Friday, March 23, 2018

With one stroke of the pen, President Trump likely lost Congress this year. He definitely lost me.

I'm not into double standards.

For several years, I was a 100% supporter of Sen. Ann "Gas Tax" Rivers.

She was SUPPOSED to be "different."  She was SUPPOSED to be a populist candidate, a woman of, by and for the people.

When she gave her word?

You were supposed to be able to take it to the bank.

She was not going to be like most everyone else.  The legislative waters of corruption were SUPPOSED to simply flow by, leaving her untouched.

Well, it took awhile, but the corruption got her.  Repeatedly.

Turns out she lied to get elected to the state Senate, by pledging to oppose gas tax or tab fee increases.  She did her work, and a $700 MILLION bill was slapped on the people of this county... around $1550 each... for every man, woman, child and infant... without asking us because, well, you know... why bother asking the people that you're there to represent?

Rivers lied to us.  But in the most important aspect of her election, an election I spent hundreds of hours working on, an election that was SUPPOSED to begin a career path to be proud of... something to look back on with the pride that only being a representative of the people could bestow... she lied to me.

She also screwed us on the last budget, bending the people of this state over for $5.5 BILLION dollars to go to her WEA buddies.

THEN, she and her sidekick lied their political asses off by claiming that THIS YEAR, our property taxes were going DOWN.

How's that working out for us?

Sadly, I believed. I ignored the whispers from some complaining that she was RINO.  I "knew" better, you see.  I had known her and worked with her over a decade.

Until it was too late.

There was and remains no excuse for that betrayal.  And with it, Rivers made a life-long political enemy who will do everything I legally can do to see her defeated at the polls in 2020.

Regular readers of my meager effort here are well aware of all this.  I mention it frequently to make sure people are reminded as to who is responsible for the rape of our wallets.

Which brings me to President Trump.

Again, regular readers here are aware that I've been a staunch Trump supporter.

I called his election 9 months before it happened.  He was water to a country dying of thirst.  He gave exactly what we wanted where it mattered.

I 've almost rabidly supported him since he was elected, because, well, you know:

He was SUPPOSED to be "different."  He was SUPPOSED to be a populist candidate, a man of, by and for the people.

When he gave his word?

You were supposed to be able to take it to the bank.

He was not going to be like most everyone else.  The Congressional waters of corruption were SUPPOSED to simply flow by, leaving him untouched.

Well, it took awhile, but the corruption got him.

He signed a budget today that not only did NOT "drain the swamp," it fed the swamp.

He added hundreds of millions of dollars to the deficit.

He supported all of those things he claimed to be opposed to.  He let the democrats have everything they wanted.

He did nothing about sanctuary cities.  He did nothing about planned parenthood.  He did nothing about public broadcasting.  Sen. Paul has come up with a list of pork a mile long, unneeded, unnecessary crap.

He did nothing of any importance to get the wall built.

And now.... now he's claiming "never again."

Well, at least until the next time.

My standard is not flexible.

When the people generally and me particularly, are betrayed by those we've trusted... that's a problem.

As Rivers has shown, the first betrayal is kind of difficult... but further betrayal gets easier with time.

And, of course, as Rivers has also shown, the LAST people she's interested in concerning herself with are those of us who were stupid enough to vote for her.

President Trump has promised us a great deal.  Today?

He proved that he can't be believed... can't be trusted and, like Rivers, he WILL betray us.

In January of 2016, there was a town hall meeting in Battle Ground.  It was right before the start of the 2016 Legislative session.

I recall asking her... something like how, exactly, is it that we can figure out when you're lying... and when you're not?

Does a sign flash on your forehead or something?

Here's a video of the whole thing... you can see her completely bogus response... lie after lie after lie.


(Video credit to Brent Boger...Thanks, Brent, for the gift that keeps on giving!)

Well, President Trump doesn't seem to be equipped with a "truth sign" either.

He wants to "drain the swamp" and "make America great again."

We still have millions and millions of illegal aliens.  The budget deficit is exploding.  And the left is getting pretty much everything they want.

Guess what, Mr. President?  This ain't how you go about accomplishing that.

I've come to the conclusion that, in fact, you do need to be impeached.  While clearly, almost all politicians have the ability to lie; your ability causes the most harm... the most damage... the most pain.

We believed in you.

Well, how can we believe in you now?

His impeachment would result in the elevation of Mike Pence to that office.  I believe that he would lie less than our current President.

I can disagree with the actions of an elected official.  No one is going to agree with anyone 100% of the time... but depending on the depth and the importance of that disagreement, I can live with it.

Lie to me?

And we're done.

I do not have differing standards.  I do my best to avoid holding an elected to one standard while holding a different elected to another.

It doesn't matter if the person involved is a close family friend of over a decade... or the President of the United States.

Remember all this as YOU lose control of Congress this November.

This is what you get when those positioned to do so fail to do their jobs to hold the liars accountable.  Because, when they're not held accountable, that makes the lies that much easier this time... and every time after that.

Right, Sen. Rivers?

3 comments:

Martin Hash said...

It really doesn't make any difference how big the deficit is, really, there's more imaginary money where that came from; forget about deficits. There WAS a small amount of Wall money, not much, but DACA is still being held in reserve, and just always talking about a wall, whether it exists or not, has suppressed Illegals. Not the best alternative, I know, but a handgun when a bazooka can't be found. There's some noise from Sessions about Feds vs. CA, not much I know, but a start, revving the engine. Got McCabe, more to follow.

Trump's playing his cards. It's not a great hand but he's an awesome bluffer, and he's strategic. When then entire world is playing against you, any advance is miraculous.

K.J. Hinton said...

Well, I've got a couple of responses to that.

The first is kind of obvious, but it has to be said: If the size of the deficit doesn't matter... why have income taxes at all?

Imagine what our economy would do if each earner could simply keep every dime we now pay at the federal level?

I'm not sure illegals have been "suppressed," are there fewer crossing the border? Well, there are fewer being CAUGHT, but there are also fewer being deported than the numbers Obama was kicking out at the same time in his presidency...

And that's the thing. We have millions of illegals in this country. Success in dealing with that issue not only involves reducing additional numbers, it also involves substantially reducing the number on hand, a relatively easy equation that can be accomplished without deportation if we merely change a few laws which would result in an end to this destination resort we've built for illegal aliens.

If we'd implement those rules/laws, we wouldn't particularly need a "wall" for anything but security... since the illegal alien issue would take care of itself; they'd stop coming and those here would leave.

Do we want to resolve this issue? Do we want the illegals here to stay, or go?

DACA was, at best, an extra-constitutional program, if not downright illegal. The only acceptable resolution is to remove all of those who are here as a result of it.

We fix the problem of illegals... or we don't.

As a nation, we have so many problems that could be resolved but aren't.

Want to end the teen age slaughter on our highways?

Stop teenagers from driving. Take their cars and licenses away from them until THEY hit age 21. After all, they clearly don't have the judgment required to own a firearm, right? And don't kids use cars... and kill/injure thousands more people every week than in all the school shootings we've ever had, combined?

When do the kids start marching about that?

Want to end texting and driving? Require those manufacturing cell phones to include hardware that would end any texting ability while the phone is in motion. It's not like they couldn't... they just won't.

Want to stop teens from smoking... and ultimately killing themselves that way?

Make it a felony for them to possess cigarettes or any other smoking material.

The question of resolving these kinds of issues isn't solutions. The solutions are obvious.

The question boils down to this: do we, has a country, have the will?

Clearly, we do not. Because the only teens deaths that are NOT acceptable are those caused by someone in a school with a gun.

Teens slaughtering each other in Chicago, for example, are just peachy. Nobody gets upset or marches out over that, do they? The equivalent of 5 or so Parklands a month in Chicago, and no one bats an eyelid.

On a more personal level, the issue isn't the deficit, per se'. The issue is his campaign rhetoric and his verbiage as President.

As I pointed out, you cannot "drain the swamp" if you insist on continuing to feed it.

We are now 14 months in or so to his Administration. The Swamp does not appear to be any lower. In fact, after he signed this last budget, it appears to have gained a few feet.

Like Rivers, I expected Mr. Trump to be a man of his word.

To me, that does not seem to be the case.

I cannot find myself in a situation where I apply the same standards in multiple ways.

One standard.

One application.

The deficit is a number. It's not unlike Obama's declaration that Bush II's deficit was "un-American." As it turned out, of course, he was hardly one to talk.

Do not sell yourself as someone opposed to this idiotic variety of spending... and then approve that spending when it's sitting on your desk.

Because if he will lie about that... and clearly he did lie about that... ("Never again" my ass) what else is he going to lie about? And how will we know when it matters?

Martin Hash said...

Currently, income taxes are quite regressive, so your suggestion to simply print money is viable. The Fed has $40 trillion off-books which is how we “print money” except the wrong people are getting it.

As for Trump, I’ve never been a supporter of the man (I also publicly predicted his win)... But as a grenade, I’m lovin’ it.