2014, a year closer to the end of America?

         The title may seem conspiracy like or even reactionary, but it is not far off base. If we honestly look at some of the things that transpired this year, you have to admit that this isn’t our parents America. The land we live in has fallen quite short of what I thought we were. But this is a disappointment I have gotten used to. Republican and Democrat blaming each other, while both are suckling Wall Streets teat. More insane nut bags threatening our “monkey” President Obama, because his skin color is bothering them. Conservatives pining for the time when white American men were the only people who mattered. Cops not just being bullies, but now shooting and killing unarmed black kids, then saying they felt threatened. Then trying to understand how an adult justifies shooting 12 times at someone running away, while my 10 year old daughter tells the grown up it is wrong. Cops using an illegal choke hold to kill a guy who was selling “loosey” cigarettes, only to hear more adults justify it. Then trying to explain to my 10 and 13 year old kids what is wrong with these people without calling them dumb. This list can go on and on. But seriously, what the hell is wrong with us?

            Everyone screams that things need to change, but when your voice is heard the majority sit home. The American society has failed. We are in general a weak and lazy group. Not all, as I said in general. To show our unhappiness we sit home, to show our social disobedience, we sit home. Sitting home and not participating seems to be the universal answer. America is the way it is because of US, WE THE PEOPLE CREATED THIS MESS. Our apathy has left a shell of a nation for my children. When we can change something, we do not because the devil we know is better then the devil we dont. Unfortunately we have left the fox in the henhouse, we stopped paying attention. Now everything seems corrupted, anyone with the tiniest bit of power has eaten the poison apple. Who cares, no one was watching them. Cops are beating black kids, don’t break the law. Killing black people, don’t break the law. But a black kills a white and all hell breaks loose. Politicians, even the ones where I live are under investigation for being corrupt.

           I love the freedoms I have but I have been negligent of my responsibilities as well. As a democracy, we are responsible for the actions of our representatives, we stopped telling them what to do because they quit doing it. If I stopped doing my job, I would get fired. CONGRESS SHOULD BE FIRED!!! 9% approval yet 94% reelected, what is wrong there. This apathy goes right into how people think. It is easy to hate and be bigoted, doesn’t take any thought. Simple minded people hate people based on color and creed. Stupid and loud people hold a lot of power in this country. How did we allow this? Money is some cases, because in some warped world money means intellegence. Laziness in others, why debate a dumb person, they will never change. We all seem to listen to the loudest speaker, typically the most ignorant person in the room. So this because our education system failed us or just because we lost faith in everything?

             I don’t have any answers. I can’t tell you what is right or wrong. I can tell you that my convictions are changing. I have always been a very liberal Democrat. The liberal part has grown stronger, I believe we need to help one another, foster a sense of community and continue to help the weakest among us to rise above where they are. We are a wealthy country who needs to commit resources to our infrastructure, education, homelessness and better health care, as well as mental health. We need to reel in the police, educate, better training and better mental health screening, as well as holding them accountable for their actions. The same needs to be done with our leaders on all kevels, state, local and federal. As well as TV and radio personalities who spread vitriol and lies. Time for all to be held accountable for their actions. That is a start. To improve our government, term limits for House, Senate and Supreme Court Justices. Time to remove money from politics and deny personhood of corporations. Even the playing field, end lobbying. The Democrat part has been called into question. I agree with them more, but they are also guilty of putting money before the people.

         In general 2014 was another year we failed our children. I will not anymore, my children will see that I believe it is time to stand. There is a movement in this country, it has been building slowly but it is building. I think it will reach a crescendo soon and we will see massive change. It is a dangerous and beautiful time to be alive. We will take our country back. We need to reverse the trend and improve in all aspects. If not America Jay be doomed to fail. Happy New Year! HAPPY NEW AMERICA!!!!

GOP insists President Obama is a dictator as they try to take away our religious freedom.

          GOP reaction to President Obama using executive orders borders on hilarity. He is using executive orders to raise the minimum wage for federal contractors in the future. He is also going to use them to stop gun sales from overseas, to starting a database of those with mental illness, none if these are meant to confiscate even assault weapons.

President Obama has issued 167 executive orders. President Reagan about 390, President George W Bush issued 291 and President George H W Bush issued 165 in one term. Obviously issuing executive orders is not unconstitutional or an impeachable offense. One party seems to defer to their corporate sponsors whims on the majority of issues. Before anyone goes off about corporate sponsors, yes both party’s have them. But the majority of the GOP campaign contributions in 2012 came from big business. How can you dispute this?

I hear all of this conspiracy nuts calling him a dictator. Obviously facts are trumped by beliefs in this case, as in many other political cases. He took over a horrible economy, a banking sector and investment sector full of criminals and a Republican party that was bent on his failure at any cost. The American people ceased to matter. We had been thrown to the side. Yet the Tea Party took their false grass roots movement to the people. False because grass roots are not funded by billionaires like the Koch Brothers. They screamed about protecting the Constitution, while stealing your rights behind your back.

In North Carolina people’s rights to protest are stamped upon. People are arrested for peacefully protesting the Governor’s radical agenda. In Louisiana they are teaching creationism in public schools, which the Supreme Court ruled was unconstitutional. In Louisiana a Muslim boy was told to change his religion or pick a different school. This again is a violation of the First Amendment. Is this how you protect the Constitution? By picking and choosing what works for you.

I do not blindly follow President Obama. I do not agree with the TPP, I believe it is inherently bad for our manufacturing sector. It is not right to ask private companies to compete with government subsidized ones. That is just part of my dislike. The Monsanto Protection Act is a horrible piece of legislation. It offers zero protection to consumers. But for the GOP to harp on controversies that were proved to be false is ridiculous. Benghazi is yheir answer to everything. Republicans falsified emails, concocted stories and cut funding to give more security, but never mention any of that. It is time to govern, not sully a Presidents reputation.

We are recovering despite obstruction from certain groups. The stock market is higher than ever. The ACA is up and working, helping many Americans. There has been job growth for quite some time. The debt is falling, government spending is falling, why is he looked on so disdainfully? I see people saying he is the worst President ever and shake my head. What did President George W Bush do? Is that immediately forgotten? We have a good man in office, who like any other man makes mistakes, but he cares and tries to do the right thing. I think that is how he should be remembered.

Why can Chevron have access to email data but Republicans don’t want NSA have access?

            While Americans and ignorant Conservatives complain about the NSA seizing email data, something more disturbing happened. A Federal Court granted Chevron, yes the corporation, access to 9 years of email meta data. This data includes names, time stamps, detailed location data and login info, but not context.

This data will be taken from activists, lawyers and journalists who criticized the company for drilling in Ecuador, while leaving behind toxic sludge and leaky pipelines. Since 1993 Chevron has lost numerous appeals and has payed about $19 billion to cover the cost of environmental damage. Chevron alledges that it is a victim of extortion, which is why it asked Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, the owner of Hotmail, to give them email data.

Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan of New York granted the Microsoft subpoena last month. He ruled it didnt violate the 1st Amendment because Americans weren’t among the people targeted. But evidently Americans are included. This brings questions to the validity of the subpoena. The First Amendment allows Americans to speak anonymously. A different Federal Judge stopped Chevron’s attempts to seize documents from Amazon Watch, one of Chevrons most vocal critics. That judge said the subpeona was a violation of the groups First Amendment rights.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) represents 40 of the targeted users. Some are members of legal teams and at least one of the targeted Hotmail users is American. Nate Cardoza, attorney for the EFF, says that many of the Yahoo and Gmail users are American.

This seems a desperation move by Chevron. They cannot seem to win any of these legal battles, because they are of course guilty. In 2011 alone Chevron payed $9 billion in damages and was forced to make a public apology. Chevron refused, therefore the damages were doubled. They were more comfortable paying $18 billion than saying “We are sorry”. The U.S.Supreme Court has declined to hear Chevron’s appeal.

I find it odd that Republicans attack President Obama about the NSA collecting email, despite the fact they knew about it, but say nothing about a corporation collecting email data. Most Republicans have recieved a portion of the millions of dollars spent lobbying D.C. each year. The Oil Industry alone spends about $100 million a year on lobbying. Democrats again have to protect our Constitution. Republicans only protect the parts they get paid to protect, 2nd Amendment, sponsored by the NRA. So apparently Republicans are fine with corporations having your information. But not the President they hate because he is a Marxist and Socialist.

Republicans are not job creators, useless law creators.

                  Over the last 5 years Republicans have done little to help the economy and in fact have impeded its recovery. The Sequester alone has cost several hundred thousand jobs; not to mention all the furloughs. They have worked with corporations to stop the will of the people and have made a mockery of our Government.

They believe in deregulation which directly led to the Financial Collapse, the Great Recession and the Housing Crisis. They have fought against reform in all of these markets, hurting our economy. They have not supported American ideals, leaning more toward a bigoted, short sighted corporate view of America. They have shot down Jobs Bill and Veterans Jobs Bills to concentrate on Anti-Abortion and Voter Regulation Laws.

The only way to make the ACA work is to work together. Republicans refuse and would rather destroy the middle class and social safety nets to prevent Tax Reform. They support the Citizens United Supreme Court decision but refuse to hold corporations accountable for their illegal actions. I and most other Americans do not think anyone is above the law or deserves a free ride. That is why not prosecuting CEOs of Too Big Too Fail Banks is a slap in America’s face.

I dont think our founding fathers imagined an American governed by corporations. Nor did they envision a Congress that would work against the countries best interests. But thus is where we are. Knuckleheads screaming for secession, yet they recieve more government money than anyone else. This is a country being held hostage by a party throwing a 4 year temper tantrum. Time for the rich white party to grow up.

What happens when a Congressman doesn’t listen to the NRA?

           Senator Pat Toomey is beginning to see the answer to that question. Toomey a Republican from Pennsylvania helped author the Manchin/Toomey Gun Bill, which of course was shot down, against NRA wishes. Before this he had an A rating with the NRA. Who are the NRA to rate any of our Senators? They are a lobbying group.

The Virginia based National Association for Gun Rights is running a smear campaign against Toomey for that Bill. The Bill required background checks on all gun sales, internet, gun shows and the classifieds. Current law only requires background checks on sales conducted by Federally licensed dealers. They are trying to connect Toomey with President Obama. They are attemptimg to connect him to the manufactured IRS, Benghazi and the NSA scandal. All of which have been proved fruitless. But Toomey is a conservative Republican who is on tge other side of most issues with President Obama.

Toomey now sees what Democrats deal with during each election cycle. Each election cycle the NRA and NAGR go into full attack mode. Portraying anyone who disagrees with their lobbying stance as trying to rob people of their Constitutional rights. All these Senators were trying to do was create sensible gun laws that might help prevent another massacre like Sandy Hook. Lobbyist attack Democrats for going to the bathroom the wrong way. This is what they mean when they say corporate America, politicians owned by corporations and lobbyist groups.

Republicans now on the other side of these attacks, now aren’t so convinced that Super-Pacs are right. They are also questioning the Citizens United decision. They haven’t felt the full effect of lobbyists and corporations trying to get you out of office. Maybe now Campaign Finance Reform can get done. Maybe this will help break the gridlock and help Gun Reform and Immigration Reform get done. But then again any Republican that goes against the grain finds themselves on the outside looking in. The Republican party looks to regress any progress made in America, how else do you explain their support of the Supreme Court gutting the Civil Rights Act. Republicans are beginning to dislike the system they created, it is now hurting them.

Will Republicans make the right choice on the Voting Rights Act?

          Last week the U.S. Supreme Court effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act. States that had previous violations or racially based problems needed to ask the Federal Government to move or change anything about where when and how people voted. The Court bascally said the law was not necessary because there are not as many racial issues as when the law was made. Not giving any recognition that it was because the law that these problems were reduced.

Republicans, who already seem to have moral issues, were handed a huge moral question by the Supreme Court. The GOP has been attempting an outreach in order to attract minority voters to stay competitive in Presidential Elections. The decision put Republicans directly between state autonomy, which is a newfound wish of Republicans, and the law’s popularity with minority voters. Of those voters are the focus of the Republican outreach.

National Republican party Chairman Reince Priebus began the effort well before the court’s decision. He promised to hire minorities to engage with minorities to bring their vote to the Republican side. State and national Republicans reacted to the decision by showing the party’s true feelings toward minorities. At State level Republicans are putting tighter voter restrictions in place. Democrats blast these actions because of their unDemocratic nature and how they violate the Constitution.

North Carolina and Virginia are perfect examples of possible problems for Republicans because of their policies. Minorities helped turn these Republican strongholds into battleground states, won by President Obama in the last 2 elections. President Obama beat challenger Mitt Romney by about 85% among African Americans and by about 44% among Latinos. It seems as if Republicans are only interested in winning the Presidency through cheating, because they most certainly haven’t changed any policies or how they speak if minorities.

Leaving the fate of the Civil Rights Act in the hands of Republicans makes me very uncomfortable. The old Republican party may have supported Civil Rights, the new Republican party does not. They have been on the wrong side of almost every Civil Rights the last 20 years. Most especially the last 10. Several Republican lawmakers across the nation said the Voter I.D. Laws would ensure them a victory by preventing minority votes. They also tried shortening voting hours and early voting. These issues alone show the direction the GOP will take. Our nation; Bill of Rights and Civil Rights will all suffer.

Supreme Court has gouged the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

                  The decision the Supreme Court made today gouges the Civil Rights Act. The Conservative leaning, at leadt that is how it seems, really dropped the ball on this. The Act was put in place in order to protect African-Americans right to vote and make it more difficult for states found guilty at one point of making it difficult for people to vote.

The truly perplexing part of this is what made the Justices come to this decision. The 2012 Election was marred by Voter I.D. Laws and other restrictive Voter Laws. ALEC teamed with the Republican party in an attempt to steal the election by eliminating the poor and minorities from voting with these Laws. Across the country several Republican lawmakers said that these Voter I.D. Laws would cause them to win the election. Isn’t that evidence enough to not just uphold this act, but possibly even stregthen it. But to weaken it, that doesn’t make sense.

Republicans and Democrats are concerned about elections in Iraq, Iran and everywhere else being truly Democratic, yet they throw our Constitution out the window in their desperation to win an election. Voting is the backbone of our Democratic government and society. To take that away from anyone, because you want to win an election is patently unAmerican. But our Constitution only matters to Republicans when it works in their favor.

President Obama spoke of protecting our Constitutional right to vote and how no one has a right to take it away. This Voter Fraud that Republicans talk about is almost non-existent, 2 or 3 cases nationwide in the last election. Welcome to corporate America where a lobbyist is more important than a citizen, but according to the Supreme Court and Republicans, corporations are people too. They just do not held respobsible like a citizen.

Supreme Court rules in favor of Big Business.

               A sharply divided Supreme Court made it more difficult for Americans to sue businesses for discrimination and retaliation. It led to one of of the Judges to call on Congress to overturn the courts action. The High Court ruled 5-4 in 2 major decisions.

                  The Court’s Conservatives ruled that a person must be able to hire and fire someone to be considered a supervisor in discrimination lawsuits. This makes it harder to blame a business for a coworkers’ sexism or racism. The Court then decided to limit how juries can decide retaliation lawsuits. It says victims must prove employers wouldn’t havectaken action against them but for the intention to retaliate.

In the first case, Maetta Vance, who was a catering specialist at Ball State University, accused a co-worker, Shaundra Davis, of racial harrassment and retaliation in 2005. Vance sued the school under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Vance said the University was liable since Davis was her supervisor. But a Federal Judge threw out her lawsuit, saying that since Davis couldn’t fire Vance, she was only a co-worker and since the University had taken corrective action, it was not liable fir Davis’ actions. The 7th Circuit upheld that decision and Vance appealed to the Supreme Court.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote both dissents for the Court’s Liberal wing. She said aloud in Court, “Both decisions dilute the strength of of Title VII in ways Congress could not have intended.” She also said the Supreme Court had corralled Title VII, a law designed to stop discrimination in work places.

But Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the majority opinion, said Davis must have the authority to hire, fire, demote, promote, transfer or discipline Vance, in order for the University to be liable. He also said “We hold that an employee is a supervisor for purposed vicarious liability under Title VII if he or she were empowered by the employer to take tangible employment actions against the victim. Becausr there is no evidence BSU empowered Davis to take tangible employment actions against Vance, the judgement of the Seventh Circuit is affirmed.”

The Conservative portion of the Supreme Court usually rules in favor of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a Republican lobbying group. These are obviously decisions that benefit big bussiness. Of course it is at the expense of the worker. Gutting Title VII removes most, if not all responsibility to protect their employees. Obviously it is up to Democrats to fix this, because Republicans and their corporate sponsors got a win. The people lost again.