Sinkhole

For whatever reason, Democrats think that they are still playing a game with rules. That there is still going to be a give and take involved. I’m not sure why. The game ended when Obama took office. Trump and his Gang are not playing around. They have no intention of throwing the Dems a bone or making concessions. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but they are going to push through whoever and whatever they please irregardless of what it looks like to the rest of America and the world. They obviously don’t care. They’re just out here stealing $500 bills out of the monopoly bank willy nilly with no repercussions or push back while Dems are the thimble sitting on GO waiting for a dice roll that is never ever going to happen. Republicans have been waiting for this moment for a long time. They want to break their opposition early and irrevocably. Everything they’ve done so far has been to consolidate their power and control. They don’t plan on giving any of that power and control back. It's going to have to be wrested from them by overwhelming force. They're getting rid of freedom of the press by dropping felonies on journalists covering protests. They're getting rid of peaceful protests by letting police departments sue protesters for the OT hours officers have to work during the demonstrations. They are going to turn America's most prized possession, our majestic public land, into future oil drilling projects and eventual environmental disaster sites. The EPA now has a gag order on talking about climate change or abominable situations like the Flint Water Crisis. I don't even want to start with how fucking dumb and delusional it is to try and build a fucking concrete 30 foot high border wall.

They are turning America into a giant ATM for them and their buddies, an ATM that withdraws directly from America's bank account, while keeping the rest of the country under an authoritarian thumb lest they voice their displeasure of getting robbed blind. Every executive order so far has been horrifying but unsurprising because either Trump or one of his clownishly evil cronies has already said they were going to do this shit. We have brought full blown fascism into America's house. Fascism doesn't just leave on it's own. You have to remove it forcibly and then burn the couch cushions that it sat on. Dems right now think that when they say, “Okay, party is over, it’s been real, see you soon,” that the night ends and these fuckers are going to go on their way. Trump’s Fascism is going to hear that signal to depart, proceed to kick their feet up on the couch, dig their heels in and say, ”Fuck your couch! This is my couch now. And my house. You're actually trespassing right now, cops are on the way. I'm pressing full charges.” They aren’t going to play nice. So don’t play nice with them. We just got 8 years of insane obstructionism from Republicans in Congress. Dems didn't make it a week before caving to Trump’s bullshit. It’s going to be a long grim nightmare for the foreseeable future if the current dynamic between the two parties stays the same because the Dems don’t seem to understand what is happening and is going to keep happening until they stop allowing themselves to be duped and bullied. And if these Dems don’t toughen up then they need to be ousted to get people in there that aren’t scared of fighting fire with fire. And if it comes down to it, as Petey Pablo said, "Fuck the Law, they can't arrest us all."

They Know The Way (Into the Abyss)

UPDATE FROM 2/7/17: DeVos got confirmed today. Fucking shameful.

Charter schools are a union busting con job that if given the opportunity will permanently topple an already dizzily teetering American education system. Betsy DeVos, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, has been working tirelessly for decades to push her agenda of charter and private and religious schools being the way forward. Unfortunately that way forward doesn’t do anything to help better the vast majority of students in America.

Charter schools aren’t the solution they’ve been claimed to be. They aren’t better than public schools in measurable statistics or accountability, if they're held to any accountability at all. Charters don’t improve reading rates or math aptitude. They don’t have better teachers (some charters don't even have to hire certified teachers), or better curriculum, or some magic potion that all of the sudden cures our country of the malaise afflicting our nation’s classrooms. What charters do is drain government funding away from already perilously cash strapped public schools in working class and poor neighborhoods. They don’t improve anything besides the bank accounts of the stockholders that have invested in the privatization of our country’s education system. They weaken the teacher’s union, which slowly knocks another leg out from under the working class's ability to fight back against the dynastic wealth that is being built by the greedy few in this country.

America’s future is being mortgaged, and the lien is going to be on the parents and kids that can least afford it. Free public education is the backbone of our society, not an entity that is judged solely through a lense of profits and losses. It is the most important thing our country can do to ensure that the America we want to believe in is still around in 50 years, and that the people that are still around have the knowledge and skills to move our society forward.

Every kid in our country should be able to get a solid education near where they live. Not across town because the school in their neighborhood has been closed after it's funding went to some charter school that has no accountability to provide a quality education to their students. A lot of children are being left behind on purpose, and that will only worsen exponentially as charter schools become the last option left in town.

Instead of declaring that the public education system is irrevocably broken, and unregulated, unaccountable charter schools are the future, we reinvest. Pour money into the system. Pay teachers and support staff more. Fix and upgrade buildings and classroom technology. Offer more after school programs. Our federal government has plenty of money, it just likes giving it to people and companies that's sole driving force in life is to acquire the kind of money where you could conceivably blow up the moon. Maybe give out a few less gazillion dollar defense contracts to the friends of people in the defense department that also just so coincidentally happen to sit on the board of Missile&SubmarineEmporium.

MLK Day

Martin Luther King Jr. was and still is a ray of hope for so many. But it seemed his own hope was eventually diminished by what he saw as many people in America not willing to stand up for what was just because change and seeing the truth can be uncomfortable. If you look at the history of America, this country’s incredible success was built on the backs of slaves, immigrants, and the poor. And that is still the case. It might be through a different mechanism, but the powers that be in the present day are still creating ways to profit off of and domineer the people that deserve the most help in our society. There is a total lack of empathy for the powerless. Old rich white men are the most out of touch, morally bankrupt people in America and yet they are the ones that are deciding that poor people don’t need healthcare, or women don’t need autonomy over their reproductive rights, or black people will get no justice for the viciousness they encounter at every turn. It’s not hard to see that a lot of this is fucked up, and yet there are so many people that don’t care enough to voice their opposition. If it isn’t happening to you, then is it really that big of a deal? That is the line it seems a lot of people draw. People would rather be callous than righteous. It’d be easy to say that America is a great country that can overcome it’s faults. But honestly, no it can’t. It’s faults are so ingrained and deep that a lot of people aren’t capable of even seeing them when they are right in front of their eyes. There are a lot of reasons Trump got elected. From what I can tell, one of the main ones is that hate is a real good motivator. Misplaced hatred though, because the people that the working class should be hateful of is the extremely wealthy. Who benefits the most from every piece of legislation that is coming down the pipe in our government? Rich people. Who is getting screwed? Everyone else. I feel like the only real equality in America is the spiteful disregard the wealthy have for the less fortunate.