Our New Government

[james fitzgibbons]

Is everyone happy about the way our president elect is trying to change our Government? Seems very unsettling to have a person like him in charge of anything. Some of his friends have questionable ideas and history.

[james fitzgibbons]

We need more multi millionaires and multi billionaires in Trumps cabinet.

[Stan Austin]

I think the near future is ideal for that great old cliche--- We're in uncharted waters

[mjkuhns]

I'm not, no. I think that Goldman Sachs should have less influence over national policymaking, not more.

[james fitzgibbons]

Trump lying and flip flopping, disrespecting everyone in his path except the people that are part of his lies or just going along with his lies and propaganda. Did someone who is so unscrupulous just get elected to be POTUS ? I still have a hard time believing that it is so. His personality is perilously flawed.

[Tim Liston]

For some reason, most of my favorite bloggers have three names. One of them, John Michael Greer, weighed in on dynamics of the recent election in his most recent every-Wednesday blog, entitled ”The Hate That Dare Not Speak Its Name” (click here for the full article, about a 12 minute read)..

Politically, Greer runs a bit to the left but not dramatically so. But like so many others, he (we) could simply not tolerate four or eight year of warmongering corporatist Hillary Clinton. So kind of like me, though no fan of Donald Trump, he’s not disappointed in the election’s outcome. Indeed, the left (Dems in particular) also has become adept at making war, and perhaps has eclipsed even the right at corporatism. But the left is better at using “social issues” and the media at changing the subject. (Look, squirrel....)

Besides being extraordinarily well-written (and I fancy myself a good writer), Greer’s take on the “extraordinary stridency, the venom, and the hatred being flung at the incoming administration” is pretty much on target. Greer points out that the left, who for decades has trafficked in labelling others as racists and misogynists, finally was ensnared in a bigotry of its own: class bigotry, a clear bias against the working class, and particularly white working class men. (It’s my belief that three words brought down Hillary’s campaign: “basket of deplorables.” I’m spending more time in the country these days, away from Lakewood. It’s a very different world there.)

Greer’s last few paragraphs summarize it much better than I could possibly….

“Skin color, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability—these are the divisions that the American left likes to talk about these days, to the exclusion of all other social divisions, and especially to the exclusion of social class. Since the left has dominated public discourse in the United States for many decades now, those have become the divisions that the American right talks about, too. Are (these divisions) important when it comes to discriminatory treatment in America today? Of course they are – but social class is also important. It’s by way of the erasure of social class as a major factor in American injustice that we wind up in the absurd situation in which a woman of color who makes a quarter million dollars a year plus benefits as a New York stockbroker can claim to be oppressed by a white guy in Indiana who’s working three part time jobs at minimum wage with no benefits in a desperate effort to keep his kids fed, when the political candidates that she supports and the economic policies from which she profits are largely responsible for his plight.

In politics as in physics, every action produces an equal and opposite reaction, and so absurdities of the sort just described have kindled the inevitable blowback. (…) The next time you want to goad affluent American liberals into an all-out, fist-pounding, saliva-spraying Donald Duck meltdown, you don’t need the Jew-baiting, the misogyny, the racial slurs, and the rest of it. All you have to do is call them on their class privilege. You’ll want to have the popcorn popped, buttered, and salted first, though, because if my experience is anything to go by, you’ll be enjoying a world-class hissy fit in seconds.

(And) when you hear people shrieking that Donald Trump is the illegitimate result of a one-night stand between Ming the Merciless and Cruella de Vil, that he cackles in Russian while barbecuing babies on a bonfire, that everyone who voted for him must be a card-carrying Nazi who hates the human race, or whatever other bit of over-the-top hate speech happens to be fashionable among the chattering classes at the moment—why, then, dear reader, you’re hearing a phenomenon as omnipresent and unmentionable in today’s America as sex was in Victorian England. You’re hearing the voice of class bigotry: the hate that dare not speak its name.”

To me it seems that the left (particularly the Dems) went off the rails when it became corrupt and embraced all the worst tenets of the right, the warmongering and especially the corporatism. And as Greer points out, the left REALLY stumbled when it left the working class behind. How can the left and the Dems even begin to lecture ANYBODY about income inequality?

‘Nuff said. I’m gonna keep scraping the basement walls then watch the swearing in at noon. Then paint….

[jackie f taylor]

I'm not going to voice too much on the government, I'm not politically smart, but, I agree with some of what he said, and I disagree with some of the other things he said, no one is fulfilling my dreams 100%, much like a buffet, take the best of what's on the table? What I did like is that our neighborhoods will be safe, more police, more military, the strongest and best prepared defense in all the world. I vote #10 on that, jobs staying and coming too America, America First, #10 there too, repair our bridges, highways, schools, (we should be #1 in schools) , were not, the new schools look great, but were behind in achievement, imagine, we still practice, day light savings time. our kids have to work on the farm, what farms? Over two months off for summer? that's 1950, 1960's over 50 or 60 years?

This is 2017, it's time for real change..... . When you get old like me, that is when you sit back and relax, watch the sun set and rise, I don't think so when your 15 or 18, that's when you need direction, focus on the rest of your life, not a 2 1/2 month vacation. Two weeks, maybe three, ok, but not the whole summer. Who gets the whole summer off? Teachers. We have air conditioning now. Congress? the whole summer off, isn't there so much pressing work that has to be done, you need that vacation? not any more. I'm hoping for change, big time, the house needs cleaning, get off you fat ass and clean house. I'll bring the brooms. I'm just saying..

[james fitzgibbons]

Great post Tim. If my pastor acted like Trump I would get away from him. It has nothing to do with class or party, I do not have to go into detail about his personal actions. Would anyone be proud of him if he was their father, lying to you all the time?

[james fitzgibbons]

Trump approves Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines. We need more oil to export so the rich can get richer. All the while there is a total disregard for the environment. There was a spill last month 50 miles from Dakota, it is okay do not worry it will just go away is how the industry an government respond. Is drilling a pipeline under a body of drinking water smart? It is a total injustice to the tribes living there. People do not matter, all that matters is making money. Do not worry we can all live on Mars.

[Stan Austin]

We're gonna be able to use oil like water when we add the Iraqi oil that is ours as a spoil of war LOL

[jackie f taylor]

I stand with the protesters of the KeyStone XL and the Dakota Access pipeline protesters. Who would want an oil pipeline running under their drinking water, or thru their sacred lands. Hasn't the government taken enough already? Like Hitler, take & do what you like to the people you don't care about. Everyone stands by and does nothing. How about a pipeline under Lake Erie? These people are laying down their lives to protect against this action. I'm very sorry it has come to approval, a travesty.

And why? Was there not enough screaming, yelling, protesting, people injured or killed, not enough news? Not enough supporters? So many of us, sit by and let injustice happen and do not get involved, because it does not concern me. Didn't many of the German citizens and the world commit that same shame? Will you ever have the backbone to sacrifice your time to prevent the wrongs in our society from being committed?

If there is an accident, the profitable companies who did this and who participated in it's construction, will pay for the cost of transporting millions of gallons of bottled water to those affected, not to mention the clean up and the repair, not one dime of my tax paying money.

[james fitzgibbons]

Trump dumps on Mexico one of our best relationships. He is so wrong! Trump does not understand economics and trade partnerships what a special negotiator and politician he is Not. His ignorance never ceases to amaze me. He is not a legitimate president. How say you faithful followers ? His advisors are failing.

[james fitzgibbons]

Mexico is our Third largest trading partner. What is it that our brilliant president does not understand?

[jackie f taylor]

were doomed... it's falling all around us, Lake Hospital, the Hilliard Theater, on and on.

[james fitzgibbons]

Trumps New Government is Imploding. Lies are abundant, ignorance is rampant. Seems like this is alternative reality. I can not support what has transpired. When I was being raised the president was held in high esteem. I am not going into the dirt with this regime. I am embarrassed for this country.