The intent of this blog is to promote human equality, human progress, human peace and justice, and optimism. To accomplish this, to encourage the discussion of ideas after identifying and discovering problems, and then creating positive solutions for "we the people," in order to provide for the "general welfare" and "domestic tranquility" of America now and its "posterity" into the future. To encourage an emphasis on separation of religion and state for all, no matter if this is for those "of faith" in a Maker / Creator (Deists, God-loving people, Christians, various people of spirituality) and atheists or agnostics.

Archive for January, 2023

Maureen Dowd op-ed, “Tomorrow’s A.I.: Actively Insidious,” New York Times, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023

Dear Editors:

Maureen Dowd was great in comparing an Artificial Intelligence “fantasy” to writing like Shakespeare.  It was rather humorous.  And the point made about how we may all be relegated to being like a “family pet,” was a remarkable comment about what A.I. may do to us all. 

Fantasy and reality are important aspects of this issue.  Many of us found reality being pulled out from beneath us as Reagan implemented his “Star Wars” program in the military.  It cost the taxpayers much money and was worth nothing.  At the time, we were working with a U.S. Air Force project to examine the best practices for reliably producing software with consideration of the most productive software engineering practices.  Reagan “Star Wars” ruined the project for reality by using “fantasy” for nowhere’s ville. 

We need reality.  President Joe Biden talks about working towards reality by proposing infrastructure work to improve the semiconductor industry which barely exists in the USA and is threatened by a takeover from Communist China of the Chinese island of Taiwan where most of the semiconductor industry now operates.  The USA would be more controlled by Communists than the conspiracy lies indicate by attacking one another in America and falsely calling some people “communists” or “socialists.”  President Biden is wrongly labeled as “Sloppy Joe” and God knows what other crap hurled at him.  He wants to improve the needs of this nation, economically, and does not wish to be affixed to Communist China when our military needs semiconductors.  It makes more sense to call President Biden Proactive Joe. 

Similarly, a Democratic Party Congressperson in upstate New York loses to Trump-funded Tenney in central New York, after successfully working to have military contracts handing out money to foreign nations and bringing them back to USA concerns in upstate New York.  The man loses to Trumpster Claudia Tenney by how many votes?  Something like only 100 votes, after the recounts?  Hope that I am correct on that count of numbers.  So Brindisi gives up and moves on to something else.  When I wanted to give up on something and do another activity, in high school, I had a high school teacher convince me that we don’t give up.  Perhaps Brindisi needs to learn what the late Nick Rucco taught me. 

With both of these examples, I have to ask the nerds of Silicone Valley how they intend to do well with A.I. if the semiconductors and other “digerati” obsessed are produced outside this nation?  Oh, I get it!  That way the stupidity of those supporting Trump, Repugnicans, and digerati can blame the fantasy world they create on a sloppy Joe, right?  Gosh.  To lame things on a roll stuffed with ground beef and sauce.  How humanly intelligent.   And, as Maureen Dowd concludes, “then we’ll need our dog bowls.”

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Commentary, Economics, Regulated Capitalism, Commerce, Technology

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Such a Weird Guy, Don’t You Know?

Perhaps I can be called weird. OK. So I am weird.

For instance, I write on Facebook how much Google and big corporations with no sense of the demand side of the market are hurting me and others. I write on Facebook about how big box corporations with free market advocates like libertarian/anarchists have created supply-side Reaganomics which has become a centralized monopolized oligarchy dictatorship which is just as similar to centralized economics of the old Soviet Union.

My intent may be to teach by explaining things not considered. But when I put a notice of complaint about facing obstacles because Google or Microsoft or Verizon (etc.), plus others, put updates in settings without my permission and then make them so the little guy, after trying hard to remove, cannot remove the settings which were trained.

OK. So you don’t want to hear my OBSERVATIONS. Evidently you don’t wish to work with the grassroots to try to solve and/or stop this from happening. You just want to have “fun, fun, fun til the daddy takes the t-bird away.” Right? Don’t bother me about YOUR complaints, right?

Wrong. These OBSERVATIONS just might be occurring with others, besides me.

So, why do i do this?

There was a song sometimes sung which begins with, “it only takes a spark to get a fire going.” Fires are not a good thing, but one can think in a positive way about a “figurative” fire which is helpful to society.

Having a father who was a jack of all trades with a business selling AND servicing appliances without nickel and diming folks, plus many other “trades” which he had been TRAINED over time, I only hope there are some well-trained jack of all trades out there among the younger generations who would do as my father did. Found a way to make a business out of being a jack of all trades AND be good at it, too.

My dad was trained and had a certificate in being a Maytag repairman. He received this certificate while working for someone else. When the other business sold out to a larger conglomerate of a business from out of town, my dad did not like the big conglomerate. He quit his job, took his training and that Maytag certificate with him, and started his own business. He ran a successful business for about 30 to 40 years (ballpark figure). Meanwhile, the bigger company for which he worked eventually pulled up stakes and departed. Like a big conglomerate buying up a local factory and then pulling up stakes and leaving many here without jobs.

My dad may not have employed as many, but he himself was a self-employed person and successful enough to be able to help put three kids through undergraduate college education.

Thus, I may be weird in thinking maybe, by explaining what is happening with big corporate conglomerate Google in changing my settings and not allowing me to remove those settings, perhaps there are some jack of all trades out there who might see an OPPORTUNITY to begin a business of their own at the local level. I cannot define the type of business such a jack of all trades might start, but if well trained and knowledgeable about computers (not just THINKING that way, but having been open-minded enough to LEARN it), perhaps we all might have a better life if such people moved to meet the DEMAND side of a capitalist market. With big business, that DEMAND side of a capitalist market is being squelched each time a Google changes the settings of PRIVATE computers without the knowledge or permission of the owners.

I am not looking for lawyers to answer the complaints and then file lawsuits. I am attempting to light a figurative “spark” to get a figurative “fire” going.

Apparently this approach is not working, so I am weird. More likely, it is not working because America no longer has younger people who were like my dad. If so, what a shame.

My dad was not an entrepreneur looking to start a business and then sell it off to the highest bidder. Such entrepreneurs are greedy selfish narcissistic fat pigs who only look to make millions in a method of instantaneous results. My dad was not a millionaire, but he was able to make a successful business by building it from the ground up. Where are the folks like him, or they just no longer exist? The better mousetrap my dad built was NOT an invention. It was based on best practices for running a successful business.

Those who are at the top of corporations, particularly one in which I worked, only wish to skim off the top of it, remove pensions and stock from workers, and then spit the workers out like seeds. Only for the benefit of the 1% at the top. This 1% lousy misogynist egomaniac group don’t give one damn about the products and/or services.

They CLAIM they do, but that is a smoke screen for the actual greedy and selfish attitudes.

My dad created and implemented a business by considering the products and services, by paying attention to the DEMAND side of the market for which he was on the SUPPLY SIDE of the market. That is TRUE capitalism.

People have been successful in trying to define capitalism based on the whims of the 1% at the top with their greed for monopolizing and destruction of competition. The model for this lies in the Medieval times when royalty claiming to have a divine right to rule, were in action. The Smithsonian economics called capitalism (defined by a moral man named Adam Smith, who was a colleague of our Ben Franklin) was designed as a means to overturn that Medieval junk of supply-side economics with a divine right which came from worship of money, not the true Deity (whatever wishes to name the true Deity of humans, based on the Deity who designed human beings and the universe, not the god of money).

Here we are in the 21st Century, and we are still trying to fight the notion of supply-side economics as advocated by lovers and worshipers of money who proclaim this as being capitalism. That is not the capitalism defined by Adam Smith (which I coin the word, Smithsonian capitalism). There is also proof that Karl Marx falsely accused the problems of economics being capitalism. In effect, Marx should have accused Medieval system of royalty money worshipers. If one thinks about this, one can also see why Marx and the communists proposed atheism, because the church mis-represented God, just as the Russian Orthodox church (and many others in many other nations) is doing today in support of Putin, the atheist.

So I am weird because I attack the norm which has existed since Smithsonian capitalism was defined in the late 18th Century. It was the same type of economics of the fascist Roman Empire in the 1st Century when Jesus Christ brought us the WORD OF GOD, as the Romans occupied Israel. No surprise, but there is a similarity of the 1st Century tax collectors (i.e., disciple Matthew) to what has been described of 21st Century tax collectors in Italy. Is that true or just hearsay?

So I am weird because I go against the grain of groupthink for what is defined as the norm? OK. Guilty as charged.

Again, my intent is to use examples of what is wrong to ignite a spark within those who seek opportunities to address the demand side of the market.

The inspiration comes from my dad. The inspiration also emanates from a love for God and country in the true sense of the words, as spoken here. If you don’t like my words and approach to inspiring good people to address these “problems” and utilizing such problems to THINK, consider, and create and implement opportunities which can address the demand side of the capitalist market, which is being shoved aside in favor of wealth of bigots, criminals, and lovers and worshipers of money.

Money is not a bad word. Profit is not a bad word. Karl Marx and others have made money and profit bad words (i.e., we common folk are forced to call this, with the forms used to file regressive income tax which punishes us for making a profit, “disposable income”).

A “common folk” person speaks against this “norm” defined by fat pigs and we are weird. Of course I am weird. Just listen to what the fat pigs are saying for which many common folk pick up on. Such fat pigs are afraid of the truth being known with regard to capitalism. Just ask the reporters in the Ukraine who have been shot by Russian troops (probably dead now, so cannot attest to it), out of fear of the truth being told to the outside world. The fat pigs of America, manipulating this nation through Repugnicans and media control in the USA love Putin and the communist Chinese. To cover over the truth, they use smoke screens of blaming Democrats (perhaps those of us who are “weird”) so as to cover up their schemes to lie and not have the truth be known.

The world is not out to get me. I am out to get the world. The intent is to put away pigs like Putin and churches which support him, and fat cat greedy, selfish, narcissistic, American egomaniacs with a love and worship of money. They are afraid because that figurative “spark” to start the figurative “fire” is dangerous to them. Whether it is Russian Putin (starting true fires and brutality against the Ukrainians) or the wealthy fat Russian pigs in nations like Britain, or the Russian mobsters with whom Trump is associated and Tucker Carlson answers to their marching orders to lie; or it’s the centralized fat pigs of American supply-side Reaganomics business with their big boxes and other means of destroying capitalist competition and democracy.

Fact. Democracy runs best when there is a strong and wealthy middle class. The big fat pigs are fearful of such a thing, so work to destroy it with their love of money. Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich recognized this when they increased tax credits for the Middle Class in the late 1990s. The fat pigs hate that, too, because it is a recognition and acknowledgement that the fat pigs are not the ones to stimulate the economy and balance the Federal budget. Big fat pigs are not amenable to helping balance the budget, only make trouble for managing a debt ceiling. Such big fat pigs shiver at the idea of infrastructure improvements because it is the Middle Class which benefits more from such actions. Stupid Americans just went in this past November and voted, based on lies and slander, for the fat pigs of America and their corporate PACs used to put people in Congress.

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Freedom lives in Florida? According to WHO?

According to the “Friends of Ron DeSantis,” “Freedom lives in Florida.” I just received an unsolicited email in this regard. Thank you for sending this to me. Rather than hide myself and speak only as my fellow Republicans do many times, behind a smoke screen and hidden agenda to stalk and proselytize those who don’t agree, I shall be upfront. I don’t receive much of that “upfront” communication these days because so many people are buried in snippets from social portals (not social media but social portals).

We have evidence that censorship and prohibition do not solve the problems of society. Ron DeSantis chooses to do this and has convinced “friends” that it does. He lies.

Fact. When the musical, The Producers, includes a song which is a satire on “springtime in Germany,” it is about the Hitler regime in Germany. “Springtime in Germany” was a time when the Hitler folk put a smoke screen up to hide what was intended to be done in Germany. Gay people accepted. Jews, at first, ignored. All the time, the Roman Catholic Church looked the other way, while a Protestant Lutheran named Dietrich Bonhoeffer spoke against Hitler. But how could Bonhoeffer been so bad. After all, it was “springtime in Germany” and everyone was having a delightful time!

Then the hammer came down and Hitler created a dictatorship.

Also, during that time, the opposition to Hitler was nothing but wimps, out of fear that if they challenged what he said, they were appearing “not to get along.” Then the hammer came down on their heads, even when being so kind.

Book burning, censorship, and prohibition began. But never a prohibition of beer in Germany, right? Because it would upset the white homophobic Gentiles, right? Dictatorship to support a portion of the population.

Hitler’s gang of goons was NOT the majority. Trump’s gang of goons is NOT the majority. Now DeSantis’s gang of “friends” (goons). Doesn’t anyone see this? It is there, right before our eyes.

Of course, being these are based on HISTORICAL FACTS, why would DeSantis and his “friends” like what is said here?

Then in Germany, the book burning and prohibition of people and things.

Historical facts. In fact, Hitler justified what he did in Germany by what white Gentile folk in Dixie of this place called the USA did to black folk. He justified what he did on what the Western white men did to the natives of America. Sadly, to consider it came from America. Well, here it is, once again, rearing its ugly head in America, whether it’s Trump, Taylor Greene, Goetz, Rick Scott, Ron DeSantis or, yes, even Jebbie Bush. Jebbie Bush, angered because he could never become president, like his brother (not that his brother was a whole bunch better).

No, Friends of DeSantis, you adopt the Southern ways of bigotry and white superiority which once resided in the Democratic Party of the South. I know. As a Yankee in King Repugnican’s Florida court, I witnessed it. DeSantis is a by-product of what happened. He does NOT support freedom, except to claim so and lead the path to dictatorship, as Hitler did. As Lenin and Stalin did. There. I mention both sides of the extremists. All dictators.

Freedom means it is something we need to work for and we have guidelines, not RULES, for being a civilized society which has people who can coexist. What are you, DeSantis? A supporter of the ways of the Roman Empire, which is where the word fascist derives? They CLAIMED to have freedom and democracy, while putting down the Ancient Greek people of the land where the “cradle of democracy” derived. The Romans destroying democracy and then claiming they had democracy when the leaders acted with vengeance against anyone who disagreed with the leaders. Perhaps the guy with a baseball bat at some home learned it from the Romans? Or the Mafia?

DeSantis, you are not a friend to freedom. Your idea of freedom is solely based on only YOUR interpretation about what it means to be free. It benefits YOU, but what about the rest of the people of Florida or the USA?

What about those who are homeless and not because of their fault, but the fault of Repugnicans like DeSantis who pull the rug out from beneath them?

What about those at colleges and schools in Florida who live in high cost of living areas, but are blocked from receiving a living wage? Speaking from experience, you and Rick Scott micro-manage such colleges, appointing lawyers, not educators, to head the colleges. You and Rick Scott block college faculty in Florida from receiving a living wage. If this is freedom, then you have a warped sense of what freedom is. Sure. Some of those professors got fed up and departed from the state – the “freedom of choice.” But what about the people left behind? Perhaps some really good professors depart and thus deny the FREEDOM of the kids to receive a good education. Sorry. That is NOT freedom and demonstrates how DeSantis and Scott know nothing about freedom, except what benefits THEM, just as Trump does.

Continuing about freedom.

What about the black youngsters jailed in Florida prisons run by for-profit Wackenhut for misdemeanors and, due to the profit margin and the need to fill the cells to make money, some very fine youth end up as hardened criminals so you, Jebbie, Scott, and the others can then blame black folk for being criminals? By placing so many people in jail, you deny them the right to vote. If that is freedom, it is a freedom which sucks. Those prisons sound like Hitler German concentration camps, except not yet as bad as the ones in Hitler land. I said, “NOT YET.” Some freedom, as the prison population in this nation is one of the largest in the world. And our society is one of the most violent ones, too. Freedom? What about the freedom for the victims of all of this bull manure for a prison system?

And have we eliminated murder in Florida by maintaining capital punishment? Freedom for the ones criminalized and freedom for the victims?

Reproductive rights. Another Roman Catholic who does not get heard as much as idiots like DeSantis, pointed out that states in America which worked to make abortions illegal have higher rates of abortions than states which REGULATE abortions. Facts. Just the facts, ma’am, not the opinions of dictatorial puritanical perverts in religious groups.

Freedom? Libertarians (aka, anarchists wanting the “anything goes” attitude). DeSantis and friends love those libertarians, as did Hitler during the period of “springtime in Germany” of the 1930s. Libertarians were Hitler’s best friends, opening the doors wider and paving the roads strongly for Hitler to swoop into power. Libertarians don’t like regulations and guidelines. So, for a dictator to take control, the method used (historically), whether Hitler or others, has been to drop all the rules and make people feel so good about life without rules, and then swoop in as barbarians making a killing. Such people like Hitler spit out the libertarians like seeds. Case in point. Castro in Cuba. Made it look like a libertarian movement, too. Then after taking power, he went after gay people and locked them up. Good for him! Reveal all the gay folk with the smoke screen of “freedom” so as to have a target to go after some people he hated. Libertarian and freedom, Mr. DeSantis (and Mr. Rand Paul)? You are nothing but sick puppies, mentally deranged, with your smoke screen as you spell out the word, freedom.

Freedom and people are losing sight of the important guidelines necessary to live in a civilized nation. Barbarism in the form of mass shootings and then blaming the other side, as Hitler did in Germany. All to then swoop in and say, “see, we need to take control… see, we told you so…” All the bull manure of sickos who only seek power for their own benefit alone.

Mr. DeSantis and friends among the Repugnicans. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

I am a Lincoln Republican and believe in TRULY being socially progressive and fiscally efficient. When I was registered Republican, there were many who were of the same mind. In fact, I learned from such Republicans in Yankee-land. A relative of mine, Ezra Cornell, was one of the founders of the Republican Party of New York, at the time of Lincoln. He was accused by Democrats in support of white racism, to be a “radical.” RADICAL? Because he supported the abolition of slavery, which is not human and goes against human equality? RADICAL? Those pointing the fingers were also sick puppies, in going against overall humanity and denying FREEDOM for one group within the HUMAN RACE.

I suppose, Mr. sicko DeSantis, you would ban the showing of Hair in Florida? I can just imagine. Hair makes a dramatic statement about human beings with a very short (perhaps a minute of so) of the entire cast standing on stage in the nude. Then the curtain is drawn. According to one actor who is playing in Hair, the statement is about removing the “barriers” imposed by human society.

One can shoot down what this actor said. It is easy to do, especially when talking about how removing the “barriers makes us all the same.” But, you might say, men and women are not the same. You don’t get the point. The scene is such a flash and so quick, you don’t get to fixate on genitals or boobs, as perhaps many perverted ones do. In your mind, you end up seeing that, stripped down, all on that stage are equal.

That scene is so quick, that one does not have time to say, “there is a black man in this spot or an Asian woman in this spot or a Latino i n this spot over there.” Everyone is the same with one big picture of humanity.

And in my blog, you will see I wrote a review of a production of Hair in South Florida. I pointed out that it was wrong to give the actors the “freedom” to wear clothes or not because the message of that quick scene becomes lost. More likely, it blocks the men who are repressed gay and cannot see other male genitals, so as to compare them! In fact, in that production, there were several who DID put underwear on. One could pick those out more easily than the naked people. I guess, as Dana Carvey’s Church Lady would say, “they’re special!” In other words, more important than others, just because they had clothes and ruined the scene.

My response to that Lake Worth, Florida production of Hair was to say, if you cannot do the scene correctly, as intended, then don’t do it at all. But. That would be encouraging censorship, would it not? Or perhaps for those who did not wish to appear on stage during that short minute, don’t go on at all. That, too, would be curtailing freedom, would it not? The answer is to simply do it for the message intended. When one sees a group of people on stage for just one minute, what the hell is the problem? The world will not end should they appear nude for that one minute. Censoring it curtails the freedom of those on stage and in the audience. If someone in the audience does not wish to see it, then don’t go to the production.

That production is not like Oh Calcutta or Puppetry of the Penis where people are on stage the entire time and in the nude. Have I seen either of those? No. I had no interest. But why should those who might be interested be able to see those productions and NOT be subjected to judgment by sickos and puritanical ones? Freedom.

We were married in Lake Worth with a wonderful ceremony and reception that followed. We are thankful to all our friends and relatives who were there to help us celebrate. Our 7th year anniversary is just around the corner. But our freedom to do that DID NOT come about due to Democrat turned Repugnican, Bondi of Florida. And certainly, we likely can thank Ron DeSantis for the freedom.

Are DeSantis and friends trying to be the John Galt of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged? If so, being in Florida, you are in the wrong place.

Oh, but I forget. Ayn Rand may have revealed her “virtue of selfishness” in that novel. But unknown to selfish ones who wish to eliminate abortions, Ayn Rand supported abortions and Roe v. Wade. Sorry, but you are not living up to Ayn Rand’s standards regarding freedom. After all, that was freedom based on selfishness.

I could call the man a name right now, but I will avoid it. Instead, I have gotta go now and kiss my spouse good morning. And then thank GOD for the freedom we have by NOT living in Florida. After all, this and every other day is the day the LORD has made, so we give thanks and rejoice in it.

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Thank you, Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi was correct in her statements about Google monopoly. Any company like Google which makes the consumers on the demand side of the market feel helpless by changing settings without the permission of the person who owns the computer is in violation of that person’s right to run the computer as the person sees fit to do. What is worse is the way the installation of an app on a person’s computer is hidden so one cannot remove such a Google app. Go to uninstall and try to do an uninstall of Google Drive. What is the message? “Program is still active so cannot be uninstalled.” ACTIVE? WHERE? Try to find where it is active. All designed to confuse the consumer in the same way as Trump snippets and other crap from Repugnican hateful liars, slanderers, or those who use baseball bats against human beings, like the Mafia, in order to scare people into submission. If one is not a wimp, as are some in the Democratic and Republican Parties (remain nameless), then you are safe. Otherwise they fear those who stand up for what is right, like Nancy Pelosi, and dredge up lies and baseball bats to try to win – as with Machiavellian theory – the ends justifies the means. That means, it matters not how vicious, vengeful, and barbaric Repugnicans can be, the end justifies the means.

I am a Lincoln Republican who got sick of the Repugnican Party of Florida. I am a proud Yankee who is sick and tired of Repugnicans and their lies, slander and libel which is used with snippets on Facebook or Twitter to attack those who take a stand for the people. I take a stand for WE THE PEOPLE. I believe in what Thomas Jefferson wrote, “all men are created equal.” Except I put that in the context of the 21st Century and say, “all human beings are created equal.” Thomas Jefferson got a fight in the 18th Century in trying to put it that way. Where did the trouble derive? From Dixie states of Georgia and the Carolinas where the white male bastards were fearful of what it meant to be equal to others. Sad to say. But by building up Dixie over the past 50 to 60 years, America is heading back in the same direction of what Thomas Jefferson faced in the 18th Century.

Repeat. I am in favor of WE THE PEOPLE, the first three words of the U.S. Constitution. I am in favor of the statement, “all human beings are created equal.” And to take it one step further and be real blunt. If an older woman is raped (see Stanley Kubrik’s A Clockwork Orange) and ends up pregnant, the life of the fetus is NOT MORE IMPORTANT than the life of an older woman. Medical science can prove the risks to an older woman’s LIFE due to a pregnancy at an older age. This example points out a life and death circumstance for older women.

But it applies to any woman because their life CAN be threatened, especially under any circumstances.

In my mind, there is a fine line when considering no threat to the woman and no rape. In this case, there are more PROACTIVE choices for contraception and abortion becomes a reactionary choice.

An interesting point. The ones who support reproductive rights are considered liberal or progressive (socially progressive as we were called when I was a Republican). That is also referred to as being proactive or, as taught in the Boy Scouts, “be prepared.” Abortion as a contraceptive choice is reactionary, not progressive and proactive. Who are the ones opposed to abortion? Those who love being reactionary. Abortion as a contraception choice is reactionary, not proactive. No consistency which can create something called, “common sense.”

Makes me wonder whether it is the reactionary ones, opposed to abortions, who are secretly obtaining abortions. Possibility because I recall Roman Catholics who claimed to oppose contraception but used them anyway. We were told to keep that information”a secret.” “Keep it a secret when some Roman Catholic guy had a vasectomy.”

Jesus Christ called such people hypocrites. So, we have five Roman Catholics on the SCOTUS. I can stereotype them as all being hypocrites. Should I? Most were placed there by Repugnicans, with the help of big business PACs who put money before the interests of the people of America. We the people, in order to form a more perfect union… All human beings are created equal.

And the love of money is evil and usually behind the promotion of waging war. Putin, an atheist, uses the Russian Orthodox Church to promote his war. Cannot criticize the Russians without pointing out how much Repugnicans in America use Christian churches to promote war among our own people. Or. To point out how Texas oil men used money as the basis for sending Americans to Vietnam in the 1960s.

We the people and we are all created equal. The foundation of America. Go ahead. Hate what I say. Or perhaps hate ME because I say it. If it bothers you when I say this, perhaps it is because you just want to have fun in life and what I say might interrupt your fun? Your life of putting a foto of the food you ate last night on Facebook. Just what we love to see, right? But hey, it’s fun!

And when such hate permeates America to such a large degree, what will America get? Something better? ‘Splain it to me, please.

Thank you, Nancy Pelosi, for your service to we the people, all created equal as children of God. Thank you, Nancy Pelosi for not being a Democratic Party wimp who turns over and plays “dead.” Sorry there are so many Repugnicans in America who are afraid of people who promote “we the people” and that all human beings are created equal, the foundation of America. My ancestors who were wealthy in America and helped build this nation (not avoid paying taxes), lived and died for this nation, would be pleased.

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La Boheme, Eugene, OR

Zachary Lenox, graduate of Newark Valley High School and Crane School of Music. Heard about your performing in La Boheme in Eugene, OR. Awesome!

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“Now why’d you choose such a backward time … And such a strange land?”

In the 1970s, the rock musical, Jesus Christ Superstar was introduced. I purchased the original vinyl album. I have seen the on-stage productions of this rock musical.

At the time JCS was released, we had two students from Cortland State College, student teachers at our high school, boarding with us. I had purchased the album. I found these two guys interesting to speak with about the music of JCS. Many discussions ensued, in addition to discussions about history because the two of them were history history education majors.

Lyrics in JCS were a good description. But I recall the few which asked questions. For example, “Now why’d you choose such a backward time … And such a strange land?” As a junior in high school, it was difficult to answer those questions.

As my life has progressed and I have maintained my faith in God, I believe I have, with wisdom, developed a HYPOTHETICAL answer to those questions. Hypothetical means there is no certainty, but there is plenty of evidence to determine a hypothesis. So we seek wisdom about it.

My wisdom of age, created by humble learning over time, has provided me with a possible answer. Today, we have people who lie, slander, and libel other good people, based on a love of money and materialism. Love of money is evil. Money is NOT evil. Profits are NOT evil, except when done solely for the love of money. I have read about this and learned about this over time.

Guidelines for a civilized society work in creating a civilized society. It is not a perfect solution, but it helps overcome the evils of the selfishness and greed of egomaniacs with a love and worship of money.

The Roman Empire is known as being one of the most brutal and vicious group of people to control a portion of the world which has ever existed. Am I certain about this? No. But I have humbly learned, over time, about this and gained wisdom. There is plenty of evidence and facts to support what I say. Some folks may feel biased against what I say, so go ahead and shoot me down. What will you accomplish in an attempt to find the truth?

The Roman Empire was in control of Israel during the 1st Century. As a Christian all my life, I am aware of most of the teachings of Jesus Christ and consider Him to be the “word” of God made flesh. I consider that Christ came here to be the “light of the world.” Those are MY beliefs and I am not FORCING you, as vicious people do, to believe what I believe.

I feel I have to say all of this because the egomaniacs of the world just work to shoot holes, as if I want control. It’s those people who shoot holes in hypothetical theories, based on their own egotistical bias, who are likely the perverts who wish to control others.

But this brings me to answering that question in the JCS rock musical: “Now why’d you choose such a backward time
And such a strange land?” It was due to the opposition our Deity had to how a group of people are treated badly by those who seek power over others in corrupt and evil ways with a love AND WORSHIP of money.

In my belief, based on what I have learned over time, including Thomas Jefferson’s (remember him? one of the USA’s FOUNDING FATHERS?) documentation about the Gospels. This is a Deity who imparts the message that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely (not words from God, but words from human beings who recognize a Deity more powerful than humans; a Deity which imparts a love for His/Her children. (Strange words to say, right? His/Her? God has not always been proven to be a “Father,” but a “Parent”).

Again. I do not expect one to feel controlled by my beliefs. But I also do not have an inkling of desire to follow the beliefs of bashers of other human beings as they resist coexistence.

The word of God became flesh. That is my belief system. The reason was to choose a place and time when one group of people were being controlled by perverted lovers of self and money, while the crowd went along and had the word of God executed. Perverted ones to convince the crowds were lawyers and religious leaders, all with a love of money. Money first. A Deity would choose that time and place to impart the message, as people suffered and were convinced by lovers of money to find a scapegoat.

But is it not possible that scapegoat was determined in order for a Deity to impart the message about loving one another (coexistence)? Is it not possible the message was also about human beings learning to reject those who are hypocrites and lovers of money?

Jesus Christ himself is quoted as hurling accusations at hypocrites of those days; Jesus Christ himself, with actions, not words, overturned tables of the money changers, lovers and worshipers of money. Yet, why is it we relinquish control to give it back to power mongers with a love of money and then blame our government? Even Jesus said, “render unto Caesar his due.” In other words, pay your taxes and look at something else besides scapegoats and a government as the reasons for our problems, out of fear of a “mafioso” in centralized businesses created by supply-side Reaganomics, destroying small business competition in the process.

Adam Smith wrote books about the creation of capitalism. Wealth of Nations and Theories of Moral Sentiments. Adam Smith also intently studied the words of Christ. Yet, the “sheep” in this world go along with the lovers of money who attain the power which corrupts and absolute power which corrupts absolutely. They do not even have knowledge of what Adam Smith wrote which was presented as an economic system with balance and a “moral sentiment” for a process in which humans predominate over money, as presented by Jesus Christ, and not the other way around (money over humans).

Today, we have in place, the SEC which allows the biggest stockholders to have more votes in a corporate stockholder meeting than the common folk who own the stock. It is like these people are money changers during the 1st Century when Jesus Christ walked the earth. They don’t give one damn about the common folk and cheat and lie to get their way. Same thing with those money changers of the 1st Century by not only selling in the temple, but also selling SHODDY and LOUSY animals for sacrifice on the altar.

For many of us, we have experienced the lousy way that those with the most stock have treated us. It was one of the many wars that the shoddy and corrupt people with the most stock, Republicans, pulled the rug out from beneath me and many others. They skimmed money off a cash cow of a company, so as to allow vicious other Republicans (primarily) to come in and buy out the company. The only ones to benefit were the shoddy fat pigs at the top, skimming the money off the corporation. Meanwhile, the rest of us stockholders were not even allowed in secret stockholder meetings held in Houston, Texas (for a Florida corporation) and many of us common folk then lost our stock holdings in the process.

How many times do I have to explain this to common folk, hoping to get support, rather than stupidity hurled at me, as well as hatred from common folk? How many times? And do we really need the return of Jesus Christ when we have the knowledge right here in front of us, given to us in the 1st Century? How many times do we have to pray for “Christ’s return.” A loving Deity may treat us kindly, but that Deity must wonder, “Gosh, I gave them the information when the word became flesh. Why do they not see it?” But I can’t speak for God, as so many TV evangelists and perverted proselytizers try to do – constantly.

My mother even had a problem with proselytizers in her life. But at least there were more people like my mother who understood. My generation and younger generations are apparently full of a bunch of stupid jerks who are not humble enough to learn by seeking knowledge and wisdom, but rely on the hearsay of Fox and other groups who push an end all for everything – a certainty that they have all the answers.

This is a lengthy message. I really don’t care if you don’t like it because it is. Those in the World War II generation and before would read essays of great length. They were able to demonstrate humility and learning for the sake of human beings over money.

JC, JC: “Now why’d you choose such a backward time … And such a strange land?” Because it took that type of environment to get many people to learn. W hat is the problem with those who don’t wish to learn today? Instead, they wish for an Armageddon to start all things over, when the proof is in a Deity who DID teach human beings and there is no excuse for not understanding it. Stop pushing us towards chaos with power and control from lovers and worshipers of money in the form of greedy, self-centered, egomaniac centrally-controlled dictatorial corporations run by an oligarchy. Because you are pushing us towards disaster by supporting such egomaniacs with power. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The foundations for these problems are not the government created by my ancestors and Founding Fathers. The problem is the oligarchy which attempts to take control of our government and take it out of the hands of the people. WE THE PEOPLE. And there are many of us who have wisdom and knowledge based on the TRUE DEITY and the TRUE Jesus Christ. Supply-side Reaganomics ultimately tosses away those of us who are followers of the true word of God made flesh because the ones who worship money are fearful of the loss of their power – a corrupt one which leads to absolute power which corrupts absolutely. And they become like the vicious Roman Empire of the past. Like the vicious rulers who come out of the hills of Russia.

“Now why’d you choose such a backward time… And such a strange land?” Is it for me to know and you to find out? Because the answer is there before us, just by studying and learning about the word of God made flesh. To learn that this happened and for a purpose.

I pity those who do not understand what I am saying. But that is okay. Because I won’t control you with my belief. I just try to teach. I am not a perfect teacher, but I sure to work towards wisdom, not certainty or purity.

I do this because my grandmother was always saying, “judge not lest you be judged.” But she always encouraged me to be a teacher. Praise the LORD for my grandmother and many others who have encouraged me in my life and offered me opportunities, not always handouts. The ones who provided a temporary safety net which may have been in the form of some handouts, but the word “temporary” is important to note here. Then I would encounter the “jubilee year.” Don’t know what “jubilee year” is? Then humble thyself and learn what it is. Would be good for those money lovers to consider when discussing student loan debt.

On and on I go. But I now understand what was meant in the questions found in lyrics of JC Superstar. “Now why’d you choose such a backward time … And such a strange land?” 🙏 🖖

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Out to Get Me?

Dear Editors:

I have many friends, many now deceased, in Florida, who were Democrats and helped me find opportunities, not handouts, when Republicans in business and the privatization butte heads in government, pulled the rug out from beneath me. Defend such Republicans with a stereotype of all Democrats being bad and you insult me. But then. Who cares whether people insult one another these days.

Those who project me simply with “you think people are out to get you” are probably the ones who truly ARE working against me. But I am naive and don’t know. I seek knowledge and wisdom so as to discover IF there are such people. But the world is not out to get me. I have the faith of Job and know that God helps those who help themselves, as I have done. IF it does not happen immediately, I don’t have a quest for instant gratification so as to diss God when things don’t happen my way immediately. I personally knew someone once who did have a lack of faith and dissed God. I feel pity for such people because knowledge and wisdom defeat the fear they have in their heart.

I don’t worry, either, as has been thrown in my face with a stupidity beyond belief, that to solve the problems of the world, we need to bring those problems to the forefront so people can LEARN what the foundations of the problems really are. I pity people who don’t understand this because likely the ones doing the “worrying” are those who hurl such false epitaphs at me.

Same thing with repressive LGBTQ folk. They are gay but get a good feeling from hiding that in a closet and hurling hatred at those of us who don’t hide in a closet. I am not worried because one of the first scriptures I learned was, “yeah though I walk through the shadow of death, I will feel no fear because God is with me.” I don’t need to “seek and find” or “knock and the door will be opened.” I already knocked and the door was opened to me a long time ago. I don’t worry and remain as strong as Job. Perhaps those who hurl such epitaphs at me or others as being “worried,” need to look inward. Or those who think another person is fearful that “others” or even the entire world is “out to get one self” also need to look inward at one self before hurling the false epitaphs in accordance with some kind of group think, peer pressure, and/or being in the “in” crowd.

I don’t seek the “in crowd” because the “in crowd” is certain that their answers are the end all for everything. I seek wisdom. I seek traditions, but not traditionalism. I seek practice, not purity.

I also feel pity for those who don’t understand what I just said in this writing.

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Dear Editors:

I have many friends, many now deceased, in Florida, who were Democrats and helped me find opportunities, not handouts, when Republicans in business and the privatization butte heads in government, pulled the rug out from beneath me. Defend such Republicans with a stereotype of all Democrats being bad and you insult me. But then. Who cares whether people insult one another these days.

Those who project me simply with “you think people are out to get you” are probably the ones who truly ARE working against me. But I am naive and don’t know. I seek knowledge and wisdom so as to discover IF there are such people. But the world is not out to get me. I have the faith of Job and know that God helps those who help themselves, as I have done. IF it does not happen immediately, I don’t have a quest for instant gratification so as to diss God when things don’t happen my way immediately. I personally knew someone once who did have a lack of faith and dissed God. I feel pity for such people because knowledge and wisdom defeat the fear they have in their heart.

I don’t worry, either, as has been thrown in my face with a stupidity beyond belief, that to solve the problems of the world, we need to bring those problems to the forefront so people can LEARN what the foundations of the problems really are. I pity people who don’t understand this because likely the ones doing the “worrying” are those who hurl such false epitaphs at me.

Same thing with repressive LGBTQ folk. They are gay but get a good feeling from hiding that in a closet and hurling hatred at those of us who don’t hide in a closet. I am not worried because one of the first scriptures I learned was, “yeah though I walk through the shadow of death, I will feel no fear because God is with me.” I don’t need to “seek and find” or “knock and the door will be opened.” I already knocked and the door was opened to me a long time ago. I don’t worry and remain as strong as Job. Perhaps those who hurl such epitaphs at me or others as being “worried,” need to look inward. Or those who think another person is fearful that “others” or even the entire world is “out to get one self” also need to look inward at one self before hurling the false epitaphs in accordance with some kind of group think, peer pressure, and/or being in the “in” crowd.

I don’t seek the “in crowd” because the “in crowd” is certain that their answers are the end all for everything. I seek wisdom. I seek traditions, but not traditionalism. I seek practice, not purity.

I also feel pity for those who don’t understand what I just said in this writing.

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Spam Filters

Who runs the spam filter in gmail? What are the criteria for filtering an incoming message to spam? I am a proud member of a faculty union. Just now, one of my incoming messages from my faculty union was placed in spam. Why? Who decides? Donald Trump and the anti-union gang which we can call goons?

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Knowledge Conquers Fear

​

Dear Editors:

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

People are being persuaded to vote for Republicans due to lies which create fear. If they don’t vote for Republicans, the grip of fear makes them uncomfortable to vote at all, so the Republicans win. The Republicans. The ones who gave us a SCOTUS which did not do justice, but dictated Citizens United upon us so Republicans can line their pockets with corporate PAC money. Democrats who don’t take such money are defeated by the fear factor of lies and slander of those opposed to Republicans. Republicans who lead the charge as “sheep in wolves clothing” and making everyone believe the government is at fault. The government is NOT at fault because, today, it is controlled by corporate PAC money emanating from lovers of money, the leaders of the “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” The Republicans calling themselves conservative do not agree with what this 18th-Century conservative said. They are not conservatives because true conservatives don’t want to invoke what existed in the past with regard to bigotry against race, religion, sexual identity. A true conservative looks at history and wants to LEARN from history because knowledge is more power than money because it also helps to eliminate the fear factor caused by liars and slanderers.

A bumper sticker incorrectly identifies with what Reagan said in 1981.  That government is the problem.  Wrong.  And I have evidence, proof and facts which demonstrate it is wrong.  Today, government is not the problem. For us “sheep-like” ones, too many are being mesmerized as it is. The corporate oligarchy created by supply-side Reaganomics and Alito and Scalia on the SCOTUS are the real problems.  They have destroyed capitalist competition, especially that from small businesses which built this nation. They line the pockets of Republicans with corporate PAC money, while Democrats attempt to win without such money.  The problem is NOT a government full of wolves, but a government controlled by corporate PAC money and people who are wolves in sheep’s clothing who put like type people – wolves in sheep’s clothing – into Congress.  Lovers of money, an evil aspect, have too much control. 

A bumper sticker identifying “wolves” with government is wrong.  With all due respect to those who are mesmerized by such a thing.  The bumper sticker should read, “the sheep are being controlled with false information by the corporate/business oligarchy consisting of sheep in wolves clothing.” 

Such wolves are handing out corporate PAC money to support their pitiful personal interests only.  They do this while taking money from the “sheep-like” who have invested for long-term capitalist investments in the form of pooled resources such as pensions, Social Security and Medicare. 

The bumper sticker about wolves and government is created by the lovers of money who mesmerize sheep-like ones into thinking the wrong people are eating their lunch and perhaps eating the sheep, too. 

Note the quote from Edmund Burke, a conservative from about two centuries ago. Here is a quote from an 18th-Century CONSERVATIVE.

Knowledge conquers fear.

—

Professor Douglas Willet Cornwell (Retired)

Newark Valley, NY

bibsinger@gmail.com

———————————“Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” “The problems of the world are not that some people love in a different way. The problems are that so many people don’t know how to love at all (CGA, 1970).” A Puritan is someone in fear that someone, somewhere, is having a good time. “Liberty and justice for all [not priorities on individual and selfish rights].” “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union [and overall wealth of American society]…” 
​Benjamin Franklin: “​Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are ​affected.” Stacey Abrams: “Compromise about actions, but not about values.”  Oscar Wilde: “​​​I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”  Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” Benjamin Franklin: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”  Whoopi Goldberg: “To handle this COVID-19 pandemic effectively, we all need to get on the same page.”  Note: To be clear, I do not like being patronized. I do not express my disdain over what happens to my fellow humans just for my own sake and to pursue favors and handouts. I do it in order to gain R – E – S – P – E – C – T for me and for millions of other Americans of any race, ethnicity, religious belief, or sex and sexual identity who try to walk in integrity as they attempt to achieve, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  PERIOD.  One nation under God [our Creator] with liberty and justice for all.

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