Back to Work

Okay, the parties over. Barbeque has been eaten, ball games played and beer drunk. You may be tired, nauseous and a bit hung over, but you need to get with it. The lazy days of summer cannot be so lazy this year. Too much to do.
This is the year that will determine where the US goes,  The economy is better, but it will slide back if we return to the ennui that has plagued us for too long. American workers have bemoaned the lack of decent jobs since the Great Recession kicked in. Those jobs are out there now and you best be ready. Go to school in your spare time. Get some training because, if you don't, well, there are a lot of foreign workers trained and ready to roll, who would desperately love to come here.
Take control of your life. Learn and practice decent manners. Not where you put salad forks at a formal dinner, just little things like please and thank you and may I help you. Be neat in your appearance and watch your mouth. Your ability to string together obscenities may be well developed, but it just displays your basic ignorance.
.Go to work ready to work. If you're hung over, that's your fault. Get over it and don't drag around complaining. Problems at home? Unless it involves an unusual disaster, deal with them at home. If it is something dire, tell your boss.  They are human and will probably cut you some slack. If you are the boss, don't take it out on employees. It's not their fault.
Get your financial house in order. You don't need huge bills hanging around. And, get your actual dwelling in order. Life goes smoother when things are neat and organized.
,Take care of yourself. You do no good when you're sickly, so eat well, get some exercise and a bit of rest. You don't need to be a fanatic, eating tofu and hanging out in gyms. Just use some sense.
I've written such posts before and I don't want to preach or bore people, I just sometimes think that many don't realize how fast things are changing. Americans must be ready, moving quickly and intelligently. If we fail this time, things will get very bad. On the other hand, you'll have plenty of free time. No money, but lots of free time.

Americans - Get Ready to Duck

In the last few weeks, we've had the massacre in Orlando, the bombing in Turkey, a slaughter in Bangladesh, and now, this 4th of July morning, word has come of an attempted attack on our embassy in Saudi Arabia. Also, word has been leaked to he media that Hillary will not be indicted.

I was only half paying attention, but someone on Fox news gave the most profound statement about the FBI's Hillary probe. They said that they probably did not want to continue because it would mean opening up areas that no one wanted to look into. That is likely the truth, but, guess what. I, and I am sure many others, want them opened. But, that will not happen. The lid has been shut, just as it has been shut on the JFK assassination, Watergate, Iran-Contra, 9/11, and host of other despicable acts that so many who run this Country have committed.

Start looking at Benghazi and the email scandals, dig deep enough, and you will have to start digging into the CIA, the military, the NSA and a whole hidden set of government operations. We are being forced to allow these fools to continue with their mishandling of our lives.

Richard Nixon tried to stop the Watergate investigations when he realized E. Howard Hunt was involved, saying that it might bring up the 'whole Bay of Pigs thing.' His chief of staff Bob Haldeman was puzzled, then realized that Nixon was talking about the JFK assassination. Sure enough, the Watergate Committee restricted its investigations to certain avenues, giving others a wide berth. Start digging into State Dept. activities and who knows what is lurking.

Just today, a spokesman for the coal miners said that, in the next few weeks, as policies continue, 1000s of miners will be out of work. College costs are now prohibitive, unless you take out a loan that will leave you financially crippled for decades. Obama is touting his absurd idea that strengthening the economies of other lands will create jobs in ours. Well, maybe, but you best keep practicing these words: 'want fries with that?'

The big boys, the guys running the mega corporations, are pushing forward with robotics, thus making human beings near obsolete.

And, the rest of the World is past simmering and beginning to boil as the plans of the elite, the 1% who control damn near all the wealth continue to squeeze every damn dime they can out of the rest of us. They are insane.

We are being lead by madmen, obsessed with power. Will they win? Short term? Maybe. Maybe not. It depends on how long they can keep from fighting each other, and that is why ultimately, they will lose. Power does not share and they will eventually fight each other over who is the alpha male ( sorry ladies, if you have some power now, it is just an illusion they have given you to keep you quiet and out of the way. Theirs is an all male club). The question that concerns the rest of us is, what will be left when they finally kill each other off? Will any of us till be standing?

I have no answers to those questions. My crystal ball is cracked and my Tarot deck is missing a few cards. All I can do is warn you. Get ready to duck because soon, sooner than many of us realized, the crap is going to hit the fan.

As Marvin Gaye sang, "Makes me want to holler, they way the do my life." (Inner City Blues)

America - Are You Awake Yet?

Americans seem to be sleep walking. Listen to the crowds at the current political rallies. Forget which candidate is speaking and what they are saying and just listen to the crowds. Every time the candidate pauses or makes an emphatic gesture, the crowds go wild. The problem? Nothing was said. Hillary or Trump have but to bellow, "We will win," and they go nuts. "We will create jobs," gets standing ovations.. Okay, folks want jobs. I get that. But, just how do they propose getting those jobs going is never mentioned. A decent explanation would get my applause, but a banal promise? No.

I have come to realize that real explanations and honest, workable proposals do not mean a damn thing. People, especially in crowd situations, just want an excuse to yell and cheer. A candidate could promise them all a box of Cracker Jacks and, if they bellowed and sounded wildly enthusiastic, the crowd would jump to its feet and cheer wildly. No one listens, they just hear and see clues and respond accordingly, like Pavlov's dogs.

This has always happened at campaign rallies and this crowd mentality is something that scared our Founding Fathers. This is why we are not, despite everything you may have been  taught, a democracy. We are a representative republic. Those old guys had sense enough to see what might happen if all power went to the crowds. Crowds, in the hands of manipulative masters, can become mobs caught up in a moment's frenzy and the results are never good.

Don't believe me? Look at the reports from North Korea and witness the slavish devotion of those sheep to their 'dear leader,' the despicable little lunatic who is starving them so he can build nukes. Better still, take a look at Leni Riefenstahl's infamous and brilliant film, Triumph of the Will, her record of Hitler's Nuremberg Rallies where the German people, thought to be among the most culturally sophisticated on Earth, were turned into a rabid mob. Remember, this all happened when the German people were in a long lasting economic down time.

We are not quite that bad off here, but we are not that far off either. Neither of our candidates have yet shown Hitler's manipulative skills, but, if you look at and listen to the crowds, the desire to be led, to be told that they are great and that all will be well if they just do as told, is there and that is dangerous. Americans, wake up and realize that the only solutions to our problems are not easy ones and demand that those campaigning stop bellowing slogans and tell you just exactly what the hell they propose. If you do not want to do that, then you may as well go back to grazing and learn to say, 'baah.'

America and UFOs - Hillary and the Spacemen

Hillary Clinton supporter and past holder of several Government offices, John Podesta, is thrilled. It seems that Hillary has assured him that she will get to the bottom of the whole UFO/Alien Visitor thing. Well thank God for that. Here we have been fussing over that for the last 70 years and it seems that all we had to do was wait patiently on Ms. Clinton. Boy, I can rest easy now.

Of course, her husband said the same thing and got no real answer. Jimmy Carter requested that information from then CIA Director George W.H. Bush and was told that it was available on a need to know basis and that the President did not need to know. Bush himself, when seeking the Presidency, said the there were many, many files on the subject and hinted that he might release some. He did not. So, I wonder just why she thinks they would answer her.

Even if they did, why should we believe anything the CIA says? They have hardly been a fountain of truth over the years. Words like lying, psychotic, psychopathic, manipulative, control freaks, assassins, drug smugglers all come to mind when I see those 3 letters, but maybe Hillary can somehow charm them into telling her the real deal. Maybe, but not likely.

I am of the opinion that after all this time and after all the shenanigans pulled by the CIA and  governments, ours and others, no one really knows the truth. Bits and pieces maybe, but not all of it. The whole UFO thing, flying saucers and such, may be a hoax used by our controllers to scare us. Abductions may be hiding government mind control experiments, replacing real memories of experiments with false memories of abduction, not really a difficult thing to do (the CIA's own files show that they have been working at that since at least the 1940s).

Or maybe all the tales are true. Maybe ET is flitting around all the time. Why? Depends on who you ask. Some say to guide is to a Utopian future. Others say they want to control us and make us slaves or food when they take over. Others say they care not a fig about people and just want to keep us from devastating this lovely Planet.

Personally, I think that no one is flying through the stars to visit. The distances are too great and the wormhole thing scientists talk about may be unworkable. Wormholes almost certainly exist, but there is no way to control where and when you will exit one. I tend to believe that we are visited by, what Jacques Vallee refers to as 'interdimensional beings, and they have always been buzzing about. In past times we have called them angels, demons, devas, kami, Manitou, archons, elementals, gods and other names. Some are benevolent, some quite malicious and all are tricksters. As far as weird craft in the sky, most are experimental craft that we are working on although, if all that is seen flying is lights, then it is quite likely just one of our constant, tricky companions ( see the Book of Ezekiel and his description of the flying wheel. Most scholars say he was seeing one of the seraphim, not a flying saucer, but a different kind of being, an angel. No, angels are not cute naked babies with wings; the Bible always describes them as frightful.).

Who knows? Maybe all of the above are true or maybe there are far more people having psychotic breaks than we think. Maybe all of this is nonsense. Contrary to what Fox Mulder says, the Truth may not be out there. It really does not matter. It is a fun story and fascinating to goof around with but, until one of them lands and says 'hello' or starts blasting us from the sky, we have more important things to do,  like figuring out how to provide clean water for everyone when there are too many people on Earth. Or maybe trying to figure out how we will grow crops when all of the bees die off and the climate has become too harsh.

Besides, why should we worry? Hillary is going to get to the bottom of the matter.

Americans on the Edge of Survival- Those with Physical Difficulties

I may be starting to sound like a broken record but a great many of the problems of those struggling to get by these days are easily solved. Get the Government to stop spending money idiotically and direct at least some of it to programs intelligently designed to help those in need. Also, the rest of us need to practice a little basic human compassion and patience when dealing with the problems of our neighbors.

Such actions would go far toward helping those with physical difficulties. My wife and I have been together over 30 years. She is totally blind and I am losing sight in 1 eye. We help each other and, guess what? The difficulties are not that big of an issue, nor should they be in any interactions you might have with anyone with physical problems, be they deaf, blind, suffering from any of the many neuro-muscular diseases, or para- or quadriplegic.

Does it really cost you a lot to take a few minutes to help someone? Be honest. Everyone has some free time, even at work. I have supervised crews of workers and let me assure you that in any 8 hour day, it is a miracle if you get 6 hours of acual work out of anyone. At home, again being honest, much, way too much, time is spent staring at insipid TV shows. How often have you sat watching every  minute of a football game that is a 28  to 0 blowout in the first quarter, If you can waste time like that, you can spend a few minutes helping someone. Often, we spend more time complaining about what we have to do than it takes to just do it. 

In days past, in honesty, it was a bit difficult to find jobs for folks with physical difficulties, but, in this age of computers, with all the advances made, the only reason many handicapped people are not working is sheer predjudice. Can they do every job? No, but neither can I and neither can you. Let me tell you this. By not giving these folks a chance, you are missing out on some potentially talented workers and condemning them to a life of SSI, disability checks, food stamps, public housing, and Medicaid. This is degrading and demoralizing. And, if you wish to be selfish about it, just think how much money that costs you in taxes.

We are human and to reject, to shun, to hide away those who are, by no fault of their own, different is a sin. A society that rejects those with physical difficulties should be deeply ashamed.

 

Americans on the Edge of Survival - Children

Children are supposed to be prized and nurtured carefully. So say one and all in this Country. Sometimes, the lucky ones are. For many, childhood is not even a nightmare anymore. They are so beaten down that their lives are geared toward sheer existence, Nightmare implies a contrast, an awareness of benevolence. A lot of kids see little hope for that.

Stop and think what it is like to be raised in poverty, never knowing when or what you will eat, wearing used clothes donated from some charity. How would you feel going to school and knowing that when you get home, Mom will not be there to greet you and, in fact, will not be home until late at night because she is working at least 2 jobs? Dad, well, if Dad is even still around, he likely is working even more hours.

How would you feel watching TV and seeing others dining on roasts and  fish and chicken surrounded by good vegetables, bowls of fresh fruit on the tables, yogurt and milk and eggs in the refrigerator and knowing that you are going to do well to get some generic sugary cereal, a cheap hot dog, and some spaghettios for your meals, if you are having a good day?

How  would you feel if you, as a child, had no home and were forced to sleep on the street, in a car, or maybe in a cardboard box, or, if you are very lucky, a shelter? Shelters are about as dangerous as the streets . Maybe, once in a while, Mom or Dad can scrape together enough to stay a few days in a cheap motel. Let me tell you; I know from personal experience, many of those are not a lot better than the street. Think that does not happen? Statistics show that one fourth of all the many homeless in this land are children.

Suppose you do have a home and a Mom and Dad. You likely will not see them a lot because they are always working. Children should not be alone most of the time. They should not be forced to raise themselves because they just do not have the experience to know what to do. Maybe, if lucky, they get supervision from Grandparents but, that is not the same. Each generation should raise its own kids, Grandma may be well meaning, but she is from a different time and will not, cannot know the nuances and dangers of the current culture.

Perhaps worse are children who have abusive parents. I am not talking about a dad that occasionally swats Junior on the rear end. I have seen parents who think nothing of beating the utter crap out of their kids. Yes, kids have always been physically abused but it seems to be an increasing problem, especially as the rates of alcohol and drug abuse continue to rise.

What to do? First, as I said in my last post, we need to get a grip on how the  Government throws around our money. Get these damn wars over and stop interfering in other Countries' business. Stop subsidizing industries; if they cannot make it without help, they need to go broke and make room for those who know how to do business. Then, with taxes lowered, people can afford to make life better for kids and devote more money toward education and more time to teaching their kids how to be decent humans.

Equally, if not more important, we need to get rid of our obsession with wealth for its own sake. I like nice things and comfort and understand that everyone else feels the same. But, do we all need 3 cars, 5 computers, 4 TVs and a multitude of smart phones. Do we have to dine in 5 star restaurants and pay $200 for concert tickets for some aging rock stars latest tour, $100 for 1 round of golf, and sip $10 drinks after work? Can we not find less expensive ways to entertain ourselves? Are we that bored and that uncreative? Think of all the good that could be done for kids, and, actually for ourselves, if we just used our heads.

I will tell you this. Kids today are being given a very hopeless view of a very unpleasant World. They are growing up thinking they have nothing to gain. Well, logically, if you have nothing, and see nothing to gain, you have nothing to lose, and there is no more dangerous creature on this planet than a human with nothing to lose.

The Madness of America

We are all quite mad. That's okay. I like craziness because from madness comes change and beauty. However, madness takes many forms, and the less pleasant manifestations are the most prevalent at the moment.

Americans are stuck in a weird paranoia mixed with a near catatonic reaction to the World. Everyone seems out to get us, terrorists are plotting and lone nuts are lurking everywhere, and we take two paths; we arm ourselves to the teeth with fearsome weapons and we devote our spare time to mindless shopping and even more mindless entertainment. Be honest, who really needs an automatic weapon for self defense? I am totally against gun control legislation because I don't want the government taking any more of our rights, but, seriously, unless you live in a war zone, any ordinary hand gun or shotgun will deter evil-doers and you damn sure aren't going rabbit hunting with an automatic rifle.

We shop mindlessly. I love shopping, but I believe I use a little sense, yet, year after year, folks go out and buy enormous quantities of gifts at Christmas, using plastic, and put themselves in a financial hole they will never dig their way out of. Then, throughout the year them stress themselves to the breaking point as they struggle to  keep a roof over their heads and some food on the table.

Then, one and all relax by watching idiotic shows on TV ( how many people really think Duck Dynasty, America's Got Talent, and Real Housewives are worth spending more than 5 minutes with?), or watching overpaid, steroid fed, giants beat the snot out of each other on the football field and vastly overpaid baseball players who can't field their position or run the bases as good as kids I used to play pickup games with.

So we retreat, further and further into a cocoon spun of ennui and paranoia, a less than fine madness. The solution? Well, things can go 3 ways. You can shrink and shrink, numbing yourself with inane activity and various combinations of alcohol and prescription meds, until there is nothing left but a dry husk of a corpse. You can continue to retreat, letting all the insanity build until, one fine day, you explode and find yourself joining in some irrational political terrorism or running the streets as a lone nut.

Or, you can change the course of your lunacy, put down the credit cards and TV listings, turn off the overpaid and under talented athletes and celebrities, and let your fancies blow. You want to travel, write poetry, sing opera at the top of your lungs, learn Swahili, dance in Bali or climb mountains, go for it and, as long as you're not hurting others, who gives a damn what anyone thinks. You want to walk the woods where bears still roam or visit the wolves in the Arctic? Fine. You want to seek vampires in Transylvania, dive for giant squid in the Pacific or build a receiver to listen for messages from outer space, why not?

If you 14 or 84, it does not matter. If you cannot, due to physical or economic limitations, do what you want, then let your mind roam. Read, look at pictures, listen to music, talk to travelers in the strange lands and then let your mind go free. Your daydreams are far more important than shopping at Macy's and catching up on the Kardashians. Go crazy. Nothing wrong with madness as long as it is the madness of your choice.