I have lived life hard (#1947)

I chose a different path in my life. It was my path, just mine. Now I can't take any of it back so regretting not doing something different isn't even an option. What I have though are some wild and crazy memories. That is a good thing. What I don't have is wive(s) or children. The trade off for me was kind of easy since I wasn't one of those who would settle on a relationship of marriage that didn't have enough true love to it. I was and still am a romantic, but in lieu of actually finding and recognizing true love from a likely partner for life I just went out as a young man and lived in this world. I worked hard and partied hard. One of those who would burn the candle at both ends. What had probably been my saving grace is that I didn't do that 24/7. I did spend time quietly and healthily recovering from some of my wilder escapades. Early on in my youth I did set some standards by which I would not violate. I didn't accept any sexual relationship with a married woman. That was probably my smartest move. lol. As far as partying, I didn't go out beyond the usage of normal mind altering chemicals that I knew were far more harmful than groovy. And I didn't allow myself to do too many things that were dangerous and just for kicks. I was a bit of a self controlled wild and crazy guy. But I wasn't one who lived to make myself successful. I worked at the type of jobs only strong men need apply. I was a carpenter, house and building framer specifically, most of my life but I also worked as an underground miner in the great southwest desert, while later working as a logger in the great northwest woods. My free spirit was all I could ever find as a good constant companion and now that I have traded in all the wild and crazy times for a patterned lifestyle, maybe now I can find that one woman who will fill my life with herself and maybe even still children. I am more than I have shared here but that is for another nostalgic time...

The wealthy are stealing our dreams (#1946)

Why is it that the wealthy cannot be satisfied with a lot and instead need our little as well? It seems that greed is the simplest answer but I think there is more to it. Greed is a symptom of their actions but the genesis of their greed stems from the wealthy wanting to control our behavior. It is like they have their own moral compass for us and another one for themselves. Their financial, good fortune or devious underhanded tactics, whichever or both, do not make them an expert on human behavior and the morality and ethics that come with it. I have no respect for those who act as if they are all knowing and totally convinced as to what you and I need to do about our lives. I can barely keep up with the decisions I have to make for myself so for the wealthy to think they can think for 10's of millions of us is ludicrous. Yet for all that, they still are trying to take from us what wealth we can accumulate so as to confine us within opportunities that they can control. I will not be one of their puppets who meekly follows their lead. Instead I will fight to stop their theft of our generations and also fight to reverse the income inequality that is still widening. There are a few policies that could be adopted that would work nicely. First we need to tax profit from financial transactions like we tax labor. Second we need to increase the minimum wages that are currently woeful and inadequate. Just these two steps alone would stop the growing income inequality and start it's decline. There are more policies we could adopt to strengthen the middle and poor class, like eliminating the contribution cap on Social Security and having the states that didn't expand medicaid reverse course and instead expand medicaid. We need to stop giving tax breaks to corporations that offshore jobs and instead give tax breaks to corporations that keep jobs here in America. We need to rid the House of Representatives of Republican control, keep the Senate in Democrat hands and then work hard to pass the legislation I mentioned above.

When greed over takes humanity (#1945)

Nothing fosters the fertile grounds for greed greater than a disrespect for life. We see it all around us where everything under our capitalistic system is for sale for the right price, even our souls. Many do not care about such things as souls or honor or a proper code of conduct. They just care about the bottom line of their bank accounts. It is the age old story of humanity being sold for, let's use a well known analogy, "30 pieces of silver". Greed can be a powerful emotional experience. It has within it some disturbing sensations like lust and ego-driven narcissism. Powerful emotions that must be fed to maintain their addiction upon our soul. Yet many of us who have felt these urges and weighed them against our better instincts, have found greed to come up short in the overall experience of our lives. We have discharged greed to the waste bin of tried but failed paradigms that do more harm than any good they could ever do. Yet there are still those souls out there that are so addicted to greed that despite the harm and tortuous outcomes their greed inflicts they falsely justify to themselves that it is a value of greater worth than not allowing their greed to come to fruition. The aftermath is akin to what happened at Hiroshima, though not as punishing, nonetheless, it is as mentally and morally crushing to those who pay the price for others to practice their greed. What greed also does is eliminate the good that could happen if greed were not employed. By the commission of greed, the omission of something better is never realized. that old saying of everything has an inverse proportionality is true and where greed exists goodness is lost.

Hope will always win out (#1944)

If there is only one thing I learn while I am alive it is that hope will never fail. It may not come to fruition in your desire for it but the act of hoping will never be taken from us. That is as long as we are not all turned into mindless robots. lol.  I guess I shouldn't laugh at that since there are forces out there that would prefer most of us are not allowed to think for ourselves. In the sense that I am relaying here bounds within the idea that regardless of how bad circumstances and situations get, we still have the dynamic quality of hoping for something different. It is the first step toward actually changing things toward the different and "hopefully" better. I had hit my utter bottom and saw nothing worthy of living for, except my hope, which in the end brought me back to seeing everything worthy of living for. It was hope that saved me and I have heard many others like me who had the same experience, where hope was the last straw to cling to for them as well. Every once in awhile I think about the title of my blog, Man of Hope. At the time that I created this site, I was caught up in our first African American's victory for President of the United States. It was such a proud moment for me and so many others like me who recognized that hope for our country to move past the old paradigms of racism, hatred and segregation was at the threshold. All we needed to do was pass through that open doorway and move into a new way of life. We have had trouble as a nation moving forward but we are slowing passing through that metaphorical doorway. But even deeper for me than the moment of creating this blog was the idea that hope was more than any one paradigm, it is the genesis of all paradigms if we will give it a chance to be.

Independent voters are moving toward the Democrats (#1943)

When the Republicans opened up their true agenda of dismantling social programs while showing they would rather segregate us than integrate us they effectively have discouraged independent voters from joining them. Something very positive about independent voters is that they are competent and logical in that they actually weigh the effects of the political party's policies. Because of that most independents, who are in the middle and lower classes, see the actual devastation Republicans are inflicting on most all who are not wealthy. This makes it easier for we progressive/liberals to tailor our message of improving the fortunes of the middle and lower class with real authentic arguments. The logic of the differences are not lost on independents and the polls have been showing just that. We still have 3 months of summer to while through before everyone who is interested in our democracy will actually take the time to coalesce around the vision of each party but nothing much will change between then except that we Democrats will get to continue to expose the Republican party for being anti-middle/poor class. The tide is coming for a Democratic take over of Republicans in key political positions and nothing more important than regaining the House of Representatives and holding onto the majority in the Senate. The House looks doable despite the wildly advantageous redistricting Republicans did during the last census in 2010. 17 seats are needed to regain control of the House and at least 25 Republican seats are vulnerable to Democratic takeover this November. As the weeks while down to election day more and more Independents are coming to see that Republicans don't offer help to the working/middle/poor class, instead they offer harm, in the form of cutbacks and denials of social programming meant to lift our citizenry up out of poverty. Democrats on the other hand are offering actual help to those of us who need help the most, first and foremost is creating jobs through jobs programs and strengthening our social safety nets.

Enlightenment or punishment (#1942)

Why is it that we cannot seem to make up our minds about what type of society we want to live in? We have two clear and distinct choices in political parties to choose from. One, the Liberal Democrats are the ones who want our society to improve with incentives and opportunities, while the other, Conservative Republicans, want our society to improve by denying incentives and opportunities. Conservative Republicans think that we don't need help from anyone and that we should all be responsible for making our own way in the world regardless of the reality and consequence. Liberal Democrats think that given reality, we all need to have an opportunity to start from the same level playing field without, nepotism, privilege or other built in advantage being given. Liberal Democrats also think that helping each other through programs that make sure no one should starve or be homeless is worthy of creating. It really does come down to how we see what civilized means. To Conservative Republicans, civilized only means what each should define it as, given their perspective about their goals in life. For example, if a person, preferably a white man in the Conservative Republican world, wants to create an industry that profits himself while also giving the rest of us some value, then he should be free to build his venture without any input from others, regardless of the impact. Now I know that is not in all the crazy extreme ways but just short of that. Liberal Democrats, using the same example, believe that any human who wants to build a venture that profits himself and gives society a value, should control his venture as long as it doesn't violate democratically instilled laws that protect not only all of us but our environment as well. Both parties want entrepreneurialism, but both do not want to protect the community at large.

The last time segregated religious fundamentalism was forced upon us (#1941)

The year was 1941 and the end of that year was the beginning of the end for the Nazi experiment. When a religious nationalist party that sets it's own interpretation of society comes into great power by force then nothing it does is justified. Not even the sneak attack by it's political ally at the time, Japan. Yet we Americans, having defeated those forces some 73 years ago are setting ourselves up to establish the same kind of religious nationalist party, the current conservative republican party, right here in america, the land that fought mightily and died valiantly, in helping to destroy the German "experiment". How could we have come this far backward in our thinking as to allow for a despised religious political philosophy to have infected so severely one of our leading political institutions? It is through ignorance and disrespect is how. The current conservatives have a mindset of individualism that is infused with some sort of distorted religious interpretation that breeds contempt and disregard for community while seeing compassion as an ultimate weakness. The ignorance is in not learning history and how it came to pass. Education had always been a hallmark of our national growth and had been a source of pride among our citizenry and envy from most of the civilized world. Not so today as many of our political leaders have taken on the illusion that education is a privilege and not a right. They have also advocated for dismissing the logic of science in favor of a belief system. Their disrespect shows up in the form of segregating us based upon our differences instead of integrating us based upon our sameness. It is the complete opposite of evolutionary processes yet that doesn't bother those who are always looking upon others as inferior, yet can only see themselves and their own sense of narcissistic ego driven superiority.

Making life easier inch by inch (#1940)

I often think of what Dr. King said "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." This one simple concept is what helps me to continue on a path of goodness that is both struggle and frustration. It seems that whatever I do nothing much gets done, yet the little tiny bit that does get done is what Dr. King's statement justifies. Sisyphus and his never ending of rolling the boulder uphill only to have it come back down again is my default position. lol. Yet like the Greek myth, I continue despite the well known outcome. For it is the act of trying that is the key to me, not the end result. I am doing what is right by not only my nature but by my enlightened mind. I know I am not as bad off as Sisyphus since I do make some progress but the idea of it is mostly fitting. What else occurs by my commission on behalf of my curiosity and my caring is that I am not doing nothing or even worse doing harm. So by doing what I know to be right and good for our enlightenment, I am not doing something that forestalls our advancement into modernity. What does it take to find the courage to slip out of the cave like with Plato's character in the Republic? It takes an inner resolve to spend the seconds of my life on my terms and not just settling for a lack of me being true to my nature. I feel a kinship with my species and the other species we cohabitate with on this planet, but I also feel a kinship with the Universe and all it's yet unknowns. I am not just a child of our planet, I am also a child of all that is, or will be, or has ever been. My link to everything is real and for me not to participate in the discovery of all that is, will not be borne! So despite my hunger for more of all there is I am also charged, by my own convictions, to reinforce the idea that we all deserve the right and respect to be the most human any of us can be.

Teaching fear is not moral (#1939)

When we are made to feel as a captive and punished for what we don't understand we all suffer. I think back to my young youth and how every once in a while someone who had temporary control of me used me to vent out their own transferred rage and anger. I remember having to cower with fear just to survive the onslaught of their callous behaviors toward me. I have seen enough of it to know it wasn't just me being treated as a burden, I also saw my family, friends and strangers thus treated. It is humiliating and embarrassing to the worst degree. I couldn't wait until I was strong enough to fend off cruel and inhumane treatment when it came my way. That is no way to live as a child, planning for my defense instead of enjoying the world and learning what good could become of it. What often happens is that though we despised being treated as worthless, we ended up doing the same to those who were vulnerable when we become adults. It is the way we were taught and treated and we survived so don't mess with success. Except that we were not all right, we were damaged and could not see it for ourselves. I am not saying that anyone who does what he learned is not guilty of doing bad, I am just saying that I understand how it is passed along through generations. It is still wrong to teach fear because it works for us in some demented way. Teaching fear is immoral. I remember telling myself numerous times how I was never going to make someone else feel the way I felt after being cowed and embarrassed. But what often happens is we don't plan an alternative method of teaching much different from the fear used on us. I can say that I have come to learn that being aware of my surroundings and the circumstances in play has made learning and teaching much more agreeable to those I interact with as opposed to those who interacted with me so many long years ago.

Smug arrogant Republicans and their disdain for the majority of Americans (#1938)

Republicans don't believe in helping lift folks out of misery, instead they advocate to leave folks to live in misery as a consequence of the inadequacy these folks must desire. Republicans are the ones who would rather whip people into doing better, rather than help create opportunities for folks to lift themselves from their inadequate lives. It is the classic case of punishing folks for not being like the Republicans, you know, self serving individuals who see no future in community. Thing is, these Republicans were nurtured by the very community they now destroy. It is like we are all in a hole and some good fellow has let a ladder down the hole to help us get out but it was Republicans who pushed their way onto the ladder and climbed out and then proceeded to pull the ladder up behind them. Telling the rest of us still down in the hole that we need to find our own way out. The pettiness and cruelty Republicans accept as a guiding principle in their policies is beneath all of the rest of us and if we want to do something about it we must take advantage of what power we have left, that being our Democracy and it's right given to all of us to vote. If we don't utilize our right to vote the Republicans will continue to grow in power and then they will make it even harder for us to vote. If you are waiting for Republicans to realize that the will of the majority of the American people is their greatest priority, you will be deeply disappointed as Republicans have decided that the American people are not worthy of being represented the same as the wealthy who are the foundation of the Republican party. This is a warning to all who take their right to vote as inconsequential. You will rue the day when you realize that you handed over your right to a democracy in America to a bunch of callous unsympathetic conservative Republicans who could care less about the majority of the American electorate.

Clarity and conviction to do good (#1937)

Little on this planet is as satisfying as doing something good and knowing that whatever else may happen you are a decent, humble, validated human being. We are all human beings at a foundational level but not all choose to exemplify the qualities of being human that are most admired. Most choose to stay inward in themselves and make their considerations only about what directly effects them, not in some complex way of reasoning but in the simplest of ways. We do things for ourselves without regard to the effects that has on others. They can do for themselves and all will be fine. Yet that is a false equivalency. We are not all at the same place in time with our possibilities and we are not all given the same opportunities. So what some do, that they make no consideration for the outcome, is in many ways a harm to those who are effected by their decisions. Much like with the dirty energy crowd. They extract and pollute because we are currently dependent upon those resources for power, but what they don't work to alleviate, the pollution and it's overall effect, is left as a consequence for us to absorb into our beings. Now these dirty energy folks gain their profit and success but at what cost to all of us? We need dirty energy for the immediate time but the dirty energy crowd wants that time extended indefinitely so that their profits are left undisturbed. They choose not to transition to cleaner energy sources to mitigate the harm they are causing as long as the harm doesn't affect them. Overall though, what they don't see is that the harm is going to effect the next generations coming up in the form of cancerous health issues, through our water, ground and air, and cataclysmic climatic disturbances. But who cares when there is so much money to be made!

Chasing illusions while giving away the farm (#1936)

If you want to vote as a Republican, this is your reality. You are hoping for something that will never exist while paying to let your future diminish. Now I am all for following my dream but not at the cost of abdicating all my other dreams. I want a safe world that is working to end hunger, disease and unnecessary suffering and death. While also discovering new lands whether here on Earth or beyond. I may yearn for a simpler time that I have within my head but the truth is there never was a more simpler time that right now. Everything in our past has been a mighty struggle to achieve and at no time in the past has life been the illusion of perfect. The greatest awareness all of us have to share is that both time and space are constantly changing so any idea that we can turn back the hands of time are just not going to happen. Reality is here and we are in it, no amount of denial or indifference will change that! Modernity is our future and innovation through technology is our vehicle. We achieve none of this unless we accept that learning knowledge is our path. We have no other path if we are to move our species from being static and more vulnerable, into a more enlightened adaptive being. We are not what we were 5,000 years ago nor will we be the same 5,000 years into the future if we can survive our own demise. The time is now for us as a species to accept the challenge existence has placed before us. Are we to remain like all other previous species who could do nothing to harness the powers of the Universe to affect their futures or are we now going to master the elements around us in ways that give us options to not only survive but to dominate this realm we are currently trapped within?

I am more than the sum of my actions (#1935)

Over the time of this blog I have "mentioned" that I, and all of us, matter. We have so much within us that it seems to be wasted because there is no all encompassing outlet to express all who we are. This blog gives me in a small way a chance to "3d print myself" on eternity. Now after I am gone and this forum has been replaced by some new more modern form of communication, the ether will still have my sense within this blog, albeit raw, but nonetheless there for the discovery. We don't hear this as often as we should but some folks like the thought of leaving an imprint of their lives on humanity in some tangible or otherwise way of recording their existence. This blog post is that vehicle for me. I have spent over 5 years almost every day to a tee, writing daily of some concept or idea I was forming on a particular day. This genre is the legacy of my life. Granted it is coming from my perspective, however I can fairly say that I don't sugar coat my failures nor do I denigrate my successes. Generally speaking this blog is about my life in a way that highlights the intent of my motivations while leaving me vulnerable to scrutiny. We all need a release or outlet to express ourselves however possible and none of us should be denied the opportunity to record who we are so others may know our true intentions. I am more that the sum of my actions, and as such, I need to be able to show that somehow or someway. Life is an unexplained journey. We know how we got here, birthed by our parents, but we don't know why life even exists or if it will continue to exist in the future. We have good scientific evidence of the creation of our Universe but what contained the space before our Universe erupted into being? The bigger questions will continue to remain for now, but who and what I was during my life will have a few clues left out there whether discovered or not. That is good enough for this simple man.

Reality is my intoxicant (#1934)

I am back to being that young boy full of curiosity about life that I lost growing up. I lost myself back then to the lure of the forbidden and stayed lost for far too long. Circumstances have brought me back around to show me the wrong path I took. I am back now on the right path for me since it is all I can do just to keep up with my own reality. That is how I know I am living life correctly now. All my energy and thoughts are needed just to maintain my own momentum as to my choices into the future. I am not some part of someone else's choice, I am part of my own. That is what happened to me previously, I abdicated my voice and my hopes for the little bit of fantasy I created in my head. Lost to me are all those days that I cannot get back that were dedicated to the trifles in life instead of forging my own future as productive and exemplary. Nonetheless, here I am today with a new regard for the rest of my life without the interruptions of artificial intoxication. I get to sense, really feel and know my reality in the clearest sense to date. Surely I will have even more clarity in the future but the path I am on is scrubbed clean of the obstacles I can control. That is the difference now. I can see what a waste I was becoming by not paying attention and learning the ever continuous new insights as they appeared daily. I started to and actually did lose hope for me being anything of any vital purpose. That was the depression part of intoxicants many do not advertise. Freeing myself from reality was supposed to make life better for me, but what it did instead was not only make life harder for me but it also deprived my family and friends from the kind of person I am when I am being the real me. The real me is the one who is in reality all the time and fighting the good fight to make reality better, even to the point where escaping from reality is not even considered a positive.

The inevitability of intelligence (#1933)

This seems like it should be a "no-brainer", however like justice, equality and opportunity, it must constantly be fought to not only preserve but to advance. There are entrenched forces that would keep us in a state of ignorance and captivated to what brings these forces their profits and power. They have manipulated the means to old technology that has run it's course and they do not wish to relinquish it's current control, despite the harm that old technology is doing to us now and into the very near future. It isn't about being pragmatic with them in choosing to keep us yoked to harmful practices, it is stubborn greed that has given rise to their insatiable lust for money and power. Instead of changing their practices like good stewards of changing paradigms, they have chosen instead to obstruct changing paradigms as a rule. Why is it that some of the wealthiest people on Earth have stopped living in a changing world? I suppose it is because they are not the intellectual giants one would normally associate with successful capitalism. Instead they are miserly souls who rely on the fear of others to make their financial gains. As such it is also evident that their miserly protocols leave them with the idea that anyone else, who is not them, is worthy of having justice, equality and opportunity unless it is by their leave. Yet in this society of ours, we can and will overcome our fears to build upon the greatness that initially established our nation. We will through science, technology and innovation overcome the hurdles this current crop of malfeasant beings is employing and instead intelligence will break through to guide us all back into a society that most all of us demand. We will rise to the occasion I have no doubt but all of us from all walks of life must stop and take the proper notice so that when the inevitable time comes, together we move to that smart, efficient future we all dream of.

I have to matter! (#1932)

I have made it my life's mission to know why I am here in this existence. Surely I will be disappointed in my quest, but nevertheless, I am never going to stop. In the meantime I am also understanding what destiny I wish to leave as my legacy to my time here. I am confident that no one thing is writing the history of my life but if my history were being recorded, what would I want it to be? I had decided some time back in my life timeline that I would just suppose that there is some sovereign out there, whether real or fiction, and found all things from there. It serves me well in that I check myself over controversial things I think about and act upon. In don't expect that nothing will stop me from doing anything I want to do that already isn't covered by law. In other words I work within myself with my conscious and in that working I have established some principles for living that guide me in what I do and how I do it. Sound familiar? It is like having a God but without the dogma that goes with organized religion. I call time and space my spirituality and although time and space regularly exhibit chaos and force, I prefer to reflect the calm and possible that comes out of such eruptions. Since I am the product of a new beginning, I feel right at home living like one. Why is this important to me? Why shouldn't I just worry about the best I can do only for myself and leave others to fend for themselves under worse conditions? Because of a little thing called enlightenment. It is an overview of the world that is comprehensively panoramic and not like before when I just had tunnel vision. I am an enlightened being who sees possibility everywhere which kindles within me my voracious appetite to learn. So I have to find a way to matter since I am not just some cosmic particle that happened upon this existence with no ability to question and attempt to comprehend the very concept of existence.

The superhero in all of us (#1931)

This is the main reason we should all care about how our society operates. We get to have a say. So who is it within us that dominates? Our uncaring self or the caring one. My story for the first part of my life was mostly filled with the uncaring one. I thought only of myself and those who were around me who thought like I did. I was the epitome of a miserable person seeking pleasure and gratification in many forms. I look back on myself from those times and hang my head low for the memories that are with me. Not all was gloom and doom from back then but too much of it was. Somewhere along the line of my life, before it was too late, something clicked within me that brought me back to my childhood when all dreams were still possible and I realized that my dreams were still possible despite the vast evidence I had accumulated over time to the otherwise. It all boils down to me when it is me choosing what to do next. I am the final arbiter of my life ans for that I am now humbled. I survived my reckless and unsettled past and now I have set my sights on releasing the superhero that resides in me. I can't fly or do miraculous feats, however I can spend all my time doing good things and advocating for even better things. This is the superhero I am trying to live as. Doing what good and better I can within what parameters I have. I don't think of me as the reason for living anymore. I am just a vessel, a host that precariously secures my life in this existence for the purpose of making this existence a little easier for all of us. It is harsh and cruel enough without me being part of that mess. I can't control anything anyone else is doing but I can try to influence others by showing my behavior and explaining why it is so.

Pushing through the hard (#1930)

After getting some advice from a doctor, I have really changed my diet. Most of it is just eating less, but some of it is not eating some things and eating other things instead. this has been tough for me with me being less than mobile since a car accident several years ago. I am not able to be as active as I was previous to the injuries and getting a whole lot less exercise has been costly. I still do some physical things but they are limited. I used to be a lot more active which is always a good way to channel hunger pangs. Not having that previous level of activity now has allowed the hunger pangs to increase in not only it's repetitive cycle but also in it's level of desire. Years ago I became a vegetarian so on top of hunger pangs, I am also getting internal signals to go out and have a big juicy steak. It isn't easy being me right now but that is my problem and one that I am working through. yesterday was hard in that the portions I have allowed myself are not enough to keep the hunger pangs from being a bother. I try to stay busy moving since I have known for a very long time that exercise not only burns off unwanted calories but it also allays the hunger pangs. A two-fer in you will. The hardest part about trying to lose unwanted weight has always been the hard days when it is all I can do just to survive the temptations from my own body to put food in it. Everything starts to sound desirous regardless if I really like it or not. Yet, I pushed through yesterday and today is much better. I also get the prize of seeing more weight gone which in itself bolsters me even more. This is no different than anything that is hard in life whether it is my diet or some other challenge, pushing through the hard is what gets us to our goals and for that I still have the will to accept.

Our human kindness is at the center of our souls (#1929)

I know we all have troubles that keep us anxious and in a constant loop trying to find solutions. It is never ending as if it isn't one thing it is always another. However, within this whirligig of problem solving we find ourselves taken during certain moments of raw emotion. There are instances of fragility and vulnerability that capture our essence with their seemingly insurmountable struggles. We set aside our less than critical problems to focus our attentions on the unfolding events. There is a reason most all of us rally behind the underdog. We have been there ourselves in some similar way and we have overcome despite the long odds we faced. So it is with others as they come into our noticing. We root for them and in some way hope to either encourage them or actively help in some tangible way. Regardless of certain politicians telling us we are individuals who need to care for ourselves and not to waste time on caring for others, we cannot do that. We are hopelessly bound to each other in the ways of overcoming struggle to succeed. It is within our very core as humans to appreciate the sentinel courage and perseverance we and others exhibit to move forward with strength. If others can do it so can we and that in itself gives us more hope than we thought we previously had. We lift each other up. It is how we learn and grow, in not only wisdom and experience, but in our souls. When all else is said and done, I care less for myself in most ways as long as I feel right and good about my actions. For me life isn't all about me, it is about what I do in life to help and appreciate others, which in turn makes me feel right and good.

Liberalism has been the cause of progress (#1928)

There is no other ideology on the planet that has done more for the citizens of America then liberalism. Instead of embracing a survival of the fittest ideology that conservatives love, we liberals want to take a lot of the competition for living out of our society and otherwise establish a floor by which no citizen may struggle below to survive. We believe in an inherent dignity of our individual souls to not have to suffer the wretches of poverty and inhumanity at the expense of the wealthy souls who would have little to no care for those who lose at the gamed competition that conservatives protect. I am all for competing on an even playing field in all aspects of opportunity, but those who come up short in this competition should not have to live in squalor as their consolation prize. This all or nothing approach is kin to a simpler time when enlightenment was only an unknown future consideration. All the great advances in our society have come from the minds and hard work of liberals and progressives. Think of any major policy our country has ever undertaken and passed into law and behind it was the genesis and momentum of liberal ideology. Our political parties have changed from time to time from being Democrats to Republicans and vice versa so that is why I use the political philosophy of liberalism and conservatism to describe change as opposed to political party designation. Remember, conservatives want less government and less social safety net for all, whereas liberals want greater and efficient government with a sound and secure safety net that cherishes each soul regardless of gift or talent. The days of the wild west winner take all proved to be dangerous and chaotic, so living in the community of our society that removes the incentive to be uncaring and wanton is to all our benefit.

If we know who we are then we can be who we are (#1927)

It all starts with knowing who we are. We are an organism with intelligence and senses. I have said this numerous times, we are like intelligent mobile data processors. We have 5 senses in which we accumulate information. It is a never ending process of accumulation, even when we are sleeping. This is who all of us are, data processors. We need information to exist. Without information we would evolve into something else or fail to survive. This is why I have formed this blog so I could generally talk about how we are a species that has three instinctual natures, we are curious, we care and we have an insatiable urge to survive. Two of these natural instincts are complex and have evolved within us since the beginning of our species, the other natural instinct, survival, has been with us in it's simple form always. Our curiosity and our caring are no different than the other living species who also have intelligence. We nurture our young and commune within family and societal structures as a need to express our caring. Our curiosity is evident in the continuing march toward modernity and enlightenment. As we are continually updated by our senses and our ability to reason, analyze, conclude and remember, we practice curiosity in every moment of our lives. it is who we are! We are designed to inculcate new information as a constant. I know who I am so therefore it is easy for me to know what I need. I have to have the freedom and opportunity to learn without being impeded. I have an insatiable hunger for new information just as much as I have an insatiable need for oxygen. So designing our society to match with our natures is simple and efficient if we wish to maximize the capabilities our species has to offer existence.

We decide what kind of society we want! (#1926)

Within the parameters of democracy we have numerous choices. We can have a vision of our society that allows for a foundation for which no one can go below. We can have a society where logic and facts are the grounds for deciding the issues of the day. We can have a society where equality of process is the same for everyone. We can also uplift innovation and creativity with celebration and awe while not destroying our society in rewarding it. It is from this type of vision that will make us able to spread our form of society to other human beings currently trapped in societies that devalue humanity as a rule. This is how we change the world to a place where our dreams can become real. The best of who we are is boiling just beneath the surface of our actions and thoughts and until we have a society that recognizes all of us as the next best thing for all of us we will continue to be frustrated and less than honorable, generally. Our fulfillment as an enlightened being is being crushed by the present circumstances of myth and superstition in the form of fear. We have many in power who are afraid of the future while longing for the comfort of an illusory past. It is a aggravating that our democracy has given rise to a political party that wishes to destroy democracy's progress. Yet the current Republican party is just on that path. They fear equality in it's naked form. For some reason they have decided that our future must return to a past that has shown itself to be illogical and regressive. We are all alone here on this planet and especially here in America where the greatest opportunity for our civilization to modernize and shirk off the old paradigms shrouded in fear have previously dwelled. It is time for us to act and soon we will have that chance.

Leaders point a direction, followers must choose... (#1925)

No one has all the answers. No one has most of the answers. Very few have some of the answers. So being a leader has a lot of unknown qualities to it. I like to think of myself as a leader and for that I am humbled. It is hard enough justifying to myself the directions I choose but in the end I do go forward. If anyone thinks that leading is easy they are profoundly mistaken. The problem is that if the direction chosen does not have the best of intentions, along with the purest of principles throughout, it is likely to fail. My rule of thumb is to do nothing that harms. If there is no harm in the way I choose then at least no one will be hurt. If there is more than no harm then benefits are all that happen and the choice taken is a good one. The history of our species, Homo-sapien, has by all accounts been a rocky one. Throughout our history our leaders have mostly been less than genuine. Power, greed and lust has most always seemed to permeate the control of those who are, by coincidence, serendipity, choice and by force, given the honor of leading our civilizations. The idea that leaders get to be leaders because they are special in some intellectual way is highly illogical. That is an ideal idea of how we come to lead. Most acquire the post of leadership through ulterior motives and underhanded alliances. For a leader to rise up out of the masses and show him/herself worthy too many obstacles are placed in the way by those who wish never to give up power for a worthy leader to rise to the top. We are left instead with those who manipulate the current power structure as best they can and hope to ascend with as little resistance as possible. Not all is lost as we have some who are fighting mightily against the old guard that protects the power in our country and if they continue to fight and lead we will then have a real choice to follow.

Polar opposites (#1924)

Liberals, (Democrats), idea of a good society is to help folks; conservatives, (Republicans), idea of a good society is to harm folks. Somehow conservatives got the idea that in the carrot and stick scenario, there is no carrot, while liberals do use the carrot and the stick. We use the stick, in conjunction with the carrot, as an alternative after the efforts with just the carrot have failed. Another paradigm where liberals and conservatives are polar opposites is in the understanding of basic facts. We liberals use logic to differentiate between cause and effect, while conservatives see only the effect and base their policies from there. It is like two different human beings become either liberals or conservatives. Those who have insight into the evolving, comprehensive and panoramic knowledge of our existence and society, become liberals, while those who have given up on their curiosity and narrow their understanding of possibility to follow only their fear become conservatives. That may have sounded harsh in my definition of a conservative but from my chair, there is little wrong with my statement. Conservatives have come to rely on faith based calculations as the reason for their existence, which necessitates a withdrawal from the sciences and the discoveries of what curiosity demands. If that isn't fear of the unknown then I am mistaken. As a liberal I celebrate the unknown as just another arena for me to wrestle knowledge from. I have come from the proposition that I know little and want to know more, which doesn't tie me to either a belief system nor a fear system. My life is too short to be afraid of what life means if I am in it for only a short amount of time to begin with.

Too lazy to vote Democrats (#1923)

In a nutshell. We Democrats have the majority registration when it comes to voting but apparently we can't bother ourselves to actually go out and vote when it is time to do so. We are apparently so pampered in our thoughts that we actually think there is no real good reason to do so. We are about to lose our democracy to the Republican party and it's drive to segregate the wealthy from the not wealthy and we just stand by thinking nothing of it. What can it be that so insulates us Democrats from the obvious? The only thing that comes to mind is that we don't fully understand the significance of every election. One day every two years we need to be aware of who wants to do what to us and then vote accordingly. But that seems to be too much to ask. Meanwhile those of us who are spending our conscious hours imploring everyone to take notice at what the Republican party is doing to the detriment of every aspect of our lives goes right on by. The frustration at seeing the actual decline of our society while most everyone else is too busy playing games or dismissing it as irrelevant. Well, the fact that it is happening won't be stopped by ignoring it. I am of the mindset that if our Democratic party is too lazy to spend just an hour of one day every two years making a difference then we get what we deserve. Sadly, it could all be avoided by we Democrats exercising what is left of our voting rights. Another sad consequence of us losing to Republicans at the voting booth is that our ability in the future to vote will be even further restricted by Republicans. I feel like I am fighting for my party but my party is to lazy to care. If we Democrats just come out and vote all this harm Republicans are about to inflict could be avoided.

Prosperity, Democrats; Austerity, Republicans (#1922)

Here is your quiz for November. Do you want an economy that has many opportunities for growth that are realized from most of our citizenry? Or do you want a stagnant tight economy that only benefits the wealthy? I know I may be biased toward the Democrats here but I am not far off from the truth either way. Republicans would have us deregulate industries so that those industries become their own cops as to how they serve us with their products or services. We have seen the similar paradigms in not only our past, before regulations, but in our present with corporations subverting safety and health regulations where ever they can get away with it. Republicans would have us believe that cutting taxes for the wealthy will give us great economic growth but under the most recent Bush administration where taxes were cut for the wealthy the least job growth in the modern history of our country for an 8 year period followed. Republicans want to shrink our government down to one major function, fighting wars. If this is your vision also then the republicans are for you. If however you like that government is here to serve it's citizens in more ways than just giving them an opportunity to die, then Democrats are for you. Not only are Democrats into the government helping to spur the economy but Democrats are into keeping the social safety net strong and expanded. Americans should not have to worry about their retirement or their health care when they need it. Americans should also be free from inequality and injustice as these are the by product of the Republican austerity agenda. Prosperity or austerity, the choice is yours this coming November!

Republicans and the Wild West (#1921)

No doubt Republicans have chosen to go back to the days of the old west where the strong take from the weak and this time, with technology and innovation serving them, they are not in jeopardy of being held to account for their actions. Wealth can buy you a lot of forgiving especially when our justice system is compromised. There are two different forms of justice here in America, the justice you can buy and then the justice that sells you out. Enough of this recklessness. The tenets of our democracy are being subverted right before our eyes and the lack of courage and honor among our citizenry to stop it has waned. We rarely get 50% of our population out to vote so how are we to manage equality and fairness when the wealthy, for the most part, don't want equality and fairness? What is even worse is that our majority citizenry are incapable of distinguishing truths from fiction. The way free speech in our constitution has been interpreted to allow for falsehoods to pass as truths will be the death of our great experiment. The current Supreme court conservative majority cannot and will not stop the carnage that the lies are doing to our nation. A simple interpretation by them would allow for lying not to be protected speech. Surely a four or six part test can be devised to distinguish the intent of both truth and lying? yet there is no mental acuity in the conservative majority on the court able to rise to the defense of our democracy. Instead the lies are allowed to continue so that the wealthy may force our country to a point where protections for all citizens are stripped and laid bare. Leaving the many vulnerable to the dishonesty and recklessness of greedy democracy saboteurs. 

Republicans want no minimum wage for workers (#1920)

The silver lining here is that Republicans have finally decided to quit hiding their agenda. It is out in the open now that current Tennessee US Senator, Republican Lamar Alexander, has come out to the press that this is what he wants. We are now hearing it from other Republicans as well, Oklahoma's US Senator, Republican Tom Coburn agrees, there should be no national minimum wage. They either want to abolish the whole concept of protecting workers with a base minimum for wages or leave it up to the individual states to dictate if there should be a minimum wage protection for it's most vulnerable workers. It is clear now that Republicans are not going to help the working/middle/poor class in our struggle to combat the widening gap in income inequality. The Republican idea that the wealthy should have no restrictions to how much money they can make while reducing our government down to the size that will only accommodate a massive military force is real. That is the agenda of the Republican party and no amount of subterfuge or misinformation will change that very fact. I have dedicated my blog to warning about Republican policies that threaten and undermine the American working/middle/poor class and this post is no different then the previous ones and the ones to come. If we don't have a minimum wage to keep workers from having to fight to get a job by accepting lower and lower wages for hard, dirty jobs, then what and who will? I can envision workers having to work for less than a dollar an hour in some cases. How is it that the wealthy should have the power to make us work for practically nothing? If we don't get out and vote for Democrats this November we may well have to deal with Republicans leading our nation from the people to the wealthy.

Mad as all get out and spitting nails (#1919)

The other day I wrote about how sometimes I can feel defeated and want to throw in the towel, well today I am as mad as a provoked angry Hornets nest. That is me though, just being my hot and cold self. lol. Regardless, I am fed up to my ears with folks who want to supplant our secular government with a Christian one. These folks have deluded themselves into thinking that there is only one religion and it should be the law of the land here in America. While I appreciate the Christian faith for so many good examples of morality, I draw the line when their proselytizing invades the neutral application of the free spirit contained within secularism our founders inscribed into our Constitution. Let me be very clear here, faith in any religion is just that, faith, not logical truth. Our government must not and shall not subscribe to any religion being the model for our government function. Our first amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,...". Which brings me to our discussion about Christianity being our playbook for governmental guidance. We are strictly prohibited from using religion to model our laws. Can it be any clearer? If you want to overthrow our government and establish a Christian nation then you have that choice but don't expect the rest of us who honor the very first clause of the very first amendment within our US Constitution to let you do that to us. The other side of the coin here is that those who want a Christian nation are voiding all those others who are not Christian but some other faith. Furthermore, the very many who don't subscribe to a belief system at all are harmed by those who only see Christianity as the only model for our government. Leave our democracy alone religious zealots or you will have all the rest of us to deal with.

The wealthy don't know us non-wealthy (#1918)

I know that people get afraid when their economic livelihoods are threatened and just going along with what seems like minor injustices is better than losing that security. I get it! But what I also get is that if we don't stop the tide of economic injustice, it will not stop by itself. What is further complicating things is that somehow we non wealthy have put some trust in the wealthy to look out for us as if we are some child that needs parental supervision to function. The problem with that is the wealthy are not into adopting us as their wards, instead they are of the mindset that if we let them they will strip of us our dignity and continue to reduce our economic value. For the most part, gone are the days of a wealthy benevolent owner who instills loyalty in it's workforce and responds equivalently with economic reward. What we have now are owners who see a job market that is overflowing with unemployed workers thus allowing them to control the narrative when it is time to negotiate for work. The supply and demand component of the free market allows those who have what many want to dictate the terms of that need. Those of us non-wealthy who are in the situation of having to depend on others for an opportunity to work are left with having to accept whatever terms the wealthy offer or go without anything at all. As long as there are massive amounts of workers who have no work, when work comes available, the wealthy owners can lower the wages and benefits as leverage. We will accept the lower wages and benefits because we have no other choice. This is our current reality and for those who are forced to accept this, realize that something better must replace it. That better is us taking control of our voting rights and putting that voting to good use.

Quitters don't realize their dreams (#1917)

I am not saying anything new here. We all know this to be true. When it seems like our work to do good and great things is not going well it is natural to feel despondent and think about chucking it in. For myself I actually think why waste my time trying to help others improve their lives when they don't seem to want or care about my efforts. Day after day I present evidence of misdoing by some and good doing by others in the hopes that the right observations will make a difference. But moments like today it just seems so useless and irrelevant. But after a few seconds of wallowing in the mire of my inadequacies, I regain my composure and gird myself again with the knowledge that it is always darkest before the dawn. I know that my humanness is part of who I am and humans like me, being imperfect, will have moments when it just seems so tiresome fighting for those who don't even know and or don't care that they are being abused. I am beginning to think of these moments as recharging plateaus, where I need to stop for a moment and gain my overall perspective again. I know wrong when I see and sense it and as such, being who I am, I must not allow it to continue. I am that way by my own particular nature. So the idea of quitting on being me is not really an option and more of default moment for me to remember who I really am. If I have to be tired most of the rest of my life fighting to not only stop, but to reverse, the injustices that enter my consciousness then so be it. There is no manual for living only what is in front of us every day and the choices we make to address them. That is all there is and for that I am happy enough to know what my purpose really is. Quitting on my purpose in life will not happen despite my own frailties and the determined underhanded actions of those who continue to harm.

Don't be intimidated from learning (#1916)

Learning is as natural for we humans as is breathing air. I know that letting others know we are not as smart as we would like them to think is always a great fear but living in a fear never outweighs learning. I accept that I was ignorant to so many things yet I acted like I wasn't. I would take other people's views and use them for my own. It wasn't until I began to understand that I was lying to others and myself by being so defensive about my lack of knowledge. So what did I do? In my late 30's I went back to school and added to my high school diploma. I got my associates degree and then my bachelor's. I even went on to post graduate work but have stalled. But the point is that I didn't give in to my fears and just keep being the phony intellect I wanted others to admire and respect. I did the work to actually become somewhat of an intellect and more than others admiring me and respecting me, I admire and respect myself. From that comes a confidence in not only the reasoning and analyzing of conclusions, but in my own sense of worth and purpose. I can now make advocacy for policies based upon my own research and experience without having to rely on others to speak my mind for me. The difference is like night and day for me. Instead of feeling like I was unworthy of being a human, I feel like a champion among humans. All because I didn't give into my fear of learning. I embraced it. I took my experience and applied it with logical and real outcomes so that I could get a comprehensive perspective about life and my role in it. We all need to have our learning caps on as much as possible otherwise the information before us moves on and we are left not knowing what just happened.

The Republican myth (#1915)

The experts at hiding the ball are at it again. This election cycle conservative Republicans are touting their opposition to several social issues that rankle and ire the electorate when they phrase them as an assault on American values. But while they are keeping our attention on the things that stir up animus, they are quietly trying to change how money is dispersed into our economy. That is there primary goal, to protect and enhance the riches and power of the wealthy while taking more and more from the working/middle/poor class. It is always about the money with Republicans, they live and die on their swords trying to prevent "others" from having what they have already gotten. I understand it. It is fear of losing what advantages bring them. I know fear, it is real and Republicans have it up to their ears. But what they need is for regular folks who have supported them in the past to continue to support them so they can achieve their goal of creating the greatest income inequality in the history of our planet. How they do it is by ignoring economics except to vilify everyone without as a "taker" and champion themselves as examples of ones who pulled themselves up by their own boot straps with no help form anyone. Although that sort of works for them, they need more confusion around other areas of life. So they attack minorities, gays, seniors, women and students as not being worthy of anything that would ease their lives. Republicans work hard to turn us against each other so that the real issues facing America get lost in the ongoing chaos. The name Republican has a history of accomplishments for our citizens but only when Republicans were Liberals or Progressives. Today's Republican party is conservative and I cannot remember one example of anything conservatives have done to move our country forward.

The logic of truth is under assault (#1914)

Never in my consciousness would I have thought there would be political and judicial figures who would discount the truth in order to maintain momentum to destroy the utility of truth. We have a conservative Republican party that has as it's foundation a strategy to destroy the ability of the American citizenry to disseminate information in a logical fashion. Logic is our best method for proving truths and falsities. Why does the Republican party wish to destroy the even flow of logical truths? The reason is that their policies don't rely on logic or truths. Instead they want to change the very dynamic of society and cannot tell the truth of it lest they be found out. They are taking democracy away from the people and instead want to give it to the wealthy. It is a fundamental difference in how our country was conceived. Republicans are hijacking our democratic republic and are trying to install an oligarchic one. The change is subtle but the progress they are making is real. They are passing laws that restrict democracy not enhance it. they are trying to nullify amendments to our constitution that promote equality. They are creating a permanent poor class of citizens while wiping out the remnants of our middle class. All the classic moves they are making are aimed at making the wealthy untouchable. Republicans have the idea that America was wrongly created by our constitution. Republicans believe in a survival of the fittest control and they think their wealth makes them the fittest. If the rest of us allow this to continue we will be the generation that handed over our democracy to the thieves in the Republican party who have but one master and that master is unfettered capitalism. Land of the free and home of the brave will no longer be appropriate, instead it will be the land of the thieves and home of the craven.

The stench of obstruction (#1913)

How can we possibly have opportunities for our visions and hopes if there are powerful individuals out there who want to keep monopolies so they can keep out dated power structures? The beauty of life is change and if those who don't want change are keeping change from happening, they are not only stealing the beauty from life but they are destroying the hopes and dreams of millions of us who need change to fulfill our destinies. I cannot live in a stagnant world where harm and injustice are the status quo. I need change as a defining paradigm within my natural evolution. Without change I have little hope to realize my potential, so when the current crop of power brokers spend all their time crushing change, then we have a problem. I am not one to sit by idly and let the greed and power of some ruin the outcome for most all of us because they essentially are afraid of losing some advantage of desire. Well, life is not about being afraid, life is about having the courage to live without doubt. If you are solidly founded in your principles of good and great, you won't have to look over your shoulder, instead you can help lift others from their stumbles. Keeping change from happening is not a virtue, instead it is a scourge. I am not here on Earth to obtain all that I want, I am here on Earth to live within what I need and then maybe even have something I want once in awhile. Why? Because so many don't already have what they need and for me to lavish on myself while others go without is truly not living in principles of good and great. I find that honor is a value I want for others to see in me and for that to happen I must think and act honorably, which means allowing for change to happen so that life can get better for all, not just for some.

My never ending battle against Republicans (#1912)

Another day another Republican attempt to dismantle democracy. My blog started out focusing on the inherent nature of the human species with me arguing that we have 3 natural instincts within us; compassion, curiosity and a survival instinct. The denial of any of any of these, individually, severally or wholly is how we get the lesser instincts that so permeate our current society. I have come from that argument to basing my blog on exposing Republican tactics and strategies that undermine and diminish our democratic principles. Over the last several years I have been leaning into the facts of Republicans and their vision to unsettle and slowly disintegrate our middle class here in America. The morphing of my posting's content to expose and rebut conservative Republicans for allowing their politicians to veer from democracy to a plutocratic/corpocracy is now the priority of this forum. From Republican attempts to destroy all efforts to improve health care for all American citizens to their suppression of voting rights to their unrelenting attacks on women, minorities, seniors and students to demean and deny them equal rights, I have come to fight back. My little simple blogging effort has now become my forum to express my utter contempt and absolute resolve to not only crush Republican vile arguments for lessening democracy but to bury the Republican vision of the survival of the fittest being legitimate as a philosophy for our collective futures. Our human race has evolved into an enlightened civilization and what Republicans would have us do is shut down individual rights within our society and make us dependent upon the whims of corporations and the wealthy for all that we would ever become. I will not sit or stand idly by while the fanatical egos of the wealthy try to wrest our great hard fought for democracy from us.

The cowardly arrogance of selfishness (#1911)

I got mine so to hell to with the rest of you! An all too often conservative Republican sentiment. If you don't have yours then you are either lazy or physically and or mentally lacking the necessary willpower. Either way you are less than. As if in Republican's minds we all have the same shot at the same results. The only sameness of the same results most of us have is that we will fail at whatever we truly hope to accomplish. Life is like a game of cards, and the deck has been stacked against most of us. The likelihood of one of us underprivileged getting a Royal Flush and winning some big hand is not much different that one of us hitting the big jackpot in the lottery. One in several tens of millions. Whereas privilege and advantage gives extra cards to those who are already connected. So goes though the argument by the Republicans though that if we do or don't succeed financially in life we get what we deserve. Advantages and privileges have been sewn into the fabric of our society through traditions and customs that most always seem to benefit those who already have a leg up in life. With the Republicans so focused on protecting inherent advantages and privileges that bolster them from having to start out life from an equal starting point as everyone else, the true cost to them of their limited success is inversely measured by the onerous difficulty they place on those who fail. Not a bad deal when you can gain without having to gamble much of a loss. It seems to work well within capitalistic circles, but in the the moral realm it sucks and is a blight on equality. Thus the cowardly arrogance of selfishness. The honor and dignity by which one lives their life is directly reflected in the amount of respect one is afforded throughout. If we cannot find our true worth by beginning as all begin then we are fools who are afraid of life instead of wondered by it.

Republican agenda, wealth for some, fighting and death for most (#1910)

Do you see how the Republican agenda leads to only one conclusion? They want the wealthy to get more wealthy while the rest of those who aren't wealthy are left to fight and die for what the wealthy allows for us. Once the wealthy have all the money they will next want all the land. That means wars and surely you must know that they will not fight the wars that will benefit them, we will. With few opportunities to live a life not filled with desperation, we will swarm to the military just as an option to get out of poverty. We won't have our government run by ourselves, the people, instead it will be run by the wealthiest souls who covet not only our obedience to them but they want us also to worship them as the narcissistic ego driven demigods they perceive themselves to be. The glorious ideals of equality, justice and honor will no longer be attributes of our society, instead it will be the laws of the jungle or of some warped interpretation of religion, whichever suits the new order rulers we will be subject to. Am I being brutish about what the Republican agenda is leading us to? I don't think so. If you logically conclude that tearing down the social safety net, eliminating laws that protect equality and voting rights while also downgrading to eliminating opportunities for education for all won't lead us to a world where the wealthy have all the advantages and privileges and the not wealthy are left to fend for ourselves, then my conclusion is not far fetched at all. If there is one thing I know about greed and power it is this, that everyone who is not wealthy is just an object for the wealthy to manipulate. Living in a world where Republicans control the levers of government is the final step to them disabling our democracy so that they never lose the levers of power again.

Veterans denied by Republicans (#1909)

The best case scenario is for Democrats to win the midterm elections and gain control of the House of Representatives. If that happens then Veterans will see a comprehensive benefits package pass into law. Because we Democrats understand the sacrifice soldiers make on our behalf and because of that we owe our veterans the health and welfare they deserve if they are fortunate enough to return to civilian life. We all constantly hear a majority of Republicans clamoring for America to get into more wars to protect vital interests of corporations but Republicans do not want our veterans to have health and welfare benefits when they get home. It fits with their ideology that they don't owe much to those who fight or work for their ability to prosper. Just like they don't want a social safety net for civilian workers, they don't want an effective safety net for returning veterans. I don't just say this out of thin air. The votes by Republican politicians over the last 5 years have given a true record of their disdain for the American working/middle/poor class and returning war veterans. Apparently Republicans think most won't notice their betrayal to our fighting forces because of the complexity of our law making process. But those of us who maintain a vigil on the workings of needed legislation that has been time and again defeated through Republican procedural processes are not to be fooled. I will continue to shout out the betrayal of Republican politicians and by extension their faithful voters and pundits who support their votes even when it harms and destroys the lives of our returning veterans. We are a democracy and as such we still have the right to vote and voting Republicans out of office everywhere is a message the Republicans will finally get.

The harsh brutish Republican vision (#1908)

The Republican party has outlived any sense of purpose it may have had toward an enlightened society when it opened up it's agenda for all to see. They are about suppressing social issues that don't align with the Christian Bible, they are against anything that isn't a survival of the fittest economic model, while keeping advantages in place for the wealthy. They are about destroying the quality of life protections we have for the health and welfare of our seniors, disabled and the young. They have instituted a out and out war against science specifically and education generally at all levels of public learning. They have decided that our government will not be a democratic one since they are attacking voting rights and and are intent on rolling back guaranteed rights established by our constitution. They were willing to let our government default on it's credit rating around the world all to deny Americans health care improvements. I can go on about how Republicans are trying to establish that the place for women is in the home and subject to men. I can also go on about how Republicans are making our country so dependent upon corporations that in the near future if Republicans get their way, we will be subject to rules and regulations coming from corporate control instead of democratic control. Republicans are telling us that Democrats are not to be allowed to lead our country despite the majority vote from previous elections. Republicans have decided that if they are not in power then nothing will get done as long as they control at least one of the three branches of government. The solution is simple, since Republicans have nothing to offer our country in the form of vision that includes equality and quality of life, they need to be defeated this November and put out of any leadership they currently hold.

Liberals always lead the way to prosperity (#1907)

Despite the rhetoric coming from Republicans and their pundits, Liberals have always been behind the advancement of a society that cares for itself. Conservatives on the other hand have always been the ones who care LESS about community and more about self aggrandizement at the expense of others. Conservatives see the world through the lens of we only live once so we should take all we legally/illegally can within and without boundaries because caring about others is weak. Our founding fathers were insightful enough to advance us toward progressive policies aimed at inclusion. Abraham Lincoln applied liberal policies in advancing our country from the scourge of slavery. Teddy Roosevelt was highly progressive in busting up big monopolies and preserving our natural habitat. FDR gave us Social Security. Lyndon Johnson brought us Medicare and the civil rights act that finally made it illegal for public discrimination. Barack Obama has now given us a chance for health care to expand to millions of souls who otherwise would still be living without the ability to be more healthy. Everything done in the name of community has been accomplished by liberals and progressives so when you hear Republican conservatives talk about how they are going to make our country stronger, just know that they are talking about more strength for the wealthy and not for the vast majority of us who are around the middle class. Think about the Republican presidents in our lifetime, Nixon caused us to fight a losing war in Vietnam and corrupted our political process with underhanded dealings. Ronald Reagan gave us trickle down economics which worked out great for the wealthy and has been destroying the middle class ever since and of course George Bush the younger. He led us into two wars and the worst economic recession since the Great Depression of the 1930's. So get out and vote in November for every Democrat on the ballot.

Voting maintains our liberty (#1906)

Many don't see the necessity to vote unless it is an election that they see directly affects their lives. It is the part about seeing that I want to discuss. Just because you don't see something as directly affecting your life that does'n't mean it isn't there. For young people, Republicans are trying to stop and even eliminate the minimum wage from increasing or even existing. For middle age workers, Republicans are trying to deny available jobs that our government historically created to jump start the economy and allow for more upward mobility of careers. For the seniors, Republicans are trying to eliminate Social Security and Medicare as retirement benefits earned over a lifetime of working. You may not feel these policies directly in your sphere of living but they will negatively effect the quality of your life. That you could have done something about it by just taking less than an hour out of your life to cast a vote against Republicans running for office everywhere they are on the ballot will come back to haunt you. If you don't take the time to see how Republicans are destroying the middle class, of which most all of us will spend the entirety of our lives, then you are not as smart or sophisticated as you think you are. The act of voting is the last political power most of us will ever have and by not exercising it we leave ourselves exposed to being ruled over by powerful Republican ideologues and their relentless push to make all of us captive to corporate interests without us having an advocate to fight for us. So when November comes around and you are still of the mindset that this election means little to nothing to you, what you are saying to the rest of us is that you don't care about us nor do you care about your own future. What will your children and grandchildren think when they learn of your cavalier disregard for their future?

Never sell your destiny short (#1905)

For the life of me I had no idea what my puny existence could ever mean to anything important in our world. I just assumed that I was just a mere speck who had to work at just being regular. For the sake of my own expectations, I knew I could do some good things in life but it seemed that reality wasn't going to let me have those opportunities. Just because things are possible, does not mean they are actually doable. Our society is so jam packed with people who are competing for the limited slots of influential positions in our society that can have an effect on life that many of us will always be left on the outside looking in and wondering what could have been. I had all but resigned myself to being less than my dreams and expectations demanded for myself. But a curious thing happened, I decided that my self worth was greater than my fears. I fought to educate myself and apply that new knowledge to my inherent good nature. Today I am a different man than who I was before embarking on a curious road toward discovery and for that alone I have achieved a level of my dreams and expectations I previously had little hope to attain. From there I have proceeded to occupy myself with the questions of the day to not only understand but to advocate for solutions to those very questions. I am in no position of influential authority nor am I considered a master in any field, yet my own sense of worth is high and where I cannot yell from the rooftops in the normal sense, I find ways to yell from the rooftops anyway. Nothing is a cookie cutter pattern for life. We take what we can do to make our own life better and then apply that to helping others do the same.

Lying can no longer be protected speech! (#1904)

We humans communicate mostly through speech and the written word. It is how we are able to co-exist as efficiently as we do. We rely on the veracity of our statements in order to be able to express our thoughts and actions as fact. When we are able to express ourselves with truth, then the logic of our thoughts and actions can be verifiable and then co-mingled with other similar thoughts and actions to build and create new and helpful insights. It is how our society has been able to advance into our futures within democratic ideals. We are at our best and most efficient when the validity of our language is commonly understood. Where the problem comes in is when the words of some things are not truths but instead lies or distortions. We protect the right of our citizens to tell the truth, except of course in the few instances where harm is an imminent outcome of a particular truth telling, such as in judicial proceedings, but here in America we also protect lying as a right guaranteed under the first amendment. How we came to allow such a farce to exist since the founding of our country is disconcerting. We have had adjustments to our first amendment right of free speech, such as no yelling fire in a crowded theater when there is no fire, so fixing or updating our constitutional rights when needed has precedent. By protecting the right to lie, our US Supreme Court Justices have given license to those petty individuals who have the power and wealth to subvert the truth, hence making our national discussions confusingly irrational and chaotic, with little to no natural advancement attainable. The time has come for a truth distinction in the first amendment and the end of lying as protected communication.

Cognitive dissonance and Republican voters (#1903)

So many of us wonder how it is that Republican middle/poor class voters can continue to support the Republican party when the policies of the Republican party harm them overall? It is a dilemma when trying to debate with them about why they are into self inflicting harm upon themselves. They don't ever seem to be able to accept that they are actually being harmed. Whether it is diversion of interests prioritized to make the point of their being harmed irrelevant or that they don't see themselves as included in the class that is affected by Republican harmful policies. What I think is that many of them cannot make the connection between what Republican politicians and their talking heads are saying and what the reality will be if they are elected. They have been inculcated to accept that Democrats are only for the lazy worthless in our society and they are not lazy and worthless. They have also let sink in that they are better as a race and gender than the minorities and women currently fighting for equality. What these Republican voters fail to understand is that their own choice to be biased is how they are hooked. First, the social contract has come into being because capitalism, by it's nature, is a zero sum game, for every winner there is at least one or more losers. Those losers are not lazy and worthless, they just didn't achieve their goals and thus are left with no promise of success. Many times the system is rigged to favor the elite in our society either through nepotism or shady trade-offs. Regardless of privilege and it's place in undermining merit, the ideal that those who fail are lazy and worthless is wrong-headed. Without our social safety net the result would be a society that doesn't care for it's citizens in a civilized and modern way, which would then make our society much closer to savagery, than to enlightened.

Clarence Thomas' conflict of interest (#1902)

Having a conflict of interest while having a say over policy and recusing oneself used to be a principled requirement, albeit a voluntary requirement. Elected officials would recuse themselves when their votes would either bring them personal wealth from a vote or cause them personal loss of wealth. It was a tradition within our society that was trying to maintain a sense of fairness. However, when we have a Supreme Court Justice like Clarence Thomas who has had numerous obvious conflicts of interests and yet continues to vote in every way that benefits him and his family, we are not honoring the tradition of recusal when appropriate, we are instead destroying the appearance of fairness. That Thomas has a lifetime appointment seems to lessen his concern that his actions will be sanctioned in some way that would force him to leave the Court. He knows that he doesn't have to honor the traditions and norms since there is no sovereign authority powerful enough to punish him for being less honorable that expected. His actions have had a warming effect on others who used to be concerned with the downside to a conflict of interest and has instead opened the floodgates for those who wish to adjudicate on subjects that profit them personally. The lack of ethics involved in using the public trust for one's own gain is more prevalent now that a Supreme Court Justice like Thomas has effectively displayed his own disdain for upholding ethics generally. What irks me most is that we cannot in any properly measured realistic way remove this man for his duplicitous actions when he is supposed to be a guiding beacon heralding democratic values. Others with less honorable traits are following his lead and for that he should be ashamed and resign of his own accord.

Improving society as a purpose (#1901)

Democrats have a goal with which to drive our futures toward. It requires that we all participate and we all are included. Republicans on the other hand have their goal of denying full participation and only including those who agree with them. Now considering these two different philosophies for governing, it makes me wonder why more folks are not coalescing around full participation and inclusion over limited participation and exclusion. Our natures are such that we care and wonder about life and existence as we know it so what other factors could be at play here? Transforming a society like ours, even though it was founded on principles of equality, justice and fairness, and it's application over time has fallen short of those ideals. We came into existence as a country, America, with a less than all inclusive equality and refining our society to overcome and correct those obstacles is a continuing ongoing struggle. We have made progress but the effort is incomplete. Now we have forces that are gathered to not only slow down progress but to also reverse gains made over the last two centuries. It is like a faction of the right wing philosophy of survival of the fittest cannot come to grips with enlightenment regardless of the evidence to it's truth. We are all humans and as such start out in life with that pedigree. Why we should ever want our equality to each other to be segregated by appearance or custom is regrettable. Our uniqueness as individuals is without question and anyone who would think that a privilege or advantage is honorable, based upon some self idea of deserve, is only displaying fear and should be called out for it. We only improve our society when we consider all of us, not just those who we think it applies toward.

Are we humans inherently good or bad? (#1900)

From the evidence here in America I would say that Republicans think we are inherently bad and Democrats think we are inherently good. There are plenty enough examples of crossovers in the political parties but generally this is what I find. Republicans see us as a species prone to being selfish and Democrats subscribe to the idea that we are more than that. The underlying process that brings the greed out in us here in America is that our economic system is based upon a survival of the fittest form of capitalism. Capitalism breeds a form of greed that is evolutionary within our souls. It forces we individuals to compete against one another for resources. Instead of letting our will have a go at experimenting with innovative thoughts, we assign our innovative thoughts to whether or not we can make profit from them. Surely profit is a motivator for only applying innovations that have utility, but profit has a down side as well. it forces us to do things that are outside our best natures. We come to find in the capitalistic system that failure is destructive. It can take our very souls from us when failure's imminence is realized. There are many reasons for failure and not all have to do with utility. Too many failures are the fault of older technologies suppressing newer ones because of that old friend/enemy called profit. What helps us progress forward is also what stalls that very same progress. I cannot advocate for the type of capitalism now here in America without being able to restructure it to include safeguards and protections from unlimited wealth and power accumulation. When we humans decide that we are inherently good and not inherently bad and start to build a society founded upon our good natural instinct is when we will finally settle the battle here in America about whether we will be an all inclusive democracy or an oligarchy/plutocracy bent toward greedy selfishness.

Opportunity for respect and dignity (#1899)

I often hear the right wing Republicans talk about how the character of the poor and disadvantaged is morally bankrupt and beyond repair. So instead of trying to help those, who they self-prescribe as wastrels, they demean and punish them for their lack of honor. That is their "take" on it. My "take" on it is quite the opposite. I don't see a morally bankrupt and irredeemable class of poor citizenry. What I see instead is a demoralized and beaten down poor class of citizenry who are not afforded the same opportunities their wealthy fellow citizens are afforded. If anything those who are morally bankrupt and are proving to be irredeemable are the class of folks who are wealthy and control the levers of economic power. It amazes me that the wealthy and the powerful want to blame those who have little control over the outcomes of their lives for the failure of the wealthy to improve the society that benefited the wealthy. Instead of the wealthy taking the reins of their success and funneling it back to the areas in our country that would most benefit from them having a real care about the citizens of our country, they instead continue to reap the benefit of their lofty positioning and allow for baser instincts to guide their path forward. The baser the better in their world since if you are not one of them then you are unworthy of having the same opportunities they were gifted with. Now not all the wealthy are greedy and selfish, however too many are and that is real. How can I convince the well off that what is right in the world comes from how our hearts and minds experience life. I know I have some better than average abilities and I regard that humbly and with a duty to return those abilities the best I can to the family of humanity as a offering of my gratitude. A personal respect and dignity for all of life.

The Republican religion (#1898)

Rape and incest have a home with the Republican religion, not their abolition, but their utility. It seems absurd that the Republican party on the one hand declares itself the family values party while on the other hand giving men dominion over women in such demeaning and humiliating ways. The Republican men, and the women who subjugate themselves to them, have devised a religion where the poor and the needy are NOT the focus, where instead the focus is on men who can dominate all the resources, including people as resources. The Republican Bible has at it's core the Ayn Randian philosophy of selfishness. This selfishness is to be honored above all other choices for living. It is what makes living within the bounds of the Republican religion so easy. The attraction is that those who are greedy and who want to be more than just mortal, can live like a god on Earth while feeling no conscious conflict. Their egos are given full reign over their doubts and in that they have achieved a state of nirvana. By allowing for rape and incest to be "necessary" Republicans have destroyed the idea of equality between the sexes and have given themselves an avenue to "take" what they desire for their own fleshly seductions. The Republican religion has effectively given men the sovereignty over women that they undoubtedly feel is their right. That the Republican women have abdicated their rights to their Republican men is distressing but revealing in that they have been stripped of their own decency and honor to the point where they can only see a world where the Republican men can use them for whatever purpose the Republican men desire. 

Pointing out the hypocrisy with sarcastic belittling (#1897)

When I make a heavy handed point about a political, economical or social issue and I am wrong, it is surely equivalent for someone or many to point out my mistake when it is obvious. If I have blustered about a policy I think is right but I cannot prove it and instead others have proven my point wrong and I still cannot let my point go, I am thus allowed to be ridiculed for not being open minded enough to admit my mistake. It is then that I have left myself open to be ridiculed and rightly so. It is incumbent upon those who have discounted or demolished my point to mock me with fervor if I don't accept the logic and common sense of being wrong. We cannot as a society let those "off the hook" who are blatant about denying truth and fact. We must belittle them as the social pariah they have become. Anything short of leaving them to bluster nonsense without some form of staunch ridicule then leaves us open to question by those who are not informed enough to know the difference. The nonsense that is being spewed into our social, political and economical landscape is a direct result of us allowing this nonsense to exist without properly crushing it as an option. So, although I rarely advocate belittling anyone as a general rule, those who are intent on disseminating falsehoods and out and out lies despite all evidence to the contrary deserve nothing less than a harsh ridiculing for their ulterior motives. We must fight fire with water until the flames are all but a distant wisp of smoke. Life is hard most of the time on all of us but if hurting someone's feelings is the least we do to create and preserve the dignity of our democracy, and it's principles of fairness, equality and justice in equal forms, then let the belittling begin with a controlled vengeance.

Only one set of laws (#1896)

Enough of this double standard application of our laws! Regardless of the offense, big or small, the same application of the law is to be absolute. There are always mitigating circumstances that must be considered but the process of the law must never change. We cannot arbitrarily apply the law based upon privilege or advantage. If we are not secure in our knowledge that we all live by the same rules how is it possible for us to have equality of opportunity? It isn't logically possible. Our democracy demands that we sustain our laws in an equal fashion or our democracy is no more. How important is our democracy then if we allow some privileges and advantages over others? Shall we just dismiss the idea of democracy and instead allow for those who can manipulate the law? As it stands now we the people still have the political power to stop the attacks on our democracy by voting for the candidates that best exemplify democratic values. No more should we vote based upon popularity or blind party affiliation. If we don't we will pay a price soon in our futures with, for example, the Republican party and it's push to legalize corporations as citizens and restrict voting in as many ways as they can. We must think and act now to protect our democracy above all things otherwise we will need to be protected from the forces that are mounting a challenge to our democracy and equality of opportunity. The examples of the infiltration and attack on our ability to act as individuals within a society is increasingly being challenged and the gauntlet has been thrown down at our feet. Shall we rise up and exercise our vote to protect the dearness of democracy or shall we hide our heads in the sand while some wealthy sovereign becomes our authoritarian master?

The wealthy need to reinvest in America (#1895)

As the wealthy in our country continue to reap the benefit of our society and NOT put back into it, a change in the quality of life for most Americans continues to get worse. Without reinvestment by those who have profited immensely through the American economic system, we erode in our ability to continue to offer opportunities to those who are next to capitalize on our great society and it's innovative nature. The greed of this current crop of wealthy capitalists and their inability to understand the mutually shared vision held by all Americans to improve their lives, while giving creative enterprise an avenue for success, is destroying the delicate symmetry our country is battling to maintain. This lack of vision by the wealthy will be their undoing as it takes all of us working together to make and keep our country the greatest society on Earth. We are not maintaining a rising from poverty society with our current lack of investment in our country and our citizens. When our workforce is being compensated to the tune of improving their lives then the wealthy are doing their part while still making profit for their effort. We are not about creating a wealth class that ignores the roots of that wealth, but that is what we are doing. There are conservative forces in politics that have mounted a challenge to democracy in the name of privilege and advantage which cuts the legs out from under the body of our great society. If we allow this to continue, America will no longer represent the will of the people but instead the will of the wealthy dictating to the people.

Focusing on the facts (#1894)

As we get closer to the next election in November more and more of us will be focusing a little closer on the facts of things. What we progressive Democrats need to do is highlight all the harmful and hurtful policies of our political opponents in a clear and concise way. We cannot count on others to do this for us so we must clarify our positions in contrast with the positions of our opponents. Remembering who voted on what bills is a good start and finding the roll call votes and familiarizing ourselves with them is essential. next we need to find the quotes of our opponents leaders and contrast them with quotes from our own leaders on the same subject. We must find charts and graphs from reputable sources that describe the effects of policies or the effects of policies not implemented. In general we must show why we advocate for our Democratic policies and the inherent positives of them. This is so important as we get another month closer to an election that will determine the effectiveness of our President for the next 2 years. There is never an election we can take for granted and with we Democrats, we have not always heeded that warning. The cycle must end since the differences between the vision of the Democrats and Republicans is so stark in the reality they present. Democrats want to preserve Democracy as a vessel for opportunity for all with equality and justice at it's heart; while Republicans have a vision of survival of the fittest mentality as the highest priority in a system that honors the wealthy and discounts everyone else. If we Democrats are not prepared to convince ourselves of our own purpose and direction then how are we to convince the yet uninformed? So let's focus on the facts of things and get our message out in the most clear and simple way.