Why Americans Like Turnip tRump Might Think Europeans Would Want To Move To The US
1/17/2018
Rant mode: <ON>Americans are very ignorant of the standard of living in most European nations (and the remainder of the world, frankly.) We are indoctrinated from a very young age in the US to believe that socialism/communism are completely antithetical to democracy when we’re not even comparing apples to apples with such comparisons. Democracy is a political system. Capitalism, communism and socialism are economic systems. Political and economic systems are independent of one another and therefore do not exclude one another.
Communism and laissez faire capitalism are the extremes of economic systems and antithetical. Neither of these two systems have been shown to do anything but fail and lead to oligarchy. Laissez faire capitalism leads to what we have in the US: a crypto-oligarchic state which is quickly moving towards neo feudalism under the direct intervention of the Kochs, Mercers, the Devos clan, Murdochs, et al who have organized to attack our democracy, bribing our lawmakers and senators, on every level of government, our governors—and even our President. They have been somewhat unmasked of late when Steve Bannon warned Paul Ryan and his House that “…the donors are not happy and they say ‘Get it done or never call on us again’.” Frankly, these “donors” are traitors subverting our democracy, and they deserve bullets in their heads and nothing better. If you really want the straight dope on just how methodical and organized this terrorist group is, read Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money”.
Communism too leads to oligarchy and increasing tyranny like we see in Russia. I like Putin better than I like tRump (AKA: “Turnip” on account of he’s a vegetable and that term won’t presently be picked up by the bot web crawlers) but Turnip and Putin both deserve nothing but bullets in their heads and our undying contempt for what they have done in their lives—their opportunities to do good with their power. The same goes for the Koch-Mercer Organized Corporatist Mob. They are, every one of them, “filthy rich” because they made their wealth unscrupulously, and they are failures because they used their resources, not for good, but to subvert the system to protect them and their offspring alone—and to the complete detriment of the remainder of us. They are pushing towards a neo-feudalistic state in which they own everything—including us—because we “owe our souls to the company store”. Think about what they are doing and you’ll see these few 1% OF THE 1% are organized and maneuvering us towards being their chattels and slaves by taking control of everything we need/want and selling back to us the very products we work to help them create. They pollute our water, fracking to get gas and shale oil so they can continue to sell us products made to run on these fossil fuels which pollute our air and warm the globe. Then they clean the water they polluted—our water—and they sell it back to us. By sleight of hand, what was/is ours, seems to become theirs to sell back to us. Witness the CEO of Nestle saying humans “…do not have a ‘right’ to water”. WE are left with a deteriorating environment because the Corporatists pollute to make products/do business and the taxpayers are left to fix the pollution. Why? Because the corporatists would not make as much money if they had to operate in conformation with normal social conscience—of which they are bereft. It ain’t no simple coincidence the sociopaths are in concentration among those with power and money. The fast path to worldly wealth is not a strong conscience.
People may say “They’ve done nothing illegal under the system at the time they organized and bribed our government out of services to us and into service to the oligarchs”. That may be true but just because something hasn’t been made officially illegal doesn’t mean you do not know you are breaking faith with all but your small cadre and your minions. We all know when we are going wrong and, if you don’t, you’re not fit to walk free among the remainder of us who have consciences and a sense of social equity.
Democratic socialism is a middle ground that has proven to work well—very well—in Europe. It would work well here too—but for the oligarchs and the ignorance of the folks who think themselves “republicans” who follow the oligarchs’ generals. Sad thing is, most the folks who support/allow what is going on to happen do so because of lack of information and/or lack of perspective: They think we in the US have the best because they have been indoctrinated to think that way. They think socialism is antithetical to democracy because the concepts are intentionally left vague in the minds of children as they are educated. You don’t learn until college—if you get there—that political and economic systems are not the same thing. They think “freedom” is lack of governance when it is governance that creates the safe space in which to befree. Democratic Socialism is much like living in an incorporated city or housing community into which you pay for membership and its percs. Among the perks are: Free Medical, Free College, roads, emergency services, low priced, fresh, locally produced subsidized government food, clean water and air, sea food you can trust came from clean water, departments that ensure animals being raised for food are treated humanely… I know that is all stuff I want—and the peace of mind that comes from knowing it’s all available should I need it.
Some will point to the troubles in Europe and say it’s because of the socialism and I am sure Putin and Turnip and the Koch-Mercer Terrorist Mob would like you to think such, but you’d be wrong. The great democratic socialist countries of Europe are having problems, but they are having them because of war—much of it presumably bringing (yet more) wealth to some oligarch’s coffers—and the resulting mass migrations of refugees out of Syria, etc.
The objective right now is to confuse and frighten us all into giving up our rights for the promise of more “security” so we can experience less fear and to present an image that socialism is failing in Europe. It is not. Europe is groaning under the immense economic pressure of the millions of refugees coming there to escape war and political/religious persecution. But the refugees are coming to France and Germany and Great Britain, etc, because of the compassionate social programs that these people of battered lives hope will give them strength and time to get on their feet. All this suffering is not because of socialism—but the strength of the socialist countries affected, and the graciousness of their people, is why the refugees came to Europe. They didn’t run to Russia or head for China after all and, again, some oligarchs are getting rich off all this war. THAT is what war is about. Maybe we should follow the money to the ends of its tangled trails, arrange the bullets for all the would-be oligarchs and then get on with the business of making a better world.
Rant Mode: <OFF>
The "Right" is Wrong
8/05/2017
Rant Mode <ON>
The “Right” is wrong. It has not always been (entirely) wrong but, since they became self-serving power-mongering racists, sexists, xenophobes under the shepherding of their corporatist mafia mob bosses (David and Charles Koch, R. Murdoch, Robert and Rebekah Mercer, et al) they have entirely abandoned reason and honor. They want their money and everyone else’s too. They want complete power and they will use any irrational hypocritical argument the situation demands to justify their overt maneuvering for power.
The members of the right presently in power in the government are little more than the Corporatist Mafia Mob bosses’ henchmen. They are bribed and their ethics compromised—Paul Ryan being a splendid example although he is not quite as despicable as Mitch McConnell.
I am a registered republican but I was raised a “blue dog Democrat”. I vote Democrat—always now because watching unbridled corporatism destroy our country has proven to me that Laissez Faire Capitalism will inevitably end in the scenario we see playing out today.
Corporations and their executive officers have no motivation beyond profit. This induces a temporal myopia that pays no heed to sustainability—none whatsoever. Corporatists will use up and destroy, plundering every resource without compunction, until the world itself is not even habitable—all in pursuit of the insane concept that short term profit always bests long term sustainability.
This very scenario playing now has turned me into a democratic socialist. Capitalism must be regulated to protect people and animals and the environment we share. This fiasco with tRump has done us the favor of demonstrating precisely this phenomenon and the completely corrupted (hyper-Libertarianized) state of the once noble republican ethos. There exists not one man, as far as I can tell, in congress who is not both republican and bribed by corporatists and corporations.
If you really want to understand how we came to be where we are, read Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money”. You will never call the US a "democracy" again until we have turned it into a socialistic democracy because we are presently, plainly, being governed by corporatist oligarchs. IMO, we should slay them all. They mean to enslave the world and their treachery against our republic for the sake of personal gain is treason.
They have undermined the rights and quality of life of the people in the course of giving assistance to a cryptic organized inner oligarchic state, hostile to the constitution and, therefore, a "domestic threat" to the constitution and the liberties of the people. That is treason.
Further, The Republican congress has gone derelict of their duty and been bought off—bribed. They have, under color of law, broken trust with the people who elected them to protect our best interests and essentially sold us all into the tightening bondage of a pernicious slavery to oligarchs and corporations which are not real entities.
Corporations have neither hearts nor moral compass and so neither do their minions. Corporations should be stripped of entity status that allows board members and executive officers (EOs) to hide behind disbursed accountability for the actions they vote to allow the corporations to undertake. I have no compassion for these EOs and board members and argue that they should be personally accountable and liable for the corporate misdeeds they allowed to be carried out. This would make both the corporation’s assets, and the private assets of the board members and EOs, up for taking in order to make restitution to the people and repair the land.
As for the republicans in Congress—they have shown they have no compassion nor concern for us. Given impunity I’d strike them all down—if not into the ground I would take all of their resources and repatriate them to the country—paying down the debt and making healthcare single payer and completely socialized. It doesn’t sound like there’s enough money for this but it’s more than you realize. Sum all the assets of all the congressmen/women who have plainly and consistently betrayed the public trust (voted consistently against single payer healthcare, and been bribed by corporatists whose interests they then placed ahead of ours) PLUS all the assets of the health insurance companies, PLUS the assets of their boards members and EOs, PLUS the fortunes of the corporatists I have already mentioned, and it’s a pretty penny.
This must sound extreme but consider these facts: They have made their fortunes by destroying the environment (which they were not required to restore) and by subjugating the people. Their fortunes are OURS for they came by them by wresting from We, the People, quality of life.
It’s time we collected back what they took under the guises of “industry” and “production”. Make no mistake: The corporations and their corporatist minions have realized ZERO “Production”. They have merely traded OUR pain for THEIR profit. Production creates new wealth. All these have done is translate one asset for another and, in the course of their sleight of hand, labeled what was Ours "Theirs".
Rant Mode <OFF>
The members of the right presently in power in the government are little more than the Corporatist Mafia Mob bosses’ henchmen. They are bribed and their ethics compromised—Paul Ryan being a splendid example although he is not quite as despicable as Mitch McConnell.
I am a registered republican but I was raised a “blue dog Democrat”. I vote Democrat—always now because watching unbridled corporatism destroy our country has proven to me that Laissez Faire Capitalism will inevitably end in the scenario we see playing out today.
Corporations and their executive officers have no motivation beyond profit. This induces a temporal myopia that pays no heed to sustainability—none whatsoever. Corporatists will use up and destroy, plundering every resource without compunction, until the world itself is not even habitable—all in pursuit of the insane concept that short term profit always bests long term sustainability.
This very scenario playing now has turned me into a democratic socialist. Capitalism must be regulated to protect people and animals and the environment we share. This fiasco with tRump has done us the favor of demonstrating precisely this phenomenon and the completely corrupted (hyper-Libertarianized) state of the once noble republican ethos. There exists not one man, as far as I can tell, in congress who is not both republican and bribed by corporatists and corporations.
If you really want to understand how we came to be where we are, read Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money”. You will never call the US a "democracy" again until we have turned it into a socialistic democracy because we are presently, plainly, being governed by corporatist oligarchs. IMO, we should slay them all. They mean to enslave the world and their treachery against our republic for the sake of personal gain is treason.
They have undermined the rights and quality of life of the people in the course of giving assistance to a cryptic organized inner oligarchic state, hostile to the constitution and, therefore, a "domestic threat" to the constitution and the liberties of the people. That is treason.
Further, The Republican congress has gone derelict of their duty and been bought off—bribed. They have, under color of law, broken trust with the people who elected them to protect our best interests and essentially sold us all into the tightening bondage of a pernicious slavery to oligarchs and corporations which are not real entities.
Corporations have neither hearts nor moral compass and so neither do their minions. Corporations should be stripped of entity status that allows board members and executive officers (EOs) to hide behind disbursed accountability for the actions they vote to allow the corporations to undertake. I have no compassion for these EOs and board members and argue that they should be personally accountable and liable for the corporate misdeeds they allowed to be carried out. This would make both the corporation’s assets, and the private assets of the board members and EOs, up for taking in order to make restitution to the people and repair the land.
As for the republicans in Congress—they have shown they have no compassion nor concern for us. Given impunity I’d strike them all down—if not into the ground I would take all of their resources and repatriate them to the country—paying down the debt and making healthcare single payer and completely socialized. It doesn’t sound like there’s enough money for this but it’s more than you realize. Sum all the assets of all the congressmen/women who have plainly and consistently betrayed the public trust (voted consistently against single payer healthcare, and been bribed by corporatists whose interests they then placed ahead of ours) PLUS all the assets of the health insurance companies, PLUS the assets of their boards members and EOs, PLUS the fortunes of the corporatists I have already mentioned, and it’s a pretty penny.
This must sound extreme but consider these facts: They have made their fortunes by destroying the environment (which they were not required to restore) and by subjugating the people. Their fortunes are OURS for they came by them by wresting from We, the People, quality of life.
It’s time we collected back what they took under the guises of “industry” and “production”. Make no mistake: The corporations and their corporatist minions have realized ZERO “Production”. They have merely traded OUR pain for THEIR profit. Production creates new wealth. All these have done is translate one asset for another and, in the course of their sleight of hand, labeled what was Ours "Theirs".
Rant Mode <OFF>
Raised "Cracker" and Floridian
What You Need to Know About Old Style Native Floridians
Rant Mode <ON>
Raised in Tampa, Florida we saw huge amounts of northerners here. And we do consider most of them “northerners”—with the exception of NY City folk. My Dad had a particularly jaundiced view of snowbirds and liked even less the ones who stayed. Mostly that was because their driving habits were so different from those of the locals. Tourists drive like they’ve never seen palm trees in their lives, and they slow down to eye everything and are looking for something they can’t find so they drive unpredictably. They’re dangerous and it can be irritating. Looking at license plates, locals gauge what we can likely expect from drivers in various weather conditions and we use accents to tell us what we might expect in face to face interpersonal interactions.
That said, I realized at about age 22 that part of the interpersonal problems were cultural problems that came out of the sense of humor and the jocular way that northern (seaboard) folk often teased each other. To them they were being friendly when they insulted each other. I guess the thinking was that one wouldn’t even bother to talk to someone they didn’t like at all. When I realized this, many of the folks I’d disliked before became more understandable for the ways they behaved and my perceptions of them changed. That was reflected in improved relationships with them.
I’m 59 and, growing up in Florida at the time I did, we had no Air Conditioning until I was about 12. Hot and humid so the heat index in summers was often well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, no one of local origin, said anything offensive because everyone down here was/is armed. We’re as polite as Samurai and just as deadly. Things could get out of hand quickly in the heat. Hence the “Come inside, kick your shoes off, lemme get you a nice iced tea” version of Floridian hospitality. When times were hot, people got hotter easier and anger/irritability was unavoidable. The rate of violent crimes spiked in summer. The state’s population was mostly locals and Italians, Haitian refugees and hispanic imports (with whom we got along fine) and the transplants from the cold north retiring here. They generally naturalized after about 5 years of residence. The people we cringed at having to deal with were always from the same set of very discernible accents and they were the various sections of NYC: Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx. Upstate New Yorkers (who were oft called “Yorkers”) were another type entirely. We had no bone to pick with them. It was the pace of that city that made people rude and dog eat dog. They were obnoxious, confrontational and exceptionally stupid about what breed of creature they were dealing with when condescending to one of our like. Just because it ran through our minds didn’t mean it was gonna come out the mouth or even show on our faces. We don’t broadcast when the GBH (Great Bodily Harm) is about to occur. It’s fast and it’s deadly—(You’ll overheat otherwise) and those who expect the bluster typical of their NYC burbs are always so surprised when we go from dead civil to deadly force with not even a telling shift in expression. Violence can happen here with a smile. In fact some smiles are not smiles at all. We’re showing teeth and it’s a subtle threat. Bluster is never taken seriously until a weapon or physical aggression presents. Bluster is what people who don’t really want to fight do in hopes of intimidating. “Homeys don’t play dat.”
When I went to NYC, I found them to be quite pleasant and graciously reassuring and accommodating. That city cruises at speeds one simply cannot approach in the south under the oppressive heat. It’s too hot to move that way, and NYC people get down here in the heat, stopping perhaps to arm themselves when they leave NYC where they were not allowed firearms, and then they bring their high speed, demanding NYC expectations here. It’s a different culture here entirely. It has always seemed to me that the point of travel was to experience life in various cultures—not to try to make them just like your own. If that’s what one is after, why bother leaving home?
I’ve lived in Washington State in a quiet and slow paced little paradise called Point Roberts and I loved the local culture so well that I stayed for ten years. Then I moved to the highlands of Tennessee. I liked the local ways well enough, mostly, but the ticks were unbearable so I moved back to north Florida after just two years. The nicest people I met there were from Connecticut and West by God Virginia. Most the locals in the Cumberland Plateau, that is the indigenous, were nuts. If it’d hold still they’d fuck it or rob it—or smoke it. The missing and blackened teeth, pocked skin and pallor coupled with the wild-eyed high energy, is the first clue you’re dealing with meth heads. Their trailer exploding was the second. The woods are HUGE and quiet and there’s no one about to ever find your body—and they’ve no real problem at all with making that scenario happen for you, and over the most irrational things—the meth heads, that is. Nigh on all the sober folk I met were from Connecticut and West by God Virginia or other parts of Tennessee that had grown over-populated.
I’ve been all over the Caribbean and loved the people, except in the Bahamas—but I’ve been there only twice so I can’t fairly judge whether they are all hostile to tourists or if maybe just the places where I went disliked tourists. I can understand the mentality. I grew up, after all, in a place where jobs and money were scarce until the snowbirds arrived and then it was feast—but one had to be a chameleon—and detecting the accent told us what to likely expect and how to handle giving that customer service. It is a real strain on the mentality—even for someone who loves other cultures and languages as I do. And I can earnestly say that we only cringed at the NYC people. Connecticut folks talked faster than they moved and were not obnoxious at all. In fact, as I mentioned, I met quite a few of them in Tennessee and they were some of the loveliest, kindest, most generous folks I have ever known. They looked after me. I still call them now and again (7years later) and pray for them in my own way. Rhode Island folk were welcome in Florida and pleasant. Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Vermont, Maine, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Michigan folk—all fine really: polite and well mannered and respectful of the fact that they were guests. And we always treated them all well and tried to look after them—especially folk from Canada as they had zero situational awareness and were like lambs in a slaughter yard and not even aware of it. We didn’t want our folk to get a bad rap for the few bad apples here taking advantage of the imports. People from New Jersey were not easy, but not bad. They just had that odd sense of humor but they were much less demanding and arrogant than NYC folk. Most other folks from south of the Mason Dixon line had their unique annoyances—mostly racism. That did not fit well in Florida which, for being the southernmost state in the union is the least southern of all. We don’t cotton to racism. It’s destructive and stupid as well in an environment so defined by its rampant diversity. Another issue is the northern sense of humor.
No native “Cracker” from Florida jokes derisively with anyone they are not very close to. One does well to know that. Neither do we bother arguing with someone who really thinks they know. We listen and nod, lift an eyebrow and shrug faintly. Until/unless they ask what we think, we’ll never bother for the most part. No sense trying to teach a pig to sing. As derision is considered presumptuous here. We never do it in jest without a wink or a smile crinkling in twinkling eyes. Nor does criticism, constructively delivered, happen in front of someone else who does not also know well and lovingly the one receiving the feedback. Derisive words here, spoken straight faced, mean someone cares enough to about your to tell you with best intentions what somebody else might otherwise say to hurt you. And we do our best to deliver hard feedback lovingly. If we don’t like you at all, we don’t talk to you. Harsh words from a “Cracker” are literally “fighting words”. We’ve been pushed too far and you’re playing with fire to push any further an angry “Cracker” accustomed to dealing with diversity and impatience in others without a hitch. Once we’re pressed too far, we walk away to avoid a fight. If the fight follows us, we are deadly people. Daddy always said, “My Darlin’, you run from a fight—especially if you are armed. Have no mercy on the bastard who dares to chase and manages to catch you”. With a “Cracker” their voice is likely to drop, both in register and volume, when they utter quietly (and possibly even with an air of whimsy) their description of what they are likely to do to you if you don’t back off. Loud is for a gun’s report, not a warning.
Much communication occurs between “Crackers” at a nonverbal level. We are very subtle communicators and scoff in several different ways, each having its own meaning. Just a look passing between us speaks volumes and tiny body movements give away trouble brewing or affection welling. It’s little wonder really because we have to deal with people from all over the country and the world—and the ones we least like are NY City folk. The ones we despise are any who come here and stir up trouble based in racism or xenophobia. We are adaptable, fair minded, mostly well educated, and believe in equality. We don’t care where you come from except that it helps us know what to expect from you and it makes nice conversation. We like to learn about other people because we like them—and forewarned is forearmed. When we run into racism and unwarranted prejudices (even our own) we squash it. It is something we cannot afford in a place with so much diversity where people come to let their hair down and relax and take in the overcrowded beaches, Busch Gardens, Adventure Island and Disneyland. Thanks to this diversity, I speak 3 languages and plan to pick up another 4 when I move to Europe where I mean to live until I die.
This country has lately lost its mind—and its spine.
We should be marching on DC and invoking citizen arrests on quite a few in the government and in Trump’s family. I hate to see the people so crushed with the burdens of the drugs they have pumped into us to keep us in mental lala land fogs and our needs so barely met we can’t lift our eyes from our work to take time to keep our government from being taken over by the corporatist mafia mob of the Kochs, Murdock , Mercers, Rockefellers, Rothschilds and their ilk. Nor care I to watch yet another round of elections and see the pendulum swing back towards deepening insanity. Trump has been an eye-opener for this “Cracker”. People who pretended not to be acist have turned psycho racist. People who had been pretending to respect women have shown we’d be better off killing off all the fundamentalists of ANY religion. Zealots are irrational by nature which is why they can even be taught to think the utter tosh of fundamentalist doctrines are in any way helpful to humanity and deserve to be passed forward into time. The corporatist mob bosses are giggling gleefully that we’re too busy fighting each other to rise up and oppose them who are the source of most suffering in this country.
I will always love the US. These are my people. But I have learned from being a “Cracker” to love, respect and look after guests from all over the world. People are just the same in our aspirations and needs the world over. I want to see my country from the outside in. It’s a view the media generally keeps from us because they don’t want us to know how good most of the developed 1st world nations people’s have it. The things that impresses most Europeans who come here is how jagged on caffein we are, how sedated we need to be to sleep, how terribly hard we work, having no life/work balance, and how much we exercise. We are being manipulated—drugged like thoroughbreds to work hard and run fast the rat race they’ve created—and then we’re sedated into compliance—and further sedated to bring on the sleep we need to keep job performance high. We work to afford the medications, food, car and gas that we need to get to work and to work effectively. It is a rat’s race on a running wheel that gets us nowhere—but dead and at younger ages from diseases that come out of our stressful toil to make the rich elitist richer. Trust me, the less drugs you take, the clearer your mind, the more resilient your body and the better you feel. Save the money you would have spent on drugs and alcohol to make your miserable life as an American bearable and use the funds to get out. Then, if you get a chance to escape, do it. That wall trump wants to build is to keep the work force IN. MARK WELL MY WORDS.
Happiness does not come from having more, but from needing less. Sadness comes from needing and despair from wanting. Turn off the TV. Don’t let them indoctrinate you to think you must have all that consumerist crap you never get to use because you’re too busy working to pay for it all on the high interest credit cards that fill your mailbox. Credit is a trap. Paying to use money is never as wise as paying cash. Don’t buy into the idea that you have to have the right spouse, right car, right home, right electronics, right toys, right coiff, right jewelery, etc to make the “self image” that is not even YOU. You are none of these things—nor do you need them to be worthy. Contrary to what the marketers tell you, you are perfectly yourself naked and bereft of any possessions—so long as you have peace of mind. You can’t buy that. You can only get it by stepping back from the illusion of “belonging” that merely passes for true belonging. Belonging is not simply fitting in because you’ve got the stuff everybody else has. All you need is peace of mind. Live for principles and forget the adornments. Take back your life. Define your own personal meaningfulness and defy the notion that you must fit in to be worthy and “cool”. Leave this place or rise up and make it better. Presently, you are a slave, unawares, in “the land of the free”. Ours has become “the home of the knave”. Let’s leave the knaves here or crush them and then all the rational, loving folks can start to help make this a better world.
Rant Mode <OFF>
Rant Mode: <ON>
Donald Trump is an embarrassment on many levels and I am ashamed of him because of how he behaves, his lack of class and dignity, his lying, his maneuvering to enrich himself and his family at the expense of the American people and the world. He is not a typical New York City born bred and born persona in that he is even more self absorbed, arrogant, entitled and vain than most. But his arrogance, poor presentation and lack of regard for common courtesy are definitely typical of people from that city once they leave that city. I imagine some of them are sensitive and kind enough to change in order to blend in more with those around them and adopt the local culture, but those aren’t the ones we notice. As a person from the south who was raised to respect others’ ideas of decorum when I am visiting their country or area, I have been ashamed of New York City people many times when abroad. Let’s get something straight: We in this country are not all “Yanks”. Even we from other parts of the country find those we call Yanks to be exceptionally arrogant, demanding, petulant and rude. But New York City is a major hub of international air traffic and, sadly, many NY City-ers escape the country’s confines before they’ve ever learned any manners at all. Please don’t allow that sub-group of our people taint your concepts of all Americans.
That said, I am more and more ashamed of my country’s politics, especially their foreign policy, their lack of awareness of the situation in the rest of the world (which they do not make any effort, in general, to learn about) their hyper-religiosity and their racism and intolerance.
I am soon to be 59 and I have watched in despair politics all my life as the pendulum has swung and these stupid people have allowed themselves to be divided and duped election cycle after election cycle. Every election year these ignorant republicans buy into the notion that the Democrats are trying to take something from them when, in fact, Democrats are trying to defend them, consciously or not, from a Corporatist Mafia Mob that means to take the country’s assets and the people’s lives to enrich themselves and themselves alone.
Every election cycle, the poorest, least educated, most emotionally unbalanced and hateful, intolerant sectors of our population vote against their own best interests and make it easier for the Corporatist Mafia Mob to enslave us all. Their minds are simply not capable of the levels of rational analysis and critical thinking that are required to make an informed and helpful vote. Instead, they vote based upon gut visceral/emotional reaction alone, or because their religious leaders direct them to do so, without ever considering the finer issues and long term objective towards which every democratic free market country should strive: Protect the people and the environment from free market capitalists who will, inevitably, exploit every error and every resource to enrich themselves and concentrate the political power to oppress in their hands alone. Capitalism must be controlled or it will inevitably push aside every consideration except profit motive — making all other issues subordinate to that — without ever defining very precisely what “profit” actually IS. Rest assured that profit can NEVER include destruction of the environment for the sake of short term fiscal gain. Money has no real value until it is traded for something that makes life easier or more enjoyable and, without clean air to breathe and clean water to drink—THERE CAN BE NO “REAL PROFIT” to any enterprise.
The pattern of irrational use of votes I have described has allowed an obvious crisis in our democracy to evolve out of rampant un-objective republican tribalism. They call a thing, a situation and their bogus “nonprofit” fronts, through which they bribe our congressmen and women, names that are intended to soothe and dupe, and then ignorant voters think that in the name alone the reality of the thing is vested. In short, they call a thing exactly the opposite of what it is and thereby attempt to orchestrate acceptance of a set of “alternate facts” and an alternate narrative that is entirely deceptive and dangerously psychotic. The republican congress in this country has thusly been, obviously, nigh on completely corrupted inasmuch as they allow Trump to remain in office when he is so apparently unfit and guilty of attacking the constitution he swore to protect, guilty of treason and obstruction of justice—along with his entire family—as well. This is nonfeasance and dereliction of duty on the part of the republican congress — and they are all complicit with treason.
This situation has come to pass because republican voters are stingy, ignorant, unkind and racist homophobic hysterics who fancy themselves “Christians”. The Christ never knew them nor know they Him.
One ignorant jerk recently said to me on line, “LOL, with all due respect Ma’am, there is no country on this earth that has adopted universal health care that has not repealed it because it left their country bankrupt.” (I kid you not. THIS is an example of how uninformed these idiots are.) “Think again, dipstick,” I so wanted to tell him, “and take a look at the actual data. There’s a whole world out there and I doubt you’ve ever been beyond the country’s borders to know anything of it. Here’s the map of the world. The countries in green have universal healthcare and one of them is Russia! 58 countries in all have universal healthcare and the only reason we do not is because the Corporatist Mafia Mob keeps bribing our Congressmen and women to keep us from having that peace of mind too.”
List of countries with universal health care - Wikipedia
“Qui n'a pas la santé n'a rien.”<=> “Who has not health has nothing.”
These people cannot even pass the naturalisation exam required to become a citizen and yet they are allowed to vote. That must change. Just being born here is not cause sufficient to demonstrate a person can responsibly participate in the electoral process. We need to change the “voting rights by birth alone” concept.
This country (in particular) and the world, to a lesser extent, is presently under attack by a Corporatist Mafia Mob organized to subjugate the people, disrupt their governments, and take away all protections of the people and the environments, so that same group of Mobsters can run amok and pollute the world and subjugate nations to their profit-making motives. Do not let this happen in your country, please. These people should be banned globally from acceptance into your countries as they are members of this organized corporatist mob: Charles and David Koch are the primary organizers. Rupert Murdoch, Rothschilds, etc. Robert and Rebekah Mercer (Robert’s daughter) have infiltrated the UK with their data mining and psychological warfare companies called “Cambridge Analytica” and, in the UK, “Strategic Communications Laboratories”. They use the data they mine from the internet to psychologically profile and graphically locate voters whom they then target with propaganda appropriate to the desires of those who hire them to deceive. These two companies are, in large, responsible for Trump’s election and for Brexit, and their power motives are aligned with Russia’s inasmuch as they too want the breakup of the EU and NATO. Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon—the white supremacist henchman and woman of the Mercers. Just don’t let these people in. Kill them off if you can do so within the laws of your country should they come to your lands. There are more and, if you really want the inside straight dope on how our country’s government has been subverted by the runaway power-grab of The Corporatist Mafia Mob, read Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money” and get a comprehensive list of people you should reject out of hand from your borders and a thorough accounting of the methods they use to subvert the will of the people.
Rant Mode: <OFF>
Meanwhile, I bid the remainder of the real (non-alternate facts) world, which I hope to soon join, loving regards…
Callaghan Grant
Raised in Tampa, Florida we saw huge amounts of northerners here. And we do consider most of them “northerners”—with the exception of NY City folk. My Dad had a particularly jaundiced view of snowbirds and liked even less the ones who stayed. Mostly that was because their driving habits were so different from those of the locals. Tourists drive like they’ve never seen palm trees in their lives, and they slow down to eye everything and are looking for something they can’t find so they drive unpredictably. They’re dangerous and it can be irritating. Looking at license plates, locals gauge what we can likely expect from drivers in various weather conditions and we use accents to tell us what we might expect in face to face interpersonal interactions.
That said, I realized at about age 22 that part of the interpersonal problems were cultural problems that came out of the sense of humor and the jocular way that northern (seaboard) folk often teased each other. To them they were being friendly when they insulted each other. I guess the thinking was that one wouldn’t even bother to talk to someone they didn’t like at all. When I realized this, many of the folks I’d disliked before became more understandable for the ways they behaved and my perceptions of them changed. That was reflected in improved relationships with them.
I’m 59 and, growing up in Florida at the time I did, we had no Air Conditioning until I was about 12. Hot and humid so the heat index in summers was often well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, no one of local origin, said anything offensive because everyone down here was/is armed. We’re as polite as Samurai and just as deadly. Things could get out of hand quickly in the heat. Hence the “Come inside, kick your shoes off, lemme get you a nice iced tea” version of Floridian hospitality. When times were hot, people got hotter easier and anger/irritability was unavoidable. The rate of violent crimes spiked in summer. The state’s population was mostly locals and Italians, Haitian refugees and hispanic imports (with whom we got along fine) and the transplants from the cold north retiring here. They generally naturalized after about 5 years of residence. The people we cringed at having to deal with were always from the same set of very discernible accents and they were the various sections of NYC: Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx. Upstate New Yorkers (who were oft called “Yorkers”) were another type entirely. We had no bone to pick with them. It was the pace of that city that made people rude and dog eat dog. They were obnoxious, confrontational and exceptionally stupid about what breed of creature they were dealing with when condescending to one of our like. Just because it ran through our minds didn’t mean it was gonna come out the mouth or even show on our faces. We don’t broadcast when the GBH (Great Bodily Harm) is about to occur. It’s fast and it’s deadly—(You’ll overheat otherwise) and those who expect the bluster typical of their NYC burbs are always so surprised when we go from dead civil to deadly force with not even a telling shift in expression. Violence can happen here with a smile. In fact some smiles are not smiles at all. We’re showing teeth and it’s a subtle threat. Bluster is never taken seriously until a weapon or physical aggression presents. Bluster is what people who don’t really want to fight do in hopes of intimidating. “Homeys don’t play dat.”
When I went to NYC, I found them to be quite pleasant and graciously reassuring and accommodating. That city cruises at speeds one simply cannot approach in the south under the oppressive heat. It’s too hot to move that way, and NYC people get down here in the heat, stopping perhaps to arm themselves when they leave NYC where they were not allowed firearms, and then they bring their high speed, demanding NYC expectations here. It’s a different culture here entirely. It has always seemed to me that the point of travel was to experience life in various cultures—not to try to make them just like your own. If that’s what one is after, why bother leaving home?
I’ve lived in Washington State in a quiet and slow paced little paradise called Point Roberts and I loved the local culture so well that I stayed for ten years. Then I moved to the highlands of Tennessee. I liked the local ways well enough, mostly, but the ticks were unbearable so I moved back to north Florida after just two years. The nicest people I met there were from Connecticut and West by God Virginia. Most the locals in the Cumberland Plateau, that is the indigenous, were nuts. If it’d hold still they’d fuck it or rob it—or smoke it. The missing and blackened teeth, pocked skin and pallor coupled with the wild-eyed high energy, is the first clue you’re dealing with meth heads. Their trailer exploding was the second. The woods are HUGE and quiet and there’s no one about to ever find your body—and they’ve no real problem at all with making that scenario happen for you, and over the most irrational things—the meth heads, that is. Nigh on all the sober folk I met were from Connecticut and West by God Virginia or other parts of Tennessee that had grown over-populated.
I’ve been all over the Caribbean and loved the people, except in the Bahamas—but I’ve been there only twice so I can’t fairly judge whether they are all hostile to tourists or if maybe just the places where I went disliked tourists. I can understand the mentality. I grew up, after all, in a place where jobs and money were scarce until the snowbirds arrived and then it was feast—but one had to be a chameleon—and detecting the accent told us what to likely expect and how to handle giving that customer service. It is a real strain on the mentality—even for someone who loves other cultures and languages as I do. And I can earnestly say that we only cringed at the NYC people. Connecticut folks talked faster than they moved and were not obnoxious at all. In fact, as I mentioned, I met quite a few of them in Tennessee and they were some of the loveliest, kindest, most generous folks I have ever known. They looked after me. I still call them now and again (7years later) and pray for them in my own way. Rhode Island folk were welcome in Florida and pleasant. Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Vermont, Maine, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Michigan folk—all fine really: polite and well mannered and respectful of the fact that they were guests. And we always treated them all well and tried to look after them—especially folk from Canada as they had zero situational awareness and were like lambs in a slaughter yard and not even aware of it. We didn’t want our folk to get a bad rap for the few bad apples here taking advantage of the imports. People from New Jersey were not easy, but not bad. They just had that odd sense of humor but they were much less demanding and arrogant than NYC folk. Most other folks from south of the Mason Dixon line had their unique annoyances—mostly racism. That did not fit well in Florida which, for being the southernmost state in the union is the least southern of all. We don’t cotton to racism. It’s destructive and stupid as well in an environment so defined by its rampant diversity. Another issue is the northern sense of humor.
No native “Cracker” from Florida jokes derisively with anyone they are not very close to. One does well to know that. Neither do we bother arguing with someone who really thinks they know. We listen and nod, lift an eyebrow and shrug faintly. Until/unless they ask what we think, we’ll never bother for the most part. No sense trying to teach a pig to sing. As derision is considered presumptuous here. We never do it in jest without a wink or a smile crinkling in twinkling eyes. Nor does criticism, constructively delivered, happen in front of someone else who does not also know well and lovingly the one receiving the feedback. Derisive words here, spoken straight faced, mean someone cares enough to about your to tell you with best intentions what somebody else might otherwise say to hurt you. And we do our best to deliver hard feedback lovingly. If we don’t like you at all, we don’t talk to you. Harsh words from a “Cracker” are literally “fighting words”. We’ve been pushed too far and you’re playing with fire to push any further an angry “Cracker” accustomed to dealing with diversity and impatience in others without a hitch. Once we’re pressed too far, we walk away to avoid a fight. If the fight follows us, we are deadly people. Daddy always said, “My Darlin’, you run from a fight—especially if you are armed. Have no mercy on the bastard who dares to chase and manages to catch you”. With a “Cracker” their voice is likely to drop, both in register and volume, when they utter quietly (and possibly even with an air of whimsy) their description of what they are likely to do to you if you don’t back off. Loud is for a gun’s report, not a warning.
Much communication occurs between “Crackers” at a nonverbal level. We are very subtle communicators and scoff in several different ways, each having its own meaning. Just a look passing between us speaks volumes and tiny body movements give away trouble brewing or affection welling. It’s little wonder really because we have to deal with people from all over the country and the world—and the ones we least like are NY City folk. The ones we despise are any who come here and stir up trouble based in racism or xenophobia. We are adaptable, fair minded, mostly well educated, and believe in equality. We don’t care where you come from except that it helps us know what to expect from you and it makes nice conversation. We like to learn about other people because we like them—and forewarned is forearmed. When we run into racism and unwarranted prejudices (even our own) we squash it. It is something we cannot afford in a place with so much diversity where people come to let their hair down and relax and take in the overcrowded beaches, Busch Gardens, Adventure Island and Disneyland. Thanks to this diversity, I speak 3 languages and plan to pick up another 4 when I move to Europe where I mean to live until I die.
This country has lately lost its mind—and its spine.
We should be marching on DC and invoking citizen arrests on quite a few in the government and in Trump’s family. I hate to see the people so crushed with the burdens of the drugs they have pumped into us to keep us in mental lala land fogs and our needs so barely met we can’t lift our eyes from our work to take time to keep our government from being taken over by the corporatist mafia mob of the Kochs, Murdock , Mercers, Rockefellers, Rothschilds and their ilk. Nor care I to watch yet another round of elections and see the pendulum swing back towards deepening insanity. Trump has been an eye-opener for this “Cracker”. People who pretended not to be acist have turned psycho racist. People who had been pretending to respect women have shown we’d be better off killing off all the fundamentalists of ANY religion. Zealots are irrational by nature which is why they can even be taught to think the utter tosh of fundamentalist doctrines are in any way helpful to humanity and deserve to be passed forward into time. The corporatist mob bosses are giggling gleefully that we’re too busy fighting each other to rise up and oppose them who are the source of most suffering in this country.
I will always love the US. These are my people. But I have learned from being a “Cracker” to love, respect and look after guests from all over the world. People are just the same in our aspirations and needs the world over. I want to see my country from the outside in. It’s a view the media generally keeps from us because they don’t want us to know how good most of the developed 1st world nations people’s have it. The things that impresses most Europeans who come here is how jagged on caffein we are, how sedated we need to be to sleep, how terribly hard we work, having no life/work balance, and how much we exercise. We are being manipulated—drugged like thoroughbreds to work hard and run fast the rat race they’ve created—and then we’re sedated into compliance—and further sedated to bring on the sleep we need to keep job performance high. We work to afford the medications, food, car and gas that we need to get to work and to work effectively. It is a rat’s race on a running wheel that gets us nowhere—but dead and at younger ages from diseases that come out of our stressful toil to make the rich elitist richer. Trust me, the less drugs you take, the clearer your mind, the more resilient your body and the better you feel. Save the money you would have spent on drugs and alcohol to make your miserable life as an American bearable and use the funds to get out. Then, if you get a chance to escape, do it. That wall trump wants to build is to keep the work force IN. MARK WELL MY WORDS.
Happiness does not come from having more, but from needing less. Sadness comes from needing and despair from wanting. Turn off the TV. Don’t let them indoctrinate you to think you must have all that consumerist crap you never get to use because you’re too busy working to pay for it all on the high interest credit cards that fill your mailbox. Credit is a trap. Paying to use money is never as wise as paying cash. Don’t buy into the idea that you have to have the right spouse, right car, right home, right electronics, right toys, right coiff, right jewelery, etc to make the “self image” that is not even YOU. You are none of these things—nor do you need them to be worthy. Contrary to what the marketers tell you, you are perfectly yourself naked and bereft of any possessions—so long as you have peace of mind. You can’t buy that. You can only get it by stepping back from the illusion of “belonging” that merely passes for true belonging. Belonging is not simply fitting in because you’ve got the stuff everybody else has. All you need is peace of mind. Live for principles and forget the adornments. Take back your life. Define your own personal meaningfulness and defy the notion that you must fit in to be worthy and “cool”. Leave this place or rise up and make it better. Presently, you are a slave, unawares, in “the land of the free”. Ours has become “the home of the knave”. Let’s leave the knaves here or crush them and then all the rational, loving folks can start to help make this a better world.
Rant Mode <OFF>
Ashamed of Trump
7/23/2017Rant Mode: <ON>
Donald Trump is an embarrassment on many levels and I am ashamed of him because of how he behaves, his lack of class and dignity, his lying, his maneuvering to enrich himself and his family at the expense of the American people and the world. He is not a typical New York City born bred and born persona in that he is even more self absorbed, arrogant, entitled and vain than most. But his arrogance, poor presentation and lack of regard for common courtesy are definitely typical of people from that city once they leave that city. I imagine some of them are sensitive and kind enough to change in order to blend in more with those around them and adopt the local culture, but those aren’t the ones we notice. As a person from the south who was raised to respect others’ ideas of decorum when I am visiting their country or area, I have been ashamed of New York City people many times when abroad. Let’s get something straight: We in this country are not all “Yanks”. Even we from other parts of the country find those we call Yanks to be exceptionally arrogant, demanding, petulant and rude. But New York City is a major hub of international air traffic and, sadly, many NY City-ers escape the country’s confines before they’ve ever learned any manners at all. Please don’t allow that sub-group of our people taint your concepts of all Americans.
That said, I am more and more ashamed of my country’s politics, especially their foreign policy, their lack of awareness of the situation in the rest of the world (which they do not make any effort, in general, to learn about) their hyper-religiosity and their racism and intolerance.
I am soon to be 59 and I have watched in despair politics all my life as the pendulum has swung and these stupid people have allowed themselves to be divided and duped election cycle after election cycle. Every election year these ignorant republicans buy into the notion that the Democrats are trying to take something from them when, in fact, Democrats are trying to defend them, consciously or not, from a Corporatist Mafia Mob that means to take the country’s assets and the people’s lives to enrich themselves and themselves alone.
Every election cycle, the poorest, least educated, most emotionally unbalanced and hateful, intolerant sectors of our population vote against their own best interests and make it easier for the Corporatist Mafia Mob to enslave us all. Their minds are simply not capable of the levels of rational analysis and critical thinking that are required to make an informed and helpful vote. Instead, they vote based upon gut visceral/emotional reaction alone, or because their religious leaders direct them to do so, without ever considering the finer issues and long term objective towards which every democratic free market country should strive: Protect the people and the environment from free market capitalists who will, inevitably, exploit every error and every resource to enrich themselves and concentrate the political power to oppress in their hands alone. Capitalism must be controlled or it will inevitably push aside every consideration except profit motive — making all other issues subordinate to that — without ever defining very precisely what “profit” actually IS. Rest assured that profit can NEVER include destruction of the environment for the sake of short term fiscal gain. Money has no real value until it is traded for something that makes life easier or more enjoyable and, without clean air to breathe and clean water to drink—THERE CAN BE NO “REAL PROFIT” to any enterprise.
The pattern of irrational use of votes I have described has allowed an obvious crisis in our democracy to evolve out of rampant un-objective republican tribalism. They call a thing, a situation and their bogus “nonprofit” fronts, through which they bribe our congressmen and women, names that are intended to soothe and dupe, and then ignorant voters think that in the name alone the reality of the thing is vested. In short, they call a thing exactly the opposite of what it is and thereby attempt to orchestrate acceptance of a set of “alternate facts” and an alternate narrative that is entirely deceptive and dangerously psychotic. The republican congress in this country has thusly been, obviously, nigh on completely corrupted inasmuch as they allow Trump to remain in office when he is so apparently unfit and guilty of attacking the constitution he swore to protect, guilty of treason and obstruction of justice—along with his entire family—as well. This is nonfeasance and dereliction of duty on the part of the republican congress — and they are all complicit with treason.
This situation has come to pass because republican voters are stingy, ignorant, unkind and racist homophobic hysterics who fancy themselves “Christians”. The Christ never knew them nor know they Him.
One ignorant jerk recently said to me on line, “LOL, with all due respect Ma’am, there is no country on this earth that has adopted universal health care that has not repealed it because it left their country bankrupt.” (I kid you not. THIS is an example of how uninformed these idiots are.) “Think again, dipstick,” I so wanted to tell him, “and take a look at the actual data. There’s a whole world out there and I doubt you’ve ever been beyond the country’s borders to know anything of it. Here’s the map of the world. The countries in green have universal healthcare and one of them is Russia! 58 countries in all have universal healthcare and the only reason we do not is because the Corporatist Mafia Mob keeps bribing our Congressmen and women to keep us from having that peace of mind too.”
List of countries with universal health care - Wikipedia
“Qui n'a pas la santé n'a rien.”<=> “Who has not health has nothing.”
These people cannot even pass the naturalisation exam required to become a citizen and yet they are allowed to vote. That must change. Just being born here is not cause sufficient to demonstrate a person can responsibly participate in the electoral process. We need to change the “voting rights by birth alone” concept.
This country (in particular) and the world, to a lesser extent, is presently under attack by a Corporatist Mafia Mob organized to subjugate the people, disrupt their governments, and take away all protections of the people and the environments, so that same group of Mobsters can run amok and pollute the world and subjugate nations to their profit-making motives. Do not let this happen in your country, please. These people should be banned globally from acceptance into your countries as they are members of this organized corporatist mob: Charles and David Koch are the primary organizers. Rupert Murdoch, Rothschilds, etc. Robert and Rebekah Mercer (Robert’s daughter) have infiltrated the UK with their data mining and psychological warfare companies called “Cambridge Analytica” and, in the UK, “Strategic Communications Laboratories”. They use the data they mine from the internet to psychologically profile and graphically locate voters whom they then target with propaganda appropriate to the desires of those who hire them to deceive. These two companies are, in large, responsible for Trump’s election and for Brexit, and their power motives are aligned with Russia’s inasmuch as they too want the breakup of the EU and NATO. Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon—the white supremacist henchman and woman of the Mercers. Just don’t let these people in. Kill them off if you can do so within the laws of your country should they come to your lands. There are more and, if you really want the inside straight dope on how our country’s government has been subverted by the runaway power-grab of The Corporatist Mafia Mob, read Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money” and get a comprehensive list of people you should reject out of hand from your borders and a thorough accounting of the methods they use to subvert the will of the people.
Rant Mode: <OFF>
Meanwhile, I bid the remainder of the real (non-alternate facts) world, which I hope to soon join, loving regards…
Callaghan Grant
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