Tioga Herald

Fox News = Fox PAC.  Fox News = Fox Propaganda.

The word, “News,” should not be part of the Fox thing.

I truly wish someone would either shut that organization down or else force it to name itself what it is:  Propaganda Hitler / Mussolini Style.

It is irritating to go into doctors, dentists, and businesses and hear Fox PAC blaring it’s loud mouth.  If I want news, I would want CNN on the tube.  Or some organization which is giving me up-to-date events around the world.  I don’t wish to hear the hateful putrid fish emanating from one topic being beaten to death – discussed according to the Republican way.  I wish to make up my own mind on world events.  Just give me the facts.

Why do offices and businesses figure people like to hear the horse s*** emanating from Fox Propaganda?  WHY?  How many times have I asked people in charge of those stores or offices to put something neutral on the tube?  How many times do we have to become angry and let these stupid ignorant ones know that we prefer the news of CNN (not Talk CNN, either) or something more pleasant such as a music station.  Even if I don’t like CMT, I would rather hear CMT than Fox PAC.  Or to hear the music of VH1 – music a bit more neutral. 

One doctor has CNN Health News being piped in.  OK.  That’s fine.  Tips for my health, not politics. 

Screw these businesses and doctors who subject us to the politics of Fox.  Screw them all.  Someone shut down Fox until it broadcasts true news or else changes it’s name to reflect what it really is.  It is NOT NEWS!

It’s easy to be a dictator.  It’s easy to be a feudal landowning corporate head – and autocratic leader.  It’s easy to be a plantation owner.  Snap your fingers and it gets down.  Otherwise, “off with the head.”  Mass genocide by Hitler and Stalin.  Republican president Herbert Hoover calling upon Douglas MacArthur to shoot on American men, women, children.  Republican president Nixon with his National Guard shooting upon college students.  It’s easy.  No sooner commanded, then it’s done.

Lee Iacocca, in his books, outlines the skills of leadership.  He is not the only one.  It takes skills to get the job done by working with people, rather than merely snapping a finger, then placing those who do not follow commands out on the street.  Iacocca’s latest book (2007), Where Have All the Leaders Gone? is a reminder about the inadequacy of today’s leaders.  Oh, Mr. Iacocca had to deal with unions, too.  And he has some things to say about how unions have come up lacking.  But his main concern is the inability of today’s leaders to deal with unions. 

Today’s leaders prefer to take the easy way – the lazy way – out:  get rid of them.  Today’s leaders are lazy cowards who lack the skills to be able to lead effectively – while they work corporate short-term goals to their benefit – rip off the companies.  Today’s American leaders are the highest paid in the world, but condemn the American workforce for being the highest paid.

Wake up American Middle Class to the ways of the lazy cowardly leaders today.  These so-called leaders have no pride in their nation and they are lazy bums.  They are cowards (have I said that before?), unwilling to face a competitive market place, while screaming at the American people about the need for a competitive market place.  They prefer the lazy man’s approach:  create monopolies which control prices and labor.  In this way, they can live a lazy life with few concerns – garnering huge sums of money in the process.  Wake up, America, to the lazy cowards in the corporate board rooms… to the lazy cowards who head up Fox News in order to control your minds… to the lazy cowards – Dick Armey, Mel Martinez, and others who control banks and the minds of the tea sippers.  Wake up, America.

Rep. Tom Rooney is working to bring jobs to Palm Beach County (see The Palm Beach Post website).  It is certainly a great thing to have more jobs at Pratt & Whitney.  Why are the only jobs those for “bombs bursting in air” while Republicans destroy any prospects for jobs helping us to see “America the Beautiful?”  President Obama proposes a high-speed rail system and the Republicans, in the name of a warrior nation, obstruct the development of ideas for “America the Beautiful.”  

Palm Beach County could benefit from a high-speed rail system, too.   Jobs could be  a benefit from such a system.  In addition, Palm Beach County was recently ranked as one of the worst metropolitan areas.  I have not seen the reasons, but certainly the dismally poor public transit system plays a role in the ranking.  Palm Beach County is an expensive place to live.  When gasoline prices rise, it makes it more intolerable.  Public transit can help.  But Rick Scott nixes high-speed rail and Dinnerstein obstructs public transit.  Yet, public transit could be an alternative when auto transportation becomes too expensive – that’s capitalism to provide choices.  But the Republicans nix capitalist choices.  

The other side of public transportation is the ability to make America energy independent.  Obviously, the Republicans wish to continue a warrior state which would prefer to fight to continue oil pipelines from the Middle East than to encourage energy independence.  

Screw the Republican patriots and the tea party goons.  It is more patriotic to desire “America the Beautiful” than “bombs bursting in air.”  I should not be ostracized or demonized in this free society, but alas that may happen to me anyway.  When will we begin to “heil GOP and the warrior class?”  Perhaps we are already expected to do so and I am one who chooses not to do so – or else my financial freedom will be removed – in the name of some other false agenda.  After all, I refuse the “offer I can’t refuse.”  (i.e., Don Corleone in The Godfather).  

I am not a Roman warrior.  I am an American and proud to be one.  But I resist the goons of perpetual war which impoverishes the land I love and the people I love.  

For the past 10 years, polls have shown the Danes to be the happiest people on earth.  They don’t go around the world as warriors telling others what to do.  They have great public transportation (monorails), healthcare and top-notch education for everyone, and the lowest business startup costs in the world. They also don’t just let anyone into the nation to leech off the money the Danes have invested for themselves.

What do we have to be proud?  “Bombs bursting in air” and monopolies which destroy small businesses, create huge business startup costs for Americans, and intervene (insurance monopolies) between doctors and patients – thus causing the highest healthcare costs of all developed nations.  

There is a warrior mentality because we fear the loss of an entrance to a port where oil is transported, rather than using Yankee ingenuity to develop energy alternatives to compete (remember – capitalism – free markets – and all that!) with the filthy rich jerks in the Middle East, thus making us vulnerable by NOT maintaining our infrastructure (while we build one in Afghanistan for a people who will NOT appreciate our efforts in the end).

Don’t tell me to go live in Denmark.  This is MY land, too.  People like me should all have a larger say in our supposed democratic government.  But we don’t – in the name of hierarchical top-down autocrats telling us, through propaganda which creates mob rule (via Fox News and Rupert Murdock and company), what should make us happy.  

We want “…life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  The economy and the wealthy who are deliberately stockpiling money (deliberately stalling the economy) rather than investing in America remove these from millions of Americans – and then search for scapegoats to cover over  the Watergate-like lies.  Fascist pigs.

We want “liberty and justice for all,” not just for those with the most money.  Otherwise it is a farce to repeat, in public, such words.  Those words become a mockery of the land  we love and those who built it, fought for it in the past, and died for it.     

We want “America the Beautiful!”  Congratulations, Mr. Rooney!

The Wisconsin Republican fascist power grab.

People in Wisconsin who are smarting from losing private sector union jobs deserve our empathy.  However, to now condemn the union benefit which maintained their lifestyle for so many years is playing into the hands of the wealthy people who run Fox News and are intensifying their money to back people like Walker (i.e., the Koch brothers), governor of Wisconsin. 

This episode in Wisconsin is the product of a bunch of cowardly fascists unwilling to learn how to lead a union labor force.  Period.  America wake up!

Think about this.  These greedy wealthy SOBs are able to control  manufacturing union jobs by shipping jobs overseas. Now some of these people who have lost their jobs are going to blame the unions when these wealthy cowards are NOT able to ship public service jobs overseas?  Give me a break.  The money is available.  The wealthy are using these strategies as control freaks to grab power in the USA.  These cowards have been using such strategies since Reagan grabbed power from Jimmy Carter in 1980 in the midst of uninformed voters who were easily swayed by the money of Big Oil and Big Nuclear.

Think about something else – and read a book by a former automobile executive – Lee Iacocca.  While he mentions the problems brought on by unions, he also places the blame on both sides of the table – management AND unions.  His 2007 book, Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, clearly explains the situation today  – cowards masquerading as “leaders” and they wish to take the easy way out of things, rather than learning how to lead effectively. 

I don’t dispute the past atrocities by SOME unions.  But you people who support Walker seem to forget the past atrocities of corporate leaders, especially before unions.  Americans have short memories and forget that it was GOVERNMENT by REPUBLICAN Herbert Hoover and his troops which FIRED on veterans returning from World War I.  Americans have short memories in forgetting it was a REPUBLICAN president in charge when troops fired on students at Kent State U. And some wonder why public employees need a union?  When cowardly despots like Walker are in charge, unions are needed all the more.

Check it out, people.  Public service employees are not draining the budgets.  But look at the makeup of your politicians today and see mostly lawyers – the ONLY ones with enough money to serve in legislatures.  Ever figure out how much lawyers make when compared to the public sector employees?  Why are the public sector employees being scapegoated by Beck, Limbaugh, the Koch brothers and others?  The answer:  Leadership cowards who want the easy life that a feudal corporate landscape in America will give them.

In Florida, the budget deficit could be made up by creating an environment of equality among corporate competitors.  Amazon has put out of business all the small book sellers in the state.  The small book sellers are required to collect taxes.  Amazon is not.  If all companies doing business, whether on the Internet or not, were taxes in Florida – a LEVEL FREE MARKET CAPITALIST MARKET THAT SHOULD EXIST – there would be no budget shortfall.  If you think we don’t have leaders deliberately creating this situation, you better think again.

Wake UP, America! Start investigating truly what is happening here, rather than speaking your emotions only.  Walker of Wisconsin and Scott of Floriida are cowards unwilling to face the other side of a bargaining table.  Period.  The same thing goes for fascist money pig, Donald Trump and the Koch brothers.  Wake up, America, before it is too late.

The survey that accompanied these New York Times articles is bogus when considering the number of people on the negative side of unions who likely never check out the facts and receive a daily flow of news and information – propaganda of the fascists – from Fox News.  The sound bytes are easy to digest, but are lacking any dimension to learn what is truly happening here.  As I say this, the pro union people outnumber the negative.  But such surveys are not scientifically based, no matter which side wins.  A true scientific poll would also measure where each side gets their information.

Finally, I tried to post my comment on Paul Krugman’s page, but it appears comments are no longer being accepted.  Here is Krugman’s link:  “Wisconsin Power Play,” NY Times, 20 Feb. 2011.

I am reading Randy Pausch’s book, The Last Lecture.  It has made me laugh, cry, and provided many opportunities to think about my own experiences and those of others.  The chapter, “Be the First Penguin” is about learning from failure.  He says, “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you wanted.”  True.

Randy Pausch’s life was wrapped up in computer science and virtual reality.  With that in mind, I think about several years ago when I was teaching a course about the Internet.  We did some exercises demonstrating one big item holding up many items is more likely to cause a crash of everything than when several groups were holding up several groups of items, one crashes and all the others remain intact.  The reason for this exercise was to demonstrate the creation of the Internet.  The Internet was deliberately constructed as a de-centralized network.  In this way, the creators reasoned, if one part of the Internet failed, the entire network would not be vulnerable. 

Yet, I think about Pausch’s idea of rewarding failure and what comes to mind is the banking and finance system created as a centralized system.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce rewards politicians today who are willing to prop up centralized monopolies in business today.  Then, I think about the banking crisis of 2008.  Both Bush and Obama were forced into propping up failing banks because, as we were told, “they are so big that a failure would have ripple effects across the economy.” 

Too big to fail!  In my mind, I wonder if failure is being taken to extremes.  “Become a CEO of a huge bank and you can do anything you wish to do – even fail – and nothing will be done about it.” 

The “father” of capitalism, Adam Smith, had some things to say about speculation – the kind the big banks and financial companies encouraged.  What did they have to lose?  After all, they knew they were too big for anyone to do anything, so fail, fail, fail.  Did these guys care that millions of people would be adversely impacted?  No.

The Internet was created as a de-centralized network because people actually thought it would be good to protect the assets involved in the system and to protect millions of people – in case of failure.  In this case, the creators of the Internet prepared for the event of failure.  In the same manner, when we teach our little child to walk, we remove the obstacles which might hurt them when they fall.  We prepare for failure by placing the child in an area which is more protected and away from sharp edges of furniture, etc.  The Bush administration, in the name of non-regulation, refused to prepare us for failure of the financial systems in the USA.  Millions of people are being hurt in the aftermath.  Oh, times may have been good while Bush was in power, but the hand-writing was on the wall and he refused to read it.  Obama took over and was fearful of the monstrosity of centralized banking allowed to exist – by his predecessor.

The opposite of love is complacency, not hatred.  That’s all I will say.

All of us in the Middle Class are in for the ride of our lives.  It’s easier for our lawyer/politicians who control our government to continue with the same old income tax and the credits given to the lower classes rather than scrap the system and start again.  The Middle Class would benefit from such a move, but it would be tougher for the lower classes.  So to remedy this situation, the wealthy with their allies in the lawyer class (the 21st Century Sanhedrin).  It’s easier to create two classes – wealthy and poor.  It’s easier for the wealthy class of new money – a bunch of control freaks who care less about society – to control people.  Thus, we see the wealthy classes funding mob rule with those who work hard in this nation taking pot shots at one another.  After all, “…divided we fall.” 

Those who belong to the tea party think somehow this will be an advantage.  The only advantage might be special priviledges given to the Bolsheviks and the Reds in the Soviet Union once power was consolidated.  It has nothing to do with ideology. 

The other day, a man with whom I discussed the Food Network and Cooking Channel implied I was lucky to have this because he did not have cable television.  I was too busy to discuss the matter.  However, this is my thought about this supposed jealousy of me – a teacher.  (The other man was not a teacher). 

Throughout my life, I have found times when our family was not able to purchase cable television.  We would cancel it.  On a teacher’s salary (which some may be thinking in a jealous mode due to the mob rule created by the greed of the new wealth and their Sanhedrin allies), I have had to do what every other Middle Class person has to do:  evaluate income over expenses.  There are many Middle Class people who have never had to cancel cable television.  I have had to do so many times – and have found other ways to live my life.  Are those people who never have to cancel cable tv – are they  better off than I am?  Maybe.  Maybe not. 

However, my father taught me the value of “needs” and “wants.”  Growing up, there were many times we did not have cable television.  We survived.  It may have been embarassing when one of my classmates stopped by my home and complained, “Oh, you don’t have cable television and cannot watch the Monkees on television?  Gee!”  But we survived.  And the lessons I learned were good ones.

People who are willing to attack teachers and other public employees with their collective bargaining agreements are out of line and doing the will of the wealthy control freaks – the “new” money from the bratty snotty baby boomers who had everything growing up in the 1950s.  These people care more for materialism and technology than they do people.  But theyapparently are successfully creating mob rule which attacks people who are hard working and struggle just as much as anyone else does.  We don’t have any special things.  We struggle just as much.  Why should we be the brunt of the scapegoating created by the 21st century version of Hitler and his style of scapegoating – to falsely blame those who don’t deserve to be blamed for the economic woes of the day.  The problem is with the snotty new money which sits on its money, spends it overseas, endorses building roads in Afghanistan and Iraq, while denying “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” for Americans. 

What does this have to do with the man who seemed jealous because I could watch Cooking Channel and he could not?  People who speak this jealousy (and those who sit complacently by) should recognize what is going on.  Rupert Murdock, the foreign man with money and dictatorial powers (owner of The Wall Street Journal and Fox News) has been quoted as being delighted about the prospect which will create a cable television monopoly in charge and putting broadcast television out of business.  When I had no cable television, I could use signals off the air.  When I was not able to pay the ludicrous costs of cable television, I was able to have an alternative.  Americans, particularly those who support the tea party, really need to wake up and observe the damage this party is doing on hard-working Americans. 

Imagine when the only choice is “everyday low prices at Wal Mart.”  Wal Mart, where its employees are nickled and dimed.  Wal Mart, where there are never enough employees to be able to obtain assistance.  The next time you complain about not being as lucky as your neighbor who has cable television or the next time you believe the prices at Publix are too high, think again.  I have never had difficulty finding assistance at Publix.  I’d rather pay the higher price than to spend extra minutes attempting to find what I need.  If things cost too much at Publix, then I make a decision:  there are some things I will just have to go without.  And I do.  As I did when cable television became too costly for me to continue to purchase – at various times during my career as a teacher, both in New York and in Florida. 

Stop the jealousy and wake up, Americans.  Think about what it means if collective bargaining rights are sacrificed on the altar of the worshipers of greed and control freaks.  Think about the fact that teachers and public employees do not have the same treatment with regard to retirement money. 

You may think Florida DROP is terrible (in FRS), but is it really?  I worked in a corporation.  The corporation contributed towards my 401(K).  I knodw others who have accumulated huge amounts towards their retirements – under the 401(K) of corporations.  Under IRS rules, that does not happen with the 403(B) hwich is available to public employees.  There IS no money contributed into a 403(B) from the employer, as with the 401(K) in corporations.  When Florida public employees have an option for DROP, which Rick Scott wishes to eliminate and mob uninformed rule may help him accomplish, that is the ONLY altternative we have. Why should we be penalized?  The fact that 401(K)s and 403(B)s are rotten systems of retirement – that is another issue.  But before you join with the emotionalism of the tea party and their greedy control freaks, check out all the facts.  Check out all the situations.  Before you allow jealousy to drive you to mob rule and scapegoating the wrong people, think.  THINK!  Don’t just accept words of others, but look into the overall picture. 

And consider the huge amounts of money available to lawyers – the ones who have the money to sit in legislatures (teachers and others don’t have this luxury) and dictate laws to the rest of us.  Lawyers tally over $100 per hour and take huge sums when frivolous lawsuits are settled.  They then have the money to run for public office that the rest of us don’t have – and thus WE don’t have a voice.  The rest of us – we attack one another, looking for lawyers to settle our arguments as we dish out the money.  We also pay tremendously (and we don’t even realize it) each time frivolous lawsuits are settled which dole out huge sums of money.  

Finally, we also pay dearly for channels on cable television that we may not wish to view.  It’s comparable to going to a restaurant and paying for everything on the menu, but receiving only one dish to eat.  Ask a cable televsion operator to pay for only the parts you wish to view, like choosing from a menu at a restaurant.  They will laugh in your face.    The Republicans have many convinced that to regulate this industry is tantamount to communism.  I see the Republicans as a bunch of autocrats who endorse centrally controlled businesses – like a bunch of communists – and then blame it all on the government, especially when the government is in the hands of Democrats – the opposition in a supposed democratic form of government. 

Republicans and their “republic” (rather than a democracy) are muddying the water.  A “republic” is nothing more than an autocracy.  No matter how much propaganda Republicans force down our throats about our Founding Fathers, their original intentions, and their ostensible Christianity, the Republicans lie and deceive the American people. 

Wake up, America.  The Founding Fathers were, by and large, Deists, not Christians.  A representative democracy with voices from all walks of “land-owning white men” was the intent – from various professions.  Thank God we have expanded the scope with regard to race, sex, and ethnicity.  With this expansion of scope, we accept the good (Thurgood Marshall, Andrew Young, Hillary Clinton, and others) with the bad (Allen West, Clarence Thomas, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, and others).  However, it seems evil to have reduced our politicians to only those with money – and those with money tend to always be lawyers. 

The next time someone talks about how another Middle Class person is so much better off, then stop and consider how much of a voice any of us have these days – and whether jealousy is necessary or could damage us all.  I can guarantee that the solutions of a stubborn rigid agenda from Rick Scott, the tea party, and other Republicans, will not create a utopia.  Some who already have the world will win even more than what they now have while others will lose big time.  There is no perfect solution, despite the claims made by the inebriated tea sippers who probably should be dumped into Boston Harbor, rather than the tea itself.  On the other hand, there are many better solutions which will benefit more in our society than what the tea party offers.  We don’t need mob rule of a tea party which resembles the 20th Century Bolsheviks than they do the 18th Century Tea Party rebels.

I have plenty prepared to add to this posting today, but not enough time to proof and enter it. 

One thing I will say from the headlines today:  Rick Scott and all greedy leaders are ignorant and stupid when they think only about high costs as being the fault of the existence of human beings.  Scott wishes to slash social programs, yet does nothing to create jobs for those who have made it into life outside the womb.  Pro life does not end at birth.

“Blessed are the [moderate ones] for they catch hell from both sides.”  – from a Kathleen Parker op-ed several years ago which Ms. Parker attributed to a sign on a door in the U.S. Justice Dept., presumably following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Huffington Post reports that the House fascists have blocked funding for the FCCs Open Internet Order.  Fascists in the form of cable television conglomerates wish to create a situation similar to Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union by forcing propaganda down the throats of Americans. 

Fasicsts and communists are no different.  They are each just as mean and inhumane.

Right now, my bet is that I am being demonized for my posting earlier this week about Abraham Lincoln.  The demonizing is likely derived from both sides of the political spectrum.  Yet, the events are in the past and me nor anyone else are able to change what happened.  But the nice thing about a democracy is we are able to think about “what if…” scenarios and no harm is done. 

But to narrow-minded thinking patriots who wish to take pot shots at their fellow Americans, learning from history in order to make life better in the future is an attack against America.  I’ll tell you about an attack against America.  It happened on 9/11/2001.  And Bush never avenged that attack.  Instead, he avenged THREATS which had been made against his daddy by a Middle East dictator.  Coward Bush.  Unwilling to truly find and bring to justice the Saudi people who attacked our nation on 9/11.  That’s MY patriotism and I stand by it.  And if you wish to demonize me for it, then I feel sorry for your low-life attitude. 

Bringing this back to Abraham Lincoln and the fascism which has always existed in the Republican Party, albeit to a lesser extent in the 1960s and 1970s, I believe my statements about a “what if…” scenario regarding Abraham Lincoln are consistent with my feelings about Muslims attacking the USA on 9/11/2001.  My solutions are also consistent with the “what if…” scenario about the North leaving the South alone in the 1860s and slavery would have been abolished more quickly and perhaps we MAY not have had the Jim Crow Laws because the CSA would have had to face world condemnation.  But while Dixie was hidden within the USA, the world did nothing while Yankees turned and looked the other way.

For crying out loud, Abie Baby made statements about his intent to send all Blacks back to Africa!  How do you like that, Mr. Fascist Republican, Allen West? 

Recently, I have seen bumper stickers and t-shirts with the word, “Coexist.”  Yet, the other day, Fascist, Allen West, deplored the existence of “multi-culturalism.”  Where do you plan to ship all those who don’t fall in line with your fascism, Mr. Fascist West?  You dingbat. 

Fascism = there is only ONE way.  I continue to say Allen West is a jerk and I really do not understand the mind of anyone who voted for him.  Stupid jerks, every one of them.  Because they endorse a hateful and inflammatory man, I have no respect for hate and those who are hateful.  I also have little respect for the complacent and apathetic who sit by and watch as narrow-minded ignorant fascists take over our government.  All the time, these complacent ones say, “oh it’s the same old thing.”  It’s NOT the same old thing.

The men and women in our Armed Forces have fought hard to defend the freedoms America has today.  Fascists like Allen West can remove those freedoms very quickly.  Yet, it’s the “same old thing” or “I see no difference between the candidates.”  There was a helluva big difference between Allen West and Ron Klein.  BIG DIFFERENCE.  Those who don’t see the differences are lazy people who don’t get off their asses and research the differences and find out for themselves, rather than just accepting the drivel from Fox News or their own favorite channel.

Yet, when World War I was over, there was a crisis in housing for the returning GIs.  At the time, we had a Republican fascist administration in charge.  Prior to WWI, both Republicans and Democrats had granted veterans land patents on the frontier.  At the end of World War I, such land was no longer available.  Rather than acknowledge there was a problem, the Hoover fascists, which came to power with the help of the KKK (because Hoover’s opponent was a Roman Catholic – Al Smith), denied there was a problem.  When veterans and their families PEACEFULLY encamped in tent cities in Washington, DC, the Hoover fascists shot on the crowd with the U.S. Army.  The U.S. Army took aim at its own veterans because we had a leadership which acted in the same manner as alcoholics do (General Grant was an alcoholic yet somehow the North won) and DENIED THERE WAS A PROBLEM.  As with healthcare in America today, you cannot SOLVE a problem if you don’t acknowledge its existence.  Fascism.  Republicans. 

Coexist.  It appears to be a pipe dream.  I can coexist, but not without justice.  I don’t sacrifice my own beliefs, which do NOT coincide with Allen West and others, in order to coexist.  As with the WWI Army veterans, I am a peaceful man, but I do demand justice.  And forcing me into a lifestyle which I don’t agree is NOT justice. 

“…with liberty and justice for all.”  Where was Allen West when these words have been repeated?

“…pusuit of life, liberty, and happiness.”  In the 1960s and 1970s, I had “life, liberty, and happiness.”  Today, I have life, but I watch as Republican fascists attempt to remove my liberty and tell me what it means to be happy.  This I have watched as these events have happened in America since Ronald Reagan took power in 1981.  Ignorant jerks defining a life for me which may soon be void of liberty and happiness entirely.  That is why I speak up.  Because I am a patriot who PEACEFULLY rejects the fascism I see exemplified in West, Scott, Bachman, Coulter, Limbaugh, Palin, Bush family, Boehner, Beck, Hannity, O’Reilly, McConnell, Cantor, Camp, Rooney, Rubio, Toomey, Paul, Armey, Martinez, and a whole slew of other Americans who take pot shots at freedom-loving Americans when they don’t agree with the fascists.  All are cowards because they cannot tolerate competition from political solutions being offered and look upon the competition from ideas the same way Joseph Stalin, once a priest in training, did in the Soviet Union. 

At the beginning of the 1970s, I observed young men my age heading for Canada to escape the Vietnam horror.  I chose to stay.

Near the end of the 1970s, I had an opportunity to take a job in Canada.  I turned it down because the 1970s was a happy time for me in the USA.  For the first time in decades, the USA was at peace.  I did not wish to leave the nation of my birth because I loved this nation and was pleased with the Jimmy Carter administration, despite some misgivings about a few policies which I did not totally agree. 

However, my ideas about America are those of “America, the beautiful,” not “bombs bursting in air.”  However, I never rejected the National Anthem.  I never rejected this song which I thought was stupid in the fact it also worships a flag in the same way a golden calf was once worshiped – an act had condemned by Moses.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses go to an extreme by refusing to stand during the playing of the National Anthem.  They are not unpatriotic and, in fact, choose to do what they do without fanfare whenever possible.  Our Armed Forces died for this right.  I choose to stand, despite the fact I disagree with words like, “bombs bursting in air.”  I stand in the middle – the moderate… the middle man.  As I explain this, it is very likely I get condemned by self-proclaimed self-righteous Americans who define a narrow view of patriotism.  Also, as I say these things, I am condemned by Jehovah’s Witnesses for not taking a more firm stand – by not standing. 

Quite frankly, I don’t care if our “flag was still there,” I care whether our men and women were still there!  In fact, I knew a man who fought valiantly against Hitler’s forces in World War II.  When HItler finally capitulated, this man was part of the invading forces in Germany.  When he did not have a flag to hoist, he took an old Nazi flag and other cloth and asked a local tailor to CREATE the American flag.  So, when the battle was over, HE and his MEN were there, but the flag was not.  Yankee ingenuity went to work.

My father was in the occupying forces of Japan at the end of World War II.  He described a situation where there was little or no fuel for their vehicles.  Yankee ingenuity stepped in.  My father describes the use of charcoal to run some of those engines.  Yet, today, how many people would say things like, “you can’t run a vehicle on anything but gasoline – just impossible.”  Yankee ingenuity.  And yes we COULD avoid war in the Middle East if we had done what Jimmy Carter wanted to do:  invoke Yankee ingenuity and create an energy independence here in this nation.  Ronald Reagan, a nuclear and oil supporter would have no part of Yankee ingenuity.  The “Great Insulter” who evidently had pleasure in labelling and “red baiting” his fellow actors and actresses, rejected the very Yankee ingenuity which once made this nation great. 

Now, we are fearful that ther might be some port or what ever in the Middle East which might fall into the wrong hands and we would be stuck.  I am not fearful of that because I know I supported people like Jimmy Carter and Al Gore and others who wanted to direct us down the path which BRIC nation, Brazil, has gone.  I am not fearful because I put more faith in Yankee ingenuity than I do “bombs bursting in air.”  We could become energy independent so there is no longer money flowing to those nations which hope to destroy our Western culture, diversity, and MULTI-CULTURALISM (traitors hide behind their condemnations of others). 

But alas, there are many examples of Yankee ingenuity being rejected.  I wonder if the “brass” had not been so quick to reject the invention of a Lesbian woman and scientists at Cal Tech, whether we could have ended World War II more quickly.  Another “what if…” scenario.  Hedy Lamar, an entertainer during the war years, worked with engineers to patent ideas about radar which she based on the old player piano.  They were rejected then, but the ideas were later picked up after the war and are responsible for the later development of secure military communications.  See the article at Inventors.org:   http://www.inventions.org/culture/female/lamarr.html … Also see the Smithsonian website article:  http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/ilives/womeninventors.html 

Yankee ingenuity.  Even men from Georgia and Tennessee saw the value of Yankee ingenuity.  But men from California and Texas rejected these ideas – and furthermore led the Republican Party down the tubes of fascism in order to support corporate conglomerates and Big Oil – and the War Machine. 

“Blessed are the peace makers [moderate ones, men and women of moderation, those promoting coexistence] for they catch hell from both sides.”  Thank you, Kathleen Parker for sharing this itsy bitsy quotation which speaks mountains.

Happy birthday, Patricia Routledge!

I wish I could see one of Ms. Routledge’s shows in Britain.  I wish I could see Ms. Routledge’s show in the USA or better yet, perhaps on the “telly!” 

Carol Burnett appeared with Julie Andrews.  It would be awesome to see Patricia Routledge and Carol Burnett together in a show.  Ms. Bucket meets the Mop Lady!

I hope the rumor about Patricia Routledge – that she has passed away – is not true!  After searching through news items on the web, I have not been able to confirm this rumor.

Have a happy 82nd birthday, Ms. Routledge, and many more!  You have given so many of us multitudes of laughs as “Hyacinth Bucket” (pronounced Bouquet).  After all those “fake” jobs at singing badly in order to impress “Emmett,” I would sure enjoy hearing Ms. Routledge at her best!

Rick Scott and conservative judge statement.

It’s not so much that Rick Scott appointed a conservative judge, but it’s about what he said in validating that a political ideology in determining justice is more important than fairness and equity.  Rick Scott essentially endorsed the idea that the scales “Lady Justice” holds be totally and unequivocally tipped to one side and off-balance.

The fact that other conservative justices disagree with Rick Scott demonstrates one thing:  Rick Scott is a fascist, not a conservative. So why don’t we get our words correct here and call Rick Scott what he is:  a FASCIST.

In my life since the 1980s, I have often been bullied, badgered, and attempts to RECRUIT by those who claim to be conservative.  I have never been bullied, badgered, or even RECRUITED by progressives or, as John Ashcroft falsely proclaimed is so prevalent in America –  recruited by gays.  Ashcroft is stupid and ignorant.  Because the bullying I have received is that of people forcing their ideas of following only one way of thinking… shoving this upon me and, in many cases, imposing fear and intimidation upon me to vote the way of the conservative fascist.  Again, this has happened numerous times since Ronald Reagan. 

The last time I voted my OWN conscience for a Republican for president was for Gerald Ford.  But people like Gerald Ford have been booted out of the Republican Party – by conservative fascists.  In 1984, fear and intimidation forced me to work for and vote for Ronald Reagan for president.  This was against my will.  But human forces at work around me made me believe my job and financial stability would be at risk if I did not vote for Ronald Reagan.  I voted for him.  My job and financial stability was eventually eroded anyway. 

Driving in a car pool to work at an upstate New York U.S. Air Force base, I was bullied by two guys much larger than I was (in my twenties), insisting I was crazy if I did not vote for Ronald Reagan in 1980. 

On The Palm Beach Post blog, in response to Scott’s appointing a conservative judge, one person commented that the conservatives are “in the majority” so therefore we should have conservative judges.  That sounds like the days when George H.W. Bush contended that the liberals controlled all the media.  Just about as contentious.  Funny, but in those days, I remember all the conservative columnists I had read in that “MEDIA” which George Bush was condemning.  But, no, conservatives are not in the majority.  It’s just that the Democrats are not putting up candidates which really challenge the differences, so many voters are staying away from the polls.  And I would contend, just as I voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984, there are many voters who are being bullied into voting for the “conservative” *(yet fascist) candidate.  They are having fear and intimidation thrust upon them and making their decisions based on such emotional forces. 

Certainly, we have free will.  But the forces of fear and intimidation are powerful, otherwise, Franklin D. Roosevelt would not have commented about such forces as he tried to rally Americans against the Nazis and FASCISTS of Europe.  The fascists believe that anything or anybody who does not fully agree with their way of thinking is a communist.  They think in terms of black and white and no moderation or no middle ground.  In fact, fascism is no different from the fascism imposed by the left wing which we call communism.  Both believe that we will live in a utopia if it were just that everyone thinks the same – as auomatons or robots or animals in a pack of greedy stinking dogs.  Hitler believed he could create a utopia – if just all those little ethnic people and gays would just get out of his way.  Stalin thought the same thing.  Yet, both were on the opposite sides of an ideological horse s***. 

I don’t embrace either ideology.  I find good solutions from those labelled, “conservative” and “liberal.”  I seek wisdom, not certainty.  I seek to discover how human beings failed in the past and use those failures to make life better in the future – for all, not just me.  I don’t dwell on the fact that men established certain notions in the past, so therefore they MUST be correct.  I seek traditions, not traditionalism.  Big difference.  I don’t dwell on how much I can force others NOT to live in sin free .  I don’t judge others and force my way of life upon them if they don’t live up to it.  I don’t believe in puritanical rules of sex.  Instead, I recognize none of us are perfect, so therefore I seek to practice by showing respect for others and attempting to live my life in peace.  But I don’t seek purity.  I am not perfect and I don’t expect others are perfect, either.

The root of all kinds of injurious things is greed.  Love of money, not money itself, is greed.  Adultery and fornication without respect for our fellow human beings emanates from greed and selfishness.   Solve the problem of greed – the greed of Rick Scott, for instance – and many other problems will be reduced.  I say, reduced, not eliminated, because our human frailties will NEVER allow us to fully eliminate problems, whether we use unjust puritanical hard-assed approaches or we recognize and do something about the root of the problem – greed. 

Ayn Rand and the “virtues” of selfishness is wrong for our American society.  Dead wrong.  Especially when this “philosophy” is in the hands of the power brokers who are in our face in our lives today.  Rick Scott is wrong for Florida, just as I once believed (and believe ever more today) that Ronald Reagan was wrong for America.  The difference is that Rick Scott is even more of an extreme fascist that Ronald Reagan was.