Question for Team MAGA

I have some questions for the MAGA people out there.

Not the people who voted for Trump and either are indifferent now or are no longer actively supporting him. I’m asking those who currently, as of February 28th, 2019, still think Trump is good. Here goes:

If someone who was sued (and settled out of court) by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division for discriminating against black and Hispanic (potential) tenants, how do you describe this behavior?

If a man was elected President and just so happened to be the first Black American to do so, who was born in Hawaii which is a state in the United States, and a second man constantly said that he wasn’t born here (with no evidence other than a foreign sounding name), but the second man NEVER did this to ANY other President, how would you describe this thought process?

If 5 young black Americans were convicted of rape, and then DNA evidence PROVED that they weren’t the ones who committed this crime, and the same second man from my previous statement continued calling for the death penalty EVEN THOUGH THE CONVICTION WAS OVERTURNED BY DNA EVIDENCE, how would you describe his sentiment towards black Americans?   

If a person states that he wants to ban an entire group of people from his country, called the countries that the majority of said group live in “shitholes”, and is focused on a border wall to keep out Hispanic immigrants (even though about half of undocumented immigrants achieve that status due to visa overstays, and a lesser known fat is more visa overstays occur from Canadians, not Hispanic people), what would you say is the main motivation here? 

If your conclusion is anything other than ethnicity, race, skin color, or any other way you can say it, then you are either being willfully blind, you simply don’t care about bigotry as much as you care about other issues, or you are also a racist. There is literally no other explanation. If you disagree with my assessment, then I don’t know what to tell you. I guess bigotry isn’t a thing outside of saying the N-word to a black person with the hard ER. Nothing else is racist apparently, if the above 4 questions didn’t qualify.

Make America Great Again. Like when blacks had no rights. Wasn’t it awesome? 

In the words of my man YG…”Fuck Donald Trump.”

Bernie Sanders 2020

It’s a wonderful day to be a lefty. 

No, not you weirdo’s who aren’t right handed, I’m talking about being a progressive/social democrat/populist left-wing voter.  Not only do we have AOC, Ilhan Omar, Ro Khana and RashidaTalib just straight gooning up on the opps, but we have real progressives running for President in 2020. Elizabeth Warren, Tulsi Gabbard, and……..

BERNIE MUTHAF**KIN SANDERS.

The godfather of modern day social democracy has finally officially announced that he’s running for President in 2020. And with that announcement, I hereby announce that he has moved into the number one spot. Tulsi is my number 2, and Sen. Warren is in 3rd place. 

Think about it, we would not be having a conversation about Medicare for All or Free College if OG Bern wasn’t around in 2016. Ending all of our Nation Building wars disguised as humanitarian efforts? Bernie’s our guy. Climate change awareness? Mr. Sanders. Income inequality? You already know. Social justice which can be achieved through policy? Remember, this is the man who got locked up with Martin Luther King Jr, fought for trans rights in the 80’s before people even knew what a transgender person was, fought for gay rights in the military in the early 90’s in Congress. That is all Mr. Sanders. Fight for $15? Bernie.Fighting against corruption and influence of big banks/wall street? Bernie. 

And to think, he overcame a HUGE gap against Hillary Clinton (he started at less than 25% of the vote, ended around 48%). And keep it real, unless you were a huge political junkie prior to 2016, did you even know who Bernie was? Not unless you lived in Virginia. Now, he’s the most popular politician in the country.

Assuming there is no DNC fuckery this time around, we will be announcing the victory of President Bernie Sanders in about a year and a half. 

#FeelTheBern

Ilhan Omar is My New Hero

I am so freaking proud of Rep. Ilhan Omar. I love everything she’s doing right now, and I hope she doesn’t let the smears and disingenuous attacks slow her down. She’s doing everything that we have been wishing progressive politicians would do for YEARS. 

First example was her calling out ISRAEL (not Jewish people, which the establishment loves to conflate). She stated plainly that AIPAC has had a corrupting influence over United States politicians for some time now. She stated that Israel (not Jewish people) is committing atrocities against the Palestinians with U.S. support, and they have the world blinded. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Then, she called out Elliot Abrams for all of his various war crimes throughout the past few decades, including Iran-Contra (which HW Bush pardoned him for), and a slew of coup’s in South America. War crimes, civilian casualties, theft of natural resources? He’s about that life, and for the first time, he was called out in Congress and he couldn’t answer for his actions. It was beautiful.

People like Ilhan, Tulsi Gabbard, Bernie Sanders, AOC, and (Michigan’s own J) Rashida Talib are bringing the entire Overton window back to the left, they are actually representing a TRUE left wing ideology that would help our country in a tremendous way if their ideas can be implemented. 

For the first time since Tiny Hands got elected, I feel somewhat optimistic about the future of American politics.

State of the Union Address 2019

So last night, The President of People who Consider Kraft Mac and Cheese a Meal, Donald Trump, gave the State of the Union address. What did he do? What did he say? The same shit he always says. EVERYTHING and NOTHING.

A lot of his message seemed to be about lowering healthcare and medicine prices, even though he is against Medicare for all. He brought out a little girl who had to crowd fund $40,000 for cancer treatments, because, we don’t have Medicare for all, which he doesn’t want. He talked about “eliminating AIDS/HIV in 10 years”, and tackling childhood cancers. What’s he gonnado about all this? He’s still talking that same “erase the statelines, increase the competition for insurance companies” bullshit that all republican politicians talk about. Which ultimately would result in all the insurance companies just going to the state that charges the lowest tax rate, and then….nothing else changes. 

He also advised us, his wonderful constituency, of his plans to “withdraw” from Afghanistan and Syria (which he basically took back within the same sentence if you’re listening close). He said he wanted to stay in Iraq to “watch Iran”, and he wanted to do “counter-terror intelligence” in Afghanistan, which basically means, we ain’t going anywhere. All the “great nations don’t do endless wars” shit he was talking is clearly a lie. Like most things Trump says.

As expected, he fear mongered telling anecdotal stories about undocumented immigrants committing violent crimes (which statistically happen less frequently than those crimes of natural born citizens), and thusly, promoting his favorite easy to get around/under/over piece of building structure, the wall.

In addition to this terrible stuff, we also heard him endorse the privatization of schools. Yeah, Trump’s a charter school guy. 

Then there was just an obnoxiously long tongue bath that several older troops and police officers received by President Tiny Hands. Oh so much pomp and circumstance. The EmEffer also had the nerve to forget multiple common sayings to close out his speech (which I just thought was funny), but overall, he said nothing that we didn’t already know, sprinkled in with some crazy lies, but again, this is normal for 45. 

Hopefully we will only have to listen to one more of these SOTU speeches from him, and the first one after he is no longer the Prez is either being given from Tulsi Gabbard or Bernie Sanders. We can only hope.

Corey Booker is running for President

Corey Booker is running for President. Who didn’t see this coming? I knew he was gonna run for President when he was doing all those passionate speeches about how he was “seething with anger” regarding Donald “Human Version of Unseasoned chicken” Trump over his “shithole countries” remarks. When I saw all the praise that establishment media was giving him, I knew this day was coming. 

So let’s examine some of his record, and see if Corey “Barack Obama 2” Booker is a worthy recipient of the PROGRESSIVE vote. 

According to one of my favorite online magazines, The Root(which sometimes glosses over the negative sides of people like Booker and Kamala Harris a little more than they should), Booker has some issues that need to be addressed:

“But Booker has his own critics; he has similarly been called out for disingenuous behavior and pandering, and he’s gotten heat in the past for accepting Wall Street money (he’s since expressed opposition to taking funding from super PACs) and voting against a bill that would make prescription drugs more affordable, after which he pivoted and supported a similar bill, citing consumer protections for the initial decision.”

So, he’s flip-flops his positions when convenient, which is not a good sign that he would fight for anything if his attitude towards major policies can be swayed so easily. However, that’s not all that makes me nervous about dude. Let’s continue.

According to The Atlantic:

“As mayor of Newark, New Jersey, he drew criticism from liberal allies for embracing charter schools and voucher programs advocated by libertarians. He also championed ‘enterprise zones,’ a free-market approach to solving urban blight credited to the late Jack Kemp, a hard-core supply-sider and occasional Republican presidential contender who helped raise money for Booker's first mayoral campaign."

So, in other words he’s in favor of privatizing education. Doesn’t seem very “progressive”, but let’s keep going.

According to his own website, he says “Iran poses a threat to American and Israeli security. He wants all options, including military action, that prevents Iran from gaining nuclear weapons.” So he’s OK with Military intervention in Iran if he thinks they have access to nukes. Got it. Even though he ultimately backed the Iran deal implemented by President Obama, that’s still problematic to say the least. 

Now, with all that said. He’s actually on the right side of basically all the important other issues. He’s pro-Medicare for all, pro-Afghanistan/Iraq withdrawal, pro-gay rights, anti-drug war, and pro-criminal justice reform, in rhetoric. His voting record basically matches up, which is a great thing.

I’m slightly less skeptical of him than I am of Kamala Harris, who I view as a much more flawed candidate. I think Corey Booker would be my 3rd choice based on who has announced so far. Number 1 being Tulsi Gabbard, 2 being Elizabeth Warren, 3 being Corey Booker, 4 being Kamala Harris, and 5 being Kirsten Gillibrand. Shift everyone’s number down a slot if Bernie jumps in.

The Estate Tax is Much Needed

As some of you know, I consider myself to be an amateur rap artist. I rarely get political in my music, because I do that more so for fun and just to get my more “aggressive” thoughts out. Anyways, I have a new song out featuring Mr. King Jookyhimself, Mike Luke AKA DOPEHEAD, from my old neighborhood, the Dexter-Linwood Area (DLA) of Detroit’s west side. Song is called So Much Style, and it’s on YouTube here if you’d like to listen!

Anyways, on to what you’re here for.

According to The Hill, the republicans just last week have introduced a bill to completely eliminate the “Estate Tax”.  Naomi Jagoda writes:

“In December 2017 did not repeal the estate tax but it doubled the amount that will be exempt from the tax. In 2019, the exemption amount for an individual is $11.4 million. The increase in the estate tax exemption amounts expires after 2025.

The Senate Republicans argued that repealing the estate tax, which they often call the "death tax," would be beneficial to owners of small businesses and family farms.

“Often times, family-owned farms and ranches bear the brunt of this tax, which threatens families’ agricultural legacies and makes it difficult and costly to pass these businesses down to future generations," Thune said in a news release. "This way of life is integral to so many South Dakota families, which is why I remain committed to removing roadblocks for these family businesses, and we can start by repealing the death tax once and for all.”

Grassley said that "the estate tax doesn’t serve any purpose except forcing family farms and family-run businesses to waste precious capital on costly tax planning and in too many cases, paying taxes on income or property that have already been taxed once." 

But the bill is sure to be opposed by many Democrats, who argue that repealing the estate tax would help the rich and that very few taxpayers were subject to the tax even before the GOP tax law.”

Basically, the republicans are saying that rich dead people need to be able to pass ALL of their wealth down to their kids, and that taxing any of it is somehow immoral. But doesn’t that mean then that you don’t really believe in the whole “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality? I mean, think about it. The main argument the right wing likes to use against government programs that provide services to those in need (welfare) have a negative effect on society because it encourages laziness and people won’t want to work if they get assistance from the government. Of course that isn’t true (as of 2016, 7.6 Million Americans were considered “working poor”, meaning they have a full time job and still don’t make a living wage), but let’s give them that argument just for a moment. 

If the argument is that giving people assistance creates laziness and stifles the work ethic, then how does that same logic not apply to the children of rich people? I mean, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Donald Trump (need I go on?) What hard work did any of them do to create the current wealth they enjoy so much? These people had incredible head starts that they were able to maintain and grow (Kim and Paris), or ruined on 6 different occasions that required sneaky tricks to not lose everything (President Human Waste Basket). You wanna talk about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps? Jay-Z. 50 Cent. These are people who truly “got it out the mud”. And guess what? When Jay-Z dies, I don’t want him to be able to give HALF A BILLION DOLLARS to Blue Ivy. Even they taxed Jay Z’s net worth at 90%, (for easy math we’ll say he’s a billionaire), that would leave 100 Million dollars behind for Blue Ivy. How can anyone on earth say this is unreasonable?

The republicans apparently. Good thing we have folks like Bernie Sanders still proposing common sense policies, like lowering the threshold for the estate tax, which would ultimately bring in $315 Billion over the next decade, and $2.2 Trillion when every billionaire in the USA passes away under his plan, according to Splinter.

The older I get, the more I see why my parents always said “Under republicans, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” 

Kamala Harris Isn’t Who You Might Think

Kamala Harris. Successful black woman from Oakland, CA. She worked her way up to the top and became State Attorney General in 2010. She has stated that she will no longer take corporate PAC money after the public backlash of the 2016 election where corruption became a HUGE issue that was finally being discussed in a serious way. So, that’s the good. Here’s what worries me.

1. She Didn’t Prosecute Steve Mnuchin

According to The Intercept, Steven Mnuchin, who ran OneWestBank, was guilty of committing over 1,000 instances of foreclosure violations, and the California attorney’s general office stated that if they investigated further, they would find “thousands more.” Kamala Harris, who was attorney general at the time, declined to prosecute the man who would become Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Treasury Department. Why not? She provided no explanation whatsoever when requested by the Intercept, but according to Open Secrets, between the years of 2013-2018 she raised $784,610 from the Securities and Investments industry. Coincidence that almost 60% of her campaign contributions come from the banking industry, and she chose not to prosecute a criminal banker?

2. Her Life as a Prosecutor

Not only has she fought to keep individuals facing wrongful convictions locked up, has defended the death penalty stating that the California supreme court’s ruling that it is unconstitutional was a “flawed decision”, defended her office’s decision to prevent transgender individuals from receiving gender re-assignment surgery and required medical attention, defended the 3-Strikes law, but she is pretty anti-freedom as well. Vehemently against sex-workers’ rights, opted not to join other states who attempted removing cannabis from the schedule 1 drugs list, ignored a solitary confinement lawsuit that proved that the practice was inhumane (and by ignored, I mean she flat out said it wasn’t a thing in the California prison system), is in favor of civil asset forfeiture, which is essentially legal robbery by cop. You can read more about her record here.

In my well informed opinion, Kamala Harris is a ploy by the corporate democrats to con us into voting for corporatism, but since she’s a black woman they’re gonna make it seem like not liking her is blasphemy. Tulsi Gabbard, Bernie Sanders on the other hand, are both much more in line with what everyone I know wants. Granted, Senator Harris doesn’t have a HUGE history for us to pick through, but based on the above information, she strikes me as a black Hillary Clinton. I just don’t want my fellow black people to get hyped up off the fact she is an intelligent black woman who is running for President. I know that a piece of us all wants the exact opposite of the racist, misogynist pile of human mayonnaise that’s in the White House now, and a black woman would be the perfect antithesis. However, look at the voting record. How much has she really helped us (us being black people, the average person, her constituency, etc)? Seems like she was all about locking people up for stupid shit long before Donald Trump had his minions chanting “Lock Her Up” at his rallies. Just sayin, let’s be consistent.