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.

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Living & Learning Moment: Ambiguous Attitudes

Returning to my home today, I had radio station Cool 106.7 (WCDW) on my car radio. I like the tunes from the 1970s and 1980s best, but wonder why we no longer have 1940s, 1950s, or 1960s music? Golden oldies? What are we who like all that music dead now and there is “no one to listen?” Today, I heard a song I had never heard before and don’t know what era it was from. My bet is that it was 1980s or newer. The lyrics included, “don’t back down… stand your ground.”

I thought about such lyrics. Are such lyrics considered ambiguous because of the perspective of the person who listens or is there a common ground for such lyrics? These lyrics about “don’t back down” and “stand your ground,” to me, represent something for me personally. When I am trying to accomplish something I figure these lyrics represent being persistent in accomplishing a goal that has been set. I have been successful in being persistent and then being successful. The results were good for many people, not just for me. In fact, in one instance, my persistence in presenting to my home town school board an idea for hiring a vocal music teacher in the local high school after the separation of buildings created a rift in providing such a position. From the late 1950s until the 1970s, the school had gone from one school for grades K-12 to four different buildings, yet for the arts and culture, there were cutbacks in the education. Made no sense to me, as I would speak with those who had been in the one K-12 building and had more choices for education why there were so many cutbacks. Years later, I learned why. With four buildings it cost more to pay for staff to maintain the buildings so there was not enough money around to hire teachers for the education programs which were necessary. My grandfather, who taught languages in the K-12 building, caught the brunt of that as they curtailed his program. There was no tenure in those days to protect him. In effect, my persistence and working to “not back down” and “stand my ground” helped me in working to get education to advance in the arts, as well as to stop using the brand new vocal music room in a new school building as a “detention center.”

Was there a mathematics teacher or someone in another area who did not like me taking this stand? You bet. I was like an early 19th-Century New York State leader who recognized that building commerce in New York meant taking advantage of the flatlands from the Hudson to Lake Erie and building the Erie Canal. HE was scoffed at and his canal was deemed, “Clinton’s ditch.” Who was the one who proved it was correct to build an infrastructure in order to make New York the Empire State with, ultimately, one of the largest commercial centers in the world in New York City?

As a professor, I always advocated that education we call STEM should also include an “A” in the word and it should be education we call STEAM. STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics. STEAM is Science, Engineering, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics. Perhaps the school district with one building for K-12 figured they needed to adjust to the embarassment about the Soviet Union sending Sputnik into the sky before America had a chance to do it? Thus, STEM is still more important than STEAM? Good grace, Gracie!

After living through the hell and chaos of Florida which was caused by a law pushed by Jeb Bush and the RPOF (Republican Party of Florida) which was called the “Stand your Ground Law,” I have to look at these lyrics in a different perspective. This law has become one in which white people of Florida embrace in order to murder black people. How gross can you get? Is this a return to the lynching parties of Jim Crow? Yeah, it turned out to be quite close. Was the white man who did not like the sound of rap music correct in “standing his ground” by using a gun to shoot a black man who was listening in his car to rap music on the radio? Was the idiocratic man in the movie theatre justified in shooting people who were talking to loud in the theatre? Were these justifications for the words of the song I heard today with lyrics of “don’t back down” and “stand your ground?”

I know how I think about such hatred. I know what I think about these aspects of the words. What do you think about such hatred? What is your perspective on all this? Is there something you can learn in my “teachable moment?” I hope so. America needs to begin learning again. Can I help out?

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Three-penny Op-ed: Replacing a Door Handle in America

Here I am, one more time, commenting about the lousy, lazy big fat cats and their big corporations which have worked to destroy small business in America by proclaiming “they can do it in a more cheap manner.” Cheap all right. The only ones who benefit are the big fat cats at the top, the 1%, who own most of the resources of America and continue to hoard the money at the expense of the Middle and lower classes.

Ever noticed how instructions are written today for DIY purposes? It’s a matter of saving money for the consumer, don’t you know? DIY that is. Somehow my Schlage door handle broke. I went to a local business and purchased a new one, but this time it was a KwikSet door handle. I had to settle for a slightly different “color” of door handle, but this was not of concern to the other person in the household, so I figured it would work. It’s a great new handle, for sure. But the old one, somehow, had one screw loose (LOL!) and the brace with the other screw still intact had a great deal of pressure put on it because of being connected as the only screw. So the door handle broke. Understanding this? I hope so.

I decided I have replaced door handles before, so this should be no problem. I worked on an expansion to a home in Florida, many years ago, so I felt brave that door handles would be a piece of cake, right? OK. Following instructions, I had to remove a piece of paper in order to separate the “rose” from the handle (“rose”? what the hell is that?). So I tried. We both tried. Separation not accomplished. I had an idea about using a flat screwdriver to do it, but there was fear as to whether or not this would damage the door handle. What to do?

Finally, I called the 800 support phone number provided in the instructions. I must say. KwikSet provided a much better method of getting to a person with whom I could speak than most American businesses today! Kudos and a ranking of 10 for GREAT to KwikSet, on this point alone!

I spoke with a person there who was very helpful and friendly. They told me to use a flat-head screwdriver to separate it. Now I felt confirmation about doing what I thought I should do. But you are reading a story from a very non-mechanical guy who does not have confidence in this area. Even when doing my expansion and remodeling of a home in St. Petersburg, FL, I had a contractor to whom I could go for direction. I must admit that Wally was a great help in this endeavor because I need someone like that. Besides he could file all the documentation and arrange for the inspections and that really helped me out. It was like me doing volunteer work for the contractor so as to save money from the contractor hiring more people and me paying more. Nice arrangement. Nevertheless, the flat-head screwdriver worked.

Next thing I know, I was trying to put this new door handle into open hole on the door. It would not fit. At this point, I had spent so much time on the thing and then called for help, I figured I should hand this over to someone who knew more about these types of things, as I did to the contractor in Florida when remodeling. This guy comes and within a half hour, had the entire thing installed for me! HALLELUJAH! It would have taken me several hours to read instructions and perhaps having to call for help. Help which was good, as I said, but takes time.

Which brings me to the question about why instructions are so difficult to understand and definitely not tailored to the non-mechanical lay person that I am? Because the final fix, according to the guy who did it, would be “explained in the instructions.” And this is not the first time I have tried to follow directions for many products purchased in America. What is the problem here?

I speculate two things. (1) save money for the big fat cats at the top of a corporation by providing very low quality writing of instructions tailored to the professional, not the lay person or (2) instructions are written by foreigners (Chinese, for example) who don’t understand the English language and are not able to write the instructions fluently enough for the lay person to understand. Is there another possibility? Right now, that is it.

Again. I have good things to say about the person at KwikSet who provided support by answering an 800 number. But what I am talking about here is something regarding instructions which are a common thread to so many products. For example, a Cuisinart 3.5 HP blender which is great, but try to follow the instructions to “pulse” the food in the blender. I am still scratching my head about that. Thus, my conclusions about this are about the lousy herd mentality for love of money which is put as a priority in America today and influences us all so very badly. Make no mistake. I recognize that “love of money” has been with us for many years. I also need to clarify that I am not saying money is the root of all evil, but am saying, “love of money” is the root of evil. People misinterpret me on this. Love of money has been with us for centuries and is described in one of the epistles in the Bible (a letter from St. Paul to Timothy).

Love of money being the root of evil was the REASON I opposed Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020, not due to political ideology or anything else. As president, the vain egotistical bastard and SOB demonstrated his love of money, but it was present before he became an autocratic government leader with love of money. He refused to pay his debts. He refused to pay taxes. He refused to pay employees. Furthermore, he is a white racist who expects black people (and gay people, too), to answer him with, “yes mass’r” or “no mass’r.” Otherwise one gets heavily criticized with lousy tweets and retributions. It is also the reason for my strong opposition to bastards like Jeb Bush, Rick “Darth Vader” Scott, and Ron “DUH-Satan” DeSantis, plus others.

Recently, an article about Daniel Patrick Moynihan revealed to me that the former U.S. senator was NOT bent on ideological political spectrum, but what was best to bring Americans together and solve problems. Sounds like words of Frank Sinatra. Sounds like words from President Joe Biden, too. I have NEVER heard any of the Republicans who stand in opposition to President Biden EVER say these words. NEVER. Yet, these bastards proclaim they are trying to be “bipartisan.” Baloney because they are not bipartisan. These belligerent Trumpican bullies force the hands of those who are ATTEMPTING to be bipartisan with ideas that if you don’t do it the Trumpican way, then you are a lousy person. These Trumpicans are like the snotty bullying kid in the sandbox, as they say: “I am going to kick sand in your face and knock your block off with my guns.”

Read the instructions? Sure. But thank you to the professionals who don’t have to read the instructions from the perspective of a lay person who is very un-mechanical. I must say. My father had a very mechanical mind, but somehow it passed me by. I am not ashamed of that because I recognize who I am, have dignity about who I am, and have a legacy of accomplishments I made in life, even if I lack a more mechanical mind.

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Update: Gannett Lousy Delivery of Press & Sun-Bulletin (May 24, 2021)

My war with Gannett continues. We received our Press & Sun-Bulletin today by 10 AM. At least we received it in the morning, not the afternoon. Promised delivery time is 8 AM and Gannett is not holding up to its bargain of customer service. I have never experienced such lousy service.

I am happy to say that two representatives of the company have been in touch with me and are promising an improvement. That is a step in the right direction. Hopefully there will be success.

The complaints I hear from the autocratic idiocracy of fat cats and Trumpicans is that the problems stem from unemployment checks which mean nobody wants to work. That is a lie. But what does one expect from Trumpicans? First of all, the stimulus package under the Trumpicans, last year, provided a great deal of money to the autocratic idiocracy of fat cats, rather than to hire more people. Who CAUSED the high unemployment and what were the increases of the fat cats and stockholders with the most money? The statistics are pretty clear about this ripoff of the people. So to blame the workers for being lazy, I have to say the ones to bear the blame are the fat cats and Trumpicans. The Democrats have done nothing but try to alleviate a bad situation when the wrong people at the top received a large increase, sometimes estimates are for more than 100% increases to the big bastard fat cats at the top. Yet the Democrats get blamed? Go to h-e-double-hockey-sticks.

Also, how can Gannett blame the COVID-19 virus for this? They closed their local offices in the Southern Tier BEFORE COVID-19 struck. They were the ones who left a hole in service by disconnecting the local people, perhaps causing UNEMPLOYMENT locally before COVID-19 even struck.

The ones to blame are the sucky wealthy ones at the top. The problem then is in the management. So the workers are to blame? I refuse to accept that explanation.

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Newspaper Delivery Problems or a Management Problem? (Part 2)

According to an article in the Press & Sun-Bulletin this morning (May 23, 2021), there is a problem finding delivery people in order to get newspapers delivered. I suppose we are supposed to feel sorry for management, right? Let’s see. Management closed down all the offices of Gannett here in the Southern Tier. No local management, only management from above. Secondly, what would have happened if, as an employee of a corporation, I used an excuse that there is “a problem and I can’t solve it?” I would have been out on my ass in a minute. With the lack of local people to discuss this issue (my letter to the “executive editor” at the Press & Sun-Bulletin was returned as “undeliverable”), I have written to the guy at the top of Gannett, Bob Dickey. Am I supposed to feel sorry for him? Who was it that closed the local New York State offices of Gannett? I’m sorry, but I cannot give a benefit of the doubt on this one. Instead, I feel insulted that a newspaper would close down its local offices here, so that guy at the top can continue to receive huge increases in salaries and then the “lack of workers” being blamed on the Trumpican idiocracy ideas that “unemployment checks” are to blame. As with Trump, perhaps some of these jackasses need to look in the mirror for the problems, not blame others. I am not going to stop on this, even if you call it a rampage. It is insulting in America, today, to put up with this crap.

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Newspaper Delivery Problems or a Management Problem? (Part 1)

We FINALLY procured a newspaper today, after driving 10 miles to get one. The Press & Sun-Bulletin.  According to an article in the newspaper, there is difficulty in finding newspaper delivery people. Really?  Perhaps someone in the media industry needs to do an in-depth report on this and get to the bottom of what is TRULY happening. Because I find this hard to believe that, with high unemployment numbers and from what some have told me, there is a pretty good pay for newspaper delivery people.  I know those in my own family who would like to make extra money because they are on temporary jobs and a morning delivery to get newspapers delivered by 7 or 8 am in the morning would be a nice extra income. So I find this hard to believe in this article.

I blame bad management for not being able to come up with a solution. Sorry, but when I have no problem in getting goods delivered by Amazon, then I have to wonder why people are blaming the unemployment checks? This approach is ludicrous. Why not contract with Amazon or others? Why not look into other ways of “building a better American mousetrap?” No. What I hear is a bunch of whining Trumpicans regarding unemployment checks. They could solve the problem, but they are not willing to put in the time. What about management which was once forced to work jobs when workers went on strike? Where are such people? Is it workers enjoying unemployment checks or lazy managers? When I was a professor and there might be a shortage of some workers, we had to fill in and got the job done. Yet we professors are attacked over and over again by Trumpicans, Jebicans, Scott-pricks, wanting to privatize everything.  As a professor, I also often tried to give the benefit of the doubt many times. But how many times does one have to continue to give the “benefit of the doubt,” over and over and over again?

Newspapers which have acquired other newspapers, merged them and created huge corporate conglomerates with control from the top and no concern for local issues and the local customers.

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Short & To the Point: Face the Nation & Bernie Sanders

Kudos to Bernie Sanders when he appeared on Face the Nation today (May 23, 2021). He brought out some very interesting points about the conflict in Israel and how the right wing in Israel is helping to inspire anti-Semitism among American Jews (and Jews in other areas of the world). Not a surprise, for sure. He gave President Biden a good review about handling the situation in the Middle East, to which this listener is in full agreement. Stop the anti-Semitism, America, and wake up to what is TRULY happening among the extreme right wing. The Trumpicans are false about accusations of “extreme” left because we don’t see extremism, just a mood for progressing in this world by solving the problems of the world, not by hatred and bigotry by an idiocratic autocratic puritanical bunch of fart faces. Is this enough for short and to the point?

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Blasphemy from a Newspaper

It’s 11:51 AM on Sunday, May 23, 2021. Our Press & Sun-Bulletin and New York Times newspapers have STILL not been delivered for morning reading. No retail outlet in Owego had the New York Times, but sometimes Price Chopper does. Not today. Made a claim on the Press & Sun-Bulletin and the only choice in a free country such as America is to explain we did not get delivery. False. Our delivery is late. No choice in America the free, as put there by lousy computer programmers who program the website, probably at the direction of greedy and selfish money-loving and money-grubbing CEOs. What happens when we reply with the only choice in America the free? “You will receive a credit.” This means we won’t deliver your newspaper because Gannett is too damn lazy to find someone to deliver it properly to Newark Valley, NY. Instead, what was found at the base of our post where the newspaper is to go? A small bottle of booze. Ludicrous, right? Mockery. Patronizing us in a foul way. We are sick and tired of this attitude in America and we won’t stop in being persistent in letting America know what is being done to us, the consumer on the demand side of a newspaper market. Damnation to Gannett for not getting a responsible delivery person and brushing us off with a lousy lack of choices in a “free America.” May Gannett go to h-e-double-hockey-sticks and burn there.

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Short & To the Point: CBS News Sunday Morning Report on Homelessness

Kudos to CBS News Sunday Morning and its report today about Homelessness and Housing First. The report about the Colorado mayor hiding and living among the homeless population in his area was very interesting. No surprise that he found the biggest hurdles were economic instability and not being able to pay for the high cost of housing, addictive disorders, and mental illness. His experience reminds me of the inside information I had from a person working within the Mario Cuomo administration in Albany and reporting how Cuomo went out each day for a walk. He found homeless people and talked with them. He thought most of the homeless did not want the help. In working with homeless in Florida, I find this assessment by Cuomo to be bizarre. As a professor, I tutored one veteran and watched as he really DID desire to lift himself out of the position of homelessness. I find the Cuomo assessment several decades ago to be rather bizarre. Then, perhaps it was a time with different circumstances and situations? I also wanted to add to this story from CBS News about a program at my church in Florida called Family Promise. Churches came together and provided homes for the homeless as they worked to get back on their feet. In these days when Republicans claim to follow family interests but then boo Mitt Romney off the stage. This idiocracy based on Trump is teaching a false herd mentality about what a family is by working to make it illegal for gay couples to adopt, in states like Tennessee. My denomination accepts gay people and also supports the Family Promise efforts by opening the doors to our church for homeless families to live and do the activities they need to do. There are some very good people from our church who do this. In these days of rift between the idiocracy of puritanical crap about families, would it not have been a good practice on the part of CBS News to add this part about Family First and the Christians who are true Christians and reaching out to help? Oh, that’s right. We cannot go into details because it takes too much information to be presented to people. Keep it short and to the point, don’t you know? Nevertheless, gracious thanks to CBS News for presenting this report this morning. The statistics about the success of Housing First was really eye-opening and should have been to Americans today who fight this idea to help the homeless. Kudos to Housing First and to Family Promise for the success in helping homeless people get back on their feet. Sad that in one of the wealthiest nations on earth, we have lovers of money controlling real estate and pushing the prices so high that we have such a homeless population. At one time, the frontier was open in America, so people could head to the frontier and start a new life. The veteran whom I helped at been living in a nearby public park, along with so many other homeless people in Palm Beach County, Florida, not far from Trump’s home across the intracoastal waterway. The frontier closed and that was one of the reasons FDR introduced a “New Deal.” The “New Deal” was and is rejected by the stupid idiocracy of autocratic Trumpicans who are in denial about homelessness. They are worse than the Republicans who fought FDR in the 1930s and 1940s. Paranoid idiots are the Trumpican autocratic idiots. Love of money before love of the human species is becoming a “norm” which we need to reject and toss away. It takes more than just my words to do so. The French Revolution was fought and Napoleon ended up in charge. He, too, was a criminal on the level of King George of England and Donald Trump. Neither of them got executed and King George ended up secluded at the end of his life, due to his mental illness. Napoleon ended up being tried and banished to a heavily secured island. THAT is law and order, my friends, not the law and order defined by Trumpicans or Giuliani or others in the idiocracy of wealth and love of money. Am I short and to the point enough? Too bad if I am not.

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Short & To the Point: CBS News This Morning Story About Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Bravo to CBS News Sunday Morning and your report about Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. What a wonderful ride down memory lane to the “Deja Vu” album we purchased at the end of the 1960s while just young kids. We loved listening to “Our House” and “Teach Your Children,” etc. America needs these values portrayed by this wonderful band. Glad to hear there is a 50th anniversary remake. What is disappointing is to hear the rift between the band members and hearing that this rift will likely never be fixed because it is like trying to put together a “thread which has been broken.”

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Short & To the Point: Hidden Agenda of Bigotry

Blackmail. Demonization. Marginalization. Is it possible these exist with a hidden bigotry? You think not, heh? What do you know? Have you ever read the John Howard Griffin’s book, Black Like Me? If not, you better go to a library and check it out. Have you read Mel White’s book, Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America. You better read it and learn. Go to a library and check it out. Lifelong learning means to open your damn minds and get outside your damn boxed in brain and LEARN things which you may not have known before, including how different people are FORCED to live in this land we call America. It is sickening when realizing this. It is sickening when a male thinks he is a male and grows a beard, while some of us don’t have that “natural” ability to grow a beard. To think that a male might bloviates that he “refuses to accept the fact that he has a feminine side.” Oh, really, you jackass? Every human being starts out as a female. The amount of testosterone bath in the womb helps to change the clitoris to a penis. Some people come out of the tube with two, not one, types of genitals. So, you jackasses who can grow your damn beards and define that as being a man, can go to h-e-double hockey sticks and burn in the fire. You help vote in favor of blocking a gay couple in Tennessee from adopting children because YOU…. YOU… are the one with the closed-minded perverted mind who thinks only about sex and not about families and what it really takes to build a family. You refuse to have lifelong learning and discover that the natural things are things created by God almighty, whether named Jah, Jehovah, or Yah-way, creates the seahorse in which the insemination and birthing process is opposite to other species. Namely, the male with the sperm gets the eggs inseminated in his body by the female, after a ritual mating dance. The male fertilizes the eggs in his body and carries the developing baby seahorses to term, then the babies go out of the tube provided by the male, not a female. It’s a natural process just as natural a process for a gay couple to raise a family of children and many times do a better job than many straight couples do. ​”The problems of the world are not that some people love in a different way. The problems are that so many people don’t know how to love at all (CGA, 1970).” I speak my admonition of hidden bigotry, whether based on bigotry towards gay people, colored people, or Jews. Such a hidden agenda among a herd of dopes produces blackmail, demonization, and marginalization of very good and generous people, in the name of puritanical dolts like Franklin Graham or the late Jerry Fallwell, and other bastards and SOBs who claim to follow God when they don’t. God bless the un-closeted LGBTQ, colored people, and various religious people who recognize the true love of God. Shall I proclaim a God damn for the others? Puritanical dimwits maintain this hidden agenda of bigotry, but it is said that ​”a Puritan is someone in fear that someone, somewhere, is having a good time.” Agape, peace, justice, happiness, and joy in life gives us a good time, but Puritans are in fear that we might find such happiness and joy and have a good time. Hidden agendas based on bigotry brings a lack of love, peace, justice, happiness, and joy among those who are impacted by this. Such jackasses would prefer to judge such people as freaks of nature and put us on display in a circus. Go to h-e-double hockey sticks, will you?

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