Marthe48
Marthe48's Journalfelon will air every action
even if his methods cost more with fewer results.
I saw a graph last week showing the number of people deported and the cost under each U.S. president since at least Clinton. Every pres. deported more people at lower cost than felon has, either in regime 1 or currently. If I can find the graph, I'll add it.
In my opinion, just like always, others will do the work, do it fairly, and do it better, while felon flounders around like an inept swimmer trying to keep up with the champs.
While other administrations used legal methods and law to deport, felon is kidnapping Americans, seizing protected people who believed they were safe and rounding up vulnerable family groups with relatives who could legally house them. So along with the tinsel, felon is also flooding the courts with suits that didn't need to be brought. And the media will air every story, either to prove felon is doing what he said, or to keep the cruelty in front of those of us hoping that humans will be humane.
I volunteered for a h.s. student exchange organization
from 1995-2024. The program evolved the entire time I volunteered. The organization has been around since 1914 and has a remarkable history that plainly shows its dedication to peace and understanding. In the 90s, the organization had conferences to explore becoming more diverse, not just extending further from Europe and S.A. to Africa and Asia, but finding ways to include American students of all races, cultures and identity. After the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, they also started working with Middle East countries, and countries that were predominantly Muslim, to promote peace and understanding between Muslim countries and secular countries (sorry, I can't think of a better description of our differences). My organization has partnered with other exchange programs, especially programs that focus on learning languages. The h.s. exchange programs in general promote peace and understanding, cultural exchange, diversity and respect. There are many exchange programs, and they are evaluated by an organization called CSIET and monitored by the State Department. As a volunteer, I had to re-certify every year and have a background check. Part of re-certifying was getting vetted by the State Department for my role, making sure I was up-to-date on their rules and regulations. Everyone who had contact with the students had to go through getting certified, interviewed, background checked, so the students and host families understood the experience they were going to undertake.
The h.s. programs have been in jeopardy before, mostly funding. This is a different kind of attack on student and cultural exchange. On a personal level, I have been changed and my life is better for having the experience of hosting and volunteering. My community is a better place, and this country is a better place for hosting students and showing them life in America. If the U.S. ends this particular method of cultural exchange, we will lose a very personal method of making friends across the world. I know several students who participated in exchanges, either Americans who studied abroad, or students who lived in the U.S. and went to school here, who have made successful careers based on language translation, international education and international business. People who choose this path in life are exceptional. If America decides to bow out of cultural exchange at any or all levels, you can bet other countries will not, because the experience and the people driving the experience are invaluable assets to any country that participates.
The exchange programs are entwined with respect and diversity. I want those qualities in my life, and I want my country to continue to embrace them.
We never see the big picture
and if we say we do, it's ego. So you don't remember every single thing you did that boosted someone else. Those things are easy to forget, but man, we sure remember the things we did wrong. And the things that didn't go the way we wanted. And the people who harmed us. I spend too much time dwelling on things that were probably not as important as I still think they are. I am always happy when I run into people I forgot about and they remind me of something nice I did. It gives me a peek at the big picture.
As for pain and loss, I've already had my share and I dread the other shoes that will drop. It helps to think that my loved ones are safe, healthy, happy, even if they aren't on this side of the veil. They are in the afterlife they imagined they would have. If they didn't go intact to Heaven, their atoms live on in that tree, those clouds, the dirt of my beloved Earth. It is easy to say hi if I miss them, even if I don't hear their voices in reply. To have them as long as I did was enough to add their essence into mine, so no one I loved is ever truly gone.
There will be another day you'll be up. My friend lived with chronic health problems almost her whole life. But she created happiness for herself. I miss the phone calls where we laughed ourselves silly over bad jokes. She died last year, but even if she is gone, I am still finding knowledge in her wisdom. Because of her, I look for joy, even if on some days, it is hard to see.
Cheers!
I've lived my whole life with a benign govt.
Can we imagine how bad it was to live through WWI, worldwide flu epidemic, the first effort of the religious right to oppress us (Prohibition) The Great Depression and WWII? It was bad enough so that world governments, including the U.S. took major steps to avoid the series of disasters happening again. And while it was bad for white people, the time was worse for POC, other minorities, disabled, really anyone who was different. As world governments pulled whites out of the quicksand, they finally started throwing ropes to others as well. I can remember the milestones we passed: civil rights, women's rights, gay rights, enforcement of legal treatment of criminals, extending help for education and medical bills.
I remember when my grandmother and great-aunt first got Medicare, in the mid-60s. My grandmother was thrilled for the sudden help for herself and her aunt.
I also remember the crushing medical debt my parents incurred when one of my siblings after another developed unusual and expensive ailments. They had no medical insurance and within a couple years, our standard of living dropped from middle class to poverty.
Maybe if every single person had a perfect life, perfect response to any problems, perfect children, perfect marriage, perfect education, the countries in the world wouldn't have to create and maintain a floor under their populations. But there is no perfection and for my whole life, the drive to ease the suffering was a benefit for all people in the world.
Somehow the human community has become perverted with the idea that a few people need to hold all the wealth and power, and the rest us can suffer, it seems, to their delight. The Spanish Inquisition didn't last forever. Margaret Thatcher's government didn't last, Poland's extreme right is failing, even if it has taken years. I hope Americans will learn from other countries how to throw off the yoke of rwnj extremists and fatally flawed billionaires and get us back to a government that has tried for half its existence to be by the people, for the people.
There was great societal upheaval in the 60s and 70s
The antiwar protests, supreme court decisions on things like pornography, Miranda rights, legalizing abortion, Civil Rights Act, and so many other actions that really rocked the U.S.
But compared to what is being imposed now, which upheaval harmed more people?
I think it's an easy answer. I lived through the changes the 1960s brought. Most of the people I know had better lives. It still took personal strength and determination to prevail in some choices, but the changes from the top down made it easier to find a way to have personal success and satisfaction.
What is happening now is removing the social and legal structures that benefited so many Americans and will harm the U.S. overall.
In the past the U.S. moved in fits and starts toward a better union that attempted to share human rights with all. If something was allowed, if it helped you fine, use it. if it didn't help you, move on. We are going from a benign atmosphere to one that is being stripped of hope and flogged back to despair.
Here's my idea of why felon is targeting large swaths of people
Keep in mind, he pardoned all the J6 felons, because he didn't want to go case by case.
So there are specific people or entities who stood up to him, criticized him, belittled him, disagreed with him, sued him, refused him, took him to court, made him answer for crimes, and all of the endless reasons for his endless vitriol. So, maybe here is how it works:
President Biden=equals defeat
VP Harris= women of color
Pete Buttigieg=LGBQT
CDC=failure to comply with his murderous handing of Covid
Illinois=Gov. Pritzger's defiance
Dept. of Ed.=equals every person who is smarter than he is and can't help showing him up
California=Gov. Newsom
Coast Guard Adm. Linda Fagan=strong women
FEMA=California
DEI=all POC and women
WHO=another entity that carried on with lifesaving health policies in spite of felon's murderous handling of Covid
Canada=melania has the hots for Trudeau
Judicial=all the lawsuits brought against him
You can add to the list, easily.
Way back, there was a popular tee shirt and hat motto: "Kill 'em all and let God sort them out" Felon updated it to: "Kill 'em all"
I think you're right
Imposing tariffs, pausing them, will be such an attention getter. I expect lunatic threats the rest of the time felon traitor is the figurehead. Not just everyone in America, but everyone in the world will have to watch him smear shit on the wall.
Will there be incremental damage? I read that China made a deal with another country to buy soy beans. I read that Doug Ford in Canada will not allow companies in Ontario to make new deals with U.S. companies. (I might not be entirely accurate on the details of the stories) Will actions like these be reversible? Are the tariffs on China and Venezuala still in place? Will traitor felon use tariffs as a cudgel on other countries? Will the EU ally itself with more relaiable and stable trading partners, such as BRICS? Do other countries really want to bob and weave as traitor felon flails his way around the ecomonic arena?
As for the rest of us, try to stock up when the felon is eying other ways to create havoc. I feel little less threatened knowing I have a store of dried goods is a good anti-anxiety remedy.
This is a ridiculous situation.
about DEI and economy
I don't know if rwnj jobs are aiming for total exclusion of POC and other minorities, or a return to separate but equal.
The US can't defend itself with an all white army, not enough recruits-not the age, not the fitness, not the committment. The lowlifes in private militias won't meet the standard. If there is a return to separate but equal, there will have to be 2 of each arm of the military. That is not cost effective and I have suspected for a long time that phasing out that kind of separation because of cost was a driving force in combining the forces we had in WWII, WWII and probably the Civil War.
If separate but equal is the plan, POC and other minorities will have to create medical facilities, schools, public fixtures, and again, anything that is paid for by taxes, will have the white one and the one for everyone else. That is not cost effective.
If total exclusion is the plan, whites can say goodbye to all of the pleasures diversity brings. Whites can say goodbye to a robust military, lower taxes, and more inconvience as POC and other minorities withdraw their support from the employment base, withhold their knowledge, and move on with lives full of shared resources, and even joy.
I think DEI wasn't just about hiring policies. I think it was a learning tool to help complete idiots understand how to get along with other people. Because it is cheaper for a company to run one store for all people, and to have a diverse workforce, it is cost effective. But we're dealing with rwnj who fuel their plans with hate and racism, so I shouldn't expect that there is any vision or intelligence driving the plunge over the cliff.
a 1974 movie called Conrack
A true story based on the experiences of Pat Conroy, a white man who taught black children on an isolated island off the s.e. coast of the U.S. Starred jon voight. My husband and I saw the movie at a drive-in and it was probably one of the first meaningful influences on my outlook. I don't understand how jon voight, or anyone else could be in a movie like that and not be profoundly changed by the story. I checked before I posted, and voight indeed used to be considered a liberal. Something changed him, and now he is a rwnj, favored by traitor felon rapist.
Was voight just fooling himself and us all those years? I feel like he changed his outlook after the movie Coming Home. I tried to watch that movie, but it was so grim, and I didn't finish it. Maybe whatever message was in that movie was a greater influence than the message in Conrack. It is extremely disappointing to see people turn their backs on personal, social and cultural growth and undermine any progress being made toward better understanding among people.
If traitor felon wasn't in the oval office he would be impotent
A lot of of his hissy fit orgasm is illegal and while it's scary to see and to endure, in the end, he is a weak, unfit man who either has to buy what he wants, steal it or cheat to get it, and no matter what he does as he abuses the power of the office, he will never attain to greatness. If he starts WWIII, no one will survive to remember who destroyed the world. Not a single one of the people at the controls, not a single puppet entertaining the magat brigade will be part of any legends written in the future.
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Home country: U.S.A.
Member since: 2001
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