Defund What? Who Is America Now?

Defund the police? Well, not really. BUT, it' makes the point and that's what was needed. A few things need to be defunded. Like the GOP. The NRA. But police?

Let me see if I can briefly break this down. 

Pres. Reagan first defunded social services and many of our mental health institutions to the point of breaking our nation, dumping all that and other services...and redistributing them elsewhere. Like on police, jails, and prisons. Overwhelming them to the point of dysfunction. 

Ensuing from that damage, death, social destruction lasting decades. 

To be fair, many of our mental institutions were broken since forever, in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. But in typical Republican conservative style austerity thinking, what Reagan did brought us to here, today. In having not just broken further, but entirely eliminating some very necessary resources. 

Rather than rebuilding them, rebuilding our mental health services, and too many other social services. All because they are what? Socialism? 

Give me a break. Yes, police need all the money they have and more. But also... their methodologies are old, tired, tried, tested, and bad. Many of their current, forced services desperately need to be broken down, replaced, redistributed to those departments in government who most need them. 

So they can actually be functional, and useful to American citizens. What this all means and needs IS a breaking down and rebuilding, reorienting, redistributing and reinventing in order to be functional. To actually and properly do the jobs they are mandated to do. 

To bring back services to those who can do them, who ARE well trained to do them. With new information from these past decades as we have learned so very much. Yet not simply reopen these services and yet again let ignorant lawmakers decide how they should function. But turn the power over to those who actually know what they are doing. 

As with healthcare where insurance companies, legislators try to manage, dictate a doctor's intimate knowledge of their client, with their medical services, when only the doctor can do that, with their client, whom we used to designate as "patient", we need to get back to being functional again. 

We have learned much these past decades about things the average American citizen, simply has not. And perhaps reasonably so. People are judging things now on very old information that has seeped into the mainstream. Or bad information they got from very stupid articles on the internet leading laypeople to think they know something. When surely they do not. 

America's' biggest problem? A lack of funding for necessary programs. And an end to Democrats trying to fix a system broken so very much by Republican actions. Some from very long ago. Why are we still trying to fix what isn't broken, but unnecessary? Or simply nonexistent?

All while most Republican legislators seem to have no idea what America really needs. We need to stop trying to fix what cannot be fixed. To rebuild what we truly need. Not by eliminating it! But by wisely and effectively rebuilding an infrastructure to protect, to SERVE all and not just some American citizens. 

Why can we not seem to fix our problems? 

Because we keep trying to fix what was purposely broken and long ago purposefully set on a destructive path. We need to see where this is the case, and then...dismantle it and rebuild it. We can do it!

Americans. How do we alter our path? Sometimes it can start with something very simple. Compassion, over anger. (see, How to change anyone's mind)

On another thread, we're really not all so different as studies have proven. We just seem to enjoy acting like children, and masturbating our minds to whatever strokes out fancy. 

500+ Person “America In One Room” Deliberative Polling Experiment Shows Dramatic Shifts Toward Centrist Policies Among Both Republican & Democratic Voters.

Representative Sampling of American Electorate Underwent Three Days of Briefings & Discussion on Immigration, Healthcare, Foreign Policy, Environment, & Economy; Just-Released Results Demonstrate Major Opinion Changes on Top 2020 Policies Like Medicare for All, Universal Basic Income, Immigration Restrictions, & More. Here's eve a video about it. 

Consider this as if nothing else, a thought experiment. From here forward whenever talking to others, especially Trump supporters, every single time you mention "Donald Trump", or worse, "Pres. Trump", whenever you mention that man's name, hang your head, sadly shake it "no", before lifting it with tears in your eyes.

Keep doing it until these delusional, once Republican. hopefully, still, American citizens, get the point and begin to see what they have blocked from both their eyes and minds so they will start to at least WANT to return to a social tract of reality, decency, and intelligence. 

Do NOT be afraid to use the word "social" so they can stop being so terrified of a single, simple word that only means them and us, together. 

Just as America was once not about a divided people under some confused beliefs in "God", rather a single America built of "E Pluribus Unum"...America..."Out of many, ONE"! Our real and ACTUAL American Motto. 

Because THAT is who we ARE, like it or NOT!

Enough of this idiocy. The criminal Republican profit over any or all or what it costs all others but them. The criminal Trump presidency, criminal Donald Trump, and his now criminal friends, a band growing day by day with him at the center. Enough of the GOP embracing fringe nut groups like QAnon. Enough already! ENOUGH!

America has had it! 

WE have ALL had ENOUGH!  

The "Liberal" Media

Conservatives complain (esp., now Pres. Trump) that the media is too left wing or too progressive, not conservative enough or simply anti-Republican and anti conservative.

Not really. They are just idealists.

Why? Because that is actually their job. To report, but also to gauge their reporting. To decide what to report on .What is a story, what is valuable to the readers or viewers? I think they typically start out that way and some do get jaded because of the ugly out there.

Some are just lousy journalists to be sure, who worry only about getting a story on TMZ or some rag that sells exploitation. Fox News falls into this at times which has earned them their well deserved poor reputation. Not all of Fox News, mostly their OpEd people in many of their shows but in their news as well.

The issue therefore that angers conservatives and people like Trump is that disparity between what they do, what they want to do, what they want to be seen doing, and how reporters view and report their actions.

When you lie, when you start off on an agenda that truly is wrong, reporters simply report.

Perhaps they don't report as strongly against many of those types when they do wrong, but sometimes they do come down pretty hard on people like that. In my view, not often enough. Though that has been changing of late, finally.

Let's not however miss the point in all this.

The reason they appear to be harder on the right wing is simply because of what the right wing does, and what they want to do.

Hillary's email debacle? Or a governor killing people in Flint Michigan through the people's water supply and then turning off their water when they don't pay their bills for poisoned waters, either because they are poor or are receiving contaminated water? Which is really more important?

And we keep seeing things like this over and over. Republicans keep wasting taxpayer money over useless investigations. Investigation after investigation when nothing new is learned under the belief that having ongoing investigations sheds a bad light on those being investigated even if there is nothing there.

Again which is more important? A false crisis generated over the Benghazi embassy incident? Or something we heard of far leas, George Bush's illegitimate war that killed as one report showed, over 1 million Iraqis. An illegitimate war that should never have happened, where an American president killed 100,000s of Iraqis and yet, what is important was... Benghazi?

Wake up. Or grow up.

It's disingenuous much of the time for Mr. Trump to say how dishonest the media is, when all they are doing is railing at stupidity, at mean-spirited actions, or at out right unethical behavior that is allowed "just because" or because of tradition.

Or a despicable agenda supported by deep rooted beliefs from religion. Or the foolish ideologies of a conservative Republican party.

Deep State 2.0

All this talk by conservatives about the "Deep State" got me thinking.

First, it was patently funny. There are career government employees who go on administration after administration. They run the government. Thank God for that too. Especially with this new amateur administration who is stumbling along at breakneck speeds.

They have lied. They have cheated. They may have broken the laws and they may have committed treason. Time will tell.

They have done bad things and then pointed fingers claiming the other side did it. That is important. Remember it.

Now we hear talk about a so called "deep state". Nothing like a moniker, a bad guy, an enemy. Otherwise, the Republican party might go poof into a puff of smoke and vanish.

But here's the thing.

"They" actually are the deep state. They are Deep State 2.0.

They are not conservative, or republican and surely they are not democrat or progressive. Best I can figure out is they are simply, capitalists. But even that doesn't explain all their actions. Whenever that happens one has to look beyond money, to power. To the long game. But we're not seeing a long game being played. By the Russians, yes, to e sure.

But "They" now are, as best it can be explained, the Trump administration. Now you are seeing just who they are and how easily they can pull the blinds over their supporter's eyes. But people are beginning to wise up. Still they, are smart. They will find a new crises to distract as they have time and again, even with the help of Russians.

At some point we will have to wake up and ask ourselves, just who IS running America now?

It's not the people. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. It's not the electoral college. Even though they decided the new president. As the democratic president candidate lost in 2000, so too, with a bigger and better strategy, the wrong guy won yet again.

One has to ask oneself, why does this keep happening? True, President Barack Obama was an outlier THEY didn't foresee. But they woke up from that, just as they began to put to sleep most of America. And the Russians helped. Both with, and without the conscious knowledge of those now holding the White House hostage.

How else could a charlatan like Donald J Trump become the President of the United States of America? Seriously. How is that even possible?

Well, in reality? It's not. But it did happen. It's a conundrum to be sure. One that surprised even Donald J Trump.

Yet again now with this deep state nonsense, they are once more distracting. They are the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. But they are not the kind old loser. Not by a long shot.

Why is it taking government so long to out these guys? Why indeed. Government is designed to move slow. That protects the people. But the people are not the concern anymore. They are only the smoke by which the mirrors are put into place in order to fill out the agenda of those in the public eye, those who are acting right in front of us and we can't even see it.

What are they doing? That is really the question. And it is one we will uncover very soon. Hopefully, before they can lock things down so we can never writggle out from beneath he heavy weight of so much money and power. And stupidity.

Because above all other things, our one saving grace is exactly that. That they are...stupid.

Stupid because the truth always wins out. However, the "winners" also write the history. Still, we are not a one world government...yet. We have different languages, a saving grace. Because with different languages we have different concepts, different points of view. Through those views, some can obviously see what is going on.

Stupid because people are what really matters. Honesty, clarity, productivity for all and not just for some few special ones, are what matter over corporate and wealthy individual needs.

There is a lot going on in the world right now. For two decades we've been told by those in the intelligence community that there are more spies on the ground world wide right now than there ever were during the "cold war" years.

Our intelligence analysts in America have grown exponentially. But they are actually on our side.

What about this, deep state, then? Who's side are they on? An article by Al Jezeera says progressives now see the deep state as being on their side. They too indicate something awry. They too seem confused. Why is that?

It's obvious, if you just stop to think, back up and take a look at the entire picture.

The deep state is what is actually now running things. And they are pointing fingers claiming anyone else is them. They are out in the open. Exposed. Many have fallen already. More are to come. Russia and Vlad Putin have put their fingers on things which further complicated and confused things.

Obfuscation and obstruction are the rules of the day. Ask yourself. Who has been doing that the most? Who benefits the most? Who claimed they would do one thing if elected and have since done exactly the opposite. Supporters still try to rationalize ridiculous actions by their hero. Still claiming hope is solid, even in the face of massive evidence that does not support that and in fact, supports just the opposite.

So no. The deep state is not out savior. But it is also not those who the actual deep state are pointing fingers at, with the help of conservatives and conspiracy nuts, who started all this nonsense and fairy tales. Which they are really so very bad at, and think they are oh so very good at.

And so I give you, the real deep state: Money. Money, and those who control it. We see our government bow down to it, again and again and again. Within confines so it doesn't look obvious just who controls what. And yet, there they are again, and again. Making excuses, using ridiculous ideologies, abusing the system to save money, or make money, or to buy power.

And there we are, caught in the middle, wondering just what in the hell is going on. For some of us, we grab whatever reason we can find, so we feel we have some control, any control and we will believe nearly anything from what we're seeing.

Delusion, upon delusion, upon delusion.

And there is plenty more to come....stay tuned.

Like you can do anything else, right?

Trust in Politics

I want to address two issues here right now. Keith Olbermann and trust.

Keith and his show on Youtube, The Resistance with Keith Olbermann, are awesome. He gives me a catharsis, satiates my need for reality and over reaction at times. But he is a resource. I use him for information that I can look into. When I validate his reasonable reactions to something, then I go on with it. If I find him a bit over the top, or just too far out there, I don't pursue that. But I share his videos for others to see and listen to. It's up to them to do their own vetting of information. If I have time I point out what I can, either that isn't punched up enough by Keith, or when he stretches a point to the end of its elasticity.

Rachel Maddow and her The Rachel Maddow Show (TRMS), whom I also love to watch and cannot any longer as I don't get MSNBC on my cable package, is a more restrained version of Keith. She makes it very obvious when she is stretching a partisan point. I'm so used to her I feel like a light goes off in my head when she does that. She doesn't exactly wink and nod at the camera when she is going over the top, but almost.

The other thing I like about Rachel is that she gives you historical context in things, so you can make up your own mind. She doesn't just feed you pablum like conservative media does, who just expects you to believe them and not verify what they say. Liberals verify them, which is why they are always discounting them in public. If only conservatives would do that properly (not in a liberal fashion, but a rational one), we'd all have so much less of this polarization effect.

Conservatives, from what I've seen from them, don't get that. They seem to swallow the load hook, line and sinker from conservative pundits and punks. I say that about them because in lying to the public, in warping the truth like that, they become an evil entity. And by association, so do conservatives who willingly or unwillingly allow themselves to be a part of that.

Trust. I hear a lot about trust, mostly from conservatives. "I don't trust Obama." "I don't trust the US Government." "I don't trust Democrats." Even when there is no reason not to. It's kind of childish.

And a false equivalency. To say liberals simply don't trust conservatives isn't the same. It's not the same because regardless of conservative diatribe, liberals do not lie as much. It's a proven fact. But liberal media, by objective media, by international media. Not so much by conservative media.

I don't so much look at things in relation to "trust". It's a simplified form of political thinking. It's again, childish. It's a conservative thing.

Conservatives don't "trust" because they are ignorant. Liberals don't trust mostly because conservative contentions are so often incorrect or out right lies.

You listen, to everything. That's harder for liberals because of literally so much nonsense from conservatives who consistently discount proven facts, accepted lines of thought. It's embarrassing. If not by them, from all others.

You listen, you verify, then you act.

Conservatives seem to not listen very often, if it doesn't get through their conservative filters, they don't tend to verify unless it's only through their own media, and then they act, but on so frequently what is false information.

And it is damaging to themselves, America, and frankly, Mother Earth.

It is also warping reality for others, and therefore, it is evil. If you are spreading that false information as fact, then you too are evil.

Don't be, evil. We have enough like that already.

Allegory of the Myopus and Leeries

Happy Presidents' Day! I hope you had the day off and a great week! Speaking of which, there is a White House petition about voting no confidence on Congressional Republicans and their obstructionist actions. They are paid to work for what they were elected for and they take our money and yet, they do not do their job. Whichever side you are on, we should all still expect they do their job and not do anything-but-their-job, as we have seen them do time and time again. Moving along.... I've said this before but... part of the problems we're seeing is no that one notices. Let me put it this way.... Substitution, Assimilation, Habituation. Substitution: We are lied to, changes are put into place. The further we get from the original lie the more ingrained and believable the lie becomes. Assimilation: Lies are told professing that things are getting better for the reasons and lies given previously but then as things degenerate further, other reasons are given and distractions are caused or dwelled upon when they happen ("Can't be having them think what we did caused it after all"), making it all much worse. Habituation: People become used to the status quo which is worse than it was before and now people believe the lies because of what they were told and sometimes in very little time it becomes hard to see what the truth once was and currently is. Then the people are told the fix is more of the same. Things continue to get worse, all while pointing the finger at those trying to now fix it but few can believe them or understand any longer. In fact it seems so far out of reality that the popular vote is for more of what is causing the issue. More, more, more, fix it, fix it, fix it, desperation, follow those who act like they know what they are doing because they act so self assured and oh I hope they are not lying to us. But that occurs less and less to even occur to many. Consider the story of the ridiculous thought. Or this short tale for clarification: "The Allegory of the Myopus and the Leeries". In a magical and far off land it becomes reported that people were beginning to DIE left and RIGHT. This frightened the people as their leaders told them to run for safety, that horrible things were approaching. "Run to the cliff! There is SAFETY there! No one will go over the edge. The edge is good! Trust us! We won't allow bad things! There is more freedom there. Pay no attention to how far from the cliff edge we all are over here on our Hillock!" The people running were the Myopus. Others screamed warnings as those running to "safety" fell off the cliff. Those few others who had stopped running and instead looked around, could see what was happening. Those few were the Leeries. They tried their best to tell the others to stop their advance to destruction. But those blindly running called the Leeries "brainwashed" and weak, socialists, communists, or even worse. They said they were people who wanted everything for free instead of running to the edge with everyone else. The edge which only seemed scary to the Leeries so they yell for people to stop. Or maybe the Leeries wanted the Myopus to die? Everyone knows the edge is where safety truly lies. Those on the Hillock continued shouting, "Run faster, get to the cliff!" All while they sucked down fine wines and grinned. Some of their underlings remained among the crowds doing their bidding and preaching the message. Those lesser types were protected by those on the Hillock. Others beneath them preached what is being preached to them by those between them and those upon the Hillock. Those in the middle were protected. But those below them reaped no benefits. 

Then even they too went over the edge with the masses of Myopus. No one heard any more from them. They were gone and simply no longer relevant. A few were very strong or simply lucky, and they survived. They didn't go over the cliff. They looked with disdain among the others, berating them all as weak and thus elevating themselves. They began to feel as important as those on the Hillock. Those who will only ever see them as they do all the rest. As those to be used and discarded. Traded and abused as mere capital. Still the masses continued to the edge of the cliff and many fell. Finally one day enough began to see that something wasn't adding up. Because this kind of thing cannot go on forever. Even those on the Hillock once knew that. Yet they too have been deluded and continued to believe themselves invincible. Eventually enough voices were raised and some began to take notice. That was when the crackdown on them really began. Through false laws, by removing them from society in various and obvious ways, they took their votes and their voices, and the dissent slowed to a trickle. The voices quieted. After a while though more voices are raised. Eventually a tipping point is hit until finally a couple of lone voices find themselves in position to take the lead. To convince others they can actually make change possible. They say: "You do not have to go over the cliff! You can simply throw those on the Hillock over the cliff instead. Once again the people can be happy!" Eventually through changes even those old and new up on the Hillock could be happy. But they could not see it. They fought even against their own best interests and that of all others. They could not see that they are not the only ones who were important. It was to be a long journey. They may have to build a fence to stop the people from continuing to go over the cliff. Some louder voices were raised. They pointed beyond the shores and said:
"Yes, yes! Build a wall but to keep those out because they are the problem, not us!" 
Many screamed out in joy because the answer was easy and an easy answer, even when it is wrong, is preferable to a real and more difficult answer that seems to them, to be impossible. A new thing becomes available. Many people begin to learn of possible alternate Truths and within those reside the old, the hidden and actual Truth. How does this all end? Well, it's never very pretty. Whenever you have someone in control and try to remove them, most especially if it's a monster or a vast and incorporated machine, they will fight more than ever as the removal begins and realization dawns that the end is near. Once they know there are only moments left, that is when the fighting will be the most horrible, the most damaging. When all stops are pulled out and attempts are made to try to damage anyone attempting to remove them from their perch upon their cherished Hillock. Possibly a scorched earth policy is adopted and then the real damage begins. All or nothing. Either they will have it all or no one will have anything. And yet, even though half of the people continue to believe their imposed and self imposed mass delusions, a light begins to shine out of the shadows. People previously unrealized are seen and more and more come to terms with what has been happening. With a great and mighty effort the now wiser people begin to push through the foolish and the ignorant, and against their best efforts they try to save them too. In the end they try to save the entire land and all who are living there. Because that is how it is done. That is how it should be. Finally even the foolish people come to realize they had made a great mistake. 

Many apologize, many give thanks to those who deserve it, but most cannot apologize. It is hard to admit that everything you have believed in has led you to your own demise. Even when others tried to warn you. It is hard to admit you did wrong, because you think that may destroy you in the future. And you may be right. Those who had saved everyone are much happier now. Of those who were on the Hillock, many were deposed. Then new ones from below took their places. Some have been replaced by their own children who now see the way things can be and who begin to appreciate that you do not need massive amounts more than you can ever use. Even though they will still have so much more than they can ever use. But that is capitalism. That is freedom. Freedom can be a great thing. It can also be a terrible thing in the wrong hands. Just like capitalism. Just like any pure thought, it can be abused when the wrong filters are put into place. Or the wrong people gain control or too much power. In a closed economy such as the world is, unlimited wealth has to be limited. It cannot be allowed to run rampant. That is not communism or socialism. That is reality. Finally people could see how vast wealth can lead to vast abuse. How that needs to be controlled for the benefit of those on the Hillock, as well as those far beneath them and any and all others. In order for those on the Hillock to be protected, they must protect those below them. All people must be protected but those who control the people. Therefore, the people must control the people. As their new life settled in, everyone was much happier. Some grumbled, but even they came to realize they were much safer now. After all, in everyone being safe, everyone is safe. In the meantime on yet another Hillock, one at which no one is looking, new people arise looking to bring back the old regime. It is an ancient story. A few of the secretly powerful are still around because no one ever knew about them; only those well known among the people. Many others are there still in place. Just as when a congress changes through term limitations, there are always those who remain from term, to term, to term. Running things behind the scenes. Those who are like the people, the Myopus and the Leeries and this is a good thing. Knowledge needs to be retained and to be passed on. When you have those who are upon the Hillock, or on a far bigger Hillock, one that no one is even aware of, who are supporting those who are wealthy and powerful and elected by no one other than their privilege, then there is no control, only desire, only their plans, only their actions for their purposes. What is that purpose one has to ask? But who can ask "what purpose" when few even know that purpose exists, or that those people exist, other than through the symptomatology of how things are running, and being run? It takes constant vigilance. It takes always fighting for the people to live well, over that of merely existing, or in supporting wealth, power, and control over the people. It takes living in and maintaining a country built to sustain the people... and not just the powerful.