Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Harmful Lies and Other Dirty Deeds

 J.D. Vance admitted to making up the story that Hatian immigrants are eating people's dogs and cats. Going one step further, he has been pushing this lie in the press and on national television so his boss, (mob boss, sorry) can run an audacious ad of himself holding up a goose by the neck. "They are eating your geese." My question: Do people really believe this? Do they believe childless cat ladies are a danger to Democracy? Do they believe this is behavior fitting for a vice presidential and presidential candidate?

I shudder to believe they do, because now elementary schools have been targeted with bomb threats; City Hall was shut down; two hospitals were in lockdown and the Proud Boys marched through Springfield, Ohio. The GOP with Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are leaning into this lie, dangerously reminiscent of the Nazi strategy to dehumanize the Jewish population in the 1930(s). This is shameful and destructive.

And while we are at it, let's not forget Trump brought Laura Loomer to a 9-11 Memorial, a woman who uses conspiracy theories daily and believes that 9/11 was an "inside job." The disgrace of this is she used such a  theory to debase the reality of what happened September 11th, as families were grieving their loved  ones that day.

When you vote in November, vote for the heart and soul of your nation, not for this toxicity that is destroying every person in its path!!!! They are breeding a culture of hate and division, a world I can't imagine a sane person would want any part of!

Sunday, September 15, 2024

The Debate

 Now that the first debate (the only debate) is over,  and now when even Fox News comentators clearly stated he lost (so did some Republicans--those who are honest) and now that she appeared presidential, smart, posied, intelligent, decent, generous and mostly honest (what politician ever is totally), why is there an issue? I hear too many independents saying, "I don''t really know her; what are her policies?"

Seriously? Seriously?? This from a man who even DARES to question the race of the vice president and call her and her Dad Marxists, a comment she did not even qualify. The worst you can do to a bully is not respond

If you could not gather facts and policies from that debate, you were not listening. She opened the debate with a proposed economic plan, all of which will serve most people well; in particular, the middle class and those who are struggling. Honestly, there is no reason not to tax the rich at a higher rate; in fact, it is the fair and decent thing to do. Though I am very comfortable, tax me higher if you need to so the world is fairer and more equitable. You know her policies on women's rights; book banning; crime, but most importantly, on DEMOCRACY and the preservation of Democracy. When asked about good leaders who does HE mention? Victor Orban. He extolled his personal virtues (doesn't he always??) that he could have ended the war in Ukraine, since Putin is his friend. Ha!! Why didn't he, as an ordinary citizen, call his best friend Putin and just end it? This is all a bad joke, a lie, a distortion of the truth, something he is an expert in. He has no respone to Kamala's honest statement of Putin's plan to take over Ukraine first, and the rest of Eastern Europe after. And he dares to say Jews hate her? Not only is she married to a Jewish man, but a large percentage of American Jews plan to vote for her. Where does he get the audacity to say this??

What about healthcare? He wants the ACA DEAD; he tried eight years ago, and will surely try again, and when asked about his plan for healthcare, all he could come up with is he has a CONCEPT for a plan? Is this what he can offer after eight years???

As for immigration, indeed there was a bi-partisan agreement plan, which Trump made certain to nip in the bud, since if it had been passed, it would be too risky for his election. In fact, every question that was asked of him, he turned it around to all the illegal immigrants crossing our borders who pose a terrible risk to our nation--the drugs, the crime, the dangers to our cities. FACTS have proven more crimes have been committed by American citizens. You can get these facts on the internet with a simple search. These are awful lies, meant to invoke FEAR; this is his specialty--fear and anxiety. Just remmeber, during his adminstration, parents and children were separated; there is nothing more sinister than this!

World leaders are anxious, people with embedded moral values are scared, but frankly so am I. The ultimate lunacy of the debate was his LIE about Hatian immigrants stealing and killing animals, so they could eat them. David Muir debunked this invention, since he shared what the Springfield, Ohio police who said that it was NOT TRUE (so what else is new with his stories??), but when cross-examined he retorted, "Oh, I heard it on television." Yet, he has continued telling this insanely vile, baseless claim  about a group of immigrants who have helped to build up the economy of Springfield, who are legally (and decently) living in this country. Now Hatian community centers have been threatened, and people are scared to send their children to school. This demonization is akin to blood libel.

So, independent voters, I ask you, is this okay? Is this the world you want; a bleak vision of America that he puts forth, a dangerous world where it is the OTHER who has made the world as terrible as it is? Frankly, HE is the only one who stokes fear and danger and racism and misogyny and a lens with which I refuse to see the world. Indeed, he lost this debate; his crowd size is consitently NOT bigger and next time you hesitate and say, "I do not know enough about her" my response will be, "You know everything about him; it is ugly and dangerous and scary. You would punish your own children for saying a fraction of the vile things he says about people." Just think, he still denies the result of the 2020 election and, when asked why on television a few days prior why he had said, "Yes, I lost" he had the chutzpah to tell the moderator he was being sarcastic.

Think of this when you vote in November. It is what our future world will look like, since he crosses too many accepable lines. Over half the country fired him last time he ran; now it is time for even more to say ENOGUH!!!!!



Wednesday, September 11, 2024

September 11th

Though 23 years have passed since the destruction of the World Trade Center buildings, the grief feels touchably alive. Periodically, I revisit that horror, and the image of people jumping out of windows; the burning bodies; the ash; the debris, the lives lost cuts through like a knife. But I was just a witness; I saw it on television; I weeped at the unspeakable.

Today I honor all of the family members, those who survived the aftermath of this awful tragedy, those who lost husbands, wives, children; those fire-fighters who bravely climbed dozens of flights to do their duty; those police officers who arrived on the scene with a mission to save, and even the ordinary citizens who stepped in because they saw it as their civic duty. Nothing will ever bring your loved ones back. You only have years of cherished memories to reflect on. You are heroes in your own right. You have survived.

 Amen.

Sunday, September 8, 2024

Thoughts and Prayers Do Not Work!!

 Sorry, J.D.Vance, take your thoughts  and prayers and plans to equip schools with more security and teachers with guns and  shove them you know where. How many years has it been since so many children died in Sandy Hook, and yet the N.R.A. and your party are still smugly stating other solutions to gun control. Shootings are so commonplace now that parents are afraid to send their children to school. This latest shooting in Georgia is the perfect example. A fourteen year old boy was given an AR-15 for Christmas. Yes, it made sense to hold the parent responsible, too, and yes, this was done; however, it is not sufficient. When people in Congress, like Lauren Boebert and Thomas Massie, proudly send out Christmas cards with their children holding rifles, sorry, the message from Congress is that guns are acceptable. 

But it's not! There are so many victims in these shootings, not just children and teachers and family members, but all the other students in the school who are now terrified to step outside their door.

Background checks in and of themselves are insuffiicent since not every issue may show up. The only solution, if one really cares, is to take away assault rifles and diminish the N.R.A., including doing away with gun magazines, bump stocks and semi-automatic weapons. This violence has to stop. How is it more important to protect your right to own a gun than to protect children's lives? How many years are these senseless mass shootings to continue?????