Yes, we are all affected by the high prices of gasoline. Since every product is transported to us by trucks, including the gasoline itself, it raises the prices. The politicians are busy playing the “blame game”, as they use this to point fingers. People always blame the president when he has nothing whatsoever to do with this. Oil companies are to blame. The oil companies received over 20 billion last year in subsidy money. This process is insane. The oil companies are raking in record profits. There is NO reason for tax payers to subsidize them. But, I am sure that they have a great lobbying group. The oil companies can raise their prices as much as they want and we have no recourse. The best thing for us to do is to use our cars less. Try not to make trips that can be avoided. Try to use public transportation. Ride your bike. Carpool. When you are stuck in a long line of jammed traffic, shut off the engine. Buy an electric or hybrid car. Buy a smaller car. The popular SUVs don’t get the best gas mileage. Most people could get by with a smaller vehicle. The price of gasoline here in California is over $6 a gallon now. Even the cheaper stations like Costco are selling gas for $4.99. and there is a very long line. President Biden is talking about banning the imports of Russian oil, which is about 3% of our oil imports, and this could make the gas prices even higher. Time for some very creative thinking for all of us.
MEN LOVE WAR
Our history has proven over and over that men love war. We have spent huge amounts of money building devices and machines to blow shit up. We built the world’s more destructive device and used it twice to destroy our enemy. But, of course, who we killed was the poor people that happened to live in the region. War is a wild animal, that once released is uncontrollable. Men have this deep desire to destroy things. Humans, as I have pointed out, are violent creatures. We have a past that is demarked with wars and battles and we seem to be very proud of our murderous ways. We even build statues of famous generals and commanders. We display war machinery in our public areas. Men display weaponry on the walls of their homes. We are clearly very proud of our destructive nature. The word “peace” seems like a joke because we tease with it and pretend that we really desire it but then we rush off to war at the slightest provocation. Men stand anxious for war all of the time. When too much time has passed with peace, men get look around for some place that they can attack. We have the world’s largest military budget and we easily spend billions in what we laughingly call “defense”. The Pentagon employs 26,000 people. We have generals standing by ready to spring into action. These men are hoping for a reason to go to war because that is their job. We give military contractors billions to design and manufacture weaponry and they are anxious to see us go to war.
Again With The Party Fighting
This political fighting is getting totally ridiculous and why am I the only one saying this ? We, as a country, could accomplish so much if we did not spend 50% of the Congress and Senate energies at bitching back and forth like spoiled children. Politics is turning people off from the whole process. Humans are TRIBAL by nature, another thing that only me, that is the one pointing this out. Being Tribal, we naturally look for group to identify with so it was very easy to create political parties. Since day one of our government, we created parties. It is difficult enough waging wars within the House and Senate without also having the two parties to fight. What great minds made this insanity up ? This is the intentional creation of ways to traverse the governmental process with pediments installed to make it more difficult. Like building a highway with speed bumps and pot holes. Maybe I am just not that intelligent to comprehend this process. I am willing to admit my shortcomings when it comes to politics. I am the common man looking at our government and shaking my head in disgust. I am not the only one.
Creative Minds
I may be just too old to be fully aware of things, but I do not see the same kinds of creativity, today, then we had in the past. For instance, in music, the bands of the 70’s and 80’s were unique and very artistic. Today, I watch music TV show like American Idol and The Voice and I do not see any “new” styles or originality coming forward. There are some very talented singers but they are just repeating the past as far as style goes. People like Anita Baker and going back to Billie Holiday, were stylists who had a very unique style all their own. The bands of today are using electronic music in a studio and that produces very boring sounds that are just barely keeping them noticeable. I do not see any “new” music like we saw starting from the early 50’s, when people experimented with different influences. Rock and Roll was a brand new style that inspired bands for decades but that time is now tired out and needs a refresh. Where is the creativity ? Don’t try to tell me that rap music is something new. That is just a different way to spray out the lyrics in a poetic rhythm. Rap music is not something that would inspire some new dance steps, in fact I cannot even imagine anyone dancing to rap music. Something has been lost over the past few decades in creativity. This also applies to clothing styles. The recent offerings in clothing was to rip holes into jeans to make them look worn out and damaged. The same was done to all the clothing, to make them distressed. This was also done to furniture finishes. I like the distressed look because it reflects the casual attitudes of today but this is not really offering something new. It is a lazy way to make something different. Where can they go from this ? Once they distress everything, the only way to offer something new is to what ?… make everything shiny and nice again ? There is a kink in the creative flow. I remember people like Andy Warhol shaking up the art world and I wonder where the creative entrepreneurs are today ? We have all become too lazy. We have drowned ourselves in the digital world. We do digital art and digital music and read books on our tablets and listen to music online. The quality of music listening is sinking. Because of our restricted lifestyles, due to the virus pandemic, our creatives spirits have withered. This is a serious problem to a societies energy to move upward.
DEMOCRATS PLEASE WAKE UP !
Biden just claimed a rise in 6.6 million jobs thus far, more than the past 3 presidents combined. News like this should be all over the media, so that no one can miss it. This is a powerful asset to run on this November. But I don’t see much press about it. The news is still focused on Jan 6th, and the Democrats are still trying to bring Trump to justice for all of his crimes. This kind of press won’t really impress the voters, as much as the real issues, that affect their daily lives, directly. The Democrats always seem to be playing the victim and being apologetic. The Republicans lash out with countless lies to put the Democrats off guard. The Democrats are spending all of their time trying to correct the lies and explain everything. The Democrats need to ignore the lies and bullshit and focus on their strengths and accomplishments. Charge forward with courage and tenacity. Winners do not have to reprove why they are winners. Winners need to press on with their chests puffed up and bragging. People like to associate with the winners. People like to feel like they are supporting the winning party. This is what constitutes pride in people. Lead the parade. The Republicans are in a real quagmire, of their own doing. Their brand is very tarnished and the Democrats need to be predatory about this and beat the drum about how great they are and that they are the winning party. The Republicans are trying, desperately, to play down the insurrection, by trying to call it something else, which is the only card that they have to play. When the Republicans have no agenda to run on and they are admitting this openly. Democrats should be shoving this in the GOP’s face and showing this to the public. This is another weakness in the Republican Party that can be exploited, and should be. Their party is being arrested and subpoenaed and accused of a multitude of crimes. It should almost seem heartless to stomp on such a pitiful party, but it’s necessary to hold power in the House and Senate. Democrats cannot weaken now and act so defeated.
Too Many Liars
When someone complains that a certain politician lied it’s almost a joke because they all lie. Facts are never an issue for them. They all twist the facts to suit their narrative. There are many versions of a lie. There are Little White Lies, Half Truths, Exaggerations, Bragging, they are not the absolute truth. They cannot stretch the truth or omit certain facts to arrive at their version of the truth. Truth, actually, is subjective and predicated upon each person’s own perspectives and perceptions as processed through our unique brains. Someone like Trump, who is a pathological liar, thinks that if he said it, then it becomes the truth. He tries to invent the truth. Politicians spend their careers speaking to the public and shaping opinions. They are required to twist the facts to shape their viewpoint. When someone is debating an issue they always reshape the facts to win their argument. We can call it exaggerating but it’s not the truth. It’s like playing a game of tennis and putting a little spin on the ball to trick the shot. Politicians put spin on their comments to win the argument. When speaking, elaborating certain words with the right inflections can make a big difference in creating a good speech. There is a proven craft in public speaking to keep the audience focused. People can listen to a speech and know that the speaker was exaggerating or twisting the facts but they overlook it, if the impact is successful.
PRESENT PRESIDENT
Being the president in America is a thankless job. We all know that. At least half of the people dislike you. Everyone has their own selfish wish list of what they expect the president to accomplish in his first weeks of office. I would guess that about 70% of the citizens of this country have never looked up what the Executive Office is allowed to do and not do. Everyone seems to think that the president can just make things happen by a command. People think that the president is in control of oil prices, based on the many comments that people post on social media. People also think that the president is in complete control of our economy. Presidents do take credit when the stock market is up and the jobs seekers list is low. However they should not. Presidents can only create jobs if they are able to get some large projects approved through the House and Senate. The things that the president is capable of doing is very small. Just look it up. I have looked at it several times to remind myself. The America public is very cynical and very selfish and totally disrespectful of the Office of the President. Because of social media now, everyone is like the Press, posting comments on a whim, regardless of facts. People love dumping on people more than they want to celebrate the positives. Just like our media, that loves disasters and bad news, people seek out the negatives. President Biden gets constant disapprovals because he is old. People see old age as a negative profile position. Comments are constantly shared about Biden being senile and having dementia. This comes with being old and it’s disgusting to witness. As a senior citizen myself, I am very sensitive to the way that people treat the elderly. Everyone will become old themselves and this does not seem to affect how we react to age. After someone passes the age of 70, they are automatically classified as being senile and are somehow less of a human. The elderly become a group and treated all the same, like something we just speed past and sneer at. The elderly become slow moving and lax to remember details of their life and have many physical problems. This is just the facts of life. We put more value on the youth and healthy persons. Perhaps we should have different age requirements for politicians, there is a minimum age but maybe there should be a maximum age as well.
NO MORE PARTIES !
Political parties are destroying our government. They take on a character all of their own. They do NOTHING to help governing. They are a creature that destroys everything in it’s path. The constant fighting between the two are a total waste of time and energy. If people think that they are necessary, they are wrong. We have become totally complacent and accepting in our mindset. Humans always just take what they are given and just follow along blindly. People do criticize the government, constantly, but it’s like a game of tennis, just batting the ball back and forth. Nothing ever get’s accomplished when we waste so much time and effort on bickering. We treat our democracy in a childish manner. Political parties set up a “team” mentality and humans, being Tribal, just fall into this game. Just like in sports, we choose our team and then create the game of “back and forth”. No party is right or wrong, they are just different. People try to create other parties but they never take hold, because people are wired for two choices, like having two hands. We view life as right or left. Our bodies are created with two limbs and two eyes, so we see the world that way. The people that run the government support two choices because this divides up the country. If we were to come together as one force, it would be very detrimental to the power structure. As we hear often, “divide and conquer”, is the chosen way to control the masses. We need to reset the system and end the parties. Their would no longer be the crevice divide created when we split ourselves into two halves. It is always better to be whole and strong.
Fragile Democracy
Today marks one year since we were viciously attacked by a crazy group of men and a few women. They were fully inspired by crazy ass Trump, a hardcore narcissist that refused to admit that he lost. To understand the mind of Trump, you just need to look up the symptoms of narcissism. People act like this is nothing important, like saying that someone has a “complex”, that he has an inflated ego. Narcissism is a mental illness that should be taken seriously. Trump is not able to admit to himself that he did not win. He will go to his grave claiming that he won. His mind is such that he will always pass the blame to something or someone else. He is incapable of compassion or empathy. He is the worst person to have led this country. He only cares about being in the limelight. He loves that people like him so much. This is his dream. He doesn’t care that people criticize him, as long as they are talking about him. His mind will always filter out the negative and just acknowledge that people are aware of him and that he remains in the media. I fear more about the attack on the Capitol, then the fact that our democracy is this fragile. When one mentally ill person can bring it all down. We have a long way to go to strengthen our government. This action has shown us the many weaknesses that exist. We became complacent and naive. We assumed that any president would be honorable and would follow all the rules and laws. We have a lot of things to change. The filibuster is now being looked at and Chuck Schumer is trying to alter or delete it. I want to see a deletion of all political parties. Parties just set up a “team mentality” in our system. Humans are easily controlled when they join a group. We are Tribal by nature and we always look for a group to belong to. This applies to religions as well. If humans dropped their religious beliefs, they would look for another group to join. This is in our nature. We feel safe in groups and then we fear the people that are different.
SICK AMERICA
The Omicron virus variant of Covid-19 is kicking our ass. There are more people getting cut down now then before. I get so angry at the Republicans that seem too like this happening. They are furious that Trump was positive about people getting the vaccine, when he was totally against it. They feel like he let them down, when he originally was their anti-vax hero. He was the one that made this issue political. So many people have died because Trump mislead his supporters. I just cannot figure this out, when it’s obvious that vaccines work. For many years, vaccines have aided in stopping or slowing the spread of so many other diseases, like polio and smallpox. Now Republicans want to turn their backs on all of this science and pretend it’s some political resistance. There is a time and a place for politics but not when people’s lives at stake. People refuse to wear a mask when they are out in public, when they know that the virus spreads from air borne germs. This is like playing Russian Roulette. Somehow, the GOP think that they are paying homage to Trump, by their refusal. I use to believe that Americans were people that cared, somehow that spirit has faded. I use to believe in a country that could pull together when things got tough. I blame Trump for helping to tear that spirit apart. I really would like to see all political parties to be eliminated completely. All parties achieve is to create the “team mentality”. Humans are Tribal by nature and we easily join a “team”, when ever possible. Let’s try to have a Happy New Year.
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