Post Election Blues

The general election is over, the electoral college has yet to vote but that’s a foregone conclusion.
Children are protesting in the streets proving once again that our education system has failed to educate.
People both public and private are speculating on what the next government is going to do once in power.

But this I know.

You’re a bunch of fools. You’re idiots. I fear that many of you are stupid. Stupid means that you can’t learn. Part of this is because of our system of public education, you were never taught to question properly.
It wasn’t too many years ago that the Texas Republicans pledged to ban the teaching of critical thinking. Since you’re too ignorant to figure this our on your own, the ability to ask the correct questions is a major part of the critical thinking skill set.

In this most recent election, Mrs. Clinton was the most qualified candidate, and Senator Sanders was also a good choice given his lifetime of public service for the citizens of Vermont and the people of the United States, but you chose a real estate agent, a huckster, a sociopath a liar.

Now, I’m going to talk about the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Clinton, or President and Secretary Clinton and the members of the GOP but not just yet. Although I can’t resist tossing out there that while the House was persecuting President Clinton for tossing off with a 19 year old intern, members of the GOP House were cheating on their wives with other women.

But let’s start with the pre-millenial election, the election in the year 2000, the Florida vote. Because, while you were obsessed with the legal process, Catherine Harris and Governor Jeb Bush, voting machine malfunctions and “hanging chads,” you were missing the meat of the debacle. The ballot itself. The butterfly ballot, a ballot cleverly designed to confuse the voters in Florida. You know, the elderly and the feeble minded. If you want to begin learning to examine information critically you can begin here at the Smithsonian Institution. Stealing an election doesn’t mean fraudulent voting. Confusing ballots and disenfranchised voters are methods of stealing an election. Defaming your opponent is another.

Mr. and Mrs Clinton are a political power couple. Each has their flaws, each has their weakness but together as a team they are unstoppable. Until you use the Big Lie technique. Joseph Goebbels is credited with the invention of the big lie technique but Adolph HItler wrote about using the big lie in Mein Kampf so take your pick. That’s the joy of critical thinking, you collect information, some you don’t necessarily agree with and in the end form your own opinion.

Now Whitewater, the scandal around The Whitwater Development Company makes for an interesting read especially the part about Kenneth Starr being appointed after congress re-enacted the Independent Counsel law. But at the end of the day, after much of our money being spent, The Clintons were exonerated. Every time allegations were made there was a failure to find evidence of wrongdoing. If you don’t get too bogged down in the details and look at the shape of the allegations and the resolution(s) you can see that the members of the GOP were using the power of the government to malign the opposition. Sort of like the current President Elect vowing to jail his opponent.

Six years ago, The Atlantic magazine in The Daily Dish covered the big lies being used to discredit President Obama’s achievements. I mean, really, President Obama has managed to make a difference. Yes he used the power of executive orders to accomplish much of what he’s done but the House leadership didn’t even try to disguise the fact that they were dragging their feet on pending legislation. House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said more than once that it was his goal to deny this President, meaning President Obama, everything he wants to do. That’s not governing, that’s using the power of a House seat, the power of the government to hurt the opposition party.

Now here’s where your stupidity really starts to have an effect on my life. Why oh why don’t you ask yourself the question “Why are the members of the Grand Old Party so intent on controlling the government?”

I mean going in it’s a pretty good gig because all you really need to do is show up, get sworn in and you’ve earned a life-time pension with medical care. As explained in the cult movie Man with a Plan. Keep that in mind as you struggle to provide for your old age because your elected representatives don’t have to worry and that’s on your nickle bubba.

Now Paul Horner whose Wikipedia page may or may not be deleted has been credited with creating much of the false news articles damning Mrs. Clinton in the recent election. Fox News said “One admitted purveyor of fake Facebook news, Paul Horner, bragged to the Washington Post that while making $10,000 a month, he had influenced the election:

“Honestly, people are definitely dumber. They just keep passing stuff around. Nobody fact-checks anything anymore — I mean, that’s how Trump got elected …”

“My sites were picked up by Trump supporters all the time. I think Trump is in the White House because of me. His followers don’t fact-check anything — they’ll post everything, believe anything.”

Now read this New York Times story on the demise of Duck Dynasty, and then this CBS News story on Paul Horner and Fake News in general, this pieve from about as far overseas ans you can get The Australian and for added depth, the original story on Paul Horner from The Washington Post.

Now I know that in your little closed mind the Electoral College is something you don’t want to understand because you voted and you won but Mr. Trump is not the President elect just yet. The members of the Electoral College meet in their respective state capitols on the 19th of December this year to cast their votes and until those votes are tallied and certified Mr. Trump has not been elected. So when Mr. Trump talked directly with the President of Taiwan he did so as a private citizen and not the President of the United States or even the President Elect a technical violation of the Logan Act and that’s the good news. The bad news? China is a big country with a big economy and lots and lots of people with a different way of thinking about life than we have. Poking the Dragon by changing the rules regarding Taiwan, changing the One-China policy that has been in place since President Nixon opened up trade with China has already resulted in the Chinese government lodging a formal complaint with the United Nations, a group I imagine you think of as a Trojan Horse in the United States. But here’s a quote from the Telegraph’s story:

““The Chinese leadership will see this as a highly provocative action, of historic proportions,” Evan Medeiros, former Asia director at the White House national security council, told the Financial Times.

“Regardless if it was deliberate or accidental, this phone call will fundamentally change China’s perceptions of Trump’s strategic intentions for the negative. With this kind of move, Trump is setting a foundation of enduring mistrust and strategic competition for US-China relations.””

Now I voted for Mrs. Clinton partly because I have been able to see through the mud being slung at the Clintons by the opposition party, with our money and the power of our government, and partly because Senator Sanders wasn’t on the ticket.

You voted for Mr. Trump because somewhere in the deep recesses of your little mind you think he’ll make you wealthy and because you lapped up the trash Paul Horner fed you line by line laughing as Liberace once said “all the way to the bank.”

About Art

55 years old. By training, ability and experience I am a master toolmaker. My most recent projects include designing and building a process to grind a G rotor pump shaft with four diameters and holding all four diameters within plus or minus 4 microns of nominal. This was an automated process using two centerless grinders refitted to my specifications using automatic load and unload machines plus automatic feedback gauging. I also designed and built an inspection machine to check for the presence and size of a straight knurl on a hinge pin using a vision system for non-contact gauging.
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