One Week In

 One week into this new Joe Biden Presidential Administration. This is where we are. Already.

1. We can now ignore Twitter
2. The White House briefing room is not an Orwellian nightmare of lies
3. We are now confronting white domestic terrorism
4. We are not paying for golf trips
5. There are no presidential relatives in government
6. The tenor of hearings is sober and serious
7. Qualified and knowledgeable nominees have been selected for senior spots
8. We have a first lady who engages with the public
9. We have not heard a word from presidential children
10. We are now tough on Russian human rights abuses
11. We get normal readouts of sane conversations between the president and foreign leaders
12. The White House philosophy is to underpromise and overdeliver, not the other way around
13. Manners are in, bullying is out
14. You feel calmer after hearing the president
15. Fact-checkers are not overworked
16. Quality entertainers want to perform for the White House
17. We have seen the president’s tax records
18. The president is able to articulate policy details, coherently even
19. The worst the press can come up with is the president’s watch
20. We have a White House staff that looks like America
21. We have a national covid-19 plan
22. Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony S. Fauci is liberated, sounds happy and even looks younger
23. Fauci, not the president, briefs on the science of covid-19 and efficacy of vaccines
24. Masks and social distancing in the White House
25. The White House has policy initiatives and proposals, not merely leaving it all to Congress
26. The administration is committed to releasing information, not covering it up, on the slaughter of journalist Jamal Khashoggi
27. The Muslim ban is gone
28. It is the Republicans not the Democrats who are in disarray
29. The national security adviser has not been fired for lying to the FBI
30. No Soviet-style fawning over the president by his subordinates
31. The president takes daily, in-person intelligence briefings
32. The president does not care about Air Force One colors
33. We have a president familiar with the Constitution
34. Real cable news outlets get high ratings, others not so much
35. President Andrew Jackson is out of the Oval Office, Benjamin Franklin is in
36. Voice of America is back in the hands of actual journalists
37. We get memes about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), not crowd size
38. We are back in the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization
39. Instead of running it like a business, the new administration will try running government competently
40. We have a president who doesn’t think military service is for “suckers” and who doesn’t send his “love” to people assaulting law enforcement
41. The secretary of treasury nominee has her own Hamilton lyrics
42. Amanda Gorman is a household name
43. More than two-thirds of Americans approve of the White House covid-19 approach.
44. No more work-free “executive time” in the presidential living quarters
45. We have a churchgoing president “who has spent a lifetime steeped in Christian rituals and practices.”
47. The vice president’s spouse does not teach at a school that bars LGBTQ students
48. The White House takes the Hatch Act seriously
49. The administration wants as many people as possible to vote
50. The president will talk more to our allies than to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Not perfect, certainly. But it's good. It's very good. It's a huge, huge improvement.

Good on you, America. 

No, great on you.

Donald J Trump, The Great Divider

This is how bad it's gotten, how bad it is on and with and under and because of Trump. First up, this. He's isolated and is isolating us, the nation, the US from our allies.

Trump, US isolated as Europe rejects 

'America First' policy

Abroad, Trump leaves the US isolated, 

ridiculed, and pitied

Embattled at Home, 

Trump Finds Himself Isolated Abroad

Trump finds himself isolated among allies

And here are the results of all that isolation on his part.

U.S. Allies Look on in Dismay 

While U.S. Rivals Rejoice

'Horrified': Around the world, 

American allies are stunned

Next up, what he's doing internally here in the States.

Trump Goes Ballistic And Announces Plans To Campaign Against Lisa Murkowski In 2022

The Great Divider. First dividing the nation, now dividing his political party. Quite the guy.

At least we want that second one.

Finally, then, what it's doing to all of us, to the nation out here.

Ex-defense chief Mattis rips Trump 

for dividing Americans

Then, finally today, there's this. He's now even isolating himself.

Trump Is Literally Building A Wall 

Around the White House

Trump Has Imprisoned Himself 

in the White House

Then there are natural reactions to this, of course.

#Babygate trends after Trump 

surrounds the White House

Don't you imagine there is, somewhere in Donald Trump's files from school, at least one reference--if not many--to the fact that he "doesn't get along well with others"?

Thanks, Mr. President!

More to the point, thanks, Republicans! 

That's quite the guy you've foisted on us all.

Now, Americans, let's all pull together, get this guy and all his supporters out of government and repair all this damage, internally, nationally as well as nationally.

We must.

The Ugliest, Most Dangerous, Most Untrue Advertisement I've ever seen.

A friend posted this on his Facebook page today. It says it's from the NRA.


And what he said about it is dead on, too, no pun intended.

Beware folks, the NRA is advocating basically a civil war with this ad that is nothing short of stochastic terrorism. They are calling for gun owners to make a violent response to freedom of assembly, a First Amendment right. This is a message to incite domestic terrorism. The use of words like "assassinate" are a dogwhistle to the faithful gun cult.

Liberals hate that the rightwing is so misinformed. The Right Wing has marketed the message to hate Liberals. 

This may not end well. 

I have seen many Right Wingers saying lately that Liberals should be rounded up and shot. or worse. with folks inciting people to take action on that. 

We are all Americans and we should be working together to make America a better , more equitable place. Liberty, equality and fraternity.

This video inciting hatred of neighbor on neighbor is a most shocking and unpatriotic piece of propaganda. 

It is stochastic terrorism and should be branded a hate crime.

--Richard Trombly

If there is any silver lining, so to speak, on these clouds of ugliness, it's this.

Fewer and Fewer Americans Own Guns

American gun ownership drops to 

lowest in nearly 40 years

Fewer Americans Own Guns, 

But Those Who Do Own More Than Ever

Fewer Americans Own Guns, 

But Those Who Do Own More Than Ever

Here's hoping sanity and intelligence and calm, rational thought and true patriotism wins out, ultimately.

Happy Fourth, y'all.

In case you want to know what they mean

As always, click on picture for better viewing.

From Jefferson City, with love

Click on the two separate pictures for easier reading.

Here's some great news about the media out today

The Right-Wing Talk-Radio Flame Out        

Thank goodness and good riddance.


After all, hate and ugliness and demagoguery and race-baiting and division and negativity can only take you so far, ultimately, fortunately. 

Conservatives vs. Conservatives and the Religious vs. the Religious

There is a terrific article out yesterday in the Kansas City Star about "The two leading Republican candidates for Kansas’ open Senate seat Tuesday night clashed on a central question: Who is the strongest conservative in the race? And this, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what has been going on in this country and the world far too much in the last decade or more. If you're "Conservative", you have to be ultra-conservative--and prove it, in both religion and politics. If you're a Christian, by gosh, you want to prove that you're out-doing all the other religious people in the world, let alone your own church. I had a roommate once who was raised in an uber-religious, Christian, right-wing family. Fortunately for him--and it was the only way I could have lived with him--he got an education and got away from all that crap. But here's the funny thing--"Mom and Dad" raised the kids to be ultra-religious. Predictable, right? So the other son (there were 2 boys) becomes a minister, for heaven's sake (pun intended). It just couldn't get any better than that, right? But here's the rub: Sonny-boy Minister becomes Uber-Uber right-wing, religious and conservative. What a hoot. He thinks he's more--probably much more--religious, "close to God", conservative, fundamentalist and "holy" than the folks. They've been outdone. It's insane. Each one trying to outdo the other, in a competitive, religious way. And that is what is, fortunately for the rest of us clear thinkers, tearing apart the Republican Party, what with the breakaway Libertarians and now the "Tea Party", etc., etc. They all want to go further "Right" and outdo the other. And that's just what Todd Tiahrt and Jerry Moran did last night, apparently, at this debate. And that's what the Sunnis and Shii'as do in the Middle East, in Iraq and thereabouts. Only they kill each other. You'd just be very hard pressed to get the Republicans, either of these 2 candidates or any Christian or group of Christians to see the similarities between them and the Muslims killing one another. Did you know there is incredibly little difference in doctrine between the Sunnis and Shii'a Muslims? Yeah, there is. BUT THEY KILL EACH OTHER. It's insane but it's what they do and, to date, there is no stopping them. Same with Republicans, in a lesser way (--though no killing. Yet. That we know of). They keep shredding their political party but there's no stopping them, God bless their shiny little heads. We got rid of Communism, virtually worldwide and its supposedly life-threatening nature and at first I thought it was going to be the gays that would get demonized to the exclusion of all others but no. It's conservatives and fundamentalists in religions and political parties that are tearing each other apart. And you know what? May they have at it as long as they wish. Link to original story: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/07/06/2067255/moran-and-tiahrt-debate-whos-the.html