The arrogance of the supposed informers (#2373)

Too many talking heads have taken on a stature they have given to themselves as the thinkers of the rest of us. They determine what is worthy of discussion and blatantly press their opinions into them. The absurdity that follows is lost on them but they care not a wit since they get to give their triumphal opines as more fact than what they really are, disjointed fiction. I rarely watch news shows or commentary journalism since it is most always slanted toward an extreme cause or point of view. There is less fact involved in their reporting and more towards harsh judgments. Events and circumstances are what should be reported and that should always be the starting point of an informed conversation. I enjoy hearing all different points of view on subjects and for that I am fortunate. I get to discern the validity of these points of view through logic, science and common sense. My own personal morality also plays a role but less so since we are all equal in the eyes of the law and my morality is not the same in every way as anyone else's. It is in the reporting of facts and possible solutions that I get to be informed and appreciate the reporting. However, too many information pushers also have an agenda and that agenda is less about revealing facts and more about swaying opinion. I have had enough of the opinion swayers since none of them see the world through my eyes so my own thoughts are of a higher priority and value than someone who is trying to think for me. I suppose what really galls me is the arrogant information peddlers have a condescension to the rest of us that is not only obvious but is vile in my eyes. Yet they continue like nothing is wrong and apparently in their perspective nothing is wrong when they get to tell us how to think.

Republicans, always protecting the tax dodgers (#2372)

What Republicans don't get about living in a democratic society is that all need to pay their taxes in a progressive way. The more you make the more duty you have to pay a higher rate. It is how we recirculate dollars back into our economy. Our government doesn't keep the tax dollars in offshore bank accounts accruing interest and not stimulating new businesses. On the contrary, our government spends the tax dollars on programs that improve our citizens' chances of successful business and life opportunities. The rest goes towards our foreign policies and defense. At least in an intelligently run democracy. Not so with ours at this time. We have Republicans in control of too many elected offices who want to only pay back favors to those who got them elected by promoting policies that unevenly benefit their wealthy backers. What Republicans do is squash laws that would force the repatriation of overseas tax dollars hidden in bank accounts so that their backers can continue to use our democratic institutions here in America for their benefit without having to be responsible to create new business opportunities here. They have enough of a monopoly on important businesses that they would prefer not to have any competition at all. You see it all the time, large corporations buying up other large corporations as a way to thin the selling market to their advantage. Republicans cannot see beyond their own greedy growing lying noses as they continue to tell us that when the wealthy get the bulk of the profits it will trickle down to us. Not so when the profits sit in overseas bank accounts. That is the obvious conclusion I have come to but a more dark sinister conclusion is also viable. Republicans are trying hard to destroy our current democracy in order to form a more religious one. Think about that for a moment, taking our hard fought for right to rule ourselves and replacing it with an oligarchy based upon on a religion. Seems to me that George Washington and company would jump out of their graves and declare another independence from Republicans.

The lying hucksters on radio, television, newspapers and the Internet (#2371)

Anytime anyone says they got a message from god or some other unexplainable source you know you are in the presence of a huckster. The only "message" anyone gets is through logic and common sense, anything else is just manipulation by one or more in order to control others or gain some financial way. This isn't that hard folks. Using mysticism or superstition to sway and guide people from logic and common sense should be recognizable to any who have a normal functioning thought process. Reason to analysis and then concluding is the normal thought process. Any person in the media paradigm who at any time uses hate, racism, elitism or any other divisive intolerant tool is a huckster. Their choice to be a huckster is a conscious one. They have sold some part of themselves for some kind of gain either through fear or some form of sociopathic/psychopathic anomaly. How they can spew some of the crap I hear and see is beneath dignity and respect. Yet too many of us are not doing our duty in calling them out for their vile attempts to distort the truth or in too many cases destroy the truth and replace it with out and out lies. There is not one soul on this Earth that has my respect when logic and common sense is devoid from their thinking or their dialogue. I have no time for the ridiculousness of harm to others or the hate it instills. I am but one man who will not tolerate petty cowardly people to sway innocent people from the truth of things. I will never back down from being a defender of right and good despite the army of disinformation talking heads out there who are only interested in serving up the lies they spew for pay. Remember, the key to honorable logic and common sense is that no "harm" is done to anyone. If there is harm done then the huckster employing the illogic needs and should be shut down in a most contemptible way.

The proving grounds (#2370)

I like to think of my being alive as my proving grounds. The place where I come to exist in order to find out who I am and what I stand for. I know who I am, a good decent human being who is trying mightily to be a better human being. I also know what I stand for, everything good in life that has no harm to it. Simple really. No great revelation or long complicated explanation, being better and doing no harm. Every day is a new chance to prove who I am and what I stand for. It takes conviction and courage but those are two things to which I have a massive supply. So when any small or large problem enters my day I can reasonably be assured I will be prepared. For instance, I don't reflect in the past or daydream about the future, instead I am just ready for the present. The future and the past will be what they are regardless if I contemplate on them. As to being prepared for the future that is exactly what I am doing by being ready in the present. As to reflecting on the past, there will be time enough for that when I am in my last days if I am so fortunate not to be taken suddenly. What I do have is today. This moment and hopefully the next moment as well, so what I do with them is of the highest priority with me. I don't expect a lot out of myself but I do expect quality. Whatever I do must be my best effort regardless of priority. I have a lifetime of work to accomplish every day even though it may be just being alive. There is no insignificant act or thought. Everything serves a purpose so the building blocks are usually small but the final outcome is not. The proving grounds is where I live and nothing less. I am not some random soul who is existing for no rational reason. I am of a purpose to which I believe to be fact. I cannot say why or how but through a faith of sorts I hold dear to it and as I see nature and humanity on this planet I do sense that my instinct to be better and to stand for good without harm is a perfect purpose for me.

All of us have a say in the future (#2369)

What we do and what we don't do will determine our input into how the future becomes. it isn't enough not to agree with harmful souls, it takes standing up to them and stopping them from going forward with their harm.We are all accountable to ourselves. What is our worth to ourselves? It is as simple as when someone is being racist in conversation, I don't just walk away, I tell them that I won't condone racism in my presence and that they had better not continue it in front of me. If they stop and apologize then all can be forgiven, if not then I take myself away from them and do not return to their presence. I cannot stop others from doing harm in words but I can stop listening and stop giving them my attention. I value myself more than any value they might have to offer. I don't use negatives as a value. I remain positive even when the positive is scarcely visible. My actions are imprinted on those who are in my realm. I can offer others the good in life about how to live and be happy. That is enough of a legacy in itself yet for me I want to do more. So shutting down the offensive and negative that is so often spewed from haters challenges me and I accept the challenge. I will not be bullied or ramroded into a prospective opinion I know is not right. Instead I will argue that the "not rights" of the world always have an ulterior motive that harms some so others can nefariously gain. Although the premises of life are complicated it always boils down to a simple conclusion, do no harm. Even more so, do no harm while trying to do good. I can believe that 99% of us want good in our lives, not the remorseful and regrettable harm that too many without a conscience employ. So we must make known our inner strength to defend what is right and good so that our future and the future of our children is actually better than when we got here.

Sports, music and a buzz are keeping us from what rottenness is happening to us (#2368)

Instead of watching a news show or researching on the internet the policies and politicians that are affecting them, we turn on sports or music channels, open a can or bottle of alcohol, roll a doobie or line a mirror and immerse ourselves into that. It is our escape hatch that we enjoy far more than the hard truth of reality. We are an escapist society here in America. We don't want to face that which we aren't forced to unless we are on the clock. Once we are done with our workday, we have to escape to a place that makes us feel good or better than what reality offers. The problem with that is that while we are escaping, other more nefarious souls are stealing our rights from us. Oh, not so much as to make you angry but enough each day that you don't really think much of it. Like the frog in the pot of water who doesn't recognize that the water is slowly reaching it's boiling point, we both will be cooked by not recognizing it. That is why I am writing this here, not so much for the frog to understand, lol. but so that those of us who would rather escape reality than face anything beyond what we have to. By escaping, we are not present in the building and improvement of our society. By escaping we are more prone to be known in the history books of the future as the ones who let slip away democracy to a bunch of worthless thieves who took advantage of us while we were getting baked and/or otherwise occupied with our sports or music. I love sports and music but I what I love even more is my democracy and for me to have to be writing this is just how bad it has gotten. All of us need to do more in reality where there is no immediate payout. We need to put ourselves out there with our intelligent and common sense principled backed policies. Those of us who choose to then escape reality, after we have conquered those who would steal our democracy, then so be it. Now is not the time however and we are all needed to do our duty in this intense battle for the will of our government.

Minimum wage boost would help, not hurt our low wage workers and our economy (#2367)

In today's real economy, since the great recession, more jobs have been created in the low wage category than any other. So middle class folks who lost jobs during that recession are forced to move forward in a lower paying economy. With our current federal minimum wage still at $7.25 an hour, many cannot have a quality life with just one job and have any hope of getting back to a middle class status. Meanwhile those large and medium sized businesses that employ minimum wage workers are making large profits. So there is an inequality between wages and profits like there hasn't been since just before the great depression nearly 90 years ago. What does raising the minimum wage do for our economy? First it increases the buying power for those who are receiving the new higher amount. Remember, those who are on minimum wage earnings have no hope for savings since everything they need is not being met on their current earnings. What has been shown through numerous studies is that low wage workers, when given more earnings spend all their earnings on necessary items they couldn't previously afford and have gone without. What this new spending does is add an influx of spending to the economy whereas more goods and services can now be supplied, and new jobs created. The quality of life rises for those at the minimum wage level when increases to the minimum are provided and is not inconsequential. Second, everyone who was making just above the minimum will also see their wages increase since they had already achieved some success in garnering more than the minimum. They then will also reintroduce those higher wages back into the economy through necessary buying power. Our minimum wage is so low now that the tiers of earnings above it are insufficient in having a quality of life we hope to start from. Raising the minimum wage is right and good and the economy and the families it effects will be better off for it. Income inequality is still the greatest economic threat we face and raising the minimum wage is a step toward alleviating some of that threat, among other things for a later discussion.

When our weaknesses become our strengths (#2366)

The exact moment the process begins is when we face our fears. When we make up our minds that no matter what, we will not allow ourselves to defeat ourselves. I don't mind too much when I am bested in any competition or attempt to make life better by forces outside my control. I just work harder the next time. But I cannot nor will not allow me to be the cause of any downfall. Life is hard enough trying to make it better so why would I allow me to stop what I truly want? Fear is a powerful deterrent in any form but fear cannot be how we define our lives. We are given a tremendous opportunity to make a difference if we can only decide that come what may is better than regret and remorse. I would rather die standing on my feet than with my head buried in the sand. The most unexpected part though is when we realize that by overcoming our fear to act on some good and right thing, we actually feel better and then build more courage to confront other fears we have that have been holding us back. A life lived in a pool without ripples may be safe but it is not who we are. We are ripple makers and not allowing ourselves to make those ripples reduces the soul of our majestic being. No amount of inhibition is excusable when fear is the sole reason for our inhibition. There are times when fear can be parlayed into a wise decision based upon common sense and logical factors but otherwise fear has no place in our lives. I am a better man for overcoming too many of my old weaknesses and instead have conquered them and made them my strengths. I thought I could never live my life outside certain parameters but what I have learned by changing them and rebuffing old weaknesses is that there is not only honor but respect gained by proving strength is greater than weakness and much more fulfilling.

No more what ifs (#2365)

I cannot and will not live a life that leaves me wondering what could be or should be. I want what must be and for that I am satisfied. I don't get everything I want contrarily, I rarely get what I want but for the most part I don't know what I want most of the time anyway. lol. But the times I do I go for it. Now many of the times I do figure out what I want it is too late and I accept that. It is like fate has moved on while I was too busy not paying attention. It doesn't mean that I don't feel the disappointment and gut hurt but it is what is real and reality is where I live my whole life now. My feelings or hurts are very little in the scope of all life so I take the hit and move on. The future may change and for that I have some hope but hope and achievement are not constant companions. Now when I see and know what I want and there are no obvious unassailable obstacles I move forward on it despite what may come. I will not be that guy who has regrets over missed opportunities. My pride and vanity are no longer quotients in the equation. If anything I have learned that honor does reside in humility and the hat in my hand when I go where it is hard to go is my best chance to have that which draws me in.  I know that despite the outcome I will have no remorse for not trying. Life is amazing and it is short in the big picture so letting things get procrastinated because they are hard or uncomfortable is unacceptable. The quantity of my life has to be filled quality and quality will only come about by me putting action to the thoughts and emotions that drive me. I will not be a bystander in my own life. What I have missed in the past through inattention may come around again but what opportunities that are here now with me will get all of me.

We should not be afraid to be alive (#2364)

Life should not be about fear. Life should be about discovery. How do we get from a society that has traditionally been about fear and desperate survival to a society that has a foundation below us that eliminates our fears about whether we can survive? This is what I fight for every day of my life. No one, not the desperate in other countries nor the desperate here at home should have to beg for their life. We are not immortal so it is incumbent upon us to sacrifice what we can as a body to protect and nurture those who come after us. We are not the end all to end all, we are just another link in the chain that defines our species. What will our contribution to our species entail? Nothing or worse or something of value? Every life born to our species is of value. We don't know how or when but each of us is uniquely able to be impactful in ways that progress our best natures and our intellect. If we can all start from a safe harbor, we can then focus our minds and souls on what is out ahead of us instead of on the daily scrabble of just staying alive. The importance of treating all humans with the dignity and respect of a minimum foundation from which to exist from is not some radical idea, it is a natural progression of our evolutionary being. We have moved from the basic family structure to a more complex social bond. Our beings are intertwined in ways that demand a level of equality when we begin our lives so that no one is left unable to have the right to seize their own possible future. A foundation or floor from which we all begin from is not a bad thing it is actually a good thing. When we all start from a perspective of inclusion our values are more rightly aligned and the idea of a consensus on the future comes about more readily. Our natures demand that we care for each other and that we knowledgeably discover where we are and where we could go. Having all of us doing just such things is the best of who we are when we do it together.

The desperation of the uninformed (#2363)

I have had a couple of political encounters lately with some adversaries, Republican defenders, who have come at me with the fallacy of illogic. It is mind puzzling to me that a simple lesson has gone unheeded. If you don't know what you are talking about then don't talk, just listen and become informed. Not so lately with these folks who are suffering from a lack of information. First they denigrate the Dodd/Frank legislation that attempts to regulate Wall Street as a failure, while it is their party that has defanged the law through their conservative regulators and Wall Street lobbyists. So they blame Democrats for a failed law while they were the ones who are causing it to be less effective. Nice gig, if you are a hypocrite and too many don't know the truth. Second, they want to compare our President Obama with a previous Republican President Reagan by saying that Obama is no Reagan, like it is slap in the face to try to elevate President Obama up to the level of a President Reagan. I cannot fathom how contrary their statement is. President Reagan and his Republican acolyte legislator's policies have been destroying the middle class for decades while his arms to Iran deal conclusively points out that it is President Reagan who is no President Obama. It is becoming quite clear the Republicanism is in it's death throes as the arguments for the party's stature and effectiveness is resorting to illogical contrary arguments with no validity. Only the uninformed still rally to their cause through racist and elitist tactics. I can only conclude that anyone who has the ability to understand and store knowledge will be able to easily recognize the desperation that Republicans bring as their feeble attempt to convince us that they are the true leaders of our society. I would laugh at the idea of it but it is too serious not to crush it wherever it raises it's desperate head.

Never stop being hopeful (#2362)

There is one thing no one can take from you, your hope. I know that situations and circumstances beat us down and in the short term nothing good seems possible, but we have within us hope for possibility and if we never let that go by choice we will always have a chance for something better in our lives. This is the faith by which I live. If I don't give up I have a chance. That is the only thing I can control for sure, my persistence to persevere. This blog is a manifestation of that value. Every day I get up with the idea that I have something relevant to say that might just benefit one person. I get to do that here and even if not every day anyone gets anything from me, there are other days where I do make a difference in some people's lives. When we open ourselves up to others they get to compare and contrast their lives with ours. They get another clear example that we are not all so different from each other. At our cores most of us have the same motivation about life. We want life to be good and prosperous while also being fair and opportune. I know when I see unfairness or inequality on a basic level I am charged inside with a will and determination to denounce it and to advocate for it's change. No matter how many times I see a different iteration of harm or injustice it instills in me the same fire to thwart it. That is my hope, to have a better world all around me that includes all of us not just some of us. I am not one of those who thinks we should be competing against each other for basic survival. I see us having a foundation from which we all get to start out in life with some degree of respect and honor and then move on with our own merit. Hope is my vision for that and hope will be the force that drives me toward it all the moments of my life.

Capitalism is a subset of democracy, not the other way around (#2361)

The infectious greed that has overtaken the Republican party is rooted in the idea that capitalism is greater than democracy. The idea of equality, fairness and opportunity are to be held above all things does not compute with Republicans. Instead they hold that making a buck anyway "reasonably" possible, and I use the term "reasonably" as most often defined by unregulated business practices, as a greater ideal than providing for the foundation to foster every American the chance to succeed. In a democracy, we all have a say in how we practice every element of our society. We work to include all of us regardless of difference. We honor those who stand up for our principles by sacrificing blood and treasure to defend our democratic vision. In other words, we work together to improve not only our society but to help those societies outside ours to emulate our success. The problem with our society now is that there is a strain of greed and condescension in too many of our politicians and too many of our electorate that have decided that commerce and elitism is a greater force on Earth than democracy. I entitled this post with the idea to help us recognize that capitalism is not the end all, democracy is the all time end. Everything else within democracy has limits, whereas democracy is the eternal set from which all subsets inhabit. If Capitalism fails to achieve an equal, fair and opportune society then capitalism must be reconstituted. Allowing for other philosophies of economics to flourish. Remembering that our democracy is first above all other things is paramount, everything after democracy can be changed and upgraded to fulfill our democratic ideals. Not the other way around as the Republican party continues to fail to recognize.

Republicans main goal, make the wealthy wealthier (#2360)

Now that the Republican agenda of making the wealthy even wealthier is evident we can surely see who is responsible for income inequality. There is only so much money any one economy can have fluctuating about in it's commercial transactions and if Republicans continue to work to give it to the wealthy then there is less for the non wealthy to accumulate. We know that the wealthy, for the most part, like to put their wealth in overseas banks in order to avoid paying American taxes. By doing this the wealthy not only shirk their duty to abide by their responsibility to their own country but they also deprive our American economy of the capital that is not being churned throughout our economic system. the scarcity of this overseas banked capital, leaves too many of us down at the bottom rung of our economies without opportunity to acquire this banked capital through work, enterprise nor through innovation. We are an economy that has the wherewithal to create new paradigms for modernization but not the capital required to make it so. So as the majority, and I mean the bottom 90%, has little opportunity left for capital acquirement, Republicans work diligently to make it even worse. They want to cut government spending, not where it needs to be cut in the defense department and in tax subsidies for wealthy and profitable corporations, but instead in social programs that help the sick and disabled and those in need of food and education. I am not making this up at all so please feel free to fact check anything I have said here. How anyone with a right mind in this day and age of easy access to information can vote for Republicans is mind numbing to me. The justifications I have heard are not logical nor are they caring. It seems too many of our American electorate have lost it's collective mind and instead has embraced a selfish greedy survival of the fittest mindset. What a disgrace and surely our downfall as a democratic society is approaching fast. There is time to move back to a society based upon equality, fairness and opportunity but it must happen quickly or the worst of who we are will be the best we have to offer to our future.

No more escaping reality, changing it instead (#2359)

In the earlier edition of me was the guy who was sick and tired of how reality was so screwed up that being in it was a perfect excuse to escape it through mind altering alcohol and drugs. Less drugs and more the conventional legal alcohol mind you. So much so that the alcohol became more than old friend and became an addiction instead. It took me years of struggle and harm to finally realize that the escape I had early in my life decided to live was at the root of why I behaved so poorly. Now I look upon escape from reality as a cop out, the cowardly way to live. I am older for sure and my perspective has changed with a much more comprehensive insight but that is still not enough of a reason for me to have quit on life so early. I am ashamed of my behavior and despite it's regretful effect, I chose to use it to elevate me to a greater motivation to be a greater force for change in reality. Now I fight hard for change that will not allow that old screwed up status quo of a reality to be my reality. I don't accept the harsh brutality, I witnessed and lived, to exist without me battling to alter it for the better. Back then I wasn't able to fight like I am able to now and although I have given much time away living in my escape, I will give no more time! Although the years of addiction to my preferred mode of escapism has worn a hole in my soul, it is a hole that is now being filled with determination and will power. My mind is full of being present in my life with as much of the faculty of mind that I have. There is no room for one second of escape from reality. Even in my moments of recreation and entertainment, reality is always a premium being lived. When I was younger I could get away with not being present because I wrongly blamed others for the mess life had become. No longer, now I point the finger at myself and say what are you doing this moment and every moment going forward to make life better?

Fix ourselves and the world around us improves (#2358)

It all starts with us. When we decide to do something positive the world around us improves. We are adding to all the other positives being done by all those who also choose to change for the good. I have in the past been part of making things worse for myself and therefore for those around me. Enough of that nonsense. It is true, everything is either directly or inversely proportional. If I do something negative, the negative around me stays constant or increases. If I do something positive, the positive around me stays constant or increases. At least that is what I have found. So those days of me not caring or being too cavalier about truth and facts are over. Everything requires my attention to detail. Nothing can escape the logic I need to apply to it and the emotional bearing it places on not only me but on those who are affected by it. I matter just as much as everyone else does so no time for shirking when what I do or don't do has an effect one way or the other. By fixing ourselves, or in other words, through taking control of our thoughts and actions to a betterment, I control what I let my mind ponder or gravitate towards. I don't have to let thoughts control me I can dismiss them and move onto something more tangible than what ifs or should ofs. I don't have to let my often addictive personality act in ways that do harm to me and to others. I can change my patterns of behavior to reflect the positive I wish to project as who I am. I am not bound by any paradigm that doesn't exhibit qualities I wish to promote, including addictive ones. I have the power within me to be who I want to be regardless of obstacle or circumstance. I have the free will to embrace what it is about this existence that allows me my most useful purpose. My peace and serenity is a product that is derived from the hard work of choosing to be the real inner me, not someone whom I am not.

Idealism is possible with effort (#2357)

What we hold as perfect examples of equality, fairness and opportunity can be reality. If our laws were truly blind and deaf to all, and all things being equal, we could always have a beginning that then depended upon our merit to define our lives. All we need is the same starting point in life that cannot be greater or lesser than anyone else. Rich, poor or physically incapacitated, the beginning should have no restriction. With some disabilities the opportunity needs to be sufficient to allow for an equal beginning and that is right and good. But in no case shall one equally able human being be given an advantage over another equally able human being. This is an idealistic approach, where the respect and honor of life is given at birth and continues through life based upon what we, individually, do with that respect and honor. Anyone caught manipulating or denying such rights shall be punished in a way that befits the crime being perpetrated without impunity. I keep thinking about how history may view our choices now about we here on Earth, while seeing we understand logic but were incapable of applying it to ourselves in an overall rational way. Our species is still struggling to find our way as a civilized society and that is our problem. We perpetuate the lack of logic in too many areas of our societies. We have too many politicians who desire not to improve our society but instead to muddle about without having a clearly articulated vision to resolve our current issues. This is not a game folks, this is about the future of our species and how we manifest our destiny not just here on Earth but out into the vast Universe. By allowing for all to participate in our futures, thus allowing for a greater insight into our possibilities, we are giving existence the collective best we have to offer.

The death struggle of intellectualism (#2356)

Everything that happens irrationally or in an incomprehensible way in our societies stems from a lack of intellectualism. Without the ability to form logical reasoning as a basis for defining truths from fiction is our most debilitating dilemma. There are few societies that have existed that have completely understood this paradigm. Our natural and man made problems are mostly of our doing since we refuse to keep an educated society as a high priority. We seem to think that commerce somehow magically transforms us into elite beings, which is an absurd illogic. Being able to manipulate is not intellectualism. Intellectualism is rational reasoning. Cold and hard. We need our emotions to guide us in our compassion and care, but without the ability to recognize truth, we are left with a whirligig of chaos. Intellectualism is our gift. I have said this countless times but again I will say it here. We are biological data processors. With sensors and memory, to take information and reason, analyze and conclude from it. This is who we are. We are probes who are given a lifespan to fill our information gathering memories with logical knowledge. After a fashion we are then recorders of such information gathered, gleaned and ordered to be passed along to those who follow us like those before us passed along to us. Intellectualism is the path we all are on. None of us is here with our information gathering and creative formulating abilities for any other purpose than to add to the vast accumulation of factual knowledge about this existence. The sequence of our lives is outlined here through the definition of this blog that I give to our natures, we care and we are curious. Our curiosity is our impetus, our genesis to know and our care is to make what we know not only truth but a never ending supply of it. That will only occur through the struggle to elevate intellectualism to the highest priority of our societies.

The peddlers of ignorance and fear have much to gain (#2355)

Even ignorance is a capitalistic venture. When a person or a group of persons have no clue as to how to survive in a capitalistic system that requires imagination and innovation as a starting point then their best alternative to becoming successful is to peddle fear and ignorance. We get it in religion, politics and economics. When the leaders of our churches stand up at the pulpit and demand that God has said that some things are good and some things are not and then begin to give a laundry list of what is good and what is not outside of general principles then we see ignorance and fear on display to corral us to their interpretation through religious dogma. When we see a political party tell us what we should be doing on an illogical philosophical level while ignoring what is actually happening to us is when we see ignorance and fear on display. The Republican party has been most adept at scaring and ill informing us about what could be while never implementing anything toward solving our short and long term problems. Keeping us in the dark while Republican politicians slowly remove our rights under a democracy driven government is their goal and it is just because we do not dwell outside our ignorance and fear enough that they do so. They perpetuate the fear and ignorance and then blame us and therefore want to control us. Callous trick these Republicans are playing on us! Our economics is as cruel as well. Offering mostly low paying jobs as a rule while at the same time blaming us for not working hard enough to earn enough to secure a decent life. These peddlers of ignorance and fear reside in the Republican party and their wealthy donors who benefit financially off an ignorant and fearful workforce. The survival of the fittest capitalistic way is growing too strong too fast and will be the death of our democracy. Foolhardy we are for letting Republicans make us dumb and scared and then blame us for it. Shall we fire them this coming next national election?

Leaders think for themselves followers not so much... (#2354)

If you are not the boss of you then someone else is the boss of you. How can you think to matter to anyone if you don't take charge of your own life? The thoughts that cross your mind are yours to control. We all have crazy thoughts but the ones who can control and live by honorable principles are the ones who shape their lives on their terms, not on the terms they default to others. If we want a better life then we, individually, are the force to begin it. It seems to me that we all have the potential to be leaders, it just takes a certain amount of courage to begin. The impetus to begin must come from our core, our soul, our spirit our hearts and minds. The thing that motivates us to happiness and joy while also motivating us to combat anguish and despair. We live this one life here in this precious fragile existence so do we accept our fate to be the boss of ourselves or do we quit to the sense of overwhelmingness that sometimes afflicts us? The worse thing we could do is to stop fighting for what we know is right and good. Our individual destiny is dependent upon us to grasp our present and our future with all our might and allow for the goodness of the human experience to guide us to wherever our fate leads us. I know where my fate doesn't lead me. I doesn't lead me into illogic or harm as a choice. The greatest thing about me controlling my own life is that I get to choose what great thing I can try to achieve. It is my choice and I know I will sacrifice something along the way that I may have desired but in the bigger picture I am following the truth of me and that is far more important that any hoped for personal satisfaction. I matter damn it and I will live my life like I know my mattering to be true!

Racism and democracy are mutually exclusive (#2353)

There is no overlap of these two paradigms. Racism by it's definition is prejudicial and discriminatory. Whereas democracy is defined as allowing for all the citizens of a nation to participate in its governance. One, racism, seeks to exclude while the other, democracy, seeks to include. So for anyone to hold both of these two paradigms at the same time would be logically impossible. So you must ask yourself, am I believer in segregating through racial distinctions or am I a believer in the human being species being equally able to participate in our society? The answer will either be one or the other, but not both simultaneously for it to be logically defended. There is no cognitive dissonant answer that can be justified through argument or debate. One or the other or none at all. You either believe in democracy or you believe in racism or neither. If you are an American and you admit to being racist then you are not a democracy advocate. If you do not hold with democracy and it's principles of equality and fairness then you are not a value to our society. You are either nothing or a drag on our society. Which is a greater purpose for your life, to live with the dynamics of racism such as hatred and destructive harm, or live with building a nation where all can contribute and enjoy the pursuit of happiness as anatomically related human beings? The idea that in the 21st century we are butting up against this idea that the paradigm of racism has a foothold in our nation is appalling and regressive. The Civil War was fought and decided over 150 years ago in favor of freeing any humans from the enslavement of others as law. Why the death of the idea of racism has not followed is not a proud moment for us at this time so many decades later. Just so you know though, you cannot be a democracy loving American and at the same time be a racist. It is logically impossible.

The enlightenment of progress is inevitable (#2352)

It may take centuries or just days but eventually progress will win the day. The only thing that could stop progress is the mindless destruction of ourselves on whole. We may be many things we human beings but species suicidal is not one of them. Each of us fights to survive from birth and then on through the majority of our lives. It is instinctual for us to survive. We crave survival as if it were oxygen or water. I state that we have two natural instincts within us, curiosity and care. But I also state that an interweaving third rail of natural instinct resides within us, survival. We must live as a fact of our existence, therefore living is our main objective. It is in how we live that we find our curiosity and our compassion. Through our compassion and curiosity we discover progress. From learning to utilize fire through to learning how to operate our computer devices, we are on an endless pathway toward enlightened living. This is progress, from out houses of the past to indoor plumbing in our present, we keep innovating and creating new ways to either simplify our lives as needed or complicate them by going to the moon and beyond. We are that dynamic a species that simple and complicated are both equally desired. We are the first species to lift ourselves off our planet and touch new ground on another orb. No other species has devised a scientific method for that kind of achievement. We are amazing and nothing seems to be an obstacle to us being even more amazing except maybe our fear. Yet our courage is even stronger and although fear may rule some days it will always lose to courage. That is how we have evolved from the cowering caveman who was frightened of fire to the towering homosapiens who have harnessed nuclear power. Our species is inevitable!

From intolerance toward tolerance (#2351)

An American state voted yesterday to end the practice of flying the confederate battle flag over the public grounds of the state capitol. The governor of said state will sign the ban into effect either today or tomorrow and the flag will come down. Now this is a Southern state that has a long history of racial tension. The confederate battle flag was the symbol used as a defense of slave owner's rights. There is little disagreement with that in any logical argument. So bringing down this flag, a symbol of slavery, is long overdue, 150 years long overdue. But as some things in life take time to find the correction necessary to make it right so it is with this vote from yesterday. The idea of slavery has been exposed as an egomaniacal, psychotic/sociopathic outlook that still sees people as property and not as free human beings. A literal taking down of a symbol and the acceptance that is is a blight upon a civilized society, is a shift in the stubborn will and ignorant defense of it's continued flying on state grounds. The Southern states, which did most of the deploying of slavery during the early part of our country's formation, seem to be finally trying to shake off the idea that people of one race are more equal than people of another race. This is only a beginning but like all great policy paradigm shifts, they must have a significant starting point. This may prove to be that point for the South to shed it's label of being the last bastion of promoted racial intolerance. Too be sure other regions of our nation have tolerance issues but none as big as the burden the southern states have carried. The good people who now reside in the South seem to have the upper hand in the psychological battle to recognize that we are all of the human race first and foremost.

What we hold dear (#2350)

I was reminded yesterday of the importance of someone in my life who helped in a large way to shape the man I am now. As life goes on and our daily struggles fill our thoughts, it was sad yesterday to hear of the passing of one such soul who lived a hard life in his early years but reformed himself and dedicated his life to living a Christian life. Now few in this world actually live a Christian life, surely there are too many who like to live a Christian life when it is convenient or when they feel guilt, but few actually live the principles of helping his fellow man every day of his life. This one fellow was such a man. He took in those who were left in life with little hope. He took into his family those who were heading for more trouble. He took in those of us who didn't have anything to believe in that even resembled a purpose for our lives. He spent long and countless hours giving of himself, his mind and his soul to anyone who need only ask. there was no expectation of receiving from him, only his expectation to give where the giving was in need. There are very few great men who live among us and often we don't recognize them until they are no longer with us. Such now is the case with Bud Hackney. A man who worked as hard as any man I have ever met. A man who would only get about 4 hours sleep at night in order to be there for all who were in his large circle of friends and family. The one thing I have learned with my time being in Bud's sphere of life is that a positive outlook is much more attractive when it is lived like there is no tomorrow. Bud died having only lived 79 plus years but the quality of his living will only be matched by few who live much longer. A part of me is saddened and stunned that he is gone from this world but a bigger part of me is fortunate to have had, although sleight of stature, an amazing man whose presence was immense, as a mentor such as he.

The broken minds of the arrogant (#2349)

When no sense can be made from those who want to lead it is hard to understand how they got to be who they are and where they are trying to take us. Although it does become clear that nonsense is the path we are being led upon. I would rather follow a leader who has a vision for helping people in not only their struggles but in finding new solutions. There should never be a tradeoff where worse is the tradeoff  for less worse. There should always be a tradeoff of better for good. The philosophy of progress dictates that things get better comprehensively and in a continuum. So when leaders try to tell us that we must sacrifice for a better tomorrow, my suspicions are always proven right in that it seems like only the worse off in society have to sacrifice while the better off in society seem to be unaffected or actually gain instead of sacrificing. Enough of the smoke and mirror logic these arrogant leaders peddle as they try to wean every ounce of resource and energy out of us like we are some utility for their disposal. I work to live, not live to work. I am a human being deserving of respect of being a human being, not just some disposable resource, that is dumped on the trash heap after my utility fails to profit the wealthy. Our leaders must have all of us in their hearts and minds when policies that build upon our democracy are introduced. There are no policies that are logical that ask of us to regress in our destinies. We are an amazing species and all of our civilization is part of that amazement. None of us should have to be shackled to a religious, political or economic policy that doesn't have the full weight of democratic opportunity buttressed with fairness and justice. When leaders tell us that we are the problem, it is time to take back leadership from them and show them that we are not the problem, we are the solution!

Good paying jobs involved with improving our national infrastructure (#2348)

Here's the deal, we improve our national infrastructure through modernization and efficiency in order to make our nation competitive with any other country as to opportunities to create. This will attract those in business who want a first class base of operations for their products and services which in turn will create business activity throughout our country. This gives us a larger tax base to draw from in order to pay for the upgrade while making life much more economically viable for our working class folks. It is a win/win situation but Republicans are against it for no other reason that they do not want to help our struggling middle class improve. They only want to help the wealthy class increase it's already outlandish advantage in income inequality. Republicans have no interest in a healthy society, they want a dependent society that is willing to fight each other over table scraps. The sooner you realize this the sooner we can defeat their agenda by voting for Democrats. Our Democrat party is the one that has all the progressives and liberals, who historically have been the ones who have brought about large change in our nation's history. Think about it, During the Revolutionary War, it was liberals who fought for Independence and Conservatives who fought to stay with the King. During our civil war, it was liberals and progressives who fought for and end to slavery, although at the time liberals and progressives were in the Republican party, and the conservatives fought to maintain slavery. During the The Second World War and the civil rights movement, it was liberals who fought for and gained Social Security and Medicare, while the conservatives are still fighting to end them. Today, liberals are gathered in the Democratic party, having switched party's again over 90 or so years ago, and now we have the Affordable Care Act. The next great policy for our nation will not come from the conservative Republican party but it will come from the liberal/progressive Democratic party. Shall you join us in making it so?

Always the bigger picture (#2347)

I have my personal likes and dislikes but in the end I must choose one over another. So despite me being less than enthusiastic about one political candidate, if that candidate is my chosen party's choice then that is who I will fight for to win. This is what has hurt us Democrats over the years. We have so many purists in our party that if our candidate doesn't win our party's nomination, we disengage from the voting process. But all that does is give the other side, Republicans, one less vote to have to overcome to win the election. That is the bigger picture. Accepting less than our mostly perfect candidate is a must and still a greater victory than not fighting against the mostly worse candidate from the other side. The bigger picture. I will vote and fight for whoever our candidate is and I would hope that the rest of my party's followers would do the same. Our generation cannot change everything overnight even though we think that is how it should be. We must at least allow for smaller advances in our society when our hopes of a better candidate do not come to fruition. The bigger picture. We are all on the same team we Democrats, so whoever becomes our political leader deserves our respect and our due diligence to get whoever it is elected. Remember, the other side, Republicans, are going to field a candidate that is dead set against helping our party's members. So the worse case is a Republican election victory when we could have had at least some good policies set for our Democrat electorate if we all just got behind our party's nominee. The bigger picture. Republicans will have no such trouble voting for their interests so neither should we. Sticking our heads in the sand out of some duty to be pure is not logical or realistic. So whoever our nominee eventually is should get all of our support. The bigger picture.

We celebrate the symbol of our hard fought freedom, our American flag (#2346)

It is always an honor for me to go out to the front of the house and place my American flag in it's mount for all to see. Our American flag represents democracy in action. Our American flag represents those souls who are no longer with us who fought and died protecting and defending democratic values over the span of time since our Declaration of Independence from Britain. It is just a symbol but as far as I go, it is much much more. Our American flag embodies the principles for which I have dedicated my life. I have not always been a great defender of those principles of honor, justice, respect and duty, but for the most part I have been, and in all the actions in the comprehensive life of me our flag has been at the heart of me. I have seen recently where some citizens in Southern states have taken it upon themselves to celebrate their Confederate flag instead of our American flag. Somehow they have deluded themselves into thinking that they are justified and rightly proud to honor a flag whose message of slavery and defiance from American democracy, is a higher ideal than the one that allows them to be defiant. The absurdity and sadness of those who still honor a Confederate flag that was defeated and disgraced in the short era of it's creation is still a scourge to a healthy tolerant and diverse America. There is a sickness that is prevalent in too many white human beings who place themselves above other races for no other purpose than to lord over them. In fact too many of these diseased minded white folks would rather a Nazi German solution had prevailed in order to cleanse the Earth of non-white beings. The hatred it takes to hold such a view is sociopathic in nature and traitorous to the human race on whole. Our American flag is more than cloth or a symbol, it is an idea that the greater nature of humanity is alive and well in our much sacrificed for democracy.

Hey Conservative Supreme Court, racism is not dead (#2345)

That majority conservative opinion gutting a key section of the civil rights act that protected citizens, especially of color, from previously southern states that habitually practiced voter disenfranchisement was wrongly deicded. The reasoning of the conservative justices was that racism had run it's course and generally was now not a factor in determining state election laws. The idea that these conservative justices, including the Chief Justice, that racism had changed from it's original intent is an unsubstantiated one. Either the conservative justices, all five of them concurring against the four liberal justices who all dissented, are living in a vacuum and cannot readily distinguish the heavy reality that racism still plays in our country's social order, or they failed in their due diligence to research and explore possible ramifications of current attitudes and mores still prominently in action. Either way, ignorance is not to be borne on a body so august with the expectation of wisdom and insight we defer to our Supreme Court. The last two years since this opinion has allowed states to deny voting rights to tens of thousands of American citizens. The conservative Supreme Court justices must have come to realize that their opinion that racism had somehow been overcome was faulty. I see it as plainly as I see the sky yet we have not heard one peep out of those conservative justices that their opinion may have been hubristic at best or flat out wrong at worst. One tell of a human with honorable principled conviction is their ability to admit when they is wrong and move forward with humility. I have yet to see that from any of the conservative justices to their utter shame.

Work to live not live to work (#2344)

This is just another problem with how out of step Republicans are concerning what Americans want and need. Republicans think we should have to work until we can no longer function as healthy human beings, and then be left to fend for whatever health care we can afford while having little income to help us along, whereas we democrats think we shouldn't have to work ourselves into the grave. Republicans keep pushing this meme that Social Security is in financial trouble so they can make us raise the retirement age. The problem, like many Republicans have manipulated is that the Social Security trust fund was raided when Republican administrations were in control and used for spending on the military, wars and tax breaks for those who are too wealthy as it is, for the most part. The government has a duty to pay back that raided money through the IOU the Social Security trust fund got from the Republican administration at the time of the raid. So the solvency of the Social Security trust fund is still solid since Democrat majority administrations will pay back into the Social Security trust fund. Not only that but Democrat administrations are more likely to increase the contribution cap for bolstering the fund while also lowering the requirement age for retirement and increasing benefits. Anytime after 60 years old should begin the retirement option. I have worked at hard labor for a large part of my working life and this much I know, that type of work is detrimental to any healthy long life. For those of us who are now at the end of our working careers, retirement is not only a wish but it is also a necessity. A time to enjoy life and improve our lives with our new found freedom from the yoke of constant work. I have found that I still work hard at what I do but I don't punch a clock or receive monetary value for it. It gives me great satisfaction to achieve accomplishments without the fear of losing a job or stepping on the toes of those who are fearful of my success.

Republican strategy, blame and ignore (#2343)

Republicans like to blame anyone other than themselves while doing nothing to find solutions that actually help solve problems. I don't understand why they have fallen down on helping to improve our society. Apparently they're party ranks are filled with disagreeable and non-insightful souls. And for those who have a tradition of voting as a proud Republican and have yet to see that their pride in their party has no basis for pride, yet keep voting for them anyway, I say wake up and inform yourself objectively. The Republican propaganda machine is thick with distortion and lies so do yourself a favor and research in all areas of information, not just your favorite Republican source. That is the difference in a huge way between Democrats and Republicans, we Democrats are willing to look at all the evidence and apply reason, analysis and conclusion to our findings, whereas Republicans are only able to look at some evidence and even when it is not in alignment with their beliefs, they will apply cognitive dissonance to it and either blame the fact givers or ignore the reality. How can one associate with a political party that spends it's time being so undemocratic and ignorant of current and future events as defined by science and our logical processes? When I hear the term dumbing down our society I feel in my bones the fact of it. Too many of us are not even able to engage on a level worthy of the term, intellectual discourse. So debate through logical argument with a Republican is akin to throwing good money after bad. I have tried so many times to use logic to persuade any Republican that facts are more concrete than beliefs yet I always fail with them because despite the truth of a fact, Republicans find that their individual beliefs trump facts. It is a tragedy that too many of our citizens are so ill informed and unwilling to fight for greater educational opportunities. As long as they have their belief systems, logical knowledge is not important to them.