DEMOCRACY SURVIVES WHITE HOUSE BETRAYAL

        "The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history."

Covid-19 in Los Angeles County, California,  is continuing to surge as those who may have contracted the virus during the Christmas season holidays begin to experience the infection, needing to seek medical care.   Medical "triage officers" have been established in the event beds, doctors, nurses, staff are inundated to the extend service cannot be provided to all patients as needed.  

Countdown dates:                         2020 Presidential Election - Nov. 3rd 

January 6, 2021                U.S. Electoral College vote finalized, accepted in Congressional joint session -- as truth, law and order finally prevailed following sedition/coup attempt.

   ? ? ?                                Current Lame Duck President Exits the White House following unsuccessful sedition/coup attempt in Capitol. 

January 20, 2021 at noon:  President Joseph Biden is inaugurated.

Personal POV

I feel compelled to express my thoughts and opinions about the dangerous assault on our democratic republic January 6, 2021.   Be forewarned in the event you want to avoid reading what I have to say.  Likely you have had more than your share of feelings and thoughts about this situation, too, and may feel overloaded with it all.

I was repulsed, angered and saddened by the criminal actions evolving from the phony protest march turned mob in Washington D.C. that I viewed on television news coverage this past week. Our Congress was conducting their constitutionally required business when they were violently disrupted.  

Knowing how democracies are weakened, witnessing how this now Lame Duck President (LDP) for four years has been following steps to subvert our government to an autocracy, history has shown a violent coup event could be a very predictable possibility at some point.  I did not want to believe such would actually ever occur in my United States of America.  

I am heart-broken that our nation has been so dishonored by some misguided individuals who violated the very values they claim to be defending.  In fact, their violent actions served to undermine our democratic republic.   Perhaps some were seduced to act with extremist groups dedicated to destroying our form of government.  This now LDP promised years ago he intended to change our form of government, but did not some of his cult-like followers understand what this meant, or do they truly not believe in our democratic republic?   

These extremist groups care nothing about those mislead citizen's values if they were in fact seduced into their mob.  All continued to be incited by actions and words of our LDP.   His chaotic methods  have intentionally and systematically been  designed to position himself to become an autocratic leader who they blindly support.  

There are others who must share blame for the violence that occurred.  All those who the past four years enabled this now LDP are accountable for the Capitol Hill events Wednesday, January 6, 2021 and also have blood on their hands including for five people who died in this melee.  Voters should, at the very least, see that these enablers are not returned to serve in our government come election day, if not sooner.  

Regrettably, one political party in particular must bear the brunt of responsibility for not having reined in this LDP.   Too many of them failed to present as a needed trusted, respectable group, clearly not fulfilling their oath of office to protect our democracy and the best interests of the American people.   

Deserving to be removed from office are those who put forth LDP's repeated lies, false conspiracy theories, knowing they weren't true.  Some even continued to propagate those same lies that night after the failed coup attempt, as some legislative leaders persisted in debating acceptance of some certified votes for President-elect Joseph Biden's and Vice-President Kamala Harris' election.

Surely, the cult-like followers of this LDP must now realize he does not offer a democratic form of government, represent true patriotism, support our constitution or law and order.  Even in this LDP's current rhetoric about cooperation for transition to the newly elected administration his words are false.  

His promises to continue a drive toward authoritarianism is semi-disguised in a false claim that he is supporting our democracy and constitution.   If this LDP's four years of efforts to undermine American citizens trust in our system of government so we would turn to him as our savior was his expectation, he has failed this time.  Even if he doesn't return to try again later, there will be others who may be much more subtly adept at doing so in the future so we must be on guard.

Countries around the world have witnessed the strength of the majority of our people to preserve our values, democracy, republic, constitution, freedoms and way of life.  They have also seen first-hand our government's weaknesses which we are now especially challenged to rectify.

Those autocratic governments who oppose democracies will attempt to continue belittling and undermining our own.  Surely we have learned we must take much greater care in the future about who we vote into Congress and the White House to represent our nation's values.  We need to monitor well those we vote into governmental offices beginning at our local, county, state, national levels.  We must hold them accountable once in office.

Democracy is fragile as has been dramatically revealed by the end result of this LDP's actions and that of the mob he cultivated for four years.  He has periodically incited, then finally ignited them into an act of insurrection, sedition, a coup attempt.  While he did not succeed, the monied forces behind this leader, using him and he using them, including even those claiming to be religious people of god acting with the atheists, can be expected to continue their efforts to acquire power.

The intent to take over our government persists, to form into their mold in the years ahead -- ultimately jeopardizing individual rights and freedoms as occurs with all authoritarian governments such as Russia, China, North Korea, Iran (theocracy), Saudi Arabia (monarchy), Turkey,  numerous others including various European nations.  History shows us, too, how democracies devolve into autocracies such as occurred in the 1930's culminating in WWII necessitating a desperate but successful effort to preserve some freedom in the world.  

Americans dedicated in actions as well as words to following our constitution as a nation of laws and order in a democratic republic must exercise our responsibility to ensure we keep this system.  We do this by how we conduct our individual lives, tolerate and respect our differences.  None of the authoritarian governments have the individual freedoms we do.  I don't believe any Americans want to give up our freedoms but that would be the result of losing our democracy to such extremists as those who attempted the January 6th coup attempt.

We need to support The Fourth Estate -- our Press -- discern those who follow high journalistic standards to keep us informed with truth, facts.  This means exercising critical thinking to eliminate attending to those who pander in undocumented gossip, conspiracy theories, disinformation, alternate facts, fail to differentiate opinion from actual fact.

We would be wise to take as a grain of salt all we read or hear on social media sites as it is little more than gossip one might hear on any street corner or over the backyard fence -- a mix of fact and fiction, often warped and distorted, that must be later verified for viability through reliable respectable documented sources.  To do otherwise leads to wasting time and effort, confusion, anxiety and false beliefs, often leading some users to ill health from needless worry.  If we choose to focus on such sites with information disseminated unchecked, we do so at our own risk of being misinformed or worse.

Perhaps the day will come when these social media sites claiming they simply offer free speech will become more responsible purveyors of allowing primarily factual truthful information rather than mostly being exploiters of users to enhance their company's bottom line.  These social media sites do seem to have finally made some effort since the Jan. 6th assault on our nation to recognize they bear some responsibility for moderating what is allowed to be dispensed given the influence and power of the medium.  

We must recognize some of us, more than I ever imagined could possibly exist in this country, hold extremist views contrary to the values, beliefs, hopes and goals of our constitution and the majority of American citizens.  We must be ever more vigilant in the years ahead to protecting our democratic freedoms.  To preserve this nation and our rights we must continue to educate ourselves, then vote -- instill in the generations coming after us the critical importance they do the same.

Questions I ask myself and you probably have some of your own .....

--will those responsible for actions and enabling efforts to cripple or to destroy our democratic republic be held accountable?

--will we prevent such horrendous events in the future?

I believe our nation is poised for a golden opportunity to renew our nation's promise with our core ideals for self-government with liberty and equality for all as we seek happiness.  

TRAGEDY, OTHER GENERAL MATTERS

TRAGEDY IN FLORIDA shocks my sensibility!   No!  No!  Not again!    Yet, I know other horrendous acts have occurred before on our U.S. soil, though not quite of this magnitude.     I want to rant and rail at the injustice but know others who may read this have also felt the same emotions, thought the same words which I would only be echoing.   I join the multitudes across the nation and the world sympathizing those who've experienced loss, sending well wishes for those physically injured and the survivors -- so many families and friends impacted.  
*                                    *                                          *                                  

CALIFORNIA WRAP-UP of 2016 Presidential Primary Election with Democratic Hilliary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump the top vote-getters.     Our state had less than 50% of registered voters participating – more than our last election, but not as much participation as in 2008.  

One proposition that passed may have attracted voters -- allows California state legislators to be suspended without pay for corruption.  This came about when three state legislators who had been suspended were discovered to still be legally collecting their salaries.   

What will it take to motivate participation of more voters in November?

EARTHQUAKE 5.2 STRENGTH shook my chair in the wee hours one morning last week, but was mild in comparison to others I’ve felt in years past.    The predicted "Big One" is yet to come at some unknown time.  

LA NINA is expected to follow our El Nino winter which disappointingly brought little rain to Southern California.  Typically La Nina follows which means a dry hot period which we may experience for another 3 or 4 years. 

ANNUAL PHYSICAL EXAM results determined I'm still alive.  Basically I'm fine except for what's wrong with me -- but that's been true most of my life.

INTERNET CONNECTION has been inconsistent.   Frontier purchased the wired portion of services which includes those I use from Verizon a few months ago and possibly some of the problems that came with it.   Hopefully the technical people will remedy this frustrating situation.   

CALIFORNIA COURTIN'

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Well, it has started – last Friday afternoon (4/22) I received my first 2016 Presidential Primary political phone call – a recorded message from The Donald asking me to vote for him to make America great again.  Isn't that the same day he had a new delegate guru describing how his candidate is evolving to be more presidential?  

I expect many prospective California voters are being called and  many others not formally committed are being contacted, too. That's also why I'll probably hear from all the rest of the candidates -- Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, any others left by June, or newcomers (this crazy year anything is possible).  I can handle this vote-seeking attention just this one year since California likely won't garner such attraction again.  

 

I’ll be interested to see what other candidates I hear from and when, before May 23^rd  -- that’s the date by which California voters must register (if they haven't already), or re-register their political affiliation ((if they want to change), to vote in this Presidential Primary election.  

We will have six party ballots from which to select one, depending on our registration status for this Presidential Primary election June 7, 2016:                      

         

• 3 will be closed to all California voters but those registered members of each respective party                 Republican, Green, Peace and Freedom.

• 3 will be open to all California voters in addition to registered members:  Democratic,  American     Independent, Libertarian 

There’s been some confusion in California with some voters believing they were registering as Independents learning recently they’re actually registered as members of the American Independent party – likely quite opposite political philosophies.   So, state government election officials have hastened to change registration forms to rectify that situation.  Meanwhile, those whose intent was to register as Independents are double-checking their voting status. 

This is a portion of the now corrected California voter registration form:   

                     Political Party                    (Item 14)   

                    ·  The person registering to vote may indicate which (if any) political    

                             party they prefer                
                    · Currently, there are six qualified parties:

                          · American Independent (not to be confused with “independent”

                             voters who do not wish to affiliate with any party); Democratic;

                            Green; Libertarian; Peace and Freedom; Republican

                    ·A person may choose not to state a party preference by marking “No Party

                         Preference”.

                    ·Under current State law, “No Party Preference” voters

                              ·may vote for any candidate for statewide or congressional office.

                              ·may not be able to vote for some candidates in a primary election

                              for President of the United States or party committees

                    

This confusion in California’s registration ballot was not designed to make voter registration more difficult for citizens.   That is unlike some other states where efforts have been made to deliberately complicate the voter registration process -- make it more difficult for some voters to register instead of easier --  under the guise of making it more secure from abuse which has not been documented as even being a problem.  We do need to be able to vote.

(Sorry about any small print as Blogger doesn't seem to be following the regular size print I selected then later tried to correct after finding it had been arbitrarily reduced by the print size troll.)

          

WHAT'S NEXT?

Can't believe it, but summertime is here in Southern California with temperatures in the 80's -- pushing 90 degrees in record February heat.   We're all wondering what happened to our El Nino rains?   Something about a high pressure system pushing the storms to the northern part of California as instead we're receiving dry hot high winds..

That's just fine as long as they keep dumping snow in the four mountain ranges -- Shasta Cascade, Klamath-Siskiyous, Sierra Nevada, and the Coastal Mountain Range -- all together said to be a total of 138 mountains more or less.   Snowmelt from those Sierra Nevada mountains  provide many of us a portion of the water we rely on as described here.    Now weather predictors tell us El Nino's rains will come the end of February and in March -- we'll see!

Last Weekend I checked out my local area strawberry patch as February had been the earliest I had ever known those addicting luscious red fruits to be ripened for sale.   Not only was the stand open, but they had first begun selling berries this year in December -- just before Christmas!   Had I only known I would have been their first customer.   One more indicator of our climate changing.

I continue to wonder what's next in this political year as candidates have rigorously pursued voters, first in Iowa and next in New Hampshire.  Now they're off to South Carolina with their numbers not winnowed down enough to suggest who would actually receive their political party's nomination though both major political parties have unexpected front runners.   Rumbling in the background continues that a possible third party candidate may join the fray if he doesn't like the two major party finalists selected.

So far this rather unorthodox election campaign has resulted in an increase in the number of election primary voters.  More citizens fulfilling the voluntary responsibility expected of those of us  living in our democracy/republic is encouraging.   Pundits, candidates and voters are finding not much is predictable which makes this election of interest to more people, I think.  

I  know what principles, political issues and plans to resolve our nation's problems are important to me.  I know the candidates whose views I can most closely share presently.  But we have many more election primaries in the months ahead as each candidate tries to effectively express themself to convince voters to select them.  The bottom line is the candidate in each party who becomes their party nominee needs to be electable!  

I don't think Madeline Albright and Gloria Steinem did their candidate and women voters  any favors by suggesting we should vote on the basis of gender.   Coming from an older generation, cognizant first hand of gender discrimination, I do understand the intent of their words.  But, frankly, I was offended, and I think many younger generation women might be resentful, too.  Hopefully, the candidate won't be penalized by voters.    

Some pundit discussions I've heard have included observations that democracies around the world are being clobbered by extremist anti-establishment candidates.  The world is truly in a state of flux and our nation is not an exception.  What could this mean for our future?


 

2 rr's missing 3rd R

Our United States current Democratic Party administration of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden learned with the rest of our citizenry last week who their primary opposition’s vice presidential candidate would be.

Given that this man has been a very visible U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, actively involved in offering very controversial budget proposals in the past year or more, I am constantly amazed when I keep hearing news reports that many in the general population have never heard of him.  I find this more than just troubling, since I am always interested in knowing what government leaders are doing, or not doing, on my behalf.

When I think of  what this nation, people in every little town and on every farm have endured during the days of Wall Street and the banking world’s upheaval – the challenges we continue to face – how could people not be aware of or concerned about individuals such as him who are potentially instrumental in formulating plans they claim are needed to extricate us from this maze?

During the approximately 11 weeks remaining until our November election, we have the opportunity to thoroughly acquaint ourselves and others with as much as we can learn about these candidates, their beliefs, past actions, and plans that will significantly affect our lives and that of our children, grandchildren, future generations.  

A most succinct fact presentation of pertinent issues with information about these  candidates has been provided at Ronni Bennett’s “Time Goes By” yesterday and the previous day (8/14 and 13.)  

Whatever ones views about how to resolve our nation’s budget crisis, or if one has no view yet, I strongly urge you to read and give serious consideration to the facts she presents about Social Security solvency, Medicare’s and Medicaid’s healthcare dismantling.  The radical surgery proposed for these programs may not only be unnecessary but if done, and this was a true medical procedure, could be considered malpractice.  

Following is a slightly edited comment I was motivated to leave at TGB on those subjects.   

There can be little doubt about the goals of Republican Party Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, now that he’s selected Paul Ryan as his Vice Presidential running mate I concluded independently before reading here (TGB.)   [Romney has since been trying to distance himself from Ryan’s positions to keep from losing support.] 

Clearly the 2 rr’s (Romney and Ryan) every effort is directed toward channeling citizen monies to those wonderful financiers on Wall St. who did so much to bring us the Great Recession. The financiers and bankers are doing fine, but the same cannot be said for too many Americans.

I think it's incredibly naive to think this nation would have recovered much better under an administration run by the 2 rr's, or would now with what they propose.

I agree with an approach of gradually reducing this nation's debt and not at the wholesale expense of reducing/eliminating support for those whose life experiences have necessitated their needing assistance as the 2 rr's budget would impose.
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I believe there is value in offering individuals a hand up to get back on their feet when circumstances have created such a need. After reading one comment, [possibly from a troll] I do have to wonder why anyone would assume their children and grandchildren would sit around and not work just because assistance was available to others in need?

I, too, recall family members stories that old folks feared going to the poor house before the creation of Social Security as a safety net.   They knew of those who despite  lives of hard work, had unexpected health, accident, or business upsets that destroyed their financial base leaving them destitute.

I know of individuals who suffered such life setbacks.  They would likely have ended in a poor house had it not been for the safety net of social security and/or disability with Medicaid insurance coverage.  Incredibly to me was that they continued to support  the political party and candidates who were the very ones persistently trying  to undermine those safety net programs.  Those  beneficiaries were intelligent reasonable people in other ways, though locked into their ideology, but were blind to life's realities -- their own reality, right in front of them. 

Were they living today they would probably vote for the 2 rr's who I think of as capable of readin' and 'riting but lacking a 3rd R in 'rithmetics higher functions -- those that combine mathematical complexities with practical reasoning through rational thought. 

I see nothing that the 2 rr's propose that hastens the creation of jobs and begins to return to prosperity a decimated middle class in this nation.

I believe the 2 rr’s will try to privatize portions of Social Security  -- this would be a disaster as we should have learned from the recent financial markets collapse.  

I do see the 2 rr’s power play $$$ grab to consolidate control of our government into the hands of the uppermost  % of the wealthiest citizens and corporations – however unintentionally, or intentionally.

We must ask ourselves if this is the American Dream we want to leave our children, grandchildren and future generations?