I am an unapologetic libtard, a social justice warrior, and a snowflake. At least according to those whose politics are different from mine. I have a sobriquet for them as well, the first syllable has three letters and starts with an "A" and the other syllable is hat.
That was an attempt at humor. Someday we'll look back at that and laugh though I've gotten a head start on it already. Actually, politically, I consider myself to be a relentless pragmatist which doesn't quite fit into the pre-formed and labeled box that others have laid out for me.
Yeah, I dislike POTUS45 (though maybe not this one), but then again who doesn't? I should point out I have as little patience with those on the other side of the aisle from Tiny Hans who always seem to suffer a physical injury every time he does anything, regardless of what it is. Methinks thou doth protest too much, but then again I think that of everyone.
And yeah, when Trump targets people in one of his twitter rants my flesh crawls but it does the same thing when his FCC chair eliminates Net Neutrality, his Secretary of Agriculture relaxes federal guidelines so that junk food is back on the school lunch menu or when his Secretary of Education writes blank checks for all the make-a-buck universities that rip off students. Drain the swamp indeed, my very stable genius friend.
Maybe my greatest concern with the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is his systemic and systematic diminution, degradation and disparagement of the free press whose protections are enshrined in the First Amendment (not that half of his cabinet knows anything about any of the amendments).
Trump's cries of #FakeNews every time there's a story he doesn't like are, to my ears, just so many waves crashing on a distant shore, especially when you travel halfway around the world and find a bozo like Prayuth Chan-ocha whose full-time job is prime minister of Thailand, a formerly staunch ally of the US in southeastern Asia where friends of (Uncle) Sam are few and far between.
Where many leaders around the world can claim to have found their jobs through the NY Times, Chan-ocha became prime minister in 2014 after a military coup that was intended as a short-term solution to his nation's political instability. Four years onward and he's now a part of that instability. With little imagination, he could easily make the list of 'special countries.'
When #FakePresident takes shots at media outlets and reporters he doesn't agree with, he green lights egregious semi-fascist overreaching stupidity like that exhibited by Chan-ocha and so many others around the world. Democracy dies in darkness says the slogan with and without cardboard figurines throwing shade from all the corners of the globe.
As George Orwell offered so eloquently about a different time in our collective history that we chose to believe would and could never happen again, "Freedom of the press if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose."
-bill kenny
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