Discussion with a Democrat leading to what my complaints are about the Republican Party

 

Some background, I have been going back and forth with someone on “X” about the Democratic party among other conversations in our modern world. I try to stay productive in our conversations yet since they go back and forth coherence or a long view can drop by the wayside. I am not going to rehash my current viewpoints on the Democratic party and instead focus on some of my opinions on why the Republican party falls short. I invited the person on “X” to read this for their enjoyment. It is an open invitation.

First I am a conservative and regular readers know I say that often and am probably more conservative than I let on. I am also somewhat pragmatic when it comes to either implementing public policy or even writing it. Most Americans even though my “X”  friend disagrees are center to center right and I will get to that in a moment. And quite frankly centrist public policy in many cases is the better public policy in a Republic such as ours. The goal is to protect along with grow the people and country so that the majority benefits and any minority depending on the policy is still protected. Hence centrist policy helps to achieve a balanced approach to running the country.

I won’t get into all my reasons as to why I see the Republican Party failing us and some of this post will be a brief history. I will not spend too much time on the current version of the Republican Party since anyone outside of it sees what the problem is now.

I am starting with the social conservative aspect which may be a problem since most people struggle with social conservative policy including the Republican party. First I am pro life, but do not under any circumstances confuse me with the debacle of pro life policy coming from the Republican party over the last 40 plus years. You cannot legislate or adjudicate morality. It is a disaster to do such. The best case example is Prohibition. Outlawing anything to do with morality only entrenches people’s hearts in the wrong direction. You have to change a person’s heart for them to understand.

Yet I am pro life and that means from conception to natural death. What does that mean? It means for pragmatic purpose if you believe people should have their babies then you need to believe the family needs to be a primary benefit of public policy. This includes good and affordable healthcare, childcare, strong education for our children (equal opportunity applies also here) and taking care of the elderly yet not prolonging people’s lives artificially. And of course you can probably add more.  And this is where Republicans fail us. They spend inordinate amounts of time screaming about women carrying their children to term, but then turn their heads on the rest. I believe we should have our babies. Republicans with this attitude give too much credence to the left saying they just want to control women’s bodies. There is no desire to control women’s bodies in my mind.  I want babies to be born. Life is precious and way to delicate to treat indiscriminately. And then we need to do everything we can to support life and the quality of life until natural death. And this is where centrist public policy comes into play. Some Democrats say we support helping people, I do not disagree in the mentality just in the application they fail. That is another discussion.

Now for some historical points as to why I think the Republicans fail our country. I became an independent shortly after the 1980 presidential election. This is when I saw the Republican party change from a center right political body to an organization that’s primary concern was big business. And yes the Republicans were supporters of big business before 1980, but it wasn’t the biggest driver of most of their policy. And earlier I mentioned most Americans are centrist to center right. They are now and they were then and Richard Nixon understood this well. At the time the term silent majority best exemplified this point. His whole campaign in 1972 revolved around bringing the silent majority to the forefront. And he succeeded beyond belief as he had one of the biggest landslide victories in American political history.

On a side note, my Father was super liberal and actually worked on the McGovern campaign. I considered myself a liberal in my teens. I changed for a variety of reasons in college and yet again a story for another day. Still though I have quite a bit of respect for Jimmy Carter, probably way more than most Republicans. He was anomaly though.

So what happened between 1974 and 1980. Some say the Goldwater wing of the Republican Party came to the forefront since Reagan was originally a Goldwater Republican, but it was more than that. Reagan won in another landslide and the circumstances at the time had more to do with his victory. Reagan then took the party in a new direction and this is where I drop off as being a Republican. A friend of mine in college and I use to argue relentlessly about what it meant to be a conservative. He was a diehard Reagan Republican, while I took a more populist approach.

I saw too much emphasis on big business. I abhorred the tax cuts for the rich (trickle down economics) and saw it as a takeaway from the working and middle class that would hurt them in the long run. And yes I am not speaking in hindsight, they worried me from the get go.  Then along came Grover Norquist with his demand that all Republicans sign onto his tax cut pledges. I felt even at the time the balance of power was being handed to multi national corporations to the detriment of everyone else. And this Republican mindset then was used to justify some pretty horrendous policy and actions by the Republican party ever since.

Add in people like Newt Gingrich and Fox News and the leadership of the Republican party had started their march to the current power grab by Trump. They probably never wanted Trump when they originally started their march. I feel like they would have preferred someone less bombastic and a bit more rational, but they set it up for him and now we, the people, are being served crap on a cracker to quote Penny because they still want their power grab, but can’t put the Trump genie back in the bottle to preserve some rational aspects of this country.

There is MAGA and there are the remnants of Reagan Republicanism both fighting for control of the party, neither though has the best interests of the working and middle class.

So what are the similarities that I say are conservative to the Republican party. This is where I say they give lip service, but have never truly implemented real conservative policy. First I do want less government, but since one of government’s roles is to protect the people we have to accept it as a necessary evil if we want to survive or thrive as a Republic, a people and body politic. And yes that means we do need to spend money on national defense, but also more. The alliances Trump is throwing out with the bath water are important. National defense is never just a country trying to survive by itself. That is self destructive. Alliances, trade, common morality all matter in dealing with other countries. You develop those over time and they are just as important to national defense as your military. Actually you spend less on national defense if you have strong alliances, not that we spend less. We could spend less if we did it right.

And protecting it’s citizens economically is another role of government. And this is where I go off a cliff screaming about how the Republican Party has failed us. Supporting billionaires and multi national companies over the populace is not conservative policy, it is supporting billionaires and multi national companies, nothing more. You can word smith with the verbiage all you want, but it is not conservative policy. If you believe the root word of conservatism is to conserve then conserving the values and livelihood of the populace is what you need to do first. Or how can you say you are a conservative?

I have written massive amounts of public policy ideas over the last fifteen years in this blog so I won’t rehash at this moment.

The goal of this post was to give you an idea of why I feel the Republican Party has failed us and I am just touching on it today.  

I probably need to break down the this versus that aspect of certain policies to give you a better perspective, but that is some weeds to dig through and this post is long enough. Again if you want to cherry pick some of my posts to argue against me fine, but remember there are fifteen years so somewhere down the line I probably already addressed your thoughts.

Well I never use Substack, but adding this so if you are reading this on Substack you will need to go to blogger to find the rest of this blog.

Cheers

Our turn to “flood the zone”

It is Saturday and there are nation wide protests scheduled, yet this will be a news item and nothing more. The Trump administration will tout this as radical left whatevers to try and lessen the news impact for their base.  Sure some will pay attention, but Monday is still going to come.

If you think this will help the Democrats win the mid terms then that might happen but if the market is coming back and people have gotten use to the inflation these tariffs have caused that will be a larger hill to climb in November than people realize right now.

And more importantly we cannot wait a year and a half to fix the damage both economically and alliance wise this disaster Trump created. We need change now. I know I acted a bit optimistic that the economy may settle down some by 2026 , yet that is a warning more than a prediction. Things could also could sour and south fast right now and then 2026 may be too late.

We need to take action now. And again the demonstrations today will make some news, but the only way to change course is to get the Republican Congress to change course.

And this means you need to write your Representative and or Senator now, daily, hourly, start at dawn and write once a hour until dusk. Call them, write them email them just flood their lives with how you feel, what you need and why this is a disaster. It is only until the Republican Congress feels the heat that is stronger than Trump’s bullying them with his base will we get change right now.

Tell them about the tariffs, cuts to programs we need, protect and improve Social Security, Medicare, cutting taxes for the middle and working class not the rich, better education. Tell them you matter. Tell them to call our allies that do not trust us anymore and assure them we are working on it. Flood them with your concerns.

The concern is it will get worse, it may not, but we cannot count on that. We need to take true action now. And that action is telling the Republican Congress how we feel daily. Make them feel the heat that you are about to feel in your daily lives.

You can go to the websites for the House and the Senate

Find Your Representative | house.gov

U.S. Senate: Contacting the Senate

 and search for your Representative and Senator and get their information. I already looked mine up. She has it set up to sign up for her email to contact her, so be it. She will get more emails from me than I from her.

FLOOD THEIR ZONE

If you do not believe in God you probably won’t like this, if you believe in God there is a chance you are going to hate this

 

I have been reading the Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis during Lent. Well I started at the first of Lent and then due to “worldly” events I hadn’t read it for a couple of weeks. I somewhere made a joke about reading it during Lent and I forget the rest. Anyway it was not my intent to read this book specifically during Lent yet it worked out that way.

I haven’t finished it yet, but I was reflecting or self internalizing it, that it is a great book to read if you ever truly want to do a self examination of conscious. And if you are not Catholic basically when we go to Confession or the Sacrament of Reconciliation which the actual confession is only part of the action of Reconciliation that includes the examination of conscious and the repentance, but that is a topic for better educated Catholics than me to discuss.

And we have so much literature and even apps now that help us prepare for the self examination for confession why would you need to read a whole book to prepare for confession. Actually we probably need to read multitudes of books yet again another topic for the more well educated.

The point I was considering was there is so much in the book that we all run across that looking at it from the eyes of the enemy so to speak can open our eyes up even more. And this is a take away from the book as it is, but to use it to prepare for Confession may be a bit much for some, but give it a read and think about it.

We ignore so much of our own lives we forget what is the true perspective. And Screwtape’s arguments about how to drive us away from God can show us what we truly need to do. Or what we should truly be paying attention to daily. And he argues so well about the subtle ways to entice us away from God.

So how does this prepare us for confession? Good question and preparing for confession is something I have been trying to figure out how to do for years. Or even having a “good confession” Exactly what is a good confession.  I use to confess my litany of sins since my last confession yet I felt I wasn’t accomplishing the true goal.

So I changed my approach and did such a good job in changing my approach I really feel like I am not confessing well. I confess better, but is it well. And I truly believe my confessions are better with this new approach which I have been trying for a couple of years now. Yet it makes reading the Screwtape letters stand out so much more. I am going to finish the book and find out what to do next but in the meantime I am still pondering all this internalized madness.

And another thought that has come to mind is that women and men confess differently and not because of the women are from Venus and men are from Mars mentality or by human nature a bit of that, but because of their relationship with God via understanding their relationship to God in the Trinity.

Women truly understand the Church is the bride of the Bridegroom Jesus and can live it, while men struggle with that analogy since the word bride is used and they may feel it is a relationship they do not understand. Of course I am generalizing and people will find examples that shoot generalizing down, but overall I have observed this phenomenon. So this leaves Women confessing to a lover, explaining her frailties her inadequacies and how she can do better and a longing for her lover to forgive her.

Men being “men of action” relate more to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings action. So their confessions reflect action, need to overcome the sin, fight it and conquer it.

And both approaches are valid.

Both these examples are just observations in hearing people talk about confession. No one really tells me what they confessed, but over time and knowing many people you hear this type of thinking on how they approach confession.

And going back to the book, C. S. Lewis’ victim of Wormwood and Screwtape being a man Mr. Lewis approaches his reasoning in the man sense. Screwtape addresses the man’s actions or thought processes to turn him, the one relationship matter is his relationship with his Mother and it is very minimal in the book so the relationship of Jesus to a man is not explored versus more of the relationship of one with the man. They talk about their victim’s behaviors and actions and what can be done to change the behavior to lead him away.

I think it is a good book for examination of conscious for a confession even if read just once because you can begin to incorporate how you look at your life through these lenses and even for a woman, yet more men may find it helpful than women.

No matter your Christian denomination it is a good book to read to help you stay on track, yet for people who practice the Sacrament of Reconciliation and are struggling with what is a good confession this may not be the ultimate guide yet it can give some structure to what are you trying to say or as they say get off your chest (conscious).

Cheers.

Latest Podcast is life---tariffs and more

 

Check out why tariffs are more dangerous than you think or have heard.

https://youtu.be/HFKu90meB4w

 

Folks we need more independent voices out there, too much of the world is dictated by people who do not care about you.

My FOIA request, DOGE, and the heat will be turned up as I can even if it is slowly.

 

So as per the last post I sent the FOIA request for information on the Department of Government Efficiency. Below I have included their response and then I sent a response which is also included below. It is Friday afternoon at this time so I may not hear back today, yet when I do I will post.

If I do not hear back by sometime next week, I will look into my next steps.

National.FOIAPortal (OIP)	Mar 27, 2025, 1:58 PM (22 hours ago)
to me

Hello,

 

Thank you for your inquiry.  This is not the proper place to submit a FOIA request.  Due to currently pending litigation, we do not have information on the proper place to submit FOIA requests to the Department of Government Efficiency at the moment.

 

Sincerely,

The National FOIA Portal Team

 

	12:36 PM (2 minutes ago)
to National.FOIAPortal

Greetings,

 

I understand this is not the actual office to request the FOIA request for DOGE. I am looking for the office for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In your email it is stated you do not have the proper place to submit FOIA requests for DOGE due to pending litigation. I have included in this email information I researched about pending litigation so there may or may not be a reason for pending litigation to affect the ability to make FOIA requests through the proper office. See below

 

So what is the litigation that is preventing being able to establish what is the correct office for FOIA requests for DOGE? If this is actually affecting the request I can research the litigation and once resolved make a new request. Otherwise why is there no office for DOGE for FOIA requests if the litigation is not particular to a request since there is no office for FOIA requests? This is a bit confusing if litigation exists but no office created to have handled a request that caused the litigation. And since I am not a party to any litigation at this time, I do not see why I cannot make my own request. It may or may not fall under the current issues at hand in any current litigation.

 

Please clarify.

 

And here is a quick summary of the information I have found so far.

 

No, pending litigation generally does not automatically affect a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, but it can be a factor in some cases, particularly regarding exemptions or the timing of disclosure. 

Here's a more detailed explanation:

• No Diminished or Enhanced Rights:

A requester's rights under the FOIA are neither diminished nor enhanced by their status as a party to litigation or by their litigation-generated need for the requested records. 

• Exemptions May Apply:

The fact that information is related to pending litigation can be a factor in determining whether an exemption to disclosure applies, such as Exemption 7(C) which protects information that would compromise ongoing investigations or litigation. 

• "Federal Comity" and Deferral:

If the requested records are the subject of pending FOIA litigation in another judicial district, a court may defer to the jurisdiction of the other court, avoiding unnecessary burdening of the federal judiciary and potentially conflicting FOIA decisions. 

• Timing of Disclosure:

Agencies may choose to withhold information related to pending litigation until the litigation is resolved, or they may choose to release it, depending on the circumstances and applicable exemptions. 

• No Obligation for Preferential Handling:

While agencies have no obligation to do so, they have, on rare occasions, accorded preferential handling to FOIA requests involving information needed in connection with pending litigation. 

• Not a Blanket Exemption:

The mere existence of pending litigation does not automatically mean that all information related to the litigation is exempt from disclosure under FOIA. 

Regards

New podcast is now live

Signal gate and trying to get to the bottom of DOGE

Just sent this Freedom of Information request

 

to National.FOIAPortal

Good afternoon,

 

I was searching the website for the Government Agency publicly referred to as DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency. I used the search feature and nothing appeared.

 

I formally request to know if DOGE, Elon Musk or anyone communicating through government channels to DOGE or Elon Musk is using the Signal Application for communications, messages, etc. If so, please provide the content of these messages or if not if they are being deleted. If deleted can it be determined if they are retrievable?

 

And if they are not retrievable what is the rational from DOGE as to why they are ignoring the Presidential Records act.

 

Regards.

 

I will let you know if I hear back.

 

I am tired of the BS and it is time to act.

 

I also think I will file another one to see if there are other communications among the top levels of national security. I think I would have to use the FOIA office for the Dept of Defense, National Security administration, CIA, and more so that may be a bit of a chore. One step at a time.

Where is Marco Rubio?

 

Normally a strange question to ask on a random Saturday afternoon, yet, where? I am sure if I internet searched some task or location would show up describing his current whereabouts. Yet where is Marco Rubio?

Based on some random news shows apparently Donald Trump has begun the process of throwing Sec. of State Rubio under the bus. And that bus is somewhat well hugely.

President Trump has a history of throwing people under a bus to save his skin. So where is Rubio?

I know Mike Lindell or good ole Rudy probably are not feeling too empathic towards Mr. Rubio right now, but maybe they should. The tire tracks across their lives are substantial and now they maybe can witness someone else from Trump’s orbit feel the weight of that hugely bus they have felt.

Rubio should have known better. Or at least I thought he had some intelligence, yet current events suggest something different.

He had that look in his eyes of someone that realizes too late he is about to be runover in the recent Trump’s address to Congress speech. He definitely didn’t look well once Trump pointed him out saying it is all you good ole Marco, all you. And we all knew that meant Rubio had no cover in Trump’s orbit or world. Rubio your eyes gave you away on national TV. No oopsie for you. You should have resigned right there. Some would have called you a coward, yet three years from now you would have been able to pick up your life again. Now you will go the way of some many other Trump bus victims.

Now Trump is calling his cover out on Rubio. Trump never takes the blame no matter how obvious it is Trump and unfortunately people have let him get away with that all his life. Now we the people, suffer from his personality flaws and one person in particular. It may not be today or tomorrow, yet the writing is on the wall. Rubio is a marked man. Wonderful Rubio all one hundred senate votes and all. That should have been his first clue, nothing that Trump does receives that much approval. Everyone thought he could be the sane one in the room and this time around sanity is not in demand at the White House, only loyalty. And in Trump’s world they all knew you weren’t part of the inner circle so you are about to ingest bus exhaust.

They knew they needed stooge cover. Too bad for you. You fell for it hook line and sinker.

We can surmise what you will be accused of for the court of public opinion, but the reality is you have no case. You didn’t from the start.

Personally I don’t feel good calling this out, but honestly you jumped on the Trump band wagon to hopefully grow your career or whatever DC people call their lives so this is on you. I try to feel empathy, but it ain’t coming. No one and we all know no one survives a Trump dump.

Good luck with the rest of your life. Call Mike or Rudy or the other lawyers from the first go round and yall can share weak American beer while crying that tear. Or thank goodness we still have Jack Daniels we can afford for those lonely nights in the back alley of bus way.

What did I just think again?

 

Have you ever noticed when you are thinking about either wonderful things or going into depths of some despair what causes the difference in your thought patterns? Does it matter your current state of being?

You think of something wonderful, maybe what if your life had taken a different turn and now everything is roses. Or you cannot find your way out of the paper bag metaphorically of your brain. Are there subconscious attributes driving these thoughts? Or are you just daydreaming about nothing.

Is there a good versus evil component to all this? Are those good thoughts really a smoke screen to hide you from something different. Are little demons running around in your brain showing you a version of yourself you think is your best when in reality it is distracting you from actually becoming your best. You see success, better home life, maybe a bigger house, better vacations, everyone thinks highly of you, yet you keep wanting more. Are there days of just growing and glowing dreams that makes you say what if?

We always think that bad thoughts are the evil thoughts. When you do not think highly of yourself, what does that mean? Does this mean these are the thoughts the demons are throwing at you to prevent you from overcoming obstacles and being a better you?

Is it madness to try and even figure this out? If you don’t believe in God then it may be madness to you. Yet how do you explain all the pressures in your brain pulling you one way or another. Does the first paragraph make more sense to you, that it is all just a state of being. And that if you change your attitude or mindset the thoughts in your head will change. Yet do they? Or do they change temporarily because you forced it. And is this forcing it you having control? Or is this a temporary shift that the real underlying feeling you have will come back and take control.

How do we know? Maybe it does go back to whether we believe in God or not. And if we believe in God then you do have the demons playing tricks on you problem. Yet which thoughts are the demons interference? Are they the good ones or the bad ones or both. Problem with demons is that their sole job is deception. People keep giving them more power than they have, yet deception is one powerful power. We see monsters and hell fire, you will burn forever in some pit, but we do not know. There are a few mentions of pits and grinding of teeth in the bible, but hard core demons sticking you with pitchforks are what?

The scariest movie I ever saw was the Devil’s Advocate because to me it best represents the true monster that is the evil one than red guys in a goatee sticking you in the backend with a pitchfork. Those images might actually be part of the deception. If you think you are looking for a monster then when something that appears attractive comes to you then you are not afraid.

Again deception is the only power those demons possess.

Or going back to that state of being, there is no God and we are all running around putting smiles on our faces to make sure no one sees us as scared little children without a purpose. Or there are those that project a purpose and become successful in some endeavor and think they did it all. If you are a Christian, you would instead say God did it all and I just did the action or something similar.

Yet each day your internal reveries run amuck. Sometimes you run to do lists incessantly through your head trying to accomplish something. Other days you write down your to do lists and nothing gets down because your brain synopsis light up like a spring thunderstorm with lightning bolts flying everywhere. The thunderous roar in your head keeps you from getting one thing accomplished. You drive through your brain dodging one lightning bolt after another until it is time to lay your head down and attempt sleep. Of course then you worry over everything you didn’t complete on your to do list. Sleep comes hard but your internal thought waves crash upon you tossing and turning you like rolling around in an unpleasant surf. You would hope the sound of the waves would gently rock you to sleep, but no since you are waist deep in turbulent waters of thought sleep evades you. And why do you get so distracted? Is it circumstances or something else?

So where do you stand? Are you trying to be the best me you can? Or are you sidetracked by demons real or imagined that haunt your thoughts? Do you even have a choice in life? Or is free will your only choice? And what does that mean?

Or am I conflicted because I find myself reading C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters doing Lent?

Just another example of why the Democrats are failing us

 

Trump just fell into his old Trump trap | Opinion

 

Over and over again, people are beginning to realize how failed a party is the Democrats. And don’t think the Republicans have ever been on the majority of this country’s side no matter what spews forth from Trump’s mouth.

 

Are you starting to realize why I have been saying we need new parties for decades?

Why is Bernie Sanders leading the charge against the one percent? And this is why the Democrats fail us.

 

Not much more to say than the title. How is it Bernie who is older than dirt is the strongest response to what is going on in Washington with Trump? The Democratic leadership just sits around crying while this man is running around the country revamping a new version of Bernie bros.

The Democrat Senators should be asking for the moon to pass the CR. Instead they trot out Schumer who to quote Trump is low energy. And I mean low energy. The Democrats don’t get it and haven’t in years. Obama was either hand tied or didn’t get it hard to tell with him, but other than that it has been since the early 1960’s since any Democrat has truly inspired the nation.

If Bernie Sanders is the best we can put up to fight against the greed running rampant in this country we are in a shit more trouble than just having Trump for President.

And people forget Project 2025 is in full swing. Start writing your Representative and Senator now and show up if there are any rallies. We cannot sit by while this do nothing Republican House kisses the back end ring until we have nothing left.

Three very serious and wild truths

 

1) Trump supporters will give Trump as much leeway as Trump needs for way too long no matter how much it hurts them. They cannot admit that Trump is wrong because they are so far down the rabbit hole with him. Things are really going to have to break for his supporters to break with him. Demagogues survive this way and we, even the supporters, suffer immensely until it is too late.

2) If the Democrats had any real brains or backbone, they would force Johnson to vote for campaign reform first since the CR is a stand alone bill. The Democrats should have a bill written that wipes away Citizen United and puts real teeth into how much people can contribute to campaigns at the federal level. Let’s get the money out of politics now and add serious limitations to lobbying. I have written proposals previously if you want more details. Also maybe through in tougher penalties for grifting off your office.

3) And since the Democrats won’t do anything about campaign reform and of course nor the Republicans this is just one reason we need new parties to challenge their duopoly.

Somebody is up to something good

 

I was reading one of the news composite sites where they pull news from various sources. One of the articles was about a State Senator from Utah changing his party affiliation from Republican to Utah Forward party.

I haven’t jumped on the internet to research the Utah Forward Party, yet as you can imagine the change to a third party caught my eye.

I read through the comments on the article and there were quite a few positive comments about switching. Some even addressed maybe it is better to piece meal a new national party at the state level. Or another words third parties develop in individual states and then coalesce over time into a viable new major party.

I am all for something like this happening. I scream we need new parties, yet understand that it won’t suddenly appear overnight. Glad to read about his change. Personally not all on board with his exact reasons, yet hey, a win is a win.

So if you are in Utah and are looking for something center right which from the little bit I read appears to be their direction, then check them out. For everyone else, lets keep our eyes, ears and mind open.

One of the comments even stated tired of the us versus them attitude currently in politics so hats off to that commenter also.

Cheers all

Trump’s yo yoing tariffs and the Republican tax bill

 

Pretty straightforward. How can we trust any numbers the Republicans introduce about tariffs to offset their income tax cuts for the rich if we have no idea how much (even) potential revenue will be collected from tariffs?

It is madness to even think the American public can trust what the Republicans are doing if their leader changes his mind as consistently as Trump does. First of all most of us don’t trust what they say from the beginning, yet it just becomes more and more obvious they have one goal in mind and that is the tax cuts for the rich. Somehow or another they will talk their way into it no matter how much they destroy this country. Maybe one day the rich will realize if this country falls apart at the seams and no one has any money those tax breaks are worthless. Let’s hope it is today, tomorrow at the latest.

The performative show the other night was a waste of time since it was all bluster and show and tell. Nothing substantive mentioned except we will screw you to get what we want. Of course they didn’t say that, but they did.

Musk needs to be fired. Vance needs to go back to Ohio and stay there. Johnson needs to find God and listen to what God says. And if anyone thinks a crypto reserve is no more than another sham or like Musk says a ponzi scheme then they deserve to lose their money, yet the rest of us still remember 2008-09 and do not need nor want another financial disaster. And that will happen if Trump starts investing America’s tax dollar into that scheme. Or cuts taxes with no real budget in place, or keeps cutting the government with no real plan in place, the list goes on.

Trump is driving this train high on narcissism and Casey cannot find the damn brakes, much less any reliable track. My apologies to the Grateful Dead.

And ironically Trump is making the President of Mexico very popular in her country. Heck she may make Mexico great (again?).

Too bad the man who needs our help the most and deserves it since he is fighting for liberty and against oppression is treated like the third step child once removed from an abusive parent. Again Vance needs to go back to Ohio and sit on the porch and chew straw. Nothing he says shows any competence. And too bad Trump wants to gut the Department of Education, we certainly need better public education right now.

The list of madness goes on. And tomorrow will bring us more because in two weeks the government shutdown madness reaches another crescendo.

Americans just don’t want the truth

 

And this is any American, they fight hearing it daily. And this goes back decades. I think in the 1960’s there might have been a desire for truth. Then the seventies happened and people either got too high and effed up or they became Republicans. So the need for the truth wasn’t put on the back burner, it was put out with the trash.

Think about this for a moment. When the Republicans introduced trickle down economics, they should have been tarred and feathered. Even the name was the biggest hint. It was the rich saying we come first and you come what fifth, you will get what trickles down. At that point working and middle class America should have brought that government down in a heartbeat. Called for elections the next day if they really cared about themselves, much less the truth.

Trickle down is the biggest joke played on the American body ever. And yet here we are still talking about it today in one shape form or another.

Please don’t tell me it works. Please don’t tell me the Democrats are against it. Please don’t tell me squat until you are ready to make real change.

The first sign the Democrats aren’t against it is the fact, we still need major campaign reform, we still need lobbyists out of Washington, we still need to support the middle and working class, we still need better public education and I could go on.

And the Republicans still support it in its current Donald Trump tax breaks for the rich and then whatever else falls from the table you might get concept.

Neither party cares about a better America. They only care about staying in power, which means lying to their base and taking millions in campaign contributions. Did anyone try to legislate Citizens United away? DID THEY EVEN TRY??????!!!!  NO!!!!!!!!  Or were any significant campaign reform ideas legislated, much less passed? Nope

We would rather complain than work even if the work is better for us. Hate me, I don’t care, but I am telling the truth. You don’t want the truth, heck like the movie says, you cannot handle the truth because that takes real work. It is easier to be lied to than make change, even if it is the change we desperately need.

You might say, you just ate a great dinner, had a nice fine table wine (even the better half enjoyed it and she doesn’t like white wine), are digesting and should be at peace, and I should. Yet, I watch what happened with Zelensky and watch people act like he is in the wrong. Sure some people stood up and said that was a bunch of crap, but where in Congress is anyone pushing bills to change the narrative. Too much work. Too much reality.

We let the power brokers lie to us, fail us, ignore us, and sit here with our fine table wine and whine. Yes I am just as guilty since I am not beating my Representative’s door down. I should be, we all should be.

Go back and check the history if you believe we shouldn’t help Ukraine. Just in case you don’t know, we signed an agreement as the United States to protect them if they gave up their nuclear weapons in 1994. And now we watch Trump tell the world our word means shit. Again some outrage, but for the body politic as a whole, we fail Ukraine, we fail ourselves and we don’t give a damn about ourselves because if we did we need to hold our government accountable.

The tax breaks are crap. So the next time you are outraged either as pro Trump or against Trump or whatever remember the concept is trickle down. So when you don’t get yours, don’t complain because the rich are getting theirs first as always.

Nothing wrong with the rich until WE, THE PEOPLE, let them run roughshod over us. And they have been for decades.

I guess we get to enjoy our spring of discontent wine or no wine.

Something fun, something ugly

 

There is something I always tell people that if they read this they will know immediately who is writing this blog. I write under this alias(?) of a name so I can say what I want to say and not have to listen to people tell me how wrong I am. And as you know dear reader I never tell you what to do or think, yet….

Do not grow old. Live long, prosper, live a fruitful life, but under no circumstances grow old. It is way too much of a pain to bend down and try to pick something up or be extra careful with just about every movement so you don’t throw your back out. Or watch what you eat or drink, how much you exercise, why getting out of bed is an immense struggle just to put your feet on the floor. You ever hear the phrase you must give thanks every morning when you sit up and put your feet on the floor. When you get old, you certainly understand that phrase with multiple meanings.

 

And for your paranoid, outrageous conspiracy theory of the day. Have you ever wondered why Trump is so okay with Putin taking over Ukraine, you know a border country that really isn’t Russia’s yet he makes believe it is Russian. Why would Trump even care? I don’t know, yet if I was the Mexican President I might want to know.

Watching the dominos fall, great real world experience for Econ 101 students

 

I am not an economics major, yet like most even average Americans we can see the dominos being lined up to fall.

I am not one hundred percent sure a recession is coming, yet if you lay off thousands of people especially concentrated in one area, yet also some in other areas you can perceive what might happen next. Many local businesses will suffer do to reduced business such as restaurants and other local spots in D. C.. Once the local businesses start losing money then they either lay off or close completely. Once they close then distributors and wholesalers lose customers and you guessed it, they start laying people off. Company by company up the corporate food chain will be impacted. More workers losing work with less employment opportunities in an area either creates a spiraling situation in that area or a drain of the workforce as they move elsewhere to survive.

If this drain in D.C. starts to migrate then where does it head next. Of course and as always the workers, especially the service industry workers are hit hardest. If they cannot find work, then things start to get dicey as they look to alternate means to survive.

Do they do the right thing and move to new locations and start their own businesses or find employment? Or do they wallow and let circumstances sour their attitude? Well lets not speak bad of those less fortunate.

And in our current Administration’s worldview, how would they react to large scale claims to the unemployment system? If current direction of cuts are the leading example, many people could be left with nothing.

That’s okay because Trump says he can fix it all and it is only him. So Econ students get out your pen and paper and start taking notes because Trump will save the day and you can record the great savior at work. Or you can deal in reality and take notes about how bad things get when you let a fraud take over the government. I bet you can even get a book or two out of it.

Have fun

Oops forgot to add the call to action

 And like all milquetoast calls to action it is probably what you expect. Write your Representative or Senator, just like that the world’s problems are solved. Okay not really, however, if you are specific and let them know you mean business it might help a tad bit.

And let me make this easier for you.

For your Representative go to this link:

Find Your Representative | house.gov

You can enter your zip code and you have their email address. And if you feel you need write or address your Representative professionally there are resources you can internet search to help you.

For your Senator:

U.S. Senate: Contacting U.S. Senators

There are two per state so you can write one or both. And same for Senators if you want to make sure you write a proper salutation or what not, there are resources on the internet.

And if you think what should I say, well in my milquetoast call to action, try talking about, why is Musk in charge of my information?; how about writing legislation that overturns Citizens United; why don’t you control the budget, not Musk; we want a balanced budget, yet we want it done correctly which is Congress’ job, how about working on making Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid healthy, instead of hacking up the government, why don’t we make these agencies more answerable to Congress and the money allocated for them; how about tax breaks for me, not the one percent who do not need the money; and make sure they don’t lie to you about trickle down economics and all that BS; and whatever else you might think of like making the Department of Education a quality endeavor instead of just pushing over a cliff; or what about accountability to people who hurt the people with their actions. The list can go on yet  for now just touching on these subjects is a start or even a few.

Now here is the real call to action. Let them know you expect results and if you do not get them, you will work within their district to primary them. Yep this means if they continue to screw you then you need to recruit someone to run as a Democrat or Republican probably starting late this year to run against them in the primary. And be prepared to work.

As you know I would prefer just to ditch the Republicans and Democrats completely and elect a slew of independents, yet if you help overall the parties then that might work too. As long as you let them know, you are paying attention and expect results now. If not expect a whole new crop of people looking to replace them in Congress.

Either way it is time Congress went back to doing their job, which is control the purse strings, hold the Executive branch accountable for how the money is spent, balance the budget and most importantly represent you.

You pay their salaries through your hard work, why not spend an extra few minutes a day making sure they work hard for you.

Or primary the lot!

I’m sorry to say, you won

 Wait who is the you in the title? Is it every bogeyman you can think of in our modern society? So, guess who is losing? No one? Well no, but why aren’t we winning.

And as you have figured out by now whether you want to admit it or not, you are not winning by design.

Common sense, practical thinking, taking time to actually study is discouraged. Is it by society’s bogeymen or by us?

It could be us since we spend more time playing games on our phones than reading books, well thought out articles on the events of the day, even watching worthwhile videos on Youtube beyond how to fix the washing machine at home (those are worthwhile because it never hurts to save some money, the problem is when you absolutely need to just to eat) or history videos, yet do we learn anything to apply to our modern world. We do, but how do we apply it?

I am coming across five times more negative than I would like, yet it is hard to drive a point home in the modern world without being hit upside the head by the problems of our society. And there is so much doom and gloom. Do I espouse a revolutionary world? No, I would just like to make our world better within the existing system for all of us. You know, the milquetoast of revolutionaries. The polar opposite of Trump.

Yet, what is wrong with wanting something better in a practical fashion. Apparently everything in our modern world. You have heard the phrase in some shape form or fashion, if you ain’t rich, you ain’t shit.

And that does seem to be the modern mantra. And then as always our elitists love to tell us how to live  in this world, there is now de-influencers. Yep, you are now supposed to listen to people tell you not to buy everything you see on the internet and we need people that are popular to tell us that? “back in the day” we use to call that common sense, now the idea of common sense is to be discarded along with everything else that helps us do better such as values and morals. And have you noticed elitists love to tell us how to live like we need them to do such. Otherwise how would we exist. Elitism is just another entity taking our souls and lives away from us and replacing it with programs and self help books (maybe the ones we shouldn’t be reading) to live a better life.

We are stuck though. To lead a better life requires effort, not just the watching the washing machine repair video work, but work at many levels. Is it revolutionary work? It should not be, however we keep postponing it so eventually it may need to be. I hope not. I prefer my little milquetoast attitude if we just do better, things will be better.

Partially goes back to my need to start using resources better. There is quite an extensive list of viable and even easily readable books on what is happening and not looking down your nose at us elitism with valid answers to our problems. I don’t use them enough or this blog would be peppered with them right and left with answers. You read a well thought out book on society and resources supplement or enhance the point the author wants to make. And there are the books, articles  etc that can supplement why I am trying to encourage you to take action in our society.

Do I get lazy and say you need to do your own research? No because to prove my points I need to direct you to the correct resources. You know, common sense approach to helping you help me.

 

And I also feel that the world’s bogeymen have not won yet, even though that might be hard to prove with the richest man in the world running amok in our lives vis a vie his access to all our information through the entity that is supposed to protect us. The picture looks bleak.

And there are many saying we are in decline and that eventually we will need to rebuild from the ashes after we have burnt the planet down. Again the milquetoast in me says we can do better. The longer we wait the harder it will be to prevent the complete burning of our house.

So what next for me, you, the winners, the losers, the in between, the future generations, the diehards, the decrepit? I don’t know. What I do know is I am not ready to give up on us and hopefully one day a few of you will agree with me. After that it is just another small revolution to bring back common sense and decency to our lives and a government that is responsive to us not them.

Yes it is a dreary cloudy day here in North Texas so maybe I am just feeling a bit morbid. Who knows? It is about to become cold. The news tells us it will be the coldest two days of the year. Let’s hope we survive 36 hours of below freezing temperature because spring is right around the corner. And yes this is Texas, surviving 36 hours of below freezing temperature is a big deal, said sarcastically.

Cheers

The one problem Trump cannot and will not solve

 

For every society to be successful, the fundamentals of the society have to be strong. One problem we face today is young people do not know what is a healthy relationship. They want to know. They struggle with trying to find out why the myth of being in love is such a failure for them. They look all the time for the right answer, yet it alludes them like trying to catch up to the horizon. You drive or even sail across a beautiful never ending open field or desert landscape or calm waters with very gently lapping waves against the boat towards this far away line that divides the sky from the earth. Yet it keeps moving or changes over time and then fades into darkness as evening comes. There is a dream, a point they want to reach, but then the sun goes down and they are left with another lonely night to contemplate what might have been.

And it is not their fault, nor anyone’s really because so many of us grew up not knowing what is a healthy relationship.  You know it is a problem because there are so many books to help you find a healthy relationship. And tomorrow there will be a new book released upon a public trying to survive in whatever version of a relationship they feel is the right one for them.

And yet there are answers or even an answer, but we struggle with it because society runs us away from it. And how we are chased away depends on who is doing the talking. Liberals will use terms like partnership. A couple needs to develop a partnership for their relationship. In some ways there is some truth to that, but that cannot be the foundation of a healthy relationship. A partnership is better defined for businesses than people in a relationship. Or women need to have control over their own bodies, which they do, but that also leads to acceptance of women commoditizing their bodies with prostitution or pornography. The more a woman has to use these tools for economic survival shows the more a society has lost track of what is a healthy woman. Woman should not have to sell themselves to earn a living, no matter how many people tell you that you are liberated and in control woman by doing so. The more woman sell themselves the more it shows the economics of that society are struggling, the values and morals are struggling, the foundations are more aligned with control of people than people being liberated. Women as a commodity is just one symptom of a society in decline and you may think things like OnlyFans help women be liberated because they have control of the situation, I say quit lying to yourself. Liberation comes from you being respected as a person.

Conservatives will talk about the need for the family, women should stay home and be traditional  or “trad” wives. What is a traditional wife? Is it one that stays home and does all the domestic chores and takes care of the children while the man goes off and earns the bacon? Honestly only in farm households and suburbia in the 1950’s do/can we even conjure up that picture. There is no real traditional wife. The era more determines what the role of the wife has been than some idealistic dream to make people think that is the correct relationship. So how do you define what is a healthy relationship in this modern era? Too many people fall for the myth of the traditional wife without really applying it to today’s world. And just like prostitution a traditional wife can be commoditized for the benefit of the man. If the expectation is she is the servant of the man, it is her role to only please then you do not have a healthy relationship. Yet some on the Christian right are trying to sell you this perverted notion of a relationship. In no way shape or form is that the role of a traditional wife. Control of another person is not a relationship.

And in both cases of a partnership or traditional wife concept a healthy relationship can be built. The relationship though shouldn’t be defined by society because society has it’s own morals that could be good or could be destructive.

Some people can simply say the only reason we have relationships is to procreate, to continue the species. And yes that is one reason to have a relationship and if we were still living in the wilderness and had no more intelligence than animals that might be all we need. We have something more in our banged up heads and that is a brain that functions differently than animals. So procreation is not the only reason for a relationship, but in a relationship you do need to be open to life because for us to continue to grow both in number and in higher ideals you need to create more life.

And before I go any further I am not going to say I have the correct answer. Sorry to burst the bubble here, yet it is you that has the answer for you. The problem I am addressing today is no one helps you to find that answer. I am somewhat active in life so I speak with many people including young people and I hear over and over why can’t I find someone.

Or people who think they have found someone and they aren’t sure why it isn’t working they way they thought much less some perfect dream.

Our society throws so much garbage at us, we lose track of why we even want a healthy relationship hence we cannot define one.  And for a society to be great, become great or be great again, the foundations of human relationships need to be strong. And yes that includes families, raising children with values, parents who understand each other and want to be with each other.

If you talk to anyone in a long term relationship, many will say you have to choose to love. And yes you do. There are going to be days, you do not particularly feel like loving your spouse. It happens. The difference is people understand when you are arguing and need to stop, or choose to love or others for a variety of reasons do not stop and choose to hate. And once the underlying separations begin it takes more and more work to coming back to choose to love. Our society encourages the choosing to hate.

You have to win, you have to be right, they didn’t love you in the first place your friends will say, how dare they treat you like that your friends go on, and in being on your side they are not helping you. Sometimes you will be right, sometimes you won’t, yet both times you need to stop and walk away and come back to it when you are ready to discuss. Will feelings be hurt sometimes? Will you have to compromise sometimes? Probably all times is the answer.

The only way you win is when you both decide what is best going forward. And the answer yesterday may not be the answer today. Our society does not tell you that.

And healthy relationships are more than partnerships. You need the emotional attachment that does not come from a business relationship. Yet in whatever agreements you make to run your family, make decisions about your finances they need to be made together and sometimes it will feel like a partnership.

All in all though we, as a society, spend more time destroying relationships than building them up. So if you truly want to make America great or great again, we need to start at home. We need to find ways to support couples and families. And this is hard. Many of us including myself did not have good role models. And not because my parents were bad. Both actually were good individuals, yet both struggled with each other and by the time I was five my parents were divorced. It took many years for me to even begin to understand I needed a relationship with someone and it needed to be healthy. And from there it took many years of marriage to begin to create a healthy relationship. And it was a struggle, yet for some reason my wife and I kept going. Yet perseverance by itself is not the answer. How many times have you heard “we stayed together because of the kids?” And then poof the relationship is gone. Perseverance by itself is not the answer and is one reason why I know I do not have the answer nor does a self help book either.

People need to know though they need a healthy relationship and from there what they do is share it. First with their children and then with their interactions with others in society.

Again I do not have the answer, yet I can say by showing the person you want to have a relationship with, you need to respect yourself and them and then you need to choose to love. So easy to type onto a page with written words, so difficult to do once much less daily in our current world. 

And by chance after you read this, get off the internet and go talk to someone, give them your love and respect for just a moment. That at least is a start.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Idealism is a failure

 

I was meandering around in my brain and that thought came up. And I thought that already has to be a book. I internet searched the phrase on three different search engines and nothing that matched it exactly appeared or found.

There are quite a few references discussing the failure of idealism yet not the exact phrase. Here are some interesting references I found:      

               The phrase “your idealism is a epic failure” (which appeared in the text box as I typed idealism is a failure.) coughed up this:

How does your idealism make you suffer? : r/infj

Reddit · r/infj

70+ comments · 8 years ago

 

I am the opposite. For many many years now, I've practiced the "Fail Fast. Fast Forward" approach; which means I learn quickly from my mistakes ...

Idealism is Just Sophistry: The Fatal Flaw of External Reality ...

Jan 14, 2024

What does Nietzsche mean by "All idealism is falseness in the ...

Mar 6, 2023

Clarification for idealism : r/askphilosophy - Reddit

Sep 14, 2024

Why reject idealism? : r/askphilosophy - Reddit

May 11, 2014

More results from www.reddit.com

 

(“a epic” is what the phrase contained, not an epic. Don’t know why)

Or I found:

Dave Pollard

https://howtosavetheworld.ca › 2009/05/06 › the-curse-...

 

May 6, 2009 — I have always been an idealist. Even as a young child I imagined worlds that were, in every way, perfect and simple.

 

 

Newsweek

https://www.newsweek.com

 

What's Wrong With Idealism? - Newsweek

Published: Jan 15, 1995

Author: Newswee…

Estimated Reading Time: 6 mins

What remains is idealism without ideas. It offers no guide to political action and creates the illusion that important decisions can be taken without conflict. The result is a failure of...

 

 

Essentia Foundation

https://www.essentiafoundation.org › idealism-may-not...

 

Idealism may not be what you think | Essentia Foundation

 

1.     

Florida Atlantic University

https://www.fau.edu › spa › pdf

 

^[PDF]

The Failure of Idealism: Mental Models and the Inability to …

The Failure of Idealism: Mental Models and the Inability to Change Public administrators are attracted to ideals. American public administration has been intimately involved with the …

 

So you can go down many rabbit holes with this one phrase, yet as I was thinking I could not see how any idealism worked. And I think many of you with just a quick thought may come to the same conclusion. We have many “ism”s yet we do not have many utopian societies. Yet the phrase that caught my attention the most is driving me mad because as I contemplated about the failure of idealism I realized idealism fails because it has no path of action. The phrase I found that came closest to my internalized meanderings is:
               What remains is idealism without ideas. It offers no guide to political action and creates the illusion that important decisions can be taken without conflict. The result is a failure of leadership. In the Clinton administration, principles enshrined in high rhetoric, such as America's commitment to Bosnia's national survival, are frequently abandoned when their cost becomes apparent.

 

This is from the Newsweek article” What’s wrong with idealism”  listed above.

 

The article pretty much describes where my thoughts devolved into to a point yet I also think that it is much more. I guess you have to look at how broad of a definition of idealism you want to use. Are we talking large scale idealism such as communism or democracy? Are we going to say the ideal has to be all encompassing for mankind? And is that where the failure lies? Or can you as the Newsweek article discusses relate it to a specific idealism that tries to solve one problem in society?

 

The article also discusses the people behind idealism or people trying to create an ideal solution to a problem. They have specific groups in mind and there is also much more, yet their example does highlight problems with trying to come up with an ideal for any situation.

Idealism in any shape form or fashion according to my brain offers no guide to political action. The authors of any ideal have to back out of the ideal and create a path to achieve the goal. In it’s most generic sense communism needed socialism to arrive at communism. Somewhere someone had to centralize all planning so all wealth could be distributed equally. Could it still be achieved? I doubt it since there are too many humans involved. And is it because of humanity or human nature that idealism will always fail? Probably, yet we still create ideals all the time. There is something ingrained in the human spirit that wants a perfect world, some kind of equality amongst men.

 

Philosophers spent millennia developing idea after idea to no avail. No one has turned the table on the foibles of mankind and figured out what we need to do to all be equal.

 

And this is not my original point, yet it must be said at this moment. This is why I believe our Constitutional Republic is the best idea so far. The key behind it is the concept of equal opportunity with protections stated for those not in power or not as “equal” as others. The failure of course is humans still want to control other humans and in our case is it the economic hierarchy  that so many of us foolishly believe will support the masses also. No wonder socialism looks so good to so many. Socialism will fail, yet capitalism only succeeds for the one percent, the rest of us are serfs. We did come close by the 1950’s. Yet it is not this time that Trump refers to when he says make America great again. No he has a different America he wants to make great. Unfortunately too many of his supporters think it is the 1950’s and (white) American workers are going to be treated well. At one point our parents and grandparents worked hard and started creating equal opportunity in practice, yet the one percent said “holy shit, this doesn’t work for us” and began the process of buying off our government for their benefit.  No revolution, no bodies lying in the street, just plain old economic power plays because they could. So most Americans do not realize how bad they were screwed. You look at the wealth gap from the 70’s to now and it is obvious, but no one  wants to do that because then you have to admit how much of a patsy you became.

 

Anyway the above paragraph was not my original intent in thinking about why idealism is a failure. Or

maybe I was thinking the above because that leaves us with one successful idealism and that is the idealism that since I am richer than you I am better than you and you must follow me or you are a bad person. It seems like that is where our society is headed unless some philosopher can create a new idealism that replaces all the failed ones that we can rally behind and watch fizzle out once we try to put it in practice without a true path for implementing it.

 

Idealisms are failures for many reasons yet I will cling to our idea of a constitutional republic until someone comes up with something better. I just hope others realize it is up to us to fight for it before it is too late.

 

Or maybe just maybe the ideal world is not of this world and we need to focus not on things on this earth. It seems when we lose our moral compass and our faith is when our societies decline. To what truth do we follow? Ours? Or? Right now it seems our society has no moral compass and more and more the lack of morals much less the casting aside of our Republic’s ideals show we are in a great heap of fecal matter.