"Reflections from "Bizarro World"

Essays & explorations by Steve Plonk

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Steve Plonk
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Re: "Reflections from "Bizarro World"

Post by Steve Plonk » August 31st, 2017, 11:23 am

Trump makes it harder to rebuild safely after floods. See August executive order. See "Washington Post" link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... 66680380a3

Trump tries to negate climate change executive orders by previous administrations & shows what a hypocrite he is
when it comes to helping Texas & elsewhere recover from hurricane flooding. No, Texas, et al would not ask
for disaster relief if they could do it all by themselves. The president, as usual, is a callous ignoramus. :P

Steve Plonk
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Re: "Reflections from "Bizarro World"

Post by Steve Plonk » October 9th, 2017, 12:04 pm

“NEXT TIME YOU GET INTO A LITTLE SQUABBLE WITH A TRUMP VOTER, BRING THIS INTO THE CONVERSATION:"

By Robert Reich

1. He called Hillary Clinton a crook. You bought it. Then he paid $25 million to settle a fraud lawsuit.

2. He said he’d release his tax returns, eventually. You bought it. He hasn’t, and says he never will.

3. He said he’d divest himself from his financial empire, to avoid any conflicts of interest. You bought it. He is still heavily involved in his businesses, manipulates the stock market on a daily basis, and has more conflicts of interest than can even be counted.

4. He said Clinton was in the pockets of Goldman Sachs, and would do whatever they said. You bought it. He then proceeded to put half a dozen Goldman Sachs executives in positions of power in his administration.

5. He said he’d surround himself with all the best and smartest people. You bought it. He nominated theocratic loon Mike Pence for Vice President. A white supremacist named Steve Bannon is his most trusted confidant. Dr. Ben Carson, the world’s greatest idiot savant brain surgeon, is in charge of HUD. Russian quisling Rex Tillerson is Secretary of State.”

“6. He said he’d be his own man, beholden to no one. You bought it. He then appointed Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education, whose only “qualifications” were the massive amounts of cash she donated to his campaign.

7. He said he would “drain the swamp” of Washington insiders. You bought it. He then admitted that was just a corny slogan he said to fire up the rubes during the rallies, and that he didn’t mean it.

8. He said he knew more about strategy and terrorism than the Generals did. You bought it. He promptly gave the green light to a disastrous raid in Yemen- even though all his Generals said it would be a terrible idea. This raid resulted in the deaths of a Navy SEAL, an 8-year old American girl, and numerous civilians. The actual target of the raid escaped, and no useful intel was gained.

9. He said Hillary Clinton couldn’t be counted on in times of crisis. You bought it. He didn’t even bother overseeing that raid in Yemen; and instead spent the time hate-tweeting the New York Times, and sleeping.

10. He called CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times “fake news” and said they were his enemy. You bought it. He now gets all his information from Breitbart, Gateway Pundit, and InfoWars.

11. He called Barack Obama “the vacationer-in-Chief” and accused him of playing more rounds of golf than Tiger Woods. He promised to never be the kind of president who took cushy vacations on the taxpayer’s dime, not when there was so much important work to be done. You bought it. He took his first vacation after 11 days in office. On the taxpayer’s dime. And went golfing.”

There’s no denying Reich’s points. The liar-in-chief made empty promises throughout his campaign all the way into the Oval Office. After winning the election, Trump’s true colors were put on display.
Do you agree with Robert Reich? I do...To me, there's no denying that Trump is the "Grifter-in-Chief"

Robert Reich's list came from this article: http://www.impeachdjtnow.com/robert-rei ... upporters/

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Re: "Reflections from "Bizarro World"

Post by Steve Plonk » November 19th, 2017, 1:48 pm

I'm against the republican sponsored tax reform bill, etc. which just passed the House of Representatives.
It seems to me that it is corporate welfare because it lowers the corporate tax rate & does nothing for the middle class.
Tax reform appears for the richest Americans & corporations. The tax cuts will ruin the economy if they are not offset
by higher taxes for the richest Americans. We can't continue to fund wars on a credit card.
If the charges are legitimate, they must at least be offset by war bonds. We haven't pushed war bonds in forty years at least.

If war bonds are promoted, the general public will have a stake in the economy of funding the conflicts. In addition, funding must be raised by taxes to help pay for all the natural disasters we've had in the past year. Taxes must remain at 39% for the corporations.
Taxes must be utilized on a graduated & sliding scale. People making less than $10000 a year having to pay ten percent income taxes is plain not fair.

I'm also against republicans removing the ACA provision which says everyone must buy insurance or be fined.
Here's a brief quote from a recent article:
Republican senators who have been critical of the plan said that some middle-income taxpayers could see any benefits of the tax cuts wiped out by higher health insurance premiums if the repeal of the Obamacare mandate goes through.
See link to CNBC article quote, see above: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/20/trump-o ... -says.html

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Re: "Reflections from "Bizarro World"

Post by Steve Plonk » November 20th, 2017, 2:05 pm

Here are eight reasons why Ronald Reagan was the worst president of our lifetime (Besides Trump):
"1. Reagan cut taxes for the Rich, increased taxes on the Middle Class -"

Ronald Reagan is loved by conservatives and was loved by big business throughout his presidency and there's a reason for it. When Reagan came into office in January of 1981, the top tax rate was 70%, but when he left office in 1989 the top tax rate was down to only 28%. As Reagan gave the breaks to all his rich friends, there was a lack of revenue coming into the federal government. In order to bring money back into the government, Reagan was forced to raise taxes eleven times throughout his time in office. One example was when he signed into law the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982. Reagan raised taxes seven of the eight years he was in office and the tax increases were felt hardest by the lower and middle class.

"2. Tripling the National Debt -"

As Reagan cut taxes for the wealthy, the government was left with less money to spend. When Reagan came into office the national debt was $900 billion, by the time he left the national debt had tripled to $2.8 trillion.

"3. Iran/Contra -"

In 1986, a group of Americans were being held hostage by a terrorist group with ties to Iran. In an attempt to free the hostages, Ronald Reagan secretly sold arms and money to Iran. Much of the money that was received from the trade went to fund the Nicaragua Contra rebels who were in a war with the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. When the scandal broke in the Untied States it became the biggest story in the country, Reagan tried to down play what happened, but never fully recovered.

"4. Reagan funded Terrorists -"

The attacks on 9/11 by al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden brought new attention to international terrorism. All of a sudden, Americans coast to coast wore their American flag pins, ate their freedom fries and couldn't wait to go to war with anyone who looked like a Muslim. What Americans didn't realize was that the same group that attacked the United States on 9/11 was funded by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Prepping for a possible war with the Soviet Union, Ronald Reagan spent billions of dollars funding the Islamist mujahidin Freedom Fighters in Afghanistan. With billions of American dollars, weapons and training coming their way, the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden took everything they were given and gave it back to the United States over a decade later in the worst possible way imaginable.

"5. Unemployment issues -"

When Ronald Reagan came into office 1981, unemployment was at 7.5%. After Reagan cut taxes for the wealthy, he began raising taxes on the middle and lower class. Corporations started to ship more jobs out of the United States while hiring cheap foreign labor in order to make a bigger profit. While corporations made billions, Americans across the country lost their jobs. As 1982 came to a close, unemployment was nearly 11%. Unemployment began to drop as the years went on, but the jobs that were created were low paying and barely helped people make ends meet. The middle and lower class had their wages nearly frozen as the top earners saw dramatic increases in salary.

"6. Ignoring AIDS -"

By the time the 1980s came around, AIDS had become one of the most frightening things to happen to the country in recent memory. No one understood what AIDS and HIV really was and when people don't understand something, they become scared of it. The fear of the unknown was sweeping across the country and Americans needed a leader to speak out about this horrible virus, that leader never came. Instead of grabbing the bull by the horns and taking charge, Reagan kept quiet. Reagan couldn't say the words AIDS or HIV until seven years into his presidency, a leader not so much.

"7. Reagan gave amnesty to 3 million Undocumented Immigrants -"

In today's GOP, the idea of any immigrant staying in the United States whether they are legal or illegal isn't something that conservatives embrace. What might shock them is that in 1982 Ronald Reagan gave nearly 3 million undocumented workers amnesty. The biggest reason for undocumented workers coming to the United States is because corporations hire them at a cheaper rate than they would an American citizen. All the laws that would have cracked down on companies who hire undocumented workers were, of course, removed from the bill.

"8. His attack on Unions and the Middle Class -" The Republican war on unions and the middle class has been heating up in states like Wisconsin and Ohio, but it has been going on for a long time. Unions are formed to give a united voice to the workers in an attempt to create fairness between the corporations and their employees. On August 3rd, 1981, PATCO (Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization) went on strike in an effort to get better pay and safer working conditions. Two days later, taking the side of business, Ronald Reagan fired 11,345 workers for not returning to work.
From link: https://www.datalounge.com/.../12199700 ... as-the-wor...

Steve Plonk
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Re: "Reflections from "Bizarro World"

Post by Steve Plonk » February 1st, 2018, 6:51 pm

Looks like the president's "state of the union" speech was filled with jingoistic platitudes & the usual ideas of "deja voodoo economics".
The man wants to fund the pentagon to the hilt, but leaves no realistic budget for infrastructure. You can't fund infrastructure on a dime. Folks, we are going to have to pay for it with raised taxes. More credit card budgets just won't cut it.

Moreover, One can't build a wall on the backs of the medically needy. Drug prices are going up, along with "big pharma" gains on the stock market. Looks like rehashed "reaganomics" to me & to many others.

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Re: "Reflections from "Bizarro World"

Post by stilltrucking » February 14th, 2018, 12:46 am

I am going to survive the next three years somehow I hope
you think that's scary, you want to see something really scary
I am doing my best to wish him well, because he has the whole world on a button

Steve Plonk
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Re: "Reflections from "Bizarro World"

Post by Steve Plonk » February 16th, 2018, 9:28 pm

Fortunately, for all of us, Trump is not the only one who can push the nuke button. There are several others who have
to push it with him. The closest to that we ever got to nuclear war was during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
Robert Kennedy helped defuse that situation back in the day.

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Re: "Reflections from "Bizarro World"

Post by Steve Plonk » April 13th, 2018, 2:44 pm

Plenty has happened since my last comment on February 16th.
The Secretary of State has been fired. Stormy Daniels juicy revelations about an extra-marital affair with Trump came
out in the mainstream media. Trump's lawyer had his house & office searched with warrants by the FBI. Lastly, Trump has made noises about having a summit with the Premier of North Korea. So much has been happening it is hard
to know where to begin to comment.
Moreover, Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House, has announced he isn't running for re-election
in his district, etc. Scott Pruitt, the EPA Secretary, is under fire for various violations.

To me, Trump is looking more like he is live bait for impeachment proceedings. Looks like Syria is heating up again--
since the recent chemical attacks by what looks like Assad's regime. The world needs to be infused with some human kindness. Let's see what else pans out...

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mnaz
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Re: "Reflections from "Bizarro World"

Post by mnaz » April 16th, 2018, 2:54 pm

To comment on part of your post here (like you say, where does one even know where to start?):
I think the world is still fighting the goddam Cold War in Syria in some ways. US vs. Russia. Assad is a bastard with much blood on his hands by now, but at some point we absolutely need to wake up and smell the shit. And really, much, if not all, of the so-called War on Terrorism and seemingly endless asymmetric warfare waged against "rogue states" or "insurgencies" over the last several decades (they just don't televise much of it anymore) also stems directly (or perhaps even more often, indirectly) from the Cold War. And from WW2 (especially in the case of Israel/Palestine).

I don't know if it's even possible to eventually resolve all of these endless wars, rebellions and instabilities, but there is zero chance for any sort of resolution (short of mass-annihilation maybe) if we just keep lying about the root causes of conflict in the name of heavily-armed, tough-guy, fast-talking, profit-based, goal-post shifting jingoistic politics.

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Re: "Reflections from "Bizarro World"

Post by Steve Plonk » April 22nd, 2018, 3:24 pm

Yes, mnaz, I believe we are in another era of "war by proxy" in Syria. Neither of the so-called "sides" are
reliable, and it appears there are atrocities committed by both Assad's regime and by the insurgents. Russia is adding
to Assad's war behavior and Turkey, France, Britain, and the U.S.A. are fighting both Assad
& a portion of the insurgents, namely, ISIS.
Even the Russians have bombed ISIS along with the Iranians. There is a smelly odor of mendacity with
all concerned. Civilians are caught in between and there is no end in sight. Mnaz, I believe I'm with you in the choir.

It all boils down to oil, opium, and pieces of eight--as we used to say back in the day. If a truce is not called
pretty soon, Syria will become a total failed state.

Steve Plonk
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Re: "Reflections from "Bizarro World"

Post by Steve Plonk » July 3rd, 2018, 1:05 pm

From Facebook:

"Trump, a republican president, fired a republican head of the FBI, and is now furious with his republican
Attorney General for stepping down and allowing his republican Deputy Attorney General to assign a republican
former head of the FBI to lead the investigation into Russian collusion. Also so far, that person has overturned
evidence to a presidentially hand picked republican State Attorney General who authorized the republican President's
attorney to have his office raided. And this is all somehow the fault of the Democrats." :roll: :lol:

Steve Plonk
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Re: "Reflections from "Bizarro World"

Post by Steve Plonk » July 5th, 2018, 8:27 pm

Good riddance to Scott Pruitt, EPA administrator, who resigned, effective, July 6, 2018.
Pruitt's disgraceful behavior delineated a new low for Trump officials.
As I said in my Earth Day thread, Pruitt was the worst EPA administrator we ever had.

mtmynd
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Re: "Reflections from "Bizarro World"

Post by mtmynd » July 7th, 2018, 3:36 pm

Steve Plonk wrote:
July 5th, 2018, 8:27 pm
Good riddance to Scott Pruitt, EPA administrator, who resigned, effective, July 6, 2018.
Pruitt's disgraceful behavior delineated a new low for Trump officials.
As I said in my Earth Day thread, Pruitt was the worst EPA administrator we ever had.
I certainly glad this man it gone however the latest news tells us his replacement isn't any better but sneakier...

https://www.ecowatch.com/wheeler-pruitt ... 1530883557
_________________________________
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Allow not destiny to intrude upon Now

Steve Plonk
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Re: "Reflections from "Bizarro World"

Post by Steve Plonk » July 11th, 2018, 10:29 am

Wheeler is a shill for the coal mining industry. His agenda is more bound by the rule of law. However, his agenda
is also similar to Pruitt's in some ways. I am a member of several environmental groups who will be watching
Wheeler like a hawk. I don't know, at this point whether or not Wheeler will be a permanent replacement for Pruitt.
Mtmynd, you're certainly" "preaching to the choir" on Wheeler's tactics. Thanks for the article referral.

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Re: "Reflections from "Bizarro World"

Post by Steve Plonk » July 18th, 2018, 10:58 am

President Trump got back from two, count "em, disastrous summits.
During the European NATO summit & in Britain, he questioned the Prime Minister & called the European Union a "foe".
He questioned whether NATO was paying their fair share of military expenses, even though it was previously agreed upon.

In Helsinki, he kowtowed to Russia & did not confront Putin on the 2016 election interference scandal.
He later claimed back in the U.S. that he "misspoke", about not accepting our intelligence community"s 12 indictments of Russian operatives. Trump also gave credence to the ridiculous notion that Russia would "help" with the investigation.

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