Blog

Your blog category

So here’s my conundrum… update #2

by

So, as I discussed at length in the first post in this series, I had vowed to never vote for a family member of any former president.

However, with John Kasich dropping out of the Republican Primary race (to hell), I no longer have any choice but to vote for the Democratic nominee, who, of course, will be Hillary Clinton.

For I will never, ever vote for the Donald Trump de Drumpf.

I saw a report the other day showing that 30% of Bernie Sanders supporters vowed they will never vote for Hillary Clinton.

I assume them to mean, then, that if Clinton wins the nomination, they will not vote at all in the general election because my mind simply cannot comprehend someone who is such an avid supporter of Socialist Sanders voting for the Orange Megalomaniacal Menace.

But make no mistake about it, not voting in the general election is essentially voting for Trump.

So, even if you are as disappointed as I am in that Trump and Clinton are the best my country can offer up for presidential candidates, I passionately urge you to plug your nose, close your eyes, wipe your tears and vote for Clinton by all means.

You will only feel dirty for at least the four years she is president.

It is better to feel compromised than to be culpable for completely destroying our country (a destruction begun with Dubya) with a Trump presidency.

I really believe that if Trump becomes president my country will become forever alien to its historic ideals.

Speaking of Dubya, I would say I am proud of him for announcing he will not support Trump.

However, as badly and distasteful as Trump was toward both his presidency and his brother’s candidacy, he had no choice but to not support him.

Sigh…

What a sad state of affairs we find ourselves in, America…
 

 
#nevertrump

 
 

So here’s my conundrum… update #1

by

Never could it have been anywhere even close to being within the realm of my boundless imagination prior to the commencement of the Republican Party’s primary season, which has come to be known affectionately as REPUBLICAN HATEFEST 2016 ~ Making America Great Again Through It’s Bigotry & Violence, that I would ever entertain the thought that Ted Cruz could be a moderate alternative to any other candidate.

Yet, here I am thinking just that.

Unbelievable.

Not that I am endorsing Cruz or even considering voting for him — I would vote for a dirty dish towel before voting for either him or that bigoted billionaire buffoon who is beating him handily in the race.

I’m just making the observation how utterly unbelievable and scary the Republican front-runners are.

I really hope John Kasich, the governor of my birth state, can get it together and pull out an upset at the Republican Convention. I continue to hold him in high regard compared to all other possibilities that either party has to offer at this point.

Although, I do take very seriously Trump de Drumpf’s hardly veiled threat that there may be riots if he isn’t anointed as the Republican nominee.

And so do others…
 


 

This is a recent facebook post of mine address specifically to my friends…

So here’s the deal from now until November, provided I can last on facebook that long because it already is really hard for me to bear all the vitriolic political bs streaming around…

If I regard you as a friend, a real friend and not just a fb friend, and it appears to me that you are a ‪#‎Trump‬ supporter – just him, not any of the other candidates for president – then I will be dogged in my commitment to overwhelming you with reason and compassion each time you post anything that comes close to regarding Trump’s candidacy in a positive way.

Because I simply cannot believe that someone with all their faculties in place can actually be a supporter of his intolerant, violent political platform… and I refuse to believe someone who I know and whose friendship I value could support such a thing.

Friends do not let friends drive drunk… or support Trump.

 

#optrump
#hackthedrumpf
#intervention

 

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?

 
 

Crossing One Thin Line After Another

by

History shows us there is a thin line between outrage and unrest, between unrest and riot, and between riot and revolution. And it seems lately that we are constantly crossing these lines, that we are constantly on the edge and on the verge of being pushed to the limit, that every day, somewhere in the world, individuals, families, communities, countries, and regions are fluctuating and transitioning from one point of frustration to the next, even more frustrating point.

From the economy, to the environment, to intractable politics, to intolerance, to technology, to terrorism, to any number of other issues, who knows what will trigger the next outrage, unrest, riot, or revolution.

While there will always be multiple known and unknowable factors behind any tumultuous event, historians and analysts have come to a consensus that it was increasingly rising food prices, and, more specifically, the high cost of bread that pushed a region over the line and triggered the Arab Awakening.

And there is evidence showing that throughout the ages it has been the rising costs of basic food staples that pushes even the most civil minded citizens into becoming violent revolutionaries for change.

As the most cursory of searches reveal, the cumulative effect of the world’s many crises, coupled with the continuance of extreme weather patterns and resultant droughts, flooding, and other climate change unknowns, 2015 may be a year of severely rising food costs.

If so, it may prove to be quite the year, indeed.

 

☠☠☠☠

Hercules Gone Mad

Hercules Gone Mad – Part One
Rebels for Love

Read an Excerpt

 
 

TOTAL WAR OR TOTAL PEACE – A Relating to Humans Political Issues Feature

by

I do not have much to say as an introduction to this powerful topical essay by Paul Xylinides, our IABS&R Volume 2 selectee, other than to compel you to go take a look at today’s headlines. There you will unfortunately witness once more what brutality we humans are willing to inflict upon other humans in an effort to further our own goals, be they political, religious, or whatever cause it may be that motivates us into a frenzy of fanaticism and murderous hate.

My prayers are with Pakistan as I mourn the lost lives of all the innocent children.

Paul will also be contributing a guest post for us tomorrow.
– 8:00pm (EST), Wednesday, December 17, 2014

TOTAL WAR OR TOTAL PEACE
by Paul Xylinides

The concept of total war has been especially widespread in execution in the twentieth century. It means just what it says, that is, the decision by one or both sides in a conflict to use all and every means in order to prevail. War crimes become unavoidable and are a matter of course under these scenarios. Moral and legal concerns are completely set aside. Intended to prevent or, at best, minimize carnage directed towards the innocent, the rules of war are effective only so long as one side enjoys vastly superior capacities and thus the luxury of choosing how to conduct itself in an engagement. Recent comments by Vladimir Putin as to his country’s continued possession of a nuclear arsenal illustrate what recourse a threatened nation feels justified to employ. Today, the United States is able to act militarily within the rules of war. Should the day come that a figure such as the present Russian leader were to carry out his veiled threat, it is not conceivable that the United States would not respond in kind.

Read more

To Be a Superpower or Not To Be a Superpower, That Is Not the Question…

by
22/52 : Tian an Men
Eric Constantineau – www.ericconstantineau.com / Foter / CC BY-NC

Whether China is or is yet to be, or if it even wants or wants not to be a superpower are not the important questions to me. One way or the other, the answer is or will be yes. An important question for me is, how will China manage its increasingly powerful role in the world while also managing the consumption requirements of its increasingly demanding and aggressive population.

Of course, controlling the flow of information — internet censorship, for example — within and without of the country, will be key to its strategy of ascent to the highest heights of global power. But even censorship and governmental intimidation and societal manipulation will serve little purpose when the country’s water wells run dry from its hyper-industrialization and the ongoing desertification of large swaths of the country. When this happens we can certainly expect an explosive rise in the price of global food commodities. And as we’ve seen in our very recent past, when food prices rise beyond the reach of the least affluent, tempers rise right along with them.

And when tempers rise…

Governments fall.

Resource Wars are inevitable, and I foresee China opening up the first major front in the assault.

Exactly when this will all happen?

Now, that is the question.

~~~~

Look it up, folks. It’s all out there.

Scary stuff, for sure.

But scary as it is, it’s all delectable fodder for the imagination of the author intent on creating a world of horrific dystopian proportions and perfection…

 
 

FOR MORE LIKE THIS >> CLICK CLICK

Toward the Happy End of Legislating Morality

by

You may be happy or sad over the reelection of Barack Obama.

I, for one, am happy.

You may be happy or sad over the reelection of the Congressional Incumbents.

I, for one, am sad.

And, you may be happy or sad over the historic legalization of gay marriage in Maryland and other states and the legalization of the limited recreational use of marijuana in Colorado and Washington.

I, for one, am beyond happy; in fact, I am completely and blissfully ecstatic.

Now, since I am happily married and have been so for over two score, and since my lung disease prevents me from inhaling any kind of smoke and my high liver counts discourage me from introducing THC into my system by any other means, I do not foresee me benefiting physically in the least because of the legalization of gay marriage and the decriminalization of marijuana use.

But I do benefit from it.

All Americans benefit from it because it represents a new mind set in our country.

A new hope.

Millions of Americans voted in this election to begin the end of legislating morality.

Yes, there will be legal challenges and set backs to these recent advancements toward the protection of our basic human right to live a life as we choose to live it.

Yes, we still have many states to go and many votes to cast before all Americans’s have the right to be human as each sees fit.

But we have just made a significant advancement, an advancement which sets the momentum toward even further advancement, and which minimizes the chance for significant setback.

And I, for one, am very happy about that.

F### You Motherland I Am A Grass Mud Horse

by

I wonder if I would have the courage to stand up to a government like China’s as Ai Weiwei has. Heck, I don’t even have the guts to spell out the word “fuck” in the title of this post so I highly doubt it.

Ai Weiwei, image courtesy Wikipedia

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry on LAST CALL WITH CARSON DALY from Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry on Vimeo.

The Power of Money, the Money of Power

by
Chinese Currency
By: Paul. B

There is much ado in the news about China’s Wen Jiabao, the supposed People’s Premier, accumulating a massive fortune, for both himself and his extended family, while serving within the highest ranks of China’s government.

According to New York Times reporting:

Many relatives of Wen Jiabao, including his son, daughter, younger brother and brother-in-law, have become extraordinarily wealthy during his leadership, an investigation by The New York Times shows. A review of corporate and regulatory records indicates that the prime minister’s relatives — some of whom, including his wife, have a knack for aggressive deal making — have controlled assets worth at least $2.7 billion.

No one is surprised by this, right? I mean, when in history has there ever been an authoritarian, non-transparent government where its leaders — and often…well, usually…okay, you’re right, always…those close to the leaders — did not become fabulously wealthy as a result of their position within the government?

We all know the quote, Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, so it is not news that Jiabao, or any other Chinese government senior leader, and their families and friends, have profited because of their positions.

And you know what else isn’t news? The fact that China has blocked all internet access to the New York Times, as well as to other major news outlets, such as the BBC, that are reporting on the story.

Without a doubt, Western-style democracies are far from perfect; and, without a doubt, many politicians and government officials within these supposed transparent governments have amassed huge, unknowable, amounts of cash because of their positions. Still, at least we who live in countries governed by democracies, with our right to vote and with our freedom of speech, have a semblance of a notion that we can contain the corruption. Whether it’s true or not is debatable, but having a semblance of a notion is better than having none at all.