There’s never enough time for a scandal to play out

Every day I wake up and think, “today I am going to write about that thing in the news from yesterday.” The thing I am thinking about is one of several that came up, but I decided I would research it the next day and make a well-informed post. Then, I read the news and find another six or seven new things to write about.

In the previous three presidential administrations whenever a topic came up, there was time to digest it, investigate it and have an informed opinion. There were scandals and boneheaded moves, but they were not a deluge.

Donald Trump, however, spews forth so many lies, deceitful verbiage, word salad, and utter nonsense that we have succumbed to outrage fatigue. I know this is what he wants – to wear you down to the point that you give up – but it has become so overwhelming that no one has the time to properly investigate what is actually happening anymore.

When you add in ignorant fools who only listen to this president, FOX News and other right wing outlets, you get exactly what we are seeing in the world today. We can fight against it, but it is becoming so difficult that I fear this “new normal” will destroy us. I feel like this is who we are now as a nation. I feel like that loudmouth minority is grinding us down so that we will bend to their will.

We sit and scream about children being taken away from their parents at the border. That actually managed two weeks of outrage. I only see immigrant families and organizations, and a smattering of others uttering words against it now.

Is this who we are now? Do we just accept this as normal and move on? Do you even remember these things happening?

Voter Suppression

On June 25, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Shelby County v. Holder and gutted crucial aspects of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The assault on the right to vote has been rising ever since.

Since Crawford and Shelby County, and especially since the election of the first black president in 2008, things have gotten much worse. A recent Vice report found that “in the years following the Shelby decision, jurisdictions once subject to federal supervision shut down, on average, almost 20 percent more polling stations per capita than jurisdictions in the rest of the country. There are now 10 percent more people per polling place in the formerly-supervised areas than in the rest of the country.”

More states have passed ever stricter voter identification laws. Although courts have required some states to make changes to their laws to ensure that burdened voters are not fully disenfranchised, this softening is only a partial measure.

Nearly half a million people in Georgia have been denied the right to vote in what is being considered the largest voter disenfranchisement in history.

Voting machines are still questionable and getting worse. Every election there are reports of machines doing their own thing and accusations that the changes to different votes were planned. A a security researcher at Symantic bought a voting machine on eBay and found the screws can be removed to access the machine, the HDD is not encrypted, candidate names can be changed to manipulate the vote, and that newer machines have a USB port to eliminate the need to open the machine.

Texas is saying their votes are flipping to the opposite party.

EDIT: It’s apparently not due to nefarious reasons.

Voter suppression by the GOP may thwart any Democrat gains.

Neither voter suppression nor being called ‘Coon’ and the N-Word will stop Black Georgia from voting.

You can read more about voter suppression here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. This is a large list of voter suppression across the country. These are only a few stories out of hundreds.

Violence, racism, hatred of women and “others” get the approval of the president

I believed Trump in 2016 when he said he could shoot someone and not lose voters. I believe it to be more true nearly three years later.

For three years, Trump has been publicly encouraging violence. He refuses to say it’s wrong when it happens to someone in a group that he doesn’t like or approve of. One end result is a person who has sent mail bombs to several people, including two former presidents and one former presidential nominee.

The republican party is at a loss about what to do when the right thing is to condemn any kind of violence. I learned this rule in kindergarten. The person was one of their own. It wasn’t a false flag. It was antisemitism and it is on the rise. They don’t know how to respond because they are so embedded in the hate and division. The GOP talking points would take hours to refute, but they are all lies or twisting of the truth.

Trump and the Republicans still hate women and want to control them by any means necessary. The Republicans don’t support women. Their followers think it’s okay to sexually assault women as well.

A pastor went on InfoWars and said that Ruth Bader Ginsburg should be executed for treason. Not a word from the president who should condemn anyone for calling for the murder of any Supreme Court justice.

Are you still angry about Kavanaugh? I’m fucking pissed we live in the same world as his supporters and are forced to not step forward for fear of not being believed.

House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) deleted a tweet accusing three prominent Jews of helping bankroll democrats after one was sent a pipe bomb. He then tweeted a politically correct statement.

A few hours after 11 people were murdered in a synagogue, Trump holds a campaign rally. It’s similar to his actions after any tragic event that he does not care about because it either doesn’t affect him or he doesn’t like “those kind of people.”

Screaming hate at others sometimes get outrage, but it happens so often, it flies under the radar all too often.

On a positive note, 57 percent of young people believe the president encourages violence against journalists. Now, I only have to worry about the middle-aged, old people and republicans, I guess. The pessimist in me also knows polls can say what you want them to say depending on how you phrase the question and interpret the data.

Above the law

Kellyanne Conway is under investigation, again for violating federal law.

No one cares or seems to be outraged at the laws so many of the rich violate, including the Trumps. They are not accountable to the law.

Destruction of the environment and safety measures

We’re rolling back the clock to a more dangerous time.

I’m sure everyone has forgotten the easing of lead paint laws after some fat donations came in.

Then again, we have a vice-president who believes smoking doesn’t kill you.

The Environmental Protection Agency wants to weaken radiation limits. Why? What are the benefits? I don’t know. That one flew under everyone’s radar and no one is investigating.

Trump wants to increase the use of asbestos, of which we have a traceable cancer directly its use.

According to the U.S. International Trade Commission and the Department of Commerce, in August alone, the U.S. imported 272 metric tons of asbestos, compared to 13 metric tons in July.

Rolling back the clock

Everyone should read “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair. Once you read and understand how horrific life once was for everyone, including working children, you’ll know why these moves are dangerous.

Trump would like to train teens in hazardous jobs. There’s a reason why they can’t do these jobs now.

Donald Trump lies. It’s what he does. He can’t even write an op-ed without filling it with lies. He claims he’s a nationalist and we give him a pass. This is not normal. This is how democracy ends.

The president is supposed to be the person we look to as a guide of how we should be and what we as a representative of Americans on the world stage. What does that say about us when we remain silent to the things he does and says? Are we happy that the president doesn’t care about anything because he won? Is winning, no matter the cost, really everything?

I often feel like the Business Plot is happening today, except this time the president is helping move it along.

I am angry over so many things, but I am also tired of being angry. This post is just a few of the things I can readily recall. I’ve missed thousands of others. The lies are so many now we cannot keep up with them and rationally investigate the veracity of each of the claims. My post highlights a few, but there is no time research the claims, the websites they’re written on, or the truth. It’s scandal after scandal after scandal and we can never rest on just one.

I sometimes wonder if anything we do matters, but know that everything we do matters. We are overwhelmed with what is happening, but we also need to find a way to remain focused, to remove the Kakistocracy that has installed itself in Washington.

We need to create a normalcy that doesn’t allow politicians to violate the law and destroy our land. Until then, those in power will continue to enrich themselves while we fight over the scraps of what remains of the truth.