Things in General

                                                               Things in general

        One thing (out of a long list) this election cycle has done is make me truly hate the term "double down." It's a Blackjack term as I'm sure all of you know, but has been hijacked by most media outlets for use such as "Trump doubled down on his comments regarding...."     when what  they actually mean is  "Trump said some really dumb/ sexist/offensive/Xenophobic  shit, and to compound the felony,  he reiterated it."

        Another observation is that there is a general lack of understanding among many of our citizens of even the most basic functions of the federal government. This covers anything related to amendments to the Constitution, confirmation of USSC Justices, how bills are introduced and who must do it, and the limits on what a President could actually accomplish  when the entire Congress hated him.

       This next is just an observation based on my keen insight into the two party system . Not all Republicans, by any means,  are Racist, Xenophobic, Evangelical Rednecks.  Then again, not all Republicans support Donald Trump either. What is almost equally certain, however, is that a huge majority of  Racist, Xenophobic, Evangelical  Rednecks are Republicans, and do.

       In another first, seldom (never) have I witnessed such a concerted effort to discredit and slander any person over a period of almost four years primarily because of the belief that this person might do something. The 2012 election night wake held at Faux News by Rove, Hannity, and a cast of sycophants was, beyond doubt, also the organizational  meeting of  "let's get Hillary" club. As the presumptive candidate, or at least the most likely one, the Far Right process of  lies, innuendo and slander commenced. The double standard exhibited in the process is nauseating. There are several; examples that stand out, although as Trump became the Republican nominee, the duplicity became far worse.

          Start with the attempts to smear the Sec State and the President in the case of the deaths at Benghazi. Without going into too much detail (and believe me I could)  previous recent  presidents all had more foreign service personnel die on their watches, skipping George H.W Bush. Hundreds died in Lebanon under Reagan, the last bunch after he had promised a Congressional committee to enhance security. 213 were killed in Kenya alone, during the Clinton administration.  Discounting 9/11, there were 13 attacks on Americans at embassies and more than 20 deaths under the George W. Bush administration. Why all the furor over 4 deaths at an annex, where there was no Marine Guard. Why the furor when the ambassador who died had refused offers of more security during the previous weeks? And most specifically why spend more time and money than the 9/11 commission, the JFK assassination  and Pearl Harbor combined  trying to create the fiction of some dire plot which would condemn the President and the SecState? We know why. It had f**k - all to do with the deaths and everything to do with the upcoming probable candidate status of the SecState. So we get the catchy bumper sticker "Hillary lied and 4 died" which implies essentially that she was responsible for their deaths rather than the terrorists who stormed the annex. What has also been lost in the fog of character assignation is that the annex was actually a front for the CIA's efforts to channel, arms to the "Good Libyans."  It had no Marine guard because it wasn't the embassy. No plot, no sinister plan. On the other hand after the third bombing and killing of Americans in 2 years in Lebanon in the 80s, a bi-partisan committee was convened to inquire about the incidents. The joint recommendation to President Reagan was to increase security, but not a word of criticism was leveled at anyone. Regardless  of that fact, the changes were not made, and about a year later another attack killed more Americans. Still no blame assigned. Imagine if that had been Benghazi. If Benghazi had happened in the Reagan years, it would be just a footnote. Yes, an ambassador was killed , actually died of smoke inhalation. In Beirut the CIA station chief was actually tortured to death on video which Reagan watched.

               One more: Last time. The Clinton foundation is legit. Several of the nation's  top charity watchdog groups give it the highest rating, yet, it's been a other source of Trump vitriol against the Clintons.  I assume it bothers him that they actually do great things for many different groups of people world wide. It also probably bothers him that they personally donated more (over a million each of the last three years ) to the Foundation than his charity gave out. It is worthy of note that no one named Clinton takes a dime from the charity, while Trump uses funds donated to his charity to pay bills, buy signed football helmets and have portraits of himself painted.

        Next issue: I dislike Marco Rubio. He is a grossly overpaid, religious zealot, homophobe and misogynist, who goes to work slightly fewer days than  I play golf  in a given year (twice weekly). Worse for Florida, Lake Okeechobee, the St. Lucie River, and the entire Indian River Lagoon, he is in the pocket of big sugar so deep that he could give Alfy Fanjul a handjob.  I say that to say this: I agree with a recent statement he made! Yeah, really. Rubio cautioned against the use of leaked e-mails because of the impossibility of verifying them (we already know several were faked) and actually being very wise, he said "today it's the Democrats, tomorrow it could be us." There I said it, from now on screw him.