progressive

Before It’s Too Late

Fandango31 Comments

The members of the progressive caucus were in lockstep as their chairman began to expatiate on the urgency of dealing with climate change. “We are in the middle of a historic drought,” he said. “Our once plush green fields have turned to arid deserts. We must stop procrastinating or we will continue to have out of control wildfires and other weather extremes that will further exacerbate our climate crisis, which grows more dire with each passing month of inaction.”

“The foregoing comments from my esteemed colleague on the left,” the conservative congressman interrupted, “reflect his empty, liberal rhetoric designed to provide cover for all this hysteria around so-called climate change. Throughout recorded history there have been multiple cyclical weather patterns, yet our planet has survived and humanity has thrived.”

“Sir,” the progressive caucus chairman said, “climate and weather are not the same. Weather refers to short-term atmospheric conditions, while climate refers to long-term and potentially irreversible changes to the weather averaged over an extended period of time.”

“You liberals are bound and determined to destroy our economy by spending billions of dollars to fix a problem that doesn’t exist,” the conservative congressman said. “There have always been incidents of wildfires, massive storms, floods, and earthquakes. Let us not be reactionaries and go off half-cocked.”

“Congressman, you are seventy-five years old. If you can’t do what’s necessary to save our planet for your generation, think about what you can do to save it for your grandchildren’s generation — before it’s too late.”

“That’s their problem, not mine,” the congressman said coldly. “They’ll figure something out.”

“No, congressman, it’s up to us to figure this out before we completely squander our children’s futures. We need to act now or we will have missed this, and possibly the final, opportunity to save our planet.”

Written for these daily prompts from yesterday: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (lockstep), Your Daily Word Prompt (expatiate), Ragtag Daily Prompt (arid), My Vivid Blog (procrastinating), E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (foregoing), Word of the Day Challenge (cover), and The Daily Spur (incident).

Let It Bleed — Yet Another One of Fandango’s Political Rants

Fandango25 Comments

8AD4C5D7-DF97-482F-B97C-0A5D99DC3F3CPlease bear with me while I rant and vent a little about the state of partisan politics in the United States in 2019.

After the release of the full, albeit redacted, Mueller Report, there is a growing debate among Democrats about whether or not to begin the formal impeachment process. More progressive Democrats think members of the House of Representatives must take the initiative and immediately begin impeachment hearings against Donald Trump, even though there is close to a zero chance that such a move would be supported in the Republican controlled Senate.

More moderate Democrats suggest that we continue with ongoing investigations from the House Judiciary, Intelligence, Finance, and Oversight committees and hold open, public hearings so that Americans can see what a slime ball Trump is and vote him out of office in 2020.

I admit I’m on the fence. I’m not a politically astute pundit and I don’t know what would be best for our country in both the short and long terms. But I do know the ugly face of hypocrisy when I see it.

Let us harken back to 1998 when then President Bill Clinton lied to the public and to Congress about getting a blowjob from an intern, Monica Lewinsky, and was then accused of obstruction of justice by attempting to influence witness testimony.

Here’s what Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said 21 years ago:

“[Clinton] doesn’t have to say, ‘Go lie for me,’ to be a crime. You don’t have to say, ‘Let’s obstruct justice’ for it to be a crime. You judge people on their conduct, not magic phrases. The point I’m trying to make is you don’t even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in this constitutional republic. Impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office.”

And then there’s this 21-year-old quote from the mouth of an even bigger hypocritical snake, Senator Mitch McConnell:

“Our nation is indeed at a crossroads. Will we pursue the search for truth or will we dodge, weave, and evade the truth? I am, of course, referring to the investigation into serious allegations of illegal conduct by the president of the United States — that the president has engaged in a persistent pattern and practice of obstruction of justice. The allegations are grave, the investigation is legitimate, and ascertaining the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the unqualified, unevasive truth is absolutely critical.”

And now, 21 years later, we have a president who coordinated with Russia to help him win the presidency, who has continually lied about it, and who has done everything possible to obstruct justice. And yet these same scumbags say, with respect to Trump, there’s nothing there.

Where is the outrage Graham and McConnell expressed 21 years ago? How can they equate lying about a blowjob with being a traitor to his country and systematically destroying our American democracy?

Okay, I’m done ranting and venting. Happy Easter, Happy Passover, and for those “non-believers” like me, Happy Sunday.

Written for the Let It Bleed Weekly Prompt Challenge from Saumya Agrawal’s Randomness Inked blog. The prompt for this week is the word “vent.” Also for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (partisan), Your Daily Word Prompt (initiative), Word of the Day Challenge (ugly), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (snake).

Found Nomination

Fandango15 Comments

D17D15E6-3142-4B55-8514-E36EDD1C97A1Earlier today I wrote a post lamenting that a “kind blogger nominated me this morning for some blog award, but it went right to my spam folder and I accidentally permanently deleted it while cleaning out my spam.” And then I asked whoever it was who nominated me if he or she could let me know.

The good news is that Beckie, over at Beckie’s Mental Mess, let me know that she was that kind blogger who nominated me. So, despite my carelessness, I feel that I owe it to her to graciously accept her nomination and follow at least most of the rules.

And here are said rules:

  • Thank the person who gave you the award and include a link to her blog. Thank you, Beckie! The link to Beckie’s Mental Mess is above in the second paragraph.
  • Select 10 -15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly and nominate those bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award. Nope, I’m going to nominate any and all bloggers who read this post for the award, because if they are reading this, they are clearly very versatile.
  • Tell the person who nominated you seven things about yourself. See below.

Seven things about me that you probably never really wanted to know:

  1. I am essentially a teetotaler, except on rare occasions when I will have a bottle of beer. (Please don’t ask me about pot-infused gummies, though.)
  2.  We (my wife and I) are empty nesters…CC983598-B137-4B8D-AA6E-F91A11AD6336
  3. …but we have a dog and a cat to take care of — and they are much easier to raise than our two children were.
  4. Up until 2015, I was a politically left-leaning centrist (i.e., moderate), but thanks to Donald Trump, I am now a far-left progressive.
  5. I am embarrassed for my country because of the corrupt con man and traitor to America and to our allies who currently occupies the Oval Office (along with the spineless Republican sycophants in Congress who blindly do his bidding).
  6. I have been blogging since 2005, but after a two-year hiatus from blogging, I started this blog in May 2017.
  7. I blog anonymously because (1) I’ve had my identity stolen twice and I don’t want to give those bastards any more opportunities to do it a third time, and (2) I feel that I can be more open and honest in my anonymity on my blog than I can in my real skin using my real-world identity.

Okay, now it’s your turn, everyone. Tell me, Beckie, and everyone else seven things about you!

Day 16 — Hometown Politics

Fandango5 Comments

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Day 16: Was your hometown a “backwards” place or do you feel that it was progressive?

First, I don’t thing the words “backwards” and “progressive” are at opposite ends of the spectrum. I’ve known some progressive people who seem kinda backwards and some backwards people who are relatively progressive.

That said, the DC suburb in which I grew up was a mixed bag. At least I think it was. After all, I was a kid at the time and politics wasn’t something that was of keen interest to me.

My parents were conservative Democrats. Yes, that is a thing. Just as there are liberal Republicans. I am what might be called a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. But in this age of Trump, I have moved much further to the left. What sane-minded, thinking person wouldn’t?

Okay, I think I’ve wandered far off topic for this prompt. So I’ll end this by saying that my hometown in the DC area is, due to the current administration and the current composition of Congress, quite backwards and not at all progressive.

This post was written for Suzanne McClendon’s September Challenge, which is comprised of 30 questions (one for each day of this month) regarding your background and history.