworking Americans in FEMA camps..” I think Obama has proven he is not the anti-Christ, he’s not the devil, and he’s certainly not the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler.

I’m bringing this up, because now, with someone running for the Republican nomination actually sounding a lot more like a dictator than Obama ever could, I’m hearing nothing coming out of the Right, with any comparisons to this fucking nightmare of a ghoul they have foisted on us. Comparisons to Hitler (and yes, I will admit, it is absolutely RIDICULOUS to compare anyone to that murderous, mentally unstable despot who isn’t actually a murderous, mentally unstable despot..) that would actually be more legitimate than any made with Obama.

So does Donald Trump, candidate, for the Republican Nomination, have any similarities to Adolf Hitler? You be the judge

  • Like Hitler, Donald Trump is a charismatic character who most people view as a horrible joke. Surely he won’t be the nominee, let alone President, right? Yeah, that’s what folks thought of that Charlie Chaplain looking guy who kept yelling at them about a 1000 year Reich, and returning Germany to its former glory (“Let’s make America Great again” anyone?)
  • Germany, back in the late 1920s, early 1930s was going through a horrific economic meltdown. Instead of pointing the finger at the right place – a war started by the Kaiser (ruler) of Germany (World War I), essentially in revenge for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (and you thought that was just the name of a band huh?), which Germany lost horribly, and was forced to pay for all losses incurred during the war by the Allies – They wanted badly to blame someone, anyone else. The public needed a scapegoat. Hitler gave them the Jews. Similarly, the US, while currently, economically on the rise (because of Obama, not that he gets any credit for it), is still reeling from the meltdown of 2008. Instead of pointing the finger at that right place – Two wars (or was it three? I lost count) started by Bush, which we had to borrow money to sustain – Trump is giving us a scapegoat:  Undocumented immigrants, particularly those coming in to our country from Mexico. Go read a transcript of the propaganda used by Hitler in reference to Jews – He called Jews criminals, rapists, etc… You get my point here, I’m sure.
  • Hitler, once he rose to power, started to invade other counties, with the premise of “taking back what was ours.” Trump recently stated that he would not be opposed to sending US troops to attack Iraq and “taking over a lot of the oil and certain areas of Iraq… you take away their wealth, that you go and knock the hell out of the oil, take back the oil…” “Take back the oil?” as if it were ours to begin with? What right does he think the US has to go into ANY country and steal THEIR resources? How on earth could he justify that kind of an action?

I can go on (Hitler was often red-faced an yelling through his speeches -Trump is always red-faced underneath the orange glow of that awful spray tan, and speaking with a raised voice; Hitler loved to use kids as a propaganda tool – Trump took a bunch of kids for a ride in his helicopter at the Iowa State Fair, telling one of them he was Batman..), but I think I’ve actually made my point. If nothing else, this could be good fodder for the next time you’re sitting across the table from one of your knee-jerk Republican/Tea Party relatives (I have a few myself, and while I love them dearly, their ability to, verbatim, spew out the most factually inaccurate shit drives me crazy.. Thank-you mom for the education you provided me – Even if sometimes I use what I learned in school against you).

Besides, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right? And the way I see it, dear Republicans, your goose needs to be cooked.  Oh, wait, Hitler didn’t like goose. He was a vegetarian..Maybe he and Trump aren’t that similar after all?

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Dear Jon, Enjoy a Lifetime of Zen (Please don’t stay away too long though, k?)

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August 5, 2015

 

It’s Something Unpredictable

But in the end is right

I hope you had the time of your life

-Green Day “Good Riddance”

(seriously, I know, it’s cliché, but appropriate…)

Last night marked the last time I would see Denis Leary as a guest on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.” Amidst the laughter and familiar banter between these two long-time friends, I was suddenly gripped by a very melancholy feeling. This was it. This was ALMOST it. Shit. This is it. I’d been dreading this since February… And here it was. The end of “The Daily Show” as I knew it.

Like millions of other viewers, I had grown accustomed to watching “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” for my daily dose of ‘news made easy to digest.’  And while the show itself is not going away, its’ host of 16 years will be. Like him or not; agree with him or not; Jon Stewart’s departure from the show he brought out of semi-obscurity and turned into ‘must see’ TV, will be the marking of the end of an Era. And while some (FOX News, Rupert Murdoch, RNC) will rejoice at his departure, many of us will certainly feel the void he will leave behind.

When Jon Stewart took over “The Daily Show” in 1999 from Craig Kilborn, he’d already had two talk shows under his belt (I was fortunate enough to have seen a live taping of his MTV show way way way back in the day).  He had been passed up a few times as a potential host for late shows on NBC and CBS. Everyone who had ever seen him do his schtick knew he was funny. I don’t think anyone expected him to turn, essentially, a ½ hour fake news show into a social phenomenon.

Throughout 16 years of rants, political opining, and social commentary intermingled with comedy, Jon Stewart stressed to anyone who questioned him, that he was simply a comedian, and his show was, essentially a “fake” news show. What it really was, was satire in the purist form. What Jon Stewart did with the Daily show was create a space wherein he could look at the days’ news and educate a populous that needed, essentially, “a little sugar to make the medicine go down.”

The fact is, comedian though he may be, he also knows how to deliver the news to a generation of people who simply cannot deal with the bullshit on CNN, MSNBC and FOX. We needed someone who can point at the ridiculousness of the daily news feed and those who ‘reported’ on it all and say “yeah, you’re right, they are TOTALLY Fucked up! No wonder you don’t give a shit anymore.. Here’s a way for you to hear what’s going on without the extraneous bullshit… and yeah, maybe laugh a little..” It was, I believe, largely due to his delivery of the news that an entire generation of people, less likely to become politically active, registered to vote and took part in the political process. Regardless of the outcome of the elections (two for Bush, two for Obama – he didn’t always get his candidate), he got the 20-Somethings involved in a way they hadn’t been before.

And it wasn’t just the 20-Somethings – He filled a niche that was needed in this country. One where those of us, fed up with hearing a whole lot of bullshit could hear our frustrations voiced on television in a way no one anywhere else could express themselves.  He seemed to speak for those for those of us who, while we may lean socially towards the left, really just wanted to scream at both sides of our political landscape for their extreme game of tug of war with our lives.

The writers of that show clearly were under the direction of a person who wanted to make sure that even his most banal jokes were somehow based in well researched facts – Something that supposed “fair and balanced” news channels rarely seem to do. If Jon Stewart named statistics – they were real. If he referenced history – it was real. And on the rare occasion his facts were erroneous, he apologized.

Despite purporting he was just a comedian satirizing the news, and making it palatable for those of us who simply couldn’t watch the train wreck our government, and our ‘real’ news media, had become, Jon Stewart was named the Most Trusted Newscaster in America in a 2009 Time Magazine Poll.

Politicians that have come on the show, including, and maybe especially, the President himself, have admitted that his interviews were the toughest.  They never knew what he was going to ask, or, what tangent he will go on in an effort to make them accountable for their actions. No, he wasn’t a serious Newsman, just a comedian. .. Or maybe he was just a guy who was asking all the questions the rest of us really wanted answered, as opposed to promoting the agenda of whatever the owners of a specific news channel wanted promoted.

The very evidence of his influence on the political and social landscape could be seen numerous times. He is credited with helping Vets gain better access to medical care, when after a searing segment on the inadequacies in the 40 mile rule in the “The Choice Program,” the Department of Veterans Affairs changed the rules making access to medical care easier for our country’s bravest. When a bill to help 9/11 first responders who came down with chronic diseases such as emphysema and lung cancer after breathing in the toxic air at Ground Zero, was blocked by Senate Republicans, an issue all but ignored by main stream media, Stewart decided to bring the issue to light. Three days after Jon Stewart dedicated an entire episode to the issue where he first lampooned the Senators blocking the bill, and then brought on a panel of first responders to discuss the issue, the bill was passed. Jon Stewart has also been credited with the termination of CNN’s “Crossfire,” the down fall of Glenn Beck, and the firing of Rick Sanchez. Not bad for a guy who is ‘just a comedian.’

Jon Stewart is also credited for helping launch the careers of Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Larry Wilmore,  Kristen Schaal,  Olivia Munn, Ed Helms, Samantha Bee and Jason Jones (who are going to be launching their own show on TBS), Aasif Mandvi and of course, Jon’s successor, Trevor Noah.

Oh Trevor Noah.. What big shoes that man will have to fill. Not only is he replacing a man many of us turned to in the hopes of making sense out of the nonsensical, he is replacing a man even many politicians seemed to turn to to plead their cases. It sounds crazy that a comedian from Jersey who started his career, essentially trying to be the David Letterman of MTV, ended up being an essential stop on any campaign trail.

And while I have no doubt Trevor Noah will, much in the way Jon Stewart did, carve out his own path and gain his own following (hopefully, many Stewart fans will stick around as well), it is indeed going to be different. He is coming at this from a different angle. He has a different sense of humor. Even if he agrees with everything Jon Stewart has ever said, his take will be different and will more than likely take some getting used to. I am willing to try. But that doesn’t mean I won’t miss Jon Stewart’s perspective, which seems to so clearly reflect everything so many of us loyal viewers have thought but never saw reflected on any other channel.

I don’t know what the future holds for Jon Stewart, (other than the sanctuary farm he and his wife have purchased), but I hope after some rest and relaxation he recharges and comes back on the scene. It really won’t be the same without him.  Especially with the current election cycle! Seriously, I would’ve loved to have seen his post-Republican Debate commentary. With Trump, Christie, Huckabee and the rest of the clown posse on the panel, it will be a gold mine of humor that practically writes itself. Alas, it is not meant to be as his last day on air coincides with the first debate (coincidence? Maybe – but the only people who will benefit from Jon Stewarts absence will be FOX News and the RNC, sadly).

Either way, I genuinely do wish Jon Stewart all the best and hope he enjoys his (seriously) early retirement.

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Send in the Clowns – Don’t Bother, They’re Here (Dear Republicans, Please get your $#iT Together…)

Filed under: politics — Leave a comment
July 20, 2015

Earlier today, after seeing so many Republicans (and Democrats, if we’re being honest here), in response to Donald Trump’s disgusting and down-right disrespectful comments regarding John McCain’s military service, come to John McCain’s defense (as we all should), a friend of mine brought up the interesting insight that up until now, the Republicans haven’t protested much, if any, of the Donald’s rants against the rest of humanity.

Where the hell have they been?

Where were they, for example, when he questioned a sitting President’s Birth Certificate?  (My friend forgot to mention that Trump ALSO questioned Obama’s Harvard transcript…. Or rather, his ability to have been accepted to both Columbia and Harvard when he’d “heard” that Obama was a horrible student and HIS friend’s kids who got better grades never got accepted..) But yeah, Trump isn’t racist. He’s got “plenty of Black friends – he gets along with the blacks.” (Trump’s words – not mine).

Where, also, my friend asked, was the outrage when Trump dishonored John Kerry’s military service, and Al Gore’s, and Democratic Senator Max Cleland’s (double amputee) military heroism?

Where were they when he dishonored every Mexican Immigrant in the United States?  (Okay, to be fair, aside from that ‘Mensa candidate’ Ted Cruz, the rest of them DID come out to say that Trump was wrong… Of course, they only did so because the Republican Party is desperate to get the Latino Vote…  Since clearly, they will NEVER overwhelmingly get the female vote.. Let’s not even get into how Trump went after Jeb for taking sides with the immigrants because his wife is Mexican – Bad enough I’m defending John McCain, I’ll be damned if that loud-mouthed buffoon has me defending a member of the Bush Family!)

Where were they when Trump was doing as Trump does, before?

They were helping to create this Trump-monster.

They LOVED when he was throwing shade at the President.  They were completely comfortable allowing a blow-hard TV show loud mouth with a bad comb-over speak out-loud what every last one of them was actually thinking.

Trump was absolutely speaking what they were all thinking when he went off on a “kid like Obama” not deserving admission to Ivy League schools when so many of his friend’s (read ‘white’, ‘affluent’, did I mention, ‘white’?) kids couldn’t get in.

They were jizzing their pants every single time Trump belittled even the heroic military service of any Democrat.

They were screaming like school girls at a Bieber concert when he said that vile thing about Mexican Immigrants.

Why? Because they couldn’t legitimately say it themselves and they knew that the viewers of FOX News would eat that shit up as if it were caramel coated Haggen Daas. Don’t believe me? Go ask your Republican grandparents if they believe Obama was actually born in the United States.. Go.  I’ll wait.

Done? Good.

So now that we have established that the Republican Party has created this monster. Do they have any right to say anything in response to his vile verbal diarrhea? No. They don’t. They WILL, because most of them realize he’s gone too far, but they really should just shut up and eat it because he is THEIR Frankenstein Monster (albeit, Frankenstein had a lot more class – and a much better hair style).

They made it okay to talk shit about a sitting President with all this ‘Birther’ and ‘Grader’ crap.

Hey remember when George W got us into two wars in which we had no business taking part in, got thousands of our Military men and women killed, or permanently wounded for life, and killed our economy because we couldn’t pay for it all? – yeah, anytime one of us tried to point that out, we were ‘disrespecting the President.’ A president who was barely a “C” student at a school he himself admits his daddy helped him in to, and who basically avoided military service by joining the National Guard, and thanks to Daddy, once again, never left Texas while so many (including John McCain and John Kerry) went to battle in Vietnam.

The current President has managed to get us out of the Recession, despite the Republicans. He actually was a good student (despite what Trump “heard”) and was born in Hawaii – Which, if I’m not mistaken was a part of the US back in 1961? Right? But yeah, talking shit about him is okay.

What happened to respecting the office regardless of what we think of the man occupying it? Or is that kind of respect only reserved for old white men?

It was the Republicans and their media outlets (all owned by Rupert Murdoch), who made it okay to disparage immigrants. You know, those people who try to come here for a better life;  who are willing to pick our produce, clean houses and offices, and watch over privileged brats grow up into mirror images of their asshole parents?  Do we have an issue with Immigration? Yes, of course we do. But it was the Republicans who made it okay to discuss immigrants as if they weren’t even human. Just watch one episode of Fox and Friends.. Or Morning Joe.. or that old guy who looks like a short skeleton with shoe-leather dyed hair and wrinkles a Sharpe would be jealous of… They discuss immigrants and the poor and women with such disdain I can’t understand how they have such a huge following. Are there really that many old white guys in this country?

So don’t ask where the Republicans were before Trump went after McCain. They were right there, giving his pencil-dick a nice tongue bath (oh, please, anyone who has to have his name on every building and constantly talk about how rich he is most assuredly is making up for a needle-thin gherkin between his legs. Maybe that’s why he’ doesn’t like Latinos…  ¿Celoso mucho pendejo?).

What kills me is that despite all this crap, he’s leading in the Republican Polls. As someone who wouldn’t vote for a Republican candidate anyway, I should be happy to see the other side imploding. Put Trump up against an one of our guys (or gal), and should sanity prevail, the Democrats get another four years in office. But sadly, this situation, at first funny, has played out it’s comedic value.  The truth is, in order for this country to work, we really need to learn how to have an actual discourse between intellectuals who seriously want to make this country work (as opposed to a bloated asshole who really is doing this because he clearly needs his ego stroked – Doesn’t he have a wife? Or, has she grown as sick of him as the other two did?)

Donald Trump is the result of all that extremism on the Right that has been funded by the likes of the Koch brothers and propagandized by Rupert Murdoch. That is the ONLY thing that can explain the existence of that fully-loaded, used diaper with a rat’s nest on his head, making it as far as he has through the political process. Realistically, he should have never gotten this far. Realistically, he should be doing what he always does: clearing out the life savings of gamblers while simultaneously filing for bankruptcy every few years.

I know there are normal, middle-of-the-road, non Tea-Partying Republicans out there who are willing to go old school and work with the left. This country cannot run with one side parenting the clown posse on the other side. It’s time to grow up, put on your big boy pants, and realize the world is changing and instead of fighting every change, work with it. Work with us. Until you do, there will be more assholes like Trump, along with the other (as of recent count) 14, potential candidates, making a mockery out of a Party that used to actually have some semblance of self-respect.

It’s shameful, and it’s a shame. I never thought I’d say this, but, COME ON REPUBLICANS.. YOU’RE BETTER than this!! (Maybe.)

With love,  a full-blooded Lefty-Liberal

Bernie 2016!!

🙂

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What the F&^K are They Thinking? And why I really feel the need to go smack a Senator or two.

Filed under: politics — Leave a comment
December 17, 2010

And sympathy, is what we need my friend

Cause there’s not enough love to go ’round..

Rare Birds (original) , Marillion (awesome cover)

Okay, I usually hate to get political, especially here. Seriously, the worst thing anyone can bring up in any conversation is either politics, or religion.  You all already know my take on religion. I don’t believe in it. God? Yes. Religion?  No.

Politically, I guess I lean more towards the liberal side. That’s fine. I can sit and have a conversation with folks who don’t believe the same as I do on any given day. Neither of us will change the other’s mind, and that’s fine too.  It’s the way the world works. But there is absolutely no one who can convince me that the current actions of Republican Senators in regards to giving 9/11 First responders the medical assistance they need makes any sense what so ever.

The Zodroga Bill, more commonly known as the 9/11 First Responder’s Bill, should never have been subjected to any kind of partisan crap. I get it. Republicans don’t like Obama. They don’t want to help him achieve anything. They will filibuster everything.  And the Democratic side, even when they HAD the majority are the “please like me” party full of nothing but a bunch of pussies who basically bend over backwards trying to please everyone and getting absolutely nothing done.

But really? THIS???

As someone who lived through the events of 9/11,  and worked, even after that date, just a few blocks from Ground Zero,  I can tell you THIS pisses me off. The passing of the bill has absolutely nothing to do with me, personally. Clearly, I wasn’t a first responder. However, it DOES have to do with all the men and women who worked on that site, inhaling toxic fumes daily, and the ONLY reason they are being denied any assistance is because of the ridiculous pissing contest the Republican side of the senate insists on having with the Democrats. I get it, okay? You’ve held up a whole lot of shit that I think would benefit this country. You can give me your reasons for the other things you held up and I can even see how MAYBE some of it, makes sense (not to me, but okay). But for a group that has used 9/11 as the excuse for everything you have (and haven’t) done in the past nine years, the LEAST that you can do, and I do mean LEAST, is pass a bill that helps provide medical assistance for the folks who worked on that smoking pile of toxicity and are still paying the price for it.

One Senator said that he hasn’t had the time to read through it all, and thinks that it would be an affront to Christians everywhere if he worked the week between Christmas and New Years to try and figure it out. Excuse me? Wait. I understand not working Christmas. Fine. But what’s the religious significance of the days between December 25 and December 31.

Mike Huckabee (maybe one of the few Republicans, who I might not always agree with, but who,  I can actually see as making sense), actually said, and I’m paraphrasing, on the Jon Stewart show last night that these Senators SHOULD work that week, because it would make up for the rest of the year of them doing nothing. I agree.. 100%

If I sound upset, it’s because I genuinely am.  Can you imagine if Firefighters took a vote on 9/11? Sounds ridiculous right? Well so does this hold up. It is unconscionable. These fat assed Senators need to just get the fuck over themselves and show some humanity towards the people who literally risked their lives and do so every time they go into a burning building.

Here is a clip from last night’s episode of “The Daily Show,” where Jon Stewart discusses the Zodroga Bill and the Senate’s inability to see past their own selfish agendas, with actual 9/11 first responders. Seriously, tell me, after watching this, you wouldn’t want to go bitch-slap one of the senators holding up this bill too..

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