A written mea culpa; blexit; and Patriotism is a funny word

First, I want to clarify the part of the Great Society that helped bring about improvement in Civil Rights is good. The portion that tried to help all the impoverished is what failed. It was never designed to be cost effective and has proven to be such decades later. I believe we can help the poor even with the fact Jesus Christ said there will be poor always. There will be, but we must help them. It is the need to be effective in helping the poor that is never really discussed. I propose that should be a goal for our country and in the past have written some policy ideas to try and reach that goal.

Funny how the blexit movement as defined in the news this week is counterproductive to what is needed. I say constantly that most Americans are moderate to moderately conservative, no matter their race or ethnicity. The Republicans had the right idea after the 2012 election to be more inclusive. They went completely 180 on that thought though. And I never really trusted them to follow through. We do need a more inclusive party that does represent the clear majority of this country which is the working and middle class. And if you look around you realize that these groups are pretty well represented by all of America. And you also realize all of them are hardworking, value conscious at least to some extent and care about the future of their families. Why the Republicans never followed through is beyond me. Actually, greed and reliance on the alt right is why, but I almost had a moment of being nice and ignorant. Couldn’t do it. The Democrats have failed the Black Community and to really help them we do need a more comprehensive policy that favors all with better education. Ignorance is one of the drivers of bigotry so overcoming ignorance is one step in helping all. And better opportunity for all, again which includes better education for all is another step in the right direction. It takes work to do what is right.

And Patriotism is a funny word. It is so dependent on who is using the term to have a true understanding of what one is aspiring to accomplish. It can be used for good or evil. I believe in our country, Constitution, and our values, yet some couch themselves in patriotism to destroy our values. The more a person uses the term to describe themselves or their policies or goals, the more I am skeptical. People who truly believe in something show it in their actions, not their words. And people who believe in our country, Constitution and values will be doing much more than some of our loudest “patriots”.

Cheers all on this wet and cool Halloween evening in North Texas.

Why the Democrats are clueless

Or maybe why I cannot figure out how the Democrats feel they can afford or fund their programs.

I am still mad at the writer or the producer of the movie where Michael Douglas says greed is good. Greed is not good, yet way too many use this philosophy to justify abuses of the system and the wealth gap. The truth though is greed is a motivator to some people.  Greed by itself is wrong, the underlying motivator though can be used for good. Or at least ways to accomplish goals.

Democrats seem to forget taxpayers are consumers. They consume government services. Most people accept paying taxes for the services government provides that they see the benefit or see the need. We pay taxes for building roads and infrastructure, for police and fire, for the military to protect our sovereign borders, educating our children, and maybe a few other basic needs I cannot think of off the top of my head right now. The rest of what the government does and spends money on becomes a matter of choice. This is where the push and pull of politics comes into play. And it should be this way in an open government.

For our health we need clean air and clean water, but who should pay for it? Some people do not like to admit this, but we are a country based on Christian principles and if applied we need to take care of the poor, the disabled, the disadvantaged, the elderly, the children and orphans. The question is who is to take care of these people.  Some argue the government, some argue the private sector via charities pay or fulfill the need.

After these definite needs of society are accomplished we then get into wish list of what we want of our country. Or are they wish list items? Is good affordable healthcare a definite need of society? Or is it a nice benefit? Are higher wages for all a need or a benefit? Should we work until we die, or do we deserve a retirement? I bring these up because we have attempted to answer these questions with Social Security and Medicare for example. Private sector companies also offer some type of retirement benefit. This shows you government can create public policy to cover more than just the basic needs. Again, this is the benefit of an open government which allows society to elect people to represent them to help make their lives better. Can we make social security better? We should, but can we?

In the above philosophy, in essence, is what the Democrats tout they are trying to do. They think government should address the inequalities in society to create a level playing field. Our founding fathers also believed in this and wrote the Constitution to give people and our country the opportunity to find ways to create an equitable society that benefits those who work hard but leaves no one behind or prevents anyone from taking that opportunity away. On a side note, in 2018 we are moving away from what we were given.

Sounds great doesn’t it. Well, lets go back to people or taxpayers are consumers of government services. Two factors that affect consumers are what can they afford and how much do they want it, or occasionally how much do they need it. I do not want to go spend an afternoon getting my haircut, my job requires I look neat and trim. I need the employment to pay my bills, so I go get a haircut on occasion. Some things the government does fit this simple example. We do not want to spend time arresting people, so we pay for the police to protect us. I am not saying anything the government does is perfect, it is the ideal we are talking about, yet the ideal is for what we are paying. So as a consumer do we accept subpar services, or do we demand better. The next problem is how good of a consumer are we of government services. I will hypotheses not very good. That is a different argument than today’s though.

And to me this is one reason why the Democrats are clueless. They do not seem to understand us as consumers, our needs as consumers and what we can afford as consumers. They have lofty ideals, yet no understanding of how to effectively implement them. They fight the greed of the donor party in their verbiage yet offer no concrete solutions to counter that greed. Where as mentioned above the same motivator behind greed is what they should use to accomplish their goals. Altruism is wonderful, putting into practice is sainthood. So, what is needed is a compromise to what motivates people to accomplish what is needed that no one wants to pay for or better yet find the ways to pay.

Another simple example and it is a policy idea I write occasionally is instead of any blanket tax cuts under the guise of trickle-down theory lies, is to give corporations tax cuts once they accomplish certain goals, whether it be retraining, new hires, better wages, etc…. This is a very simple example, but hopefully it illustrates the point of a more beneficial give and take in public policy.

A more difficult example is the clean air and water problem.  Frankly it is not the government’s responsibility to clean up after business, however, the Democrats have institutionalized this into the Federal government. We need clean air and water, so our government needs to make some decisions. I have espoused ideas for that before, but I do not see the Democrats defining how to either afford for the government to take on this responsibility or be more forceful in demanding companies clean up after themselves. Sure, there is the EPA and on occasion we fine or sue the company, but are the payments from the companies enough to cover the damage? In most cases, no. Everyone knows we need clean air and water and I even suggest by having clean air and water our healthcare costs on the individual and society level will decrease and significantly. Yet, it is like the haircut for me. We do not want to be bothered with the effort. This is where some people delegate the authority to a party such as the Democrats, yet has our environment improved? Some, yet, but we are falling further behind in the big picture. The Democrats cannot find what motivates people and companies to address this issue well.

One more example and this is the bigger picture item that we require government to be part of yet find difficult to implement and that is infrastructure and infrastructure that is more than road and bridge upkeep. Two examples of public policy being successful are the St. Lawrence Seaway in the 1800’s and the interstate highway system of the 1950’s. The difference we need to look for though is more private investment and less reliance on the government to tax us to accomplish these larger goals. We need constant improvement in our country and even on occasion multi-dimensional behemoths that benefit and affect the whole country. The St Lawrence Seaway, the railroads, and the highway system benefit all aspects of society. For example, the highway system was actually designed so the government could move resources around in this country if we were attacked, yet businesses and individuals all benefit from this project to this day in a myriad of ways. I see a project of this size that this country needs, and we need it, yet the Democrats if elected could not even begin to manage it, especially the balance of private investment into something that benefits all of society on an equal playing field. In the above examples that worked, corporate greed played a big part in their accomplishment, the taxpayer funded most of it, but benefitted disproportionally less than the corporations. The public in general benefited, true, but not the same as the corporations.  Balancing this discrepancy, both in cost and benefits, is where I see the Democrats failing.

In fact, it is the total balance of all the Democrats tout they want versus being able to understand what the government consumer, the taxpayer, can afford or is willing to accept. Or just as important, balancing the public’s understanding of what they need versus what they are willing to think they need or what they will pay. Education is something most people of all political persuasions believe is a need, determining what is a good education, what is an affordable education and what is the best education for the buck is what our government should be working to achieve. We pay taxes for our children’s education. We should expect the people we elect to figure how to fulfill the need. The Democrats cannot balance this in their public policy, nor even their proposals, or campaign promises. If you disagree with me, then why hasn’t public education improved over the years, when in reality it is declining and compared to other countries, we are inferior.  If the Democrats could manage this, do you not think the current scenario would be different? And isn’t better education something that they say falls under their platform? Or worse, the failure of the Great Society programs that have institutionalized poverty and welfare. Great idea, wonderful concept, absolute disaster, both financially and in achieving any goals of reducing poverty.

The Democrats inability to manage wants, needs, and needs we do not want in policy development, nor their ability to create successful programs that accomplish goals, yet stay within budget are why the Democrats are clueless. Nor are they able to counter, what the Republicans have done to diminish our ability to grow as a country and for example the wealth gap that is a symptom of us being in decline. The Democrats will talk wonderful ideals with absolutely no clue as to the how.

Going into the deep end for last week recap part 2

I am still trying to wrap my head around last week and we are halfway through this week and it is only getting worse. The Khashoggi story is only intensifying and our lovely President says it was the worst cover up ever. Exactly who is he supporting with this? How about worst tragedy against the press in recent memory? Am I taking this out of context? I do not think so. And he still hasn’t supported major sanctions against the country.

Now Putin says we are no longer a world power and Trump listens well. What the heck does this mean?

Everyone on the planet knows our hugest glaring hypocrisy is undying support of oil over everything else. If we overcome, not our reliance on oil, but our perspective on how we treat the world versus the use of oil then maybe we change much for the better. Yet, our President is a big fossil fuel supporter and is avoiding any major hiccup with the Saud. He says it is to protect American jobs for the arms purchases. And here comes our hypocrisy again, where support of a murderous regime is couched in a bogus job play to the American people. And people will call me un American because I speak the truth.

Oil is not our country. All it takes is to change the verbiage cheap “oil” with cheap “fuel” and you can fast see how unnecessary oil could become if we change to renewable energy. And here is the real rub. Oil is an upside-down pyramid for us, the point of the pyramid pointing in a negative direction. This is fueled by the fours sides of the pyramid all being negative. One side is geopolitical problems we keep getting ourselves into, the second is the pollution oil and oil by products cause, the third is climate change, and the fourth is the cost to the consumer. And the fourth is not just the price of oil and gas, but the healthcare costs because of air and water pollution, the cleanup costs of spills and other pollutants such as the large plastic island in the Pacific Ocean, and a person could go on for a long, long time.

Every product and by product of oil is replaceable except maybe as a lubricant to machinery. And most products that replace the oil by products are recyclable. So, the dynamics of evolving off oil creates many more jobs than we lose by easing off oil. It is the greed of a very small group of people that is destroying this country. Yes, they sell some benefits to a few others who invest in oil this group props up, but overall there is much to be gained and more wealth generation for more people by replacing oil with other products. Plus, the benefits to our health and the environment save untold amounts of money in the future.

And this is just all about the Saudi murder that the above is regurgitated. President Trump then came up with the brilliant statement he should have the armed forces guard the border, build new bases on the border to stop a 5-7000 caravan of potential illegal immigrants. I, for one, agree we need a complete overhaul of our immigration laws. There are some things that must give, we just cannot blindly think everyone coming here has altruistic motives. That is just naïve, but this sending the army to the border is astronomically stupid and a monstrous waste of money. The Wall is a waste of money. The President is a waste of money. We are already running deficits no one can manage. Where does he think the money would come from for his new bases and redeployment of military resources? It is all noise to try and get his base to the polls in a few weeks. And if he did anything we go back to the cost problem.

Can, we the people, sue him for breach of contract. He is the President by God, shouldn’t he be held accountable for truth and proper representation to the people and our values instead of lie after lie. I understand politicians make promises to get elected, but he has gone so far beyond that concept, he is tearing up the contract between our government and the people that the government will protect and serve the people. And most importantly answer to them. He lies with such disregard for the truth. We, the people, have a right to have a President that is held accountable to what he tells us and what he tells us can be backed up with facts. “I have pictures of Comey and Mueller hugging and kissing” Heck, the FBI cannot find any. Theses blanket, irrational base triggers to inflame, lies must be dealt with at some level. And the same goes for Fox News. Can we not sue them for breach of contract to the public also since they call themselves news, but register as entertainment and do not meet the requirements of a true news media outlet? Where is the accountability for this constant barrage of insults to anyone who cares truly about our Constitution, values and country?

And on a side note, what the heck are the Democrats actually going to do? Outside of a rising democratic-socialist platform, they do not know what to do. And the pretentious left keeps stepping on their own toes. Megyn Kelly apologizing for making a blackface comment. Heck she isn’t even part of the pretentious left, but she just jumped right on a slippery slope and landed flat on her behind trying to act like she knew something. She fit right in quicker than quick. The whole pretentious establishment is so lost the dotted lines out of the maze have disappeared.

So Trump cannot get out of his way, the Pretentious left is running around in circles, the Republican leadership cannot make up its mind to either jump fully on board with the part of the party that supports Trump and go off the deep end to hold onto their jobs or what I do not know, Ted Cruz has taken hypocrisy to a new level, stratospheric level that is, and now he makes me want to puke on a minute by minute basis, shoot he was bad enough four years ago; the alt right conspiracy machine is the only job creating machine right now, and speaking of conspiracies; is the immigrant caravan a planned action, where did these pipe bombs come from, how bad is the Saudi thing really, and what will we hear from our President to protect them, John what’s his face is now kowtowing to Putin and finally how owned is Trump by Putin? And the last one isn’t a conspiracy I fear.

And no one knows squat. The market could bounce up or go in free fall due to algorithmic trading. Corporate profits rely on last year’s tax cut to keep stock holders happy, does anyone know how to run a real business, retail is about to crash, Trump wants new tax cuts and last years’ are driving us deeper into debt, God only knows what would happen to Social Security and Medicare if Paul Ryan wasn’t retiring, it is bad enough McConnell is running the Senate so the deal is on the table for the destruction of America’s safety net, Ryan would have sealed it, ripped that to shreds right in front of everyone smiling away saying how great the future will be. I once had hope for him. Calls himself a Christian, and oops do not get me started on the fake Christians or the Evangelical leaders. They are right up there with Teddy Cruz.

And these are just a few of the stories about the meltdown of what was the greatest promise on the planet. And believe it or not, I still have faith we can turn this disaster around, however, the work load keeps piling up to make the changes necessary. If I didn’t have faith, I wouldn’t be angry, but right now the anger is so painful I cannot see past the end of my nose, or feel like I am walking with every step grinding away at the bottom of my feet like rocks cemented into the shoes and those shoes glued to your foot.

And on top of it all the Mavericks blew a 20+ lead in a game and lost. How crazy is that? Even the small insignificant just for fun life is insanely painful.

Have a great evening everyone and especially someone in South Carolina. My advice: stay anonymous, invest in you, invest in the future, invest in society, give to real programs that foster innovation and ways to bring people out of poverty and enjoy life. Cheers!

Going into the deep end trying to recap the week

I am still upset at everything. Or at least it appears that way to me after this week. And I did manage to write myself some cryptic notes this time, just not well enough after reading them. Baby steps are better than no steps.

How to get started or where to start? I guess I could start with an area I support. Right now I think what is the current version of the #metoomovement is off the rails. I sincerely believe there are many women who have suffered abuse and have kept it quiet for years and what they Republicans did to Prof. Ford was way out of line. Actually there are probably many adjectives to mention in what they did. None of them positive. The issue is some group needs to develop some type of framework to help women, to develop plans so they can bring (I am having a hard time with a word here, I almost typed credible and that is not the problem) the charges to light and support the victim. Again I fully believe many women have suffered, yet there are women who will take advantage and then other women, for reasons unknown to me, don’t believe other women when it comes to any charges or women bringing to light past suffering.  

 Do they organize into something dynamic as the suffrage movement of 100+ years ago? They may need to. Obviously I am a guy and if any guy has any cajones he can admit they know someone or someones that were jerks somewhere in their life. Just flat out jerks to women. I ran into someone last night at an event and may never see him again, just being a prick about women. This is an education and I don’t mean public school, but lessons that should be taught by parents education that would stop some of these jerks. Some guys just won’t get it. And I said won’t on purpose.

The real issue is the men who will abuse women, whether physically, emotionally, sexually, or a combination. This is where something needs to coalesce. I do not have any ideas, but whatever is left of the me-too movement or groups that want to follow up to the Prof Ford debacle need to do something. Otherwise two months from now, women will have the same problem they have always had. And for those ignorant of being a conservative, this falls under the Pro-Life concept: respect of life from conception to natural death. Maddening to me the political pro life people, who say they are pro life to get people to vote for them to only abuse others throughout life.  Oh, excuse me Mr. President, didn’t mean to bump into you. And I know some will try and legislate change, this is different from the suffrage movement. Changing this behavior takes a large education front, with some legislation changes that toughen penalties. Education will need to start at home, so more multi-media, social media interaction will be more important than trying to change a few laws by themselves. I am a conservative, but reading history teaches you cannot legislate morality. Improving mores comes from home and society.

I have run out of time for now and after thinking about it I am going to continue in a different post, probably call it the same as above continued. Two reasons to move on, one no time as mentioned and two I will truly be in the deep end for the next two topics. They both involve Trump and if you have read the news this week you can guess where I am going to go. How did this country get so ignorant and gullible that 30-40% believe anything he says, much less find it credible? I know part of the answer, but even that doesn’t explain it all. Scarily amazing.

A few things on a wet and chilly fall day

I would say American politics is like the WWE, but that would be insulting to the WWE. All we have are staged fights, dramatic POS arguments, that no longer benefit or entertain the audience. At least the WWE knows where its bread is buttered and entertains their fans and gives them something of value for their money. Our politicians are just sucking away our values.

Besides the horror, the atrocity, the lies, the crime of it all, the Khashoggi murder proves that the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia has used this country for too long, way too much oil greed is destroying our values, Citizens United decision and money influence in our country are destroying our Constitution, and how people at the top care so little about people in general. The whole incident is a crime against humanity, decency, values, and at some point, we need people who put values above money to lead our country. You can make money tomorrow, you cannot replace the loss of dignity and humanity and specifically a person’s life.

Being lucky and have something good happen to you sometimes are the same thing, sometimes they are completely different.

Random thoughts,,, but not like Jack Handy

6 bonus points if you get that reference, pretty common so not many points

I keep saying I need to write stuff down so I will remember it, again a fail. For some reason I keep thinking I will remember everything……….what part of my brain cannot figure this out, amazes me.

The frustration of having an undisciplined train of thought brain… could type forever, but the train never arrives at a station.

And it is still better than the Cowboys. The entire town is ready for the offensive coordinator to go, which probably means the entire town is not far from wanting Garrett to go (Jerry also?). Why is it so hard to run Zeke and throw crossing patterns with an occasional long pass play mixed in. Line up 1000 different sets and run Zeke up the middle, gaps, or off tackle on all of them.  My 8-8 prediction is looking optimistic. Right now the Texas Rangers have a better chance to make the post season than the Cowboys and baseball post season has already started. Thank goodness the Stars started well and the Mavs have a chance to start well.

And it is all better than rich people’s hell; which is watching from the after-life their descendants wasting away the fortune they built.

It is raining here in North Texas tonight, but I will keep what we have. Another hurricane is coming and expected to hit the Florida panhandle. Let’s hope it doesn’t strengthen too much before it makes landfall.

Are you beat up enough yet?

It seems the Kavanaugh situation is bringing up the ugliest in American politics. And we all know American politics has been ugly at times. This situation though is what we do not want to see.

It isn’t just the grandstanding either. Our politics includes grandstanding as part of it’s regular routine. This situation has brought the grandstanding to new lows.

People say they are tired of talking about politics, yet we still do. People want answers and we want our leaders to have them. This country has survived on the public believing our leaders will find an answer to any troubles our country faces. And many times, leaders have come to the forefront and brought us through dark times. Sometimes we have been blessed and we have leaders that take charge and guide us to new directions.

Now that confidence is waning. People are angry and cannot determine who they are angry against. They think they know. We have come to the point where sides matter too much and the whole be damned.  And no one is coming to the forefront to give us something we can rally around. Some people think they have someone they can rally around, however, it is only their misguided anger that fuels their energy. Misplaced anger historically does not lead to much good.

Yet, day after day we are bombarded with hate, anger, lies, finger pointing, inability to concede a point no matter how trivial, and neither side realizes they both are the problem. Any rational political point cannot be made by either side. There are still good liberal and still good conservative ideas. There are not good Democrat or Republican leaders. Last Thursday’s day long hearing was one long drawn out pontification. Yes, the Democrats acted superior, but they were grandstanding just as much as the Republicans. Senators speaking for themselves acting like they were making points for Professor Hill. Kavanaugh either unable to contain an honest anger because he is being falsely accused or completely off the rails because everything that is being said about him is true. Your answer depends on which side you fall. Generally, people say the truth falls in the middle and most times that is true. This time I do not think so. There is a horrible truth in this situation and if it were ever able to be proved the other side still will not accept a reality that goes against their worldview.

We are beating ourselves up unbelievably. It seems the heart and soul of this country is looking for a heart and soul and completely unable to find it. And maybe because we are looking in the wrong places. I rant and rave constantly that we need new leadership, even make half hearted attempts to describe what that new leadership should do when it comes to public policy. To find good leaders though seems to be a needle in a haystack search right now. And as beat up as we are, one leader will not suffice. We need new leadership to replace this my side is better than your side mentality, so it may take many people coming together and finding more than common ground, but people with the character to sit this country down and as they say; tell it like it is. Unfortunately, easier said than done. We have been lied to by the so-called leaders of both sides. I know the people on each side say, I am wrong it is the other side, yet my argument that I always make and has never been disproven is if one side actually did better than why have the middle class and the working class economic situation deteriorated over the last few decades, why is public education declining, why is the wealth gap increasing more and more each year, why is good public policy so difficult to implement and the list goes on. There are hundreds of sound ideas brought forth daily by various groups.

The cyclical election cycle produces much talk, yet no action. The Democrats scream about the greed of the Republicans, so why are the above points still continuing? Where is the help? Each base has been lied to religiously, yet each base denies the sins of their leaders. The media is biased and feeds the masses a new opiate even more dangerous than Karl Marx’s religion opiate warning. There use to be a concept of a moral compass. Today that compass is nowhere to be found.

We are still a great people and country. And to me that is the most maddening fact about the demise of our government over the last few decades. When you talk to most people one on one, rational thought is still the norm. People have desires for our country. People want the best for each other. Okay outside of a few envious moments, people do. People love their lives, they just want to be able to enjoy them. Yet when it comes to applying a set of standards to our leaders it seems to be impossible. We go brain numb. Every single one of our senses, our logic, our power to reason, it all disappears. It is sucked into a vacuum that no one can turn off.

Our history is full of people overcoming obstacles and rising to greatness. We do more for the world just by making ourselves better. We led. Now we do not. And I do not blame anyone in particular, I blame myself to everyone.

And this post has gone on much longer than I wanted. So, …

The real question is have we beat ourselves up enough yet, that we want to stop and find our heart and soul again.  Our greatness is not because of our politicians, it is because of us. Time to look inwards because that is where our heart and soul are to be found.

[And just to be clear, none of this is about President Trump. He is a completely different POS nutcase and how he got to where he is, shows how far we have fallen. As I always say when you keep voting for the lessor of two evils, sooner or later evil has won enough that is all we have left. Clinton v. Trump were the worst possible choices imaginable in 2016, yet we still got there and is proof positive we have lost our heart and soul.]