I really want to say something positive or hear good news

 So you might think that a bunch of people making money on Gamestop stock and a bunch of billionaires losing a dollar or two would be good news, but once all this stops the billionaires are going to go back and short the stock and make even more when it does eventually come back to reality. Am I missing something here?

Sometimes insanity is not sustainable. I just wish the current political insanity was this unsustainable.

Well folks, I know many are tired of winter weather, but here in North Texas it would be nice to see a significant snow. It has come close a couple times this year, but still no bullseye. We have not had a significant snowfall in the immediate DFW area in years. An occasional bit of wintry snow is a nice change of pace around here. Now it looks like we are already having way too mild of a winter so we go from 5 months of fall to spring pretty quick. And yes I know some of you are tired of your winter weather so feel free to send a few days worth of it down here. You need the break and we need the change.

All I can say is the Mavericks are frustrating me. I know once everyone gets their rhythms back and can play together for a few games they should be back on track, but this going through a second preseason since so many were out for two-three weeks is maddening. I still have faith, but hard to wait for it to materialize.

And since I am struggling with trying to find something positive lets just stoop to it and talk irony. Have you noticed the people who complain the most about masks and not cooperating with common sense about this pandemic are the same ones keeping us from getting back to “normal”? They scream the loudest we should just get back to normal, yet they have wasted a year with their “free speech” and “freedoms being taken away”. Once we slow the spread and now get the vaccine rolled out we can get back to normal, but no they have to yell and scream at people they are interfering with their rights, when in reality they are doing more damage to their rights along with ours than anything required in slowing the spread of this virus. Go figure. They have wasted a year of my life, can I sue?

And speaking of legal action, is a class action suit against stupidity possible? 

Oh and by the way Mr. and Mrs. Middle Class you taxes are going up this year. Hypocrisy and cluelessness still rule our country. sad!

Trump is gone, the news is boring

 Okay okay, it is better to have calm for awhile after the last four years, shoot by default even the hate has become blase. 

Hawley and Cruz just don’t cut it so I doubt they will become the leaders of Trumpism. McCarthy is well ... boring also

So appreciate the calm, somewhere someone is trying to convince others to ramp up their hate and do something stupid and destructive and sooner or later we will be hit with it.

I do not know if I ever told you, but in college days I use to play in bands. Even made it on stage a few times, but more or less lots of garage band rehearsing, too many Lone Star Longnecks, and an inordinate amount of frustration. One thing to being a successful musician is to have discipline. That discipline doesn’t come with the territory of people playing in rock bands or punk bands or new wave bands too often. And it helps a bit if you can actually play or carry a tune, much less sing. Still fond memories. One thing I am very proud was our sets were all original music. Every now and then we toyed with a cover song, but I spent four years working in bands where every song was original work. And that wasn’t easy. In the prime we had 20 plus song sets all written by someone in the band of the time. I carried over a few songs, but with new bands came new material.  And I am serious, some of it was pretty good.

Why bring this up? I said something today and realized I haven’t written lyrics or poetry since college and that was decades ago. So I tried to write something down today based on something I heard. And again I was proud of having original material back then because tonight reminded me how friggin’ difficult it is to write. I don’t mean me spitting out random thoughts or repetitive nonsense in this blog, but actually writing something takes work. Shoot I haven’t even written a convoluted short story in this blog in a long while. I know I am a lazy writer in this blog. I make no bones about it. This has always been for me to spit out madness and relieve my inner irritant. Real writing takes inordinate amounts of work. And trying to write four stanzas to something I would call lyrics was a reminder how hard it is to do and that once upon a time I actually made that effort. The last band I was in broke up in a recording studio, seriously in the actual studio. I realized it was time to move on, but hey there for a few moments I had a great time.

Cheers

PS  I actually wrote these so called lyrics to give to someone. At this point I hope they get a good laugh

2021

 So what has changed politically? yep you guessed it, nothing.

The Republicans are still hypocrites and the Democrats are still clueless.

Yet the Republicans do share more of the blame for the two populist movements building in this country which one is more hate than populism.

Yes the alt right or the slew of other militia or hate group names you know that supposedly were the populism of the followers of _________ in 2016 are only more emboldened. Now, them and the more populist progressives which are a by product of the inaction of the Republican party and the hate talk of Fox News over the last few decades are coming into their own. 

So we are starting to look more and more like the divides that tore Europe apart in the 1920's and 1930's. This was building through what’s his name’s Presidency and will only increase as both sides see the mainstream Republicans and Democrats as inadequate to champion their causes. 

So where does that leave Democracy? Up a creek without a paddle. McConnell only knows his power rests in blocking the Democrats and more and more of the Republicans are leaning towards the hate groups. Pelosi’s days are numbered also as progressives will push the party further and further to the left. So the middle class and general populace is like that pimple on the face of a teenager you squeezed and squeezed until it popped. Once all the gunk popped out you wiped it away and it was gone forever. Yes, the general populace, the actual majority of this country is about to be squeezed out of American politics through their own inaction, like the pimple on your teenage face. 

A strong democracy actually needs a good dose of populism every now and then to keep the plutocrats honest, but we are not having a populist movement that benefits the whole, no we are experiencing populism that increases division.

So if we are not careful the bread and butter of America and American Democracy will get wiped away forever unless we can find the where with all to regain control of the body politic. 

There are pretty straight forward ways to protect and reengage the general populace, but the days to do that are flittering away.

Long live the Constitution, the Constitution is dying.

Time to start unpacking

First of all please stop with all the headlines about the former you know who, what’s his name. No need to bring him or his family up unless somebody gets arrested or something. No headlines with so and so was bashed or eviscerated or emoji madness or gifs on social media. No need to give a certain someone any more time in the limelight unless again there is real headline news like someone got arrested or goes to jail or well that is about it.

Second if Corporate America wants to make America great again, they need to quit advertising on Tucker Carlson’s and Sean Hannity’s shows and radio broadcasts. They need to pull the rug out from under their hateful platforms. They are not conservatives, they are just two humans with no real purpose in life except their own insecurities with too large of a megaphone. And while they are not at advertising, how about including OANN and Newsmax. For God’s sake someone needs to hold people accountable to the truth.

Third lets make one last statement about the public policy initiatives over the last four years. There were four. And two weren’t even his; the tax cut for the rich was Paul Ryan’s and the conservative Judges was Mitch McConnell, you cannot give what’s his name any credit for those except that he thought he looked good playing along. 

The closest he came to any public policy of his own was his attempt at strong immigration reform which was no more than an convoluted mishmash of “wall” or large graffiti board slapped down on the border between the U.S. and Mexico. The other idea was his attempt to bring home jobs with his fabulous trade war. And how many jobs did we get from that policy? I do want to touch on this and will below.

Oh I guess there were five public policies if you count lying to and instilling fear and hate into millions of Americans. 

He once said we need to improve infrastructure, we do, but hey, what happened? So that doesn’t count.

So now we are left where we were four years ago, a government caught in partisan disputes with no real way forward. Congratulations Joe Biden, you are now President. 

So what is left for us? Well outside of Joe Biden’s immense desire to actually do something about Covid 19, getting us vaccinated and find a way forward economically past this virus, we still have a whole host of 1A public policy problems. 

So without trying to put my spin or my ideas on these issues I will list what this country needs in a normal day of governing. Since we haven’t had a normal day of governing in quite some time, the list isn’t short. I won’t try to editorialize too much or give my solutions, just make the list because at some point whether nationally or locally problems do need to be solved. And many of these I have blogged my idea of a solution or something so lets hope I can just make the list.

These are in no particular order of importance....because they are all 1A problems for us.

Education-- better public and affordable and especially at the higher levels

Closing the wealth gap

Healthcare  (not Obamacare on steroids either)

real equal opportunity for all ie not stereotypes, but true respecting all life of all stripes and colors

Domestic abuse

Mental illness

Infrastructure (one way to start working on jobs at home and since we need modern infrastructure, in the rebuilding we could start the retraining of our workforce)

retrain and improve the workforce for the future

Environment meaning the reduction of pollution

New and clean energy  also for the reduction of pollution and new jobs

Classic Education-arts culture civics

Can people even still read?

Yes we need to reduce the debt and deficit

real trade changes

real immigration reform 

address human rights abuses and human trafficking 

rebuild who we are so we can reclaim the right to address human rights abuses and human trafficking abroad

elder care and care for our elders--- for example I have been remembering and forgetting what I was going to put here all day-- (hint hint dementia)  and financial struggles

Social Security reform

Consumer protection especially against fraud, yet also in general for the consumer instead of for the corporations

Tax reform that benefits the people

Or generally, public policy that puts the good of the people over the few.

And you can probably add to this list without much effort with your own 1A priorities

So again, congratulations President Biden.

Cheers

If you can’t beat them join them

 Or at least temporarily.

I am against the Citizens United decision and I think it needs to be overturned and we need a whole host of reform on money in politics. Until that happens though I want to start my own super PAC.

So does anyone know how I can start one called Conservatives Against Crazy?

Cheers

additional thought for the average Joe problem

I was thinking the other day that the work at home trend is going to continue because many corporations may see a financial benefit of having people at home instead of the expenses of pay for leases and offices etc.

I mentioned that I did not have much in regards to specifics that need to be discussed yet, but today I thought of one that might already have some court cases and that is workers compensation.

Are corporations going to be able to drop workers compensation, yet what happens if you have an accident while technically on the clock, but at home.  This is just one example that will need to be addressed by labor groups or business groups or whoever, yet something will need to be addressed or as you can guess in our litigious society Courts will be clogged up and then case law becomes the only law for this issue. And personally I think this needs real legislation from Representation than a bunch of Courts making ad hoc law.

Again there are going to be many issues that come up as the work from home environment evolves. As times change so do the things we need to do to make sure we are not taken advantage of from corporations. Do not think they won’t.

Anyway just another thought to discuss as these changes come about. 

Stay safe 

An open letter to all the Republicans who voted against the election certification

 Dear Senator Cruz, Senator Hawley, Representative Brooks et al,

Now the obvious question is why, but lets get to a more specific why.

You have watched a certain person lie to the American public on a regular basis for years. You have watched this person insult, chide, bully, not take responsibility, point fingers, no shame or regret, and generally tell you that if you do not tow his line, there is something wrong with you.

And if you don’t, your reward is hate. Mike Pence towed the line, backed the President and when it came to a very simple job, something that was so basic and completely ceremonial, the President threw him under the bus. No responsibility, Pence did what he was supposed to do, nothing less, nothing more, but the President decided his life was not worth anything. Oops they guy who says he is pro-life, endangered lives for his ego. Only for his ego.

So what gives? Why do you think supporting him will be beneficial? As soon as you have to make a decision between Trump or something more important or something even completely out of your control such as opening envelopes on the Floor of the House, you are going to lose with him. 

This person does not care about anyone so why do you think you are different? Why do you think that if you jump on these hand grenade of lies, that you will benefit in any way shape or form? What makes you think by any stretch of the imagination that somehow if you support Trump something good will happen to you?

The headline now, right now as I write is Trump is telling his staff not to pay Rudy Giuliani’s legal fees. Right now, I wouldn’t pay his fees either the way he has been acting, however, Mr. Giuliani has been out front for the President, now that there is trouble Trumping is dropping the Mayor off the proverbial cliff. 

And do you think you are different? You think somehow that you can rise up above the fray and be Trump’s hero. You are not. You are expendable. Your support, your help, your life does not mean a damn to him. One slip, one falter and he will unleash hate upon you. He will encourage others to hate you. 

And all this for a person that is encouraging people that hate to support him. So what are your expectations? 

And for Senator Cruz specifically, this man insulted your family and now you kowtow to him. Why? You are not a man. He did not apologize, offer amends, or what, nothing, absolutely nothing and you go around touting his lies that the election was stolen, hoping some crumbs of support from hate groups will fall your way, that you won’t get “primaried” by his supporters. You represent Texas and you cannot stand up for yourself, so basically you do not represent Texas. I would say you only represent yourself, but since you are jumping on Trump, you do not even represent yourself. You are only a tail, something that clings to the rest of the body that wags when you make the head happy. You should resign and let someone who can stand up for what is right represent our state. 

Are all 70 million Americans that voted for Trump, right wing extremists? No, but enough are that any  elected Republican that supported the lie that the election was stolen is supporting hate and is complicit in destroying our Constitution. I have said it many times, that most of the Trump supporters have let themselves be mislead, but they are not evil. Unfortunately there is evil that supports Trump. The white nationalists, the neo nazis, right wing extremists that stormed the Capital or other acts of sedition do not care about Trump as a President, they like they can practice mayhem because he is President. These same people do not care that you support the President. Remember the chants about Mike Pence during the storming of the Capitol Building. The very same Mike Pence that supported the President unflinchingly for four years. In one hour all that almost went to waste as his life became in jeopardy.

And so why do you support the lie, the person? Do you think the mob that stormed the Capitol will care who you are if you are in their way? They won’t, they don’t and neither does he. He does not care about you. He only wants you to say out loud the words that protect him because he cannot protect himself. He is not person enough. And you may have noticed I have said person in many cases not man. That is intentional because I cannot call Trump a man, much less an adult. 

He has no plan, no strength except what you feed his narcissism, no values, no moral compass, no compassion, no redeeming qualities as a human, so why do you support him. He is all talk, no action, except action that benefits him.And in most cases someone else did the heavy lifting, he doesn’t even do the light lifting. Something goes wrong and it is your fault, never his, so why on God’s green earth do you think you will benefit supporting him? Or there may be a fleeting moment when the crowds cheer, but in the long run the crowds will stop cheering for him. The extremists will still exist and look for a newer more debase leader, then where do you stand? Are you asking for their support then?

Most Americans that supported Trump if told the truth will be angry, but they will come to accept the truth because it is the truth. And truth does win out. They will regroup and look for a new leader, one that actually represents their dreams. The hate groups will look for a leader that represents their dreams. So again whose support are you going to chase? If you tell the truth you will get the support you want, if you continue the lie, what does that say about you? 

So now I ask why?

A new average Joe problem

 The press in New York or the pretentious left is having their usual slamming someone on Twitter or eviscerating someone on Twitter moment because Andrew Yang complained about “do you know what it is to work from home in a 2 bedroom apartment with kids?”.

Well any time someone as rich as Mr. Yang complains about every day living he should expect the pretentious left to go to town.

Yet, the phrase do you know what it is to work from home in a two bedroom apartment with kids is happening to potentially hundreds of thousands of Americans or something similar. 

The better half and I had a discussion on this topic a month or more ago. In fact it sounds so familiar I wonder if I had mentioned this before at least in passing on this blog. And we were discussing what are corporations/businesses going to do for their workers to make up for the cost of working at home. 

Many businesses will soon have to make decisions on whether or not to bring people back to work. And some may not, .....well.... because if their workers are at home it saves them money. Or should it?

It will cost their workers time and expense to permanently fix up their living spaces to accommodate working from home. Sure it sounds great working from home and yes you do save transportation costs, but what is the difference. Do you save more staying at home than if you live in smaller quarters or have kids what is the cost to adjust? 

Corporations will find a way to sell this to their workers if they see long term benefits to the bottom line no matter what the cost may be to the worker or worker’s family. There will be no office space lease, less use of equipment in a building, insurance, secondary costs like buying everyone lunch or other perks, parking lots, upkeep, both cleaning and landscaping, and probably more I cannot think of off the top of my head. 

What leverage do workers have to bargain for upkeep for their homes and apartments? And if apartment that means transitional living, one year leases etc so these adjustments have to be considered every time they move.

Now I do not have solutions at the moment, but I think this is something that labor groups need to research and see if protections need to be put in place to protect worker’s from undue burdens such as higher insurance costs or higher utility costs. It is a guess I grant you, but people have a right to know more. Right now everything is in flux, but mass migration to a home work force will mean many changes and it is not a liberal or a conservative topic, but a respect for the people that work for you topic. 

I am a conservative, but there is nothing in true conservative thinking that should be business over worker and worker over business. They need to find an equitable balance because that is respect for life.

And yes I know the country is going crazy right now, but lets pretend there is a future and work on the new problems, even the every day ones, that will face us soon. 

And congratulations to the Cleveland Browns. 

Cheers

the truth is as ugly as you think

 First of all I am a conservative, an independent conservative. If you read my posts regularly you know I sometimes call some Republicans CINO (Conservative in name only). And I am very conservative. It may be hard to tell much of the time because when I talk about public policy, my ideas are moderately conservative to what some would call liberal ( I am highly supportive of green initiatives, but in a business way). And one of the reasons I consider myself very conservative is based on values.

These values include hard work leads to success or it should, families are important, small businesses are important, especially to help build wealth and help the economy overall, respect for life from conception to natural death, the Constitution actually means something, and basic conservative talking points such as smaller government, balanced budget, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, free markets, you get the point.

I wasn’t always a conservative, or maybe I was, just didn’t realize it till I got older. At the ripe ole age of 14 while visiting that very same building that was recently desecrated I told an elevator full of military brass that we should get out of Vietnam. I participated in Vietnam protests. I protested against Nixon. I did a heck more than just taking a knee. 

I also once participated in a “protest” that by the end of it I was wondering exactly what we were protesting. I was “beat up” by the police that day and on that day I harbor no grudges. We were wrong that time and we shouldn’t have been there. I actually realized the truth a few minutes too late and I was trying to get my friends to leave when the police moved in. There were thousands “protesting” actually so it got pretty scary, but after being clubbed a couple of times and pushed over I managed to get up scream at a police office I am trying to leave, literally grabbed and pulled a couple of my friends away and we left. No ones rights were affected or taken away that day. 

So after years of being a protester, anti government person, anti establishment, I learned that there are times when you need to speak up and there are times when there is no real fight. What I have also learned is that my generation had motivation to do what is right at one point, but somewhere along the line, greed and self entitlement took over. I watched it happen. Slowly at first in the seventies, and it was building then, up until the eighties when full force greed took over this country. And also coke fueled entitlement. Me was the in word and in philosophy. If you hear anyone say anything different they are lying to you. Self entitlement and greed took over as the main drivers of values.

Sad, but true. And once basic values are corrupted which they were all the way to the top of our society, things come crashing back down on top of people. People no longer cared about values, it was only about what was in it for me. And this is the environment that motivated people like Trump. He didn’t care back then about others and obviously he doesn’t now. 

And you have read me say this about him for years. And many many others have said the same thing. So why do tens of millions of people think he is right? That question is beyond me. I occasionally try to find an answer, but for him to  convince so many people of his lies is incomprehensible. I grew up figuratively with many of these people. I watched them lose moral compasses, I watched them raise families so in some ways you can see the decline in society, but for the masses that follow him to be so enthralled with someone so shallow amazes me.  And for some even scarier reason they think something precious is being taken away from them.

They no longer understand what is precious or valuable. They have no clue what is truly their rights. They scream loudly and say nothing. They think a piece of cloth covering their mouth so not to spread germs is an affront to their liberty, yet they no nothing of the true value of their liberty. Tens of millions of Americans, know not of what they speak. And if you try to reason with them, you are taking away their freedoms. They gave away their freedom when they quit trying to think for themselves; when they let a weak man con them, when they believed lies with no evidence, when they accused others of the very same problems they exhibit, they gave away themselves body, heart and soul. 

So how on God’s green earth did so many average most hard working, Americans become so misguided. Yes, people are writing books on it now, but they do not have the answer. This complete destruction of the self will not be easily understood, yet I watched it happen over the last thirty years. I saw it and cannot explain it. I have friends who have fallen victim to it. I have friends who are just as perplexed by it as myself. There are a few complete idiots out there making the most noise that really don’t even care about Trump. They are just getting to make noise and act tough and that is all they want. There are though the tens of millions who do believe something was stolen from them. It wasn’t. They gave it away and I am not talking about the election. I am talking about their souls, brains, intellect, common sense. I am talking about their being. They just gave it away. And for what?

Societies do not experience what we experienced overnight. This happens over time, slowly then finds momentum and that momentum begins to consume things in its path. Eventually it hits something. Well it hit something this week. The question becomes is it breaking apart into many pieces that linger or did it bowl over the obstacle in its path and has become stronger. Soon we may know the answer to that particular question. And even it it lingers a new momentum can develop from the pieces if we are not careful. 

So what happened this week? God only knows for the time being. People were there for trouble, some were there because again for who knows what reason, think they were robbed of something. Instead their ignorance robbed us. This was obvious from a long ways out, yet people on the news say this was surreal. It wasn’t surreal, it was the truth hitting us upside the head. This was happening right in front of us for a very long time. We choose to ignore it. The rich, the poor, the politicians, the lay people, the media, the pretentious left, the alt right, the conservatives, the liberals, all of us watched it grow into the mess it became on Wednesday. And it is not over. Again, are we dealing with pieces that linger or is the momentum now solidified? 

On the side notes, Ted Cruz is a weak kneed prick, I do not know Hawley, but have no respect for him, there are others that are opportunists who have learned to put themselves first and get what they can. And some call themselves conservative. They aren’t. Lies, theft, cons, they are part of the problem, but only the visible sores of the true problem. We lost our souls, our values, our true understanding of what it means to cherish life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This is the underlying factor that caused Wednesday. Trump is just the ugliest sore or cyst on this body called the United States of America, but he is not the root of the cancer. 

He and others though do need to be held accountable. And there will be ugliness holding them accountable. If we don’t, the cancer will grow, the momentum will grow or the pieces will rebuild. Just like cutting open the human body to remove the cancer, there will be pain, but we have to endure this pain to cure our cancer.

I love our country, our Constitution and our people. Most are hard working and care about something. We just need to get some people to start caring about true values and freedoms again. Even those of us who think we care about what is right because it is obvious we didn’t enough. 

Unfortunately no cheers tonight. Stay safe my friends, the enemy is us and yes a cartoon character said that. Thank you Walt Kelly.  A drawing is smarter than most of us.  Oh and a naval officer also chimed in long beforehand, different context though. 

And this virus doesn’t care that we are struggling as a body politic. It is still out to get us.