Another Dem “Win”…

by MyBaconPress

Hey, the Democrats won again!  Okay, so their candidate doesn’t get to go to Congress, which I count as a loss but THEY seem to think coming in a close second in a two-horse race is the same as a win…because they lost by a smaller margin than they expected to lose by.  Nice.  I predict they’re going to continue to lose, too, or, win without gaining the prize…

I have to say, if your hard-on for ripping on Bernie has continued for more than four months, it’s REALLY time to see a doctor.  Bernie offered, has offered, is offering, the solution: speak to worker and progressive values.  The DNC has preferred the more-of-the-same, incremental baby steps approach that has served them so well…

Currently, there’s no home for progressives and it shows at the polls.  Conservatives have the Republicans and/or the Libertarians.  Those two seem to have merged, though, so now they might be called the “Republitarians.”  Democratic Party loyalists will still support the Democrats even though the Dems have moved to a center/right position.  That’s all of the major parties defending conservative values to one degree or another but the Dems won’t commit fully so they’re not pulling conservatives and they’re alienating progressives.  It’s no good.  Sure, there’s the Green Party but the Greens seem to think they can Kumbaya their way to victory and most people don’t buy that, either.

I’ll tell you this: SOMEBODY needs to invite progressives back to the party, if you will.  It’s not going to happen with more Neoliberal bullshit.  If the Dems want progressives back, they’re going to have to include progressive values and bring progressive ideas into play.

Or, they can just keep collecting those second-place “participant” trophies…

Anticipation…

by MyBaconPress

The Fed hiked the rate by a quarter point this month.  It’s the second jump this year.  Traditionally, the Fed boosts rates to cool inflation but economists seem to agree that inflation isn’t a problem right now, so why the hike?  I have an informed, well-considered hypothesis – in short, a wild guess – but if I was to put a single word to the why, that word would be “anticipation”.

While everybody is fixated on the latest antics of our national embarrassment, Congress critters are doing their thing, which means serving the specialized interests of the privileged elite.  Hey, another round of tax cuts for the wealthy!  Maybe it will work this time!  (Spoilers: it works EVERY time, assuming one’s goal is to make a few rich people richer at the expense of everyone else…)

The American Health Care Act is moving forward.  (It’s perfectly named, too.  “Health care?!?  Screw you, we’re Americans!”)  No, I haven’t read it.  Apparently, neither has anybody else.  The Republicans aren’t letting anyone near it.  But the speculation based on what’s floating around out there right now is that it cuts 24 million Americans (or more) off from health insurance in order to give a few rich people a tax cut.  And THAT’S before they get to work on “tax reform” so they can give a few rich people a tax cut!

“Crazy Paul’s Tax Cut Emporium” (Nee: Congress) is hard at work cutting, cutting, cutting.  “C’mon down to Crazy Paul’s Tax Cut Emporium where our slogan is: ‘No tax rate is too low if you’ve got the dough!”  I get it.  The evidence is in and it’s pretty clear – indisputable, even.  The more the taxes are cut for the wealthy, the more money the rich people hoard.  The more money the rich people hoard, the less money there is flowing through the economy.  The less money there is flowing through the economy, the harder day-to-day living is for everybody who ISN’T rich…so why wouldn’t one cut taxes?

It’s like that kids game ‘Duck, Duck, Goose!’ except this is ‘Cut, Cut, Crash!’  Cut.  Rich people don’t spend because they’ve long-since acquired everything they might possibly want/need.  Cut.  Poor people don’t spend because, well, they’re poor and they don’t have anything TO spend.  Cut.  The middle class?  Well, the middle class has been gutted to the point where they’re not economically strong enough to carry the weight of the nation any longer but THEY stop spending because they fear for their positions.  Businesses stop spending because everybody else stopped spending.  CRASH!  …and it’s pandemonium!

That’s when the Fed steps in.  One of the tools in the Fed bag of tricks is to lower interest rates in an effort to stimulate the economy.  But the Fed has been lending at or near zero interest for a long time, now – all in response to the weakened economy brought about by previous games of Cut, Cut, Crash!  So where do you go when you’re already AT zero?  (Yes, they CAN drop to “negative interest” but that literally means paying people to borrow and it’s not solid economic policy…)

So rates are rising.  Slowly, to be sure, but pretty much as quickly as the Fed thinks they can do so without harming the economy themselves.  And what was that word?  Oh, that’s right: “anticipation”, as in, the Fed is anticipating a crash in the near future and working to position itself to respond.

I’ll tell you this: if the Fed sees it coming and is moving to protect its position, you might want to take a cue and do the same…

Reality Going To Jail…

by MyBaconPress

Well, Reality Winner, the NSA contractor who leaked the document about the GRU supposedly going on a phishing expedition against a company that makes voting software, is probably going to go to jail over it.  They caught her – and she confessed – right away.

The thing that struck me about the document was that it was the first implication that someone – ostensibly the Russians – intended to hack into voting machines.  The official word, of course, is “no.”  “They” didn’t succeed.

I used to be a techie guy, running IT departments.  Back then, I was excited by the possibilities technology could bring to voting – easing access, for example.  But for every upside of technology, there’s a downside.  My thinking on the topic was limited to the application of the technology, not the application of nefarious intent by interested parties.  (Hey, I was young…)

But then we got George W. Bush in a disputed “election” in which many districts were seen to have “voted” in ways other than the exit polls predicted.  The thing was, the districts in question were computerized voting districts.  Then we were treated to online videos showing how ridiculously simple it was to hack into the machines and flip votes.  They’re essentially spreadsheets.  Simply switch the contents of one cell with the contents of another and you’ve changed the outcome of the “election.”

The companies who made the voting machines – the same companies that make ATM machines – insisted it was impossible to make a machine that created a paper trail.  The “official” message was that Americans needed to ignore exit polls since they’re largely inaccurate.  It was a stupid message in view of the fact that exit polling is and has been the gold standard of polling since it’s inception but that was the message.

It put me off computerized voting.  I noticed that nobody did anything about it, or even tried to.  Sure, there was some lip-service paid to fixing the problems but there was no concerted effort to stop using the voting machines until people could know, with one hundred percent certainty, that the machines were secure.  My suspicion is that the parties each thought being able to hack into the machines and “control” the voting was a GREAT idea.  I have no evidence to support that assertion – it’s just a gut feeling.

I use over-arching precepts to guide my thinking.  When there’s a problem nobody does anything about, there’s a reason.  We first saw it in Florida, in 2000.  Nobody did anything about it.  Then, people trying to sound the alarm among the electorate TOLD us it would be Ohio in 2004 – and it was.  Nobody did anything about it.  Truthfully, I didn’t see it in 2008 or 2012 but not so much, I think, because “my guy” won.  I think in order to be effective, the “election” needs to be close and those were not.  But strange doings were again afoot during the 2016 Democratic primary.  Another close race, more “ignore the exit polls” bunk.

Through it all, the “official” position is that there’s nothing to see here, everything’s okay.  The refrain we hear over and over is that it’s important to “maintain the integrity of the vote.”  Can you tell by the fact that I can’t write “vote” or “election” without “quotes” that I no longer trust the “integrity of the vote?”

It’s easy to see how each of the “two parties” might have come to the conclusion that, from now on, the REAL “elections” would take place between two rooms of techies each hacking into machines and flipping votes, racing each other, flipping one way then the other, until the final gun.  Whoever flips most effectively “wins.”  But what if there was a third room?

The document Reality dropped indicated that the Russians were interested in accessing the machines.  What if they got in?  Our own government would NEVER acknowledge the fact even – perhaps especially – if it meant We, the People had “elected” a person so incompetent, it’s a wonder he can move about on a daily basis without supervision, let alone run this once-great nation.

I’ve never accepted the story about Russia affecting the “election” by flooding social media with information critical to Hillary.  I mean, so what?  I saw TONS of information critical to Hillary.  It never crossed my mind it might be coming from the Russians.  I thought it was coming from the GOP just like it had been since the world first heard the name Hillary Rodham-Clinton.

I vote absentee.  I do it because, well, let’s be honest, it’s easier and more pleasant.  But in addition, it creates a paper trail – a way to do a recount.  (Did you know it’s not possible with the machines?  They only keep a total, not a record of individual votes…)  I think everybody should vote absentee.  Yes, I know there are ways to cheat with paper but they’re not as easy as the invisible voting machine hacks.

I’ll tell you this: I want to know if the software company the Russians are said to have tried to access wrote the software for any of the machines used in Wisconsin, Michigan, or Pennsylvania.  But in the meantime, Reality goes to jail…

It’s Just Crapitalism…

by MyBaconPress

It seems as though, everywhere one looks these days in these United States, one finds delay and decay, all in the name of the almighty dollar.

The reason the fossil fuel industry is producing so much nonsense about the damage their products do is simple: money.  It’s pretty clear where technology is headed: away from centralized control over power.  When it comes to providing power, it doesn’t really matter if it’s coal or oil or natural gas.  Either way, it requires big, centralized plants and equipment to make it all go.  A VERY few people have control over those systems and, from time to time, can just turn part of it off and charge the masses for the “shortfall”.  But then comes the sun.

They can’t just turn off the sun or the wind or the waves.  We see the centralized power folks trying to build centralized solar farms and immediately realize those facilities come with their own environmental impacts nobody wants.  The next – the ONLY – logical step is to put the power production onto and into every building that already stands, that is, already produces an environmental impact.  Why exacerbate the situation?

But that move eliminates your local electrical producer.  More importantly, it eliminates their ability to shut down parts at critical times (you know…for “maintenance”…) to keep shareholders happy.

Capitalism says the newer, better technology should, by rights, replace the older, outdated technology.  Build a better mousetrap, the old line goes, and the world will beat a path to your door.  But Crapitalism says otherwise.  Build a better mousetrap, says Crapitalism, and moneyed interests will buy up and bury the technology because they’re invested elsewhere…

We see it in the battle for healthcare, too…well, healthcare insurance, anyway.  Do people REALLY not see that socialized medicine is a boon to the people who have it?  It costs less money to the individuals (who are, yes, paying higher taxes), it costs less to the overall society, and it provides better outcomes.  Of course they see it, that’s WHY they fight it.  They can’t force you to trade your financial life for your actual life if they can’t force you to trade your financial life for your actual life.  (Tautology at its best…)  Crapitalism blames everything – anything – except the love of the lucre for the situation, another sure sign the love of the lucre is the true culprit.

“Free market” Capitalism, they call it but there’s nothing “free” about it.  Where possible, it’s a captive market and the natural progression of the free market is from good to bad and from bad to worse – all in the name profit.  Generally speaking, I can’t think of anything that gets better under Crapitalism, can you?

There’s a reason people capable of understanding that Democratic Socialism is honest Capitalism are embracing Democratic Socialism: because it’s honest Capitalism.  Sure, it has a stupid, misleading name.  It SHOULD be called ‘Social Capitalism’.  But then, ‘Free market Capitalism’ is a stupid, misleading name, too.  THAT should  be called ‘Crapitalism’.

I’ll tell you this: if Crapitalism means I’m forced to live with the very worst of everything for as long as Crapitalists can force it on me, I, for one, am over the “free market”…

 

It’s A Fair Question…

by MyBaconPress

Sean Spicer insists that 45 and “a small group of people” know exactly what 45 meant when he tweeted “covfefe”.  I’m not leveling any charges, here, just asking a question but couldn’t “a small group of people” be Putin, Kislyak, and Lavrov?  (It could.)  Is it really a good idea to even hint that perhaps the so-called “President” is tweeting secret codes to his Russian counterparts?  (Note: I have ZERO evidence the so-called “President” is tweeting secret codes to his Russian counterparts…)  Let me put it another way:

When your maladministration
is currently under investigation
for potentially illegal collaboration,
Shouldn’t one’s cogitation
tend toward mitigation
rather than exacerbation?

The Tax Game…

by MyBaconPress

Okay, it’s been nearly 40 years since we started to hear all the Brietbull about how lowering taxes on the wealthy will free up money for them to invest and make the world awesome and wonderful for everybody.  We didn’t just HEAR it, though…we DID it.  Well, part of it.  We did the lower-the-taxes part.  We just never got the reinvest-the-freed-up-capital part.  Do you know why?  Because it’s been a lie, all along.

I totally get why rich people want the rest of us to believe this fantasy might have some kernel of truth, somewhere deep in the bowels of the ideology.  They’re rich, they like it, and they want to be richer – which lower taxes on them actually produces.  I completely understand why the corporate media wants to promote the message.  It’s owned by those self-same rich people – who like being rich and want to be richer.

I don’t understand why rank-and-file Americans continue to play along…

In an effort to be a better me, I’m trying to avoid making simplistic intelligence assessments about people…but how would YOU characterize a person who keeps pounding their own thumb with a hammer – despite the pain – just because someone told them it wouldn’t hurt if they pounded their own thumb with a hammer?  Stubborn?  Okay, maybe.  But it’s hard not to make snap judgements about intelligence as a person pounds the bloody, mashed stump that used to be his thumb – again – and, with tears streaming down his face insists it didn’t hurt a bit…

Some of us are capable of remembering a time when we accidentally pounded our own thumb with a hammer and recalling the pain so when someone tells me it won’t hurt if I pound my own thumb with a hammer, I think to myself, “Wait a minute…yes it does.  What YOU mean is that it doesn’t hurt YOUR thumb when I pound mine with a hammer!”

That’s what you might call a “thumbnail” sketch about the low-tax lie…

I’ll say it again: it’s been nearly 40 years!  If the money freed up by low taxes was ever going to start flowing, it certainly should have by now, yes?  So I’m going to go out on a limb, here, and suggest that low taxes on the wealthy doesn’t do anything but make the wealthy wealthier.

As it happens, HIGH taxes on the wealthy actually does what the wealthy always promise low taxes will cause them to do: reinvest.  You might want to read that again.  Certainly, I want you to read it again so I’ll write it again.  HIGH taxes on the wealthy actually does what the wealthy always promise low taxes will cause them to do.

The people who are standing around out there gleefully pounding their own thumbs with hammers and, perhaps, some younger people who have never heard anything other than the Supply Side Brietbull offered by the corporate media are essentially offering what I call a philosophical position.  That’s a position that may seem right on paper, but has no practical application.

What they DO have is charts and graphs and studies and opinions – all generously provided by the wealthy people who want you to believe.  What they DON’T have is any actual proof of success.  I’ll tell you this: I’m tired of arguing philosophical positions.  If there’s no practical application, let’s not waste time discussing it.

To that end, I’ve devised a little game and it goes like this:  I’ll name a place where HIGH taxes on the wealthy has resulted in a stronger society for everyone in that society – INCLUDING the wealthy people, then YOU name a place where LOW taxes on the wealthy has had the same effect.  We’ll keep taking turns naming our places until one of us has to shut their thumb-pounded face, once and for all, okay?  (And let’s not get cute, right?  I’m not asking you to name a place where the tax rate created the perfect utopian society that never experienced one whit of difficulty.  The measure isn’t the “perfect society in every way”…)

And let’s not limit our options.  I’m not trying to be tricky or sneaky, here.   Let’s agree, either of us can use ANY time in history, ANYWHERE on the planet.  Anything beyond that, we’ll have to consider on a case-by-case basis…fair?

Now, remember…I’m naming places and times when HIGH taxes on the wealthy has resulted in a stronger society – better infrastructure, better education, social mobility, and improved financial freedom and opportunity – and you’re naming places where LOW taxes on the wealthy has produced the same results, okay?  I’ll go first.

I name…the United States of America, from the time FDR introduced the New Deal until Ronald Reagan used his professional charm to inflict “Trickle Down Economics” in 1980.

Your turn…

Regarding Measure C, On Rent Control…

by MyBaconPress

I’ll be voting yes on Measure C, the rent control measure here in Santa Rosa, CA.  I’m not a fan of rent control.  Generally speaking, I think rent control treats a symptom and not the underlying problem.  But at some point, if one doesn’t stop the bleeding, there will be no patient to save, you know?

The one aspect everyone can agree upon around here is there’s a housing shortage.  The most popular reason given is lack of building and certainly that plays a part.  The other thing I point to is REITs – Real Estate Investment Trusts.  These are investment vehicles in which people with a little money to invest pool their resources with other people with money to invest and buy up available inventory.  Since REITs use pooled money, they can offer whatever they need to offer to acquire the property and then charge whatever they need to charge to make the investment profitable.

I don’t know who’s going to stop such a process.  A seller receives an offer OVER the asking price, as is, all cash, with a 14 day escrow.  Who’s going to say no?  Is the seller going to “pass” on that offer and take the one below asking in which the buyer still needs to secure funding?  Will the Real Estate agent, who stands to make a killing on the artificially inflated price say no?  How about the bank that gets to charge interest on the loan, will they say no?  Eventually, inevitably, the market, itself, will say no.  If I try to rent my storage unit to a family of four for $5000/mo and I get no takers, I’ll have to change my position.

But in the meantime, how much damage has been done to society?

To be clear, I see the REITs buying single family homes as the driver of the problem but Measure C doesn’t even speak to that issue.  It only applies to apartments and only certain apartments at that.  But as single family homes become unavailable, people are forced into apartments.  The increased demand for apartments created by artificially skyrocketing rents on single family units allows landlords to charge increasingly high rents.

Consider: the average rent for a 2 bedroom apartment in Santa Rosa as of April, 2017 is $2,083 a month.  Management companies look to make sure the prospective renter makes three times the rent as a qualifier.  That means a prospective renter needs to show $6,249 a month in income just to qualify.  Let’s carry this out, shall we?  That monthly income amount works out to $74,988 per year.  A full time employee works 2,080 hours a year so in order to rent that 2 bedroom unit, the prospective renter needs to earn $36 dollars an hour. ($36.05, to be exact…)

Is that the guy who washes the cars at the dealerships before going on display?  Is that the server who just handed you a bag of food through a window?  Is it the person stocking the shelves in your local Wal-Mart?  Fun fact: California will push it’s minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour – by 2022!  If they started that today, people would only be $21 dollars an hour short of what they need to rent a 2 bedroom apartment.  How far behind will they be in 2022?  So you see, I could support Measure C just on the math, alone.

But the truth is, that’s not why I’ll be voting for it.  My reason is more…visceral…

See, the Santa Rosa city council saw the problem and tried to implement a solution.  No, it’s not a “solution” so much as a stopgap but they tried to do something.  Then, big moneyed interests got involved and used the proposition process to force the issue to a ballot – but they lied to people in order to gather signatures.  They’ve been lying pretty much every day since, as well.  I get a new, glossy, full-page flyer in my mailbox nearly every day telling me all the things Measure C won’t do.  The thing is, the pretty mailers are addressing issues nobody else is talking about.

Hey, Measure C won’t make the airlines run on time so vote no!
What?  Who said anything about airlines?
Well, measure C won’t make your kid prom queen so vote no!
Prom queen, what?!?
OMG, Measure C won’t stop fourth graders from smoking, vote no!
Nobody said Measure C would stop fourth graders from smoking – that’s not even the point!
Hey, if you think fourth graders should smoke, go ahead and vote yes on C!

If you hate your grandma, vote yes on C…

All right, I may have made up some (all) of those anti-C arguments but the urgings of the anti-C flyers are no more relevant.  There has been a non-stop flood of falsehoods flowing into my mailbox.  Frankly, it makes me a little suspicious.  I have a rule of thumb that, in my humble opinion, always applies.  It says that when a person (or group, in this case) resorts to lying, they’re admitting they know their own position is false.

Of course, none of that matters with today’s electorate.  Huge swaths of Americans have become dumber than bricks and I’m pretty sure all the slick mailers and outright false advertising – that is, all the money poured into this effort – will have the desired effect.

But I’ll tell you this: the truth is, I’m not really voting for or against Measure C.  I’m voting against the lies…

“New” Budget, Same Old Goals…

by MyBaconPress

Well, here come the Republicans…again!  They’ve sort of left subtlety aside at this point and proposed just about every fever-dream concept they’ve ever desired in this new “proposal”.  The more they can offer the privileged elite (increasingly meaning: “themselves”), the better.  The crueler, more vicious they can be to already struggling Americans, the better.  Now, all they need is a name…

You know what I mean.  Somewhere along the way, politicians started naming their bills in ways that were supposed to entice supporters.  Commonly, the names did exactly the opposite of what the bill promised so, for example, you got ‘The Patriot Act’, which did more to undermine the Constitution than any other single law I can think of (in this moment).

But, according to my source – have I mentioned that I have a source?  He/She/It/We/They communicates with me telepathically.  In keeping with the established tradition of giving one’s sources super-duper, clever “code names”, I call mine ‘Behind the Green Door’…

Anyway, based on what I’m getting from ‘Behind’, it’s my understanding that the GOP has realized there’s no need to play the opposite game anymore.  They’ve realized that no matter how completely “Trickle Down Economics” is proven a false concept – no matter how thoroughly it fails –  the rank and file will still line up, again and again, in full-throat support, “Please, sir, may I have another?”

So…at least no more “Breitbull” about what the GOP is planning when it comes to naming bills.  They STILL focus-group test the options to identify the name preferred by the rank and file, though, so they haven’t settled on anything, yet, but my understanding is that the leading candidate for the name of the current budget bill is: ‘Subsistence Living And Vocational Expatriation System’ or SLAVES.

SLAVES have been the goal of conservatives since…well, since we got rid of slaves.  With this new budget proposal, they’re pretty sure they’re taking a positive step in the right – the FAR  right – direction…

A Right to Health Care?

by MyBaconPress

Recently, I’ve seen an increase in the assertion that Americans don’t enjoy a right to health care.  I’ll stipulate that I don’t see anywhere in the Bill of Rights any kind of statement that says anything like, “All Americans have a right to health care”, ok?  Agreed.  But don’t jump to the end.

Starting at the beginning of the Constitution, one discovers the founders expressed their opinion about why this new government should exist in the first place.  They defined, in general terms, their vision of the most basic responsibilities of government.  They wrote:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence (sic), promote the general Welfare (emphasis added), and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Only 26 words into the document it says: “…promote the general Welfare…”

I started thinking about the word “Welfare” as it might have been understood in the late 18th century – as opposed to today’s social safety net.  Checking my (admittedly not 18th century) dictionaries, I found that my American Heritage Dictionary defines welfare as “Health, happiness, and general well-being”.

I turned next to the Internet and the Oxford English Dictionary.  OED is one of the most respected dictionaries of the English language.  Ok, they charge for access so I looked at the Compact Oxford English Dictionary online.  They define “welfare” as “the health, happiness, and fortunes of a person or group”.

Turns out, one can’t define welfare – as it relates to the human condition – without including health.  Well, in fairness, Webster’s tries.  They leave out ‘health’ and put in ‘well-being’ but when you look up ‘well-being’ in the same dictionary, it specifically includes “the state of being…healthy…”

The Founders were a clever group of guys with a solid command of the English language.  I think they knew what the word ‘welfare’ meant when they wrote “promote the general Welfare”.  They could have written, “promote the general health, happiness and general well-being” but they didn’t need to.  There’s a word for that: welfare.

If one plans to take the position that Americans don’t have a “right” to health care since such a right is not clearly delineated in the Bill of Rights, then one must simultaneously argue that one does not enjoy a right to vote.  Voting, after all, is not spelled out in the Bill of Rights, either.

But whether or not one defines health care as a “right”, certainly the Founders described it as a fundamental function of government and I’ll tell you this: without question, I have the right to expect my government to perform its most basic functions…

(Note: this is a re-post from 2010.  I like to do that from time to time, just to show how the situations change but never change.  This essay had been correct for years before I wrote it and it’s still correct seven years AFTER I wrote it.  Damn.  The “edit” is because I forgot to add this note so I was just basically plagiarizing myself…)

The Trump Somnambulists…

by MyBaconPress

Did you hear the one about the so-called “President” who did something dumb, his people tried to cover his tail, and then he stupidly re-affirmed that, nope, it was the dumb thing?  I was going to use details of actual incidents but decided I like it better this way, with nothing specific and yet, applying to each day of Donald Trump’s maladministration.

Each time one of these little dramas plays out, there’s a blizzard of “When are his supporters going to wake up?” and “I wonder how his supporters feel, now!” posts in social media.  Here are the answers, in order: ‘Never’ and ‘Just fine, thank you’.

It’s important to separate the two different groups who voted Trump.  On the one hand, there are those who cast a ballot for Trump but who, technically, were voting against Hillary.  These are the people who were going to vote third-party or just sit the thing out until Hillary was named the Democratic nominee.  They had been primed by 24 years of anti-Hillary propaganda to hate her on a visceral level.  They weren’t operating with facts but they really had no choice.  I suspect this crowd makes up the infamous “low information voter” group.

Then there’s the “no information voter” group.  You don’t hear much about them but we’re all living under the governance of one member, now.  These people know nothing…or seem to know nothing.  They don’t know history.  They don’t understand current events.  They actively oppose science.  But they vote.

You can’t identify one just by looking at them.  They blend in.  They seem like any other person struggling through the day.  “Competent adults” we call them and when it comes to going to work or paying their bills well…they are competent.  The facade isn’t exposed until you try to talk with one of them and they spew the fake news from the conservative bubble – all the while calling facts “fake news.”

These are the people still showing up at Trump’s campaign rallies and cheering the cluelessness of Chief Clueless.  “Nobody knew that healthcare could be so complicated”, right?  THAT crowd.  The people who REALLY didn’t know healthcare could be so complicated.  These people are not going to “wake up.”  They’re as “woke” as they’re going to get.  They get all the information they want from the Blaze or Breitbull.com and the fact that the information never – ever – plays out like they’re told it will never – ever – penetrates.  To them, all else is just “fake news”.

As for the “how do they feel now” part, they’re feeling just fine.  All of this “destroying the country” bit thinking people are worried about is exactly what they wanted in a “President”.  It wouldn’t be fair to suggest they’re eager for the wreckage being wrought.  They don’t actually believe “wreckage” will be the end result.  There’s a very specific reason for this: they don’t know history.  They don’t understand current events.  They actively oppose science.  They’re the “no information” voter and they’ve lived among us going all the way back to Thomas Jefferson.  (Yes, THAT Thomas Jefferson – the one who wrote all the pretty words but didn’t seem to understand the meanings of the words he wrote…)

There are stories about people on the Titanic who started playing with bits of ice on the deck after the ship hit the iceberg.  They had been told they were on an “unsinkable” ship – and they believed it.  In fairness, they didn’t know about the gash in the hull but even if they had, they would have remained carefree.  It was an unsinkable ship!  I imagine that as Captain Smith strode aboard for his last voyage, he believed he was boarding an unsinkable ship, as well, and the only thing that convinced him otherwise was the actual sinking of the “unsinkable” ship.  It takes that kind of sudden information storm to change a preconceived notion but that “sudden information storm” can almost always be labeled “too late.”  My bet?  There was some number of people who wouldn’t believe the ship was sinking even as it slipped beneath the waves, taking the “faithful” with it.

So, please, stop asking when they’re going to wake up.

They’re not…