(#5293) The republican party and putin are lying their asses off!

      What is life? What is it to be a human being? Well if you were an outsider looking down onto the Earth and watching what human beings were doing you would think that humans are not much of a special species. Instead of using the knowledge they have acquired over 1000's of years to build societies that reflected logic and common sense, instead we are not even able to distinguish the truth of our knowledge when presented with it. Too many of us have ulterior motives for our own penchants that have nothing to do with being intelligent and too much to do with our own wants and greed. The fact is that although we can think in an analytical way we choose to be led by anyone who has a cult personality.
     As long as that cult personality triggers our fears with solutions that are cruel and brutish. The only conclusion I can come up with in my limited thinking is that we are very shallow beings who have lost our identity and now succumb to the whims of those demented human creatures who would rule over us. Instead of being strong individually we are weak individually and have little desire to fight for what is correct. We human beings should be masters in all our realms but instead we are servants to those who shout us down. Our instinct to survive should be a strength but as it turns out our instinct to survive is a fear we are perpetually afraid of.
     When you finally find your courage and start to think like the human being you really are you will find that compassion and curiosity are your bedrock. Anything else is a diversion from those instincts. We care and we wonder. As such there can not be people who would lead us that hold different concepts that are honest and truthful. Much like the dictators of our day like the republican party and putin the lies they spew are hard to unravel when the strategy to deceive is their mantra. They play on fears and scare those who would question them. Usurped power can be like that so the sooner all of us reclaim our own power and use it for the better and best of all of us the sooner an outsider looking down on Earth will see the nobility and honor of our species.

(#5292) Catching up on sleep and blood pressure back down

      I was really worried a couple of weeks ago when John was still here in the house. I thought it was best for John to be home in his room under hospice care so that the familiar to him would keep him somewhat mollified. But I was wrong. He didn't seem to care where he was because he was too disorientated at times to remember. His constant shouting out our names for help was almost unbearable and when he finally was moved to a care facility we were all at the end of our tethers to sanity. I was especially tired as I was working full time in the parts department for 2 weeks but realized quickly that I couldn't keep that schedule while John was home. He needed so much attention that I was fortunate to cut my hours back down to 3 days a week back as a transfer driver.
     Still though it was a lot for me as I wasn't getting any rest being on call basically 24 hours a day to John's never ending calls for help. By help I mean any little thing he wanted, or needed to talk about, was a massive priority for him regardless the importance of it or the time of day or night. So for about 6 weeks I led a life of little sleep and rest. I was noticing that I was having a hard time keeping my body physically prepared for my work days and my blood pressure had increased too much. Feeling sluggish and driving big trucks for U-Haul was not only a worry but it bothered me to the point of actually considering quitting altogether.
     I need that bit of income from my part time job so I endured up until the time John was readmitted to a care facility. I was relieved and hoped that he would get better care there and I would start to return to some kind of normal previous to John's stroke. As it happened John is doing better in a care home where the help for him is designed on a 24 hour basis and I noticed that after catching up on some rest my physical and mental well being improved. I laugh and enjoy my work again with co workers and best of all my blood pressure has dropped back down to great numbers. I still need more rest but I am finally starting to feel healthier again and that is just what I needed.

(#5291) Feeling helpless to help my brother

      I am living in a dilemma, how to do anything for John that will allow him to escape the trap he is in. His body is trying to shut down while his will to live is as strong as ever. He is fighting hard not to give in to what his body is doing to him. It is excruciating to experience for not only him but for me as well. I don't know what to do for him. All the medical professionals are telling me his blood flow to his brain is diminished and that soon he won't be able to use his mind at all. What that does to the rest of his body is still uncertain to me but it cannot be good for him to not have the proper blood flow to his brain.
     Yet that time is not yet and in the meantime John is fighting against it. I have not told him of the diagnosis that they have formed of his imminent demise. I won't do that to him because he is fighting so hard to shake off the effects the stroke has caused him. I won't take away his will to survive by telling him what the doctors think. So John is caught between believing he will overcome the stroke and return home to a somewhat normal life and the reality of the daily slipping of his ability to function. He is not able to care for himself now and is tended to daily with cleaning and eating help. It is tragic to me that John, a man who would not want this to be his ending, has to endure this. The look in his eyes yearning for me to tell him that he is going to be fine is almost too much to bear.
     But I do bear it and tell him that it is up to him to work as hard as he can to make himself more self reliant. Yet I feel disingenuous in leading him on against the most probable outcome. In some non logical way I hope he can reverse reality but the odds of that are non existent. Such is my dilemma. I am fighting against the inevitable and it hurts. I don't want John to feel that inevitability as he is fighting against what he doesn't know. John has always been a fighter so letting him fight to the last is my best answer to the question of what do I do. I will not tell John he is dying and for him to accept that. I will keep telling him to fight against what is happening to him and let that be his motivation until he can no longer fight.
     

(#5290) The republican party makes life hard for the working middle poor!

      What republicans are good at is making life hard. They restrict access to intelligence and opportunity and then denigrate those who are not capable of improving their lives. I saw a post online yesterday where a woman was condescending to people who are poor for being obnoxious and generally of bad behavior. Well I don't know too many people who are happy for not having much to live for. It is as if she expected them to be somehow grateful for their miserable plight in life. That is the typical republican attitude. They look down on people they should otherwise be trying to help. Unlike we democrats who know people who are poor are not displayers of grateful etiquette because of their bad circumstances.
     We democrats understand that trying to help those who have little is the least we can do. We see the bigger picture where the wealthy and corporations are reaping huge subsidies from our government that pales any help the poor get from our government. Yet those republicans who look down on the poor have little or nothing to say about the wealthy taking from our coffers without a need. I am reminded of the allegory of the cave where the republicans in this scenario are the ones who can only see the shadows on the wall and think they are real whereas the democrats see the puppeteers and rebel against them and their shadows.
     Condescending to poor people while looking the other way when the wealthy take hundreds times more from all of us is a typical republican strategy. The republican party makes sure our society is unequal and works hard through their policies that favor the wealthy at the expense of doing little or nothing for the poor. The republican party creates poverty and then blames democrats for helping those who are poor. In no Universe can this be a good thing for republicans yet they are good at marketing their ulterior motive of creating a class society to people who let their biases lead their thinking. An America where the wealthy rule and the working middle poor must get by on table scraps!

(#5289) Trickle down economics does not work

      By giving the wealthiest among us extra money in hopes that they will share it fairly with their workers and consumers is a pipe dream. What the wealthy do with the extra money is invest it in banks that give them a return for their investment. No way does that money help the lesser well off in our nation but it does keep helping those who do have money to acquire even more money. So think of it this way, why pay a middleman money so that he can take a huge cut and then hand what is left over to those who need it? Why do that? Just give the extra directly to those who need it without using a middleman, or in other words, trickle down economics.
     The republican party has been running this scam economics on the American people for nearly 50 years with no good to come of it. Taxing the wealthy and investing that money directly into the states that house them is the best form of giving back to those who need the most help. There can only be a few wealthy out of all Americans so the ludicrous idea that we can all be wealthy is absurd. So instead of crying about how much tax the wealthy pay, which is a lot less than what they cry about, republicans need to start helping taking care of all of our society so that we all have a fair shot at a good and decent life.
     The republican party however will, at this stage, never admit that their trickle down economics is a complete failure because the wealthy are the ones who are the main supporters of the republican party. As such they are the greatest beneficiaries of the advantages that the corrupt trickle down economics provide. The greed that they are so infected by is another reason the republican party will never disown trickle down. Plus when was the last time you heard the republican party admit that they were wrong about a policy. Not in my lifetime! So the only way to stop the insane greed and power grabs by republicans is to vote them all out of office and give we democrats the control of not only preserving America's democracy but also of continuing a current economic boom that gives tax breaks to the working middle poor class while also enriching those very same wealthy but not by as much.

(#5288) I am going to have a good day

     I have a plan that begins with me going slow and easy today. I am in no rush to set any records or be the best at everything. I am just going to cruise through my day with little expectation except to finish what tasks are assigned to me. No speed records, no hurried steps, just cool and chill today despite the hot temperatures. It is not normal for me to be cool and chill as a strategy so today I will try it on. I don't usually rush to get things done but I don't go slow either. I want to enjoy my day, every minute of it and taking my time to perform my duties is my new plan. When I look around me at work I see all of us trying to accomplish the never ending routines of our days with little joy.
     I don't want that today for me. I want to be happy inside and out but not so much that anyone would think I was slacking. I just am not going to hurry anything. I can be excused for being a little slow as I am mostly all of 67 years old and soon to be 68. My time on Earth here is getting lesser each day so me doing something to enhance my senses by not rushing makes good sense to me. I doubt anyone will be expecting me to set any world land speed records today anyway. Later after work I will be going by the hospice care facility to see my older brother John and share some memories with him.
     I just want to have a different kind of day today where everything I do is slow and deliberate. Taking in all my responsibilities with clarity and thoroughness. My inner clock will no doubt be my biggest obstacle to having a comprehensive day where all my choices are considered with deliberation. But I will attempt to overcome my own normal behavior of getting things done in more a rush mode. I am tired physically and rushing is not helping me to balance out my physical and mental fatigue. With my brother John now in a care home and not here has seen my blood pressure averages decrease back into a good range. So I would like my workday to do the same for my blood pressure. A nice easy day while also remaining productive.

(#5287) The 2 dominant human traits, compassion and curiosity!

     I want to spend some time on what I have learned are the two most dominant human being traits. By curiosity I mean wonder. We wonder what things are and why they are. So much we don't know yet we never seem to stop trying to learn. It is innate within us to discover and understand. Our curiosity is only rivaled by our care. We care for each other and for those living things around us. We see life in any form as precious and although some forms of life that we fear we also try to cope with, like spiders and snakes. Overall our human nature of compassion is exemplified by our love and how that affects us.
     When we are not practicing our curiosity and compassion we are not as human as we should be. By default we become something less enviable and less worthy of being appreciated for being human. There are many examples of human beings purposely avoiding these 2 natures and it reflects in their acts and thoughts. We see the worst of what a human can be when the more psychotic among us actually try to dictate to us how we should live. We shall never give up our right as a free human being to practice our true natures. We may not always be on top of our natures and sometimes we are dragged down to the level of those who would dominate us but that is only because we acquiesce or fight fire with fire.
      Outside of those who would deny us our compassion and curiosity we are living free to experience them to their fullest. We do not hide from the fact of their truth to us and neither should any warrior of the truth. We hold facts as evidence and protect those facts with our might. For those who also want to live within their natures of wonder and care then remember that the best of who we are is what we stand for and no amount of lesser than is worthy of our attention. For those who will not live in their natures, they fall into lesser forms of being like intentionally causing harm with no remorse. The lack of curiosity and compassion is an unfortunate opportunity for the worst of who we have been to rearise and drag us all back into our dark antiquity.

(#5286) Again, give Ukraine what it needs to end the Russian aggression!

      The Ukrainian counter offensive is being stymied because the western countries supporting Ukraine are slow to give Ukraine what it needs to fight! Ukrainians will fight but will not go into battle to get slaughtered when all they need are the weapons to win! The west is playing a cautious game right now in trying not to upset Russia too much but fuck Russia and upset them we should! Russia is acting like a murdering rogue nation and for all intents and purposes must be stopped regardless of their stance! While the west is slow to give Ukraine what it needs noble Ukrainian people are being killed by the tyrant putin.
     We in the west must find our courage to always stand up for freedom, justice, equality and fairness. Not in small ways but in all ways. Our courage in the west is to stare down the Russian fascist and force him to acquiesce! If we do not act out our intentions with force and power we will be seen as weak and timid. That is not how we bring democracy to the world. We bring democracy to the world by showing the world that we are not afraid of anyone who would deny people the right to their self determination. The Ukrainian people are only asking to join in democratic values and we in the west need to help them do it! We should not be moderating our help in order to pacify a tyrant. I don't care about the zero sum question because only a fool or weak person would believe putin would trigger it!
     Ukraine needs the F-16's, they need unlimited ammunition for their assault troops including missiles that can fire on Moscow. Do not tie the arms of Ukraine behind their backs and expect them to accomplish what needs to be done. Russia must be brought to heel and that will only happen if they are forced by power to stop their aggressive ways. The time is now for the west to put up or shut up! No more mamby pamby approaches to fighting and dying when the life of every soul who is fighting for democracy is greater than any fear the less than courageous succumb to. Do it those of us in the west and give Ukraine the tools to end the tyranny being perpetrated on them and many others in the world!
     

(#5285) I am still processing the news about my older brother John

      I had to work Friday so I couldn't be at the hospice care facility for a meeting where my brother John is being cared for after his fall from his bed in my home. He didn't hurt himself but I couldn't be sure so I called 911 for their help. 911 determined that he needed to be taken into the emergency room to be checked out. Before this happened for weeks I was trying to get John moved from my house to a care facility as he was way too much for me and my housemate to handle. Even with IHSS providing less than 40 hours a week for a care person the degree by which John needed attention was well beyond that and beyond our ability to deal with his fears and shouts on a nearly 24 hour basis.
     So when he went to the emergency room I was able to deny him being brought back home. He was too much for us here. So instead they quickly found a bed for him in a hospice facility. John was here at home in a hospice situation so it was seamless getting him to the hospice facility. But all along I wanted him to go into a palliative care home where he could get rehab in order to better control his bowel and movement functions. Well instead I was informed on this last Friday that 2 doctors had concurred that John was not going to survive past a 6 month window. The nursing staff and the hospice care contingent at the hospice facility were in agreement with the doctors and then called me to present their findings.
     I was taken aback by their conclusion but realized that what I wanted for John was against medical advice. I accepted their findings and allowed them to keep John in the hospice facility without rehab. I am John's medical and legal guardian so it is was all down to me to decide. I am still numbed by all this but I must move forward with it. He had a stroke which cut off blood to certain parts of his brain. He is now starting to show that his cognition, though at times is lucid, is waning. His memories are starting to become confused and from what the medical professionals tell me will only get worse. I will see him as much as I can to see him and make sure he is being cared for properly. I will try to remind him of our adventures together and how much we enjoyed them.
     

(#5284) More sanctions on Russia!

      It isn't just Russia that needs to be sanctioned. There are other countries that are still supplying Russia with equipment and parts for warring. These sneaky countries need to be held to account. You cannot say one thing and then silently do another. That doesn't work with trust nor long term relations. I am not talking about any major ally or anything but some lesser nation states are playing fast and loose with their commitments to democratic protocols. Every extra piece of armament that is used in Ukraine against Ukrainians is just more unjustified death caused on the heads of Ukrainians.
     There will be a war crimes tribunal when this devastating illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine is eventually resolved. No bad actor will escape their uncovered participation in helping Russia with its attempted genocide of the Ukrainian people. A cost will be borne on the heads of those who sought out profit and/or favor with the tyrant putin. It seems incredible to me that any nation state would side with Russia when what Russia is trying to do is dominate the people's of other countries. But it seems that the allure of profit or the promise of power is to great for some to see through. That putin will not be long for this world why would anyone be expecting that putin can deliver?
     The Ukrainians will win the struggle for their sovereignty and no amount of greed or selfishness on the part of putin and his cabal of lowlife allies will change that. So what in the end will happen is that the death merchants who find putin's money enticing will find that there will be another cost that will not benefit them at all. That cost will be accountability. Each man or nation judged upon their actions not their words. What should happen however before the Russian invasion is eventually repulsed from Ukrainian soil is that all the aggressors and their partners need to feel the sting and pinch of an allied determined sanction list that not only makes them suffer at home with their citizens but with their own bank and investment accounts.

(#5283) The greatest gift to me in my life has been my education

      I have spent some time trying to realize the greatest thing to happen to me in my life and I keep coming back to my education. From kindergarten to college degree I find that the information and teachings I received developed me into who I am. The young raw Carl was an innocent, eager to learn me. The older more refined Carl has benefited enormously from all those early life days sitting in classrooms learning how to think critically for myself. I learned early on that objective takes on reality were far more instructional than subjective positions that didn't include all the facts and truths.
     Much like what we have today in our classrooms and society at large. Being taught some of the truth while ignoring other parts of the truth does not serve anyone other than those who would control what people think. If we are all to think properly we need all the facts and truths not just those that mislead and corrupt. We have a republican governor in Florida who is now forcing the teaching that American slavery was a good thing for people of color. Even with the widest of deference given to this false conclusion there is no instance or circumstance where over 250 years of legal slavery was a "good thing" for those men, women, and children who were cruelly and brutally enslaved as property instead of being free human beings.
     The greatest gift in my life is my education and being allowed to think for myself after the facts and truths have been presented. I would not be sitting here at my home desk typing this blog post out otherwise. It is because I can examine reality with a panoramic view. I don't need anyone to think for me because I learned that taking in all the factors before creating a solution is the only way I can with any degree of certainty know what I am concluding is correct. Even then with new data and truths being discovered I know that my conclusions will need to be adjusted. Such is the evolution of information. The more we receive the more our previously held conclusions need to be questioned. Such is the nature of knowledge, ever adding to it's base while refining it's conclusions. That is the objective way!

(#5282) Coming up on 17 years of sobriety

     My life has been very complicated lately but what isn't complicated is staying sober. I gave myself a chance nearly 17 years ago to change my life into something far more healthy and productive. That part was not easy to do. I had to stop drinking alcohol and that habit was ingrained in me for many decades. I was used to the taste and effect alcohol had on my body and to just stop was a shock to my system. However the longer I didn't drink alcohol the lesser the desire to drink alcohol became. I was not quite a lost soul when it came to alcohol but I was starting to drink as a first response to most anything that caused me pain or joy. I was getting hooked on the act and effect and it was bothering me.
     So that day I decided to actually stop drinking alcohol I got up and went to an AA meeting. I admitted to them that I was an alcoholic and I needed help. Well for the next 628 days straight I went to a meeting. In that time I found that I could make new friends who were like me wanting to eliminate alcohol from their lives. This commonality of purpose was enormous in my being able to not drink alcohol. I heard their stories and how they survived in their daily battles to stop drinking and I battled my own desires when I was tempted to return to alcohol. Through it all I had built a foundation upon where our support of each other was enough to keep the many of us from falling off the wagon.
     So almost 17 years later, July 24th, I will have not had a drop of alcohol nor for that matter any cigarette, pipe, or cigar. The smoking was always an add on when I drank so when the drinking of alcohol stopped the smoking disappeared as well. I can honestly say right here right now that drinking alcohol rarely enters my mind. When it does I kind of chuckle to myself and remember all the times that I didn't quit and how much worse off I felt for thinking I could keep drinking. For me the nearly 17 years could be 1700 years if were to live that long but as a person who knows how alluring drinking alcohol can be just living one day at a time without drinking is always my core default position.

(#5281) Ukraine keeps making advances on the front line with minimal troop loss

      If there is one tell on this Russian invasion of Ukraine you can notice it is that the Ukrainians value each of their soldiers lives. Whereas the Russians do not. Russia throws their troops into battle with minimal artillery support. The Russians don't mind sending waves of soldiers to their deaths as long as they can show some progress on the battlefield. Unlike Ukraine which is very selective in how they deploy their infantry into battle. Ukraine is the example as to how to fight against an invader. They calculate success by small increments of territory regained against the loss of life to attain it. The Ukrainians have found that the value of life is greater than some portion of territory regained.
     The Russians on the other hand are willing to send their troops to death in order to crow about gaining meters of Ukrainian land. The contrast couldn't be more stark. While Russia held occupied Ukrainian territory they built defense systems designed to kill and maim innumerable Ukrainian soldiers. But the Ukrainians know this and would not commit to assaults that harmed their troops unnecessarily. So the much vaunted Ukrainian counter offensive has been a slow crawl instead of a sprint through Russian defenses. Each day Ukraine moves a little closer to the Russian lines and pushes the Russians back. Because Ukraine knows that military strategy instead of foolishly rushing in is the key to success.
     Ukraine has yet to utilize the largest contingent of their reserves because their front line troops are doing the job of finding openings from which Ukraine can exploit. Once the process of creating an opening occurs Ukraine will then and only then be able to spill into the opening with the confidence that they will overrun and rout the Russian defenses in the occupied Ukrainian territories. This slow crawl by the Ukrainian high command is exactly what was needed given the Russian defenses. It also preserves lives on the Ukrainian side by not being caught up into traps the Russians may have set. Ukraine is exemplary in their strategy and soon that strategy will start to pay off with an opening Ukraine will exploit to the detriment of the Russian horde!

(#5280) We are quickly approaching one quarter of a million dead Russian soldiers in Ukraine

      As it stands this morning there are 239,000 dead Russian soldiers in Ukraine. If that isn't enough to convince you that putin is an evil rotten to the core bastard then you are as bad as him. 239 thousand mostly all young souls lost forever from their families and friends because putin wanted to be a big ass dictator! Well putin will not be a dictator nor will his ally trump here in the states. We here in America were fortunate to kick trumps ass out of office, despite his insurrection attempt, but Russia will not have the same outcome as we did. Russia will lose more that 250,000 before this putin invasion is over and that is a historical tragedy.
     Yet the Russian people have allowed this cruel outcome to continue by not overthrowing their demented dictator. So it is hard to feel sorry for the Russian people that have given their children for putin to grind up and spit out into no more. It is a sad state of affairs that the death of so many young, who had not begun to live to their lives in any meaningful way, was for such a dastardly motive as to eliminate a group of people from the Earth. Genocide is what putin wanted in Ukraine because they stood up to him and told him to fuck off! Free people wanting to remain free fight like hell cats and putin and his people are finding out the hard way.
     If only the Russian people had more of a backbone and the motivation to end this nightmare they are allowing to continue. But it seems they are satisfied with offering up their young to the likes of a corrupted and diseased mind of putin. Putting their faith in a madman is indicative of their own madness. No amount of propaganda can keep even inklings of the truth from getting out to them so not questioning why their children are now dead and more are being asked to go die in Ukraine isn't causing enough of a stir to confront putin in the ways of putin. If I were Russian and my children were being chewed up for nothing but putin/s ego I know what I would do in their memory!

(#5279) Joe Biden is head and shoulders above all others

      There is no one in the democratic party nor republican party that can carry as much gravitas as Joe Biden can and no one in the republican party that can even come close to being a champion of the people like Joe Biden. The coming 2024 presidential race will not be close, as whomever advances on the republican side will be doomed to their anti working middle poor class policies. Joe Biden has done so much for our American working middle poor class and he isn't done yet. There are obstacles to even more equality and opportunity policies at the moment but with a larger majority in the senate and retaking the House, the possibilities for greater democracy in America become real.
     The blue wave election that can have the most dominant impact in American politics is this coming one. The last 3 blue wave elections helped secure a starting point from which to launch this election into an atmospheric realm. Not only is the majority of the House a real probability but the state houses and governorships may well turn blue in a majority of our states. The reason the blue wave is so popular is because the working middle poor class get to have a say in the outcome of policies for our local communities, states, and nation. We the people are the working middle poor class and our votes in this coming election will steer our local and national policies for generations.
     The republican voters are fear voters while the democratic voters are possibility voters. America is not made up of fearful people who put their fear out as their reason for doing things. Instead we democrats are like the quote attributed to the late great Bobby Kennedy inspires, “Some men see things as they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.” This is who we are as we the people. We see things as they are and question them while also looking ahead to new paradigms that are an improvement on those things we know can be better. This is why we democrats will win in 2024 because we care about all of us and that is attractive to those of us who want a more perfect democracy!

(#5278) Where intelligence is dismissed subjugation will follow

      Let me put it this way. When you decide that others can think for you, you will not be considered worthy of freedom and equality. By your willful dismissal of intelligence others who will think for you will downplay your right to an equal share with them. They will think of you more like property to use or dispose of as their own needs require. That is why it is so important to have an informed opinion about all things that affect society. Those who would think for you instead of telling you why you need to think for yourself are opportunists who will only consider their advantages when deciding what to tell you to do.
     The conmen/women of the world are good at finding those who will not think for themselves. They send out propaganda and see who responds. Their propaganda is not truth but it has an inkling of truth to it as the bait to reel in the unsophisticated. Once they have hooked you to their illogic then it is just about feeding you more of the same to give you an outlook on life that has little to do with truth and more to do with being controlled. Instead of telling you that all people deserve equal rights they tell you that many people don't deserve rights based upon their selfish propaganda. You see this with religion many times when they take the written word in their bibles and apply it subjectively to all different types of paradigms.
     But religion isn't the only use of propaganda that is effective. Political parties like the republicans have a built in agenda that is founded upon separation of people through racism and sexism. If you think I am wrong then explain to me why republicans on whole vote against the equal rights amendment for women to bring them up to equal with men? Explain to me why republicans are so focused on destroying the voting rights amendment that gives all people of color the same advantages currently enjoyed by white people? The disregard for intelligence by too many in our society will be the downfall of our democracy and the end of freedom and equality for all.

(#5277) We democrats don't brag, we just get good things done

      Unlike the lying cheating stealing republican party we democrats are honest and hard working. We don't work to rip people off or disadvantage those whom we deem less than equal. We instead treat all as equal and try to find the best way forward that reflects that effort. Which is why republicans go about lying all the time about our achievements. They have nothing to show for their agenda except to lie about how we democrats are making our world better. If you are unaware of this simple fact then you too need to get yourself an education on how things operate in this world. Every time you help elects a republican to office you are actually helping to wreck democracy in action.
     I am not saying that we democrats are perfect in our party, but it is an exception when someone of the democratic party fails at being a good honest leader. With republicans it is more the rule that they fail to be good honest leaders. The notion of liberty and equality are the foundation of democracy yet republicans spend all their time trying to limit who has liberty and equality in our society. That is not leadership of a noble calling it is instead a nefarious attempt to control the freedom and liberty of those many that are negatively affected by republican interference in our basic rights. The republican idea of liberty and equality is contingent upon the many of us doing what republicans want us to do instead of following our own destiny.
     Well the mind of an American is a stubborn one and we don't like being told how to live our lives when the choice is ours, not someone else's. We take our responsibility to our own happiness serious and will never suffer the fools who would con us into their unreal concepts. Yet some Americans are easily fooled by catch phrases and embellished rhetoric. A failing we Americans have fallen into is letting ourselves become less intelligent and more readily adaptable to the siren calls of those who would do us harm under the pretext of caring about us. No one cares about us who would deny our rights to our liberty and equality. Freedom in a society demands that we dutifully protect all our rights from every attack both from without and from within.

(#5276) A long hot summer...

      I keep trying to think of another topic to write about but the weather is foremost on my mind. Hundred degree days are here and there is no relief in sight for the foreseeable future. I live in Sacramento California and we are used to a few hot days during the summer but not like this. Where the constant rate of temperature is at or above the century mark. This is different from when I was growing up. sure we had hot days but not this hot! The climate change that many voiced concern over is now here and if you still think that it is just extremists who are saying I tell you so it isn't. I am no extremists and I know that climate change is real because of the science.
     Global warming is now recording the hottest days throughout the whole planet. The average high temperature for July ever was broken 11 out of the first 12 days. This last June was the hottest recorded temperature ever for the planet. It is only going to get hotter because we have not as a planet stopped filling the atmosphere with greenhouse gases. We need to quit burning fossil fuels as quickly as possible and convert our energy needs to green energy systems. The longer it takes for us to convert from fossil fuels the hotter the temperatures will continue to grow.
     We are killing our planet and killing not only our species with unbearable temperatures but other non human species' are at risk of extinction. We humans created this problem of global warming beyond what could have been cyclical warming and we are not taking the solutions offered with any urgency. That is our fault and our dilemma. Too many powers that be only care for today's profits and care nothing for anything beyond their own life expectancy. We many more of us do care about the future of our planet and the species' that inhabit Earth and we need to find a way to force our logical human thinking past those who would do nothing but keep making profit.

(#5275) Democracy must be the world's system of government!

      Freedom and liberty were the catch words of our American revolution. From that start our form of democracy is evolving to be more inclusive of all of our citizens. Regardless the republican majority right now on our sot so supreme court democracy is evolving and advancing in spite of them. The reason is that democracy is ingrained into our human natures. We are individuals who are required by circumstance to live as a community. So keeping our individual rights while protecting our communities is a constant moderation that seeks to protect both. That is the beauty of democracy, compromise where compromise is wise and good.
     We are still working on creating our more perfect union while keeping our freedom and liberty as foundational. This is what the world needs as well as it's model. Allow for the rights of each person to be equivocal while also protecting the rights of all of us together. There is no other form of government that has been tried that is even close to what democracy offers. So when the tyrants of the world who would pretend that they are the answer to our communities we just need to measure what they do against what democracy does. It isn't even a contest. Democracy in it's better and best form will always be more free and with greater liberty than any despot could claim he or she offers.
     Which is why the battle for Ukraine is so important. Ukraine wants democracy for it's citizens while Russia wants to subdue Ukrainian independence and make them another servant to the tyrant putin. There is no embellishment here at all. Russia is trying to kill off the Ukrainian opposition to them so that Russia can expand not only into Ukraine but further west into Europe. The tyrants of the world are looking to Russia to be successful so that their ability to invade with impunity will be increased. We must stop putin and his tyrannical horde now not only to stop Russia from advancing but to also put all other tyrants in the world on notice that democracy is coming and they had better get with transforming to democracy or find out the hard way like putin!

(#5274) More about the homefront...

      I have resigned myself to not expecting John to recover from this stroke. He was sent home under a hospice directive and I cannot change that even though I now have the power to do so. I wanted John to fight for his life in a rehab center where he could have gotten physical therapy and the attention he needed to at least give him a chance to overcome the effects of the stroke. But since he is in a hospice setting it is difficult to reverse that in my area because the low income beds are full and as each day passes with him here at home only getting medications to withstand the pain his chances of surviving are slimmer and slimmer.
     John shares some responsibility here as well as he will not listen to good advice concerning his actions and he won't try to do any rehab on his own. It is like he has resigned to his fate and just awaits it's inevitability. My instinct always tells me to fight back but as I am now being inundated with his slowly declining effects I myself have had to readjust my attitude and not demand or care too much about that which is out of my control. I had been keeping him off too many of the drugs that render him unable to try to function and now am letting him have his drugs as he wants them. If he isn't going to fight for his life then I cannot make him.
     I don't know for sure how this is going to end but it will be on John's terms not mine. His incessant calling out my name at all hours is starting to decrease because he is more groggy than not lately so my sanity is improving because of it but the cost is that John is now on his way out of life. I am preparing myself for that. The stroke caused a lot of damage within him and he knows that. He is the judge of his life and I won't stop him from choosing how his end comes even though I believe he should fight for every breath he can have. It is all so tragic and having to live close up to this is not what anyone should have to go through because there really is no upside or silver lining to someone dying right in front of you and having no real way to stop it.

(#5273) The homefront

      I gotta say that my life over the last several months has been a challenge to my sanity and my physical well being. My older brother John who has been left with me to care for has been the challenge that never stops. He is obviously not in his right mind because he has reverted to being like a 2 year old spoiled child who can never stop yelling for someone to pay attention to him. Not just the necessary things like feeding and cleaning him but everything else under the sun. His consistent yelling anytime he is awake is enough to drive a sane person to distress. I know he is not himself but his never ending screaming for someone to be at his beck and call is not completely unintentional.
     So I soldier on and keep showing up when I am on a day off from work because it is who I am but I have to find a way to stop his incessant screaming. His latest yells are about he doesn't want to die alone when all he has to do is try to live. It is like he wants us here to live in his room while he does nothing to make himself better. We are at his disposal so much now that I am beginning to lose sight of my own agenda for living. I wish there was some way to have him placed in a rehab facility where health care professionals can work with him to improve his lot. But as he is currently under hospice rules they do not allow him physical or mental therapy.
     I am trying to change that by working to find him a rehab facility that will accept him. None locally have a bed so far so I am hoping another option will come about. But in the meantime my household is like an insane asylum. I may well lose my other housemate because she did not sign up for this utter calamity that is currently our fate. I can get nothing done on my days off because John will not relent in his screaming for attention. No amount of logic with him will work because he has reverted to some primitive form of himself that will only allow serving his every whim. I am exhausted by it and if I don't find a place for John soon in some long term care facility I may need a psychiatric home for myself.

(#5272) Ukraine is fighting for their very survival

      It is strange to see unaffected persons trying to dictate the terms of the Ukrainian defense of their lives. It is typical in this day and age where arm chair quarterbacks give advice without actually having to follow it themselves. Surely if they were threatened daily with a horrible death their perspective would absolutely be altered. Russia is a monster right now, inflicting bombs on civilians in schools, hospitals and apartment building on a nightly basis. They are also using banned weapons on the front lines against Ukrainian soldiers. For these folks who have no dog in the fight so to speak to be dictating how Ukraine can defend itself is the height of stupidity on their part and an obnoxious sense of entitlement.
     Survival is an instinct that must be followed. If you were given an opportunity to end your imminent death with a weapon that would kill your murderer, you would not hesitate and debate with yourself, ask advice of someone not in danger if the weapon you use is agreeable to everyone. You would use it without a moments thought and then understand that your life is more precious to you than someone else's opinion of the weapon used to save your life. It sickens me really that there are people out there who think they should be able to tell you how to defend yourself against a monster! Sickens me!
     The Ukrainian people are living under a daily terrorist threat from putin. So keeping putin's henchmen from murdering them is why they need all the weapons they can accrue. Stop trying to manage someone else's despair and fear. The Ukrainian people don't need your judgement in how they struggle to survive when your judgement is what they can't do to survive. The audacity of some people is beyond the pale and should be stomped down when it misguidedly raises it head to utter foolishness. If we are to help Ukraine defeat the aggressor invading horde from Russia then give Ukraine every damn weapon they can use that will suffice to end the murderous Russian invasion and kick every Russian out of Ukraine!

(#5271) Any day now the Russian front line in Ukraine will falter

      The intent of the Ukrainian counter offensive has been to probe the 1000 mile long front line Russia is trying to defend in Ukraine. The probing is to find the weak points that may lead to a decision where to insert the many brigades being held in the rear. I applaud Ukraine for using a strategy that doesn't resemble the Russian attack model where they send too many of their troops to certain death. The Russians don't care about how many of their troops die on the front line because they only want results. Case in point is their nearly year long siege of Bakhmut city that cost them around 50,000 dead soldiers. All because Russia is run by a mob and attack in a mob style.
     Russia will lose Bakhmut in the next week or so because they expended too many of their troops just take it. Russia has no reserves to speak of that can come to Bakhmut and help them hold it. Ukraine has been systematically taking area around Bakhmut that in the end will become a pincer move and a death trap for Russian troops if they stay. This kind of strategy is playing out all along the front line as Ukraine is taking it's time to correctly conquer the high ground from which to assault the Russian defenses deeper into Ukrainian territory currently occupied by Russia. This Ukrainian counter offensive is a masterpiece in that they have no effective planes to help them sweep Russians back from entrenched positions.
     Once the opening is established for Ukraine to flow it's reserves into the battle the Russian horde will be run out of Ukraine. That includes Crimea and all of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts. Russia has already lost half it's military in the invasion of Ukraine so the idea that Russia has anything left to bolster it's defense of the occupied Ukrainian territories is absurd. Once the floodgate opens expect all the insurgency and anti Russian forces to join in the Ukrainian advance and destroy and capture Russian troops as they are routed and or running for their lives.

(#5270) No time for a blog post today so this is it

      I just saw that I didn't post a blog post today and that is somewhat surprising. I was busy this early morning with John and then the morning shopping and gas fill up. Then the yard work out back tired me out pretty good so with all that done I took a nap and then was busy watching a series on television to take my mind off all that has been happening lately. As well to give my swollen ankles a chance to recover from me being on my feet most of the morning. I was about to shut my computer off for the evening when I noticed the tab for my blog still up. Then the realization hit me, I hadn't done a post yet.
     It is crazy how I think about this blog. I expect myself to post something every day with no excuse. Yet it would be so easy to skip a day or two intentionally just to give my mind a moment of quiet in order to build up another subject in the interim. But no, that is not how I roll as it were. I expect myself to have a new or varied subject every day to expound about. The usual suspects of politics and war are being dissected daily by me so nothing Earth shattering exposed itself to me today. Politics is politics and the time for an in depth political analysis is not upon me yet.
     So what is left? My life of nothing much exciting going on except the grateful drudgery of duty and chore. I am satisfied with being a home body at my age since I was not that growing up. I actually did a lot of stuff when I was younger that today I could never do. So my golden years are not full of adventure and intrigue. My feet hurt and my body aches for the most part at the end of my part time work week so nothing much to talk about with that. I did slice my finger this afternoon cutting an onion but managing and treating that is no big whoopee so I guess this blog post is nothing much about anything other than filling in my time during this day.

(#5269) putin deserves no favors

      The invasion of Ukraine by putin has cost Russia so much that they are now needing to recall troops from their borders to go to Ukraine and die. Well that is what will happen as Ukraine is moving forward against the front lines and Russia is moving backwards with death all around them. So putin in his magical thinking has decided that pouring more troops into the war front will somehow stop the Ukrainian counter offensive that is both strategic and precise. So what happens to the borders where putin takes troops from? Well those borders are less secure and surely less able to reinforce if attacked.
     Now why would any country neighboring Russia want to advance on the Russian border? Well for one thing Russia has taken from every border it has ever had and added to it's own empire for centuries. Much like what they are trying to do with Ukraine. Destroy Ukraine and absorb it's identity as a free people. The same goes for all the countries that border Russia. They have been conceding territory and acquiescing to Russian demands for far too long for them not to have some resentment still quietly simmering. But now with Russia trying to force Ukraine into a submission and doing poorly at it the neighboring countries to Russia may well decide that the time is right for them also to push back against putin and his horde of kremlin rats.
     So no one should be willing to help putin attack another neighboring country nor should they not entertain ideas of reclaiming their own stolen territory back from Russia. What the wagners showed a couple of weeks ago is that Russia is a paper tiger now. Incapable of defending itself from it's own mercenaries. Had it not been for the wagner leaders ill fated decision to halt his march on Moscow, we could well be still celebrating the end of putin. So the neighboring countries of Russia should carefully weigh the current weakness of Russia and finally put them in their place by taking back what is rightfully theirs.

(#5268) More than 232,000 dead Russian soldiers in Ukraine

      The tyrant putin thought that he would march into Ukraine and take what he wanted back in February 2022. Yet what he got taken from his country is far more sickening for his now daily nightmare. The tyrant putin has learned one thing he didn't know from his efforts, that free people will fight to remain free. It won't be long from now when there are one quarter million dead Russians from Ukrainian bullets and bombs. Like the hungry dog, putin was salivating over what he thought would be easy pickings in Ukraine. What he got instead was not a tasty meal, instead he is getting gored by his supposed prey.
     What Russia looks like after all of this is yet to be known but Russia will not be the same as it was before February 2022. First off the youth of Russia has been decimated. A whole generation of young men will not exist in Russia. Now putin wants to send more young men to their deaths in Ukraine and that is exactly what will happen. Yet that is not a foregone conclusion either. The Russian people still have time to stand up to their maddening tyrant. I don't expect they will because they have shown little resistance to date. But how many more young Russians must die for nothing will the Russian population take? Their sons are being killed by the droves everyday and yet nothing has been shown for it.
     Will another 232,000 have to die before the Russian fathers and mothers decide that enough is enough? Is the expectation of little or nothing so worth the lives of their children? It is shameful what the parents of those dead young men are allowing. Their tyrant leader putin is taking the one thing from them that they cherished the most and they still remain still in the face of it. My guess is that the broken nature of the Russian people will not allow them to rise up in courage to take down their psychotic leader. If what we are seeing from the parents of these dead Russian soldiers is what was instilled in their children then the Russian army has no chance of winning any war against a people who are fighting for their freedom.

(#5267) We are all going to die so why not enjoy life as much as possible?

      There is no dispensation from death. It will happen to all of us at some point in time. I know that and you know that so why not take what time of life we have left and make the most of it in a satisfying way? I do every day. I talk about the short time I have left and it often catches people of guard. They tell me that I still have a decade or two to live and I shouldn't worry about dying. I retort back that if I am lucky enough to last another decade or two, many will not by the way, it isn't worry that is occupying my mind it is grasping each moment I have and trying to make the best of it. Whether a friendly greeting or a smile, I always have something to offer.
     Being optimistic helps as well because like we all should know life is hard on all of us. So being of help to someone else not only helps them even if only a little bit but it helps us as well. For me it is a known fact that I have had some harrowing close calls with an early death. But as luck and with some agility I have dodged those past moments of danger and here I am well into an age where more time is spent remembering deeds of the past than actually creating new ones. I have had a decent run on life so if it ended tomorrow I wouldn't feel cheated somehow. I am grateful for all the days I have had but I am not done yet.
     However life is not one of privilege nor deserves when it comes to our deaths. None of us will survive death so while we are alive our goal should be to be as happy as possible while making others around us happy. Living a good life of respect and honor is a start. Start your day with a smile or a hello and then let the day set the rest. In following my obligations and responsibilities I can still find that fun is out there. Being creative and positive is a great way to pass time during the mundane drudgery of our daily tasks. Focusing on my work while also allowing human interaction to be better than worse is my constant goal. The next thing I know my work for the day is done and people around me are better for me being there with them. Me too.

(#5266) Independence form Great Britain was just the beginning

      It has been 247 years since our American Declaration of Independence was announced to the British in 1776. By 1983 the Revolutionary War was officially ended. Our national constitution became operational in 1789. The bill of rights, also known as the first 10 Amendments to our Constitution, was ratified in 1791. As you can see a progression of events took place to bring about what we currently enjoy as our nation. Yet our nation has continued to flourish with more Amendments and immigration that has brought about what is referred to as the great melting pot society.
     What also lingers from the underbelly of our nation is the racism that was employed for centuries by slave owners well into the 19th century. Slavery was finally abolished through the 13th Amendment to our constitution in 1865. That should have been an end to a very disturbing and hateful practice. Yet it wasn't. State and local laws allowing for Jim crow practices to enact segregation began in 1887. So the short lived euphoria of an equal society among blacks and whites was quashed. Not until 1964-65 when the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act became law could black American descendants of slavery Start to feel a small relaxing of the effects of segregation.
     However this latest republican dominated supreme court has been busy dismantling key sections of the Voting Rights Act. Making it harder for blacks to vote has been a republican dream because republican policies are so detrimental to blacks that republicans know that blacks will never support them in elections so blocking their votes is how republicans plan to win elections. Instead of republicans tailoring their policies to be more racially inclusive they instead tailor the electorate by working to deny black and poor voters a say in our state and national policies. It is my belief that voting for democrats at every level of government is the only way our Independence from Britain is going to continue to flourish.

(#5265) The cost of freedom? Whatever it takes!

      The Ukrainian people are the victims of Russia and it's tyrant leader putin. So what do these victims of Russia do? They fight back and tell the tyrant putin that he can go fuck himself! That is noble spirit when faced with long odds and a murdering psychopath like putin. But like the war cry of the American Revolution "Give me liberty or give me death" delivered by American statesman Patrick Henry, the Ukrainians are of the same mettle. But like we Americans of the Revolutionary War, we would not have prevailed had it not been for the timely intervention on our behalf by the French. So it is with the brave Ukrainians. they need help from the west in order to do the hard and deadly work of removing Russia from their soil.
     The weapons from the west so far have allowed Ukraine to keep the Russian horde from invading further but there need to be more weapons for the brave Ukrainian soldiers to push the Russians back to their own borders and in some areas beyond. The time is still ripe for allowing sophisticated weaponry to enter the battle for democracy and the west needs to hurry along a pathway for it. There cannot be any second guesses when liberty and freedom are on the line. It is either all in or nothing at all. Well we are already all in so any hesitation on our part to finish the job of removing Russians from Ukraine will be a waste of Ukrainian blood and a failure on our part to live up to our commitment to freedom.
     Never in all my years as an American would I believe we Americans would not stand up and fight to preserve freedom and liberty when it was being threatened by a murdering bully. Never in my life could I have thought it possible that we would shrink from any fight that tested our courage and honor. I am not like that in my life and I expect that we will not be like that as a nation. But we must not fiddle around while the flames of war are around us. They may be in Europe at the moment but if putin is allowed to succeed in Ukraine then the rest of Europe will once again become a major battlefield between the Russian thirst for blood and treasure and what is left of our cause to defend against and crush those who would take it!

(#5264) Send Ukraine the planes and rockets now!

      I have been watching the slow crawl Ukrainian counter offensive and to me it is appropriate for not wasting Ukrainian soldiers' lives. They have the will to fight and retake their land but they are also not stupid. Russia has had many months to fortify the front lines on their side with an eye to knowing that Ukraine cannot help their counter assault with the necessary rockets and airplanes. This hinders Ukraine and makes their job of attacking Russian lines much more difficult and deadly. Russians are dug in and have fortified themselves with enough armaments to inflict a heavy toll on advancing Ukrainian soldiers.
     The only way Ukraine can competently overcome these kinds of defenses is to be able to attack from the air as well as from the ground. So the necessity of having enough jets to do carpet bombing of Russian positions so that the Ukrainian soldiers can go in and clean up the defenses is imperative. Zelenskyy is correct in holding back his main force until he can help them with air superiority. It is coming but not fast enough! This should have been addressed much earlier in the planning stages but the US and most of it's allies have been reluctant to supply these jets and long range rockets out of some perceived future fear of upsetting Russia. Well fuck Russia and them being possibly upset.
     The only fear I feel is for the lives of the brave Ukrainian soldiers who have been risking their lives for the past 16 months non stop. They need the weaponry and logistics necessary to defeat Russia and send them back to their own country. That is the fate of war. Either help our friend win and succeed or let them die without our help. The fear factor about Russia is gamesmanship so taking that off the table by giving Russia the middle finger and going all in on helping Ukraine push them from Ukrainian soil is the only proper response from the west. We cannot let the dying bully Russia dictate what may happen if we help Ukraine. We either help or not. No in between!

(#5263) If you vote for republicans you are the reason rights are being lost

      I know that bathrooms are the most important issue to many, especially to those who cannot accept transgenders, but letting who uses what bathroom to relieve themselves blind you to the loss of your many other rights is seeing the world with blinders and fetters on. Narrowly focusing on one issue that in all respects is a denial of rights to some as your reason for being a republican voter is indicative of your inability to prioritize an intelligent hierarchy of needs. Is losing the right to define your own destiny as a woman worth denying who can use what bathroom? Is losing the right to a correctively fair college admission policy worth your time being a bigot about bathroom access?
     I don't know about you but letting republicans keep legacy admissions to college safe from scrutiny while denying folks of color from evening out the playing field of college admissions is the most vile hypocritically omitted reasoning by any republican. So favor now resides with the majority of white applicants to college because they are the vast majority of legacy opportunists. https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/scotus-verify/what-are-legacy-admissions-supreme-court-affirmative-action-ruling/536-13850de4-b105-49d3-9898-3d4c60f54bc0.
     This not supreme court has shown that it will deny people of color more often than not and protect white people more often than not. That is not color blind justice that is deliberate defining of solutions tailored to a specific group with intentionality. These 6 justices, all appointed by republican presidents, have shown that their perspective of we the people is not all inclusive of all of we the people. They construct their arguments to comport with their decisions not upon all the factors but only upon the factors they deem as relevant. This current majority court of 6 republican justices is an abomination to stare decisis and an abomination to the idea that grave matters need to be decided with wisdom and equality.