Category Archives: 2016 Election

It’s counting down to election day. As the seconds are ticking people are dying of the Coronavirus. Scientists expect a second wave during flu season in the Fall. There is so much at stake for the upcoming election. Joe Biden’s statement about sheltering-in-place if scientists believe it’s necessary has been up for much debate, and it has become politicized when it’s not so much a political question. It’s a humanitarian and economic one. If every single American had a job where they could stay home and earn an income that paid all their bills, and then seamlessly go back to work after the pandemic was over, it wouldn’t be so complex and the views wouldn’t be polarized. But this is not a natural disaster and not everyone has the luxury to work from home. Also, it’s not just lasting a few days with a beginning, middle and end.

Many Americans are really struggling financially, emotionally, politically. We’ve always had it easier than it is now. The pandemic has added weight to every other problem in the world and our lives. We are now faced with an extreme obstacle, and many don’t want to deal with the reality, and won’t until it becomes personal. That’s human nature.

Joe Biden may need to shut down the country to stop the pandemic from killing hundreds of thousands of people and to save lives. That’s sensible and real-life. However, if he does how will he help Americans meet their financial obligations? How will families pay their mortgages, rent, feed their children and educate them?

We need to stop people from dying, but it’s a domino effect.

The irony here is, while most Americans are suffering, the rich are getting richer. Why is that?

And some world leaders are not worried, even though hundreds of thousands of people are dying. The question is: Are there world leaders and their families who have received the most promising vaccine, and that is why they are glossing over the issue? Their reality is not ours.

“Let them eat cake.” The words uttered by Marie Antoinette (Queen of France in 1789) when she heard that the people had no food. It’s a saying that shows a lack of compassion and incomprehension to those who are struggling.

That same lack of understanding is currently keeping our country from healing. It’s important to remember that stopping the spread of COVID-19 is not about politics or what you believe about race. It’s not about being angry, blaming or inciting chaos.

It is a patriotic issue that will take a united force, no matter where you stand in your beliefs.

A civil war about other issues – not the pandemic – is a distraction from solving the problem.

No matter what political party you belong to – What we all agree on is that we are angry and frustrated and scared, and we want to stop people from getting sick and dying. We all want our lives to go back to the way they were. The way we are living is not a New Normal – it’s just not normal and not a life.

We want our lives back.

And, we all deserve to have a good life. So, ask yourself – how would you solve this problem? What is it you really want? What would it take to get there and are you willing to do anything it takes to get back to NORMAL? If we did have to go back to a shelter-in-place scenario, who would give you what you need? Are you getting what you need now? Is it time to try something new?

Words – actions – words – actions – Is the answer for more people to die and all of us to be starving and hungry, which is the direction we are currently heading. It’s like the movie Groundhog Day. We all keep waking up to the same reality, where nothing changes. Nothing is being done to fix the problem We are stuck.

Like it or not, the answer is that we need a united front to save our country, even if it means we have to go back a few steps to move forward again.

Voting Against Your Self-Interest – 1,430 Days And Counting until 1/20/21

Image credit: WYFF News 4, screen grab, YouTube

Women, coal miners and middle-class workers will live to regret November 8th

VIA Garnet News

SOURCE Ellison Walcott, Contributing Writer

Feb 20, 2017

While campaigning, Trump assumed that he would be able to govern America, the same way a CEO runs a corporation. Bark orders and the subordinates will follow them. He obviously won, because many Americans thought the same thing. Fortunately, that’s not the way our country works.

In times of severe economic hardship and shifting job markets, voters hear the voice they presume will deliver them from poverty. Despite all the reports of lawsuits, unpaid wages to workers, bankruptcies and legal allegations of sexual assault, they believed Donald Trump was their Pied Piper.

Many voters don’t realize that a president can’t create programs without Congress and an appropriation of funds. The promises of renegotiating NAFTA, building a wall, defeating ISIS, deporting immigrants, and lifting regulations so coal miners and union workers would have jobs again, were nothing more than a ploy to win votes. Many of his stated positions will harm those who voted for him.

Why Some Voted Republican

Conservatives don’t believe in big government. They want control of their money and believe that religion has a place in our institutions. Until this election, they were the party of patriots and respect for family values. Trump put their party loyalty to the test and he won as they chose party over both nation and family. It is a phenomenon that we are seeing played out by the GOP in both the House and Senate. Party first. Nation second.

His pledge to eliminate spending on programs for minorities and immigrants also helped to win the overall white vote. What many supporters don’t realize is that these are the same programs that lift those in the lower income brackets out of poverty, including poor white people in “Confederate” territory living on welfare, food stamps, and inadequate healthcare.

In fact, all Americans benefit from government entitlements. It’s not just minorities and immigrants, “the 47%” that Mitt Romney spoke about in 2012.

States receive a huge percentage of their income from the federal government. Money to build infrastructure, roads, bridges, dams, funds for the fire department and F.E.M.A, support for schools, airports, TSA inspectors, HUD, Federal Parks and Medicaid all come from the Federal Government.

While economics does play a key role, social issues have been added to the mix and have hugely impacted political allegiance. Although there are Republicans who are not driven by race and religion, some are, and the party has become one where xenophobia, abortion, gay rights, and an anti-Muslim stance are central issues over finances. The Republicans broadcast to their constituents that Democrats consider themselves as the social elite when it’s actually the opposite.

Thomas Frank in his book, What’s The Matter With Kansas writes, “You vote to strike a blow against elitism and you receive a social order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our lifetimes, workers have been stripped of power, and CEOs are rewarded in a manner that is beyond imagining “It’s like a French Revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy.”

The conservatives are also acting to keep Americans ignorant. The current administration is steering education in the direction of making it a privilege rather than a right.

Reuse in USA Today writes, “Founding Father Thomas Jefferson understood how abusive Republicans could succeed, if only they kept the population unenlightened, or in street vernacular blind, dumb, and stupid. Jefferson said, “I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of power.”

Why Women Voted For Trump

On Election Day, 42% of women voted for Trump. 53% of those women voters were White, 4% Black and 26% Latino. Despite the fat shaming, and the countless sexual allegations, and Trump’s blatant disrespect for women, white women voted their privilege with no concern for the people that were going to be affected most by Trump’s policies including themselves.

And now, Trump has chosen a “cabinet that is one of the most hostile in recent memory to issues affecting women. Tax credits for child care and the prospect of paid maternity leave are exceptions to a host of positions that could result in new restrictions on abortion and less access to contraception, limits on health care that disproportionately affect women and minorities and curbs on funding for domestic violence, as well as slowing the momentum toward raising the minimum wage or making progress on equal pay difficult,” Susan Chira writes in The New York Times.

Why Workers Voted For Trump

According to columnist Robert Reich, “A smaller share of working-age Americans hold jobs today than at any time in more than three decades. People are so desperate for jobs they don’t want to rock the boat. They don’t want rules and regulations enforced that might cost them their livelihoods. For them, a job is precious – sometimes even more ,” than a safe workplace or safe drinking water.”

This may explain why factory workers and coal miners voted for Trump. He vowed to deregulate corporations and environmental standards. He won’t keep them, however, because he can’t.

The problem of a declining middle class is not a new concern, and the truth is there’s an industrial and technological revolution that is transforming the face of economic identity. Quitting high school and going to work in a factory is no longer a viable option.

Automated and robotic equipment requires computer skills and training. Immigrants are not taking the factory jobs, and mostly they are not moving to the middle of the country, (Trump Country) because there is no opportunity for them there.

People look for someone to blame during moments of severe struggle. The right wing narrative offers enemies in immigrants and an economic illusion that corporations will create new jobs if the rivals are conquered.

“We are in the darkest moment of America’s history, where fascism, misogyny, and hate have propelled Trump to the presidency. If we want to save this country, we will have to organize and build an agenda that addresses the issues that have propelled so many people into enough despair that they voted for Trump. It is time progressives became serious about building economic power,” writes Reich.

Why did coal country vote for Trump

Trump excelled in coal country, because he promised to “restore the coal industry to its former glory” and bring back jobs to West Virginia and Pennsylvania and slash environmental regulations on emissions. In contrast, Hillary Clinton ran on policies to invest heavily in Appalachia and convert its economy away from coal.

However, just after the inauguration, Trump signed an executive order to revive the TransCanada and Keystone Pipeline projects. He chose natural gas and oil over coal.

A recent post on the White House blog of House Joint Resolution 38 blocking a regulation in the coal industry is just another diversionary tactic to make Trump look as though he is attempting to keep his campaign promise.

The Atlantic Monthly quotes Trump telling supporters at a rally during his campaign, “Let me tell you: The miners in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, which was so great to me last week and Ohio and all over, they’re going to start to work again,” Trump said at one campaign stop. “You’re going to be proud again to be miners.”

What miners don’t know is that the industry fell because of a declining market, not because of regulations. As other types of energy grow in popularity (the wind, solar, nuclear), the demand for coal is dwindling. The cost to set up new mines is no longer economically feasible. Also, where they used to hire hundreds of workers, coal companies only employ a couple of dozens. Coal as an energy source is becoming more or less obsolete.

Why Supporters Of The Affordable Care Act Voted Against Their Own Interests

Trump vowed to scrap the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but many women, coal miners and union workers rely on the ACA, yet they cast their vote for Trump. Many didn’t believe that Trump would be able to dismantle the ACA. Or naively trusted that he wouldn’t because it would leave so many uninsured. Some voters had a hard time grasping that anyone would do anything other than what is beneficial for the greater good.

Republicans have made a habit of referring to the ACA as Obamacare, and not by the Affordable Care Act. This terminology confused some voters who didn’t realize that Obamacare and The Affordable Care Act were one and the same. They wanted to repeal Obamacare but keep the Affordable Care Act.

Despite the constant promise to repeal “Obamacare,” many voters assumed that the law wouldn’t be reversed.

The truth is Trump plans to repeal a program that saves lives and many of the people that will be impacted by its repeal voted for him.

It’s not a new phenomenon that a good swath of American voters vote without consideration of the big picture. They get lost in keywords, like “more jobs”, “better pay,” and platitudes that haven’t an ounce of research or truth behind them. Critical thinking skills, education, respect, and intelligence are no longer prized. They loved that Trump “tells it like it is” even when he is lying. He played to their racist, sexist and xenophobic hearts and incorporated their rage into his platform. They lost all sight of what is best for them as they were more concerned with making sure that everyone else didn’t get theirs.

When they lose their healthcare, their jobs; when their air once again wreaks of coal dust or emissions and when those promised days of “making America great” don’t come, some will realize that they were sold a bill of goods; others will once again look for the “those who don’t look like me” to blame. Other’s won’t survive and they won’t have anyone to blame but themselves.

A small sample, but the majority believed the election was tampered with

Image credit: iStock

Outside Trump Tower

VIA Garnet News

SOURCE Ellison Walcott

Dec 13, 2016

Lady Gaga stood in protest in front of New York City’s Trump Tower on November 9, soon after it became clear that Donald Trump had won the 2016 presidential election. Shortly thereafter, disappointed voters all over the country began to rally. They found it unacceptable that a candidate who had insulted every marginalized group throughout his campaign, and who had allegedly committed fraud and sexually assaulted women, had actually won.

It’s been over a month, and a air of disbelief still persists. It’s been especially difficult for Clinton supporters.

Before the election, polls showed her as the clear victor. Now, as the votes are still being tallied, Clinton has won the popular vote by nearly 3 million people but she failed to secure a sufficient number of electoral votes to win the Electoral College. And now the millions of people who voted for her have to deal with the knowledge that Russia interfered with the presidential election.

Today the protests in front of Trump Tower in New York City have stopped. Currently, it is difficult to get too close because the area around the building is heavily policed. For now, mostly spectators and tourists pass by. For those who want or need to enter the building, personal items are searched, and they are questioned about the purpose of their visits.

Still, for those who want to take a look at where the President-elect lives as well as the retinue of famous people coming and going, they can still manage to catch a glimpse of the Trump administration in the making. Some were willing to talk.

Out the 25 people we polled in the vicinity of Trump Tower, 15 believed that the election had been tampered with, while six did not. Four had no opinion on the matter.

Four said they had voted for Trump, ten for Clinton. Five said they didn’t vote, and six refused to answer the question. If officials asked for a revote, 15 said they would vote again, three said they would not, and the seven remaining refused to answer. Fifteen of the 25 respondents were men and 10 were women.

“I’m in finance,” said a man who wished to remain anonymous. “Algorithms can be added to affect outcomes in buying stocks in the market. I think they’d probably be a lot harder to detect. Hack in and add formulas to vote counting in a few key counties and voilà. Trump won too many of the electoral votes in proportion to Clinton’s popular vote count. Yes, I believe there was tampering,” he said.

A quantitative analyst has confirmed that this type of interference is possible. Algorithmic trading encompasses trading systems that are heavily reliant on complex mathematical formulas and high-speed, computer programs to determine trading strategies.

Others like Kelly Landes from Cleveland, Ohio, who is visiting New York for the first time, had Trump Tower as one of her prime tourist destinations. She doesn’t believe in the hacking claim. She said, “Trump won fair and square.”

“People where I live are tired of a lot of stuff. There are people getting free everything, while people like my mom and dad get laid off. They’re being replaced by people who weren’t born here.”

Landes didn’t want to say where her parents had worked, but she did say her mother was a secretary and her father had been a senior manager in an insurance company.

Maria Rivera from Queens, NY said, “I’m very sad about the election. I don’t believe that he really won.”

Tom Moran, who was visiting New York with his family from Oakland, California, agreed with Rivera, and said, “He argues too hard against it. Anyone who objects like that is hiding something.”

It’s no surprise that Trump denies allegations of a Russian cyber invasion as he has denied them throughout his campaign. More recently, in a New York Times article, “he ties claims of the Russian hack to Democratic shame.” Trump has also said that he doesn’t believe the findings of the US intelligence community.

Despite Trump’s denial, President Obama and both Democratic and Republican legislators in Washington have called for a federal investigation of the full extent of Russian interference in the eleciton based upon the CIA’s recent report.

Unfortunately, the inquiry will not be complete by the time the Electoral College gathers to cast its vote on December 19. However, there is a growing dissension among the ranks of the 538 electors. According to a New York Times article, “Christopher Suprun, an elector from Texas, became the first Republican to say publicly that he would not vote for Mr. Trump, even though Trump won his state. Republican insiders say there are more “faithless electors” like Mr. Suprun out there, quietly plotting to dump Trump. Another group of electors, composed of nine Democrats and one Republican, has even requested a briefing on Russian interference in the election.

If the Electoral College does not make the historic move to vote in another candidate, many, including most of those passing Trump Tower, believe that Donald Trump’s tenure as US president will be short-lived.

Whether it’s due to confirmation of vote-tampering, or to Trump’s own explosive and unstable temperament, or to previous allegations of his illicit business dealings and sexual assaults, Donald Trump is his own worst enemy, and resignation or impeachment is likely to be in his future.

– Ellison Walcott, Contributing Writer

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She Still Rises – 1 day and counting

It’s always been challenging for women to excel, but it’s particularly difficult to be a Superwoman in the United States in 2016.

Some Americans are being merciless about keeping a lady from leading the country. What are they afraid of? Change? There have been women leaders all around the world, but for the United States, which continues to hold onto the traditional roles, a woman in the White House would mean a change in the social fabric.

Despite the backlash, Hillary Clinton still rises above it all.

For Clinton, her ascent to the Oval Office is a path she’s been carving her whole life, a natural progression of a life-long dedication to public service.

She didn’t stop at First Lady. For most, that role is enough of an achievement. It’s an endorsement to give speeches and write books that will keep you financially set for a lifetime.

On the contrary, Clinton didn’t see herself spending days at book signings, philanthropic events, the occasional parade and ribbon cutting, and speaking to groups of people. Instead, she still rises. She wrote a book, ran for senator of New York and won. Then became Secretary of State.

No doubt if she becomes president, after she leaves office, she will carry on, serving the U.S. in some function. Great leaders like her never rest.

However, there are people bent on stopping her in whatever way they can, by creating chaos.

It would seem that her Republican opponent’s rhetoric from the inception of his campaign has incited the cavalcade of violence that has ensued since June 16, 2015, when he declared his candidacy for President of the United States.

Yet, he continues to point his finger at Clinton as the fault for all the ills of the world. It’s easy to blame someone else for the civil and global unrest, and particularly a woman, when many of your followers are people whose views of the world have remained unchanged for decades.

Yet, Clinton still rises above, and doesn’t blame anyone, for all of her challenger’s and the Republican Party’s unfounded accusations.

The Republican Party continues to mention her email, and has persisted in criticizing her for using a personal server, when many people in the Bush administration did the same. Yet, very little was ever said about it.

She doesn’t blame anyone for the baseless complaints about the Benghazi attacks. Recently, Trey Gowdy, a Republican Leader, admitted altering documents. He said “It was the Republican Party’s year-long investigation into Hillary Clinton’s handling of Benghazi and email that has been nothing more than an attempt at influencing her poll numbers in the 2016 election.”

She doesn’t blame anyone for her contender’s groundless claim that she is a co-founder of ISIS. Although, it was actually George W. Bush who signed the agreement to leave Iraq by 2011.

Clinton doesn’t blame anyone for the hecklers at her rallies. She doesn’t incite violence.

She doesn’t blame anyone for the barrage of superfluous and unwarranted insults and allegations.

She rises above it all.

One thing is certain, unlike the Republican candidate for President, she isn’t overly critical of the country where she grew up, which gave her opportunities to achieve. She rises, because that’s what great leaders do. They look at the path in front of them. Despite all the obstacles set by others, they climb, carry the weight of all their followers, and together they rise.

You can also find this post on The Huffington Post website.

Trump Revealed – America His Next Mark – 73 days and counting

Donald Trump has already repudiated Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money, and Power, a book by Washington Post reporters, Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher.

Kranish and Fisher have culled dozens of articles from Post reporters and others, as well as spent 20 interview hours with Trump to create this unauthorized biography. The book begins with his 2008 travel to Scotland to visit the house in which his mother grew up. He went inside and spent a total of 97 seconds.

Trump Revealed also provides vignettes of his childhood exploits. A next door neighbor tells the story of how she briefly left her toddler in the yard, and returned to find a six year old Trump throwing rocks at her baby.

Trump himself recounts a story about how he punched a teacher, and gave him a black eye. On the teacher’s deathbed in a hospice he heard that Trump was considering running for President and said, “When that kid was ten, even then he was a little shit.”

Surprisingly, Trump describes himself as “aggressive.” When he was growing up, Westside Story was a Broadway hit. He and his friend liked to pretend they were gang members mimicking the play, and they begin to buy knives. “At first the knives they used were six inches long, but they graduated to eleven-inch blades as they became more daring.” Soon after this event, Trump was sent to military boarding school.

Even though, we’ve heard some of these stories, and facts and figures many times in the last few months, Kranish and Fisher’s prose in Trump Revealed is chockfull of illustrative images and is, at times, powerful. The recounting of his childhood escapades, the string of his disastrous business failings and unpaid bills, as well as his propensity for lawsuits, might be enough to make some supporters change their minds.

However, since there’s very little written about Trump’s family, there’s an obvious lack of transparency about his life. Most of the stories in the press are the fodder of the family drama, or ones he manufactured. It makes the line between real and deception murky. When people try to dig in, he’s a master at distracting those who believe in him. He won’t disclose his tax returns. No one seems to remember him at Wharton.

As pointed out in the book, despite his countless insults, his financial instability, that most of the Republican Party has rejected him, defense experts have called him a threat to national security, that most of his business endeavors have fizzled, and his understanding of foreign policy and the global economy is non-existent, people still bask in his shadow, blindly, and follow him like the Pied Piper.

It’s clear Trump has a talent for picking a mark. His attitude is obviously all’s fair in business and politics. This time, as the Republican Presidential Candidate, he’s going for the high stakes and making his mark America. Let’s hope he fails at this as well.

You can also find this post on The Huffington Post website.

She Still Rises – 84 days and counting