phyncke

I subscribe to Robert Reich's emails and here is what he had to say about Mitch McConnell's departure from the Senate -


He will be remembered as one of the most dangerous politicians in living memory. He helped transform the Republican Party into a cult, worshiping at the altar of authoritarianism. He’s damaged our country in ways that may take a generation to undo.

No, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. The politician I'm referring to is Mitch McConnell, who yesterday announced he will step down as Republican leader in November. Who’s worse — Trump or McConnell?

Like Trump, McConnell hasn’t been just a garden-variety bad public official. He’s been a truly awful public official. McConnell has always put party above America. Remember when he said his most important goal as Senate leader was to make Barack Obama a one-term president? The fact that he hasn’t always kissed Trump’s backside has infuriated the former furor-in-chief.

Despite his opposition to Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election — admitting publicly that Trump “provoked” the attack on the U.S. Capitol — McConnell voted to acquit Trump on the charge of inciting an insurrection on January 6, 2021.

So who’s worse? It’s a tough call. Trump defaced and defiled the presidency, but no person has done more in recent years to undermine the functioning of the U.S. government than McConnell.

Remember, this is the man who refused for almost a year to allow the Senate to consider President Obama’s moderate Supreme Court pick, Merrick Garland.

Then, when Trump became president, this is the man who got rid of the age-old Senate rule requiring 60 senators to agree on a Supreme Court nomination so he could ram through not one but two Supreme Court justices, including one with a likely history of sexual assault.

This is the man who rushed through the Senate, without a single hearing, a $2 trillion tax cut for big corporations and wealthy Americans — a tax cut that raised the government debt by almost the same amount, generated no new investment, and failed to raise wages, but gave the stock market a temporary sugar high because most corporations used the tax savings to buy back their own shares of stock.

McConnell earned the nickname “Moscow Mitch” because he has done almost everything Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump wanted him to do, except abandon Ukraine. McConnell has refused to support what’s needed for comprehensive election security, although the U.S. intelligence community says Moscow is continuing to weaponize disinformation through social media on behalf of Trump.

McConnell has also blocked bipartisan background-check legislation for gun sales, even after repeated mass shootings have scarred and scared the nation. He secured a right-wing takeover of the U.S. federal court system — giving conservatives power to shape the law on the climate, reproductive rights, voting rights, and other issues affecting millions of people across the country.

McConnell has consistently received low approval ratings from voters in Kentucky because he has repeatedly sacrificed Kentucky to the Republican agenda — for example, agreeing to Trump’s so-called emergency funding for a border wall, which took $63 million away from projects like a new middle school on the border between Kentucky and Tennessee.

McConnell even cut funding for black lung disease suffered by Kentucky coal miners. I know from my years as labor secretary that coal mining is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country, and the number of cases of incurable black lung disease has been on the rise. But when a group of miners took a 10-hour bus ride to Washington to ask McConnell to restore the funding, McConnell met with them for one minute and then refused to help them.

Am I being too harsh on Mitch? I felt bad for him when he froze before the cameras because of some kind of seizure. I’m sure he loves his children. I met his current wife, Elaine Chao, when she was secretary of labor, and she seemed like a nice person. He’s a human being.

But history will not be kind to him.

Who will replace him?

I’m hearing that Senators John Thune of South Dakota, John Cornyn of Texas, and John Barrasso of Wyoming will vie for the party leadership role. All three will do Trump’s bidding. All have endorsed Trump in the 2024 election in recent weeks.

But Trump is more likely to want a Senate leader who’ll serve him as a fierce MAGA lapdog — someone who will further tighten Trump’s grip on the party, who’s sufficiently young and telegenic to help Trump sell his authoritarianism to the public, and so unprincipled and ambitious that he’ll flush democracy down the toilet to promote Trump and himself.

Who fits the bill? Ohio’s Senator J.D. Vance.



Bye bye, Mitch.

Not much going on this week - working - journaling - getting my groove back.

I am very happy that the House has stripped that nutty Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments. It is a little unusual for the majority party to strip someone from the other party. Usually such discipline is done along partisan lines but the Republicans were not going to do it so the Democrats had to. This QAnon nutjob needed to be neutralized so now she is effectively a lameduck. She won't get much done. Most of the Republicans voted in support of Greene so that is pretty pathetic. They definitely circled the wagons there. Let's hope the good people of Georgia see the error of their ways and vote her out.

That is my only observation today. Not much on my mind. I will try and post more tomorrow. Today was busy at work and I am really tired. Short post tonight.

I am really trying not to get all worked up over the evening news. The Trumpists and their BS this week have me on my last nerve. I am sure it will all be fine but it is ridiculous. Trump lost and they are all butt hurt and cannot accept the election. Funny how we had to accept it when he won in 2016 - they told us to get over it. Well it is time for them to get over it. This is how elections work - there is a winner and a loser. Trying to overturn an election threatens our democracy and the Republicans are going too far with this. All of the people trying to do this should lose their seats in Congress - I really think so. The news is calling them the Jim Crow Caucus because they are basically trying to invalidate the black vote here. Sounds about right to me. They are also expecting trouble in Washington, DC that day too - Trump supporters doing crazy shit there too. This is madness. We had free elections and there were no problems with them. They are literally making this stuff up. Anyways. See? I am all worked up.

I had a pretty good day for my last day of vacation - got my food shopping done - did a lot of reading and relaxed around here. It rained most of the day so I did not get my walk in. I will go tomorrow.

Back to work tomorrow - I will deal with that in the morning. I don't think I have any meetings tomorrow so that is good. Just work to do. Blah.

That is all I have. I wish it was Inauguration Day - this transition is for the birds - it is taking far too long. Speed this up!

Hope all is well with you where you are. <3

So hey - I was going to post more in the new year. I have been meaning to post but not gotten around to it so here I am.

2018 is going great for Donald Trump so far, eh? *sarcasm* He is using his great words to great effect, right? He says the best things. I mean really He insults all of Africa and Haiti in one really horrible sentence and we are supposed to be ok with that? Let me just say here that he does not represent me or my views. I did not vote for him. I do not agree with him and his inherent racism. And I think it is worth noting that he did not win the popular vote. The majority of Americans voted against this troll. We do not like him either. We wanted Hilary Clinton. So BOOM. There it is. We are stuck with this fool until he can be impeached. The Dems need to win the midterms and get this creep out of office. That has got to be the plan. There are a lot of House seats up and enough Senate seats to do the job. So my hope is that the Dems will do this and if Trump keeps this up- he will be helping the Dems win the midterms. So keep it up Donny-boy. Keep it up. /end political rant.

I have great news on the job front here - I saw this job on the Uni website and it was perfect for me - a great job, director level, excellent pay but it was closed to applications since December. So I debated applying for it and thought - what the hell. They can ignore my app if they don't want to see it. So I zapped my resume and cover letter in there to see what would happen. And guess what - they wrote me back and I know the person hiring. She said that she is glad that I applied and wants to interview me next Friday! Psych! So I guess closed does not really mean closed. I will remember this for future things. So I am super excited. The job is for a Director of Special Events at a college and I feel like this could be the one. THE ONE! It is all very copacetic here. I helped them with a hiring committee a few years ago and remembered thinking that they would be great to work with so here is my chance. Awesome!

(please don't mention this on FB. I count on your discretion)

On the WW front - I am so close to goal that I can taste it. I am .8 away. So very close. I am hoping to hit that this week. Woot! Once I hit goal - I have to maintain for 6 weeks and then I am lifetime - I get to go for free forever. And I intend to maintain my weightloss forever. I did not do all this work to gain it back. I have been reading about what it takes to maintain weight loss and you have to keep on top of it. I think this will be a constant thing for me and I will always have to watch it. I don't mind that as I enjoy tracking food and all that. My plan is to go a bit below goal so I have a few buffer pounds between me and goal. So that should work.

So all good news. Sorry about the political rant - it was in my mind and came out of my fingertips. Oh and Slashy Valentine - not started. Oops.

Hope all is well with you in your part of the world. I love comments!

I have become an MSNBC junkie. I don't know if I can make it through four years of this Trump Administration and I hope I don't have to. I am really hoping that Trump gets impeached and does not last the whole duration of his presidency. I just have to say it here. I really am hoping that.

This is the third week and it is absolute insanity.

I am too tired to give details and it is almost too much to keep up with.

Hope all is well with you in your part of the world. It has turned into a dystopian nightmare in the US. It really has.

Originally posted by iheartnickcath at House Passes CISPA: Make Sure It Dies In Senate

I am going to give the short view of the Obama speech tonight. I was writing during the address so I heard it but did not totally absorb it.

It seemed to be a confirmation of his election platform. He reaffirmed all of his major points and I was happy to see attention to these major areas:

-the economy
-healthcare
-alternative energy

He speaks so well and I have to say I am proud to have him as my president.

One side comment. I found it totally inappropriate that they allowed people to get autographs signed in chambers there. Most of those people are politicians and what not. Why the heck is our president signing autographs in Congress? This rock star stuff is getting to be a bit much to me. He is our President NOT a Hollywood star. This is in no way a criticism of his policies or his speech. I think he should be talking politics in there not asking people whose name he should be signing. /rant

And who were those groupies in the back? Gah. Okie. Done.

So when the debate started, my cable was out but here I am, watching this thing. My irate emil to Comcast must have gotten it back on again. :P

So the first thing I am intrigued by is this energy question. McCain mentions "clean coal". Now that really seems like an oxymoron to me and not quite possible so I did a little research. Not surprisingly it is something that George Bush was promoting and here is the link to Wiki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_coal_technology

Look down the bottom at the Greenpeace info calling it FALSE HOPE. What a pile of hooey. I don't believe there is any such thing as clean coal. It is one of the most polluting energy forms. So let's not buy this one, eh?

Too soon to tell but on that vice presidential question, McCain again turned it to a rant on taxes. Dude, that was NOT the question. Obama is really good at staying on point. McCain just does not...

Oh boy. The Herbert Hoover thing again. *eye roll* Can we get some new material?

That $5000.00 health credit does not go far but getting covered goes a lot further. I think Obama's plan has a lot more foresight.

More later. You heard it here first.


by skeletalembrace

So yes, I did vote and feel good about that. It feels good to participate in the process and be counted. Yah yah.

So work was just well, meh. Let's see. How can I put it? The only way I can think of is a person who I consider a friend became the total project management nazi today. We are working on a group project, let's call it organizing the filing system, which it is. Something that none of us like to do but that needs to be done. I am well aware of the imperative as are we all. Not only does it seem like most of the deadlines are mine BUT...suddenly the timetable that we all worked out in our larger staff meeting seems to have shifted to suit her vacation timing. She leaves in a few weeks and would like it done by then. Well we all figured out that we had the summer to get this done. So she proceeds to hassle me in the planning meeting and nail me on deadlines to suit her schedule. And not in a nice way. So I really don't take this. I manage projects and I don't do it like this. The idea is to build a consensus in a team way...not impose. This was not pretty. We fought most of the meeting and I raised some very valid objections at the end about her changing the time table to suit her schedule which was not what was agreed. She just walked away. So you know? This won't stand.

I put a meeting (called something else entirely) on my boss's calendar tomorrow but I am going to bring this up with her. I want her to be aware that I was not treated well here and that I have an issue with it. I don't care what she does with it. But I am really pissed. I did email my boss confidentially and give her the heads up that I needed to speak with her confidentially. But HELL NO. Tomorrow I will be calm and just let her know what happened. I may end up cancelling it but you know...based on how upset I was...she needs to know.

Anyhoo. I am making graphics and I am writing my Ardor in August. I sneaked a scene out at work since I had an idea for it. Kept the file open and wrote a little bit. I am having so much fun with it. Really am. Woot.

And now, what should I have for dinner. I am so in the mood for pizza. Ooo. O.o


by darklingfae at faded_design