Tag: Jobs

THE FACT IS HE’S VICTIMIZING HIS BACKERS MOST OF ALL

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 7 Comments

Contrary to the claims of his stubbornly diehard followers, Donald J. Trump has not been “telling it like it is.” Instead, his blustery tirades are so chock full of factual errors, lies, half-lies, fabrications, utter fictions – offenses he flippantly dismisses as “sarcasm” and “jokes” – that it’s now safe to assume that everything out of his mouth and his campaign staff is utter hokum until proven otherwise.

Just look at the odds of his saying anything backed up by substantiated numbers, history, or public documents. The blatant disregard for truth – moral and empirical – manifested by the nominee and his entourage means that we can trust nothing they say or do.

And that’s before we get to the now predictable routine of clarifications, denials, and reiterations of any Trump whopper – something the Huffington Post has identified as The 9 Stages of a Trump Statement: It takes time to drain what you say of any meaning.

And what’s his response to anyone who questions his delusional taradiddle or deflates it with hard-and-true reality? He accuses them of being biased against him, rigging the outcome, having ethnic impurities – anything but taking the blame himself when his immature decisions and outbursts backfire, as they inevitably will. What he really wants, of course, is for everything to be biased and rigged in his own favor – nothing fair or just or equitable at all. It’s the spoiled little brat many Americans are recognizing as Trump. Remember the classmate who hadn’t studied for the test or done last night’s homework? Remember the scampering to hem-and-haw around the question? When’s the last time you’ve even seen him answer a question, rather than evade it? Remember, when it comes to cheating, he’s a pro, if you look at his business record or the legal cases already decided against him. Con-artist, indeed.

He might be venting the pain of many of his core backers, but their economic and social distress is not his gilded situation in life – he just has the huckster’s instincts in knowing who to victimize for his own advantage, as long as he can. And then? It will all simply blow up in smoke. You know, a joke, just don’t expect a refund, folks, you got your show. So where does he stand in all this, where’s the backbone and rectitude? Who knows, he’s so busy contradicting himself, believe me. You wouldn’t want a mechanic working on your car or a contractor renovating your house to be so oblivious to facts and accountability. That’s just one more reason he won’t release his income-tax filings, by the way.

Looks like Trump’s running against Trump, and both are losing.

~*~

As the pleas by Republican operatives and insiders keep mounting for a reset on Trump’s campaign (among them the conservative Wall Street Journal’s stinging editorial warning released Sunday night), we’ve heard no one admit that one item cannot be redialed at this point: Trump’s credibility. (It’s like virginity, as he would taunt others. Or a reputation as a slut.) Even his spokesperson Katrina Pierson, who’s supposed to give reporters access to reliable information, has turned into a joke – just look up the social media treatment she’s provoked. Put another way, she’s toast or another widely repeated punch line.

Whatever leeway the average American might offer in regard to sincerity or effort or even “white lies” kindness from a candidate has long ago been transgressed. More and more, Trump’s the kid you steer away from in the playground or on the street. He’s earned a bad rep, one that will taint everything he says or does from here on out. Want to talk about a tailspin? The facts will keep piling up, from many fronts, now that the chase is on.

~*~

In the deluge of Trump’s hogwash, I’m astonished that right-wing Christian leaders stick with him, considering their widespread acknowledgement of Satan as the author of lies. How can you defend someone openly practicing that craft? Crucially, when Jesus faces something similar in proclaiming Truth, he retorts: “Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of … the devil … He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:43-45, RSV).

And you’re going to say Jesus was joking? To think, lies are a form of murder.

LUCKY WINNER

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 2 Comments

As I said at the time, back in the days before those e-mails from Nigeria or other wealthy countries filled my spam filter:

I’d just received another three or four packages in the mail informing me I’m the lucky winner of prizes worth millions and millions of dollars if I only respond promptly.

What I still want to know is why these folks get the cheap third-class mailing rate — the one that costs about a third of what children have to pay to send correspondence to their pen pals or their grandparents.

If they’re so fabulously rich that they can offer to give such wealth away, why don’t they relieve the U.S. Postal Service of some of its burden—rather than piling on it? From the looks of it, they should be able to deliver by Express Mail — or even come directly to our doorsteps.

Or is that why it’s called third class?

(As I said then:) The postal rate increases are so reflective of federal government thinking these days. It’s another case of soaking the average citizen and giving the richest clients the biggest breaks.

Very truly yours …

 

SO MUCH FOR THE SELF-UNMADE MAN

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 4 Comments

The anarchists posing as conservatives seem to believe they can go it alone when the new Dark Ages arrive.

Really? How are you going to pay for bullets? Who’s going to print and back up this thing we call money? Gold’s only a glimmer of what’s needed, especially if you’re starving in a famine.

Who’s going to refine your oil? Maintain your highways? Even if you think you’ll be all off-road travel, just wait till you hit a river. (Bridges are costly to build and maintain.) Or cross someone’s fortified fields. Or run into the Chinese army taking over.

The way you’re headed, an arrow and slingshot will be your ultimate weapon in the rubble of what we’ve known as civilization.

I’m praying we’re smarter than that. And like Woodpecker, I’m getting a lot angrier than I’d like.

YES, THERE ARE DIFFERENCES THAT ADD UP

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 5 Comments

Comparing Trump to the Clintons, I’m sensing a difference between outright sleazy and sometimes shady. Not sure quite where to draw the line, but maybe it’s like a billion compared to a million, that is, 1,000-to-1. Or how squishy or rocky whatever is underfoot feels. Or even the direction of the wind.

I suppose, too, that I’d see a difference in a willingness to do business with one or the other. Yes, one I’d avoid altogether, the one with a proclivity to file lawsuit when things don’t go his way. As for the other, I’d simply be wary – and move with good counsel and colleagues.

~*~

I’d extend this to other comparisons. Hillary’s emails with the 22 million Karl Rove deleted from the Bush White House in 2007 or the Bush Administration’s private domain on the RNC server that same year. Where was the congressional investigation? Or is it purely a matter of party loyalty, right or wrong?

Or how about Benghazi versus the eight attacks on U.S. embassies and consulates during the George W. Bush administration or the 213 U.S. Marines killed in a 1983 attack on their barracks in Lebanon, during Ronald Reagan’s White House? Just for perspective, there’s always seemed to be a witch hunt here. Even some hysteria.

Me? I’d like some better balance. Useful advice and help fixing the problems, rather than blame.

TEA PARTY ANARCHY

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

The more I listen, the more I perceive the Tea Party agenda is ultimately an attack on democracy in America. Unlike the Founding Fathers, they have no respect for the necessity of government.

And, be assured, a position of no compromise is the essence of tyrannical dictatorship.

What’s left would be brutal and cruel. Especially, for many of them, without their Social Security, in the aftermath.

And they’re afraid of socialism as an attack on the nation and its values? Think again.

JUST PULL THE PLUG FOR THE DRAIN

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 1 Comment

Been reflecting on the great irony of Fox television’s bias toward right-wing candidates who wrap themselves in a nostalgic image of a nation back before, well, 1960. That is, before the network began spewing its vulgarity into American living rooms and lowering the standards of civilized conversation with language and situations that never before would have been allowed in polite company, much less its propaganda wing of the Republican establishment.

In other words, Fox has been a big part of the problem. Would the solution be to pull the plug? Do it themselves, to clear their conscience? Just wondering.

I’m tired of hearing so-called liberal media take the blame. And please don’t accuse Norman Lear and his societal comedies. They’re downright uplifting by comparison.

It would be fascinating, by the way, to get Archie Bunker’s take on Don “the Con” Trump. I’m guessing even he would see through the shill. Maybe in tandem with George Jefferson, at the bar? I’d drink to that.

LOOKING AT SADISM FOR WHAT IT IS

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 1 Comment

A comment on a Hippie Trails pin at Pinterest just might explain how Trump-Pence followers interpret their vow to “Make America great again.” It goes:

“Man, that takes me back. I began in law enforcement back in the 70s, in the county jail in late 1970, on to police work four years later. we used to knock the crap out of those long hairs. Toss ’em into a drunk tank full of GIs from Fort Hood. Give ’em a free buzz cut on suspicion of lice. Worked out a lot of transition-to-civilian-life stress that way. Made coming to work pleasant. Back when a joint was a felony, and prison meant hard work in the sun. Good times!”

The fact that such a brutal, abusive outlook is still treasured by some shows how far we are from a just society. It echoes so-called conservatives who want to curb bureaucracy and government at the same time they’re invading bedrooms and voting for soaring prison populations.

Listen. Making America great is the opposite of such tyranny.

Or, as many are interpreting the campaign slogan, Make America hate again.

It’s enough to make Jesus weep.

ON THOSE POLITICAL CLAIMS OF PERSONAL FAITH

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 3 Comments

If you’re willing to think President Obama is a Muslim or that Hawaii, where he was born, is a foreign country (it’s not, it’s the 50th State of the Union), then I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised if you accept Donald Trump’s claim to being a Christian.

Me, I want to see some evidence that he respects and follows the teachings of Jesus and St. Paul – a willingness to honor weakness as a virtue, to nurture the Fruits of the Spirit, to side with the oppressed and the poor, to love his enemies rather than ridicule them. Until then? It’s one more empty boast.

By the way, a little reminder may be in order here: Barack is the name of one of the Bible’s great generals, a Jewish hero, not a hint of Islam I can see there. Or is that another of the pages missing from too many Bibles?

Long ago I learned the maxim, Actions speak louder than words. Now, if you’ll excuse me, we have some work to do.

ANOTHER ECONOMICS POLICY QUESTION

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

What if the One Percent moved out of the United States? Where would they go that wouldn’t tax them heavily? Much more heavily than here? Or where they wouldn’t gain so much from the public purse?

Or would they just huddle behind their own Big Wall – a much cheaper option than the one proposed for the southwest corner of the United States.

I presume they’d still be relying on our dollars, too. The kind the Treasury prints.

Besides, they couldn’t take all their assets with them. This is where their wealth’s generated, after all. Really. Even when their banks are Swiss.

As for the lunatic fringe? They would have real reasons to worry. Who else would back them, financially?