Tag Archive: Government Shutdown


The Voter Fraud Clown Show

Filed under: Right Speech — Leave a comment
January 25, 2017

Trump holds a rally with supporters in Council Bluffs, Iowa, U.S.

Watching the current White House Administration claim three to five million illegal voters participated in and cast ballots for Hillary Clinton is like watching a never-ending comedy marathon. Even White House press secretary Sean Spicer was forced to stand at the podium and reiterate the allegation.

So in case you missed the show, Trump lost the 2016 popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes. He did win the Electoral College. The Electoral College put Trump as America’s head honcho. This is like saying, “I won at poker table with an inside flush, but my opponent collected 30 cards of a deck of 52. That fucking pisses me off. I am entitled to all the cards.”

Instead of moving on, Trump gets pissed to the point that his post-election tweet noted, “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” Instead of “Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!,” Trump’s administration is water-downed by such a bullshit story, performed either by incompetence or stupidity – you pick.

The Truth About Voter Fraud, a report written by experts at The Brennan Center for Justice, found voter fraud rates were between 0.00004% and 0.0009%. In other words, of all the voters who cast ballots, one is more likely to get struck by lightning than meet an actual illegal voter.

Unfortunately the White House is home to our chief law enforcement officer and head of the legislative staff. But to give the current administration the benefit of doubt, I reiterate Senator Graham’s comments:

“I wasn’t there, but if the President of the United States is claiming that 3.5 million people voted illegally, that shakes confidence in our democracy — he needs to disclose why he believes that,” Graham told CNN.

We do know of one case of voter fraud – she was a Trump supporter. If White House Representatives produces evidence that millions voted illegally, then it holds true some of those illegal votes were probably cast in favor of Republicans. Thus, a recount could prove Trump is not the elected President. By reviewing data more analytically, we can query how does administration gather data, how does the administration know who is a non-citizen and how do they know all voted for Clinton?

Maybe they received the data from Russia or WikiLeaks.

From a Buddhist standpoint, maybe we (this website as well) shouldn’t spend all this time debunking Trump’s lies. Repeating lies and myths—even to debunk them—simply ends up reinforcing them, as countless studies have shown. If you want to debunk a lie, you should focus on stating the truth, not repeating the lie.

For God’s sake, live in truth.

For the rest of us, sometimes it’s better to watch the clown show.

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Perfect Liberty

Filed under: Faith & Doubt, Life Lessons, Right Speech, Social Justice — Leave a comment
October 23, 2013

1999-xmas-ignorance-wantAccording to a Standard and Poor’s estimate, the US economy lost up to $24 billion during the recent shutdown-showdown.  And if you listen to the White House, some 120,000 jobs we erased as well.  While I pretty much concede with the former, the latter is most likely open to interpretation.

However, with the multitude of lessons learned, one would think politicians reaching across the aisle would snag the top spot on anyone’s list.  However, Democratic Representative Alan Grayson whipped out an email that basically compared the Tea Party to the Ku Klux Klan, referring to “… the Tea Party is no more popular than the Klan” while also claiming the “ultimate Tea Party Republican desire” is to “bring about the End of Days.”

The email went to Grayson’s supporters in a Monday email that also features a picture of a burning cross, with two KKK members in the background, forming the first letter T of the words “Tea Party.” “Now you know what the “‘T’ stands for,” a caption of the photo reads. Upon clicking upon the controversial photo, users are redirected to a page requesting donations for the representative’s campaign.  Grayson also claimed, “… Tea Party is the home of bigotry and discrimination in America today, just as the KKK was for an earlier generation.  If the shoe fits, wear it.”

Personally I find Grayson’s comments utterly ignorant. Frist, the tea party movement arose in response to economic issues in 2009 and, unlike the KKK, is led by a number of black leaders. The tea party has engaged in no acts of anti-black terrorism, unlike the KKK.

Secondly, I cannot recall any time where a tea party member actually wore a white robe and white hood while burning crosses in front of black congressmen/women offices.  Also, correct me if I’m wrong, there was not a single lynching, cross burning and no advocacy for advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration which was historically expressed through terrorism.

Unfortunately, intended or not, the behavior exhibited by Grayson exudes bigotry. This lends proof to the fact that ignorance is not “harmless” but is often “hateful.” While one can find themselves on the opposite end of Republican theology, the ignorance directed by Grayson toward Republican members of Congress was “reprehensible.”  Whether you’re a person of faith, a believer or non-believer, hatred will never bring change. The only thing hatred leads toward is violence.

There are many outstanding members of congress, including Independent thinking Democrats, Republicans and Tea Party alike. In Buddhism, we are taught harboring three specific poisons often leads to suffering. The three poisons are lobha, dvesha and moha, translated as “greed,” “hate” and “ignorance.” Grayson’s comments come straight from ignorance and hate.

As the spirit of the holidays near, I suggest all of us reread Dickens’ social message in the “The Christmas Carol.” The problems of “Ignorance” and “Want” are prevalent now. To Grayson … and all like him … our nation is starving. Better imperfect means to help the poor than allowing a search for some ideological perfection that leaves people in ignorance and want.

Perfect liberty without food is not liberty at all.

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Shutdown-Showdown

Filed under: Do No Harm, Life Lessons, Social Justice — Leave a comment
October 16, 2013

cruz_palin_carson-620x412After listening to Ted Cruz’s diatribe on the Senate floor tonight, I couldn’t help but reflect upon the weirdness of both the government shutdown and showdown.  As I listened to Cruz, my initial reaction was simply, “For God’s sake … someone please pull the microphone.”

One should not construe my position as pro-liberal or pro-conservative. Yet many are confused by Cruz’s consistent diarrhea of the mouth.  What bothers me is that Cruz thoughtlessly scuttled the government simply to expand the conservative base. To those of us who lost income for the last seventeen days, Cruz should be considered cannon fodder during the next Fourth of July festivities (i.e., should there be a government).

Here are other weird shutdown-showdown stupidities I observed:

  • Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin, after leading Tea Party representatives to close the government, go to a World War II memorial rally to express outrage that the government is closed.
  • Palin suggesting that if the country defaults on its debt, Obama risks impeachment.
  • House Republicans singing “Amazing Grace.” NY Times Columnist Maureen Dowd humorously noted, “… but they’re amazing only for their lack of grace.”
  • GOP strategist and CNN commentator Alex Castellanos for being “high” after likening Ted Cruz‘s shutdown strategy to rabbit mating rituals. What The F…. was that?
  • Boehner saying, “We fought the good fight, we just didn’t win.” Really? A good fight?
  • Boehner and the Republicans being compared to the Texan defenders of the Alamo.
  • Listening to Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch to demand Obama leave town, to put the Quran down and come out with his hands up. What The F…. was that?
  • Bishop E.W. Jackson claiming government programs creates more harm to blacks than slavery. What The F…. was that?

Sadly, none of these representatives who supported sequestration and shutdown were ever on the average Joe’s side.  After all the rhetoric, after all the back and forth and posturing, real Americans lost.  Why? Well, forty-four (44) of the representatives supporting the battle against the Affordable Care Act are part of an elite group. In total, these representatives have a combined net worth of more than $342 million dollars. That’s enough to put them in the top 1% of wealth in the country.

So the 1% really believes in you, the 50% or so working families making an average of $50,000? If you seriously believe that, then you must believe Federal agencies creating new websites to tell visitors that they don’t have enough funding to run their old websites … was really a good idea.

The real losers are our children.  Our children will inherit government spending, investments, entitlements and poverty alleviation that have overwhelmingly benefited elderly voters. It’s the working youth of America that will have to support me … the rapidly aging fifty-three (53) year-old.

In an unlike Buddhist fashion, our generation has created significant personal entitlements unto our own ego. And eventually, America will lack in true economic growth, inadequate investments in infrastructure of the future, such as early childhood education, medical and technology research that help the poorest and investments that create substantial jobs, not just those at Burger King, McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Sadly, the family dog gets better scraps than those reserved for the children.

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