This Sucks

The Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade this morning. I'm at a loss. I wanted to write about the draft so much today, but yet again America decided to kick me in the ass with this horrific news.

We are living in some futuristic dystopic world right now and it is awful. We will now have states telling women what they can and cannot do with their bodies. This is sickening. This is backwards. We are supposed to be living in the 21st century. Everyone is created equal. Everyone should have fair rights. Everyone should be able to do whatever they choose to do with the body they have. Now we are going to have white men telling women they cannot get abortions and it sickens me to my core. White men like Ron Desantis will be trying to jail women in Florida if they seek an abortion. The state I live in, with our horrific governor, will do the same. All the red states, and there are far too many of them, their governors are licking their chops just waiting to enforce rules to stop people from getting safe and legal abortions.

We are going in the wrong direction as a country. We are not the best and brightest. We sure as hell are not the land of the free. This is wrong on so many levels. The Supreme Court members that passed this should be absolutely ashamed and disgusted with themselves. This is not a win by any means. This is a problem. This is exactly why I stopped believing in any religion when I was a young teenager. This is not a religious thing anymore. Anyone that says it's about religion is way, way off base. There is no god anywhere that would have you believe that they would want old white men telling women what to do with their bodies.

This is all about power and getting more votes. That is all these monsters care about anymore. They will say whatever they need to say to their mouth breathing supporters so they will go out and vote for them. They could care less what a woman wants to do with her body. They want that baby to be born come hell or high water. I want to quote my dad here because he is 100 percent right. He told me months ago that these politicians and Supreme Court members are not pro life, they are pro birth. They could care less about that child after it is born as long as it is born.

This is a disaster. This is going to cause a massive amount of new problems in our country. There is going to be uproar and fights. People are not going to take this lying down. I know I'm sure as hell not going to sit here and let this happen. This is nonsense. This is scary. This is, as I stated earlier, dystopian. This is not a world that I want to live in. This is horrifying. This does not make America a better place. It makes it much, much worse.

And for these politicians who think they are going to eradicate abortion, you are wrong. Women will find a way. It will not be safe and could be harmful, but if a pregnant person wants, or needs an abortion, they will find a way. They will get it done. It happened before Roe vs Wade. And now in a post Roe vs Wade world, it will happen again.

I'm so sick of waking up to a living nightmare everyday in this country. When this news broke this morning I was on a walk with my wife and I told her we should seriously consider leaving. And I wasn't joking. I went so far as to ask if her company has locations in other countries. America is so backward. We don't have free health care. School is expensive. Racism is rampant. Mass shootings happen seemingly everyday. And now the Supreme Court has overturned Roe vs Wade. I tremble at the thought of what is next.

I am having a hard time dealing with this. This is awful, horrible news. And it comes at a bad time in this country's history. I truly do not like the state or country I live in. It is becoming a police state. It is becoming scary and bad and unlawful. I'm terrified for my kids future. I want to leave but don't think I can. I'm at a loss. This one hurts. This one is bad. I simply do not know what to do except fight. I will continue the fight. We can be better. We just need to show it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump is the Least Important Choice on Your Ballot

Somehow we got to use this picture again.

Who is ready to do some voting?

At long last, the greatest election in American history is coming to an end. Jay Z has sung, Ted Nugent has grabbed his crotch, the most important voices have told you who to vote for. It is now the general public's turn. On election day, less than two thirds of eligible voters will make their choice. Hillary or Donald will emerge victorious in the days after the election, and America will enter a new era. The choice of the people will be ready to lead.

Unfortunately we are all already know what will come after the election. Trump will lose, and he will throw a temper tantrum. If in some weird way Trump does win, the Clinton supporters will lose their minds and accuse people of election fraud. The new President will be deligitimized immediately by the opponent's partisans in the media. The idea of respecting the outcome of an election is long gone. The new President will have an incompetent group of partisan hacks in the US Congress who will do everything in their power to stop any meaningful idea from the executive branch. The millions of people who vote for the loser between Clinton and Trump will feel left out of this new America, and they will react poorly.

The thing is, we have ourselves to blame for this dangerous division. The supporters of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have made the election only about themselves. Clinton does not do rallies with down ticket Democrats, and Donald Trump has flat out refused to endorse some very powerful congressional GOPers. The media, national and local, spends 99% of its time on Trump and Clinton, and the other 1% on other races. The public is uninformed, and not curious, about any thing outside of the freakshow that has been the 2016 Presidential campaign. That attitude has created a broken America.

This is a huge problem. Barack Obama won in 2008 and 2012 by a wide margin. He is the first President since Eisenhower in 1956 to win over 51% of popular vote twice. What do we remember from Obama's eight years? We have the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare if your nasty. We also have a ton of Republican obstructionism. That is pretty much it. There was the increase in LGBTQ rights, but that came from the courts. Obamacare and Republican obstructionism is pretty much what we saw over eight years. There has been a record number of votes to overturn Obamacare, all failed. We have now long past the record for the most amount of time a Supreme Court appointment has gone without a hearing. If Obama is so popular, how can Congress keep being do nothing obstructionists and get away with it?

Obama, like Clinton and Trump today, never made their supporters care for the down ticket races. It takes a whole lot of money, and personpower, to run for President. The hording of resources is what we have called the Ohio Problem (you can read all about on this fine website). The general electorate, or less than two thirds of it, get excited to vote for President, and forget everything else. Midterm elections struggle to get half the amount of voters in Presidential elections. There is very rarely times where people are excited to vote for the Senator, or school board member. That lack of excitement has given us a popular President, and a Congress more concerned with partisanship than with doing actual work. The most important races, the people running who can actual affect your life, are being pushed to the side for the dog and pony show of modern Presidential campaigns. 

In 2000 many people thought George W Bush was way less qualified to be President than Al Gore. In 2008 Hillary Clinton and John McCain made the case that Barack Obama was a celebrity, not a seasoned politician. The press liked the camera friendly Bush, and the dynamic Obama. The people followed the press. The American people elected the popular kids over the hard working salutatorians. The idea of celebrity was overshadowing the solid resumes of the DC lifers. People wanted to be part of a movement, they wanted to join the cult of personality. The experienced workers were squares who most of the electorate ignored.

While these media friendly neophytes were winning, the public forgot about the people who actually make laws. In the last two decades, a freshman member of the US Congress has more power than the President. Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have stopped legislation supported by both parties. Members of the House of Representatives you have never heard of are currently blocking vital federal funds from solving the water crisis in Flint, Michigan and containing the Zika virus outbreak in Florida. The most powerful members of our government were being reelected with no competition from the opposing party. Even in the swing state of Ohio, the Democratic party has ceded the election to a man who was once the Budget Director and trade representative to George W Bush. Hillary Clinton is working hard to expand the Democratic Party's electoral college map, but her hording of state resources are allowing the GOP to keep a stranglehold on Capitol Hill. Her supporters believe electing Hillary will be enough. It won't be.

How the Democratic Party keeps missing the lessons of 2012 are baffling. Hillary will probably win, and the Republican party will still control Congress. Senators John McCain, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee have promised not to hold hearings for any Supreme Court appointments for the next four years. That is unconstitutional and anti-American. Nationwide, people running for office as Republicans have promised to waste more taxpayer money by have a thousand more showboat votes to defund Obamacare. By ignoring down ballot races, the Democratic Party is embracing gridlock and giving up any chance of change until the next election.

This needs to be the next election. We have made the case for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but their victory is unimportant. Many people have expressed their frustration that both candidates are terrible. Then don't vote for the President, or vote third party. Who cares? Trump will not have the power to do what he wants to, and he will act the child he has been his whole life. Clinton will not have a Congress that will work with her, and she will use the office to enrich her family and her donors. Ok, they stink, but there are other people on the ballot. The person you elect to the US House, the Senate, your state legislature, town council, school board, they have real power. Your taxes are decided by these people. The education your child receives is in these peoples hands. Feel like you do not know who these people are, check out your local ballot. Think you don't know these people, Google them. If you plan on going to vote for Hillary or Donald anyway, it doesn't hurt to take time and vote for the people who really matter.

We get our chance to end this nightmare tomorrow. Clinton V Trump will not be listed as one of the more inspiring Presidential campaigns in US history. The good thing is we have a moment to take power back. Sure there all third party candidates like Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Evan McMullin, and Cthulhu, but we should focus on the not as well known names lower on the ballot. When we focus on getting a working Congress, a school board who thinks of children over partisan interests, and judges who focus on the law over special interests, then we will have a government who has real hope and change. 

Go out and vote.

RD  

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Be a thought leader of tomorrow and write for SeedSing. 

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The Next Supreme Court Justice Should Be Named Obama

Welcome home Mr. President

With the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the time has come for President Barack Obama to make his third selection for the highest court in the land. Those Republicans who want to block the President's constitutional duty must not be as true to the US Constitution as they claim to be. If you are truly a "strict constructionist" then you can not believe politics takes precedent over the founding document. Maybe these so called "Constitution Conservatives" are really just a bunch of partisan hacks. The GOP Presidential field, and the elected republicans in D.C., really seem to think that the Constitution is not that valuable in governing the nation. It seems that they are all unfit to represent the people since there is no guiding document of law that the GOP believes in. We deserve people who believe in the Constitution to lead our government. The Republican Party has once again put their personal partisan politics ahead of settled law.

Antonin Scalia served on the US Supreme Court for nearly three decades. He was instrumental in giving voice to modern conservative philosophy. He was also instrumental in being the voice of exclusion to many US citizens. He did not want the US to confront climate change because he was not a scientist. He used antiquated, and hateful, religious views to deny rights to gays and lesbians. He believed that high money donors had more right in swaying political elections than people who were not quite as wealthy. He, along with four other Supreme Court Justices, stopped a legally mandated recount in the state of Florida during the 2000 Presidential Election. There was no legal, or constitutional, reason to stop the recount, yet Antonin Scalia felt like his personal political views took precedent over the law of the land. If you look at the Bush v. Gore decision, Justice Scalia and the majority say that their decision can not be used as precedent for any future similar cases. It is obvious that the conservatives on the court wanted to Bush to win, even if he had not. Antonin Scalia was  the voice of the Supreme Court for an ideology that is living in the past. This is a philosophy that is doomed to be on the wrong side of history. The views Antonin Scalia brought the the US Supreme Court will be judged in the same ways the views of Henry Billings Brown (Plessy v. Ferguson) and Roger B Taney (Dred Scott v. Sandford). They will be judged poorly.

With the death of any high profile figure the media and public at large want to wait in passing judgement on that person's life. That is moronic. When someone like an Antonin Scalia passes, his work should be on display. It is naive, and insulting, to try and forget what harm Justice Scalia has brought to many Americans. We should never sweep under the rug the vile decisions of any person, much less a public figure. We need to remember but we do not need to dwell that long on the unfortunate tenure of Antonin Scalia, we need to look towards the future. The thing we should be focusing on is who will be the new justice of the US Supreme Court. That person should be named Obama.

First Lady Michelle Obama is an accomplished attorney. She has all the academic credentials the US Senate looks for in a Supreme Court nominee. She has a long paper trail and was a very successful lawyer before moving to the White House. Michelle Obama has a bright mind, and quick wit. She would be a huge asset to the high court. The problem is that the partisan hacks in the US Senate would lose their minds in trying to tear down a woman who is vastly more qualified than they are. No person deserves the vitriol, misogyny and racism that would be hurled at the First Lady by the Senate and the national media. She does not deserve the hassle. Someone else in her house is more than ready to take these anti-constitutionalists head on.

While Michelle Obama would be the best choice to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, there is another White House resident who could truly make history by being appointed to the high court. President Barack Obama has the resume to be the next justice of the United States Supreme Court. He is a constitutional scholar, former Illinois State Senator, US Senator, and two term President. He has the education, experience, and thirst to serve his country. Never before in the history of the United States have we had the opportunity to fill a Supreme Court vacancy with someone so qualified. The American voters have twice elected Obama by  large margins. The public will and the resume makes is a no-brainer that President Obama should be the next Associate Justice.

There is the issue of President Obama being the sitting President. Could he actually nominate himself? The easy fix is for Obama to step down from the Presidency and let Vice President Joe Biden take the office for the remainder of the term. It would be a great way to honor Joe Biden for all of his decades of public service. The new President Biden could then nominate former President Barack Obama. Easy fix.

Now the US Senate would have their nomination, and the confirmation process can begin. We all know that having Barack Obama in front of a Republican dominated senate would not be an easy confirmation process. The obstructionists in the Senate would use the hearings to try and legislate the entire Obama Presidency. It would be a huge and pointless circus. There would be a zero percent chance that a vote would be taken on Obama's nomination within the year. The timing should not matter because the Senate Republicans have already said they are going to disregard their Constitutional mandate and will not allow a Supreme Court nominee a confirmation vote until a new president is inaugurated.

Why not let Obama go through the hearings with no hope of confirmation this year? Because this will absolutely destroy any Republican effort to take the White House and will severely hurt their down ticket races. The public will get a full view of the fringes in the GOP, and how they control the entire party. The Presidential field will be consumed by the confirmation process. President Obama is still way more popular than any national Republican figure. The attacks coming from the Senate, Fox News, Right Wing radio, and the GOP Presidential hopefuls will drive many voters away. The Democratic party can use the obstruction of the Republicans as further proof of the party who currently controls congress can not govern at all. Once the election is over, and the Republican have suffered their losses, the next President can go ahead and resubmit Barack Obama as a nominee for the Supreme Court. The next President will be a Democrat after the lunacy the country will see from a Republican party who spits on the true intentions of the US Constitution. It will be a cake walk for the Democratic party.

The passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was quite a shock, and a great loss for his family and supporters. The loss of the strongest conservative on the high court is a huge advantage to the Democratic Party. The President has the Constitutional duty to appoint a replacement. The Senate has a constitutional duty to vet and confirm this nominee. The first family has two members who could fill this vacancy magnificently. The GOP will continue to disrespect the US Constitution in order to serve an outdated political philosophy no matter who gets nominated. Barack Obama could once and for all fully expose the Republican Party hypocrisy by being put forward as the next Justice of the US Supreme Court. He would once again make history, and help the Democratic Parties electoral chances in 2016 more than he has in the previous eight years. It will be one of the biggest political fights in US history. Let Obama use his skill to once again frustrate and annoy the GOP. It is going to be epic.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. He originally was going to suggest his other host of the X Millennial Man be the next Supreme Court Justice. Ty said he was to busy complaining about his least favorite sports teams. Nominate yourself for great internet commentary by writing for SeedSing.