Monday, November 28, 2016

The Double Standard; IOKIYAR !








When you really sit back and look at everything Donald Trump has said and done, if he were a Democrat, there's absolutely no way in hell Republicans would have said any of this was okay.

Conservatives threw a fit when President Obama saluted Marines with a cup of coffee in his hand. Imagine if he had mocked POWs or attacked Gold Star parents.

Well, there are two huge things Republicans would be losing their minds over right now had they happened after Hillary Clinton (or any Democrat, for that matter) had just won a presidential election.

1. For the second time in the last five elections - and for only the second time since 1888 - this nation is going to elect a Republican president who lost the popular vote: When this happened in 2000, it was a big deal, but Al Gore only won the popular vote by 0.5% or just around 500,000 votes. While that's still a decent amount of votes, and it was fairly controversial at the time, it wasn't an emphatic popular vote victory.

But that's not the case this election.

With estimates of around 3-7 million more votes left to count (most coming from California, New York and California), Clinton's overall lead in the popular vote is over 2 million votes and is expected to grow fairly substantially by the time all the votes are counted.

We're looking at a situation where a presidential candidate may win the popular vote by a margin close to what President Obama won it with in 2012 (4-5 million/4-5%) - but lose the election.

Donald Trump and many his supporters were already on the verge of calling for an all-out revolution if he didn't win this election. Now imagine what their reaction would have been if he lost the election, yet received around 4-5 million more overall votes than Clinton.

It wouldn't have just been Trump and his supporters - the entire Republican party would be losing their minds. They would have lost 2 of the last 5 presidential election even though their candidate had won the popular vote each of those times. Especially this year considering how much Clinton will win the popular vote by, yet isn't going to become our next president.

I think it's time we realize that the electoral college needs to go. When the candidates for 40% of your presidential elections over the last 16 years became president despite not receiving the most overall votes - that's a problem.

Let's not pretend like there's nothing wrong with a system that hands a "win" to a candidate who actually lost to his opponent by several million votes, when that's happened for 2 of our last 3 presidents.

2. He just settled a fraud lawsuit for $25 million where he was accused of conning people out of tens of thousands of dollars: Throughout most of his campaign, the "Trump U" fraud lawsuit was an issue that lingered around Donald Trump. As expected, he proclaimed his innocence the entire time and insisted he'd never settle the lawsuit. He also falsely said that he never settles lawsuits, when he has many times.

He can say he settled just to "focus on being president," but that's ridiculous. To settle for that much money is a clear indication that there was plenty of damning evidence he knew was going to be made public and he certainly didn't want to be found guilty of fraud after he had taken his Oath of Office.

For a moment, think about what Trump and the GOP would be saying if Clinton had been facing a lawsuit where she was accused of defrauding people out of tens of thousands of dollars, declared her innocence up until after she won the election… then settled a fraud lawsuit for $25 million.

They would be losing their damn minds.

These are two examples where, if reversed, Donald Trump and the Republican party would be having an absolute meltdown. They'd accuse Clinton of setting up deals behind closed doors that would only be made public after she won. Meanwhile, I'm almost certain we'd be seeing a very… very dangerous situation in this country if she was declared our next president, yet Trump was on his way to winning the popular vote by around 4-5 million votes.

Yet here we are, weeks away from swearing in a president who's going to receive a few million votes less than his opponent and just settled a lawsuit for $25 million where he was accused of defrauding people out of tens of thousands of dollars by setting up a fake school where he conned them into believing it was a legitimate university.

I'm really glad so many folks couldn't get over a woman who repeatedly admitted making a mistake in how she handled her emails over four years ago. It's much better that we're going to have a man with a history of exploiting people for his own benefit, who basically just admitted to setting up a fake university to steal money from people.

Along with all these other horrific things he's done.

Donald Trump's entire campaign was basically an elaborate version of "Trump U." Only this time, over 60 million people were conned into believing his bullshit.

Monday, November 14, 2016

No, Nada, Nyet !

No, I Can't, "Just Get Over It."

And, neither can she; nor should she!



Emotionally, I was deeply invested in the progress and outcome of this recent Presidential Election. It was an election where, what was at stake was, the progressive ideas and values of Democratic Party versus the xenophobic, racist, sexist, misogynist campaign of the Populace Candidate Donald Trump. 

This turned into a WWE'ish spectacle where the "Baby-face" battles the "Heel", Good versus Evil. 

My candidate did not win; the victory was steered away from her by the interference of third parties both foreign and domestic. I, like multiple millions of American citizens were deeply stunned and worried upon waking and hearing the outcome of this election. 

My moral values and those that I believe that I shared with the majority of the population were repudiated with the election of Donald Trump.

There are people marching in the streets; I support them.

To the people of Facebook who paste messages of "reconciliation", of unity and patience; the "we can get through this" spam; know that I have blocked your post, I don't want to hear it.

To the two people who called me long distance; I do not "Suffer well with fools", you told me well before the election that you were not going to vote because, "They were going to put whosoever they want in there anyway". I have no respect for you because, you helped them put whom ever they wanted in place with your ignorance/apathy. That is why I refused to talk about the elections with you and ended the call.

Early in life, I found that it was not good to discuss salary, religion and politics at work or, in the company of others. Now more than ever, those rules are very relevant in today's social climate.

  

Thursday, November 10, 2016



  Don't Despair, Liberals: Fight


 By: mihir-sharma

Welcome, American liberals. Welcome to the special torment of discovering that you do not know your country.
You thought, no doubt, you were exempt -- immune from the shocks that liberals throughout the world have felt in recent years. And I can understand why: Because while you have suffered defeats at the hands of Reagan and the Bushes, and it seemed at times like your country would bend back the arc of history, it never really did.
But this time, you know, is different. This is a different sort of defeat, and a different sort of victor. You, too, have lost to an authoritarian populist, a man who sees himself as the only answer. And you can find no handle with which to criticize him, for the weapons of reason and ridicule and horror that have always worked before seem to have been rendered useless and impotent.
Welcome, as I said, for this is how liberals across the world have felt as their countries one by one turned to populist strongmen who evoked the virtues of a vanished past, and who promised to vanquish evildoers and globalist elites in order to restore those glories. Welcome to the pain of the citizens of Istanbul, of New Delhi, and ofLondon; of the embattled liberals of Russia or of Israel. In a day, you feel as if your countrymen have become strangers to you and your fond expectation of progress revealed as childlike fantasy. How can you cope with a president whose very existence is a repudiation of all you have hitherto believed?
Well, you will cope. We all have. And perhaps it will help if I share a few hints as to how.
First, do not tell yourself fanciful stories about what has happened. Do not seek to blunt the edges of your realization. Yes, your country is not what you imagined it to be. All around you, hopeful fellow-travelers will answer the questions this loss poses through the only story they are comfortable with: They will speak of “economic anxiety” and of globalization. You should know better. You should know that it was not the poorest who voted for the demagogue; they never do, and didn’t in this election.
Here in India, Narendra Modi’s sweeping victory in 2014 was about nationalism and pride. It was about jobs, too -- as was Donald Trump’s. But not in any way that should comfort you: Jobs and pride go together. People seek both, but pride is more potent and easier to deliver. In India, we have learned that when an authoritarian promises jobs, he actually promises status, and when he promises status, he promises pride.
So do not give in to attempts, from left and right, to legitimize an ethno-nationalist "take our country back" sentiment as a product of economics instead. Do not revisit the truths you have learned about progress. Trade and globalization have delivered long years of growth and cheap goods to the U.S., new jobs and a new way of living, just as economic liberalization in India has lifted millions out of abject poverty.
Revisit instead the assumption that people themselves are inevitably becoming more inclusive and tolerant. Do not deny that some of your fellow citizens feel the stress of dislocation and of dispossession; after all, working to address that is why you are a liberal. But do not for a moment deny they have freely chosen to blame that stress on those who have not caused it -- Muslims, foreigners, immigrants, women, those even poorer. To deny that choice would be condescending. To ignore that choice would be fatal. The choice needs to be fought, not wished away; the error corrected, not accepted.
Do not run to the left, or compromise with the right. Do not hanker after the reassuring ideological purity of your own populists -- for if they had any real answers, they and not their cousins on the right would’ve defeated you. Both, after all, hate you equally.
And do not seek to cozy up to ethno-nationalist politics; you will not defeat the authoritarian at his own game. In India, the social democratic Congress Party, roundly defeated in 2014, has tried bothin opposition -- sometimes embracing left-wing economics and sometimes rounding on Muslims. As a consequence, it’s become an even less powerful party today than when it was thrashed two years ago. Be rational where the authoritarian is not; focus on progressive policy, not on words; defend the weak, even if they did not turn out for you. Be an alternative, not a weak clone or a has-been.
And do not deny the ruler his legitimacy. Praise him when praise is due -- lavishly, if necessary. This is not only just; it is wise. Many such leaders crave respect and recognition above all. Think of Recep Tayyip Erdogan; compare his first term with what he is now, and learn how leaders who feel they receive no cooperation are freed to follow their instincts. And seek out the bipartisan policies that might make your country more liberal -- those that encourage people in left-behind states to move to solidly blue ones, those that expand access and opportunity and education. Compromise on policy, not on principle.
You might never feel as good again as you did a few days ago; because you now understand more fully what your country is. But you will eventually feel better. And if you keep fighting to improve your country, one day your country will return to you.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
To contact the author of this story:
Mihir Sharma at m.s.sharma@gmail.com
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-11-10/u-s-liberals-can-take-comfort-from-global-peers
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Wednesday, November 09, 2016

November 9, 2016


Today, Wednesday November 9th in the year of our lord, 2016 is the day on which I have been forced to come to the conclusion that 'Right' does not triumph over 'Wrong'; that intelligence does not outweigh ignorance and that qualifications and dedication can be over-shadowed and undercut by the politically and morally corrupt.

There are no mood altering substances, legal, illegal or medical available to me that could change the way that I feel about the outcome of our Presidential Election -- maybe if, I shut my eyes, stuck my fingers in my ears, hummed loudly and shook my head from side to side -- for the next four years, it will all go away.

Yes, the Earth still travels in the same orbit around the Sun but, "Life" as we know it is about to change; intelligent human-kind shuttered upon hearing the news of the outcome of the United States of America's Presidential election.

We are a deeply divided nation.