Did you suffer under President Obama? Tell me how.

You say you suffered under President Obama and now we who oppose Trump should just tolerate it. I want to see fact checkable ways you have suffered under President Obama. Here is a list you can check to see if these things he did caused you to suffer.

I borrowed this from my friend Linda Capelle who got it from Denise Cataudella, who got it from Scott Mednick, who responded to a friend of his who said,"We suffered for eight years [under President Obama]. Now it’s your turn.”

Scott wrote a brilliant response asking how exactly his friend had suffered under Obama.

"I am surprised you would wish suffering upon me. That of course is your right, I suppose. I do not wish harm on anyone. Your statement seems to continue the ‘US v THEM’ mentality. The election is over. It is important to get past campaigning and campaign rhetoric and get down to what is uniting, not dividing and what is best for ALL Americans.

There will never be a President who does everything to everyone’s liking. There are things President Obama (and President Clinton) did that I do not like and conversely there are things I can point to that the Presidents Bush did that I agree with. So I am not 100% in lock step with the outgoing President but have supported him and the overall job he did.

And, if you recall, during the Presidential Campaign back in 2008 the campaign was halted because of the "historic crisis in our financial system." Wall Street bailout negotiations intervened in the election process. The very sobering reality was that there likely could be a Depression and the world financial markets could collapse. The United States was losing 800,000 jobs a month and was poised to lose at least 10 million jobs the first year once the new President took office. We were in an economic freefall. So let us recall that ALL of America was suffering terribly at the beginning of Obama’s Presidency.

But I wanted to look back over the last 8 years and ask you a few questions. Since much of the rhetoric before Obama was elected was that he would impose Sharia Law, Take Away Your Guns, Create Death Panels, Destroy the Economy, Impose Socialism and, since you will agree that NONE of this came to pass, I was wondering: Why have you suffered so?
So let me ask:

Gays and Lesbians can now marry and enjoy the benefits they had been deprived of. Has this caused your suffering?

When Obama took office, the Dow was 6,626. Now it is 19,875. Has this caused your suffering?

We had 82 straight months of private sector job growth - the longest streak in the history of the United States. Has this caused your suffering?

Especially considering where the the economy was when he took over, an amazing 11.3 million new jobs were created under President Obama (far more than under President Bush). Has this caused your suffering?

Obama has taken Unemployment from 10% down to 4.7%. Has this caused your suffering?

Homelessness among US Veterans has dropped by half. Has this caused your suffering?

Obama shut down the US secret overseas prisons. Has this caused your suffering?

President Obama has created a policy for the families of fallen soldiers to have their travel paid for to be there when remains are flown home. Has this caused your suffering?

We landed a rover on Mars. Has this caused your suffering?

 He passed the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Has this caused your suffering?

Uninsured adults has decreased to below 10%: 90% of adults are insured - an increase of 20 Million Adults. Has this caused your suffering?

People are now covered for pre-existing conditions. Has this caused your suffering?

Insurance Premiums increased an average of $4,677 from 2002-2008, an increase of 58% under Bush. The growth of these

insurance premiums has gone up $4,145 – a slower rate of increase. Has this caused your suffering?

Obama added Billions of dollars to mental health care for our Veterans. Has this caused your suffering?

Consumer confidence has gone from 37.7 to 98.1 during Obama’s tenure. Has this caused your suffering?

He passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Has this caused your suffering?

His bi-annual Nuclear Summit convinced 16 countries to give up and destroy all their loose nuclear material so it could not be stolen. Has this caused your suffering?

He saved the US Auto industry. American cars sold at the beginning of his term were 10.4M and upon his exit 17.5M. Has this caused your suffering?

The deficit as a percentage of the GDP has gone from 9.8% to 3.2%. Has this caused your suffering?

The deficit itself was cut by $800 Billion Dollars. Has this caused your suffering?

Obama preserved the middle class tax cuts. Has this caused your suffering?

Obama banned solitary confinement for juveniles in federal prisons. Has this caused your suffering?

He signed Credit Card reform so that rates could not be raised without you being notified. Has this caused your suffering?

He outlawed Government contractors from discriminating against LGBT persons. Has this caused your suffering?

He doubled Pell Grants. Has this caused your suffering?

Abortion is down. Has this caused your suffering?

Violent crime is down. Has this caused your suffering?

He overturned the scientific ban on stem cell research. Has this caused your suffering?

He protected Net Neutrality. Has this caused your suffering?

Obamacare has extended the life of the Medicare insurance trust fund (will be solvent until 2030). Has this caused your suffering?

President Obama repealed Don't Ask Don't Tell. Has this caused your suffering?

He banned torture. Has this caused your suffering?

He negotiated with Syria to give up its chemical weapons and they were destroyed. Has this caused your suffering?

Solar and Wind Power are at an all time high. Has this caused your suffering?

High School Graduation rates hit 83% - an all time high. Has this caused your suffering?

Corporate profits are up by 144%. Has this caused your suffering?

He normalized relations with Cuba. Has this caused your suffering?

Reliance on foreign oil is at a 40 year low. Has this caused your suffering?

US Exports are up 28%. Has this caused your suffering?

He appointed the most diverse cabinet ever. Has this caused your suffering?

He reduced the number of troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Has this caused your suffering?

Yes, he killed Osama Bin Laden and retrieved all the documents in his possession for analysis. Perhaps THIS caused your suffering?

From an objective standpoint it would appear that the last eight years have seen some great progress and we were saved from a financial collapse. Things are not perfect. Things can always be better. We are on much better footing now than we were in 2008.

I look forward to understanding what caused you to suffer so much under Obama these last eight years."

Today Public Citizen filed a law suit against Fake President Donald Trump

This is from their email newsletter:

"Public Citizen v. Donald J. Trump:

In a unilateral directive issued in just his second week in office, Trump essentially ordered the government to stop issuing new health and safety, financial, environmental, workplace and other vital public protections.

Trump’s executive order will allow Big Business to exploit workers, Wall Street to rip off consumers, Dirty Energy companies to pollute, Big Pharma to continue price gouging, auto makers to sell dangerous cars, and on and on.

It will be nearly impossible for the government to carry out its duties under popular and effective laws like the Clean Air Act, the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act, to name a few.

Even after the Wall Street crash, the BP oil disaster and other failures that resulted from letting corporations “regulate” themselves, the American people will be forced to suffer still MORE corporate recklessness and greed.

The executive order requires that for every new regulation adopted, two must be eliminated — a nonsensical standard with absolutely no basis in law.

Especially insidious is an edict that regulations be evaluated only by inflating estimates of their cost to businesses while completely ignoring their substantially greater — and real — benefits to society.
This executive order will mean more contaminated food, an accelerated rush to climate catastrophe, more dangerous cars and trucks, more workplace injuries and deaths, slashed consumer rights, more oil spills, more human misery. All unnecessary. All preventable.

Our lawsuit takes direct aim at Trump’s plot to put corporate profits before people’s lives and the public good."


This article from Politico on the law suit.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-sued-2-for-1-regulations-234788
Public Citizen sues, "President Donald Trump in an attempt to block his executive order that mandates many federal agencies repeal two regulations for every new one they put on the books......claiming that Trump exceeded his constitutional authority in issuing the order. The complaint also alleges that the president's directive violates the Administrative Procedure Act by instructing agencies to act arbitrarily in canceling regulations in order to promulgate new ones."

I am in a state this afternoon. I just read something that made me want to vomit, and I have that heavy and nauseous feeling, that comes from despair.

I read this article:

GOP Congressman Insists White Terrorist Attacks Are Totally Different

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) also pointed to “the good things” that came from the shooting of black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sean-duffy-terrorism_us_589a081ce4b0c1284f28854c

I am finding myself using this phrase again and again: In ANY other administration, this comment would have been grounds for at least censure and possibly impeachment of this Congressman. At the least, there would be outrage, and his constituents would be calling for his removal. HOW HAVE WE COME TO THIS?

The Southern Poverty Law Center has this list for 2016, that shows what a liar, and a creep Duffy is:
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2016/year-hate-and-extremism

From the article:
"There have been zero fatal terrorist attacks on U.S. soil since 1975 by immigrants from the seven countries listed in Trump’s executive order. The order restricts travelers from those countries from coming to the U.S. for 90 days, prevents refugees from all countries from entering the U.S. for 120 days and bars Syrian refugees indefinitely."

I served 26 years in the military, through several presidents and administrations, some of whom I did not agree with, but this makes me ashamed of my country.

Letter to the National Democratic Committee

I recently received a call from a DNC fundraiser. I explained to her why I was no longer donating to the DNC, but instead directly to candidates and organizations, such as the ACLU, who were actually accomplishing something.

The DNC has failed Democrats and the country. The DNC and their candidates, are more interested in getting elected and enriching themselves, than they are in actually fulfilling the promises inherent in our Constitution. The DNC has lost touch with their natural supporters, working men and women, and all those who are marginalized in our great country. Where are the Democratic politicians who have brought great infrastructure improvement and jobs to all the states in our union? Where are the Democrats who have done something about pay inequality? Where are the Democrats who have solved the deterioration of our inner cities, and removed the inequities in education? Where are the Democrats who have fought the reality of the despicable racism against people of color and their enslavement in prisons in unconscionable numbers? Where are the Democrats who have stopped corporations from polluting our lands, ravaging our jobs and markets and who have allowed heads of corporations to earn thousands of times more than their workers, and then paid those same corporations huge subsidies that amount to corporate welfare whilst allowing them to export their jobs overseas with impunity.

During this election cycle, the DNC abandoned everything it should have stood for, and rather than allowing the democratic process to take place, during the primaries, used every back handed political trick to push the candidate THEY selected down the throats of Democratic voters. There was NO fair and square nomination process, the fix was in from the start, and only got worse as time went on, down to vote fixing and disfranchisement of Democratic voters in the primaries.

I hope the current leadership realizes, that if they had not played these dirty tricks and alienated their OWN supporters with their unethical behavior, we would probably have a Democrat in the White House now instead of the abominations currently in power. Even if Hillary had won the nomination, if she had done it fair and square, I feel she would have had more widespread support among Democrats, Independents, Unaffiliated and even centrist Republican voters. Since the DNC obviously cheated and lied, they destroyed that possible support. Yes I think FBI Director Comey, in violation of the Hatch Act, put the final nail in the coffin, but the coffin was BUILT by the Democratic National Committee.

So here we are, and where do we go from here?  Along with the complete revamping and change in power of the Democratic National Committee, including a new, more progressive platform to begin to address and fix all those problems listed in my tirade above, I have a suggestion.

I think the DNC, starting NOW or ASAP (we only have 2 years) should start a massive and completely non-affiliated program, to register voters and give them voter IDs valid in their state. This effort should register ALL voters regardless of their party affiliation, and work with law enforcement or the DMV or whatever state agencies are necessary, to provide voter IDs for every single eligible voter in that state. This effort should START with the states that have the most restrictive voting laws. The DNC should lead the way to coordinate this, working with the RNC, Green Party and ANYONE who will help organize and fund this voter registration and identification push. Call for volunteers of any political stripe.  Forget politics, power or anything else, and get all eligible voters who want it, the ability to vote.

The DNC and Democrats HAVE to do something to restore peoples faith. They have to do something that will help the entire country be a better Democracy. What better opportunity that meeting every voter face to face to assist them with their ability to practice their franchise.

Rosalinda Baldwin