trump, the useful idiot to the cruel republican party (#3073)

     I have tried to give trump the benefit of the doubt about his personal intelligence but each time I do he shows me through some act or thought that he is not worthy of any benefit of the doubt. When in reality the man is not firing on all cylinders as an analogy. He talks sincerely about the opposite of what is actually occurring. I know he is a novice to the presidency but all presidents when first elected are novice to it. But what distinguishes trump from previous presidents is that trump refuses to listen to advice or increase his own knowledge on complex subjects. He is wandering around with his held beliefs and considering them as more important than facts. By surrounding himself with some souls who have the worst human nature this country has ever produced, he has shown that his disdain for intellectualism and modernity are real.
     That he would allow them to dictate the agenda for the American people all the while promoting their actions is surreal. I would not think him capable of masterminding this whole illusion but given the rules of logic it cannot be completely ruled out. But instead the more probable scenario is that trump is being manipulated to think one thing and pronounce it while another thing is actually happening. Most likely he is a puppet being strung along to be the voice of an ulterior nefarious motive long sought by the right wing extremists in our nation. The ones who would like to end equality, end equal justice and worst of all, end democracy. I believe trump is the propaganda face for spreading disinformation while the real work of dismantling our democracy continues mostly behind the scenes.
     All the actions taken by the trumps and the republican party have been to dismantle society as we know it. Not one original policy or program is offered to help the struggling working middle poor class. Everything has been aimed at taking more from the working middle poor class. This reforming of our nation is a cruel and brutish attempt to satisfy their illness of hatred and racism. The "cleansing" of society is their goal and if you watch with that eye, you will see the effects of it every time they act or speak. How these warped souls can claim to be the masters of reality while harming everyone and everything that is democratic is beyond me and how we let them into power is the most baffling consequence to occur ever in my lifetime.

The disgrace of conservatism (#3072)

     The face of conservatism has been exposed and it is an ugly brutish thing. Devoid of common sense and logic, it takes from those who are less capable of defending themselves and gives to those who are ruthless and unconscionable. It is a degradation of enlightenment while feeding off it's underbelly. The idea that a human soul could conclude with any debate or reasoned argument that being a conservative is a benefit to society is like playing at god without the compassion. First none of us has the right to harm another of us and second compassion is the other half of what a human is. Both violate honor and justice while being a disgrace to all who would embrace an empathetic society.
     With the trumps and his acolytes in congress and the judiciary, conservatism has taken our American society to a place of shame, ignorance and hate. The daily attacks on equality over race, gender, class and constitutional rights, the conservatives are showing that they are a mean and nasty paternal party with an aim to control. They were elected on false promises and now are in the progress of changing the rules of democracy so that they can keep the power they were elected to hold. The republican party is where the worst of conservatives congregate and it is at the altar of trump that they now serve. Never before in my years of my living have I seen such a blatant disregard for the rule of law and the formative principles of democracy.
     Our nation is at a crossroads in time that will define the fate of our nation. Our current arrogance in leadership will likely prove to be our undoing not only as a democracy but as a world power. We are alienating nations of the world who would be our allies and making them consider us as potential enemies. Our internal struggle at the moment to contain and bring to heel the out of control conservative movement is at hand and will make or break us depending on how the outcome swings. I cannot fathom the idea of the conservative republicans through the trumps and his vultures continuing to defy logic and rule of law but I may only be at the first stage of denial.

Well well well (#3071)

     It appears that for now the trumpcare destroying health care plan cannot get the votes to get through the senate. Although the effort to give up trying to destroy health care for tens of millions of folks is not over, it is delayed however. The longer the delay the better the chance that the end of the effort will come about. What we also learned is that the republican party is not completely devoid of common sense. Not that just a few senators gives us much hope on other issues but we do see that there is a line that some of them will not cross. But let me also say this, although some won't allow themselves to be ultra cruel, they are still cruel. So no pat on the back for any of them but a sigh of relief instead.
     It is even reported that rump himself has maybe seen that ending Obamacare is not the end of the world as a goal. So hopefully days will get better on the health care front instead of worse. Maybe even an effort to improve the minor fixes needed within Obamacare. I won't try to hope for a single payer system yet, that will likely have to wait until a democratic election victory in the future. As the single most hated policy by the republican party dwindles down to it's finality, republicans will refocus their efforts on tax reform in order to find their wealthy donors a a profit off the backs of the American working middle poor class but for now it doesn't look like they will get with trumpcare. Nothing set in stone quite yet but the main thrust toward destroying health care has been withstood.
     What has come out of this though is those who went on public record to put millions upon millions of American voters off of heath care rolls. It is like a self inflicted wound, where republicans gambled that taking away health care would offset a few losses in the next election. How utterly depraved and nonsensical. What in reality it did was not get them anything yet and still be blamed for trying to harm American citizens. Maybe this time the American electorate will hold them accountable as long as the American electorate gives a damn and gets out to vote. When we allow politicians to do harm to us and we do not hold them accountable for that is when the hope of a great nation to lead the world into a bright future becomes nothing more than an illusion.

Will what's left of the moderates in the senate kill trumpcare? (#3070)

     We are about to find out and that it is still possible is a gift as I see it. Normally republicans are all about destroying the legacy of Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton and especially Obama. All these fine democrats did was enshrine the social safety net into society so that the working middle poor class has a chance to succeed where otherwise they wouldn't. By establishing a floor by which most could not fall under, democrats said to the nation all may start out on an equal footing as best as possible. What conservative republicans want since the humiliating defeat of the Civil War, is to turn back the clock and instead of having black slaves, make all who are working middle poor class into their new modern form of slave.
     Republicans are against the social safety net as an ideological priority yet it seems that some republicans are finding it hard to destroy the lives of their constituents. It is these republicans that may now be able to stop the march of the more extreme republicans in their quest to dismantle government by and for the people. I could almost see the few moderates who are in the now extreme republican party changing their allegiance to party and joining the democrats because it seems they are in more of an alignment with them than their republican safety net destroying colleagues. How ironic would it be if three of the maligned republican senators switched parties and by that give the democrats the majority in the Senate.
     Enough of wishful thinking and back to the idea of moderates in the Senate killing trumpcare. There are two solid no's right now. That means that only one more republican moderate needs to make a stand. Heller and Collins are locked in no's. Will Murkowski, Gardner and in a alternate universe reasoning, Paul be the final one who makes the trumpcare go away? Time will tell but it is going to be clear by the end of the week. When given a chance to show their ideological purity by destroying any government program aimed at helping the working middle poor class, it seems a few republicans aren't as callous as the many of them.

Rural America, the land that time forgot (#3069)

     In rural America President Obama was in charge when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. In rural America President Obama was in charge when the financial markets imploded in 2008. Yet both of these events occurred while President Bush was in charge. So how come President Obama is to blame by those in rural America? Since it is a falsehood, why are so may believing it? Maybe because rural has yet to come to grips with it's racism? Maybe it's because they don't have the basic common ability to think critically for themselves and are much more prone to be told how to think? May it's some other reason to do with how loyalty to the republican party is never to be questioned. Or maybe it is because they don't like that democrats have stood up for minorities and the alternative lifestyle set. In any scenario, rural America is not up with the times.
     We are not some naive society that cannot accept that others are not what we want them to be. Yet rural America is still in that bubble of wanting to tell others how to live like them. What is even more troubling is that the idea of "do as I say but not as I do" permeates their way of living. I have always felt that attracting others to something was far better than forcing them. If I like what I see then I am attracted toward it. If I don't I move away because life is short and finding something I like is more important than bonding myself to what I don't like. Rural America has not allowed the idea of equality to come full force in their sub culture. Where those of color or identity are not given the respect of their own self. Yet that same respect is demanded of others by rural America.
     I already mentioned that life is too short and by that I mean we all need to find our own way without being told that we can't. Rural America has it's own tunnel vision about what life means and how it should be lived. That would be fine if it were put out there as an example, not a demand. So rural America continues to vote to make the rest of us suffer because they feel paternal about what our freedoms should encompass. Funny that they do because they sure guard their freedom to choose with a ferocity that which they disdain in others for doing the same. For rural America it is "my way or the highway" which to me is not what America is about so while they continue to live in the past with their condescension toward those not them, we Americans on whole continue to suffer from their inability to live and let live.

If we don't stop the trumps they will take everything from us (#3068)

     We are going to have to decide when we will take to the streets in order to save what we can. Because the trumps will not stop taking until they have it all. Our society is being dismantled before our very eyes and we keep letting it happen as if it will somehow magically stop. It won't magically stop and the trumps will keep taking. We are on the verge of losing Obamacare and medicaid with medicare and social security next on the horizon. Slowly but surely we are losing our voting rights as well and the time for voting the trumps out of office is either next election or we won't be able to do that either. The trumps will keep taking because they see America as a cash machine, not a sacred trust to the ideal of democracy.
     We have already witnessed the lengths the trumps (trumps=republicans) are willing to go as they began their initial assault on our society by aligning with our enemy Russia to seize control. We Americans are just innocent bystanders in our own mugging. So what will be enough to stop the nazi inspired takeover of our country? Sacrifice is the first order. We must stop enabling them. Whatever it takes to make the trumps life miserable and undesirable. We cannot legitimize them in any way shape or form. If we do we are just like the miserable cowards that they are. I have not nor will not give the trumps anything but the back of my hand. They deserve worse and surely fate and destiny is waiting to supply it. When men set out to do wrong they will be visited by it themselves in a karmic way.
     If we all have to stop in our tracks. Just do nothing in the face of the bullies in charge then that is what we must begin to do. We must all rally together as well because we know that there is strength in numbers and if enough of us band together then the trumps will have to retreat. But them retreating isn't enough. They need to be vanquished from any and all power and made examples of in the public square. Traitors and thieves cannot nor should not be given the honor of being leaders of America. We have a great history of standing up to the worst of what the world has offered and now we must stand up to what the worst America has allowed to grow in it's core.

America will never be the same (#3067)

     The harsh reality is that America will continue to lose it's progress under the thumb of trumps who head every major level of government. The trumps believe that government should not support it's citizens so programs like medicare/medicaid and social security, unemployment etc... are unnecessary. So while we are barely into the trumps reign we see every liberal progressive policy being attacked whether to diminish it or outright remove it. As far back as the 14th Amendment programs to bring us out of segregation and economic depression because these trumps see no good to a government that helps it's citizens. Even the trump plans to increase the military is not for the sake of our citizens, it is to protect the trumps and their wealthy donors interests and then allows them to use the rest of us as cannon fodder.
     The days of dreaming the American dream are coming to an end. Only those who have wealth or who are protecting the wealthy are considered to be worthy of being an American. It is troubling that we have gotten to this point through a questionably civilized process. The patriots to democracy are not the majority anymore but a minority. The allegiance to freedom and liberty provided through democracy are being replaced by an allegiance to money and the powerful that control it. The thought is not conjecture when the cabinet of trump is made to swear an oath to him as part of their job description. The trumps are heralded into this position by a corrupt house and senate leadership that would rather commit treason than to give up power.
     It makes no sense to appeal to our republican leader's better angels as they see themselves as demigods who don't serve the people they were elected to represent but instead to tell the people that they will get what the elected officials tell them to have. We are being led by a dictator who is making his political party into an accomplice to over throwing democracy. You may be fine with it if it somehow justifies your prejudices and biases but the rest of us are gearing up for a fight to keep democracy and America from being destroyed by the cancer unveiled in trumps.

Breaking out of the "I'm a rotten person" mode. (#3066)

     Well it seems that too many are voting for the worst candidates and party since the nazis of last world war. Why? I can only surmise that we feel we are deserving of punishment for some unpardonable crimes in our lives. It does explain why so may are clinging to religion as some form of salvation from their miserableness. Well let me be the first one, surely I am not, to tell you that you are forgiven and now move forward with a better way for life. There, all done! You see it is okay to have made mistakes it is what is called the trial and error of life. I have made my share but when it does seem that we get so low that we feel we are worthless is when we can "choose", and I mean make a choice, to stop what we are doing and do something else.
     Preferably something that has some redeeming value since we had pretty much exhausted the irredeemable ones. There is the secret to life in a nutshell. We can choose and when we choose we take control of who we are and what we want to be. All those mistakes in the past can become just memories with time, forgiveness and amends. We get to move forward without the burden of guilt constantly hanging over our heads. Surely we will have times of remorse for our "learning curve" but we won't be sweltering in it as a self imposed punishment. Look at who we have elected to lead us when we wanted to be punished. People who are so awful that they don't feel guilty when they do punish us all for their own gain.
     Another secret to life is that we are the masters of our own destiny regardless of what others do to change the course of our lives. Every day I make about 2 or 3 thousand tiny and/or major decisions in my life. All of them have an effect on how my day, present and future will affect my life. They are my decisions, not someone else's. So maybe in the past I have been a rotten person, but I learned and moved on and now I try to avoid being a rotten person with every decision I make. I am still human though and I do rotten things from time to time but I know in my heart that I don't do it intentionally and I am quick to amend my behavior and thoughts to stop any further rottenness. So when I look toward our future and vote with that in mind I see what we could be together, not how hard I should be punished because I am too weak to control my own existence.

Mandatory voting (#3065)

     It is time to institute mandatory voting. I say this because our society has gotten to the point where too many of us are not protecting our democracy with a care that would otherwise preserve it. Taking advantage of what our democracy offers yet not participating in it's basic necessity is to me "criminal". Therefore there must be a punishment that follows when an eligible citizen neither registers to vote nor actually votes. What else must happen is a benefit for those who do carry their obligation to fruition. Something like a increase in a tax for those who are not in compliance with their registering and voting duties and a tax benefit for those who do comply. Hit them where most seem to think from, their wallet and purse.
     Another thing that must happen is the reversal of Citizens United and following laws. Public financing of elections will keep the special interests out of politics and force the candidates to focus on policies instead of personal attacks and obfuscation. A recent case in point is the Georgia 6th special election this last Tuesday. Over 50 million dollars were spent on this election with a non stop barrage of advertising and door knocking and still with all that attention in a race of national importance only 49 percent of registered voters bothered to vote, http://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/voter-turnout-made-georgia-6th-district-runoff-look-like-midterm-election/JvuOXSaFvtnLC94E5mgnLK/.
     If several months of non stop campaigning in one district cannot bring out more than 80% to 90% of the voters then that is a shame. When the turnout is under 50% then what falls below shame? Well, a broken system is what! So if it is broke then let's fix it and fixing it seems to require a mandatory application. Regardless of how the vote turns out we are not getting a true picture of the direction we feel we need to take when only about half of us are involved in that opportunity to express our direction for our nation. Like we had with mandatory military service, the time has now come for mandatory registering and voting. Sometimes we need to lead our citizens to where they are forced to participate when that paradigm is the furtherance of democracy!

Losing races in red states isn't the end of the world (#3064)

     We dems put up a fight in both congressional races yesterday and for that the hope is strong for a 2018 reversal in the House and maybe even the Senate. Now I know it is discouraging to come close in these special election only to fall short. I get it. Yet with all my heart and mind I know the tide is turning. In Kansas, Montana, Georgia and South Carolina, with deep red districts that had special elections in these states, we dems were very competitive. So competitive that the winners were not a given. Although republicans won them all, they were not foregone conclusions. If there are now battlefields in the deep red districts then you know that the marginal and even districts could well come back to democratic control.
     Another aspect is that the Supreme Court is going to hear a major case involving gerrymandering that could well change the protections republicans have installed to protect their current congresspeople. Today, after the two defeats last night it may seem like we dems are just spinning our wheels but we are not. We were so far behind before and now we are almost on an even playing field. Almost, the Supreme Court case will make the field even if it strikes down the gerrymandering republicans manipulated to elect more of their candidates. I don't feel the sense of loss that a crushing defeat would bring, Instead I feel an even more enthusiastic determination to confront and push past the politics of austerity and segregation.
     That silver lining, the percentage of vote totals for our candidates last night and previously in the other special elections, were far superior to what we got in those districts just 8 months ago. The tide is turning from republican politics since that politics is only for the greedy wealthy. I still have faith in America despite the deep pockets of the republican donors who are constantly using their money to advertise falsehoods. When the agenda of austerity and segregation start to hit home with the overall American electorate the worm will complete it's turn. Never stop resisting and never give up. When you are right and are still not winning it only means that the struggle is real and deserves our every effort if we are to succeed.

The dawning of a better day or the continuing of a bad one (#3063)

     Today is the day Georgians in the 6th congressional district find out who their newly elected congressperson will become. The old way of doing things there in that district is up against a new way of doing things. The republicans have had control of that district for several decades and for the democrat to come in and make this race close is remarkable in itself. If however a win
for democrats comes about then a shock to the established republican party is at hand. The democrat had a slight lead going into today so already the signs are there for a major upset. That the republican candidate is not charismatic nor can lean on any real policy that attracts voters is also a factor. That the democratic candidate is charismatic and has numerous polices that attract voters is also a factor.
     But like we have learned over many decades of elections, American citizens do not often vote for their own best interest. Instead they vote along party lines like some mechanical bull that broncs predictably every time a coin is inserted. However this special election comes at a time when the republican party has been exposed for the harm they are and will continue to do to the working middle poor class. Maybe, just maybe this time enough voters will finally say enough and vote for their own best interests instead of loyalty to a party that they think still exists to make their lives better. There is no excuse now for any voter not to be informed about this special election. Over 51 million dollars has been spent in a ground game and constant media messaging blitz.
     So now we have arrived at the crucial moment when our nation through this election will show how we are to proceed. If republicans win this election then it is another narrative they get to propagate to their favor. If democrats win then the idea that trump has the nation at his back is fully exposed as a lie. Remember, this is a reliably republican district so a democratic win will show that the trumps have not the force of a mandate and instead they will be shown to be all wrong for what America needs. this election is crucial as each party has much to gain and even more so much much more to lose. I am hoping that the electorate in Georgia's 6th district will lead the nation back from the brink of destroying our imperfect but still best form of government, democracy!

America, not as much the land of the brave... (#3062)

     It seems that we have exposed ourselves. We Americans are not in an infinite supply of brave souls. Instead we seem to be a more afraid of what could happen than we are bold and brave in making what should happen. We have not carried on a legacy of courage that befitted generations past. We have bullies running our government and instead of standing up to them we bow our heads and scuffle our feet in a cowardly fashion. Surely republicans make the fear real in their threats to harm us but what we don't seem to get is that they are going to harm us regardless of whether we cower to them or stand up to them. The republican party has become the most hateful and selfish political party since our Civil War.
     Yet they are able to control us through their rhetoric of threats and lies. We fall for it because we don't want to rock the boat. Yet the boat is already rocking and when we are the next one thrown out of the boat is only a matter of time. So standing up to them is the only chance we have of actually throwing them out of the boat and then landing the boat in a safe harbor. But we are still not getting that yet so many will have to drown before and if the rest of us decide enough is enough. I feel bad for how our democracy got played by men who benefited from it then turned on it. The con men who have only one psychopathy, control all things they can get their hands on and disregard any harm they may cause.
     If we are to take back our legacy of being brave then we won't let the republican bullies continue to dictate the narrative of reality when their narrative is mostly fantasy. Government is here to serve all of us and if we cannot grasp that principle that generations have fought to maintain through democracy then we deserve to be taken over by the cruel and dishonest. We are not taught to be cowards but we have learned it by not being true to honor, respect and dignity. Time will tell the rest of the American story but for now history will show that our generation has yet to deserve the nobility our fore-parents fought and died for to gift to us. Our shame will be in not holding that gift dear and instead cowering to bullies who would take it from us every day of our lives.

Never take a day for granted (#3061)

     Two bad things could have happened yesterday but neither did. For that I again realize how fragile life can be and how at any moment life can go away. It is not like I had an Earth shattering experience and will never be the same person again. It is jut that I am once again reminded that nothing can ever be taken for granted and I mean nothing. I don't walk around like I am trying to avoid stepping on egg shells but I am mindful that I cannot take a second off from my life unless I am laying my head down to sleep. I know all of us are just marking time because we are mortal and in this existence all things alive will eventually expire. But when the unexpected occurs it throws everything out of whack especially our emotions. When the suddenly unexpected doesn't end in some tragedy then a relief that cannot fully be described descends on us.
     I got that relief in a double dose yesterday and this morning. So what I am saying is that everything was fine until two crisis' happened and neither ended in a bad way. My relief is truly felt and is deep and content. I suppose I am different now than I was before either crisis exposed itself and for that I am a more discerning person. The universe we live in is harsh by it's makeup so in order to make life more bearable for us caring and curious humans we need to create happier and easier paradigms for us to live within. Though it be harsh outside our control, inside our control there should be a single vision of making life the best we can without harming ourselves from the more petty inclinations we humans at times embrace.
     It seems that everything I write about comes back to politics. So it isn't any wonder that I have dedicated my life to knowing and understanding how politics works and what it represents. I am a liberal progressive by choice. Why? Because the liberal progressives see the future the way it should be and don't dwell on the myths, mores and superstitions of the past that keep us from becoming more enlightened about our universe, which is a physical place we live in right now. Not some fictional idea that only exists in our minds. So while I am alive today and thinking about how best I can serve humanity I carry with me a gratefulness that is deep and welcoming especially when no harm from what could have been harm occurs.

The rug may not be big enough (#3060)

     Sweeping the dirt under the rug is not a new idea. So when politicians do want their dirt to go away they metaphorically sweep it under the rug. However with the current crop of republicans in charge there is so much dirt that the rug is too small to hide it. There is no spot under that rug where any more dirt can hide. In fact, the republicans are at the point now of not trying to hide much of their dirt and instead are trying to explain why it is okay for them to be such rotten scoundrels. Somehow blaming it on democrats and President Obama or telling us the electorate that it is in our best interests to let break every rule if necessary so that they can decide what is best for us.
     The arrogance of the republican vision is playing out now as we see more and more unsettling news of laws broken and oaths disregarded by them. Yet they say that it is all necessary for our democracy to work? That in itself is another deception that they are hiding. They don't want democracy for us they want power over us. It is not some fantasy of which I speak. The only political party here in America who is actively working to deny citizens the right to vote through strict and difficult identification processes are republicans. The only political party that is trying to keep power by manipulating congressional districts through gerrymandering so that they can gain an unfair advantage is republicans. The only party here in America who are purging voter rolls of otherwise legally qualified voters are republicans.
     These truths are not that difficult to figure out anymore since it is now well established that republicans want a purer race of christian whites to have all the advantages and privileges of American citizenship. This is not democracy, this is a racially divided theology. The republican vision of "cleansing" our republic of the "others" is well underway with the attempted trump travel ban and the horrific crackdown on immigration. The arrogance it takes to pit one human being against another for some unfounded mental delusion is unheralded, unless of course you look at what Hitler's Germany tried to do just about 80 years ago. Our American republicans have sunk so far from democratic ideals that even sweeping the idea of it under the rug is now not so much a priority.

I live more in my emotions than any of my cold calculations (#3059)

     This is what the republican party fails to get. That they are more human than machine. They have tried like hell to smother their empathy and care so that they can play the profit game to the fullest. The cold calculations it takes to harm some so that some others can gain is best done with as little emotion as possible. That is why republicans are seen as being inhuman, they choose to be so that they can gain on the backs of others' misery. Me, I am more emotional than a cold calculator. I actually care about what is happening with otherwise decent folks who are hurt both unintentionally and intentionally. What brings my anger to boil is the intentional harm others cause so that they can benefit. When unintentional harm occurs I empathize and try to imagine a policy that protects from that unintentional harm ever happening again.
     That is how I tick and so are my fellow citizens who make up the vast majority of the democratic party. We actually are about solving problems and sacrificing for each other. We believe in equality sure but we also believe in justice. Sometimes a group deserves more because they are so far behind and need the extra help to stabilize and move forward. Sometimes a group deserves less because they are already privileged and advantaged far beyond the majority. It is how a truly democratic society works that has the best intent of all of it's citizens. We utilize what we have in order to build a smarter and more caring society. That takes not only the cold calculation that is needed at times but it takes more heart and care than only some of us seem to be able to offer.
     Life is just too damn short for us to be so coldly calculating about it. Sure we are biological data processors but we are also humans who have cared to survive with each other and our fellow living creatures here on this planet. We love and we make happy like it is a gift to be cherished. Because we know what it is like to be part of the smiles and the camaraderie of social living. There is an inner need for us to be part of the whole of us. Which I have found to be the greatest need we have to a purposeful life. Don't get me wrong here. I love the logic and science a cold calculating mind can imagine but I don't see it as a pathway for profit, I see it as a pathway toward enlightenment for all to share and experience.
     

The turning of the worm away from austerity (#3058)

     The truth about austerity is starting to hit home. The reality of choking government down to the last gasps of utility have begun to show the citizens of America and world wide that less is not more. We design government as a tool to make our society better and more democratic, not worse off and less democratic, which is what austerity as a guiding principle accomplishes. The trial and error period for this foolish idea has now given us results that cannot be further ignored. The middle class in America has been effectively destroyed by redistributing taxes that once went to improving our society back to the wealthy, where the top 1% now own more wealth than the bottom 90%, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United_States.
     The best model to show for how austerity doesn't work when directly applied is what has happened to the Kansan economy. It has been 7 years of failures since austerity was first introduced statewide in Kansas. The results show not only no benefit from austere measures but worse so, a harsh cost to the fundamental state programs that should fuel any modern and progressive success. Kansas has spiraled down in productivity and even though it's wealthy citizens received an initial tax savings, their customer base was so hard hit that now their customers can barely afford to purchase from the wealthy. So what was a windfall in tax savings has been more than offset in business loss, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/zorn/ct-kansas-conservative-brownback-economic-disaster-zorn-perspec-0518-jm-20160517-column.html.
     Most of us who have an idea about how society should operate in a democracy have been calling this out since the Reagan days when the idea first came into actual policy. We knew back in the 1980's it wouldn't work because the premise for it's conclusion was wrong. When the wealthy have more money for doing less they keep that strategy. The only way to make the wealthy do more for society is to allow them less profit so that if they want more profit they must employ more people by expanding business. Somehow that little bit of logic has escaped the withering minds of the republican party for reasons that can only be nefarious in intent.

Behavior is a choice, own it! (#3057)

     There are few things in life we actually have full control over and how we act is one of them. Sure there are many reasons why we make excuses to act the way we do but the excuses are just that, excuses that we choose to define our actions. Sometimes we get into situations that force our actions or so we think. We always and I mean always have another choice than the one we think we must choose. I learned this a long time ago and struggled with it until later in my life when I decided that enough of struggling was enough. I chose to live how I want to live based upon what I hold dear as honorable and noble. Today my life is what I choose it to be and if it becomes not what I choose then I will change it. I like that about having a choice.
     I live one time and that is this time so all that I do must reflect who I am and not what I am forced to be. My reality won't allow it now. Everything I have done in the past is mine and whether I am proud of it or not doesn't come into the equation, it just is. So making excuses or denying behavior is unacceptable. All my life I have been searching for the why of things, well I know the why of me now. I am and I may be that if I choose. Which is what I am doing. The things of allure and fantasy are not given any quarter with me. I am not about what I can do for myself as much as I am for what I can do to make our world a better place. I have honor that way, not selfishness. I tried selfishness and it left me cold and hollow inside.
     So simply put, as my life is winding down I am content in that I have chosen to live as the best example of who I am. I still not without my stumbles but they are innocent in intent and never purposeful. I rectify and own my behavior whenever it deviates from my choices as it can do given that I am imperfect. There is no autopilot for me as life is too complicated and complex for me to think I can have a choice at the ready without having to ponder on it's effect to me and others. Life is constantly changing and that whirligig is unforgiving when I don't concentrate on the ever changing factors. Regardless though, I choose my behavior, it does not choose me and in the end I have found that wisdom to live by.

No fealty owed in a democracy (#3056)

     What happened yesterday was an abomination in a democracy, http://hill.cm/wFs4aym. The level of indignation I have for what trump did to his sniveling cabinet, and I say sniveling since they all cowered to his demand, is off the charts. It shows first that trump is an ego maniac who cannot live without being, shall I say, trumpeted? Second, it is also shown to us just how lacking in honor his cabinet is as they knelt one by one and praised him. Such a display of subservience to a buffoon is evidence of the members of the buffoons cabinets total lack of a spine that should be where their courage is. How humiliating for us to have to witness such a display of cowardice. It isn't as if their lives depended on it but it did underscore them putting their perceived power or what they erroneously perceive as prestige before their own personal, or in this case lack of dignity.
     The world got to see just how deranged the trump is in his expectation of how a democracy should operate. Yet we know this much, he doesn't think our national constitution is modern enough. In fact he thinks it is archaic and is bad for our nation, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-us-constitution-archaic-really-bad-fox-news-100-days-trump-popularity-ratings-barack-a7710781.html. Well he must constantly be reminded that he was elected by the electoral college, an outdated paternalistic system of control that allowed for the minority vote winning candidate to become president. So he has no mandate whatsoever and more so he is the one who is outdated and archaic in his understanding of how our nation operates in a democracy by his show of making his cabinet members, in a humiliating public way, show fealty to him.
     The trump does not want our democracy to remain considering his actions. It feels and proves like he wants to be an absolute leader who has no one to check and balance his decisions that effect all of us Americans and indirectly the world on whole. He admires the dictators of the world and lets them do as they will without any condemnation. But he has condemned our democratic allies and made a fool of himself and an unwanted partner in many of our allies combined policies. The worst dynamic from the election of 2016 is that our democratic way of life is now in jeopardy by a man who has more vanity than sense. If we Americans survive this coup of sorts it will be because we gave him no benefit of the doubt and instead stood fast and hard against every democracy destroying act he attempts to accomplish.

Memories of the past (#3055)

     I was reminded once again about the frailty of life. Every once in a while I am brought back to a place of dread, the passing of someone who I had memories of that were more inspiring than not. Most people I have known never reach the level of being an inspiration to me. But the ones who do leave a mark on me are honored and respected. It's like that familiar paradigm of looking around and seeing very little that I want to aspire to become and be around. Much like moving around when I was younger so that I could find something in life that captured my idealism and imagination. So I met a few people along the way that do very little things that somehow loom large in my order of things. The simplicity of being a good example is one of them.
     I can tell you this much and I know it to be true, there are those souls who live a life worthy of emulating that put an imprint on us that is forever part of our subconscious thinking and actions. When we know it is right we don't even think to evaluate we just know. As I get older these souls who have done this for me move on from this existence and when I know or learn of it, it leaves a solemn mark on me. This existence is still quite a mystery but there are a few things that are constant that for intents and purposes give me a sense of belonging. One being the shared experiences we pass along to each other in order to make life less uncertain and more a safe harbor. The chain of humanity when the honor of life is being forged is an amazing and fulfilling gift.
     Humanity and knowledge are just like the two greatest human traits we have, care and wonder. No matter which angle I take from how I am living life I always come back to the ideals of compassion and curiosity. So those souls who exemplify these two qualities surely make an impression on me and allow for me to continue to know that what is best about our species is our honorable thoughts and deeds. I am saddened that another has left this existence but that is the nature of life for now, where death is certain but hope and honor are not.
     

Respect is earned, not demanded (#3054)

     As the European elections in recent months have shown, the idea of austerity is being exposed for it's harsh demands on the working middle poor class. That in combination with the opposite effect it is having on the greedy wealthy is breeding a resentment that is now being activated upon. Along with the North American Canadians, France and now Great Britain are seeing an explosion of defiance against conservative austerity policies. We here in America are also experiencing a resurgent movement toward anti-austerity measures but we are just not there yet given the results of our election in 2016. But we are close and although our anti-austerity candidate won the popular vote we are still chained to an archaic paternalism known as the electoral college.
     Despite that though the anti-austerity movement is going forward and as new election results continue to come about the more it is realized. It isn't just anti-austerity that is being exposed and defeated it is also segregated views between the races. We here in America are truly the melting pot of the world but too many within my own white race are eager to be the only race. It is abhorrent to me and many like me but the facts remain that we have a sub group of white nationalists and segregationists that are vociferous in their fears of inclusion and the melting pot ideal. How they cannot logically understand that we are all linked as the human race is beyond my understanding and quite frankly an unknown understanding by me that I wish not to understand. It is illogical and immoral as well as unethical in the eyes of democracy.
     That is why I say that respect is to be earned, not to be demanded. There are those within the republican party who manipulated themselves into public power who think otherwise in ways that remind me of tyranny and authoritarianism. Well what these sick souls do not understand is that I and many more like me are not to be bullied nor pressured into breaking with our honored principles. We are not fodder for them to use at their pleasure. Instead we are like a thorn in their side willing to irritate and frustrate them when they choose to deny respect to our most revered article of guidance, the Constitution of the United States. No mere mortal can usurp the respect we have for that inspired document and despite their own arrogant narcissism, republicans will get nothing from us.

Good people rising up to confront the dirty rotten republican scoundrels (#3053)

     It seems that we liberal progressives, after being gut punched by the 2016 presidential election, have found our breath again. Everywhere I look I see us standing up and fighting back against the punishing republican party and their policies that make life worse for most of us instead of better. They do not have a good idea in their collective heads, only actions of destroying what has taken generations to achieve. The most egregious election outcome in the modern era for America and now I am happy to say we are not allowing it to get a foothold into dismantling our democracy. I am so proud to see our fighting spirit come back after the heartache of a questionable at best election result.
     It took me several weeks of soul searching to find my backbone again after having my little pity party about the election outcome. I had even entertained thoughts of leaving my country because my country no longer represented me our my values. But starting with our tough as grizzled leather governor, Jerry Brown, and his determined position of calling out republicans I began to get my fighting spirit back. I reexamined my commitment to democracy and decided that fighting for it right here in my own backyard was the only real option that reflected my soul. I gave myself a stern but successful talking to about the level of my commitment to democracy and how our citizens have always stood up to tyranny, Well this is my turn to make that same blood sacrifice in the name of a better nation that I know we truly are.
     So today some 7 months after the election I have been grounded in my attack against every republican who opens their mouth to disgrace the virtue of democracy. I have no time for filters nor civilized niceties when it comes to them. They are traitors to me and those who died to make our nation a better place for the whole world to admire and try to become. There are not a lot of the republican scoundrels out there but they are in key positions of our public government and private enterprises. they will be named and called out for what they are and what they are trying to do and for that I am loaded for monsters! There will be no mercy for those whose intent is to harm and destroy. They have just awakened the liberal progressive beast in us and for that they will feel the blunt end of that wrath!

The selfish dynamic that makes up republicans (#3052)

     The dark soul of the republican party member is one that cannot face the future. The future scares them with all their wild imaginings of what they think it will be like. So they fall back on what they do know which is the present and the past. That is why they fight against modernization, innovation and creativity. That is why they don't want an enlightened education to prosper among our citizenry. In fact republicans look to the past for the calming answers they need to fulfill their own selfish interests. They want us to be a separated species. Where they get to be on top of the pyramid and the others who are not them are there to serve them. They see we other humans as cattle to be controlled and manipulated with lesser rights than themselves. It actually makes sense to them and any perceived immorality can be overcome by their sense of a greater purpose being restored, ie... their safety and comfort.
     This is why they fight against democratic principles. It makes you wonder how these republicans can be so afraid of the future? Why are they afraid of what science and logic have to offer when we humans are the ones making the advances? My guess is that they are so afraid of their own imaginings that nothing, logic nor common sense has a chance against their already made up minds. It explains why they are willing to harm themselves in order to kill off democratic advances. They don't see equity for all, instead they see a survival of the fittest. Remember, they are driven at their core from fear, so trying to reason with them is the wrong approach. Reason is a principle of logic and logic is not to be trusted if it disturbs their view of safety and comfort.
     How do we break this fever of fear that republicans hold fast? I don't know for sure but this much I do know, I don't give them an inch in their quest to destroy democratic principles. I do not cower nor cater to their delusions of fear. Life is more important to me than being afraid of it. I am grasping at it and all it offers with both hands and will never shrink from it's challenges. I am bold and it is because I choose to be instead of being afraid. How do we get republicans to be bold as well? I had to find my own way and they will have to find theirs but in the meantime they are not friends of humanity and should be treated as such until they do understand that all we humans have the right not to be afraid like they are.

Selective bullying with the trumps (#3051)

     If you are trying to expose the truth about the trumps you will find yourself being pressured to stop. The trumps have taken to protecting themselves from scrutiny through intimidation and otherwise making life miserable for those who put the rule of law ahead of trump privilege. We are seeing it played out now in our media with all the evidence needed to begin a criminal and or impeachment case against the trumps being delayed or undermined by them and their cronies. The fact that Russia has been involved and putie is aggressively inserting himself in our fact finding narrative is also a factor. That many have died that were in the know of what and how putie operates is a reminder here that putie will not be questioned in conjunction with the trumps and he will use force and that threat to allay any investigation into his connection to the trumps.
     It is a classic case of thuggery we are experiencing with the trumps. They are unable to face the facts of their deeds and they don't want anyone else to even know of them. We are being guided by an elected leader who sees himself as a dictator, not as a servant of the people. If our democracy survives and that is a big if at the moment then it will be because we did expose the trumps to criminal punishments for acts committed in defiance of our constitution. Many think that we can politely work our rules of law to enforce and maintain our democracy, but I am not one of those. I am of the mindset that we are in a street brawl with the trumps and they are not honoring Marquess of Queensberry rules. Instead they are pulling every dirty trick in the book to keep their power.
     There are less than 3 1/2 years left in his elected term and if we don't keep fighting him every step of the way we may find that getting rid of him and his entrenched followers will be harder than ever imagined. The concept of manipulating the vote is not lost on republicans and with them in power it is likely that more is to come. They are like savages when it comes to holding onto what they think is their right to lead. There will be no debating nor logical arguing with them. They will say that the sky is butter if that is what it takes for them to keep power. Selective bullying aimed at those who violate the trump doctrine of disagreeing with them is now the rule not the exception.

The republican party must pay dearly for allowing the trumps (#3050)

     The republican party has brought us the trumps and for that they deserve to be punished severely! No republican running for office anywhere should be given our public trust. They have all been in cahoots to allow trumps so that they can gain power to further weaken our working middle poor class. Enough! Our American society specifically and the rest of the world generally are being put through an absurd reality where good is bad and ignorance is acceptable. The republican party and it's agenda to displace and denigrate souls through undemocratic methods is abhorrent and must stop as soon as is legally possible. The republican brand cannot nor should not be given mercy here. They did this with intent to harm and their premeditation should be met with a severe and effective response. Otherwise they continue to display a criminal recidivist tendency.
     The rule of law and an enlightened society is our goal but not with the republican party. They want to divest America of modernization and an educated masses so that they can use us as tools and cannon fodder when their greed for more strikes them. Their survival of the fittest mindsets with a large degree of racism is an abomination to rationality. They have taken the greatest democracy on Earth and turned it into their own private cash machine while making corporations as or more equal than human people. The idea that a legal document has now better rights than our human species is incredulous. That the republicans on the Supreme Court gave us this paradigm is indicative of how pervasive and inculcated hatred to subsets of biological humans has become.
     For the last several years my bog posts have been coarse, to be kind. I have been fed up beyond my ears with republican politics and I have given myself over to being as tempered as I can in being pissed off in describing them. The record of my anger at them is not because I am foolish or ignorant. It is because when I see harm, in this case with republicans, intentional harm, I have a duty to call it out and to try to stop it. It is in my nature to be a good fellow but until republicans are justifiably removed from any serious governmental positions I cannot sit idly by. The coarseness of my diatribes will continue until justice has been served upon the heads of all the guilty republicans who have made life miserable for our citizens and enriched themselves while doing it.
     

The new Christianity is a violent one (#3049)

     I can't count how many modern day American Christian pastors have called for violence against people who choose to live in a legal democratic way, http://www.politicususa.com/2016/06/02/christian-leaders-increase-calls-gun-physical-violence-transgenders.html. The Christian church has morphed into a breeding ground for hatred and violence in ways that I had never thought possible. The Jesus Christ I was raised to believe would abhor violence and rebuke any who would attempt it. But this new Christianity is not the same that I was taught in my formative years. No, this new Christian church is about what I call republican jesus. this republican jesus has no tolerance for the poor, the displaced, women nor those who are not white. How has this come to be?
     I can only assume that the infiltration of evils has been afoot. Where prejudice was previously discouraged as sinful it is now celebrated as triumphal. Where women were beginning to gain equal rights with men they now see the loss of those advances. Where the poor were to be regarded with care and compassion, they are now condescended to as unworthy of life itself. Where the real Jesus was of color from the Mediterranean region, the new republican jesus is white and damn proud of it. I can go on about the differences such as fidelity to marriage vows as previously being sacred but under republican jesus they are just suggestions or that where greed and power for the sake of greed and power were abhorrent sins to the old Jesus, they are now welcome as beautiful traits that exemplify the survival of the fittest mentality of the new republican jesus.
     To call yourself a Christian these days you have to be one helluva rotten person considering that the republican jesus would never have sacrificed himself for the sins of all. What is the point anymore of thinking that the old Jesus is still the model for Christianity when the old Jesus has been replaced by the republican jesus? The old Jesus, represented by Esau, has sold his birthright to the republican jesus, Jacob, who now controls the Christian narrative. So you Christians of today have broken Christianity and now you own it. Welcome to your new violent Christian faith you followers.

Downsizing in the era of trumps (#3048)

     Instead of being hopeful about the future before the last presidential election I am now frustrated. My frustration is because of the policies of the trumps and congressional republicans at large. Those policies are reflecting a desire to further enrich the wealthy through tax cuts, deregulation and removing and or shrinking social programs that the wealthy contribute financially toward. I am not one of the wealthy and even if I were I would still be frustrated at what the trumps are trying to do. Because I understand that we need a thriving middle class and a poor class with the ability to improve itself as easily and fast as possible.
    But I am not wealthy so all I can do is find ways to cut my simple existence even further so that I am not caught unawares to the cuts to policies that help may of us to survive through poverty. We all need basic things to survive unless we choose to be homeless or double up with other family members to keep from being on the streets, http://www.endhomelessness.org/library/entry/SOH2016. The shelter issue is critical but so is food, clothing, sanitation, transportation, education and health care. The ability to communicate and receive information through the airwaves is just as important. We must prioritize even these basic needs in the era of trumps. So downsizing our needs has to be addressed if we are to survive the trumps, and hopefully move on to a more enlightened governance.
     I am like most all people in that once I have attained a certain level of existence it is hard for me to reduce that. It is almost as if I go into denial just so that I don't have to face it's reality. Yet I have no other choice so once I get past my cognitive dissonance I am then ready to move forward as best I see fits my life. My frustration with trumps is deep though because I am not some healthy young man who can survive easily by changing my lifestyle or environment. I am limited in what I can or should do if I wish to live for any length of time. Where I can make adjustments to how I live it will be done by reduction not elimination. I am already at the basic level so there is little left for me to downsize.

No wiggle room for the trumps (#3047)

     I have zero tolerance for any and all trumps. They get nothing from me but my hatred for what they are doing to our nation and our citizens. They are deserving of the harshest criticisms and punishments allowable under the law. There will be no mercy, no benefit of the doubt nor any forgiveness of them from me ever. When I see the worst of what human beings can be and they deliberately choose to continue as such then there are no extenuating circumstances to assuage their punishments. Those who would give them benefits of the doubt are then not any friends of mine and will feel the sting of my rebuke of them as well.
     It is a right and good harsh stance I take. Nothing seems to be stopping the trumps from their crusade to destroy our American society by dragging it back to our most heinous past so instead of fretting about being a decent human being I am all in to take them down no matter what the moral cost to my own psyche. I am not religious so the turn the other cheek crap doesn't apply. I don't have to take into account a forgiving nature as a rule. I do forgive those who make mistakes and have remorse for their acts or thoughts and the will to change, but not to the intentionally criminal who have less conscience than an amoeba.
     If I am the judge of the trumps they will be punished so severely that any thought of another to do the same will be emblazoned into their heads that they will suffer the same fate. Not only will they be stripped of their resources and power but their humiliation will be exposed to every single soul who would care to gaze upon their pathetic example. None will be spared the harsh indignities of punishment to the fullest of the law. If you are complicit you are guilty as well. The best of who we are is being trampled by the worst of who we are and that must stop immediately. There is no other way than to bring down the hammer of the law on their heads in such a devastating way as to deter any further notions of following the trumps lead. No compromise on punishments for deeds that stain the essence of the rule of law.

Find your scientific core and live out from that! (#3046)

     I think of my mind as my core since it is where all the knowledge I have been given is stored. Now my heart has the emotional part of me wrapped up but my mind is where all my sensory perceptions go to make sense. When I think of my mind I am reminded that it is a biological wonder. It exists between my ears safely in my skull from most outside dangers. A safe harbor for it if you will. Given that it is so important to who I am and how I act and behave, It's safety is crucial to my existence. Given that I have established my mind as my core, it is from there that I begin and maintain my life journey.
    I am not some whimsical being who just appeared out of thin air. I was born to my parents who were born to theirs and so on and so forth. I am a generational link to not only them but to all humanity as well. What I possess is passed down to me from those who came before me and those of my current peers. I am like a sponge that takes in what is needed while squeezing out that which is of no value or nonsensical. My mind tells me to be logical about all things if I wish to be part of an enlightened society. Which to me is basic. However there are times when my intuition and my common sense takes me momentarily astray from logic if only to make more right than wrong. Logic and ethics mixed with morality can sometimes make for uncomfortable partners so with my mind as the referee, I may adjust my acts and behaviors to fit a more noble or honorable outcome when it seems that solely using logic cannot get me there.
     No where so far have I used any word that dictates I follow a belief system to guide my life. I am not one for mysticism, superstition nor myth as being at all helpful in deciding which course my life should take. I am a human being in a long line of human beings who like the other inhabitants of this planet are just trying to exist while trying to evolve to greater understandings. There is no magic in that only a kind curiosity and a will to explore that which I don't know yet. I am a biological data processor with sensory perceptions and as such I am not going to change what I am and what I was born to be. My mind is where my reasoning, analytics and concluding all take place so when I am in that formulaic sequence I am centered and always ready to follow my destiny.

The ignorance of arrogance (#3045)

     Another day and I am still alive. The trumps failed to kill me off yesterday so I get another day to call them out for being ignorant and arrogant. Although, long term the trumps did try to kill us all off with their denial of man made climate change and their inability to recognize that destroying our planet wouldn't harm us somehow. Apparently the trumps are the types that think they are invincible and that we need to accept their blind faith in their delusion. It takes a special kind of arrogance to believe that reality is here to be obeyed by them. That somehow they were given the keys to existence and can shape physics as they please. What is even more troubling is that they have no clue as to how they are going to do it but trust them when they say don't worry about it.
     I am a logical person with a mighty hell of a temper. I don't believe in magic or superstition as well as I don't believe in fairy tales or folklore that have come from antiquity with no proof to their actually having existed. The scientific method is one that was devised through the ambition of the human species. It is ours and ours alone on this planet yet the trumps treat it with such disdain as to not even acknowledge it when it is obvious and important to do so. Too many of us fall back into the comfort of religion and/or belief systems that have no logical application to the evolvement of facts and truths. They are hoped for wishes that help us suppress our fears. Well let me be absolutely clear here, being afraid is a childish thing when we ignore the cause of it. Much like a child who throws a tantrum when the child does not get it's way.
     The immaturity that not only ignorance displays but the arrogance to deny the ignorance or pretend that it isn't ignorant without scientific proof is the mantra of the trumps. Somehow through connivery these trumps got elected to lead our nation and the world by default. Well our nation is rising up against the trumps as well as the world is rising up against the trumps in the hope to limit the damage that the trumps are going to cause because of their ignorance and their arrogant refusal to logically consider what they are doing. The ignorance of arrogance is their path and trumps have chosen not to stray from it. Well we will bend that path so much that it will lead right back from whence they came!
   

There are no shades of gray with trumps (#3044)

     Moral dilemmas often come about when it is complicated figuring out what is the right thing to do. Sometimes just trying to stay alive is wrong and sometimes not dying is right. The bigger picture and the now are often in conflict with each other when we are faced with decisions that not only affect ourselves but many others as well. The difference with some is a conscientious one of ultimate sacrifice. The difference with others is one born of cowardly survival. Often between these two are choices that we mostly struggle with. Not so with the trumps. There is little to entertain us concerning their motivations concerning moral dilemmas. They have none that require a conscientiousness on their part.
     Instead they are driven by the idea that some are worthy of life and others are not. It is that simple with them. They believe that no one should be allowed to live who cannot live up to their expectation of what a human being should be. They do not follow the natural sequencing of evolution nor environment as factors in forming the human experience. They along with other logic deprived elitists feel that human nature can be molded to fit into a neat box and that those who don't "fit" are expendable. The horrific purging of humanity in order to "cleanse" for a new beginning. This is not unlike what the Nazi's tried to do in WWII in exterminating whole societies of what they called undesirables.
     You are either in or out with the trumps and no amount of compromise on the part of the undesirables is acceptable. There are no shades of gray with trumps, just right or wrong. The hubris of youth often sees the world as just black or white, yet we all know that experience shows us that very little in life is just one or the other. When maturity does take hold in the human experience we see that the "no shades of gray crowd" is childish and immature to the point of being destructive to the whole of humanity. When life revolved around a campfire in our ancient history it is more likely that right and wrong were often clear. But we don't live around a campfire any longer, we live in a modern enlightened society that requires of us to see all the shades of right and wrong and to apply them with a formula that enhances the democratic process, not the stubborn will of the childish!