I've been so depressed lately. This constant flood of layer after layer of lies and complete indifference to truth on the part of some politicians, being egged on and abetted by people who claim to be journalists but who are nothing more than sensationalists and mob inciters. My friend John posted today that there was "no hope" for this country, when we no longer care what is true or just or legal. I was demoralized to find that I really couldn't disagree; but I also realized that if I just throw up my hands, then I deserve the world it looks like I'm about to get. So when people tell lies about our society, I'm going to stand up and tell the truth. Not because I really want to make Facebook a political thing (I really don't), but because silence is complicity, and morally I just can't accept that.
So today, a couple of things:
(1) Barack Obama is a natural born American citizen--there is just no way around that. And while there are certainly plenty of non-racist reasons to disagree with Mr. Obama and his political agenda, there is no non-racist basis for claiming that he isn't American, that he's Kenyan, that he's a Muslim terrorist sleeper agent. This is ugly, it's disgusting, and it would never have been able to continue--in the face of the incontrovertible evidence--for so long without plenty of racial animus behind it. John McCain WAS born outside the United States (in Panama) and yet nobody thought twice about that. He's white. He's Republican. For him it's a technicality that didn't matter. (In fact, it DIDN'T matter--and it wouldn't matter if Obama had been born outside the country either, which he wasn't.)
For the record, because Barack Obama's mother was an American citizen, in 1961 he was an American citizen at birth--no matter where he was born. IF he HAD been born outside of the country, he would not have had to be naturalized on entry to the U.S.: he was born a U.S. citizen. He retained that status as long as he lived in the U.S. continuously for at least 5 years between the ages of 14 and 28, which there is no doubt he did. So even if these pestilential birthers could produce any evidence in support of their groundless claims that Obama was born somewhere other than the U.S. , it wouldn't matter: President Obama would still be a natural born U.S. citizen.
But the fact is that he was born in Honolulu, Oahu, at 7:24 p.m. on August 4, 1961--which is well documented and has been proven again and again and again. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/06/obama-birth.html
Donald Trump isn't really too stupid to know or understand this stuff: he's just shamelessly cynical, lawless and self-serving enough to whip up vulnerable, bigoted, willfully ignorant Americans with this lie in order to support his own campaign. Can you imagine being led by a man who builds his campaign on that kind of ruthless hatred for the law, for truth or justice or honor, or indeed for anything but his own personal power?
(2) You can't get a pap smear or breast exam at Walgreens. Both of these things require a doctor and a clinical setting. If you are a man and you really didn't know this, you should have. The two male co-hosts of "Fox & Friends" who support defunding Planned Parenthood either didn't know this, or knew and deliberately lied. At BEST, they didn't give a damn if it was true or not. The women--on the show and who watch the show--who let them get away with this should be ashamed. Much like Senator Jon Kyle, who claimed in a prepared statement on the Senate Floor, that "90% of what Planed Parenthood does is abortions". Actually, 3% of Planned Parenthood's annual budget goes to abortion services --the rest is birth control (thereby preventing the need for abortion), health screening, gynecological health exams and treatment, and testing and treatment of STDs and referrals for treatment for HIV. When questioned about the 90% number, Kyl's staff said it was "never meant to be a factual statement." Seriously? On the Senate floor, as an argument for de-funding this organization, it didn't matter that the basis of his argument was absolutely untrue? Glenn Beck claims that "nobody but hookers relies on Planned Parenthood for health services." I guess to Glenn Beck a woman making $13,000 a year with minimal health 'benefits' that don't include gynecological care is the equivalent of a hooker, but when I was a paralegal in Boston in the late 1980s it never occurred to me that getting my annual exam at Planned Parenthood made me a prostitute. I actually never saw any hookers there, just a whole lot of students and people with no health insurance, like me.
Despite the fact that Kyl's numbers were shown to be a flat out, and unapologetic, fabrication, Michelle Bachman went right back out and said "everybody knows Planned Parenthood wants to be the LensCrafters of abortion"--because of course what "everybody knows" is always sexier and more fun and more quotable than the truth or even anything supported by a shred of evidence. She also said they are the "biggest political organization you can imagine!" She must think we have very tiny imaginations. The conservative United States Chamber of Commerce pumped an official $33 million into political campaigns and legislative lobbying in the past year; Planned Parenthood's legal and political outlay was about $1million.
A departure from fact and a foray into a opinion here:
Everybody is entitled to their views on the proper use of federal funding, but if you have to tell lies to win the result you are after, then you presumably are lying about the reasons you want that result. So what is it these folks REALLY want? You can bet it isn't likely to be good for the autonomy of women. Any women.
Anyone, but especially any woman, who would vote for a politician or support 'news' programming that tells deliberate lies like this in order to pass legislation aimed at gutting women's health services, or let's her spouse vote for that person, should be deeply ashamed. To those women, if you happen to know any: You know this is a lie, and you know it is a lie told by someone who has absolute contempt for women, and deep down you know that "women" includes you, whether you like it or not. It isn't just liberal women these guys despise, it's all women, even the ones who think they can "pass" by being as callous and money grubbing and gun-toting and contemptuous of women in general as the next guy. So don't think there's going to be some special club membership for the women who acted like loyal guys when you help bring their anti-woman agenda to fruition.
(3) Public school teachers didn't cause the economic collapse that has wiped out retirement savings and so devastated our country and economy, nor did health services for women, nor arts programming for the public, nor did civil rights for gay citizens: it was the reckless "greed is good", "money makes right," "if they buy the junk we package as investments it's not our fault" and then "grab what you can before this whole house of cards comes down" and then lying, document-hiding, money-laundering, under-regulated investment banking houses that did that.
Everybody is free to have their opinion on the proper use of federal funds, and state governments are free to negotiate salaries and make hard choices about what services they can afford to provide, but let's not use lies to support our arguments. That kind of defeats the purpose of having a vote.
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