May 13, 2024 by gudguy1a

REPUBLICAN GOP – Think! You will be responsible for American lives lost in Ukraine.

Why? Because you are not thinking Strategically for the future or Tactically for ‘RIGHT NOW!’ (Sorry, this Feb 2024 piece needed updating for a couple of typos, specifically aimed at the GOP.)

Tactically, we (NATO, including America) must help Ukraine stop Russia from advancing further into Ukraine and taking over more territory. As Russia continues pouring in more Conscripts (who do not want to be there), Russia is “ALSO” planting more land mines to

attempt to stop/slow any Ukraine advances and
kill any unwary Ukrainian man, woman or child (or NATO ally) who may venture into that tainted area.

If we (NATO) do not provide weapons to the country fighting Russia, it basically screws up the World’s future for MORE large conflicts down the road. Further Russian assaults against other countries. Ukraine is not just fighting this conflict for themselves, it is also for NATO.

DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT TRUMP, he has NO say, thoughts or intelligence (in his rather large head) to engage in ANY conversation or leadership regarding NATO, Ukraine and Russia (or China or N. Korea)… Besides, that non-logical, maniacal, bone-spur excuse coward wants to remove America from NATO – which is MIND-BOGGLING INSANE…!!!

Strategically, this is where you have to think very hard, more than you are used to. We can cut off future Russian advances by supplying the necessary planes, tanks and weapons that Ukraine can make BETTER advances and reclaim parts of their sovereign country that was illegally stolen by the insidious Dictator – Putin.

Republicans, here is where your brain is going to start hurting. Think. If Russia is allowed to take more and more of Ukraine, it will also start serious consideration for advancing into one or more of the smaller NATO countries near Russian borders such as Lithuania.

Note, if (or when) one NATO member is invaded/attacked (by Putin), that means NATO members will respond to protect the assaulted country. And that, Republican GOP, will mean American soldiers, Marines, sailors and Air Force troops will ‘have to’ go into the country that was invaded. The American (and NATO) troops will fight to protect the country in question – and it will ALSO mean that American troops will likely be ‘KILLED in action’ or horrifically maimed for life.

Think about it.

a) Strategically, you could have provided Ukraine with the necessary weapons to stop Russia NOW and into the future, to keep the Russian forces from advancing into any other NATO member country and quite possibly to regain the lost Crimean territory that was stolen, as well have more safety in the Black Sea. For now, Mike Johnson stepped up after seeing the light. And after he sat in on more classified, higher security meetings involving Ukraine & NATO. (Some of us know all too well what kind of information is shared in these kinds of meetings – now Johnson knows as well.)

OR you can forever

b) Live with the permanent memories of how, instead of sitting on your thumbs – YOU “could” have prevented the additional blood shed and lives lost (of Ukrainians and volunteer soldiers from other countries, i.e.: America) if you’d only allowed Ukraine to be supplied with the needed weapons as Ukraine, as a NATO proxy, fought for NATO instead of sending in American troops…

Think about it as you go to sleep, EVERY single night. Having Russia CONTINUING to be a world nuisance with Putin as a continuous Dictator (as you know he will win his upcoming election with, what, 98, 99% of the votes...). But then again, of course you want to continue playing with politics, even though most of your republican party does not know how to be a successful and productive member of the House or Senate. Instead, these individuals want to continue to be an attention getter, a power grabber – basically, ‘me, me, ME….’

October 17, 2022 by gudguy1a

C’mon Americans – Mid-term Elections ARE as Important as Presidential Elections — VOTE…!

TL;DR / BLUF (because this is a L-O-N-G paper, last few pages is content from another paper)

VOTE! Get out and VOTE!

You CAN;
You SHOULD;
You MUST;

get out and vote if you truly value America and the continuation of ‘better’ values. We cannot just vote in Presidential elections and THINK that is all it takes. It is NOT!!! The mid-term races are the arenas where the least or worse candidates end up in office, in power OVER YOU because you did not think it worthwhile to go vote.

Some of the results here are:

folks getting elected to implement school book bans for the few, affecting the majority, instead of leaving books on the shelves for the masses and the curious – books like “The Learning Tree” which opened my eyes a bit more.
Or getting into the state senate and putting in place repressive voting measures – limiting the number of voting places; removing early ballot voting boxes; etc…

Do you want to go back in time and revisit the 1950s…?

NO. MOST of us do not. But that means EVERYONE MUST get out and vote.

Criticality of Mid-term voting

Mid-term voting can mean voting in members for any of the following:

City Council
School Boards
State Legislatures
Mayors
Governors
Senators
Congresspersons

Mid-term voting is the primary way to make changes in America. Voting for those who care for all will eventually remove all of the repressive and backwards-thinking individuals from power. These individuals are the ones causing all the dire drama we face today. We spend so much time and money on trying to do the right thing but, because of these power-hungry individuals, we are not progressing as we should as a country… and as people…

We are now late in 2022 and most Americans still do not realize how critically important the mid-term elections are. These mid-term elections are what we need to progress instead of going through the back-and-forth stages of progress… EVERY two – four years.

Suppressing or Restricting voting – this leads to angry voters in those regions of the country where conservative parties hold power. The result – people do not see the value of voting at that point in a mid-term race and do not vote.

Think about it. If you vote in the mid-terms as well, goals, better goals can be achieved in the long run but it will take time to build upon success. Just because we vote for something today, it will not materialize in a 6-month period. It takes time. And it may take 2, 3 or 4 mid-terms to start seeing real, I mean REAL success and progress that everyone will see – things that are very TANGIBLE for the majority.

POWER

Then, we have so many individuals in America who only want to be in power and want to act like young, spoiled children.

I’m taking my ball and I’m going home, so there!

Tell the rest of us that this is not the case. Go ahead, I definitely dare you to open yourself up to honesty – that is, if you have any honor and integrity remaining in ANY part of your being…

There should be NO ONE in politics who is only there for the sake of power. These individuals ruin the future for the majority of people.

Look at what Putin is doing in Russia. Do you believe all the Russians want Putin to take over, I’m sorry, ANNEX more of Ukraine as Putin did with Crimea? Against the Ukrainian peoples’ will or without their approval….
Look at what Kemp did in Georgia, instead of recusing himself from his duties as Secretary of State while running for governor, he kept that position active – think about that, seriously and deeply – and you tell us if Kemp actually won that race legally…??? Kemp wanted to retain power, via any manner possible
What about a state in America where the majority of that state’s citizens want one thing but are overruled because of the governor or state legislators wanting something else in place to satisfy the minority, whether it is Christian (note: Church and State are SUPPOSED to be separate, not like in 1910 or 1940 as examples). Here is one example, say there are gays in that state and they want equality. The minority of the state in question wants to have a gay free environment while the majority approves of gays having a voice and equality. What do you do? That minority wishes to retain power and control the outcome, that is what they do…

WHAT DO YOU DO? If we continue to have these kinds of individuals elected to power, WE-WILL-NEVER-NEVER-NEVER get on a solid path to success for this country for the long-term.

So sure, if you want endless back-and-forth efforts of progress, vote for those individuals who want power and control the state’s outcomes for various topics.

Look at Desantis did in the Spring of 2022 with Disney World in Florida. Desantis modified Disney’s decades long charter because Disney stood up for equality (standing “in solidarity” with the LGBTQ+ ) and Desantis basically said:

“Bull shit” – there is no such thing as equality as long as I am governor (Desantis did not say that, not exactly, I am liberally paraphrasing here). This all started with Florida Senate’s passage of H.B. 1557, colloquially dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and Disney going against it.

But what Desantis did was – he took his ball and went home. Now, the surrounding county has to pay for city expenses that Disney ‘had’ been paying for out of their ‘Special Privileges’ status.

Throughout the country, we have individuals who are in power, no matter how they arrived there, and who want to retain that power – “no matter what it takes or what it costs” the rest of America and its citizens.

So, why is that? Are these individuals afraid that if they lose that power, they:

Cannot make an honest living doing something else?
Do not know how to do something else meaningful to them (or others)?
Are just flat out scared that they will fail doing something else….?

Take the current Herschel Walker for Senate situation. How is it that so many people believe he is qualified and has the integrity to become a Senator?

Sure, Trump was not qualified but became President but that was due to people NOT GETTING OUT TO VOTE!!!! And that was why we had the global embarrassment of that American president.

Do we want to continue voting in a sub-par manner? Look at Senators’ Cotton and Scott following along to boost Walker’s tour. How embarrassing that must be for these two individuals to help prop up Walker? What kind of mindset does these two Senators have? Is there any integrity?
Wait, this is a power grab, sorry about that. It has nothing to do with qualifications, integrity or equality. Maybe one day soon (hopefully sooner) they will see the folly in propping up Walker.

But this is what we are dealing with, sad, very sad….

This is where I state the obvious – remove the electoral college and be done with loop hole for some and then, work on getting rid of gerrymandering, from ALL parties and reset districts to be fair voting communities and THEN, work on re-balancing the power structure for the number of senators and congresspersons we haver around the country.

When the number of senators and congresspersons were settled on, we were in a different era – MUCH smaller population. Now, today, we are not in a state of fair elections – Wyoming having two senators holding the same amount of power as two senators from California or New York, that is a sad joke. There should be more senators in states with larger populations. This is another problematic area that needs a course correction.

VOTING – Democracy and Equality

C’mon Americans. Really. REALLY. Are so many of you going to continue to vote ONLY with your heart and the illogical thinking of returning to the days of yesterday. Yesterday where only you had power over everyone else because of skin color…?
I really did not want to go there but this is what appears to be happening IRL (in real life as so many like to say).

We still have too many people who want a neighborhood that is only inhabited with their kind, full of privilege, free of any kind of interracial mixing, free of any homosexual tendencies, free of poor, uneducated people.

Is this really what so many of you Americans want to do, go backwards in time – losing DECADES of progress.

Because this is what happens when you do not use your brain, the logical and pragmatic part of your brain. We continue to have this see-saw effect WHERE NOTHING GETS ACCOMPLISHED!!!!

We go from progress, clean air, clean water, education improving, equality then in the mid-terms, the poor/bad choices of individuals are elected and we as a country backslide because these wrong thinking individuals want to reinstitute regulations that allow pollution of air and water, better education for some while revenue for the poorly funded school systems CONTINUE to be poorly funded and equality/diversity – THAT IS ALL THROWN OUT THE WINDOW! Here is one solid example, the last administration allowed corporations to get back to dumping toxic chemicals into rivers.

Here are a couple of links:

Trump’s EPA Is Letting Power Plants Dump Toxic Waste Into Rivers and Streams

The Trump Administration Rolled Back More Than 100 Environmental Rules. Here’s the Full List

But, you will need to do your own, ‘real’ research (outside your comfort zone and silo of conspiracy) and come to your own conclusion…

Do you want to continue allowing these types of individuals to gain and retain power so they can make money? With the result being bad air & water that will significantly affect the health of your child; spouse; parents – you…???

We have too many people in America that will gladly revert to threats and violence if they or their party does not win. It does not matter if it were a fair election, these individuals will continue to believe they were cheated out of a position of power. That the event was rigged. That Alien space rays were used to manipulate votes or that temperature regulating thermostats are rigging the votes somehow. OR that there is some kind of magnetism taking effect to alter races, enough that spoons can stick to a person’s body or face, somehow.

Why? Why are there so many people that continue to engage in silos of self-induced conspiracies. Look at Michael Flynn, former military general and Director of DIA – he completely broke and went to the far edges of a different universe.

Here are a couple of links where Flynn talked about a trail of signs leading terrorists into America:

Michael Flynn once claimed Arabic signs on southern border guide ‘radicalized Muslims’ into US

Trump’s border patrol guy calls BS on Flynn claim Arabic signs are guiding ‘radicalized Muslims’ to US

Again, you will need to do your own, ‘real’ research and come to your own conclusion on Flynn’s state of mind…

America’s Future

Americans, if you truly want America to be a Great Country, YOU HAVE TO VOTE.

You HAVE to vote with integrity, using your brain. Just because you do not want your children exposed to gays or black or brown or yellow or red people – you cannot deprive that from the majority of children in your schools.

Because you, the minority of individuals who want to continue to live in a world of those with closed mindsets, do not want gays or race mixing or better education for all to occur – IT IS GOING TO HAPPEN. At some point in the future, it is going to happen and you cannot stop progress. You will just make it take longer, causing suffering to continue for everyone, and I do mean everyone suffers as a result.

I speak, now and in the future, with and for the:

underprivileged,
undereducated,
repressed / suppressed,
gays (even if I am not) &
women (held down, glass ceiling & being seen as the inferior sex)

I stand for equality, diversity and progress, even if I AM NOT IN POWER.

America was never truly a great country. We only had a preeminent position because America had gained power, economically, socially and militarily over others, internally and externally. That is how America rose to power from the 1700s did it not? Building this country on the backs of slaves and indentured servants to have we have today…

But we CAN become a GREAT country, not really. Why aren’t there more Americans out there willing to use their brains and logic to see that we as a nation (and as humans) have to stop this back-and-forth garbage of “my party is better than your party”. STOP IT!!!!

We have to change the paradigm and grow together and make the world a better place for all – NOT FOR SOME.

Because I guarantee you that the children of those parents that want to block equality in schools, in the workplace and in politics – I guarantee you that in time, those children of yours who grow up with blocked or hampered vision WILL see the light at some point. At that point, these now adults, will be angry at YOU, the parents for holding them back, with that perpetual slogan of “I was only trying to shield / protect you from what I believed was wrong”.

You will be seen as not even giving your children a choice of deciding what is best for their own future. Yes, some of the children will be too young. But if you block everything you deem as ‘bad’ from your children instead of actually talking to them about various topics, you doom their potential and continue the perpetual cycle that later generations HAVE TO FIGHT OVER – AGAIN!

This is like German under Hitler burning books to secure the future of pure (free of Jewish or Black blood) Germans. Or here at home when books were once banned to ‘protect’ a certain racial make up in this country – yet, here we are again, having the vocal minority along with the wrong people in power in control of school boards – BANNING BOOKS, AGAIN!!!! Just to protect their child from growing.

But a good thing is happening in parts of the country, these children, they are having book clubs and READING and DISCUSSING these so-called banned books their parents wanted out of the school.

Does this remind of German’s past of racial superiority/racism? Hmmm….

Oh, how can I talk in this manner as I’ve done? It is because I have had multiple incidents in my own life, growing up and as a young adult.

I have always stood on the side of the little guy and against discrimination, of any kind, and even being affected by it – here are a few scenarios.

As a high school junior, I stood on a stage and denounced the garbage/racist spewing Communist who was there – but it turned out after I gave that impromptu speech, we found out that it was only a kind of a test for us (Young Civitan officers from across America) who gathered for an annual event
Never invited to any parties throughout high school, from black or white – I was a, how did people phrase it at the time – a mulatto/half-breed (did I become a bitter, angry person – no)
My high school prom date canceled on me, after I won the senior class raffle of a limo/dinner – because her dad was seriously racist (did I become a bitter, angry person – again, no)
(in ’86, Irving, TX) Overhearing me being called a ‘nigger’ as a guy was yelling at a woman in her hotel room, I was to have dinner with – this guy was seriously a covert racist because the next day, he tried to be buddy-buddy and it took everything to not break his jaw (did I become a bitter, angry person – still, no)

None of these incidents changed my mindset, if anything they all encouraged me to continue being better and championing better thought processes for all around me without preaching and setting an example, everywhere, all the time.

My optimistic mindset is in seeing the country, the world growing into a better society. Yes, I keep seeing disappointment in the way different people treat others, around the world. i.e.: the increase in Asian hate crimes – WHY??? Mexican-Americans railing against other Mexicans, think of the L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez recent racist incident – WHY????

Why are people NOT growing into better people to make this a better world? Are there that many people in America, around the world who STILL want to keep using repression, suppression and flat out discrimination against others so that THEY can be the top dog (use whatever term you wish)…???

From this point on, the content is a repeat of what I had in another paper and I am sure not many people read it, so, including it here – if you are still with me. Even if one or two folks read this paper and use their brain going forward, I will be happy.

The Past, Recurring Today

I really hate to say it but this current atmosphere just keeps taking me back to what happened in Tulsa, Oklahoma. You know, in 1931, where a young white female teenager screamed in the elevator because of the young black teenage male who was in the elevator. We still, to this day, do not know what actually occurred. And then, the whites of Tulsa wanted justice, not the legal kind but the restrictive, repressive (DEADLY) justice of past decades (and centuries) where the whites took control and hung or dragged a black to their death or tarred and feathered black(s) before killing them. I decline to include the ghastlier things that were done to these unfortunate souls.

And these whites thought (and believed) that what they did was righteous and fair justice. Stop the blacks from doing anything, let alone be successful as they were in Tulsa, using their power for their justice.

Remember the horrific pictures of crowds of whites, gathered around hanging (lynched) DEAD blacks, pointing and looking up at the dead or looking back at the camera man AND SMILING AND LAUGHING at the grotesque sight. Do any of you remember those images of justice? Does it bring a tear to your eye to even think this was possible in our American heritage – it should and we can also talk about the Native Americans and what happened to them as well? IT DAMN WELL SHOULD – that is, if you have an ounce of morality in you and you truly know right from wrong…

The problem is, it was not just Tulsa, IT-IS-STILL-HAPPENING-TODAY…!!!! Where we have large pockets of whites, who happen to be republicans, that want to control what goes in the various cities and counties and states in America.

These individuals who happen to be in power want to continue to rig the game so that ONLY they will continue to remain in power and reign over all the inferior and insignificant lower classes of people. Yeah, you got, those of color.

Poll taxes ring a bell to anyone?
Okay then, how about counting jelly beans in a jar?
Dang, what about the literacy tests….?

It is like these individuals in power in mostly Red states want to get us back to those days… We just have too much ongoing racism, covert racism, subconscious racism and implicit racism. Then on top of all that, we have groups of militia, sovereign citizens and even current and former military (as a former Marine, I am completely heartbroken to keep hearing this) who buy into this atmosphere of conspiracy and illogical patriotism and again, likely racism in these groups too.

So, the point of this minor diatribe of mine is to attempt togetmore, MANY MORE Americans WAKE THE HELL UP.

MORE Americans have to WAKE UP and get out and vote! YOU HAVE TO VOTE for individuals who are more progressive. VOTE for individuals who are open minded and want to see all Americans grow and prosper.

And to do this, to have a successful future – all open-minded Americans HAVE GOT TO VOTE. And we have to do so starting with ALL the 50 state legislatures (leaving D.C. out because it is on that path already). MORE Americans HAVE GOT TO VOTE out the conservative and backwards thinking individuals in mostly Red states, so we can all prosper and grow going forward.

We spend FAR too much time repeatedly fighting amongst ourselves over Red and Blue topics instead of subjects and areas that will benefit ALL OF US.

If you are young and are of voting age – YOU HAVE TO VOTE and not make an attempt because you believe it is not important to you. IT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU! It impacts your future. If you continue to sit on the sidelines and let these repressive and suppressive minded individuals stay in power – they will put in places that become like bedrock foundations that you may NEVER be able to overcome or overturn.

If you are an adult and you feel left out and as a result you sit on the sidelines – STOP DOING THAT!!!! You have to get out and VOTE as well. To have a democracy that is inclusive and brings everyone into the fold – YOU HAVE TO GET OUT AND VOTE as well. This is the only path. If you allow these backwards thinking individuals who are in power and who want to stay in power by focusing only on themselves and their families – you MUST get out and vote as well. Otherwise, this country will continue to flounder and stay behind the curve ball while other countries continue to move ahead of us in education and societal norms. You MUST get out and vote to help change the directionality of this country. Otherwise, we will continue to limp along with:

Bridges with potholes where you can see down to the river or street below the bridge
Levees and damns that are FAR past their prime but no one is upgrading them, meanwhile – these things burst apart and flood the surrounding county area
Broadband that flat out sucks for many in the rural areas of America and definitely is pathetic in low-income areas, just because they are low-income areas and too many individuals in power do not believe these folks who live there are worth it
Schools that are sub-par, horrendously sub-par – c’mon, MOLD! Lead pipes and non-functioning plumbing and HVAC systems that are not nearly adequate enough to be used
Medical facilities that need overhauling and renovating – not the facilities that have an iron grip on the country and charging exorbitant costs – I mean the ones in most communities that are barely hanging on in supporting the residents of those communities
Etc.,
Etc.,

AMERICANS! You simply must get out to vote or you will continue to see this country fall apart. We have to vote in individuals who care for all and not those individuals who only care for some subset of American areas of the country as in the mid-west or some suburban parts of the country.

As noted above, we have to start replacing state legislatures across the country with forward thinkers, those who are thinking 5, 10 and 20 years down the road.

Putting in place smaller budgets or stop gap measures to do minor patch work fixes or tweaks is not good enough. We need to do more and we can do more.

Besides getting rid of these backwards thinking individuals in state legislatures, we have to vote OUT more of these governors – ones that many of us still cannot believe they won the election their elections.

With Kemp of Georgia, we know how he won – he was the Georgia secretary of state and he refused to recuse himself from that role and was able to influence the voting process.
DeSantis of Florida, well, he won because he had a large following of individuals who want to retain a status quo and not become more progressive.
Abbott of Texas, completely unclear how he really won, unless it was along the same lines as DeSantis. But Abbott, he is dangerous. He had all information on toxic chemical locations removed from all state websites. This information was helpful to many in deciding where they wanted to live, or where to send their children to school or where to locate their elderly in nursing homes – without this information, well…. And for Abbot to say that people can ask the fire department or other agencies, that is a non-starter because they mostly will not give out that information. How would you feel if you discovered a toxic chemical storage facility was located 200-300 yards from your child’s school (and think about the blast radius of an ammonia holding facility should it go up in flames)?

We all have to vote to overcome and get rid of things like ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) efforts. This entity is the one that really spring-boarded many, many republican legislative actions over the years since its founding in 1973 and grew to prominence under Newt Gingrich.

Basically – ALL forward-thinking individuals, those with an open-mind, those with the foresight to see that we MUST unify as a country to grow again. Not grow as in divisive groups within America but as ONE WHOLE entity – all Americans. All of us need to vote. And you have to use your brain to do so. If we want to continue to be the leader of the free world, of developed countries – we all must participate and vote!

Research who you vote for – as in, is the person going to help everyone or just selective segments of society. Think about who you vote for. STOP listening to conspiracy groups and individuals, this only leads you down the path of despair and danger because you start endangering yourselves and others by buying into these non-sensical and illogical plots that only belong in movies.

You HAVE TO USE YOUR OWN BRAIN!!! Read and talk to and with others who have “rational” thoughts, not siloed bubbles of fellow conspirators. Educate yourselves.

Those of you want to vote for the likes of a Trump, Marjorie Greene or Matt Gaetz or Louie Gohmert or Jim Jordan – you are going down the rabbit hole of failure because the thought processes of these leaders do not appear logical and can be non-constructive.

You absolutely MUST use your own brain and your education to vote for individuals who WILL move the country forward, not give it an exercise of lip action only (while lining their own pockets with money from greed, while at the same time – lying to you). Please, those Americans with the tendency to stay in these filter bubbles (as author Eli Pariser) talked about – get out of your comfort zone and expand your mind. Grow with other Americans. You can only grow if you learn more. Talk to more people who are “not” like you.

As it is, we still have far too much many people in America who to return to the America of the 30s, 40s and 50s, where a, ahhh, certain race of people had the power.

Please – all Americans who want to see America grow – get out and vote.

And, it is not just some of the Republicans, we have to remove individuals like Joe Manchin of W. Virginia who is playing at some kind of game that only he knows in preventing or slowing down growth.

Vote, not just in the Presidential elections but in ALL of the elections that crop up in your community. This is how we as a country will grow, starting with local elections, county elections and state elections – your vote matters. Vote for those men and women who see the future as prosperous for all. Vote for those people of color who are completely inclusive of everyone around. Stop thinking about age, religion, handicaps, race and gender as the sole criteria of who you would vote for.

That old or young; Jewish or Atheist; good looking or not so good-looking person standing next to you – might just be the next President of this country. You never know, you must put your personal biases aside and vote for those who want to do public service work.

May 25, 2022 by gudguy1a

The Taliban, errr – sorry, ‘American Right’ Are Coming for YOU… (part 1 of 2)

Is That What’s Really Happening….

Note, I wrote this in a rush to get it somewhat off my brain to get back to some other tasks I need to do, so please bear with me for this article, I may come back to polish it up more but you will get the gist of it here… That is, if I can put with WordPress’ pathetic mode of editing…

To be clear, this does not extend to all Republicans, or folks on the Right – there are some that are very decent and very democratically oriented. This is primarily aimed at the, ummm – more outer edge and QAnon type ‘Right’.

But. We do have quite a significant number of Conservative Republicans – men (mostly men), women, white (mostly white), black (interestingly), yellow, brown, red, straight (mostly) and a few gay (again, interestingly) – that are quite puritanical and religiously oriented about how ALL Americans should behave and act.

Because of the “Draft” Overturn of Roe v Wade from the Supreme Court, the country has gone into banana mode, led by McConnell and some of his buddies and their red state legislators. I am not even including Trump in this, he is just too far off the rails to be considered sane.

This has finally led me to believing that America is being led astray by a LOUD minority of folks in this country. Here, let’s compare a few things and you make up your own mind – AFTER you do your own research AND your own thinking OUTSIDE of all conspiracy circles and Facebook siloes.
YOU need to do the deep soul searching and information content on your own and by yourself first before coming back to debate/discuss it with others.

(Apologies on the table formatting, it did not come across as in the original paper)

Taliban Edicts

Republicans’ Wet Dreams

Women cannot drive long distances without a guardian (this means a male, of any age), since the Taliban believes women need to be overseen at all times and have no say in anything.
And if there is no guardian and the woman does so, the guardian (man or boy) will be paid a visit by the Taliban.

Women will not be educated beyond grade school (upper education schools are being shut down or already shut down – May 2022)

Women will cover their faces at all times in public and on TV

Women are not equal to men and never will be

Religion shall be all about Allah – no other religion will be practiced or allowed

Adultery – beaten via the Sharia mechanism or even stoned to death

Taliban want supreme control over everything

* Women will be banned from any abortion, regardless of rape or incest
* Women will be banned from leaving the state for abortions
* Women will be banned from receiving abortion medication
* Women will be forced to endure the unwanted, repugnant pregnancy, whether they like it or not – even if they were raped by their FATHER or UNCLE or a LUNATIC criminal
* Women will have no right regarding pregnancy, except to deliver the baby

Education will be led by the conservative republicans, there will be:
* no gay subject matter for grade school;
* no anti-racist material in schools;
* no critical race theory will be taught in grade school, high school or college
* meaning – republicans really do not want future generations to learn about racist attitudes of the past (and today) nor any horrific activities that their ancestors undertook (lynchings and raids and firebombing towns and outright murder – even tar and feather) to quelch ANY kind of equality and continue to suppress anyone of color and gender
* Conservative republicans want to continue to whitewash history, especially in Texas;
* removing any kind of racist horrors and history from ALL text books in grade / high school – leaving only some kind of puffery (and a very short blurb at that) regarding that time in history.
* Then when these school kids become adults and move to another state – the adult who grew up in a state whitewashing history becomes horrified (the smart liberal ones at any rate) to learn that they were taught partial history (or none) which was covered up rather than the full and complete atrocities that were done
* The Japanese tried this years ago regarding the murder, raping, looting, and burning in the Chinese city of Nanjing (then known as Nanking) in 1937

Next will be what kind of clothing women and young people are allowed to wear in American schools – there have already been multiple cases of what kind of hair styles boys and girls in school are allowed to have – which all ended up backfiring

And yes, women of America, many men still want to suppress you to this day – primarily white men
* There are still TOO MANY men who do not want to see women earning as much as or more than they earn and many of the men do NOT want you in positions of power
* This is where I fail in my comprehension – with the suppression of female equality, ESPECIALLY amongst white women – there are STILL so many white women who will gloss over this and continue to be suppressed and not want equality as other women do

Religion – the vast majority of republican conservatives want there to be god everywhere and in everything we do. Even though science continues to disprove nearly everything brought up. For the first 20 years of my life, all religious talk was about how the world was only 6,000 years old. You do not hear that any more… People can believe whatever they wish to believe but they CANNOT CONTINUE TO FORCE RELIGION on those who do not believe… Nor force any non-religious individuals to heel to ANY religious ways of life…

Women get the short end of the stick in America because they cannot just go enjoy sex the way many corrupt, philandering men do…

Mostly white men want to regale supremely over all non-white men in America:
* the militias want their weapons to fend off future attacks by uprising blacks and browns and China (which is simply all crazy)
* SUNDOWN Towns want to continue to exist by ‘persuading’ non-whites to not stay in their towns overnight
* the KKK still wants to come back to power and then there are
* the neo-Nazis who also want to be the power brokers of America to save the pureness of the white lineage (hint – bad news for ya folks, many of you have mixed blood in your ‘pure lineage’)

And because American Red states want to dictate what should be primary and final determinations for pregnancy and abortions. The problem here is, the final decision regarding a pregnancy abortion is ultimately up to the woman – she is the SOLE arbiter of what should happen. It is HER decision to live with for the rest of her life – no one, not religious or atheist, not conservative or liberal should tell any woman what she should do. In the end, it is up to her, not the woman’s parents; not the husband or boyfriend – but the pregnant woman.

So, it will be pretty simple for women who are doomed in their home red state and cannot afford to do anything.

Miscarriage – easiest answer and I really hate to say it but this may be the woman’s only option – but remember, too many precious women may die and have died over the decades because of getting rid of an unwanted fetus (a non-breathing, non-thinking, non-conscious entity)
Have the baby, put it in a box and leave the box on the doorstep (not at any church or fire station) of your favorite Associate Judge of our “Supreme Court” – Judge Amy (not the t.v. star), Judge Kavanaugh, Judge Gorsuch or everyone’s beloved (not) Alito and not to forget Judge clarence. But, you need to take precautions (which I would do if I were a woman and had to be forced through this nightmare):
- Use a box with no markings to indicate you
- Wear surgical gloves when handling the box and the baby – leave no DNA and to hide your skin color
- Put the baby in the box wrapped up in a blanket with a note for Auntie Amy, I mean Judge Amy
- Wear two sets of clothing – one for bagginess to cover the set underneath and you must wear a Burka, damn, sorry – a hoody and keep it down
- Have a spare pair of shoes to switch to after you drop off the box with the baby
- Avoid as many cameras as possible
- After doing the drop, find a safe, dark/deserted spot blocks away – outside of camera view – switch clothing and shoes and put them in a trash can, keep the gloves on and later dispose of them somewhere else
These are things are what I would do, not saying you should do them – besides, doing the drop on these associate judges door steps should be a dear thing of god that these justices would want, right, leaving the babies with someone who would love them – it should be as legal as dropping the baby box at a fire station or church – correct….???

But this is what we face, red states – that want to dictate and force people to do things the person does not want to do. Yes, the pandemic forced people to get vaccinated because that affects EVERYONE around them, not just the person refusing to get the shot. I wish we had some kind of mechanism to track how many people died because the “hands off my body anti-vaxxer” refused to get vaccinated…?

hundreds
thousands
10’s of thousands…?

Because of refusing to get the vaccine, many anti-vaxxers / hands-off my body individuals caused others to get sick and die. Or they caused people who needed to be hospitalized for other issues – heart attack, liver transplant, cancer surgery – to not undergo surgery in a timely manner and then died.

The pandemic was a different animal – that affected everyone – forcing a woman to retain and undergo a pregnancy is an individual issue. A woman who is pregnant and wants an abortion does not cause anyone who is a living, breathing, thinking and conscious entity any kind of physical pain. It ‘might’ cause emotional distress but that is the price the religious pay for following a god.

What a pregnant woman decides in the end, that is her business and does not affect how anyone else’s life, that is – anyone breathing, thinking and conscious continues.

And remember, this “abortion ban” – this is only the prelude to more attempted restrictions or bans. Such as banning mixed race marriage, where others like my wife and I would “not” be able to get married in the future. The Loving’s work to get legally married would have become a terrible wasted effort…

A huge hurdle and effort, wasted – gone, because too many Americans chose not to stand up to Trumpist’s, Trumpism and narrow-minded bigots and white supremacy wannabes…

July 19, 2021 by gudguy1a

CLEAN WATER Desalination Plants – NOW! Infrastructure…

TL;DR / BLUF

Desalination plants, to produce clean water from ocean/sea salt water. Build multiple desalination plants along the West and Southern coasts of America and pipe that water across all the western states…

It is far past that time of having a GOOD infrastructure bill.

We need a LARGE new infrastructure bill, not a small, tiny one. A tiny one where, we would have to do another infrastructure bill in 3 – 4 years, then another one in another 3 – 4 years. Ad nauseum….

We need a large infrastructure bill now, RIGHT NOW, in order to deal with so many issues in this country we call America (not United States – due to so many individuals now spewing conspiracies, causing strife and tearing us apart).

We have to take care of roads and bridges to facilitate the movement of all the people who drive to/from work and not using mass transit. We need to consider all the workers who drive for a living and need better roads and bridges to make their jobs easier to navigate.

We need roads and bridges fixed, many, many roads and bridges. And that is a tall order, in getting all the OLD, FRAGILE, BUSTED, DILAPIDATED bridges repaired / replaced. If a bridge fails, such as the one between Memphis, TN and Arkansas (called the Memphis–Arkansas Bridge or the Hernando de Soto Bridge) – think about it – EVERYONE has to detour 30 minutes to 2 hours out of their way to get around this failure point. EVERYDAY!

TWICE A DAY!

Until the bridge in question is repaired. But, we (America) cannot repair or replace bridges fast enough because we have TOO MANY individuals in political power in multiple states who CRY EVERY DAY stating that we do not need large infrastructure packages to make this country better.

As a result, we have failing bridges. And these failing or failed bridges are causing detours for folks going to work and for folks who make their living driving every day on our crumbling (or rather, crumbled) infrastructure, putting their lives on the line and hoping the bridge continues to hold up while they cross it. Or that the roads are in drivable conditions so they do not end up hitting a significant pot hole that was not filled in (expertly) and break an axle, causing a massive 50 – 75 (or more if a gas hauler or toxic chemical truck are in the mix) vehicle chain-reaction collision with multiple loss of life.

None of this is new. So, why is it so hard to understand that we need a massive influx of capital to fix our roads and bridges? And we need to repair/shore up all the poorly constructed levees (those mostly made up of dirt) and all the out-of-date dams around the country.

When Eisenhower got a decent freeway system in place, it was good – now look at the state we are in. Everyone is bickering and pointing fingers at others. We need more collaboration (Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema).

We have to STOP being blue “this” and red “that” – WE HAVE TO COME TOGETHER and SEE what is going on and get beyond this nonsense of:

“Well, we don’t really need a large bill because we have the power to put a stick in the mud to hold everyone up.” Or,
“We need to have bipartisanship” which WE CANNOT HAVE if one side is completely defiant and childish about:
- losing power,
- giving up ground,
- admitting they are incorrect in their thought process or
- pick anything else you want to plug in.

It is childish and asinine in being at this point today of NOT having a very good infrastructure bill. Yes, we will have to figure out a way to pay for it but many of us would pay a tax increase instead of seeing the rich getting a TAX CUT (re: 2017) to pay for better infrastructures (road, bridges, levees, dams and this newer ‘human’ component) across the country.

Which brings us to this point, our global climate crisis.

We have an extreme climate change problem facing us, not just in America but around the world. The western half of America is in a state of DROUGHT! We need to try – NO, NOT TRY but to rectify that with a man-made solution (apologies to all the feminists out there). And that solution is:

DESALINATION PLANTS!!!!

There is no way around it or an easy fix to getting clean drinking water into the heavily hit drought-stricken states. We need a massive, emergency level TVA (Tenn. Valley Authority) fix, to clean up the salty sea water and convert it to cleaner usable (potable) water.

We need the:

Corps of Engineers
Think tanks
Innovators &
A.I. level computing power

to join forces to help with this water crisis. We can put billionaires into space, so why can we not solve this problem.

We need some kind of combination of technologies and efforts to make a fast (think in terms of months and not years) alternative to not having water at all.

We need joint efforts to build massive desalination plants up and down the west and southern coasts and then pipe it across all the western states.

We need desalination plants that:

are non-fossil fuel powered (wind turbines, underwater turbines).
can convert salt water to clean water for drinking and farming in an efficient inexpensive manner.
can convert salt water to clean water in the “FASTEST” way possible, at a mega-tonnage level or even giga-tonnage per day.
are sustainable and green – green as possible with hopefully ZERO carbon footprint.

There has to be a way and yes, there are some desalination plants out there today but they are small and expensive. And we do not want to even think about the quantity of fossil fuel being used every day.

We cannot sit around, bickering about this, water does not grow on trees. And desalination is one of the ways to get water on a massive scale into all the western states in this critical time of need. We are not likely to see snow in the quantities we desire in the next several years, not the way our climate is changing.

We need to implement a human fix to help solve this human problem.

June 3, 2021 by gudguy1a

Any Americans Out There for Democracy? Yes? Then WAKE UP & VOTE…!

TL;DR / BLUF

VOTE! Get out and VOTE! This is the only way to make changes in America. Voting for those who care for all will eventually remove all of the repressive and backwards-thinking individuals from power. These individuals are the ones causing all the drama we face today. We spend so much time and money on trying to do the right thing but, because of these power-hungry individuals, we are not progressing as we should as a country… and as people…

Here we are in 2021, where we have so many individuals in America in power but are acting like young, spoiled children.

I’m taking my ball and I’m going home, so there!

Tell the rest of us that this is not the case. Go ahead, I definitely dare you to open yourself up to honesty – that is, if you have any honor and integrity remaining in ANY part of your being… We have GOT to move past being Republican, Independent or Democrat and THINK about Democracy for all. Democracy for all to grow, prosper and succeed, not just certain sectors of this country.

Throughout the country, we have individuals who are in power, no matter how they arrived there, and want to retain that power – “no matter what it takes or what it costs” the rest of America and its citizens.

So, why is that? Are these individuals afraid that if they lose that power, they:

Cannot make an honest living doing something else?
Do not know how to do something else meaningful to them (or others)?
Are just flat out scared that they will fail doing something else….?

What is happening to so many of these Americans? And it seems to be primarily Republicans / Conservatives (yes, I said it, Republicans) who are hell bent on stamping out ANY chances whatsoever for America’s growth in future elections. These individuals appear to want to suppress any paths of progress for people of color. That seems to be the elemental effort of all the individuals in power in Red states – to put in place severely restrictive voting processes that “might” curtail voters from casting votes for others who are more progressive. Others who are more progressive and want to see this country grow and see that more Americans have an actual chance to succeed in life.

I really hate to say it but this current atmosphere just keeps taking me back to what happened in Tulsa, Oklahoma. You know, in 1931, where a young white female teenager screamed in the elevator because of the young black teenage male who was in the elevator. We still, to this day, do not know what actually occurred. And then, the whites of Tulsa wanted justice, not the legal kind but the restrictive, repressive (DEADLY) justice of past decades (and centuries) where the whites took control and hung (lynched) or dragged a black to their death or tarred and feathered black(s) before killing them. I decline to include the ghastlier things that were done to these unfortunate souls.

Poll taxes ring a bell to anyone?
Okay then, how about counting jelly beans in a jar?
Dang, what about the literacy tests….?

So, the point of this minor diatribe of mine is to attempt to get more, MANY MORE Americans WAKE THE HELL UP.

We spend FAR too much time repeatedly fighting amongst ourselves over Red and Blue topics instead of subjects and areas that will benefit ALL OF US.

Bridges with potholes where you can see down to the river or street below the bridge
Levees and damns that are FAR past their prime but no one is upgrading them, meanwhile – these things burst apart and flood the surrounding county area
Broadband that flat out sucks for many in the rural areas of America and definitely is pathetic in low-income areas, just because they are low-income areas and too many individuals in power do not believe these folks who live there are worth it
Schools that are sub-par, horrendously sub-par – c’mon, MOLD! Lead pipes and non-functioning plumbing and HVAC systems that are not nearly adequate enough to be used
Medical facilities that need overhauling and renovating – not the facilities that have an iron grip on the country and charging exorbitant costs – I mean the ones in most communities that are barely hanging on in supporting the residents of those communities
Etc.,
Etc.,

As noted above, we have to start replacing state legislatures across the country with forward thinkers, those who are thinking 5, 10 and 20 years down the road.

Putting in place smaller budgets or stop gap measures to do minor patch work fixes or tweaks is not good enough. We need to do more and we can do more.

With Kemp of Georgia, we know how he won – he was the Georgia secretary of state and he refused to recuse himself from that role and was able to influence the voting process.
DeSantis of Florida, well, he won because he had a large following of individuals who want to retain a status quo and not become more progressive.
Abbott of Texas, completely unclear how he really won, unless it was along the same lines as DeSantis. But Abbott, he is dangerous. He had all information on toxic chemical locations removed from all state websites. This information was helpful to many in deciding where they wanted to live, or where to send their children to school or where to locate their elderly in nursing homes – without this information, well…. And for Abbot to say that people can ask the fire department or other agencies, that is a non-starter because they mostly will not give out that information. How would you feel if you discovered a toxic chemical storage facility was located 200-300 yards from your child’s school (and think about the blast radius of an ammonia holding facility should it go up in flames)?

You HAVE TO USE YOUR OWN BRAIN!!! Read and talk to and with others who have “rational” thoughts, not siloed bubbles of fellow conspirators. Educate yourselves.

As it is, we still have far too much many people in America who to return to the America of the 30s, 40s and 50s, where a, ahhh, certain race of people had the power.

Please – all Americans who want to see America grow – get out and vote.

And, it is not just some of the Republicans, we have to remove individuals like Joe Manchin of W. Virginia who is playing at some kind of game that only he knows in preventing or slowing down growth.

That old or young; Jewish or Atheist; good looking or not so good-looking person standing next to you – might just be the future President of this country. You never know, you must put your personal biases aside and vote for those who want to do public service work.

May 31, 2020 by gudguy1a

EHT BIZARRO World of Trump in America (& a bit on China & Russia too)

Heads up, this is not short… TL;DR and is meant to be read in chunks (for those wish to read some throttled and seriously restrained comments on the, alleged, deranged and imbecilic president of America)…

(Yes, the title – ‘THE‘ is reversed…)

Part I A Strange America

So. What is happening to America and to democracy around the world? What happened to leadership that is democratic (not talking about the democratic party here)? What happened to civility between individuals of American? What happened to respect and equality?

It should be pretty darn clear there is one clearly obvious nexus point for a great deal of this. All you need to do is look at who is sitting, undeservedly, in the White House… And many of us can guarantee that if the Electoral College had to do it again, they would not vote this person into the White House again (especially when the American people decidedly voted for someone else other than Trump – I believe it was Hillary Clinton, right…).

We live in Bizarro land. Yes, that is correct, we live in a world where the opposite of everything is taking place. If you have been choking on your own bile, every morning, ever since the 2016 Presidential election, there is a good reason for it – the ‘MOST’ wrong person is sitting in the White House.

As a result of who is sitting in the White House, here is a short list of what has been making you choke and gag, every day (likely all day):

Illegal insider trading taking place on the White House grounds (corruption, right?) – and no concern from the president…
We have an American ambassador Pete Hoekstra (Trump’s choice), to the Netherlands disputing his own words (this bullet is about a lack of integrity and honor). Hoekstra had stated in a 2015 conference on terrorism hosted by the right-wing David Horowitz Freedom Center – “The Islamic movement has now gotten to a point where they have put Europe into chaos. Chaos in the Netherlands, there are cars being burnt, there are politicians that are being burnt … and yes there are no-go zones in the Netherlands.” But in a later interview (Dec 2017) with the Dutch current affairs programme Nieuwsuur, Hoekstra stated that content was fake news – even though Nieuwsuur happily rolled the clip from the 2015 interview on air for Hoekstra. And no concern from the president as to how this looks for America, its people and its leaders…
Firing of Inspector Generals for no valid reason, other than they were doing their jobs to stop/prevent illegalities, fraud and other behind the scenes shenanigans – it seems, allegedly, this president has no regard for law and order and the watchdogs looking to remove current and potential corruption and illegalities…
Members of Congress and the Senate who, before this current president was voted in by the Electoral College, called the president to be by various monikers and endlessly mocked the large bodied and clownish person. But ever since this person got into the White House, these same Congressmen and Senators are kowtowing to this president, licking his boots (not literally BUT BLOODY WELL CLOSE) and allowing corruption of the law to take place (such as the emoluments clause where many believe this president is guilty of)
This current inhabitant of the White House relentlessly lambasted Obama for going golfing but look at what is taking place. This occupant of 1600 is going golfing at something like 22% of his time in office (he has reportedly been on the grounds of his golf courses or played golf elsewhere 266 times since becoming President, and that’s as of May 24, 2020), at tax payer expense and at his own country clubs (NOTE: there was no legal divestiture for his business investments/control) – remember how he famously stated in 2016 “I’m not going to have time to go play golf.”
Installing a new State Department secretary gutting the State Dept of most of the seasoned, experience, knowledgeable and respected bureaucrats – then not filling many of those positions. Do you remember that individual, that new secretary was Rex Tillerson… the oil CEO? Tillerson’s focus was not on diplomacy…
The current White House occupant plays down, disregards or ignores calamities that have struck America – remember him throwing toilet paper to people who needed it (in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria) and he believed it to be some sort of game.
What about ensconcing his unqualified children into very senior White House roles – what did they bring to the White House – or rather, what have they achieved that is worthy of talking about (no, not getting licenses in China to sell products) – many labeled these moves as nepotism but were unable to gain any traction on the violation of nepotism laws (we will need a future unbiased federal court to rule on this but that will be a long time out)
Can we talk about the 2018 elimination of the NSC directorate for global health and security and bio-defense that would have handled the CoViD-19 problem in 2020 with speed and efficiency (it was eliminated, allegedly, because it was an Obama creation)
Sheesh, this could continue on for page after page but you get the idea – we really hope so.

We, America, have someone who is supposed to be a world leader, sitting in the White House. Yet, instead of being that leader this individual has instead usurped: leadership, decency, democracy, a global role model status for anyone who wants to grow and be respected and become a leader themselves. (Note: the United States is not used in this paper because we are not a united country – we are more divided than ever before.)

We have people who want to flaunt the old 2^nd Amendment, the right to bear arms. The 2^nd amendment was completely relevant for the militia at the time when the British were prevented from taking over the American colonies in the 1700’s.

Yet today, we have many contemporary individuals today who have gun stashes of upwards of 20, 30 and 50 different weapons (with thousands of rounds) and these folks are not weapons’ collectors. As a former Marine, I actually like weapons as well but I have no need to collect weapons for fear of an invasion. Although, in case our government ever turns dictatorial, arms collection here will become a different endeavor…

But. Who is going to invade America?

Has Russian been building up a secret army just off the coast of our country, but are so well camouflaged that we cannot locate or detect them?
Maybe it is the Chinese with their Communistic world view?
Or even worse, is it the poor hungry desperate immigrants without legal documentation invading America with their unseen deadly weapons?

Today, in 2020, we have a military, along with the National Guard. Neither of these entities were present back in the days of yore.

Do not get me wrong, as a former Marine, if this region I live in allowed weapons, I would buy a few as well – just not 20 – 50 of them or go storming some local state capital flaunting the weapons…

Part II Logic, Strategy and Diplomacy

If decent, logical, serious individuals “STILL” have to continue to convince the American public of the wrong doings or ill-conceived ideas and just bad thought processes of the current president and it is not sinking in – something is wrong with a large percentage of Americans.

We have a president who is, allegedly, illiterate, indecent, corrupt, discriminatory (okay – racist) and who’s IQ, also allegedly, is not in a very decent range of intelligence. Besides lacking leadership skills, this individual also severely lacks any real degree of communication and diplomacy skill sets. If he did, America would not be seen in the light it is across the globe.

This individual cannot string together a sentence that makes any sense. Well, hang on a moment. It may make sense if ‘you’ went to the same high school and college with this person and ‘you’ had the same classes with this person. We have no idea how well this individual did in school at any point.

So, you did not do so great in high school or college or grad school (wait, this person did not go beyond undergrad status) – so what? Grades reflect what one learns up to that point, with or without good teachers or a good educational system. What matters is if you continue to grow and do better after not doing so well at any level. What matters is if you continue to be better in your life.

Forbes magazine put out a story, as well as others, in Feb 28, 2019 where:

Michael Cohen testified to Congress that, under directions from Trump, he sent letters to Trump’s high schools, colleges and the College Board (creator of the SAT),threatening them with legal action and jail time if they ever released Trump’s academic records. Cohen provided a record of one such letter sent to the president of Fordham University, which Trump attended for two years before transferring to complete his undergraduate degree at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Trump’s high school has confirmed receiving an identical letter, while the University of Pennsylvania and the College Board declined to comment.

What is wrong is wrong… That is not hard to see or to fathom. If someone who is supposed to be a role model states: “Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.” – that is not someone you are supposed to look up to or follow. That is, unless you yourself are amongst the callous, gross, indecent minded imbecilic Cretin of the gutters. There is supposed to be something called, respect for others, no matter who they are. Wait a moment – there’s more. There is also:

decency,
equality,
honesty,
compassion,
empathy,
integrity,
ethics and
non-discrimination and
diversity

Where has all of the above disappeared to from this current administration. It is as if the mass majority of individuals the current president selects and installs into a senior office turns out to be a dishonest, greedy, corrupt individual.

Who in their right mind, in the top role position of the EPA builds a SCIF (a secure office) in their own office, when there is already an existing one, one floor away? Or has him/her chauffeured around in an armored vehicle when the position does not rate such a vehicle. Scott Pruitt wanted a ‘secure’ ‘sound-proof’ phone booth… That position does not require that kind of security.
What about taking private jet rides around the country, at tax payer expense…
What about going shopping on a federal jet, at tax payer expense (this was, allegedly, Mnuchin and his wife back in 2017 – recall Louise Linton’s extravagant and glorious exit and pose from the plane with the bags of purchased goods).
There is so much more that could go here as well and if you did not live and breathe solely in a filter bubble, then you will know that there is more. But if you isolated yourself to a safe zone of like-minded individuals, none of whom dared to grow and venture forth to look at other possibilities, at other avenues – then it is likely you only know one silo or one tunnel vision cone of information. What you believe may be completely wrong. But due to being in that filter bubble, it is difficult to convince you to expand and do better.

Part III The World

What happened to America’s global role of leadership and statesmanship? Again, a certain specific individual is what happened. America has become a laughing stock of and to the world. Our allies are alienated because of this individual. Our leadership on the world stage has eroded horridly to lower levels. It is only through the guts and leadership of certain state governors and mayors and some business leaders and numerous American citizens doing all they can to keep our head and chin up in the world.

As we can see, there are numerous leaders in other countries who want to emulate Trump and the fake news hoopla. And they have been as well as gaining incredible autocratic and dictatorial powers where the citizens of those countries (Philippines, China, Russia, Hungary, Brazil, etc.) are simply screwed and cannot seem to get out of the rut they find themselves in because those leaders have the military to back up any areas that the dictators/autocrats desire.

Look at China

There is no freedom of speech, no freedom of choice there. China forcibly removes freedom at every avenue it can, in order to “preserve the safety of people within its borders and preventing threats to a stable society” in their country from other sources. This is a complete sham and the Chinese citizens are not all aware of it – because of the Chinese leadership’s control of all media and avenues of travel.

You also have to take into consideration that the Chinese leader made himself, ahh, sorry, the Chinese National People’s Congress voted that there be no term limits on the current leader of China. How nice is that – Dictator for Life, sorry – what was meant was, President for life of a country with 1.3+ billion people. This outcome was determined as follows: Two delegates voted against the change and three abstained, out of 2,964 votes. Nice, eh…? Almost a clean sweep.

Remember the Hong Kong citizenry acting to retain its freedom in late 2019 and the Houston Rockets manager Daryl Morey tweeted an image that read “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.” (By the by – EVERYONE should stand with Hong Kong as they lose their right to total freedom; loss of a free press, free speech, free movement, facial recognition surveillance {even more than what we have in America} and become a more communistic country – for those that choose to stay in Hong Kong – many will find some way out of that island country over the next several years – an exodus.) Before he deleted due to comments and stress from various avenues of contention. But – NBA Commissioner Adam Silver finally came around and supports Morey’s right to free speech. Of course, in return, China was appalled and had the gall to come back with:

The Chinese-run television network said it was “strongly dissatisfied” with Silver’s remarks.
“We oppose Silver’s claim to support Morey’s right of free expression. We believe that any speech that challenges national sovereignty and social stability is not within the scope of freedom of speech,” CCTV said in its statement in Chinese, which was translated by CNBC.

In reality, how in the heck can China, a Communistic society (but they really want to be Capitalistic, don’t they…) DARE to say that free expression that challenges ‘anything’ is not within the scope of freedom of speech???!!!! Not when the Chinese government does not allow its own citizenry to any of it. China controls the media. China controls the countries internet access and continues to tweak their ‘Chinese Firewall’ in order to censor everything that travels over the air or via cables.

People are not allowed to talk about leaders in a bad light, as other countries do.
Any word that the Chinese government deems to worthy of censorship is blocked from the internet and not allowed on any media. Here is a fairly good article on “68 Things You Cannot Say on China’s Internet” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/24/world/asia/china-internet-censorship.html or this other article “In China, you can’t say these words” https://share.america.gov/in-china-you-cant-say-these-words/
Take the Uighur (or Uyghur) situation in the XinJiang region. The Chinese government deems them to be dangerous and has razed many of the Uighur towns to the ground and put the people who once lived there, into camps (imagine something, kind of like a concentration camp – just not as horrific). Yet the Chinese calls them re-education camps where the Uighurs are required to shave their beards, removing that identity aspect. All movement is controlled by surveillance cameras (everywhere in Uighur inhabited areas, not just the camps) and identities. Uighurs are not even allowed to have certain tools because they could be construed as weapons. The Chinese have even gone so far as to engrave certain cutting tools with the owner’s identities on the tool AND then are required to check it out and return it like a library book (complete control of those tools) – controlled by the police.
People of China face public shaming for spitting in the streets (it can be caught on camera and put up on a large billboard – live video) – but wait, it does not end there. The citizens can be assessed points in the Chinese “Social Point System”, which started in 2014. It is about regulating individual and group behavior for activities such as: bad driving, smoking in non-smoking areas, not paying bills on time, spending too much on video games. Now, if you acquire too many points, you can be: banned from flying or catching a train; banned from luxury options (like 1^st class seats); throttling internet speeds; being banned from the best schools (including your children). Think about that kind of restriction in the western world.
China wants to own the SCS (South China Seas) instead of sharing, stating that territorial waters belongs to China and not shared amongst, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, and says, basically that
- there is no ‘freedom of navigation’ in that area to foreign military/navies
- and going as far as building man-made islands and militarizing them to support the Chinese claim, even though the Hague is on the side of the Philippines as to the waterways is not owned by China

So, for a leader of one country to put their Big Brother restrictions on citizens of another country and expect other nations to kowtow “their own” draconian methods of “lack of freedom of speech” or “lack of freedom of action” – what does that does mean, hmmm…?

How can the leader of a country with all these restrictions say they have a stable society when the society is controlled by the government and military?

The people:

do not have any true freedom
cannot congregate
cannot vote bad leaders out either (so it seems)

What do you believe, does China have a ‘stable society’ or that free speech threatens another country’s national sovereignty?

Chinese citizens will never see this paper within the borders of China because of the content of this paper.

Russian president – Putin. What can you make of this other president for life? He basically owns Russia and the people are somewhat locked into a state of hopelessness and are unable to do anything. It is somewhat hard to figure out how the people just do not create a national up-rising force Putin out, so we will not see that happen.

But how does a country’s President become a billionaire? It has been reported by several sources, one of which is the CIA that Putin has anywhere from $70 – $200 billion stashed away – yes, BILLION. Reportedly, he is at the $22 Billion mark. How does that happen, legally?

And do not get your hopes up to run against Putin because competition against him appear to have bad josh, bad luck. They die. They get poisoned. They gain criminal charges and if you have criminal charges in Russia, you cannot run for top offices, so they say. And let’s not forget the military and the underworld henchmen who just might, out of their love for Putin (yeah, right) take out the competition and it then becomes complete deniability for Putin and his party.

There is just so much more to be said about Putin, Xi, Maduro (Venezuela), János Áder (Hungary), Duterte (Philippines) and even more about Trump.

But where do we go from here? How do we do it? Well, education is one of the first steps – educating everyone and allowing everyone to vote is a second step. Ensuring EQUALITY is flat out the foundation and cornerstone of EVERYTHING from henceforth! We all have to do better, not just in America but around the globe.

At the same time, we have to prevent other countries from interfering our countries elections. We have to prevent fake news from gaining ground (yes, the real fake news where there is no basis in reality and not ‘alternate facts’ as Kellyanne Conway stated it), while at the same time barring harmful and dangerous conspiracy individuals/groups.

All we can do is – TRY.

Be better than others and lift them up in turn. Stop stepping on the backs of others just so you can put your face in the spotlight. Just do the right thing. Most of all, it takes courage – courage to stand up and be counted and help make everyone accountable. Take U, she is a child and look at what she has accomplished and it was not out of wanting to be in the spotlight, it was due to making people aware that the world has to change regarding climate change.

But, individuals like the one in the White House, he has no courage whatsoever. He does not stand up for inequality. He does not stand up with empathy for those going through disastrous changes in their lives. He for sure does not have the courage to stand up and face America’s lack of true justice.

The American president does even have the backbone and courage to stand up and fight, internationally and collaboratively on CoViD-19 instead of finger-pointing. What individual in their right mind cuts out the World Health Organization and throttles the CDC…?

And not least, where is the courage to stand up against Police injustice in America, specifically against Brown, Yellow and Black people of this country…

But he does have an affinity, allegedly, for reneging on promises, greed and alleged corruption (*Ask the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York back back in 1979-1980 about Trump’s promise to give them the Bonwit Teller’s sculpture.)

We have to ensure respect, diversity, non-discrimination and equality are the bedrock of this country – maybe then we will actually be a United States.

*Bonwit Teller and the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bonwit Teller closed its flagship store in 1979 and sold the property for $15 million to a Long Island real estate developer. Despite his plans to demolish the old Bonwit Teller building, the buyer promised to preserve the Deco grillwork and bas reliefs at the request of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The buyer was none other than Donald Trump. In 1980, Trump demolished Warren & Westmore’s elegant Art Deco emporium to make way for his $100 million Trump Tower. In what became a sadly typical turn of events, Trump cut corners everywhere he could and bullied those who stood in his way. To pour the foundations, Trump enlisted S&A Concrete, a known mob front for Paul Castellano and “Fat Tony” Salerno. He paid 200 illegal Polish immigrants as little as $4 an hour to work 12-hour days, 7 days a week. The so-called “Polish Brigade” worked without benefits, hard hats, and sometimes even homes – during the 1980 transit strike, many were forced to sleep at the construction site. Then there were the lawsuits. He sued the city for a tax abatement on the property. He sued one contractor for “total incompetence” and threatened to sue a labor lawyer for $100 million.

The reasoning:

John Baron, a spokesman for the Trump Organization—who, the New York Daily News discovered, turned out to be Donald Trump himself in disguise—told the Times that “the merit of these stones was not great enough to justify the effort to save them.” He said it would have cost $32,000 to remove the sculptures and cited appraisals by three independent appraisers that found them to be “without artistic merit” and worth less than $9,000. Their removal, he said, would also have delayed demolition work by at least a week and a half. (Trump, as himself, later estimated the cost of preserving the panels at $500,000.)

October 13, 2019 by gudguy1a

America & Allies Are Screwed = Trump

Well America, Allies and Friends, welcome to our current global state of affairs – “We are all screwed!”

However – If you are a follower of the “Fake News” phenomenon, it is best you stop here and go elsewhere…

As many Americans already knew, Trump was not the person who should have won the White House nor should he continue to be the person sitting in the White house. It is still not 100% clear why so many of Trump’s base continue to support him. But it does appear that more people now recognize that they should not have supported him, after they have suffered economically under the stewardship of this current president.

Is this Trump support borne out of ignorance, lack of intelligence, poor ethics, bad integrity, willingness to suppress other people just so they could be (or appear) superior….? Some combination of those items? All of those choices?

Why is it that with all of the content out there in the public spaces that so many people who “should” know better, do not know better…? We have people like McConnell in the senate refusing to do the right thing, which is, removing the clear and present danger of a leader who wants to undertake illegal activities to ensure his own power. Then we have people like Giuliani who was kind of a hero when 9/11 happened – but look at him now, he ‘appears’ to be broken in so many ways and ethics seem to no longer matter to him.

If you, the reader, need to have a fact checking session here, it means you are not up to date with what is going on over the past several years or refuse to face reality with what is going on. Nothing so onerous as a bad leader (leader is purported in this case) can be ignored by a leader who constantly:

lies on every topic,
chooses to favor political friends instead of what is better and the right thing to do for the majority of people,
chooses to favor authoritarian and dictatorial leaders of other countries (China, Russia, Philippines, Turkey, N. Korea – enough?) over leaders of democratic and progressive countries and the people of countries who are or trying to be democratic and progressive,
makes outlandish claims to secure favor with many (talking about Trump’s base here) who are not thinking (or refuses to think) clearly or logically or unselfishly – and never follows through with those claims (think factories, think coal plants),
uses foul language in public discourse,
(we will not discuss nepotism here, okay?),
tears down decades old trust between global allies,
due to lack of action (or refusing to recognize it) on his part against hate crime, white supremacists and racism – allowing the hate to grow and fester and grow further,
allows illegal activities to take place under their purview without saying a word or lifting a finger (well, okay Trump did say, “Oh this or that person did do a bad thing – I feel sorry for them and wish them well”) to put a stop to it and setting precedents for the next person who wants to attempt doing illegal activities

How does one gain or hold trust with a leader who has all of these characteristics?

How does one begin to trust a leader once someone becomes aware of those characteristics?

How does anyone want to follow a leader who should be a role model when that leader (Trump) is seen on international television shoving the Montenegro Prime Minister out of the way so he could be at the front of the crowd?

So, in going back to “being screwed”. With this current American president in place, we now have decades of global growth set back on its heels. And we appear to have opened the gates further for foreign governments doing heinous activities in multiple regions, setting the groundwork for ‘more’ nationalism and more dictatorial growth to happen.

Look at Russia’s continued attempted growth, such as setting up bases in the Arctic Circle and repression of choice and political parties (where opponents are arrested or killed). Look at China creating man-made islands in the South China Sea in order to grow their hegemony and sphere of influence and the disappearing act of Uighur villages/towns. Look at N. Koreas’ continued missile development and testing near Japan.

But what is America doing while all of this is going on? Not a bloody thing!!!!

This American president wants Turkey to be a favored friend because of Trump property in Turkey while Turkey invades Syria. Is genocide under way now in Syria – you tell us…

Trump wants Putin to best buds while Russia continues to make inroads in Ukraine and continues to with a death grip on oil into Ukraine and Europe.

Trump wants to be BFF with Mohammed bin Salman for buying weapons (and whatever else is going on between them), while bin Salman has this perpetual cloud hanging over him with the death of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.

We could go on and on belaboring the following regarding Trump’s ‘lack of’:

mental fitness,
global awareness,
strategic thinking capabilities,
fiscal policy making,
political acumen (unless it illegal then he gets an A+),
logical thinking capabilities,
empathy (such as with Heather Heyer, poverty in America, discrimination that is ongoing every day, genocide of Uighurs in Western China, genocide that is appearing to take place in Syria, inequality, well, the list can keep going),
equality (alleged racist views),
etc.,
etc., etc…..

this list is endless but we have already lost a lot of readers already by this point.

The bottom line is, the American President (yes, a capital ‘P’ is used here because it is NOT talking about Trump) is SUPPOSED to be a global role model, someone that anyone and everyone is willing to follow and WANTS to follow. How does anyone in their right mind want to follow a person who talks about and revels in “grabbing a woman by the _ _ _ _ Y”!!!???? NO-ONE-SHOULD-BE-FOLLOWING-THAT-KIND-OF-PERSON at any time for any sane or moral reason. And all women (and most men) should have been appalled by that alone and put the person who said it on the trash heap without a second thought.

The only kind of person that follows a ‘leader’ like that is if that person already has a decrepit sense of self, with poor moral compasses and where lying, self-aggrandizement, selfishness and corruption are already the person’s bed rock foundation. To top that off, the person who is following that kind of leader may be highly educated as well, who should know better – yet they continue to follow that kind of leader out of a poor sense of direction, by becoming lost somewhere along the lines of their lives.

Because of this current president, in the past few years, how much time and money have we as a country spent trying to prove illegalities and uncover cover ups?

America, Allies and Friends – WE ARE SCREWED allowing leaders like Trump to remain in place. We are doomed to going backwards, reversing DECADES of hard-fought victories against racism and sexism and equality and growth.

We are screwed in lost opportunities of building better and even stronger alliances with partners around the world. Yet MONEY is becoming the driving force with leaders in position who care less about their people and more with lining their own pockets with GOLD. Look at Erdogan, Putin and Xi – how does a country’s leader become that insanely rich in any legal and logical fashion?

We are screwed in lifting up people from the bottom rungs of society and helping to make them better and crucial members of society but we cannot seem to make health care an affordable staple of their lives – OH, WAIT. We “DID” have that but certain members of our government parties (national to state level) want to continue to whittle away at it until it too is gone.

So, how much longer are people of America going to continue to side with people that only want to have power for themselves and their ‘buds’ while the majority of America continues to suffer with, well, everything…?

This is where you, fellow Americans have to raise your eyes in looking to the future and your voice to bring everyone along for the growth we should have already continued with after 2016.

Now is the time to put a stop to all of the illegal nonsense taking place in America’s government, bring back America’s allies, block and stop the growth of dictators and authoritarian leaders and invest in America’s future (infrastructure, education, the poor, the sickly, the folks of America’s mid-west who feel left out). We, America, could have infrastructure projects like the old Tennessee Valley Authority to put people to work – roads, bridges, schools, society – if we come together with the same purpose and goal of growing EVERYBODY!!!

Otherwise, well, WE-ARE-SCREWED as a society if we continue to allow individuals like Trump, McConnell (he is added here due to his willingness to block anything and not speak up for what is right), Putin, Xi, Erdogan, Kim Jong Un, and on and on… That is, unless you are one of the “Fake News” followers (or purveyors).

December 23, 2013 by gudguy1a

Sense & Sensibilities…? Shame!

Originally posted Oct 4, 2013 at & moved from: http://patrick642.wordpress.com/
Change. Improve. Innovate. Be better.
~ Pressing issues, from cyber security, to strategy, to innovation, to improvements (self, others, organizations)

Sense and Sensibilities Today was the day I had lined up to write about malware but with this current shutdown situation going on, I had to write about that instead – especially in light of the fact that it also affects me too.

I will not be calling out names, it is not my nature. I will not be calling out specific parties. Anyone who objectively watches, listens and reads more than one narrowly focused news outlet (TV, radio, websites & newsprint) will know what is going on. I say ‘objectively’ because too many people are not being objective about this shutdown and using emotion and religion instead. In light of this shutdown, what I really want to do is rant and use profanity so profuse that it will make the hand on the back of your hands burn off but that is not me.

Look, if you are not using your head and thinking through the daily and weekly political machinations for yourself but instead relying on one talk show personality, or radio personality or one politician who ‘may’ be distorting the truth – Shame on you. Go out and work your brain cells and verify some of that content for yourself – use that brain that nature gave you.

Gerrymandering / Re-districting We have to put a stop to gerrymandering; it just goes on getting worse and worse over time. Both political parties have got to stop that madness. I happened to be listening to the Rachel Maddow show one night this week and they were discussing the possibilities of having a professional non-partisan group work on the re-districting process, removing the bias that grows more and more over time. I like that idea, would it work? Could people in this country get behind this idea so we can have representation of all the people in that district rather than some of them?

To those people in certain congressional districts around the country, you need to think about more than yourself. You are likely in a district full of citizens that are overwhelmingly just like you but lacking any real diversity. There are many, many other people out there around the country from many different walks of life. These other people may not be like you in: == Race (we had an Indian-American woman win Miss America, so what, be happy for her), == Education (not everyone can go to college due to other issues in their lives, like caring for a seriously sick family member), == Affluence (not everyone is born into a family that had a head start in life decades ago (I’m not talking about rich)), == Political persuasion, == Religious or no religious beliefs (religion should not be playing any part in government) or even == Health (people who do not grow up in well to do families, have health problems that are not taken care of years ago) Because some people may hold a very narrow view on life, those people cannot and should not inflict that narrow view on others and try to force others to be like them. You simply cannot do that, life is not supposed to work that way – you cannot suppress and deny others as it was done centuries ago (think ‘Christian Crusades’) or even as recent as the 20th century (think ‘women’s rights,’ slavery (Chinese and Blacks). You have to consider others as well as yourself in how we live in today’s society and move forward in the 21st century. Other people may not have had the chance to obtain better education in order to get that better job and earn a better living. And when monies are taken away from some school district to finance another ‘better’ school district, you are in effect suppressing those others.

Politics So, when people in the various pockets of America think and act narrowly on things in life and transplant that to politics, those people vote for someone who also thinks narrowly. This starts moving to extremes over time, we see that today. People should be thinking long term in how we can make the country better for all American citizens, not just in those close-minded pockets of the United States. We can do better than that.

We should be looking at mechanisms that can help all of us in the long run, even if it does mean spending more money first. For example, take this Affordable Care Act (Obamacare or Kynect or Covered California or whatever it is called in your state) – this will start reducing costs immediately for reduced emergency room visits that many without insurance use for their standard health care. That is, due to not having insurance, they let medical problems become worse until they can no longer stand it and need some kind of treatment. In the meantime, in some form or fashion, the rest of us pay for those emergency room visits…

Politicians & Talking heads We seem to have quite a few politicians and talking heads who are saying that this shutdown is a good thing. Do not take my word for it; watch the repeated videos and news clippings yourself. These individuals, in talking about the shutdown are saying some of the following: == It is only a minor inconvenience == This is only a pin prick == People will see how much government we can get along without == Etc. Now, if you are paying attention to what is going on around the country, you, yourself, will know this is not a pin prick or minor inconvenience. Our embassies and consulates overseas will have to function sub-optimally if their current funds run out. Medical research is now drastically reduced. I know someone who is supposed to get married on the National Capital Mall this weekend but will now not be able to because of the shutdown. Etc., Etc., Etc. And if those people who are affected by the shutdown cannot receive pay checks due to their furlough, then the ripple effect starts and it will affect many more people around the country. These people caught up in that ripple effect will likely be someone you know – “IF” not you specifically.

To those politicians who are obstinate, close-minded and chose to force situations on people – SHAME on you.

Conclusion We can absolutely do better than what is going on with this shutdown. We are supposed to be world leaders but it seems like we are harking back to Newt Gingrich when he was supposedly snubbed by the President at the time and as a result, Gingrich (as Speaker of the House) shutdown the government in 1995. Take a look at the Daily News front page from back then of the image portraying Gingrich in a caricature of him wearing a diaper throwing a tantrum. (Jan 2012 article link with that caricature: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/pageviews/2012/01/newt-gingrich-crybaby-the-famous-daily-news-cover-explained) We need people in politics who will listen to their constituents, the well-meaning, level-headed constituents in their districts and bring those thoughts and ideas to congress. We need people in politics who are above board and honest in the message they bring back to their districts and informing their constituents of what is reality. These politicians must convey the message that their constituents cannot have everything only the way they want it.

There has to be compromise. We cannot force things on people, things like forcing: == A woman to undergo a trans-vaginal probe or == People who have voted for 50-60 years or more to get voter i.d.s to prove their identity == People to only marry the opposite sex (or become a freak show for marrying a same-sex partner)

We can do better than that. We have to. Didn’t we get women the right to vote (the hard way)? Didn’t we get blacks the right to vote (painfully)? Didn’t mixed race marriage come to pass? Didn’t we end segregation (well, this is still a work in progress due to the large number of bigots in the country)?Come on folks; let’s not allow the extreme people of the country hijack the rest of us. We should have compromise, level-headedness and better reasoning in politics. For that matter, we should have it around the globe. No one can have whatever they want, whenever they want it (that goes for the rich or the politically powerful as well).

Society – Change. Innovate. Improve. Be better.

~ Topics ranging from: Strategy, Intelligence, Diplomacy, Leadership, Equality, Innovation to Improvements (self, others, organizations)

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