Lies & Spin

You knew I wasn't going to shy away from discussing politics for any great length of time.

Did you know politicians lie?  I feel pretty confident in saying that at one time or another every politician has told a lie.  The problem is, a lot of people don't know the difference between lies and spin; they cannot even differentiate between reality and the preposterous.  This is why it is so very important for political leaders to rein in their "spin" if you will.  Hover a little closer to reality.  Not appeal to the percentage of the population that thrives on drama even when it doesn't exist.

There is  caravan of migrants that has come from Central America on the way to the USA through Mexico and has been described as an angry mob of criminals that includes Middle Eastern terrorists and there have been American soldiers deployed to protect our border from invasion.

Really???  So someone who is from Saudi Arabia or Yemen, or Iran or anywhere in the Middle East has flown to Honduras or Guatemala and has decided to WALK through Mexico for more than a thousand miles to cross the American border and terrorize Americans.

Stop and read that last paragraph again.  Does it sound as stupid in your head as it did in mine as I typed it?

If you have been following along with the news...and no, not all news is true.  However, not all news that goes against what the guy living in the White House says and believes is false.  And it's not false just because he doesn't like it.

It's up to you and me and the farmer in central Iowa and the lawyer in midtown Manhattan and the stay at home Mom in a suburb of Denver and the millennial working in Silicon Valley and the Operation Enduring Freedom veteran hanging on by a thread in a struggle with PTSD and EVERY OTHER AMERICAN to figure what is true and what is false.

So let's see if I can help.

There are indeed migrants moving through Mexico, on foot and while I cannot speak for each and every one of them, most of them are women and children leaving their home country because of violence to them or family members.  Is everyone of them a model citizen by any country's standards?  Probably not.  Is it necessary to have thousands of troops at the border to stop the INVASION?  Again probably not.  These people are looking for a safe place to live.  Is America the answer?  Maybe.  Should they all be allowed in?  Yes, that is what this country stands for...you know...give me your tired and your poor, yearning to live free....  Should they all be allowed in illegally with no vetting and no rules and regulations?  No.  Are they going to take your job?  I cannot answer that question.  Although I would venture a guess that many of them if allowed to come here would be taking entry level positions or menial positions that many Americans would think beneath them.

Let's move on shall we...there's an ad about an illegal immigrant who went on a drug fueled rampage and killed some sheriff's deputies in CA in 2014.  The ad was released by the guy in the white house and blames the Democrats for letting the guy into the country and letting him stay.  What the ad fails to mention is that the person profiled in the ad was in fact arrested in Arizona in 1998 by Joe Arpaio and deported.  He then returned to the US sometime between May of 2001 and Feb 2002.  If you Google...you will see the president in that time frame was a republican, the senate had a democratic majority and the house had a republican majority.  I guarantee the criminal profiled in the ad wasn't on the radar of any of them.  This particular spin is simply bullshit.  Except many people who follow the guy in the White House BELIEVE said bullshit because the guy in the White House said it.  In the history of the United States, it has NEVER been easier to be informed.  And yet, people choose NOT to be informed.

Now let's talk about people born on US soil.  The 14th Amendment to the Constitution states that those born in the US are by definition US citizens.  The guy living in the White House thinks he can make that go away with an executive order.  Yeah, he can't.  A good number of the people in this country have taken a class or two on the Constitution.  If you want to amend the Constitution, it’s a 2/3 majority in both houses of Congress and 3/4 of state legislatures need to ratify it.  Good luck with that.  You cannot get members of the House and the Senate to agree on the color of the sky on a cloudless day.

For those of you that take the guy in the White House at his word, you’re foolish. Many days when he (or Sarah Huckabee) speaks, I don’t even need Google to prove him (or her) wrong.  Basic knowledge and common sense tell me so.  It’s telling you so too. The guy in the White House knows he is lying.  It is all very calculated.

I will be the first to admit that I don’t believe anything a politician tells me, doesn’t matter the party.  I can research and am in tune with the political leanings of the sources I believe or ignore.  I also believe that good wins out over evil every time so this current regime will end soon.  I know what side of history I will be on when that happens.

4 more years

4 more years, 4 more years, 4 more years!


Ha, it's not what you think.

I was sitting in my oncologist's office the other days and he said, "You're closing in on 4 years cancer free."  For a moment I was stunned.  Now don't get me wrong...I know exactly when I was diagnosed and exactly the moment when my oncologist told me I was cancer free.  I can tell you what I was wearing, what the weather was like and who was with me each time.  It's just that the almost 4 years has passed in the blink of an eye. 

Do you remember when you were a kid and Thanksgiving would come and you'd be all excited because that meant that Christmas was "right around the corner".  Then time would grind to a halt as you not so patiently waited for Santa to arrive.

As I have gotten older, Thanksgiving approaches and Christmas is indeed "right around the corner"  And it is barreling down upon me (and every other adult) like a freight train!!! I know understand fully why my parents looked so harried in the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

So with lymphoma, each year cancer free lessens the risk of recurrence.  So it's entirely possible I will go through the rest of my life silently chanting "4 more years, 4 more years, 4 more years!"