Political – aliciajoseph

You Knew he was a Snake

The votes from Tuesday’s election are still being counted in some races, but Republicans have seen enough to know their party is in deep trouble. For months, conservative and mainstream media have touted a Republican takeover of Congress. Some predicted thirty to forty seats flipping in the House and three to four seats in the Senate.

A red wave, they said.

A tsunami large enough to engulf an entire coast, like an apocalyptic scene from a movie, they prophesized.

But reality opened its door and smacked the Republicans right in the face. They didn’t get the cinematic tsunami that drowns large cities and washes away tall buildings.

They instead got a tiny splash in the kiddie pool. A mere ripple in the current made by a small kick in the water.

Republicans watched the movie Rocky believing they were the Italian Stallion, the heavily muscled champion of the world, with the sculpted biceps and rock-hard glutes.

But on election night Republicans looked in the mirror and saw Donald Trump, because Republicans are the party of Donald Trump. No matter how much they try to distance themselves from him, Trump is the man they bowed down to six years ago. He won’t let them stand straight again without setting the entire party on fire.

Keep bowing, Republican Party. Donald Trump is a ruthless, bitter, petty, and vindicative person.

Donald Trump cares only for himself. He sacrifices nothing for anyone. Loyalty is one-sided. You scratch his back, and he will shoot you in yours if it benefits him.

In 2016, before the presidential election, Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted, “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed….and we will deserve it.”

The Republicans got destroyed on Tuesday. And they deserved it.

They embraced a man who started his campaign by stating all Mexicans are rapists. Mocked a disabled reporter at his rallies. Instructed the people at his rallies to punch protesters in their face, stating he’d pay their legal fees. (Of course, he wouldn’t. Trump doesn’t pay for his own legal fees.) Was accused of sexual harassment by twenty-five women. Accused of rape by one. Caught on camera claiming he could grab women by their pussy because he’s a star and they let him do it. Paid 25 million dollars to students he scammed at Trump University. His “charity” was shut down because he misused (stole) money, resulting in a two million dollar fine. Sued by contractors for money owed for work on his now bankrupted casino hotels. The smaller contractors who couldn’t afford lawsuits and couldn’t absorb being stiffed by Trump, lost their businesses.

Trump openly expressed his love for Vladimir Putin, someone who has never been a U.S ally. He spewed white nationalist rhetoric. Attempted to withhold congressionally passed military aid to a foreign country, unless they did him the favor of announcing an investigation into his political opponent. Claimed, without evidence, a fair election he lost was stolen. Attempted to extort a U.S. Secretary of State into finding him over 11,000 votes. Incited an insurrection at the U.S Capitol in an attempt to keep power.

Americans voted against Trumpism. They voted against hate. They rejected Republican ideologies. America instead voted for candidates who stand for healthcare for all. Clean renewable energy. Women’s healthcare rights. Gay rights. Trans rights. Livable wages. Lower Medicare costs. Social Security. Affordable education. Higher taxes on big corporations and wealthy individuals. Gun control, because why do civilians need weapons designed for war? Guns capable of spraying hundreds of rounds of bullets in seconds, made to produce mass casualty in little time.

Democrats have retained the Senate. We’ll know next month if they’ll gain a seat. The House is up for grabs. Republicans certainly didn’t imagine this scenario. But here they are, and they need to own this.

At his hateful rallies, Trump often referenced The Snake to vilify immigrants. A poem written by Oscar Brown Jr. about a woman who nurtures a sick snake back to health, only to have the snake bite her in her bed.

“Oh, shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin. “You knew damn well I was a snake before you let me in.”

Trump is yours, Republican Party. You let him in. He showed you who he was, yet you let that snake in anyway.

No givebacks.

snake

Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

I Can’t Wait Till You’re Gone, Donald Trump

It’s been eight days since the U.S presidential election has been called for Joe Biden, and Donald Trump has yet to concede. Though the election hasn’t been certified, the norm is that the losing nominee concedes so that the winner can begin the transition into their future presidency.

A lot is at stake during the transfer of power between presidential administrations, mostly in the national security of this country. A president-elect has to be prepared to keep the country safe during the transition, and in order to do that, he needs to know all of our threats. He needs to be privy to all classified information. He needs to see the daily presidential briefs, something Donald Trump is blocking Joe Biden by not conceding.

Regardless of whether Trump concedes or not, Joe Biden will take the presidential oath on January 20, 2021, and become the country’s 46th president. Say what you want about Hillary Clinton. I know she was a flawed candidate, but she conceded the day after the 2016 election. She lost to a smaller margin of votes in the key states, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, than Trump lost to Biden, yet, she didn’t sue the states. Plus, she won the popular vote by over 3 million votes, yet she still conceded immediately.

Yet, here we are. Donald Trump won’t concede because he claims to have won the election, but widespread election and voter fraud stole it from him. He has no real proof. His legal team is losing in court, but that hasn’t stopped Trump from losing his mind on Twitter and tweeting how he has won the election by a lot.

I thought the liberals were supposed to be the cry-baby snowflakes? Donald Trump is the biggest baby. He didn’t get the name Toddler-in-Chief for nothing. He earned that title.

This past Saturday, Trump supporters went to D.C for a Stop the Steal march, even though nothing was stolen from Trump. You have to own something before it can be stolen from you, and Donald Trump never owned this election, he never won it.

Still, tens of thousands of people showed up flaunting their Trump merch–hats, T-shirts, shorts, flags, and banners. But no matter how many Trump flags they wave, Trump still lost the election. That won’t change. Ever.

His followers stood out there waving their Trump flags, while Trump played golf. He is literally on the golf course as the tense partisan divide in the country mirrors that of the Civil War, all the while a deadly out-of-control pandemic looms in the background, and Donald Trump is doing nothing about it. Except golfs. That’s what he does.

Donald Trump is a useless POS. The sooner he’s gone, the sooner we can bring some kind of normalcy and decorum back to the office of the presidency. He’s been an embarrassment for far too long. The only reason he wants to win so bad is because he knows the legal battles that await him the moment he is no longer the president of the United States.

I think Donald Trump will find his legal troubles are a lot harder to fight without the Office of Legal Counsel’s protection of “you can’t indict a sitting president” shielding him in court. As a private citizen, I hope Donald Trump will finally be held accountable for all the laws he has broken.

I think we will soon find out why he never did release those tax returns.

I can’t wait till you’re gone, Donald Trump. And I know I’m not the only one.

Below is my favorite parody video made about Trump and all his cronies. God, I hope this comes true.

Save America

The presidential election is less than four months away. This country has been through so much scandal, investigations, corruption, and incompetence these past three and a half years, it’s beyond a relief that the time we can put an end to this chaotic and lawless administration is merely months away.

And November can’t come soon enough.

I don’t know if the pandemic is making the time go by slower or faster. My days seem to melt together because they’re pretty much the same. Does this make the days feel shorter or longer? Shorter because Wednesday can slip into Thursday or longer because Thursday can still feel like Wednesday? I don’t know, but I’ve been quarantining since mid-March, until about a month ago when I started making weekly trips to grocery stores.

I’m a writer, and luckily I’m able to do that at home, but I used to go to places to write some pages like, my local public library, the Morton Arboretum, coffee houses, and my late-night favorite, IHOP. But these days I’ve been writing at home and I’ve used the quarantine time to finally finish the novel I’ve been working on for the past two years. That feels great.

I’m an introvert at heart, so quarantining probably hasn’t been as hard on me as has been for all the extroverts out there. Aside from writing, I like to cook, read and was always a movie buff. So add three more activities to the “things to pass the time” list.

As I write about quarantining, the news is swarming about the skyrocket rate of new Coronavirus cases in the U.S and I’m aware not everyone is taking this virus and the need to quarantine seriously. With over 130,000 Americans dead and no sign that U.S cases are going to slow down, please stay home when you can, and if you have to go out, wear a mask.

If we had a decent president in this country, wearing a mask in public wouldn’t be considered political. Under a competent president, wearing a mask in public during a global pandemic would be considered the sensible thing to do. But, sigh, we have neither a decent nor a competent president.

But you can help to change that. If you’re stuck at home, and are neither a writer, nor a reader, nor a movie buff , nor a cook, and you are looking for something to do to help pass the time, I have a suggestion for you – postcarding.

If you want Trump out of office as much as I do, postcarding is a great way to help get people out to vote. There are ten states considered to be swing states that both parties need to win in November. If you have the time, please consider writing postcards to constituents of these states and urge them to get out and vote.

Every vote matters.

You can pick which swing state you want to send your postcard to. Postcards will be sent to you at no charge, with a pre-written message that you write on each card, but you do have to supply the .35 cent postage.

The ten swing states are, Arizona, Iowa, Maine, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Kansas, North Carolina, and Montana.

Click on the link below:

https://postcardstoswingstates.com/

Every single one of us needs to do all we can to get this narcissistic and authoritarian maniac out of the White House.

save_america_vote_against_trump_pinback_button-rfed551ea655c4bae8630b2efc0c3367b_k94rf_307

Get Ready to Vote

It’s hard not to get political these days as 24-hour news channels, with nonstop talking heads, argue for their side of the political spectrum. So a certain amount of political partisanship is expected over issues like healthcare, the national budget, gay marriage, abortion, and social security. But political partisanship over a highly contagious virus that infects people with no regard to party affiliation sounds counterintuitive to me.

I’ve stopped watching the White House coronavirus briefs because I can only take so much of an insecure narcissistic patting himself on the back for a job well done, as 81,199 Americans have died from COVID-19, and these are just the numbers from people who died in hospitals. There is no count of people who are dying at home from this virus.

Donald Trump has politicized every aspect of this virus. He has blamed lack of testing on Barack Obama, even though COVID-19 wasn’t around when Obama was president. He has blamed the lack of medical stockpile, like masks, ventilators, and PPE on Obama, even though in February of this year, the State Department sent 17.8 tons of medical supplies to China. But even if it were true that Obama left the stockpile bare, why didn’t Trump do anything to replenish it? He’s been president over three years. Seems like that should be sufficient enough time to order ore supplies, I mean, he certainly found time to golf.

Trump has encouraged this country to become even more politically divided over this virus. He has used his Twitter account to agitate his followers. As Democratic governors have issued shelter-in-place orders, Trump tweeted for those states to “liberate” themselves, and people protested with guns, nooses, and Confederate flags.

Just a few days ago, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overruled the Democratic Governor’s shelter in place order, and within hours bars were packed with patrons crowded close to each other, sans masks or any kind of social distancing.

What could go wrong?

Back in April, Trump estimated the death total by August could be 80,000, and here it is mid-May, and we’ve already surpassed that.

I wonder how differently this pandemic would have been handled if we had a competent President, with an uncorrupted administration, in charge.

But we don’t have that, so all we can do right now is wonder, at least until November. Then we can vote.

trump-what-say-is-so-dumb

Our Idiot President is Dangerous

Other than walks with my dog, today was the first time I left my house in eleven days. I drove my mother to get a blood test. We pulled up to the facility, and a nurse wearing a mask and gloves came to the car door. After taking my mother’s name, the nurse pricked her finger. She secured the sample, thanked us, and walked away. The whole process took less than five minutes.

I then went to the post office for stamps. There was a sign at the entrance instructing all people to stand at least six feet apart. Only four people stood in the wrap-around line that would normally fit at least twenty people, yet I couldn’t move much past the door. The person in front of me stood at about six feet. No one tried to enter the post office as I stood there, but if they had, they wouldn’t have been able to come in. They would have had to wait outside the door until the line moved up.

These are the times we’re living in. Staying home, drive-thru blood tests, closed bars and restaurants, and six feet of separation are the new normal. But it’s all worth it. People are dying and it appears things are going to get worse. We’re not even at our peak of infections and death, and already the idiot president in charge is talking about opened business and packed churches—in the middle of a fucking pandemic.

Being home twenty-four hours a day, with twenty-four hour news channels of constant Coronavirus coverage, as well as social media, can be overwhelming. I am overloaded with news, and most of it fills me with anxiety. I no longer watch Donald Trump’s news conferences because I’m sick of being lied to.

Here is a president who was briefed on the severity of Coronavirus in January, yet spent two months publicly downplaying the virus’s threat in the States. Trump refused test kits offered by the World Health Organization in January because he didn’t want to know the numbers for fear that they’d hurt his re-election chances. So he spent two months lying to the American people (he’s actually spent his entire presidency lying to the American people) while telling us that the virus was contained and it would all go away in April with the warmer weather and in two weeks we’d be down to zero cases.

The lies continued into March, even as Trump finally decided to take this virus serious. He told us everyone who wanted a test could get a test. That wasn’t true. Then he said there’d be a millions tests available at the end of the week. That wasn’t true either. The next week he said there’d be over four million test kits available. There weren’t. Hospitals were running out of masks. Trump said there were millions available. Yet another lie.

The next three weeks will deliver us more deaths, but Trump’s main concern will be the Stock Market and his re-election.

God help us all.

Say What You Want About Hillary…

At least she had the courage to testify when asked to do so.

Where are you Donald Trump? There’s a seat waiting for you as soon as you summon the courage. Which we all know will never happen because you are a coward–a corrupt coward.

Round after round, for eleven hours, Hillary Clinton was pounded with questions from overzealous Republicans, pining desperately to catch an erroneous statement from her. But she answered each and every question with the composure and certainty of a fearless leader.

She was a cool glass of water, and the hearing ended with the Republicans unable to find her guilty of a thing. But they had the opportunity to try because Clinton had the balls to show up and President Obama didn’t try to stop her, nor did he withhold any requested documents.

I’ve spent more time than I should have this week trying to get a Republican, any Republican, to explain to me why, if Donald Trump is innocent of the accusations against him, isn’t he testifying? Why has he also tried to block all those who have testified from testifying?

Why won’t he, Rudy Giuliani, Mick Mulvaney, Rick Perry, Mike Pence, and Mike Pompeo, all raise their right hands and put their words under oath? If everything the president did was so perfect, then why is he trying so hard to hide everything? Why won’t the State Department release all the documents and witness’s notes regarding the phone call with the Ukrainian President and all relating communications?

When I ask this, I don’t get a direct response from my Republican friends. One friend answered by claiming that all of the people who have testified are Never Trumpers filled with raging hate for the president. Her disregard for the men and women who have served their country honorably for decades in nonpartisan, diplomatic roles is disgusting.

Instead of defending Trump by offering a valid defense, they attack the people who work to keep this country safe, with no desire for fame or fortune. The people who do their jobs on a government salary with no need to sprawl their names across buildings.

These diplomats are the enemies of this country?

If you watched the hearings, it’s easy to see they are the saviors of this country/

Also, if you watched the hearings, it’s easy to see why Donald Trump is trying so hard to hide everything.

Say what you want about Hillary Clinton, but at least she showed up.

Pictures I Think a Lot of Us Need Right Now

I sat down with my laptop tonight, unsure what I should write about. The first thing that popped in my head was Donald Trump, because every day we are bombarded with wild headlines about a corrupt president who is using the U.S government to do his personal bidding. These certainly are crazy times, and I wonder in decades to come the questions people who weren’t “lucky” enough to live during this messed-up, chaotic time will ask those of us who did. I hope I have good answers like, “Yes, Donald Trump did all of those criminal things and that’s why he went to jail and stayed there until the day he died.”

But we don’t yet know how this will all end. (Oh please, please, please let me be right about the jail thing!) But if you’re paying attention, you’re probably feeling anxious, stressed, angry, frustrated, hopeless, and maybe more. I know I am. Luckily, I have a very cute dog with the best poses who even if it’s just for a minute or two, can ease my mind of all toxic thoughts and make me smile.

So for anyone who may need this, here are some of my favorite calming photos of my goofy little baby, Phil. I hope it helps you as it has helped me.

Here Comes Mueller

Robert Mueller is scheduled to testify in front of Congress this week. I just finished reading the Mueller Report a couple days ago. I started the report July 3, and continued through the 4th of July holiday weekend. As I read about an American presidential campaign having so many contacts with Russians, and Russians trying so hard to infiltrate the US in order to influence an American election, I thought solemnly to myself, Happy Birthday, America.

This is where we’ve come.

The polls show that most Americans haven’t read the report. Hopefully it’s because of lack of time – family, work, school, life – and not for a lack of interest because what’s in this report should concern us all.

According to the report, the Russians’ attack on the U.S through social media to sow discord on our democracy was “sweeping and systematic.” There were hundreds of thousands of fake accounts on Twitter and Facebook of Russians posing as Americans and smearing lies about Hillary Clinton.

I remember those lies. I got nowhere trying to convince a man I know that Hillary Clinton was not heading a child sex ring in a pizzeria in Washington, DC. But he believed the conspiracy theorists that told him there were tunnels trafficking children into the basement of the pizza parlor. Another man believed it too because he showed up with a gun demanding to see those tunnels. Luckily the owner was able to talk the delusional man down until the police came.

But there were more lies. So many lies. Social media was run amok with Russian bots spreading those lies, and Americans didn’t know the difference.

We know from the report that the Trump campaign welcomed the support of the Russians. It should make every American shudder that an American presidential campaign did not notify the FBI once during the hundreds of contacts between the Russians and those in the Trump campaign or associated to the campaign.

In 2000, George W Bush’s debate prep book was stolen, and Al Gore received the book while he was preparing for a presidential debate with Bush. Gore and his team immediately turned the stolen materials over to the FBI. Yet not one peep from the Trump team to the FBI about the Russian interference. That should infuriate every person who calls themselves an American.

The report found collusion with Russia, but Mueller couldn’t determine conspiracy, mostly because those questioned had lied, or had communicated with each other through apps where texts disappeared, or they simply destroyed evidence.

I hope Mueller is very clear about this part because Donald Trump has falsely claimed too many times that there was no collusion. I hope Mueller is blunt about every pointed question he is asked, especially those questions about obstruction. Trump obstructed justice on multiple occasions.

I laughed out loud as I read a part of the report where Donald Trump tried to get then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to un-recuse himself from the Russia investigation and order the FBI to limit their scope to include only future elections. This made me laugh because I remembered as a child when I did something bad and got caught and knew I was going to be punished, I’d yell “Starting now! Okay? Starting now! You can punish me starting now.” I wanted a do over. I wanted my bad behavior from just minutes ago to be forgotten and only my future behavior be judged for punishment.

Donald Trump wanted a do-over too. It’s funny when children try to get away with bad behavior, but when it’s the President of America it’s abhorrent.

America deserves better.

Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Make This Madness Stop…Vote!

Tomorrow is election night. Even if you aren’t part of the Resistance that’s been waiting two years for this day, it’d be hard not to know election day is coming with all the political ads on TV, signs along the roads, and campaign robocalls and text messages inundating your phone, as they are mine. But I don’t complain as my mother does. I understand this is how it goes, and I appreciate the people who give their time to support the candidate they truly believe exemplifies their values and will be the best representation for their community.

I wrote postcards for the party I support and hope to win. As a lesbian with a serious pre-existing condition, it should be no surprise which party I want to take over Congress. One party is currently in court suing the government over the protections for people with pre-existing conditions, claiming the mandate that no insurance company may deny or charge higher premiums to people who are sick, is unconstitutional (I bet Trump doesn’t know how to spell that word).

I’ll give you a hint as to which party is doing this….It’s the Republicans.

Also, what should be no surprise to any gay person, the administration is doing nothing to protect the gay community. On the campaign trail, Trump promised to be the community’s greatest ally while he held up a rainbow flag. I didn’t buy it, but some gay people did as they cheered him on with their Gays For Trump cardboard signs. Even while choosing anti-gay Mike Pence as his running mate, some gays still believed he’d have their backs. Not sure what they were drinking, but it must have been as strong as jet fuel.

I’m voting against the Republican party for many reasons, but the main one is because this country needs a political party that will check Donald Trump’s dictatorship ways. He truly wants to be a dictator and sees himself as above the law. He once said he could shoot someone on 6th Avenue and get away with it. If the Republicans are his jury, then yes, Donald Trump will get away with it.

Please don’t let Donald Trump get away with it.

Vote Blue.

GOP Out

Don't Boo

Save America, Vote

So much is at stake this November and this country can’t afford to have over a hundred million people sit another election out.

Our healthcare is on the ballot.

Corruption is on the ballot.

Freedom of the Press is on the ballot.

The survival of our land, air, and water are on the ballot.

Women’s rights are on the ballot.

Gay rights are on the ballot.

Consumer protections against predatory banks and lenders are on the ballot.

Human rights are on the ballot.

Education is on the ballot.

Labor rights are on the ballot.

Save our country. Register to vote. Already registered? Go to vote.org and make sure you haven’t been purged because Republicans are doing all they can to suppress our votes. Vote Democratic and stop the corruption. Republicans are doing nothing to stop Trump from his authoritarian ways. Keep democracy alive and vote to turn Congress blue this November and finally put a check on Trump’s overreach of power.

save_america_vote_against_trump_pinback_button-rfed551ea655c4bae8630b2efc0c3367b_k94rf_307