Jonathots Daily Blog
(4431)
Mary of Moncrief, Michigan.
A triple threat in alliteration.
She is forty-six years old, the mother of three children who range in age from twenty-one down to a precocious ten.
She is the assistant manager at the local Nordstroms, where she has been employed for twenty years, ascending in the ranks, and well-respected.
The date is November 8th, 2016.
Mary was awake early that morning. She had lost her battle with insomnia hours earlier, trying to remain still as a mouse, hoping that sleep would be merciful to her fatigue. Giving up, she rose, made coffee and cinnamon toast—one of her favorites—and prepared for the day in the quiet of a very chilly pre-dawn kitchen.
She had one thought on her mind: should she go vote before work, or wait until afterwards and possibly face long lines?
Actually, that wasn’t the primary question. What had been haunting her mind for weeks was whether she could cast a vote in good conscience either way.
Politically, Mary was a moderate.
At least, moderate for Michigan.
She had voted for her share of Democrats and a similar array of Republicans. She felt she was informed and believed herself to be open-minded to opportunities offered by both parties. But the past few months had left her in a whirl, dizzy from disjointed facts and accusations.
Donald Trump seemed unqualified to be President, but his journey as a mature man of business seemed respectable.
Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, seemed more prepared for the position, but less sure-footed in the midst of entanglements.
But still, that wasn’t the real problem.
Deep in her heart, Mary of Moncrief, Michigan, felt that everything was just moving too fast.
She wasn’t against progress–she was upset about the speed being used to achieve it.
So many issues.
Abortion, for instance.
Mary believed a woman should have the right to choose the conclusions of her life, but she was uncomfortable about how the subject of abortion—the termination of a fetus—had become so cavalier. She especially hated the phrase, “abortion on demand.”
Wasn’t a little more humility in order?
Mary also knew she didn’t hate gay people. She was one of the first ones in her local church to rally behind the idea of civil unions.
But lickety-split, she was expected to not only honor gay marriage, but to be supportive of it whenever it was brought up, so she wouldn’t come across as a homophobe.
It felt unfair.
After all, the world of psychology and psychiatry had, for decades if not centuries, contended that homosexuality was aberrant behavior which required treatment.
Now, since that diagnosis had been recently abandoned, they expected Mary and all the American people to quickly shed several generation’s worth of comprehension and join the parade.
It was fast.
Mary wanted equal pay for women in the workplace, but when she rallied with those struggling to achieve this worthy goal, she found herself in the midst of some who decried motherhood and made fun of the simpler values Mary held dear.
Mary was especially troubled by the spiritual indifference, which seemed to reject any soul who believed in God, deeming such a person irrational or uneducated.
Everything was so quick.
Marijuana becoming legal. If marijuana was so safe, why did the people who smoked it always portray it in their movies as a brain-staller—and a pathway leading to no motivation?
And then—the candidates themselves.
Mary of Moncrief, Michigan, was very worried about a man who mocked women, weaker folks and other nationalities with a sneer. But on the other hand, how could she support a woman like Hillary Clinton, who defended her husband’s mistreatment of a twenty-one-year-old intern in the White House, and even to this day, joined into the attacks against poor Monica?
As Mary sipped her coffee in the kitchen, she heard rumblings from the bedrooms above.
Soon her family would join her. Her thoughts would be blended with their desires.
Realizing how important her decision was, she scurried around, deciding to leave for work, going to the polls early to beat the rush.
She called out her good-byes and best wishes for the day, jogged to her car, got in and drove off.
She was nearly to the polling station when she veered off at a graveyard. She sat, staring at the frosty granite stones. Still they were—and at peace.
In a moment of deep reflection, she asked herself what all these people who had once lived would want her to do.
Who would they want her to vote for?
Mary just wished that one of those who wanted to be President of the United States would acknowledge that affairs, nations, wars and social revisions were happening at such a rapid pace that we all needed a deep breath—just to appreciate where we are, who we are and what we’re about to undertake.
Was there an order in it?
Did civil rights come before women’s rights or abortion rights?
It all seemed to be happening at the same time.
Was she supposed to feel some beckoning or even a requirement to vote for a woman since she was a woman herself? Maybe she would have felt differently if Hillary had even visited Michigan—instead of assuming that the unions and the black vote “had it in the bag.”
The Democrats took too much for granted, and the Republicans granted so very little.
Time was passing.
She had a tiny window—about twenty minutes—to go vote and still get to Nordstroms for her shift.
But after weeks—perhaps months—of deliberation, she was no further along.
So she made a very quick decision in her troubled mind.
That night, as Mary of Moncrief, Michigan, watched the election returns, she was so troubled that she felt a chill go down her spine.
Donald Trump was winning. Would he rise to the occasion and be a great President?
Should Hillary have been the one?
Even though the campaign had drug on for more than a year-and-a-half, now it all seemed to be too quick. Too speedy.
Mary was not a bigot.
Mary was not conservative.
Mary was certainly not liberal either—not by present standards.
Mary didn’t hate anyone.
But Mary also didn’t favor people just because they were of a certain color or even just because they were victimized.
As the night wore on, it gradually became more obvious and then official.
Donald J. Trump would be the President of the United States.
Mary didn’t know what to feel.
Maybe she was a little relieved that there wouldn’t be any more Clintons in Washington, but also a bit frightened that a real estate developer would be leading the greatest nation on Earth.
But most of all, she was in turmoil about herself.
Sit Down Comedy … September 27th, 2019
Jonathots Daily Blog
(4180)
Today I would like to use my pulpit of potential—my moment in minutia—to give tribute to the most truthful man in Washington, D.C.:
President Donald J. Trump
For certainly, there’s no way to call a man a liar who has already bragged about how much he enjoys lying.
You will never convict him of his mistruths when he let you know from the very beginning that he missed out on truth some time ago and selected a different path. Matter of fact, in his 1985 book, “Art of the Deal,” he contended (and I quote), “I play to people’s fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That’s why a little hyperbole never hurts.”
He has made clear what he means by “hyperbole.”
And if you aren’t sure, his consort, Kelly Ann Conway, named the practice “Alternative Facts.” Alternative Facts is merely offering a different rendition of the information provided—one that better suits your own purposes. After people hear the Alternative Facts, they begin to blend them with other reports, which eventually becomes what we call a “news story.” Then folks like us come along and pick out our favorite rendition from the buffet of possibilities.
In 2016, Donald Trump’s competitor was Hillary Clinton, who on the other hand, proclaimed herself squeaky clean.
When it was discovered she wasn’t quite as cleansed as reported, she chose to follow the philosophy of her husband, Bill, who insisted that when accusations are made against you, “always deny.”
So the God-fearing, hardworking American people were given a choice between an accomplished liar and a proficient denier.
So the situation is, for every three hundred alternative facts that President Trump may offer, there can always be found ten missteps, mistakes and misrepresentations from an opponent. The only difference is, the pronounced liar doesn’t have to repent because he’s already warned. But the one who has done the missteps—who has proclaimed him or herself pure and truthful—must decide whether to come clean or pick up a copy of “Art of the Deal” and apply his or her application of “hyperbole.”
Actually, we should be ashamed of ourselves for impeaching a man who is so obvious with us that he came down the escalator calling Mexicans rapists, explaining how simple it was to grab unwilling pussy and was fully capable of multiplying the attendance numbers at any event.
After all, Secretary Clinton continued to stand by her man—who denied his sins against the nation—placing the blame on Monica Lewinsky, a twenty-one-year-old impressionable internist crawling under his desk, trying to do her part for the country.
Who should be impeached is simple: the American voter.
Since the founding of the country, we have well known that the common person has no right, privilege or sense to select the uncommon leader of the Free World.
No intelligent corporation allows the rank and file to choose the CEO.
President of the United States is a job, not a position.
It requires a willingness to learn, savvy, personality, gentleness, intensity and above all, a passion to hear the ideas of other people and sift through them until logic emerges.
But since we are determined to extol the beauty of the vote—and then worse, place the final responsibility on the Electoral College (which is similar to a Milton Bradley board game) we are stuck with winners who are alluring instead of enduring.
I want each and every liberal to stop calling Donald Trump a liar and instead, refer to him as a “fulfiller.” He has fulfilled exactly what he set out to do, which is make himself the sole spokesman for our country.
And I want the right wing to be candid—the interest they have in Donald Trump is similar to how each and every one of us wanted to goof around with the “really bad kid” in high school, even though our parents warned us against him. But even though we appreciated goodness (kind of) but were convinced that Bad Boy was more fun.
To summarize:
God has not called Donald Trump to lead our nation.
God has not called any of the other twenty-two candidates from the Democratic Party to lead our nation.
God is not calling anyone.
God has provided science, a beautiful planet, and great human beings around us, hoping that we can use these elements to start making positive choices and value the currency of our words.
So please, stop believing that those who say they always tell the truth actually do.
And cease getting angry with a man who is comfortable in his own skin—being deceptive.
So I will close this by saying, we must cease attempting to impeach a man who thinks he is doing what he considers the best thing possible.
If you don’t want someone who shares Alternative Facts, vote him out next election.
If you’re worried that he’s going to win the country over again with his Alternative Facts, then you need to work on the conscience of your brothers and sisters instead of trying to make all the little pigs frightened of the Big Bad Wolf.
The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this inspirational opportunity
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Tags: Alternative Facts, American voters, Art of the Deal, Bill Clinton, CEO, electoral college, Hillary Clinton, hyperbole, impeachment, Kelly Anne Conway, leader of the Free World, left wing, liar, Milton Bradley board game, Monica Lewinsky, political commentary, President Donald J. Trump, Presidential Elections, rapists, right wing, Sit Down Comedy