American Political Issues: 2015

Monday, December 28, 2015

Pro-Life? – One Wedge Issue

What is Pro-Life? 40 Ways Dems are more Pro-Life!
– One Wedge Issue Clarified

American Political Issues by Tech Resist (@TecSiGuy), 2016 Dem! - was independent – used to lean “right”

(Each post is well-researched, cited, reliable and accurate political commentary. Our blogs are good sources for debate. If you find anything incorrect or lacking, please let us know. Please like us and comment on Facebook or below. We continue to improve each post based on new input.)

Everyone and every organization make mistakes. No government entity, business, individual or group is beyond reproach. My research, however, suggests one U.S. political party favors policies, based on lies at their core, that only benefit their oligarchs and not those significantly below the one percent.

→ Please, use this and my other blogs as references to prove points; they’re well cited.

(Citations may include footnotes with asterisks or superscripts, or links.)

What is life? Is abortion murder? When is a human alive, according to the Bible?

Narrative Leading to My Research Conclusions:

My mother had 2 miscarriages; my wife’s mother had 5. I believe a successful birth is a miracle, including my own four children. Conception is not the start of life; successful birth is. Conception gives a potential life in an awesome process of development. It’s not until that first breath is inhaled that parents know life has truly begun.

Prayer can help with this process. Imagine, not wanting or being ready or able to financially, physically, emotionally or psychologically feed and care for an unintended impregnation. What options are there?

I personally favor contraception and choice for rape or incest. I also favor saving mother's lives. That's what legal clinics have done. Abortion isn't good, but should it override all the good Dems do for the living? Should Gop greed to benefit their billionaire oligarchs outweigh compassion for people?

Dems on Life

1. Dems promote sensible gun laws to yield less murder in our country.

2. Dems promote zero wars which kill many of our youth.

3. ACA promotes healthy pregnancies with regular checkups; GOPs oppose it.

4. Dems promote Supplemental Nutrition or SNAP program which supports the elderly, underemployed, underpaid, etc. along with the Federal Women, Infants and Children food program (WIC).
5. Dems promote the Violence Against Women Act, and violence jeopardizes unborn children.

6. Dems promote ACA which includes prenatal healthcare.

7. Dems promote higher environmental standards, which yield better air quality.

8. Dems promote higher environmental standards, which yield better water quality.

9. Dems promote higher environmental standards, which yield better land quality.

10. Dems promote higher food inspection standards, which yield better food quality.

11. Dems promote equal pay for women. Lower SES can contribute to miscarriage or stillbirth, as well as premature infant death. Some of these factors include homelessness, severe poverty and unsanitary living conditions.

12. Dems also recognize human caused climate change due to carbon pollution and promote alternative energy sources with tax breaks.

13. Dems make lives better by favoring income equality, instead of “supply side” which only make billionaires wealthier – robbing from the poor and giving to the wealthy elite.

14. Dems promote women’s cancer screenings; Gops want to cut funding.

15. Dems believe stem cell research will tremendously benefit living humans.

16. Dems believe in compassion toward refugees to save their lives.

17. Dems promote contraception to avoid unwanted pregnancies. Inner-city girls, who in a moment of passion, find themselves pregnant can – with negligible family support – also find their futures destroyed by being tied to babies they cannot support. Their school potential can go down the drain with this condition.

18. Dems are also concerned about overpopulation of our planet, which overtaxes our resources, causes more pollution, creates situations which contribute to wars, etc.

19. Dems are concerned about choice, not using religion to control individuals.
20. Dems favor policies that improve inner cities. Gops attack big cities.
21. Dems favor policies that improve finances for the middle class and poor. Gops attack the middle class and poor.
22. Dems favor government services which help the middle class and poor survive more comfortably. Gops say we need to cut government and cut funding to make it less effective to excuse further cuts.
23. Dems promote & oppose cuts to food for needy families.
24. Dems promote & oppose cuts to housing & Section 8 housing for needy families.
25. Dems promote & oppose cuts to temporary assistance for needy families.
26. Dems promote & oppose cuts to S.S.I. for needy families.
27. Dems promote & oppose cuts to public education which benefits needy families.

The next ten are all attacks enacted or removed since tRump came into power with Russian intrusion.
28. Dems oppose enacting tax cuts favoring wealthy over average workers. Gops do it.*
29. Dems oppose taking billions out of workers’ pockets – weaken or abandon pay protection laws. Gops do it.*
30. Dems oppose blocking workers from court access; allow job contract mandatory arbitration clauses. Gops do it.*
31. Dems oppose pushing immigration policies that hurt all workers. Gops do it.*
32. Dems oppose rolling back regulations that protect worker pay and safety. Gops do it.*
33. Dems oppose stacking he Federal Reserve Board w/ Wall-Street friendly chairs – greed over people. Gops do it.*
34. Dems oppose ensuring Wall Street gets more of workers’ retirement savings w/ hidden fees. Gops do it.*
35. Dems oppose stacking the Supreme Court to favor corporations over workers with Neil Gorsuch. Gops do it.*
36. Dems oppose trying to take affordable health care away from millions of working people. Gops do it.*
37. Dems oppose undercutting key worker protection agencies by nominating anti-worker leaders. Gops do it. *
* http://www.epi.org/publication/ten-actions-that-hurt-workers-during-trumps-first-year/
38. Dems promote fair taxation. Gops promote sales taxes in states, instead of property taxes or income tax. Sales tax affects the poor more making their conditions considerable more challenging.
39. Dems promote keeping religion our of government. Using religion to control others is evil.
40 Dems base policies and positions on facts, truth, science, logic, love, democracy. Gops have based theirs on the lies/hoaxes surrounding voodoo economics/supply-side/trickle-down economics. These lies set them up to allow the saddest political liar the U.S. has ever seen to take over their party and they're complicit - because they lie for him. The lies are tearing at the fabric of our republic, destroying democratic norms and leaving normal processes in shambles. It's difficult to promote caring for people based on lies.

Moral values are exemplified by the many ways Dems show concern for LIFE in 40 ways Gops do not. Gops don't understand "Pro-Life".

Planned Parenthood does cancer screenings, mammograms, contraception, women’s healthcare, etc. It’s abortions are not paid for with tax dollars.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/30/1407166/-Catholic-Nun-Explains-Pro-Life-In-A-Way-That-May-Stun-The-Masses#

Eloquent Elizabeth Warren on defunding Planned Parenthood: https://www.facebook.com/AlterNetNews/videos/10153090435752507/

The majority of women want to make their decision, not have a bunch of old white men make it for them. The wealthy can always have safe abortions, if they desire them. Many women died in back alleys and with coat hanger abortions, before it was legalized via Roe Vs. Wade.

Restrictive laws do not lessen abortion rates.
http://time.com/4327211/abortion-rates-developing-developed-countries/
Switzerlnad - Safe, Legal & Rare Abortion: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/fertility-mattersadd-the-underlinethe-secret-of-switzerland-s-low-abortion-rate/33585760
Netherlands Study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7971545
Time on Abortion Rates: http://time.com/4327211/abortion-rates-developing-developed-countries/
http://time.com/4144897/birth-rate-abortion-miscarriage/
Women's Rights: http://time.com/4244904/women-justices-rally-to-defense-of-abortion-providers-in-supreme-court-oral-arguments/
https://top5ofanything.com/list/7b77843e/Countries-with-the-Lowest-Abortion-Rates-(all-countries)

Definition: “Murder - the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another”

Gops are puritanical. They want to control our country using religion as a basis. That was tried in England; the Puritans were ousted from power. ISIS is using their version of religion to run their caliphate. Church and state and intentionally separated in our constitution.

Crass, but good points! George Carlin, Sanctity of Life (FL): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvF1Q3UidWM&feature=share&list=RDAvF1Q3UidWM

As of 2012 most women favor choice and most Americans favor the Roe Vs. Wade decision.

Gops, at least in Facebook discussion threads, claim planned parenthood targets minorities, as a racist effort. The supporting article shows it’s not true.

Gops consider “Right to Life” a strategy. Here’s proof:

PDF: https://cdn.gop.com/.../RESOLUTION-ON-REPUBLICAN-PRO-LIFE-STRATEGY...

RTL, Anti-abortion Strategy:

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/04/16/rand-paul-outlines-2016-strategy-to-go-on-anti-abortion-offensive

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2014/01/republican-national-committee-affirms-that-pro-life-is-a-winning-position-counsels-pro-life-candidates-not-to-stay-silent-when-attacked-with-war-on-women-rhetoric/#.VYsKudTfQQQ

http://americanrtl.org/focus2

Recent pieces on abortion:

http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2016/02/what_controversial_miscarriage.html?ath=b00fbea4098fa7ca38c48550b6dc32d3#cmpid=nsltr_strybutton

Abortion rights: http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/02/22/watch-john-oliver-slam-states-restrictive-anti/208719

ACA falsehoods: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/opinion/republican-falsehoods-about-obamacare.html

Election 2016 Aftermath, including abortion rights: http://m.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/17/1600760/-Aftermath-2016-Tess-Rafferty-s-hard-hitting-statement-on-the-election-of-Trump

Indiana abortion law signed by Mike Pence ruled unconstitutional:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/20/politics/mike-pence-indiana-abortion-law-court-unconstitutional/index.html

Women’s Rights & Nikki Haley (Gop obfuscation): https://twitter.com/BryanDawsonUSA/status/1013670378915467265

I was an independent voter, but in 2016 became a Democrat. In the past, I voted for Ford, Reagan (2^nd term), G.H.W. Bush, Dole and even McCain. The only one of those votes I’m now proud of was for Ford.

After the Koch brothers sponsored the tea party to exert excessive influence over the Republican (Gop) party, I’ve been debating politics on Facebook and with family members, along with doing an incredible amount of research. This might seem incredibly one-sided, but every Gop position I’ve researched is based on at least one lie from what I can determine. I’m quite willing to debate this phenomenon.

Pro-Life: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/21/502852325/pope-francis-grants-all-priests-the-ability-to-forgive-abortions

Here’s story told briefly and in an extended interview by a mom who had an abortion and sees choice as necessary:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/28/1776324/-My-Mother-s-Abortions-Telling-The-Story-Once-Again

Please see my other blog/s: http://ampolissues.blogspot.com/

Monday, December 21, 2015

Truth Versus Hoax

America’s Two “Realities” – Truth Versus Hoax

– The Reason America’s Divided
My new term for these Gops is they're the "Alt-Real".

American Political Issues by Tech Resist (@TecSiGuy), 2016 Dem! - was independent – used to lean “right”

→ Please, use this and my other blogs as references to prove points; they’re well cited.

Please below comment to challenge any part of this or give feedback.

(Citations may include footnotes with asterisks or superscripts, or links.)

(Dedicated to Rachel Maddow - My narrative is after my conclusions.)

Question: How do you determine what’s true? (Below I describe how technology and science teachers teach students to determine good sources or factual websites.) Do you believe in a reality supported by facts, science, research, actual news and truth or one supported by those who wish to influence your opinion through rhetoric, ideology, speculation, hoaxes, and conspiracies? The second website group gets paid by the click through advertisers. They have zero need to guard any truth; they desire mass appeal, fascination. They appeal to those gullible enough to believe their conspiracy hoaxes“~~theories~~,” which are neither scientific nor academic.

Research Conclusions:

There are two distinct political “realities” in the United States and I suspect that strategies employed here are being used in other countries as well. Conservatives have major hoaxes and conspiracies that they have propagated internationally. Progressives base their stances on science and factual data – ergo truth. Each side has individuals who outright lie and stretch the truth; sometimes in politics it’s believed one can get done things that are not possible within a current system – unaccomplished campaign promises are often classified as lies, especially by the opposition.

My conclusion is that the “right” supports conspiracy hoaxes because they help promote the concept that “government lies to you”. This distrust causes many “believers” to vote Gop for “smaller government” – which doesn't happen. Conspiracy backing is backfiring, however, on the Gop “establishment” in this presidential cycle. They have all outsiders leading in the polls, due to their backing conspiracies.

Recent Article: The death of truth: how we gave up on facts and ended up with Trump

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/14/the-death-of-truth-how-we-gave-up-on-facts-and-ended-up-with-trump

How This Occurred:

The Fairness Doctrine, which Reagan abolished in 1987, set the stage for Fox/FAUX "news" to be created. This allowed the audience to be brainwashed by constant repetition of rhetoric/ideology/speculation/hoaxes/conspiracies/lies. This is now supported by talk radio, social media, blogs, and conspiracy websites on top of the long going Gop emails that spread the same hoaxes over and over.

With all this media bombardment, telling one we’re the only media you can trust, it’s hard for believers to learn to research and find the truth online. Gops have supported conspiracies. They promote the concepts that government and “liberal media”/real news lies to you. Supporting these hoaxes allows Gops to rationalize attacking a government that "doesn't work" for you and "lies to you".

Social media further plays a role in distorting reality and boosting hoaxes and conspiracies.

Partial Gop (conspiracy "supported") Hoax List:

So what are some of the Gop hoaxes?

1. Supply-side economics

2. Their “pro-life strategy”

3. More guns make people safer.

4. Climate change * isn’t caused by humans.

5. Science research and fact checkers aren’t credible because all researchers have personal bias.

6. Corporations are people.

7. All Muslims ^1. should be feared.

8. Sensible gun laws will kill the 2^nd Amendment.

9. President Obama doesn’t love America.

10. ACA** is a disaster.

11. Socialism ^2. is a “slippery slope.”

12. Women and minorities are treated fairly in our country.

13. Reagan was a great president.

14. The poor are on “easy street” and are “irresponsible”, “lazy”, “non-workers”, “unworthy”, takers”, “moochers”, “leeches”, “sponges”, “parasites”, “undeserving”, “freeloaders”, “the moocher class”, “the nation of takers”, “government dependents”, “don’t want to work”, etc.

15. Unions*** are bad for our country.

16. Government**** is bad; taxes are evil.

17. We need to build up our military.

18. Vaccines cause autism.

19. The (GOP) Grand Old Party is “older”.

20. Reagan shrunk government.

21. Reagan proved supply-side works.

22. Nazism and Hitler were both liberal.

23. Our (U.S.) debt is too high. – It’s lower per GDP than after WWII.

24. The poor pay no taxes^3..

25. The media all leans left. News is news, except if it’s reported by the “right”. I’ve found too many items that are inaccurate, just plain wrong, suppositions, suggestions and rhetoric being reported as “news” from the right. Slightly more media seems to lean left in their editorials than right but news is generally researched, supported and factually accurate. You can research many actual articles to detect their lean. Real news outlets correct their errors, when something is misreported. Research of FAUX/Fox “news” retractions appear from other sources, not from FAUX itself. FAUX/Fox “news” was rated at 68% “opinion” in 2006. (From Wikipedia: Content analysis studies:

The Project on Excellence in Journalism report in 2006 showed that 68 percent of Fox cable stories contained personal opinions, as compared to MSNBC at 27 percent and CNN at 4 percent. The "content analysis" portion of their 2005 report also concluded that "Fox was measurably more one-sided than the other networks, and Fox journalists were more opinionated on the air."[44]) Read “opinion” as suppositions, suggestions and rhetoric.

Etc., Etc.!!!

Brainwashing:

FAUX(Fox) “News” repeats the same conspiracies, speculations, suggestions, hogwash until people believe they’re the truth. Right/wrong wing media in the United States suggests they’re the only media that’s telling the truth. That’s exactly the tactic that Hitler’s media machine used to get German’s to allow them to ban non-Nazi media from their country. The “right’s” continual attacks on media have a lot of our citizenry doubting truth, science, history and basic facts. That defines brainwashing. (One of my Gop Facebook friends asks, “Why do you keep bringing up facts?” and “Why do you keep bringing up history?”)

So we have conspiracy theories, hoaxes, fear mongering, hatred, nativism, denial of facts, denial of science, denial of truth, denial of government data, denial of media (other than wrong-wing media), denial of written media (only recordings seem real) and ideology trumps truth – all supported by the conspiracy theory that “The government is lying to us.” Who is this “government” that wants to control us? I know Gops suggest our president want to control us and it’s not reality. We, the people, govern our country through our election process and three branches of government.

The “right” wing promoting this crap through their email system, websites, talk radio, tweets, TV, etc. has backfired. The more I listen to "conservatives" speaking, the more I realize how talk radio "talking points" have infiltrated their speech -- as part of this brainwashing. This fascinating presidential cycle shows their giving into idiocy has won the hearts of their radical right. The outsiders dominating the race, with even Cruz looking rational compared to narcissistic, xenophobic, media-hype Trump. Trump has a special relationship with conspiracy theorists, also called “truthers.” Donald’s “birther” jibes are a large part of why this conspiracy group respects him. Their party leadership has no idea of how to remove the monster they’ve helped to create.

In the 1980s and 1990s, my wife and I didn’t have cable TV for about ten years. My parents were raving about Fox News a new cable channel. Leaning right, I was excited to get the network that impressed them so. After getting cable, I watched it for years, enjoying it and not realizing its effect on America.

True Research:

Factual online research is done employing reliable, objective, non-biased websites as a basis for fact finding.

1. Wikipedia is an excellent source (There is the possibility on obscure issues of mistakes missing oversight review, but most topics are well done.). I’ve found zero to ever be disproved on it. It may not be used by colleges as a formal source, but it’s excellent for most purposes. Definitions and historical perspective are solid.

2. College/University websites, ending in .edu are generally excellent sources for fact-checking. A notable exception was a Colorado University, which was producing petroleum industry narratives from one professor of climatology. His graphs and data weren’t showing the latest data from NASA and other institutions, but instead were showing supposed data of hundreds of years – just suggesting climate temperatures are purely cyclical, ignoring all the recent date that we broken out of the cycles. Cyclically we’re supposed to be heading into another ice age – if this prof can’t recognize that isn’t happening, he’s either purchased by the fossil fuel/fool industry or not a very good climatologist.

3. Government data sources were accurate and reliable with the file extension ".gov", before tRump took over and has deleted much of the science that supports truth from government sites.

4. Mainstream news websites are accurate. If they error, they issue corrections – not so for FAUX “news” or other wrong-wing media. They, at times, do not present enough controversial issues.

5. Mainstream news fact checkers are also accurate. Politifact.com, factcheck.org, and The Washington Post Fact Checker are good examples of where to find truth.

6. http://www.snopes.com/ and is also an excellent source to fact check internet reality.

7. A newer excellent website designed to debunk video falsehoods from both parties is http://www.flackcheck.org/.

Fake Research:

1. False research links to blogs that only have links to other opinions, not factual material.

2. False research links to conspiracy theories – hoaxes based on manipulation of ideas.

3. False research links to “news” websites [like FAUX/fox “news”] that only present one party’s views (or pretend to present both).

4. False research links to graphics based on absurd data – that’s not used to normally evaluate the given situation.

Example:

5. False research links to websites which have rewritten history or science.

Narrative Leading to My Research Conclusions:

One of my best friends and his brother, though both have advanced degrees, believe in American conspiracy theories. My friends believes aliens are real, living on earth – mostly in tunnels under ground – even moving throughout our country on ultrafast underground trains. I’m told even our president doesn’t know about them. Scientists have been search for evidence of extra-terrestrial life for decades with no positive results. SETI, Search for Extra Terrestrial Life, has found zero evidence of ETs with broad reaching studies using many spectrums of electromagnetic radiation, including radio waves, microwaves, etc.

When asked if he has seen an alien of UFO, my friend says, “No.” Being asked to produce evidence, he’s sent me a conspiracy theory website link and YouTube video clip links. I’ve told him that the video clips are either grainy or drawings; I could use free software to produce such videos myself. I offered that these people who claim to have government evidence of aliens must be doing it to sell books or give lectures.

This same friend also has a refrigerator stocked with vitamins and supplements. Having an advanced degree in biological sciences, it still surprises me that my friend believes “the government lies to us.” He claims we could live to be 200 years old, but “the government doesn’t want us to live that long, so they don’t tell us the correct amount of vitamins and minerals we really need in our diets.” This friend is obsessed with electromagnetic radiation from electrical boxes on neighbors’ houses and from cell phones and cellular towers. He wears a hat to protect himself from radio waves and takes action to prevent neighbors’ electromagnetic frequencies from interfering with his house.

This same friend may have serious health issues brewing because of believing “homeopathic doctors” instead of traditional physicians. Despite his medical science background, he has a small refrigerator full of vitamins and supplements he takes every day. When asked what evidence he has to support the use of these supplements. He’s told me the FDA lies to us – not telling the right RDA for vitamins and minerals. “We could live to be 200 years old,” he claims if we’d take the right amounts of them, but “the government doesn’t want us to live that long.” He recently he donated some memory supplements to try on my 90 year-old mother. He’s not guaranteeing they’ll work, but suggest they might help her dementia. I asked him what evidence he has that these work. He said, “Articles.”

“Articles by whom?” I asked. His homeopathic doctor writes them. “Any other evidence?” I queried.

“Yes, from my other (homeopathic) doctor,” he added.

This sounds like snake oil salesmen to me. Their evidence relies on the conspiracy basic, “the government lies to us.”

His brother, also a great friend of mine – who further has an advanced science degree – also believes “the government lies to us.” His evidence is that jet contrails last longer than they used to. He also believes the conspiracy theory “the government lies to us.” This friend also thinks believing that aliens are on earth is quite reasonable.

I hadn’t understood how two of my best friends could believe such nonsense. It wasn’t until this past week that I believe I pieced these conspiracies together. I usually record and watch “The Rachel Maddow Show”; Rachel presents factual perspective I see on no other show. Rachel was giving a different perspective on the San Bernardino mass shootings and Republican reaction. She told of a “right-wing” radio host who also had a website and labeled all mass shootings in the U.S. as government conspiracies. She told how he even suggests the government may have killed some children to make the Sandy Hook shootings more believable. The name of the website Rachel cited sounded familiar. I suspected I’d checked it out before.

Neither recalling the host’s name or his website, I did a search for mass shooting conspiracies. His website, Infowars.com, came up. When I got to the page on mass shootings, I entered “aliens” in the search box and confirmed that my best friend had emailed me a link to this site before as “evidence” of alien existence. Before going to this this webpage, I was beginning to suspect a link between the two conspiracy theories. My conclusion begins below this.

Footnotes are indicated with links, superscripts or asterisks (below):