Civil Discourse Now

Where the far left and far right overlap for fun and enlightenment

All Blog Posts (1,848)

Rich people have soaked us long enough: bring back estate taxes

On January 20 the man who has brought this country to its financial knees will cede the control he has held for four years. On that day Vladimir Putin will see the stooge he placed in The Oval Office leave for parts unknown.

To recover financially, this country has to adopt traditional GOP positions. Since so many people - 300K at last count - are dying as a result of trump ineptitude, this seems as good of a time as any to resuscitate the estate tax.

Rich bastards conned…

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Added by Mark Small on December 16, 2020 at 4:41pm — 1 Comment

Letter to the GOP's State Chair

December 15 e-mail from Indiana GOP state chair Kyle Hupfer: “Chuck Schumer is determined to win [Georgia’s Senate] seats and erase our GOP majority in the Senate, and we can’t let that happen. The Senate might be our last line of defense ...

...against the radical left and their progressive policies! Please join in helping us defend our Republican majority in the Senate by supporting Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in Georgia.” I could not let this “funder” go by without…

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Added by Mark Small on December 16, 2020 at 8:11am — No Comments

Get past distractions: WTF?

As our focus is on the fight against evil (trump, et al), several questions to ponder lest we become too distracted. Why the rush to execute Federal prisoners before January 20? How TF do we still use the phrase “States rights” 155 years after the South lost?

How many immigrant children - in her clutches for whatever reasons - has Betsy DeVos’s NFPs “placed” since she’s been in office? And, seriously - anybody know - YET - why we still have troops in Afghanistan?

Added by Mark Small on December 13, 2020 at 9:15pm — No Comments

The 4:20 show: Hill, Niederberger & Texas's lawsuit

Indiana’s lame duck Attorney General/Elvis impersonator Curtis Hill has joined with 16 other States in a challenge brought by Texas before the U.S. Supreme Court to disqualify the electors of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin and replace them with pro-trump electors.

Texas’s AG filed a Motion for Leave to File Bill of Complaint. SCOTUS has set a deadline of noon today for the four named defendant States to reply. In the meantime, trump has sought to intervene and show…

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Added by Mark Small on December 10, 2020 at 7:33am — No Comments

The 4:20 show: Hill, Niederberger & Texas's lawsuit

Indiana’s lame duck Attorney General/Elvis impersonator Curtis Hill has joined with 16 other States in a challenge brought by Texas before the U.S. Supreme Court to disqualify the electors of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin and replace them with pro-trump electors.

Texas’s AG filed a Motion for Leave to File Bill of Complaint. SCOTUS has set a deadline of noon today for the four named defendant States to reply. In the meantime, trump has sought to intervene and show…

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Added by Mark Small on December 10, 2020 at 7:32am — No Comments

The Constitution: irony? hypocrisy?

Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed., 2001, p. 1009, defines “irony” :“the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning.” And “hypocrisy”: “a pretense of having a virtuous character , moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not really possess.” Id., p. 943.

The Convention acted outside its charter to “devise such further provisions that appear [ ] necessary to render the constitution of the Federal Government…

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Added by Mark Small on December 6, 2020 at 7:37am — No Comments

Ban panhandling in one specific area of downtown Indy

To panhandle is “to beg (usually on the street).” Amer. College Dictionary, 1962 ed,, p. 875. Downtown Indianapolis has become rife with begging, but its pace accelerates, and its numbers of practitioners increases, each January. Perhaps it’s the cold.

The area of greatest concentration is between Capitol Avenue on the east, Washington Street on the south, Senate Avenue on the west and Ohio Street on the north. These beggars are aggressive and can be quite offensive. They threaten to…

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Added by Mark Small on December 5, 2020 at 7:08am — No Comments

Want Gov't stand-still? GA GOP Senate candidates

People of Georgia need to understand: if you vote for Republican U.S. Senate incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, you vote to freeze the Federal government for the next two (2) years at least. There might be something to be said for that.

McConnell, the Kentucky Senator who appears joyful only over others’ despair, vowed, when President Obama took office, to make that Democratic President - who won the popular and electors’ votes by clear majorities - a one-term…

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Added by Mark Small on November 24, 2020 at 7:29pm — 1 Comment

GA Spl Election: Perdue & Loeffler don't like MAGA

Sen David Perdue is in a quandary: “a state of embarrassing perplexity or uncertainty, esp as to what to do; a dilemma.” Amer College Dictionary, 1962 ed., p. 990. Running for his political life he seeks to distance himself from trump but wants MAGAt votes.

Perdue, who with Sen Kelly Loeffler, is in a run-off for Senate seats from GA, said, in a Nov 10 phone conference they needed votes from “people that may have voted for Biden but now may come back and vote for us because there was…

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Added by Mark Small on November 17, 2020 at 7:41pm — No Comments

Distasteful? We need to see COVID suffering

After the United States committed large numbers of troops in Vietnam, each evening the TV news - a major source of information - showed a graphic of numbers of U.S. troops killed and wounded. News moved beyond graphics.

Numbers were made real by journalists, on the air, who ducked gunfire and reported Americans being killed and wounded. They also showed a Vietnamese man, hands bound, shot in the head by a Vietnamese officer with a pistol. A naked child ran, in terror, from a napalm…

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Added by Mark Small on November 14, 2020 at 6:06pm — 1 Comment

What if trump pardons - everyone?

There are ways in which trump could seek to scorch Earth before he either leaves or is removed from the White House. We can forget about the obvious. As partial payment for all those loans extended, when others refused, Putin got access to whatever secrets we had.

Another possibility implies riots in the streets. Chaos can be scary - or scarier than what we have seen. If trump virtually opens the doors of Federal prisons, according to 2016 figures, possibly 225,000 people would be…

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Added by Mark Small on November 11, 2020 at 8:33pm — No Comments

Erase the bad acts of a POTUS who never had a mandate

Four years ago, trump declared he’d been given a mandate. That simply was not rue. mandate: “In politics, the electorate’s overwhelming show of approval for a given political candidate or platform.” Black’s Law Dictionary, 10th ed., 2014, p. 1105.

electorate: “The body of citizens who have the right to vote.” Id., p. 633. Note: that definition is not “body of the electoral college.” trump lost - as in received fewer votes from the electorate in 2016 - than his opponent, Secretary…

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Added by Mark Small on November 8, 2020 at 6:40am — No Comments

Call it early in the evening.

When will the election be declared? Look at time zones and States “solid” for Biden/Harris. In the East - generally the first to report results - that means the votes of 90 electors. Using postal abbreviations: VT 3, NY 29, MA 11, RI 4, CT 7, NJ 14, DE 3, MD 10, DC 3, ME 2.



Other States in the Midwest and West are solid, but report later and total 98 electors. IL 20, WA 12, OR 7, CA 55, HI 4. That means Biden/Harris have the votes of 188 electors. They need the votes of only 82… Continue

Added by Mark Small on November 3, 2020 at 10:37am — No Comments

We never have been "great" & only can be if we embrace liberty, justice & equality

Four years ago trump lied many times, but especially in his 2016 campaign slogan: Make America Great Again. The slogan implied this country was, at one time at least “great.” Now the slogan is “Keep America Great.”

This country is NOT great today. trump’s bungling has caused over 230,000 people to have died from COVID-19. trump attacked his opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, by saying Biden would listen to scientists. That is an attack?

Economics? Neither trump’s strong…

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Added by Mark Small on November 2, 2020 at 9:03pm — No Comments

Hope: GOP voter suppression has backfired

Today, Friday, October 30, 2020, has been beautiful: the autumn air crisp, the trees about to lose the orange and gold and red leaves. As I walked across the parking lot at 10:20, about 700 people already were in line for early voting.

Sanctimonious horses’ asses say “Not willing to stand in line? You shouldn’t have the right to vote” without argument to support their judgment. Besides, people already have died for the right to vote - that’s payment enough. Plus I like the “I Vote/I…

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Added by Mark Small on October 30, 2020 at 3:34pm — 1 Comment

I cannot support that racist, incompetent bastard

On Twitter this morning, I said The Constitution requires impeachment and conviction for high crimes and misdemeanors (or not being of “good Behaviour”) before a sitting Justice on SCOTUS can be removed.

@vegix replied: “Confirmation despite wrongdoings does not excuse criminality. Especially when said confirmation was highly partisan.” I don’t excuse wrongdoing, but we have to follow The Constitution, or else years ago “Congress would've tossed progressive Justices.”

We need…

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Added by Mark Small on October 27, 2020 at 7:12pm — No Comments

Der Wehrmacht view of Normandy, 11/3/20

June 6, 1944, dawn: German troops on the “Atlantic wall” awoke and, as mists cleared, saw the largest armada in history, the Allies’ long-anticipated attack, aimed at them. German - and Allied - troops had reason to fear the next hours and (for survivors) the next months.

Germans also had reason to fear the post-War. How would survivors, if not prosecuted as war criminals, explain - to their children, grandchildren, neighbors if they sought escape to another country - how had they…

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Added by Mark Small on October 24, 2020 at 7:02pm — No Comments

I'm an elected GOP official - nobody replies?

This election is the most important that I can remember in my life. When I worked at the county fair in 1974, when I was home for the summer from DePauw, The two major political parties were equally concerned with getting people to vote.

Years later, at the polls in the mid-2000s, folks from both parties sought to ensure the most basic right in our country, the right to vote, was protected.

I am the elected precinct committee person in Washington Township, 21-01. I have called…

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Added by Mark Small on October 18, 2020 at 6:57pm — No Comments

Who said Spartz works w/Russian oligarchs?

Indiana’s 5th Congressional District (INCD5) race is heating up, and I read some things from a couple of months back. Apparently Victoria Spartz, who bought the GOP nomination, took umbrage with “opponents [who] have accused me of working with Russian oligarchs.”

She said the “attacks are 100% FALSE. In fact, they are so baseless and so malicious I am considering taking legal action against the individuals promoting them.”

1) The First Amendment protects political speech under…

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Added by Mark Small on October 17, 2020 at 7:12pm — No Comments

Crucial differences betw trump & der Fuehrer

People are too quick to compare (unfairly) the current occupant of the Oval Office (a/k/a trump) to Adolf Hitler. There are significant differences. To correct erroneous beliefs held by some, here is a repeat of points made several months ago.

1) Hitler wrote a book that became a bestseller - trump had to employ a ghost writer; 2) Hitler was “in the black” - i.e., financially successful (from book sales) - when he took office - trump (as we now know) was hundreds of millions of $$$ in…

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Added by Mark Small on October 16, 2020 at 3:48pm — No Comments

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