Lorraine Evanoff's Blog, page 13
September 28, 2021
Here’s how it really happened
How did we get here? Money. Money played a major role in the most misunderstood political party platform switch in U.S. history. The Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln is now the Democratic party. How? The first step was when influential Democrat William Jennings Bryan at the turn of the 20th century first blurred party lines emphasizing a larger government role in social justice, previously a Republican stance.
By the 1920s and 1930s, the Republican party abandoned big government and opposed Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal in favor of banks, railroads, and manufacturers, over small-time farmers, turning off voters settling in the west. Republicans supported big government when it gave big business the advantage. Republicans supported smaller government when it gave big business the advantage.
Fast forward to present day and there is still much confusion about how money effects politics in the United States. For instance, not all lobbies are bad. The League of Women Voters is a powerful lobby that fights to protect fair and equitable elections. While the Freedom to Vote Act and For the People Act remain stalled in the Senate, the League launched a People Powered Fair Maps redistricting program to fight gerrymandering.
The League and nine diverse organizations under the CHARGE Hub advocate for increased transparency by holding hearings in every county and offering multi-lingual resources. This effort counters the usual redistricting process, which is often disproportionately inaccessible to Black, Indigenous, and communities of color.
Calling your representatives and protesting are a great start. But if you want to be involved directly in the redistricting process you can testify on maps before and after they are created! CHARGE Hub created a list of resources that explains gerrymandering and how to get involved. Also, the Campaign Legal Center has created a tool to help evaluate maps.
The League also supports reforms to shine a light on dark money and ensure that voters know who is trying to influence their votes, requiring campaigns and Super PACs to disclose who their donors are, and closing the door between politicians, lobbyists, and staffers. In the end, Democrats embrace Federal oversight of economic and social equality, and Republicans embrace smaller government in favor of big business.
September 25, 2021
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out
Since November 8, 2016, as a writer from Chicago, I have drawn on my broken heart for some of my prose. Feelings of betrayal, lamenting loved ones are powerful emotions. For me, nothing short of an unconditional apology for what they have put us all through will bring us back together. Shocker, not ONE of them has apologized. In fact, they have all doubled down.
It seems lately even more of my loved ones are both-sidesing. There is a new surge in false claims that Biden is owned by corporations, or not doing enough, coming from the right and even the left. Although Biden was not my first choice, his record shows he is an incredibly savvy politician, who always fights for the people. But the simplistic minds who know nothing about how politics work refuse to accept reality.
It is terrifying that traitors such as Michael Flynn continue to make headway into their heads. The former DIA director remains a charismatic figure, a poster child for Q-Anon. His influence helping to recruit new believers of the Big Lie from all walks of life and political persuasions seems to have an increased.
Now, 78% of all republicans believe Biden did not win the election, up from 70% in April. The GOP goal is the sow mistrust in democratic elections, create even stricter voting laws, and regain power. Also, now the COVID situation in the US is worse than almost any other country because of the unvaccinated, who are overwhelmingly people without a college degree and Republican voters.
The GOP playbook is to sow chaos and divisiveness. So be it. I embrace the divisiveness. Just as I would never go back to my ex who cheated and deceived me, I say to them, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya, as the country song goes.
But my refrain falls on deaf ears. Their wall of delusion is vaster and more impenetrable than any TFG could have built at the southern border. They are unreachable. So, I’m preaching to the choir, whose voices are music to my ears. My gospel is to spread the word of our great President, who continues to amaze. Here is a link showing the diversity of Biden’s Cabinet appointees and other uplifting information to help take your blues away.
September 16, 2021
GROW UP
This piece was going to be about the discredited doctor Andrew Wakefield, the father of the deadly war on vaccines that has taken root in the American psyche. His legacy is decades of irrational anti-vax hysteria that the GOP weaponized. But I know from personal experience that none of their base will read this, and it will have no influence on them.
So instead, this piece is about anger. I am a poster child for anger management. Anyone who has played golf with me knows I have absolutely no control. I am Djokovic smashing his racket in the second set of the US Open Championship, only with a lot more profanity. Now at an advanced age, I am determined to manage my anger, but I’m being brutally challenged.
Despite a dozen anti-vaccine rightwing radio hosts and politicians who are now either dead from COVID or are secretly vaccinated, several family members continue to eat up their misinformation and refuse to get vaccinated. They offer no example of anyone who was vaccinated that suffered from COVID. Yet, I can give a dozen examples of unvaccinated friends and family who have permanent damage from COVID, including a cousin my age who is still using a walker.
Instead, they regurgitate dangerous paranoid Fox “News” lies about how “journalists are the enemy.” Well, yes, if your household TV runs Fox “News” 24/7, you are definitely immersed in a terrifying alternate reality somewhere between Orwellian and Truman syndrome.
They will argue that “Highly vaccinated Israel is seeing a dramatic surge in new COVID cases,” but will omit the fact that the surge is from travelers bringing back the Delta variant that was caused by the unvaccinated, or that being vaccinated helps recovery, or that the “high vaccination rate” in Israel is not 100% but rather 78%, the list goes on.
Back in my day, there was no such thing as anger management. My mother had my eldest brother at the young age of 16, and she had her third child, me, at the age of 20. Back then, there was no management of explosive emotions, insecurities, or fear. We had rampant disfunction, with base instincts of survival mode taking over.
How little things have changed. Now, the rightwing radicals only have outrage, and would rather break the hearts of their aunts and grandmothers who ask for the simple birthday gift of getting themselves vaccinated for their own safety and that of others. Oddly specific? Yes. All I can say is GROW UP. No more tantrums. Let critical thinking and reason guide you.
I wish I could dismantle the anti-vaxers the way Mevedev dismantled Djokovic. Decisively taking apart their game, shutting them down.
September 5, 2021
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FIGHT BACK!
After over four years of living hell under TFG, managing what technically qualifies as my own PTSD, we are still dealing with the aftermath of that criminal administration and the criminal enabler Mitch McConnell.
Believe it or not, when things like the SCOTUS decision yesterday and other such horrors happen, I turn to Twitter for therapy. It is the Resistance that has helped me in my worst times of despair. After stepping away from social media yesterday, for a short mental health break of reading and writing, this morning I checked in and scanned the trending tweets to gain some perspective. Here are the some of the tweets that helped me the most.
From Texan patriot Matthew Dowd, who since leaving his job as ABC political analyst “to serve truth, justice, and democracy” has used his impressive diverse following to send powerful and inspiring messages:
my sisters and brothers, I am so angry and pissed today about what the Texas GOP has done, & the Supreme Court’s turning their back on women, that I am having a very difficult time posting my normal quotes or celebratory messages. We must fight to turn Texas and the nation blue.
— Matthew Dowd (@matthewjdowd) September 2, 2021
Like after the GOP appallingly installed corrupt Amy Coney Barrett just five weeks after we lost the legendary Ruth Bader Ginsburg provoking a huge blue wave November 3, 2020, these tweets remind us that the midterms are approaching and the GOP just f*cked themselves. This compelling thread from RonFilipkowski:
TX Republicans just put abortion rights on the ballot for every state and federal race in the country for 2022. GOP campaign managers and consultants are cringing. They loved to fundraise off the hope of overturning Roe, but secretly never actually wanted it to happen. This … — Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 2, 2021
And from ChristopherHahn:
Republicans are cheering the demise of Roe v. Wade today.
They won’t be in November of 2022.
— Chris Hahn (@ChristopherHahn) September 2, 2021
Then there were some clever snarks that provided some dark levity from SethN12:
When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas? — NeuroPsychoPhD (@SethN12) September 1, 2021
And from Andie00471:
It should come as no surprise that the party that promotes horse and sheep de-wormer to cure a virus is now forcing women to breed. I am not livestock! I can vote. See you in 2022!
— AntifaPuddin’Pop™️ (@Andie00471) September 2, 2021
But my favorite is from our amazing President Joe Biden, “It’s a blatant violation of the right established under Roe V. Wade. We will protect and defend that right.”
Texas SB8 will impair women’s access to health care and, outrageously, deputizes private citizens to sue those they believe helped another person get a banned abortion. It’s a blatant violation of the right established under Roe V. Wade. We will protect and defend that right. — President Biden (@POTUS) September 1, 2021
By the way, a total of 469 seats in the U.S. Congress (34 Senate seats and all 435 House seats) are up for election on Tuesday, November 8, 2022.
August 30, 2021
This Is A Scam
Some feel it’s impolite to tell others how to vote. I feel it’s irresponsible not to warn people that they are being scammed.
Recently a very convincing scammer almost succeeded in stealing $1,000 from a family member for a fake debt that seemed legitimate. The scam was impressive. They called several family members and sent us to the California Secretary of State website to look up their company. They must have access to personal credit reports because the debt seemed vaguely familiar to my family member. But with just a little investigating, I found that the “debt collectors” were a foreign company, so I filed a complaint, and the company has now been flagged.
The California Governor Recall is another scam. Republicans are horrible at making policy to help their constituents, but they are professionals at exploiting weaknesses in the system to rip off voters, in this case, an archaic California recall system enacted in 1911. Republicans began this recall because they have a better chance of winning this way than in 2022. The signatures required to initiate the recall were gained through a massive GOP smear campaign against Gavin Newsom.
But Governor Newsom is popular. His impressive achievements in California include halting new fracking, phasing out fossil fuels, prohibiting pesticide use, expanding Medi-Cal for undocumented residents, boosting Obamacare subsidies, enacting rent control, banning evictions during COVID, turning hotels into housing, maintaining one of the highest COVID inoculation rates, coordinating a massive acquisition of PPE, imposing a moratorium on death row executions, putting limits on police use of force, closing two prisons, pushing the largest economic stimulus ever, expanding anti-poverty programs, and extending rent and utility debt relief, among others.
This GOP Recall scam is dangerous. It requires Newsom to get over 50% NO votes to remain governor. If the NO vote fails and he is recalled, 46 candidates are listed, but not Newsom. The candidate with the most votes would become governor. Currently an extreme right-wing Trump supporter, Larry Elder, who is under investigation and allegedly brandished a gun at his former fiancée, is in first place with 23% of the vote.
So, go to the polls on September 14th, or mail in your ballot now. VOTE NO on the recall, then leave the second question BLANK. Writing in Newsom will not be .
By the way, if the firm Associates of A&A, LLC contacts you and your family about an old debt, do not pay them. Report them to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. You’re welcome.
August 27, 2021
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August 18, 2021
SABOTAGE
Military Historian Andrew J. Bacevich spoke on NPR this morning about placing blame for the current chaos in Afghanistan using the term the “Whole-of-Government” approach. Listening to satellite radio, I heard the Hole of Government, which is a fitting homophone, since for decades ass-hole Republicans have been actively punching holes in the U.S. government with the goal of destroying it.
Another analogy the “Poison Pill” whereby a public company implements a mechanism to make it a less attractive target for a takeover. The Trump and the GOP made a coordinated effort to embed poison pills in the peaceful transition and to sabotage the Biden presidency.
Many of the maneuvers have Putin’s fingerprints all over them, namely setting up the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan for a catastrophic failure. Beginning in August 2020 with Trump negotiating the release of the final 400 ‘hard-core’ Taliban prisoners (after the release in 2018 of Taliban co-founder who is now the new leader of Afghanistan), then the refusal by GSA head Emily Murphy to certify the transition of the presidency for three weeks after the election violating historical precedent, and after that, the January 6th insurrection and the ongoing Big Lie sowing mistrust in the election.
Republicans historically have a problem with presidential transitions even when they win. After the long-drawn-out recount of Bush v Gore, during the transition the Bush administration ignored dire warnings from the CIA of an imminent threat by al-Qaeda, the result of which would set in motion events leading to the horrific situation in Afghanistan today.
Another poison pill in the transition to the Biden presidency, the GOP are actively prolonging the COVID pandemic with a massive disinformation campaign against free and safe vaccines and wearing masks. This despite 90% of new COVID cases being unvaccinated people and the sharp decrease in the spread of the common cold and influenza due to the widespread wearing of masks proving that vaccines and masks WORK.
The fact that Republicans are still literally trying to inject poison into the populace and the Whole-of-Government shows just how evil the GOP is.
August 9, 2021
Arrest Donald Trump
Since November 8, 2016, I have refused to watch MSM, because of their ongoing failure to adequately sound the alarm about Trump. I even stopped watching my favorite comedy news shows that I used to love because it’s too cringey and I prefer reading my news, which I do so almost constantly. That said, lately, I have come to appreciate the podcast.
Yesterday I listened to legal analyst Glenn Kirschner reveal three data points that prove Donald Trump’s guilt in the attempt to overthrow our government and reverse our free and fair elections. Kirschner also stressed that Trump and his co-conspirators are an ongoing threat to our safety. Kirschner urged the DOJ to forego further investigations and use the overwhelming evidence already available to arrest Trump and others who are inciting violence.
Also yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security announced that they have observed, “an increasing but modest level of activity online,” by people who are calling for violence in response to baseless claims of 2020 election fraud. Echoing Kirschner’s message, a senior DHS official explained, the department “does not have the luxury of waiting till we uncover information with the level of specificity, regarding a potential location and the time of an attack” to act on potential threats due to the threat environment.
While I agree that we must let the DOJ do the job properly to make their cases airtight for the best chance of conviction, the evidence shows that those activities may occur during August 2021. Can we really afford to wait for another insurrection and more deaths?
August 4, 2021
GOP Dysfunction
The reason there are so many avid Palmer Report readers (myself included) is because it reads like a thriller, with a sharp investigative team puzzling together clues to uncover the truth. For my pieces, I love researching to expose lesser-known-but-important details, in this case, local news. Local papers in very red areas can give an idea of what the GOP up to now, and their strategy. If my local news is any indication, the GOP are just as insane, incompetent, and auto-destructive as ever. Suffice it to say, the GOP dynamic in American politics and culture is based in conflict, misbehavior, neglect, and abuse, causing ongoing dysfunction in the whole country.
Here in my current neck of the woods of northern Idaho, the climate is out of control, and I’m not just referring to the record-breaking heat, drought, and wildfires. Just check the North Idaho Life Facebook feed for ongoing debates about “forest management” (eyeroll). Or, the Coeur d’Alene Press, Serving Kootenai County Since 1892. In a piece this week headlined, Idaho’s ICUs filling Up Again, about the cost of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, a nurse laments, “Every single one of them is unvaccinated.”
Or this from a piece headlined, Nelly: Proof of Racism, about the Grammy Award-winning rapper scheduled to perform at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds. The writer says, “I have lived all over this beautiful country from coast to coast. The underlying racism in North Idaho is unique. The fact that so many deny its existence here is hilarious.”
The whole newspaper is a study in GOP dysfunction. On the front page this week the headline, Embracing Birch: GOP group stands in support of John Birch Society. The piece discusses how Kootenai County Republican Central Committee (KCRCC) members unanimously approved the resolution supporting the infamous John Birch Society (JBS). The KCRCC, “urges Idahoans who do not support our party platform to follow the example of Bill Brooks and voluntary disaffiliate from the Idaho Republican Party.” To be clear, the KCRCC are saying that if you disagree with embracing JBS, you can leave the party.
The piece gives examples of how the KCRCC is attempting to rebrand the JBS, but without providing much detail on the history of the JBS. According to the Washington Post, “Long before AQnon, Ronald Reagan and the GOP purged John Birch extremists from the party.” Back then, Republicans rejected accusations by JBS founder Robert Welch that most of the U.S. government, including D.D. Eisenhower, were under secret communist control. Sound familiar? Republicans back then believed that Welch’s feverish rants threatened the party’s credibility and future. How far the party has fallen.
Palmer Report shines a spotlight on the cloistered GOP in these deep red areas. Keep shining the light on them. Eventually the light will get through the darkness.
