I read the news. And every day something new seems to pop up that makes me scream inside. It seems to be getting worse. Now, I’m not sure if that’s because it’s piling on and I can’t process it quick enough, or if it really does seem to be getting more and more autocratic.
Please, please tell me how you can sit there and say much of what is taking place right now is OK? Please. I beg of you to make sense of this for me. If you voted for Trump, or if you voted AGAINST Hillary Clinton; if you’re a registered Republican, please help me understand what is happening and how any of this is OK.
Every hour there seems to be something new that makes me question HOW and WHY this can happen. Right now it’s the fact that Republicans are suspending the committee rules because the Democrats are boycotting the confirmation hearing.
What if it were the other way around? Would you feel totally and completely impotent and outraged? I can’t even imagine what I would be reading if the Democrats were pulling this shit.
How is this even a democracy anymore? Please help me to understand. I’m begging you.
“With the committee rules suspended, the 14 Republicans in the room voted to move the Mnuchin and Price nominations to the full Senate, even without the presence of a single member of the opposite party.”
I can’t even imagine if the Dems pulled this against the GOP. The amount of volatile we would hear from GOP supporters would be INSANE.
I am fucking flabbergasted.
Our country is far from perfect, but I feel like every day I am watching our fundamental principals and values being destroyed from within. I am terrified that our grand experiment of representational democracy will not survive this. I don’t even know what else to do! I have called all my reps (but they are all hard fighting Dems) and I have marched, but I feel helpless and scared.
I sincerely believe that those who voted for him and have Republicans representing them in Congress are our only hope in stopping America from burning down, along with our precious planet. Please Help America and the World, we need your voices to be heard for what is good and just immediately!!
Agree entirely. I think the only people who can help us right now are the true Republicans.
Like even Priebus.
I think my mother has turned into a professional troll. She voted for Cheetolini, and we got into a discussion yesterday about the ban. She posted a photo yesterday with one of the planes hitting the WTC towers. She’s totally OK with the ban. She has been studying various religions over the last few years, and she’s an avowed Christian. She keeps buying religious books for my kids, takes my oldest to Mass on Christmas Eve, and she once told me that she had failed as a parent because I don’t read the Bible.
Yesterday I asked what Jesus would say about how to treat the Syrian refugees, and I finally sent her a picture of the 2 year old Syrian boy who drowned last year and asked her again what Jesus would say. That ended the discussion yesterday, but today she has twice posted stuff on Facebook from conservative sites about the ban, and one about what the Bible would say about the ban (I didn’t read it, there’s no point). I also saw a post from a conservative friend in law enforcement about how “liberals” want to let in refugees with “no vetting”. I think some of them sincerely believe this, that we don’t want any background checks at all.
On Christmas Eve, my cousin told me that her husband voted for Cheetolini, and she thinks it was “magical thinking”. He lost his job as an accountant in the aerospace industry several years ago, and he’s been underemployed ever since. He really hoped Cheetolini would change things and bring more jobs, but I can’t believe anyone believes that he will actually do that, unless it’s jobs in the defense industry because he gets us into another war.
Did you see Patton Oswalt’s post yesterday about dealing with a Cheetolini troll? Here’s a link to the post, but this is the section that got to me.
https://www.facebook.com/pattonoswalt/posts/10154605178342655
” But when I Tweet something POSITIVE, or HOPEFUL, in support of a group that’s been made to fear or doubt because of Trump and his ghoul brigade’s actions? A helpful link for peaceful action? Praising someone who speaks up eloquently against the smirking racism of Trump’s parking lot carnival of an administration?
THAT’S when the responses get violent, and threatening, and ominous. As if the language itself — the grammar of thoughtfulness — lands in their guts like glass shards. Empathy and understanding literally feel like an attack to them.”
I think I’m going to have to follow your lead and delete my Facebook account, or at least unfriend my mother.
How does your mother deal with the fact that many of the people who flew those planes into the WTC came from Saudi Arabia, a nation NOT on the ban list and instead a nation Trump does a GREAT deal of business with? Has she mentioned this?
I truly do understand the folks who were lead to believe that Trump was somehow going to create jobs for them. I hope that still happens. Goodness knows, he’s already doing what he said he’d do on every other level. Let’s hope the POSITIVE promises come through as well. But HOW. HOW does he plan on doing this?
I am completely and totally repeatedly baffled by this. I keep thinking that FINALLY someone is g going to step up and say, HOLY SHIT, GUYS. THIS MAN IS NUTS. We have to stop this now before the damage is irreversible.
I posted underneath her WTC photo that the TERRORISTS were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is not on the list, and then she stated that Obama did the same thing in 2011. I included a photo of actual refugees in a UN camp, which are basically women and children. I haven’t had a chance to look that up yet to see if it’s true. She then went off on a rant about the Cuban Wet Foot/Dry Foot policy that Obama removed. I think she’s listening too much to her conservative, religious co-worker, who is of Cuban descent. I argued that illegal Cuban refugees are OK, but others are not? They didn’t reply to that. I think it was once the embargo was lifted, there’s a path now for legal immigration, which is why they lifted that policy, but honestly, I’m not sure. I’m a single parent to a 9 year old and a toddler who puts my electronic devices in time out, so I don’t have as much time to read the news as I’d like.
I just don’t understand how you can watch the videos of Assad gassing his own people, the conditions the people of Syria are living in compared to the conditions we live in, call yourself a Christian, and not try to help.
I’m also afraid of what he’s going to do to this country. My oldest is in a public school, and my toddler will be in one in 2.5 years. He could destroy the public education system for a generation. Not to mention the environment! My mother used to bring her trash home from work because her work doesn’t recycle, and now she voted for a man who doesn’t believe in climate change? It boggles my mind. I don’t understand her.
The head Republicans are doing it for money. Paul Ryan, McConnell, all the other senators, the people in high positions in Trump’s administration, etc. Power is money and Trump has power and most of them are gambling that this will come to fruition for them and they will be set for life. Even if they can’t stand him. They have sold their souls for money and power. It’s very primitive. I’ve come to the conclusion that all the talk about being good is a bunch of bull when it comes down to it. Most human beings are not very evolved at all. So the head guys are doing it for money. But people like Diedre’s mother (and my sister and my father) are brainwashed. I am now calling it the Trump cult. Because think about it. It’s very cult-like. People in cults believe the craziest shit and will do the craziest things and there’s no talking to them. Look at those mothers who poured poison down their crying babies’ throats because Jim Jones told them to. There are lots of reasons why people join cults; too much to discuss now. Fighting back is key. Two Republicans said they are not supporting Betsy DeVos for Education Secretary because they said they got thousands of phone calls not to. This pressure that we do by screaming and protesting shows them that they might NOT be on the side that will leave them set for life and it influences the way they vote. For the regular people, I’ve started to call them out on their shit. Because deep down they know it’s wrong and I’m not giving them a pass anymore because I want to be nice. I don’t think I’m being dramatic by saying the whole earth is at stake. Here is a quote for your mom, Diedre: “When religion is used to camouflage meanness, we have a heart problem in America.”–Rev. William Barber.
I hear your scream from here, a scream for logic and thoughtfulness in the face of “my side, your side”. My logical side cannot understand.
(And if it’s all about money, how can they think money will be the net result when many of us feel our entire way of life is about to be destroyed? Where will that money come from? They freak out when consumers don’t spend enough at Christmas – um, I don’t know about you but I am suddenly rethinking every purchase and trying to stay liquid in case we need to flee. In case we need to flee the United States! I’ve looked into draining our 401Ks and even selling our house – it’s that dire)
What do they think the end game is? I have people I work with who have fled Iran and other revolutions who feel the exact same thing is happening here and I just want to shake The Republican Believers and say, Wake Up!
I think it’s that dire too. But I don’t think it’s most of Corporate America, who are usually the bad guys, who support this buffoon. THEY realize in the end it’s going to be bad for everyone, including them. They are scared of speaking up to him though. All he’s got to do is tweet and their stocks go down. Or he threatens them. Some HAVE spoke up against him though. Of course Starbucks. Coke made a Superbowl commercial with a message. It’s the Republican leaders who are rubbing their hands together with glee. THEY are the profiteers. After they get out of government, they don’t have to work another day in their life, they make so much money. AND have free health care for the rest of their lives!
It’s so confusing to me that money drives people to make these type of decisions. Because ultimately? It’s worthless. It means absolutely nothing. Yes, I understand we live in a society that thrives on the dollar, but ultimately? It’s absolutely worthless.
Instead, I think a great deal of what we’re seeing here (particularly with Bannon) is it’s about a higher power, an almighty GOD. It could only be something as irrational as religion that would drive people to do such things. I can’t fathom how they would do this for money.
Power, yes, I can see that absolutely. And I think when it comes to Trump, he A). wants to be worshipped and B). is a bit of a sociopath who will do whatever certain people say because he truly doesn’t care who he may hurt in the process. He’s not stupid. So you can’t say he’s doing this because he’s dumb. I think he just truly doesn’t care.
Then again, maybe it comes down to a simple desire and addiction for dopamine? Do they get off on this type of shit? Maybe it’s that simple. Maybe they truly are getting off on it, one new regulation and/or personal attack at a time. It allows them to feel alive in their otherwise perfect, easy, bourgeoisie lives.
Money IS power. Power is safety. It’s very primitive. We’re really not as evolved as we thought we were. People want it NOW. They can’t think ahead like a dog can’t think ahead. He’s going to eat that whole rabbit and not save any meat for later. Republicans defund education and birth control and they rape the earth for profits. The high, the dopamine, probably adds to it. It’s very addicting. It’s biological. We’re really a bunch of barbarians. If we didn’t have nuclear weapons, I might think the meek really will inherit the earth. They’re going to eat themselves alive. But we can’t get away from it. I don’t think it’s a done deal though. But it’s close. Which is why I keep yelling. Remember the strides we made. We can do this.