Not Sure
Not Sure's JournalIf we're going to do this thing, let's go all the way
I'm not a Hillary supporter - never have been - but I will vote for our nominee for one reason: the prospect of a Trump presidency is a real danger to the continued existence of this country as we know it. I have come to terms with the fact that my disdain for the type of Democrat Hillary represents is outweighed by my sense of urgency to stop a deadly snake charmer with no sense of responsibility or morality or even basic loyalty to our country. He must be marginalized and conquered.
What I would like to see is this campaign start playing to win instead of playing to not lose. This campaign is too conservative. It's too grown up. Everybody already knows Hillary is the adult in the room and Donald is the tantrum throwing trust fund brat. There's no sense trying to prove it, especially to the low information voter who's heard Rush and a thousand Limbaugh impersonators shriek about how evil Hillary is for 25 years.
This game isn't being played on the nightly news; it's on Facebook and Twitter. The players aren't serious journalists and commentators in suits, they're jagoffs on keyboards who only consume media that reinforces their existing opinions. It's time to stop acting like the ineffective principal trying to reason with the kids having a food fight in the cafeteria.
This alternate reality we find ourselves in is like the shows on the Disney Channel. At first everything looks familiar and normal. Nothing is too outrageous and someone says something clever once in awhile. But then it hits you: on the Disney Channel, the kids are always smarter and snappier and wiser than the adults, even the bratty rich kids. They teach the lessons at the end of the half hour to the shallow adults. The kids in the shows don't respect the adults because the adults don't deserve their respect.
I for one am tired of Disney Channel news coverage. I want Breaking Bad Walter White condescension and Game of Thrones manipulation and war. I don't want Donald defeated; I want him to quit in shame. I want him and his know-nothing anti-intellectual mob to be destroyed and humiliated in their defeat. "Basket of deplorables?" How about bag of dicks? What about inbred shitkickers? Leeches? Losers? It's truthful and succinct and is the kind of insult that hurts. Nobody hangs their head in shame for being called a scalawag or hooligan. These assclowns need to remember they have nothing to say in civilised political discourse not because they don't deserve it but because, oh yeah! they're uninformed idiots who are busy keeping up with the kardashians instead of the Merkels and Putins and Jinpings.
As for the ringleader of this disaster, you don't dig up dirt on this asshole; he *is* dirt. He does shady shit and he steals from all of us to make himself look successful. The fucked up part is people believe about Hillary what is actually true of Trump. Whether you like her policy positions or not - I don't - it's not up for debate amongst anyone with a brain whether she is a decent, reasonable and qualified person to serve as president. On the other side there is no question the orange dunce is clearly an unhinged self-absorbed asshole who will stop short of destroying nothing or no one when he is embarrassed or insulted, hardly the temperament suited for a president. He's the grifter they say she is. He's Lyin' Donald. He's Crooked Trump.
So let's get dirty and destroy him. Draw him out so he shouts to everyone's astonishment the very truth that will alienate his followers. I'd love nothing more than to see him have a Colonel Jessup moment from A Few Good Men:
"did you order the code red?"
"You're goddamn right I did!"
Finish him.
This is not a game. It's not a campaign. It's not just four years away from another chance. It's not her turn. We are mere months away from our own Reichstag fire if that asshole wins. Figure him out and destroy him.
Isn't it about time...
To pass the Equal Rights Amendment?
The text would have to be changed a bit to include everyone - women, LGBT and every type of gender definition - because you can rest assured the enemies of liberty will work tirelessly to seek out every loophole, every possible division they can make to break us. This recent nonsense in Indiana, Arkansas and elsewhere is proof of that.
There is no lie they will not swallow, no premise too dubious for them to feign victimization, to equate themselves with the discriminated and disenfranchised. The great irony is creating an illusion of being marginalized is the tactic they use to expose the "problem" of not being free to express their bigotry. Their insane position is that they are a righteous David fighting against a great and powerful "gay agenda" and "Hollywood liberal elite" mechanized Goliath. These ridiculous laws protect them from being victimized by legalizing their right to discriminate.
It is time to call out this hypocrisy and end state-sanctioned discrimination forever. A constitutional amendment won't cure this problem, but it's a great place to start. And it's long overdue.
A couple things
There's a lot right with this report, such as the AAR is a group not unlike the API, but for the benefit of railroad companies and that there is a push by the AAR and railroad companies to eliminate layers of safety to save money. However, I have to take issue with some of the issues and how they are characterized in this report.
First, every section of rail in the US has one or more speed limits on it, and the maximum speed is determined by the type of train, total weight, number of brakes, and other considerations. So, to say that regulators are balking at any kind of speed limit without acknowledging speed limits already in place misrepresents this issue. Additionally, speed limits are enforced vigorously on the railroads I've dealt with and discipline is often harsh and can include termination of employment.
Second, I don't think it's fair to claim that these trains blow up a lot. There have been explosions, most notably the deadly Lac Megantic explosion last year when an unattended crude oil train rolled downhill and derailed after a fire had been extinguished on one of the locomotives. Other explosions resulting from derailments have not caused casualties so much as damage to the rail and adjacent railcars. However, I don't wish to gloss over the danger since any of these other explosions could have resulted in casualties. That being said, millions of gallons of crude oil and ethanol are transported daily without derailments, leaks or explosions. In spite of the sensational nature of these recent accidents, the safety record is still good.
Finally, I want to make a point that organized labor is steadfastly against any of the changes proposed by the oil and rail industries, such as not making hazmat routes available to communities or unmanned trains or more restrictive speed limits for hazardous cargo. Those of us who operate these trains know we have an obligation to our crew, our coworkers, our families and to the communities we travel through to operate our trains as safely as possible and we must never compromise safety in the name of production or maintaining a schedule. Changes proposed by the companies we work for such as engineer-only trains are part of the problem and not acceptable to maintain a safe workplace or keep the communities we travel through safe (the train at the center of the Lac Megantic disaster was an engineer-only train).
Any help we can get to push for the proposed legislation requiring a minimum two-person crew on all trains would be greatly appreciated. Whether you believe transporting crude oil by rail is safer than by pipeline (I believe it is safer for the public and the environment) isn't so much the point, we need to ensure that all trains, hazmat or not, have enough crew members aboard to perform any of the tasks necessary in an emergency or just during normal operations. It's only through following safety standards and protocols and bolstering them when we learn they are ineffective can we keep our communities safe. Efforts by industry groups to undermine safety standards and protocols should be recognized for what they are - cutting corners to save dollars instead of lives.
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Member since: Mon Oct 24, 2005, 04:04 PMNumber of posts: 735