The Donald Rants & Ryan Cheers

By Jeff Simpson

The Donald gave a speech to the UN recently and in it, where speaking off the cuff, he said:

“The United States has great strength and patience,” Trump said. “But if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”

Which prompted the reaction above from General John Kelly, current White House Chief of Staff.   Apparently a lifelong public servant and military general, was not a big fan of threatening nuclear war, and the death of 25,000,000 people in front of the rest of the world. How very ProLife of him!
  
Not satisfied embarrassing himself and us there, he kept going.  In his best one liner, worthy of a 4th grade, he called North Korea's leader Kim Jung Un - 

“Rocket Man on a suicide mission”

This is the kind of stuff that would not even make it off the cutting room floor of a Tony Scott movie, way to unbelievable even for him.   

Yet here we are, living this current nightmare of a petulant child, reality TV "star" playing the role of leader of the free world and Commander in Chief of our Armed Forces.

Support the Troops as a rallying cry is so 10 years ago! 

It makes one long for the times when he would just sit and brag about his election victory and fake news....o wait he brought that up to the UN also: 

TRUMP: Fortunately, the United States has done very well since election day last November 8th. The stock market is at an all-time high, a record. Unemployment is at its lowest level in 16 years, and because of our regulatory and other reforms, we have more people working in the United States today than ever before. Companies are moving back, creating job growth the likes of which our country has not seen in a very long time. And it has just been announced that we will be spending almost $700 billion dollars on our military and defense. Our military will soon be the strongest it has ever been.

Typically, his line is pure BS, but its safe BS for millions of human beings around the globe and here in the US.   

Our friends in Sweden, agreed with General Kelly, and were not amused:

—"This was a bombastic, nationalist speech. It must have been decades since one last heard a speech like that in the U.N. General Assembly. ... This was a speech at the wrong time to the wrong audience." Margot Wallstrom, foreign minister of Sweden.

But wait there is more:

One person, LOVED the speech: 

Paul Ryan‏Verified account @SpeakerRyan  21h21 hours ago

Great message from @POTUS at the UN. American leadership is needed now more than ever. We must stand by our allies and confront our enemies.

3,049 replies969 retweets5,275 likes

 

 

 

As Charles Pierce once pointed out, BIGGEST.FAKE.EVER! 

The "principled, policy guru"(his words not mine) has now become nothing more than a gopher for The Donald to be used and abused on a daily basis for Trumps amusement.   

A complete and utter embarrassment to Janesville and Wisconsin.

Regardless, If you like Randy Bryce or Cathy Myers, Paul Ryan must not be elected ever again!  

Our Country, our democracy and our children depend on it!   

Kim Jong-Kittle!

By Jeff Simpson

In a tragic story this week, University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier, who was recently a political prisoner in North Korea, was released to his parents custody.  The tragedy though, was when he was released, he was brain dead and was released so his parents could watch him die.

He was returned to the US last Tuesday, with North Korea saying it was on humanitarian grounds.
North Korea said he had been in a coma for a year after contracting botulism but his family say he was subjected to "awful torturous mistreatment".
A team of US doctors have also disputed North Korea's version of events.   

What was the reason that Mr. Wambier was in prison to begin with in North Korea?  Was he CIA? a Spy?  What crime could Mr. Warmbier, have committed against the totalitarian,crazy dictatorship of North Korea that would lead to torture?

 Otto Warmbier, 22, was serving 15 years hard labour, accused of attempting to steal a propaganda sign from a hotel.

Mr, Warmbier, grabbed a poster off a wall, to take home and display in his dorm room.  That "crime" turned out to be punishable by death.

Then I realized that this story sounded familiar.  I remembered the story of April Smith. April Smith is a Milwaukee area teacher, who in the summer, at a county fair, after a couple drinks, ripped up a Scott Walker (propaganda) sign.

While it is just a piece of cardboard, she was (probabky rightly so) given a disorderly conduct ticket.  Which basically amounts too, you should not have done that, pay us some money and let's all move on.

Well for our right wing friends, that was not enough.    Local "media member" Matt Kittle, following along the lines of  Kim Jong-un, had decided that a simple ticket was not enough,.   Mr. Kittle wanted blood.  Kittle, working for right wing blog watchdog,org at the time, wrote no less than 7 columns, over three years, to make sure that Ms. Smith paid the ultimate price.  

Kittle put so much pressure on, that Ms. Smith actually was suspended from her job(which had nothing to do with her actions), for months while this incident was "investigated" .  I would equate it to 15 years of hard labour but being a kindergarten teacher was harder labour than anyone in the system could sentence her too.  

However the mental and fiscal torture on Ms. Smith, was very real.

Luckily, after a considerable amount of time, with Ms. Smith on paid leave, she was reinstated.  

A quick note, where is Matt Kittle now?  After Watchdog canned him  he took advantage of Wingnut welfare and is now working for MacIver "news" service!  

Apparently, being ideologically aligned with Kim Jong-un was appealing to Brett Healy!  

Is this really the society we want to live in?

One where our so called media works hard to make sure anyone who would disagree with a far right wing agenda would be punished and punished severely.

RoJo: Income Inequality Is The American Way!

Ron Johnson, in his last year of being a US Senator, says that income inequality is the American Way and that if you want better income equality, go to North Korea:

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said at a forum this week that people should look at North Korea if they want to improve the gap between the rich and poor, adding that he doesn’t want to see Americans be “equally poor.”

“First of all, you want really good income equality, go to North Korea,” the Republican senator said at a town hall-style meeting Tuesday at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. “I’m serious. Probably the nation on earth where you’ve got the most income equality is probably North Korea, so I don’t want to see people equally poor.”

In other words, what RoJo is saying is "Don't ask what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country's corporate overlords."

RoJo's arrogance and indifference to the common folk stems from the fact that he knows the secret to getting and staying rich - all you have to do is marry into wealth and have your father-in-law create a company just of you.

Goodbye Occupy

The progressive movement in this country brought major victories to American history - women's rights, Civil Rights, the end of slavery, labor rights and unionization, education reform and reproductive rights. There's nothing that makes me smile more than to see left-wing causes being discussed in our increasingly corporate and right-wing media. So when the Occupy movement started last year, I thought it was the PERFECT answer to the Tea Party and the right-wing paranoia engulfing our nation and our people. My super left-wing heart soared. I went to the protests, I got involved. I had hope in the movement. But sadly, I would be very disappointed.

In its beginnings, Occupy seemed like it had a future. It felt like we actually has a springboard for change. We could make this happen. The people were speaking with one voice. But all of a sudden, it hit its crescendo, and started to slowly spiral. It seems Occupy has since turned into a mess of people, unwilling to be organized or have any sort of centralized message. They never once reached out to field candidates to run for office so the changes we all hoped for could be enacted, which is where the process begins.

What really brings us here today is what I read on Facebook. This afternoon I noticed I was still a 'fan' of Occupy, and something they posted caught my attention. The article in question, titled, "Resisting Genocide: Syria, North Korea and Cuba" is a real hoot. It blames the US for all the worlds ills, and uses the Ron Paul libertarian argument of "leave all nations alone. Let them deal with their own problems." Yes, let's let countries run by dictators with a disregard of human rights, run rabid and do as they please. If Assad made good on his promise of using chemical weapons, the world is supposed to sit by and watch? The author essentially argues that US imperialism and intervention around the world is the sole basis for the reasons Syria, North Korea and Cuba are having the problems they are, yet gives examples that said country's are far better than we realize. To some degree, that's absolutely correct. Because of America's unnecessary embargo on Cuba, for example, it does not have access it needs to quality healthcare equipment (no matter what Castro says.) America has caused undo destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, where we had no business being in the first place. However, the article seeks to deceive the reader by using flawed claims, dubious and inflammatory language and assumes the general reader is not going to actually do research, which, when distributing propaganda for the masses, isn't hard. It's easy to read that the former head of the World Health Organization thinks the "DPRK had a healthcare system that should be the envy of the entire developing world." Really? In what universe? In actuality, Amnesty International (which the author of the article, Gearóid Ó Colmáin, doesn't seem to care for. So much for prisoner's rights) has reported that North Korea's healthcare system is some of the worst in the world.

“North Korea has failed to provide for the most basic health and survival needs of its people.  This is especially true of those who are too poor to pay for medical care,” said Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Asia-Pacific"

According to the World Health Organization’s last available figures, North Korea spent less on healthcare than any other country in the world – under US$1 per person per year in total. 

Well, there goes that glowing review of North Korea's failed healthcare system. Looking for an unbiased, unfiltered view into North Korea? check out the Vice Guide to North Korea. It's a terrific inside account at the truth of North Korea. No filters, no political blinders, no propaganda. After, watch the video Vice did about traveling to a North Korean "work camp" in the outskirts of Sibera. It's eerie but worth the watch.

In Syria, Bashar Al-Assad - the man who slaughters his own people, has cabinet members fleeing from Syria in droves (Ask Syria's former military police chief why he defected) and even went so far as to threaten to prepare chemical weapons to use on his own people, has given the Syrian military one order - kill those who do not comply. Genocide Watch has tallied at least 37,000 people have been killed since the start of the Syrian civil war. Something I found interesting was that the article makes note that bakeries in Syria are "open and ready for business." In actuality, these places are shells of their former selves. Bakers are barely able to make enough food to feed the tremendous lines of starving people who stand and wait all day, hoping they might be able to eat. Humanitarian groups, who do not idly by and watch people die, have been able to bring in small batches of rationed ingredients so people may be able to eat that day. Also, this happened. A few days ago, warplanes bombed one of those bakeries, killing scores of people. But you must suppress any outrage you have at that, because you know, Syria will just work it out.

This is not an endorsement of war with these nations, or violent interventions I don't believe there's use for war and that's because I truly believe with all I am, that there are peaceful, non-violent solutions to the worlds problems. We wouldn't sit and watch someone kick a dog, would we? Of course not. So why should we stand back and let dictators run the world? Occupy craves freedom and liberation here at home. It's the central core in their mess of messages. Doesn't that extend beyond the borders of America? If we are struggling to fight for freedom here, it's the height of hypocrisy to deny it elsewhere. Human Rights are universal. It's an issue everyone should hold near and dear.