We used to live in a world that had rules, norms and specific methods of doing things. In walks Donald Trump and ALL of that is out the window. This guy does everything possible to bring attention – mostly NEGATIVE attention – to himself, he encourages the hate against himself with his whiney rhetoric and insane claims that he is some sort of “untouchable” God-like figure that is beyond laws, rules, and regulations. He pays NO price for anything wrong that he does, nothing. And he is good at nothing except making people madder and madder. He does illegal things and throws his hands up saying “I am exempt” using his being the FORMER President as his “get out of trouble free” card.
This guy is the #1 WORST thing to happen to America in the last 200 years. He’s a total bafoon. He’s uneducated, arrogant and ill-mannered. He knows nothing about American laws, history or culture. His presidency was a diabolical disaster being four years of doing absolutely nothing. He treated foreign dignitaries like shit – unless they were communists, then he loved them to pieces! He abused his own people putting many in very precarious legal quagmires.
He’s already under investigation for the coup he instigated on Jan 6, 2021 and facing possible criminal indictment for his role.
Now we have this FBI search of Mar a Lago, his beachside golf slum. After repeatedly asking for 15 months for records he took to the slum to be returned to NARA they finally had to get a search warrant to retrieve the records. Prior to this he had returned 15 boxes containing 184 classified and top secret documents back in January, but NARA knew more were still missing and in his procession. In executing the search warrant the FBI confiscated another 26 or so boxes – how many classified documents are in those we do not yet know, nor do we know WHAT kind of security risk those documents represent or who has had access to them, who may have copied them and where any copies would have ended up. This is a SERIOUS security risk to America, our troops, our agents worldwide and our law enforcement here at home. AND the investigation into Trump, for espionage and obstruction of justice, is in progress. This search and seizure was just the beginning. We’ll see what comes out at his trial once he is indicted for his crimes – those committed as President and those he has now committed post-presidency as a civilian.
Trump now has 13 open investigations on various things he has allegedly done in both civilian and government life. THIRTEEN! Who has that many serious investigations all at once? And the guy can’t even gat a decent lawyer because lawyers want one of two things – a good case and to be paid for their work, both absent with representing Donald Trump in any one of his 13 current investigations. The boneheads who are representing him now waited over 2 weeks to file for a Special Master to sort thru the documents taken from Mar a Lago. By that time they had all already been gone through by copious teams who do that exact work. A useless, late, bullshit filing by weak representation.
One day in the future Trump and his axis of Maga Red Evil will be just memories. He’ll be pushing up daisies probably from some golf course who knows where. Hopefully democracy will have survived him and his recruits and their little red hats. In the meantime we are living in VERY historical times…this probably won’t even be believed in the future, it’s so unbelievable now!
Every week seems to be filled with crisis lately, ranging from climate disasters, wildfires, wars and humanitarian crisis and a pandemic to political upheaval around the globe.
Right wing extremists are becoming increasingly aggressive and using deeper fake tactics – It’s not just in the USA but globally. And you’re seeing uprisings of the revolution against them and you against them in all the same places as well. Theres an uprising for the people and for democracy going on around the world. And a full fledged attack against it by a minority extreme right And their puppet politicians..
Redistricting/gerrymandering is going on. states are attacking voting rights one by one, women’s rights are being decimated. Our SCOTUS is right-wing extreme.
This is a war on democracy whether we want it or not. If the war has already begun the other side is fighting a lot harder than we are right now. We need to get our asses fucking moving. We need to raise our voices and our votes. Oh you don’t think it’s war because nobody’s dead in masses yet? Talk to the community of journalists that try to report the doings of the world back to us. How many of them have been disappeared, murdered or jailed and tortured in the past year?
We democrats are the majority in this country. It’s time for ALL of us to brush up on our individual state voting laws now on the books, fight for fair voting laws.
Congress is being stupid. They are all wrapped up in the reconcilliation plan, when they SHOULD be pushing through voting rights legislation. The GOP is keeping them distracted from this task while the GOP itself has implemented restrictive voting legislation at the state level in 30 states thus far. They are out there LYING to their constituents, promoting violence and distrust in our voting system with all these FAKE audits that are costing taxpayers millions of dollars. $$$ MILLIONS!!! $$$ OF YOUR MONEY! I don’t understand how these “fiscally conservative” GOP politicians are okay with throwing this money away on stuff that no longer matters…why are they doing it? Because it causes citizens to distrust the election process, it’s a SCHEME they have developed in their playbook of nasty things to do to retake power in America. ALL THEY WANT is TOTAL POWER, not democracy – that no longer matters to them as they PLAN to make the USA an authoritarian state. They no longer follow the law – i.e. not responding to congressional subpoenas for one. They no longer work for their states, they only listen to Trump – who is NOT even a politician anymore!!! Why do they even listen to him? It seems all of the GOP have lost their independent voices and their guts. They’ve become enthralled in the stupidity of worshipping Trump…OR Trumps DOES have Jeffrey Epstein’s little black book with ALL of their names in it…SOMETHING is being either offered or held over their heads, I just can’t believe they are all this incredibly mean and nasty.
This just hit today…WTF…Republicans are DEFENDING this shit???? Who ARE these people? They are definitely NOT the GOP that my father used to be proud to be…they’re now a cult of personality worshipping bootlickers who are assisting an insane idiot in trying to overthrow our democracy in lieu of an autocracy where they’ve probably all been promised fat checks and oligarch titles. Sick fucks.
And that’s my 2 cents for today.
Remember…we ARE still a DEMOCRACY. Call, email, write, text your senators and representatives. Google their webpages, lean in and be part of the solution.
Q: What is my responsibility to my country as a citizen?
We must each play our part in supporting the democracy and it’s our job to make sure our government is doing what it’s designed and assigned to do, not just running amok, literally hell-fire rampant over the wishes of the people. Trying to govern by force from a minority of power securely tied to corruption and money. And now, with a rich real-estate “tycoon”s help they have amassed an army that they can feed verbal dribble to and watch them suck it up like they are starving. Their toxic, vile rhetoric is full of black powder that poisons the minds of those who absorb it in any form; causing them to become brainwashed and violently compliant to ridiculous “commands” from the demon himself in Florida.
He’s caused these country loving people to fall prey to the oldest trick, lie and deceive them and change it up when they least expect it. Poor people don’t understand they are disposable to these rich guys who are using them as protection pawns in a lame attempt to overthrow a country’s government – our own – to give them access and gain to wealth and power. They will then destroy their temporary army, sadly.
It’s just over 5 months since the day of the Insurrection on our capital. Five months since officer Sicknick took his last breath and died of his injuries suffered when he was beaten by Trump loving Americans with a Blue LIves Matter flag and hit over the head with a fire extinguisher.
I am personally very concerned and even scared of where our country is going of what will happen next. It causes me anxiety that the democrats haven’t made any move on the Voting Rights Act and that Manchin is holding the whole party back – now they say he’s actually doing it for several other that do not want to come forward themselves….WTF???
We need some very new, very progressive blood in our House and Senate seats. Younger democratic politicians with balls and vision for the FUTURE of ALL not just a pack of old white guys who have been riding the rail to retirement with a guaranteed government pension and are petrified of losing that…bunch of cowardly dotes.
It’s time for democrats nationwide to stand up, gather together, show strength and unity and take our country back from the white supremacists and corrupt white collar money grubbers. Time for a March for Demcracy – on our capital as well as EVERY state capital and EVERY politicians office across America.
The time is now to come together and force through a permanent protection of every American’s right to vote and to instill universal, country wide standard voting practices.
It’s time to push for full, functional, futuristic infrastructure that is envisioning today and the future, not that keeps us in 1980 perpetually stuck. The GOP wants us to revert to horses and carriages, but still buy their gas and oil so their stocks remain high. They think of NO ONE and NOTHING other than themselves. As long as THEY are paid and taken care of they will block anything that’s good for the country and promote everything that will suppress votes and be bad for the country. It’s evident in their words, their moves, their votes on different bills. I urge you to check your Senator’s voting records, understand what they have voted on and why they voted as they did…then if you are outraged CALL them!!!
The time is now to come together to protect Black lives, LGBT lives, Asian/IP LIves, Jewish lives and every other minority that makes up the American melting pot. Stop the hatred by stopping hateful practices and any practice that harms any group in the name of boosting the wealth of another.
We also have to deal with stuff that is very difficult – like what’s happening with immigration and refugees at our southern border. Everyone talks a big game about it but i have YET to HEAR ANYONE put forward a REAL PLAN with step by step items to deal with this issue, deal with the root causes and deal with the people who are AT the border properly, humanely and with love and care for them as human beings! We need to get the hell out of the middle east and put some of our power in this hemisphere where it’s needed to quell the violence and horrific attacks on civilians happening in central and south America. We have more reason for peace here than over there.
We must take care of our poor and our food insecure children here within the borders of the United States. Deal with the homeless veteran issue, gun violence, racial violence and anti-semitism. We are a kind country, but we treat our own citizens like crap sometimes. Just because someone doesn’t look like you or make as much money or have as big a house doesn’t mean that they are ANY LESS THAN YOU.
It’s time to come together and remove the corrupt politicians from the seats they are clinging to for dear life. They’ve become drunk on power and money. They’ve become disuaded by dark money and promises of power in a new regime, from a cowardly FORMER president even. It’s time to stop denying the plain, blatant truth and return our country to her place of honor and pride in the world. That will NEVER happen if we allow our democracy to be taken over by the authoritarians gunning for it so very hard right this minute across the land. They will lie, cheat, steal, torture, maim and KILL to keep their people in power and to return some of those corrupt ones we thought we were rid of. They must be stopped – by the REST of AMERICANS who are FOR DEMOCRACY and LIBERTY for ALL WE must stop them now.
I believe that so much of what citizens are allowing to happen is due to a TRUE LACK of EDUCATION of our history, of civics and of world history. So much of what is happening now can be directly shown somewhere in history, history that shouldn’t be repeated. It makes me think about all of the US history that has been suppressed and/or deleted for the most part. We just recently came to a place of public knowledge of the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 because it was suppressed and hidden by order of the whites in power at that time.
Now you can ask a 21 yr old who Condalesa Rice is and they’ll tell you it’s either a stripper or candy name. We’re not teaching proper history or civics in schools anymore. Americans really need to look at their ciriculum and do a major upgrad across the board, adding classes that reflect what their needs will be when they step off into the world on their own, go on to a 4 year college, join the military, or secure a job in the technology industry – which is growing exponentially by the day.
Parents have been trying to keep their kids away from the news too much, teenagers need to SEE what is happening and to understand WHY – as much as WE adults understand anyways. They are the next generation that will be facing dealing with the aftermath of the pandemic, the damaged population that will leave it it’s wake, plus the destruction coming from the ex-president of the USA has yet to cease – our youth WILL be forced to contend with his followers for years to come.
A good cross-section of 5th graders could form a more decent and functional government – based on equality and fairness – than many of the idiots trying to do so now. Literally half of our government is working vigorously AGAINST America, AGAINST democracy and AGAINST voter rights, women’s rights, LGBT protections and are voting FOR racism and hatred.
June 16th, 2021, Wednesday night
…I’ve been working on trying to get this finished up and posted for like a week now…just not happening because it’s not coming together like I envisioned it. I’m not sure if I should change up my writing, such as do more writing about my thought processes, my inner turmoil and celebratory successes that keep me smiling…or if I need to stay on the political writing roller-coaster which is so deep and confusing now that the constant changing of words, constant lies and denials that things were said or done when there is VIDEO PROOF of the incidents…all of this frustrates me and makes the writing more stressful and FAR LESS relaxing like it used to be for me. I write to calm my nerves, not jack them up with hatred and violence. And it’s just gotten worse and worse since the beginning of the pandemic – followed by a landslide win election that the Republican party REFUSES to admit they LOST fair and square. They were prevented from cheating this time and the result is that they lost. Now they can’t handle that fact and are like toddlers throwing a tantrum. It’s just ridiculous.
I want to redirect my thoughts and write about other aspects of life – and less about politics and wars. Yet I always struggle with what exactly to write about! I am considering a podcast in addition to this blog and have a couple of other tie-in ideas. In order to do so I need questions to answer; things I can directly address from my point of view, personal experience and the such. So, please send me some questions or topics you would like me to talk about. I
Questions and topic requests can be emailed to me at MainelyButch@yahoo.com. Please put “Blog Questions“ in the subject line so that I don’t breeze by the email! I am willing to talk about most anything, if I encounter a boundry pusher I will let you know by return email. I just really don’t want to address any more right now about politics or politicians please!
I hope everyone is safe and relaxed on this Wednesday night. I’m ready to shut it down and get some rest. Working on the yard sale we are having this Saturday has been a ton of work the last 3 days…cannot wait til it’s over, but we are having fun preparing! I just hope we make some ca$h this weekend! I just had to put my car into the shop for front brakes and a wheel bearing…cha-ching! Thus my side-hustles are in full swing!
Trump has gone into hiding and is having a full-on meltdown.
It’s a weird and scary time to live in the United States.
What I mean is it’s weirder and scarier than it had been before the 2016 presidential election! The US always seems to have some undercurrent of things to be wary of when you hail from a marginalized community – mine being the LGBT community. While 2018 isn’t anything like it was in the 1970’s when I was a teenager, as far as being out and gay, it’s beginning to remind me that my being out doesn’t and hasn’t come without a price to pay and a fight to continue fighting.
Our mid-term elections were held November 6th and the lead up was very heated between the parties and due to all of the division that Trumpism has brought to the surface here, as evidenced by the massacre at the temple in Pennsylvania and the bombs sent to major players of the Democratic party. Our televisions were abuzz with hateful advertisements accusing this candidate, ridiculing that one and spreading out-of-context misinformation. I personally hate political advertising like that. Any candidate that has to resort to cutting down their opposition because they don’t have a decent platform of their own to tout will never get a vote from me. Voting for anyone who runs that type of ad is just condoning it and feeding their hatred. I choose to ignore it, note who did it and not to vote for whomever it is running the ad.
I wish we would do some campaign reform here in America. Starting with getting PAC money OUT of all politics. Then requiring candidates to pay for their own ads and media content and they should not be allowed to accuse, ridicule or point at anyone else, but only talk about themselves and what they will bring to the table if elected. Get the hate out of political advertising. And no one should be allowed to lie – it’s false advertising! And it’s just unappealing because it’s just gone too far. We also need major campaign finance reform, i.e. do away with PACs and outside funding. Make the playing field more even for everyone. The PACs and other donors give this money and pump their chosen candidate so that they can get a “foot in the door” so to speak by holding their candidate up to do their bidding in legislation and regulation. It’s all about the money. Fucking money sucks.
We had record voter turn out on both sides of the slate. Democrats really put a ton of effort into getting out the vote and getting people psyched up to get to the polls. There is no duty more important, in my opinion than showing up and voting when you’re called on to do so. Elections are how we the people have our say in governing the country and steering it in directions that are good for us, not just for the politician and their donors. A prime example is the Trump Tax plan of 2017. He was put in office by money and outside influence and a sheepish base who believed he would be “different” somehow. HIs tax plan gave trillions of dollars to big corporations and the uber-rich across the board. It did nothing for the middle class, working stiffs of America. Wages remain stagnant and profits of corporations are skyrocketing while our national debt is through the roof and climbing by the minute. This will be Trump’s legacy – the financial ruin of America.
Just over 113,000,000 people turned out to vote. I am pleased that Democrats did very well all across the country. We elected 235 Democrats to the House and 47 to the Senate. This gives Dems majority control of the House of Representatives while leaving us as the minority party in the Senate. This is really very good for now. It means that the Republican party is no longer in full control of our federal government and Trump no longer gets a blank check. Across America, Democrats replaced 335 state-level Republican legislators. We turned many formerly red states and areas blue. Yes, we got our Blue Wave regardless of what Trump says because of course, he’s claiming victory despite major Republican losses in key states. Here are some of the outcomes explained more specifically.https://www.politico.com/election-results/2018/
Over 100 women were elected to go to Washington DC; as well as many men and women of diverse backgrounds, minorities, and LGBT are going to be serving us. They are younger, more diverse, enthusiastic and ready to bring progress and civility back to US soil. This is a sign of the future of government in America; a very positive, incremental sign. Congress is finally starting to look like a representation of the population. We really have some terrific people now in office! I have high hope that they will serve us wisely by putting forward a positive agenda and doing much-needed oversight of our government workings.
I was impressed with Democrats as a whole. There was no huge celebration or a big gloating party upon their wins. Calm and classiness has been maintained and the only people suing and complaining are the sore-loss Republican candidates in some particular states, such as Florida. Florida’s elections were overseen by the Governor, who also ran for re-election – talk about the referee playing in the game! Their voting machines broke down, they tried to suppress votes, discouraged voters, as well as threatened and frightened people. It’s a real mess, but it was mostly expected and primarily was a Florida issue. I don’t understand what it is about that state that they can’t seem to get their electoral system up to par and always seem to have problems, but I hope that someone will pay attention this time and FIX the freaking problem! The state, as well as many others, is also gerrymandered to death. Hopefully, now that Dems have majority control across the country we can remedy this issue when the district lines are redrawn to make it a more fair and balanced system. Gerrymandering has cost us dearly and must be stopped.
Here in Maine, where I reside, we turned the state blue again. We have one single Republican left – Senator Susan Collins. We elected a Democratic governor, Janet Mills from Farmington Maine, and now our state house is also filled with Democrats. After 6 years of LePage and his Trump-like antics and personality, we were sick and tired of all of the hate and of him disregarding the will of the people. He would go against things we voted to do and try to prevent laws from being enacted after the people voted to enact them! It’s been very aggravating for us here. We voted to expand Medicaid here, and he refused to enact it. He withheld the funding and just wouldn’t allow it to happen – even after a court order to do so! So, his hateful ass is out of here. I hear he’s moving to Florida! Hahah…they can HAVE him. I’m hopeful that Gov. Mills will stick to her promises and start with addressing the opioid crisis here, then healthcare, the environment, and education. It has to get better.
Of course, Trump has been freaking out. He’s gone into hiding, for the most part, Tweeting outrageously about the Mueller investigation and that people are changing clothes to vote twice. He’s not doing his presidential duties, is brooding over his loss of control and the possibility that his kids are going to prison for bilking America. Plus a whole lot more…but I’m tired of his shit show. And he somehow feels less threatening at the moment. The fact that his own party has been pretty much silent since the mid-terms is great too, although it does make them complicit in his dirty deeds in my opinion. But they are peeling off slowly, starting to whisper behind his back that they need to distance themselves from him. America voted on Nov. 6th and HE was the main reason his party lost. America stood up and said NO to Trumpism.
In 721 days we vote again. This next time to replace Trump. I’m sooo looking forward to that one!!!
The Republican party of the United States of America (GOP) is retiring, resigning and being thrown out like trash at an alarming rate; flinging the doors open wide for the Democrats who will most likely be replacing them and taking over Congress and the Senate. Our House is on fire, and the rats are running.
I have some fairly liberal views, yet part of me is also conservative. I’m more conservative when it comes to budget issues, the military, and protection of our homeland, but absolutely liberal when it comes to issues of environmental protection, renewable energy strategy, healthcare for all, and having a transparent, ethical governmental body. Some of me is even Socialist…we SHOULD all care and take care of one another – no one benefits from isolationism, classism, economic bullying or closed borders.
The world can see that right this moment my country is in a state of chaos and public crisis. We are a country divided. Divided by race, economics, religion, sexuality, social status, and a myriad of other cultural issues. Our leadership has deteriorated beyond what we ever imagined possible.
Our infrastructure is in a state of decay, crumbling and killing people. Our national debt has skyrocketed into the trillions.
Farmers’ crops are rotting in the fields of California due to lack of migrant farm workers due to their fear of our government and the government’s cruel immigration policy enforcement. ICE agents lurk in bus stations and local parks.
Eighty thousand “Dreamers” live in fear and limbo, not knowing if tomorrow they will be deported to countries that they know nothing about and have never even seen to remember, countries that are at war-torn, impoverished, crumbling and ruled by corrupt leaders, gangs, and drug cartels.
Our military is being spread around the globe, fighting in places that none of us have ever even heard of in some cases. They’re being forced to the Mexican-American border to assist with what some think is a “crisis” of people flowing by the millions across our borders – this is NOT true, actually illegal border crossings are at a 40 year low and our current 16,000 border patrol agents are doing a remarkable job in successfully apprehending illegals more now than ever before – because they have better tools to do so! NOT because crossings are up!
It has been proven beyond a doubt that the Russians interfered in our 2016 election processes, not only in our presidential election but in about 31 state ballots as well. Yet, there was $125M set aside to deal with this issue, and to date not ONE PENNY has been spent to do so. THAT is a crime all by itself! Someone should be held responsible for that lack of action.
Cyber-security is a joke to America. There is NO cyber-security. Our power plants are at risk, water systems are vulnerable, electrical grids could be taken down in a nan-second, and even our personal information has been pirated by Cambridge Analytica via Facebook to the tune of over 87 million peoples’ profiles. Cambridge Analytica is the company that was hired by Trump to aid in his election campaign. Coincidence? I think not.
We currently are living under the rule of a man who believes that being “President” of our country means that he is above the law, untouchable, and can do anything he chooses without repercussions or consequences. He does not even have a vague understanding of our country’s Constitutional articles, amendments or laws. Now, he could depend upon assistants, advisors, aides, and attorneys for guidance, but instead he has chosen to dismiss, fire or force the resignation of almost all of them. He tells us he doesn’t need a National Security Advisor because he can advise himself – a man who received 5 draft deferrals and who has NO military experience whatsoever. And who does not read; who does not like reading so chooses not to read but to listen to a very biased, shadowy news station on his television set. His idea of “governing” is to send out harassing messages via Twitter on a daily basis, usually starting at 4am every day. No one can control him. He refuses to listen to anyone, takes no advice and is belligerent in making the point that he is always “right” about everything. He admits no wrong, ever.
This man is racist, sexist, a misogynist, unethical, immoral and just downright rude. He has NO “people skills” at all. He believes women are inferior beings to be used for sex and to wait on their men. Any woman who challenges him politically is instantly on his Twitter shit list and he will harass and degrade her forever. His opponent in the election that he stole in 2016 is the prime example. He mentions her almost every day on Twitter, always in very demeaning terms and with vitriol and hatred. He’s obviously very threatened by smart women and wishes to silence all women as a result.
There are not enough hours left in my night here to go on and explain all of the other unbelievable, crazy, chaotic, vulgar and consequential nonsense that is happening here in America right now.
I think I have made my points above and that you, dear reader, get the gist of what I am trying to convey. We are in trouble. And the leadership that is currently running this country is destroying it quickly, more and more so every day. All of those in positions of publicly appointed leadership (Congress, Senate, Cabinet members, Department Heads, Governors, etc) seem to be frozen in time. They either cannot or will not take action to save us. But they are streaming out of Washington DC to save their own asses by the hoards, leaving a leadership vacuum in their wake.
No one knows what to do, or how to control our lunatic “President” who’s positioning himself to become America’s first Dictator.
So, if you live in another country and you ask your American friends why we are letting him destroy our country, please remember that we are not “letting” him do anything. He has basically got us all hostage. His dispersal of hate, his corruption, immoral behavior and lying rhetoric have us torn in half and unable to convince our representative to go against him in any way. Russia is pulling his strings, that we KNOW this and it is obvious to us all. We march, we write, we call, we march some more….we are screaming and hollering at the top of our lungs. all to no avail.
It’s very frustrating, scary and even dangerous for many of us. But, we are Americans. We’ve been through hell and back before. We will overcome this somehow. We will find our way out of this mess, it’s just going to take some time and perhaps a lot of pain – for every American, whether they know it, acknowledge it, or not.
OMG…SO MUCH HAS GONE ON SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THIS YEAR! It’s far too much to write about all in one blog. I’m searching for what to write about first. And I do apologize to my regular readers for not being more “on the ball” with posts, but I’ve just not felt the “drive” to write; or when I DO feel it it’s either late at night and I need to sleep or I choose to do other things with the time. I really need to set aside a specific block of time daily for just sitting down and writing. Yes. That is what I will do. Beginning tomorrow.
Yesterday was January 20, 2018 and the Women’s March 2018! And it was an almost indescribably AWESOME show of strength, solidarity and love! I had been looking forward to the march for the whole year, and I again marched in Portsmouth, NH, same as last year! This year I marched with my sister. We also met up with my niece and her friends, and saw lots of other people that we knew. Plus new friends were to be made too! The day was perfect. Temperature was hovering around 45 degrees, and it was partly sunny. We parked on the Maine side of the Piscataqua River Bridge, the Memorial Bridge and walked to Portsmouth, on the New Hampshire side.
Memorial Bridge
Lobster shack with bouys
As you can see from the pictures here it was a nice calm day on the river, I love the sleepy little lobster shack covered in bouys there, just waiting for it’s fishermen to return to fish! This bridge was just built a couple of years ago, and has become quite the pride of the area. It’s usually lit up at night with awesome fiber-optic lighting, which turns all kinds of colors. It’s a draw bridge, which means the middle span of the bridge rises up in the air to allow river traffic to pass under it. This is critical, as the Piscataqua River is a very vital economic port. We have oil storage areas, cable and wire, gypsum wall board and scrap metal businesses along with lots of other smaller venues. On our way home we got caught on the Portsmouth side with the span in the up position, see the below pictures…there was an Irving Oil tanker coming in with a load of heating oil for the seacoast area. #2 Heating Oil is our main fuel for heat up here.
Memorial Bridge up position
Oil tanker coming in
Tanker passing under bridge span
Pretty cool huh? I thought so! I am glad it was such a great day and that I could get these pictures to share on here and to have for my albums.
So, we marched….or rather we RALLIED! Our gathering was a Rally not a March…we didn’t march anywhere, but gathered and rallied in the very center of the city, in front of the old North Church. And it was electric! The Seacoast Resistance came together wonderfully! As did so many hundreds of other rallies and marches around the USA and around the world, denouncing the hate and bigotry, the sexism, racism and xenophobia of the Trump administration, and the effects it is having on us as citizens, and the world too! Here are some pictures from the rally. They are captioned, if you click on them it will give you a description.
Me and my sister Patty
For my Grandchildren sign
Crowd shot
Me and family members
Crowd shot
Crowd shot
looking downtown, steeple is the North Church
Bitches against the patriarchy
United we stand!
As you can see, it was a great turn out, plus a really nice weather day and I had the best of company on my adventure! #RESIST
So, while we were marching in protest and to show our numbers and strength, the federal government shut down as they bickered over a stupid wall between the US and Mexico, immigration, DACA and a short term spending plan….and they remain shut down as I am writing this. This has been the least productive year of presidency in our country’s history. Nothing, except for a tax cut for the uber rich, has gotten done. No fiscal budget, no immigration reform, no infrastructure, no health insurance plan….nope, just a bunch of school yard type bickering and name calling and stupid tweets. I’m so ashamed of my government at the moment, but that will ALL change in November when the Blue Tsunami takes over America…Democratic Socialism is on the rise!
This is all the energy for writing that I have for tonight. I am doing great, although I am sick with walking pneumonia at the moment – but on the mend and on meds! Nola and Lulu are awesome as well, they will be happy for Spring to arrive in a few weeks so they can spend more time outside.
So, did you march or protest yesterday? Tell me about your day!
It’s stormy here in Maine this morning, thunderstorms passing over one by one and lots of heavy rain showers. My lawn is dying from lack of water, so I’m actually pleased that everything is getting watered.
I was woken up at 4am this morning by a call from work asking me to go in as soon as I could get there, seems one of the night shift workers had to go home early due to illness and they had also run out of coffee filters and had to send someone to another store to get some. Our coffee business there is huge. We sell over 300 cups a morning, and being out was going to piss off quite a few of the guys and gals that stop in regularly for their morning cup o’ joe to kick off the day. Plus overnight the restock order had arrived and that was sitting in the aisles and behind the counter waiting to be put away. When I got there at about 4:30am it basically chaos. One one person was there to ring out customers and to try to explain the coffee situation to some grumpy people. I jumped right in and ended up working til about 8:15, when the first shifters all arrived and were able to take over.
I’m watching The View right now, and they are talking about Trump. They have his spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee, on and she’s desperately trying to defend in indefensible man. Saying he doesn’t lie…omg, the guy has been proven to lie 95% of the time!
Yestereday Trump announced he was ending the DACA program. This program is where people who were brought here as small children, now most are around 22 yrs old, by their parents illegally. These kids were raised in America, schooled in our schools, played with our kids, and grew up here. They don’t remember the countries they were born in, some don’t know the language of those countries even. DACA protects them. As long as they are either in school, go to college or joing he military, stay registered with the program and pay $500 per year, they can stay and live here. Ending this program means that they have to leave; they have to return to countries that they know nothing about and have never been back to. Possibly making them return to nothing, no where to live, no way to make a living, where there will be language barriers and possible hostility directed toward them by the governments of those countries. Ending this program without creating a pathway to American citizenship for the 800,000 DACA kids who are here is goin got destroy lives, tear families apart and it is just the wrong thing to do. Anyone can see that it’s wrong.
for example, I wasn’t born in Maine. My parents were military and I was born on a Marine Corps base in North Carolina. What if I was suddenly told that I had to leave Maine immediately, and go back to NC? Would that be fair to me? Would it cause me great pain and trouble? I would have to leave the home I have here, leave the friends I have here, leave behind family and go to a place that I dont’ know anything about and try to make it. Maybe it’s not the perfect example, but just think about it…what if you were told you HAD to leave where you are immediately, leave EVERYTHING behind – including the house that you own here – and go somewhere you know NOTHING about and start from scratch there…with basically nothing. And what if they didn’t really want you at this other place? How would that feel? And how would that affect you?
Ending DACA isn’t right. Creating a pathway to citizenship is what needs to happen for those in the DACA program. These kids are illegal aliens only by fault of their parents who brought them here. They did not choose to come illegally, and were not old enough to understand what was being done to them. I’m sure most of these people brought these kids here seeking a better life for them, fleeing violent places, poverty and hunger. I’m sure the intentions were good. But now we have this population of young people who have grown up in America that are being told to prepare to be forced to leave the country at any moment. How can ANYONE think that this is the right thing to do???
So, that’s just one thing that is happening here. Of course, our country is a mess right now and Trump just HAD to throw the DACA question into the affray.
We have Texas and Lousianna areas in total disarray at the moment from hurricane Harvey’s wrath. People are without homes, homes have been destroyed or rendered unlivable due to water damage, mold and pollution. Some landlords are demanding rent from people even on homes that can’t be lived in. Stores are jacking up prices – price gouging – for things like water, building materials, and food. The Governor of Texas refused Canadian assistance, and has reluctantly allowed some Mexican assistance in to the disaster area. He claims that they can handle this themselves. He’s a fool. He’s asking the federal government for $120Billion dollars, with the first installment being $7.8billion having been requested thus far. This storm aftermath is horrendous, and I believe it will just get worse as time goes on. People can’t go back to work. They have no transportation if their cars were lost in the flood – Houston is not known for very good public transportation systems. Thousands are still in FEMA paid hotels and shelters, with no place to return to because their places were destroyed or rendered unlivable. Yes, it’s truly a mess. I hope they can make it through this and find better times ahead.
And we have North Korea threatening us with nuclear weapons, which they claim they can now mount on intercontinental ballistic missiles and hit American shores with if they choose to do so. The rhetoric between Kim Jong U n and Donald Trump has been bombastic. Both posturing and trying to prove who has the bigger balls. It’s scary. It’s frightening to think that we are one the brink of the starting of WWIII.
Then we have ANOTHER very major hurricane bearing down on the southeastern coast, mainly Florida. Hurrican Irma is coming in at a Category 5 hurricane, with wind speeds of 185mph, and gusts of up to 240mph. Just what we need here right now, more destruction and devastation from mother nature. Another natural disaster. I have many relatives and friends in Florida and am worried about all of them. I can only hope they are all preparing for the worst, evacuating as needed and protecting themselves. All we can do is wait and watch and see what the storm does. It’s not like we can turn it off…it’s coming whether we like it or not. Sadly. And behind it is ANOTHER hurricane as well, Jose…which we don’t yet know what direction that one will take, that still remains to be seen.
Where is our leader in all of this chaos? What has he got to say to calm the nerves of Americans? He’s hiding, tweeting about stupid stuff and not doing his job. He probably has NO IDEA of HOW to handle all of these crisis situation at once. We haven’t seen his ugly face in days. He SHOULD be front and center; on television speaking to a very nervous, scared and anxious nation. He should be FAR MORE concerned about the health and welfare of his citizens who are in crisis around the country. From the flood zones to the many huge wildfires in California and the West. Yet, he is in hiding and he can barely handle a single situation, let alone multiple things happening. I truly believe he is hiding, has secluded himself in the White House and is hoping that the generals will somehow hand it all for him. God knows he doesn’t have the foggiest idea of what to say, even his tweets don’t make a lot of sense. No, we are on our own, we have no leader here. Just a fake “president” who is very, very inept.
Pray for America…please. We need it bad right now. So much is happening, and happening very fast, that it’s hard to know what to worry about in any given moment!
Just when I thought his Tweets could not possibly get any worse, or go any lower, Trumpski tweets out a video this morning made up of him beating the crap out of a CNN correspondent. Sick. I’m surprised he didn’t make it a woman that his likeness was beating on…it would be just like him to do something like that.
Yes, world, it’s been another disgusting week in America. The man holding the office of President hostage has been acting like an 8 yr. old school yard bully. He’s been name calling, belittling and demeaning the media and especially women. His seething hate for women is so blatant it’s sick.
And he is planning to disband all panels and any helpful committee on womens’ issues.
His disdain for women, blacks, Muslims, the LGBT community and anyone who is of minority origin is despicable. He has ONE agenda, to further his own personal popularity and personal financial portfolio. THAT is his only goal in being “president” of this country – a country that he cares NOTHING about at all.
America is in serious trouble with this idiot at the helm. The Republican party has NO balls, they refuse to stand against him on any issue, even encouraging him to Tweet. They are just as disgusting as he is. Every last one of them is responsible for this mess. And we should hold them so. Re-election should not be an option for any one of them.
I am off to a party. A 4th of July party where there will be people who are Trump supporters. God help me.
I worked this morning and hid away all afternoon, trying to nap but with no luck in doing so. I relegated myself to just staying quiet, cuddling with the dogs and doing much deep thinking.
Tonight I caught up on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I get a lot of my news blips from those places too…I’m always interested in what others find interesting in the news. Of course 99% of what I read is about Trump and his cohorts. I cannot understand how we are allowing him to continue on as President of the United States. It just makes NO sense. Every day he comes up with something new to destroy. He hops from topic to topic, and never really give anyone any idea of what his REAL policy is on any one thing. A POTUS with NO known real policy, no known “real” agenda – other than creating complete chaos across the board.
We are close to war in several places around the globe. Trump is beating the war drum, he thinks he can just do anything he wants to do. I seriously think he’s going to get us in to a war with North Korea first, and that will anger the Russians, the Chinese and others. Soon he will have most of the major dark side world powers all lined up against us. It may be a war that we lose. I know that is something the US doesn’t think can happen, but in reality it CAN happen. Right now I see no diplomatic negotiations taking place with any of our “enemies” like Russia, N. Korea, China or Iran (yeah now Iran is angry too). It’s really fucking scary. I dread the morning that we all wake up to the news that we have either attacked or been attacked by any one of the aforementioned entities. It will be a very bad day.
When will we ever get to making some decisions here in America? All we have done for the last couple of years is fight over things. Nothing seems to be getting done or resolved. Washington is locked up in partisan politics. We have a very ineffective leader. We have ineffective representation in Congress and the Senate. It’s going to take a complete change of the guard to rectify this whole situation and that’s going to be one super nasty fight. Our next mid-term elections are going to be very tell-tale. I suspect that you will see more money than ever before being poured into the political coffers of many candidates. And if we are to elect effective candidates it’s going to take a hell of a lot of real grassroots campaigning. It certainly will be interesting.
Next week, when Congress returns from their vacation, they will be faced with dealing with the national budget. If they cannot get it together then we are going to be facing a government shutdown by next Friday. This shutdown will totally be the fault of Donald J. Trump. Trump is insisting that there be $1billion for the construction of his famous wall on the Mexican border – that wall that he promised that Mexico would pay for – and if there is a government shut down I predict it will be over this issue alone. He will let our government shut down over his idiotic idea of the wall. I think he’ s THAT MUCH of an asshole.
Alrighty, that’s enough political shit for tonight. For more specific stories you can always check out my daily paper on Paper.li “Relevant Times” It gets tweeted out on my Twitter account daily, and is a composition of what’s happening on the political scene, the LGBT scene, and in the lesbian enclave of the world. It’s kind of interesting.
I am considering upgrading my WordPress account to be able to post videos here as well. You have to upgrade to a paid account to add videos. Right now I use YouTube, but I am not completely happy with that venue at the moment. Especially with some of the anti-LGBT stuff that has gone on with Youtube’s rules lately. And Instagram videos are just too limited, I use that mostly for quick pics and to follow my younger friends’ posts. I hope to have time this coming weekend to work on all of this.
It has been a long, strange day in American politics. There were a few – a FEW – major fuck ups that happened today. Most of which just show how fucking stupid some politicians can BE when they open their mouths.
Sean Spicer….oh, Sean! yes, he’s done it again. He cannot get Bashar Al Assad’s name right on ANY given day, and today was no different, but today he tried to compare Assad to Hitler. Saying that Assad was WORSE than Hitler. It turned into a huge deal. He seemed to be saying that Hitler didn’t gas his own people….like DUDE, did you NOT take world history??? Hitler gassed upward of 11 million people in his gas chambers — which, GET THIS — Spicer called “Holocaust Centers” today. Once again, this guy should NOT be talking outloud, let along trying to be the spokesperson for the White House of this country. He tried to walk back his words, repeatedly. Then afterwards he issued no fewer than 3 written “clarification” statements all within 19 minutes…he kept changing the words, he kept using the WRONG words. Yes, Sean, talking is hard. Very hard. He really needs to resign this job, and we need someone who doesn’t make us look like fucking idiots on the world stage. Sean Spicer can’t talk his way out of a paper bag. It’s been an issue since the beginning with him, but today just took the proverbial CAKE.
For more on this please watch Rachel Maddow’s presentation here. She explains it perfectly. I am sure you’ll be just as embarrassed by his ineptitude. Also, this is a good clip on what a moron Spicer was today.
The second biggest story here in America in the last couple of days has been United Airlines and their decision to remove a passenger from a flight so that one of their crews would have room to fly. Perhaps you haven’t seen the video footage…it’s appalling, let me warn you. These 3 police officers, that’s what they called them, literally drag this poor Asian man off the flight, as he freaks out. The poor guy didn’t understand what the hell was going on, you can tell. He’s a 69 yr old doctor, of Asian descent and he’s been singled out for removal from this flight – supposedly by some sort of selection based upon connecting flights and arrival times. Bullshit. United did NOT handle this very professionally, and they are paying the price – losing $250M the next day in the stock market value. PLUS now everyone is saying here that they will NOT fly United again. I know that I won’t after seeing this. United removes passenger. Scroll down for actual video footage of removal of this man.
Our “president” Donald J. Trump has been in office not even 100 days yet…and yet he has spent 17 days golfing. Golfing. This is the man who claimed he would have “no time” to golf because he would be too busy staying in the White House doing America’s business. What a bullshit lair he has turned out to be on just this ONE thing. Check this out
Those are just a FEW of the things that happened politically today here in the USA. It’s fucking scary how much happens in just one day lately. It’s like we are on this out of control slide into total chaos here.
Other things of significance to note…
Jeff Sessons spoke about the “Trump era” of immigration from the Mexican border.
Trump tweeted about taking on North Korea with or without Chinese assistance.His Tweet: “North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A.”
Trump poked again at China…His Tweet “I explained to the President of China that a trade deal with the U.S. will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!”
The US has sent war ships to the Korean peninsula, which is VERY SCARY . That story is here: US Dispatches War Ships
And, sadly, J. Geils was found dead in his Groton, MA home earlier today. RIP. That story is here. J. Geils Band
Yes, we are certainly headed for something here, I’m not sure if it’s war or just more testosterone fueled posturing. Trump got a “taste” of it with his attack on the Syrian airport, and now he’s vying for more. I’m afraid of what this man will start, and afraid of what our enemies may do if he does start something. It’s becoming very scary indeed.
And THIS my friends is why I don’t always sleep well at night!
MainelyButch: Private Label 
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