White House maintenance

I thought this was an interesting article with regards to the ongoing maintenance issues the White House is facing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42200203

The pest infestations and structural damages are problems that go back years. Regardless of who occupies it, the White House is a magnificent building and an iconic piece of American history; it ought to be kept in top shape.

US Independence Day 2017

In the past, I've written a small post on this day to commemorate the United States' Independence Day. To be honest, this year it's hard to celebrate the day seriously when the current president and those around him are in the process of restricting freedoms for the everyday person, enriching their corporatist friends and generally making a mockery of the United States itself in the eyes of the world.

Worse yet, supporters of this current administration still don't care about any of this provided that it hurts other people and not them. For them, it's about vindictively undoing everything that President Obama achieved and getting revenge on the people who elected him. The slogan to "Make America Great Again" has always been nothing more than a rallying cry said revenge - it's a shame the president's supporters don't see that or don't care to see it.

Still, Happy Independence Day. May the values that truly make America great make a speedy return to the White House.

Enough of a chance

So, let's look at three BBC headlines in my newsfeed, all related to the SCROTUS:

1. China is worried about a war between North Korea and the United States, which it says could break out at "at any moment".

2. The United States is currently defending its use of a massive bomb on Afghanistan; this weapon is dubbed the "mother of all bombs".

3. The White House will no longer be publicly disclosing visitor logs.

How many more "chances" does this president need before his supporters (besides the alt-right, who apparently turned against him after he bombed Syria) wake up and realize that they've made a horrendous decision by electing this awful man to President of the United States, as well as then start the process of persuading Congress to remove him from office? "Give him a chance" - how many "chances" are enough?

A presidency's end

I wrote this elsewhere earlier:

"While President Obama's second term ends in under 24 hours, his victory over 8 eight ago remains one of the happiest days of my life, as I was both relieved at his win and because I believed in the message of "Hope and Change". After everything, I still do; while President Obama has not been perfect and at times has carried out policies I've disagreed with, I have never given up on him and I have always believed that he is, at heart, a kind and caring person. I hope that in his post-presidential life, he will follow in the footsteps of President Jimmy Carter and go on to promote and defend causes that are beneficial to humanity, as well as remain a strong voice of positivity.

And somewhere around, I still have my Obama t-shirt; after election day 2008, Dad bought one for each of us."

I'm going miss President Obama being in the White House. He brought a rare type of respectability to the Office of President, which won't be seen there again any time soon. Thanks for everything positive you did, President Obama, and I genuinely mean that.

Election 2016: Post-Mortem

Supporters of one of the two main candidates in the now-concluded 2016 presidential election in the United States - as well as the candidate himself - oppose political correctness. These supporters regularly tell people who disagree with them to "stop being so sensitive", to "quit being triggered" and to "go back to a safe space". Well, allow me to now "tell it like it is".

Enough Americans in key states voted to put a KKK-backed racist, anti-LGBT, anti-disability, sexual assaulter and misogynistic birther advocate in the White House. Why? Because the vast majority of his supporters are angry white people - especially angry white men - who feel threatened by non-whites and women having the same rights as them. Because they don't believe that people who are not like them should be treated with respect. Because they couldn't bear the thought of having a woman succeed a black man as president.

Any attempt to dismiss this and claim that they were just people who were "fed up with the establishment" is utter hogwash. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's opponent is a billionaire and thus, part of that establishment. His poll numbers went up in the Republican primaries whenever he spouted hateful rhetoric. Now that he appears to have won the election, hate crimes have skyrocketed, as evidenced here and here and even more so here. I'm not interested in hearing about how "not all" his supporters are like that; the #notallmen nonsense as a defense doesn't fly with me.

While in the offline world the deplorables are engaging in violence, on the Internet they are running amok, flooding all sort of discussion with their alt-right nonsense and other hate-filled rhetoric. On the Facebook page for actor Bryan Cranston, they are demanding he be "held accountable" and leave the United States after he made an idle threat to move if Clinton lost. They are demanding unity (or perhaps I should say compliance and obeidence) from people who oppose Clinton's campaign rival, forgetting or ignoring that they themselves rejected and sabotaged President Obama since he took office nearly eight years ago. In appears that in their eyes, the 1st Amendment only applies to them, as they consider the election result to be a reason in itself to tell others to "shut up" or "quit crying" if anyone has a differing opinion.

I used the term "Enough Americans in key states" to describe these individuals rather than something along the lines of "the majority voted for". This is because Clinton won the popular vote of the nation, which means that more Americans supported her rather than her opponent. The successor to President Barack Obama has no mandate.

There, I've told it as it is.

The 55th

Today is President Barack Obama's 55th birthday; it is also his final birthday in the White House. It's a shame that he can't spend more birthdays there but he is term-limited and even if he could run again, a part of me thinks that he is tired of all constant conflicts with Congress and fed up with being blamed for everything that goes wrong without receiving credit for positive developments, and that he is looking forward to a well-earned break.

Happy birthday, President Obama! All being well, your 56th birthday will be a much quieter one for you!

Building the Death Star redux

Back in February of last year I wrote a short piece about a study that had been conducted to determine the real-life costs of building the Death Star from Star Wars. A petition on the website for the White House calling for the construction of a Death Star recently attained the necessary 25,000 signatures for a response from the Oval Office. A response was given, as is required; both it and the original petition can be found here.

I must say that I didn't expect to see the "price" of the Death Star to get mentioned again anywhere, let alone on a petition to the White House! I thought it would be a one-time issue to write about and that would be it.

The Whitehouse

This made me smile the other day:

I know it's "The Whitehouse" rather than "The White House", but still, minor things such as this always make my day.