I Am Not Anti ANY Americans, However....

I say this every so often and now in the face of apparently partisan and ill mental health bombings and mass shootings, it really seems a good time to repeat it.

Conservative or Republican, I am not against any Americans (or those of other nations and where I am it's usually their government, not citizens).

I have only recently voted Democrat because of #Republican illiberal abuse of our elections and government... bordering on if not at times surpassing being criminal. Their actions have damaged America, unbalanced us and today you see the results.

Usually, I've been as independent as I can be, not wishing either to align with independents for various reasons. My family whom I grew up with was Democrat and Union.

What I am against is conservatism as currently practiced in America. It's not historical conservatism at all. It's a bastardized form, frequently disgusting to well-educated people who haven't been educated in a modern American conservative bubble.

Regardless of how you perceive conservatism, especially if you consider yourself one, it IS what is practiced and how it is applied in Congress and SCOTUS. What we see, it supports old style, anachronistic beliefs.

Today the 45th President Donald Trump came out to say we need to use the death penalty on people like the Pittsburgh Synogague shooter. We do not need the State murdering citizens. Issues on abortion, prisons, the economy and trickle down economics as defective agendas...are failed, incorrect and downright wrong. Conservatives continue to take the wrong direction time and again.

I AM against people who are abusive to others. Speak, don't hit. Vote, don't kill. Get involved in politics if you're that passionate. We need you. On both sides, because that's where balance is.

Love the sinner not the sin, essentially in my post-Catholic upbringing, pro-Buddha Dharma mentality. No, I don't even follow common Buddhism, but an originalist form as I have discovered it.

Conservatism is a retrograde form of political thought.

You always have to move forward in a changing world. To maintain a (frequently defective or broken) status quo is counterproductive. Conservatism is not a form to be adhered to as a primary principle. As a governing factor of a political principle (conservative Republican, Conservative Democrat), sure. But to claim to be "conservative" is to cut oneself off at the knees to be able to see clearly what is really needed. Add partisanship and here we are.

Same in a way for a progressive or liberal. But not as much a serious concern as the conservative form by a long shot, as it can lead to thinking as we see now. Isolationism. Or abuse of others we have no right to abuse. Or kill. it is too akin to the religion it spawned from it. both being severely problematic in government and diverse social concerns. The Christian evangelical movement has also been culpable in all this. Evangelicalism itself has been acquired by politicians to subvert and pollute our government.

Prime example is the defectiveness inherent within it...it leads to a Domad #Trump (I should say, Donald $Trump, but that doesn't carry as far, albeit it's far more accurate).

So... we are all Americans who are American. We NEED to disagree, then to moderate, to compromise. Republicans want only their point of view because apparently, God is on their side. That is backed up by their actions in Gerrymandering, in abusing our electoral system, in voter suppression, in too many underhanded undemocratic actions.

One can (easily) see just how ridiculous that all is. If we just look.

Dumping the Draft Registration

Maybe? Maybe we need compulsory service? Wouldn't that change things in this country, in various ways? My family wasn't rich. There was no consideration or drive for me to go to college. When I graduated high school, I had no plans, other than to get out of school as K-12 sucked for me.

Though I kind of liked the social aspects of high school. Once I shot up a few inches to 6'2", having been rather short, lost a few pounds and suddenly in 10th grade wasn't sure what was going on when girls started to pay me a lot of attention.

Doesn't every country need to know where their young men are (and possibly women) in case of national war or disaster, to call upon our strongest citizens in case of ultimate need? And let's not forget war is a young person, especially male's situation. Women aren't so testosterone based and older males are smarter and less testosterone based. So young men are the mainstream of wars.

I've always hated the draft because I grew up as a child with the Vietnam war. I watched older guys go through it. Friends of the family, eighteen, nineteen years old. Maybe going away to the war and never coming back. How that affected their other male friends and family and the country at large.

I finally went into the military at twenty, because I couldn't get a decent job. Full disclosure... I discovered my heritage late in junior high. I'd grown up knowing I was Czechloslovakian, Slovak really because I lived with my mother and step-father and mom and her mom and dad were Slovak (not Slavic as one is a people, the other is a language that includes various nationalities and not just Slovaks).

However, my father was Irish and I took to that like I was full blooded Irish for some reason. Perhaps because familiarity breeding contempt and all that and Slovak was boring to me, Irish was fresh and new. And, it's Irish, so...not to mention, I idealized a father I never saw or seldom so. So, I was Irish with a touch of Czech (Slovak but I thought of myself as Czech until I was an adult).

I can remember in high school in 10th grade going around to friends at lunch in the school cafeteria and educating them on the Irish "Troubles" that were going on (this was 1970). I wanted to go fight for the IRA and tried to recruit for them. My friends looked at me like I was nuts.

But I had been in martial arts (Okinawan Isshinryu Karate) starting in fifth grade and fought in tournaments. Then I was a Flight Commander in Civil Air Patrol (auxiliary of the US Air Force mostly doing training on search and rescue for small downed local aircraft); I was on a private kid's rifle team in eighth grade sanctioned by Tacoma Police Department and I "lettered" in riflery on the HS rifle team for three years.

I was primed for the military from childhood. Or something more covert. But that's another story and in part leads into my screenplay I'm prepping hopefully for production, "The Teenage Bodyguard". I'm scheduled to begin working with screenplay consultant Jen Grisanti in November 2018. That after I keep hearing it has to see production. From those at The Blacklist, the Bluecat Screenplay Contest and even a famous entertainment lawyer in Hollywood says it's time for my story. So hopefully, at a screen near you someday soon.

Considering all this, I wasn't very happy in the military in having to live the redundant lifestyle day in and day our, follow sometimes stupid orders, put up with some ridiculous (not all) officers, to hear every single day in the morning how we were all there to be cannon fodder, to die for our country and citizens, if and whenever we are called to. Personally, I found that a little disturbing. Not the fighting and dying part, the being cannon fodder part. I just believed that I had more value than that.

After a year or so of it, I finally asked my shop supervisor and Tech Sgt. one day why he had to do that every damn morning, to remind us of our as I saw it, lack of value. He said it was: "because we all have to remember what we're doing here as it's a time of peace and it's easy to forget. It's important, especially for you younger guys, to remember that."

A lot of those older Sgt.s (not even that old really, remember I was in my early twenties) had been in the Vietnam war. So I heard a lot of war stories that were still fresh in their minds. In the end I came out with a much greater respect of the military and for our country. And I thought I had that going in. But I was a sign of the times, of the 1960s and 70s, hippies, punk rock, individuality, and rebellion

I hated it, the military. But I also appreciated it. The whole thing was a pain in the ass but I later realized that I appreciated what they tried to teach me in basic training (in order to keep us alive in war) and just how much benefit I got out of tightening up myself and my attitude toward life.

Which wasn't that bad to begin with really, but I hadn't fully gotten the whole world out there clearly till then. It hasn't been perfect by a long shot, but I'm not now living under a bridge somewhere and I have achieved a decent and respectable position in life. And I made more money than I ever foresaw happening. In part because the military made me realize I could actually do anything I wanted to.

Still, I'd had a lot of that when I was younger, too. Which was probably why I excelled over others when I was in the military. So I later got through college when previously it had never been a desire or a consideration. Not to mention, I doubt I could have done it if I hadn't first gone into the military.

As for the draft, one thing a draft does is maintain a real connection between certainly male citizens and the existence of the government and an awareness of the rest of the world. When you consider how few young voters don't get it or care enough to even vote, the military makes a visceral connection that forces you to realize there is a government and a real world out there. And that you really need to pay attention to both.

To be sure there are other forms available to young people to serve in nonviolent and productive ways and are carried out in other countries. Peace Corps and other NGOs (non-government organizations). So perhaps a war draft isn't so much needed as a requirement to do SOME thing. Something to make us all as citizens more cohesive, to see what's out there and to have a real-world connection with it.

There is too much delusion in this country's citizens about what the real world is and in what they tend to believe in. Which especially of late, leads too many to vote in ridiculous ways that are up against the reality of the world as it really is and not just as political diatribe and partisan politices. Some that are simply delusional in practice. Living in the world is not about political beliefs and ideologies, but about what is actually happening all around us and not just what some say is happening.

The "me" from those younger years would never have believed that I would even hesitate at ending draft registration entirely. But I can say only one thing about it at this point.

Maybe? Maybe everyone, male and female SHOULD be required to do something for others and not just for themselves. It would quash the ridiculous political nonsense we hear so much of lately. And we need that bridge again to reality.

I would suggest we do not need such a massive military. A functionl and productive one, to be sure. But we've gotten addicted to easy answers that all too often really are not answers to anything. We do need a more educated population, however.

Free education was decided upon around the turn of the 20th century and instituted. K-12 was offered free and it was a boon to this nation. And now conservatives seem to think that's a waste of money as they block and damage our educational system time and again. When we really now need to open up education to be free beyond into higher education.

We in these modern times require at least a free two year community college or vocational-technical education. And I would push beyond that to where a four-year degree is the new end of the K-12 educational years. We would benefit greatly from it. Instead of giving all our money through tax breaks to corporations and funding the military even when they don't want it as a jobs programs for the military industrial/corporate complex, we need to enhance our thinking capabilities.

In the end and before it's too late we need to bring America back to Americans. And at his point with social media and so many avenues for Americans to wander off from the primary orientation that has made us so great, we need to pull that all back in and become one again. One in our great diversity. That diversity that has made us so great and so strong.

Because anyone educated in animal husbandry will tell you, diversity is strength. Purity is a path to inbred monstrosities. Just as we are now turning into one in thinking we don't need minorities.

America has changed. We need to change with it, to maintain just who we are, have been and want to be. Education and cohesion in all our vast differences is the way. Celebrate your history, your ancestry, your "tribe" to be sure.

Just remember what tribe you are in as an American citizen and ask yourself, how can we make that our new and even better reality?

Magazines Are Not The Only Thing Today Lacking Substance

I was at the store a while back, before the 2016 election. I was standing in line for the register and there was a bank of magazines nearby so I glanced over them and something came to be obvious to me. They were all small. Smaller than traditionally standard sized magazines. This didn't so much surprise me but was a sign of the times.

Scientific American used to be a big magazine. Thick too. One I was addicted to. As a young male I also liked Playboy, though I was never addicted to it quite like I was SA. Yet it too used to be a bigger magazine. But no longer. It just was not the mag I used to know and love so much and it was sad. The articles in comparison to its older version, I found a bit lame. I took a look at Psychology Today and wondered, "When did it turn into a glossary pop psychology form of Cosmo?"

Not unlike Popular Mechanics magazine. The quality just wasn't there anymore. These may still be good magazines, but they simply aren't great any longer. Not what they once were.

It was depressing. I learned my style of writing from SA and once years ago nearly got a software manual published world wide with Digital Press using that style of starting simple and then going deeper than anyone might want to go, or even know about. It was an amazing format I became addicted to back in the late 70s.

That manual was still being used at two of our biggest Seattle medical centers many years later, at University of Washington Medical Center and our regional Which I found humorous not just because of its earned moniker due to receiving all kinds of trauma patients, but because when I was in the military we called our on base barracks, "The Zoo".

I can understand cutting down the size of these magazines but... the quality? SA had always stood for quality and excellence. Now I guess it may be just pretty, and pretty small. I haven't read a recent copy so maybe they've gotten some of it back. Though I doubt it because that's just not the climate of the times. Today it is all about the superficial. the easy to grasp, the outrageous, the click bait.

We even have a superficial definitely non-SA type", clickbait president" in Donald Trump. Our first in that manner and our worst. Elected by a click bait electorate while all the rest stood by in shock, wondering how that could happen.

Click bat does damage. It gathers superficial attention, but it wastes time and resources and even angers some once anyone of intellectual substance finds they have once again been conned. But it gathers wealth for the click baiter because that is all they care about. Substance anymore, is irrelevant.

All those things are something those superficial Trump followers and supporters are about to find out about. Once he is abandoned and out of the public limelight that he is so very much addicted to... and pleasured by. All at our expense. Always, at our expense. One has to wonder in considering how the Republican party has devolved from George HW Bush, to George W Bush to Trump...just what the hell is next in that ever declining succession of qualitatively ever decreasing and ever more questionable "politicians".

Still, I'm open minded, believe it or not. I will have to open the cover of one of those diminished magazines the next time I am at the store. Just to check out the direction they are now headed in.

Now that being superficial is our nationalistic pastime.

Return America's Motto: E Pluribus Unum

E Pluribus Unum... Out of many, one.

This IS our guiding light, our ORIGINAL motto. When we wrongly, even delusionally changed it in 1956, out of fear, we began this, our long decay into today. We need to change it back. There is a petition for just that now at WhiteHouse.gov. Feel free to sign it and get America back on track!

Do not trust in a deity for they reside in the ether, if anywhere. They too much reside in our imaginations. And we need to reside in our reality. That is why we are in this morass of poor decisions today.

It has led to liars being our leaders. To lies being our governing method. Odd it is that belief in what should be great, has been made to be so petty and weaponized. Against those it was meant to protect, but those who were once so oppressed in such an ancient and forbidding environment for all but those in power.

Trust instead in oneself, in one's neighbors, in one's fellow citizens to do what is right. Under the umbrella of our nation, together. Inclusively, not as we are now, divisive, partisan, with leaders who work to separate us for their own benefit. Even using our current motto, In God We Trust, to polarize us.

Something oddly enough our enemies greatly desire, and our current #POTUS is doing to us with great aplomb and satisfaction.

WE are America. Not, We ARE America.

For in the alteration of a single word's emphasis, we are unbecoming who we have for so long...been.

We need to be a country together, once again. We need to be a country once and for all, now, as we never have been before.

To that effect there is a petition on WhiteHouse.gov asking to turn SCOTUS, our highest court, to be the trim tab on the rudder of America. Go there, sign it. It is a step toward a court once again representing us all who would never support something like Citizens United, curbing American's freedom for the wont of the few.

"In God We Trust" is the official motto of the United States of America and of the U.S. state of Florida. It was adopted as the nation's motto in 1956 as a replacement or alternative to the unofficial motto of E pluribus unum, which was adopted when the Great Seal of the United States was created and adopted in 1782.[1][2] Wikipedia

#gop #Trump #Republican #conservative #Democrat #Dems #Liberty #Justice #ForAll #Democracy #Freedom from tyranny for all

Knowing vs Thinking We Know

After what we've just been through with the SCOTUS (sign the petition?) nominations, partisan politics, America being torn apart with help from Russia, with help from Republicans, both for decades now when no one seemed to notice except for a few, we need to re-evaluate what the hell we are doing. To America.

But perhaps more importantly, to ourselves.

None of us really knows what the hell we're doing. Even when we do, sometimes that falls by the wayside because things change, and we do not notice. Or things change and we do not noticed because that is how it was planned out, laid upon us, covertly undermining our reality. Some of us seem to do better than others. Why? How? Luck? Intellect? Acting like a bully? Underhanded means? Good Karma? Yes, and no.

Some of us have more rules in our head than other. Or some react better to situations than other. Or some of us just seem luckier than others and so just seem to "know" what they're doing.

But then suddenly the market changes and they're broke. Or their spouse has an affair, and they're single. Or their company downsizes and they can't find a new job, even though they may be generally overqualified. Or one day their kid simply gives up, totally and completely, and yet, no one saw it coming.

Someone said that the three most important things in life are timing, speed, and distance. Those are things you can practice and perfect. But they are not... everything.

What matters most is that we care, that we go on. That we have the right amounts of compassion and perseverance.

Because if you don't care, you won't go on. If you don't go on, you won't be there anymore for anyone to care about. And those you cared about won't have you anymore to care about them.

Just be sure to care about the right things. Try hard to always have them in the right order. Maintain the right priorities in your life. But be careful. Because too often, when viewed from outside of ourselves, outside of our lives, even outside of our country, we aren't doing what we think we are.

Why?

Because you know what? Most of us don't. Most of us really don't know what we're doing, we're just faking it so others think we know what we're doing. But give it some time and effort, some serious consideration.

In maintaining the right priorities in your own life, you affect many others. Because it helps others to find the right priorities in their life, too. And sometimes, what is right for you, isn't for them. So then what?

Exactly. Pay better attention. Because from what we're seeing, too many simply aren't.

Sanity in TV Shows

I love progressive shows like The West Wing (which may come back!). It makes you wonder why conservatives shows aren't popular. Or all that useful other than for conservative to feel all touchy feely kind of theistic goodness. Fine. But we live in a harsh world where we need to be feeling bad when we should, not feeling good and ignoring reality.

Being conservatives doesn't push us boldly prepared into the future. It walks us slowly sometimes backward, tentatively into a perceived frightening future instead. It's interesting to note what conservatives and liberals like to watch on TV. From the article:

Carlson said there wasn't much of an overlap when it came to liberal and conservative television preferences. There were only three shows that liberals and conservatives both seemed to enjoy equally: "Dancing with the Stars," "Star Trek: Discovery," and "The Orville."

Carlson pointed out that these shows "don't necessarily have a political flavor," and suggested that probably had a lot to do with why liberals and conservatives both enjoyed them.

"Dancing and space — these are the things that unite our country," Carlson said.

Pure Genius (originally, Bunker Hill) was another show proposing change in a new and positive way. Of course it didn't last long,

We need shows that no matter how ridiculous they seem to some, at least try to tell us, to show us, how we can do things better. Proposing change in positive directions, technologies we don't yet know about, considerations of a future not devoid of happiness that gives us hope. Even if only for an hour or a half hour at a time.

We need shows that rail against a broken status quo, delve into possibility, suggest new realities. This isn't about any one show, just about a type of show in general who offer us hope, and possibilities.

That being said, a new show, New Amsterdam is in just that vein and I look forward to it. Give us more. Its preview this week was perfect in that way, pleasantly cathartic. No matter how ridiculous it may be it raises one's hope.

Until... reality once again seeps too quickly back in as one to think again of our current world, our broken Congress, Supreme Court and presidency. As ongoing efforts from within and without continue to further cripple our government, our broken political parties, and ourselves.

Our new reality is the world at large staring back in shock at us with frightened curiosity for where our lost and supposed protectors will take us next in their dismantling our governmental protections,  befriending our enemies against us, all merely for their own profit, power and self benefit, all while trying to convince us it is all for our protection. But we're really not that stupid. Yes, some see disaster and conspiracy at every turn, but it has to be based in reality and information. Trust. Real Truth.

And now we have Murphy Brown back. A once top popular comedy from the 90s steeped in politics and reality, they are back at a time when we most need a severe and constant dose of reality, and some decent sense of humor. Maybe they will fail, but I hope not. Because we could really use some biting satire, some not always so gentle humor to help us plough through the day, much like Stephen Colbert does for me now on a nightly basis. Perhaps they should consult with Colbert or Jon Stewart?

Our broken status quo is only getting worse as confused and lost supporters of this feigned American conservative regime continues to dissemble and damage all they can before we take them out to the back forty and lose them there...hopefully forever.

After this week with the Judge Kavanaugh disastrous hearing (for Republicans) we could use a break. But Pres. Trump seldom lets up, trying to exhaust us so we will simply stop paying attention and let him do anything he wants.

Luckily, the US government legal system is not forgetting about Pres Trump,

And neither it would seem (finally) are progressive TV shows.

Special Post - Kavanaugh vs Dr. Ford

What have we learned about the #Kavanaugh situation today? Accepting Dr. Ford is telling the truth as her testimony lends itself easily to that being the case. Considering therein Kavanaugh's own testimony today....

Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh

How can you explain this juxtaposition of testimonies if she is telling the truth?

Schools such as Kavanaugh attended during the time of his alleged attack can hold some of the wildest types of students. My own experience from being at a Catholic school was I couldn't wait to get back to a public schools.

I was told they only had the best kids at that private Catholic school and I had to be one to go there. I agreed. I looked forward to it. A school with kids who were good, decent? Awesome! Then I got in and found I was one of the best of those kids in a moral or ethical sense and I was STUNNED to find the behaviors they partook of.

There were several other kids who weren't Catholic, and I liked them far better than the career Catholic school kids we had to suffer though. I had thought public school kids were the lowlifes. I'm sure many of those private school kids graduated and got positions of importance and power and trust. As eventually I had myself.

But they were some of the wildest and most crass kids I had ever attended school with up to that time. They knew they were highly scrutinized, morally kept to an annoyingly higher standard and consideration and so they tended to be smart about hiding things. They were well educated and very good at hiding their looked down upon activities  Even over years. And how they loved to party.

At 17 Kavanaugh was approaching the height of his sexual intensity in his life, his libido undoubtedly high as it was for many of the male gender at that age. Male libido during these formative years can be unwieldy, almost impossible at times to control and so you seek out accepted behaviors. With a girlfriend, or through sports or exercise. He said he had a full schedule, worked hard to be #1 in his class.

These require hard work and a good degree of stress. Those who party, as he admits he did, do tend to party hard as the old saying goes, "work hard, play hard". It can also as we've seen repeatedly with high stress hard working people under pressure, to get weird. If not at times, even criminals. That is a well known stereotype proved out with many well known as well as high pressure jobs. Nothing we've seen so far precludes Dr. Ford's allegations to be patently untenable.

Or as some especially rich and privileged kids do, like Kavanaugh (and we've all seen those teen movies about these types), exercising their libidos through taking advantage of any situation where they can get sex.

I never understood sex with your male friends on one woman. But those I knew who liked it, found it an intense bonding experience with the guys. One where they might in the future give their lives for you, or lie to Congress about things you all once did together. Especially if it was sick or sadistic. And those activities objectified and denigrated women, those girls of their  focus, in living those experiences in those ways with those very special male friends.

Sometimes the bad behaviors of those formative years alone are enough for many to get onto a good path in later learning of one's mistakes and how bad they may really have been. They may, push one to be an advocate for women, as Kavanaugh claimed, which actually supports the contentions here and not his allusions.

Thus governing future actions. Perhaps even with a future orientation of hoping your past never surfaces and your future will take a new and better path. And never getting caught for things you'd never today attempt.

During high school and college you are living the years of freedom! Hiding your behaviors, living your fantasies as you can get away with them during a publicly sanctioned period of exploration and even of "sowing one's wild oats" as the "old saw" goes.

After Kavanaugh got into the work force and began to work in highly scrutinized legal professions and positions, his libidao was on the decline after his peak years. Perhaps he wisely controlled himself as he could more easily by then as he aged out of his teenage testosterone insanity, and from then on he COULD be investigated and vetted with a clean bill of health.

IF this is the situation, if he was a predator during high school and college and for some reason stopped, it simply indicates that minus his system being flooded with testosterone as happens to all of us guys, as happens more intensely to some of us more than others and then levels off at some point, that Kavanaugh is actually a decent person, who felt guilty, adjusted, and at some point after college got his act together. And in the process, he is denying what Dr. Ford is sharing, and what is that doing to her, in Kavanaugh trying to salvage his life, his career and his family? At the expense of a woman he accosted and altered the course of her life for her, forever.

As long as they stayed out of his high school and college years. Or started looking into his sexual activities more closely, with an eye for those types of activities. Even the FBI could miss all that, if they were not clued into a need to consider them. Especially when vetting such a well respected, well documented and high profile type such as a Kavanaugh. Or even perhaps, a Bill Cosby. or Justice Clarence Thomas.

Is Kavanaugh guilty? It sure and reasonably looks like it. What about his comments today about being a virgin till later? It may be true. I doesn't change what Dr. Ford went through or who accurately believing he was sexually assaulting her.

The question then is, should we punish these people for bad behaviors in their formative years when they have cleaned up their lives and made a decent life and career from that point on?

Because many would fall if that were the case. But that isn't the point here.

The point here and now is that he would have lied to Congress. For a position on our highest court in the nation. And that being the situation, Kavanagh has then condemned himself to being barred from the position as a Justice of the #SCOTUS, himself. Or worse. As he lied under oath. To Congress. And the FBI. Which some Republicans have gone on record recently saying, was not a crime. Really? They do have an odd sense of who they are and what is real, or criminal.

After all, doesn't it always seem to be the cover up, not the crime, that brings an end to these people and their careers?

Let me just end with this clever little video response.


#gop #pOTUS #vpOTUS #Republican #conservative #Congress