Trumpeting the Brexit

This won't be one of those posts that you often see on places like Facebook that say if you do/support/like/think FILL IN THE BLANK then unfriend me now...But after you read this, if you are a Trump supporter or lean left and started out as a Bernie supporter but now will withhold your vote or will vote for Trump (which makes zero sense since Bernie is very anti-Trump), you may find yourself wondering if you want to unfriend me...



Today we in the US woke up (unless like me you stayed up almost all night to watch the results come in) to find out that the UK vote held yesterday on if they should REMAIN IN or LEAVE the EU was won by the LEAVE side.

While the results were coming in, still early in the return process, when the numbers for LEAVE were first becoming known, the POUND started dropping, significantly.
Throughout the day to day markets around the world showed losses, the NYSE closed the day -611.21.
Twitter was filled with people who voted leave saying they felt angry because they felt lied to about what this meant for them. For example the LEAVE campaign was saying the money going to the EU would go into the NHS. This turned out not to be the case and a leader of the movement to LEAVE, Nigel Farage, said it was "a mistake."
VIDEO OF THIS HERE

The GOP candidate for President of the US, Donald Trump, was in Scotland today. The vote in Scotland was overwhelmingly for the REMAIN side of the Brexit issue. And he talked about his golf course which is why he was there. The Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, wasted no time in putting together a web ad video about his statements today, which started with a Tweet about being in Scotland and the people going crazy because they were taking their country back, the same people who wanted the UK to REMAIN in the EU.

The trending topics on Twitter in the UK today:

There has been a plethora of articles, tweets, and Facebook posts waning us in the US of the danger of not learning from this Brexit vote. Many, many people, including bookies who set odds in the UK about this kind of stuff and are usually correct, knew it would be close but expected REMAIN to eek out a win. The lesson trying to be pounded home is that we can't assume Trump won't or can't win the election in November even though so many of us know he is not qualified, he doesn't have the knowledge or temperament, he is too dangerous, to be our President. 

It is way past time for Sen. Bernie Sanders to rally his supporters to come out in support of Secretary Clinton. He has admitted he knows he can't win the nomination but he will do what ever it takes to make sure Trump doesn't win. But first, before he concedes officially he wants things from Secretary Clinton. What he is missing here is she won, by millions of votes and hundreds of delegates. His holding out for his demands is going to do more harm than good to his goal of of making sure Trump isn't our next President. It is way past time for his many, many supporters, to face the fact that their candidate ran a great race but now it's time to come together with those in the party who supported the other Democratic Candidate and protect ourselves, our children, our grandchildren, from having a xenophobic, sexist, racist, liar, and bully as our next president. 

And then there are the Trump supporters. I know that some of the people I know are in this group. And I don't understand how.  If we are friends I know you aren't any of the things he is. He says the most awful things. He spent years trying to get people to believe that our sitting President is not a legitimate President because he was not born here. He has repeatedly questioned President Obama's professed Christianity and insists that President Obama is Muslim. He has said horrible things about Mexicans, Women, and Handicapped people. He has questioned the ethics and ability of a respected and honest American judge to do his job because he is of Mexican heritage. He has said he will ban an entire population from entering our country and those in our country already who are part of this population, those who are Muslim, deserve to be profiled. He has said that women shouldn't have the right to make their own choices about their bodies, and that same sex couples shouldn't be allowed to be married. He talks about, as much of the right does, the sanctity of life when trying to force the religious right's view on abortion on others but not about the sanctity of life when it comes to our right to send our children to school or for us to go to movies or malls and not be gunned down. He has said that the housing crash was good for him because he makes a lot of money during times of ecumenic trouble. He has been faced checked by non-partisan groups who do this and he has been found to be lying almost 60% of the time. He has said he would like to limit freedom of the press. He blacklists news outlets who don't praise him and who call him on his lying and inconsistency. 

I just do not see how anyone can find him an acceptable alternative to Secretary Clinton no matter what you think of her husband or her. At her worst she is not as bad as him. And I will be perfectly honest. I don't think she is perfect, but the good she has done is far more than the bad. 

The same fact check I mentioned about found her to be lying in any degree only 12%. 

I won't try to sell you on her but I can defend my support of her beyond the hey she is the first woman with the chance to be president argument. Is she perfect? No. Does she make mistakes or has she done things I disagree with? Yes, of course. 

But here is why from day 1 of this election cycle I have been with her (sorry couldn't resist). I tell you these reason not with the intent to sway you, even though if I do I won't be upset. I tell you them so you know my thought process and why I feel the way I do about who I support. She is better than Trump and even if you end up in the hold-your-nose and vote group it still counts. 

So my reasons:

She wants, just as Bernie wants, to see the middle class and poor to be better off. She has a different way of getting there and the experts, non-partisan experts, have given her plans better reviews. 

She is the only candidate I have heard talk about Autism, not counting Trump jumping on the vaccination misinformation train. 

She was the first and I think only candidate (I could have missed late comers) to talk about mental health and specifically the need to remove stigma. Having mental health care available does no good if we don't remove the stigma often attached so that people seek out the help they need. 

She has been, since her days just out of college, a strong advocate for equal rights for minorities, women, and children. 

Look, if we go back to the Brexit example, 27.8% of those who could vote didn't. There is no way to know which way they would have voted, but they could have, would have, swung this much more decisively in one way or the other. The vote difference was in the area of 1 million people. The point Voting is important. 

Who holds the office of President matters! It isn't just about being the most charismatic speaker. Some of the most dangerous people throughout history have been incredibly charismatic speakers. It is a job that requires diplomacy, a thick skin, the ability to think beyond ones self...none of which Trump has shown he is capable of. It is domestic and foreign policy. 

And saying you talk to yourself because you have a good brain isn't how this works. 

This is important!! It isn't funny or entertaining. It is real and dangerous. And I believe with every fiber of my being that Trump would be really terrible for our country. Dangerous. Truly dangerous. 

Get Your Robin Out of Our Hood

New Hampshire is the Live Free of Die state. As a resident of MA living close enough to NH I may have from time to time gone there to shop since there is no sales tax. But in lovely Keene NH there is an uprising of libertarians taking the state motto to an extreme that defies rational thought.

A group of people from other states has moved there and has decided Keene residents are the victims of a "violent monopoly" and in "bondage" by the government. Keene has been under siege all right, but not by their local government but by a sub-group of these newbies calling themselves "Robin Hooders" and spouting the motto "Free Keene."

These bandits are going around feeding expired parking meters then leaving business cards on the cars that say "we saved you from the king's tariff." If that were all they were doing this might be a completely chuckle worthy story. It isn't all though, while they are feeding the meters they are also going after the two parking officers (both who are female) videotaping them and and asking them questions such as how they live with themselves.

Apparently there was a third officer but he quit. The third officer was a male, ex-soldier, who served 22 months in Iraq. He couldn't stand the harassment, decided it wasn't worth it and quit.

The city is powerless to do anything. They tried taking the group to court but the court ruled that what these guys were doing was protected free speech.

The leader of the Robin Hooders is a man who drives around in an old police car with plates from Wisconsin and hasn't paid his federal taxes in over 10 years.

The group is really missing the point here. At the time of the founding of this country those who were against and/or worried about an over reaching federal government were not against all forms of government. In fact one of the things they were most worried about was a federal government that would trample the rights of the states to govern themselves. All side of the argument acknowledged the need for some government, it was the size and scope that they disagreed on.

Last I checked parking enforcement officers were not a tool of the federal government. They are not even a tool of the state government, they work for their town or city. And it should be noted that the residents of Keene neither asked for nor want these people trying to free them.

Oh and the city is thinking of raising the cost of parking to $0.50 an hour.

Rock the Vote

There is an article on The New York Times site worth seeing. The photos are amazing. On Sunday, despite the Taliban's best efforts, the people of Afghanastan are going to the polls to vote for new leadership.

Even with all the stories in the news here about voter's rights violations overall it is so easy to vote here and I think many people take it for granted and a lot of people don't even bother doing it. But in light of Afghanastan and people being willing to risk their lives to vote in hopes of a better future it's a shame to know that there are people who just don't care and can't be bothered to vote here in the U.S.

Corporations aren't people too...

I am not a lawyer or by any means a constitutional expert. This is just my opinion. 

The news today has coverage about the case before the Supreme Court today.

The family owned business that runs the craft stores Hobby Lobby wants to be able to opt out of covering certain kinds of contraception for its female employees on the provided health insurance. The argument is that it goes against the company's religious beliefs.

IUD's and the morning after pill are included in the methods the Green family (the family that owns the company) want excluded because "because they can interfere with the creation of life once an egg is fertilized."

The IUD is one of the most effective forms of birth control available. In an article on NPR it is said to be 45 times more effective than the pill and 90 times more effective then condoms. But they are cost prohibitive without insurance coverage.

The morning after pill is taken within 72 hours after sex (sometimes this is in the case of rape) when protection wasn't used, but it doesn't mean the person is pregnant, it isn't an abortion pill. It isn't for someone who already knows they are pregnant, it doesn't work for that. More information here.

But here is my take on this. It doesn't matter what you or I think of these or any other methods of birth control. This is a for profit company, not a church or other religious organization.

The owners of this company are perfectly within their rights to hold any religious beliefs they want to. But a company is not a person and so it has no feelings or beliefs. The owners of the company do not have the right to force their beliefs on their employees and vice-verse.

And that has been my 2 cents.

Bridge Over Hypocritical Water

I have done something quite difficult, I have refrained from blogging over the George Washington Bridge scandal plaguing N.J. Governor Christ Cristie.

But after hearing this from his CPAC speech today I just can't hold my tongue any longer. It's at about 6:45 in this video of his speech.

Cristie speaking of President Obama says "Your the leader of the government and you see something is about to go off the rails and what you decide to do is stay as far away from it as possible" and then "If that's your attitude Mr. President then what the hell are we paying you for?"

Now it matters not what he is talking about, though in this case it is a super committee to fix the budget that got nothing done. I think that this is a really great example of the pot calling the kettle black.

At Least It Isn't Murder....

Just when I think the asinine things being said by those on the right, who almost always are men, can get any worse, they do...

Granted these aren't new statements by Maine Rep. Lawrence Lockman they are never the less ridiculous and often hateful and ignorant.

“Clearly the practice of sodomy is learned behavior, and those addicted to this form of biologically-insane sex are at high risk for all manner of serious medical problems”

He was against an anti-bullying law saying it was a form of thought policing.

He said a 1990 CBS special about a gay boy was “a recruitment tool for the militant homosexual movement”

And that's just a few example found in an article on the Bangor Daily News webiste

But what got my to blog about this guy was this statement, a statement made in the 90's but written about yesterday on Salon.com:  “If a woman has (the right to abortion), why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman? At least the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom doesn’t (in most cases) result in anyone’s death.”

How do people who think like this and spout these uninformed thoughts in public get elected?

She'd Work Hard For The Money....

On Dec 28, 2013 over a million long term unemployed stopped getting their unemployment benefits. Members of Congress went home for the holidays without passing an emergency extension while these people were left wondering how they would buy food, pay rent, and keep their utilities on.

Now it is halfway through January and there still hasn't been a bill extending the benefits even getting voted on.

These benefits are for people who were working, payed into unemployment insurance while they worked and then lost their jobs through no fault of their own. Many of these long term unemployed have families. To get these payments they are required to be looking for work. These payments are not what they were making when working and are not really enough to live on. Now they are getting nothing.

This should be a no brainer that even those who would like to see other "entitlement" programs done away with should be able to support. Again, these are people who were working and want to be working.

Let's talk for a moment what this does to the person who lost their job. I can share a little about this from personal experience. After 13 years at his job my husband's employer decided to consolidate jobs and do away with some positions to save money with the economy in bad shape. He was among those who were let go. Over the past almost exactly three years since that day I have watched him look for work, get depressed, become angry and lose hope. We had to leave the city we loved (NYC) and move in with his family in MA. I watched him send out resume after resume, get very few phone interviews and even less in person interviews. The longer this went on the more he became withdrawn and worried. His inability to care for his family took a real tool on him. Had he also lost his unemployment benefits our family would not have been able to survive, the payments we did get were less than half of what he was making while working. He was lucky and found a temp job the week he ran out of benefits, but these people are still looking.

How are they going to put gas in their cars or pay for public transportation to get to and from job interviews? How will they put food on the table? How are they going to pay cell phone or landline phone bills to make sure they are able to get in touch with potential employers?

This isn't the time to play partisan politics. This is the time to do what needs to be done.
It doesn't seem like that is going to happen. There is a break coming up and nothing has reached the point of being voted on.

Neither side can agree on how to get this done and so now it is being filibustered.