I'm not one for politics, so I'll keep this post short. I just figured I'd throw my two cents in on everything that has happened in the past few days.
I'll admit, I haven't been paying much attention to the stuff leading up to the election this year. I knew that like almost every year, both candidates were crummy and didn't offer much to our country that we don't already have. Lies and corruption that I have no control over? No thanks, pass. I had better things to spend my time worrying about- such as homework assignments and keeping up with my grades. But now that we have President Trump... the country seems to have gone beserk! Rioting and highways being closed off, cars being crashed, buildings being torched down in protest... that's no longer protest folks, that's straight up illegal. While none of this is amusing in any way, I do find it funny that these "protests" are being instigated by the very same group of people who love to call out Trump supporters for being hateful and bigoted. The same people who were so scared of a Trump presidency because of the hate crimes they thought would ensue.... The only hate crimes I'm seeing are against Trump and anyone who voted for him. I see my friends getting into full-blown arguments on Facebook because of their views and such things as "If you voted for anyone but Hillary, please explain to your female, LGBT, Muslim, etc. etc. friends why you don't care about their rights" and nothing pisses me off more. For God's sake, who you vote for does not define you as a person! Everyone has flown off the hook and forgotten that the same kindhearted person they are friends with is still that same person, no matter which way they voted. I think that's the bottom line here- people need to remember that elections don't define people. The way you react to things not going your way, however... that WILL define you, and your maturity level. Please keep that in mind before ripping shit all over my newsfeed for no reason. - Maddie
0 Comments
Okay, this is going to be a short post tonight that kind of ties in with the post called Peace I did last week. In that post, I spoke about the government being corrupt and doing things that the corporations tell them to do.
Here is a blatant example. On Monday, this story was reported: President Obama kicked off his three-day visit to Vietnam with an announcement declaring the end of a U.S. arms embargo on the country, a ban that had been in place for decades. "We've come here as a symbol of the renewed ties....and the comprehensive partnership we have created over the course of my presidency," Obama said at a press conference. The trip will also see the nations discuss the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is expected to usher in a new period of growth for export-oriented Vietnam. About two minutes later, this story hit the wire: Vietnam's VietJet has agreed to order 100 Boeing (NYSE:BA) 737 MAX 200 airplanes, in a deal worth $11.3B based on list prices. Delivery of the planes will run for four years beginning in 2019, and will make the airline one of the fastest growing low-cost carriers in the region. VietJet will sign the agreement later today in Hanoi during President Obama's visit to Vietnam. Just so we are clear here, while the Boeing order is for commercial aircraft, Boeing is also a defense contractor. An $11 billion order for commercial aircraft is small potatoes compared to some of the large defense contracts the company stands to win. I am sure the order was also in some way tied to the president making that announcement too. The timing is just too neat otherwise. I have said it before, and I will say it again, if you think that your one vote out of the 350 million people in this country really matters to anyone, then you are sorely mistaken. The corporations play the drums people. and "our" politicians dance. It's been that way for a long time, and there is really very little we can do about it until enough people realize it. Rant over... Good night! "Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." That's a quote by H.L. Mencken. Put Mencken right up there with Bierce. A newspaperman with an acidic personality and a very sarcastic style. The world should definitely have more Menckens nowadays!
Anyway, I can't help but believe that Mencken was correct with his above quote. If you need proof, just look at how many Bernie Sanders supporters there are out there. Or Hillary supporters. Don't laugh too hard Trump fans... I could have easily pointed at you too! But I digress, lets stick with Sanders for a minute. Here is a guy who says he wants to tax the rich to give to everyone else. The problem is, his definition of rich is whether or not you have a job! Have you ever looked at this man's background? During the 60"s he was a conscientious objector to the Vietnam war. While that certainly doesn't bother me, It does make me wonder how effective he would be as a commander in chief. What really bothers me about the man is that other than public office, he has never held down a real job in his life. Politicians have created the problems we have now. I don't think a career politician is the person to bring in to solve the problem,. My same thoughts go to Clinton on this (as well as that I believe she is dishonest and untruthful. I don't know about you, but I have noticed that some people cannot speak about anything but sports, drinking and TV. Are these the people we expect to vote for who is fit for office? To be truthful, I think there should be some sort of basic intelligence test that should be administered before anyone is allowed to vote. It might have saved us 8 years of Obama. Secondly, I think that anyone unemployed should have to skip voting in the years they are unemployed. It's too easy to vote for your pocketbook For the record, I do not vote. Somehow, I think my one vote in 350 million would be essentially meaningless. I do not feel represented by either the democrats or the republicans, and I can't see pretending otherwise. "Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please." That's a quote by Mark Twain. In general, I think he is saying that it is better to know what you are talking about first, before you start twisting the story to fit your desires. It's a very cynical way of thinking actually, but basically, he is spot on.
Most people do distort the truth to fit the circumstances they want to portray. In fact, nowadays, you almost can't believe anything you read in the mass media, and I have found that even friends will tell stories differently to show that their point of view is the correct one. Luckily, I have spent the past twenty five years as an analyst, so I am used to sniffing out bullshit. Nowadays, I try not to drink the cool aid with anything I hear. Instead, I try to wait until I have more information before deciding if a story is true or false. Politics and economics are two areas where I find it is best not to make a judgement until I can check into the facts on my own. Too many people are very partisan, and their side can never be wrong... even if they have to distort the facts to make it so. A good case in point is Hillary Clinton supporters. From what I have read in the newspapers, it is clear that she broke the law in this latest email scandal. Even so, a large number of democrats still support her. In my opinion, the President of the Unites States should be above reproach. She is not even president yet and there are huge concerns about her morals and decision-making abilities. At this point, I do not see how anyone could vote for her in good conscience. Even so, it seems a number of democrats don't care. She is "their" candidate and you should just shut up if you weren't in the room since you really don't know what happened! Are these people out of their minds? We are talking about the highest office in the land, and they want to put someone in their who flagrantly broke the law? We are not talking about this stuff happening when she was a teen... this stuff is fairly recent! So with that said, I guess you figure I am a big fan of Donald Trump? You'd be wrong there as well. I would rather see Trump in the White House than Hillary, but I don't think he is the right man for the office either. We need an outside candidate to step in and clean house. Neither of the two main political parties can field a candidate that can bring about change. The parties are now too beholden to big money interests to change anything in a positive way. Congress will continue to spend too much money. The targets for the largess will be what changes...nothing else. It's a sad day for America, when a majority of people in the country do not trust the U.S. government. We need change people. I just doubt we are going to get it with either the republicans or the democrats. The lies will keep coming, and the people will keep grumbling. But at the end of the day, nothing major is going to change that will actually benefit the people. Once again, the media has gotten the sheeple worked up over nothing. First we had gay marriage, then we had the horror of the confederate flag and now we have the outrage over a Minnesota dentist killing a lion. He killed the lion on a legal hunt by the way.
Lions are wild animals. Some Einstein gave this lion a name so everyone could feel even more outrage over the killing of a single animal. In Africa, no one gives a shit. Here is an article talking about the whole spectacle: A Lion? These foolish stories are posted and pushed to keep people's attention away from the real stories that may make them a little less happy with their politicians or the corporations that control them. For instance, over the past day or so I have seen more posts over a dead lion than I saw about the Greek currency crisis or the potential debt crisis in Puerto Rico. The lion stories also outran posts about the bird flu epidemic that killed millions of chickens in the U.S. and caused the price of eggs to rocket to nearly $3 a dozen. I guess it's a lot easier to get people interested in lions after the Madagascar movies. Getting the people pissed off about a fucking lion is also safer for the media than focusing on the chicken story since most of the chickens were killed on large corporate farms where the use of antibiotics (these chickens ARE in the food supply) and overcrowded living conditions for the animals helped to spread the disease even faster. Read about it HERE Lions are not cute and cuddly people...no matter what you think of Alex the lion (from Madagascar movies) or even Cecil. Lions kill about 250 humans each year worldwide. That's more than the great white shark (about 100)... and no one seems to care when they get killed. In Africa, where big game hunting is allowed, the meat usually has to be donated to the local tribes. Thus, the meat isn't just wasted. Lions kill livestock in Africa as well, and thus the population often times needs to be pruned to keep villagers safe...But go ahead, give the man killers a name and feel bad about it. Another thing that the media wants to keep people unaware of is that there are people dying all across the world due to war. This is a tricky subject for the media. They try to keep all stories about the military positive. All the soldiers are heroes and we will see tons of videos of soldiers coming home and surprising their wives, or their kids or their dogs. You don't see many articles about the defense budget though, or how much the endless wars are actually costing us. You don't see the fact that suicide is one of the largest contributors to military deaths, or that thousands of innocent people are getting killed regularly in the lands that we occupy. They are not necessarily being killed by our soldiers either! That says something about the security for the average people in the regions where our military is active. There are other things that the media try to keep away from us. One of them is the fact that the average soldier makes a salary of about $40 thousand a year. That number is higher for officers and lower for the average soldier of course...even though it is the average soldier who is more likely to be shipped overseas and be stationed in an area that is more in harm's way. They also certainly don't want to advertise the fact that the corporations making the weaponry for the military is raking in profits hand over fist. That certainly wouldn't be good. Or that the average salary at Boeing (a large defense contractor) is $75 thousand a year, or that the average salaries for those working at General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman (also large defense contractors) are well over $70 thousand a year. Hmmm, soldiers $40 thousand a year, workers making weapons and ammo over $70 thousand. And what about the salaries and percs of the politicians? Salaries for congressmen and senators are about $174 thousand. For the speaker of the house its $223,500. When you throw in all of the percs that they receive, including their pension plans, the costs rise exponentially. So what's my point? The next time you feel compelled to post an article talking about something stupid, why not take the time to see what else is happening in the world that the media might want to avert your attention from. You have a choice you know. You can continue to play their game and live your life with the motto "Ignorance is bliss!" Or you can actually look into what is going on that is more important that the media is trying to steer you clear of. By the way, that chicken above is not named Cecil.In fact, it's a rooster, and as far as I know it was not made into that yummy meal pictured on the right. I just thought I'd put that up since I'm sure some of you bleeding hearts wanted to comment on my heartlessness. Oh, and finally, if you think the defense industry hasn't gotten fat off of the war and destruction of foreigners...the charts below show the stocks versus the S&P 500 since 9/11. Most of the stocks are up about 400% or so since that date versus about 100% for the S&P. I am assuming that all of you know that my headline today is a quote from George Orwell's 1984. If not, then crawl out from under your rock and go read it you gigantic moron! Sorry, but I think 1984 is a book that we should all be familiar with. Orwell wrote the story in 1949, yet much of the story seems to parallel what is happening in our world since the turn of the millennium. Lately, our government and the mass media seem to want to redefine everything to the extent that words are now meaningless, or more accurately mean different things. And, oddly enough, many people seem to go along with it. For instance, going back decades, politicians want you to believe that we are not never at war... instead, we participate in "police actions". Unless, of course, it is the "War on Terror" or the "War on drugs"! These are wars against faceless enemies so they are ok. Otherwise, we have been at peace since the end of World War II! You might ask: "What about Korea? Or Vietnam? I know we had the Gulf War, and Irag, Afghanistan and even Grenada! Weren't these wars?" Not according to the legal definition of the word. The last time we legally declared war was when Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attacks. So while the texts books call them the Korean War or the Gulf War or Vietnam War, the government thinks of them as "extended engagements" or "police actions". Remember, war (somewhere else) is peace! Just like in 1984!
What other incongruities can we find? How about, if you are out of work for longer than a set specified number of weeks you are not unemployed, but just not part of the work force...whether you are looking for work or not! That way the government can report a lower unemployment rate and make it look like their policies are not as bad as they really are. Another good one is that in our pledge of allegiance we say "And to the republic for which it stands" yet most of our politicians call us a democracy. At the same time they pass one socialist policy after another! Wait, it gets better! What about preemptive war? We have all heard the talking heads chat about this concept with a straight face. The paradox is that you can never start a war in order to prevent it! War is peace...except when it is to the politician's advantage to say we are at war! Then these police actions become wars and it is glorified! Our soldiers become "heroes" who are fighting for our safety. In fact, all of them are now heroes, whether they were actually fighting or just peeling potatoes. They are all fighting for our peace and safety. Okay, so maybe Orwell had a point with War is Peace, but what about Freedom is slavery. That can't be true can it? Well, that depends on what you call freedom. Is freedom having to stand behind a barbed wire fence at the 2004 Democratic National Convention if you wanted to protest? Is freedom having to pay nearly 50% of your income as taxes each year? Is freedom having top pay taxes on your home year after year whether you have any income coming in or not? Did you know that the U.S. has the second highest incarceration rate in the world at 707 prisoners per 100,000 in population? Yep, we are right behind the Seychelles where there are 868 prisoners per 100,000. Here is a link to a table where you can look up the country that you think would be worse! Incarceration Rates . Finally, we reach Ignorance is strength. Just take a look around you ladies and gentlemen. Most people seem to spend their leisure time either watching TV or drinking themselves silly! Ask most of them what they think about current events and you hear about what they think will happen on their favorite TV show. Or they will say they are for or against gay rights or the confederate flag. Many of the people I chatted with didn't even know that there was a crisis in Greece! Ignorance is definitely strength for our politicians. Keep watching TV people...Keep making your pictures look like rainbows and take down all of your confederate flags! Drink yourself into a stupor, and keep pretending that you are free. Just like the politicians want you to. On July 4th, everyone is expected to celebrate Independence Day. While that day used to have a true meaning, nowadays I think it would be hard to call all but a few in this country independent. Let me give you some examples:
Population of the United States: 318.9 million. Number of people Receiving Social Security: 59 million Number of people incarcerated: 2.3 million Number of people on Medicare: 49.4 million Number of people on Medicaid: 8.8 million Number of people employed by the Federal Government: 2.7 million Number of people employed by State governments: 5.1 million Number of people employed by local governments: 14 million Number of people in the U.S. military: 2.2 million Number of people receiving food stamps: 47 million Number of people receiving unemployment: 2.3 million Number of people receiving welfare:109.6 million Number of people unemployed and not receiving unemployment: 9 million Add those numbers up and that's 311 million people out of 318.9 million receiving some kind of economic benefit from our government. Granted, some of those people likely overlap, but still, it certainly says something about independence! But wait! Don't pat yourself on the back just yet. Are your children one of the 49.5 million students in the public school system? Then YOU aren't independent either. When you are truly independent, you pay for what you get. Not have others pay for you. Now, if you home school your children or send them to a private school...and you do not fit into any of the above categories, then happy Independence Day! As for the rest of you, have a nice day off in your world of dependence! Before anyone gets ready to call me a democrat or a republican I'd like to state it plainly that I am neither! I think the government should stay out of our lives. I also think that those who think they are making a difference by voting for either a democrat or a republican are only fooling themselves. Democrats and Republicans are two sides of the same coin!
So how would I make it better? I'd start by getting rid of the corruption. The first out would be the Federal Reserve. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to have our money supply run by a corporation run by the banks was either crazy or crooked. My bet would be the latter! So step one is get rid of the Fed and bring back a currency that is backed by an asset that is hard to increase rapidly. In the past, people used gold and silver because it had to be mined and was easily divisible. Step two would be only allow foreign transactions with currencies that are similarly backed. The Unites States has the largest economy on the planet. Countries will want to trade with us. Thus, they will create an asset backed currency to trade with us. The third step is to simplify the tax code and to create a legal limit to the amount that the government can take from a person or corporation. I think a constitutional amendment that limits the take of all governments on our citizens to no more than 10% of income, would do wonders to turn the country around. Instead of social security we could legislate that each person would have to put away a certain percentage of his income each year for their retirement. Everybody would be responsible for investing their own money. By doing this, we would be taking government right out of the equation. For corporate taxes, I would make it so that only foreign sales could be taxed and I would levy a 25% tax on all imports. While this may sound extreme, It actually makes perfect sense. To avoid taxes, companies would open factories in the U.S. to sell products in our markets. While they could still manufacture things overseas, they will quickly find that they would be undercut by local manufacturers. We have the largest single market in the world. It's about time we use that strength to build an economy with full employment. The final steps that I think are necessary are to simplify laws so that people understand them and can obey them. Right now, there are so many laws on the books, and so many of them are so complex that most people don't even know when they are breaking one. The best thing to do here is to simplify the laws we have and take asinine ones off the books. Once this is done, we need to lower government employment to a level where less than 1% of the U.S. population is working for the government. Government should not be a career. Limit the amount of time that people can work for the government and you will limit the power of one group of people over another. Hopefully, this will be my one and only political rant. I am so tired of looking at Facebook and seeing people spouting for new ways for the government to redistribute other people's money. If you think the military needs to be paid more, then donate. If you think abortions should be free, then donate! Don't try and get everyone to pay for programs that favor one group over another! I think my thoughts above will benefit everyone without directly hurting anyone. The new jobs that my plan would create would be perfect for ex-government workers to move into. Work in the real world! |
Archives
September 2021
Categories
All
|