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 the ‘Commentary’ Category

Trump, According to a “My Turn” Writer in the P&S-B

Dear Editors:

Your “My Turn” columnist (3/13/2022) gave credit to Trump for achieving peace in the world, for America to become “strong and independent.” The examples given were about peace in the Middle East. One cannot argue with some of those points made. What was not said by the “My Turn” writer was that, in each case, there may have been peace, but in order to achieve the peace, there was no justice. For much of the peace was in support of the Saudi Arabian sheiks. During the Trump years, we also witnessed the sheiks ordering beheadings of their own people by using swords. They are awful pictures of injustice towards human beings. Then we saw the ISIS, supported by Putin and the Arab sheiks, who did the same thing.  In other words, justice, to Putin, the Arabian sheiks, and Trump, is how they define justice. If one does not agree, like Hitler and Stalin, then they are executed. By silencing the opposition, they achieve peace. We cannot achieve peace without justice for all.

In the same way, Trump achieved a “peace” in Afghanistan and put our pullout on a timetable. Biden chose to work with the opposition and stuck to the timetable established by Trump. Trump is applauded for achieving the peace while Biden gets slammed for removing troops from Afghanistan.  It appears Biden and the Democrats are “damned if they do and damned if they don’t.”

As far as the issue of inflation is concerned, there is evidence that the tariffs imposed by Trump on one nation (China) have had an impact on increased inflation. Biden is dragging his feet about getting rid of the tariffs and then Biden gets slammed for inflation.  Again, Biden and the Democrats are “damned if they do and damned if they don’t.”

Trump never achieved domestic peace within this nation. He emboldened many people in opposition to Democrats and the war on the COVID-19 pandemic. He could have provided supplies by invoking the Defense Protection Act. He could have done this at the time Gov. Cuomo and other governors (both Republican and Democrat) needed them. Cuomo ends up getting blamed and Trump does not. Again. Democrats are “damned if they do and damned if they don’t.” Republicans are simply above the law because of the fundagelical crap in American religion with their god of hatred. 

In the midst of all this, Trump, DeSantis, Santorum, McConnell, Rick Scott, Scott Walker (Wisconsin) all get to spend their time on suppression of voting, power in gerrymandering, bigotry towards gay folks and people with colored skin, while ignoring the domestic issues about human justice, human equality, and humanity in general.  In fact, some of them are spending more time in coming up with anti-gay and anti-colored-people rules for denying the ability for human equality. In effect, they are working against the very preamble of the U.S. Constitution which talks about maintaining domestic peace (“domestic tranquility”) and are hypocrites each time they repeat the Pledge Allegiance to the Flag and say, “…liberty and justice for all.” There is no “domestic tranquility,” due to Trump and the Republican cronies who dwell on anti-humanity legislation and legitimizing the wealthy and elitist plutocrats who don’t want a democracy because a democracy is dependent on a middle class. In this sense, Trump and his cronies, not following the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, are traitors to America and its democracy.

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Commentary, human-rights

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Trump, the Traitor to American Democracy

Dear Editors:

Wow! I cannot believe the words that I was reading in Sunday’s Opinion page (“Trump made America strong and independent”).

I am impressed. After all, it makes me happy when people are doing better in this world. Such wonderful individuals who think the whole world revolves around such an individual. How nice!  Wow!

Was the world was at peace? Hallelujah!  Yes, impressive about the world being at peace, especially when there was no justice. The world cannot be at peace without justice. Justice also means treating domestic citizens of all kinds like they are human beings, whether it’s the color of their skin, their religious beliefs, or if they are LGBTQ+ who are pleased that there has been progress which surpasses the shit they had to put up with in schools. Talking about being gay was out of the mouths of bullies who called us sissies because we did not always act like men. Yet, how did we hurt such people, while they hurt us?

I must admit. I could probably identify some improvements in the world, from 2017 to 2021, while Trump and the Republicans were in charge. Let me think a bit. Just wait. They will come to me.  Well, there was one improvement. I suffered a near-tragedy in 2018 but survived!  That was an improvement, for sure.

When Trump attempted to work out a one-nation tariff, I anticipated something good coming out of it. After all, I have always followed the conservative proposal for a Value-added Tax. A VAT is a domestic version of a tariff.  When I mentioned to a friend that I hoped that maybe something good would come of the tariff proposal, my friend helped me to understand that the reactions from China were nothing but laughter. As it turned out, Trump’s track record in business by ignoring the debt he or others owe was influential in the failure of his proposal for a tariff. I tried to find something plausible. 

A February 2022 analysis reported: 

In addition to fanning inflation, tariffs on Chinese goods have provoked retaliatory tariffs that have sharply reduced American exports to China, allowing other nations to move in on markets once dominated by the U.S. To offset the losses to farmers and other exporters, the U.S. government has paid out subsidies, adding to the U.S. budget deficit. At the same time, the tariffs have weakened the private sector in China and led to more state control over China’s supply chains, making the U.S. less secure.

Yet, Biden and the Democrats are to blame, totally, for inflation? The only thing which Biden MIGHT be blamed for, in this case, is dragging his feet in ending the Trump tariffs.  Wow! Was it not Trump’s timeline for ending the war in Afghanistan, never achieving justice there, in which Biden is blamed for? I see. So Trump is able to make peace and make “America strong and independent,” but … oh, well. I guess Republicans are above the law, so when they cheat and lie, they are a-ok guys, right?  Republicans also won state elections in states in which they claimed fraud during the elections. Must be that Republicans cannot possibly win by using fraud, ain’t that right? 

As for the “peace” achieved in the Middle East by Donald Trump, perhaps someone needs to “take a look at the world around him.  Trump’s friends in Saudi Arabia were using swords to chop off the heads of its citizens.  Same procedures used by ISIS, too. 

The border being secure? There were interviews with people in Arizona who were happy that the towns on the border were secure. But they also identified the true methods to end the influx is to work out many of the details to be more proactive in identifying the true problems which cause immigrants to seek a better nation.  The wall is treating the symptom but putting it in place never does an in-depth diagnosis of the problem.

Energy independent? Sure. So we can pollute the atmosphere and spit out of smokestacks the type of stuff which gave acid rain to upstate New York and the northeastern USA. Wonderful. That made America great, right? Acid rain dumping.  Back when George Bush was president, he proposed developing an energy product which was based on switchgrass, a vegetation with a fast fermentation to enable faster production of fuels. It is a less-polluting ingredient. Where is it? Pipelines and drilling squashed the efforts, as we did not try to produce new products while considering a “savings account” in oil which could be tapped during times of need. Like now. 

Speaking of Chinese. The Chinese were smart enough while American investors were dumb asses when it came to long-term investments for our future. We gave up new biomass and green technology productions of energy sources, as Chinese communist investors bought up the long-term businesses because they knew, as well as most others, that the world will possibly run out of oil from the ground. A good Boy Scout would realize that we need to be prepared. Keystone and other oil pipelines obstruct us from being prepared for the future.

Wow! Energy independent? 

Middle class did better pre-Biden and the Democrats? We did? My family paid more taxes in the form of income taxes than we did in the pre-Trump years, even when Bush was president. Are you saying that I was cheated by my tax preparer?  Really? There were various reasons. But my charitable contributions were given less credence than before. Perhaps it was a good thing when churches who relied on such tax breaks were part of the mainstream religions and the ultra-right wing churches which worship a god of hate don’t rely on tax deductible donations, due to tithing?

On top of this, Trump wanted to destroy healthcare for all, especially for those who were not employed and/or were retired.  Heck, the Republicans had already put in place measures to curtail coverage from Medicare. So, we faced the dilemma of staying healthy in retirement or break our bank. Sorry, but we failed to see how much the middle class made out during the Trump years. 

As for “reversing course” on the issue of Ukraine, this letter to the editor (“:guest columnist”) addressed this Democrat who felt we needed to call the bluff of Putin. But this Democrat also realizes that Trump, DeSantis, and Scott (and many of the other bigots within the Republican Party) all fall in line with Putin’s bigoted attitude towards people he does not like. This situation makes it look good that Trump maintained peace? Again. The word justice should be added to this equation. Putin and Trump held the same ideas about justice based on bigotry. So such bullying buddies get along quite well, do they not? 

The attitude here, based on individualistic success and happiness during the years Trump occupied the office, is just like saying, as with the Gannett publications, that “no one reads print copies of newspapers anymore.” Fads based on a reality created and manipulated by those who are happy with the money they make while lining their pockets, not earning it the old-fashioned way.

These are perspectives based on stereotypes.  It is just like the insurrectionists on Jan. 6 who only believe in individual rights and happiness.  Yet, the media, during the election of 2020, often interviewed common folk who said things like, “I have succeeded better during the years of Trump.” No wonder there are those who think there was fraud in the election because they just could not believe it when the picture painted by the media contained so much information about people who were happy during the Trump years. At the same time, no one gave the microphone to people like me who may not have been as happy.

Point being? Talk about the facts and statistics, and stop emphasizing how this one or that one was happier than the ones being given a microphone.  Same thing with Biden, as the spin is put on. The microphone being given only to common folk who are negative about Biden. Evidence, facts, statistics, please. 

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Commentary, human-rights

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When it Comes to Humanity, Human Justice, Human Equality, Human Rights, It’s Not Politics, Stupid

When it come to humanity, human justice, human equality, human rights, it’s not politics. stupid.

Recall the 1992 election and “it’s the economy, stupid”? Does it not make any sense that it’s not politics, stupid, but it’s human justice, human equality, human rights. Or should I reverse this and say, “it’s humanity, human justice, human equality, human rights, but not about politics”? Or does anybody care, except to be only in favor of where each one is in the box they create and hardened to their own opinion, not willing to consider any means of learning or being open-minded enough to consider all ideas? In that case, does it matter whether I put the negative first or the positive side first?

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Commentary, human-rights

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The Supply-siders With too much Power and Control, Lacking Care for Needs of the Demand Side: We are Talking Capitalism

I have spent several hours this morning trying to use Microsoft Office Excel. I purchased Office for each of the three computers I own, when I purchased the computers at Best Buy. Best Buy has a record of this. Microsoft won’t accept the records and insists I have to convert to a monthly subscription to Microsoft365. That is unethical. That is immoral. That is corrupt.

What if my dad, as a small business person selling appliances, including Maytag washers and other brand names, sold appliances some 20 to 30 years ago and those appliances are still working? Is it moral for him to go back to the owners of such appliances which are still working and insist they purchase a subscription or else they cannot use the appliance which was used for 20 to 30 years? Likely people would laugh at him. Immoral. Corrupt. Unethical.

Yet, as I speak out on Facebook about this happening with software companies, people would never back me up and speak out against it. Instead, they would say, “oh, too bad, too bad.”

Don’t use the shit about “new technology” because certainly there is no technology for the new Maytag washers. They are so different today. We purchased one in 2019. It is very different. The dryer the same. Should I have a subscription to Maytag365 now? Sure. I could purchase American Home Shield to cover ALL my appliances. We did so in Florida.

With the computers, Best Buy provides an annual fee to take care of our computers. EXCEPT when it comes to Microsoft or Google. Then they refuse to be held accountable for them. Does this make any sense?

Then we hear the stupidity of those with microphones complaining about inflation, getting mad at Joe Biden and the Democrats. Screw such people. Gas, energy, food, clothing, and other items in our lives are our needs and necessities. We have made the Internet, technology, mobile phones, and streaming television our necessities. Yet, the price of Spectrum is about 96% higher than the days when cable television cost only about $10.00 per month and we received more local broadcasts from more cities than we do now. Instead, we think we NEED 300 or 400 channels and pay 96% more today than we did about 1973.

In contrast, gasoline prices, since the 1973 oil embargo and high prices, have gone down and mesmerized the crowd into believing gasoline is better than many alternative fuels such as biomass and other green technologies, solar, wind, and hydro. Electric cars, too. We don’t preserve our oil fields for future long-term savings such to be used at times like this. I don’t have exact figures. But I do recall the oil embargo put in place by the major oil producers from the Arabs and even a good chance the Soviet Union and seeing prices fairly even with some of what we are seeing now.

So, now, Joe Biden would like to regulate the software and technology companies like Microsoft, but people yell and scream about doing that.

Meanwhile, what these people in this industry provide really sucks. It is unreliable and lacks the quality for which American business once wanted to strive to do so as to recognize both SUPPLY and DEMAND. I read about the “supply chains” which cause a problem for inflation. Hello!!!!

WE…. WE… WE… (get my drift…. it is not just ME, ME, ME) don’t need to spend so much on Microsoft365, but we DO NEED to feed ourselves, keep a roof over our heads, and use transportation, whether it be an automobile or public transit.

When Florida voters decided to put in fast speed rail from Orlando to Miami, Governor Rick the Prick Scott (now in the U.S. Senate) blocked it from happening, going against the desires of the electorate. Rick the Prick, instead, supported the expansion of I-95 by four or five lanes and instituting a toll on I-95 in Miami. The claim is that public transit is more expensive? That’s bullshit. One thing to mention, accidents on I-95 increase and lawyers make tons more money and taxpayers pay more for tying up the courts with the lawsuits. Yet, this is not counted as increases in costs. Besides the demand for more gasoline and the gas-guzzling emissions which help increase global warming. Oh, that’s right. Rick the Prick, DeSantis, Trump and others don’t want to acknowledge that, do they, because then people will figure out how much more society pays for gas emissions. Those guys are nothing but cowards who would rather bully those who criticize than to consider what we are saying.

With regard to the rail system which voters approved in Florida, those of us who saw an opportunity to get out of a neighborhood where we witnessed too damn many drive-by shootings, built new homes with Centex about 60 miles north. WE expected a rail system voters had approved. Beautiful homes, but Centex lost its shirt and today no longer exists. We had a wonderful multi-racial neighborhood there. I often went jogging with a black guy from upstate NY who moved there because he had a job in Fort Lauderdale and could work from home, rather than living in bad neighborhoods. Rick the Prick fucked us all over, the bastard SOB and he needs to pay for it. Apologies for the “f” word, but I don’t take it back until people come together and begin to take what I say more seriously.

I blame Rick the Prick Scott for going against the will of the Florida voters and the head of the Republican Party Florida Senate majority leader. Senator Alexander, our senator from Fort Pierce area, had to leave the Florida Senate due to term limits.

The Republican Party today, due to the corrupt, immoral, and unethical leadership, sucks big time. It sucks due to people like Rick the Prick, Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, and even Jeb Bush who won’t stand up to the unethical ones in the party.

(NOTE: George Bush spoke about making new fuels from something called switchgrass because it fermented at a quicker rate and could speed production of the fuel. Bush said this in a State of the Union address. Tell me what we have done with switchgrass? Do you see it at all? So here we are in a panic and acting like reactionary jerks in trying to find something NOW, rather than being PREPARED (as they teach in the Boy Scouts)?

At the end of the day, we pay far more increased costs for software and streaming video than we need to spend. I know people who have dropped the freaking stuff called cable television and Internet. Rural areas also do not have a choice. Empire Access fiber is in urban Broome, but those of us in Tioga? We can go screw. George Bush also tried to promote broadband for all. With his switchgrass and such broadband proposals, they have all been relegated to the trash heap while we are, once again dealing with lovers of oil in Russia and Saudi Arabia. Bush even sent troops to Iraq so as to defend the needs and desires of the Arabs. Now here we are and no one wishes to send troops to defend freedom, democracy and the oil and energy supplies in a little nation like Ukraine, as the big bully Putin tries to take the oil in Ukraine to add to his arsenal of energy sources.

What I say about Putin and Ukraine is not just about PEACE, but about PEACE AND JUSTICE. There cannot be peace with no justice. Stop the bullshit of SCOTUS and other sources in tying justice to politics. They are two separate issues.

Not only is there a lack of justice in the regulation of worldwide energy sources, but the supply side pigs of technology, Internet service, mobile phones, and cable television have caused this nation to lose the semiconductor industry to another CAPITALIST DEMOCRATIC NATION while a communist regime is salivating at the ideas of cutting America off at the knees and taking over that CAPITALIST DEMOCRACY> And the only concern Microsoft and Spectrum have is to put people like Claudia Tenney into Congress so as to do their will, not the will of the DEMAND SIDE OF THE MARKET, typically done by REGULATING capitalism and not allowing the supply side to make its own greed, selfishness, love of money rules which override the needs of the DEMAND SIDE.

Claudia Tenney won by only a few votes in the 22nd district, defeating a man who had served in Congress and worked to work out military contracts and so forth for selling products made in upstate NY, rather than purchasing products from China instead. What a joke.

And now we read about how there is such a huge trade unbalance. Of course. When Trump and his cronies like Tenney concentrate on lies, lies, lies, cheating, cheating, cheating, and get their money from companies like Spectrum (perhaps Microsoft, too?), we on the demand side get trashed as we try to speak out against this types of actions by iliars, liars, liars, pants on fire.

After experiencing the bullshit this morning of a company tracking a customer who had purchased the software on CD. Hear me? The thing people call antiquated? As antiquated as an old Maytag washer purchased years ago and still working. Actually, the washer is MORE antiquated. If the CD was not purchasese, then Best Buy installed it on the computers. I paid quite a bit for the software, but with a subscription to Microsoft365 taken into considerations over molnths and months and months, I would probably be paing five times as much. That is an over-priced product. For a person on the DEMAND SIDE of a capitliatt market, I find that this over-pricing is corrupt, immoral, and unethical.

The fat pigs don’t find it to be this way, do they? So if someone is more wealthy, they tell me, “I don’t want to hear you speak about politics.” That is cowards and bullies saying, “I am happy because I can afford all this, so just shut up and listen to the media I have power and money over as they attack inflation in a nonsense way.”

Sad to say, there are too GODDAMN many Americans who are saying this, while the rest who are like me just remain silent and silentce like a cancer grows. Fuck those who are wealthy and say such things to me.

The example I address is one about the NEEDS OF THE DEMAND SIDE of a CAPITALLIST MARKET. It’s economics stupid, not politics. It’s human justice, stupid, not politics. Unless all of us who are criticized for saying this are executed, there will never be peace. That was what Hitler did. That was what Stalin did. That was what Castro did. That IS what Putin does. That IS what the sheiks of Saudi Arabisa are doing. Thati IS what the Taliban, Al=Quada, and ISIS are doing. That IS what the head of North Korea and others are doing. Thre will be no peace until we strive for human justice.

😎🤓🤓🤓🧐🧐🧐👍👍👍🙏🙏🙏

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Commentary, Economics, Regulated Capitalism, Commerce

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Car Shield Jerks, the Path, & Human Equality

Too bad Car Shield is advertising on Valerie Bertinelli’s show today (3/10/2022). I like Bertinelli. Too bad.

If seven of 10 people are supposedly thinking the country is on the wrong path, are these people getting the wrong information from our nationalized news system which has eliminated, destroyed, and curtailed local news newspapers and broadcasting? This “new norm” of news is just like the way news is covered in fascist autocracies and communist regimes. I wonder.

I think the country has been on the wrong path. But it is not recently in which it got on the wrong path. The nationalized news sources have mesmerized masses of people to believe it is just the more recent.

I believe the wrong path started with Sleepy Ronnie in the Cabinet said, “government is the problem” and so many people in the generations younger than the World War II and the older Baby Boom generation have taken this to heart by trashing the Democrats when Democrats do some good things when they run the government? Or is it due to the supply-side economics and deregulation put in place by Sleepy Ronnie in the Cabinet? Because we have ended up destroying small businesses, local news coverage which works to uncover local corruption, immorality and unethical behavior in business (such as a restaurant that hides the lack of a seafood by cusing another one but claiming it is the actual)., and handing local broadcasting airwaves over to weaker signals so the air waves can put more mobile phones online. The later? Verizon and others run the FCC so government is NOT the problem, but big corporate conglomerates pushing buttons in the government are the problem.

There are plenty of other examples of nationalized big corporations on the supply-side which take no notice of the demand-side and don’t give a damn, as with the small businesses of America, now being destroyed, did when they were really what America great as the backbone of this nation. The problem is that government does not regulate these nationalized corporations as much as it once did. It is just the opposite, many of these big corporations think they are above the law and regulate themselves and then control the government in a corrupt manner.

Now it becomes scary to discover that many of these big businesses have worked things out with foreign despots like Putin, control the Republican Party, and are pushing for changes in government which has recognized colored people, gay folks, and many others, in the name of human equality. Chick-Fil-A with a menu with carbs and breading which is not good for diabetics, as with the rest of fast food operations, are working to screw gay people over. They think that making money with carb-based fast food, they have more of a right to force their hatred of gay folks and push for conversion therapy, make those of us in same-sex marriages feel bad by pushing us back into the closet. They are not making money by means of the likes or dislikes of the food they prepare. They are making money by trying to attract puritanical hateful people who wish to force their puritanical religious beliefs, based only on traditionalism, on our society.

I have to ask. How has our sexual identity, same-sex marriages, and simply enjoying life without going backwards and restricted to gay bars, hurt these people? Please answer this question. Have I hurt any of these people? If so, what have these bastards fabricated? We live our lives in peace and seek justice with human equality. How the hell does that hurt the CEO of Chick-Fil-A, the company, and others who go there to help feed the hatred of the corporation so it can use the profits to FORCE their lousy ways of hatred upon society, destroy adoption practices of the LGBTQ+, destroy our peace, justice, and happiness, force us into segregation in a closet, and FORCE conversion therapy upon us? How the hell have we hurt these bastards so as to deserve their cherry-picking hands to grab what they wish to grab from a Bible and other sources so as to validate what they wish to do to a group of people?

What have we done to make 7 of 10 people think this nation is now on the wrong path? Please answer this and tell me. Otherwise, I think all of those who tarnish our images are nothing but SOBs. What else should I think? You damn cowards unwilling to speak and discuss these matters with us, out of fear you might find out you are wrong? And that is blame to put on us? If so, you cowards and bullies are nothing but bastards and SOBs. I don’t know what else to say when everyone just remains silent and lets silence grow like a cancer.

“If any demand of me why I speak, I plead as my apology the fact that abler and more eloquent men humans have failed to speak.”

Sad thing. Everyone seems to be letting silence like a cancer grow. Is this in order to hide the true feelings? A person feels scoffed at and pushed aside when this happens. So, why do I try to determine what is the truth? This after watching a program early this morning about seeking peace. But the main idea was to seek the truth, in order to reach peace. So, we have to wait until we are ruined by the dictatorial ones before we get the truth? That is what happens when silence like a cancer grows.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad,

wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” Add-on: Broad, wholesome, charitable views of humans and things cannot be acquired by remaining silent and not allowing the truth to be known and shared with others ,due to a nationalized news system which curtails the knowledge base at the local level. People then live in a “box” and refuse to look outside the box (of course, in case you don’t know, this is a figurative expression with the word, “box”). I could use a vulgar word because this makes me so angry. But then, it m atters not whether I can get my point across by using either vulgar language or not. Everyone just sits on their own opinions and make that their “box” from which, “how dare you remove me from my own box.” Good. Go and curl up like a dog in a box. And die. When I am shoved into a corner in this manner and wondering how much dictatorial people might push me and others into a corner; wonder how much such dictatorial folks will take my freedom, liberty, life, peace and justice from me and about 10% of this population away from us; wonder how much we will go backwards, be segregated and shoved into a closet. And don’t tell me “it’s not important” or “don’t worry.” As a gay man I have heard those words in the past and many times. We need to move forward with what we have which 10% of the population (LGBTQ+) have gained. We WON’T take for granted all that we have earned in the form of happiness and allow Putin lovers to do this.

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Commentary, democracy, human-rights

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Systemic Racism

Kudos to Jeffry Blau of Clarks Summit, PA, for his letter regarding one more systemic racist problem in America.  In reference to the lawsuit filed against the NFL by the former Miami Dolphins coach with regard to discrimination   What a shame to have to resort to lawsuits when this is an issue about human equality and justice.  Too many people are living in denial of such discriminatory practices and bigotry.  It takes people like Mr. Blau to continue to hit at these things through various forms of media such as this letter. Other modes of communicating human equality and human justice issues are blogs, online forums, and so forth.

It was informative to learn from Mr. Blau about how the brain injury issue in football has been treated in a distasteful and disdainful way against black folks. It is bizarre to think that black folks are not being as well treated as white folks when it comes to the treatment for brain injury due to the lower “cognitive nature” of black folks. How absurd to consider such a thing. I wa a professor and educator for some 40 years in colleges in very multi-racial environments.  We are all human beings. Some have better cognitive abilities than others. Some have various reasons for cognitive skills, good or bad, as well as visual, auditory, or physical handicaps. There is NOTHING which indicates white is better than black. In fact, there are times when a black student is better than a white; vice versa.  But as an educator, such qualities of color were never part of my consideration. The black student who came to me to show me the A+ he received on each Advanced Calculus test. That does not mean there were no white students who could achieve the same score. It is a human consideration, not a racial consideration. 

What a shame, too, that there are such stupid fools in America who work to block the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. What foolish SOBs who do this. Human equality in voting, too, damn it. Stop the crap from those with money who block such equality. Stop the crap in many states in Dixie who are doing gerrymandering and voter suppression so as to put white supremacists in office. Shameful, shameful America which allows this to happen without the people of America getting up in arms. To repeat. We need to appreciate what peopl like Mr. Blau say and the virtual “microphone” given to him to let this be known so we do it far and wide in America.

Mr. Blau mentions a comparison to Big Tobacco living in denial over the impact of smoking and likens those events in big corporations which lack and morality and ethics for human equality and justice.  In that case, too, much was solved to hold Big Tobacco accountable for the costs of healthcare for Americans who succumb to lung cancer. Who and what political group was responsible for that? Anybody realize? That too, came from Florida.  Before the Republican one-party dictatorship was established in Florida (about 1998 when Jebbie Bush became governor), it was DEMOCRATIC PARTY GOVERNOR LAWTON CHILES. Chiles played a major role in the lawsuit filed. Sad that he mysteriously died in 1998 and never got a chance to run for president.  There is too much complaining about Democrats by using false statements. This statement about Lawton Chiles is not in error. You don’t believe me, then do the research to find out.

Finally, Mr. Blau was right on point as he mentioned Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate, Dave White, as White “promises in campaign ads to block public school curriculums that expose students to America’s history of racism.”  Such candidates are in denial and do make “America’s largest plantation, also known as the NFL.” Together with other types of plantation owners, this nation is full of systemic racism and that needs to be stopped.  If not, then when the day comes and white folks are no longer the majority, they will not be very unhappy. That is, unless they wish to carry rifles, as plantation owners did to execute black folks; or like the Jim Crow, white  vigilante groups carrying ropes for lynching. The true reason for being against gun control and safety and the NRA has nothing to do with the U.S. Constitution, but about systemic racism and the fear that one day white folks will no longer be the majority population.  Thus, such white folks are scared and frightened right now so as to fake things about government or validating gerrymandering only if Republicans do it for their benefit, and all the other stuff perpetuated by such white folks.

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Commentary, democracy, human-rights

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It’s Not Politics, Stupid, When Discussing Human Justice

F**k the Car Shield advertisement saying, “country is heading in wrong direction.” Go to hell, Car Shield because the country is NOT heading in the wrong direction, unless you count the increased homelessness due to shutting down long-term investments in savings and home mortgages, homeowner insurance increases in Florida beyond belief, deregulation, ripping off of employee pensions by CEOs and Republicans who stole the money to fund their 1000% increase in their revenues, and supply-side economics which has caused centralized control of business to the tune of destruction of small business, the fact the longevity of life in America has decreased below the Canadian model with its single-payer universal healthcare plan, Americans pay some three times as much as Canadians for healthcare and into the corrupt big pharma and health insurance businesses, destruction of FS&Ls and replaced with credit cards controlled by banks at the detriment of consumers (when someone cancels a credit card, they get their FICO score lowered), and………

All of this stuff began with Reagan who claimed “government is the problem.” So, if we think “we are on the wrong path,” then go to hell if you think that overturning what Reagan did to this nation.

Fact. A diabetes med in the 1960s was deemed to cause heart attacks. In the 1970s OUR GOVERNMENT, under FDA, advised doctors NOT to prescribe it. That was a good thing, but had no “teeth.” Doctors did not stop.

As a result, it caused the deaths of many Americans until, finally, in 1984 the FDA took it off the market. Yes,

In his 1981 inaugural address, Reagan claimed the government was the problem. Why? Perhaps because REPUBLICAN Nixon did not put teeth into enforcement towards limiting a prescription?

Take a larger look at this. It was Republican Nixon who was head of the government when the FDA did the “suggested” limited use of the med. Furthermore, it was Southern Dixie white supremacist Jesse Helms who also blocked Nixon from creating rehab centers for those on illicit drugs and stop the war on drugs. Racist bigot Helms was the bastard who blocked Nixon’s efforts to create small black businesses in North Carolina. It was Dixie white racist Helms who maneuvered to get the original Star Trek series cancelled due to a Martin Luther King Jr. approved inter-racial kiss (it put William Shatner on the street living out of a pickup truck). If anything, America applauded when Jimmy Carter and the Democrats took control in 1976 and all of a sudden Star Trek came back in movies and with The Wrath of Khan.

Mr Sleepy Ronnie in the Cabinet, WHO REALLY WAS THE PROBLEM? Sleepy Ronnie in the Cabinet worked to bring more and more white supremacist Dixie bigots into the Republican Party, plus to pave the road for fascist bigots with lots of money, like Rick the Prick Scott, Ron DeSantis, Mitch McConell, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie what’s her name, and others (as well as the Koch brothers) INTO the control of the Republican Party (Trump, too).

Now we have to listen to the bullshit of a commercial which says nothing about how we got to this point. The advertisement merely implies, by saying we NEED to make a better path in the USA, sound as if President Biden and the Democrats are at fault, not Sleepy Ronnie in the Cabinet and the Republican bigots with their “anything goes” friends like Rand Paul among the anarchists we like to call libertarians who likely do nothing to speak in favor of socially progressive ideas and push for centrally-controlled business-controlled nationalized business corporations which end up being nothing more than like a government-controlled centralized economic organization with communes.

These Car Shield commercials push panic buttons for a purpose. To help Republican leaders take over the government and shove down the throats Car Shield (and Chick-Fil-A) for putting hatred into the control of our society, whether that hatred be puritanical bastards who are against black people or gay people. There was a day when Americans could afford small business services called auto mechanics. Today, we are forced into nationalized companies like Car Shield. So, therefore, Car Shield has to defend its business with panic-button commercials such as those I heard this morning.

Goddamn it, I lived during a time when there was an oil embargo, gas prices soared and we worked to get around it, rather than blame Nixon and the Republicans. We developed car-pooling and other means to get around the high oil prices. Sad to say, but in those years, big corporate giant, GM, put a startup electric car business in Cortland, NY, out of business. That was bullshit on the part of GM. But somehow we did get by. We also had people who had been born in the late 1800s who did not like food stamps. Rather than use food stamps, they would consume only Quaker Oats oatmeal or even cat food. I took one woman to lunch various days at Phil’s Chicken House, a chicken in the Binghamton area which was a successful alternative to big corporate nationalized Kentucky-based KFC. The chicken was also from a mainstay in Upstate NY cooking, used at church and fireman’s days picnics. The recipe came from Cornell University. Most importantly, during the embargo, when my transmission went on my used car, my father could afford to find another one and get it replaced, by local mechanics. He did not have to rely on a big nationalized business like Car Shield. Car Shield takes advantage of big nationalized corporate business. It should NOT be allowed to put commercials on television which push the panic button to sell their services.

The reasonCar Shield (or even Chick-Fil-A) imply the Democrats are at fault is because they know that Joe Biden wishes to re-regulate big nationalized businesses and has made it known. Companies like Car Shield, Google, Microsoft, Spectrum, and others are all cowards running scared of the results. Car Shield gives fake panic buttons to Americans. Wrong. Chick-Fil-A bumps up its commercials because they are anti-gay and think the only way to have a successful family is to be heterosexual. Goddamn Chick-Fil-A for promoting that and not saying this in THEIR commercials. Let me tell you how a heterosexual marriage helped to destroy the idea of a family. Go to hell with traditionalist freaking lousy puritanical thoughts. People who say, “we don’t like it if there is someone somewhere having fun and happiness in life, unless they follow their dictatorial ways of a hateful god.

All of this needs to be stopped, as bullshit artists screw to the American public. It is called moderate, not in terms of politics, but in MODERATING what is being presented. This idea is not an idea to push censorship.

The government is not the problem. In fact, in order to protect voting rights, civil rights, human rights, the government plays an important role. Case in point, the diabetes medication which statistics demonstrated the number of deaths due to heart attacks. These panic-button-pushing commercials imply that the government run by Democrats is a problem while Republicans are above the law and are not the problem. Human rights. Human justice. It’s not politics, stupid.

There is a travel show which quotes Mark Twain. The quote is related to what I am saying.

Mark Twain:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

😎😍 🤓🤓🤓🙏🙏🙏👍

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Commentary, democracy, human-rights, Political Commentary

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Same Pandemic, Worlds Apart (2/6/2022)

Yesterday’s front page headline began with: “Worlds Apart.” The information provided was about the Pandemic. The “worlds apart” was defined only by New York and Florida.

Gannett Pravda did a lousy job. A number of weeks ago, The New York Times did a much better job at providing the details about “worlds apart.”

The line graph on the front page did demonstrate that the deaths in Florida surpassed those in New York in about the 3rd quarter of 2021 and continues to be ahead of New York right down to 1st quarter 2022.

If one examines this line graph and superimposes the leadership of the USA over the graph, one will see that the rise at the beginning of 2021 began to level off in New York and remains flatter up to today. In contrast, Florida’s death rate surged under DeSantis from second quarter 2021 and has only begun to flatten in the third quarter 2021, as it surpassed the death rate in New York. 

Furthermore, the surge New York experienced was first to second quarter 2020. New York suffered with the most numbers of COIVD-19 at that time while Florida did not even have as much from those coming in. After all, New York City is a larger transportation hub from around the world than Miami or Orlando. Add to New York, Amtrak trains which connect with Canada (Montreal) and the Buffalo airport on the border with Canada.  This new virus was not known and many people, like Governor Cuomo, attempted to meet the demand it brought on and did so with little knowledge about it. Florida’s DeSantis did not have to reckon with that. Yet, Trump and DeSantis remain a favorite, in spite of the sexual harassment of Trump. Where is Cuomo?  In spite of the heavy corrupt, unethical, immoral, human injustice (bigotry) practices of DeSantis, DeSantis is still there and Cuomo is not.  Give me a break. 

Furthermore, at the early stages of the virus, as New York suffered the most, Trump did nothing to help the northeastern states with the equipment to do so. Trump had, at his disposal, the Defense Protection Act. It is a war, not a political battle. Trump and lousy DeSantis treated it all as politics. Again. It was and IS a war.  So, when hospitals moved COVID-19 patients across state lines and put them in nursing homes, the stupidity of the population did not blame Trump who was responsible for cross-border transport, but directed at Cuomo, the governor of Michigan (Democrat), the governor of Oregon (Democrat), etc. All about GODDAMN politics and nothing else.  Why? To destroy democracy and implement an autocracy, on the part of Trump. Goddamn TRUMP and the Republicans, not the Democrats, you iddiotic lainbrains out there. 

The New York Times detailed article had a map of the USA and its 50 states. The writer compared facts and statistics regarding vaccination, masking, and other modes to help win the war against a virus. In other worrds, one could consider that in the third quarter or so of 2021, a Democratic Party governor in Oregon presided over over a mask mandate and did so before New York re-implemented the mask mandate. Florida never implemented a mask mandate. In fact, DeSantis acted like a dictator being vicious against those who DID wish to wear masks and the companies and organizations which wished to insist employees wear the masks.  All of this, by dictator DeSantis and dictator Trump needs to be considered. I see little of it being discussed openly and that is a disgusting thing which is happening in journalism today. 

Furthermore, some nations about the size of New York, Florida, and other states in the USA, there is no comparison. A CBS report mentioned Japan and how it’s vaccination rate helped give it the lowest COVID-19 positivity rate. Many other reports about Israel, South Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand confirmed some of this. The one shortfall in the USA was the lack of contact tracing. Yet, when Biden, the CDC, and Democrats proposed that we increase contact testing, the voices of idiots in the USA spoke loudly with the microphone they were given and it was not done to the degree it should have ben done. When we are fighting a war, we can set aside the “voice of people who don’t know one Godman thing about the issue” and do it.  We did when fighting World War I and World War II. Some of it was not good (i.e., bigots and discrimination against black folks, Japanese-Americans, and the LGBTQ+.  As with the state of Israel and its ability to be an example for fighting war on a virus, Israel’s military has defeated their enemies and have not implemented DADT in the military and used females in its military. Goddamn the white supremacists and bigots against gay folks for insisting it is “patriotic” to have segregation and DADT. Goddamn them. Goddamn them with plenty of damnation for they have no sense of humanity and human justice. 

These idiots who push for a military-industrial complex based on a love of money, created perpetual war with a military-industrial complex, warned by former General Eisenhower that we SHOULD NOT DO, and wonder why we have a problem in drafting soldiers, so we create a professional military to defend oil and other issues, not to protect the USA and its human beings, when it becomes necessary to do so.  In the process, we have dictatorial assholes like Trump and the Republican leadership, now have a problem calling the bluff of Goddamn Putin and Russia, and take Putin’s position regarding bigotry towards the LGBTQ+. 

This is stupid, stupid, stupid.  It  does NOT reflect my idea of what it means to be a PATRIOT.  Go to hell in trying to force the ideas about bigotry towards groups o fpeople in the USA and shoving it down the throats of many of us who object to this and giver a PROACTIVE warning because a reactionary action will do little good and brings hell on earth.   idea on me. But perhaps to do so, you will support Trump, DeSantis, Scott, Gaetz, Marjorie the bitch, and others.   In this case, you are a traitor in support of Putin.

It’s the pandemic, stupid. Learn from the past pandemics and the errors made in first dealing with this one. Stop making claims that if we DON’T fight the war, then humans in America can succeed better than SHOULD we fight the war on a virus.  I can once again, mention what Kierkegaard said about moving forward by learning from the past, but not to just do what was done in the past. But it evidently does no good to say this, does it?
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Putin, Russia, Ukraine News, 2/6/2022

Putin is calling the bluff of NATO, Europe, Britain, and the USA (Nuclear Fear Redux: Long-buried fears of Nuclear Armageddon Return for Many”). Do we react in fear or do we call his bluff by recalling that when America was threatened with German submarines off shore, we were reminded that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  Postiive thinking, not the bullshit about Armageddon.  Today, nuclear weapons are being used by Putin to call our bluff and see how far he can push the envelope.  We need to come together and call his GODDAMN bluff. 

According to a report on CBS News, the UN voted to censure Russia with a huge majority. China was not mentioned, but China was also not listed with the fascist autocratic regimes in the wold (four of them) which did not support the majority in the UN.  Trump made it look as if he was so much against North Korea with its nuclear armament. North Korea voted NOT to support the censure of Russia and Putin. 

Today, it was learned that Trump spoke open.ly about supporting Putin.  Anyone who speaks against democratic government is a traitor to the USA. Trump is a traitor who should be accused of lying, cheating, an treason.  Those who support the Russian mob int he USA, from DeSantis to Scottt and other Republicans, need to be treated as traitors, too. Those who support the anarchism of libertarianism are traitors because they support the idea that “anything goes.” People like Rand Paul of Kentucky. A traiotor. Mitch McConnell a traitor. 

In the name of democracy and capitalism or socialist democracy of Scandinavia, we need to call Putin’s bluff. No questions asked. Stop the fear.

When people acted against the boats carrying Africans to American slavery, they did so, many times, in the name of criminal acts which favored human justice and humanity. In the name of human justice along with PEACE, we need to call Putin’s bluff on this issue of “nuclear fear redux.” 

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Lousy American Technology Run by Monopolies with People who have a Love of Money – plus more

As an information specialist and librarian, I began using the Internet and some of the original browsers and search engines. Google was not around. Google was introduced. It worked nicely, giving us results of a search which did not go beyond the words we put into it. We could do keyword searching or phrase searching. We could indicate what we did NOT want in the results.

Try doing this with Google today. It is nothing but bullshit. For a diabetic who needs to find recipes for pastry with nut flours like almond flour or hazelnut flour (etc.), we get results with sugar added, sweeteners added, and all-purpose wheat flour. It might have almond paste. I do not ask for a recipe with flour and almond paste. It might give results with almond extract flavoring which is added to wheat flour and sugar. I do not ask for such a recipe. It gives SOB Google gives it to me anyway.

On top of this, even with recipes it gives me freaking shit of products to purchase. Or it gives the results according to those who make money coming up first. I am after information, GD it. I don’t want the bullshit of products. If I did I would search with such keywords.

President Biden wants to regulate monopolized companies like Google or Microsoft. Yet, people yell and scream about it. Why? In the 1980s, Republicans put in place a tax on services. Dry cleaning. Auto mechanic services, etc. With the help of Democrats in Florida and those who were against that bullshit of a tax, the tax was defeated and eliminated. In spite of that, the GD Republicans of Florida moved on with gerrymandering to create a one-party state in Florida. A state with less power of Democrats.

In those years when Republicans were not in the majority, they began doing as Jebbie Bush wanted. Lottery and gambling. Most of the Democrats were opposed to lottery and gambling, so perhaps they remain on the shit list of the mob? The Republicans promised to use lottery money for public education. Never happened.

Republicans, particularly in Florida and Dixie. Liars, liars, pants on fire. As they dictate only what THEY wish to dictate on society.

Meanwhile we are stuck with monopolies in technology which care ONLY for their hardware and software. Those who don’t want to digital information in newspapers and such are damned to hell by the dictatorial means of lousy people with wealth and autocratic control. Oligarchs like Putin. We need to rid this nation of such bullshit. But then. If I complain about it, there is no reply to try to understand what consumers on the demand side of the market wish to have. They condemn and act in a vengeful vicious way. Perhaps to be like the mob when it has a death wish. Like the mob from Russia, too. We want to pursue happiness and find technology to be a lousy way to do it when Spectrum, Verizon, Google, Microsoft act like Trump in not wanting to listen and consider, but destroy.

One more thing. For prescriptions, companies like Walgreens adn CVS are constrained, due to privacy issues. So, when a prescription is not refilled by a doctor, we get one message. Prescription cannot be filled. Well. What is the damn prescription? We then have to make a phone call to find out. Then we find out that to send us the information about which prescription, it would “break privacy laws.” yet, with Spectrum and Verizon and other companies, the supply side cannot take responsibility for those who invade our privacy and snipe and hit us. Spectrum, for instance, says, “it’s not our job.” And then Spectrum goes and funds bitches like Claudia Tenney. So, we pay a high price of $145.00 per month for much crap that we have no interest in viewing. If we did not spend all that GD money for Spectrum and Verizon, we would have money in our family budget to purchase PAPER COPY subscriptions of newspapers and magazines. Instead, we pay crap for crap we don’t want and have no choice form the monopolies, as newspaper publishers also create monopolies focused on national news, destroying local news, information, and culture, and America is more polarized as a result, not knowing who our local politicians are in this democracy. The Republicans win by trashing Democrats. And the population is unable to learn about the local candidates. Don’t bless an America like this. Don’t damn it, either. Damn the fat pigs

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