#not to self-blame obviously it's a systemic problem with healthcare and work etc but i wanna do better...

[trans-elrond]

ah. well. alas, i tested positive for covid today (my second time getting it; 1st time was outdoor college graduation.) send ur boy some positive vibes pls.

[dajokahhh]

Alright, time for some pretentious sociological-esque rambling. This is gonna be long as hell (its 1822 words to be specific) and I don’t begrudge anyone for not having the patience to read my over-thought perspectives on a murder clown. CWs for: child abuse, 

I think a lot of things have to go wrong in someone’s life for them to decide to become a clown themed supervillain. A lot of people in Gotham have issues but they don’t become the Joker. I think that as a writer it’s an interesting topic to explore, and this is especially true for roleplaying where a character might be in different scenarios or universes. This isn’t some peer reviewed or researched essay, it’s more my own personal beliefs and perspectives as they affect my writing. I think villains, generally, reflect societal understandings or fears about the world around us. This is obviously going to mean villains shift a lot over time and the perspective of the writer. In my case, I’m a queer, fat, mentally ill (cluster B personality disorder specifically) woman-thing who holds some pretty socialist ideas and political perspectives. My educational background is in history and legal studies. This definitely impacts how I write this character, how I see crime and violence, and how my particular villains reflect my understandings of the society I live in. I want to get this stuff out of the way now so that my particular take on what a potential origin story of a version of the Joker could be makes more sense.

Additionally, these backstory factors I want to discuss aren’t meant to excuse someone’s behaviour, especially not the fucking Joker’s of all people. It’s merely meant to explain how a person (because as far as we know that’s all he is) could get to that point in a way that doesn’t blame only one factor or chalk it up to “this is just an evil person.” I don’t find that particularly compelling as a writer or an audience member, so I write villains differently. I also don’t find it to be particularly true in real life either. If you like that style of writing or see the Joker or other fictional villains in this way, that’s fine. I’m not here to convince anyone they’re wrong, especially not when it comes to people’s perspectives on the nature of evil or anything that lofty. Nobody has to agree with me, or even like my headcanons; they’re just here to express the very specific position I’m writing from. 

The first thing I wanna do is set up some terms. These aren’t academic or anything, but I want to use specific and consistent phrasing for this post. When it comes to the factors that screw up someone’s life significantly (and in some instances push people towards crime), I’ll split them into micro and macro factors. Micro factors are interpersonal and personal issues, so things like personality traits, personal beliefs, mental health, family history, where and how someone is raised, and individual relationships with the people around them. Macro factors are sociological and deal with systems of oppression, cultural or social trends/norms, political and legal restrictions and/or discrimination, etc. These two groups of factors interact, sometimes in a fashion that is causative and sometimes not, but they aren’t entirely separate and the line between what is a micro vs macro issue isn’t always fixed or clear.

We’ll start in and work out. For this character, the micro factors are what determine the specifics of his actions, demeanor, and aesthetic. I think the main reason he’s the Joker and not just some guy with a whole lot of issues is his world view combined with his personality. He has a very pessimistic worldview, one that is steeped in a very toxic form of individualism, cynicism, and misanthropy. His life experience tells him the world is a cold place where everyone is on their own. To him the world is not a moral place. He doesn’t think people in general have much value. He learned at a young age that his life had no value to others, and he has internalized that view and extrapolated it to the world at large; if his life didn’t matter and doesn’t matter, why would anyone else’s? This worldview, in the case of my specific Joker, comes from a childhood rife with abandonment, abuse, and marginalization. While I will say he is definitively queer (in terms fo gender expression and non conformity, and sexuality), I’m not terribly interested in giving specific diagnoses of any mental health issues. Those will be discussed more broadly and in terms of specific symptoms with relation to how they affect the Joker’s internal experience, and externalized behaviours.

His childhood was, to say the least, pretty fucked up. The details I do have for him are that he was surrendered at birth because his parents, for some reason, did not want to care for him or could not care for him; which it was, he isn’t sure. He grew up effectively orphaned, and ended up in the foster care system. He wasn’t very “adoptable”; he had behavioural issues, mostly violent behaviours towards authority figures and other children. He never exactly grew out of these either, and the older he got the harder it was to actually be adopted. His legal name was Baby Boy Doe for a number of years, but the name he would identify the most with is Jack. Eventually he took on the surname of one of his more stable foster families, becoming Jack Napier as far as the government was concerned. By the time he had that stability in his mid to late teens, however, most of the damage had already been done. In his younger years he was passed between foster families and government agencies, always a ward of the government, something that would follow him to his time in Arkham and Gotham’s city jails. Some of his foster families were decent, others were just okay, but some were physically and psychologically abusive. This abuse is part of what defines his worldview and causes him to see the world as inherently hostile and unjust. It also became one of the things that taught him that violence is how you solve problems, particularly when emotions run high. 

This was definitely a problem at school too; moving around a lot meant going to a lot of different schools. Always being the new student made him a target, and being poor, exhibiting increasingly apparent signs of some sort of mental illness or disorder, and being typically suspected as queer (even moreso as he got into high school) typically did more harm than good for him. He never got to stay anywhere long enough to form deep relationships, and even in the places where he did have more time to do that he often ended up isolated from his peers. He was often bullied, sometimes just verbally but often physically which got worse as he got older and was more easily read as queer. This is part of why he’s so good at combat and used to taking hits; he’s been doing it since he was a kid, and got a hell of a lot of practice at school. He would tend to group up with other kids like him, other outcasts or social rejects, which in some ways meant being around some pretty negative influences in terms of peers. A lot of his acquaintances were fine, but some were more... rebellious and ended up introducing Jack to things like drinking, smoking cigarettes, using recreational drugs, and most important to his backstory, to petty crimes like theft and vandalism, sometimes even physical fights. This is another micro factor in that maybe if he had different friends, or a different school experience individually, he might have avoided getting involved in criminal activities annd may have been able to avoid taking up the mantle of The Joker.

Then there’s how his adult life has reinforced these experiences and beliefs. Being institutionalized, dealing with police and jails, and losing what little support he had as a minor and foster child just reinforced his worldview and told him that being The Joker was the right thing to do, that he was correct in his actions and perspectives. Becoming The Joker was his birthday present to himself at age 18, how he ushered himself into adulthood, and I plan to make a post about that on its own. But the fact that he decided to determine this part of his identity so young means that this has defined how he sees himself as an adult. It’s one of the last micro factors (when in life he adopted this identity) that have gotten him so entrenched in his typical behaviours and self image.

As for macro factors, a lot of them have to do specifically with the failing of Gotham’s institutions. Someone like Bruce Wayne, for example, was also orphaned and also deals with trauma; the difference for the Joker is that he had no safety net to catch him when he fell (or rather, was dropped). Someone like Wayne could fall into the cushioning of wealth and the care of someone like Alfred, whereas the Joker (metaphorically) hit the pavement hard and alone. Someone like the Joker should never have become the Joker in the first place because the systems in place in Gotham should have seen every red flag and done something to intervene; this just didn’t happen for him, and not out of coincidence but because Gotham seems like a pretty corrupt place with a lot of systemic issues. Critically underfunded social services (healthcare, welfare, children & family services) that result in a lack of resources for the people who need them and critically underfunded schools that can’t offer extra curricular activities or solid educations that allow kids to stay occupied and develop life skills are probably the most directly influential macro factors that shaped Jack into someone who could resent people and the society around him so much that he’d lose all regard for it to the point of exacting violence against others. There’s also the reality of living in a violent culture, and in violent neighbourhoods exacerbated by poverty, poor policing or overpolicing, and being raised as a boy and then a young man with certain gendered expectations about violence but especially ideas/narratives that minimalize or excuse male violence (especially when it comes to bullying or violent peer-to-peer behaviour under the guise of ‘boys will be boys’). 

Beyond that, there’s the same basic prejudices and societal forces that affect so many people: classism, homphobia/queerphobia, (toxic) masculinity/masculine expectations, and ableism (specifically in regards to people who are mentally ill or otherwise neurodivergent) stand out as the primary factors. I’m touching on these broadly because if I were to talk about them all, they would probably need their own posts just to illustrate how they affect this character. But they definitely exist in Gotham if it’s anything like the real world, and I think it’s fair to extrapolate that these kinds of these exist in Gotham and would impact someone like The Joker with the background I’ve given him.

I have no idea how to end this so if you got this far, thank you for reading!

[discoveryranchforgirls]

no offense but your 'right' to horde money is always secondary to someone's right to life (like. access to necessary resources) and i don't understand why that is an argument. your excess or desire for excess is not more important than ensuring everyone has access to necessities! 1) there are absolutely enough resources to go around and if you feel there is not, blame the super rich for hoarding them and not the poor for needing them. 2) ok u want ur liberty to not have to help other people or whatever. you have a flawed definition of liberty tho it's very American of you to say that. but consider: if you are upset about your liberty being infringed upon by. something like having to pay more taxes bc the government wants to provide easier and better access to healthcare for more people. your liberty is literally hinging on other people's lives. also. people that do not have good and easy access to resources don't have. what you see as liberty. before you can have liberty you must be able to live. (live well, like if u are poor and alive ur still alive so its necessary to make that distinction its just to note that when i say live i mean live comfortably. ) (and not just bc u are used to the status quo but bc u are able to get what you need when you need it and its not a luxury to do things like get regular check ups and eat salad) so you can talk about liberty but don't pretend like it is anything but selfish. you want what you think of liberty for yourself and not anyone else except who you personally deem eligible. you deny basic necessities to others so that you can live in excess. think of jt this way: you have 10 gallons of water. this is more than enough to last you until you are able to get more water. someone else has no water. the government tells you to share so that the other person will not die of dehydration. you refuse. they die. maybe you refused bc u care more about having stuff than people's lives or u refused bc u are perhaps concerned that there is not going to be enough to go around so you have to keep more than you need in case you are suddenly unable to obtain it with the same ease as earlier. in this case, you need merely to look over and see another person who has thousands of gallons of water. you may look at them and be impressed and want to be like them which is understandable bc we are taught to value excess and aspire to it more than we are taught to value human lives especially when we do not have an emotional investment in the specific lives. (we are also taught to value things above relationships so im saying this under the assumption most people have a small circle of people that they really care about and love) (we re taughto value ppwer over other people more than we are taught to value people as individuals even as they do not effect us on a level we percieve) but the important thing is. that person has more. you know there is a limited supply of the water you want (probably clean and drinkable) you know that that person has more water than they will ever need. recognize that they are the reason why you feel uncomfortable sharing your excess with those who have nothing. (((kill them, steal their water, redistribute))) ok. now you have addressed why the inequality in resource distribution exists. (well the person with nothing should've worked harder. ok um. using that logic. why do you not also have thousands of gallons of water? you obviously don't think you are a lazy mooch so why would you think that about someone with less than you?) you also know that bc of that, you feel safer the more water you have. ok yes now. why do you feel safer? bc water is a limited resource and you know another person has more (a larger fraction of the available resource) which makes less water available to you. this encourages you to collect and keep as much water as you can so you can feel secure in knowing you have and are going to have enough water to sustain yourself. it encourages you to experience a certain level of insecurity about your access to the water which makes you concerned about sharing your water resources with anyone else so you can be sure you will have water for you that fear, especially bc it is surrounding a scarce(limited) resource that is vital to your survival. especially bc (even though you don't know the exact fraction) you know that the other person has a much larger amount of water than they will need (likely more than they will use) and of that they are restricting the ability of others to access water at that moment and in the future. you recognize that this person holds a lot of power bc they have so much water. they can easily manipulate people who need and want more water to do their bidding in exchange for water either in order to survive or in order to own a large amount of the water for themself. to do anything. people that have no water are the most in need and so the most vulnerable and easily exploited. offering people in dire situations tiny barely liveable amounts of water in exchange for any kind or amount of labor for any duration does work and is easy for those who have extreme excess. they lose nothing of any significance and gain whatever product of the labor they forced the needy to perform. it is easy to view this problem in extremes, understanding how the super rich exploit the super poor (almost self explanatory how this system is perpetuated. will explain later tho) for whatever. but this sort of analysis, while good for illustrating the worst parts of resource hoarding neglects to provide an analysis of those in the middle. that is most people. being unable to empathize with those who have less than you is a symptom of this system(will detail later to be clear) and also serves to perpetuate it. (how it started is a different story but very briefly and in the vaguest way possible ot started the same way anything ever starts. entropy. but that's a little too astronomical and abstract for this explanation) this is one way this system affects the middle class. the relationship dynamic just described also explains the relationship of the upper class to the middle class. the upper class views the middle class in a similar way. 'those people should work harder to get where i am' 'im not worried about what they need bc i have what i want etc etc etc. this (flawed)logic is completely thrown out the wealthier someone gets. they just keep hoarding (maybe as a symbol of power and dominance, and also as just a conditioned habit. that's what u do that's wjat everyone does etc etc) this perspective however is not  as harmful when only applied to the middle classes bc they are not in dire need.  the middle classes dont have necessarily exorbitant amounts (although certainly to those with nothing the accumaltion of resources even a little beyond a liveable amount seems exorbitant and an act of gluttony and selfishness) (explaining the use of 'necessarily' and meaning of exorbitant in context) but they are not struggling to obtain vital resources either. their interest in accumulating more of a resource is either a product of feeling insecure in their position in society that determines their access to resources, a product of the idea more=better (this translates various ways. more=better. ok why do people want power what's the point. they get more resources and more security.) or just kind of a robotic motion people do and aspire to just bc. that's considered good and normal or whatever(i think this is just a practical example of those effects though) so often times it is ignored by those fighting for people with nothing. ((thats not to say this SHOULD have these effects it just does.)) which makes people in tje middle class feel left out and potentially unsure/insecure of their access to resources if/when the changes to allow people with nothing access to even some resources will change and how that change will ultimately affect them and their resources. (ideally this wouldnt be an issue and people would just agree to not let others die of preventable things but bc of society being the way it is this is what happens) (and i think acknowledging the struggles although relatively insignificant compared to what lower class people experience is a good way to support and encourage more people to support the revolution)( I don't think it SHOULD be something that needs to be explained in order for people to support the revolution but i think that it is needed) (also i fully fully recognize my privilege in being able to write this in hopes of convincing the middle class to be a part of this instead of being in a position where the only way i can get timely access to resources is by less carefulor even more forceful forms of convincing those with excess to give it up so that others can simply live) (anyway we have to explain how the revolution will affect the middle class) so. a lot of the resistance a middle class person feels when asked to give up their excess is due to the upper class and mega wealthy possessing and being able to access an incredibly larger percentage of any resource at anytime with very little fear that they will have that privilege revoked. the middle class is taught by the economic structure that that is the most efficient and secure way to be (essentially. selfish. unwilling to give up their excess to those with none) and they should strive to keep that status and position either in fear and anticipation of a change or with the desire to become more powerful. (power=access to resources) (creates hierarchies bc of demand) (someone owns all or a lot of a particular resource (always the super rich, a minority) and is able to sell it at any cost) in this way middle class feelings of insecurity are created by the super rich. (feelings of insecurity include the desire to be more powerful (u worry you aren't powerful enough etc)) much of that insecurity manifests in rage towards the people begging and bc they are so worried about protecting their OWN resources rather than recognizing even looking for or considering the reason why there are people with nothing which is that scarcity is manufactured by the rich hoarding. they become angry and resentful towards the beggars and choose and are taught to see the beggars as unequal/inhuman/undeserving of (at the most basic level: life) simply even the same treatment, respect and access to resources (vital and luxury) that the middle class has so that the middle class can protect their resources from being taken (ultimately) and focus on that instead of figuring out a solution to the issue and understanding the source. this perpetuates the system as it is and so perpetuates manufactured scarcity of vital resources which directly causes the death of many people. it is selfish ok yes and horrible im not calling you horrible I'm just trying to find a solution and create a better life for everyone. it's not the beggars fault u feel the need to hoard resources as much as you can it's not your fault you think like this  but it is your fault you act on those thoughts and it is your responsibility to work to change it. and yeah it isn't fair you have to deal with a problem you had 0 part in creating but look. people are dying bc of that and if you refuse to help change the system you are allowing and contributing to their deaths. if all of the unnecessary deaths caused by manufactured scarcity could be evaluated by what percentage of their death was caused by the rich and middle classes, the rich would play a bigger part obvioisly than the middle class. this is not about who causes the most harm but about the fact that there is harm being caused. and the more members of the middle class willing to help lessen the amount of harm they do helps (concretely: directly saves lives) (abstract: contributes to revolution// revolutionary atmosphere/ acceptance/ understanding/exposure etc etc) firstly to save lives and secondly to take steps to begin to put a system in place which will ensure that people are not dying bc they can't get food or water or health care. and so working to create a more equal and sustainable and harmonic society. all around better. and by better i mean does the least amount of harm.

[cielb]

random rant about political spectrum

so based on what i see on the internet, and my experience going through a gamut of different political ideologies throughout my short-ish life, here’s my issue with right wingers, left wingers, and centrists. i speak from an american perspective. i’ll pick on centrists first. these are generalizations and if you don’t do these things it doesn’t apply to you. Centrists: >assume they’re “above,” partisan politics, while embracing a status quo which is really bad, or while unknowingly having a (usually) right wing bias because they don’t critically examine their culture and have taken whatever random point the overton window is now at to determine what is “normal.” >act condescending and as if leftists or conservatives have to “beg,” for their approval >vote third party or not at all, even when the stakes are very high  >take ideological positions without any context of history or their society, resulting in hot takes such as, “If black people can say the n word, so can I, and if I can’t then that’s racist against ME.” >assume they’re automatically more reasonable and logical than their political opponents >assume if their opponents have a more extreme ideology than theirs, it is due to indoctrination/radicalization, and that the status quo is the holy grail Conservatives: >deny homophobia, racism, other problems within their political party >while a conservative may not personally be that, they will not go out of their way dragging the various politicians who hold these views and represent them out of office >meanwhile, liberals always dig dirt on their own politicians and find what’s problematic with them >while SJWs always find anything wrong with anyone, many conservatives do the opposite and may even hype up negative qualities  >the obvious example being the President >are supposed to be the financially responsible party due to opposing expansion of social safety nets >hold moral high ground over some controversial issues, but without trying to make a system that improves conditions that cause such issues to exist in the first place Liberals: >Many liberal politicians are republican lite > left wing politicians have not been able to stop gentrification, poverty, various other problems >This is not entirely every liberal politician’s fault, and there’s ones who do work hard and deserve credit >But it is easy for conservatives to deflect criticism by pointing out poverty ridden places like Baltimore >And blame it on Liberal policies >Liberals will avoid shutting down people who are obviously toxic to their causes because it’s politically incorrect to do so >Try too hard to sound woke and sound fake instead Problems with extremists on both sides: Really self righteous Annoying to be around Refuse to accept any moral ambiguity  Their refusal to accept ambiguity does not make it not exist Thus they come across as unempathetic, stuck up assholes who screw over decent people who made difficult decisions because such people suffered a lot and were unable or unwilling to live up to the strict moral standards the extremists hold.  Because extremists on both sides were annoying as shit, I spent a decent amount of time being centrist/libertarian but socially progressive for a couple years. But I eventually thought through after reading dissenting opinions that conservative policies on immigration, the economy, etc., were opposed to social progressivism. So that put me in a moral dilemma where left wing policy doesn’t sound realistic at all, but conservatism was clearly bereft of solutions and centrism refused to address racism, sexism, etc., or its historical roots, causes, etc.  As of now I would say socialism is not the threat many people are calling it. The level to which capitalism has infiltrated our livelihoods (when was the last time walmart workers held a strike? How many people can’t even criticize the unfair conditions they live in? How can the power that Google and Amazon wield be justified?), our personal lives (Pornography being a capitalist, sexist, racist industry which has become more and more normalized and accepted), and the fact that without forcing companies to care about the environment, we’re literally all fucked, I can say that as of now, what has been dubbed “Late Stage Capitalism,” is the more serious problem. The issue is how can this be addressed in time to save the planet and bring about social and economic justice? How can this realistically be achieved? I honestly don’t know, but I do believe a few things matter: 1) Voting MATTERS. We would not have gerrymandering or disenfranchising going on with people of color if it didn’t. Even if you don’t like who is running, go and vote.  2)Unions and strikes matter. We need to support low income workers because they are an integral part of our corrupt system and the people at the top need to realize that and be afraid. 3)We need to stop being knee-jerk opposed to direct action. When William Spronsen bombed ICE cars, that was direct action. Our reaction to child dying in concentration camps shouldn’t be “uhhh well they didn’t have their papers and we can just write letters to the government that we’re angry.”  4)We have to stop using ourselves as the baseline for what is normal. Many other countries have cheaper secondary education or healthcare. While these countries are different from America and thus their solutions may be simpler than ours, we need to get out of the mentality that we’re the best and see what we can learn from others.

[melindarowens]

Snyder Rages “It’s Time To Flush The Toilet”

Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

Is it fair to compare Congress to a toilet? If there is one institution that embodies the corruption that permeates Washington D.C., it is the United States Congress.

Dominated by extremely selfish career politicians that are primarily interested in raising enough money to win the next election, Congress has become a cesspool of filth, fraud and malfeasance. The American people are absolutely sick of this, and that is why approval ratings for Congress are consistently much lower than for any other political institution. In fact, at this moment Congress has an average approval rating of just 18.3 percent according to Real Clear Politics. Donald Trump captured the imagination of tens of millions of American voters when he pledged to “drain the swamp” during the last election, but I say that it is time to “flush the toilet” because the only way that we will ever be able to turn the federal government in a positive direction is by clearing out as many of these Congress critters as possible.

Getting Donald Trump into the White House was the biggest political miracle in American history, but now his agenda is almost completely stalled and it is Congress that is to blame.

For example, Trump repeatedly pledged that he was going to build a “big, beautiful wall” along the southern border to combat illegal immigration, but at this point funding for that wall is being completely blocked.

What is the problem?

Congress.

Trump also pledged that Obamacare would be repealed very rapidly once he became president, but that obviously has not happened.

What is the problem?

Congress.

In fact, it is looking quite doubtful that a bill to repeal Obamacare will ever get through the U.S. Senate…

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is tempering expectations that the Senate will pass an overhaul of the nation’s healthcare system, promising his colleagues a vote but not success.

 McConnell in his public comments and private conversations about the ObamaCare repeal and replace bill is painting a more sober picture than Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who in March guaranteed passage through the House.

 McConnell is stopping well short of any grand pronouncement.

Trump also promised all of us that our taxes would be going way down, but even though the Republicans control both houses of Congress this also seems to be going nowhere fast. The following comes from the Wall Street Journal…

The GOP’s dreams have collided with interest-group lobbying and the tax system’s reality. Politicians all profess to hate the tax code, but they don’t agree on exactly what they hate. Voters gripe about complexity but are wary of losing cherished breaks that are woven into the economy.

 “Eventually you run out of ways to pay for your promises,” said Alan Cole, an economist at the Tax Foundation, which favors a simpler code with lower rates. “There aren’t any free obvious sources of money where you can just do the thing and nobody gets mad.”

I could bring up a whole bunch of other issues such as the national debt, trade with China, unconstitutional government surveillance, etc. but I think that you get the point.

Trump’s presidency is going to be mostly wasted if we do not get him some help. And I am not just talking about clearing out more Democrats. Right now the Republicans control the Senate and the House, but the problem is that most of them are “establishment Republicans”. Career politicians from both parties have sold their souls to the special interests and big donors that fund their campaigns, and this is why such a dramatic political revolution is necessary.

Sadly, most Americans don’t realize just how deep the corruption goes in Washington these days. To illustrate this, I would like to share just a few quotes from “The Confessions of Congressman X”. It claims to have been written by an anonymous Democratic member of the House of Representatives, and the following quotes very much ring true to those of us that understand how things in D.C. really work in our day and age…

-“Most of my colleagues are dishonest career politicians who revel in the power and special-interest money that’s lavished upon them.”

 -“My main job is to keep my job, to get reelected. It takes precedence over everything.”

 -“Voters are incredibly ignorant and know little about our form of government and how it works.”

 -“It’s far easier than you think to manipulate a nation of naive, self-absorbed sheep who crave instant gratification.”

 -“Fundraising is so time consuming I seldom read any bills I vote on. Like many of my colleagues, I don’t know how the legislation will be implemented, or what it’ll cost.”

 -“We spend money we don’t have and blithely mortgage the future with a wink and a nod. Screw the next generation. It’s about getting credit now, lookin’ good for the upcoming election.”

And it isn’t just political corruption that is the problem. When you start peeling back the onion, you find some of the most disturbing things imaginable in political circles. For example, just consider what police just uncovered in New York City…

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is hiring! There’s a vacancy in his administration for a computer programmer analyst, in the Department of Design and Construction. That’s because Jacob Schwartz, 29, a DNC staffer and former analyst, has been arrested and charged with being in possession of “kiddie porn” involving children as young as 6 months old.

 Schwartz is also the president of the Manhattan Young Democrats and the downstate region vice president of the New York State Young Democrats. In other words, he was a “made” Democrat, part of the inner circle of budding influential NYC politicians, who was even friends with Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, Robbie Mook.

 Schwartz was caught with 3,000 child pornography images and 89 videos on his laptop after he downloaded them from the Internet. He surrendered his laptop to police, signed a release granting them permission to do a search of his hard drive, and was subsequently arrested. He has since posted $ 7,500 bail.

Of course stories such as this are just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more out there, but we aren’t really supposed to talk about those things.

So what can be done?

Well, we can sit back and keep on complaining as our country deteriorates right in front of our eyes, or we can do something about it.

On Memorial Day back in 1982, President Ronald Reagan delivered a stirring address at Arlington National Cemetery. The following is an excerpt from that address…

I have no illusions about what little I can add now to the silent testimony of those who gave their lives willingly for their country. Words are even more feeble on this Memorial Day, for the sight before us is that of a strong and good nation that stands in silence and remembers those who were loved and who, in return, loved their countrymen enough to die for them.

 Yet, we must try to honor them—not for their sakes alone, but for our own. And if words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, surely with our actions we must strive to keep faith with them and with the vision that led them to battle and to final sacrifice.

 Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough: The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we—in a less final, less heroic way—be willing to give of ourselves.

There is no war for us to fight, but let there be no doubt that we are in the midst of a great battle for the soul of our nation.

If this generation of Americans does not stand up and defend liberty and freedom, the forces that seek to destroy our country will win by default.

For years, many of us have been trying to persuade our leaders to do the right things, but by now it has become exceedingly clear that they simply are not listening.

So if we want the direction of our country to change, we have got to vote them out and replace them with others that will listen to the will of the people.

I am under no illusion that this will be easy. The special interests and the big donors have a tremendous amount of money, and the mainstream media is very closely allied with the establishment.

But the election of Donald Trump showed us that anything is possible, and I choose to believe that it is possible for us to take our government back.

We just have to be willing to try.

source http://capitalisthq.com/snyder-rages-its-time-to-flush-the-toilet/ from CapitalistHQ http://capitalisthq.blogspot.com/2017/05/snyder-rages-its-time-to-flush-toilet.html

[everettwilkinson]

Snyder Rages “It’s Time To Flush The Toilet”

Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

Is it fair to compare Congress to a toilet? If there is one institution that embodies the corruption that permeates Washington D.C., it is the United States Congress.

Dominated by extremely selfish career politicians that are primarily interested in raising enough money to win the next election, Congress has become a cesspool of filth, fraud and malfeasance. The American people are absolutely sick of this, and that is why approval ratings for Congress are consistently much lower than for any other political institution. In fact, at this moment Congress has an average approval rating of just 18.3 percent according to Real Clear Politics. Donald Trump captured the imagination of tens of millions of American voters when he pledged to “drain the swamp” during the last election, but I say that it is time to “flush the toilet” because the only way that we will ever be able to turn the federal government in a positive direction is by clearing out as many of these Congress critters as possible.

Getting Donald Trump into the White House was the biggest political miracle in American history, but now his agenda is almost completely stalled and it is Congress that is to blame.

For example, Trump repeatedly pledged that he was going to build a “big, beautiful wall” along the southern border to combat illegal immigration, but at this point funding for that wall is being completely blocked.

What is the problem?

Congress.

Trump also pledged that Obamacare would be repealed very rapidly once he became president, but that obviously has not happened.

What is the problem?

Congress.

In fact, it is looking quite doubtful that a bill to repeal Obamacare will ever get through the U.S. Senate…

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is tempering expectations that the Senate will pass an overhaul of the nation’s healthcare system, promising his colleagues a vote but not success.

  McConnell in his public comments and private conversations about the ObamaCare repeal and replace bill is painting a more sober picture than Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who in March guaranteed passage through the House.

  McConnell is stopping well short of any grand pronouncement.

Trump also promised all of us that our taxes would be going way down, but even though the Republicans control both houses of Congress this also seems to be going nowhere fast. The following comes from the Wall Street Journal…

The GOP’s dreams have collided with interest-group lobbying and the tax system’s reality. Politicians all profess to hate the tax code, but they don’t agree on exactly what they hate. Voters gripe about complexity but are wary of losing cherished breaks that are woven into the economy.

  “Eventually you run out of ways to pay for your promises,” said Alan Cole, an economist at the Tax Foundation, which favors a simpler code with lower rates. “There aren’t any free obvious sources of money where you can just do the thing and nobody gets mad.”

I could bring up a whole bunch of other issues such as the national debt, trade with China, unconstitutional government surveillance, etc. but I think that you get the point.

Trump’s presidency is going to be mostly wasted if we do not get him some help. And I am not just talking about clearing out more Democrats. Right now the Republicans control the Senate and the House, but the problem is that most of them are “establishment Republicans”. Career politicians from both parties have sold their souls to the special interests and big donors that fund their campaigns, and this is why such a dramatic political revolution is necessary.

Sadly, most Americans don’t realize just how deep the corruption goes in Washington these days. To illustrate this, I would like to share just a few quotes from “The Confessions of Congressman X”. It claims to have been written by an anonymous Democratic member of the House of Representatives, and the following quotes very much ring true to those of us that understand how things in D.C. really work in our day and age…

-“Most of my colleagues are dishonest career politicians who revel in the power and special-interest money that’s lavished upon them.”

  -“My main job is to keep my job, to get reelected. It takes precedence over everything.”

  -“Voters are incredibly ignorant and know little about our form of government and how it works.”

  -“It’s far easier than you think to manipulate a nation of naive, self-absorbed sheep who crave instant gratification.”

  -“Fundraising is so time consuming I seldom read any bills I vote on. Like many of my colleagues, I don’t know how the legislation will be implemented, or what it’ll cost.”

  -“We spend money we don’t have and blithely mortgage the future with a wink and a nod. Screw the next generation. It’s about getting credit now, lookin’ good for the upcoming election.”

And it isn’t just political corruption that is the problem. When you start peeling back the onion, you find some of the most disturbing things imaginable in political circles. For example, just consider what police just uncovered in New York City…

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is hiring! There’s a vacancy in his administration for a computer programmer analyst, in the Department of Design and Construction. That’s because Jacob Schwartz, 29, a DNC staffer and former analyst, has been arrested and charged with being in possession of “kiddie porn” involving children as young as 6 months old.

  Schwartz is also the president of the Manhattan Young Democrats and the downstate region vice president of the New York State Young Democrats. In other words, he was a “made” Democrat, part of the inner circle of budding influential NYC politicians, who was even friends with Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, Robbie Mook.

  Schwartz was caught with 3,000 child pornography images and 89 videos on his laptop after he downloaded them from the Internet. He surrendered his laptop to police, signed a release granting them permission to do a search of his hard drive, and was subsequently arrested. He has since posted $ 7,500 bail.

Of course stories such as this are just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more out there, but we aren’t really supposed to talk about those things.

So what can be done?

Well, we can sit back and keep on complaining as our country deteriorates right in front of our eyes, or we can do something about it.

On Memorial Day back in 1982, President Ronald Reagan delivered a stirring address at Arlington National Cemetery. The following is an excerpt from that address…

I have no illusions about what little I can add now to the silent testimony of those who gave their lives willingly for their country. Words are even more feeble on this Memorial Day, for the sight before us is that of a strong and good nation that stands in silence and remembers those who were loved and who, in return, loved their countrymen enough to die for them.

  Yet, we must try to honor them—not for their sakes alone, but for our own. And if words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, surely with our actions we must strive to keep faith with them and with the vision that led them to battle and to final sacrifice.

  Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough: The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we—in a less final, less heroic way—be willing to give of ourselves.

There is no war for us to fight, but let there be no doubt that we are in the midst of a great battle for the soul of our nation.

If this generation of Americans does not stand up and defend liberty and freedom, the forces that seek to destroy our country will win by default.

For years, many of us have been trying to persuade our leaders to do the right things, but by now it has become exceedingly clear that they simply are not listening.

So if we want the direction of our country to change, we have got to vote them out and replace them with others that will listen to the will of the people.

I am under no illusion that this will be easy. The special interests and the big donors have a tremendous amount of money, and the mainstream media is very closely allied with the establishment.

But the election of Donald Trump showed us that anything is possible, and I choose to believe that it is possible for us to take our government back.

We just have to be willing to try.

from CapitalistHQ.com http://capitalisthq.com/snyder-rages-its-time-to-flush-the-toilet/