Lazy weekend

I've had a fairly lazy weekend. I have a lot to do but it was cold this weekend and I didn't much feel like doing it. Try to catch up during the week.

I did take down the Christmas decorations and a few other small things. Get the decorations in the shed tomorrow. Wasn't done until after dark.

Been pretty active online. Rather important, with the State of the Union coming up and then the GOP Primary.

This past Monday, President Obama signed an executive order which expand and intensifies background checks for gun purchases. You would think that would be the end of the issue for the moment but no. Instead, the gun nuts have gone bonkers. That's okay. It will blow over. Some complain his actions went too far but it really just strengthened laws already in place.

In my case, I don't think it goes far enough. However, he was careful to not go too far legally, which was smart. 

Fell asleep last night without finishing this. This morning, can't log into my work computer. Apparently the entire network is down. They did major work on the network this weekend, which was supposed to be complete by Saturday night. SSDD. Figured I'd write while waiting for them to fix what they broke.

Been taking another new approach with right wingers. Instead of presenting them with facts, which they are immune to, just asking them questions. Like what specific policies their candidates propose to fix various problems. Because the GOP candidates keep bragging no boasting but have not suggested one single actual policy.

Jobs? Nothing. They keep pushing the same trickle down economic theory which has been a failure for centuries. But they can still get uneducated people to believe it. 

Economy? Same thing.

Guns? They scream against the President but offer no alternative. They voted down blocking people on the terror watch list from buying guns. What did they vote in favor of? Making silencers cheaper and easier to purchase. Because..guns! Yeah, a mass shooter with a silencer would be so much easier to locate than without one.

They claim guns aren't the problem, mental health care is. Then they voted to appeal the ACA and offer no alternative. The ACA was the one program which would provide widespread mental health care. 

The jobs report came out. Down to 5% unemployment. Which means 70 continuous months of job growth. What does the GOP say? Nothing. Silence. Yet they promised a jobs bill in 2010 and never even published a draft. Five years. Nothing.

They promised  an immigration reform bill in 2011. Voted their own bill down three times and have done nothing since.

So, my current approach is simple. Rather than arguing, make them question their own candidates. Some try to bring up things the GOP did 16-20 years ago. I make it clear we are talking about here and now. Of course, I get the occasional bull in a china shop response. However, just from the dominating silence, I know this is effective. It's getting through. So I will keep at it. Not throwing out old approaches, just expanding. I also built a dedicated page specifically for Liberal positive arguments which other Liberals can use. So far, my posts are getting rather widely shared.