Category Archives: Uncategorized

Trump’s election strategy relies on non-stop, repetitive, redundant, obvious, grotesque, blatant lying. It worked before, why stop now.

“Mike Pence is the guy you’d want in your foxhole. You might be out of ammo, bleeding profusely and about to be run over by a tank, but the hard-praying vice-president would assure you that total victory is assured and it will all be over by Christmas.”

“The Baghdad Bob of Washington was on top form on Friday, reassuring an anguished nation that up is down, square is round and an all-time high of daily coronavirus infections is proof positive that America has flattened the curve.”

Medicynical note: States that took few if any precautions and then prematurely stopped even doing the minimum are dealing with the massive spread of the COVID-19 infections. Their patients with serious infections are increasing dramatically increasing hospital ICU use to capacity.

Yet Pence is unimpressed. In his Pence/Trumpian dream-like narcotized state he calls the explosions of ICU cases a statistical anomaly from increased testing. As death rates increase, despite better treatments, he makes the argument that Trump has handled the epidemic……you guessed it,…….purrfectly.

The nearly 130,000 dead, are piously prayed for and “honored,” with little regard for the thousands more coming. We’re in a Twilight Zone of sorts where more illness and deaths are good signs and precautions and prevention are signs of weakness. That’s the Trump/Pence delusion.

Each day another insult to our intelligence.

“In 1980 the federal deficit was soaring and Ronald Reagan campaigned on a singular promise: He planned to cut taxes on everyone, but especially the rich. He insisted that those benefits would quickly trickle down to everyone and supercharge the economy. Throw in some social safety net cuts, Republicans said, and the whole plan would pay for itself.“

“They were wrong. The rich got lower taxes all right, but the economy flatlined and the deficit skyrocketed. I should know: I graduated from college the same summer the tax cut passed, and I spent the next three years managing a Radio Shack waiting for the economy to get back on its feet. In 1982 Reagan was forced to raise taxes to make up for his cuts, and he continued raising them throughout his presidency.“

Medicynical note: Trump’s dead end. If re-elected it will only get worse. We can expect cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. We can expect millions more uninsured with the demise of the Affordable Care Act. And so on. We’ve become an autocracy with wealthy supporters buying their way into government contracts. A corruptocracy…….Trumpism. Vote.

“before 2016, no one could have conjured up President Donald Trump as anything but a joke — and yet in some sense, all too imaginable. Think of it this way: the president who launched his candidacy by descending a Trump Tower escalator to denounceMexican “rapists” and hype the “great, great wall” he would build, the man who, in his election campaign, promised to put a “big, fat, beautiful wall” across our southern border to keep out immigrants (“invaders!”) — my grandpa, by the way, was just such an invader — has, after nearly three and a half years, succeeded only in getting a grotesquely small wall built around the White House; in other words, he’s turned the “people’s house” into a micro-Green Zone in a Washington that, as it filled with National Guard troops and unidentified but militarized police types, was transformed into a Trumpian version of occupied Baghdad. Then he locked himself inside (except for that one block walk to a church through streets forcibly emptied of protesters). All in all, a single redolent phrase from our recent past comes to mind: mission accomplished!”

Medicynical note: America’s decline as a democracy is obvious. Instead of rejoicing in the participation of everyone, politicos scheme to manipulate and disenfranchise. Our civil discourse is punctuated by the staccato bursts from weapons that some think symbolic of being “free” rather than the reality of being tools of intimidation, suppression and violence.

The symbols that differentiated our culture and frankly made it seem great are being eroded. Our businesses say they want fair competition, but most strive, often by scamming, for monopoly status.

Unlimited money in politics is used to openly bribe for favors and buy elections. Public education is being subverted. Scammers are setting the rules for government agencies. Conflicts of interest are fed and nurtured rather than controlled.

Racism, homophobia and white supremacy are on the rise. Our president uses them as wedges to create hatred and loathing. We fear immigrants. A little ironic in that all of us, except native Americans, have immigration stories in our family history.

Separation of church from state is now thought by some a negative when in reality it previously protected us from false divisions and magical thinking. We disregard science and only consider short term profit rather than long term ramifications. Religion is being subverted, or perhaps was always a mechanism of fostering divisions based on differing beliefs. We can’t seem to get past mine is better than yours.

You get the idea. We are in denial of what once made us a dynamic great society……….but the stark reality is that we are not who we thought we were.

“Before Georgia’s embattled election officials can fix a voting system that suffered a spectacular collapse, leading to absentee ballots that never got delivered and hourslong waits at polling sites on Tuesday, they must first figure out who is responsible.”

“As multiple investigations begin into what went wrong, and as Democrats accuse the state’s Republicans of voter suppression, a picture emerged Wednesday of a systematic breakdown that both revealed general incompetence and highlighted some of the thorny and specific challenges that the coronavirus pandemic may pose to elections officials nationwide.”

Medicynical note: The Supreme Court’s abandonment of the voting rights act in 2014 after 49 years of fair elections, opened the door to political suppression of minority voters in the south. This carefully planned persecution combined with the staggering incompetence of the voting bureaucracy in southern states have affected election outcomes and undermined confidence in this key process in a democracy.

I previously observed such corruption and incompetence only in third world countries. Once the envy of the world our democracy and system of elections has become politicized and manipulated. The Supreme Court and those who are suppressing the vote bear responsibility.

“Mr. Trump appears to believe he is punishing Ms. Merkel by removing forces that nominally defend Germany. The sycophant whom the president installed as ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, has been arguing publicly that Germany doesn’t merit U.S. bases when it fails to meet NATO defense spending guidelines. What he and the president fail to understand is that the 34,500 U.S. personnel in Germany — down from 235,000 during the Cold War — primarily bolster U.S. defense. The Ramstein Air Base is vital to operations in the Middle East and Africa, and the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center provides critical care to wounded American soldiers medevaced from Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Medicynical note: Amazing lack of consultation before a move that compromises NATO’s and our own defense needs. The Trump years will be remembered for its abject cluelessness…

Part of this podcast is on the topic of guns.

“The presence of guns, the ubiquity of guns, the threat of gun violence, the often rational fear of guns is the underpinning for so much of the police initiated violence. We see, for instance, police have almost total immunity when it comes to killing in the line of duty. Any fear or suspicion, they claim, almost always deemed a reasonable fear or suspicion because of guns in Louisville. Early this morning, a citizen was killed by police who said they thought they were fired upon. And who’s to say they weren’t? I mean, this isn’t the UK. This isn’t in Japan. It’s plausible that in Louisville, Kentucky, the police were fired upon after coming on a gathering, maybe a demonstration, and now a restaurant owner is dead.”

Medicynical note: As we descend into chaos let’s recognize the contribution of the Supreme Court originalists who think all guns are good guns, our paralyzed congress, and our executive branch that issues executive orders designed to undermine 90 years of unparalleled prosperity and progress.

Guns, from where I sit at 79 years of age, are a net negative in our culture. Name the positives? The pleasure of hunting–not for me but I can understand the culture. Competitive sport shooting……maybe, get your testosterone hit target shooting where you can. Defense of the home–over-rated. IMHO the risks from having guns in our homes seem as great or greater than the criminal risk. Balance those “good” aspects against the negatives. Fear of guns leading to irrational arming of the culture; unfettered access leading to all manner of mass shootings; the thousands of suicides each year from weapons: the thousands of murders in the course of criminal events; the valid fear of our police at every traffic stop and other criminal investigation leading to inadvertent and at time murderous shootings of innocents.

The US leads the industrialized world in every category of gun misadventure. Guns wide and unfettered presence in our culture distorts our lives, threatens our culture and soils our image both here and abroad.

“Mr. Flynn was not such a difficult target for a Russian manipulation effort, given his inclination to see common cause with Russia as well as his hostility toward the Obama administration. President Barack Obama had removed Mr. Flynn as the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Mr. Flynn famously led a chorus of “lock her up” chants at the 2016 Republican National Convention in a reference to Hillary Clinton.”

“During the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump had spoken frequently about wanting to improve American relations with Russia.”

“Mr. Kislyak “played Flynn like a fiddle, particularly when Flynn astonishingly suggested that the U.S. and Russia should ratchet down tensions” after the United States punished Russia for its election interference, said Marc Polymeropoulos, who once oversaw the C.I.A.’s clandestine operations in Europe and Eurasia.”

Medicynical note: This self promoting money grubber was an un registered lobbyist for Turkey during the time he was being considered for the cabinet position. Imagine the duplicity. In secret making promises to Russian operatives and representing Turkey all while buttering up Trump for a position. He admitted all to the court.