Why The Middle Class Is No Longer Wanted - The Stockholm Syndrome.

When there were kings who owned everything, they did not have a middle class. Have you ever wondered why there was a middle class at all? The middle class was created when societies began taking over one another. Rome could not rule the world without the worlds consent. They created go-betweens in the countries they conquered to manage their affairs from the people's living in the countries they enslaved.

After the Roman Empire ensuing empires expanded the use of the conquered to manage the countries they conquered for them, they created the middle class to achieve this goal. Once begun, the middle class began believing that they were better than the people they "managed". We even saw this on slave farms in the south where some blacks were put in charge of others and began agreeing with their oppressors. Some psychiatrists refer to this as the "Stockholm Syndrome". It is when the victim begins sympathizing with their oppressor.

The middle class was created to placate enough of the oppressed to make them control the rest. During the 60s the children of the middle class began questioning this situation. It freaked out the powerful people. The hippies shook the world, they questioned the system, they questioned authority. That was when the people that believe they own the world began using their money and influence to destroy the middle class.

The middle class was a necessary evil that is no longer needed. Technology can now be used to manage the lesser classes and even workers are needed less and less.

Yahoo - Wake up! Your retirement is your problem.

Yahoo - Billionaire: Your life is going to stink. The well meaning person that actually said this was trying to tell us that the system is already working against the best interests of the majority of us.

Huffington Post - The GOP Budget: Every Tax Loophole Is Sacred. We think we all pay taxes; but, the wealthy have just about all of the deductions, so often, they do not. This is the real system that we are dealing with, one that doesn't want us to have opportunities or choices. One that wants us to pay our way while owning everything with our consent.

Thank You Dear Readers

I cannot believe how long I have been writing this blog. Sometimes I can't even remember why I began it. I certainly have no idea why I still do it. It is often my solace, a place to go and express my thoughts about the world, a place to work through ideas. Opinions and thoughts I wrote years ago I may no longer agree with; but, they were my thoughts at the time.

The blog is coming up on 70,000 hits. I don't write to get hits, I write what I think. My first post on Pastor Daniels has received about 2,000 hits. Not much in the internet; but, it was a place to bring up things that I didn't think others were paying enough attention to. Thank you for sharing this journey with me.

Flags On License Plates

I read this article, Yahoo - Reuters - Confederate flag license plate battle reaches U.S. Supreme Court. I sincerely ask my readers to read the linked article. Both sides in the battle miss the real point and present ludicrous arguments. Some people in Texas want to allow license plates to show a confederate flag. It is done in some Southern states that flew it during the time of the Confederacy already. Others argue that it represents slavery. I don't care which is true or if both are true. I think the Union won that war. Should we have to allow flags on American license plates that are from Nazi Germany, we won a war with them too.

Should we make license plates in America that show flags from the Soviet Union or Communist China? As far as slavery goes, the Union allowed slavery too and Lincoln did not free the slaves out of love, he did it to win the war and didn't want to. Most countries have had slavery at some time and use their flags on many things without offending. Nations change. People change.

While personally I would prefer that state issued license plates be random and not vanity plates, I draw the line at license plates that are not American. You should be allowed to possibly have an American flag or your state's flag. Would Texas allow it's citizens who came from California have the California flag on their states license plates? Don't allow the media to determine what issues should be considered, look for yourself and ask the deeper questions, don't be led by the nose on what is right or wrong by having the issues pre-determined by weasels who only want ratings and controversy. Don't think the reactive way that they want you to.

I don't want state issued license plates to have crosses on them to represent Christianity or flags to represent Muslims or Jews or any other religion. If we are going to prostitute our states for money to allow people to politicize license plates in any way then we have to allow all to politicize. What about allowing flags for Satanists on state issued license plates? Should state issued license plates be issued that indicate that the driver is a prostitute or drug dealer? What about plates that say you are a murderer for hire? Why not allow people to get license plates that say "Coca Cola"? The problem is not the message, it is that states are being whores in the worst sense, not selling their bodies; but, selling their souls. States should not show a preference to any belief system or that are anti-American.

What if a state became primarily Jewish....or Muslim.... or Communist... or Fascist or whatever. Should all of the states cars have to have license plates showing that perspective? Don't answer too quickly. What messages should be state supported or should none be so treated? You cannot have it both ways.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

I was bored and watching Netflix. I ended up watching "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt". It is stupid and silly and charming. I have not laughed this hard in a long time. It stars a lady named Ellie Kemper who I guess was on the Office (I didn't watch much television for about 8 or 9 years). It also has Carol Kane who is always hilarious and Jane Krakowski  who has been in everything. I should mention that one of the Executive Producers is Tina Fey.

The story goes that Ms. Kemper's character was captured by a crazed preacher and kept in an underground bunker with three other women for 15 years. Her and the other women make national news as the mole women and she tries to adjust to todays reality and improve herself. Basically the show makes fun of how she is stuck in time 15 years ago, hangs out with a bunch of weirdoes and doesn't know it. It is sort of like the movie Airplane meets the tv show Friends.

A line from the show, "That man could sell snow to an Eskimo or a Pontiac Aztec to someone." The show is completely silly and everyone on it is ridiculous. If you like dumb and silly you should check it out.

News of the day and a complaint about a jerk.

Yahoo - Anonymous Post-It Notes on Lockers Spread Positive Message. Someone left stick it notes on every students locker in a town in Massachusetts. They said "You are beautiful". I wouldn't ask someone to repeat the wonderful act; but, wouldn't it be nice if everyone who reads this did something nice for someone tomorrow. Sometimes we can change a person's day by just showing care.

A few years back when I was going through my divorce (sorry if I told this story before), I was feeling old and as if no woman would find me attractive. I was in my 50s and past my physical prime, which, to tell the truth was never Brad Pitt looking. One day I was at work and feeling like garbage and a dear friend asked me to go to lunch with him. As we walked to the restaurant I told him how I was feeling. I recognize that a lot of people feel that way when their spouse has left them for another; but, you have to go through it. At the time I had a gold earring in my left ear that I got in Hawaii. Well, two attractive younger ladies than me (mid 30s to mid 40s at best) sat at the table next to us and one of them turned to me and said, "Well don't you look dead ass sexy with that earring of yours. Maybe it was the black suit I was wearing. Who knows; but, I sure needed that at the time and I thanked her and told her that she had no idea of just how much I needed to hear that at that moment. Everyday you can do that for at least one other person, the one you see who could use it.

Yahoo - AP - Say what? Social Security data says 6.5M in US reach age 112. The social security data is seriously wrong. We have about 42 people who are 112 in the United States not 6,5000,000. Makes you wonder how many people are over 80 and how many the government claims are over 80. I can tell you this, their actuarial tables that estimate how long and how much someone will get from social security are vastly overstated. Maybe they are overstated so that they can lie to us about social security funding. Maybe they just want us to believe the money is not there, money that you have already worked your life for. Money that you earned and were forced to put into the system and they don't want to pay you back. I put in for years and will never get a penny, that will go to people who do not have pensions and as far as I am concerned, that is okay with me. If you have a government pension they reduce your social security payments to practically nothing (and I didn't work for the federal government so they didn't pay my pension). Don't let them steal your social security based on lies.

Yahoo - CNBC - Musk: Someday, driving a car will be illegal. Elon Musk created the car company Tesla, one of the leaders is electric cars. He is warning people of what is coming. He clearly states he does not want to see people taken out of the driving equation; but, if you follow transportation then you know it is coming.

Yahoo - NYC Roads Now Have More Uber Cars Than Yellow Taxis. Uber is basically an application for your phone that will find you someone near you who can drive you in their car to your destination. It costs money but less than a cab and it is and will kill off the cab drivers eventually in the bigger cities. Once taxis are dead or irrelevant, your taxi will be a self driving autonomous car. Lots of dead jobs.

Yahoo - AP - Icahn likens casino union to mobsters demanding 'protection'. Icahn is a jerk. He made his money by getting a controlling interest in companies and selling off all their assets for a one time pay out. He has done this to companies that could have succeeded; but, he is only interested in the fast buck, not Americans working or this country thriving as a whole. He wants the casino workers to give up all their benefits so that he can sell the company off at an immediate profit. Suck out the assets and sell the debt, that is his business plan for the past 40 years. Not fix businesses as others have done, not benefit America. He is a selfish swine and I pray for his soul.

The Rat Pack - Vampire Killers

This is just a story, it is a nonsense. It is a story I have been playing with for years. A thought, an amusement, I hope you like the set up. If you do let me know. What follows is a complete lie. If you like it, let me know.




The Rat Pack - Vampire Killers

I used to work for one of the members of the rat pack. I was an assistant to Joey Bishop, a gopher. Go for this, go for that. As jobs go, it wasn't bad, he treated me well enough and I got to see a lot of big stars. I met them all. Vegas, London, New York, I saw the world and got paid for doing it. I also got to see behind the scenes and now that they are all dead I can tell the truth. The Rat Pack was not just a bunch of friends, they were vampire killers.

I know that you may think I am joking; but, I am not and can prove it. I was there for some of it. I wasn't there when Kennedy met with Mr. Frank Sinatra and told him that the nation needed him and that him and his friends would be perfect undercover Vampire killers. I wasn't in the room but Joey told me about it as Mr. Sinatra had told him and the other members of the Rat Pack when he recruited them to help him.

They way Joey told it, Humphrey Bogart and his friends had gone to Las Vegas and killed a den of vampires. His friends included people like Swifty Lazar, Spencer Tracy, David Niven, Cary Grant and even Errol Flynn. That can be looked up on the internet. They were the original Rat Pack sometimes called the Holmby Hills Rat Pack. They came back from Las Vegas after killing a den of vampires and Bogart's wife, Lauren Bacall said they looked like a pack of rats. Not surprising considering the fact that they were covered in blood and beat up from fighting the vampires in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas is a funny place and the perfect home for Vampires. It's a 24 hour town loaded with people who don't know anyone in the area. Vampires could just make them disappear and everyone would assume they were buried outside of Vegas by the local gangsters. Hell, it was the gangsters that made the government aware of the vampire problem. Bad for business. When Vegas was run by the gangsters there was no crime in in Vegas not even prostitution was tolerated by the gangsters within the city. You had to go outside the city for hookers.

I guess I have to tell you the truth about vampires. Contrary to the stories you may have heard, they are not supernatural beings and do not have strengths beyond physics. They do not change into bats, they cannot fly and they do not have superhuman strength. They do live off blood and can live for a very long time. They are nothing more than serial killers. Being a vampire is a choice. You make a deal with the devil, you will live off the blood of others and in exchange you get to live longer. It is not all they consume. Most of the time they eat the same food as you and me. They don't just drink blood, that would be stupid. They drink water, coffee, booze and lots of things. Hell, they love energy drinks. They seem to be caffeine freaks. I guess it makes sense if you are up all night. Oh, they are not afraid of the sun, they work at night so they are not seen and the Vegas heat is hot as can be during the day anyways.

I think I got off track. I'm getting old and as far as I know am the last of the crew that helped the rat pack battle the bastard vampires. I wasn't the only one that helped them, there were others; but, I think I am the last that is still alive. All the jobs have been pasted on to others, to younger people. Maybe I will talk about that later.

Anyways, the way Joey told me was that one day Bogart decided that he and his crew could no longer be the vampire killers for the government and Kennedy decided to ask Mr. Sinatra to take over. That was a tough one. Kennedy and Mr. Sinatra were tight, real tight. Mr. Sinatra was critical to getting Kennedy elected president and you can look that up too. In order to pull it off it was imperative that Kennedy distance himself from Mr. Sinatra, nobody could know or suspect that he knew about the vampires and that the government was seeking them out. After Kennedy blew off Mr. Sinatra, nobody would have suspected that he and his friends were working for him.

So vampires were the real reason that the rat pack made their home in Vegas. They came to kill vampires.

The way Joey told it, Mr. Sinatra took them all into a room and told them that the president wanted them to find and kill vampires in Vegas, their home. They stayed at the Sands hotel and casino. They stayed up all night with the perfect excuses and killed vampires. You might wonder how they knew who the vampires were, the professional poker players spotted them. All night poker is the perfect way to find them. They have to make money too. Night time waiters, cocktail waitresses, dealers, players, you name it, people who are invisible and work at night.

You think this is beyond belief, you doubt me. Read Chuck Barris's novel, "Confesssions of a dangerous mind". Entertainers have been used before. Watch the biography of Houdini, he was a spy in world war one. This was nothing new. Read about Hedy Lamarr, the actress that created a tool to use against the Nazi's in World War II. Everyone gets sucked into war, even celebrities and we were at war with the vampires and still are. We just have the advantage now because of Mr. Sinatra.

Been too long since I posted with news stories.

As my readers know, I have retired. I am adjusting to this new reality. The first week was a little unsettling; but, this was to be expected.

Los Angeles Daily News - As gas tax funds dwindle, California looks to test charging for miles traveled. I have been writing about this for years so my long time readers already knew this was coming.

Wired - Cloud Computing Can Make Any Old Beater a Connected Car. A small device can be added to any old car so that it can be tracked. Hmm, maybe the first two articles are connected. What do you think?

Yahoo - Hillary Clinton breaks silence on emails. Turns out Hillary Clinton has a personal phone and may have conducted some business on it. The tongue wagging and foolishness accompanying this fact is simply stupid. I am far from a Clinton supported; but, I did the exact same thing. While I usually carried two phones, a government phone and my personal phone, if the government phone was not working because the battery died, I would use my phone. Nothing mysterious about it. When I was off, if business came up I would also use my personal e-mail account. Salaried people, as I was, are always on call. We cannot complain about the government having access to all internet traffic and then turn around and seek to take it away from another. We cannot complain about the government and business having the ability to track our phone calls and then seek to do it to another. It is hypocritical.

The Huffington Post - Former NFL Player Craig James Compares Support of Gay Marriage To Satanism. One more imbecile speaks about things they don't understand. Why is it that people who claim to believe in freedom and individual rights seek to keep them from others? It is nobody's business what others do in the privacy of their home. I get vertigo. I am not afraid of heights under certain conditions, I love to fly; but, I cannot look out the side of certain buildings and do not like aerial trams. It is not a choice, or a lifestyle. It is a phobia. I used to wonder if homosexuality was a choice; but, I do not think it is. Whether by genetics or environmental factors, once someone is gay, they are pretty much gay. Me, I only like women and no matter how many gay people may be around me, it is not even a thought. Being gay is not contagious, that I know for a fact.

Final "news" story. Recently I read an article where one actress, Chloe Sevigny, said that another actress, Jennifer Lawrence, was annoying and crass. Now I don't usually write about this type of thing, gossip stuff. I was not really familiar with Ms. Lawrence or her work until the last few weeks, I knew her name but had not seen her in a movie. I was familiar with Ms. Sevigny and like her in film and television. Based on her statements, she is the crass one and lacking in manners. Ms. Lawrence is  a child of 25, Ms. Sevigny is 40. The two of them are not competing for roles. CBS News - Chloe Sevigny - Jennifer Lawrence is "annoying" "too crass".

My granddaughter had her first birthday party about a week ago. I attended it. My ex was there with her new boyfriend. I had reason to believe they would be there. The man did nothing to me, he is not the person she cheated on me with. I do not know what it was like for him, my guess was a bit uncomfortable and I had previously been told he was a little shy. I gave them their space; but, as the presents were being opened I found myself sitting near him and he decided to speak to me. Nothing special, just general chit chat. I certainly was not going to bad mouth her to him or treat him with disrespect. I have manners and so did he. The ex on the other hand saw us talking, came over and glared at me. I excused myself and left the table. It was pretty clear that she had not told him much about me, he thought I was an engineer. I am not, I am, was a strategist and negotiator primarily. I also wrote contracts, reports and grants. I prefer this type of writing.

I don't know what it must have been like for him. He knew she had been married for 24 years, he knew we had three daughters, he knew I had provided for her well and that her mother loves me. He also knows she will not talk about me with him. Of course he was curious. I can't blame him for that. I felt bad for him and was not going to add to the pressure. We all need to show a little more manners in this world. Something a lot of the news articles I posted tonight could have improved by.

Pimpernel