Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2017!

Wishing everyone a happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2017, especially for all those that carries much meaning for. It's good to reflect on the progress made for the ideals he promoted, to realize the advances made you may not be old enough to appreciate.

Apologies also to all those who feel correctly so we have not yet made the progress we should have made by now.

Life, politics, government, and citizens in general, are frequently two steps forward, one step back, with variations. We're at a time where it appears we are going more than two steps backward. But we are a nation of many diverse people and there are many who cannot evolve that quickly. It is a nice thought to consider putting them, our weakest, in front of our progress to try to bring them along with us and in some cases, to monitor closely their progress or lack thereof.

That being said, in being behind them, we can also nudge them along. These next hopefully no longer than four years we will have to be in that role of support and being the engine of progress through a cloak of resistance and blindness. While they may avoid or resent progress, we will have to act as if they are the children we love and need to nurture, and at times with a firm hand, show them the path out of their perceived nightmare, which is only the dark bedroom of a child.

They just need to learn where the light switch is. And it may be painful. Dr. King knew that, and he kept going. And it may kill some of us. That too us humanity. Sometimes we can kill as a people, as an ill mindset, and once that happens, we make a leap forward together. Evolved, educated people can avoid that. many Republicans and conservatives do not like good and proper education, ignorance supports bad ideas. We have to work through that.

It's been said, Democrats are very bad at selling good ideas and Republicans are very good at selling bad ideas. We have seen that, time and again.

We will have to work through that. Hopefully some day we can all see the ideas we work together for are good ideas. I know it seems lost. It's not. And remember, steps forward and back when sped up, are actually a dance and we all have to learn how to dance if we wish to archive the progress we so sorely need.

All the best!

We all do our part in our own way.

#Trump #Conservatives #GOP #Republicans #Democrats

Our Modern Authoritarian Politicians

Just...an observation from what I've been seeing. I'll try to define as I go for those who are unfamiliar.

First we have to address this new intelligence report on Trump and the one that McCain gave the FBI last month.

There is much in modern politics today that is damaging to the whole (including those opposing them) but is massively self-serving of those who us it. To be sure some of these elements are being used by both sides, but as with much of what we see today, it is a false equivalency by one side against the massive action on the other. Plausible deniability is the order of the day. This single concept has filtered down to mean more than it originally was intended or used for and at the levels it was typically initiated at.

Plausible deniability is the ability for persons (typically senior officials in a formal or informal chain of command) to deny knowledge of or responsibility for any damnable actions committed by others (usually subordinates in an organizational hierarchy) because of a lack of evidence that can confirm their participation, even if they were personally involved in or at least willfully ignorant of the actions. - Wikipedia

Non-attribution to the United States for covert operations was the original and principal purpose of the so-called doctrine of "plausible denial." Evidence before the Committee clearly demonstrates that this concept, designed to protect the United States and its operatives from the consequences of disclosures, has been expanded to mask decisions of the president and his senior staff members. — Church Committee (Wikipedia)

Those who have been most forcefully using it are elements of the neo fascists (even pseudo fascists, a political movement arising in Europe after World War II and characterized by policies designed to incorporate the basic principles of fascism (as nationalism and opposition to democracy) into existing political systems. Wake up on this one.

This includes those authoritarians, right wingers (including Alt Right), the neo conservatives (relating to or denoting a return to a modified form of a traditional viewpoint, in particular a political ideology characterized by an emphasis on free-market capitalism and an interventionist foreign policy) and those either theistic based (even if the individual or organization is atheistic in nature) or fawning theism for purposes of acquiring power. Another thing that has got to stop along with so much concern, so much sick fascination over personal lives for that of public ones.

They skillfully utilize modern techniques in persuasion using elements of counter-intelligence, even and in some cases greatly so using counter-intellectualism, disingenuous (not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does or twisting elements about to appear the opposite of what they are, or blaming an opposing group for what the claimants are perpetrating) polemics (using a strong verbal or written attack on someone or something).

This is what we need to fight against. Big money is politics utilizes it going back to their Godhead, the Tobacco industry, which the auto and petroleum industries have taken to their bed and that unholy marriage has led to its dissemination into politics to the detriment of the citizenry it supports, is supposed to protect, and exists only for the express purpose of making their lives better. Or to prop up bad ideas, bad ideologies, or whatever ideologies get them into and keep them in, power.

Further, rationalizing various points of democracy has led to a mentality of "the ends justifies the means", and that of (and sometimes, which is the needle as it is AT TIME true but not to the degree to which it has been utilized) that the nation comes before that of the individual citizenry. Which has led, along with big money and the sometimes unholy alliance of lobbyists (but again, as lobbyists have pointed out, they sever a special need, and it is the dynamic between them and others, and the interplay of power and money that has been and should be vilified) to separate out the protection and elevation of the citizens for that of the politicians, the powerful, the leaders of industry and corporations.

We have a big job ahead of us. We'll need the right person and people at the top, the right people surrounding (honestly) her (and I'm not referring just to Hillary but not a man) and those around that person. They will need the correct and cohesive national mindset to bear us through to see this applied, accomplished and eventually, through undoubtedly much pain and strife, fixed.

I see the desires on both sides of the aisle to fix this, but only on the left does there seem to be a reasonable mindset that comes close to reality in order to find the right path.

What we see in the bulk of the conservative right is simply far too much magical thinking.

Proof?

"Trump will save us! He says only HE can fix all this!"

Uh, huh. Oh yeah, this will go just fine....

Magical thinking comes from religion. Religion seems to be the moniker by which those who come to power need to bow and feign honest subservience to, all while they have no real feeling for it, no real adherence to it considering all the things mentioned above. But as with all the other elements of the modern politician have made use of and cast aside religious adherence like a pair of socks, discarding when dysfunctional, all while still ascribing a use and belief in.

Oh yeah, I can see this is all gonna go just fine for the next four years...if he can make it that far.

Trump is really irritating. Says he knows more than our Intelligence community says he knows "a lot about hacking."

I don't have the TIME or space to explain how much he doesn't know, ESPECIALLY about hacking. I wonder if he is a hunt and pecker on his keyboard. I wonder if he calls the IT guy every time he has a glitch on his home system. I wonder if he can even USED a computer.

He's pretty much far more of an embarrassment that Bush was.

We're in for a very Chinese style "interesting times" with this character in charge. Here's hoping this next intel briefing he's going to get dresses him down in such a way his brain kicks in, begins to work in the real world and actually starts to see something based on reality and not just what his "really good brain" and his own imagination comes up with.

Remember, Trump's imagination is based on two things primarily, both directed at better HIS position in the world. One, being a businessman. Two, conning his business marks, and now, thanks to people who cast their vote and made him president, we're now (and in his conflated mind, the entire world) are his marks.

America, World at large? You are Trump's big con (large confidence game\scam\trick) "mark" and a mark is all these things to a conman:
...something that shows how someone feels about something, this refers to the mark's attitude, to be manipulated in the con.
...a sign or indication of something, which shows what the mark is to a conman, an object to be manipulated.
...a quality or trait that is typical of a particular type of person or thing, what the con learns about and manipualted for their own good and the detriment of the mark in taking something away from the mark which sometimes is simply dignity, as perhaps the mark has access to something they don't own ouright, but the con can steal anyway.
...the line or place where a race starts, the mark is the beginning, the line of the scam starting.
...a cross made in place of a signature by someone who cannot read and write, the attitude of the con toward the mark in their being stupid, not as smart as the con artist. And Trump is an artist in many ways when it comes to taking things from people. This is common knowledge and if you don't know about it, you're a... then you're a prime mark.
...something that is aimed at or shot at, self-explanatory.
...a person who is tricked into losing money or property...America.

Happy New Year!

#GOP #Trump #NewtGingrich #Putin

Trump vs Kim Jong Un and his North Korean Nukes

Would you stand between two gunslingers in a showdown where you can't tell, you can't be sure what they will do? Standing there between two narcissists who think they are the great one while they are unpredictable if not outright unstable?

Okay now think of Trump as POTUS on the east coast of the US and North Korea just uh, north, of South Korea. 

Even if NK can launch a nuke at the US, it's Alaska, maybe Hawaii, perhaps more so Guam, or at some point, possibly Seattle who is going to get it, not the east coast, not Trump. So effectively we also have two gunslingers where one can't even be hit. As we've seen, Trump is real brave, until he is actually in danger. Then he tends to run like a little girl. And not a beautiful one. 

Now consider... I live in Bremerton, a navy town near Seattle, just across the Puget Sound. But I've lived in the PNW all my life mostly, born in Tacoma, WA. I've grown up through the cold war, with threat of nuclear annihilation and only the apparently highly effective program and theory of MAD protecting us. Just up the road a little way from my house is Nuclear Sub Base Bangor. As a kid I lived near McChord MAC AF Base and Ft. Lewis Army Training Base, now both JBLM (Joint Base Lewis -McChord). 

1962 Soviet Nuke Strike radius, line to my elementary school then.

You can use NukeMap to detail your own home town strike. Or more quickly, here is a US Nuclear Strike map.

Washington has always been a target for nuclear missile strikes. Lot of bomb shelters around here when I was a kid and missile bases. You learn to live with it. In second grade during a nuclear attack drill when we were ordered to get under our desks, I had to ask our teacher why? She asked why I asked and I said because in a real attack the nukes blow sideways. 

She gave me a look that said, "shut up, you're scaring the other kids." It didn't make me feel any better and I saw the scared looks from the other second graders, but I shut up and did the ridiculous drill anyway. Basically it was for an attack that happened a long way off. Except, my grade school, and you can look it up, James Sales Elementary School, is about a half of a mile away. A nuke's strike diameter at that time was 

If you live elsewhere than the west coast consider this. NK is trying to build nuclear missiles on subs. The long term concern for America for many years has not even been a missile, but a briefcase nuke. Not even a full blown nuke but a dirty bomb of conventional explosives wrapped in nuclear material. 

On Nuclear Bombs vs Dirty Bombs vs Suitcase Bombs vs EMP Bombs.

A study showed that if one were delivered downtown Seattle, it could render many square blocks of the downtown district uninhabitable for many, many years. Not so much a devastating blow (other than to those citizens who died from it) but surely one economically speaking.

Feel any better now? 

No. Me either.

Maybe Trump will be to North Korea, what Richard Nixon was to China and bring them into the world.

Here's hoping. 

#Trump

Special: End of the Trump \ Pence Administration - 2040

From a standard history book in 2040:

"Donald J Trump, a quickly forgotten businessman turned politician for profit, was America's last Republican president. A narcissistic and authoritarian style politician he had been a reality TV star (see, "The Apprentice") and businessman of questionable ethics. Trump ran for President of the United States of America in the election of 2016 and much to everyone's amazement (including his own and that of his campaign staff), he won.

"Trump's campaign, which started merely as a joke and a way to enhance the "Trump" brand under the guise of "cleaning up the swamp" (referring to Washington DC politics) and "Making America Great Again" (a slogan that had little substance or meaning to it, but resonated a great deal with faux conservatives who had little or nothing better to do). The campaign was propped up by a rag tag ad hoc supporter base of the disenfranchised, the poor, the uneducated (see, "I love the uneducated"), many who should have simply known better, oddly enough a Christian evangelical base and those we now know as the Faux Freedom Believers (FFB) mindset in America at that time.

"This was a group who pushed for freedom of public lands (so individual Republicans profiting from it didn't have to pay to use public lands), a desire for "a gun in every hand", and essentially a desire for anarchy in wanting little or better yet, no government, all along with a faux conservative electorate and the rapidly dissolving Republican Party (see, "Zombie Republican Party") who saw in Trump, simply a way to regain power no matter how crazy he sounded or how ignorant is grasp of civics and world politics was during a very dangerous time in the world.

"Trump's election was also the last time Christian Americans lost the path of their religion and elected someone like Trump for reasons of, "just because". Even though he had exhibited a lifetime of a lifestyle that was the antithesis to what Christianity espoused. But then most Christians had little clue about what their leader, Jesus, really wanted or said or meant. Christianity lost many believers after Trump's short lived administration because it was taken over by Mike Pence who was his short lived Vice President (See, "Downfall of Pres. Mike Pence") and it began the American decline of the Christian Evangelical movement.

"Russia also saw opportunity in this election and helped from afar through electronic connections and elsewhere including direct interactions through Russian espionage operatives, in order to enhance and assure the Trump election. This included a branch of the FSB in Wikileaks and it's founder, Julian Assange (see, "2019 Assange Execution by FSB"). Thus assuring Russia a place at the negotiating table in being closer to the head of the table along with American interests. Russian interests which over time were found to overwhelm American desires for Russian ones through the cult of personality of Russian President Vladimir Putin (much like Trump's). This Ex-KGB trained operative ruled Russia for many years and was an authoritarian nationalist (see the article, "Be Extremely Wary of Nationalism") who abused international borders, killed his dissenters and reporters he did not like, and had ex patriots killed in their new home countries (see, "Alexander Litvinenko").

"Trump did not last through his first 100 days as president before uncovered illegal activities came to light, an ever increasing instability and a Nixon like breakdown in office (see, "Pres. Richard Nixon Barked Like a Dog Under Pressure and Other Stories of Mental Illness"). It is difficult now for critical thinkers to consider how it could have been possible for something so obvious and happening in the open wasn't realized and put down. But that is how a well run operation is executed on a foreign power. Again it is very hard to understand, though Russian activities in American politics is understandable, how an American Republican party would work against its own country and citizens.

"Among other things It was also found over time and finally accepted that:

"1) Trump had attained the election during a period of duress by the America people in lying to them publicly and openly and getting away with it, and other questionable activities (see, "Backdoor Manipulations of the Electorate");

"2) Trump had the help of long term detrimental workings through Soviet Union style disinformation and misinformation by both the Russian intelligence community (as directed by their leader, Vladimir Putin), as well as oddly enough by the now defunct American Republican Party. Also and in general by American faux conservatives (true followers of the conservative mindset were wary of all this) through right wing media (see, "Wingnut Media") and citizen groups against the Democratic nominee running against him for President in that of Hillary Clinton. One time First Lady during the 1990s Clinton Administration of her husband Bill Clinton, as well as having served as a Senator and Secretary of State in the Barack Obama Administration it was later found that nearly all of the negative beliefs about her were false and had been managed by Russian intelligence and again, and oddly enough (again), the American Republican Party.

"3) This section is so extensive it is here simply labeled, Money (see, "Illegal Actions by Pres. Donald J Trump)."

"America learned a great deal from the Trump/Pence administration even though in total it only lasted a mere two years and brought down with it many Republican Congressional leaders such as Mitch McConnell who was jailed and later murdered in prison for crimes against America. It was only a two year term of office that took nearly twenty years for America to recoup from both inside America and with their damaged international prestige. The American legacy was quickly resurrected and enhanced once a Democratic president took over in 2018 (see, "Emergency Presidential Election of 2018"). It was an election that was also supported even by the soon to be dissolved (by the FBI) Republican party (See, "New Party of the Republic" (NPR)) which grew more to be far more functional than it's precursor in the old GOP (Grand Old Party). American politics after the election of 2018 began to be more functional from then on for the first time in over twenty years (see, "Arrest and incarceration of Newt Gingrich").

There is hope. There is always, hope.


#Trump #Putin #GOP

I miss the Intellectual Conservative

Conservative - holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion.
Conservatism as we've known it from the beginning, is dead.

• I miss the true intellectual conservative.
• I miss William F Buckley, Jr.
• I miss the non theological conservative, the ones who could differentiate between personal beliefs and the American way. One would could see that the American way wasn't based on religion, but based on protection of citizens allowing them the freedoms to practice religion, or more sanely as our Founding Fathers preferred but had trouble in their society much as we do now, in exemplifying no religion at all.
• I miss the conservative who understands what true freedom is and not just the current conservative understanding of what they want it to be.
• I miss the conservative who understands what has been sacrificed for them to have the right to believe and say utter nonsense, and yet these new wannabe conservatives don't get that just because one has a right doesn't mean one should exercise it unduly or inappropriately and certainly not just to exercise your desire for satiation against reason.
• I miss the conservative with a brain. 
• I miss conservatism that believed in conserving our conservation lands. 
• I miss the conservative that wasn't overtly and destructively religious.
• I miss the rational conservative, the educated conservative, the conservative who knows how to debate, use facts, become educated, who can acknowledge reality as defined by experts who actually know what reality is in any one or more areas.

I miss the Intellectual Conservative

Willam F. Buckley wrote something about Donald Trump when he was talking about running for President — in 2000. Buckley, in an essay he wrote for  Cigar Aficionado and said the following about Trump:

Look for the narcissist. The most obvious target in today’s lineup is, of course, Donald Trump. When he looks at a glass, he is mesmerized by its reflection. If Donald Trump were shaped a little differently, he would compete for Miss America. But whatever the depths of self-enchantment, the demagogue has to say something. So what does Trump say? That he is a successful businessman and that that is what America needs in the Oval Office. There is some plausibility in this, though not much. The greatest deeds of American Presidents — midwifing the new republic; freeing the slaves; harnessing the energies and vision needed to win the Cold War — had little to do with a bottom line.

Many conservatives and Trump supporters suffer from the arrogance of ignorance.

In that ignorance they call others out for that same thing because they have information that feels foreign or unreal to them. Actual facts do tend to feel unfamiliar to those unknowledgeable. And it gives incorrect information a familiar feel to it, especially when it already matches their agenda, their desires and their beliefs.

That behavior of calling out others when you have done something wrong, is a mainstay of the Republican party.

A party that is not ignorant itself but guilty of their own actions, of purposefully attack Americans through government, not out of ignorance, but so often out of a desire for power and money.

Some out of a skewed desire to do good, but they cannot see that within the environment they have built and allowed others to build around them. Out of a desire to be their own entity outside of one they despise. In this way they have allowed themselves to be further encased in their detached ideologies.

And so, other than the few bigots and racists in their party, they are very much a party desiring the best for America.

No matter how many may need to die to achieve that goal.
I miss the Intellectual Conservative Four Pillars of Conservatism

The first pillar of conservatism is liberty, or freedom. [But one can push anything too far, and they certainly strive to do that]

The second pillar of conservative philosophy is tradition and order. [as we've seen tradition can stifle growth when, as conservatives tend to do, you go too far, exaggerate thinking more is better. But a bowl of ice cream is delicious, a bowl for each meal without other sustenance, day in and day out brings on diabetes and potentially death]

The third pillar is the rule of law. [Fascists love this pillar and again, overdoing anything is too much]

The fourth pillar is belief in God. Belief in God means adherence to the broad concepts of religious faith—such things as justice, virtue, fairness, charity, community, and duty. These are the concepts on which conservatives base their philosophy.[there truly, with all that is going on today, no reason to further extrapolate on this very dangerous one]

I miss the Intellectual Conservative

#conservative

Happy New Year 2017!

Wishing you all world wide, all the happiness and conform, safety and prosperity possible...and then some!

If 2016 is any sign of what we're going to be up against, it looks like we're gonna need it! 

We'll make it. We'll rise to the occasion, no matter what it is or who is at odds with us!

Peace!

Sláinte 

Trump HAS an Attention Span?

The most important primary difference between myself and Donald Trump? I'd never consider running for President of the United States of America. And I think in many ways I'd do a better job then he will.

In all areas not involved with making ME (or Trump) greater, or richer, that is. I'm sure he would win in those areas because in part, my better nature, my ethical considerations would stop me from going over the top and choosing myself over America, or as the Leader of the Free World. Well, the free world....

First let me say that the current argument going around that electing a president just to get a fresh perspective on government to evoke changes, is not a viable argument. It IS however the modern civilized version of a revolution or what would at onetime be an armed insurrection.

Yes, I do much prefer it this way. But having an ignorant put "fresh eyes" on our government and situation to fix it, does not allow for his orientation of big money or his bigoted considerations or his conman style of winning at all costs using whatever tactics it takes, agreeing with everyone in your face and your lowest common denominator in public, using the ends to justify the means.

It's at least a questionable and kind of juvenile tactic. Not, even if it works (and that says something about those it works upon), as it's not a big brain tactic. It's a little brain tactic for little brains to be affected by.

Anyway, getting back to my point....

So Trump's and my greatest difference is? Other than the GOP protecting him against Russian involvement in his election, while they went nuts against Hillary?

I personally believe that America is greater than myself.

Oh, and I can hold a thought longer than 12 seconds. ADD people can have great talents. They have to learn how to be functional and mostly, in most careers, hide it from others. But there are some jobs I'm not so sure it's good to hold if you have ADD and if you have negative other associated, or typically unassociated behaviors like narcissism, severe greed of power or money.

From a JEVA LANGE article at The Week - "How long is Donald Trump's attention span?" (9/6/2016) "I think he's definitely got attention deficit disorder. That doesn't mean he isn't really smart — it just means he's not at his best when he's asked to dwell on a topic," Trump biographer Michael D'Antonio told Politico.

From MICHAEL KRUSE in his Politico article: "Donald Trump’s Shortest Attribute Isn’t His Fingers - People who know him well are starting to ask: Can he focus enough to run the Oval Office?" September 08, 2016

"In the late 1980s, Jack O’Donnell, one of Donald Trump’s Atlantic City casino executives, devised a special strategy for talking to the in-and-out owner. “I would know Donald was coming to town,” O’Donnell said in a recent interview from his home in Arizona. “And if you were going to pitch him something, you would say”—and here he sped up his cadence, as if he were hitting a verbal fast-forward button—“‘Oh-hey-Donald-good-to-see-you-hey-I-wanted-to-run-something-by-you.’ Boom. That was it. Because if you hit him too late in the conversation, he might say, ‘Let’s talk about it later’—and he was gone.”

Finally....

From a New Yorker article by JANE MAYER recounting Trump's biographer Tony Schwartz regards as one of Trump’s most essential characteristics:

“He has no attention span.”

"But Schwartz believes that Trump’s short attention span has left him with “a stunning level of superficial knowledge and plain ignorance.” He said, “That’s why he so prefers TV as his first news source—information comes in easily digestible sound bites.” He added, “I seriously doubt that Trump has ever read a book straight through in his adult life.” During the eighteen months that he observed Trump, Schwartz said, he never saw a book on Trump’s desk, or elsewhere in his office, or in his apartment."

For the record, I had ADHD as a kid and ADD as an adult and have been pretty successful in my life and apparently I have some talents. Unlike Trump, I came to realize that things weren't going by me too fast, but too slowly. Something I came to realize after two events. One in taking Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics twice in my life, once in eighth grade, and again during my stint in the Air Force.

During that months long class taught in the context of teaching my class Washington State History and Reading Dynamics. I went form 280 words per minute at 60% comprehension to 20,000 world per minute at 80% comprehension. Evelyn was asked by natural speed reader Pres. John F. Kennedy, who read his morning newspapers very fast and read many of them, to teach his staff to do this too.

The other time I realized in some ways my life was passing me by too slowly was one day in high school when my teacher was moving too fast writing on the blackboard. For the first time I was seeing clarity, following clearly, until to my surprise and shock and dismay, the entire class rebelled. They were getting lost and asked her to slow down, while I was innervated because for the first time I actually was able to clearly catch what she was teaching us and that all these years of K-12 I wasn't stupid after all, I was just bored and the information coming at me was coming way... too... slowly.

Here is a list of speed readers. Donald J. Trump is not on this list.

In the end I know certain jobs just aren't for me. IF I were Trump, I'd never run for president and I think he too knows better. But his self interesting got the better of him. He has put himself above the country and our citizens. I've read hundreds of books. The most was probably in 8th grade when I read over 60 novels. But I would never have considered running for president.

For myself as for Trump, that's just cray-ZY.