EnergizedLib
EnergizedLib's JournalMy thank you letter to President Biden
I wrote and sent this out about a month ago, thanking him for everything.
"Dear Mr. President,
I want to thank you for your service to our country for more than half a century and for the last four years as our president. I missed having an adult in the White House and felt like my head was above water for the first time in four years after you were sworn in. As a country, we have not deserved a compassionate, wonderful, accomplished leader like yourself, and you've deserved better than how you've been treated by this country and its citizens. My first vote came in 2012 to re-elect you as Vice President, and one of the happiest days of my life came November 7, 2020. You've been blamed for things which weren't your fault. May you and your family find peace in retirement and you all have the best holiday you can. I will miss you!
Sincerely,
(EnergizedLib)"
My heart is heavy on this day
Four years ago, I sat alone in an office during work at a computer desk, as I had no internet to do remote work on. My social media told me what was happening and I became enraged, my blood boiled and I was appalled as I’d ever been in my life.
But I couldn’t get too mad for too long because I had to interview some local seniors for the upcoming girls basketball senior night game the next night, which was earlier in case COVID shut everything down again. So, I had to find a way to be calm and act like a professional, and it got my mind off what was happening in real time.
And I thought Republicans would cave and he’d get to stay.
Now, four years later, here we are. I thought we’d win, but it was hardly a major shock we didn’t. I’m appalled as all get out and very much disgusted, but not entirely surprised.
I didn’t even bother paying much attention to the court and lawsuit drama over the past four years. Why? Because something told me he’d somehow get away with it.
The only, and I mean only good thing about losing President Carter is he can still get the proper treatment and respect he deserves while President Biden is still in office the next two weeks.
What a country we’ve become. I say that in astonishment, and not in an enamored way.
MAGAts as classy as you think on President Carter's passing
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-fans-disagree-carter-statement/———Snip
Trump took to Truth Social after the news broke, saying in part, "The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude."
Theodore Winters, who describes himself as a "conservative Republican artist," laughed at the president elect's comment.
"Lol, I know you’re being nice. But you’re tripping," Winters wrote. "Carter was a terrible president and damaged The United States Of America to such an extent that we are STILL dealing with his horribly policy decisions and his inflation repercussions in 2024."
…….
John 55 🇺🇸, who identifies as an "America First" veteran, chimed in:
"Jimmy Carter pardoned all the Vietnam draft dodgers that forced other men to take their place! Many of these men did not come home."
"Personally, I think Carter lived a long life to suffer for the pardons to the draft dodgers he pardoned," he added.
———Snip
So, am I getting this right? Carter ought to condemned for pardoning Vietnam draft dodgers, one of which has a cult following devoted to him, that this John 55 presumably voted for a Vietnam draft dodger? Huh? How does that make any sense?
We were lucky to have Jimmy, even though we sadly didn’t deserve him. Our country and our planet are poorer because of him.
Lots of ignorant comments are listed in that article from people who wouldn’t have been worthy of licking President Carter’s spit off the ground.
Top five greatest moral failures in American history
In no particular order, here are mine:
- Slavery
- Segregation
- Jim Crow
- Internment of Japanese Americans during World War II
- Allowing someone unqualified and chosen by a minority of the voters to reshape our judiciary with corrupt and illegitimate people who’ve no problem taking people’s freedoms away, and pregnant women dying, elected officials trying to overrule their constituents and hide data on the deaths of pregnant women over the loss of their freedoms; while the same one let hundreds of thousands of Americans just die in an epic mishandling of a deadly pandemic and inciting insurrection in protest of an election he knew he lost, but his ego was too large to publicly admit. One of his co-branches of government acquitted him despite admitting his guilt, while cla court system failed to hold him accountable over insurrection, failed to sentence him over his convicted felonies and dismissed a case against him in which he knowingly kept top secret documents which weren’t his.
And despite all of this, and Presidential historians ranking him the worst of all time, 76 million people decided they wanted more because, ‘the price of eggs,’ was too much, while all too happy to pay more in tariffs, as holiday travel and shopping increased this year. And as a result that so many couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a person of color, they’ll give the opportunity for the felon to do even more damage and commit who knows what kind of crimes while he and his billionaire buddies pillage the country for their own benefit starting in January.
Well, those are my top five greatest moral failures in this country’s history. What are yours?
There's only one Black Friday worth discussing and celebrating
https://m.&pp=ygUXYmxhY2sgZnJpZGF5IHN0ZWVseSBkYW4%3DEnjoy.
He sure does pick losers, doesn't he?
With Kelly Loeffler being nominated for Agriculture Secretary, that has me thinking….
Kelly Loeffler, Agriculture, voted out in Georgia, never elected.
Linda McMahon, Education, ran for Senate in Connecticut and lost.
Dr. Oz, Medicare and Medicaid, ran for Senate in Pennsylvania and lost.
He’s named more losers in those three than he has ‘winners’ (Rubio for State, Burgum for Interior).
He knows how to pick ‘em, doesn’t he?
I'm not completely convinced we're the problem
It's going to take a long time to recover from the trauma of the election, and I've seen all sorts of blame and finger pointing and people hating on us, dunking on us and our policies and the things we've said and done.
The more I think about it, the problem isn't us. In fact, while unfortunately and undoubtedly prevalent, I'm not even convinced racism and misogyny were the big problem.
The big problems I see, in the two weeks after the election, are the complete disconnect from reality and an uninformed electorate.
Exhibit A, not knowing about tariffs:
https://thenightly.com.au/politics/us-politics/what-is-a-tariff-google-searches-for-term-tariff-spike-after-donald-trump-elected-as-president-c-16712054
-----Snip
"Google searches for the term “tariff” have spiked after the election, as have queries about “Trump’s tariff plan” — spiking more than 1650 per cent since the election. Searches for “who pays tariffs” have risen 350 per cent since the election.
To be fair, the vast majority of people may not know the intricacies of tariffs — let alone heard about them — before Mr Trump waxed lyrical about them throughout his re-election campaign."
-----Snip
How about a failure of those in charge, those whose job it is to teach and inform, what a tariff is?
I'm not sure how often it is I will ever post something from Truth Social, but here's one user in shock:
https://bsky.app/profile/ggold328.bsky.social/post/3lba3c45tc22p
Exhibit B, Project 2025
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/us/politics/trump-project-2025.html
Article is titled, "What is Project 2025 and why did Trump Distance Himself From It During the Campaign?
I'd like to answer that question. I think if trump actually tied to himself to Project 2025, she would've won.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/trump-americans-vote-plutocrats-taxes-1235161296/
Article is titled, "Americans didn't vote for what Donald Trump is about to give them."
----Snip
"So what happens when the emperor is revealed to have no clothes — or even worse, the garb of the same financial “elites” he claims to be against? Obviously, the MAGA faithful will stay with Trump no matter what — after all, his failure to bring about revolution in 2017 spawned the QAnon conspiracy theory, which said he was really about to do it, any day now. But the economic voters that gave him his victory could abandon Trump if he can’t deliver results. And he cannot. While Trump is busy trying to throw his enemies in jail, he has no plan — not even “concepts of a plan” — for the kitchen-table concerns that actually put him into office. Maybe, just maybe, voters will see they’ve been conned."
----Snip
Exhibit C, Getting the Muslim vote
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/muslims-who-voted-trump-upset-by-his-pro-israel-cabinet-picks-2024-11-15/
Article is titled, "Trump's pro-Israel cabinet picks upset Muslims who voted for him."
----Snip
WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Muslim leaders who supported Republican Donald Trump to protest against the Biden administration's support for Israel's war on Gaza and attacks on Lebanon have been deeply disappointed by his cabinet picks, they tell Reuters.
"Trump won because of us and we're not happy with his secretary of state pick and others," said Rabiul Chowdhury, a Philadelphia investor who chaired the Abandon Harris campaign in Pennsylvania and co-founded Muslims for Trump.
---Snip
Exhibit D, Healthcare
This is nothing new, something I've known for years, but the reality is people in this country hate Obamacare but love the Affordable Care Act.
Article is titled, "Trump voters mercilessly mocked over heartbreaking mistake."
---Snip
Some people have allegedly admitted that they didn't even realize that Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act were the same thing - and social media users are making fun of them for making the mistake.
One man, named Bernard Taylor, explained in a TikTok video posted last week that he had just seen a clip shared by a man who confessed that he thought they were two different things.
'I'm sorry but is this real life? This can't be real life right now,' he said. 'I just saw a video of a guy who said he voted for [Trump] because he was gonna get rid of Obamacare.
'He didn't like Obamacare, and he was voting to get rid of it. But he said he wasn't worried because he's unemployed and on disability, so he has his insurance through the Affordable Care Act.'
----Snip
But we're the problem, right? Those of us who've paid attention all along have known Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act are the same thing.
Exhibit E, Engagement
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/democrats-won-highly-engaged-voters-struggled-everyone-else-2024-rcna179957
Article is titled, "Democrats won 'highly engaged' voters and struggled with everybody else in 2024."
----Snip
Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats convinced frequent voters and highly engaged voters to stick with them in the 2024 presidential election.
Their problem: They lost with most everyone else.
According to the final NBC News poll of the 2024 race, 76% of registered voters said they follow public affairs and politics closely. The poll showed Harris winning among that group by 5 points over Donald Trump, 52%-47%.
----Snip
"But among the remaining quarter of voters who said they don’t follow politics closely, Trump was ahead by a much greater margin — 14 points, 54%-40%.
These less-engaged voters were disproportionately younger, more Republican-leaning and less likely to have college degrees — all groups of voters the NBC News Exit Poll showed Democrats struggling with in the election results earlier this month, especially compared to past presidential races."
---Snip
So, people who were informed and paid attention voted for us. Those who were not, did not. Now, how do we get the word out, get others more engaged and get others more informed to fight back against an aggressive, and unfortunately successful, disinformation campaign?
Conclusion - Maybe there are some policy and messaging tweaks we can make, certainly racism and misogyny are prevalent in America, but I'm convinced the biggest reason we're about to face the sequel to this nightmare, hopefully just for four years, is that people who voted for the convicted felon got conned.
Again.
No wonder the election turned out the way it did
https://archive.is/2024.11.18-225716/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/18/well/x-grok-health-privacy.html———Snip
Over the past few weeks, users on X have been submitting X-rays, MRIs, CT scans and other medical images to Grok, the platform’s artificial intelligence chatbot, asking for diagnoses. The reason: Elon Musk, X’s owner, suggested it.
———Snip
That says it all, does it not? Why would anyone share their medical info with anybody out there like that, let alone someone so dangerous?
How could the past four years just fly by so quickly?
January 2017 through January 2021 felt like one big long episode of the Springer Show. I was embarrassed, felt never-ending.
Then, Nov. 7, 2020 rolls around and I'm running around my living room and jumping for joy on my bed, watching President Biden's victory speech. January 20, 2021 rolls around and I feel like I'm above water for the first time in four years and I'm able to start sleeping peacefully again at night.
And it's all gone by so fast.
All I've done these past years is just my job, minding my own business, living my life, not stressing at all about what's going on in Washington - just working my life away, focusing on my autographed Sports Illustrated collection and other hobbies and interests while not devoting every waking moment to my job.
Now, I'm ready for the next four years to be over just eight days after the election.
Don't get me wrong, I've still had personal/mental health struggles in the past four years, depression interfering, but that obviously had nothing to do with who was in power.
It's all felt like a blur, in the blink of an eye, and our long, national nightmare we thought was over is very much returning.
And it'll be worse. The first four years had me nostalgic for W., and dare I say these next four years will have me nostalgic for the 2017-2021 years? Looking back on it, at least he accidentally hired some actual adults like Mattis and Kelly, and Tillerson wasn't as bad as I thought he'd be.
What's more, I think we're getting a return of the W. years, but not in the way you'd think. The real president is going to be Elon Musk, while the convicted felon is just going to be the figurehead, just like W. and Cheney.
Thank You, President Biden. We haven't deserved you. You cleaned up your predecessor's mess the best you could, got blamed for things that weren't your fault, all while just going about your business and quietly doing a great job amid horrible circumstances.
Who else feels tired and hopeless?
See, this isn’t 2016.
2016/2017, I had hope. I felt the election swung by a very small margin, that if we endured the next few years, people would see the light and we’d make up enough to kick him out in 2020.
Well, we did. What I didn’t predict was we’d have him forced on us again four years later, after everything he’s put us through since he came down that escalator.
Even if the election was stolen and we had proof, what’s that going to do?
Even if he commits crimes, what’s that going to do? Because the past nine years have taught us nobody being above the law is only true in theory, not in practice.
Even if there’s an election where we win the House in two years, and the White House and Senate in four, what kind of gargantuan mess will we be cleaning up? How much more damage will be done to this country that will take decades to undo?
Eight years ago, I felt like fighting. Now, I just feel like throwing in the towel. That energy that EnergizedLib once had is gone.
And to think, maybe all of this could have been avoided if people actually knew what a tariff was.
Just one week in in 2017, I asked if it was 2020 yet. And now?
We’re all being taken for a ride, and it won’t be pretty. The leopards will be eating all of our faces, whether we voted for it or not.
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Member since: Sun Jul 17, 2022, 02:13 PMNumber of posts: 2,283