It’s so easy to call something we don’t like or understand “stupid.”
I find myself constantly calling our factually-challenged POTUS “stupid”, but it’s labeling and name-calling and gets us nowhere. Here’s why:
It’s so easy to call something we don’t like or understand “stupid.”
I find myself constantly calling our factually-challenged POTUS “stupid”, but it’s labeling and name-calling and gets us nowhere. Here’s why:
Sounds like something a 15 year old would write. I actually DID protest, kind of, during the 1972 election when McGovern tried to defeat Nixon. I was in high school and my boyfriend (later first husband) and I drove around with NO MORE WAR and McGOVERN painted on his muscle car windows. But, I wasn’t out walking in the street. I was Tuesday! I had to support the #NoDAPL — NO Dakota Access Pipeline (project) that I’ve been railing against on Twitter. It was not only my duty to join millions in supporting our original Native Americans and protecting THEIR sacred land, but also a minor miracle that I could raise my right arm (after my recent bout with partial paralysis) so I did! (Let’s not forget it was a Native American Sobadora who healed me!) Also, as a former journalist, news reporter, and government flack (spokesperson), I could not participate in protests for over 35 years. I’m a private citizen now.
It was scary (in this current political climate) but I’m so glad that participated.
This pipeline project is horrifying on many levels. 1) That a profit-making “energy” company is exploiting tribal land, 2) that the Obama Administration did not already totally deny the permits, and 3) the ungodly attacks on Native Americans with pepper spray and GUNS! I feel we MUST stand with the Standing Rock Sioux to protect their land and also protest further drilling in the Dakota Badlands. Not everyone agrees. Watch this CNN video and read the article about the project.
What IS certain is that our so-called President-Elect* Trump can’t wait to allow the project to proceed. He will grant the wishes of Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren who donated $100 hundred thousand to his campaign. (Warren admits to this and claims it’s “100% certain” they can proceed come January.) Trump is also said to have invested between 500K and a MILLION dollars to Warren’s company. (I wonder about this since Trump isn’t a “stock picking” investor. His money is mostly in real estate and a few mutual funds.) Trump also has big plans to deregulate the EPA along with many other Federal checks and balances against such devastating projects.
Here in Albuquerque I was proud to see nearly 500 people show up for a peaceful demonstration and hear Native speakers. The Army Corps District Office here is the only one within over 400 miles so many people drove long distances to participate. It would have been perfect except for two things: 1) local cops had blocked all roads and access to the Army Corps office, so we had to park far away. (It didn’t slow down anyone. We just marched our way carrying our signs and chanting. 2) I overhead a cop telling a security guard, “It’s the highest concentration of Prius driver’s in New Mexico.” They both laughed. I wanted to reply, “and fuzz explosion.” (Of course, I didn’t.) Instead, I survived to write this!
*Footnote: Trump is NOT yet President-Elect. The vote is still being canvassed and the Electoral College is not final until the meeting Dec. 19. I remain hopeful we can disqualify him then! PLEASE contribute Elector info and ideas on Twitter using hash tag #DisqualifyTrump.
After screaming, crying and going through the various stages of grief (about the 2016 election), here’s the bottom line: it was all over in 2000.
When America ended up with Halliburtin’s Dick Chaney and “W” Bush over Al Gore (in an election that was “rigged” and stolen, IMHO), we missed our last opportunity to make real progress on climate change. The “Inconvenient Truth” was more than a movie, it was also a political metaphor. America took the dark path of propping up the “war machine” (the military–industrial complex, an unholy alliance of the U.S. military and defense industry.)
It had been “peace time” under President Clinton and America would have been not only peaceful and prosperous under Al Gore, but climate concerns were at the top of his agenda.
Why this history lesson? Because you can’t really grok what’s at stake until you look in the review mirror and see how we got to this point. I’m not blaming young or first-time voters (for protest votes or sitting it out) because you have to live through some of the horrors and consequences to really understand what’s at stake. Trust me, if we make it through the current national nightmare, you’ll know what I mean.
It’s not a “coincidence” that the 9/11 attack happened soon after Bush took office. Elections have consequences. Big Daddy Bush (“41”) wasn’t all points of light and kumbaya, as he’s often portrayed. He was the former CIA director and a Texas oil man. More importantly he invaded Iraq with our U.S. military and literally “bombed the shit” out of the Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm) with thousands of rapid air strikes, then left quickly leaving a wake of death and destruction that created tremendous hatred. So when America elected “Son of Bush” President in 2000, vengeance was definitely on the mind of the Middle East. (I’ll come back to that concept.)
The current refugee crisis and ISIS can be traced directly to our long involvement in Middle East (which of course dates back to the 1950s) and our need for cheap oil, at ANY cost. It’s been an OUTRAGEOUS cost in lives lost and Trillions of tax dollars (taxes that DJT has not participated in, but that’s another topic.) Vengeance is at the root of all our problems, especially war. But, it’s also the reason Trump ran for office. He wanted to “get even” with President Obama for roasting him during the 2011 White House Correspondents‘ Dinner. (Unbelievable, but true!)
Many blame Obama for continuing the wars. I guess DJT will soon learn if he can end them. I’m just sick. When I hear that creeps like Jeff Sessions and retired general Flynn (who claims Trump “crushed the debates”) will be in charge of our military operations I’m NOT hopeful. This isn’t a game, our lives are at stake– particularly YOURS. I can retreat to a monastic life and leave Samsara (cyclical life) behind, but you millennials are stuck with war, our dying oceans, lack of water and food, and Donald Trump. If you survive, you will remember and want to warn others to vote for sanity and reason next time.