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

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.

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

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“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.

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Commentary

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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.

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Commentary

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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.

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Commentary

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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.

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Commentary

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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.

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Commentary, Political Commentary

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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.

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Commentary, Political Commentary

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Venomous Rupert Murdoch & Company, Including Trump

Quote found on the Internet:

“After being in the United States for only one year, Ronald Reagan made this Australian [Rupert Murdoch] a citizen. Then he had his FCC Chairman scrap the Fairness Doctrine which kept newspapers and television programs from lying to the American people. Ever since, Rupert Murdoch has been brainwashing Americans into believing our legitimate press is lying like he lies. Fox News is not news. It is propaganda that the oligarchs use to poison the minds of Americans. It is time we treated it as such.”

With this statement, it could be true. Likely based on circumstantial evidence. It would take further research to find substantiated and conclusive evidence of its truth.

Nevertheless, I have an idea. Let’s build a wall around immigrant Rupert Murdoch and never let him get out? Let’s hold his children against their will (if he has any children). Let us be as barbaric to him as the Russian people are barbaric and approve a barbaric leader called Putin whose barbarism is indicated because he would hide the poisoning of his opponent and then back what the thugs did to the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Perhaps the woman called “First Lady,” under Trump, is as barbaric as other Russians and in her silence promoted the barbarism of Hitler-loving Trump? Nevertheless, Rupert Murdoch, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Green of Georgia, Matt Gaetz, Steve Bannon, David Duke, Rick Scott, Ron DeSantis, and numerous others who support Murdoch and Trump are barbaric people.  They are savages and they likely think the only savage people in the world are indigenous Americans and people of color. They separated Napoleon from the world, in order to save the world. Let’s do it with these guys. Perhaps isolate them on an island and away from all others?

The same thing with Trumpty Dumpty who gets his parts put back together every time. Build a wall around him and let him suffer there. These guys need to learn what it means to suffer when, after their influence on America, people lose jobs, pay taxes the wealthy don’t have to pay, don’t fight a war against COVID-19, suffer from change for the sake of change due to oligarchs and plutocrats who move people to the heat and humidity of Dixie and herd them into cities resulting in shutting down  the ideas of capitalist competition based on supply and demand, suffer from the lousy privatized Medicare medications ripoffs, and numerous other ripoffs perpetrated by these vulgar and savage beasts called males.

Those who support this s**t and lying from Trump and company take for granted the gains America HAS gained, for more than 200 years, and don’t even recognize that, like Hitler, once Trump fully consolidates his power, he will spit many of them out like seeds in his mouth. Hitler did it. Stalin did it. Mussolini did it. The sheiks of Saudi Arabia are doing it today. All savage, vicious, vulgar, venomous beasts of leaders. Stupid people, those who don’t spit Trump out, like spitting out a big pit from a plum which should not be in our mouths.

Rupert Murdoch, go to hell. You are a lousy venomous person.  Go to hell where Satan and the Evil Spirit need to be put by God, and put there permanently so as to rid the earth of the hell Murdoch and others promote on earth. 

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Commentary, democracy

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IF IT’S BROKE LET’S FIX IT TOGETHER: Ranting and Raving

NOTICE: WordPress blocks my sharing of this message with one of my personal emails and does nothing to help me solve this problem. How many others are being blocked in the distribution of my blog messages?

In my 20s, I viewed the Monty Python movie, The Holy Grail. It was very humorous and, as a 20-something and with much less knowledge and wisdom than what I have today, I thought it was absolutely hilarious.

The time period is the age of supply-side economics of the Medieval period. We often call this economics, feudalism, too. Nevertheless, the aristocracy ran a top-down economic system with trickle-down economics and draining the lower classes of their resources and never considering that money could be spread around for the success of many.

One scene in that Monty Python movie was about the pandemics / epidemics which spread across the land. You see many people placing dead bodies in wagons and so forth. One person, perhaps a town crier, is yelling out, “bring out your dead… bring out your dead… bring out your dead.” At one point, a younger man is carrying out an old man over his shoulders as the old man is yelling out, “but I ain’t dead yet.” The old man repeats these words several times. Then one man takes a paddle and wacks the old man over the head and says, “there, you’re dead now.”

That is how, as a senior citizen in the USA today, with supply-side dictatorial business people who have come in to take over since the Bush Recession of 2008 and helped create supply-side economics on the scale which existed in Medieval times. They were inspired by the lousy man named Ronald Reagan who purported that “government is the problem.” That insulted me then and insults me now, for its lashing of Uncle Sam and the wonderful legacy we have with it. Over the course of the years since Reagan and the 2008 recession, I have been dismayed at those who take the side of the mentally sicko people who propose something that is reminiscent of the Medieval days.

Sad to say, that I am beginning to think that we senior citizens in today’s world are being carried out, saying, “I ain’t dead yet” and getting banged over the head by younger bastards who love the idea of individualism and a love of money, helping to create a lousy supply-side economics and helped along by the SOB Scalia and other justices and a Citizens United Decision which should be called “Corporate Monopoly and Supply-siders United.” As in the days following Adam Smith’s pronouncement that humans are not perfect so need guidelines for business morality and those who wished to maintain a status quo of supply-side economics, we have justices on the Supreme Court, too stupid with their law degrees, to recognize true justice associated with “we the people.” As in the Drew Scott Decision of the 1850s, these justices wish to do the same thing as they did with that decision and appease the white supremacists with all the power and money, with status quo, except this time around, they are not Southern plantation owners, but a class of people who model themselves after plantation owners and could be called the “plantation-owning class of people.”

This “plantation-owning class” works to bypass anyone like me who keeps trying to plead for people to recognize that our Founding Fathers and Adam Smith, from the Enlightenment Period of the late 1700s forward, tried to define common sense, rational judgment, and the idea of checks and balances in politics, economics, and justice. The Founding Fathers put words regarding checks and balances in politics and justice in the U.S. Constitution, but not the words of their contemporary, theologian and economist, Adam Smith, with regard to checks and balances in economics.

In the early 20th Century, a man like Teddy Roosevelt worked with a goal of incorporating ideas of checks and balances in economics by busting the idea of huge trusts controlling all the business in America. TR was known as the “trust buster” due to his work to establish rules of regulation which means a government could provide checks and balances within business. With TR’s ideas, America thrived, in spite of the destruction of a Depression and Prohibition on the economy. However, big fat pigs like J.P. Morgan and others really trashed TR and his cousin, FDR.

Checks and balances in justice were exemplified by a statue called Lady Justice who, while blindfolded, carried a balanced scale with two evenly distributed empty plates. Today, people poke fun at this idea in a sarcastic manner by showing a statue of a Lady Justice and a “scale” with two die dangling from it. Where are the checks and balances today?

A little “night history lesson” to go along, after what I have just mentioned. Along came capitalism in the late 1800s and Adam Smith defined capitalism as a checks and balances means of economics, based on supply AND demand. Then Karl Marx came along, shot holes in what he THOUGHT was capitalism when it actually was still the remnants of monarchical royalty aristocratic Medieval supply-side economics. Marx ruined the understanding of the intent of Adam Smith, with his publications of Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiment. After all, to protect the status quo, the wealth fat cats (the name given to the Americans aristocracy following the American Civil War) worked to protect their supply-side economics by re-defining capitalism to their idea of status quo, for the sake of the industrial revolution.

Am I ranting and raving? Really? Is that how it is interpreted? Or is it a lesson in economics and history which should be humbly considered?

Is ranting and raving, like the old man portrayed in the Monty Python movie, to be considered a mental problem? Was that man being carried over a shoulder mentally ill as he ranted and raved about his impending death, while he was still quite alive? Is that humorous? If you think it is, then YOU are the sicko one, not the man exemplified in the movie. I always felt bad for that man, but all the other 20-somethings at the time were laughing their heads off. Probably many of them have taken up the white person’s gauntlet within the Proud Boys today.

Ranting and raving has accomplished far more than carrying guns and weapons. I was told by a Filipino customer service person for an American company, after two months of complaining about my experiences with really lousy delivery of a morning newspaper, that I was ranting and raving. Of course, I was ranting and raving. Figuratively, I am feeling as if I have been pushed against a wall with a chokehold for two months now. I have not been wacked over the head like the old man in the movie. But today, apparently, dictatorial business people, like law enforcement, wish to use chokeholds instead. Again, I speak in a figurative manner, with all due respect for what George Floyd and his family has suffered with regard to the Minneapolis chokehold. I have not suffered by losing my life. Yet. And one hopes I won’t.

Rants and raves have given success in several areas and have done so without guns and the 2nd Amendment. Ironically, the Proud Boys, Qanon, and MAG crappers are opposed to most of the successful rants and raves which have led to freedom for many people, although remnants of the systemic racism are still with us today and the George Floyd incident exemplifies this. Black people have ranted and raved to attain liberty, justice, and the pursuit of happiness. People like Billie Holiday have sung songs expressing their ranting and raving about what was done to black people. This ultimately led to two forces: violent Black Panthers and non-violent Martin Luther King. In that case, the non-violent ones helped push forward, with a collective voice with words, not guns, civil rights legislation and voting rights legislation. This notion really stuns the 2nd Amendment-supporting jackasses of white people in America, including the NRA, so this is how they respond with Trumpicans, Proud Boys, Qanon, and sicko MAG SOBs?

It took 70 years of ranting, raving and protesting by women seeking voting rights in order to attain such rights. It was not instant gratification and “me, me, me” first individualism which did it. It did not take guns to attain the vote for women. Even then, black women were not able to gain the right to vote until it was defined for all black people. What a shameful thing about America’s past which needs to be buried and stopped in its tracks as we move forward. The Trumpican folks despise NOW and other more radical groups which stand up for the rights of women.

Another group which used ranting and raving to attain its freedoms and come out of its segregated closet were those of the LGBTQ community. Even today, the freaking lousy DeSantis of Florida is trying to use a hatchet against this group of people. Maybe he wants to send the NRA-lovers after this group, as well? In 1969, a bunch of gay men said, enough is enough and we ain’t going to take it anymore. Without guns, they started a riot in New York City. Sure. They destroyed property and police cars in the process, but there were no guns. They continued their efforts to attain life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all the LGBTQ by ranting and raving, as well as showing off half-naked bodies in “pride,” sad to say, because of not being treated with dignity in the past. A group of gay men threw a pie in the face of Anita Bryant, the homophobic bitch who, as the Florida orange juice lady, was speaking out against gay men in a homophobic manner. The freedoms for the LGBTQ still need defending as their are lousy southern states of Dixie (and elsewhere) which are trashing gay people with their laws. So I rant and rave about the fact that freaking Tennessee wants to stop adoption by LGBTQ couples. Often these couples can define a family and keep functional (not dysfunctional ones) families better than in many heterosexual heads of households. There are plenty of examples to back up what I am saying, too. I send out my rant and rave to those in states like Florida, Tennessee and elsewhere who are nothing but lousy scumbags in the treatment of fellow human beings.

There are many other examples of how much better ranting and raving and the resulting collective voices which support the ranting and raving with words, not guns, can correct problems in our land. They can work, as it is said, “it takes a village” and find solutions which can work for more people and solutions which encompass more people in the process, than Trumpican one-sided jackasses with white skin and a penchant for a dictatorship of the white supremacists and any “Uncle Tom’s” or money-loving Jews with no concern for their fellow group of humans whom they can recruit to their sides.

I am a SOB in saying this in a ranting and raving mode. But I don’t care. Somebody has to say it.

Category:

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

Healthcare for Millions of Americans or Limited to the Wealthy?

​NOTICE: WordPress blocks my sharing of this message with one of my personal emails and does nothing to help me solve this problem. How many others are being blocked in the distribution of my blog messages?

Dear Men’s Health Advisor (Cleveland Clinic):
in 2019 and 2020, before COVID-19, I followed the directions, with approval of my primary care physician at Guthrie Clinic, Owego, NY, of Canadian Dr. Jason Fung, based on his book, The Diabetes Code. His instructions that insulin cause too much weight gain and the body eventually does not accept it were my guiding light, as I asked my PCP to discontinue the insulin injections from Tresiba. In addition, I followed the very strict “sugar de-tox” diet over several weeks, which also included intermittent fasting about twice during a week’s time. The results were fabulous. With diet, exercise (daily walking regimen, which I was doing BEFORE I started Dr. Fung’s advice) I continued Ozempic, jardiance, and 2 mg glimepiride, I lost nearly 40 pounds in just a few weeks. My glucose numbers went down tremendously so that many times, for the first time in years, my fasting glucose levels were usually in the range of 100 to 180.  There were several times my numbers went down to the 90s, but never below that. My A1C eventually dropped to 7.2, 7.3.  I was thrilled.

Then, I hit the Medicare donut hole in 2020 and discovered some exorbitant high prices for the Ozempic and jardiance (plus the xarelto).  It was breaking my bank, especially considering that Ozempic by Nova Nordisk is $1200 without any insurance coverage and the donut hole makes me cough up 25% of that price.  Ripoff city which was not the case BEFORE the privatized Medicare set in place by the Republicans about the time of the Bush recession.  Pricks, including Rick the Prick of Florida who now sits in the U.S. Senate. I was not able to afford the Ozempic, so my glucose numbers began to climb again.  It has gotten so bad that my latest A1C jumped to 8.3. 

Everything that is being done to me is experimental measures to replace the Ozempic. Nothing is working and the metformin gives me such bad abdominal pain and diarrhea, that I have been told to stop taking it. Yet, CVS and Walgreens were somehow instructed to continue with it, supplying me with six huge bottles of metformin that might last a typical patient six months to a year. 

I have also gone from Victoza to, within the past four days, Rybelsus.  Victoza and Rybellsus do not cost as much as Ozempic, but they are still expensive brand names which don’t work. So my money going out of my pocket is a waste, paying for something which does not do the job. The money someone in insurance spent on all that metformin is likely a waste of insurance and/or Medicare money, money which me and many others my age have funded for 40 plus years and are told there is not enough. No wonder, if there is a lack of regulation of this so as to keep the costs down. No wonder because we are losing money to lawyers with their damn personal injury and workman’s comp lawsuits which clog the court system and drain our tax dollars, as opposed to simply paying for the injuries directly, with no “middle man” of lawyer and the tons of money they get, plus the bleeding of our tax dolars in the process. (But does Cleveland Clinic, Guthrie, UHS, or Lourdes speak up about this? Nah). 

My glucose numbers, as I begin the Rybelsus (14 mg) and have been on it for four days now, have gone from 208 to 268. One time, they were down to 180. I have also not given up on metformin, so for the past few days, I have taken only one tablet of metformin each day.  Today, I developed abdominal pains and diarrhea once again. However, I did a test.  My glucose numbers BEFORE the metformin (and after the Rybelsus) were 208 most of the morning.  I took the metformin and the Jardiance and then began to develop the pains and diarrhea. After about four times going to the bathroom within an hours time and emptying myself out as if I was preparing for a colonoscopy, I took my glucose numbers once again. The numbers, following my emptying out myself, increased from 208 to 268.  Please explain this to me because I get no answers from health providers or pharmacists. No one seems to know the answers, whether health-related or how much the meds cost on privatized Medicare. 

In addition, I am so concerned about the time of day and with which meals I should take my medicine, that I consulted a pharmacist about this, as I picked up the Rybelsus. The pharmacist said, “there is no particular time and it could be taken at any time.” Nothing about meals or no meals.  I tried it before reading the instructions. Then after two days, I read the instructions and it said, “take without food first thing in the morning once arising in the morning and wait a time (half hour? I don’t recall) before eating or drinking.” Also, “take with only four ounces of water.” So I switched. But are we not supposed to consult with pharmacists on this and they are supposed to know? After all, when one picks up a new medicine, the pharmacy asks, “do you have any questions about this medication?” So I ask. This was what I got when I asked the question I had: “take at any time.” As a professor, I used to tell my students “that therei s no such thing as a stupid question unless there is one you don’t ask.” Sounds like we live in a society where we get false answers instead. And we wonder why American voters don’t know much about what is going on today, either, with the false crap thrown at them through bloviating political analysis at Fox, MSNBC, and CNN, in the name of entertainment, not news.  With entertainment, no one is concerned about whether someone’s bloviating opinion is correct or not and based on facts or not or just their own emotions and/or facts, just get the ratings that are the best and make the most money, like lawyers do with personal injury and workman’s injuries.  Like big pharma does with healthcare and the expensive commercials they purchase making lying claims to “get Ozempic” at only $25.00 per month and never mentioning their little discount does not apply to Medicare patients with complex and convoluted privatized Medicare crap (or I mean, GAP) of tiers and donut holes, ignoring the idea to “KISS.” We don’t want to “KISS,” do we? (If you know what I am saying here with this ACRONYM). 

We read your Cleveland Clinic Men’s Health Advisor regularly and appreciate the coverage. So, I thought I would write about the questions I have.  Right now. This ery minute, my last glucose number was 208. It has hovered right around there, with the exception of the time following my period of intermittent fasting. It then actually got as low as 180.  WOW!  I wish it were 80, not 180.  When I was following Dr. Fung’s sugar de-tox diet and doing intermittent fasting, my numbers did, at times, hover around a low point of 80-100.  Otherwise, it was from 100-180. 

What am I supposed to do? starve myself in order to keep my numbers down? Evidently putting ANY food in and my numbers are on the rise, or so it appears. Do I break my financial bank by paying 25% of the $1200 for Ozempic?  Tell me how I am supposed to do that and still live. Maybe I SHOULD starve myself and then have the money to pay for Ozempic, right? What the hell do I do? Because I pay 25% of the full price for Ozempic, Jardiance, and Xarelto – all three brand name drugs which are charged by Walgreens, CVS, and big pharma with ripoff prices.  That comes close to a $700 per month charge which is higher than my monthly mortgage payment.   Add to that the monthly figures for auto and homeowners’ insurance.  Also add to that the charge for my generic drugs, which is not a lot for each, but added up and boy do you have a large number.

I am being very critical of healthcare providers and pharmacies because they have no knowledge of what it costs those of us on privatized Medicare, with no options for some premiums which would help us offset the cost of such drugs and do so in a better way.  And none of the health providers and pharmaceutical companies give a damn about patients who are stuck in donut holes.  They don’t care, as this is “reality,” as one said.  Reality? It takes a village to collectively overturn reality which is dictated by fat pigs at the top of the mountains of big corporations.  It is tougher, too, when we are forced to deal, more and more, with the big corporations, including Rick the Prick’s Hospital Corporation of America (and with a conflict of interest for a benefit to Rick the Prick, he steals an election in Florida to sit in the U.S. Senate now), it is far tougher to do than the days in America when we had small businesses who were interested in the balance of supply and demand capitalism, replaced now by monopoly laden supply side economics.  The pharmacy which I now deal with is owned by a big corporate chain called Walgreens, but I recall when it was a small business owned by a local pharmacist and not a big company. That worked quite well, too.  And Walgreens, I am told, has tried to circumvent the use of unions to build new stores in upstate New York.  What a bunch of lousy scumbags.  The store Walgreens now occupies here was built in the days of union labour. 

That is my criticism, added to my questions. I hope and pray we can all come together and correct these problems which impact so many millions of people. You might think I am asking you to put yourselves in MY shoes, but in reality, I am asking if you can put your feet in the shoes of millions of New Yorkers and Americans who have many of the same concerns and conditions to which I am addressing.  Somehow I am not reaching the right people in order to get action and that is shameful in America where the ones who are now trying to get action are pointing to guns and the 2nd Amendment as a means to get actions and falsely proclaiming that the amendment was designed to support insurrection. Wrong and the Proud Boys, Qanon, MAG jerks need an attitude adjustment, as all the attention is given to them and not the concerns of millions upon millions of Americans like me, plus others I have not even mentioned here.

Category:

Commentary, Healthcare, wellness, medicine