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 ‘democracy’ Category

Reproductive Rights, HUMAN BEINGS (WE THE PEOPLE), and America

May 13 is a date which lives in my memory. On May 13, 1965, my mom gave birth to my little sister. But on May 13, 1965, a Thursday and not Friday the 13th, my mom had a stillbirth. She had gone full term – 9 months – carrying this baby and the baby was born already dead. At Johnson City, NY’s Wilson Memorial Hospital (now UHS), my mom had a stillbirth.

In later years, my mom mentioned that she felt the baby die in her womb a few days before, on Mother’s Day. My mom mentioned that the mortician in Newark Valley noted the baby had an enlarged head and several other defects. To my mom, she thought being stillborn saved the life of the only girl for whom she gave birth.

For me who believes in a resurrection, I believe that in some way, God brought my little sister to be with God and some day I may be able to meet her. That is my belief.

What I don’t like is the words of an anti-abortionist whose name shall remain nameless, who felt it was the fault of a god and turned to a religious cult which opposed abortions. This same person also faulted a god for the loss of about three or four fetus due to “spontaneous abortions.” These are better known as miscarriages.

I am opposed to abortions. I teach, not preach. I place the rights of human beings above those of a fetus because there is a resurrection, based on a man who walked the earth and his father sacrificed him for the human race. These idiots who insist on DICTATING to the rest of us do not even consider cradle to grave societal healthcare and follow the words of freaking lousy lawyers who block us from attaining cradle to grave healthcare by making money of their damn lawsuits which are many times made by freaks and liars.

Instead, I go by the words of a Crosby Stills Nash & Young song:

Teach your children well

Their father’s hell

Did slowly go by

And feed them on your dreams

The one they pick’s

The one you’ll know by

Then a change in lyrics:

Teach your parents well

Their children’s hell

Will slowly go by

And feed them on your dreams

The one they pick’s

The one you’ll know by

Don’t you ever ask them, “Why?”

If they told you, you would cry

So, just look at them and sigh

And know they love you

The song is not about a group of puritans dictating to society and destroying reproductive rights. It’s about the human race. I even mentioned this belief to a black man I knew who said he supported anti-abortion efforts for society. The reason? In order to expand the black race. I was blunt and told this man that it is not about a race and the color of the skin, but about the human race. Perhaps I need to tell this to a freaking man with pubic hairs on a soda can and named Clarence Thomas. Maybe this should be said to a white man who sits on the SCOTUS, even though there were allegations given by women about his disrespect for women while dating. I speak of Brett Kavanaugh.

What about some of the others who helped push us to this brink of dictatorship? For instance, female-groping Trump?

How about corrupt McConnell who never earned his money in a legitimate way? McConnell. A lawyer. A career lawyer who does the work of the mob from puritanical s**t of people. Puritanical. He became rich by doing the work of the puritanical s**t of America.

Read the drama, The Crucible. It demonstrates that the TRUE reason for witch trials in New England was because of money, not religion. Yet, everyone believes it is religion to be dictated to everyone. Our U.S. Constitution gives us religious freedom. These dolts and idiots who intend to destroy reproductive rights do so on the basis of THEIR religious beliefs. For the rest of us, the majority of Americans, these s**theads take away our religious freedom. In stories like The Crucible, we hear about attempts to confiscate property, like a bunch of Marxist Communists, especially when the property is water front property. In those years, waterways were the primary means of transportation.

With this being said, if one were to read a book from Cornell University Press, we find a TRUE report of the false execution of a member of the Cornell family in Rhode Island, due to lies about apparitions being admissible in the court. This event happened in colonial America (late 17th Century) before we wrote the U.S. Constitution after throwing off the British Crown. The property in which this man who was falsely executed would have inherited was purportedly (from the best I can figure out, based on some records of the past – and I COULD BE WRONG – so don’t go for being wrong, if I am, but for the point I am TRYING to make here) located on a waterway.

How do I get from reproductive rights to these descriptions? Because the Cornells came here from England in 1638. They are recorded as being members of St. Mary’s Church of England church (Episcopal in America). Their relatives are buried there and the records demonstrate the family being at this church, located in Saffron on Walden, County Essex, England. We still need more research on this, but circumstantial evidence says that 1638 was at a time when there were events on the horizon and certainly the family realized the polarization of a society in England. I speak about the later puritanical dictatorship of Cromwell taking over in England, beheading King Charles, and starting the English Civil War. In the late 1600s, when the puritanical rule ended in England, too many of them apparently ended up coming to New England. it caused great upheaval in the Cornell family by persecuting those who may NOT have been in accordance with the religious practices of puritanical crap.

The Cornells then fled to Rhode Island with Baptist Roger Williams and the one persecuted named Anne Hutchinson. In other words, people came here to America to escape persecution based on religious beliefs. Then, the puritans come here and began to persecute the others who came here to escape persecution themselves. If Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and others on SCOTUS had any brains to understand this type of America. I met add this area in the northeastern area of America was one of the first to shed this nation of enslavement of Africans. The slave ship or two which was confiscated in order to set people free. Other measures for the work of those who wished to end slavery.

In fact, a descendant of this Cornell family, Ezra Cornell, was purportedly an early member of the Republican Party of New York, due to his stand for the abolition of slavery. His son, Alonzo B. Cornell, was one of the first Republican governors of New York. Today, this political party has been commandeered by puritanical s**t who wish to dictate THEIR beliefs on society. These beliefs are ones of hatred for the human race, far from what Ezra Cornell and other members of the original Republicans represented. They protect one element, fetus in the womb, while never taking any interest in those outside the womb, except to impose hateful attitudes and denying cradle to grave healthcare, and not allowing “WE THE PEOPLE” to understand our children and others who have identified that they have a natural inclination towards romance and sex. To add to this last statement, “…the one they pick’s the one you’ll know by…” Ask me about the number of young people from McConnell’s Kentucky who were abandoned by their families, out of fear that “NURTURING” overrides “NATURE.” The kids then go live on the streets in Florida, due to parents who don’t know how to teach their children, but PREACH and DICTATE to their children. WE THE PEOPLE don’t want such idiots and dolts determining their ideas about a supposed “justice” and dictate it in any method they want to do, whether the bitch in the 17th Century and her apparitions and lying, to the bitch (and others) today who think there is a requirement impose THEIR rules on all of us and call it “justice.” Sure. Tarnish the opposition. It ends up more than just the tarnishing. It ends up achieving THEIR justice with execution and genocide, like a Putin in Russia, not like America. America was formed as a result of throwing off royalty and aristocratic SUPPLY SIDER dictatorship. It was the era of “enlightenment” in which enlightened thinkers spoke about using balance, both in politics and economics. Most importantly, America was formed with a quest for religious freedom. You support anti-reproductive rights or same-sex relationships, you are imposing a religious belief on all our society.

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Commentary, democracy, Economics, Regulated Capitalism, Commerce, Education, Healthcare, wellness, medicine

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Pass it on: From Eskow’s newsletter (reprint)

Absolute Zero: A Newsletter from Richard (RJ) Eskow

https://eskow.substack.com/

Barbarians and Breeders: To the Men of the New Old Order

A priesthood that preaches the right to life from the moment of conception until the moment you’re born Muslim.

Richard (RJ) Eskow May 4

Photo credit: Laurie Shaull

I can’t imagine what it is like to be a woman in the United States of America today. If I feel the blow of Samuel Alito’s draft opinion pm Roe v Wade in the pit of my stomach – and I do – I can only try to imagine how it must feel to have one’s own body assaulted, occupied, and colonized in this way.

Many people are repeating the line used by then-Sen. Kamala Harris in Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court. “Can you think of any laws that give the government the power to make decisions about the male body?” she asked. “I’m not thinking of any right now, Senator,” Kavanaugh replied.

But there is such a law, and it’s worth mentioning. The Selective Service requires all men of a certain age to register for military conscription. The draft hasn’t been used in many years — it affects men, who have more power — but it allows the government to take possession of men’s’ bodies and use them as instruments of war. My generation of men faced a high probability of being drafted and were ordered to submit to the requisite training and be sent off to Vietnam if we were chosen.

That was the old order. Men fought for the state, and when they returned home (if they returned home) they worked for wages to support the economic system. Women bred for the state, then raised the children that they produced. You played your role or you paid the price.

Now, they’re bringing the old order back. They call themselves “pro-life,” even as they clamor for war, for poverty, to deprive people of medical care and a livable involvement. You can’t be pro-life and call down death. 

We are once again ruled by a priesthood that preaches the right to life from the moment of conception until the moment you’re born Muslim. Or dark-skinned. Or poor. Or female.

The men who are shrugging off this development better think twice. Unless you’re privileged, they’ll devalue your life too. You can’t be anti-woman and pro-human. Some men will experience the pyrrhic pleasure of mistreating women, but at what cost? Watch out, men. They’ll make a barbarian of you soon. It may sound good to you now, but you’ll be a footsoldier in the mud and not a general in the great tent.

But I apologize. This is me, a man, trying to understand how it feels to be a woman today. But the draft wasn’t the same, was it? Sure, we could die. We, too, could be physically violated and be helpless to prevent it. But the intimacy of women’s subjugation, its linkage to the physical human core … that, I can’t picture. I can only empathize. And support. And fight.

The Greek poet CP Cavafy’s best-known work is “Waiting for the Barbarians,” which describes a nation-state paralyzed into inaction by the anticipation of an invading horde. That, to me, describes the mainstream politicians who have watched the rise in Republican barbarity, their wholesale attack on democratic process and their hijacking of the judiciary, and done nothing about it.

Why isn’t anything happening in the senate?

Why do the senators sit there without legislating?

            Because the barbarians are coming today.

            What laws can the senators make now?

            Once the barbarians are here, they’ll do the legislating.

Lofty sentences about political norms and senatorial decorum are the hollow talk of hollow figures in marble hallways, living statues waiting for the barbarians. They don’t act because they have chosen to become symbols, not living actors in a flesh-and-blood drama. And they don’t act, perhaps, because they can’t believe it’s really happening. Like the protagonist in another Cavafy poem, they paid no attention as walls were built to enclose and entomb them.

With no consideration, no pity, no shame,

they have built walls around me, thick and high …

I had so much to do outside.

The draft system was much easier to escape if you were rich or middle class, if you were white. There were doctors to certify you unfit. If that form of exemption became more difficult, your parents could always send you to Canada. People of color and the poor got the worst of it. They get the worst of it now. They’re far more likely to serve in the military, often because they have no other economic alternatives. There they must contend with danger, senior-level incompetence, suicide epidemics, and the abuse of their addicted comrades.

People of color and the poor will get the worst of this New Old Order, too, as disadvantaged women find themselves unable to afford the interstate travel that bodily autonomy will soon require. That will displease the Big Tech branch of the ruling elite, which has long been concerned with the problem of excess population. As I once wrote of Tyler Cowen, a favored economist of that set: 

Cowen promotes his idea of the “hyper-meritocracy” in “Average Is Over.” The brilliant and self-motivated (as he sees them) will become wealthier and more powerful than ever, while the rest of society (which Cowen pegs at 85 percent of the population) becomes a permanent underclass, dwelling in shantytowns and struggling to survive. 

With Roe v Wade gone, make that 95 percent. The tech tycoons may moan, but they’ll go along with it in the end. Barbarians use social media, too.

One of the most striking things about the Alito draft is its rage. These judicial moles have watched, and waited, and bided their time, pretending to be sober jurists until their moment came around. Now, the fury is unleashed. Chief Justice Roberts may tone down the language, but the lurking creature has growled deep down in its throat.

When they were building the walls, how could I not have noticed!

But I never heard the builders, not a sound.

Only one in four Americans wants the Court to overturn Roe v Wade. There are nationwide demonstrations against it. They’re doing it anyway. 

The Democrats in Washington – somebody – should be demanding that the courts be taken back from the antidemocratic minority. This is the battle we should be fighting. This is the line that should be drawn. Too many of them, however, seem to have another plan in mind. It’s the same one they’ve been following for years, and it goes like this: Why legislate? Once the barbarians are here, they’ll do the legislating. 

Night has fallen. The walls have been built. They’re here.

My additional comments. The two presidents who did not get the popular vote, yet had a hand in creating this SCOTUS today, had it been the “men of the new old order,” based on many, many years ago, would have had to stand on the front lines in front of troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other areas of the world. Think about that. The leader led the troops into battle at one time. LBJ of Texas, without even being elected president because of being next in line when JFK was murdered, should have been at the front lines of the troops in Vietnam. None of them were.

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Commentary, democracy, Gun Safety, History & Genealogy, human-rights, war

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Amanpour & Company, May 4-5, 2022

Dear Amanpour & Company:

Where do I begin? In viewing this program tonight, I begin with some of the last words spoken by Ms. Amanpour:  “human rights.”  With the issue before the SCOTUS tonight, “human rights” is important. But the Democrat who wishes to challenge Kemp of Georgia has said this one other thing, which was not mentioned. We cannot have peace without justice. The SCOTUS is SUPPOSED to be about doing the job of JUSTICES in order to assure justice and domestic tranquility. The dolts who are sitting in the current day majority, appointed by men who DID NOT win the popular vote in presidential elections, are possibly making some lousy decisions which move America away from “human justice.”

Democracy can provide peace AND justice and do so far beyond the consideration of “human rights.” We should have learned this from the American Civil War and the subsequent lousy crap which happened when a Democrat won only one term for president and then came back for a second term and we overturned what Republican Reconstruction had done and ushered in Jim Crow. But too much stupidity and lack of reasoning demonstrates too many have not learned from history. The woman from Georgia is correct. The Human rights are part of this is important, but “peace without justice” is what is truly appropriate and that is not being said. I don’t know how I can get across what I am trying to say in all of this.  Ms. Amanpour is correct, but I still do not believe we are going far enough.

I have female friends who have sent me disparaging remarks about Ayn Rand and her “virtue of selfishness” ideals.  Ayn Rand came here from Russia where they have never learned what democracy and capitalism is TRULY about. But out of feeling sorry for her, people came to her side in all things. I had females who sent me information challenging this atheist from Russia who had such a profound influence on America with the ideas of “selfish” individualism.

At the same time, these females who have expressed disdain over Ayn Rand also express very deep support of the ideas for PRO CHOICE and the woman’s right to an abortion. That is the SAME THING AYN RAND SUPPORTED. The right of a woman to have an abortion.  Ayn Rand.  But we are still stuck on Ayn Rand and her principle of the “virtue of selfishness.” Gloria Steinem speaking last night plus the other woman on the opposite side of the picture BOTH represented the thoughts about individual selfishness. Some of my female friends might like Steinem, but how about considering this junk and vicious behavior in America – the POLARIZATION OF AMERICA – due to individualism and selfishness.  The issue is about human rights, but more importantly about HUMAN JUSTICE, as Stacey Abrams of Georgia has said. 

Theocracies, fascist autocracies like Hitler and Mussolini, communist regimes like Joseph Stalin, and now with Putin’s plutocracy all have one thing in common. Establish “peace” by means of execution of enemies, just like any Mafia of ANY culture would do (and I am not just singling out Italians, so let me make that very clear) and by means of genocide.  By putting sunder their opposition, they then can say “they establish peace.” The Confederate bastards of the 19th Century had the same motive. Murder all the black people and we can have peace. They carried it forward after Grover Cleveland and other Democrats of the late 1800s pushed this crap upon the American public, like “gerrymanderers” in Dixie are doing today.  Another lesson from history which is ignored. 

Those who spoke tonight, besides Chris Christie, spoke about many things, but ignored anything I am trying to say.  The best part this evening was listening, for a short time, to author, Margaret Atwood. It was too short of a time because she made some very good points about LEARNING FROM HISTORY.  But it was cut short and that was disappointing.

Related to Canadian author, Atwood, is something which I relate to all of this. It may have no relationship at all. But one thing is this. I am related to another Canadian author, now deceased.  His name was Hugh MacLennan.  My great-grandmother was Angeline MacLennan. She hailed from central Pennsylvania in a town called Orwigsburg (Schuylkill County).  Angie MacLennan married my great-grandfather who lived on the New Jersey side of the Philadelphia metropolitan area.  That was Rev. Joseph Smith Eldridge, a pastor in the Methodist Church for many years.

Rev. Joseph and Angeline “Angie” MacLennan, had a daughter they named Clara Permelia Eldridge. When Clara was barely four years of age, she lost her mother, Angie (MacLennan) Eldridge.  Why? Because in 1903, abortions were NOT ALLOWED. Angie died in childbirth, along with that child which was due to be born in 1903. This lack of abortion snuffed out the life of a mom. That mom was unable to celebrate Mother’s Day with her one child. She was not able to celebrate Mother’s Day with any other POSSIBLE children, had she been able to have an abortion.  It was a legitimate marriage and legitimate children.  But the complications snuffed out the life of a MacLennan woman, related to Canadian author, Hugh MacLennan.  And to think the stupidity of those on the current day SCOTUS might just leave the door open for states (in Dixie, particularly) to ban abortion of ANY KIND, even if the life of a mother is threatened or there has been rape involved. It is a move backward. It is interesting that Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, relates to what the theocracy in Cambridge, MA, once did to other Americans. More recent Cambridge, she explained, was used for her setting in the book, due to the legacy from the past in which puritanical folks treated other people with s**t (my word, not Atwood’s word).  But Atwood was cut short and we never heard more from her an that is sad.  For the example is about “peace without justice” which prevailed in 17th Century New England and things like the Salem Witch Trials and other modes of execution.

Ezra Cornell, founder (co-leader, whatever) of Cornell University, can trace his lineage back to 17th Century Rhode Island and the wrongful execution of his ancestor named Thomas Cornell, Jr, at the hands of such puritanical s**t.  Read all about it in a book published by the Cornell University Press and titled, Killed Strangely. It is about the murder of Thomas, Jr’s mother, Rebecca (Briggs) Cornell. Rebecca (Briggs) Cornell also happens to be my ancestor, too. 

Ezra Cornell was one of many founders of the REPUBLICAN PARTY in central New York, due to his standing up for the abolition of slavery in Dixie. 

What about Clara Eldridge? She married my grandfather, Floyd B. Schoonmaker, after completing her music degree at what is now Ithaca College, but was, at the time, called Ithaca Conservatory of Music. That was during the era of Jim Crow. In spite of that, Simon and Bertha (Palmer) Haley were students in Ithaca. Simon at Cornell University and Bertha at Ithaca Conservatory of Music, apparently graduating in the class of 1925 with Clara Eldridge. Clara.

My grandmother. Daughter of Angie MacLennan who lost her life due to childbirth.  My grandmother who, when we stayed with her on Saturday evenings, never allowed us to view Mannix or Mission:Impossible, and other violent programs. As she would say, “you are not watching any violence.”

My reply would sometimes be, “but Nana, your friend, Gertie, watches Gunsmoke.” She would say, “I don’t care what she does, these are the rules in my house.” No guns. No violence. Nana, too, was a Republican.  She would be absolutely appalled at the Republicans today like Trump, Ron DeSantis, Rick Scott, McConnell, and yes, even Chris Christie of the state where she lived a good portion of her life, New Jersey.  Her mother, Angie MacLennan died in New Jersey when Nana was only about four years of age.  She had a cousin who was tortured in a Confederate prison, too, in Dixie. She had been born only about 30 years after the end of the American Civil War. So when Nana visited her (half) sister in Florida, she came back disgusted with Florida being the place where “everyone is going to find the fountain of youth and they don’t find it there.”  She NEVER returned to Dixie for the rest of her life, dying in 1982.  Her mother, my great-grandmother, could have lived longer and given birth to more children, had the option for an abortion been present in 1903.  It is disgusting to think there are really lousy people in America who don’t want to solve our problems and move forward, but to go back to those days. If you don’t want to do that, then they likely would take the lives of those who don’t wish to go along – like a “theocracy.” Atwood used this word tonight. A theocracy is autocratic and dictatorial. Does not anyone think our Founding Fathers were so intelligent, they attempted to avoid having a “theocracy” in America with words about religious freedom, “domestic tranquility” and so forth, in the U.S. Constitution.

Any lawyers who don’t point this out to the SCOTUS should have their license revoked.  That is how strongly I feel about this.   

Anyone serving on the SCOTUS who does not think and consider STRONGLY aspects such as this (plus more) and perhaps they need to be executed, as Hitler did to his opposition. I say this to make a point, but I don’t advocate it. 

Beyond that, the media needs to be stronger with the ideas which I have expressed here. 

Thanks to Margaret Atwood. When I attempted to view the dramatization of her book, The Handmaid’s Tale, I was so shaken by it, I had the chills, and was not able to continue to watch it. I still get chills thinking bout it.  Just as with today’s polarization by idiots who believe they are Christians, I still get chills, whether it is from these idiots or what is described in the book.  Should I apologize for not being a “man” because I get chills from the book? OK. I am a human being. How about that? I am a human seeking human justice, human rights, human equality.  Liberty and justice for all. Don’t patronize me by twisting things to make it look like doing away with Roe v. Wade fits into this framework of human justice. Such people really do sicken me and make me want to vomit. 

Amazing. 70% of the population DOES NOT WANT THE DESTRUCTION OF ROE v. WADE? Where is this 70% when it comes to elections and the Democrats speak out against such destruction? Where are they?

“Silence like a cancer grows.”

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Current Topic: SCOTUS & Roe v. Wade

Dear Amanpour & Company:

In response to your broadcast last night (3 May 2022) regarding the issue now before the SCOTUS, I feel compelled to comment. 

To those who don’t like long commentaries, then close your eyes, plug your ears, and don’t bother. But this issue about abortion is a complex one.

Ms. Amanpour, in your interview of the right wing fascist woman who advocates destroying Roe v. Wade, you are like much of the media: a kind person in interviewing her. If it were me to do the interview, I would have called the woman what she is: a fascist bitch with a lainbrained mind like too many other Americans who wish to impose their religious beliefs upon all Americans, using the Supreme Court, a body supposedly for “human justice,” to do so. 

On the other hand, I got no new information from your interview of Gloria Steinem. All it contained was a person defending women’s rights and never addressing what some men think about this topic. As a gay man, I have been a part of the human equality movements which advocate for ALL human rights, including those of women.  But there are other issues here, besides just women’s rights which deal with human justice and human rights. Liberty and justice for all. 

My background is in a religious denomination which is the same one as Barack Obama: the Congregational / United Church of Christ. Our church “missionary” buildings in Mississippi have ended up being fire-bombed on numerous occasions. Who did this? Likely the same ones who promote what is being used to challenge Roe v. Wade in the SCOTUS. Likely the same ones who march with David Duke (observed being done in 2000) in Biloxi, MS. The same denomination which had people killed in Charlottesville, VA, by members of the  KKK and Trump simply praising those doing the attacks against human beings who march in peace. 

As a male, I am disgusted by SCOTUS men like Thomas and Kavanaugh who reveal the really lousy side of males. Putting sex first. Even the possibilities that Kavanaugh was involved in date rape. How many other violent acts have been advocated by such men who sit in power seats of the SCOTUS? Why is it we have lousy males serving on the SCOTUS and we expect ONLY WOMEN to address the needs of human justice and human rights? All men are not BAD, as we may be stereotyped as being bad. 

My religious background taught me about the most important idea of religious beliefs which comes from the Gospels. If a person lives by the ideas of “do unto others as you would have done unto you….” OR… “love God and love your neighbor…”  The UCC taught me this.  From the UCC and my parents, I have maintained the ideas that we respect both pro-choice and pro-life ideas. Here we go again. Lining up one against the other and having a SCOTUS to embolden these dichotomies.  It is sickening to consider.

How can I be both pro-choice and pro-life? The main reason is that, with pro-choice, I support those who DON’T  want to obtain an abortion. In fact, my CHOICE is to help educate people about the entire overall perspective on this issue. My ideas are the same when it comes to evolution v. creationism; sexual identity education as a means of helping understand nature v. nurture (and other issues which can help embolden our people to stand STRONG AGAINST VIOLENCE and RAPE done by older men and women in roles of power).  When I express these ideas, I then become personified as being weird, right? 

Personally, I experienced ordeals of dealing with spontaneous abortions.  I can say that I conceived up to about seven children. Only three are alive today, due to spontaneous abortions of about three to four fetus.

I had to put up with people who polarized our family by thinking that “Jehovah would have not allowed such spontaneous abortions, so our GOD was wrong.” Oh, yeah? And those idiot lainbrains who carry guns, in the name of some god, and murder abortion doctors are so much smarter than GOD?  Oh, no. they claim to do this lousy stuff with guns, FOR GOD.  That is not my GOD and certainly I don’t always insist on using the name of Jehovah, either. 

These people who claim to be “Christians” are lousy human beings. Why? Because they embrace what Jesus Christ advocated to be AGAINST. “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Christ spoke out against this with simple words in the Gospels: “do unto others as you would have them do unto you…” and the most important short phrase which covers the way we treat all human beings (and perhaps you wish to eliminate the beginning words about GOD): “love God; love your neighbor as yourself.”  Christ’s words go against the idiocy of “eye for eye…” His words DO NOT speak against the 10 Commandments, but if people follow Christ’s words, they will not live their lives against anything written in the 10 Commandments. 

But I know. Due to the idiocy of people like the fascist bitch interviewed on Amanpour & Company last night, I am not supposed to speak in public about God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, and present a truly loving GOD for whom we can say, “trust in the LORD and do not lean upon your own understanding” because your own understanding might be wrong and goes with the evil spirit.  Sorry, but what Gloria Steinem (with all due respect to her) said, while very pertinent and certainly understandable to be important aspects, the overall question is not being covered sufficiently. So we go away with the words of a fascist right wing bitch who talked and talked and never listened to what Ms. Amanpour was saying. Never listened, considered, and tried to THINK on what had been said. That pretty much sums up the polarization in America today. 

For my own personal experience, I have more to explain. My oldest one who owes her very existence in life to what I had to sacrifice, in the name of finances. I won’t go into the explanation of it. A wife who had nothing but spontaneous abortions up to the birth of my oldest child. No one appreciates what I did, but only give allegiance and honor to a “Jehovah” only.  Meanwhile, they help create a hell on earth, as puritanicals do because they get upset if there is someone having a good time… being able to seek “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” 

Then there are those unable to have children. My question. Why does GOD not intervene there, but intervenes with GUNS and fascist bitches (like the one on Amanpour & Company last night)? In this case, at huge expenses (no cradle to grave health coverage while speaking out with big mouths about abortions and proclaiming a divine right to knowing the best about what is called “pro-life,” as they hire stupid lainbrained lawyers to uphold their stupidity, a lack of humility to have an open mind in order to overcome IGNORANCE and LEARN.

In other words, human beings, not any god, have developed methods of fertility to overcome the plight of those who are unable to have children. But the cost of it is prohibitive for the “little people” who pay the taxes (i.e., what Leona Helmsley and Trump cronies like to think).  Americans have to put up with the s**t of people like the fascist bitch (not Steinem, but the other woman) talk to us about HER individualist ideas regarding abortions and pro-life. However, I am bothered by the fact that Steinem ALSO concentrated on “individualism.”  Since America’s love affair with the automobile, we have become a nation of individuals with no concern for our fellow human beings. DUI rarely, if ever, existed when we had horses and public transportation. William Mattar in his idiocy, talks about DUI. In other words, he loves it because he can make money off the fact that we are a society of individuals who negate trains and other public transit ways.  Rick the Prick of Florida negated what the VOTERS DECIDED IN FLORIDA FOR CREATING A FAST-SPEED TRAIN FROM ORLANDO TO MIAMI – RUINING INVESTMENTS BY SOME OF US FOR HOMES ALONG THE ROUTE AND THEN THE BASTARD RICK THE PRICK SAW TO IT THAT MONEY WAS PUT INTO EXPANDING I-95 AND CREATING TOLL BOOTHS IN MIAMI IN ORDER TO DO IT.  Does anyone take this seriously?  Therefore, I do speak out against Steinem talking just like the fascist bitch with regard to individualism. The SCOTUS should be taking this into account, as well as the FREEDOM TO WORSHIP (religion) AS DEFINED BY THE U.S. CONSTITUTION.

The fascist bitch proclaims that SHE is not advocating politics in the SCOTUS. She needs to THINK about that, as she implies only the OTHER SIDE is advocating politics. 

This bitch wants us all to WORSHIP where she worships and to PRAISE HER GOD, which, when used by gun-toting idiots who shoot abortion doctors (terrorists at abortion clinics) and fire-bombers (in Mississippi) and people with a love of a car used to mow down people who seek PEACE AND JUSTICE in Charlottesville, get praise and honor. To which I say, such people need to be hung, just as Timothy McVeigh was executed. They don’t deserve a place to speak in the Media, such as that fascist bitch spoke last night, while many others who can express what I am expressing here, are denied access to expressing our intelligence of reasoning, consideration, and THINKING. 

God does nothing to stop spontaneous abortions, human fertility problems, sea horses in which the male carries the babies, animals which perform homosexual acts. It is stupidity, not a god; which drives people like this terrorist-endorsing anti-abortionist bitch who claims a divine right to know what should be pushed down the throats of the population regarding pro-life. 

I have examples in my life of being pro-life. My investment in pro-life meant I placed an importance on giving up a musical instrument for which I majored on in my college degree.  I also attempted to teach my own kids that abortion is not a form of contraception and only should be considered as the last resort, when it comes to consideration of rape and the life of the woman, as was the case for my great-grandmother who died in 1903 in childbirth.  Had God or humans aborted the fetus, my great-grandmother could have lived on, in order to produce siblings to my grandmother.  Does any lawyer related to such incidents ever go before SCOTUS to plead this or other aspects of this question?  Would the members of the SCOTUS who dig in their heels on this topic even care about JUSTICE? Or do they wish to do as the fascist bitch on Amanpour & Company, plus Trump, McConnell and other bastard males wish? 

Screw the ideas of individualism as the means to accomplish this goal. The common ground between Steinem and the fascist bitch is individualism.  We need to challenge individualism, not act like a bunch of “nice people” trying to tolerate the “other side” of individualism. We have ended up with a war in Ukraine, due to this individualistic autocratic plutocracy, endorsed by lousy stinking manure-laden leaders in the Russian Orthodox Church, too.  America is America, not Russia. We should be separating ourselves from any manure-laden leaders with corruption, lies, and the endorsement of individualism.

I am also speaking about Americans like Russian atheist, Ayn Rand and her love for the “virtues of selfishness.”  Sure. Ayn Rand supported abortion and Roe v. Wade, due to her embracing of individualist selfishness.  At the same time, this bitch Ayn Rand spoke out against welfare and Medicare. But when she came down with cancer, she resorted, like a good hypocrite, to government assistance.  You don’t believe me? Check out some information about her (“Ayn Rand, Welfare Queen: Living High On Government Assistance?” plus more). 

Really. America needs to take an overall look at this issue. A politicized SCOTUS will not do it. So, President Biden needs to threaten to pack the court with more people who put HUMAN JUSTICE before fascist religious theories and politics. The media needs to STOP BEING KIND TO FASCIST THEOCRATS who believe they have a divine right to impose their rules upon all of us.  McConnell needs to be pulled from the U.S. Senate. Rick the Prick needs to be pulled from the U.S. Senate. The filibuster in the U.S. Senate needs to be destroyed  What I describe ARE THE REASONS WE HAVE THE SCOTUS WE HAVE.

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Commentary, democracy, Education, Healthcare, wellness, medicine, human-rights, Journalism & Media, Mister Doug Report

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Lying in Wilson (NY) Commercials – HERE WE GO AGAIN

Wilson. Running for NY governor.  Here we go again. Lies. Tarnishing an image of a person by casting aspersions and not discussing the issue. Intelligent people discuss issues, not people.  Discussion of people in the manner that Wilson does in his commercials is shallow and the most unintelligent. Apparently Republican Wilson figures the people are stupid, so therefore speaks in unintelligent ways. And the media allows this. No National Association of Broadcasters to stop it. No professional media groups to stop it, as it becomes just like the land to the east – Russia – and Putin.

America is better than that. There are best practices in America’s past which does better. 

When Wilson first began with his candidacy, my first inclination was to think about some of what he was saying and thinking, “gee, he might be a candidate for governor which I would support on some issues. He went from that to the Reagan way of saying it, “there you go again,” emulating what Republicans do: don’t discuss the issues, but tarnish the person. I have seen it in Florida and now the virus is spreading more and more to New York?

I am interested in the issue regarding the changes to bail in the state. I don’t know what it is. My first inclination is to think about the number of innocent people in jail or those put there on misdemeanors and ending up staying there so long they BECOME criminals. Nurture, not nature. 

I also think about the cyber hackers who have nothing to do but sit in a jail cell and do more secret crimes from the jail cells. Then I have to wonder what this change in “bail” is all about, because I don’t know.  And Wilson does nothing to EDUCATE the people and identify the problem, as HE sees it, with the legislation. Rather than do that, he touts his big mouth opinion that Gov. Hochul “wants to put criminals back on the street.”  Does he really think she wants to do this or just maybe, she saw a solution which she thought MIGHT help to put down the true criminals? We don’t know because because ass Wilson does not tell us this or something from which intelligent people can THINK about. I am NOT going to THINK about Hochul “putting criminals back on the street.” Rather, I am going find Wilson to STINK to high heaven.  

America deserves better than this crap thrown at us by Republicans. It is the reason I departed from the Republican Party because I had enough of the MANURE they throw at their opponents and not DISCUSSING ISSUES so people can THINK and CONSIDER the issues for in each person’s mind.  The Republicans in Florida have one in an autocratic plutocratic one-party state like fascists and communists — like Putin. So other Republicans apparently think that is the way to win elections and create their one-party fascist plutocratic state, with wealthy business men calling all the shots.

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Commentary, democracy

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Pack the U.S. Supreme Court for HUMAN JUSTICE, not Politics and Religious Puritanicals; Destroy the U.S. Senate Filibuster

It is time to pack the U.S. Supreme Court for the purposes of human justice for all, not just the puritanical fascists directed by the evil Trinity of DeSantis (DePutin), Rick Scott, Donald Trump (plus others). There is no peace until there is justice. Catering to those who believe they have a right, given them by [A] god, have not right to do that. They defend the use of guns to kill human beings and not protect them from cradle to grave, while attempting to protect those in the womb as being more important than the 18-years-olds we send to war. They think that the teaching of violence through the media, parents who embrace such measures, and young kids’ friends on the streets, is more important education than the peace, friendship, and cooperative attitudes taught with sexual identity. Please help to kill the Senate filibuster, too.

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Commentary, democracy, Economics, Regulated Capitalism, Commerce, Education, human-rights

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Stop the Wealthy Ones of America Who Think only the Little People Pay Taxes – PLUS MORE ISSUES

Dear Editors:

A documentary told us how a small wealthy nation did not have a regressive income tax. Instead, they use a value-added tax (VAT) and property taxes.  I was tarnished because I identified, incorrectly, the name of the nation and where it was located.  The point about of my writing was about how this nation did not HAVE as many “little people” as the USA does, so it prefers a VAT and property taxes.  In other words, this nation is unable to play around with tax deductions and tax credits because it would do them little good. So, this nation uses a VAT instead. Notice that the wealthy in the USA who don’t wish to pay ANY taxes because they have us “little people” in which they can shove taxes down our throats, while getting away with “murder” of not paying taxes at all, as they invest their money elsewhere, probably in this little nation with the VAT.

This needs to stop and a VAT here in the USA, replacing sales taxes AND income taxes, is an answer, because the tax is on anything the producer price index (PPI) addresses, not what the CONSUMER price index (CPI) and income of CONSUMERS (the “little people”) are forced to do, after the union busting of these wealthy people have increased the income gap between wealthy and the rest of us astronomically – more than 1000% increase for those controlling the corporations since the 1970s.  (See article in 23 April 2022 Business section of The [Scranton] Times-Tribune , “A widening wealth gap,” for more information about what I am saying).

as for criticism about having the wrong nation, it loses the impact about the point I am trying to make. Perhaps some might say I deserve it because I promote accuracy, truth, and lack of hatred in what the media puts out.  On the other side, I can say this.  With the destruction of librarian jobs in the media, as I viewed happening over the past 20 years or so, then the problem is not me, the librarian, but the lack of people checking for accuracy. Thus, I view a documentary and attempt to recall the name of the nation, and get immersed in the lack of librarians to check the facts about such a documentary.

For me, too, as a librarian, I find it more difficult to use a reference to video documentaries.  With newspapers and magazines, it is in print. Therefore, had I read this information in a print copy like a newspaper or magazine, I am able to go back and confirm what was printed. With this video documentary, I am not able to do this.  With technological advances, it is more difficult to do so with digital copies of newspapers, too. Google has become a lousy search engine which goes far from what information / library scientists at Syracuse University and Cornell University developed for natural language searching in the 1970s and 1980s.  Google is lousy and most search engines are lousy. Much easier to clip or copy a print copy of a periodical article. Go ahead. Shoot holes in what I say, based on a love of ME, ME, ME – and “it works for ME, ME, ME.” I have given examples with an overview, not just ME, ME, ME.  I have experience with digital searching and how lousy I have seen it become today, so it is not about only ME, ME, ME. But about Katzer and Salton of upstate New York and the development of such systems. 

The wealthy ones of America have embraced this digital shit, destroyed local control of media, destroyed the jobs of those who research accuracy, truth and lack of hatred. We end up with such wealthy folks going against the very things which developed this nation when my maternal 5th great-grandfather (and many other wealthy folks), during the time of the American Revolution, gave money to the Federal government when it had nothing, “…in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence [defense], promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

Meanwhile, the wealthy of America, with the goons of union-busting, the destruction of the once-sensitive leadership of corporations (i.e., George F. Johnson and Thomas J. Watson) have denied living wages to the “little people” of the USA and work to preserve this by supporting social dissonance with wedge issues and purchasing of votes when there are those who are not gay, black, Latino, Jew. Therefore these folks are ME, ME, ME oriented and don’t wish to support human equality and human justice with “liberty for all.”  In other words, these “little people” say, “I’m not gay, black, Latino, Jew, so why should I care?” Wedge issue and wealthy money behind it, in the Republican “Nationalist” group.  (Nationalist = Nazi). 

The next time you read that some part of what I say, having nothing to do with my main point, has an inaccuracy, THINK, THINK, THINK… about the overall point of what I write. Don’t shoot holes when the main point is important to consider.  THINK… about the destruction of librarian and library research jobs. You certainly would not consider removing jobs of number crunchers and lawyers, would you? The Nazis of Germany were given a slap of sarcasm by the song, “Money Makes the World Go Around” – written by a gay man.  The wealthy pigs of America take the song seriously, along with the “Nationalist” Nazis of America. 

These wealthy fat pigs won’t do the elimination of a regressive income tax in which they play games with deductions and credits, for the salvation of SOME groups of people.  They won’t eliminate such taxes, plus sales taxes on the CPI which require profit margins to be cut into by hiring number crunchers and lawyers. It’s okay to eliminate jobs of librarians and educators, but not the number crunchers and stupid law people with their personal injury lawsuits and workman’s’ comp lawsuits.  They don’t want to use a VAT because they believe in the Nazi view about “money making the world go around.”  

The Canadians do not have such abysmal things as frivolous lawsuits and workman’s comp crap with the fakes who push them. They pay one-quarter of the cost of healthcare than Americans pay in this “private” system tailored to the wealthy and the career lawyers and wealthy business people who sit in and control Congress with PACs and lobbyists, including those of the military-industrial complex which Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about this complex being bad.  Lawyers and number crunchers stand strong while the people just complain about government and we “little people” not only pay the taxes, but also pay four times as much as Canadians for healthcare, while Canadians have increased the average longevity of human beings in Canada.  Only a person in France can be the oldest person in the world, at the age of 118. But not in America.  GODDAMN the fat pigs of America who lead us into the future with “little people” and others being “dashed on the stones” and no one to do something about this situation. 

My point about this discussed nation, whether island nation or peninsula, is that when there are no “little folk” around for the wealthy fat pigs to amass huge amounts of money and then invest in offshore accounts (island nations), while doing NOTHING for the people of America.

Andrew Carnegie, a person who provided money from his wealth, for libraries and education, said that the success of a society is not due to individuals, but due to the society. Wealthy man, Bill Gates, said that people would save money by using a library to read books, not to purchase books for their own individual library.  Yet, the “Nationalist” Republicans reduce educators and librarians by way of elimination of local coverage of newspapers and then claiming “no one reads newspapers,” with a hidden agenda to increase the use of digital technology – for the sake of wealthy ME, ME, ME folks who don’t give one damn about WE THE PEOPLE.  These wealthy fat pigs dictate to those companies which support social progression by acknowledging sexual identity (i.e., sexual identity is more than just about gay folks, but teaching young kids, whether male or female, to be more confident about themselves than to submit to a lousy freaking male teacher in upstate New York who had sex with young girls). These wealthy fat pigs don’t like local media reporters who report the unethical and corrupt behavior at the local level. So, they push to eliminate this aspect of the news, claiming, “no one reads newspapers so do it by digital.”  I have numerous examples in Florida in which corrupt and unethical behaviors were once uncovered at the local level.  It took local reporters AND librarians to do it. These freaking lousy wealthy ones have destroyed us in this field, while supporting lawyers and number crunchers, as if they are deity because, as the Nazis said, “money makes the world go around.”  Not true and we have many examples in history in which money DOES NOT make the world go around, but if it did, it was done for the good of WE THE PEOPLE, not the fat goons of union busters and corrupt, immoral, unethical individuals in society.  Scot Andrew Carnegie, Scot 18th-Century theologian/economist/philosopher, Adam Smith, and many others are examples. And any inaccuracies in media could be stopped with references on PRINT copies. But if it is said in a video or on digital technology, who the hell can find such inaccuracies to consider what was said?   Simplicity comes with the PRINT copies.

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Commentary, democracy, Economics, Regulated Capitalism, Commerce, Education, Healthcare, wellness, medicine, human-rights, If it's broke let's fix it TOGETHER, Information Industry, Journalism & Media, Music, Art, Culture, Personal Finance, Political Commentary, Religion, systemic racism, Technology

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Trump Reduced the Amount to be Deducted on Income Taxes for Charitable Contributions; Freak Trump

Life is not better due to Trump. The Republicans have a committee in the Senate which is not called Republican Senate Campaign Committee.  Rick the Prick Scott of Florida chairs it. All of this comes down to “nationalists” and has as its model, the Nazis of Germany. 

Trump reduced the deductions for charitable contributions. George W. Bush had said this was a good thing because it allowed the American people to determine the groups to give to for social good and thus reduce what the government needs to spend. Thus, when a group in Florida (and others) began to raise money, due to charitable contributions spurred on by tax deductions, to give to school lunch programs, the idea was to follow the ways of George W. Bush because school lunch programs were funded by the Federal government and “nationalists” like Rick the Prick and DePutin HATED such funding, let alone any funding for Obamacare. So what do these people endorse? Getting rid of the deduction.

So, locally, when asked to contribute while at the cash register of a retail outlet, I made the statement that it would be very pleasant if I could deduct such an amount on my income taxes, but that Trump had reduced that ability to do so and claimed life was so much better, as a result.  Not. 

How did the clerk reply? Did the clerk even consider what I said and take the point about how things could have been better by continuing as Bush put in place? No. Me, me, me, me, me, me. The response was about “well I cannot give anyway.”  I wish she could and we could reduce the 4 times as much as Canadians pay, for healthcare, so she could. But no. This person was involved in healthcare and was only thinking about the instant gratification ONLY for her. She could have cared less about the money CROS Ministries with Publix in Florida helped out Floridians. NOPE. Just about her GODDAMN SELF AND THAT SELF ONLY.  Individualism inspired by the LOVE of the automobile and other things in America which make people STINK TO HIGH HEAVEN in their thinking ONLY ABOUT ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME – and instant gratification. Never thinking how we can improve things for ALL of us and she might just benefit. GODDAMN such people.

Really. I wish to GODDAMN such people because they are selfish snotty brats, as exemplified by those with guns in QAnon, MAGA, and other groups. GODDAMN THE NATIONALISTS in America, including Rick the Prick and others. DAMNATION TO THEM ALL. 

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Books Reviewed: Slave Empire: How Slavery Built Modern Britain (Seamlan) & Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain (Sanghera) (7 Apr. 2022)

Dear Editors:

These books have a tone that commerce improved for Britain, due to slavery. This might be true. However, is this the only consideration for the advancement of commerce in Britain?

It would be interesting to compare the profits made by slavery to the reparations paid to slave owners when slavery ended and no reparations to the descendants of those who were most hurt by slavery.

It would be interesting to consider the commerce, over time, which resulted from Britain accepting Jewish people into its nation, when other nations of Europe, such as Spain, were rejecting the Jews. In light of this, one has to wonder about the end of slavery in Mexico, after Britain ended the slave trade, which led Texas to seek independence from Mexico, started the Mexican-American War, and eventually joining with the USA, due to the continuing slavery in the Southern area of the USA. Perhaps loss of life due to war is of no importance to the authors of these books? Not only in the Mexican-American War, but also in the American Civil War, Jim Crow lynchings, and other acts to lose life.  Anti-abortionists like to put forth a TV commercial about the loss of life of those aborted from the womb, but what about the loss of good lives of people who could have helped with American commerce and ingenuity, due to these wars and racial bigotry which one would want to spit on.

It would be interesting to consider the commerce, over time, due to Britain, for accepting Huguenots and others who were terrorized in Europe by the Roman Catholic Church. 

It would be interesting to compare the use of indentured servants to expand commerce in the USA by way of infrastructure improvements.  This would include the immigrants given a free ride to New York and, as indentured servants, helped open waterways with the Erie Canal which resulted in one of the biggest commercial centers in the world:  New York City.  Or with Carnegie and the building of the rail system across this nation in which Chinese and other Asians were used to build the infrastructure for the rail system.  They were not black, so were given freedom after a length of time (typically seven years).  This is mentioned due to the fact that it was soon after the British colonists in America succeeded in throwing off the British.  Yet, in 1807, Britain ended the slave trade. 

It would be interesting to consider the cost of human injustice, due to the enslavement of a group of people.  Such injustice would rip away at the commerce Britain had in Barbados and other locations for which Britain had happiness of commerce, while people suffered. 

America and other Western nations have shed the ideas of the “norm” that money comes before human justice. In actuality, these “norms” are held in esteem and pushes Americans down from being able to challenge these “norms.” In the end, slavery and commerce by means of money coming before human beings is a form of corruption, but people are too afraid to put it this way, are they not?

Simply said, these books enlighten us on how much money was made, due to slavery.  The books ignore the fact that such actions are just as corrupt as allowing the war on drugs to continue unceasingly, in order to protect the wealthy corrupt bastards of the drug lords or drug “czars,” whether in the USA, Afghanistan, Russia, or elsewhere.  Americans are too accepting of the “norms” of corruption which I address. 

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is true whether it is white folks with power over Africans, in putting them on slave boats destined for other locations. It is communists in China and other ares of the world who forcefully re-locate citizens to other locations, for the sake of a love of money and commerce, over human beings and human justice.  It is the same thing as the genocide perpetrated by Hitler, Putin, Stalin, and others.  Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Destroy democracy and these folks achieve corrupt power absolutely. It needs to stop, ending this fascination of comparing commerce due to enslavement. 

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Book Reviews, Commentary, democracy, Economics, Regulated Capitalism, Commerce, human-rights

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American Ingenuity, not Doom and Gloom Preachers who are nothing but Stupid Idiotic People

It was interesting to view the Ken Burns documentary about Benjamin Franklin. Once can learn quite a bit about liberty and freedom and the responsibility it takes to achieve and attain such liberty and freedom. One can also learn about dealing with what the truth is and differentiating lies from the truth, which is what is polarizing America today in quite large numbers. Newspapers and news people have abandoned local news and correctly portraying any local candidates, from local level, to state level, to Federal level.  Learn from Ben Franklin regarding common sense, but it is all being tossed out the window by people who no longer have a moral sensitivity to workers and community. This ignores what Scottish theologian and philosopher, Adam Smith, said during the “Enlightenment” period of the late 1800s. In this Burns documentary, one can learn about the time Franklin spent with Adam Smith and Scottish philosopher, David Hume, as well. In the end, Franklin demonstrates his acceptance of the two Scottish men and ultimately, after spending a great deal of time in London, rejected the English king.  You know. The one who was mentally crazed and ended up sending troops to America?

Here are some quotes pertinent to my discussion, from Ben Franklin:

“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”  As educators, we all have believed that, to become humble, one can overturn ignorance, learn and gain wisdom. Humility. Someone once told Franklin that, in his list of pertinent characteristics, he forgot to include the word, humility.  Franklin came to terms with this projection and changed his positions on issues, after recognizing he needed to maintain humility and learn.  He did learn.  This thought helps differentiate between “stupidity” and “ignorance” for which too many Americans today have no sense about that differentiation. I was glad to learn Ben Franklin outlined this differentiation. I had not idea that my expressions to do such differentiation was once defined by Franklin, as exemplified in this quote. 

A side note. I did have to wonder, when Sixty Minutes ran the report about the people at NPR who were doing the story telling project were also doing the project to stop polarization in America between ‘conservative and liberal,” some project about “One small first step…” were mocking me when they proclaimed they had to “stop those who were calling others stupid and idiotic.” I confess. I have written to Sixty Minutes and other sources and have used such exclamations about “stupid and idiotic Americans.” I am not going to hide it. Perhaps I should simply revert to the fact that Sixty Minutes and other people in the media really take no interest in my writing and tend to simply mock me about the things not liked by me? I don’t know. Only my conjecture.

At the end of the day, I always need to reiterate that my first concern, as exemplified by Franklin, is about humanity, not money. That was the sense of Adam Smith, too, and I have repeated this over and over again. There have been, since Franklin’s time, too many times when individualist egotistical money lovers have tried to blow holes in what Adam Smith really intended in his treatise on economics and a sense of morality because they simply want to keep putting the King George type of people up on pedestals as the oligarchs they are.  Over time, there have been people like Teddy Roosevelt, another Scottish man in America, Andrew Carnegie, and several others who have made attempt to counter the ruthless money loving selfish purveyors of individualism as being what capitalism is all about.  They have done a good job because too many Americans miss the point about what capitalism was intended to be: a notion of balance in the universe that anti-puritanical Ben Franklin and others in the Founding Fathers (Deists) intended. The examples are in the “checks and balances” in democratic form of government which are being corrupted by money-loving individualists in business today, in their quest, by way of Citizens United, PACs, and lobbyists, corrupt this government today, just as Putin is doing in Russia. 

Hitler, like Trump, DeSantis, Rick Scott, and others, never repents from the wrongs he did in his murder and executions of many people in Europe. Purportedly, some of the last words of Hitler were that “the German people never understood what a great man he [Hitler] is.” To repent would have been to say something different than that. But the reader of Meine Kampf, Donald Trump, has yet to acknowledge that Biden won the election of 2020, when the facts prove otherwise, and the facts speak out, over and over again. Trump will never repent for what he had done. Perhaps King George never did, either? The net result is the damage Trump and the others guys do to America. In this documentary, we learn that Ben Franklin DID acknowledge some of his wrongs, which is a form of humility.

Can you differentiate fact from fiction? Why not?  Do you understand that this idea about inflation and gasoline prices, as with the election of 2020, is not the fault of Democrats? In fact, the ideas about “anything goes” in the economics of free markets, one can see it is the Libertarians (anarchists) who COULD be blamed more than anyone else. Where are these people? Situated in the Republican Party and unwilling to be held accountable for the net results brought upon people in a bad and malicious way, as with Putin going into the Ukraine.  The Libertarians can LOOK good because the other side of their argument is being “socially progressive.” But even with being “socially progressive,” as I learned it in the days I was a Republican and heard this idea expressed, it never meant to be represented by, “anything goes.” Adam Smith discusses this, as he talks about the moral sense of having self-control with human passions.  Not that Franklin did his best in achieving this, the womanizer he was. 

You ask, “what’s the point to all of this?” You might call this a diatribe. It’s not, unless you refuse to be humble and learn, as Franklin was able to achieve, but was not perfect in doing so.  The point to all of this is I am getting fed up with Democrats being smeared through the use of lies, over and over again.  In his State of the Union Address, President Biden identified his support of funding law and order and police forces, not defunding it. I can prove that there are both Republicans and Democrats who have endorsed defunding.  Our leader put out the facts. One should not be stereotyping all Democrats as being supportive of such a notion, just as I should not be stereotyping all Republicans as endorsing defunding. Yet, the Republican response to the president, from some lady in Iowa who sits in Congress, was to claim “that Democrats support defunding police.” Just the facts, ma’am and boy did you miss the boat on that one.

Then there are the congressional Republicans who did NOT support President Biden and the Democrats in the infrastructure bills then they go home and prey upon the stupidity of their constituents by taking credit for the parts of the infrastructure bill which impact the constituents. Yeah. Go ahead and blow holes in what I just said by making a claim that “the Democrats were unfair and did not listen to ONLY what we Republicans wanted.” Such perverts in the Republican Party miss the point about what it takes to live in a democracy. They want their cake and eat it too. They don’t want to have included what some others want, so they falsely take credit for the passage of some bill which they did not support because the net result was: “I can’t have my cake and eat it, too.” The little snotty bratty bullies then, like kids in a sandbox, kick sand int he face of otehrs and leave the sandbox. “I don’t get my way 100%, so go screw you Democrats,” inventing all kinds of tarnishing, like little snotty kids who lack maturity. I call this “stupid and ignorant” immature people because they are. 

Another issue. Gasoline prices. Reading in the media about how bad it is. It is bad. No doubt about it. It is refreshing when there is one newspapers which presents ideas for how to get around such an issue and deal with high cost of gasoline AND food, too.  They also address issues about President Biden is proposing to tap America’s oil reserves, too.  Snotty immature little bratty kids want instant gratification and that notion has also been the undoing of America which I could outline in another essay.  Polarization by newspapers and media presenting only national news and never getting to the depth of local politics and local issues. The exceptions to this can be found in some newspapers, so don’t bother to yell at me for “stereotyping.” There I go again. Reiterating what I already said. 

For me, this notion of high gasoline prices brings back a memory of the 1973 oil embargo and high gasoline prices at that time. What I failed to do was to also speak about the impact of inflation, since 1973, on the prices of gasoline in 1973 when they reached $4.00 or $5.00 per gallon. Because when they reached that price level back then, one can consider that having $5.00 per gallon today is actually a wonderful thing, when considering how much higher the actual price of $5.00 per gallon was back in the 1970s. I would wager that, in today’s dollars, $5.00 in 1973 would be far higher than $5.00.

Then I read Marilyn vos Savant in Parade Magazine this past Sunday (3 April 2022).  Let me quote her. She added another dimension to what I am saying. She does a comparison of gasoline in a time of very good economic growth, 1950, to today “Adjusted for inflation, the purchasing power of 27 cents in 1950 dollars is $2.97 now. But here’s a big difference: The average gas mileage for passenger cars in 1950 was 15 mpg, but it’s about 25 mpg now. So what grandpa experienced in 1950 was what we experience when gasoline is $5.00 per gallon today. In short, it was even worse for him [grandpa].” Add to that, the fact that “average” today is figured also on the existence of hybrid cars and electric cars. Imagine how much better it will likely get in the future with electric cars. Yes, invent anything you wish about the shortfalls of electric cars and batteries. But based on what I am optimistic about, due to AMERICAN INGENUITY, we CAN overcome such obstacles. But we won’t overcome obstacles when there are those who are pessimistic (pissimistic) about this and hand out gloom and doom statements which simply are lies being told over and over again and they become self-fulfilling prophesies.  Yes, it has been a long haul to get to these days with regard to electric cars. But let’s be glad that some of the car companies involved in throwing the monkey wrench into it all, from many years ago (1980s upstate NY and an upstart car company in which a certain big car manufacturer bought up all the battery supplies, patents, or what ever, and put the company out of business, are now involved with the development of electric cars. 

American ingenuity. My dad told me about American ingenuity when that he observed when he was in the occupying forces in Japan, when peace was declared at the end of World War II. You see, there was a shortage of gasoline for the convoy in which he was involved in moving from Tokyo to the northern reaches of Japan (so as to block Soviet forces from coming in to take over that northern portion). That gasoline shortage did not stop the troops with their jeeps and equipment. My dad told me about using alternative fuels at a time of need. He mentioned one such fuel was charcoal. Have no idea how it was done. Perhaps I should have questioned my dad more. American ingenuity in time of need. In other words, “when times get tough, the tough get going.” And I am not referencing thugs like QAnon or MAGA with insurrectionists. They are pessimistic stupid idiots. No I am talking about those Americans who see a need to DO SOMETHING and DO IT, for the good of community and nation.  They don’t do it just for their own individualistic egos which are like snotty immature egos.  Why does it seem as if there are people in other nations who are doing this better than America is doing, as we hear the wealthy oligarch autocrats of America who line of pockets of Congress with PACs and lobbyists, are out there with such power and control. 

Other Ben Franklin quotes:

“Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don’t have brains enough to be honest.”

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“Little minds [like Republicans tarnishing other people because they disagree and provide only false ideas about why they disagree] think and talk about people.
Average minds think and talk about things and actions.
Great minds think and talk about ideas.”

“Common sense is something that everyone needs, few have, and none think they lack.”

“Thirteen virtues necessary for true success: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility.” Notice that good old Ben does not include the thing from Ayn Rand in the mid-20th Century in which the snotty immature ones of America (like Trump and many Republicans and Libertarians) have grabbed at: “virtue of selfishness.”

“If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking.”  … As is pushed by puritanical dimwits and despotic autocratic government led by plutocrats such as Putin, Trump, DeSantis, Rick Scott, and others. 

“What you seem to be, be really.”

“A true Friend is the best Possession.”

“No gains without pains.”

“When you’re good to others, you’re best to yourself.”

“It is better to take many Injuries than to give one.”

“He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.”

“In free governments [and business, commerce, economics] the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors and sovereigns.”

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are”  Not gay? Not black? Then be as outraged about the treatment of such people in the past and don’t take for granted what has been achieved to overturn such lousy bigoted treatment.

“He that can have patience can have what he will.”

“Honesty is the best policy.”

“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.”

“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

“Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.”

“The only thing that is more expensive than education is ignorance.”

“Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.”

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”……  Being proactive, not reactionary.

“The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.”

“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

“Our cause is the cause of all [hu]mankind…we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own.”  ….. It is not about individual rights.

“The more the people are discontented with the oppression of taxes, the greater the need the prince has of money to distribute among his partisans and pay the troops that are to suppress all resistance and enable him to plunder at pleasure.”

“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”

“Ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation to the prejudice and oppression of another is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy…An equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges, and advantages, is what every part is entitled to, and ought to enjoy.”

Benjamin Franklin expressed the goal of America’s experiment in liberty when he said, “God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: This is my country.”

“Let honesty be as the breath of thy soul; then shalt thou reach the point of happiness, and independence shall be thy shield and buckler, thy helmet and crown; then shall thy soul walk upright, nor stoop to the silken wretch because he hath riches, nor pocket an abuse because the hand which offers it wears a ring set with diamonds.”

“We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable” in a draft of the Declaration of Independence changes it instead into an assertion of rationality. The scientific mind of Franklin drew on the scientific determinism of Isaac Newton and the analytic empiricism of David Hume and Gottfried Leibniz. In what became known as “Hume’s Fork” the latters’ theory distinguished between synthetic truths that describe matters of fact, and analytic truths that are self-evident by virtue of reason and definition.

“Sell not liberty to purchase power.”

“Every man is, of common right, and by the laws of God, a freeman and entitled to the free enjoyment of liberty.”

My thought:

There are some ideas of pessimism expressed by Franklin. For instance, with regard to corruption in government, it will be the end of government. My question. So how do we turn such a thing around and get rid of the corruption?

“The U.S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.”

“The ancients tell us what is best; but we must learn of the moderns what is fittest.”

“I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. The turkey is a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.”

Thank you, Ken Burns for inspiring us to learn from history, not re-live history, and thus progress forward through the ages.  Progress forward through the ages, not as soldiers, but as human beings.

NOT Ben Franklin but pertinent to today:

Pertinent to the polarization of America by the deliberate mechanisms of newspapers and local media. “Local television and local TV news isn’t telling the voters about local candidates. NOT Ben Franklin but
Reed Hundt

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