Monday, January 11, 2016
David Bowie and Growing Up in the 70s.
I was just informed that David Bowie has died. I was surprised as he just put out an album and I thought he was better. Bowie was iconic in the 70s and meant a lot to many of my friends who were in the "Glamour Movement". I wasn't a glam; but, I liked much of Bowies music. I thought he got even better in the 80s. He started a movement, not many people can say that. Here are some of his songs.
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Let's Have a Party; But, a New One.
The New York Times - For Republicans, Mounting Fears of Lasting Split. Basically, the party establishment knows the party needs to bring in Hispanics and youth to survive At the same time, they are splitting themselves apart over who controls the beliefs of the party, the wealthy or the middle and working classes. That is why Trump and Cruz are leading in the polls and also why Jeb Bush cannot garner any popular support. In fact it is even worse than the party establishment knows. The anti-party establishment people will all vote for anti-establishment candidates and they will give their votes in unison to whoever lasts till the end, they will not switch their vote to an establishment candidate no matter what. People forget history, especially the powerful and rich. They only remember the parts they like. The Republican party was created in 1854 by ex-Whigs and the Democratic party was created in 1828. The creation of both parties came about not by the establishment but by average citizens revolting against the establishment..
Yahoo - AP - GOP candidates pitch conservative path to fight poverty. This was just a bad idea, trying to woo the poor over to the Republican party by promising them to give more tax breaks to the rich and providing less support to the poor. Why did this seem like a good idea and to whom? Promising them that the jobs will return to America if we continue to give tax breaks to companies that outsource to China is insanity.
UPDATE:
CNN - GOP tells NBC next debate suspended over 'gotcha' questions. The headline misses the most interesting part of the story. The Republican National Committee (AKA The Establishment that controls the party) has sent a letter to NBC saying that they will not have the debates on NBC because of bias by the liberal media. This quote is what is relevant.
"The letter from Priebus is a move to assert control over the debate process at a time when Republican campaigns seem poised to wrest control from the RNC's hands.
On Thursday, representatives from several campaigns made plans to hold a Sunday meeting in Washington, D.C., to discuss plans for wresting more control of the debates from the committee."
The Republican party establishment has made a fatal mistake. You see they supported the unhindered funding of PACs and they got their wish. The mistake they made was in thinking that the PACs would work more for the party than for individual candidates and they were wrong. The PACs are instead committed to specific candidates and the parties support economically is less important than ever before. It is really quite simple, special interests want to own politicians, not parties and funding specific candidates means that candidate owes you more than the party.
Yahoo - AP - GOP candidates pitch conservative path to fight poverty. This was just a bad idea, trying to woo the poor over to the Republican party by promising them to give more tax breaks to the rich and providing less support to the poor. Why did this seem like a good idea and to whom? Promising them that the jobs will return to America if we continue to give tax breaks to companies that outsource to China is insanity.
UPDATE:
CNN - GOP tells NBC next debate suspended over 'gotcha' questions. The headline misses the most interesting part of the story. The Republican National Committee (AKA The Establishment that controls the party) has sent a letter to NBC saying that they will not have the debates on NBC because of bias by the liberal media. This quote is what is relevant.
"The letter from Priebus is a move to assert control over the debate process at a time when Republican campaigns seem poised to wrest control from the RNC's hands.
On Thursday, representatives from several campaigns made plans to hold a Sunday meeting in Washington, D.C., to discuss plans for wresting more control of the debates from the committee."
The Republican party establishment has made a fatal mistake. You see they supported the unhindered funding of PACs and they got their wish. The mistake they made was in thinking that the PACs would work more for the party than for individual candidates and they were wrong. The PACs are instead committed to specific candidates and the parties support economically is less important than ever before. It is really quite simple, special interests want to own politicians, not parties and funding specific candidates means that candidate owes you more than the party.
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Self Driving Taxis In Four Years
Huffington Post - AP - We're Getting Closer To Self-Driving Taxis.
Here is a line from the article. "In Japan, a company called Robot Taxi Inc. plans to offer a full commercial service in 2020. In Greece, driverless buses called CityMobil2 have been tested in real traffic. General Motors Co. said Monday it is investing $500 million in ride-hailing company Lyft Inc. and forming a partnership that could eventually lead to on-demand, self-driving cars."
Wired - The Lyft - GM Deal and Why You Probably Won't Buy a Self Driving Car. They are betting that in the future, you won't bother owning a car and will merely rent self driving cars as needed.
The reason I write about self driving cars and trucks is because it is coming sooner than people think and we had better prepare for how it is gong to change our lives. The single biggest change in history that occurred in the last century was man landing on the moon. President Kennedy said after being made President in 1960 that he planned on putting a man on the moon within ten years and he did it. At the time it was believed to be impossible even by the people who were to work on the project; but, it happened and we did it. To think that we cannot do the same with driverless cars in the same amount of time is foolish denial.
Here is a line from the article. "In Japan, a company called Robot Taxi Inc. plans to offer a full commercial service in 2020. In Greece, driverless buses called CityMobil2 have been tested in real traffic. General Motors Co. said Monday it is investing $500 million in ride-hailing company Lyft Inc. and forming a partnership that could eventually lead to on-demand, self-driving cars."
Wired - The Lyft - GM Deal and Why You Probably Won't Buy a Self Driving Car. They are betting that in the future, you won't bother owning a car and will merely rent self driving cars as needed.
The reason I write about self driving cars and trucks is because it is coming sooner than people think and we had better prepare for how it is gong to change our lives. The single biggest change in history that occurred in the last century was man landing on the moon. President Kennedy said after being made President in 1960 that he planned on putting a man on the moon within ten years and he did it. At the time it was believed to be impossible even by the people who were to work on the project; but, it happened and we did it. To think that we cannot do the same with driverless cars in the same amount of time is foolish denial.
Monday, January 4, 2016
Police Shooting Unarmed People and Leaving Armed People Alone Why?
So once again we have a bunch of people who believe they are the United States Private Protectors. Morons who commit treason are not my heroes, they are the enemy. Here is a question, why are all the so called "patriots" also bigots? You may remember the fight that happened in Arizona by a rancher named Bundy who refused to pay his fees for grazing on Federally owned land, well his son and his friends are not playing the same game in Oregon. You may recall that his father was finally ignored after he claimed that blacks would be better off as slaves.
A cartoonist made a really simple point. If it is okay to kill unarmed black children who have toy guns, why don't we shout people with real weapons who have openly threatened the police like the "militia" holding the land in Oregon? Do the police not believe these people will shoot them because the "militia" is all white people?
So what is the lesson to be learned if you are white? I guess it is to carry a weapon around the police. And what is the lesson to learn if you are black, I guess it is to also openly carry a real weapon around the police. Do you believe the NRA would support an advertisement for all blacks in America to always open carry weapons when in public?
There was a lot of moral outrage by conservatives over the #BlackLivesMatter movement because a very few of its supporters called for shooting cops. In Oregon we have a group of people with weapons taking over a federal facility and saying they will kill cops if challenged. For consistencies sake alone, shouldn't the cops just kill them all?
This is not a new thing. While the Occupy Wall Street Movement was going on the police in a coordinated federal action evicted the unarmed protestors from their encampments. When the Bundy ranch controversy I questioned the media and conservatives did not support getting rid of the militia on federal lands; but, had openly accepted the police getting rid of the Occupy Movement from legally being on local public lands. Think about it.
A cartoonist made a really simple point. If it is okay to kill unarmed black children who have toy guns, why don't we shout people with real weapons who have openly threatened the police like the "militia" holding the land in Oregon? Do the police not believe these people will shoot them because the "militia" is all white people?
So what is the lesson to be learned if you are white? I guess it is to carry a weapon around the police. And what is the lesson to learn if you are black, I guess it is to also openly carry a real weapon around the police. Do you believe the NRA would support an advertisement for all blacks in America to always open carry weapons when in public?
There was a lot of moral outrage by conservatives over the #BlackLivesMatter movement because a very few of its supporters called for shooting cops. In Oregon we have a group of people with weapons taking over a federal facility and saying they will kill cops if challenged. For consistencies sake alone, shouldn't the cops just kill them all?
This is not a new thing. While the Occupy Wall Street Movement was going on the police in a coordinated federal action evicted the unarmed protestors from their encampments. When the Bundy ranch controversy I questioned the media and conservatives did not support getting rid of the militia on federal lands; but, had openly accepted the police getting rid of the Occupy Movement from legally being on local public lands. Think about it.
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement
There is a faction within the Republican party that is considered Libertarian. Ron and Rand Paul are the best known of these; but, other right wing Republicans accept some of the same beliefs. What they all have in common is a fanatical dislike of Progressives. One of the most famous progressives was the Republican Teddy Roosevelt. He was a pretty popular and well liked president and one of the few on Mount Rushmore. Teddy Roosevelt was so popular that when he ran for a third term, after a previous two terms after which his protégé Taft was elected, he split the Republican Party apart by creating the Progressive Party known as the Bull-Moose Party. He actually got more votes than Taft in that election. Teddy Roosevelt is my favorite President, he was more concerned about the people of this nation than sell out political hacks. It was the Republican Teddy Roosevelt that created what is known as the "Progressive Era", a time when the nation was the safest, government became more honest and all were helped.
Here is what the Progressive Movement believed in. First they believed in "Good Government", What was going on at that time was spoils politics. Basically, when a person was made President or Governor or Mayor, they could decide who got the contracts with the government. There was no competitive bidding process. If you won the election, you gave the contracts to just your friends or people who would "take care of you". At the same time this went unchecked because each time a new person was elected, he would get rid of all the prior government employees and replace them with political supporters. This is why cities had political machines, they hired the people who couldn't get jobs in private industry. The Irish and Italians and Catholics found it hard to get jobs in the private companies which were almost exclusively owned by Protestants. In exchange for their votes, they got government jobs. Once given a job they would be absolutely committed to the candidate. In response to this the Progressives called for the creation of "Civil Service" and the government employees were made responsible to rules rather than just the politician.
As for his approach to the rest of the nation. He was responsible for the making of Monopolies illegal, this was called Trust Busting. He was against anti-competitiveness in private industry, he believed in competition and thought it was good for the nation. Roosevelt was responsible for regulating interstate transportation by regulating the railroads to protect interstate commerce from corruption. Roosevelt was responsible for the Pure Food and Drug Act which allowed the government inspect food that was being sold because of the numerous problems that had occurred. He was responsible for the creation of National Parks and conservation. I should also point out that he appointed blacks to Federal position. Roosevelt was also a hawk when it came to foreign policy and was not afraid to use force against other nations.
The Progressive Movement was basically the Tea Party and the Occupy Movement in one place. Progressives are not Communists, Communists are Communists. Progressives are Nationalists who seek what is best, right and fair for all of the nation and that is why he is on Mount Rushmore. He is one of the most respected Republicans in history, yet, his view points are now made fun of by large aspects of the republican establishment. Roosevelt is also the one that defined what a "Living Wage" should be and he believed it should be a wage high enough that someone could live a decent life which even included time to relax and enjoy themselves.
If people ask me I will say that I am a Liberal with socialist beliefs; but, it is not really accurate. I say it because most people do not understand what Progressives believe. The truth is I am a Progressive. I believe in a nation that protects our nations interests and that includes having a strong army, I just think we overuse ours currently and I don't like risking American lives for stupid policies.
Now that I have explained what it is to be a progressive it may be easier to understand why I would like to see the election come down to Trump and Sanders. Right now there are only two groups, the Progressives and the Anti-Progressives. Their believers are members of both the Republican and Democratic parties and they are angry. They see the working man as getting screwed and the middle class being eliminated. They are seeing corporate corruption being uncontrolled and the parties political elite being owned by corporate interests. We all see it. The supporters of both Sanders and Trump don't believe the other candidates or the establishment listens to or cares about them and they are right.
Franklin Roosevelt was a Democrat and a Progressive, he believed in the same things as Teddy did. He was the one that helped England before we joined into World War II, he was the one that got us out of the great depression by creating infrastructure projects and he was the one that sent us into World War II when we fought for our very survival. He was so popular that he was given four terms in office, the only President to do so. He was also the hero and leader of the "Greatest Generation", the people who returned from that war and built the things that made America the greatest industrial nation in the world.
Weeks before the Presidential election where Teddy ran as the Bull Moose party presidential candidate, he was shot and hospitalized. What we are seeing right now is a mini-Progressive movement under Trump and Sanders. A return to a fair nationalism, one that looks out for the whole nation and not just a few. That is the message the people are hearing even if they do not know the name.
You hear a lot of people in the media saying they don't understand why people support Trump or Sanders; but, they are lying. They have been told why, that is what Focus groups and polls are for. They know about Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive era, it just scares them as it is for the nations interest rather than special interests.
Here is what the Progressive Movement believed in. First they believed in "Good Government", What was going on at that time was spoils politics. Basically, when a person was made President or Governor or Mayor, they could decide who got the contracts with the government. There was no competitive bidding process. If you won the election, you gave the contracts to just your friends or people who would "take care of you". At the same time this went unchecked because each time a new person was elected, he would get rid of all the prior government employees and replace them with political supporters. This is why cities had political machines, they hired the people who couldn't get jobs in private industry. The Irish and Italians and Catholics found it hard to get jobs in the private companies which were almost exclusively owned by Protestants. In exchange for their votes, they got government jobs. Once given a job they would be absolutely committed to the candidate. In response to this the Progressives called for the creation of "Civil Service" and the government employees were made responsible to rules rather than just the politician.
As for his approach to the rest of the nation. He was responsible for the making of Monopolies illegal, this was called Trust Busting. He was against anti-competitiveness in private industry, he believed in competition and thought it was good for the nation. Roosevelt was responsible for regulating interstate transportation by regulating the railroads to protect interstate commerce from corruption. Roosevelt was responsible for the Pure Food and Drug Act which allowed the government inspect food that was being sold because of the numerous problems that had occurred. He was responsible for the creation of National Parks and conservation. I should also point out that he appointed blacks to Federal position. Roosevelt was also a hawk when it came to foreign policy and was not afraid to use force against other nations.
The Progressive Movement was basically the Tea Party and the Occupy Movement in one place. Progressives are not Communists, Communists are Communists. Progressives are Nationalists who seek what is best, right and fair for all of the nation and that is why he is on Mount Rushmore. He is one of the most respected Republicans in history, yet, his view points are now made fun of by large aspects of the republican establishment. Roosevelt is also the one that defined what a "Living Wage" should be and he believed it should be a wage high enough that someone could live a decent life which even included time to relax and enjoy themselves.
If people ask me I will say that I am a Liberal with socialist beliefs; but, it is not really accurate. I say it because most people do not understand what Progressives believe. The truth is I am a Progressive. I believe in a nation that protects our nations interests and that includes having a strong army, I just think we overuse ours currently and I don't like risking American lives for stupid policies.
Now that I have explained what it is to be a progressive it may be easier to understand why I would like to see the election come down to Trump and Sanders. Right now there are only two groups, the Progressives and the Anti-Progressives. Their believers are members of both the Republican and Democratic parties and they are angry. They see the working man as getting screwed and the middle class being eliminated. They are seeing corporate corruption being uncontrolled and the parties political elite being owned by corporate interests. We all see it. The supporters of both Sanders and Trump don't believe the other candidates or the establishment listens to or cares about them and they are right.
Franklin Roosevelt was a Democrat and a Progressive, he believed in the same things as Teddy did. He was the one that helped England before we joined into World War II, he was the one that got us out of the great depression by creating infrastructure projects and he was the one that sent us into World War II when we fought for our very survival. He was so popular that he was given four terms in office, the only President to do so. He was also the hero and leader of the "Greatest Generation", the people who returned from that war and built the things that made America the greatest industrial nation in the world.
Weeks before the Presidential election where Teddy ran as the Bull Moose party presidential candidate, he was shot and hospitalized. What we are seeing right now is a mini-Progressive movement under Trump and Sanders. A return to a fair nationalism, one that looks out for the whole nation and not just a few. That is the message the people are hearing even if they do not know the name.
You hear a lot of people in the media saying they don't understand why people support Trump or Sanders; but, they are lying. They have been told why, that is what Focus groups and polls are for. They know about Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive era, it just scares them as it is for the nations interest rather than special interests.
Friday, January 1, 2016
12-31-2015 News Stuff
Huffington Post - The Plutocrats Are Winning. Don't Let Them! This is a good article about how we are all getting taken advantage of for the benefit of a few wealthy people.
L.A. Weekly - Tear Down a Freeway? In Southern California? It Could Happen. Watch for more of this across the nation, the repurposing of transportation corridors.
The New York Times - For the Wealthiest, a Private Tax System That Saves Them Billions. If you want to know why the wealthiest can avoid taxes and pay a lesser rate than the rest of us, read this article.
Yahoo - The Fiscal Times - O'Malley: The Democratic Primary Is ‘Rigged’.
L.A. Weekly - Tear Down a Freeway? In Southern California? It Could Happen. Watch for more of this across the nation, the repurposing of transportation corridors.
The New York Times - For the Wealthiest, a Private Tax System That Saves Them Billions. If you want to know why the wealthiest can avoid taxes and pay a lesser rate than the rest of us, read this article.
Yahoo - The Fiscal Times - O'Malley: The Democratic Primary Is ‘Rigged’.
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