Does the national nightmare prove we are not who we say we are

 

I am tired of this crap. Let’s get this over with. Time to find out if the national nightmare is over or is it coming to fruition.

Will we find out if the Supreme Court is a plaything for the rich, a ruse to us the people like Citizen’s United suggests? Or will we finally learn we are a nation of laws and all men are created (and treated) as equals?

The delays are allowed to give everyone a legal chance to prove their innocence, however we need to know before we vote. Why should we have to wait? All appeals on the secondary claims to be heard post haste. Everyone lover or hater needs to know what is the answer. Guilty or innocent it matters and doesn’t matter anymore.

No matter which way your wind blows you should want this done. We need to know if our rights are important and matter, that justice is blind and not given to those who have versus those who have not. Or know so we can make decisions on where we want to live. If the wealthy have all the rights then state it. No more lies. Either stand up and render justice or stand down and leave us to figure out what we want next. Yet either way get out of the way, stop the delays and rule. Give us an answer a truthful answer now. And if the truth is that the rich have it all then face those consequences because we, the people do not think so. Yet, state your position so we can decide. Are we a nation or are we serfs?

Can we live as free men? Can we send the MTGs and Jim Jordans to the Federal Assembly? And either the State Duma or Federation Council will do. They and their ilk’s desire to be beholden to tyranny is their desire not ours so let them go. For those of us who desire to speak of what we care about and fight for what we believe, we do not need their subjugation to cults of personality.

You can fight for stronger immigration laws, please do. Write them, champion them, proselytize them with fervor, but do it as an act of policy, do not subject us to the madness of a demagogue. Stand up for your beliefs, yet remember it is your beliefs that makes us great, not one individual. Do you not read the document you swear by? And this goes for any and all policy you prefer. Just remember you are not the only one who sits on this land.

So let’s find out. End the delays, send it to the jury so we can know once and for all. Does it matter that we care for this country? Or is this all a joke perpetuated on us for the benefit of a few individuals so they can inflate their bank accounts while we fight each other in regards to the national nightmare? Are we ignorantly blind or willfully blind? Either way time to remove the blinders and face the truth. Is the nightmare a reality, and we will never be allowed to thrive or can we once and for all become the country our forefathers promised us in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution?

No cheers tonight

 

And I will get back to the platform, just sometimes you have to ask yourself if it is worth the effort.

It is and we need new parties.

Two old guys, yet one Party is luckier than the other

 

First of all I must be missing something. I know most people are accepting that Biden and Trump will be the respective nominees of their Party. And I know it has been discussed here and there that both are old and what might happen if one of them were to pass away. Yet I haven’t seen this dominate any political landscape and the major issues it might cause one party if their presumptive nominee passes away.

I cannot believe that there isn’t a significant hum in the background noise about this happening. Everyone complains about the other candidate being too old. Their cognitive capabilities aside either one of them could pass away at any given moment. And yes I realize that people in worse health than either one has lived well into their eighties. Yet the possibility that one if not both could actually pass away between now and November is real.

Which brings me to this thought. Everyone in the Republican Party that is high on Trump wants Ms. Haley to concede and drop out of the race. Much to their chagrin that is the last thing they want. Here is the strangest rub. The reality is that some that support Trump probably won’t go out and vote for Ms. Haley. That is actually not that much of a problem. Most moderate Trump supporters will vote for her because they don’t want Biden. She will only lose that most radicalized of the Trump supporters. She will more than make up those votes with non Trump Republicans and independents. The Republicans need her to stay in the race as a back up plan. At this point and this is just opinion, but I don’t think Ron DeSantis can come back and garner enough support to become the nominee. If he tries and forces a floor fight at the convention, he splits the party and guarantees the Democrats win even if the candidate is Kamala Harris.

Which leads me to the Democrats problem. Kamala Harris will lose to either Trump or Haley. Independents are not getting excited about Harris so would stay home even if Trump is the candidate. She does not have enough time to make a name for herself. Yes die hard Democrats will support her, but that will not be enough to overcome her lack of headlines now. The closer we get to November, the worse and worse things get for the Democrats if Biden were to pass away. Even though Kamala Harris is Vice President, too many people do not know enough about her to go out and vote for her.

And if the Democrats try to nominate someone else they split the Party and lay one big egg in November.

The Republicans by Haley staying in the race have a built in back up plan as long as Ron doesn’t poop the party at the Convention. And will be in a much better place to win than the Democrats. Haley will have huge name recognition for having stood up to Donald to the very end. This will be attractive to independents which hands her the race.

Again many people live well into their eighties so this scenario may never play out, but if I was a Republican donor or operative who wasn’t cultistly tied to Trump, I would quietly encourage her to stay in the race.

Yet for people like me, who see both parties as having failed this country, and not that I want anyone to pass away, it would be quite fun to see two explosive floor fights at both conventions with both parties so damaged that an independent could win enough to create the most interesting election in the history of the country. What happens if no one gets to 270 electoral votes and we have tied House, okay one vote majority, and Senate which might happen. And yes the House could go really crazy with all the factions that might be created, the hard right, the freedom caucus, moderate Republicans and Democrats, the far left and leave us with one wild ride of uncertainty that would make last year’s 15 votes for Speaker seem mundane.

Historically this seems absolutely absurd that something like this would happen. Currently I am more than surprised that this isn’t on more radars publicly. Next week is March and by the end of the month all the presumptions will be in concrete. And then the headlines say….now I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my soul to keep, if I should die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take.

 

Life can be quite interesting some days. Cheers

The independent platform part 3

 

Good afternoon all, just thought I would throw that in since I am in a weird place at the moment. Yet, we need to be productive on occasion so I thought I would try such behavior at the moment.

This next topic I do not have solutions. When I originally started this blog I put in the introduction or description that I wanted to not complain, but offer solutions, but here we are. I do not think this is just complaining though. There is this problem/issue that needs to be addressed so I am going to address it and then work forward on trying to obtain ideas on how best to deal with the topic.

I think I have brought this up throughout the years, but I now think we should take this head on to hopefully come up with some ideas.

And I am not the only one that is all up in arms about this topic either. I think my libertarian side is coming through, but most Americans do not have to be so inclined to want some solutions. We are losing way too much of our lives to corporations and the government. They demand so much from us and give so little back. Have you tried to enroll in Social Security, sign up at IRS. Gov? If so you have probably run across something called IDME. If you can avoid it, do.

And this is just a tip of the iceberg of the problem. Today in the news AT&T was down and so what happens when some corporation is down. Were they hacked? Some news reports say no, but this was today. More info will be needed. And if hacked we all know we are at the mercy of the hackers. And it is not just data breaches that drive this issue. It is across the board. We give up inordinate amounts of our information and privacy so the government and large corporations/tech giants can “make our lives more convenient”. They have no control of anything, but they have all the information.

Today I read a story about the size of the Chinese hacking operations and it stated many vulnerabilities were in systems designed by IBM and Google. Yet it is our lives that are affected and in quite numerous ways. First to repair any damages to the actual corporation has costs and as we know all businesses pass on costs, no matter what they say. Then we are directly vulnerable to anywhere from outright theft of our assets to untold amounts of propaganda being sent our way. We must presume that at any given moment someone knows more about us than ourselves as individuals.

Is convenience worth it? Sometimes it is easy to say yes. Most of the time many of us have no idea our data has been compromised. And possibly because so much data has been compromised that the so called evil doers haven’t had time to sort through it all. Yet this should not mitigate our outrage.

Maybe we don’t need too many bells and whistles in our lives right now. Maybe we don’t need social media coming at us at 100 miles per hour each minute. Maybe we need time to go to the store and the people in the store try to earn our business. Why are apps the required method of doing business right now. The little bit in discounts I may earn do nothing to the amount of marketing, cost saving, preferred choices, products that the corporations steer me to for their benefit. Apps are for the corporation, do not let yourself be fooled. They can work less to earn your business, employ less people to help you whether in store or worse in a call center, spend less, but in no way shape or form are they lowering product costs to match their savings and are constantly reporting their profits to the kings of Wall Street to satisfy the .01 of one percent who rake in all our hard earned money to buy off the government so they can exploit us even more. And yet this post is about privacy.

And that is the problem, we keep giving up more and more yet are less protected from corporate greed, corporate malfeasance, government intrusions, corporate intrusion and there are no safeguards. If all hades breaks lose we are the cannon fodder of the disaster. Our government was established to be for the people, yet the people have become a very small group of individuals who have more to say about our lives that is imaginable. 

I know I am complaining and I promised I wouldn’t. Yet, the solutions we have in front of us are pretty demanding and a hard fight. The first policy is to reduce the impact lobbyists have on Congress. And by reduce probably need to remove. The second is to have two Supreme Court cases either reviewed under new light for change of law or create laws that change their effect. The first is the older ruling that corporations are people. The second is the Citizen United’s decision that pretty much says money trumps free speech, individual rights and disenfranchises votes.

This means new blood in Congress. I always say we need new parties and this is one of those situations where the Democrats and Republicans are the root cause of the problem. The fact that we are held hostage by such a microscopic minority of uber wealthy individuals shows our representative form of government has been hijacked. The form of government is not the problem. The problem was ourselves for letting what has happened. So it is up to us to take it back. The good news is we still have a functional ballot box, Trump be damned, so we must use it.

The current political party leadership though needs to go. They have become to beholden to this uber group to effect any change at all for the general population on any issue.

So after two pages of complaining, one paragraph of potential action, we come down to the platform starting with supporting major changes to how people become elected or essentially make it just as easy for an independent or third party candidate to be on the ballot as the major parties. Drastic changes to funding political campaigns and serious campaign finance reform which includes limiting all contributions to the candidate, no PACs, no groups, and all must be identified so no hidden money. And to get this we need to get in office. A catch 22? Not necessarily, but one uphill battle. Also we need to include legislation that changes the two Supreme Court cases mentioned above. Also legislation that shuts down or severely impacts lobbying. I once encountered an argument that some lobbying is needed and previously have thought maybe lobbying based on information provided to Congress by request from industry groups could be beneficial, yet even that would need serious vetting when writing that legislation.

All in all, until we make serious changes to how our Congress is held accountable to us, the people, our information, our rights, our privacy will be at the mercy of those who want to exploit our data for their gain, yet cannot guarantee it’s safety. Maybe we should add serious consequences for data breaches and some might think how much data do they really need. I am definitely a believer in businesses need to earn my business and trust and Government should act in a way that keeps my trust not my information.

Cheers

And on a complete side note that just proves to me the elitist left is clueless and pretentious I saw a headline from the LA Times written by Jackie Calmes that says” I watched a Trump rally so you don’t have to, but you need to know what he is saying.” Are you friggin’ kidding me? I am so opposed to Trump, but for one person to think their political lens is more important than mine for me to dictate my own opinion is the absolute epitome of elitism. Their view point matters more than mine. I know not. This is why we need new blood in Congress and in the national conversation.

Platform still coming, however a Mavs break

 

I am a bit perturbed by the national media’s reflection on the Dallas Mavericks’ trades. Many are not grading the trades well. I certainly understand they may not be an “A” grade, but there marks are way off the mark.

First in a strange way the first advantage is Luka can play five minutes or less per game if Gafford just gets 8 or more rebounds a game. And this can be with Luka on the court or on the bench. The more rebounds we get means the opposing team is getting less offensive rebounds which means less opportunities for them. This allows Luka to rest since teams will have less opportunity to make runs at any leads we have created. Kidd will not feel forced to put Luka back in too early in second and fourth quarters just to stop runs.

Second the depth at center improved mightily.  Even though we love Powell in Dallas, he is not your best option night in and night out to play major minutes as a center. Powell now becomes the third or even fourth option at the five. This is way overdue. Even Maxi can play some minutes at five in a small ball lineup better than Powell. Again I know he is a fan favorite in Dallas and has been showing a high basketball IQ this year along with always working hard, it is time for him to finish out his contract and retire. Maybe become part of the post game show or something, but he really needs to retire soon.

The draft capital was a bit much to give up, but half our team is young now and if they play well we should be contending strongly for four or more yeas so our first round picks would be pretty far down the line anyway. And soon Powell, Hardaway and Kleber’s contracts will have completed so we will have money to get up and coming free agents to go along with who we have now.

I wish Curry had stayed since THJ can be very streaky, but we have some good balance now for non Luka and Kyrie scoring with adding Washington to the mix. Basically we now have Washington, Green, Hardaway, Hardy, who have the potential to get 20 plus points on a given night and the others scoring in double figures gives us a well rounded attack. You add in either one of Exum, DJJ, Kleber also touching double figures regularly and things look really good.

Which leads to the next point, we have a deep rotation that could be used in tough 7 game series which again allows Luka not to have to play 45 minutes per game. I know rotations shorten in the playoffs normally, but when you have 8-10 players like what we have will help, even if some just play a few minutes. Keeping people fresh so come game 7 Luka and Kyrie have it in them to play 40 plus is an added bonus.

“X” feeds have quite a few depth charts now and even some people saying we may get Spencer Dinwiddie back which would be really interesting and means we are definitely ten deep in the playoffs, can work through minor injuries, and still run basically the same offense with all ten players in the rotation to having some serious flexibility as needed. IE Maxi playing small ball center to having two bigs to play the Timberwolves or the Nuggets if needed. We have not had that flexibility before and playing against some teams that will be a definite benefit. I don’t think Lively and Gafford will play together, but one of those with Maxi may not scare teams, but it will allow us to match up better than before. Yes not perfect, but much better than Powell being out there by himself which is what we have had to do too many times. Of course Maxi’s health has to improve, but still him stretching out and bringing a big out to guard him since he can hit threes will really open up spacing. Throw in Washington, Green or even Spencer at the three that can create on their own and things can get real fun.

We can play with pace with Kyrie and Hardy at times or even Luka some, or slow the game down to a crawl with Luka working the clock looking to score or see where the defense breaks down for the open shot. This makes the Mavericks are harder team to prepare for and in a 7 game series this matters.

Imagine being able to successfully have 3-4 different starting line up options and you can still play the same sets to start a game until you see how it develops.

You can have Luka, Kyrie, Green, Washington and Lively.

Luka Kyrie, Hardaway, Washington and Lively

Luka Kyrie, Green, DJJ and Lively

Luka Kyrie, Exum, Green and Lively

Luka, Kyria, Hardaway, Green and Lively,

You get the point, basically small nuances in who starts to either match up with specific teams or maybe just the healthiest players for the evening. Gafford could play in all of the above groups.

Then your bench rotations are based on how the other team is reacting, need to pick up the pace throw in Hardy, get bigger you go Lively, Kleber and Washington or even Morris if needed.

Luka may get less triple doubles but he still gets his points and averages more assists since Kidd can play the hottest hands that night throughout the game and not play anyone not shooting well that evening. Kidd can rest Luka longer and still keep two ball handlers on the floor at all times especially if we get Spencer which helps Hardy develop and play more freely and hopefully Exum gets healthy soon.

Imagine a five guard rotation line up of Luka, Kyrie, Hardy, Exum and possibly Spencer who all can create for others or make their own shot. You have three pick and roll centers in Lively, Gafford and Powell. You can stretch the floor with Washington, Green, Hardaway and a bit with Kleber. You can run or play small ball with Kyrie, Hardy, Exum, Green, Washington and Lively or Kleber. And when you need to get a stop in the last minute you have Lively or Gafford, Green, Washington, Exum, DJJ, Morris and depending on the situation Luka or Kyrie or Kleber or Spencer.

Not sure why the national press or media doesn’t think the Mavs did well. They may seem minor additions, but we didn’t need to kill depth to get a superstar we just needed to find the right players to complement our superstars. Adding the depth at center allows the other players to play more their roles and strengths. And Washington just has to be more consistent than Grant Williams and play with desire and the difference grows even more.

And everyone on the team should be playing hungry now for that championship. There is a window opening. This team just needs to find itself, play together and let the intangibles of the game come to them.

Looking to say Cheers with meaning.

The one thousandth post

 

It has been over twelve years since I first started this blog. And I knew the 1,000 post was coming up, so I wanted to write something so profound the universe would stop, you know the pride thing going on. Well…I can’t think of a thing.

And between spending three weeks in Washington D. C. moving, being tired, and uninspired I haven’t gotten around to this post. Yes we are in a new place and are settling in so do I have all the good excuses not to be Mt. Tibet inspired to save you all from your daily drudgery?

I was thinking this morning just in general not for this blog and thought the more I travel the more I realize how little I know. And that just sounded so familiar that I internet searched. Yep there are quite a few similar quotes running around about traveling and realizing how little you know.  Yet I do feel quite strongly about that thought. And I think I have blogged about something similar before because one of my favorite quotes is from St. Augustine “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” And as always he hits the nail on the head. And my thinking is quite a few problems we face could be eventually solved if more people had a better idea of everything going on beyond their scope of life. And besides traveling is quite fun.

So the above is not quite the earth shattering post I wanted to make, however, it does incorporate one of my favorite topics and pastimes, traveling. I love to travel and see new and even familiar places. Right now though I am sitting on my couch trying to figure out what to post.

And since I have not reached the peak of thought for mankind I decided I just needed to make my post and move on. I still owe you the rest of my independent or fictional third party platform for 2024’s election. It isn’t like our government is racing to solve all our problems right now and with Tucker in Russia committing treason, Trump crying don’t do anything so I can win, the Democrats caught between the games the Republicans play and their inability to push through them, the left and right wing media all geared up to tell us how bad is the other side, and absolutely no legislation of any kind about to be passed we, the people as usual are screwed. And quite frankly the Republicans now saying we shouldn’t do anything until the people decide with the next election along with them saying it was a rigged election if they lose, we can now guarantee nothing will be achieved for years.

And yet for some reason, as little as I don’t like government it would help if it actually did address some issues. And yes I know the Democrats are trying to do something and there was a bi partisan attempt at the border issue, but hey Trump passed gas so the Republican righteous jumped at the prescribed height and so no border bill.

And for the vast majority of us, we are stuck paying too much for everything, mainly now for corporate greed because hey, Wall Street prescribes the height they are to jump to, and no help from the people who we pay through tax dollars to protect us from enemies within and outside of our borders.

I will continue my tirades just so when the deal goes down there is something in writing that says I tried to tell you so. Maybe some future alien civilization will come across the remnants of our planet and dig through all the terabytes of information left behind and go, hey at least someone knew things weren’t working. Ah to be so redeemed.

Anyway if you are reading this on Tumblr or Wordpress you may go I do not see 1,000 posts and that is because I originally started this on blogger or blogspot or whatever and then somewhere along the line I started this same blog on the other two platforms and just copy and paste the same post to all three sites. My thinking is I need to try and reach more people. Who knows if that is succeeding. So if you want to catch up you have to go to blogger or blogspot and read from the beginning. I also changed my original description of this blog. At first it was a couple of paragraphs long, now it is a simple sentence that really doesn’t describe the blog, yet is more of my feeling about the whole sha bang.

Eventually I do want to do a podcast tied to this blog while still posting in the written word. I have a microphone someone gave me, however in all the moves we have made in less than a year I cannot find it. Once I do, be forewarned. My plan is for some of the podcasts to compliment my written posts and some to be on separate topics. And then there is the quote the best laid plans of mice and men and if you want to read something profound maybe read Steinbeck. And according to all the modern world thinking, I also need to create a brand so people can understand who am I. That is simple: crotchety old man who thinks he knows it all, who is frustrated that the people who say they know it all keep screwing it up. How about that for a brand?

Folks, we all need something better than the current leadership we have in this country and elsewhere on this planet, and honestly I hope we find it because I want to travel to where you live and enjoy life with you.

Cheers!

And before I forget, Go Mavs, Stars, FC Dallas, Rangers and then Cowboys (sheesh). Wish Dallas had received the World Cup Championship, but we did receive 9 games so it will be fun around here in 2026.

And yes there is quite a bit of news right now, but everyone else is commenting on all the craziness so another time maybe.