(#6151) A lot of our young Americans are too afraid to die

      I get that. You are just starting out in life and cannot see the wisdom in dying before you start living as your own human being. Yet some very notorious people are taking advantage of that extreme caution from the young and changing their future before they even start to living it fully. The future belongs to our young folks, not us who are beyond the age of unlimited energy and enthusiasm. The innocence of the young is still fresh in their minds and their advocacy for justice and fairness is unparalleled. The beauty of our young is that they still see simple solutions to our most egregious realities.
     They don't try to nuance the obvious into something far less and more difficult to administer. Instead they see what the rest of us need as a foundation and live to bring that about. Therein lies the problem for those who are older, selfish, and greedy. They have power now and do not want to relinquish it to those who they think are beneath them. These older cynics and greedy selfish are the problem, not our youth. So what do the greedy selfish older people do? They scare and intimidate the young with grave consequences when they need to shut down the youth from their natural ascension. That fear of being dead instead of alive seems to work well for them.
     But I always come back to our own amazingly true American hero Nathan Hale. He, at the age of 21, was a revolutionary war spy against Britain and was caught and hung. However he left us all with his last words of regretting that he only had one life to give for his country. Sure Nathan was scared because he was human. Yet he found his courage and his purpose despite his fear. Our young folks today are going to need to find their purpose and courage over the coming present and future days if they are to be a factor in preserving our democracy. For them more than me and those of my age, the future is for the young to lead but I will do all I can to support them and help in any way I can.

(#6150) We need a national work stoppage day!

      We the democratic party have some momentum on our side. But to keep it we must ratchet up the pressure on the republican party. The best way to do that is to stop working for at minimum one day. Whatever the excuse given we must find a way to align all of us to a beginning and then follow through. I know even with only my necessary part time job I will participate. Because some things are greater than our current economic struggles. Saving our democracy is one of those greater things. The only pressure republicans and their wealthy donors understand is money. If we start to deprive them of money they will understand our ability to effect them directly.
     Trying to appeal to their conscience is worthless. They publicly act contrite and sympathetic but then go back behind closed doors and laugh at us. The depth of their lack of care is bottomless, unless it hits them in the pocketbook. Then they start to fear for their own ability to withstand our coordinated stoppages. I get that a work stoppage is a major headache for many of us and some will be harmed by it but the greater harm is letting the republican party and their wealthy donors continue to unsettle and destroy our democratic institutions and rights. We have reached that tipping point where our own well being is not a choice anymore. We are now at the point where the worst of what our American society can become is now more likely than not.
     Which is why we absolutely need to ramp up our voices and utility. If we don't we will soon wish we had because the rights and freedoms we still have today will be quickly removed with no recourse to their reversal. I am not embellishing here. Just look around you with all the threats from trump and the defiance of court orders. He is clearly moving into a new stage with his ice goons to quell free speech and due process. If we don't object to his strategy to bully all of us he will be even more encouraged to take from us our democracy and install himself and others who lick his boots as a never ending line of tyrannical leaders with no more democratic values to save all of us.

(#6149) The republicans in Tennessee are still having trouble seeing the problem

      The unmasking of trump is pretty clear to a lot of folks but apparently not enough republicans to move forward. With all the truths and facts of trumps actual words and actions the republican party is still clinging to him. I know he has a connection with them that is strong but after so many harms he has created you would think that his popularity with them would dramatically wane. It has waned a little bit as the results in yesterdays election showed but the problem is with only waning a bit is that he is still confident in his ability to harm without recourse. That trump will undoubtedly create more harms, maybe next time there is an opportunity republicans will tell him no.
     What is encouraging is that every county in the heavily gerrymandered seventh congressional district in Tennessee shifted toward the democratic candidate from the previous election. Not enough to swing the election to her but with that swing a warning sign was revealed. The race last night should not have been that close given historical voting patterns in that district. Yet it was much closer than republicans had wanted. The shift is because some voters in that district are not satisfied with the direction and actions of trump that he is currently pursuing. At least that is something to draw on when the next special election occurs next year. If anything it shows that the trump republican party is on the decline and democrats have a golden opportunity to benefit.
     As I see it and given trumps penchant for seeing any victory as an affirmation of his agenda things will only get worse for republican voters. They thought that trump would protect them and what they are finding is that trump doesn't care about them. Eventually they will get a clearer focus on the truth of things as their pocketbooks continue to shrink. Elections have mainly always been about the economy and as our current economy implodes in on itself the inevitable is just around the corner. I expect then that the republican voter will realize that they have been hoodwinked and make the appropriate adjustments going forward.
     

(#6148) What's up with Wall Street after no release of economic data??

      I am no economic master but I do know that the economic data released by our government in previous months was a factor in how Wall Street and its investors planned their present and future economic maneuverings. So why no peep out of Wall Street when trump decided not to release economic data last month? I follow news enough to know I haven't seen any reaction by anyone from Wall Street made widely public? Is the fealty to trump so deep that even disruptions in normal societal understandings is acceptable and to be taken in silence? If this hiding of economic data had been done under Obama or Biden there is no way that silence would have been the response.
     If I had money in stocks and bonds I would be removing said money in no time. There seems to be some kind of fix that is dirty and underhanded no matter how pretzeled the explanation for it. It is like hiring a guide who is blind and deaf. But that is just me. Surely most are still satisfied with Wall Street because in the past it has made them profit. Likely may well still make them profit but to me it is a sign that not all is well behind the veil of command Wall Street had previous to trump. I don't know how long it will be before we see economic data on our national jobs, gross domestic product, inflation, consumer spending, and retail sales among the cancelled.
     How does Wall street evaluate the market when the government figures they have relied upon for more than a century are now not available? Why still the silence from Wall Street? The longer Wall Street stays silent the more I suspect them of collusion with trumps. It is as if the trumps may be sharing the governmental economic data with some, for a price mind you, and not others. Like I said I would remove any money if I had any from Wall Street's trust. Like all things that matter to us, control over who we are and what we own is and always will be paramount with me. But again, that is just me. I wouldn't trust anyone who is not protecting my trust and it seems like Wall Street is not protecting all its investors trust by being silent about the non release of economic data!

(#6147) When I was young I would read the obituary pages

      Sitting here thinking about why I did that brings to mind that these folks who died lived lives and often their short story was described. They mattered to someone and acknowledging that was their way of saying goodbye. For me it was learning how these folks lived and what they did with their time. Surely it wasn't a full account nor even as much as they would have liked but it did give me perspective on how to live my life. Morbid as it may seem I needed to read those obits as a way to not only give the deceased a chance to influence me but to give them the dignity of me knowing at least something about them.
     Most were good people but every now and then a bad person would die and the obituary would gloss over their digressions. I understand that with those who were notorious because the obituary is usually a closure mechanism for those left behind. For me it was less about their lives and more about what harm they caused while alive. It is now that I am thinking about this and the reason is that some in our world need to be not in it. They are not respectful civilized human beings. They leave a trail of harm behind them and are still harming going forward. For those who are like that an obituary would be useless as a closure mechanism. It would only be a confirmation that a dishonorable person has gone and if anything a relief at their passing.
     I am sad to have to admit that I feel this way because all of life should be at minimum precious. But in life there are those who have caused such harm that any preciousness left long ago and only the end of them remains as a marker in time. We know who a few of these are in our modern age, They have gone out of their way to harm when no reason but their own mental disorder is their desire. For those in our world, I am again waiting to see their obituaries. Not to read them but to see that they are not living in our existence any longer. There should never be people in our existence who choose to harm when helping is the alternative. For those who love harm more than helping I hope to see them soon in the obit column.