Another Scary Thought

Joyce Corley

The Apple (Donald Trump Junior) Doesn't fall from the tree!

I couldn't believe his stupid analogy.  Here's a question for he and his Dad!  - Another good one from the Daily Kos website!

It's So Scary I Can Barely force Myself to Laugh

Joyce Corley

There are actually people out there who are so dumb.  I got this one from the Daily Kos website

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Gee, I'm Really Afraid!  Very Afraid!

I've been away from my blog spot for a while but I'm back, and in many respects I am talking once again about some of the same issues that were bugging me the last time I wrote.  I can't get over the ugliness and uber-partisanship that has overtaken our country.  I can't get over the disrespect that bellows from one party in particular.  One question rings in my head.  When does partisanship win over love of country?

On Friday I spent the morning waiting to hear Trump's statement about the birther movement that he started.  I was so angry to see how he literally played the press, as he always does (they run at his slightest move to speak), and they still failed to call him for his shenanigans.

He announces that a statement will be made at one of his new hotels.  All the press shows up!  For quite a few minutes he speaks rapturously about the features and magnificence of the hotel he is opening, and they are meeting it.  Then he introduces a few tin generals, other known alt-right military spokespeople, and two Medal of Honor winners who all proclaimed his marvelous and unrivaled powers to lead us as a country.

Then, coward that he is, (proven by his antics to keep from serving during the Viet Nam war because he had bone spurs), he makes a three sentence statement saying that "Barack Obama was born in the Us.  Period.  Now lets go back to Making America Great again".

I am not really mad at Donald Trump...I realize he is a showman and an actor.  He said himself last week at a rally how hot it gets every time he 'performs".  Not a very good one because his immaturity keeps getting in the way.  I am more concerned and ultimately mad at the millions of people who listen to him and believe him.  I can't believe there are so many American people who are willing to push aside not only their best interests, but also their common sense.  All in the name of combating political correctness???  I can't believe it!  How about his promoting discrimination and and virtual racism.  Is all allowable this election cycle?  Are there no broken standards, nor lies that are based on conspiracy theories he picked up on the Internet.   There is no discredited lie he tells that his followers will turn away from.  No one really calls him on it.  I always thought we looked for leaders who were honest and forthright.  Leaders that we could trust and have confidence in.  Yet, here we have a candidate that lies continuously and has no record of ever caring about anyone except himself and some of his children.

I know many citizens take it for granted that the American People won't elect a character like Trump.  I do not share that laissez faire attitude.  At this point I believe it is highly likely we will wake up on November 7th with dictator Trump heading for the White House.  I believe we must encourage everyone we know, and especially young people, to vote for Hilary Clinton.  She is not only a WOMAN, but a seasoned politician and experienced student of political science.  She has been First Lady, Secretary of State, and a woman who has spent the major part of her life working to make America better for all citizens.  She has also withstood 40 years of vicious smears and lies lobbied her way by political adversaries and withstood that pressure.  Yet, despite the vitriol and lies she is still willing to serve her country at the highest level.  We know from our observations of Barack Obama, that it's not an easy nor appreciated job.  No one is perfect, and we all have mistakes in our past that we regret.  Hilary has apologized repeatedly.  Donald Trump never apologize.   But, I forget, she is a woman candidate and she must be PERFECT!  Lets be real and keep the real villain out of the white House.  If not, I'm convinced you will get what you ask for!!!!  Bigotry, Discrimination, Gloom and Doom!

Be afraid, very afraid.

2016 - September 16^th

I’m back!!!!

My political angst is at the highest level ever, and I didn’t think that was possible!

The campaign between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton has literally made me sick.

My joy and anticipation at the long overdue prospect of having a woman run for, and be elected president has been overshadowed by the double standards the press and other right-wing political leaders hold Hillary to, as compared to an immature, bombastic buffoon who is allowed to say and do anything he wants without having to answer for it.  He is considered a great success when he can just even stick to his script on the teleprompter and not brag about himself.  He makes up things to suit his campaign with no factual basis or credibility.  He is a master of exaggeration, most of which has no real basis in truth.

I really believe ‘He has a dark, ugly soul.’ as Elizabeth Warren says.  Who wants to be a victim of that kind of scenario?

After a campaign like this we all will be asking, “How do you get the stink off?”  The only way is to make sure Donald Trump’s Reality Show approach to becoming president doesn’t come to fruition!    Tell everyone, Keep the Liar out of the Whitehouse.

So, I will write my blog again in hopes that I can influence even a few people (especially young ones) to vote for the better candidate and preserve our democracy!

Joyce

The 2016 Circus Has Begun!!!!

Ted Cruz for President

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas

I watched in stunned and begrudging admiration today as Ted Cruz launched his run for the 2016 presidential nomination.  From my perspective as an African-American, Christian woman who believes in the freedom of speech and expression just as much as the next person, and even more than some, I am truly amazed and I can’t help but wonder at the consequences of a Ted Cruz win.  He coined the slogan “Imagine” numerous times in his speech.  

He artfully choreographed a speech targeted at a red-meat , ultra-conservative crowd, that was in many ways acutely tuned into all the catch-phrases and  rhetoric that is aimed at raising their collective ire getting rid of the guy in the White House. 

Indeed, I too echo the term Imagine in response to his call for support!  Imagine a country where Ted Cruz was our president.  A country where compromise and cooperation were despised, where no rules or traditions applied except winning the next election!  Where political one-ups-man-ship comes first always!  Where opposition to thoughts other than your own are opposed at all costs to the jeopardy of the common man-citizen.  Where no pain is too great for the country to suffer through as long as it opposes the person in the White House who is deemed inappropriate because of his skin color, belief systems, or political party, and who is demeaned at every turn., for any public position.   Imagine a country where the most vulnerable are forced to suffer just so a political party can make a point.  Imagine a country where the national parks and other federal services are arbitrarily shut down based on the political whim of politicians wanting to force budget issues. 

Imagine a country where there is no respect for duly elected authority.  Imagine a country where open, traitorous practices are tolerated based solely on the unacceptable race or ethnicity of the President.  Imagine a country where unprecedented rudeness at the SOTU is not only allowed but anticipated.  Imagine a country where the EPA, the Post Office, the Department of Labor, and any other federal agencies that are geared to protect our human rights and the environment, are targeted for destruction. 

Imagine a country where you can freely and actively undermine the strategies of the sitting US government and the legitimately elected President of the U.S.,  without waiting for your elected turn to impose your will on not only the country but the world.    Where you can say any racist thing about your president or colleagues with no consequences, either ethically or politically.  Imagine that country and tell me it is better that what we have now!  Imagine that country and tell me you would like it!  If so, then enthusiastically go and vote for Ted Cruz.

Violence and disrespect

The Modeling Starts at the Top!

Everyone does it!

Why are we shocked at the violence in our society and the blatant disrespect for any level of authority (fellow citizens, police, the President).  The kids learn it from their elders and I do mean their elders – the elder statesmen who are elected to run our country for the good of all it’s citizens.  There is no indecency that is out of bounds today to demean the president and his office.  The elders in Washington lead the way, where everything is about politics and one-ups-man-ship and anything to win.  No decisions are made these days with you and I in mind.  When politicians overtly work to overturn the policies that the president feels will work to benefit not only our country, but the world.  When politicians overtly delay the next cabinet nomination without just cause and no legitimate dissent.  When politicians overtly call the president a liar.  When politicians overtly write letters to other nations undermining the work of our state department.  When politicians overtly invite foreign leaders to come to speak to the governing houses of this nation in order to undermine a deal that neither they, or none of us really know anything about.  When politicians overtly vote 50 + times to overturn a healthcare law that is the law of the land instead of working vigorously to make it better! 

When politicians overtly seek to go back to a time when voting rights were challenged, women aren’t smart enough to make their own decisions and they don’t remember that there is indeed separation of church and state.  When politicians govern by deadline, blackmail and hijacking. 

I have not always liked or admired every president during my lifetime, but I always respected his office and position.  I was an educator for 30 years and today I feel that the ideals and platitudes I espoused to my thousands of students (a large number of whom were Arican-American, Asian and Hispanic) over the years were really untruths.  I remember saying repeatedly, year after year, "What a wonderful country we live in!   If you do well in school and work hard you can do anything you want to do in the US – even be president.”  I believe in free speech and freedom of expression just as much as the next person, but this current version is not the America I have loved and admired.  It is indeed becoming a lot like a circus, to be polite.

Surviving Being Black in America

There is something wrong in America!  I was actually born a flag waving patriotic baby!  I love the United States of America.  I was taught from birth to love and revere the country I was born in.  This was taught to me by my parents.  I literally spent 1/7th of my first two years at Sawtelle Veterans Hospital in the Westwood section of Los Angeles.    Every Sunday was spent there visiting my Uncle, Eddie DeQuir, a veteran of WW1.  Uncle Eddie was a French speaking Louisianan, who had been gassed in the trenches of France where he served as an infantryman and interpreter.  This service to his country had left him broken as well as leaving his body riddled with rheumatism.  He never fully recovered.  We went to see him every Sunday of the first two years of my life and continued to do so on a regular basis until he died in 1965.  Our family thought of Uncle Eddie as a war hero.  But I forget, he was black, so that can't be!

I spent three decades as an educator teaching students and even other educators the importance of believing that the American Dream lives on and must be inherent in every child's life and mind so that we could encourage them to do their best to try to achieve at their highest level.  But I forget, some of those children were black, so that can't really be.  There is something wrong in America.  

We have a president who is half African-American, and that mere fact has caused a an elected body of legislators to literally stop governing and instead concentrate all their efforts to put up resistance to any and everything this president proposes or even suggests.  Overt racism and discrimination has taken the cover of the new Jim Crow symbolized by the actions of groups like Alec, sponsored the Koch brothers, and the Republican secretaries of state who have brought back voter discrimination laws in their many not so well disguised laws.  It is back in the words of the Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts who said in his ruling that America has changed.  It indeed has, but why.  Because there were laws written to ensure that this discrimination could be identified and prosecuted.  But I forgot, the victims of the discrimination are black or Hispanic, so that can't really count can it?

A seventeen year old boy in Florida is shot while walking in his Dad's neighborhood.  He is unarmed and doing nothing wrong.  He is walking in the rain, going home.  He looks suspicious because he is African-American and wearing a dark colored hoodie.  Somehow, this makes him look like a suspect to a man who sees him as he is driving by.  Unfortunately for the seventeen year old, this man is head of the neighborhood watch program and he is armed with a 9mm gun, fully loaded and has one in the chamber.   His skin is black and he certainly has no right to be there in the Retreat at Twin Lakes.  Right?  The man has a driving desire to protect his community.  Even though he  has called the police to alert them and he has been told not to follow the 'suspect',  he and his gun get out of his car and at some point confronts the seventeen year old.  By his own admission the man never identifies himself as a member of neighborhood watch.  Subsequently, the man shoots and kills the seventeen year old boy.   This all happened 17 months ago in Seminole County Florida.  The case came to national attention when four months had passed before the shooter was actually taken into custody and charged with anything.  President Barack Obama commented publicly that if he had a son, he would look like the seventeen year old boy.  The whole country has been watching to see what the outcome would be.  Again, the observers are mostly separated along racial lines.  The seventeen year old boy and his reputation has been demonized and depicted as a criminal thug by the defense.  The last person who was speaking with the seventeen year old boy just before he died, has been demeaned and depicted as dumb by one of the defense attorneys both in the court room and on twitter along with his two daughters.  There is something wrong in America!

The case has been adjudicated and six women (all white) found enough reasonable doubt that allowed them to to find the man not guilty.  Not innocent, but not guilty.  I don't believe the criminal justice system failed the seventeen year old boy and his family.  I think it did it's best under the circumstances.

The circumstances were brought home to me vividly when I received the following e-mail from someone I consider a friend.  We are totally different in our political orientation (he is ultra conservative, and I am God-fearing liberal, almost sometimes to the point of being radical).  We like and respect each other and have a love of photography in common.  I want you to see the email (see below) and tell me what you think.  Tell me what I should think.  With this kind of thinking from people I had considered rationale, how do you Survive being Black in America.  I welcome your comments!!!
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Unfortunnately, I had to remove the e-mail and photo because it had been desecrated!!!!!
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