You may have noticed that I rarely talk about news events as they are happening. I follow something my mother taught me a long time ago, after something big happens the first few days are filled with overreactions and misinformation, it usually takes a week for the truth to come out and by then the media has moved on to a new story. The recent hurricanes are proving how true that is. Unfortunately, the corporate media is intentionally using this time to push a political agenda and deceiving to do so.
For purposes of this post I am going to discuss Hurricane Maria and what is happening in Puerto Rico. Lets start with a little background. Puerto Rico is a US territory, not a state. It's citizens are considered United States citizens; however, they have not chosen to be a state. In fact, there is a split on whether or not they wish to be part of the United States or their own country. The reason this matters is that Puerto Rico has a severe debt problem. With a $72 billion debt problem and 45% of the people live below the poverty line, they are unable to borrow any money. This is not a new problem and in fact has been in a crisis point for about a decade. This debt crisis has meant that Puerto Rico has not maintained it's electrical grid. As a consequence hurricane Maria has completely destroyed it's electrical grid and it may cost as much as $17 billion and 6 months to replace it. Two years ago congress discussed the debt crisis and chose to do nothing. That was under President Obama; but, somehow the media ignores this fact. The question becomes how can Puerto Rico possibly rebuild their electrical grid when they can neither declare bankruptcy on their current debt or borrow additional money?
I mention the debt because when President Trump raised the issue, the corporate media attacked Trump for mentioning their debt at all; but, after the immediate problems are dealt with, this will be the big one. Lets put it in the simplest terms, are you willing to pay more in taxes so that Puerto Rico can rebuild their electrical grid? It is that simple. I personally am okay with helping them with the money; but, it is an issue that must be addressed. While we have promised between $7 and $9 billion dollars to help in the relief effort, that will not get their electricity back on line. The $17 billion is in addition to the $7 or $9 billion. It should be noted that the government owned electrical company is already $9 billion in debt and has lost 30% of it's employees prior to the hurricane.
Now lets look at what President Trumps response was to the hurricane. By September 24th ships were already arriving in Puerto Rico with water, food and both military and civilians to assist with the rescue mission. So much supplies have arrived that the ports cannot distribute it. The reason is not the ships, it is the roads and finding truck drivers. Because of the lack of communication, only 20% of the truck drivers have even showed up to move the materials. The corporate media, rather than addressing the real issues, has attempted to say Trump doesn't care and isn't doing anything. Both of which are flat out lies. Another problem with the corporate media is that they are almost ignoring completely the other islands that have been devastated like the U.S, Virgin Islands.
I began my career in government working on emergency preparedness and response. The definition of an emergency is that it is beyond our ability to control. What is going on in Puerto Rico is a catastrophic emergency, it goes beyond the temporary and will only ever be dealt with over a period of years, not days, not weeks, not months. While reading government handbooks on emergency planning I found something truly disturbing. The number one priority for government during an emergency is convincing the public that they have a handle on the situation even if they do not. Politicians when faced with the inability to push that narrative usually result to finger pointing; but, that is nonsense to.
Now we get to the mayor of Puerto Rico. The mayor of Puerto Rico decided to complain that the President mentioned the debt. She showed terrible leadership as right now is the time to address the debt and if it is not addressed then down the road there will be no path to restoring their electrical grid. Food and water are there on ships and more ships are coming; but, the immediate needs revolve around clearing the roads and finding ways to transport food and water and supplies into the rest of Puerto Rico, not just San Juan. They mayor has complained that she does not have the time to meet and coordinate with FEMA. Wow, that did not happen in Houston or Florida after their hurricanes. The mayors job is to meet and coordinate with FEMA so that priorities can be made instead she has chosen to not attend the meetings and personally hand out food, a great photo op but not her job. In fact, FEMA responded to her criticisms by saying that she should come to the meetings. She claims she doesn't have time. Imagine if the mayor of Los Angeles, New York or Houston had refused to attend FEMA planning sessions. Yet, lets blame Trump is the media catcall. Disgusting and dishonest.
Wikipedia - Hurricane Maria. Fact check me then fact check the narrative being pushed by the dishonorable mainstream corporate media.
UPDATE: I wanted to add in this little tidbit.
CBS News - Puerto Rico mayor pleads for help after Hurricane Maria: "People are dying". Rather than doing her job of coordinating relief efforts, the Mayor of San Juan is handing out water bottles and helping people into ambulances. In fact, the article states, "Cruz also said she has to officially request aid in a memo to the agency, which she said she doesn't have time to write." Lets think about that for a second, as Mayor her job is to make the written request, not as a formality; but, because she is responsible for saying specifically what they need. This is not supposed to be a guessing game for FEMA. She also said this, "There's a lot of good faith, but the good faith has to turn into action or people are going to continue to die," Cruz said. "Please, whomever's listening, forget the memos, forget the meetings." In fact the head of FEMA pointed out that she is not coordinating with them or attending the meetings.
San Juan has an emergency management group, you can see their website here. Emergency Management. Apparently, she does not believe it is her job as mayor to hold meetings with this group to make assessments and determine where help is needed the most; but, it is instead her job to hand out bottled water and go on television as often as possible.
Saturday, September 30, 2017
I've No Idea What This Post is About.
I like old movies. I particularly like movies made between 1935 and 1962. Each era had it's unique charm. Currently I am watching a movie called "Room For One More" from 1952. It is a movie about a family of 5 that takes in two additional kids, not babies, foster kids. These kids are taken one by one out of the orphanage and foster system and brought in to live with a family. It made me think about all the people I have taken in.
When my ex moved out, she left the kids. She didn't take anyone with her and two of my kids were over 18. One of the two got married and moved out and the other moved out on her own. I think it was just me and my youngest for about 6 months, maybe a little longer. In either case, I had a lot of space and people needing a place to stay (always for just a few weeks) seemed to appear out of nowhere and into my life. I think the first one was the homeless psychic vampire and his wiccan girlfriend. Take a moment and think about that. I have literally lost everything and have had two heart attacks and took in two homeless occultists. Now to be fair, I knew the psychic vampire. He had been a friend of one of my kids and he had spent his life in foster care. Once he turned 18 he was thrown out to the streets and the government would not do a damn thing for him.
I was still married when he got kicked to the curb. In fact, he moved to Vegas with a friend and I would check in on him when I went there. I would buy him some food and see how he was getting along. I even went to Vegas and bought him clothes so he could look for a job. His friend inherited some money and they both moved to Seattle; but, once the money was gone, they ended up on the streets. Freezing (literally) in Seattle (as opposed to sleepless) I managed to get a hold of him. What none involved may remember is that he did not call me, I called him and he told me of his situation. I arranged transportation for them all (my young friend and also picked up a female partner along the way, the wiccan). I got them back to the desert where they were from and where they would not freeze to death. I was still married and could not move them in with me; but, did make sure they had a hotel room at least weekly for a day or two as I could afford.
After most had moved out, I moved my young and his partner in to my house with the strict understanding that I was giving the house back to the bank. The divorce resulted in it being impossible for me to pay both alimony and my mortgage. I told them that they could stay until none of us could. I told them I did not know how long till the bank took the property back, it still a minimal of equity and I thought I might be able to sell it. It did not work out that way. I was unable to sell it and the bank, which I called bi-weekly refused to process the paperwork. The divorce happened after the housing crash. I ended up staying in the house for about 3 years. I couldn't leave because they refused to take it back, foreclose on it or seemingly do anything. I submitted all the required paperwork at least 4 times. Every time I submitted paperwork they would not admit receiving it. I had to call them, they never called me and I was not paying my mortgage. Even though I could not pay my mortgage and offered the house back, they allowed me to stay there for three years without paying a penny and they never called or sent letters demanding payment. They just refused to deal with me at all, I had to push the issue and every time I did they would lose my paperwork. I did not lose my house because of the crash, I had a 30 year 4% fixed loan, no fancy financing for me, ever. The court took my money and gave me the house and all the debt that went with it while also reducing my income by a couple grand a month.
That was my situation when I began taking in the homeless. You might focus on what this story makes you think about me; but, that is not what the film made me think about. You see, I ended up taking in another homeless person, another friend of one of my kids. A couch hopper who was about 28. This list of miscreants that I have taken is far from complete. Lots of kids have lived with my family and I over the years, some for a day, some for a week and some for months at a time. I have even taken in cousins. Things changed when I took in the next homeless person. It was a kid, a child, a ten year old.
The wiccan lady approached me one day. Now mind you she was only there because I knew her boyfriend and took him in. She had received a call from a prior partner with whom she had a child and who lived with her prior partner. They were living on someone's couch and the guy could no longer even provide his kid with a couch as the people he was living with were losing there house. After a 400 mile long drive we picked up her son. I believe he is autistic, he spoke little was very smart and was horrible with social rules. I took him too, I didn't want him to have to live on the street or end up in foster care as I knew the horrors that entails.
I am going to point out something. When I finally lost the house all the people who had lived with me had new places to go to. None ended up back on the streets and after I moved into my apartment I had two homeless people live with me at different and for a period overlapping time. In case you are wondering, all of this happened prior to my preaching. I never expected to be asked to preach and I never really preached about it.
I think it mildly irritated my friends (the few that knew) that I was not hyper focused on looking out for myself and was taking in people who had nothing economically to offer. I can say that feeding and housing all these people while loosing my house may have been an economic challenge; but, we made it.
Now lets back to the real point of this story. The story is not about me, I provide the background information so that if someone chooses to say "put your money where your mouth is", I can say I already did, now it's your turn. While we can have that discussion if someone would like to have their skull crushed, I would rather discuss what it was like for that young boy.
Here was this kid living with his dad and sleeping on someone else's couch along with his dad. Out of nowhere comes this old fool that he has never met to pick him up, move him 400 miles away from his dad (it was actually further as his dad was moving to wherever, he didn't know, he just lost his couch and was probably going to end up on the street himself). I picked him up with his mother in my car and drove him back to my house knowing that I was going to lose the house and not knowing where I would end up or if I would end up living with family or friends.
We got home and for the first time in longer than I know, the kid had his own room. He was problematic at first, he did not wish to follow any rules and that probably made sense to him as he did not know when we would all kicked out and moving from place to place was all he knew. We got him enrolled in school, he ate as well as any of us and was free from any abuse. Not the optimum situation for a young child; but, the best he ever knew. It did not happen quickly; but, he grew to love the stability of the situation as far as knowing he would eat and have a place to sleep and privacy in his room. New experiences for him.
In my home, the young boy enjoyed real birthdays and real Christmases. We may not have bought many presents for each other; but, we all made sure he had Christmas to enjoy. His mother, while far from adequate in many ways, truly cared for him and made sure he went to school and was properly clean even though she herself did not wash enough.
For three years this young boy had a stable middle class life. Sometimes you cannot fix another's world; but, you can provide a respite, an oasis away from the garbage of a uncaring world. After moving out, the psychic vampire and wiccan broke up and the wiccan took her son with her to marry some other person I never met. I do not know what has happened to him and he is probably about 18 now. I still hear from the psychic vampire, once or twice a year.
Here is what I believe, living with me was the best thing that ever happened to the young boy (at least up until then). When people would come by to look at the house while I was trying to sell it, he would get very quiet. He did not want to leave that environment. He told me so and it broke my heart that I could not keep the house even meant keeping the homeless with me. You see, they were not some group of vague "homeless people", they were real people with real lives and real pain and when we could find a way to, experienced real joy.
I read the news on a daily basis, it is the first thing I do when I wake up, even before I have my coffee. I read about Antifa and social justice warriors and think "who are you taking care of, who do you share your food with, who do you share you home with" and I find all they want to do is an Easter egg hunt for fictional Nazis or protest statues of long dead southerners. I read about how people are fixated on taking one knee during the national anthem and think, what are you really doing to help others, how much are you really willing to risk?
I am less concerned with self-righteous people think there is an enemy they need to fight and much more interested in who they are willing to help as opposed to who they are willing to punch. Your righteousness has much less to do with who you are willing to hurt and much more to do with who you are willing to help.
I may not have made that young boys life perfect, but, I improved it for those three years. I may not have made the lives of any of the homeless people perfect; but, I assure you they all remember and I always told them the same thing. You don't have to pay me back or ever say thank you; but, you are expected to show another the same kindness someday. I always told them I never even needed to know if they did it; but, they would know.
The man that asked me to preach at his church borrowed a few thousand dollars from me and never paid me back, nor even tried to. The homeless people I sheltered would give me their bed if I were homeless. There are many of my friends and family that offered me a place to stay for no cost when I lost my home and was severely in debt, a debt created by my ex that took me 5 years to pay off on my own and to which she did not contribute one penny. In fact, she asked me to pay off on time so that it did not hurt her credit. LOL
I listen to the shrill voice of corporate media whores, I mean talking heads, ummm, tv reporters and commentators discussing how much ice cream Donald Trump eats or how evil he is for liking his steaks well done or how we were tricked into voting for Trump and against Clinton because of some Russian Facebook ad that questioned her honesty. I have been accused of being a racist (against blacks and Asians), I have been accused of being misogynist while also being accused of being gay. Mind you, not on this blog; but, good luck with that, I only have about 2,000 posts over 10 years. When you tend to question people's beliefs their reaction is often to question your intent rather than address the issues presented. People that know me don't try that for more than a second because I have the receipts.
There is a story in the bible, the New Testament, it is about a poor woman who left a penny (I am not going to bother explaining ancient Hebrew money, it was the smallest amount that could be traded) for the temple and pious rich gentlemen who left large amounts. Jesus said that the woman had given the most because she gave all she had and the others gave only from their excess, from what they did not need. Not one person who ever worked for me called me a racist, misogynist or asked if I was gay. The people that worked for me never questioned my intent. The attacks that were leveled against me were by people who wished to destroy my reputation; but, they only ever destroyed their own. Enemies and people I never met in person stood up for me because they knew my work and some knew my deeds.
I am apparently still known for a post I made about Pastor Carol Daniels, the anniversary of her death was last month, I almost never remember or recognize the day that people died. I prefer not to blame deaths on the calendar. I only remember one date of death and I try not to think about it; but, it is stuck in my head and is the day before my birthday and the day after my anniversary with my ex. I wrote a post a while back about how disappointed I was in her church for their bigoted anti-gay stance. It is a black church. I am more than happy to challenge those who have hypocritical or bigoted beliefs even if they are black or women or gay or straight or white or anything. I will challenge evil beliefs rather than imperfect people. All people are imperfect, including me. It seems to me that the corporate media prefers to discuss race and sex and whatever rather than policy. That is the definition of propaganda.
Let me ask you a question. Are not white nationalists the worst type of people who are white? I mean, white people who believe they are better merely because they are white regardless of who they hurt, aren't they the worst of white people? Asians who believe anyone who is not Asian is not a person (your really have to look up what Chinese and Japanese people call white people, some call us barbarians and others ghost people). What about black people who believe that all white people are evil, are they the best of blacks or the worst? The assumption that you can judge someone based on their skin color is called racism, doesn't matter what skin color you pre-judge or what skin color you are.
Let me ask this question. How can you teach love if you hate people based on their sexuality or skin color or religion? Or sex? What lesson would the young man have learned if I had been a white nationalist and the only person who took him in and gave him a stable life for longer than he had ever had? By the way, I didn't meet his father till the day I picked him up, I knew absolutely nothing about him, not his color, his creed or his race. I only knew his mother. What perspective do you believe I have on blacks who would only take in blacks?
This may be getting closer to inside your head. I have no respect for bigots of any color. I have no respect for people who limit their love to their color, sexuality, race or religion Don't tell me who others are, prove to me you love all others. You can do the greatest thing possible, you can change lives, you can give others of your scarcity, you can help till it hurts. You can be the woman that gave all she had or the wealthy person who barely gave of their abundance. God does not judge us, he forgives us; but, we do choose who we are. We choose to be loving or selfish. Who do you choose to be and could you change a child's life for the better even if only for a couple of years, not a single present.
When my ex moved out, she left the kids. She didn't take anyone with her and two of my kids were over 18. One of the two got married and moved out and the other moved out on her own. I think it was just me and my youngest for about 6 months, maybe a little longer. In either case, I had a lot of space and people needing a place to stay (always for just a few weeks) seemed to appear out of nowhere and into my life. I think the first one was the homeless psychic vampire and his wiccan girlfriend. Take a moment and think about that. I have literally lost everything and have had two heart attacks and took in two homeless occultists. Now to be fair, I knew the psychic vampire. He had been a friend of one of my kids and he had spent his life in foster care. Once he turned 18 he was thrown out to the streets and the government would not do a damn thing for him.
I was still married when he got kicked to the curb. In fact, he moved to Vegas with a friend and I would check in on him when I went there. I would buy him some food and see how he was getting along. I even went to Vegas and bought him clothes so he could look for a job. His friend inherited some money and they both moved to Seattle; but, once the money was gone, they ended up on the streets. Freezing (literally) in Seattle (as opposed to sleepless) I managed to get a hold of him. What none involved may remember is that he did not call me, I called him and he told me of his situation. I arranged transportation for them all (my young friend and also picked up a female partner along the way, the wiccan). I got them back to the desert where they were from and where they would not freeze to death. I was still married and could not move them in with me; but, did make sure they had a hotel room at least weekly for a day or two as I could afford.
After most had moved out, I moved my young and his partner in to my house with the strict understanding that I was giving the house back to the bank. The divorce resulted in it being impossible for me to pay both alimony and my mortgage. I told them that they could stay until none of us could. I told them I did not know how long till the bank took the property back, it still a minimal of equity and I thought I might be able to sell it. It did not work out that way. I was unable to sell it and the bank, which I called bi-weekly refused to process the paperwork. The divorce happened after the housing crash. I ended up staying in the house for about 3 years. I couldn't leave because they refused to take it back, foreclose on it or seemingly do anything. I submitted all the required paperwork at least 4 times. Every time I submitted paperwork they would not admit receiving it. I had to call them, they never called me and I was not paying my mortgage. Even though I could not pay my mortgage and offered the house back, they allowed me to stay there for three years without paying a penny and they never called or sent letters demanding payment. They just refused to deal with me at all, I had to push the issue and every time I did they would lose my paperwork. I did not lose my house because of the crash, I had a 30 year 4% fixed loan, no fancy financing for me, ever. The court took my money and gave me the house and all the debt that went with it while also reducing my income by a couple grand a month.
That was my situation when I began taking in the homeless. You might focus on what this story makes you think about me; but, that is not what the film made me think about. You see, I ended up taking in another homeless person, another friend of one of my kids. A couch hopper who was about 28. This list of miscreants that I have taken is far from complete. Lots of kids have lived with my family and I over the years, some for a day, some for a week and some for months at a time. I have even taken in cousins. Things changed when I took in the next homeless person. It was a kid, a child, a ten year old.
The wiccan lady approached me one day. Now mind you she was only there because I knew her boyfriend and took him in. She had received a call from a prior partner with whom she had a child and who lived with her prior partner. They were living on someone's couch and the guy could no longer even provide his kid with a couch as the people he was living with were losing there house. After a 400 mile long drive we picked up her son. I believe he is autistic, he spoke little was very smart and was horrible with social rules. I took him too, I didn't want him to have to live on the street or end up in foster care as I knew the horrors that entails.
I am going to point out something. When I finally lost the house all the people who had lived with me had new places to go to. None ended up back on the streets and after I moved into my apartment I had two homeless people live with me at different and for a period overlapping time. In case you are wondering, all of this happened prior to my preaching. I never expected to be asked to preach and I never really preached about it.
I think it mildly irritated my friends (the few that knew) that I was not hyper focused on looking out for myself and was taking in people who had nothing economically to offer. I can say that feeding and housing all these people while loosing my house may have been an economic challenge; but, we made it.
Now lets back to the real point of this story. The story is not about me, I provide the background information so that if someone chooses to say "put your money where your mouth is", I can say I already did, now it's your turn. While we can have that discussion if someone would like to have their skull crushed, I would rather discuss what it was like for that young boy.
Here was this kid living with his dad and sleeping on someone else's couch along with his dad. Out of nowhere comes this old fool that he has never met to pick him up, move him 400 miles away from his dad (it was actually further as his dad was moving to wherever, he didn't know, he just lost his couch and was probably going to end up on the street himself). I picked him up with his mother in my car and drove him back to my house knowing that I was going to lose the house and not knowing where I would end up or if I would end up living with family or friends.
We got home and for the first time in longer than I know, the kid had his own room. He was problematic at first, he did not wish to follow any rules and that probably made sense to him as he did not know when we would all kicked out and moving from place to place was all he knew. We got him enrolled in school, he ate as well as any of us and was free from any abuse. Not the optimum situation for a young child; but, the best he ever knew. It did not happen quickly; but, he grew to love the stability of the situation as far as knowing he would eat and have a place to sleep and privacy in his room. New experiences for him.
In my home, the young boy enjoyed real birthdays and real Christmases. We may not have bought many presents for each other; but, we all made sure he had Christmas to enjoy. His mother, while far from adequate in many ways, truly cared for him and made sure he went to school and was properly clean even though she herself did not wash enough.
For three years this young boy had a stable middle class life. Sometimes you cannot fix another's world; but, you can provide a respite, an oasis away from the garbage of a uncaring world. After moving out, the psychic vampire and wiccan broke up and the wiccan took her son with her to marry some other person I never met. I do not know what has happened to him and he is probably about 18 now. I still hear from the psychic vampire, once or twice a year.
Here is what I believe, living with me was the best thing that ever happened to the young boy (at least up until then). When people would come by to look at the house while I was trying to sell it, he would get very quiet. He did not want to leave that environment. He told me so and it broke my heart that I could not keep the house even meant keeping the homeless with me. You see, they were not some group of vague "homeless people", they were real people with real lives and real pain and when we could find a way to, experienced real joy.
I read the news on a daily basis, it is the first thing I do when I wake up, even before I have my coffee. I read about Antifa and social justice warriors and think "who are you taking care of, who do you share your food with, who do you share you home with" and I find all they want to do is an Easter egg hunt for fictional Nazis or protest statues of long dead southerners. I read about how people are fixated on taking one knee during the national anthem and think, what are you really doing to help others, how much are you really willing to risk?
I am less concerned with self-righteous people think there is an enemy they need to fight and much more interested in who they are willing to help as opposed to who they are willing to punch. Your righteousness has much less to do with who you are willing to hurt and much more to do with who you are willing to help.
I may not have made that young boys life perfect, but, I improved it for those three years. I may not have made the lives of any of the homeless people perfect; but, I assure you they all remember and I always told them the same thing. You don't have to pay me back or ever say thank you; but, you are expected to show another the same kindness someday. I always told them I never even needed to know if they did it; but, they would know.
The man that asked me to preach at his church borrowed a few thousand dollars from me and never paid me back, nor even tried to. The homeless people I sheltered would give me their bed if I were homeless. There are many of my friends and family that offered me a place to stay for no cost when I lost my home and was severely in debt, a debt created by my ex that took me 5 years to pay off on my own and to which she did not contribute one penny. In fact, she asked me to pay off on time so that it did not hurt her credit. LOL
I listen to the shrill voice of corporate media whores, I mean talking heads, ummm, tv reporters and commentators discussing how much ice cream Donald Trump eats or how evil he is for liking his steaks well done or how we were tricked into voting for Trump and against Clinton because of some Russian Facebook ad that questioned her honesty. I have been accused of being a racist (against blacks and Asians), I have been accused of being misogynist while also being accused of being gay. Mind you, not on this blog; but, good luck with that, I only have about 2,000 posts over 10 years. When you tend to question people's beliefs their reaction is often to question your intent rather than address the issues presented. People that know me don't try that for more than a second because I have the receipts.
There is a story in the bible, the New Testament, it is about a poor woman who left a penny (I am not going to bother explaining ancient Hebrew money, it was the smallest amount that could be traded) for the temple and pious rich gentlemen who left large amounts. Jesus said that the woman had given the most because she gave all she had and the others gave only from their excess, from what they did not need. Not one person who ever worked for me called me a racist, misogynist or asked if I was gay. The people that worked for me never questioned my intent. The attacks that were leveled against me were by people who wished to destroy my reputation; but, they only ever destroyed their own. Enemies and people I never met in person stood up for me because they knew my work and some knew my deeds.
I am apparently still known for a post I made about Pastor Carol Daniels, the anniversary of her death was last month, I almost never remember or recognize the day that people died. I prefer not to blame deaths on the calendar. I only remember one date of death and I try not to think about it; but, it is stuck in my head and is the day before my birthday and the day after my anniversary with my ex. I wrote a post a while back about how disappointed I was in her church for their bigoted anti-gay stance. It is a black church. I am more than happy to challenge those who have hypocritical or bigoted beliefs even if they are black or women or gay or straight or white or anything. I will challenge evil beliefs rather than imperfect people. All people are imperfect, including me. It seems to me that the corporate media prefers to discuss race and sex and whatever rather than policy. That is the definition of propaganda.
Let me ask you a question. Are not white nationalists the worst type of people who are white? I mean, white people who believe they are better merely because they are white regardless of who they hurt, aren't they the worst of white people? Asians who believe anyone who is not Asian is not a person (your really have to look up what Chinese and Japanese people call white people, some call us barbarians and others ghost people). What about black people who believe that all white people are evil, are they the best of blacks or the worst? The assumption that you can judge someone based on their skin color is called racism, doesn't matter what skin color you pre-judge or what skin color you are.
Let me ask this question. How can you teach love if you hate people based on their sexuality or skin color or religion? Or sex? What lesson would the young man have learned if I had been a white nationalist and the only person who took him in and gave him a stable life for longer than he had ever had? By the way, I didn't meet his father till the day I picked him up, I knew absolutely nothing about him, not his color, his creed or his race. I only knew his mother. What perspective do you believe I have on blacks who would only take in blacks?
This may be getting closer to inside your head. I have no respect for bigots of any color. I have no respect for people who limit their love to their color, sexuality, race or religion Don't tell me who others are, prove to me you love all others. You can do the greatest thing possible, you can change lives, you can give others of your scarcity, you can help till it hurts. You can be the woman that gave all she had or the wealthy person who barely gave of their abundance. God does not judge us, he forgives us; but, we do choose who we are. We choose to be loving or selfish. Who do you choose to be and could you change a child's life for the better even if only for a couple of years, not a single present.
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
How the Establishment Views the Citizens
How do your elected officials view you? How do they view democracy? What about our business leaders, how do they view the average citizen and the idea of democracy? How do the wealthiest and most powerful amongst us view nations and sovereignty? Most importantly, what do they believe the future should look like?
Lets start with how our political leaders view the citizens. Politics in essence is the distribution of limited resources to unlimited want. As a consequence, politicians views their job as determining who gets what. The question then is what do they believe are requirements to be distributed to all and what do they believe are benefits to be distributed to some.
Lets go back to how they view you. Firstly, they view you as stupid and uninformed. You see, they have all the inside information and you don't. The thousand plus pages of the Patriot Act were presented as if they had just come up with them; but, in reality they had been worked on for years and presented to congress with congress only having a day or two to read them before approving them. What about the enhanced scanners at airports that were instituted after the shoe bomber failed. Well, they started rolling them out within a week and had hundreds more in warehouses. Go back and see how quickly they went out. While the establishment may have been waiting for an excuse to do these things, the public was completely unaware that these plans had been made years in advance. They didn't just start designing and testing and manufacturing the scanners until after the shoe bomber. They couldn't do that much work in a week if everyone worked on them.
Long before things happen people make plans, contingency plans. While the plans are not widely disseminated in advance, they are discussed by our "leaders" of politics and industry. Yep, they see you as ignorant and gullible because you don't have the inside information and they do. They also see you as too lazy and stupid to understand their plans. In fact, they fear if you knew their plans you might stop them from going through with them. Imagine how large an investment and how much time it took to build all those scanners just waiting for the right time to implement them. Another question you should consider is why didn't the people who actually manufactured them, the workers, say anything to the news. Well, they may have; but, it didn't get reported nationally. In fact, most people working at those plants never thought to ask why, they were just happy to have a job.
Because they view you as ignorant and because they fear you, they also believe the majority of people are evil. Hillary spoke for more than herself when she said that the only reason people voted for Bernie was to get women in bed with them and the rest just wanted free stuff. It wasn't Trump that said that, it was Hillary. We already know what she has said and continues to say about Trump voters and those two groups make up well over half of the nation.
They don't trust you to pick the best leaders. Partly because they don't think you know what is best for you and partly because they believe they are the only people that should run this nation and this world. They view you as sheep to be kept in place and from expecting too much.
Take 20 minutes and watch this video.
Lets start with how our political leaders view the citizens. Politics in essence is the distribution of limited resources to unlimited want. As a consequence, politicians views their job as determining who gets what. The question then is what do they believe are requirements to be distributed to all and what do they believe are benefits to be distributed to some.
Lets go back to how they view you. Firstly, they view you as stupid and uninformed. You see, they have all the inside information and you don't. The thousand plus pages of the Patriot Act were presented as if they had just come up with them; but, in reality they had been worked on for years and presented to congress with congress only having a day or two to read them before approving them. What about the enhanced scanners at airports that were instituted after the shoe bomber failed. Well, they started rolling them out within a week and had hundreds more in warehouses. Go back and see how quickly they went out. While the establishment may have been waiting for an excuse to do these things, the public was completely unaware that these plans had been made years in advance. They didn't just start designing and testing and manufacturing the scanners until after the shoe bomber. They couldn't do that much work in a week if everyone worked on them.
Long before things happen people make plans, contingency plans. While the plans are not widely disseminated in advance, they are discussed by our "leaders" of politics and industry. Yep, they see you as ignorant and gullible because you don't have the inside information and they do. They also see you as too lazy and stupid to understand their plans. In fact, they fear if you knew their plans you might stop them from going through with them. Imagine how large an investment and how much time it took to build all those scanners just waiting for the right time to implement them. Another question you should consider is why didn't the people who actually manufactured them, the workers, say anything to the news. Well, they may have; but, it didn't get reported nationally. In fact, most people working at those plants never thought to ask why, they were just happy to have a job.
Because they view you as ignorant and because they fear you, they also believe the majority of people are evil. Hillary spoke for more than herself when she said that the only reason people voted for Bernie was to get women in bed with them and the rest just wanted free stuff. It wasn't Trump that said that, it was Hillary. We already know what she has said and continues to say about Trump voters and those two groups make up well over half of the nation.
They don't trust you to pick the best leaders. Partly because they don't think you know what is best for you and partly because they believe they are the only people that should run this nation and this world. They view you as sheep to be kept in place and from expecting too much.
Take 20 minutes and watch this video.
Monday, September 25, 2017
Media Distraction of the Month Club
Each week or month the media pushes some new political distraction in order to keep you from thinking about the changes that are going on in the West. Currently, the distraction has to do with football players who choose not to stand for the national anthem. Lets start by looking at the issues involved. Firstly, why do we play the national anthem at football games? It is not a requirement and it is not a law, it is a choice made by the NFL itself. Whether or not one chooses to stand for it is a personal choice and our military died for your right to choose whether or not to stand. They fought so we would have the personal freedom to choose. Funny how people that are complaining that conservatives are being prevented from free speech in public spaces are also complaining that people are exercising their right to expression by not standing for the anthem. On the left they believe people have a right to not stand for the anthem; but, not the right to speak on college campuses. Hypocrisy is never a good look regardless of the side you are on.
My starting point is that this whole thing is a non-issue. To be clear, I support young people who believe that it is right to fight for this country and see themselves as defending this country. At the same time, I don't see us waging wars that actually protect this country, I see us fighting wars for oil, control and to fund the military industrial complex. I'm pretty sure that Libya and Syria were not going to invade the United States and none of this has anything to do with football or the national anthem. In fact, I don't think people know what they are protesting against in the first place.
Here is a simple question. Why did football team owners take the position that it was okay to protest the national anthem? Why not just refuse to play it as they are not required to in the first place? Why did a singer of the national anthem choose to take a knee during his song instead of just choosing not to sing it at all? The NFL chose to make this a political issue and President Trump chose to address it because they made it an issue. If the media had not pushed the issue, most of us wouldn't have even noticed. If I saw a guy kneeling during the national anthem, I would assume he was praying like when Tebow would kneel.
Because of my religious and political beliefs I will not pledge allegiance to a piece of fabric. For the same reasons I will not swear on a bible. I also choose not to make an issue of these things in public and to allow others the right to do as they see fit.
There is a reason why the complaints about statues of long dead southerners is no longer front page news. Just so you know, many of the parks that have statues of these dead southerners were given to cities, counties and states on the grounds that they be named after these old dead soldiers and if the statues are removed the land goes back to the family that gave the park to the community. As the false arguments about old rusty statues of dead southerners died off, the media turned it's attention to multi-millionaire football players taking a knee during the national anthem, just as meaningless. These things are distractions not real issues. Stagnant wages, healthcare and outsourcing of jobs effect our day to day lives in real terms, someone choosing to take a knee is not.
This little foolishness will pass soon enough and the corporate media will replace it with a new outrage. Each month we get a new outrage because it drives ratings and distracts the public.
My starting point is that this whole thing is a non-issue. To be clear, I support young people who believe that it is right to fight for this country and see themselves as defending this country. At the same time, I don't see us waging wars that actually protect this country, I see us fighting wars for oil, control and to fund the military industrial complex. I'm pretty sure that Libya and Syria were not going to invade the United States and none of this has anything to do with football or the national anthem. In fact, I don't think people know what they are protesting against in the first place.
Here is a simple question. Why did football team owners take the position that it was okay to protest the national anthem? Why not just refuse to play it as they are not required to in the first place? Why did a singer of the national anthem choose to take a knee during his song instead of just choosing not to sing it at all? The NFL chose to make this a political issue and President Trump chose to address it because they made it an issue. If the media had not pushed the issue, most of us wouldn't have even noticed. If I saw a guy kneeling during the national anthem, I would assume he was praying like when Tebow would kneel.
Because of my religious and political beliefs I will not pledge allegiance to a piece of fabric. For the same reasons I will not swear on a bible. I also choose not to make an issue of these things in public and to allow others the right to do as they see fit.
There is a reason why the complaints about statues of long dead southerners is no longer front page news. Just so you know, many of the parks that have statues of these dead southerners were given to cities, counties and states on the grounds that they be named after these old dead soldiers and if the statues are removed the land goes back to the family that gave the park to the community. As the false arguments about old rusty statues of dead southerners died off, the media turned it's attention to multi-millionaire football players taking a knee during the national anthem, just as meaningless. These things are distractions not real issues. Stagnant wages, healthcare and outsourcing of jobs effect our day to day lives in real terms, someone choosing to take a knee is not.
This little foolishness will pass soon enough and the corporate media will replace it with a new outrage. Each month we get a new outrage because it drives ratings and distracts the public.
Friday, September 22, 2017
Liberal Protests Today
Back in the early 60s the youth protests for equal rights for blacks. In the late 60s and 70s the youth protested the war in Vietnam. In the mid to late 70s women protested for rights and pay parity when doing the same job. In the 80s the youth protested nuclear energy and weapons. During the 90s and early 2000s they protested for gay marriage. Today the protest against metal statues of dead southerners, the right to be here illegally and non-existent Nazis. They don't even protest all the wars we are in because they don't have to be in them.
During the 60s and 70s the establishment determined that people had to be allowed to express themselves to let off steam; but, they also determined that they should choose the targets for the complaints. Liberals do not protest the fact that they don't get one person one vote in the Democratic party and that the "leaders" of the party decide who gets one third of the votes in primaries. As for Republicans, they almost hold protest meetings.
Lets be honest, people don't protest to put more rules on the bankers or to eliminate tax cuts for the rich. They will protest for a $15 an hour minimum wage and get soundly ignored by both parties. Both the average Republican and Democrat would like to see Glass Stiegel put back; but, they don't unite to ask for it. Heck both would like to see limits on the interest rates that people are charged but they don't protest for these things.
The youth are distracted by the petty and incapable of protesting what will effect them. What their biggest threat is not having a decent job. What is coming for them is a world in which their are fewer public services, no chance for retirement and a diminishing lifestyle. Real threats. They attack free speech and the only result they can hope for is that they will be free from being informed or intellectually challenged. The protest to make sure that they only hear what they want in their safe spaces rather than the freedom and opportunity to be challenged and grow. Professional baseball players do not grow by pitching to your little league team; but, the little leaguers may.
College educated youth are told that people in the Midwest have absolutely no understanding greater than their own. They are taught that the people in 90% of the country are ignorant buffoons believing in silly things like God and country and industry. They are taught that these people are backwards and bigots and xenophobes and misogynists; but, they don't even know what the words mean most of the time. They are more accepting of people who cut their penises off and call themselves women (rather than eunuchs which is technically what they are) than they are of people who work in factories that lose their jobs to outsourcing. They are being taught to have no sympathy or respect for people who do not live in the coastal cities enjoying the fruits of high tech jobs. They are being taught to be elitists and that they are better than the rest of us.
During the 60s and 70s the establishment determined that people had to be allowed to express themselves to let off steam; but, they also determined that they should choose the targets for the complaints. Liberals do not protest the fact that they don't get one person one vote in the Democratic party and that the "leaders" of the party decide who gets one third of the votes in primaries. As for Republicans, they almost hold protest meetings.
Lets be honest, people don't protest to put more rules on the bankers or to eliminate tax cuts for the rich. They will protest for a $15 an hour minimum wage and get soundly ignored by both parties. Both the average Republican and Democrat would like to see Glass Stiegel put back; but, they don't unite to ask for it. Heck both would like to see limits on the interest rates that people are charged but they don't protest for these things.
The youth are distracted by the petty and incapable of protesting what will effect them. What their biggest threat is not having a decent job. What is coming for them is a world in which their are fewer public services, no chance for retirement and a diminishing lifestyle. Real threats. They attack free speech and the only result they can hope for is that they will be free from being informed or intellectually challenged. The protest to make sure that they only hear what they want in their safe spaces rather than the freedom and opportunity to be challenged and grow. Professional baseball players do not grow by pitching to your little league team; but, the little leaguers may.
College educated youth are told that people in the Midwest have absolutely no understanding greater than their own. They are taught that the people in 90% of the country are ignorant buffoons believing in silly things like God and country and industry. They are taught that these people are backwards and bigots and xenophobes and misogynists; but, they don't even know what the words mean most of the time. They are more accepting of people who cut their penises off and call themselves women (rather than eunuchs which is technically what they are) than they are of people who work in factories that lose their jobs to outsourcing. They are being taught to have no sympathy or respect for people who do not live in the coastal cities enjoying the fruits of high tech jobs. They are being taught to be elitists and that they are better than the rest of us.
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Global Warming is a Lie and Bad Science.
The real science deniers are the one's who won't look at the actual facts. We have 800,000 years worth of climate data. We spent billions to get it from Antarctica. Yet, all the climate change models are based only on 120 or so years worth of data. Can you imagine us basing all of our beliefs about history if we only looked at the last 120 years when we have a few thousand years worth of written and drawn records? What understanding would we have of music if we ignored all music that was over 120 years ago? What if we ignored every book written before 1890? If you need to ignore 799,900 years worth of data to make your conclusions, it means you are lying.
The Telegraph - Climate change not as threatening to planet as previously thought, new research suggests.
Here is the essence of the article, climate change scientists are now saying things are not getting as bad as quickly as they predicted and we'll be okay if we nothing for 20 more years. This is the funniest things I have ever read and more than one newspaper reported on it. I saw a couple of articles in the last couple of days.
They made this statement to reassure people that Trump's refusal to have us adopt the Climate Agreement can wait till he is gone. The reason is simple, since the United States has not adopted the accord, the doomsayers will have to explain why their models are failing more and more. In fact the article points out that their models are already failing, they are now admitting that. Read the article.
Should anyone believe in this pseudo science they call climate change, poke me with the best question you can come up with right after you do your research and explain to me why we are ignoring 99.999% of all the date we have available. The issue has never been about climate change and has always been about how many people they think they need to control the world. The leaders have decided they don't need so many sheep. They said that and wrote about that over 40 years ago and I have posted links in the past to those writings.
The Telegraph - Climate change not as threatening to planet as previously thought, new research suggests.
Here is the essence of the article, climate change scientists are now saying things are not getting as bad as quickly as they predicted and we'll be okay if we nothing for 20 more years. This is the funniest things I have ever read and more than one newspaper reported on it. I saw a couple of articles in the last couple of days.
They made this statement to reassure people that Trump's refusal to have us adopt the Climate Agreement can wait till he is gone. The reason is simple, since the United States has not adopted the accord, the doomsayers will have to explain why their models are failing more and more. In fact the article points out that their models are already failing, they are now admitting that. Read the article.
Should anyone believe in this pseudo science they call climate change, poke me with the best question you can come up with right after you do your research and explain to me why we are ignoring 99.999% of all the date we have available. The issue has never been about climate change and has always been about how many people they think they need to control the world. The leaders have decided they don't need so many sheep. They said that and wrote about that over 40 years ago and I have posted links in the past to those writings.
Monday, September 18, 2017
Feel Like a Quickie? How Bout Two and Some Talk?
YouTube - China Banning Non-Electric Cars. Watch the video and hear the talking monkeys of The Young Turks speak. They are excited that China is going to ban gas burning vehicles and think this is great for the climate change issue. ROFL. China will make the electricity by burning coal. They leave that part out cause they are too stupid to look it up. By the way, as I have explained before there are 500 ships that transport China's goods to the United States and Europe and they create more pollution than all of the cars in the United States each year. The funny thing is that they mention in the beginning that China is the biggest polluter in the world; but, fail to ask where the pollution comes from. It comes from creating the energy that their manufacturing uses, not from the products themselves.
CNBC - The party's over: Republicans and Democrats are both finished. "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Gandhi said that. It is something I quoted when the media was going after Sanders and Trump, especially in regards to Trump.
When Trump entered the race, they ridiculed him with the Huffington Post classifying articles about him as Entertainment. They didn't go quite that far with Sanders; but, they did go far even saying that men that supported him just did it to pick up women. The establishment didn't take the Occupy Movement or the Tea Party seriously and managed to destroy them both. Trump and Sanders were the response to having those movements ignored by the establishment. For the past year the establishment has been trying to prevent these movements from growing now that they have seen success. For their part, the Democrats are trying to kick the progressives out of any place of decision making within their party. The Republicans on the other hand are continuing to distance themselves from Trump; but, are actually distancing themselves from the people who voted for him. The establishment is losing and they know it. Denial is no longer working for them. It is still all Hillary can manage to do; but, she will never be relevant again
CNBC - The party's over: Republicans and Democrats are both finished. "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Gandhi said that. It is something I quoted when the media was going after Sanders and Trump, especially in regards to Trump.
When Trump entered the race, they ridiculed him with the Huffington Post classifying articles about him as Entertainment. They didn't go quite that far with Sanders; but, they did go far even saying that men that supported him just did it to pick up women. The establishment didn't take the Occupy Movement or the Tea Party seriously and managed to destroy them both. Trump and Sanders were the response to having those movements ignored by the establishment. For the past year the establishment has been trying to prevent these movements from growing now that they have seen success. For their part, the Democrats are trying to kick the progressives out of any place of decision making within their party. The Republicans on the other hand are continuing to distance themselves from Trump; but, are actually distancing themselves from the people who voted for him. The establishment is losing and they know it. Denial is no longer working for them. It is still all Hillary can manage to do; but, she will never be relevant again
Friday, September 15, 2017
Jerry Lewis - The Day the Clown Died
Recently Jerry Lewis passed away. For decades I was involved in supporting the Muscular Dystrophy Association, MDA. Mr. Lewis had put on a annual fundraiser for the on Labor Day. He started doing it in 1966 and was let go in 2010. He did it for 44 years and raised over a billion dollars for the charity. In 1972 Lewis made a film called, "The Day the Clown Cried". I has never been shown in public, though at least one copy exists. Lewis said the film would never be seen because it was horrible and I believe it was; but, still want to see it because I think it could have been great. I read the script.
IMSDB- THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY.
The Greeks said there were only so many stories, they classified them as comedies and dramas and recognized the seven plots available to either. The essence of comedy is not the plot, it is the ending. Let me explain. Comedies have happy endings and dramas do not. This is true for action films too, it is true for all stories. If a story The feelings you have when you end a story is either happiness (comedy) or sadness (drama). The two masks that symbolize theater, the smiling mask and the frowning mask.
Comedy and drama both work best when there is something to cheer for. Most comedy goes for the silly underdog; but, the challenge he faces has to be real for the comedy to work. You have to care about him. You have to want to see him succeed, you have to wish him well and seek a happy ending.
The problem with "The Day the Clown Cried" is that they wanted to have humor in a movie with a horribly sad ending, a drama. You can mix humor into a drama; but, not too much and it has to be a very unique style of humor, gallows humor, not fun humor.
The film is about a clown in Germany who is sent to a concentration camp, jail, for Germans that ends up being side by side with a true concentration camp, one for Jews and Slavic people. The character that Lewis plays is a sad character, devoid of self. He is a broken man uselessly trying to fill out the papers that will get him released as he is a political prisoner, he insulted the idea of Hitler being the leader in front of the Gestapo.
Lets be clear about something, Jerry Lewis was a Jew and his parents were Russian Jews. Looking from the outside, attempting to make a comedy about the Nazi's gassing children seems like a really stupid and horrible idea; but, he wasn't making fun of them. It could have been his own family and he knew that.
I read the script for the first time tonight, it is linked above. The writing is terrible and the writer seems lost to me, he indicates which parts he thinks can possibly be played for laughs. I believe the writer was told to find places where the jokes could go in; but, it was never meant to be a comedy. There is a movie called "Life is Beautiful" that pulled off a very similar script; but, any humor was incidental to the story.
After making the film, Jerry Lewis stopped making films for years. He said he lost his artistic vision because of that film. Humor is tough, it is always a tight wire act and the performers usually die till they get really good at it.
Comedians frequently make great dramatic actors; but, in my opinion, Lewis never was. I think Don Rickles was a great dramatic actor (just watch Casino); but, Lewis played silly in comedy. Of silly comedians, I think Jim Carrey might just be able to pull this movie off.
I don't know that this movie deserves to be remade. I believe it could be powerful; but, too much time has passed and the dialogue is horribly immature. Francis Ford Coppola could have made this a good film; but, as much as I like him, Tarrentino could not make this film. If made, I don't think it would make tons of money, in fact, it is really depressing watching a clown lead children into a gas chamber. The biggest mistake the film made was focusing on the clown, on Lewis. It should have about the lack of compassion of the guards who were willing to send children off to be killed with a clown, just to make their jobs easier. If anyone bothers reading the script, let me know what you think.
IMSDB- THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY.
The Greeks said there were only so many stories, they classified them as comedies and dramas and recognized the seven plots available to either. The essence of comedy is not the plot, it is the ending. Let me explain. Comedies have happy endings and dramas do not. This is true for action films too, it is true for all stories. If a story The feelings you have when you end a story is either happiness (comedy) or sadness (drama). The two masks that symbolize theater, the smiling mask and the frowning mask.
Comedy and drama both work best when there is something to cheer for. Most comedy goes for the silly underdog; but, the challenge he faces has to be real for the comedy to work. You have to care about him. You have to want to see him succeed, you have to wish him well and seek a happy ending.
The problem with "The Day the Clown Cried" is that they wanted to have humor in a movie with a horribly sad ending, a drama. You can mix humor into a drama; but, not too much and it has to be a very unique style of humor, gallows humor, not fun humor.
The film is about a clown in Germany who is sent to a concentration camp, jail, for Germans that ends up being side by side with a true concentration camp, one for Jews and Slavic people. The character that Lewis plays is a sad character, devoid of self. He is a broken man uselessly trying to fill out the papers that will get him released as he is a political prisoner, he insulted the idea of Hitler being the leader in front of the Gestapo.
Lets be clear about something, Jerry Lewis was a Jew and his parents were Russian Jews. Looking from the outside, attempting to make a comedy about the Nazi's gassing children seems like a really stupid and horrible idea; but, he wasn't making fun of them. It could have been his own family and he knew that.
I read the script for the first time tonight, it is linked above. The writing is terrible and the writer seems lost to me, he indicates which parts he thinks can possibly be played for laughs. I believe the writer was told to find places where the jokes could go in; but, it was never meant to be a comedy. There is a movie called "Life is Beautiful" that pulled off a very similar script; but, any humor was incidental to the story.
After making the film, Jerry Lewis stopped making films for years. He said he lost his artistic vision because of that film. Humor is tough, it is always a tight wire act and the performers usually die till they get really good at it.
Comedians frequently make great dramatic actors; but, in my opinion, Lewis never was. I think Don Rickles was a great dramatic actor (just watch Casino); but, Lewis played silly in comedy. Of silly comedians, I think Jim Carrey might just be able to pull this movie off.
I don't know that this movie deserves to be remade. I believe it could be powerful; but, too much time has passed and the dialogue is horribly immature. Francis Ford Coppola could have made this a good film; but, as much as I like him, Tarrentino could not make this film. If made, I don't think it would make tons of money, in fact, it is really depressing watching a clown lead children into a gas chamber. The biggest mistake the film made was focusing on the clown, on Lewis. It should have about the lack of compassion of the guards who were willing to send children off to be killed with a clown, just to make their jobs easier. If anyone bothers reading the script, let me know what you think.
Different Excuses Same Solution
YouTube - Irish Pay Water Tax - Corporations Dodge Billions: Russell Brand The Trews.
YouTube - A Tax on Bottled Water: Jorge Vinueles at TedXZurich.
YouTube - Bill English continues to attack Labour Plan over water tax plan: RNZ Checkpoint.
When you hear the same solution being suggested in different countries but the excuse changes, it is because they believe that one society will like one excuse more than another; but, it is still just excuses. The reality is, they want to tax everything except income. They want to tax you for living, but not succeeding. Watch the water games in your town and you will see it coming too.
YouTube - A Tax on Bottled Water: Jorge Vinueles at TedXZurich.
YouTube - Bill English continues to attack Labour Plan over water tax plan: RNZ Checkpoint.
When you hear the same solution being suggested in different countries but the excuse changes, it is because they believe that one society will like one excuse more than another; but, it is still just excuses. The reality is, they want to tax everything except income. They want to tax you for living, but not succeeding. Watch the water games in your town and you will see it coming too.
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Hillary Clinton Does Not Believe in One Person One Vote But Hates the Electoral College?
MSN - CNN - Hillary Clinton: Time to abolish the Electoral College. You have to appreciate the hypocrisy. She is totally in favor of rigged primaries and super-delegates that represent only the donors a in crowd; but, is concerned about the electoral college. The electoral college is more representative of this nation than is the Democratic National Committee's rules for choosing nominees.
Without one state casting a single vote, she already had one third of the Democratic delegates for the primaries. I wrote about it at the time, still on this blog with links to the corporate mainstream media talking about it and why Bernie could not win. Just imagine if we had an electoral college that gave the votes of one third of the whole country to a specific party in advance of anyone voting. That is how the Democratic primaries work. The Republicans are not much better; but, they actually more democratic. I wrote about that too when the primaries began.
Both parties want to fix primaries so that you only have two choices and both parties choose corporatists who only look out for the wealthy. They only argue over homosexuality, what it means to be citizen, abortion and religion. They agree on not regulating banks or business and cutting back on how much we help the poor.
Without one state casting a single vote, she already had one third of the Democratic delegates for the primaries. I wrote about it at the time, still on this blog with links to the corporate mainstream media talking about it and why Bernie could not win. Just imagine if we had an electoral college that gave the votes of one third of the whole country to a specific party in advance of anyone voting. That is how the Democratic primaries work. The Republicans are not much better; but, they actually more democratic. I wrote about that too when the primaries began.
Both parties want to fix primaries so that you only have two choices and both parties choose corporatists who only look out for the wealthy. They only argue over homosexuality, what it means to be citizen, abortion and religion. They agree on not regulating banks or business and cutting back on how much we help the poor.
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Middle American and the Hypocricy and Bigotry of Hillary and the Corporate Media
Imagine growing up in the Midwest or South today, imagine being the kid of an unemployed auto worker or steel worker or manufacturing worker who voted for Trump because they wanted their jobs back and hearing day in and day out in the media that your father is a bigot, fascist and racist because you voted for Trump and he was the only one saying he would try and get your dad's job back. I want you to think about that.
The corporate media and the establishment are creating a hatred for themselves by constantly attacking those who complain that we are killing jobs in the Midwest. They are losing any trust with these Midwest kids whose parents voted for Obama and then Trump. They see the lie, they see the hypocrisy and that is why they are listening to alternative voices. What do you think these Midwestern kids will grow up to think about the establishment?
I will speak personal experience and I am a very educated coastal socialist. When I went to university in Boston, I found more bigotry by coastal elites against minorities than I ever did from southerners. I also found that Midwesterners were more bigoted than the easterners or southerners and found the west to be the least bigoted against minorities.
Lets look at women and men's perspectives on each other. What do coastal young men want from women? Just sex. I mean that's it, they don't want kids or families. The only value coastal young men see in women and the well to do too, is sex. The more they have, the less young men care about women other than for sex and they seek no commitment. The coastal women assume that because it is just for sex, their relationships have no other meaning and that it should be enough for a relationship. The modern feminists see no value in being a woman, only value in seeing being the same as men.
The coastal educated establishment sees no benefits in being either sex, no give, no take, no reason for commitment, just sex. The value of human relationship and commitment, unity, they see as limited to sex for a minute or two. The only value young coastal elites see in the opposite sex is the orgasm that they can achieve by being with them. They see no innate value in the opposite sex other than sex.
What could possibly be sadder than growing up in a home where your parents argue over who has to raise you and neither wants to be a parent? Why have kids when the only reason a man and woman should be together is for sex and not procreation?
Consider this, kings and queens inherit their wealth, status and power because of who their parents had sex with, not because their parents raised them to be better or deserving of trust by the rest of us. The exact same is true of our oligarchy. The whole idea of inherited wealth is due to the belief that who you have sex with should determine who owns the world. Why should who have you sex with determine who will own the earth or control a company or control an industry? I could ask this question of the Rockefellers or Fords; but, they would say that they tried to be deserving of it and trained for it. That is how oligarchies used to justify their position; but, now they don't bother justifying it other than saying they are better than the people who got screwed in the Midwest.
The benefits of having a stable society should go to those who benefit that society the most. What a concept. It is however a very old one and one that good kings used to understand. My professors begged me to become a professor and wanted me to be the world's expert on Polynesia. There are other ways to live and organize people. There are ways to organize society to benefit members based on how much they benefit the society. Not communism, under that everyone gets the same. Communism is stupid and based on the idea that all labor has the same value. It doesn't.
I doubt many will understand what I am about to write and it may seem totally disconnected from what I have just written; but, it is not. If you read the Unabomber Manifesto, you will find that he was really focused on one point. He was focused on what happens when we live in a world where your labor is no longer needed and his fear was that we would cease to have innate value because we were incapable of making a difference in any real way. He missed the point of our lives. He believed our lives only had value proportional to our ability to "achieve" more than others. Did you know that our tech leaders have written volumes on his writings? They have, you should research it.
If one were to actually bother learning from history, one would learn that technical achievement is meaningless and that human joy does not come from it. Human meaning comes from human interaction of a positive manner.
I met a missionary, I wrote about her once or twice on this blog. She moved to Papua New Guinea about 45 years ago and went to a place where the people had no written language and whose primary food source was a tree sap they made drier. The hardest thing she found teaching them was forgiveness and she was responsible for putting an end to a war that had gone on longer than they had recorded as they had no written language and only knew that they hated this other group. Still, there lives were meaningful and they continued to grow and get better and eventually made peace and enjoyed that peace with the other tribe. By the way, they are not Polynesians, they are black. Not all islanders are Polynesian, not even in the pacific. Australians are not Polynesians either. They are Melanesians.
The tech giants and Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, see life about them and not about society. Life is not about what you can do to improve your situation unless you are starving to death, it is about what you can do to make things better for everyone and we are not even trying and seem to have stopped caring.
I do not expect children, sheep or the average person to understand the ways of the world. The establishment however expects them to follow right into the slaughter cages and then congratulate themselves that they won the game. This is why we teach children musical chairs is a good game when it is the opposite.
In the past a husband was expected to take care of the needs of the family, while the wife was expected to take care of the emotions and remind the husband of why what he did had value, that it had value to the family. That is the lesson of the middle class and now we are told that the only value of relationships is sex. Are we advancing as a society or in anyway when all we believe in is self?
The corporate media and the establishment are creating a hatred for themselves by constantly attacking those who complain that we are killing jobs in the Midwest. They are losing any trust with these Midwest kids whose parents voted for Obama and then Trump. They see the lie, they see the hypocrisy and that is why they are listening to alternative voices. What do you think these Midwestern kids will grow up to think about the establishment?
I will speak personal experience and I am a very educated coastal socialist. When I went to university in Boston, I found more bigotry by coastal elites against minorities than I ever did from southerners. I also found that Midwesterners were more bigoted than the easterners or southerners and found the west to be the least bigoted against minorities.
Lets look at women and men's perspectives on each other. What do coastal young men want from women? Just sex. I mean that's it, they don't want kids or families. The only value coastal young men see in women and the well to do too, is sex. The more they have, the less young men care about women other than for sex and they seek no commitment. The coastal women assume that because it is just for sex, their relationships have no other meaning and that it should be enough for a relationship. The modern feminists see no value in being a woman, only value in seeing being the same as men.
The coastal educated establishment sees no benefits in being either sex, no give, no take, no reason for commitment, just sex. The value of human relationship and commitment, unity, they see as limited to sex for a minute or two. The only value young coastal elites see in the opposite sex is the orgasm that they can achieve by being with them. They see no innate value in the opposite sex other than sex.
What could possibly be sadder than growing up in a home where your parents argue over who has to raise you and neither wants to be a parent? Why have kids when the only reason a man and woman should be together is for sex and not procreation?
Consider this, kings and queens inherit their wealth, status and power because of who their parents had sex with, not because their parents raised them to be better or deserving of trust by the rest of us. The exact same is true of our oligarchy. The whole idea of inherited wealth is due to the belief that who you have sex with should determine who owns the world. Why should who have you sex with determine who will own the earth or control a company or control an industry? I could ask this question of the Rockefellers or Fords; but, they would say that they tried to be deserving of it and trained for it. That is how oligarchies used to justify their position; but, now they don't bother justifying it other than saying they are better than the people who got screwed in the Midwest.
The benefits of having a stable society should go to those who benefit that society the most. What a concept. It is however a very old one and one that good kings used to understand. My professors begged me to become a professor and wanted me to be the world's expert on Polynesia. There are other ways to live and organize people. There are ways to organize society to benefit members based on how much they benefit the society. Not communism, under that everyone gets the same. Communism is stupid and based on the idea that all labor has the same value. It doesn't.
I doubt many will understand what I am about to write and it may seem totally disconnected from what I have just written; but, it is not. If you read the Unabomber Manifesto, you will find that he was really focused on one point. He was focused on what happens when we live in a world where your labor is no longer needed and his fear was that we would cease to have innate value because we were incapable of making a difference in any real way. He missed the point of our lives. He believed our lives only had value proportional to our ability to "achieve" more than others. Did you know that our tech leaders have written volumes on his writings? They have, you should research it.
If one were to actually bother learning from history, one would learn that technical achievement is meaningless and that human joy does not come from it. Human meaning comes from human interaction of a positive manner.
I met a missionary, I wrote about her once or twice on this blog. She moved to Papua New Guinea about 45 years ago and went to a place where the people had no written language and whose primary food source was a tree sap they made drier. The hardest thing she found teaching them was forgiveness and she was responsible for putting an end to a war that had gone on longer than they had recorded as they had no written language and only knew that they hated this other group. Still, there lives were meaningful and they continued to grow and get better and eventually made peace and enjoyed that peace with the other tribe. By the way, they are not Polynesians, they are black. Not all islanders are Polynesian, not even in the pacific. Australians are not Polynesians either. They are Melanesians.
The tech giants and Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, see life about them and not about society. Life is not about what you can do to improve your situation unless you are starving to death, it is about what you can do to make things better for everyone and we are not even trying and seem to have stopped caring.
I do not expect children, sheep or the average person to understand the ways of the world. The establishment however expects them to follow right into the slaughter cages and then congratulate themselves that they won the game. This is why we teach children musical chairs is a good game when it is the opposite.
In the past a husband was expected to take care of the needs of the family, while the wife was expected to take care of the emotions and remind the husband of why what he did had value, that it had value to the family. That is the lesson of the middle class and now we are told that the only value of relationships is sex. Are we advancing as a society or in anyway when all we believe in is self?
12 Links For You to Read, With Commentary.
Forbes - One Solution to California's Drought: Tax Water. The intent is to tax everything other than income in a time when most will not have any jobs.
The Mercury News - Opinion: Tax water to provide clean water to Californians whose supply is contaminated. They want to tax the water and the air; but, they apparently cannot agree on the excuse, and that is all it is.
Fox - Taxing organic products could solve California water problem, experts say. Now they argue about taxing organic produce to solve a water problem? NOOO, to increase the price of organic so the majority of people can only afford non-organic.
Yahoo - Newsweek - Robert Reich: On Labor, Tragically, Trump Was Right. The article points out that the wealthy are spending more and more to control elections and buy politicians which is why we are gutting public services like education and what workers are paid. We all know this, in fact, only one in ten even trust our businesses, banks or political leaders. This by the way is why there is an increase in propaganda to think about everything other than following the money.
MSN - Country Living - Parents Can't Figure Out Why This Student's Math Problem Was Marked Wrong. They are intentionally destroying education for all but the well off who attend private school. Want proof? Read the article or answer this question, what is 5 X 3? I would say the answer is 15, nope according to how our children are being taught it is 3 X 3 X 3 X 3 X 3. In fact if your answer it is 5 X 5 X 5, you are wrong. Why are we teaching kids that math is harder than it needs to be? Oh, yeah, so they won't learn or like learning.
Fox - Mark Hamill donates to campaign to remove Donald Trump from Twitter. I like this, people are actually willing to donate money to someone else to buy a majority position in Twitter, rather than getting the stock themselves, to prevent our President from being able to speak directly to us. Hmmm. Why not just start a new site that works like Twitter and say that what makes your site different is that you don't allow the President on it or other people you don't like? The people who control this nation really still have not figured out how to control the internet; but, they are trying.
MSN - Business Insider - Trump reversed regulations to protect infrastructure against flooding just days before Hurricane Harvey. I really enjoyed this one, they implied that Trump was responsible for the hurricane damage because he cancelled an executive order that Obama passed that has never been in effect and wasn't planned to be in effect by Obama.
Independent - Scientists think they have discovered the maximum age a human can live to. Something I have written about before. People are not living to be older, the top age has not changed. The difference is people are not dying as young as they used to, like we have impacted childhood deaths and early deaths; but, not the extent of life.
Fox - Trump, GOP should keep DACA but scrap birthright citizenship. Why are people on the left and right both against making these people citizens? DACA didn't make anyone a citizen, yet the media acts as if these people were safer under the rule which wasn't a law and the right wants to say being born in America doesn't make you a citizen. It is all about creating two levels or more of citizenship and watch if accomplished only a few will get the right to vote.
Fox - House moves quickly to pass self-driving technology law. Congress is moving right now to approve laws preventing states from making their own laws. Funny, I thought the Republicans were in favor of states rights. Hmmm. Oh, in addition, this is being done so that 150,000 self driving cars can be put on the roads by NEXT year.
Yahoo - The Independent - Donald Trump doesn't realise Ivanka 'isn't that impressive to people', says political analyst. Well, expect to see more and more articles attacking Ivanka. I guess she was the next member of his family to get all negative attention. Isn't it great that with only 6 corporations owning 90% of all the media it doesn't matter who you read or watch in the corporate mainstream media because they all speak with one voice.
Washington Examiner - FEC Dems renew bid to regulate Internet, Drudge, 'not done fighting'. Yep, the corporate Democrats want to regulate political speech on the internet because some Russians put ads on Facebook to the tune of $100,000. I wonder how many political ads the Democrats put on Facebook or the Republicans? It was a lot more. The elitists really do not understand the internet; but, they know they hate it. They hate it, free speech and democracy. They like control and monopolies.
The Mercury News - Opinion: Tax water to provide clean water to Californians whose supply is contaminated. They want to tax the water and the air; but, they apparently cannot agree on the excuse, and that is all it is.
Fox - Taxing organic products could solve California water problem, experts say. Now they argue about taxing organic produce to solve a water problem? NOOO, to increase the price of organic so the majority of people can only afford non-organic.
Yahoo - Newsweek - Robert Reich: On Labor, Tragically, Trump Was Right. The article points out that the wealthy are spending more and more to control elections and buy politicians which is why we are gutting public services like education and what workers are paid. We all know this, in fact, only one in ten even trust our businesses, banks or political leaders. This by the way is why there is an increase in propaganda to think about everything other than following the money.
MSN - Country Living - Parents Can't Figure Out Why This Student's Math Problem Was Marked Wrong. They are intentionally destroying education for all but the well off who attend private school. Want proof? Read the article or answer this question, what is 5 X 3? I would say the answer is 15, nope according to how our children are being taught it is 3 X 3 X 3 X 3 X 3. In fact if your answer it is 5 X 5 X 5, you are wrong. Why are we teaching kids that math is harder than it needs to be? Oh, yeah, so they won't learn or like learning.
Fox - Mark Hamill donates to campaign to remove Donald Trump from Twitter. I like this, people are actually willing to donate money to someone else to buy a majority position in Twitter, rather than getting the stock themselves, to prevent our President from being able to speak directly to us. Hmmm. Why not just start a new site that works like Twitter and say that what makes your site different is that you don't allow the President on it or other people you don't like? The people who control this nation really still have not figured out how to control the internet; but, they are trying.
MSN - Business Insider - Trump reversed regulations to protect infrastructure against flooding just days before Hurricane Harvey. I really enjoyed this one, they implied that Trump was responsible for the hurricane damage because he cancelled an executive order that Obama passed that has never been in effect and wasn't planned to be in effect by Obama.
Independent - Scientists think they have discovered the maximum age a human can live to. Something I have written about before. People are not living to be older, the top age has not changed. The difference is people are not dying as young as they used to, like we have impacted childhood deaths and early deaths; but, not the extent of life.
Fox - Trump, GOP should keep DACA but scrap birthright citizenship. Why are people on the left and right both against making these people citizens? DACA didn't make anyone a citizen, yet the media acts as if these people were safer under the rule which wasn't a law and the right wants to say being born in America doesn't make you a citizen. It is all about creating two levels or more of citizenship and watch if accomplished only a few will get the right to vote.
Fox - House moves quickly to pass self-driving technology law. Congress is moving right now to approve laws preventing states from making their own laws. Funny, I thought the Republicans were in favor of states rights. Hmmm. Oh, in addition, this is being done so that 150,000 self driving cars can be put on the roads by NEXT year.
Yahoo - The Independent - Donald Trump doesn't realise Ivanka 'isn't that impressive to people', says political analyst. Well, expect to see more and more articles attacking Ivanka. I guess she was the next member of his family to get all negative attention. Isn't it great that with only 6 corporations owning 90% of all the media it doesn't matter who you read or watch in the corporate mainstream media because they all speak with one voice.
Washington Examiner - FEC Dems renew bid to regulate Internet, Drudge, 'not done fighting'. Yep, the corporate Democrats want to regulate political speech on the internet because some Russians put ads on Facebook to the tune of $100,000. I wonder how many political ads the Democrats put on Facebook or the Republicans? It was a lot more. The elitists really do not understand the internet; but, they know they hate it. They hate it, free speech and democracy. They like control and monopolies.
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Let's Talk About DACA and Immigration
Congress establishes the rules for immigration, that is their job. Congress has not changed the immigration laws which prohibit people coming to the United States to live without approval by the federal government. Immigration is not a state's rights issue, it is a federal issue. If Congress wanted they could eliminate all immigration laws and allow for open borders.
Imagine for a moment what would happen if we eliminated all immigration laws. If you want an example of what it would look like, look at Europe. Few openly call for open borders. Hillary Clinton was exposed by WikiLeaks for calling for it in private while she denied it in public. The reason is pretty simple, the vast majority of Americans do not want open borders.
Instead of passing laws to outline what is and is not acceptable in order to move to this country, Congress left it up to Obama to institute the policy of not enforcing immigration laws. President Obama instead instituted a policy known as "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" or DACA. The biggest problem was that it didn't change the immigration "laws" one bit. Congress did not pass DACA which means it was never a law to begin with, merely a policy of not enforcing the law for the moment, that is what deferred means.
Now lets look at some other facts. It is estimated that there are millions of people in the United States illegally. Some call them undocumented but that is just word play. They are undocumented because they haven't sought or obtained legal citizenship. Children who are not citizens of this country; but, came to this country when they were under 16. In fact, you may recall the influx of minors who came to this country after Obama instituted the DACA program.
YouTube - Why So Many Migrant Kids are Coming to the U.S. alone.
The fact is Mexico allowed these people to come here from central America; but, did not allow them to immigrate to Mexico. This is a fact that the corporate mainstream media chose not to address.
The DACA program has actually exacerbated the problem by adding even more confusion over what the countries immigration policy is and that is the single biggest problem with it. DACA was never the law of the land. Because of that, President Trump is not and never has been bound by it. DACA gave an out to congress so that they did not have to actually address the issues or change the immigration laws.
With all the discussion in the media about Trump ending DACA, there is practically no discussion about what our immigration policy should be and that is a problem. We should be openly discussing it and if changes need to be made, congress should make them. That is how laws work. While the media would have you think the questions are difficult, they are not.
Lets start with the basics. Should we have immigration laws? Most people would say yes. Should those laws allow people from other countries to move here and become citizens? There are those who say we should allow people to move here; but, not become citizens. The corporations would love to have them come here to reduce wages; but, would say these immigrants should not get any benefits. In fact, our tech and business leaders have not offered to pay more in taxes to provide benefits for immigrants. They are unwilling to put their money where their mouths are. That is hypocrisy.
When Trump announced his run for President, he stated he wanted to stop illegal immigration. He announced he would enforce the immigration laws passed by congress and remove people who are breaking those laws. People seem to believe in immigration enforcement and that is one of the reasons Trump was elected whether you like it or not. It should be noted that our laws allow for making asylum seekers citizens. I know, I worked with people at the church who were seeking asylum because otherwise they would be killed for being gay in their home countries.
The options available to us are vast. We can totally open our borders and give full citizenship upon people reaching this land, we can open our borders and let people come here but restrict which rights they have, we can change our immigration laws permanently allowing anyone under 16 that gets here to automatically become citizens or allow anyone under 16 that comes here to stay; but, receive no benefits or limited rights. Yu can have any combination of these things.
It should be noted that Mexicans account for an estimated 6.5 million illegal immigrants to the United States, yet, Mexico does not contribute to their well being here. Mexico sends no money to care for their people who are here illegally. Again hypocrites unwilling to put their money where their mouths are.
The media seems to think that enforcing immigration laws is wrong; but, is not willing to openly call for ending all immigration laws. Perhaps they would be willing to pay additional taxes to support those here illegally. Nope.
Living in California, these questions are not new to me.
YouTube - Harvest of Shame is the video above. It is from 1960. I recommend that you go to 49 minutes into the video and you will see that these issues are far from new, yet we continue to defer making a decision on immigration policies.
A question to be considered is one of illegal immigration and crime; but, the answer may surprise you. We do know that a large number of illegal immigrants become drug dealers. You may think this is an outrageous thing to say; but, you might want to look at the type of crime they commit. It is estimated that 80% of the 50,000 or so members of the notorious 18th Street gang are illegal immigrants. Rather than being innately bad people, selling drugs is a way to earn an income when you cannot obtain benefits or legal employment. Telling minors that they can come here; but, not receive benefits guarantees this. The question is not just one of what should our immigration policy be; but, what do we do with poor people who come here. That is not being addressed at all and DACA did not clarify it. I blame that on Obama.
The economist Milton Friedman discusses illegal immigration from an economic perspective. His conclusion was that immigration only made sense if it is illegal.
You will find that agricultural states love illegal immigration; but, they are unwilling to provide benefits to these people. It's been that way in California for as long as I have been alive. Nothing has changed and those promoting illegal immigration don't address it now.
Another question has to do with people who say that we are overpopulated and need to reduce our carbon footprint; but, then say we should allow unfettered and uncontrolled immigration. Hmmm. Lets think about this, our birthrate is negative and sperm counts in the west are down over 50%; but, we want to allow millions of people into the country that have much higher birth rates. I guess we are not really that concerned with global warming or overpopulation.
If we consider the environmental treaties that are being promoted by globalists then let me ask this. If we increase our population by 10% will we be able to increase our carbon footprint by 10% too? No, the Paris Climate Accord had us as the only country committing to decreasing our climate footprint, not China or India who are now the biggest industrial producers and don't regulate their pollution with the same technologies that we require in the west for our own industries.
Let me explain this to everyone in the simplest terms I can think of. The establishment wants the United States to agree to never use more resources in the future than we do now. That is why they talk about carbon limits. At the same time they want us to take in millions of immigrants which would otherwise increase our carbon footprint; but, they have a solution. They want Americans that already are citizens to give up what they grew up with. The tech gurus such as Zuckerberg know that there will not be any jobs for the immigrants or the current Americans so they are willing to share the table scraps with the useless eaters, the middle class and working class. They now refer to them as the precariat. You should look that up and look up the last Bilderberg meeting where it was discussed. I already wrote about it. They anticipate a world where most people have no job and live in 150 to 250 square foot rooms with virtual amusements to simulate a meaningful life. What was it the Democratic National Committee email from Bill Ivey said to John Podesta? Oh yeah he said, "And as I've mentioned, we've all been quite content to demean government, drop civics and in general conspire to produce an unaware and compliant citizenry." Read the actual e-mail at this link, WikiLeaks.
Imagine for a moment what would happen if we eliminated all immigration laws. If you want an example of what it would look like, look at Europe. Few openly call for open borders. Hillary Clinton was exposed by WikiLeaks for calling for it in private while she denied it in public. The reason is pretty simple, the vast majority of Americans do not want open borders.
Instead of passing laws to outline what is and is not acceptable in order to move to this country, Congress left it up to Obama to institute the policy of not enforcing immigration laws. President Obama instead instituted a policy known as "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" or DACA. The biggest problem was that it didn't change the immigration "laws" one bit. Congress did not pass DACA which means it was never a law to begin with, merely a policy of not enforcing the law for the moment, that is what deferred means.
Now lets look at some other facts. It is estimated that there are millions of people in the United States illegally. Some call them undocumented but that is just word play. They are undocumented because they haven't sought or obtained legal citizenship. Children who are not citizens of this country; but, came to this country when they were under 16. In fact, you may recall the influx of minors who came to this country after Obama instituted the DACA program.
YouTube - Why So Many Migrant Kids are Coming to the U.S. alone.
The fact is Mexico allowed these people to come here from central America; but, did not allow them to immigrate to Mexico. This is a fact that the corporate mainstream media chose not to address.
The DACA program has actually exacerbated the problem by adding even more confusion over what the countries immigration policy is and that is the single biggest problem with it. DACA was never the law of the land. Because of that, President Trump is not and never has been bound by it. DACA gave an out to congress so that they did not have to actually address the issues or change the immigration laws.
With all the discussion in the media about Trump ending DACA, there is practically no discussion about what our immigration policy should be and that is a problem. We should be openly discussing it and if changes need to be made, congress should make them. That is how laws work. While the media would have you think the questions are difficult, they are not.
Lets start with the basics. Should we have immigration laws? Most people would say yes. Should those laws allow people from other countries to move here and become citizens? There are those who say we should allow people to move here; but, not become citizens. The corporations would love to have them come here to reduce wages; but, would say these immigrants should not get any benefits. In fact, our tech and business leaders have not offered to pay more in taxes to provide benefits for immigrants. They are unwilling to put their money where their mouths are. That is hypocrisy.
When Trump announced his run for President, he stated he wanted to stop illegal immigration. He announced he would enforce the immigration laws passed by congress and remove people who are breaking those laws. People seem to believe in immigration enforcement and that is one of the reasons Trump was elected whether you like it or not. It should be noted that our laws allow for making asylum seekers citizens. I know, I worked with people at the church who were seeking asylum because otherwise they would be killed for being gay in their home countries.
The options available to us are vast. We can totally open our borders and give full citizenship upon people reaching this land, we can open our borders and let people come here but restrict which rights they have, we can change our immigration laws permanently allowing anyone under 16 that gets here to automatically become citizens or allow anyone under 16 that comes here to stay; but, receive no benefits or limited rights. Yu can have any combination of these things.
It should be noted that Mexicans account for an estimated 6.5 million illegal immigrants to the United States, yet, Mexico does not contribute to their well being here. Mexico sends no money to care for their people who are here illegally. Again hypocrites unwilling to put their money where their mouths are.
The media seems to think that enforcing immigration laws is wrong; but, is not willing to openly call for ending all immigration laws. Perhaps they would be willing to pay additional taxes to support those here illegally. Nope.
Living in California, these questions are not new to me.
YouTube - Harvest of Shame is the video above. It is from 1960. I recommend that you go to 49 minutes into the video and you will see that these issues are far from new, yet we continue to defer making a decision on immigration policies.
A question to be considered is one of illegal immigration and crime; but, the answer may surprise you. We do know that a large number of illegal immigrants become drug dealers. You may think this is an outrageous thing to say; but, you might want to look at the type of crime they commit. It is estimated that 80% of the 50,000 or so members of the notorious 18th Street gang are illegal immigrants. Rather than being innately bad people, selling drugs is a way to earn an income when you cannot obtain benefits or legal employment. Telling minors that they can come here; but, not receive benefits guarantees this. The question is not just one of what should our immigration policy be; but, what do we do with poor people who come here. That is not being addressed at all and DACA did not clarify it. I blame that on Obama.
The economist Milton Friedman discusses illegal immigration from an economic perspective. His conclusion was that immigration only made sense if it is illegal.
You will find that agricultural states love illegal immigration; but, they are unwilling to provide benefits to these people. It's been that way in California for as long as I have been alive. Nothing has changed and those promoting illegal immigration don't address it now.
Another question has to do with people who say that we are overpopulated and need to reduce our carbon footprint; but, then say we should allow unfettered and uncontrolled immigration. Hmmm. Lets think about this, our birthrate is negative and sperm counts in the west are down over 50%; but, we want to allow millions of people into the country that have much higher birth rates. I guess we are not really that concerned with global warming or overpopulation.
If we consider the environmental treaties that are being promoted by globalists then let me ask this. If we increase our population by 10% will we be able to increase our carbon footprint by 10% too? No, the Paris Climate Accord had us as the only country committing to decreasing our climate footprint, not China or India who are now the biggest industrial producers and don't regulate their pollution with the same technologies that we require in the west for our own industries.
Let me explain this to everyone in the simplest terms I can think of. The establishment wants the United States to agree to never use more resources in the future than we do now. That is why they talk about carbon limits. At the same time they want us to take in millions of immigrants which would otherwise increase our carbon footprint; but, they have a solution. They want Americans that already are citizens to give up what they grew up with. The tech gurus such as Zuckerberg know that there will not be any jobs for the immigrants or the current Americans so they are willing to share the table scraps with the useless eaters, the middle class and working class. They now refer to them as the precariat. You should look that up and look up the last Bilderberg meeting where it was discussed. I already wrote about it. They anticipate a world where most people have no job and live in 150 to 250 square foot rooms with virtual amusements to simulate a meaningful life. What was it the Democratic National Committee email from Bill Ivey said to John Podesta? Oh yeah he said, "And as I've mentioned, we've all been quite content to demean government, drop civics and in general conspire to produce an unaware and compliant citizenry." Read the actual e-mail at this link, WikiLeaks.
An Open Letter to Stefan Molyneux
I was watching a video by a man named Stefan Molyneux. He openly states that he is an Atheist, nothing wrong with that; but, his reason for being one is a little weak and not that uncommon. As my long time readers know, I am a Christian and even preached for five years receiving not one penny, not even for gas for my car. In fact, preaching cost me thousands of dollars which went to the church and a food pantry. In fact this blog began as a discussion of reality which eventually became a proof of God. That version of this blog was deleted years ago as was the second iteration of this blog.
The current version of this blog does not focus on philosophy or religion, it mainly focuses on technology and social, economic and political corruption. This third iteration of this blog is more about the lies we are told than the truths that are out there.
Mr. Molyneux is an intelligent and articulate person seeking the perfect moral code while arguing there is no God. I usually do not address such people because I am not evangelical. I believe that if God wants your attention he can get it without my intervention. I believe it is my job to have an answer for the hope that is within me when asked. As for my blog, it is just where I express my beliefs and all are free to leave a comment telling me I am an idiot or don't even bother reading it. My blog is not my mission and I still have that many readers. Currently I have approximately 120,000 views is 7 years or so. Hard to say how many when I deleted the first two versions. I do not advertise, monetize or promote this blog anywhere. Never have.
The video I watched of Mr. Molyneux made it clear to me that he would like to know if there is a God. In the video he discussed why he became an Atheist. It wasn't because he did not see the world around him. He did another video where he said the greatest proof for God was our sentience, what our thoughts do and are capable of. He became an Atheist because he could not understand how a God could let us be so evil to each other and how people who claimed to believe in him could ignore the morals of the bible. His discussion was very sincere and deeply personal and emotional for him. Perhaps I am wrong; but, I think he wants to believe. He also wants to believe we will get better here on earth, we will not. People have not improved over time, the same follies, the same corruption and the same selfishness exist side by side with the love and selflessness. We each make our own choices and none are bound by the decisions of the past by others.
Life is very much about seeing how the range of people, emotions, deals with a range of environments. Life is about defining ourselves, not having God define us completely. That is the thing about free will, it is a gift that allows us to choose who we will be and we only really know ourselves when tested to the fullest extent and we only really know others when they are too. Each person's test is individual. The people that have it easiest in life tend to be the most smug, selfish and heartless; but, not all. It is harder for people to find true empathy for the pain of others when they have been raised believing all others are here to make their lives better. That is the mistake Mr. Molyneux makes. My brother used to say that if he was born on earth to make everyone happy, he sure did a bad job of it. It was a joke he used to explain that it was not his job to please the world and it is a pretty good one.
Where does the concept that God is your personal concierge come from? Where is the reasonableness in saying I won't believe in God unless he turns the world into a gigantic fricking Disneyland where all are happy all the time come from? Not the bible, not history. If we only focus on the evil men do then we miss the good that they do. Jesus said to focus on the good.
This is a video about one of the greatest chefs in the world, Thomas Keller. He is the owner of "The French Laundry" a world renowned restaurant in California. It is my ambition to go there one day, one of the few things I would like to do before I die. Mr. Keller lives to bring joy to others through his cooking. The four going to taste his food are famous food people who other chefs look to; but, Mr. Keller blows their minds and they say his food is perfection. His response it perfect, you cannot attain perfection because as soon as you do it is gone. He is not a philosopher by trade and may not have said it perfectly; but, he is right. Perfection is not one thing, one result or even one concept. Perfection is a process, a progression which results in ongoing change. Perfection is not a rock, it is a process. It is seeking a simple question, what is the best that I can be and what is the best we can be, one question because in the end we are all connected and we all effect the world around us. Learning that simple answer takes a lifetime. I had to die to learn it.
The second heart attack was different than the first. The first was scary and I was alone. My wife at the time had filed for divorce and was having an affair with another man, not her first. It was Christmas and our tradition involved seeing an aunt of mine. I wasn't feeling well. I told the kids and their boyfriends and my wife at the time to visit my aunt as usual but that I could not make it as I was not feeling well. While nobody knew it but me, my aunt did not want to see my wife at the time as she knew about her adultery and our impending divorce, so did my kids but they were adults almost or mostly. After they left, I felt the pains and dizzy and confused and everything I was taught I should expect when having a heart attack (which doctors had said I would have for years). I lay in bed by myself while everyone else is celebrating Christmas and had my first heart attack. I didn't bother calling anyone, not ever 911. As it occurred I could only feel fear. I was absolutely terrified, embarrassed and didn't want to call anyone. Maybe I just couldn't feel any worse than I already did.
The second heart attack happened in Baker, California. I think it was about a year later. I was headed to Las Vegas from Los Angeles and it began, or at least I knew it was coming for some reason, about three miles out in the middle of nowhere. I knew I had to get off the freeway or I could kill someone. I drove into Baker and parked in the Starbucks parking lot. It was worse than the first one, it hurt more physically and I went away for a moment. I was between here and there. I was just as scared as the first time; but, something else happened. I had to decide how I wanted to leave this world and I decided that I wanted to leave it with no excess baggage. I was happy with my choices and results except one, the divorce. I resented her deeply and what she had done to our family. I forgave her and the man she was cheating on me with, in front of our kids. I believe that was the moment I was saved, at least I immediately got better and my blood pressure went back to normal. Well, normal for me at the time, it was still dangerously high. I didn't see a doctor for a few years later and he told me that he could tell from my tests that I had a heart attack. He also didn't think I would last a year; but, I have lasted a few.
A couple of years after the second heart attack, or at least one I think, I had a different kind of experience. God communicated with me. I wasn't on any medication at the time. After the second heart attack I saw my first doctor and he put me on a whole bunch of pills for my high blood pressure. I stopped taking them before I had my God experience. I won't call it a "religious" experience. It was just me communicating with a higher being, another sentience that was vastly more expansive than me. I call that being God; but, God never told me his name. Well sort of. I asked him his name and he said he didn't have one, I pressed the question (the only time I remember pressing any question, hmmm) and he said I could call him Jaime. I laughed because the only Jaime I could think of was on an old comedy show called "Get Smart". Months later I got the joke, Jaime sounds like "I am me". He told someone else that was his name and I knew that. I laughed like nobody's business when I figured it out months later.
My regulars know my writing is usually a mess until you get to the end and see the conclusion I draw. Mr. Molyneux was talking to a person who believed in God because he had an experience. I don't believe in God because of the experience I had, I was believer before. One of the things that occurred to me while I was my experience was that we can only reach so high, to meet God he has to want to reach down to us and that means that we see something really scary to us. When yo meet God you see just how imperfect you are and it hits you hard. I don't believe anyone who says they spoke to God and didn't immediately feel shame for their imperfection. That shame is then overwhelmed by how much he loves us.
People tell me they would like to hear from God, NO they wouldn't. I didn't away from experience that I can at least prove to myself, thinking that I was holy. LOL. I didn't walk away thinking how great I was. I walked away wanting to do better and he didn't tell me what that was or what to do. That is the God I met, the one that told me it was okay to choose who I wanted to be. Mr. Molyneux wants a vengeful and controlling God. That is my answer to those who say they cannot believe in a God that allows evil in the world.
People don't want proof of God's existence, their existence is proof, sentience is proof, the universe is proof. God said it in the old testament, he doesn't need to talk to you to prove he exists, his proof is everything around you, all you observe and all you feel. God is the greatest sentience in the universe and he made us sentient and free to chose who we become and continue to become. He is the process that lets us grow, that lets us say I am me.
I believe spiritual experiences are individual and not proof that God exists except for the person who has it. I don't believe most people that claim to have them and I didn't believe the guy that Mr. Molyneux spoke to. I believe Mr. Molyneux wanted to believe the person in the video, I believe Mr. Molyneux would like proof of God. He already has it. Sentience is the proof of God, not what you see or experience, the fact that you see and experience. To prove there is not God, one must prove that they are the only sentience in the universe or prove they do not exist. Good luck with that.
I amazed when people try and control God or define him. I cannot and I met him. He joked with me and it took a couple of time to even believe that he told jokes. He deals with us as we able to be dealt with and only when we are able to deal with him. I think that means when we no longer hate. That's a tough one.
I will say this, if you wish proof of God to the extent where you need to communicate with him, you have to forgive every harm ever done you first and everyone that has cause harmed. That sounds difficult; but, it is only after that that you can forgive yourself for everyone you harmed. You have to accept that you are not perfect to accept that neither is anyone else, it is a paradox. You have to forgive all sin to help you to forgive your sin so that you can communicate with God. Why seek a world where forgiveness is unnecessary if forgiveness is the only way to accept all sentient beings as being of importance? Why believe that the only that can exist is Santa Clause bringing only joy to good little boys and girls. Why not accept that we chose to be good or not and that carrots and sticks used to make our decisions for us is preferable to choosing for ourselves?
I am amused by Christian and Atheists that believe that being chosen by God for anything means good times. LOL. I think the Jews are the chosen people, how is that working out for them? They were chosen for the concentration camps, they were chosen to be hated by the world. Even black Africans don't accept the Jews. I went to college with the educated blacks from Africa and a couple of them wanted to nuke Israel and had never met a Jew in their life. The Jews have been welcomed and thrived in three places, New York, Los Angeles and Israel. To be chosen by God is to be tested not given unlimited cookies. Jews give more to charity than other groups as a percentage of income.
Why do bad things happen to good people. There is none good but God. Show me that you are good or tell me a story like the Masons do how about you can become perfect, the unobtainable/ Show me how you are perfect and have never caused harm to another before you tell me how the world is bad because we are not all perfect or don't stop all imperfection.
We all wake up to a slap on the butt. We breath our first breath and try and figure out what it all means. We grow and begin to question. We are immediately beset upon by people trying to manipulate us to their advantage. Those benefitting the most from how things are spend the most effort trying to convince the rest of us that the world is fair, it is not. We can se that but try to find an explanation for it, to justify the world or figure out what needs to change. Nothing needs to change and it is unfair while we are growing. Growth is about defining ourselves faced with an unfair world. One does not grow when one is not tested and challenged to make real choices.
You can go 60 minutes into his video to hear what I am responding to.
The current version of this blog does not focus on philosophy or religion, it mainly focuses on technology and social, economic and political corruption. This third iteration of this blog is more about the lies we are told than the truths that are out there.
Mr. Molyneux is an intelligent and articulate person seeking the perfect moral code while arguing there is no God. I usually do not address such people because I am not evangelical. I believe that if God wants your attention he can get it without my intervention. I believe it is my job to have an answer for the hope that is within me when asked. As for my blog, it is just where I express my beliefs and all are free to leave a comment telling me I am an idiot or don't even bother reading it. My blog is not my mission and I still have that many readers. Currently I have approximately 120,000 views is 7 years or so. Hard to say how many when I deleted the first two versions. I do not advertise, monetize or promote this blog anywhere. Never have.
The video I watched of Mr. Molyneux made it clear to me that he would like to know if there is a God. In the video he discussed why he became an Atheist. It wasn't because he did not see the world around him. He did another video where he said the greatest proof for God was our sentience, what our thoughts do and are capable of. He became an Atheist because he could not understand how a God could let us be so evil to each other and how people who claimed to believe in him could ignore the morals of the bible. His discussion was very sincere and deeply personal and emotional for him. Perhaps I am wrong; but, I think he wants to believe. He also wants to believe we will get better here on earth, we will not. People have not improved over time, the same follies, the same corruption and the same selfishness exist side by side with the love and selflessness. We each make our own choices and none are bound by the decisions of the past by others.
Life is very much about seeing how the range of people, emotions, deals with a range of environments. Life is about defining ourselves, not having God define us completely. That is the thing about free will, it is a gift that allows us to choose who we will be and we only really know ourselves when tested to the fullest extent and we only really know others when they are too. Each person's test is individual. The people that have it easiest in life tend to be the most smug, selfish and heartless; but, not all. It is harder for people to find true empathy for the pain of others when they have been raised believing all others are here to make their lives better. That is the mistake Mr. Molyneux makes. My brother used to say that if he was born on earth to make everyone happy, he sure did a bad job of it. It was a joke he used to explain that it was not his job to please the world and it is a pretty good one.
Where does the concept that God is your personal concierge come from? Where is the reasonableness in saying I won't believe in God unless he turns the world into a gigantic fricking Disneyland where all are happy all the time come from? Not the bible, not history. If we only focus on the evil men do then we miss the good that they do. Jesus said to focus on the good.
This is a video about one of the greatest chefs in the world, Thomas Keller. He is the owner of "The French Laundry" a world renowned restaurant in California. It is my ambition to go there one day, one of the few things I would like to do before I die. Mr. Keller lives to bring joy to others through his cooking. The four going to taste his food are famous food people who other chefs look to; but, Mr. Keller blows their minds and they say his food is perfection. His response it perfect, you cannot attain perfection because as soon as you do it is gone. He is not a philosopher by trade and may not have said it perfectly; but, he is right. Perfection is not one thing, one result or even one concept. Perfection is a process, a progression which results in ongoing change. Perfection is not a rock, it is a process. It is seeking a simple question, what is the best that I can be and what is the best we can be, one question because in the end we are all connected and we all effect the world around us. Learning that simple answer takes a lifetime. I had to die to learn it.
The second heart attack was different than the first. The first was scary and I was alone. My wife at the time had filed for divorce and was having an affair with another man, not her first. It was Christmas and our tradition involved seeing an aunt of mine. I wasn't feeling well. I told the kids and their boyfriends and my wife at the time to visit my aunt as usual but that I could not make it as I was not feeling well. While nobody knew it but me, my aunt did not want to see my wife at the time as she knew about her adultery and our impending divorce, so did my kids but they were adults almost or mostly. After they left, I felt the pains and dizzy and confused and everything I was taught I should expect when having a heart attack (which doctors had said I would have for years). I lay in bed by myself while everyone else is celebrating Christmas and had my first heart attack. I didn't bother calling anyone, not ever 911. As it occurred I could only feel fear. I was absolutely terrified, embarrassed and didn't want to call anyone. Maybe I just couldn't feel any worse than I already did.
The second heart attack happened in Baker, California. I think it was about a year later. I was headed to Las Vegas from Los Angeles and it began, or at least I knew it was coming for some reason, about three miles out in the middle of nowhere. I knew I had to get off the freeway or I could kill someone. I drove into Baker and parked in the Starbucks parking lot. It was worse than the first one, it hurt more physically and I went away for a moment. I was between here and there. I was just as scared as the first time; but, something else happened. I had to decide how I wanted to leave this world and I decided that I wanted to leave it with no excess baggage. I was happy with my choices and results except one, the divorce. I resented her deeply and what she had done to our family. I forgave her and the man she was cheating on me with, in front of our kids. I believe that was the moment I was saved, at least I immediately got better and my blood pressure went back to normal. Well, normal for me at the time, it was still dangerously high. I didn't see a doctor for a few years later and he told me that he could tell from my tests that I had a heart attack. He also didn't think I would last a year; but, I have lasted a few.
A couple of years after the second heart attack, or at least one I think, I had a different kind of experience. God communicated with me. I wasn't on any medication at the time. After the second heart attack I saw my first doctor and he put me on a whole bunch of pills for my high blood pressure. I stopped taking them before I had my God experience. I won't call it a "religious" experience. It was just me communicating with a higher being, another sentience that was vastly more expansive than me. I call that being God; but, God never told me his name. Well sort of. I asked him his name and he said he didn't have one, I pressed the question (the only time I remember pressing any question, hmmm) and he said I could call him Jaime. I laughed because the only Jaime I could think of was on an old comedy show called "Get Smart". Months later I got the joke, Jaime sounds like "I am me". He told someone else that was his name and I knew that. I laughed like nobody's business when I figured it out months later.
My regulars know my writing is usually a mess until you get to the end and see the conclusion I draw. Mr. Molyneux was talking to a person who believed in God because he had an experience. I don't believe in God because of the experience I had, I was believer before. One of the things that occurred to me while I was my experience was that we can only reach so high, to meet God he has to want to reach down to us and that means that we see something really scary to us. When yo meet God you see just how imperfect you are and it hits you hard. I don't believe anyone who says they spoke to God and didn't immediately feel shame for their imperfection. That shame is then overwhelmed by how much he loves us.
People tell me they would like to hear from God, NO they wouldn't. I didn't away from experience that I can at least prove to myself, thinking that I was holy. LOL. I didn't walk away thinking how great I was. I walked away wanting to do better and he didn't tell me what that was or what to do. That is the God I met, the one that told me it was okay to choose who I wanted to be. Mr. Molyneux wants a vengeful and controlling God. That is my answer to those who say they cannot believe in a God that allows evil in the world.
People don't want proof of God's existence, their existence is proof, sentience is proof, the universe is proof. God said it in the old testament, he doesn't need to talk to you to prove he exists, his proof is everything around you, all you observe and all you feel. God is the greatest sentience in the universe and he made us sentient and free to chose who we become and continue to become. He is the process that lets us grow, that lets us say I am me.
I believe spiritual experiences are individual and not proof that God exists except for the person who has it. I don't believe most people that claim to have them and I didn't believe the guy that Mr. Molyneux spoke to. I believe Mr. Molyneux wanted to believe the person in the video, I believe Mr. Molyneux would like proof of God. He already has it. Sentience is the proof of God, not what you see or experience, the fact that you see and experience. To prove there is not God, one must prove that they are the only sentience in the universe or prove they do not exist. Good luck with that.
I amazed when people try and control God or define him. I cannot and I met him. He joked with me and it took a couple of time to even believe that he told jokes. He deals with us as we able to be dealt with and only when we are able to deal with him. I think that means when we no longer hate. That's a tough one.
I will say this, if you wish proof of God to the extent where you need to communicate with him, you have to forgive every harm ever done you first and everyone that has cause harmed. That sounds difficult; but, it is only after that that you can forgive yourself for everyone you harmed. You have to accept that you are not perfect to accept that neither is anyone else, it is a paradox. You have to forgive all sin to help you to forgive your sin so that you can communicate with God. Why seek a world where forgiveness is unnecessary if forgiveness is the only way to accept all sentient beings as being of importance? Why believe that the only that can exist is Santa Clause bringing only joy to good little boys and girls. Why not accept that we chose to be good or not and that carrots and sticks used to make our decisions for us is preferable to choosing for ourselves?
I am amused by Christian and Atheists that believe that being chosen by God for anything means good times. LOL. I think the Jews are the chosen people, how is that working out for them? They were chosen for the concentration camps, they were chosen to be hated by the world. Even black Africans don't accept the Jews. I went to college with the educated blacks from Africa and a couple of them wanted to nuke Israel and had never met a Jew in their life. The Jews have been welcomed and thrived in three places, New York, Los Angeles and Israel. To be chosen by God is to be tested not given unlimited cookies. Jews give more to charity than other groups as a percentage of income.
Why do bad things happen to good people. There is none good but God. Show me that you are good or tell me a story like the Masons do how about you can become perfect, the unobtainable/ Show me how you are perfect and have never caused harm to another before you tell me how the world is bad because we are not all perfect or don't stop all imperfection.
We all wake up to a slap on the butt. We breath our first breath and try and figure out what it all means. We grow and begin to question. We are immediately beset upon by people trying to manipulate us to their advantage. Those benefitting the most from how things are spend the most effort trying to convince the rest of us that the world is fair, it is not. We can se that but try to find an explanation for it, to justify the world or figure out what needs to change. Nothing needs to change and it is unfair while we are growing. Growth is about defining ourselves faced with an unfair world. One does not grow when one is not tested and challenged to make real choices.
You can go 60 minutes into his video to hear what I am responding to.
Monday, September 4, 2017
Trump is Not a Bad Person Even if I Disagree With His Economic Policies in Part
My longtime readers know that I supported the Occupy Movement and Bernie Sanders. Nothing has changed. Antifa was not part of the occupy movement, they are scum. People in the corporate media and academia talk about white privilege, yet fail to notice where it really is. People that join the Klan don't come from white privilege, they come from poor and rural. 500 or so white nationalists marched in Charlottesville, a bunch of poor dumb hicks. They tend to be the poorest and dumbest amongst us. They know they are hated, they know they can't win and can't get ahead. I knew some people who wanted to be Klansmen when I was younger. I confronted their beliefs in a direct and non-confrontational manner. I figured every challenge I changed over was worth the effort. Hate is evil. It is our job to love our neighbor as we loves ourselves. Not left, not right, Christian. Real Christianity, the words Jesus used.
For my longtime readers, you know I always referred to President Obama as President Obama. I thought he was a mediocre President as best. I detest President Clinton and the Bushes, yet, I always referred to them as President. There are people who claim Trump is not their President; but, he is and deny reality is insanity by definition. President Trump has all the authority of the office whether you like him or not. It is insanity to claim Trump is not your president because you believe he is a bigot, Jefferson was our President and owned slaves as did Washington. Beyond that, Trump is not a bigot.
Lets start with some simple stuff. Trump treated women better in his organization than anyone else in the same industries. He is not a misogynist. He promoted minorities and gave them more authority than others in his industries, he is not a bigot. He married eastern Europeans, he is not a xenophobe. He was one of the first to congratulate Elton John when he married his longtime lover, he is not a homophobe. His daughter converted to Judaism and married a Jew, he is not an anti-Semite and Israel actually likes him a lot. Those are facts, not opinions. He is also apparently a very nice person and the people that have worked for him haven't had bad things to say about him, not the women, not the gays, not the blacks, not the Hispanics.
President Trump visited the Houston area where the flooding occurred and the media chose to belittle his wife Melania for wearing high heels while walking to the plane taking them to Texas.
Yahoo - Melania Trump mocked for her 'storm stilettos' as she heads to Texas for Hurricane Harvey relief. I said a day would not go buy where the corporate mainstream media did not find something to say negatively about Trump.
While the corporate mainstream media blames everything on Trump, the fact is people know better. Even true progressives can see how manipulative and deceitful the media is being. They don't think people can see it because they don't respect the average person and to a degree they are correct. The average person does not have the time, training or intelligence to look beyond all the lies. I want my readers to focus on the lies so that they can see beyond them.
I think the establishment misses what President Lincoln said, "You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time; but, you cannot fool all of the people all of the time". That should be real close to what he said if not exact. The problem with the corporate media is that they are attempting just that and failing. Every week the media grabs on to some nonsense attack on President Trump and has to drop it the following week because they are made up stories. People see that, even the ones that hate Trump.
We have been told that fewer blacks voted for Trump than Hillary. How would we know that as fact? You do not say you are black or white when you vote and your vote is anonymous. Not even the people getting your ballot know how you voted. I had that job once. We do not know the race or the sex of who voted for Trump, it is based on polling. What the polling does say is that more blacks admitted to voting for Trump than for McCain. It is possible that not a lot of blacks were willing to say publicly that they voted against the first black president; but, felt freer to say they voted against Hillary.
Texas is very much a Republican state and I watched the video of Trump helping out by handing out food at one of the shelters. There was whole bunch of blacks in those shelters who seemed gleeful to take their picture with him. They understood that they were meeting the President of the United States of America, their President, and they know that means. They still this country cares about it citizens; but, are coming to realize that neither party cares about this country. They can see that it only benefits the in crowd. They get that. It is why they voted for Trump and would have voted for Bernie.
Consider this. Trump supporters saw him saying that he was with the working and middle class while Hillary's motto for her followers was to say that they were with her, that she was what mattered. For Hillary to have a motto that said, "I'm with her" is the most narcissistic statement ever. While campaigning, Hillary actually failed to make appearances in some of the most important mid-west states. She lost those states and they didn't have large numbers of Russians in them either. They were states losing jobs overseas and she had nothing to offer them except more of the same and they knew it. These are the same states that had voted for Obama twice and she called them racists and the media agreed. Detroit has an 82% black population and Trump won Michigan.
Here is what the establishment no longer understands, we are all upset with what is going on. Not Trump, with our establishment abandoning this nation in favor of their own personal interest. President Trump's support within the military and with veterans is higher than I have seen for any other president, except perhaps Reagan. The people that die so that we can have freedom of speech support President Trump. I would bet that he has more support from Black veterans than Obama did. If he didn't believe me the media would be talking about it.
I support the working class and middle class. I support border control and requiring people to apply for citizenship. I support killing international trade agreements that deny us our constitutional rights or turn over the judicial power to corporate entities, like the TPP did until Trump killed it. Trump has NOT moved against gay marriage, abortion or sought to increase the regulation of people in any way.
I'm a frickin socialist and have proudly stated such for decades. My readers are pretty much evenly split between the left and right, my friends are mostly conservatives. I was a preacher in a church of gay Hispanics, many of who were seeking asylum from their own countries where they would be killed for being gay. I have known two gay nuns, one who left Mexico and another that is still there and hiding her homosexuality.
IF President Trump does something truly racist or anti-gay or anti-black, I will be the first to call him out and I will shred him for it. Nobody gets a pass from me, not even me. What upsets me is that the constant negative and deceitful messaging from the corporate mainstream media will drown out when Trump actually does evil, if he does.
Does anyone really believe that the same corporate media that failed to inform the public about the outsourcing while it was happening now cares about them? This is the same corporate media that said the economy was great right up until the crash and then said it would be a "soft landing", I wrote about that at the time. It is simple, the corporate is media owned by six companies IS the establishment and they are looking out for themselves. That is what is being exposed. As George Carlin said, there is a big club and you and I are not members. Trump is not a member and neither is Bernie. It is Members Only and Trump is not a member. That is the problem they have with him. He is more concerned about the middle and working class then he is about the establishment and they know that.
For my longtime readers, you know I always referred to President Obama as President Obama. I thought he was a mediocre President as best. I detest President Clinton and the Bushes, yet, I always referred to them as President. There are people who claim Trump is not their President; but, he is and deny reality is insanity by definition. President Trump has all the authority of the office whether you like him or not. It is insanity to claim Trump is not your president because you believe he is a bigot, Jefferson was our President and owned slaves as did Washington. Beyond that, Trump is not a bigot.
Lets start with some simple stuff. Trump treated women better in his organization than anyone else in the same industries. He is not a misogynist. He promoted minorities and gave them more authority than others in his industries, he is not a bigot. He married eastern Europeans, he is not a xenophobe. He was one of the first to congratulate Elton John when he married his longtime lover, he is not a homophobe. His daughter converted to Judaism and married a Jew, he is not an anti-Semite and Israel actually likes him a lot. Those are facts, not opinions. He is also apparently a very nice person and the people that have worked for him haven't had bad things to say about him, not the women, not the gays, not the blacks, not the Hispanics.
President Trump visited the Houston area where the flooding occurred and the media chose to belittle his wife Melania for wearing high heels while walking to the plane taking them to Texas.
Yahoo - Melania Trump mocked for her 'storm stilettos' as she heads to Texas for Hurricane Harvey relief. I said a day would not go buy where the corporate mainstream media did not find something to say negatively about Trump.
While the corporate mainstream media blames everything on Trump, the fact is people know better. Even true progressives can see how manipulative and deceitful the media is being. They don't think people can see it because they don't respect the average person and to a degree they are correct. The average person does not have the time, training or intelligence to look beyond all the lies. I want my readers to focus on the lies so that they can see beyond them.
I think the establishment misses what President Lincoln said, "You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time; but, you cannot fool all of the people all of the time". That should be real close to what he said if not exact. The problem with the corporate media is that they are attempting just that and failing. Every week the media grabs on to some nonsense attack on President Trump and has to drop it the following week because they are made up stories. People see that, even the ones that hate Trump.
We have been told that fewer blacks voted for Trump than Hillary. How would we know that as fact? You do not say you are black or white when you vote and your vote is anonymous. Not even the people getting your ballot know how you voted. I had that job once. We do not know the race or the sex of who voted for Trump, it is based on polling. What the polling does say is that more blacks admitted to voting for Trump than for McCain. It is possible that not a lot of blacks were willing to say publicly that they voted against the first black president; but, felt freer to say they voted against Hillary.
Texas is very much a Republican state and I watched the video of Trump helping out by handing out food at one of the shelters. There was whole bunch of blacks in those shelters who seemed gleeful to take their picture with him. They understood that they were meeting the President of the United States of America, their President, and they know that means. They still this country cares about it citizens; but, are coming to realize that neither party cares about this country. They can see that it only benefits the in crowd. They get that. It is why they voted for Trump and would have voted for Bernie.
Consider this. Trump supporters saw him saying that he was with the working and middle class while Hillary's motto for her followers was to say that they were with her, that she was what mattered. For Hillary to have a motto that said, "I'm with her" is the most narcissistic statement ever. While campaigning, Hillary actually failed to make appearances in some of the most important mid-west states. She lost those states and they didn't have large numbers of Russians in them either. They were states losing jobs overseas and she had nothing to offer them except more of the same and they knew it. These are the same states that had voted for Obama twice and she called them racists and the media agreed. Detroit has an 82% black population and Trump won Michigan.
Here is what the establishment no longer understands, we are all upset with what is going on. Not Trump, with our establishment abandoning this nation in favor of their own personal interest. President Trump's support within the military and with veterans is higher than I have seen for any other president, except perhaps Reagan. The people that die so that we can have freedom of speech support President Trump. I would bet that he has more support from Black veterans than Obama did. If he didn't believe me the media would be talking about it.
I support the working class and middle class. I support border control and requiring people to apply for citizenship. I support killing international trade agreements that deny us our constitutional rights or turn over the judicial power to corporate entities, like the TPP did until Trump killed it. Trump has NOT moved against gay marriage, abortion or sought to increase the regulation of people in any way.
I'm a frickin socialist and have proudly stated such for decades. My readers are pretty much evenly split between the left and right, my friends are mostly conservatives. I was a preacher in a church of gay Hispanics, many of who were seeking asylum from their own countries where they would be killed for being gay. I have known two gay nuns, one who left Mexico and another that is still there and hiding her homosexuality.
IF President Trump does something truly racist or anti-gay or anti-black, I will be the first to call him out and I will shred him for it. Nobody gets a pass from me, not even me. What upsets me is that the constant negative and deceitful messaging from the corporate mainstream media will drown out when Trump actually does evil, if he does.
Does anyone really believe that the same corporate media that failed to inform the public about the outsourcing while it was happening now cares about them? This is the same corporate media that said the economy was great right up until the crash and then said it would be a "soft landing", I wrote about that at the time. It is simple, the corporate is media owned by six companies IS the establishment and they are looking out for themselves. That is what is being exposed. As George Carlin said, there is a big club and you and I are not members. Trump is not a member and neither is Bernie. It is Members Only and Trump is not a member. That is the problem they have with him. He is more concerned about the middle and working class then he is about the establishment and they know that.
Friday, September 1, 2017
99 Degrees in My Home
I have to correct my last post which I ended up deleting. Turns out my air conditioner broke or at least it looks that way now. I have now been without air for 4 days or so. In fact, it is about 112 degrees outside and 99 degrees inside my home.
I literally called 10 different air conditioner repairmen and they were basically all booked for the next week. Fortunately, it seems I found one that can come out tonight. That's the good news. The bad news is that if I need a new air conditioner it will cost a few thousand dollars and they will probably have to order it.
While I can deal fairly well with high heat being an old desert rat, my little dog does not handle it as well. My solution was to take him for a ride in the car with the air conditioner on max. After our ride I put a wet thin shirt in front of a box fan to create a makeshift swamp cooler. He is laying in front of it and barely moving.
I believe the only thing to do is buy a portable air conditioner until my central air is fixed. This is going to get expensive. Oh well. Wish me luck.
UPDATE:
Well, I got very lucky, the technician came out and fixed the air conditioner. $500 and my dog can relax in peace. I called multiple Home Depots and Lowe's to purchase a portable air conditioner and not one had any available. I was actually considering renting a hotel room until the air conditioner was repaired because I honestly was getting really worried that it was too much for my little dog. My dog is not well behaved and has mental issues. He was abandoned by his owner because of his temperament and given to me because the people that took him in couldn't deal with him. When I first got him he literally barked at everyone and hated men. The first month I had him he would eat, poop on my floor and hide under the bed. It took a bit of time; but, I gained his trust. There is nothing better than being able to help a dog to reconnect with people. They are the only animal I know that loves us more than they love their own species. It is important to respect that.
I literally called 10 different air conditioner repairmen and they were basically all booked for the next week. Fortunately, it seems I found one that can come out tonight. That's the good news. The bad news is that if I need a new air conditioner it will cost a few thousand dollars and they will probably have to order it.
While I can deal fairly well with high heat being an old desert rat, my little dog does not handle it as well. My solution was to take him for a ride in the car with the air conditioner on max. After our ride I put a wet thin shirt in front of a box fan to create a makeshift swamp cooler. He is laying in front of it and barely moving.
I believe the only thing to do is buy a portable air conditioner until my central air is fixed. This is going to get expensive. Oh well. Wish me luck.
UPDATE:
Well, I got very lucky, the technician came out and fixed the air conditioner. $500 and my dog can relax in peace. I called multiple Home Depots and Lowe's to purchase a portable air conditioner and not one had any available. I was actually considering renting a hotel room until the air conditioner was repaired because I honestly was getting really worried that it was too much for my little dog. My dog is not well behaved and has mental issues. He was abandoned by his owner because of his temperament and given to me because the people that took him in couldn't deal with him. When I first got him he literally barked at everyone and hated men. The first month I had him he would eat, poop on my floor and hide under the bed. It took a bit of time; but, I gained his trust. There is nothing better than being able to help a dog to reconnect with people. They are the only animal I know that loves us more than they love their own species. It is important to respect that.
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