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

Brash, Blunt, & Brave: Trying to Reveal the Sickness of False Groupspeak

I have always had little respect for Donald Trump from many years ago. But I did not have hatred or wish to help on any witch hunt. Donald Trump creates the notion of witch hunts against him because he is insecure. Any dictator is insecure and unable to take opposition. Such dictators and autocratic evil ones with a love of money over human beings are not welcome in an American democracy. Period.

I have been brash, blunt, and brave in writing on Facebook and other social technology without moderators and asking that those who speak out by making a claim that President Biden is to blame for employers not able to find employees because they are encouraged to be lazy and not work. After all, with an unemployment check, the notion is, Americans would rather take that money than to work.

I have written with the brash and blunt words like this: those who believe President Biden is at fault due to unemployment checks just shut up. I shall repeat it. Those who speak this false groupspeak (and other false groupspeak) shut up. You don’t know what you are saying.

THINK. THINK. THINK. It is an important word for the people of America because so many have lost this ability to delve into questions in more detail than what is given to us by sensationalist biased journalism at Fox News or other sources. They don’t check the facts. Even Norah O’Donnell is quick to throw out sensationalist 10 second sound bites and leave everyone in the lurch so as to make conclusions which are often false. For instance, the other night it was a short stab at the Democratic Party primary in New York City so we were all left scratching our heads. Those who don’t like the Democrats could just say, “see, I told you so.” Or else heighten false information in groupspeak which proclaims, “fraud,” when there is no fraud. WHAT? That you hate some Americans? The news of that primary also left those who might go along with Democrats scratching their heads and becoming disenfranchised about voting. Why? Based on a lack of evidence, so therefore, disappointment sets in? I have observed the strategy to disenfranchise voters in Florida for more than two decades now. Scoff at me, why don’t you, as if I have no brains when I observe and THINK, THINK, THINK, rather than rush to conclusions which might be wrong.

If one were to read unemployment figures over the past few months, one would see they have begun a decline. So much for the conclusion that so many people love that unemployment check and don’t wish to work. If so, then how can President Biden be blamed? Only if one hates him, has a bias against him, and then looks for the cherry-picking fodder to soothe and massage their egos with false information and hatred. It makes insecure people feel better if they can shoot another person down and prove the person doing this is a better one.

For instance. A healthcare worker was so uninformed about what is actually happening she told me this. “Obamacare has been destroyed.” My reply? “You missed the announcement the other night when the Supreme Court, by a vote of 7-2, voted to sustain Obamacare. I won’t go into the details, just the results. This was how many times that Obamacare has been upheld? But some young healthcare worker is so enamored in Facebook or Twitter (plus others), she never listens to news sources which report the news and don’t bloviate their bias. Nor does she read in-depth articles found in what we call newspapers, but which are actually news and information papers. These newspapers do not provide only biased opinions, but provide a variety of opinions for people to learn and not sit on their buttes like a bunch of vegetables and take in what is being told to them.

Social media is not social media. It is social technology for which the only thing gained by those who run this technology is not to be concerned about the content and whether it is accurate or contains examples of hatred. It is their love of materialism and love of money which moves these people from the depths of the 1% which own most all the resources in this nation. Period. Yes, such autocrats, plutocrats, and oligarchs of fat cats don’t care about the content, so they are nothing but overpaid lazy bums who take jobs away from people. President Joe Biden is not like that, so I detest those who come up with false conclusions about him. I thus become brash and blunt and say: “shut up if you cannot prove it to be true what you are saying.” Facebook, Twitter, and others are social technology, stupid, not social media. The media is being destroyed in the process of upholding these lainbrained excuses for “media.”

Another possible reason for the lack of people doing the work is related to capitalism and the need to make more money. With jobs scarce during the COVID-19, many people were home and doing nothing. When things opened up again, the hard-working people tried to grab first at the better paying with better benefits jobs. If one was not quick enough to act and then still found the availability of jobs at a low ebb, then they figured, why should they give up a check and go back to low wages and rare or non-existent benefits? When they hear that many of the billionaires, including Trump, are not paying their fair share of taxes, what the hell would inspire them to give up an unemployment check and go back to such crap? Joe Biden is not at fault for that because he is not a billionaire. Capitalism means competition for jobs. When supply of jobs is low and the demand is high, those with quick minds and merit will often get them first. Or so we hope this happens. As unemployment continues to decline and a limit is placed on accepting such checks, especially if one has the possibility for a job, then the hierarchy will be established and those at the bottom of the “trickle-down” will fill the voids which have been created.

In all of this, I find it disgusting to hear groupspeak repeated on the basis of a hatred for Democrats and/or President Biden when there is no evidence to prove it. But will what I write make a change in America? Not certain. But my Scottish family motto is this. “As I breathe, I hope.”

Category:

Commentary

Tagged with:

Additional Comments About Ross Douthat and “Odd Juncture on Race”

Correction: Adam Serwer is a staff writer for The Atlantic.

My additional comments about Ross Douthat’s op-ed, “Odd Juncture on Race,” (title is headline as it appeared in the (Scranton, PA) Times-Tribune) are blunt and to the point.

Mr. Douthat attacks the 1619 project, plus many other very positive and good things about America and its multi-cultural history. My families arrived on the shores of what became the USA, the nation for which I have loved because of the resulting melting pot and multi-cultural society we have, in 1638. I love such a nation and do not like it when people like Douthat believe they are doing America a service by being negative about attempts to fix systemic racism. Systemic racism does exist in America, ladies and gentlemen.

My Cornwell / Cornell family arrived in the Boston Colony from Saffron Walden (County Essex), England. It is figured they arrived here on a boat during the Great Migration in 1638. Mr. Douthat attacked changes in education because of the teaching about the firsts Africans arrival in 1619, prior to my own family’s arrival. My Albro family and various other ancestors arrived in New England about the same period of the Great Migration, perhaps earlier than my Cornwells and perhaps earlier than the first Africans in Virginia. I really don’t care about the time frame because I had a few others who “coming to America” was in the 19th Century.

My progenitor, Thomas Cornell, arrived with his family in 1638. Thomas Cornell, Jr., has the line in which Stephen Cornell was derived. Follow this line to the 19th Century and we have the line consisting of Ezra Cornell, one of the founders of Cornell University and Western Union.

On the other hand, my Cornwells descend from a brother to Thomas, Jr., (Richard Cornwell) who had departed for Flushing at the time the Dutch were in control in the jurisdiction now known as New York City. Ezra Cornell was one of the first Republicans and a TRUE Republican. Ezra Cornell was an abolitionist in Upstate New York.

Early in the time sequence of the history of Cornell University, during the time of Jim Crow in the South, it had an integrated population of students, which included Simon Haley, the father of Alex Haley. On the opposite side of Ithaca, from Cornell University, was Ithaca Conservatory of Music, now Ithaca College. This was where Alex Haley’s mother, Bertha Palmer Haley graduated in 1925 (according to the footnotes in Haley’s book, Roots). This was the same year my grandmother graduated from Ithaca Conservatory of Music. Within two or so years following my grandmother’s graduation, she gave birth to her first son, my uncle. Alex Haley, too, was born about that same time. My grandmother’s line is an English line which came to New England and then to New Jersey and Philadelphia in the early 1600s as well. One who watched the mini-series, Roots, would know that Bertha Palmer Haley descended from Kunta Kinte, an African slave forced to these shores on a boat with squalid and horrific conditions.

Yet, Mr. Douthat apparently believes my grandmother was better than Simon and Bertha Haley. With Douthat’s foolish account, we are led, falsely, to the true account the history applicable to the Haleys should not be shared in the public schools. To which I say, Mr. Douthat is nothing but a fool for saying this. As a college student of the 1970s, in upstate New York, we were assigned portions of Haley’s book to read, as it was published in sections in The Reader’s Digest. In high school in upstate New York, we had units we could choose in black literature. All of this was a great learning experience and no foolish cruel Republicans or Douthat should be smearing such education. I resent such fools doing this. And, a further note. The Haley book was given to me as a birthday present when it was published. The note in the front was a teaser written by the person giving me the present, stating, “bet in a year you will not have completely read this book.” Wrong. In just a month or two, I read that book and I have continued to read that book many times over.

I have heard white genealogists condemn Haley for errors in the book. It is a piece of historical fiction. It is very clear with the documentation Mr. Haley provided at the end of the book that there are records used to support the information in the book. Historical fiction, though, can be based on true facts, but the fiction part of it indicates there may be fiction to fill the voids in the historical evidence. A white man like Bernard Cornwell writes historical fiction and he does the same thing.

Yet, the 1901 author, Rev. John Cornell, of supposed non-fiction, the genealogy of the Cornell family, has many errors in the genealogy and unsubstantiated facts. One such error is the claim that Thomas Cornell accompanied Roger Williams in seeking the charter for Rhode Island before the British Parliament. Genealogical researchers about a decade ago, determined they were not able to find anything to substantiate the fact that Thomas Cornell was on that boat. A piece of historical fiction, but not identified as “historical fiction” and written by a white man of the clergy class in America. It was a nice feeling to have, thinking my ancestor was one who helped obtain the charter for Rhode Island, but it is fake news and there are those who are able to validate it as such.

Douthat is foolish in defending those who are actually with a complex of white superiority and proclaiming, “there is no systemic racism.” They all are liars who entice other white idiots who feel insecure. Perhaps Douthat needs to read what New York Times staff writer and author of a forthcoming book titled, The Cruelty is the Point: The Past, Present, and Future of Trump’s America, Adam Serwer, says in the New York Times op-ed, “The Cruel Logic of the G.O.P.” It is no surprise that I feel as if I am the focus of Trumpicans who can behind the scenes cause trouble on my computer and cell phones because I speak out against the Trumpicans. Yet, people who follow the line of Democrats at times (plus I follow the line of logical and intelligent, reasonable Republicans who don’t follow Trump – yes, they do exist, but they are in hiding, out of fear and are being “disenfranchised, according to Serwer) and believe in the true multi-cultural history of America, noticing that Thanksgiving is more than what is described in New England, but also about Spanish-speaking people of St. Augustine, FL, of the late 1500s, and a Thanksgiving with pork, not turkey.

The title of Douthat’s op-ed is: “Odd Juncture on Race” (headline used by the (Scranton, PA) Times-Tribune. The one who is odd is Douthat and any followers of him who have white skin and are insecure out of fear that their culture might be changed, due to the skin color of Americans in the wonderful melting pot we have. The people of this melting pot have also helped settle and build this wonderful nation of ours beginning in the late 16th Century and continuing to today. We need to give all people of any race, color, creed, ethnicity, sex, or sexual identity credit for this. Changing history to reflect this part of our history more accurately and effectively will do the job.

This nation is not great because of white people who control the nation with a dictatorial iron fist over the others using vigilante groups with Jim Crow lynching and the shooting of black slaves (justified by the 2nd Amendment). This nation is not great due to a dictatorial iron fist of control and shutting up those of us who are white who find life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in such a melting pot of a nation.

In spite of white Republicans who may have ruined our finances and our happiness about living in this nation, we move on. It just happens that I am blessed because when a white Republican I name as “Rick the Prick” Scott devastated my finances in a dictatorial way and against the will of the voters – the PEOPLE – of Florida, I suffered due to it. I had to pick myself up by my bootstraps and move on. The incident does leave a sour taste in my mouth when we should have leaders and politicians who try to gain support with honey, not lemons and “cruel logic” with lies (referring to the Serwer op-ed, titled, “The Cruel Logic of the G.O.P.”). The honey, too, can be better for all, rather than feeding people sour crap after the Republican-supported white fat pigs at the top trickle down what they think is necessary for us to survive. Perhaps I should be positive and say, at least it’s sour lemons which trickle down, right? But is that not exactly the way these fat white pigs want us all to feel?

Category:

Commentary, Op-ed, Periodcial Article Reviews

Tagged with:

Review of Ross Douthat op-ed (29 June 2021): “Odd Juncture on Race”

Systemic racism exists in America. When the white superiority party of Republicans gerrymanders the state of Florida to its advantage, it has created white-oriented political districts with a minority of people with a white superiority. It happens to be that most of those people are Republicans, so we consider it partisanship. It’s not partisanship, but systemic racism. There might be less Democrats controlling the Florida legislature, but let’s count the number of black people there and see what we come up with.

As with so many people today, Douthat identifies the lousy progressives when referencing the changes in the teaching of history to reflect the masses which consist of people of all colors. In the process he stereotypes conservatives as being opposed to this. I have some conservative ideas in this regard and with other issues and I don’t fall in lockstep (goose step of a Nazi) with this attack on changes which will provide more coverage of history as it really did happen.

Douthat makes no substantive argument regarding why we don’t need to change it and that is the problem. His quotes of various writers provides absolutely no substantive opinions and conclusions. In the process, the reader merely wallows in the mud and we solve no problems in order to make America a better place to live and coexist together in the name of achieving peace and justice. We all wish, whether black, brown, white or otherwise, to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The problem with those like Douthat is a perverted idea of what civility and humanity truly are, as they attempt to justify the hidden agenda to preserve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness only for those who figure they are superior due to the white color of their skin. The odd juncture on race is caused by such white ones with a superiority complex because they feel insecure about themselves so have to press their way or the highway, as a dictator would do.

Category:

Commentary, Op-ed

Tagged with:

Why Abolish the Filibuster in the U.S. Senate?

KISS. One simple reason why the filibuster has to go. Robert’s Rules of Order. If these rules were followed, we don’t need a filibuster, especially the convoluted one which exists today.

Every attempt to “reform” the filibuster will simply lead to another day when people want to go back and reform it again. Sickening thought.

Since I was a teenager, I was leading small groups and taught these rules of order as the best means for running a meeting. I was actually taught by my other, a Republican. I was taught when running meetings in the Congregational Church, a church with its version today of United Church of Christ (UCC) is based on democracy, not top-down hierarchy with a pope at the top or a bishop of Canterbury overseeing an international group (not like a pope) or any strong-willed bishop or leader of a church.

In later years, there were those who came from these other churches who laughed and scoffed at the use of Robert’s Rules of Order. But we continued, in other organizations which I was involved, in persisting by having a parliamentarian who was familiar with the rules and helped stand by those rules for the purpose of order.

These rules also define the types of issues when there should be a simple majority, two-thirds a majority, three-fourths of a majority, or even when there should be a unanimous decision in a democratic body. To use any one of these definitions for all decisions stifles progress and getting anything done. This is the case right now in the U.S. Senate, caught up in not allowing decisions to be made by a simple majority. As a proud American, I am embarrassed about this situation, as the whole world watches.

Thus, what are we waiting for? Abolish the filibuster rule and rely on the guidelines of Robert’s Rules of Order.

Category:

Commentary, If it's broke let's fix it TOGETHER, Political Commentary

Tagged with:

“Should I Hang Out With Someone Whose Political Views I Hate?” (New York Times Magazine, 27 June 2021, by Kwame Anthony Applah, philosophy professor, NYU)

There could be a KISS answer to the question, “should I hang out with someone whose political views I hate?” That would be if we were to abandon this reliance on ideology to direct our lives and change the American attitudes based on insecurity which drives a need to win by putting down another person. If we could do this, the answer is, “yes.” However, life has been made far too complex with Americans, from Baby Boomers and after, each becoming too insecure about one’s self.

Rather than answer the question, I pose the suggestion that we solve the problem which causes this to happen in the first place. What this disdain for one another does is to create uncivilized manners and a lack of strategy for us all to coexist and stop pitting one against the other.

I have consistently written about ways to solve this problem, but no one wants to even listen. Rather they wonder whether we should even speak to one another, should there be a person for whom we hate the person’s political views. This is sick and disdainful and needs to end. One has to wonder if, when struck by so many financial bad things and people who force these things on us, from health providers to pharmaceuticals to health insurance to big corporate monopolies of newspapers and so forth, it is all the result of vengeance due to a hatred of me due to my moderate political views.

Category:

Commentary

Tagged with:

Who Am I?

In the Broadway and movie (Broadway) version of Victor Hugo’s novel, Les Miserable, there was a song sung by character, Jean ValJean titled “Who Am I?” He had been in prison for stealing a loaf of bread because his family needed something to eat. The song was about the number he was assigned in prison and his real name. In the end, he had to shed the self-hatred and guilt imposed on him, due to the fact he stole a loaf of bread.

There is much more to this show than this. I bring this up because even though we are not criminals, we often wonder about, “who am I?” This impacts the LGBTQ community, but also impacts people of colored skin, too. For society places us into a position of having to be in denial about who we are. Society groupthink and groupspeak puts a horrid pressure on us and if we don’t obey, then we are frowned upon and perhaps even worse.

The truth will set you free. So, when I came out of the closet in 2005, the truth did set me free. I was the same person as I always was, but I felt more free to express myself. I am not speaking about expressing myself with regard to sex, but with regard to who I really was which I had kept hidden and kept all of it hidden, out of fear of retribution. I am actually a kind and generous person who has always had a faith in God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. But in those years before, I was not able to express this faith because I was a confused guy in this respect.

I also had a good sense about being proud to be an American, too. In 1977, I was so proud to be an American, that I turned down a teaching job I was offered in Nova Scotia, Canada. People think they know so much about me that if I tell them that job was the result of my Scottish family in the USA, they question me about Scottish things and then jump to some kind of conclusion based on their own individual knowledge as to why I don’t know as much about the Scottish. What they don’t realize is that my Scottish great-grandmother died in childbirth in 1903 and my great-grandfather ended up marrying two other women later. The second wife also died in childbirth, but the third one, of English decent, was the one we knew as our great-grandmother. In essence, we had little exposure to our Scottish ancestry, with only the surname, MacLennan, and research on our great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather in the MacLennan line, which proved the immigrants who came here to America from Scotland. In the case of other ancestors, they had married English women with English names, so when we examine the name of my great-grandmother of the MacLennan clan, we find her given name, Angeline (or “Angie”) might not be Scottish, but of English origins. I have no idea and have not researched this further. But those who have no idea come to false conclusions about “how I am faking it by saying she is Scottish.” That irks me, but that is what happens so much more frequently in America these days. People jump to conclusions based on their own knowledge and never bothering to think about other aspects, nor asking me questions so they can LEARN. No learning in America these days and apparently the fascists who are attempting to gain power and control don’t want the people to learn, do they?

This past Friday, I was at a concert at the Newark Valley Depot. In the summer, there are concerts each Friday night and we have enjoyed them. We missed them in 2020. They were all cancelled due to COVID-19.

Rich Wilson was the singer. He had some good songs by Elvis Presley, the Righteous Brothers, Neil Diamond, Glenn Campbell, the Platters, and several country singers whom I have no idea who they were because country or bluegrass or several others of these are not on my own personal playlist. I do have an eclectic interest in music of all kinds. As a college professor, I taught students about having an eclectic interest. But again, due to the sense of insecurity which predominates too damn much in this nation, people just wish to grab on to what they like and put down anything someone else might like because it makes insecure people feel better, don’t you know? This attitude predominates much more, in my humble opinion, from the Baby Boomers to the younger ones. I did not find this to be the case with as much predominance, driving a strong groupthink with the generations before the Baby Boomers. Who am I? Just remember that I said, here, this attitude did not PREDOMINATE as much and never said it never existed in previous generations. Somehow those previous generations were taught better overall in America.

At the end of this Friday night concert, Rich Wilson sang “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood. I do night like songs begging us to bless the USA, including Kate Smith’s rendition of “God Bless America.” But I join in and sing both when I am asked to do so. What I despised this past Friday night was a groupthink which may have frowned on me, should I not have stood up as everyone else did. Peer pressure on me to do this when I find it very foul to do so. I will stand with the National Anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance. I also may salute like a soldier salutes, take off my hat, or place my hand on my heart during both of those songs. But not for God Bless America or God Bless the USA. I find such actions offensive, especially while viewing so many in the crowd – groupthink – hovering their right hands like a heil Hitler salute. I find that so offensive because that is not who I am.

I also do not get angry and throw myself with the lousy groupthink of those who get angry because of the black people who kneel during the National Anthem. Why? Because I recognize that black people are segregated in some organizations in America, in the name of some lousy “me, first” attitude regarding an insecurity of one’s self and the white race which has not been lynched, shot at as slaves, denied the right to vote, and denied being acknowledged for blacks who have ancestors who have served in the American Revolution and deserve to be a part of the DAR and SAR.

Rich Wilson sang a song by Neil Diamond. Why did he choose that Greenwood song, rather than Neil Diamond’s “Coming to America.” That song fits us all. The first Africans arrived on American soil in 1619. My family arrived on American soil in 1638. My Scottish ancestors arrived on American soil in the mid-1800s. Various other family lines prove they have arrived at other times, right up to the current time frame. “Coming to America” describes America, not “proud to be an American.” In fact, I was taught that having “pride” was a sin, according to the true Christian beliefs. Even in the case of this Neil Diamond song, I would never stand up as if to worship and throw my right hand in a Hitler-like gesture.

In fact, Neil Diamond’s song has a short section for “My country tis of thee, sweet land of liberty…”

Why not sing, Ray Charles’s version of “America, the Beautiful?” It is a very moving song about the beauty of America which is even better than singing, “bombs bursting in air,” which emboldens those who carry weapons and creates a terribly violence and weaponry mentality of insecure people who want to feel better than others. There is also, “This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land.”

Or how about “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother” … or … the Stevie Wonder song, “Love’s in Need of Love.” … or … “What the World Needs now is Love Sweet Love.” We don’t need songs based on the love for feeling insecure, with people seeking to put others down if they don’t fit the mold. Or to have humour based on “redneck” “red state” crap which attacks anyone who tries to put this nation together, like Joe Biden by The reason “pride” and “proud” are a sin is because they embolden those who feel insecure about one’s self and have to feel better by proclaiming how “proud” they are. So they push fear and intimidation on others by way of groupthink and groupspeech – peer pressure which becomes an autocratic sense of, “you better be as I say you should.” That does not sit well with me.

This past Friday, there was also the “sarcastic remarks” about political correctness. You know, there is a book I read in which I got an understanding of what some people feel about political correctness, so I understand. The book is written by a former Dept. of Education person under George W. Bush named Dr. Diane Ravitch, titled The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn. The book acknowledges some of the concerns expressed with the sarcastic remarks about political correctness. However, how many rednecks are willing to learn more than just what is spoon fed to them by Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, Breitbart, Fox News, NewsMax? I suspect that none of them wish to do so, yet here I am listening to the sarcasm and put down from people who never do something the founder of IBM (Thomas J. Watson in Endicott, NY) impressed on his employees: “THINK.” Dr. Ravitch describes “pressure groups” and boy did one feel they were in the midst of a “pressure group” of rednecks with a white superiority complex this past Friday night.

I think about that situation. What would have happened if I decided I did not wish to stand up, in the name of liberty and justice for all, during the Greenwood song? What would have happened had I demonstrated being proud enough to wish to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? I am proud to be an American. So proud that my being proud puts me in line to express my disgust at what happened by a bunch of thugs on January 6, 2021, and the lies forthcoming about an election where there is no proof of fraud. The whole world is watching and I am very embarrassed by an America which does not even examine closely what was done on that day in January and convict those responsible for it. I am so proud that I am embarrassed by it all with the liars like Trump, Giuliani, and others who have egged people on to show hatred of Democrats, calling us Dummycrats, and having a “f” Biden sign with a Confederate flag.

Rich Wilson was also supposed to sing at the VFW in Owego on Saturday night. My father was a lifetime member of the VFW and would also have had shame for what I observed on Friday night. The VFW gave my father a gun-salute at the Newark Valley Cemetery when he was buried. My father had VFW and American Legion magazines around his house in Florida when we cleaned out his house. I often sat down and read some of them, over the years. But my father also had newspapers and read them avidly each day. Today, Gannett denies us early delivery of newspapers here in Newark Valley, where my father would ALWAYS get his newspaper daily. Or, he would receive an early morning delivery of a Gannett Newspaper in Florida, each day. My father complained about how much Gannett condensed the newspaper in about 2008 or so, but he still had it delivered, in spite of sections which were cut out in order to eliminate it from being a news and information paper. I had many friends who stopped their newspaper subscriptions as newspapers condensed their newspapers down to snippets, eliminating details designed to teach people and provide correct information (not perfect at times, but as correct as possible). Those were the things which made me proud to be an American and they have all been tossed out the window.

My father also got along in life without what we call social media. Social media is a misnomer for what it truly is: social technology. Communications with no editors or moderators, as is the case with newspapers and the early days of the Internet with forums and other communication TECHNOLOGY for society to use. Moderators who did not censor, but checked for errors and to make corrections in errors.

As a result of this social technology today, we are being blasted with false information so as to fill the fascist dream based on Hitler’s Goebbels: “tell lies repeatedly and they become the truth.” And with these lies permeating our groupthink, we are forced to stand for a song because we feel like should we not stand, we might be dishonored. And it was not the National Anthem, either, for which we were to stand.

Category:

Commentary

Tagged with:

McConnell: Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

McConnell was heard to proclaim that he is disappointed that President Biden would veto the recent legislation agreed upon with a bipartisan effort. McConnell is a liar who looks to block anything Biden wants at all, so his evil attitude is to say anything he wants to say about Biden. McConnell has let it be known he does not want Biden to succeed. Even if Biden used an implication about veto in order to persuade, I did not hear the president explicitly talk about a veto. Call me a fool if I am wrong, though. I trust President Biden more than Mitch McConnell who made his money off the backs of taxpayers and leads a force of destruction against the American people’s desires and wishes. He leads a force of destruction which represents the wealthy fat pigs and perhaps less than 20% of the common folk.

I apologize (and have done so in the past) if I use the “f” word against Trumpicans or even McConnell. However, with a banner I have seen with the “f” word used against Biden, I have yet to hear an apology for doing so and taking down the banner. My apology would be simply about the words used. I don’t put up such a banner with the “f” word, for all who pass by to see. But I won’t use that “f” word against McConnell, even if any such liar such as McConnell might deserve it.

I do have to say this: McConnell the Liar, liar, pants on fire.

Category:

Commentary

Tagged with:

Criminal Giuliani is not Above the Law

Giuliani lost in court today. He believes his 1st Amendment rights were violated. If that is the case, there are many people in jails in America whose 1st Amendment rights have been violated. Maybe even those who committed manslaughter and murder?

Giuliani and Trump believe they are above the law, so therefore if they do something wrong, 1st Amendment rights are violated. When I lost my home in Florida due to Rick Scott, now sitting in the U.S. Senate, cancelling the building of a train approved by voters, my 1st Amendment rights were violated. Right? Or am I wrong.

When my stock was stolen from me due to a Republican-led destruction of PUHCA and implementation of deregulation of an industry, my 1st Amendment rights were violated then, right? They formed a merged company by shafting the smaller stock holders and benefiting the Republican fat pigs with the most stock.

When I lost my job at the same company mentioned above, due to Republican deregulation and a love of money that superseded all human rights, my 1st Amendment rights were violated. Right?

I am a good hard-working American. Giuliani is a lazy fat pig with money, so only he has his 1st Amendment rights violated? Giuliani is a lousy piece of work as a lawyer who can twist things around, so only Giuliani has his rights violated? Give me a break.

When these things happened to me, I had to count my blessings and move on. That was what I was told. I did so and went on to be successful. You would think that Giuliani and Trump would do the same thing. Instead, they continue to lie and cheat and embolden a large group of people who then lie, cheat, and become hypocrites like Giuliani and Trump. Such people repeat lies about President Biden, instilled in them by Giuliani and Repugnicants like Trump and Giuliani, dividing America so as to instill a dictatorship on the order of Hitler. They are being vengeful because of those who froze the assets of Hitler-loving Nazis back at the time Hitler was in power in Germany.

It is as if Giuliani and Trump figure they have a divine right to rule, as the monarchies of Europe once thought, but were told to go pound salt. The monarchy of Britain listened to the people and they are still around. Giuliani and Trump listen only to 18% of the people and then lie to everyone else and toss the dice to determine who it is who is so stupid and lainbrained to listen to their drivel.

I am sick and tired of these awful rats of America and wish I could vomit on them.

Category:

Commentary

Tagged with:

Gerrymandering

I just received information that Manchin of West Virginia intends to support the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Does this act include abolishing gerrymandering? I don’t know unless I delve into this issue more.

The reason I ask is that I have observed and experienced how gerrymandering has done more than just shut down voting rights, but has carved congressional and state districts in Florida according to those with a majority white population. Thus, in the city where I built a home and lived in integrated communities and not far from a black community, gerrymandering meant the government districts consisted of majorities of people who were white, due to the bastard redneck whites who lived in central Florida. Congressional and state legislative districts, both state House and Senate, ended up being controlled by a white Republican Party power base. The Florida legislature has become a one-party control of Republicans. I have not checked it out, but I would wager that the congressional delegation of Florida is majority Republican. There is only one statewide elected Democrat in the state. Yet, Democrats outnumber Republicans in that lainbrained redneck controlled state.

Then we hear politicians in Texas, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania glorify what Florida has done., due to the RPOF.

Gerrymandering needs to be abolished and go to a system of representation based on geographic jurisdictions, letting the chips fall where they may. That would mean the county where I was living, with more Democrats than Republicans, but with ONLY Republicans representing them in the state legislature (and Republican Brian Mast in the Congress), would actually have representation by and for the people.

Gerrymandering must go. HR1 eliminates gerrymandering. Not sure if it is the same as the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, so I speak out what I believe to be correct.

As I said about the filibuster rule in the U.S. Senate, moderation is not about reforming within rules such as gerrymandering (and filibustering), but moderation is important regarding solutions and actions which make life better for peace, justice, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all. Gerrymandering might be considered by some to be a “conservative” issue, but I balk at such designation. In this case, “conservative” becomes the “code word” for white supremacy values. I know. I have observed and experienced this in Florida.

Category:

Commentary, Political Commentary

Tagged with:

New York Times Ross Douthat: Moderation and Filibuster Rule

According to Ross Douthat of the New York Times, moderation means moderating in the decisions of U.S. Senate rules. I wish to disagree. I propose that moderation means moderating on the actions taken by the U.S. Congress, particularly the U.S. Senate for legislation beneficial for the American people. It’s not the damn rules for running the U.S. Senate, stupid.

Moderation would be to abolish the damn filibuster rule completely and the U.S. Senate stop spending taxpayer dollars to make McConnell and others happy when they are in the minority at this time. The way to do that is to simply take votes and not be concerned with the time-consuming resource-grabbing details of a rule. The idea is that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It’s broke already and it is breaking the backs of the American taxpayers who are loyal to the American government and what it CAN achieve. Thus, if it’s broke, then abolish it completely.

Yes, we need to acknowledge that all voices are being heard. But when a minority controls the U.S. Senate and is given the freedom to block legislation with a refusal to negotiate which is girded by a stupid rule like the filibuster, then it is time to rid the nation of the stalemate. In the process, don’t be stupid and claim the issue is moderation about the rule.

A man now sitting in the U.S. Senate, from Florida, is a jackass. When the people of Florida voted in favor of a rail line from Orlando to Miami, passing through an area where I had built a home and would be enabled to ride that train to work each day, the same as those living 60 miles from New York City can ride a train to work in Manhattan each day, this senator who now occupies a seat in the U.S. Senate, as governor, blocked the wishes of the people of Florida and stopped the building of that train. Even within the Republican Party, there were those opposed to Rick Scott doing this, but Rick Scott did not give one damn.

I feel like filing a lawsuit against Rick Scott because he caused me to lose money on a beautiful house I had built. Rick Scott and others don’t moderate, they dictate their desires, including Trumpicans doing the same thing. Many great Americans lose money, due to what they do. Thank God that I received a bit of help from President Obama’s HARP program. Even then, it was not enough to truly help me as much as I needed. But those are the lumps one has to take in life. But going forward, I intend to speak out against the stupidity of Douthat and Senate Republicans in blocking the progress of America while people like Mitch McConnell get rich from the American taxpayer. I wish I had his money because I could do better for America than SOBs like McConnell, Scott, and others to work to destroy democracy by not listening to the people. For instance, the SOB from Wisconsin who likes to hold the Republicans of Florida up on a pedestal for the way they have turned it into a one-party Republican state, while falsely claiming it is democracy. It’s a dictatorship, stupid. We need moderation in actions of a democracy, not rules of the U.S. Senate.

Former Governor and Senator Bob Graham, while governor of Florida, heard a great deal of complaints about the car inspection program in Florida. As has been told, there was one day, as governor, Graham took his own car into an inspection station and watched the inspection. He decided that it was not worth keeping the program. He moved to abolish it. He did abolish it. When Jeb Bush took power, he reinstalled the stupid inspection system which did no good. Within a few years, it was once again, cancelled. So the taxpayers paid for a program which was disliked and had been removed by Democrat Graham, who later sat in the U.S. Senate as head of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Tells me that Graham had intelligence for democracy by and for the people, while Jeb Bush was a dumb ass who had no intelligence.

Former U.S. Senator and Governor of Florida, Lawton Chiles decided he did not want to have to spend taxpayer dollars on the health costs required due to lung cancer from cigarette smoking. Did he choose to block Medicaid, as Rick Scott has tried to do? No. He got together with several other states and did not file a lawsuit against government, but filed a lawsuit against big tobacco, business people like Rick Scott. Florida and several other states won the lawsuit. According to a report by a journalist suffering from lung cancer due to cigarette smoking, Peter Jennings, Gov. Chiles took that money awarded to Florida and invested it in public education training of young people to help such people learn the ramifications of smoking. According to Jennings’s report, the program demonstrated good results in reducing smoking among the younger people of Florida. Then Jeb Bush came to power and he nixed the entire public education program, plus more in public education because he and a brother (Neil Bush), the destroyer of the FS&Ls of America (because they were implemented by FDR), wanted vouchers and privatized education, paid by Florida taxpayers.

So we hear from Douthat that we need to moderate the rules in the U.S. Senate for filibuster? I don’t think so. Moderation is about the actions necessary to support the American people and the use of our tax dollars. Moderation would be the abolishing of the crap done by lawyers to clog our court systems for personal injury and workman’s comp lawsuits (and other examples) and benefit only the lawyers and a few good people in America, while overall, we overspend on a court system which should be used to challenge a former governor of Florida who caused people like me to lose money when a train system, approved by a majority of Floridians, is decimated from taking shape. Meanwhile, we spend the money to expand I-95 in South Florida from six lanes to 10 lanes and implement the anti-train fantasies of Ayn Rand and her “virtue of selfishness” theories, as written in the book and movie, Atlas Shrugged. Ayn Rand approved of abortions and the ideas that anything goes, according to what individualism wants and community, society, self-sacrifice, and “what can I do for my country,” can be damned. Ayn Rand came here from Russia so she had no idea what capitalism is about, but got quite a listening ear in America, destroying the gains made by people like “trust buster,” Republican Teddy Roosevelt (and others) in the process.

To the U.S. Senate, Manchin and other stupid ones there, abolish the filibuster rule and get America going again by compromising and working for moderation regarding actions necessary to make things happen for the American people. Douthat of the New York Times, think again about what you are saying because you seem to be speaking with a bias that favors the minority side of U.S. Senate which is now the Republicans, yet you claim it is “moderation.”

I would say that anyone against abolishing the filibuster is lazy and does not want to do the job they are paid to do. Lazy human beings in the U.S. Senate, where they are paid huge salaries, health benefits, and retirement benefits which are far better than what the average American citizen receives. All of this paid by U.S. taxpayers to lazy people who do not know what it means for democracy and peace and justice in America. Dictator McConnell, ripping off the American taxpayer and then denying the average American citizen opportunities to earn more, in the name of “don’t spend,” but a big lying hypocrite who takes and takes for himself.

In the words of a SNL comedy routine in days gone by: Douthat, “you ignorant slut.” Douthat, not only ignorant, but his bias towards McConnell and Republicans in the U.S. Senate is showing.

Category:

Commentary, Political Commentary

Tagged with: