Ronald Reagan, Jr., is on my mind.
Noticing that is in his commercial, is trustworthy. He mentions “freedom FROM religion,” in defense of activities to work for separation of church and state. As a Christian, I am fully in support of separation of church and state. I always have been supportive of separation of church and state.
Seems strange for Ronnie Junior to say “freedom FROM religion,” while attempting to endorse the ideas of separation of church and state. For separation of church and state is related to “freedom OF religion,” not “freedom FROM religion.”
During the 1980s, I always had a problem with Ronnie Senior and the lip service he played to ridding us of communism. I really did not believe the man with charisma. I felt he was a fake then. Now it is evident, even more, what kind of fake Ronnie Senior was.
My father served with the occupation troops in Japan in 1945 after the war ended. Before my dad passed from us in 2018, he spent time telling me about the trip he and the others serving in Japan under USA Supreme Commander, General Douglas MacArthur, from Tokyo to the northern end of Japan.
If one reads the history of the A-bomb and all else which happened in Japan, one discovers that one thing our leaders wanted to do was to block the Soviets from entering Japan from the north. Was my dad part of those troops who were sent to northern Japan? This is written in the documentation of MacArthur biographer, William Manchester. Manchester also describes the emphasis MacArthur took to decimate the communists in Japan.
A few years later, when MacArthur was put in charge of troops in Korea, what did he want to do? He wanted to send troops north and into China. He was no longer the USA (or UN) Supreme Commander in Korea, so he was not able to do that. In fact, MacArthur was fired for attempting to do it. He had led Japan but was not given the leverage to do the same in Korea. My writing this is NOT to discuss whether this firing and the facts surrounding it are right or wrong. It is a matter of making a comparison between the two commands that General MacArthur had. One immediately after the war with Japan and the other during the Korean Conflict. Today, there is a very lousy communist leader in North Korea, while South Korea has been a successful capitalist democracy.
In fact, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan have all been very successful with bringing down the COVID-19 positivity rate, while the communists and other autocratic SOBs have not. Meanwhile, stupidity in America with DeSantis, Trump and others, is siding with the communists in China, while not fighting the war which needs to be fought against COVID-19.
Back to the discussion about Ronnie Junior and religion. Considering that the Soviets created a “religion” and forced people to abide by this “religion” (which many people have indicated atheism is actually a form of religion), then what makes us believe that “freedom FROM religion” is NOT an autocratic and dictatorial way to force one way upon our American population? What makes this any different from a Matt Gaetz or others who want to force one way for those of us who meditate and seek a spiritual means of life, whether in the name of Christ or any other religious belief, different from what Gaetz wants to force down the throats of Christian believers, is any better than Gaetz? As far as I am concerned, Gaetz is a lawyer / politician who is as much a traitor to the USA as Benedict Arnold, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and numerous others.
How about considering “freedom of religion” among all “religious practices” within a secular society of coexistence? What is wrong with that?
Or else damnation on all those who wish to dictate beliefs to society and upon one another. Period. Damnation to the proselytizers of beliefs about a god or gods as a means of a theocracy, as well as those who wish to dictate an atheistic autocracy upon us.
Too many who are involved in religions use the Bible as a rule book which comes from myths and other writings designed to create a god in the image of men. We have a Creator / Maker / God of love. Humans are made in the image of this God.
The problem lies in those who are hypocrites within religious organizations and turn off people to the true God. This is done in the process of working to maintain power and control over human beings and doing so in the name of a god for which they have made a graven image based on the images of men writing the myths and rule books. Human beings need guidelines for reasoning and common sense in life, not a rule book based on the power of men over other human beings. Men are big on power. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Along with such situations, hypocrisy and a love of money reigns.
Matt Gaetz and other fundagelicals are part of such heathens who do this. The American Founding Fathers, if Ronnie Junior and others were intelligent enough to study them, were more than just Masons.
The American Founding Fathers were Deists who believed in a powerful Creator and balance in the universe which can be proven. Translating that to democracy, our Founding Fathers established a government with checks and balances.
Adam Smith, a contemporary to the Founding Fathers, established and wrote about ideas for which there is balance in economics, in a system called capitalism.
During the days of Adam Smith, the aristocracy were, as Trump is today, too fearful of losing their power and money, should there be the balance as proposed by Smith and his theories about capitalism. So, therefore, these powerful wealthy ones did everything possible to put their own spin on what capitalism is all about. Many today don’t realize how much they follow along with the spin put on capitalism by the aristocracy of the 19th Century.
That aristocracy fooled a stupid man like Karl Marx and others in the process, mesmerizing them with mind control, that capitalism is the problem. Capitalism is not the problem and in the 20th Century, people like Teddy Roosevelt, associated with his Progressive Bull Moose Party in later years (after being known as the “trust buster”), proved that regulation does work. The founder of IBM, Thomas J. Watson, and others at NCR Corporation ended up serving time for their roles in going against regulations by attempting to destroy competition. Watson eventually turned around and created a great corporation, IBM, in which he rewarded his employees with good salaries and benefits, regardless of whether they had college degrees or not.
Ronnie SENIOR worked to remove that BALANCE in economics by proposing one-sided economics, SUPPLY SIDE ECONOMICS, based on his attempts to project that all things in America need to be “privatized.” This led to the movement to destroy capitalist competition and many dictatorial businesses with no concern for human beings who work for the head honchos AND no concern for the DEMAND SIDE of a balanced capitalism. Since the time of Ronnie SENIOR, these guys have been attempting to make the government look bad because it is the means for regulating that balance in economics.
Democracy can provide balance. Capitalism can provide balance. Freedom OF religion with separation of church and state can provide balance. Ronnie Junior stating, “freedom FROM religion” and associating it with separation of church and state is no different from what daddy Ronnie said with regard to “government is bad so let’s push for deregulation.” Thousands of Americans were hurt financially by this shit from Ronnie Senior. I was one of them, I know a thing or two.
Ronnie Junior is attempting to destroy balance in a secular society. If Ronnie Junior were truly interested in separation of church and state, he would find allies with those of us who have beliefs in God in order to accomplish his goal. Somehow it does not sound like he wants to work by pulling all Americans together, but has a hidden agenda here.
Ronnie Junior is a “chip off the old block,” in this sense. The apple does not fall far from the tree. Just as Ronnie Senior worked to deregulate and work towards, “freedom by ridding us of government,” Ronnie Junior uses this same method regarding religious beliefs and the spirituality which is very important to so many people.
This crap is nothing but a libertarian and anarchist approach. It is being used as a means to thrust dictatorial ways down our throats. The results of such actions will be barbaric, bullying, and vicious, just as what happened within the Roman Empire with its uncivilized gladiator games and arenas with Christians thrown to the lions.
You might read this and say, “how can this be true?” Trust me. I am not the only one to give warning. Adam Smith gave warning in his writings about “The Theory of Moral Sentiment.” There are many others who have given warnings, too.
For the sake of America and its democracy, capitalist ideas, and spirituality of people, please stop this bullshit. America might not be perfect because we have human institutions and such institutions are not perfect. But let us not destroy the great parts of this system. There are other nations in the world who have worked successfully under such conditions. Stop the destructive aspects based on “individual rights” only which come from libertarians and anarchists.
Curtailing Homelessness in NYC (NY Times, Sun., Feb. 6, 2022)
According to a recent New York Times Magazine article, a person in New York City who worked on reducing numbers of homelessness by some figure in the thousands. Kudos to that person, for sure.
What the article attempted to do remains disturbing for me. Once again, with the help of a society tailored to number-crunching, due to lawyers and accountants which make lots of money while we teachers in Florida made very little, the guy was questioned on “whether the numbers demonstrated whether he had succeeded enough.” WOW! Number crunching.
First of all, in my job in a college in South Florida, my colleagues and I faced a number of homeless people, battered women in homes which took care of them, and young people in various other stages of life. Should we have ticked off every one who we helped? Should we have done number crunching?
For instance, I had one young man who had grown up upstate New York along the Hudson River. He was living without a home in the park across the street from the college. There were many homeless folks who were around that college and we knew it. We attempted to go out of our way to help them out, whether that be extra tutoring so as to help such people gain confidence and get set back on their feet in life. The guy from New York had served, under George H.W. Bush, in Iraq with the U.S. Army. He had fallen on bad times, so I was asked by one of my fellow professors and colleagues whether I could tutor the guy. After all, he had been through several attempts to try to write a college research paper and that was the one thing holding him back. Since I worked with students, tutoring them and also teaching them in some classes, I worked with this guy. He learned quite a bit, but I was not able to assess him a grade (number crunching again). However, he ended up submitting a research paper in which he was able to earn an A on the paper!
Years later, this man came back to my office area at the college and began to tell everyone, students, faculty, and others, how much I had done for him in getting through a tough time in his life and he being able to get an A on his paper. Let’s get one thing clear. Never once did I speak with my colleague who was doing the grading. I only gave him time for tutoring him on what was necessary to do. In his return trip, he indicated he had graduated from the college, gone on to another college to complete his Bachelor’s degree, and was now working in another location, teaching students some of the same skills he had learned from me! it could have brought tears to my eyes, but I withheld the tears. I was just so happy that a fellow New Yorker (I taught in Florida for some 40 years) had accomplished his goals and was no longer homeless, but doing quite well!
Number crunch me and that is the only one, I guess. But knowing full well that I taught many students who were homeless, as well as many of my colleagues, one has to wonder how many we did impact? Likely, the number would not be 100% of the homeless. But how many did we help out? Once more. Should we be ticking every person?
As for the battered wife, how many others did we all impact, too? With her, too, I had spent time tutoring her in her research skills. The day she walked the stage at the college commencement and picked up her diploma, I stood up and cheered as loudly and joyously as I could, in celebration of her accomplishment. No numbers. A human being who I had witnessed gaining confidence in a disturbing life and had succeeded.
Secondly, rather than identifying how many this guy in New York City helped out of homelessness, when are we going to come to grips with the factors which, in the 1980s, brought an increase in homelessness. We did as Ayn Rand wanted, reducing public services (mental institutions) and public welfare, speaking out against healthcare for all, Medicare, Social Security. Then, when Ayn Rand contracted cancer, where did SHE go to find the resources and services? She went to the government which she was attempting to knock apart, with the help of her friend, Alan Greenspan who had Reagan’s ear. Reaganomics, deregulation, supply side economics. All those things were favorable to Ayn Rand. But when the chips were down, Rand took advantage of the very things she barked about being “socialism.” A screwy bitch called Ayn Rand, an atheist out of Communist Soviet Union which was once KGB land with an agent named Putin.
Then there was DEMOCRATIC PARTY Governor Lawton Chiles and his lawsuit against big tobacco for the purposes of PAYING FOR state government expenses for lung cancer resulting from smoking cigarettes. Chiles finished his term as governor and was hoping to run for president, but died on Dec. 12, 1998, just before Jeb Bush took power in Jan. 1999. Mysterious, for sure. As Gov. Ann Richards of Texas said about brother George: “poor George, born with a silver spoon in his mouth.” Same thing could be said about Jeb Bush who was one of the many number crunching wealthy ones born with silver spoons who thought “what’s good for business is good for America,” so naturally lawsuits against a BIG BUSINESS were NOT good for America, according to the standards of AWOL man during Vietnam (at a time I knew others who DIED in Vietnam or saw very brutal fighting in Vietnam), George W. Bush. At least John Kerry, the Democrat in 2004, never went AWOL. Or the guy in Georgia who lost LIMBS during war but was chastised by Republicans because he was a Democrat, did far better than Mr. AWOL Man.
In other words, rather than trying to hold a man in New York City and his feet to the fire with number crunching, how about make changes to rid us of the shit of Reagan, atheist Ayn Rand, and other Republicans which helped cause homelessness in America, overall.
What ever I accomplished, I am very proud. I am just as proud as the healthcare workers in America should be in handling this pandemic. I am proud of the work I did to help train nurses, nurse aides, radiologists, and others at that same college. When going to a hospital, that was the one time I could hear, “oh, I remember you; you were my professor at the college.” I likely would not remember them, as I sat and waited in a room for an anesthesiologist to sedate me. Somehow, though, I must have made some kind of impression on these people. And that sure does make a professor happy!
I am happy that this guy in New York City succeeded with helping humans numbering in the thousands. Kudos to the guy and stop the bullshit with counting by using lawyers and accountants. How many TRUE accident victims (auto or workplace), not FAKES, did lawyers help? Does anyone keep numbers of those? If we want number crunching, is it not better to keep tabs on the fakes and liars than a person who needs to be measured with regard to ending homelessness. Furthermore, such lawyers and accountants and how many did THEY help in reducing numbers of homeless? Anybody know?
Once again. Kudos to those who play a role in reducing homelessness in New York, Florida, and across the USA.
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Commentary, Economics, Regulated Capitalism, Commerce, Education
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