Patriot
Partisan
Political
Power
President
Prejudice
Peace....
People !!!!
SO... in fact a partisan and a patriot can be the same. It is ALL political. With the purpose to have power. Our problem is we have a President who is prejudiced... in so many ways the primary way is he thinks he is all knowing and he knows more than anyone else. He is PRIME... another P. And this country and our world will not have Peace until he is gone.
Simple really... a President and our government is not made up of people who are for themselves first and foremost and that is the Trump way. Our elected officials are our People... and we are their People and it is the People for whom all is meant to be.
Ours is a government of and by and for the people! As said by Abraham Lincoln:
that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom[8]—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
All Americans are The People.
The United States Constitution says:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
President Trump is not one of the people! He is, HE says... better then anyone. HE respects few if any as he has mocked and threatened many so that even Senators fear him.
What about F's
Fear
Fairness
Foul play
Ah... Fear.. We are truly F**k'd with fear. Fear of immigrants. Fear of the truth. Fear of The People who are not us... People living in cities or on farms or other parts of the nation or city. Fear of races and religions.
But WE ARE AMERICANS... and we live in the Home of the Brave. And I hope we will find the courage and bravery to stand up to The BULLY for that is what President Trump is. He bullies and lies and smirks. Do we really want this Bully and Clown anymore?
YES -- rich white males and poor white males seem to find something in Trump they like. They like hearing their darker thoughts spoken out loud... And those dark thoughts are real to them and troubling and FAIRNESS has left the room, so to speak. When the workings of government are halted because it can be done (Speaker of the House blocks for over a year the legitimate nomination of a justice for the Supreme Court)... that is Foul Play. Sure - it was done and thus could be done... and yet it was WRONG...
Fear and Fairness and Foul Play ... can add up to we are simply F**k'd... you know!?
What is Freedom? Freedom is just another word ... for nothing left to lose... and if we do not impeach his aberration to our system... then we will be lost and not free. We will have a lawless dictator whose ethics and morals are truly and absolutely bad, wrong, evil... and we will feel powerless and useless and harmed.
And so on and so aon..
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Monday, September 23, 2019
TRAVEL Bucket List
Well...
Greece - but why?
Belize -- Deanne... w/Wendy and Mark
China - Great Wall, culture, landscape, clay warriors, river... Forbidden City... Special places.
Vietnam - Deanne seems keen.
Israel... again... and again...
And Jordan .. specifically Petra...
Antarctic
Russia??? culture, people, ???
France - Paris, Normandy, wine country....
Italy - especially the south... and Venice??? third time the charm?
Norway - Oslo...
Seychelles??? - volunteer and scuba...???!!
Australia, New Zealand.... etc.. beauty....
Galapagos
Machu Pichu... if I can get into shape...
Costa Rica -- Deanne....
OR COURSE -- NYC....!!!
Cuba....
Mexico... Mexico City... and Mayan ruins... and ???
Japan ...
Greece - but why?
Belize -- Deanne... w/Wendy and Mark
China - Great Wall, culture, landscape, clay warriors, river... Forbidden City... Special places.
Vietnam - Deanne seems keen.
Israel... again... and again...
And Jordan .. specifically Petra...
Antarctic
Russia??? culture, people, ???
France - Paris, Normandy, wine country....
Italy - especially the south... and Venice??? third time the charm?
Norway - Oslo...
Seychelles??? - volunteer and scuba...???!!
Australia, New Zealand.... etc.. beauty....
Galapagos
Machu Pichu... if I can get into shape...
Costa Rica -- Deanne....
OR COURSE -- NYC....!!!
Cuba....
Mexico... Mexico City... and Mayan ruins... and ???
Japan ...
Tuesday, September 03, 2019
Great America
By Great America I do not mean the amusement parks.... I mean to talk about our wonderful country, The US of A. We were great, we are great... and we will be great because of wonderful citizens and plentiful land and natural resources as well as good fortune. Yes - we are fortunate to have within our borders plenty!
We may lack certain things sometimes. International food distribution means we can have tomatoes all year round. We can get certain precious metals by trading important things such as foods and we have ways of supplying our energy needs both by using carbon-based fuels and renewables.
What we sometimes lack is a certain WILL TO DO... To do what is difficult because economics suggests "easier" ways to get things done. Sometimes that economics is a TRADE WAR.
War ... war, war.... Really? Easy to win? Are there ever winners? Who loses and when? For how long? War is just not really good. Or necessary! Being offensive is considered wrong and the USA is very capable of defending itself!
SO - what is my concern when it comes to GREAT AMERICA? My concern is that SHOULDing other nations is just as bad and non-productive as when any of us tells a friend, spouse, child, etc to do what the SHOULD.... Few of us for only a limited amount of time get to effectively tell another what they should do... A child should not play with fire. A child should get an education. A child should do this and that... but once any child becomes an adult telling them what they should do is less and less likely to get the results appropriate. This is also the case for nations.. especially mature and powerful nations.
Today the USA and China are fighting a war on the economic fronts. Each side wants the other to do this or that. In other words, for instance, the USA thinks China should stop breaching intellectual property rights. China may think the USA should share information freely and transparently. There are other issues... but I think each side has a set of SHOULDS for the other side with the goal of gaining some advantage.
What WE in the USA can do is we can do what we have done best for years -- encourage science and technology and innovation and outside-the-box thinking. Free thinking!
What else we in the USA can do is make living and working in the USA better for all. According to the numbers, i.e. statistics showing how wealth is distributed today compared with the 1950's and other times ... wealth is more concentrated in the hands of a few and less spread around to workers and others. A taxation system which to some extent leveled the playing field, so to speak, and redistributed some wealth to the poor and disadvantaged has changed. Taxes have fallen for all, perhaps, but mostly for the rich and in many cases where services have diminished for ordinary folks such services are able to be paid for privately and for private purposes by the rich. Consider how the rich can buy the best health care, the best education, and the best police. Yes - private police!!!
America is great when it is great for all or at least most Americans. Most/all Americans need good health care, good education for their children, good policing of their communities.
The way to get what all Americans need is to get the money to pay for all this and that means higher tax receipts and that is most easily affordable by those people making in excess of 500 thousand dollars a year and/or who have assets in excess of 5 million dollars. Don't you think such people can live well with such money and how many of us have close that amount on which to live and eat. There is a lot of excess out there which shared would benefit a lot of people. And that would be GREAT!
We may lack certain things sometimes. International food distribution means we can have tomatoes all year round. We can get certain precious metals by trading important things such as foods and we have ways of supplying our energy needs both by using carbon-based fuels and renewables.
What we sometimes lack is a certain WILL TO DO... To do what is difficult because economics suggests "easier" ways to get things done. Sometimes that economics is a TRADE WAR.
War ... war, war.... Really? Easy to win? Are there ever winners? Who loses and when? For how long? War is just not really good. Or necessary! Being offensive is considered wrong and the USA is very capable of defending itself!
SO - what is my concern when it comes to GREAT AMERICA? My concern is that SHOULDing other nations is just as bad and non-productive as when any of us tells a friend, spouse, child, etc to do what the SHOULD.... Few of us for only a limited amount of time get to effectively tell another what they should do... A child should not play with fire. A child should get an education. A child should do this and that... but once any child becomes an adult telling them what they should do is less and less likely to get the results appropriate. This is also the case for nations.. especially mature and powerful nations.
Today the USA and China are fighting a war on the economic fronts. Each side wants the other to do this or that. In other words, for instance, the USA thinks China should stop breaching intellectual property rights. China may think the USA should share information freely and transparently. There are other issues... but I think each side has a set of SHOULDS for the other side with the goal of gaining some advantage.
What WE in the USA can do is we can do what we have done best for years -- encourage science and technology and innovation and outside-the-box thinking. Free thinking!
What else we in the USA can do is make living and working in the USA better for all. According to the numbers, i.e. statistics showing how wealth is distributed today compared with the 1950's and other times ... wealth is more concentrated in the hands of a few and less spread around to workers and others. A taxation system which to some extent leveled the playing field, so to speak, and redistributed some wealth to the poor and disadvantaged has changed. Taxes have fallen for all, perhaps, but mostly for the rich and in many cases where services have diminished for ordinary folks such services are able to be paid for privately and for private purposes by the rich. Consider how the rich can buy the best health care, the best education, and the best police. Yes - private police!!!
America is great when it is great for all or at least most Americans. Most/all Americans need good health care, good education for their children, good policing of their communities.
The way to get what all Americans need is to get the money to pay for all this and that means higher tax receipts and that is most easily affordable by those people making in excess of 500 thousand dollars a year and/or who have assets in excess of 5 million dollars. Don't you think such people can live well with such money and how many of us have close that amount on which to live and eat. There is a lot of excess out there which shared would benefit a lot of people. And that would be GREAT!
Monday, September 02, 2019
Asserting the political MIDDLE... now
I am not personally in The Middle politically. I am to the left of middle. I am not radically to the Left and sometimes my sense of what is best has me looking at the Right. Essentially, however, I do not think either the Left or the Right has the absolutely best answers.
The idea that some group and their position(s) may be ABSOLUTELY the best is where the trouble lies. There are multiple types of people with multiple types of problems and the resulting variety of people and problems means there are multiple ways for problems to be solved. There may in fact be an infinite variety of solutions! What is good for one person in one situation may be bad for another. One size doesn't fit all - no matter what the labels say!
SO ... in the past our political system, i.e. the Congress, had members in the House of Representative and in the Senate who themselves were of varying types (yes... race and gender differences were not seen/there nevertheless there was variety in places of origin, education, professions, interests, religion, wealth, and personalities!) and when dealing with issues of taxation and education and defense and the post office and welfare, etc, etc.. etc...!!! -- there was a willingness to consider compromise and consensus and essentially SOLUTIONS... to the issues and the questions they raised. There were people on the Left and people on the Right and somewhere in the Middle solutions were found and sometimes the solutions leaned right and sometimes left and sometimes they worked and sometimes they did not work. Trial and error and hope was understood to be the way for all to get a chance!
Something seems different today in the present.
The future comes from the past and the present. At all times, in the past and in the present and in the future The Middle way is a way most and maybe nearly all people can find something useful and important and acceptable and tolerable. Compromise and consensus solutions work for many -- and it was understood solutions might not work for everyone all the time. Frustrations built up! Something better was wanted. Some best, absolutely best solution was wanted. People wanted education and health care for all that was absolutely the best for all. Dramatic news reports of the good and the bad and the ugly were made and consumed because drama grabs our attention. Drama, however, is not found in the ORDINARY middle. The statistics showing most people getting good health care and a decent education are dry and uninteresting. Dramas - if positive and wonderful and miraculous left people who only had ok, ordinary experiences wanting more. Dramas showing bad and scary happenings made people think government and experts were not good enough.
However - good enough IS good enough.
While many people except the simple statement -- "life is not fair" I wonder if and when we can understand that the perfect and the absolute generally does not exist. It is something to strive for but not something we generally see or have and if we do achieve some perfection it is fleeting!
I and this essay is good enough I hope to cause you to consider The Middle Ways. YOU are good enough to get the point.
The point is in 2020 we need a new President who will not be perfect and who will try to do the best that can be done and who will succeed sometimes, fail other times, and serve the interests and needs of most Americans. Something in the middle for most! I don't know who that will be.
Donald Trump does not know the Middle Way as he has demonstrated an arrangance of assumed perfection in spite of facts and reality to the contrary of his "facts", etc.. People with open eyes and hearts know truth is real and not what Trump sees.
Do we really want to be lead by someone with NO humility and who only trusts himself while ignoring most (almost all) experts? Chemists and physicists and historians and journalists and poets and businessmen and astronauts and teachers and clergy and doctors and almost all knowledgeable experts with differing views then his are simply called stupid or worse. Trust IS important and trusting others is necessary unless you are God... and Trump is not God! What kind of person believes others are bad, wrong, evil.. if they differ a lot or even a little from his views? How many of us are like that and are happy and effective? Working and living and growing together with tolerance and acceptance is The Middle Way and is how people relate well over time and space.
GO MIDDLE!
The idea that some group and their position(s) may be ABSOLUTELY the best is where the trouble lies. There are multiple types of people with multiple types of problems and the resulting variety of people and problems means there are multiple ways for problems to be solved. There may in fact be an infinite variety of solutions! What is good for one person in one situation may be bad for another. One size doesn't fit all - no matter what the labels say!
SO ... in the past our political system, i.e. the Congress, had members in the House of Representative and in the Senate who themselves were of varying types (yes... race and gender differences were not seen/there nevertheless there was variety in places of origin, education, professions, interests, religion, wealth, and personalities!) and when dealing with issues of taxation and education and defense and the post office and welfare, etc, etc.. etc...!!! -- there was a willingness to consider compromise and consensus and essentially SOLUTIONS... to the issues and the questions they raised. There were people on the Left and people on the Right and somewhere in the Middle solutions were found and sometimes the solutions leaned right and sometimes left and sometimes they worked and sometimes they did not work. Trial and error and hope was understood to be the way for all to get a chance!
Something seems different today in the present.
The future comes from the past and the present. At all times, in the past and in the present and in the future The Middle way is a way most and maybe nearly all people can find something useful and important and acceptable and tolerable. Compromise and consensus solutions work for many -- and it was understood solutions might not work for everyone all the time. Frustrations built up! Something better was wanted. Some best, absolutely best solution was wanted. People wanted education and health care for all that was absolutely the best for all. Dramatic news reports of the good and the bad and the ugly were made and consumed because drama grabs our attention. Drama, however, is not found in the ORDINARY middle. The statistics showing most people getting good health care and a decent education are dry and uninteresting. Dramas - if positive and wonderful and miraculous left people who only had ok, ordinary experiences wanting more. Dramas showing bad and scary happenings made people think government and experts were not good enough.
However - good enough IS good enough.
While many people except the simple statement -- "life is not fair" I wonder if and when we can understand that the perfect and the absolute generally does not exist. It is something to strive for but not something we generally see or have and if we do achieve some perfection it is fleeting!
I and this essay is good enough I hope to cause you to consider The Middle Ways. YOU are good enough to get the point.
The point is in 2020 we need a new President who will not be perfect and who will try to do the best that can be done and who will succeed sometimes, fail other times, and serve the interests and needs of most Americans. Something in the middle for most! I don't know who that will be.
Donald Trump does not know the Middle Way as he has demonstrated an arrangance of assumed perfection in spite of facts and reality to the contrary of his "facts", etc.. People with open eyes and hearts know truth is real and not what Trump sees.
Do we really want to be lead by someone with NO humility and who only trusts himself while ignoring most (almost all) experts? Chemists and physicists and historians and journalists and poets and businessmen and astronauts and teachers and clergy and doctors and almost all knowledgeable experts with differing views then his are simply called stupid or worse. Trust IS important and trusting others is necessary unless you are God... and Trump is not God! What kind of person believes others are bad, wrong, evil.. if they differ a lot or even a little from his views? How many of us are like that and are happy and effective? Working and living and growing together with tolerance and acceptance is The Middle Way and is how people relate well over time and space.
GO MIDDLE!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)