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 ‘Reviews’ Category

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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PBS Frontline Report: Human beings do it better than computers

After spending today speaking with the scumbag automated system put in place by a huge corporation which caters to hedge hogs, greed, selfishness, and love of money, I ended the day by listening to the PBS Frontline report about the Boeing 737 Max. I come away scratching my head about the common thread which runs through my personal experience with an automated system and the deaths of 300+ people. My experience is not a life and death experience. But it does leave us feeling as if no one gives one damn about the time it takes humans to deal with automated systems which are really screwed up because the big fat pigs at the top, making 10005 plus more than what the ones at the top made in the 1970s by getting rid of human beings.

The automated systems being used on the aircraft are designed to take away the ability of human pilots to have better control over the aircraft. The digital parts then miscalculate and the planes go down, killing all passengers. Love of money, materialism, greed, individualistic fat pigs at the top, and selfishness override human beings. These guys do not give one damn about the people who died in those crashes. It was made very evident today.

The fat pigs at the top of huge corporate conglomerates which automate their customer services, from a newspaper media company to an electric utility to Internet service providers to mobile phone providers (and others), these pigs at the top are not being held accountable. It took an awful lot of corrupt handling of the FAA (by Boeing), over a long period of time, and investigative reporting which finally brought down the CEO at Boeing. FINALLY. 

And freaking Mitch McConnell works to make things even worse by using the money he made from taxpayers to suppress voters and taxpayers in various states because that is the only way such freaking Republicans know how to win an election. They cannot win on issues.  Whether politician like McConnell or the hedge hog big fat pigs, there is the similarity of a lack of concern for people, across the board.

Finally, in the end, the famiiies of those who died in the crashes won big money in a lawsuit. Another example of reactionary actions rather than tough proactive actions being taken by lawyers and politicians (as with personal injury lawsuits and workman’s comp) PRIOR to something like these events. The lousy deregulation environment for “free markets,” by Reagan, Republicans and freaking lousy Libertarians has brought this down on America today. I believe we need to stand up strongly and change to the proactive and dump the reactionary BS. The reactionary stuff is about awarding money, another example of love of money, rather than putting human interests first in a proactive manner.  Tell me. Exactly what good does it do for those people to NOT have their loved ones, but have money instead? You cannot take your toys to heaven, especially when humans are crating a hell on earth.

I have written about this theme over and over and over again. Yet, we see how hard it is to find a solution from crashes and come to a reactionary resolution. Also, how short will the memories of Americans be, after those who suffered, the victims and the families, get resolution. If one person suffers, we all suffer. When will Americans learn from what has happened and be more vocal about the suffering which has an impact on all of us? How long does it take for people to stand up and take the stand, rather than working with freaking lousy Republicans who are trying to repress the voting in America and don’t do one damn thing to solve the problems of America in a proactive way?

Furthermore, the Boeing executive did exactly what many healthcare workers have been doing to me and many of my diabetic friends. If the expensive medications don’t work, then blame the patients. Same thing at Boeing. Blame the human pilots when those pilots had their hands tied when trying to reverse the hellish thing the automated system was doing to the aircraft. Blame the humans because it costs less to take care of digital machines than it does to take care of human beings. Blame those who are victims of the process of giving only blanket solutions which might not work for some people on a one to one basis. Blame the demand side of the market, in favor of the freaking lousy Reagan attitude about supply side economics. How about if we hold the fat pigs at the top accountable more often? How about if we hold fat pig McConnell and the lousy Republican followers of Trump? How about if we hold THEM accountable for COVID-19 and the lack of putting forth a war on a pandemic?  Hospitals which transported patients to nursing homes across state lines are the responsibility of Trump and the lousy Republicans who go along with him and that lousy fascist leadership. They have no interest in human lives. Oh, that’s right. I already said that.

Why do my medications no longer work for me? The money used to pay for this crap, either by me or by way of Medicare, is being wasted when not working. Why?  In my early stages of type II diabetes, a doctor over-prescribed metformin and I was left with lactic acidosis. Lactic acidosis CAN BE FATAL. I count my blessings because, while it ended up giving me some heart problems, I survived. I am a survivor, but we are not talking about cancer. We are talking about the wrong dosage of prescriptions made by a medical doctor and never identified by a pharmacist. The net result was the hospital costs picked up by big insurance. Those costs COULD have been avoided.

Then, when endocrinologists began putting me on insulin, I took two dosages from two different injections each day. I was warned that my numbers might go to low so I should carry glucose tablets with me. How many times did I use those tablets? Zero times. My numbers never went down to hypoglycemic levels. Yet, there was more concern about that than to fix the problem as to why I rarely got my glucose levels below 100. Sure. My A1C did decrease. But my fat on my bones went up exponentially, from 220 up to nearly 280. Just look at the photos of me in 2016 and look at me today. Then to discover that one of the common effects of insulin is to give weight gain.
Today, I am off the insulin injections (Tresiba). By no longer injecting insulin and utilizing an injection of a medicine by Novo Nordisk, I was able to get my glucose levels down and took off enough weight to drop back down to the 220 range. But, I am on the plateau of 220 or so, as I have been for years and can never dispose of the fats on the abdomen. Research shows that fat on the abdomen is what blocks any insulin, even that produced by the body, in doing its job.

And my glucose levels seem to not be responding at all to all of the meds I am now taking. Thus, healthcare workers blame ME, as did the executive at Boeing blame the human pilots. Mr/Ms Healthcare Worker, I have been exercising and cannot drop the weight on the abdomen, so give me a suggestion for what I can do? Mr/Ms Healthcare Worker: “you are not doing enough.” It’s my fault – the fault of the patient, right? “You need to do situps.” I don’t do situps but regularly do standing up toe touchers and others to exercise the same as siups do. I sometimes do the situps, but if I cannot do them, I do the ones to exercise the abdomen in other ways. I ride a stationary bike and/or walk nearly every day. But. It’s my fault, don’t you know. I have heard other diabetics in Florida among the older population describe this situation, similar to mine, so I don’t speak alone.

After all. I am a human being and we need to blame human beings, right? Isn’t that what America has become? A nation which blames imperfect human beings and refusing to find rational solutions? After experiencing what I describe with my type II diabetes, what I experience with lousy customer service run by automated systems, and now what I heard tonight about what Boeing did (with influence over Congress and the FAA), I really am appalled when I add all of this up in America today. Then a Republican leadership unconcerned about the people of America and only about their pocketbooks with a love of money, I find it all very appalling, especially when stupid people wish to blame the Democrats. About the only Democrats i would blame is the bitch from Arizona and the blue dog from West Virginia. Arizona where the bitch is likely running scared at the voter suppression out there. Sorry. Perhaps I should not call her a bitch. One particular bitch out in Arizona is actually the leader of the Republican Party out there. She turns the Democrat out there into someone whom I call a bitch.

My hats off to those who did the story on Frontline. We need far more of those types of stories, especially stories to expose the corruption of Mitch McConnell and the Republican leadership, plus Rick Scott, Ron DeSantis, and Marco Rubio of Florida. Rick Scott with a fifth. Methodist or not, he is an asshole. And the ones who cry “Marxist Democrats” are the ones who ARE the Marxists, as they push the lies of propaganda upon the population and call themselves Republicans when, indeed, they are doing what the Bolshevik (Marxists) did in Russia in 1917. RINOs and DINOs wake up to what truly is happening in America today.

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Commentary, Television & Radio Reviews

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RE: Letter to Editor, Press & Sun-Bulletin Regarding the Thugs Jailed Due to Jan. 6 Insurrection

Dear Editors:
I am a moderate person who believes in America first, political parties and political ideology last. I believe in solutions for American democracy and continuing American democracy by removing the SCOTUS stupidity regarding Citizens United which has destroyed the campaign finance reform laws of the past.

I am against false news of Fox, Newsmax, and others which is nothing more than what the Bolsheviks and Hitler dictatorships did to gain power.

I am against corrupt practices which emanated from big Goliath-type corporate supply-side economics while the backbone of America, small business and American ingenuity are destroyed.

I don’t like cheating and a lack of ethics which emanates from Trump people who define their own dictatorial ways of ethics which are never consistent with true ethics.

I am against those who seek white superiority dictatorial ways who try to claim the U.S. Constitution supports their efforts when it does not. Thus,

I am against the thugs of Jan. 6, 2021, and the insurrection endorsed by Trump who never spoke out strongly against it. These people are traitors who deserve what they get, whether in jail or being executed, as Timothy McVeigh was executed.

I am against the bleeding heart liberals and lawyers who feel sorry for such lain-brained attitudes which stimulated that insurrection on Jan. 6. I have no respect for lain-brained bleeding heart liberals like Jamie Lee Curtis who merely define this as “Americans who are angry.” I am angry, too, at big corporate supply-side economics which have been given the right to monopolize markets in technology and elsewhere which destroy capitalist competition by ridding us of the regulation which is necessary (emboldened by SCOTUS and Citizens United).

I support President Joe Biden and Democrats and/or Republicans (like Joe Scarborough) who want to regulate Microsoft, Google, and Best Buy, along with other big fat pig corporate conglomerates who have no desire to understand the DEMAND side of the CAPITALIST… CAPITALIST… CAPITALIST… CAPITALIST…. CAPITALIST… (have I used this word enough?) markets, but just dictate the supply side because they think ‘that is what will make us all happy.”

With all this being said, I also believe that human beings are children of God who are not perfect and can, at times maker errors, but we don’t just look at those we don’t like as being lousy when they make one error, such as the local idiot around town who calls President Biden, “sloppy Joe.” I think of the person as being a disgusting one who expects perfection from Joe, but overlooks the multiple errors of a Donald Trump and others.
When I read in your newspaper about how people feel sorry for those from that insurrection who have been jailed and complaining “about the way they are being treated,” I am disgusted at acknowledging such bastards and feeling sorry for them. For if they had had any intelligence at all, they would not have become involved in that insurrection. They get what they deserve and are lucky they don’t get what many WISH they would get – being executed like Timothy McVeigh.   Stupid bleeding heart liberals and lawyers do this. Even Jesus Christ would have called them hypocrites and not been afraid of saying so, as he is recorded as saying such about the lawyers of his day, while he was on earth.

Shall I apologize because I make what I am trying to say too lengthy? Consider this. Would anyone reading this discover the details about what I am saying, should it be a short “snippet?”

I love the nation where I was born. It had a regulated economy, true democracy with sensible and rational people, worked towards campaign finance reform which worked better than the crap instituted by SCOTUS from Citizens United Decision, small business America which has been destroyed by Reagan’s supply-side economics and deregulation (which has become “re-regulation” by the industries who are given a lousy freedom and corporate welfare to regulate their own business – wish I had the same capability), “fairness doctrine” in journalism which moderated whether the information is true, accurate, not lies and hatred, and the resulting destruction of capitalist demand side of markets which can be used to create and regulate the media and call what are platforms or portals as “media.”  

The result is to get these lain-brained thugs whose voices are louder than reasonable and rational voices who don’t allow emotions to override democracy and certainly do not like the expression of “anger” by the violence of thugs in an insurrection. For one, I don’t feel sorry for those thugs in jail and find an article which describes such to be an insult against American democracy.

As a Christian, I am supposed to hope for forgiveness. But forgiveness only begins when there is true and sincere repentance. I have yet to hear this, as there are evil ones in America who embolden these thugs, as well as the bleeding heart liberals and lawyers who embolden them as well and never insist upon repentance – SINCERE repentance. No repentance, no feelings of sorrow for these folks.

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Commentary, Periodcial Article Reviews

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Return Audience Show & Jamie Lee Curtis

Dear Rachael Ray,
We love your new audience shows, the set and the seating which looks so homey. Kudos to you and the crew for doing this.
When Jamie Lee Curtis was on your show and appeared to brush off the attack of the thugs from Proud Boys and other groups in their attack on our government on Jan. 6, I am sickened to hear that. She sounds like a bleeding heart liberal comparable to Al Gore who geve up challenging George W. Bush in Florida at a time when me and many other Republicans like me voted for Al Gore. He gave up, like a damn bleeding heart liberal, ‘for the good of the nation.” In effect, his giving up has made matters worse so that Trump puts a spin on his loss and gets people to attack the halls of Congress. Al Gore really did win that election and the black man who represented the congressional district where I lived in Florida was rejected. Same thing happened in the 1850s when bleeding heart liberals on SCOTUS gave a decision of “justice” so as to appease “the South [and its white supremacy groups].” I refer to the Dred Scott Decision and the documentation of that decision demonstrates the stupidity of the bleeding heart lawyers and liberals who helped keep the war going for white supremacy.

To be blunt, those thugs on Jan. 6, 2021, are traitors and they are lucky to be alive after that event because at one time in America, traitors were hung by a noose and not by vigilante Jim Crow assholes, which is what those thugs are. It is an insult to me and others in this nation who love this nation the successful democracy it has been, not the authoritarian dictatorship which Trump emboldens Proud Boys and other thugs to promote. They take away the freedom, liberty, life, and happiness of those of us who want a democracy. It has nothing to do with “politics,” as the ignorance of a bleeding heart might give us.
My representative in Congress in 2000, had balls and guts to stand up. Al Gore had no balls or guts and, as a result, Trump today takes advantage of that factor. There were many Republicans like me who had the balls and guts to stand up for Al Gore and we were trashed in the process. Was Jamie Lee Curtis one who trashed us? In spite of Al Gore, I switched to Democrat, thanks to a Vermont man named Dr. Howard Dean. Dr. Dean had balls and guts, too, but was shut out of the Democrats when he attempted to be a leader. Still. I remain a Democrat, in spite of such BSby bleeding heart liberals feeling so sorry for traitors. King Charles of England was executed due to his lack of balls and guts and wanting to destroy the British Parliament. King George III lost part of his colonial empire, due to his tough stand against the people and the British Parliament. Now, we feel sorry for the freaking Proud Boys and the thugs who attacked our Congress? What a bunch of hooey.
P.S. I don’t apologize for what I say about lawyers just because your husband, John, is a lawyer. Bleeding heart lawyers and liberals are a disgrace to this nation. I  can only hope John is not a bleeding heart lawyer.

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Commentary, Television & Radio Reviews

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Review of CBS News Report: Social Media Used to Embolden Kids to Vandalize and Attack Teachers: Sounds like a Bunch of Uncivilized and Ruthless Bolsheviks or Hitlerites

The National Education Association, for which I am a member (with AFT) is encouraging “social media”” to regulate what is published. The excuse given by Tik Tok is bizarre. Having worked with the Internet as a pioneer in the age of infancy of the Internet (even DARPANET), I can say that Tik Tok’s excuse is a flimsy one, at best.
We used moderators for anything published in forums and what not and we had no difficulties. Just as articles or letters to editors are submitted to editors who review for accuracy before publishing, a moderator on a forum (forerunner to blogs) moderates by reviewing for accuracy before publishing. It takes time and yes, we need to employ more people to do it. What a shame, right? Employ human beings rather than using computers and robots?
Those days were also the days when the Fairness Doctrine in media still existed. Republicans like Reagan and Bush tore down that doctrine which was established in a bipartisan agreement following World War II and gave us a more civilized nation rather than one with the mentally ill encouraging and emboldening young people to do acts of vandalism and assault. Hatred of fellow human beings was not allowed, especially when it is based on rumors, false conspiracy theories, and other false information. Once the Fairness Doctrine was destroyed, talk radio of hatred and false information sprang up, particularly that of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Then we ended up with “social media” and no controls over it. If someone tries to control it, then the mentally ill who propagate the hatred proclaim such regulations go against “free speech,” liberties, and is a form of censorship. I argue that it is NOT any one of these things because regulation and moderation of such information means the stories are not banned, but are evaluated for accuracy and, if there is partial truth, then the stories are so notated. That takes time and pushes the mentally ill who want instant gratification, like little brats in a sandbox kicking sand at one another – little bratty kid attitudes – upset. They should be upset when someone tries to kick their buttes and stop them from being little children, grow up and mature and become the adults ina civilized world.
CBS News needs to include this aspect for which I am discussing here. But CBS and other media outlets do not do this. Shame on them all. Rather than call this junk in Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, or other sources “social media,” let us call it what it is. “Social technology.” “Social online portal.” “Social online platform.” It is NOT news and information and shame on the media for not pointing this out. What kind of fear do they have? Losing money? If so, shame on such a media where LOVE OF MONEY predominates. Love os money is evil.

My thanks to those of NEA who were given a chance to speak up on the CBS report this morning. So many of us are not given that opportunity and that is sad, too.

To establish power in Russia, by the Bolsheviks, they used hate speech and propaganda (false news) to accomplish the goals of vulgar and vicious people. To establish the Hitler Youth in Germany, there was the use of lies of propaganda for vulgar, vicious, and uncivilized and barbarian attacks on other people. Let us stop this in America and stop it now. Don’t “appease” the other side by going along with their crap about “censorship.” Civilized society needs to moderate the barbarism and stop it. That is NOT censorship, so stop it, and stop it NOW. it is important for America and important for keeping civilization civilized.

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Commentary on Recent Dr. Oz Show

​It is sad, but i cannot obtain an email address to write directly to Dr. Oz. Either Tweet him or use an online form. I refuse to do either, so I write to the overall media. Don’t get me wrong. I like Dr. Oz. I just don’t like Twitter which is called part of a “social media.” It is NOT media, so I write to the media. Twitter, Facebook and others are social technology or social portals or social platforms. They are NOT media. But of course, who listens to my perspective on this topic. I was only involved in the early days of the development of the Internet in the DARPANet project. But not as involved as Tim Berners-Lee or Vannevar Bush or… So I am just chopped liver and a stupid idiot, right? 

However, I feel compelled to comment about a recent episode of Dr. Oz. It was about the guy in South Carolina whom, it is believed, had people murdered and then arranged an attempt to have himself murdered. A bizarre and perverted tale, for sure. Just proves the irrationality of so much of America today, the land I grew up loving, due to people in the Binghamton, NY, area like George F. Johnson and Thomas J. Watson, plus others. Shame on me for being inspired by such people who actually provided healthcare and other benefits for their employees. That is another topic for another day.
Dr. Oz went into the increase of murder in the USA today. How sad, for sure. He said there is evidence there are too many who are “getting away with murder.” That, too, is sad and sounds like the bizarre sheiks of Saudi Arabia, the Taliban, and Putin of Russia, among others in the world. Oh, that’s right. Obama and Biden administration made certain that Bin Laden DID NOT get away with the mass murders he committed while Bush with his (and his father’s) personal vendetta against a leader hated by the Saudis and the Taliban (Hussein) was brought down and attention drawn away from what was necessary to do to track down Bin Laden. Yet, the freaking media goes after Biden in the past few months regarding Afghanistan, after nothing was accomplished there by Bush. In effect, I can say, Bush, too, gets away with murder. (Meanwhile, today, the dismal and wimpy Democrats are being laughed at by freaking lousy people like Rick Scott who got away with stealing money at a hospital in Florida. People there KNOW what happened, but Rick Scott pleads the “fifth” and gets away with it with the help of stupid freaking lawyers in America).
What I also need to add to this Dr. Oz discussion is historical information. According to a documentary on the History Channel, the one with the large signature on our Declaration of Independence got away with murder. It is a hidden thing. Yet, we talk about our “john hancock” signature like it is a wonderful patriotic thing. I contest such vile things and wish America would come to its senses. So hearing Dr. Oz describe those who, today, “get away with murder,” is appalling, to say the least.

I wish to sing a song, “Where have all the lawyers gone?” Because they spend their money on commercials about their lousy jobs with personal injury lawsuits and workman’s comp and allow things like murder to pass us by. In this respect, lawyers are negligent in not doing the jobs they SHOULD be doing. Protecting Americans against murder and mayhem. They take money from our government by filing frivolous lawsuits and refuse to seek tort reform, as what exists in Britain. It was a British agent trying to stop John Hancock from illegal importation of rum from the Caribbean who got murdered and then we had a war in the name of John Hancock. Makes me ill to think about this. And the lawyer who ended up helping John Hancock and his friend, Sam Adams? John Adams, the 2nd president of the USA. It is a disgusting thought, to say the least. But this was not discussed on the Dr. Oz Show and perhaps it needs to be discussed.
Don’t get me wrong. We were dealing with a mentally ill jerk named King George of Britain. He was like Trump in his mental illness. George had no sense of what it takes to be a king, let alone a good leader. The democratic process in the British parliament actually attempted to put down George and curtail some of the taxes for which the American colonists objected. But no. The mentally ill king prevailed and we had a civil war. We call it the American Revolution, but in effect, it was a civil war because America was then part of the British Empire.

I know. I speak as if this is not the “norm,” so how stupid I am, right? We don’t want the words of Mister Doug published, so let us rip him apart in every way possible and never take into consideration something Mister Doug says which goes against the norm. Mister Doug may speak with metaphors and parables. But Mister Doug is just plain stupid. Wait! Was there not someone else in history who spoke in metaphors and parables? Got milk anyone?
Thank you, Dr. Oz, for the information, not conspiracy theories like that of a Mark Levin and others, which seem to predominate the lousy brain cells of so many people and with no evidence at all in something we call “social media.” It’s not social media. It is social portals or social platforms and part of social technology. Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts. That is media. Where art thou, media?
—

Professor Douglas Willet Cornwell (Retired)

Newark Valley, NY

bibsinger@gmail.com

———————————“Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” “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).” A Puritan is someone in fear that someone, somewhere, is having a good time. “Liberty and justice for all [not priorities on individual and selfish rights].” “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union [and overall wealth of American society]…” 
​Benjamin Franklin: “​Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are ​affected.” Stacey Abrams: “Compromise about actions, but not about values.”  Oscar Wilde: “​​​I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”  Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” Benjamin Franklin: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”  Whoopi Goldberg: “To handle this COVID-19 pandemic effectively, we all need to get on the same page.”  Note: To be clear, I do not like being patronized. I do not express my disdain over what happens to my fellow humans just for my own sake and to pursue favors and handouts. I do it in order to gain R – E – S – P – E – C – T for me and for millions of other Americans of any race, ethnicity, religious belief, or sex and sexual identity who try to walk in integrity as they attempt to achieve, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  PERIOD.  One nation under God [our Creator] with liberty and justice for all.

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Book Review by Paul Krugman RE: Fight over How Extensive Free Markets Should Be

Paul Krugman was right on the mark with his book review of Nicholas Wapshott’s Samuelson Friedman: The Battle Over the Free Market (3 Aug. 2021).

As a historian, not an economist, I take a look at this free market idea through the lens of a historian. Paul Krugman, the economist and his ideas from the perspective of an economist agree with what I have been writing for so long.

As expected, Krugman delves into the ideas for free markets which were pushed by Friedman and opposed by Samuelson. He also identifies Reagan and Greenspan as perpetrators. I so agree with that. I would also ad the queen of “virtues of selfishness,” Ayn Rand, as well. The net result of what Reagan and his goons did in the 1980s has been monopolized business by big corporate giants who resemble Goliath in the Bible and work to destroy capitalist competition, on the notion that this is a prime example of “free markets.” In fact, destruction of competition is annoying as it destroys the ideas of regulated capitalism which is designed to help both supply AND demand. Reagan’s notions of “deregulation” have resulted, besides promoting a “trickle-down” philosophy, is “reregulation” done by the corrupt practices of privatized huge corporate conglomerates. We might think we the people have no voice, but with privatization by the supply-side big fat cats.  Business in the hands of the big fat cat supply-siders, similar to plantation-style, manorial, and feudal economics of the Medieval period is more atrocious because it can more easily shut down the voice of the people than can be done with government (especially when there is more predominance of the existence of government controlled by the big fat cats, as a result of a dim-witted U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decision with a propaganda-style title of “Citizens United” and its hidden agenda).

Case in point. Privatized forms of government called homeowners’ associations which are given more teeth to do injustice to people by the Republican one-party state in Florida. The HOAs of Florida have come to be known as the “condo commandos.” However, the HOAs have spread more widely than just condos, as yours truly had to pay a HOA fee when he owned a single-family home, not a condo. The HOA played the role of the local nearby government where I also owned a home. They would inspect lawns, as the local government did, and cite us if it was not cut correctly. Both village and HOA did the same thing (there was no HOA in the village). Big, big difference. The annual HOA fees were far higher than those of the village and we had no recourse to go to a village board meeting and express disdain over the regulatory practice of inspecting lawns. Compared to a local village in upstate New York, the HOA fees were three times higher than this village and its taxes.  The village shed itself of a police unit, so it became more like a HOA, but at much less the cost of a HOA. Yet, people here complain about the tax of this village. Be careful for what you wish for.
My point being that privatized supply-side businesses are vicious, malicious, and bullying. They are the ruination of local business and local control. Case in point also about the privatized hospitals created by a man who sits in the U.S. Senate: Rick Scott. With an overall consideration, even hospitals still run by religious organizations are far better at dealing with the demand-side – the patients (consumers) – than privatized hospitals and nursing homes. I have plenty more personal experience examples I can share. Certainly, there are plenty of facts and statistics to validate my experiences.
The historical examples are about the “norms” established by the aristocratic wealth and royalty when Adam Smith drew up his ideas of capitalism which were meant to challenge the supply-side economics of feudal economies run by aristocrats. I am able to prove that the aristocrats were one step ahead of Adam Smith. They embraced the “new” idea of capitalism in the late 1700s and early 1800s, as if it was their own baby for which they gave birth. When Marx went to England to generate interest in the common folks of the demand side of the market, he blamed capitalism because the supply-side aristocrats were the ones coining the phrase of capitalism for themselves. America had plantations in the South and the North thought it was better with its “industrial revolution” consisting of crap like sweatshops and so forth. Those sweatshops may have paid workers earnings, it was dismally small and not a living wage, while the big fat cats became just as wealthy as the plantation owners of Dixie. They were better in not putting African slaves in chains, but were they really any better, just because they did NOT enslave people, as they used immigrants in the sweatshops?

In the 20th Century, Gov. Teddy Roosevelt of New York State began to intercede for workers. From child labor laws to many other laws, Gov. T. Roosevelt, worked with people. Gov. T. Roosevelt also became known as the “trust buster” as he busted the organized syndicates with Boss Tweed and other sources which, with their corrupt practices, controlled the supply-side economics as well as government.  America became great due to the trust buster, unions, pooled finances in retirement systems which were really designed to be capitalist returns on investments. Same thing with the “health savings account” we call Medicare, where there was an intent to have a return on investment.  The original intent for these resources was not to have lousy corrupt representatives propagandize false ideas that such resources were “taxes” and then steal such money for other purposes. They stole from such funds for projects “back home,” in order to keep their constituents happy and then get re-elected in the process. Using propaganda, such corrupt politicians and lawyers destroyed the ideas of long-term capitalist investments into short-term, “I want it now” instant gratification ideas. With the older ones dying off and the younger ones not worried about long-term investments, those corrupt people in a representative democracy convinced people to do the things most beneficial to the wealthy fat cats at the top. Shall I go into actual examples of what I am talking about?
Krugman expressed his ideas in terms of economics and academia. His explanation is very good. But someone needs to address this to those who do not follow the details of economics.  Meanwhile stupid people like Mark Levin and others from Fox, rely on not presenting facts, but only emotions. The best seller lists contain books by such people which are false. And yes, I challenge Mr. Levin as a dumb jerk with his emotionalism being the sole means of capturing the hearts and minds of people. I don’t challenge Mr. Krugman, but wish someone could put what he says in the words more conducive to the “lay person.” It would really help cut down on the chaos and contention of pitting American against American. Let us shed the damn emotionalism and traditionalism which pervades the land and get back to rationality and common sense.

—

Professor Douglas Willet Cornwell (Retired)

Newark Valley, NY

bibsinger@gmail.com

———————————“Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” “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).” A Puritan is someone in fear that someone, somewhere, is having a good time. “Liberty and justice for all [not priorities on individual and selfish rights].” “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union [and overall wealth of American society]…” 
Benjamin Franklin: “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are affected.” Stacey Abrams: “Compromise about actions, but not about values.”  Oscar Wilde: “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”  Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” Benjamin Franklin: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”  Whoopi Goldberg: “To handle this COVID-19 pandemic effectively, we all need to get on the same page.”  Note: To be clear, I do not like being patronized. I do not express my disdain over what happens to my fellow humans just for my own sake and to pursue favors and handouts. I do it in order to gain R – E – S – P – E – C – T for me and for millions of other Americans of any race, ethnicity, religious belief, or sex and sexual identity who try to walk in integrity as they attempt to achieve, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  PERIOD.  One nation under God [our Creator] with liberty and justice for all.

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Book Reviews, Commentary, Economics, Regulated Capitalism, Commerce

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Commentary, Op-ed, Periodcial Article Reviews

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BOOK REVIEW: Bright-sided by Barbara Ehrenreich (v. 2.0)

As a benchmark to what I am about to write, I am offering the review of Barbara Ehrenreich’s 2009 book, Bright-sided, as a starting point. I have not read this book, so I am going by the review. I should read it, but lack of funds and a library system which makes it hard to get a copy of a book precludes me from obtaining a copy, sad to say. This also is commentary to contest another Ehrenreich book (2010), Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World. If you take the time to read my commentary, you will find that I contest Ehrenreich’s use of a predominance of a perverted version of positive thinking which borders on perverted optimism and in denial of the truth about positive thinking. Her words help to destroy what positive thinking is intended to be. Read on.

Also, I have been attempting to contact WordPress.com to learn how to do several things. One is to indent a quote like this. I have spent minutes and minutes on attempting to do this on this blog and have still not been able to learn it. Thanks so much to WordPress.com for helping out. Thanks so much for other blog services for (not) answering my questions about how I can convert my blog to another blog service. Thanks (not) so much to the monopolized business of America, run by billionaires who don’t pay taxes, while I do pay taxes.

Here is the review of Bright-sided on Amazon.com:

“A sharp-witted knockdown of America’s love affair with positive thinking and an urgent call for a new commitment to realism

Americans are a “positive” people―cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: this is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive, we are told, is the key to success and prosperity.
In this utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude. Evangelical mega-churches preach the good news that you only have to want something to get it, because God wants to “prosper” you. The medical profession prescribes positive thinking for its presumed health benefits. Academia has made room for new departments of “positive psychology” and the “science of happiness.” Nowhere, though, has bright-siding taken firmer root than within the business community, where, as Ehrenreich shows, the refusal even to consider negative outcomes―like mortgage defaults―contributed directly to the current economic crisis.

With the mythbusting powers for which she is acclaimed, Ehrenreich exposes the downside of America’s penchant for positive thinking: On a personal level, it leads to self-blame and a morbid preoccupation with stamping out “negative” thoughts. On a national level, it’s brought us an era of irrational optimism resulting in disaster. This is Ehrenreich at her provocative best―poking holes in conventional wisdom and faux science, and ending with a call for existential clarity and courage.”

From my perspective, after reading and spending a great deal of my life learning about Rev. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s books about positive thinking, Ehrenreich describes a perversion of positive thinking which is just as perverted as the view about what capitalism is supposed to be about, as defined by Adam Smith (who also wrote, The Theory of Moral Sentiment). Whether education, psychology or business, people have grabbed at the ideas of positive thinking and used them to maintain their status quo about life. Typically, if I hear someone comment about positive thinking, I usually say, “you are talking about wishful thinking, not positive thinking. Go read Dr. Peale’s books.” In other words, people are writing about positive thinking (and capitalism, too) from their own individualistic eyes in order to massage their egos. Mary Trump, niece to Donald Trump does the same thing and from her perspective in psychology. She and the others are wrong in this sense and I believe I have a better knowledge of what positive thinking is about because I have read about the basics of those thoughts.

The reviewer mentions what I consider to be a misinterpretation of positive thinking. The review says, “…it leads to … a morbid preoccupation with stamping out ‘negative’ thoughts.” In fact, I have been criticized for trying to solve problems with a positive attitude by bringing up the problems and sounding negative by doing so. I am awe-struck at the predominance for “stamping out negative thoughts.” For Donald Trump himself, a number of times, I have tried to be positive about what he intends to do, but when I come up empty-handed and disappointed about his actions, I comment about this. For Trump, this criticism means a negative thought, not constructive criticism. Trump has acted like this over and over again, in line with this predominant attitude about putting down “negative thoughts,” wrongly associated with positive thinking. I do believe that both Dr. Peale and Dr. Schuler (Crystal Cathedral in California) have talked about constructive criticism, even if they have not used that particular phrase. People’s minds are messed up in this regard. I say this by way of constructive criticism, not negativity, but no one seems to understand what I say in this regard. Instead, we have “irrational optimism.” To me, it sounds like pessimism based on self-hatred.

My comment about the reviewer’s statement about Ehrenreich’s book regarding positive thinking: “…it leads to self-blame…”

Please read books: A Stranger to Self-hatred: A Glimpse of Jesus (Brennan Manning, 1982). Diana Butler Bass’s books, Christianity for the Rest of Us (2007), Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening (2012), and A People’s History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story (2010). Theologian, Adam Smith’s, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (published in the 18th Century, reprinted, 2018). Father Matthew Fox’s Original Blessings (2000); I condemn the American bishops for their recent proclaimed judgments which are blasphemy when considering God does the judging, and what these bishops are dictating – DICTATING – are that all Catholics believe in only one way (as a woman I once dated forced upon others in thought); the Roman Catholics who pushed this dictatorial way which led to the the excommunication of Father Fox, the English civil war of the 17th Century, and my ancestors who came to America to escape that BS in England. Read books by Roman Catholic layperson, Gary (or Garry) Wills, What Jesus Meant (a 2007 New York Times best seller) or What Paul Meant (2007), etc. who offers a very insightful view of Christianity.

Read a recent article in The Economist about the pervasive individualism in America today (“How Many American Children Have Cut Contact with Parents?”, 22 May 2021) which, with evidence, the writer claims the problems in America are due to the individualism which inundates and pervades society, not positive thinking.

Individualism has perverted the ideas of positive thinking so as to consider “…it leads to self-blame” and destruction of confidence with self-control and self-sacrifice for community and nation. Original sin leads to guilt of one’s existence and destroys ideas of confidence for “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Instead, we end up, to the delight of Trumpicans, evangelical puritans, and Roman Catholic bishops, to a dictatorship with a vicious person at the head who can more easily control the people, rather than educate them and provide opportunities for all. The overriding impact of considering sin and guilt to be so important leads to self-blame and self-hatred, not positive thinking.

While I agree with the reviewers identification of positive thinking as the problem, my view is that Ehrenreich and others are viewing a “perverted” interpretation of positive thinking as being the blame, and they are correct, but only in that sense. I have to disagree with this assessment because, as Karl Marx did in blaming capitalism, it takes a toll and leads to an implosion which puts us on a downward slope.

This leads us to the downward slope the ancient Chinese experienced centuries ago. It had a society with opportunities for all by way of small business and academics, but a mean and vicious mentally ill emperor created ended up creating a very two-class society consisting of the wealthy and the impoverished. Fareed Zakaria gave us red flags because this possible implosion can push America into a similar implosion to what happened with a vicious emperor in Ancient China which lasted for centuries, until Mao Tse-Tung. The best example of capitalist democracy is on an island called Taiwan, but Mao Tse-tung lovers want to take that and turn it into rotten centralized planned economy with a dictator to suppress the masses. Read about the Ancient Chinese in Fareed Zakaria’s book, The Post-American World (2nd ed., 2012). His book sounds like a “negative” title, so it should be trashed, right? So why did yours truly, with a belief in positive thinking, read it? The book reviewer sums it up this way: “This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else.” In other words, the book becomes a teachable moment, not a negative one. When Zakaria first wrote this book he included solutions as to how to overcome “what everyone else” is doing. It was ignored as being “negative.” As a result, American life has headed even more on a slippery downhill slope.

Shall I lay judgment on the Roman Catholic bishops? They have condemned the very people who are attempting to move America off that slippery downhill slope defined by Zakaria. When President Biden attempts to head us back up the slope, there is too damn much opposition to him, rather than lending him support to lead and do it. All based on a warped view of what are “negative” thoughts and ignores the truth about what it truly represents.

“Science of happiness?” Are you kidding me? There is no such thing as the “science of happiness.” It is the “art of happiness.” Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But for people to use individualism to project their happiness in a dictatorial way on all Americans is sickening and makes me nauseous and wishing to vomit. It makes the Roman Catholic bishops to force their happiness (power and control) on everyone else and I am sickened by that, too. I believe in Christ as the ONLY representative of God on earth and refuse to listen to a bunch of strong-arming heathens with power and control, heading up the American bishops. But I am not God and I cannot judge these bishops, Trumpicans, or evangelical s**t of puritans who become disgusted because someone, somewhere, is having a good time. Jesus Christ, a “stranger to self-hatred.” Yet, Roman Catholic bishops wish to FORCE self-hatred on members of its flock.

Do I make any sense or am I being negative?

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Book Reviews

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Law Enforcement in America: CBS News Sunday Morning

Thank you, CBS News, for your report today (Sunday, June 6, 2021) about the state of policing in America. The story about the pastor in a small town not much larger than where I reside in upstate New York really helped to understand the need for improving police coverage. That pastor had become the sole police force in the town. Here in this town, the one-man police force was abandoned and essentially, “defunded,” as the law enforcement was given to the county sheriff and deputies. The one-man police force was a disaster in his attitude towards people, so that was what inspired the change to sheriff and elimination of the one-man force which was the same as in this town in the story here.

The results have been passing law enforcement to a Republican sheriff who refuses to work with the Democrats who run this state and help to reform the attitudes of law enforcement. Rather than this little village being able to fire the other guy and find someone like this pastor in Moville, they abandoned it to a force run by someone even worse. Pastor Edgar is Police Chief Rodriguez. He exemplifies what should be in law enforcement. He represents someone who is not so interested in WHAT the offender did, as to getting to the details of WHY the offender ended up doing what they did.

Police Chief Rodriguez reminds me of a retired NYPD police officer who, upon retirement, heard the call of God and trained to become a pastor. In speaking with this former NYPD police officer, much of what I heard him say some of the same things Pastor Rodriguez said in this account. Yet, some of the most adverse opposition to reforms in policing have come from interviews of NYPD union people in New York City. For shame on those men. For shame on any sheriff who resists the reform.

The final statistics in the report today was to report statistics from polls in America which indicate that slightly more than 50% of Americans are opposed to “defunding,” while only 18% support it. I am part of the percentage not reported by such a survey in being supportive of NOT defunding police if they demonstrate a strong movement to reforming to follow the ways of Pastor Edgar / Chief Rodriguez. Otherwise, if the question were asked properly in the survey, I would be part of that larger number. I would wager that, should the question be tailored about whether the support for NOT defunding would be only if the reform was enforced properly, the results in favor of this move would be far higher than the slight number above 50%. Whatever the questions were on this survey, if there was a “not sure,” I would have been part of the “not sure” crowd. Because support or not, the third choice being “not sure” is the ONLY answer I would give.

Thanks, again, CBS News, for your report this beautiful Sunday morning.

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