Ferguson, MO - Things Will Get Better

"Don't let one person's hate be your reason for giving up, or losing faith, or even having to do anything other than believe things will get better. I lived in a small Mississippi town as a child during the Civil Rights era. Things got better. I lived through the LA Riots as a person in my 20s post Rodney King. Things got better. I've seen the gruesome crime scene where Matthew Shephard was sacrificed for intolerance. Things got better. I couldn't get health care in my 40s because of a "pre-existing condition" for ten years. Things got better. I hear and read and see hatred and ignorance everywhere, but...? Things WILL get better. The more an ignorant person rants, the more the non-violent majority will consolidate into peace and progress.Things do get better.
" Friend Dave via Facebook

President Obama on Ferguson, MO Verdict

"We are a nation built on the rule of law, so we need to accept that this decision was the grand jury's to make." -President Obama on Ferguson, MO grand jury decision on officer Wilson

52nd Anniversh of President John Kennedy's Death

A great book to read are JFK's book Profiles In Courage and author and historian William Manchester's boom Death of a President November 1963.

Immigration Assumptions And Omissions

"1.I don’t believe Americans grasp how racist the origins of immigration law truly is. For nearly the first entire half of the nation’s history, there were not any relevant immigration restrictions — if you were of the “right” race (white) and “right” religion (Protestant Christian). There literally was no issue with Waspish folk coming and going. The first immigration restrictions were levied against Chinese migrants and those of Southern European (and Irish, who shared the “wrong” religion, Catholicism). It also coincided with pogroms and mob violence against such groups that were viewed as poisonous intruders. So when anti-immigration lobbyists trumpet this “rule of law”, they’re really resting on an ugly legacy.

2.Even today, while we’ve shed most of that ugliness, there still remains great injustice in immigration law. For certain countries of origin (Cuba), if you plant your feet on US soil, you’re automatically legal. Not so for all the other Latin American nations, most of which features governments of a far more oppressive nature. Or if you can throw a baseball, brandish a hockey stick, or shoot a basketball exceptionally well, you’re in. Or if you’re blessed with abundant wealth. I concede, that for many Americans, this framework of immigration law is a natural democratic consensus on who is worthy to enter, but to a Jesus follower, it is backwards to the truth of the Gospel.

3.An oft-repeated argument against more open immigration is one of economics — that the costs of adding people is staggering and would be a drain on the nation’s coffers, and especially detrimental to lower and middle class workers. But this is a vivid illustration of faulty zero sum economic thinking — that there’s a static economic pie, and more folks carving out slices means less for all. Truth is, the economics are much more dynamic — vibrant immigration means more economic activity (growing the pie), greater velocity of money (multiplying the pie), and a larger pool from which creativity and innovation can arise. In fact, it’s a large part on how America attained greatness. And today, in the US (as well as other western nations), we have a growing imbalance in the ratio of younger workers to older retirees. Wouldn’t more open immigration be a natural sensible treatment?

4.It is pointed out that America already has the most generous immigration policy in the world. This is true, but I am disturbed that this trope is brandished against meaningful reform. That because the US is better than most (or all) other countries, we need to do nothing (or focus on punitive measures). But that would be like nations in the 19C refusing to abolish slavery (or apply any other social justice remedy) because we’re more humane than those other countries already in how we treat slaves, the downtrodden, etc.

5.Capital, money, electronic bits can move freely across political borders in the 21C. Why should human beings be treated less than? The human right to migration should be as fundamental as the right to freedom of expression and freedom from discrimination on grounds of gender, race, religion, or sexuality."


Via azspot.net

Gun Control - Guns Need Licensure, Registration

"What can I assume from this text? One, that man is up to no good, since he is breaking the law. Two, that the law obiding citizens in that library are not packing, the librarian isn't either. If the man goes on a rampage, nothing short of a ninja can stop him. He can approach each person, and shoot their cranium at point blank range.


 This isn't learned helplessness. This is enforced helplessness.


 Carrying guns, with proper licensure and strict guidelines for such license (both shooting and legal aptitude) should be the norm. Gun control has NEVER stopped a criminal from obtaining a weapon and using it. Enforced helplessness is a violation of our right to protect ourselves. 911 emergency police are too far away, and we cannot rely on every public venue to have an armed guard.
 Strawman argument: More guns = more shootings. Reality: In every police station in the country, almost everyone is armed. Or with a gun in their desk. Heard about that police station where a mad shooter went from desk to desk shooting everyone? Me neither. And the US police aren't known to be nonviolent or with very good restraint, statistically.


 Open carry with proper and strict licensure with frequent renewal Requirements is the only solution." Mu friend Sam via Facebook on gun control


Guns need licensure, registration, more smartgun technology, limits on buying ammo and legal exams and universal background checks for all gun buyers, etc.

JFK Quote

"Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country" President Kennedy

The Right Wing is the Anti-Christ

There, I finally said it.

If President Obama Were A White Man... On Immigration

If President Obama were white and had been playing on a level field, Congress would have passed immigration reform long ago. For now we can just hope that the hatred by the Republican Party for our first black president doesn’t drive us to the brink of ruin—again—as they shut down our government and/or try to undermine healthcare reform, all just to get even with the black man they swore to destroy. Meanwhile President Obama is managing to govern anyway, even if only through executive orders, pushed to govern by extreme means by his extremist and irrational opponents. And his action seems more in keeping with the spirit of Thanksgiving than the bitter opposition to welcoming the stranger in our midst is" Frank Schaffer Also we are a nation of immigrants." Frank Schaffer


We all have ancestors that either came from Europe, Africa, the UK, Australia, Russia, the Middle East, China, Japan, Italy, Mexico, South America,etc

Thoughts On Obama, Immigration

"Well played, President Obama . . . despite the haters, this imminent executive order, which essentially expands the program for Dreamers, extends to millions of undocumented immigrants, but has no path to citizenship, is a temporary fix - despite Republican outcries and rending of garments and gnashing of teeth, it's not a contradiction: What he said in the past was that he could not pass amnesty to 11 million undocumented immigrants and provide a path to citizenship on his own. But he is, legally, doing what he can, while Republican congress critters (who had a chance to pass a bill on immigration, and refused to) sit on their asses, tear his plans apart, and continue to kick back and do abso-fucking-lutely nothing . . .
"-Friend Julie via Facebook


p.s. "Mass amnesty would be unfair. Mass deportation would be both impossible and contrary to our character. What I’m describing is accountability – a commonsense, middle ground approach: If you meet the criteria, you can come out of the shadows and get right with the law. If you’re a criminal, you’ll be deported. If you plan to enter the U.S. illegally, your chances of getting caught and sent back just went up."

Dallas in 1963..

The anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination is upon us; I wanted to post this quote from William Manchester's book "Death of a President November 1963" from book 1, chapter 4 "Volunteer" page 288:
 "there were complaints that the city (Dallas, Big D) was being victimized, that left wing Eastern liberals and intellectuals were ganging up on Dallas conservatism. There was no remorse among the city's rightists on the afternoon of November 22. At 3:05 P.M., when 80 percent of the American people were in deep grief, an NBC camera panned toward a group of spectators outside Parkland's emergency response entrance and picked up a young man with a placard that read "YANKEE GO HOME" Barefoot Sanders was astounded to learn that although next day's Harvard-Yale game had been called off, interrupting the oldest football rivalry in the country, most Dallas County high schools were going ahead with plans to play under lights that Friday evening. When Warren Harding arrives home, a child who lived in his block said "I'm sorry your President died." Harding didn't know what to say. He puckered and then replied. "Son, he was your President, too. He was everybody's President." The child then shook his head. "He wasn't ours," he said. "My Mom and Daddy didn't vote for him. He didn't mean anything to us."
 On a side note, some people accused the Kennedy's of thinking of themselves as royalty, much parallel to the Obama family today and right wing accusations, slander and complaints.

Bill Cinton Joke

"When Clinton was sworn in, the house dept kept a new cook. Somehow his cooking did not match Clintons taste. One day he threw a lunch for a visiting dignatory. After having a few bites Clinton felt rumblings in his stomach. He excused himself and rushed towards his study clutching his tummy and fell flat on the sofa. Hearing the noise , Monica Lewinsky came to the study and asked , " How can I help you , Mr President ". Bill Clinton now in extreme pain said with great difficulty in almost a whisper ,"Sack the cook ". Rest is all history." - as told by Brij Mohan C via friend Sam on Facebook lol

Some Thoughts on the 2014 Election

“I would be remiss in not pointing out one of the key dynamics that has been at play for some years, and really became a significant factor last night: Our failure to take right-wing extremism seriously. The American right has been growing increasingly radicalized by the extremist rhetoric, nearly all of it originating with the racist/extremist right, that has become pervasive in mainstream discourse over the past generation. The Tea Party, frankly, is now indistinguishable from the militia movement of the 1990s. And the mainstream press continues to treat this radicalization as normative politics — in large part because liberals do not make it an issue. When Joni Ernst can advocate Agenda 21 conspiracy theories and radical anti-abortion positions and still be treated like a normal politician, we share in that blame." Some Thoughts on the 2014 Election ☀ via azspot.net





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Election Day

"The bottom line is that our democracy has become so hollowed out and most people so alienated that what we’re watching is simply a street fight between factions in the country’s power elite. For some it has entertainment value, but it’s not even an interesting matchup any more. The hard right libertarian faction has been wiping the floor with a weak opponent, a feckless, dispirited remnant of the old liberal managerial elite, which loses ground with every passing decade, even if it seems to win a round now and then as it did in 2008.
We’re seeing again the continuation of a pattern in place since 1980 in which the hard right obtains power, then aggressively rigs things in its favor, pisses everybody off, gets voted out, and then consolidates its gains while obstructing the Democrats until it gets back in power again. Which it does inevitably because everybody is frustrated with the obstructed Democrats inability to get anything done. The American people apparently don’t pay attention enough or care enough to break this pattern. The hope of Democrats that they have a long-term demographic advantage is ridiculous so long as they continue to be a party that nobody could be bothered to vote for.


The idea of giving the Republicans any kind of serious responsibility is crazy because its leaders are captured by an Ayn Randian ideology that makes them crazy. At least the old liberal managerial elite had some sense of the common good, even if their technocratic attempts to achieve it were often misguided"... -Election Day

Conservative Thinking, Values, Morals, Ethics

"Conservatives, on the other hand, have a very different view of democracy. For them democracy is supposed to provide them with the liberty to do what they want, without being responsible for others and without others being responsible for them. For them, there is only personal responsibility, not social responsibility. Indeed, providing public resources is, to a conservative, immoral, taking away personal responsibility, making people dependent, lazy, unable to take care of themselves. Removing public resources is seen as providing incentives, and individual liberty is seen as the condition in which you can carry out your incentives." -George Lakoff,

Another Political Quote

“In 1956, I shall not go to the polls. I have not registered. I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no “two evils” exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say. There is no third party. On the Presidential ballot in a few states (seventeen in 1952), a “Socialist” Party will appear. Few will hear its appeal because it will have almost no opportunity to take part in the campaign and explain its platform. If a voter organizes or advocates a real third-party movement, he may be accused of seeking to overthrow this government by “force and violence.” Anything he advocates by way of significant reform will be called “Communist” and will of necessity be Communist in the sense that it must advocate such things as government ownership of the means of production; government in business; the limitation of private profit; social medicine, government housing and federal aid to education; the total abolition of race bias; and the welfare state. These things are on every Communist program; these things are the aim of socialism. Any American who advocates them today, no matter how sincerely, stands in danger of losing his job, surrendering his social status and perhaps landing in jail. The witnesses against him may be liars or insane or criminals. These witnesses need give no proof for their charges and may not even be known or appear in person. They may be in the pay of the United States Government. A.D.A.’s and “Liberals” are not third parties; they seek to act as tails to kites. But since the kites are self-propelled and radar-controlled, tails are quite superfluous and rather silly." W.E.B. DuBois ☀

Republican Ideology and Values Suck

“When Americans look at real issues—even in this era of dissatisfaction and distraction—they display little interest in Republican-style solutions. The most obvious examples in this election are the referendum ballots on the minimum wage, which passed by 2-1 margins both in deep-red states such as Arkansas and in suddenly purplish places such as Illinois, which elected a Republican governor. In Alaska, South Dakota and Nebraska, where Republican candidates romped at every level, voters passed state minimum wage increases by wide margins." Beneath the Republican Wave, Voters Still Reject Right-Wing Ideology ☀

Obama is a Right Wing President

Obama is a Right Wing President.  That is all. He is a Reaganite, and to the right of Reagan, but somewhat to the left of the Tea Party, which puts him in spitting distance of Atilla the Hun (his record on civil liberties is, according to the ACLU, substantially worse than George W. Bush’s. He deported more Hispanics than George Bush ever did, etc…)  Obama had plenty of power to make more of a difference than he did, and he chose not to.  In the small things, in the big things, when it came to economic policies and to non identity based civil liberties, he virtually always did the right wing thing.


Obama is the first President in post-war history (and maybe all of history) whose economy gave more money to the top 10% than the entire value of all productivity gains in his Presidency.  Even George W. Bush didn’t manage that.

Cons and Libs

“Progressive and conservatives have very different understandings of democracy. For progressives empathy is at the center of the very idea of democracy. Democracy is a governing system in which citizens care about their fellow citizens and work through their government to provide public resources for all. In short, in a democracy, the private depends on the public." Democratic Strategies Lost Big. Here’s an Alternative ☀

Political Fears Quote

"If Im ever rich, I intend to open up a restaurant called The Scarecrow. In it, all dishes will be named after various political distractors designed to scare and shepherd the American public. So if anyone is interested, you may preorder an ISIS bbq steak with a side of Ebola fries and any Benghazi can of soda for just $5.99." - Friend Sam T. via Facebook