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.

Liz Cheney, The Lone Ranger and Justice-seeking Underdog of the Republican Party

July 3, 2021

To Producers of Washington Week:

The commentator last night (July 2, 2021) used words such as “it’s impossible” when describing Liz Cheney’s position as the only Republican on the commission being put together by Nancy Pelosi to investigate the Jan. 6 thug attack against Congress. Does this person put forth a self-fulfilling prophecy or is he doing anything to promote justice in America?
America has lost its sense of supporting the underdog. Liz Cheney might be an underdog in the Republican Party, but that does not mean she can lose. The commentator tried to seal the fate that she WOULD lose, after being in a position which many of us Americans would like to be in to explain our thinking on this matter.
One of the “underdogs” in our human history was of the human ancestral line from which Jesus Christ came. His name was David and he became king of Israel. David was an underdog when he took on the Philistine, Goliath, and defeated him. It is said David worked alone with a slingshot. There is some evidence he did have some help. But he did lead the “underdog” charge against a giant. Liz Cheney is leading an “underdog” charge against dictators in the Republican Party who line up behind Trump and do so with a white superiority complex which is unbelievable. Why was this not pointed out by a commentator on Washington Week last night (July 2, 2021)?

Liz Cheney represents the state of Wyoming in which a large proportion of the population, particularly the men, own cattle ranches and sell the meat for consumption.  They don’t like the wild horses which interfere with their cattle. Like plantation owners of the past, they use their powerful influence to smear the images of others who go against the Trump and his dictatorial and autocratic ones. Thus, these plantation-style dictatorial folks have a strong influence in forcing a Federal agency, under Trump, to capture the horses and illegally sell them off to non-American slaughterhouses for meat (referenced source: Kathleen Parker op-ed). These perverted freaks in Wyoming also don’t like competing with other meat producers or vegetable producers in a capitalist competitive way, so they use their perverted government connections to smash those who disagree with them. Just think what a cattle rancher thinks about the “impossible burger!” They want the grass and vegetation for their cattle, not human consumption.

Such perverted males embrace the white male superiority complex and go after Liz Cheney because she seeks justice with regard to dictator Trump (and stop calling him president Trump; he was an incompetent WHITE House resident Trump for four years, inconsistent with the popular vote of 2016).  Does this commentator know history and that when the votes of women were suppressed, Wyoming was one of the first states to overturn that suppression, even before big “bad guy liberal” (according to Trump) New York state would stop the suppression of female voting? Were any of these facts brought into the picture?

An underdog can win, but not with those who give us self-fulfilling prophecies which speak against the notion that underdogs can win.

On this topic and for the sake of preserving our democracy and “we the people, in order to form a more perfect union,” one word now comes to mind. THINK. —

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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Love the United States of America, but No Respect for the Criminals with Too Much Power in America and Model Their Power Based on Putin; Hate the Evil Spirit Which Runs this Awful Mob of Criminals

July 2, 2021

Years ago, I obtained a divorce and wanted to purchase a home to live. Home prices were high, but not bad. Had I had the opportunity to purchase a home, I could have ridden the wave of the 125% increase in home prices, over just a few years (in Florida). I was paying child support, but needed a roof over my head. I applied for a mortgage. The home I was looking into purchasing would have, with a mortgage, meant I would have paid a PITA almost equivalent to rent on a small apartment. However, the elements in banking with whom I dealt told me that I would not get approval, considering the cost-to-income ratio when the child-support was figured into the equation. Seemed rather bizarre, considering that a mortgage was awarded to the ex-wife and the cost-to-income ratio for her was worse than mine. She got the approval and I did not. I fought this effort by use of a lawyer who never won the case and I ended up paying $25K to this law firm in Florida.

Furthermore, it revealed to me the criminal elements which exist in banking. For those at the mortgage company tried to talk me into filing the application and NOT revealing the child custody payments. My reaction was one of being appalled at such a suggestion because, as I told these guys, they were asking me to lie. I don’t lie. My mother really pushed that idea into me. Do not lie. So I ended up dropping all of that pursuit and rented an apartment, then losing money on a mobile home, due to the high cost of homeowners’ insurance in Florida. The insurance on the mobile home was actually higher than what I eventually paid in a cement block home. Sure. Just pay it for the more expensive one. But there was no mortgage available, with my child support figured into the equation. I am glad I paid to support my kids. I am pissed off at criminals in banking and the rules they made which favored one side of the divorce couple and not the other side.

Jump forward some 20 years after the incident described above. I am told that my injection in the eyes for diabetic retinopathy would be the same medication used for macular degeneration. The injections were covered by an employer-provided healthcare insurance, but not with privatized Medicare at age 65 forward. So, I was told to lie and make the claim by saying I have macular degeneration. Once again, criminals asking me to lie. Once again, I had learned from my mother not to lie. I have appealed and filed grievances about this with privatized Medicare company, WellCare and received nothing. I am expected to pay the bill at Guthrie, due to wrongful practices in privatized Medicare. It has now been more than one year and I still fight.

Furthermore, my experiences regarding a PPO insurance plan are absolutely absurd. In other PPO or HMO plans, the co-payments are set. One for PCP. One for specialist, etc. It is known to the patient, but apparently the management of healthcare providers does not bother to educate their employees about it. Or else we just have a whole bunch of really dumb employees out there who don’t know anything. Sorry, but I don’t believe the later. Several times, I would ask if I could pay at the time services were rendered. Each time, I was told, “there is no cost,” including the one with the eye injection. Then months later, I get slammed with a bill. Six months after one doctor’s visit, I am slammed with the amount of the co-payment which I was told “there is no payment.” I repeat. Six months after I asked to pay the bill while in the health facility and a bill for the co-payment is handed to me.

Once again, I file a “grievance” (complaint) with the privatized Medicare firm, WellCare, stating my complaint against being told “there was no payment” and then being told, later, that there was a payment. The reply from WellCare, this morning (July 1, 2021) was that they could handle the complaint that “I did not want to pay the bill.” But wait. The aspersion was being cast on me as if I was like a Donald Trump who does not want to pay his taxes. I then said that there was never any indication I did not want to pay the bill, in fact, I HAVE PAID THE CO-PAYMENT. My complaint was about being told there was no payment, but then the COMPANY – the MEDICAL FIRM RUN BY A BUNCH OF MANAGERS OUT OF NEW YORK CITY – turned and reversed what was told to me.

The reply from WellCare? “You need to file another grievance and file it against the worker who told me this. Oh. I see. file something against the low man on the totem pole. I see. So this has happened in TWO DIFFERENT MEDICAL FIRMS, one in New York City and one based in Pennsylvania (offices) with offices in the Binghamton area. I see. My intent was to file against the management of the firm, but the low person on the totem pole is the one to be held responsible? I went back and forth with WellCare on this issue, to no avail.

It is the responsibility of management, not that person. I REFUSE to file anything against that hard-working person in the office. The problem is the accounting folks and management, not the healthcare worker.

I resent anyone in America, such as at WellCare, who would infringe on the hard work of an American doing their job. In this case, there were those at the other medical firm doing THEIR job, too, and the results were the same. I guess we just have a bunch of lazy bums all over the place in the lower ranks of the healthcare profession, right?

Or is this a matter of uncivil people running the affairs who don’t like a union person like me? I am still a member of a union, although I am retired. So what would stop those anti-union folks with plenty of money, from Trump onward, from working to destroy, financially, such a person as myself by casting aspersions on me, so as to say I don’t want to pay a bill. Liars, liars, pants on fire.

With the other organization with a similar episode as the one which I filed with WellCare – the one with the eye injection – I had already filed a complaint about the similar event there. In other words, telling me I did not owe anything at the time of service, then coming back later to claim I do. It was the accounting office at that organization which screwed up and filed, in May 2020, with BC&BS, after I had begun on Medicare WellCare in April 2020. I had informed the business and accounting people of the change. Had submitted my new Medicare and WellCare card. Yet, they still filed with BC&BS. I had to go back several times and provide copies of the cards, again and again. It finally went to WellCare. WellCare supposedly paid it. Now all of a sudden, it, once again is whammed up my butte – again. It disappeared on my account and then reappeared. This is the medical facility which helped my dad, a WWII veteran, with bypass surgery and so forth. Don’t know who runs the business end of it there in Pennsylvania, but they are screwed up.

These events run within New York and New York City, but also over state lines. It is a Federal issue, is it not? So I also complained to Medicare, too. Still don’t know the outcome of that.

One thing I can say. I never experienced such things with BC&BS of Florida, my employer-provided healthcare. Since being retired, it has been like hell on earth.

With the example of the banker in about 2002 / 2003 telling me to lie in order to get a mortgage, to a doctor telling me to lie about my medical condition, I am appalled at what I have experienced when it was suggested I lie. A banker in Florida. Business offices in New York and Pennsylvania.

I have always opposed the income and sales taxes in the states and in America. I have watched, since I was a young lad, people acting like Donald Trump and avoiding taxes. I have promoted the idea from conservatives about having a value-added tax, so as to remove the amount of paper shuffling and tax accountant and lawyers in building businesses on number crunching and paper shuffling, while small businesses watch their profits eaten away by spending money on tax books.

I have observed, since a lad, many such people who work to accept only cash for business, in order to avoid paying the taxes. In effect, I side with them on their disdain for such taxes, but they act like I am an enemy because: (1) I won’t lie and cheat and (2) I don’t break the law by not paying such taxes. I speak out against such taxes, but I provide suggestions and plans for reform, not destruction of taxes. I try my best to pay taxes by hiring an accounting firm to do my taxes.

So, my question is this. Why do so damn many people who don’t like to pay taxes in this manner (guided by a convoluted tax code in a tome), as opposed to the front page of the New York Times publishing the first tax code in the early part of the 20th Century? Why has America gotten to such a point that we figure we need to lie, cheat, and break the law, rather than fix these things, and then scoff at someone like me (or many others) who provides suggestions for reform, rather than destruction? Why have we come to this state of affairs with upper class and lower classes fighting and pitting one against the other by trying to shove more taxes off on the other class? Fighting within America.

Then the lousy Republican legislatures in many states don’t pay attention to these issues, but work to gerrymander for their own benefit, create one-party states like that of Putin of Russia (a former communist and KGB officer) try to repress the means of voting and use a stupid Supreme Court which comes to the rescue of these SOBs? These lousy people are misguided dolts bent on destruction of America and dividing us between upper and lower classes and between the races. Destroy, like a bunch of gladiators in a Giuliani-favored Roman arena.

With all the financial things which have happened to me since Reagan’s time, I have had to work hard to pull myself up by the bootstraps. Yet, no one has any ounce of consolation for me. I guess I don’t expect such. But I do expect to be respected, not scoffed, at what I attempt to do in the name of reform, not destruction. Even John Lennon, whom some lie about who or what he was, has words in a song about “revolution” which states that “if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you can count me out.” Yet, a woman who owned a small business and did not like parts of Obamacare which impacted HER only, could not give one damn about what I have had to experience and overcome it all without looking to a lousy man and his Republicans, named Donald Trump. She felt she had to and wanted Obamacare destroyed, not reformed so as to improve some of what bothered her in her business. I understand her concerns. Does she or others even try to make an attempt to understand me with my observations and experiences over many years? I doubt it.

In America, there was a cartoon character called Underdog. America was once more about helping the underdog. To me, it was not just help by giving out handouts (which also include handouts in something called corporate welfare), but by working to help the “underdog.” All of that idea about working for ALL people at the grassroots – the “underdogs” of America – has been tossed away and forgotten. Instead, we listen to the drivel generated by individualist love of money thinking which has always been here, but emboldened by people such as Ayn Rand, J.P. Morgan, Donald Trump, and others. It’s time we drove such people out of power and get rid of the notions that conservatism is nothing but white superiority. Nothing else but that notion gets attention and this can be seen by one-party Republican states and now six dolts on the U.S. Supreme Court. They say follow the money. So who paid off those six justices to give a decision which favors the suppression of voting rights? Who has paid off the Republican jerks in those one-party states to suppress voting rights and not consider any other measures which are necessary for this nation to survive as a democracy?

On this July 4th holiday weekend, I say that I love America for what it has done for me over the ages to bring me life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But my love for this nation and its democracy are why I am embarrassed by the bulls**t coming from Trumpicans and the white supremacists with their superiority complexes and feeling so guilty by what I might say they proclaim damn paranoid feelings about a “witch hunt.” Go to hell, Trumpicans and shut your mouths, for you do nothing to help guide this nation by helping the underdogs or ALL the people – WE THE PEOPLE who love this nation and what it has given us, in spite of imperfections, since July 4, 1776. I appreciate so many who came before me in this nation and I can trace many of my ancestors back to 1776 and more than a century before that, on the soil which became the USA.

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Scoffing & Casting Aspersions?

July 1, 2021

People who scoff at me for what I write are likely feeling guilty at what I say. They scoff and cast aspersions. Otherwise, they would reply with discussion and thought.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

June 30, 2021

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

June 29, 2021

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Who Am I?

June 28, 2021

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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McConnell: Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

June 24, 2021

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

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

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

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