Tuesday, November 1, 2016

HALLOWEEN IS OVER, BUT I'M STILL AFRAID

This is a nightmare that has extended past Halloween and will not be fully over after November 8. I'm a nervous wreck over many things, but the American election takes the cake. Although I am a proud permanent resident of Canada, I am still American-born and do have the right to vote in US Federal elections,
which I have already done by absentee ballot. 

I feel safe living here in this great country, but I worry about my native country that is a total mess right now and could go further down the hole if the con man representing the Republican Party is elected president. I come from a family of Roosevelt Democrats, although to be honest, my mother always voted for Dwight Eisenhower and my father always voted for Adlai Stevenson in the 1950s. We Democrats thought that the election of Nixon in 1968 and his re-election in 1972 was a very bad thing, but we all survived, even after Nixon resigned under threat of impeachment. We did not take any pleasure in seeing the presidency in shambles. Since then, we have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly in the Oval Office. Still, the US carried on.

Now, I'm not so sure for the future of the US - even if Hillary Clinton is elected. Like the backlash (or should I say blacklash) against Barack Obama since his election in 2008, the opposition to the first woman to be elected president will be strong and violent - much more violent than even the opposition to Obama. If Trump wins, so will fascism, in my opinion. Trump will soon be replaced with homophobic Mike Pence, the vice presidential candidate who knows how to move the right wing agenda through the system. If Hillary wins, the Republicans will investigate her relentlessly as they have already done to no avail. But it will seriously damage her effectiveness as president.

So, we have a no win situation, regardless of who wins. A truly scary thought.

Porgey sent in a comment today that sums up what many Canadians see regarding the US election:

"Canadians may feel helpless with the machinations going on within the United States, as what happens there, impacts us as well, CBC news had an account of Canadians, volunteering to support Hilary Clintons campaign, it appears that there are no laws forbidding Canadian citizens from helping our neighbours from a fate,that we consider on par with national suicide. The report they covered took place in Kissamee close to Orlando Florida. The Republicans at their convention, dodged a constitutional crisis when they chose another candidate over Ted Cruz. Teds, parents were both Canadian citizens, also they had voted in Canadian elections which according to State Department rules at that time, meant that they lost any rights to have American citizenship on their children."

Seems like a century ago that Ted Cruz was a threat to the US. Meanwhile Cruz is probably hoping that Trump loses and is putting his next presidential campaign together. 

Be afraid; be very afraid.

10 comments:

  1. Both those candidates rose to their spots on the strength of name recognition. We had the same situation here in Canada having a party leader, now a prime minister, with name recognition. The chickens have come home to roost, like a couple of canned hams with "brand" recognition, not to mention mountains of cash to spend. Do we not have a mayor here who was elected mostly on name recognition? (not to mention outspending every other candidate during the race). Public popularity has its limits, it looks like the 300 million plus "folks"in the U.S.A. are going to just have to take a bullet on this one. Lets hope none of that action crosses over to this side, although we in Canada usually have to put up with some part of the problem in $ome way or another.

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    1. WEll said, although one for the record books in terms of election branding...er name recognition, has to be the two Bushes, dad, ex director of the CIA and little Bush ex gov of Texas. How did that work out? Little Bush helping out with kicking the hornets nest in the middle east, the USA still getting stung to this day, the great recession where millions took a big hit, leaving the people of New Orleans hanging in the wind after Katrina, then leaving office with a less than %10 approval rateing. Name recognition at its worst. Then Jeb trys to help (remember "Jeb can fix it" as an election slogan?).People were Bushed out to say the least after that "name recognition" experience.

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    2. As bad as the Bush presidencies were, it would be far worse under Trump. Trump's ties to Russia and his fan worship of despot Putin should be of great concern to everyone. At least two criminal suits against Trump, one for rape and the other for fraud besides the planned voter suppression by Trump supporters is just the start of what a Trump presidency would look like.

      Of course, we also know that what happens in the US does effect Canada, especially our border town.

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  2. Americans have one scary choice, Clinton. Not because she is any good at all, only because the other choice is far scarier. This will affect Canada negatively. Unsure how 300 million Americans came up with these 2 very poor choices but we are little better here sometimes....

    For instance is anyone following the choice of new CAO at the Region. None other than Carmen D'Angelo, infamous as the NPCA head, under fire for his "Biodiversity Offsetting" load of crap among many other things. Cronyism at its worse here and our local rep Sandy fully supports it. It pays to support big developers and this came from the top of our "distinguished" liberal politicians at Queens Park. No way Sandy was going against the grain here, his political and financial advancement depends on it. Maybe he should've have been indisposed as was our mayor answering hopefully to an attack of moral indignation.

    Be VERY careful of who you elect people as they WILL affect your life for better or worse and we have some real doosies running the show here locally at both levels for another 2 whole years.

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  3. Melania spoke today about how bad cyber bullying is! What?

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    1. If Trump loses, how long do you think it will take for him to dump Melania and find someone younger?

      Maybe he'll dump her even if he wins. I am so glad I am living in Canada. It is like being a Jew in the late 1930s living in Canada - safe. The lessons of the Third Reich have been forgotten by some Americans as they support Orange Hitler. I really fear for America's future if Trump wins.

      BTW, did you see where Fort Erie's own Fred Braken was arrested for assaulting a student at a pro-Trump rally at Brock University? Our Fred showed his xenophobia loud and clear in his one-man rally. Allegedly he turned violent when someone tried to take profane sign away. WTF is wrong with people?

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  4. Somebody had a question about that property on Helena Street, that was used as a truck park, on the corner is the bingo hall where I have volunteered since the mid 1980s to gather funds for several community groups, including the Community Centre in Black Creek. The area around the Bingo hall is actually a very hot potato, really a mine field of untreated chemical infused land, this is really bad stuff, the Town want's no part of that area, as they can see lot's of money flying the coop, remember Love Canal? this is literally a mini Love Canal. when a trucking company used that lot and capping the lid on that mess, they heaved a sigh of relief, the can had been kicked down the road, the mishandling of those leaking drums of highly dangerous reactive chemicals should make anybody that lives around that area feel very nervous, those chemicals from around the bingo hall are slowly leaching out into the drainage ditch ending up in the Lake Erie.

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  5. I was a resident during the 1960s of the United States, President Richard Nixon was in the White House, what we found out during his impeachment hearings, Nixon had a list {Black List} that named people that they considered enemies of his administration, Donald Trump has made it no secret, that he also, will have a list of people who are critical of him, top of the list is Hilary Clinton. this is how banana republics and communistic style governments rule, Turkey is now going through that kind of thinking, mass arrests, closure of newspapers, radio and television stations, my feelimg is, that if Donald Trump gains the White House, we can expect something that is entirely out of character for our neighbours. We in Canada should be very afraid next Tuesday.

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    1. Canadians should be worried about the US presidential campaign outcome. It will certainly affect Canada and the rest of the world.

      BTW, Porgey, a high school friend of mine ended up on Nixon's Enemies List. I never did find out what caused her to be included on the list. I was impressed and a little jealous that she merited such an honour.

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  6. Just the fact that Tea boy is less likely to win the top bunk has sent the market indexes up in ways not seen for a long time. Say what you will, but when money talks, people listen. This also affects the political/ business profile in Canada, always has, always will.

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