DeSantis – as President? Be Careful What you Wish for… Could be a Dystopian World?

If you voted for DeSantis of Florida for anything in the past, you “may” wish to re-visit your thought process. That is, unless you are of a certain demographical race and political party make-up….

As it has been noted by multiple news outlets and personalities out there, DeSantis is moving towards Fascist mode – requiring people that are different than him to like, follow and do everything that he wants them to do.

This is how Hitler started in his younger days after WW I – making noise and getting people riled up to follow him.

For Hitler, it was the Jewish people that he wanted gone. Hitler wanted a pure white race.

Is this what DeSantis is angling for in the long run, a possible long con…? An attempt at a pure white race, full of extreme Conservatives only? To rid the Florida LGBTQ community of all those who consider themselves as such? And possibly for the entire country if he somehow manages to gain the presidency down the road. Really!!!

First and foremost – RACE should NEVER play a part in anything – NO discrimination – NO hate crimes…! We should be engaging with, listening to and enjoying people for who they are, NOT based on the color of their skin, ethnicity or culture.

Then too, I am not gay or bi-sexual or trans or queer – but I am like many Americans out there who consider ALL LGBTQ individuals to be equal in ALL aspects. Why should one be afraid to accept anyone of the LGBTQ community (or ANYONE else) as equals?

Why, in the 21^st century are certain groups attempting to put a strangle hold on growth and diversity? Yet, we have various groups of neo-Nazis popping up, wanting a pure white race, with blacks, browns, yellow skinned people and do not forget the Jews and Gays gone… Is this fear? Fear that they cannot grow and compete in the ever-changing landscape of progressive life?

Why are some straight white conservative males attempting to mold others into something they want instead of what others themselves want? Again, “Fear”…? Do these individuals, instead of looking to the future and growing – do they really want to return to a backwards period in time where certain people held the power, while repressing those around them?

Why are we as progressive, open-minded liberals not banding together to stomp out these individuals who want to:

• Ban books because the books talk about history
  • Many of us grew up to be successful and who we are because most of us were able to read books that today appear controversial in the eyes of the vocal minority – To Kill a Mocking Bird, a book I read in Jr High was and is a great book
• White-wash, sorry – re-write history books to remove any talk of slavery and what happened since it happened
  • Yes, bad things happened in the past that is what History is made up of and please note that History cannot be erasedremember, the Japanese in a dark period of their history attempted to re-write history and remove the history of Nanjing, China’s horrific point in time when the Japanese Army invaded and did what they didthe Holocaust, what was done to the Jewish community since the early 1920’s and throughout WW II
  • and of course, the past killings and lynchings of Blacks because they were, well, Black and different – and I really hope that everyone understands that being different is a good thing – it promotes growth

DeSantis wants to tell people what to learn and what to adhere to… Him, a governor telling the school boards what should be taught in schools – really? DeSantis appears, while not stupid since he did go to Harvard, somewhat of an odd bird. Telling schools in Florida that teachers/professors that they cannot teach Black history to Blacks and anyone else who wants to learn about Black History.

Really?

Is Black History not worthy in his eyes? That White History is the only thing that should be taught, with a cherry on top? DeSantis seems to have forgotten (or is illiterate on this point) that a lot of things in our lives today were built on the backs of Blacks, Chinese and Mexicans.

Going to stop here, otherwise, this will turn into a very serious diatribe. The point is, if those of you out there continue to vote for DeSantis for political positions, remember – you will have brought the consequences upon yourselves in your state.

Voting for more repressive/suppressive laws and regulations ala DeSantis will drive your state into even more of a pariah state than it already is. (Trump…)

DeSantis’ moves and shenanigans will cause a brain drain out of Florida – talent, knowledge, growth will start to dissipate. What will be left in Florida besides rising sea levels; more people of that specific repressive demographic make-up – racial and political and religious…?

Who will want to live in that kind of atmosphere, let alone invest in Florida.

Think about it. Think very hard – this will require some good education (likely good, broad education gained out of state) in order to do some very serious extrapolation as to what the make-up of Florida will be in 5 – 10 (or yikes, in 20) years, socially and economically.

Wouldja’ wanna live or visit a state that is attempting to force people to be straight? To be highly Conservative? To be Religious? To frown upon Racial mixing or attempt to ban it, again as it was in America’s past. (Pssstt, Hey, there is nothing wrong with race mixing and it has been a thing for centuries and it is really showing up now as more and more happy folks of different races do the mixing?)

Think very, VERY hard as to who you want to continue leading Florida, let alone America. Do you want to grow old in a state or country where free will and growth are constricted…?  Or see your children’s children grow up with poisoned mind-sets that one race is superior to another and that there is a god (with non-believers being, gasp, Heretics) and that aspect will be shoved down their throats every single day and not to forget another big one – that men are and have always been superior to women (supposedly)…?

Is that the kind of future you see as you extrapolate into the future IF you follow and allow to lead you down a repressive road…?

Think twice about who you vote for….

Those who are very conservative and repressive (for sure that is how DeSantis is starting to come across) and who wants to limit growth and continue to feed homophobic fears…. If that is who you want, this is the beginning of a dystopian country/world…

Or those that embrace change and growth and diversity and open-mindedness and equality of and for all…

By the way, for those of you out there who ‘think’ you are of a pure white race, in today’s environment – you might want to have your DNA checked… You may be surprised of what your “actual” racial genetic make-up is comprised of.

And for those of you out there who CONTINUALLY try to yell where gays are concerned – look at your own circle, or yourselves for that matter. As it happens time and time again, some of your straight peers (or yourselves) end up outing themselves as being gay… Just do a search on how many loud mouth congressmen, senators who were against gays were themselves – Gay.

The Voices of Women – Meaningless? And the Erosion of Democracy…

Apologies to the length of this writing (this is TL;DR for some) but Trump, Kavanaugh, McConnell, Flake, Collins, Hatch, Graham, Manchin and injustice is making life, well, Topsy-turvy to be polite…

Well. It appears that the voices of women mean nothing where it is most important – in sexual assaults (and in every day life to be fair). Even if an event happened 30+ years ago, the voice and statements of a woman are still important.

As of today, Saturday – Oct 6, 2018, America has voted onto the Supreme Court an individual with more divisiveness; with a more controversial background than Clarence Thomas had.

I’m a guy and what women say IS important, always!

That is, until it is proven it is not true. But, where it is ambiguous and no concrete evidence can be found, many of us will side with the woman – not just give lip service and say ‘we believe her’ as certain members of Congress have done (so the congressional members can retain their positions of power in their home state/district). What a woman says can make a difference. In many of the sexual assaults it is primarily a crime not witnessed by others and that is why the victim does not come forth and the guy gets away with it. (Sometimes, sometimes, yes indeed – there are women who also commit sexual assaults, it is just not that many.) And Trump – making an outlandish tweet that young men should be scared is ridiculous. No young men should be assaulting women in the first place (that goes for older men as well).

In America, or rather parts of America – certain Americans have decided that a man with a blemished background and temperament can be put into a position of significant influence and power. Certain Americans have placed an individual with what appears to be a highly tainted past onto the highest court, a court which now will be looked at for every decision it makes for the next 30 years with a jaundiced eye.

All because an individual who was put into the White House due to many electoral college members deciding that this person was the best choice for America in 2016. Trump.

If this Supreme Court vote turned your stomach, you had best “get your butt off the couch and go vote” in the NEXT SEVERAL voting turnouts, for the next couple of decades! The mid-terms, primaries, all of them. This will be the only way to restore some semblance of sanity to America.

Because if you do not, we, America, will be doomed and damned!  Are you one of the people looking to return to the ‘Dark Days’ of yesterday when only the males of one race had the power to lord over everyone else of a different color and all women? Do you really want to return to the days of suppression and repression…?

More and more pieces of democracy (not talking about the democratic party here, just democracy) will be chipped away as they are being done today. More “socialist” programs will be lost for years, if not decades until we can return to the path of growth and equality that we were on until Trump was put into the White House. And what I mean by socialist programs are:

• fire departments (think you don’t need this socialist program when your home catches fire)
• libraries (not everyone has high speed internet or even computers at home)
• police departments (what happens when your local police department is gone and you need law enforcement)
• schools (everyone needs to seriously consider removing Betsy D. from the dept of education…)
• hospitals
• social security (what are you going to do when you are older and have no money to rely on)
• should I go on….?

Socialist programs, today, in 2018, are meant to help everyone, not just the poor and downtrodden – the programs are meant to make the lives of everyone easier,  better and safer.

This is how Hitler grew into power. Think about that – think long and hard – do your ‘own’ thinking. Over several years, Hitler and the people around him whittled away at more and more programs until they gained power – a vise grip on EVERYTHING! (There are some who say this erosion actually started right before Hitler came into the picture – but we all know for fact, Hitler destroyed democracy in Germany.) And what was the result of that, guess! Extermination of massive numbers of the Jewish race, in multiple countries (Poland, Germany, France, Austria and more). The Holocaust was the ultimate disgrace to democracy. Things started out small in Germany and many of the Germanic race were happy and fine that Hitler was looking out for them. Hitler was going to “Make Germany Great Again!” But then when it was too late to do anything, such as removing Hitler, Himmler, Goering and others of the SS and the Nazi party – it was far, far too late.

Now, this is not saying Trump is a Nazi but – he is providing a helping hand in the destruction of the American way of life and all of its democracies. Trump has enabled the worse of the worst to come forth (recall the nighttime ‘Tiki Torch’ parade). Trump has unleashed the hounds of hell, to put it mildly, to come out of the wood-works and raise pure hell. Look at:

• early February 2017 where the House and Senate voted to repeal the so-called “stream protection rule”- Coal companies now have a freer hand in dumping mining pollutants into streams
• the white nationalist rally incident in Charlottesville, VA where Heather Heyer was killed
• Chris Collins and his insider trading on the lawn of the White House – how brazen was that?
• Many of the cabinet members Trump installed and the self-aggrandizement these individuals did while in power – sound-proof phone booth in his office (guess who that was);
• Expensive furniture, what was it, ~$31,000 for his office – you know who this was, the man qualified to run HUD because he grew up in the projects (I grew up in the projects too)…
• Zinke of the Interior Department and his sell off of federal lands
• The black protestor who was sucker-punched by a white man in the stands at a Trump rally in Fayetteville (and trump said he would pay the legal fees for the puncher)
• we could go on and on with this list…

The point is, if Americans do not come to their senses and stop this extreme political partisanship, we will continue going down the rabbit hole of more:

• hate crimes – racially & religiously motivated
• individuals like Michael Gerard Grimm, former congressman & former FBI, who threatened to throw a reporter off the balcony – a reporter who was doing his job (after his prison term for that, Grimm had the audacity to try running again for public office)
• corruption – how can people follow the law when the law makers and peace keepers are the ones causing this corruption and excess to continue – so they can feel powerful and make money in many cases for doing so
• erosion of public lands for corporate revenue – oil exploitation, so that oil companies can continue to make large pools of revenue before the clean energy wave really kicks in and fossil fuel use will be a money pit
• inequalities – women and racial – women and those of different skin colors doing the same job as men of a certain color “SHOULD BE PAID EQUALLY” for doing the same job
• anti-discrimination against new immigrants to America – and we all know this is how America started
• to name a few….

What do we need to do people? You all have to use your head and think!!!!

You have to perform research and think and talk about your actions before you do them! You cannot just listen to unqualified individuals who spout hate and conspiracy theories. You must do your own thinking, it is what makes you “you”!

So, what are you thinking? Are you thinking things in the political environment are going in the right direction?

Are you thinking Trump is making America great – when he raises tariffs, the ultimate cost is on you, the American citizen because you will be the one paying more for the products with the tariffs. 

Do you think the tax cut he instituted was wonderful? Well – continue thinking about that when your local services (any or all of them) are cut or eliminated due to your city budget does not have enough revenue – ‘because of that tax cut’.

What about clean air and clean water? Think your kids are going to be able to run around as you did years ago but now the air and water are more polluted (remember, the coal mine dumping above and the Trump administrations’ attempt to relax car emissions letting car makers off the hook…)

Use your brains. Think about the future. You cannot just think about yourself because you do not like gays or dark skinned people. You cannot say “hey, my religion is the foremost important thing in the world” when other people believe in a different religion. Do not make a mistake, as an American and a global citizen – I. DO. NOT. WANT Sharia Law anywhere near America.

Ultimately, what is being stated here is that Americans need to be better.

• Give women their voices – it is hard enough to come forward publicly as it is
• Think about unity, amongst all Americans (i.e. why do we still have Sundown towns in parts of America? Why do we still have so many skinhead/white nationalist/white supremacist groups around the country?)
  

Because America has to come together again and be a “United States” and grow stronger and be better as a country for itself. As well as in the face of rising problems with:

• Russia’s Putin doing the meddling he is doing globally and
• China doing what they are doing – attempting to force people / countries to kowtow to them; giving China hemispheric power to do what they wish, such as build man-made islands in the South China Seas and claim more of the region as belonging to them (we could discuss the Uighurs and the police state they are living under as well as the great firewall of China as well as internet and public censorship so the Chinese citizens have no voice and are unable to vote politicians out of power – these are big stories on their own…)

We are losing the luster of being a world leader because we do not have any serious diplomatic power. Who do we have that is a shining star in the world of diplomacy? Our ‘leader’ in the White House is not one who has great powers of diplomacy. He is continually causing America to devolve into a laughing stock of the world every time he utters a sentence or disseminates a tweet.

We are a country where it is now up to the states to institute clean air and clean water and equality for all. That is, those states with a forward looking mindset for the next 10 – 30 years…

 

 

Part 2 – Donald Trump: Taking America Backwards & Laughing Stock…. Very Sad

Continued from Part 1 @ https://patrick642nu.wordpress.com/2017/06/04/part-1-donald-trump-taking-america-backwards-laughing-stock-very-sad/

 

Medical Care – Universal Health Care[1]

For decades, there have been individuals who wanted to put something like Universal Health Care (UHC) into play, people such as; Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt (1901-1909), FDR (1935 & 1939), Harry S. Truman in 1949 as part of the Fair Deal to our last president (Obama). You can also check Wikipedia[2] if you wish but do your own reading and thoughtful introspection.

So, what’s the big deal about UHC, our future – that is what is at stake? At stake is a future of healthier individuals, across the country. It is a future where costs will actually be lower because early care will preclude major medical disasters later and there will be no monstrous medical bills to be picked up by the families involved and tax payers due to an escalation of emergency room visits…

My thoughts on what these past presidents and current UHC (or Affordable Care) leaders thinking is that we need to cover everyone to bring down emergency room visits; to bring down the costs of catastrophic medical situations so that down the road, we Americans, will not have such significant numbers of people across the country without coverage. We would have in the future, a greatly reduced number of Americans without serious medical problems because the medical problems would have been caught very early in life and prevented. And the problems would have been prevented at a significantly fraction of the cost, instead of letting it go festering on for decades, with each year seeing more of that families (and tax payers – think emergency rooms) money going down the drain when it could have been prevented due to long-term thinkers who have been trying to get UHC instilled into the American psyche.

Just imagine more people:

• With healthy looking teeth so they can go and gain better jobs instead of being automatically assigned as a person of low income and low intellect and passed over for someone else who simply looks better
• Walking around on healthy legs or prostheses instead of a stump and a crutch(es) or obsolete decrepit wheel chair
• With the ability to see rather than being blinded due to malnutrition or bad school lunch plans and more

Do you not believe UHC would better everyone? Okay, think about an event occurring where you lose your high paying job and you were the primary bread winner with a great insurance plan. Well, your plan is gone and you suddenly find yourself in a medical catastrophic situation and it is going to be hugely expensive. What are you going to do? Bemoan the fact that you have UHC at that point.

Grow up people, stop thinking about yourselves because you have a better life – think about others out there who are not as fortunate as you.

Wouldn’t you want to see:

• Every American in this country reaping the benefits of great health care 10 years from now? {That 10 year number is only an educated guess as to we could start seeing better health care efficacy…}
• A dramatic reduction of emergency room visits 10 years from now, while at the same time – a significant reduction of tax payers paying for so many unnecessary ER visits?
• No more prohibitively expensive and labor sapping hospital visits 10 years from now because preventive UHC took care of problems before they exploded into the problems they are today?

We can do that!!!! But we have to agree to do this now, as a country. We cannot just provide UHC for the elite and better paid Americans and continue arguing and kicking this can down the road, EVERY SINGLE BLOODY YEAR as we are doing now!!!! We can change that paradigm!

 

Laughing Stock?

Back to the U.S. becoming the laughing stock country. Is that true, what do you think? Remember, do your own research and analysis; do not rely solely on news folks (TV or radio), or talk shows, or conspiracy theorists and only your inner circle – expand your horizons.

Why can’t the U.S. spend more money, evenly, on all levels of education to ratchet up the education and knowledge of American students? Why can’t the U.S. be like Canada, Great Britain and Germany[3]? Education goes a long way in making for a better citizenry… And we, the U.S., we need to do better if we want to be ‘the’ world leader – we need better education to get there. Check out a Pew article[4] for some info on where we stand.

 

What about international diplomacy? You too must think this is a laughing stock situation, right? Look at the current secretary of state, Tillerson – a person who does not grant interviews and press conferences. He wants to do mostly behind the scene affairs. Do you believe that is an open and transparent way to handle diplomacy, not sharing information with the country he represents?

Oh wait-a-minute that does not really matter. Our president and OMB person (Mick Mulvaney) want to cut the budget for State Department and USAID because we do not require or need this kind of effort around the world. Surely you believe this is laughable too… Right?

 

What about cleaner air, well, no? Apparently we not require or need this either. Our latest president and EPA head seem to believe their own knowledge on climate change and disregard what scientists who have been studying this for years. We should let companies dump waste in rivers and pollute the air, sure why not…? That is quite laughable, the president and EPA head that is, oh and include Bannon in that lot.

 

What about all the extraordinarily significant amount of time the U.S. is spending on the current president, his family, inner circle of administration officials and business cronies staying at Mar-a-Lago and at Trump Tower? Do you not believe this is laughable enough? Why yes, it is. The U.S. is spending far too much time on illicit activities, ummm – excuse me, alleged illicit activities. And we are spending far too much money on all of this as a result.

And the end result is that, most of the other hard stuff is not getting accomplished. Here are some of the things not getting done like; infrastructure (roads, bridges, dams, levees, power grid, water, etc.) across the country, all of which need attention. Then there is the tax reform; there is equality in the work place which needs more attention.

Take a look at the rampant, vitriolic, unvarnished display of outright racism being displayed across this once great nation. This is worse than when the last president was in office. And remember, that last president did not spew nonsense and idiotic content such as “knock ‘em out,” or “grab ‘em by the p_ _ _ y” or even using 7^th grade language for that matter – sometimes, just sometimes, using ‘plain spoken language’ can mean talking down to someone and insult that person’s intelligence….

What is going on? What is happening to this once great country? Why are so many people willing to condone this current president? Why condone someone who continues to willingly lie to the country, to the world – on multiple topics? And many people were (and are still) willing to continue listening to and believe in this individual even though what this current president promised will never happen again (think coal and massive manual manufacturing)…

More people in this country need to start thinking of each other, no matter their race, religion, age, gender, sexual preferences or what part of the country they live in. We are all here together, right now.  Look at each other, deeply look at each other and consider the travels and hardship they may have endured to get to where they are now (of course I’m talking about honest, hard work and legal efforts). And remember that no matter whom you see in front of you, or whether they live 2,500 miles away, that other person may be smarter than you and have better cognitive skills than you. These are people who are walking around right now – with or without:

• a college degree (that other person who ‘looks’ unintelligent may hold several degrees including a doctorate for all that you are aware)
• a family trust fund
• the best looks
• the best smile or
• the best speech abilities / speaking mannerisms.

So take note, that other person just may be a better person than you – rich or poor though they may be…

 

[1] “A Brief History: Universal Health Care Efforts in the US,” 1999, www.pnhp.org/facts/a-brief-history-universal-health-care-efforts-in-the-us

[2] “History of health care reform in the U.S.,” retrieved June 3, 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_health_care_reform_in_the_United_States

[3] “Best Countries for Education,” March 7, 2017, https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/best-education

[4] “U.S. students’ academic achievement still lags that of their peers in many other countries,” February 15, 2017, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math-science/

Part 1 – Donald Trump: Taking America Backwards & Laughing Stock…. Very Sad

Part 2 continues @ https://patrick642nu.wordpress.com/2017/06/12/part-2-donald-trump-taking-america-backwards-laughing-stock-very-sad/

 

To Be An American

Let’s be clear up front here. If you wish to live in America and/or become an American, you have to follow the laws, rules and regulations in place to ensure we are all adhering to a basic foundation of governance. (Meaning = you’re not doing anything illegal or trying to take advantage of the system.)

It does not matter if you are a green card immigrant living in New Jersey or Dearborn, MI. It does not matter if you are a Militia member in Montana or Utah. It does not matter if you are a Sovereign Citizen. Nor does it matter if you are a citizen in Houston.

What matters to all of us is – we all must follow the rules. No one can live in this country and dictate their own set of rules such as:

• “Well, we have been letting our cattle graze public lands without paying access fees, why should we start or continue to do so, it is public land.” Or,
• “We are not going to pay taxes to the government – we have our own currency and we have our own laws.” Or,
• “We have a right to bear arms, as they did in the early days of this country when there was no adequate military or police force to protect us.” Or,
• “We come to America to live, to live in a country of freedom and democracy but oh, by the way, we are going to continue following our own religious laws (i.e. ‘Sharia’ and ‘Honor Killings’) and we will not work too hard on assimilating into the American culture. By the way, we want you to respect our religious tenets and cultural laws.” Or,
• “Our town, yes, we are a Sundown town and we only want our kind, our race here, so, if you’re not our race and here after dark, you might want to think twice about staying the night.”

This cannot be the way of America. WE have to become the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and in doing so, we must come together. We are supposed to be a progressive country, not devolving into olden days, days of cowboys and Indians when people of any color as well as women were treated as second class citizens. Think about Native Americans, Chinese who were forced into doing manual labor on the railroads and elsewhere and yes, even malicious treatment of Jews and Poles and other immigrants who came to America.

Think about the course of history surrounding women denied equality (and we are still not there yet on this point).

When anyone moves to America to become a citizen and pledges allegiance to America, you are bound to accept and follow the American way of life and its culture. This is not to supplant the culture, customs and traditions you bring with you but in addition. One cannot move to a new country and impose your homeland’s laws, views and aspects onto those citizens of your newly adopted country. If one does not wish to accept the new country’s laws, views, culture, traditions and all the rest, well, maybe you should return to your own country.

 

Reverse mode – U.S.A.?

What is going on? Are we, the American people, really going to permit this evolution of “going backwards” to continue to pick up steam?

First, remember, this current U.S. administration was not elected by the American people.  The Electoral College, via whatever machination they employed, selected this current president, even though the overall number of votes was not for him.

Second, this paper is not aimed at any party in particular. It does not matter if you are liberal, conservative, independent, green party or libertarian, we are all in the same boat, floundering because of who was put in the White House.

Thirdly, this president has made the claim that he does not want foreign leaders and countries laughing at the U.S. Well, it is a tad late for that. We have become, well, on the straight and narrow in becoming the laughing stock of the world. Our fortunes are falling, from world leader to falling in line with Syria and Nicaragua (climate change).

 

What are you Watching & Listening to…?

Another significant thing to keep in mind, something I always ensure that everyone understands;

• “No, you do not have to believe me.”

The reason I say that particular phrase is because I want you, and everyone else, to do some of your own research. Reach out to different news outlets – “do not stay in your own comfort zone, listening to the same individuals or groups of individuals.” This is because it is a dooming cycle to remain in; you only hear the same content from the same people and you start becoming brain washed by listening to the same regurgitated content from the same types of sources. Do not take the following in a spate of anger but it is like being raised from birth in the church (any religion, pick one – from Catholicism to Wahhabism). All you hear is religion until you start acquiring more areas of knowledge and start doing your own concentrated thinking and determine your own line of reasoning as to what is what – B.C./A.D. or B.C.E/C.E.  

Watch and listen to other men and women on different news channels, network and cable; listen to different radio stations on FM, AM and satellite; watch or listen to news in local, national and foreign (to see how the American news comes across) news outlets; read different newspaper sources. The point is, listen to and watch different sources, do not get trapped in listening to only the folks around you or only your favorite news person – you simply must, absolutely must expand your horizon.

Then, do your own reasoning and thinking to make your own conclusions. You cannot just listen to someone, no matter how rich or famous (or how loud) they are, the onus is on you to make your own generalizations. You have to look down the road into the future to see what the possible consequences of your present decisions will engender. This is where the scenarios of; “if I make this choice, then this will happen” come into play. For non-computer folks, this is a primary programming aspect, the “if – then” statement.

You must remember, even if you believe you are the center of the universe, you have to consider what your decisions mean for jeopardizing the future of others. You must instill a better substitute to staring at your belly button; it is solely your fault in focusing in only on one source of news, such as Tweets that come out at 4am.

 

Leadership – Knowledge or Ulterior Motives…?

Here, let’s take a look at some of the individuals the current U.S. president wanted in office. Individuals that supposedly want to help the current president ‘make america great again.’

Scott Pruitt, here is a man that sued, or at least attempted to, the EPA multiple times as a businessman. Since taking over as the EPA Administrator, he has had the EPA web site scrubbed of all real scientific evidence relating to climate change or global warming. Does that sound like something a reasonably sound person of any decent level of intellect would do?

Betsy DeVos, a woman who wishes to bring charter schools to all states. This is a woman who made the unintelligent statement on HBCUs[1]. “DeVos said HBCUs “are living proof that when more options are provided to students, they are afforded greater access and greater quality”. “HBCUs are real pioneers when it comes to school choice,” the statement said.”

HBCUs were somewhat the only choices Blacks had to go to…

DeVos wants to help break down the national common core. This is a point that many people continue to contest, they believe it is too difficult and unachievable and that each state should have their own standard of education. Here is the problem. If the states maintained their own standards, we are going to go in reverse, again. Some states will have better standards of education while others will have very poor standards. Humor me, just imagine, if you are a parent and you were relocating for better opportunities – would you:

1. Go to a state that has poor standards and are near the bottom of the nation – i.e. these could be states in the mid-west and south or
2. States like California or New York with better standards where your children will have a much more guaranteed chance for success

Mull that over and see if you still want a willy-nilly set of mish-mash standards across the country,  or a common, tougher, standard…. If you move from a state with poor standards to a state with excellent standards, your children will suffer the educational cost of catching up, meaning they may be placed in remedial classes… Education is not necessarily meant to be easy, such as all 2nd graders getting a trophy for 1st place.

Tom Price, here is another person with less than excellent standards. He wants to be a key player in getting rid of Planned Parenthood, an entity that is instrumental in many families around the country, an entity that is not solely aimed at abortions. Do we want our country to return to unplanned pregnancies and back alley abortions of the 70s?  This is a person who made dubious gains in money in the stock market from insider trading, sorry, making money on various investments due to congressional bills he sponsored and voted on.

Mick Mulvaney, I do not know what to say here. Is this a real person and is he really qualified to head up the OMB? Look at what he is proposing in making budget cuts for the Affordable Care Act, he wants to cut out big chunks and state that it really will not affect those who are covered.

Ben Carson, – okay, this is a real winner. He himself said that he was qualified to head up HUD because he lived in the projects at one time. Hmmm, not sure how to take that statement? Good? Bad? What?

Steve Bannon, do we want Bannon to stay in the administration now that nearly everyone in the country knows what Breitbart is about and Bannon’s mindset while he was running the company (and likely still running that “news” outlet)? This is a mindset that is not fit for the majority of Americans.

I could go on with many, many more of trumps’ selections he put in place for our administration but I just do not have the time or patience right now…

 

Divisive Country, Yes! United, No!

We started seeing an uptick in negative relationships across the board when our last president (good old Barack) was elected. This was most likely because he is not white, which was/is a huge problem for many people across the 50 states (and we may have this issue when {not if} a women is elected). I did not include ‘united’ because we are not a truly united states.

Evil content, divisive content started pouring out. Militias grew in numbers, even the KKK {a.k.a. 88} started growing again and who truly wants to deal with something like the KKK in this point in our history. Now, look at all the evil hearted content that used to be dying down (or so we thought) and/or covert. The current president seemed to have opened the flood gates for racial hatred, ignorance and flat out bigotry to flow. We have much more public evilness on display in all areas of our lives now. People (white) walking up to parked cars, if the driver appears to be Muslim, and creating a scene full of diatribes. People (white) in grocery stores telling (or yelling and cursing) Muslim appearing people to get out of the U.S. and go home because there is no Muslim in the White House anymore… Recall the recent bus scene where two men were stabbed to death and another wounded because they were trying to step in and stop a guy who was clearly (allegedly) out of his mind in verbally accosting two Muslim young women.

We are back to blatant racism and it is no longer covert, it much more overt. The expansion of public racism, we can safely presume, right, sprang from the election campaign of Donald Trump. Take that infamous rally where Trump stated, “knock him out” where a person (a white guy) sucker punched a black guy in the stands – and Trump stated later for all to hear that he would cover any legal charges (yeah, right).

Trump’s outrageous manner of speech, his “plain spoken” talk and ill-mannered  behavior (remember grabbing women by their ‘p _ _ _ _ _ s’ – never, NEVER forget that one) allowed many other ill-mannered, poorly behaved, ignorant individuals around the country to come forth to talk and act as if that style of behavior was acceptable. It is not! Racism continues to roar its ugly head as it ratchets up in the public, overt hemisphere around the country. This is partly to blame on the current president in the white house and a sizeable number of individuals surrounding him.

 

State of Affairs…?

Well, our government wants to relax fuel and emission standards for auto manufacturers instead of being stricter in what vehicles pump into the air (I used to run in L.A. and got sicker and sicker every winter due to smog – I bought a Nordic Track runner instead of running outside and within a year I was healthy again). And gaining better mileage is what everyone who drives a car or truck wants but no, our government believes this is too arduous of a manufacturing goal and hurts profits. Let me help you digest that a bit – profits over health, think about it.

Allowing the dumping of waste into rivers – in what universe is this okay? Who desires possibly toxic waste to seep into ground water tables and spread laterally? Do you want some factories waste content in your water system – remember, when storms cause waste water facilities to overflow, that contaminated water is likely going to end up in a neighborhood near you – if not directly in yours…

Relaxation of emission standards for factories, this is the direction our government to help businesses in also. Let them pump out less clean waste into the atmosphere. Is this lunacy to anyone besides me?

Climate change, possible move to more coal usage and pollution – recall that there is no clean coal solution yet. And no, you cannot continue to blame countries like China. China is shutting down coal plants and stopping production of more coal plants (China is in its 3^rd year in a row of reduced coal consumption). Between 2015 when China was still going full bore on coal, the rise of pollution throughout the country has given the country pause to move away from coal to cleaner energy alternatives. Remember, do some research on your own.

 

We, America, by this point in time in history should have stamped out a massive chunk (yes, good word to use here) of racism and excised it from our ‘progressive’ path forward. But, we did not. Many people still believe that only one color matters and anyone else of a different tint or hue does not belong in America. Too bad these individuals have not gone out and had a DNA test done to see what their racial/genetic makeup is composed of. Take a look at a white cop[2] in Hastings, MI who did so and discovered he has Black blood in his genetic makeup (yes, he started being on the racist end of multiple comments and situations). Ancestry.com said he was 18% black. Hastings is 97 percent white… So, take a wild guess at how many KKK or Militia members have a genetic makeup much less than that Hitlerish (88) goal of being 100% pure, of any race. And you might be right… Unfortunately, it will be a long time before we discover that kind of info. But, we are too far on the path of evolution for that many people to be 100% pure blood.

Coming together ‘only’ for holidays like Memorial Day, the 4^th of July or in times of disaster should be shameful for everyone. The time to come together is all year long, every single day. We should have everyone’s back and to be there for them when a hurricane comes their way; or when a plumbing flood snafu occurs at home; or when a neighbors’ kid is bullied because that bullied kid is gay or autistic – these everyday events are when everyone must come together, not just on some event like Rolling Thunder crossing over Memorial Bridge.

Does the above not cause a glimmer or spark of outage in your brain cells in realizing (for those of you out there who are truly thinking this through) that we are becoming a laughing stock in the world? It is not due to the American citizenry, or rather, not the majority of Americans, but to the current leadership in place…

 

Enough for now, I will add more to this fall from grace saga where America is becoming a laughing stock due to our current president…

 

 

[1] Historically Black Colleges And Universities

[2] “White Michigan Cop Files Racism Lawsuit After Ancestry.Com Revealed He’s Part Black,” May 10, 2017, http://www.newsweek.com/white-cop-sues-michigan-city-racism-after-ancestrycom-revealed-hes-part-black-607004

UNITY! – Terrorism – Je Suis “Charlie” – Je Suis “The World”

 Je Suis “Charlie”  Je Suis “The World”

President Hollande said it right when he called for UNITY in the wake of the insane terrorist attacks in his country this past week. And yes, it is far beyond the time for people of the world to come together and stamp out terrorists and their terrorism attacks on a free democracy.

 

People of the world need to wake up and come together become more than just “Charlie.” People of the free living global population must rise up together and become “The World.”

It is that time.

 

We cannot let terrorists and their hare brained attempts of having a global caliphate through any or all of the various extremist Islamic groups:

• ISIS (or ISIL or IS)
• Al-Qaeda (or Al-Qaida)
• Abu Sayyaf
• Jemaah Islamiah
• Boko Haram
• Etc., etc., etc

People of the world must stand together and stamp out such extremist groups, groups that purport to want to bring purism to the world, by exterminating others who do not fit their standards. This is what entities such as the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) and Nazism (via Hitler) attempted to do – kill off blacks and Asians and Jews through mass genocide or to keep them as some type of cattle.

These last two groups were completely wrong in their efforts. The KKK wanted to have only a white world when there was and is a large number of whites that are of mixed race – but they do not know that. Hitler wanted to have a pure Aryan race even though at that time, there were a goodly number of mixed race Germans amongst his ranks of “pure bloods.”

 

Freedom means being free to express your viewpoints without the fear of hatred or retribution. Even if people should know better than to make fun of some image, religious figure, ideology, person group of people and so on – it does not give ANYONE the right to kill someone for making the fun of any of those groups.

Sure, these religious zealots may have been in ‘right’ back during the dark ages of ignorance and superstition 1,000, 2,000 or more millennia ago when people did not know better or were completely suppressed to the where they could not know better. There is no place in the world, among civilized people of the 21^st century where there is the right to kill someone for blaspheming (making fun of or going against) any religion.

Anyone should be able to make fun of some religious – if it is good natured fun that’s one thing, if it is education that is another thing, if it is stupidly obnoxious or evil that is another animal. IT STILL DOES NOT GIVE ANYONE THE RIGHT TO KILL SOMEONE FOR DOING SO!!!

Making fun could be making a point or it could be just simply ignorance – we all bear that price for a free society.

 

People of the world must stand together and stamp out these extremist groups. It means reporting these people or these groups who would cause bodily harm to others or physical damage to public/private structures. And reporting on other people you may know does take courage but it has to be done. No one can just turn a blind eye to others of their own faith, even if it is extreme, if the perpetrator of a future is going to cause physical harm.

Take the attempted firebombing of the NAACP building in Colorado, purportedly by some white guy. First he botched the attack but why did this individual want to firebomb the NAACP? Was it because they were of a different race? Because if it was because of the folks in the Colorado NAACP being black, well, this firebomber has a rude awakening – times have changed and he and others like him need to move on become more sophisticated as we move deeper into the 21^st century.

And this goes for people around the globe, this is a new time. This is not 1,000 BCE (or BC if you prefer) where superstition was rampant. It is not 1,000 CE (or AD) where ignorance and suppression were the law (so to speak) of the land.

 

This is 2015, we must all learn to live with each other and accept the other for the differences there are between you/us. The world is becoming smaller every day, the number of people on the planet keeps going up and living spaces are shrinking as more people move to cities. Religious groups must adapt and learn that their religion is not the only religion or the best religion – there are many but none of them gives anyone the right to kill in the name of religion as the Christian Crusades wrongly did (to name one set of extremes) for so many years, multiple times.

 

Freedom means that women can have equality in pay for work; or that women can drive a car, unchaperoned in the mid-East. Freedom means that girls and boys can go to school to gain an education rather than girls being banned from learning and boys only attending mind and soul sapping madrassas. Freedom means that if you are of one race or religion, you can freely marry someone of a different race or religion without the fear of being stoned to death.

Freedom means just that, being free to do what you, as an individual wants to do – not because some religious faction or extremely conservative religious organization tells you what to do.

 

We have freedom of choice; we need to spread it around the world. The world must stand together and stamp out these wildly extreme terrorist groups like Boko Haram. If a country like Nigeria cannot stop the spread and terroristic killings committed by Boko Haram, then the world must step in and help. For example, the African Union and neighboring countries must band together to stop this insidious spread of fanaticism and wholesale murder. Other countries should be willing and wanting to step in and stand with a country such as Nigeria to curtail and stamp out Boko Haram, especially as Boko Haram attempts to compete with ISIS for world attention.

If we do not stand together and stamp out these terrorist groups, they will continue to sprawl out, gaining more converts and continue killing.

WE – MUST – STAND – TOGETHER – NOW!!!!

 

Putin = Hitler… Is Appeasement Next?

 

Okay, Putin. Is anyone else out there equating Putin to Hitler yet?

The reason for the question is, is that he is acting like Hitler did back in the ‘30s. Putin seems to be making a pretense at or game of diplomacy, much like Hitler did. Saying one thing but in actuality doing another such as, talking about not invading Czechoslovakia but in March 1939 Hitler moves his forces into Czechoslovakia…

Putin is doing nearly the same thing. Putin: “No, no, there are no Russian troops and equipment in Ukraine or near the border.”

It is highly surprising that Medvedev, Russian Prime Minister, is not being vocal against this invasive move. Unless that is, Medvedev is attempting to save his own skin? Because we know what happens to people with large voices speak up against anything Russian – i.e. two individuals who died from Polonium-210, former KGB/FSB and then journalist Alexander Litvinenko (Nov 2006) and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya (Oct 2006)… 

The rest of the Western, Asian AND developing world needs to wake up and come together in stopping a country from doing what Putin is doing – invading another country for territory, allegedly to help protect Russian citizens in eastern Ukraine. Land grab is not the way to grow in the 21^st century.

Remember, Ukraine is a sovereign country and the rebel separatists in eastern Ukraine ARE in Ukraine… These same rebels were content to be proud Ukrainians when there was a Russian leaning Ukrainian President. Next, the majority of the Ukrainian people voted to become part of the E.U. And remember, the Ukrainian government was and is not out to harm innocent law-abiding Russians living in eastern Ukraine. No one was being harmed until the rebel separatists starting protesting and shooting government forces.

Sooo, how does this justify a leader of one country forcefully (military and financial support) interfering with another country’s political affairs?

 

When I indicated other countries, Western and Asian, should rise up to stop this type of advancement, I was specifically not including China. China has no interest in being party to a land grab or invasion by another country, especially when it does not affect them. At least they are not showing anything either way, for or against. China appears to be standoffish and isolationist, much as America was during the early part of The Great War.

Japan, S. Korea, India, countries of Southeast Asia, mid-eastern countries and Scandinavian countries – all of these countries need to join in on sanctions against Russia. Sanctions could include items such as; denying overflights out of Russia over their country, sanctions against Russian products, financial sanctions, etc. 

Now, yes, sanctions are going to be painful for a lot of countries and their people. Prices are likely to rise around the world for some things. Some of us cannot afford additional price hikes for certain staples, but this might be the price to pay for democracy and freedom around the world.

We must consolidate democracy and freedom, not see it slip away piecemeal, a slice at a time. Putin is currently attempting to make a play at getting statehood for eastern Ukraine, a ploy at creating a land bridge to a territory he illegally took as well as gaining the minerals in eastern Ukraine. 

Does the world allow for the appeasement of Putin as Chamberlain did with Hitler (Munich Agreement)? Hitler conned Neville Chamberlain into believing that Germany had limited intentions regarding the Germans living in Czechoslovakia in 1938… [1]

 

Here are two strong moves that may make Putin sit up and take notice. The E.U. and NATO bilaterally allow Ukraine to join both, NATO and the E.U. if they wish – as long as Ukraine, in the next year or two meets all E.U. and NATO member requirements.

 

Diplomacy has to be the answer, not military force – no one wants a regional or global war again. In addition to this diplomacy, vigorous finance and trade sanctions must be instituted against Russia. The rest of the free world will need to figure out a way to make up for the energy and other shortfalls that E.U. and other affected countries will face.

It appears that being tough is all that Putin understands…

 

 

 

 

References

1 – Chamberlain and Hitler 1938, http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/chamberlain-and-hitler/, retrieved 10 Sept 2014