An Open Letter to America

Dear America,

Don’t do it. Don’t.

You know what I’m talking about, don’t give up on Joe Biden because of one bad night, one awful night. He stumbled, he mumbled, his voice was hoarse, so is that the reason to give up on him and just had the presidency to a convicted felon, sexual predator and con artist?

I say No, and you should say it, too.

Think on some things … the 81-year-old Catholic is fighting for women to have the right to make their own health care decisions, while the 78-year-old felon appointed three justices to the Supreme Court who … overturned Roe v Wade—for which The Felon said, out loud, “I did that”—… who decided that bribing government officials is really just a gratuity but being homeless is a crime … who voted to allow judges, not scientists or environmental experts decide about climate change and polluting our air and water … who can decide on drug safety … banking regulations … aviation safety …. and if you’re an LGBTQ+ American and think that the right won’t come for equality and marriage, think again.

Do you really want Clarence Thomas, well, actually his wife, and Sam Alito making those choices for you?

Do you want to elect a guy who has said, out loud, that he would be a dictator on Day One; who has said all he really wants to do is punish his enemies; who has told big Oil he will give them tax breaks if they support him. Does that sound like a man who cares about We The People?

I’ll stand with the old guy who took on a pandemic and saw us through it; who gave America its lowest unemployment rate in fifty years … who lowered inflation more than any other country in the G7 and added more than 16 million jobs. He’s working for us, and he may be a bit tired and old, but he isn’t doing the job alone; a vote for Joe is a vote for his administration that will see to it that his efforts go on.

I will vote for that man and his team.

I will not vote for the man who promised to build a wall at the southern border and have Mexico pay for it, and then didn’t. I will not vote for a man who promised to overturn Obamacare and give us all the greatest healthcare system ever, and then didn’t; I will not vote for the man who touted his fabulous infrastructure bill and then did nothing. I will not vote for the man who claimed he won the election in 2020, and filed nearly 70 lawsuits to overturn that election, and lost every single time; I will not vote for the man who claimed that he, and not former President Barack Obama, had passed the Veterans Choice Act; I will not vote for the man who swore and that he and his campaign did not collude or cooperate with Russia, even though Robert Mueller found cooperation and explained that he did not investigate “collusion”, only “conspiracy” and “coordination”.

I will not vote for a rapist; I will not vote for a racist who called Nazis in Charlottesville “good people.” I will not vote for a man who sexually abused and then defamed E. Jean Carroll; I will not vote for a man who p[aid off a porn start for a sexual encounter in order to win an election. I will not vote for a con artist who stole money from people at a university he named after himself.

I will not vote for the man who told us to drink bleach during COVID; who didn’t tell us a flashlight could kill the virus; who told us it would be over by Spring, but by Spring we were piling up dead American bodies in refrigerator trucks outside hospitals.

I will vote for Joe Biden, a decent human being who has worked harder than any president, given the mess he inherited from The Felon, to make life better for all of us. I will vote for the man who lowered prescription drug prices by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices; who signed gun safety legislation into law ; who oversaw more Americans getting healthcare. I will vote for the man who passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that helped us fund basic necessities like rent and groceries during the pandemic; I will vote for the man who also extended a $300 a week federal unemployment benefit for some 9.7 million people out of work during the pandemic; a man who temporarily expanded the child tax credit program, who allotted $7.25 billion for small business loans and $128 billion in grants for state educational agencies.

I will vote for the man who teamed up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention —with scientists and doctors not GOP political hacks—to administer and track COVID-19 vaccinations across the country. I will vote for the man who passed a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill into law to repair the nation’s roads, bridges and railways, bring high-speed internet to rural communities and more.

I will vote for the man who passed the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 and allocated $53 billion in federal funding to manufacture semiconductor chips in the U.S. instead of relying on China to produce them.

I will vote for the man who passed the Build Back Better Act, a massive social spending bill that included major health care reform, universal pre-kindergarten and paid family leave, $550 billion dedicated to combatting climate change and more, paid for in part by increased taxes for corporations and the uber rich; not from the taxes on We The people, but from the wealthiest of Americas and corporations who, under that lest president, received massive tax breaks.

I will vote for the man whose Inflation Reduction Act tackled inflation by reducing the federal deficit, promoting production of certain goods and limiting the cost of some prescription drugs; the package also included $369 billion for a climate initiative to reduce greenhouse emissions and promote lean energy technologies; $300 billion in new revenue through a corporate tax increase; $80 billion for the Internal Revenue Service to hire new agents, modernize its technology, audit the wealthy and more.

I will vote for the man who has stood up for Ukraine in its quest to be free from Russian autocracy while the GOP and the former president stand by bloodthirsty Vladimir Putin.

I will vote for the old guy who had a bad night at a debate, but who spoke from the heart and promised to keep fighting for us. And if that old guy decides he wants to step aside, I will still support him and the party that wants to work for us and not for The Felon.

And I hope America will follow suit.

[Source]

0 comments

Released 38 Years Ago Today

Madonna: True Blue (1986)

From Behind the Grooves:

“True Blue”, the third album by Madonna is released. Produced by Madonna, Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray, it is recorded at Channel Recording in Los Angeles, CA from December 1985 – April 1986. After the massive whirlwind success of the “Like A Virgin” album and “The Virgin Tour”, the pop superstar does not rest on her laurels, beginning work on the crucial follow up at the end of 1985. Working with long time collaborator Stephen Bray and new producer Patrick Leonard (Michael Jackson, Jody Watley), the album is praised upon its release as her strongest effort to date, and is widely regarded today as one of the best albums of her career. It spins off five top five hits including “Live To Tell” (#1 Pop), “Papa Don’t Preach” (#1 Pop), “Open Your Heart” (#1 Pop) and the title track (#3 Pop). “True Blue” also marks the beginning Madonna’s long association with famed fashion photographer Herb Ritts who shoots the LP’s iconic cover photo. The original LP package also includes a poster of the album cover shot. As a promotion for the album, MTV sponsors the “Make My Video” contest, inviting viewers to submit their own visual interpretations of the title track. The winning entry comes from Angel Gracia and Cliff Guest, whose black & white clip is rotated heavily on the video channel. The pair are awarded a check for $25,000 by the pop superstar herself at MTV’s New York studios. The alternate video directed by James Foley, featuring Madonna with close friends actress Debi Mazur and fashion designer Erika Belle is shown largely outside the US. Madonna also supports the album with the worldwide “Who’s That Girl Tour” beginning in June of 1987. It is remastered and reissued on CD in 2001, with the extended 12″ mixes of “La Isla Bonita” and the title track included as bonus tracks. The vinyl LP is reissued in Europe in 2012, including the original inner sleeve lyric sheet and poster featured in the original release. In October of 2016, a limited edition release of the LP pressed on blue vinyl, is issued as exclusive through the European supermarket chain Sainsbury’s. “True Blue” spends five weeks at number one on the Billboard Top 200, and is certified 7x Platinum in the US by the RIAA.

Of course I have it on CD too!

My unbridled love for this album and the accompanying quest to acquire it on “true blue” vinyl has been well documented on this blog, so I won’t add anything more today and instead will sign off and go listen to it.

0 comments

Well, This Explains It

ICYMI or forgot about the Right Wing owner of CNN…

“The leading shareholder in Warner Brothers Discovery is John Malone, a multibillionaire cable magnate.

Malone describes himself as a ‘libertarian’ although he travels in rightwing Republican circles. In 2005, he held 32% of the shares of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. He is on the board of directors of the Cato Institute. In 2017, he donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration.

Malone has said he wants CNN to be more like Fox News because, in his view, Fox News has ‘actual journalism’. Malone also wants the ‘news’ portion of CNN to be ‘more centrist.”

He’s also the largest individual land owner in the country.

IT WAS A SET UP.

For trump.

0 comments