Monday, February 10, 2020

Week of 02/10/2020


The Impeachment of Donald Trump Was Necessary
 
In the classic 1939 movie “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington”, Jimmy Stewart’s title character ends up as a newly-appointed member of the United States Senate.  It’s not long before he butts heads with powerful corporate interests who decide to remove him from office. 
A good majority of the second half of the movie is dedicated to the various ways Smith’s character is sullied and discredited.  When he employs the filibuster, it is in the hopes that the public would be so moved by his cause that they would rally to his support.  Instead, those corporate and political interests manage to brainwash the public into attacking Smith and tell him to resign.  When the senator reads the letters out loud, he collapses in defeat.  However, spoiler alert, at the absolute last minutes of the movie, the corrupt senior senator who has been orchestrating the attack on Smith breaks down and openly admits that Smith was right and he was guilty of his own corruption.  Smith was vindicated, fade to black.
While many consider this film to be a great movie, this commentator really doesn’t.  The climactic war of wills is truncated, with the bittersweet victory coming at the absolute end with no chance of knowing how this turns out afterward.  Is Senator Smith removed from office?  Is he dead?  How about the corrupt Senator Paine?  Does his last-minute turnaround mean he supports Smith’s cause?  Is he removed from office?  Does he flip on his allies who were using the media to blatantly smear Smith and his cause?  There’s just so much that is left unanswered when the film ends.
The last-minute turnaround was the filmmaker’s cheat to give a “happy ending” for a movie that essentially was showing that corruption wins out and that American people are stupid idiots who will buy whatever is printed and said on the radio.  In the real world, someone like Jefferson Smith would be discredited and sent home, where he would eventually die as a loser and failure and the corrupt Senator Paine would go on doing what he’s been doing, unashamed, and maybe even get elected to the White House.
When it came to the impeachment of Narcissist President Donald Trump, I’ll have to say that I had a sliver of hope that “the system” would somehow work.  I still knew how it would turn out.  We pretty much all did.  I just hoped that there would be a little more effort into making it appear to be a real trial.  And maybe even a bit of that “Mr. Smith” miracle at the absolute last minute.
I remember the impeachment of another narcissist president, namely William Jefferson Clinton.  I remember the endless investigations and hearings and evidence that went into it.  I remember the graphic detail of the X-rated incident that was made public that led to the impeachment of Clinton. 
In December of 1998, the President of the United States of America was impeached for lying under oath about oral sex with an intern.
Remember that.
Remember the extent of the details made bare for the public to digest.  Remember the witnesses and the documents that went online.  Details so graphic that broadcast media services couldn’t talk about it except in the vaguest of terms.
We also knew the outcome of that impeachment hearing.  We all knew that Clinton would never be removed from office, no matter how graphic and how disgusting the incident in question was.  But the effort was still made to have a full trial.  The senators all put on their game faces and promised to be impartial, even though that was probably a lie to many of them.  They still had an actual trial, with evidence and witnesses testifying.
Twenty-one years later, we were witness to a fraud.
The same political party and the same political faction that impeached a sitting president in 1998 for lying about oral sex with an intern openly conspired with the sitting President of the United States to sabotage his impeachment trial and actively denied any witnesses from testifying about Narcissist Trump’s acts of extortion and bribery and the subsequent concealment of evidence.  They don’t even offer the pretense of impartial and unbiased observation.  Only an orchestrated tease of “will they or won’t they” that would come straight out of a cheap pseudo-reality show like the kind our corrupt Narcissist President previously hosted, followed by a partisan and biased “no”.
No witnesses.  No evidence other than what is provided in the impeachment report.  Even Narcissist Trump boasted and openly admitted his guilt in concealing evidence.  “We have all the material,” he proudly said. “They don’t have the material.”  He openly admitted his guilt in second Article of Impeachment!
And he was still not convicted on that charge on purely partisan lines.
The same party and the same faction that demanded and got hours of testimony and witness statements over Clinton’s impeachment actively refused to allow and aided and abetted the White House in preventing witness testimony when it came to Narcissist Trump.
Their guilt in aiding and abetting the corruption from the highest office in America cannot be any clearer.
Let’s get this out of the way… the impeachment of Narcissist President Donald Trump was necessary!  His actions after the Mueller Report were so egregious that it screamed for his impeachment.  If the Democrats in the House of Representatives didn’t start the process after the information came to light, then they would be pilloried from yours truly and all of the other people outraged by Narcissist Trump’s criminal activities.  And you know – *you*damn*well*know* - that Narcissist Trump and the rest of his toadies and cult followers would be blasting the Dems for not impeaching him if they didn’t.
“If it’s wrong,” the criminal narcissist would say, “then why don’t they impeach me?”
Hell, that is precisely what the corrupt White House attorneys actually told a federal judge when it came to their refusal to disclose information!  The only remedy that the corrupt White House attorneys said when it came to refusing to disclose information in defiance of a congressional subpoena is impeachment!
A “waste of time” you say?  Screw you and the horse you rode in on!  When you’re dealing with a corrupt criminal like Narcissist Trump, impeachment is the only recourse within the framework of the United States Constitution. 
And I will remind each and every one of you yet again – and I will continue to remind each and every one of you – that this is the same political party and the same political faction that impeached a sitting president for lying about oral sex with an intern!  You have no standing whatsoever to quibble about what qualifies as “impeachable” if you support Clinton’s impeachment and yet give a pass for Narcissist Trump’s criminal actions!
Let’s get brutally honest here… the impeachment of Narcissist President Donald John Trump was never about whether he was guilty or innocent of the charges.  We all know that he is guilty as sin!  We all know this!  We all do!  You’re lying to yourself and everyone else if you think otherwise.  He’s owned up to it, he’s admitted to it, he’s even boasted about it.  He calls it “perfect”.  He’s guilty.  You know it.  I know it.  He knows it.  Accept it.  Guilty.  Period!
Who and what were really on trial was our government and the safeguards that are written in plain English in the United States Constitution.  On the system that our soldiers and politicians take an oath to protect and defend from all threats foreign and domestic.  A system that says that no man is above the law, and that includes a chunky narcissist with a bad combover and a cheap spray-on Jersey tan.  And, if they are breaking the law, that they be held to account for it through impeachment.
If you think that’s “wasting time” or “frivolous”, then not only did you fail civics, but I suspect you’re in the wrong goddamned country.  This is the country that impeached a sitting president for lying about getting oral sex from an intern.
Yes, our system was really on trial.  The members of the House of Representatives did their part as required in the Constitution.  The Senate, on the other hand, failed.  They failed miserably!  They swore an oath to be faithful and impartial jurors when several of them, including the Senate Majority Leader, were already on record saying that they would coordinate their activities with the accused.  In a real criminal trial, those jurors would not only be dismissed, but they would possibly face imprisonment.  Their fealty to their party and to their political messiah violated the very oath they took not only as jurors in an impeachment trial, but also as members of the United States Senate.
Our American system was on trial, and it failed.  The members of the House of Representatives who tried to sabotage the impeachment inquiry, the members of the U.S. Senate that blatantly violated their oaths as jurors, the ones that voted to suppress evidence and deny witnesses, they were the ones on trial.  Not just by the American people, but by the whole world.  We’re supposed to be the best nation in the world, the icon of governance and freedom.  We’re supposed to be the ones to show the other nations how to do it right.  And we failed.  We failed miserably!
And now the only hope that we have left is through the elections in November.  The same elections that members of the United States Senate are refusing to support greater security measures on, and the same political faction that has been actively trying to suppress the votes of Americans.  If we cannot overcome the cult that supports these corrupt criminals and vote them out of office, then we have truly forfeited this country to the real-world versions of corrupt Senator Paine.



Monday, February 3, 2020

Week of 02/03/2020


An Open Letter To Sales
This is a message to all the salespeople and their various tactics.  I understand that you have a job that you have to do, but the way you approach me or the people that I know to get your sales have become rude and quite aggravating.
So, here I am, making not-so-humble requests to your sorry lot over some of those tactics. 
Because someone needs to say it, and it might as well be me.
To the Roofing Tile Salesman...
First of all, thank you for showing up at my home to personally insult my home and claim that I have “outdated tiles”.  We both know there’s no such term, so screw you for trying to convince me that there is.
I also know that you didn’t do business with my next-door neighbor to get his roof re-done.  The most obvious reason is that I would have noticed something like that.  Replacing roofing tiles is not something done on-the-sly.  There would be trucks and tarps and crew next door.  Everyone would know, especially those of us who live right next door.  I should also point out that the neighbor you used as your reference happens to sit on the Home Owners Association board, and he is also a member of the local government, so I know that he would not do something as stupid as to allow someone like you to use him as a reference for your solicitations.
Oh, and in case it slipped your attention, there is this nice big sign at the entranceway to our little neighborhood that says in plain English: “No Solicitors Allowed.”  Guess what, slick?  That’s you.  You are a salesman.  That means that you are a solicitor.  That also means that you are not welcomed to hassle myself or my neighbors, even if you really did have business with one of them.
I also did not appreciate you following up on your insulting my home with your pretend “handmade” letter, again trying to convince me that I have “outdated tiles”.  If insulting me in person in violation of our “no solicitors” rule wasn’t enough to get me to do business with you, what make you think that your pretend “handmade” letter done through an inkjet printer would do the trick?
In short, your sales tactics are insulting and not welcomed.  It would be best if you find another line of work.
To the Insurance Sales Caller...
First of all, we both know that you are a liar.
You bombard my cellphone – which is on the National Do Not Call List – with prerecorded messages claiming that I was “searching for insurance on the Internet”.  Even if I was, there was no way my searching for insurance would automatically trigger a phone call from you. 
So you are a liar.  We both know that you are a liar.
So why the hell should I ever trust you with anything that you want to pitch?  You’ve already proven that you cannot be trusted.  You’ve already lost the sale and you haven’t even pitched it to me.
Stop lying and go find another job.
To the mortgage lenders who send daily junk mail...
What makes you think that sending your crap to my mailbox every single day in various different formats will ever convince me to do business with you?  We said “no” once already.  Hassling me every single day with all sorts of different messages and phony “cards” will not change my mind about you.  The fact that you are able to abuse the postal service with your daily crap mailings only makes what you do that much more despicable. 
“No” means no!  It does not mean try again tomorrow with a different envelope.
You are a pest and to hear about your “lending services” going into bankruptcy anytime soon cannot come soon enough for me.
To the realtors and house-flippers...
No, I do not want to sell my house.  It’s not “mine” to sell.  And, even if it was, I wouldn’t want to sell it to someone I don’t even know except through some pretend “hand-written” letter with a business card.
I know this may come as a shock for you, but there are plenty of people who do not treat their home as a commodity that they can buy and sell at a moment’s notice for an extra buck.  They actually want to stay in their home and live in their home.  That is especially true in senior communities.  These people aren’t waiting for you with bated breath to make an offer on their home.  They’re living in their homes because this is where they want to spend the last years of their lives.
So why the hell are you bothering these people?  Let these people enjoy their final years in their homes.
And, by the way, I would be remiss if I didn’t bring up the tactic you folks are using in cities like Pittsburgh where you file anonymous complaints with the local code enforcement agency on the people who don’t want to sell their homes on you.  That goes right up there with swatting as despicable behavior.  Worse yet, you’re engaging in that practice not to point out legitimate code violations but to pressure people to sell their homes to you.  If it’s not considered criminals racketeering, it should damn well be.
You know, I get it.  Real estate is a big thing.  House flipping is the new cash cow.  You want to make your profit.  But here’s the catch: not everything is for sale just because you want it to be.  Not all homeowners are commodity whores like you.
And finally...
To the ad people in Facebook and Instagram...
Which part of “hide” do you not seem to understand when it comes to your ads?  You give me the option to “hide” certain ads, but then they show up again, and the “hide” option is still checked.  And then, after a while, nothing gets hidden at all.
I know you want me to just click on the ads so you can get paid, but I’m not here to be your pay-click.  Your ads suck, and your algorithms suck even worse.  Right now the only reason why I continue to use your services is because there is a need that exceeds your abuses.  But, if you keep making it more and more difficult to scroll through my feeds without seeing your stupid ads, that could very well change.
Let’s get brutally honest here... there is a reason why salespeople have a bad reputation, and these folks eagerly sustain it.  “No” means “no”!  It does not mean “no, but I might change my mind if you try again even harder tomorrow” or “no, but I really mean yes” or “no, but I might weaken if you act like a stalker and harass me every single day and every single night”.  And especially “no” does not mean “no, but I’ll say yes if you use the tactics of organized criminals to wear me down”.
A century-and-a-half ago, there was a term to describe the unscrupulous actions of businessmen.  They were called “robber barons”.  While sales people don’t necessarily aspire to the level of “barons”, they certainly deserve to be called “stalker knaves” for their own unscrupulous actions.
The message is simple, sales... clean up your act and focus on the people who truly want your services instead of obsessing over the ones who don’t.  “No” means “no”.  That’s the rule for interpersonal relations and also needs to be the mantra for sales.  “No” means “no”!