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Category Archives: My Opinion

About Cosby


The ongoing Bill Cosby sexual allegations and public trail by media is not over but could be if the attorneys would get their acts together. At this time most people who follow this are at once surprised, amazed or not. The Many accusations have so many flaws or possible misconceptions as to muddy the waters on the real story. It appears that many well known personalities (including Mrs., Bill Cosby)are being deposed on their knowledge of his actions. I am concerned about the time span between the actual occurrence of the supposed acts and the current revelations. It may turn out to be true or not but the media frenzy has more to do with selling papers or air time than facts. We expect this type of coverage from the checkout stand journals rather than the mainstream media but it appears that any method of increasing revenue is fair game even if it may turn out to false. This is not to say that Mr. Cosby is innocent or guilty but a fair shake should be available for all  as this could happen to any of us for any supposed transgressions from the past.

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State Income Tax Refund Information


As I read this statement my mind went to the actual budget situation in Illinois, this statement is in fact possibly true until the last line, which I find possibly false in part.

Refund Alert

The Illinois Department of Revenue does not anticipate releasing any Individual Income Tax refunds between January 1, 2016 and March 1, 2016.

We are working with the IRS and other states’ revenue departments to protect taxpayers. Enhanced identity theft prevention measures and security protocols will lengthen timeframes for refund issuance.

Filing your return electronically and requesting direct deposit into your checking or savings account is still the fastest way to receive your refund.

For electronic returns filed prior to March 1, 2016 – We anticipate your refund will be issued within two to three weeks from the March 1st date when we begin issuing refunds.

For electronic returns submitted error-free on or after March 1, 2016 – We anticipate your refund will be issued within two to three weeks from the date you submitted your return.

Click here for Refund Delay Frequently Asked Questions.

Note: Tax refunds are not subject to budgetary appropriation by the Illinois General Assembly and are not impacted by the current budget impasse.

Can’t Title This One


With the Caucuses in Iowa over, attention turns to New Hampshire for the next major phase of the Presidential charge. The front-runners have made some progress and feel that they are unbeatable and that is the message they (the still runners) want to convey. Looking at the facts that still exist, these aspirants are still the same people who previously made misstatements, errors in judgment and other issues experienced by us all. Remembering that no matter what these folks are human beings and no better than the least of us. The difference in them and the rest of us is that they are in public eye. With all of that being said I will point out the latest dropout on the Republican side. Rand Paul is a Libertarian conservative  but looking at what a Libertarian really  is eludes most of us. The party definition briefly is:  “The Libertarian Party (LP) is a libertarian political party in the United States that promotes civil liberties, free markets, non-interventionism, and laissez-faire.” This definition taken at its face value does not take in the nuances of the party any more than the definition the Major political parties ascribe to them selves. What America is can be almost indescribable as  multifaceted and nuanced in nature as the countries that produced our ancestors. This is why a definition of any political party is so hard. The basic premise of anyone of them while appealing is not the true meaning. That meaning changes with each candidate and never ever reflects the whole of the party or its followers. I have taken the position of being independent with leanings in Libertarian, Green, Republican (not Dupublican) and Democrat (not Scamocrats). This open-mindedness has allowed me to I believe realistically look at the established parties (minor and major) and their assorted subsets and know that belonging to any one of them is a problem. I have had to read industriously about each one and then decide who as a representative of their party will hopefully do the best job and with luck be their own person if elected. I know this is a lot of work but would you not exert the same due diligence in buying a car or a house. Our political races are not much more than “dog and pony shows” and a fleeting distraction and we deserve better yet we will never receive better until we demand it by voting with our brain instead of our heart. There are no perfect solutions except in movies and this cinema we call life is real.

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All Lives Matter


The recent movements specifically called “Black Lives Matter” has apparently not resonated in Springfield, Illinois. The Springfield Urban league has systematically reduced and removed staffing to the barest minimum seemingly in the hope of breaking the back of a duly elected Union. The overall effect has been Black on Black crime as Head Start program in Springfield is predominantly African American. This unfortunate circumstance has affected the Non African American  clients of the Head Start programs  and are recipients of this less than stellar administration as well. The overall enrollment has dropped due to poor decisions by an administration. There is no route to management that allows ground force managers to work effectively for improvement without hands on from upper management who have idea of the real workings of the programs and appear to be against knowing or wanting to know. The Urban League is a National Organization whose purpose is to serve the people and in Springfield that service has become no more than a “buzz word”.

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Dupublicans murdering Their Own?


Just a little laugh- The Dupublican pundits ( Rush, Ann & Charles) have pounded Governor Nikki Haley for her reasonable rebuttal to the State of the Union address, just shows how irrational the Dupublicans and their backers are and have no good plans for us all. Stay independent. My political leanings: I have no particular attachment to the Scamocrats or Dupublicans as they both have failings that have and can hurt us.  The party’s themselves have great aspirations but their members do not. If they (the party’s) had our best interests in mind then why gave we not made more progress at home in Race relations, earning parity and true cohesiveness as a nation?  In writing I look to point out what I see with as much information and introspection as I can . The real power here is with the voters but to vote correctly requires carefully listening and reading as the media just shows a portion of the real story while the truth lies elsewhere.  We  view the debates as a  way to make decisions  and in  my  opinion  these debates are no more than schoolyard fights televised for entertainment. The pundits who so readily weigh in on all things political are out to sell themselves and their publications while often obscuring the truth with their blankets of innuendo and half truths. A recent conversation with one of the Koch brothers points out that he is not a big fan of either party but he is a Conservative and leans towards the Dupublican agenda  (the overall party line). That being said some mad lib pundits do no service to the Dupublican party or anyone else for that matter.

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Where!!


Where we have been and where we are going are questions that need answers. Getting the answers requires conversations and reading. Each of us has an opinion on many things according to our personal beliefs, backgrounds and experience yet we still form opinions based on someone else’s view even if that view is off-center of our own. The current political arena has many of us  forming opinions based more in innuendo and misinformation than fact. I have heard and still hear views that are so outrageous as to be scary. If a larger portion of people actually followed the extremes , we could quickly descend into the black hole of anarchy creating a  wasteland. Example the recent accord with Iran has met so much pushback from people who do not see or want to see the bigger picture. For instance the uproar over the current Iran Nuclear deal-enter the previous Reagan Russia nuclear deal with “evil empire”. This rehash is no more than Obama bashing which serves no purpose other than gaining points for  talking and crowd pleasing. Looking at the minimum wage, it has proposed to raise it to $15.00 per hour, what will be gained is a higher base wage which will result in higher spending (possibly) but the offset is some higher prices in consumer goods, higher tax brackets with tax deduction offsets and a certain amount of growth in durable goods. Overall the economy will pickup because of increased spending and if we (the people) are smart we will save more and become smarter financially. With all of this we still need to pay attention to who we elect with the thought in mind that we will have to live with our choices for 2 to 4 years at a time. We will still have the opportunity to replace those we elect with others who we hope will do better. The thing to keep in mind is whoever is the President will have the opportunity to select Supreme court Judges who are in office for life and that a have a longer lasting effect than anyone we elect. So we need to be as informed as we can be but not according any specific ideology or political theme. Information is gained by listening and reading everything available with a rational mind. How do we accomplish this state of mind. Think about the difference between being religious and being spiritual, once you figure that out for yourself, you will have the answer.

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Not In Our Best Interests


The inexplicable sameness of being different. This is what comes to my mind when I look and listen to the Dupublican aspirants for the privilege of running for the Presidency. Each of them is attempting to create an image of being the best choice while holding to the “party line” of conservatism and other factions within it. Unfortunately their politics seems to be against the interest of the country and many of the people. It has always been my opinion that candidates for any office should be more like the people they are trying to represent, this is not to say that they should be the same ethnicity , race or religion but more like kindred spirits who share the same experiences in some degree of those of their supporters. The modern political arena has more to do with rabble rousing than inspiration using firebrand tactics and explosive rhetoric. If we believe in the candidates who are politically incorrect and inaccurate or worse if we elect them so what does that say about us?  Our dedication to the now standard political machinations of caucuses, polls & ad campaigns has possibly lulled many into the “elect anyone” who isn’t that person  the method of voting. Listening to some of the interviewed attendees of the political rallies lends an insight to how uninformed many of us  are.  It  is well to be in tune with your political choice but blind following is what allowed the overall political climate to exist.

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It Is Not What It Seems


To make a fine point, the US is in a war with the radicalized Muslims here and abroad. Unfortunately the solution is not troops on the ground as strongly suggested and advocated by member of Congress and many US citizens. If these pushers of a previous failed use of troops (Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq) would really pay attention to historic evidence and current events they would quickly understand that there are enemies hiding among the innocent, this situation makes the ground fighting difficult without the assistance of the assorted sects and nationalities. One must remember that the middle east has so many natural  and ethnic divisions  who have been at odds with the stringent laws of the leaders for centuries. The key to all of this is to identify the “normal” people and aid them however we can. Think about Vietnam and the Afghanistan losses, couple that with the Russian losses in Afghanistan and the French losses in Vietnam, do we really want to revisit the same problems again?

Our Congress is so set against aiding the current President that they will not agree to anything that would give him authority even if it’s the right choice. Their failure has become the yoke  we all bear and will continue to bear in future years long after  President Obama is out of office. Most of Congress will still be in office and performing as poorly as they have in the past while we  (voters) complain with no result yet the Congress will continue to speak in our names without our consent. Is it possible that the failure to have proper government ( we may never have good government) is the fault of the people (voters)? Have we given up our power to guide or direct our representatives by not paying closer attention to what they do or say? Isn’t it time we stopped complaining and ignore the entertainment news ? Isn’t it time we perform our duty and stop the rote method of voting by removing legislators who have been serving too long with less and less effectiveness as they age in office?  This country should not be a them against us as our leaders tacitly imply  but more of the people against bad governance and poor legislation done in our names and many times without our consent.

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As The world Churns


The Urban League of Springfield has received a grant to set up a “cease fire” program. This program is in place in other communities and is successful. I have only one issue with the program and that is the administrators. The immediate hands on folks are not the issue these are good people with good skills. The administrators have a track record of poor to mismanagement of grant funded programs due a dearth of understanding how these programs actually work. The ordinary work on the many programs administered by the league have been unfortunately side tracked by under or uninformed upper managers who have no apparent faith in the hands on coordinators and causing the programs to fail through their
micro management. Once a program fails, the local recipients are left in limbo and often worse off than before the program. The drop out rate in these programs is nothing to be proud of but the League often touts the few successes as being greater than it actually is. The effort put into securing grants is sizeable but the effort to sustain the programs is not. Given the large number of professional people who left the employ of SUL (voluntary and forced) has indicated all is not well in the kingdom! There are many wonderful people in the organization but the top tier of executives is rife with incompetence and greed. This has been voiced by many former and current employees. This “insider” information has come about by the accidental meeting of former employees who I’ve met around town. The shame is that this branch of the League has the air of  respectability from business friends and outsiders while maintaining the reputation of poor service in the community. Apparently there is a tacit approval of poor service by the State and National Urban League.

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Tough SEll?


 

   
   
   
 
 
We currently have political candidates for the Presidency uttering extreme and radical comments that often have no context in reality. These jump on, jump off the bandwagon of their parties candidates should be looked at very carefully. Their lies and basic suspect information has caused great harm to innocent people. In Texas the state legislature has created laws restricting Planned Parenthood from operating based on misinformation from the religious zealots who have rewritten the bible to suit their own beliefs (sounds like the Islamic State). Now in Colorado (a crazed gunman) shot up a Planned Parenthood clinic while muttering about baby parts being sold (this is possibly from speeches from Carly Liarina) . This man is a legal
firearms owner(?) who has a history of strangeness when he lived in Carolina yet he still had legally owned firearms which enabled him to shoot people in a clinic, killing a law enforcement officer and  patients while wounding other citizens and law enforcement officers. More gun laws will not do the job but more investigation into buyers (and sometimes owners) might. So here we are with our own home-grown extremists creating horrific situations in America and our aspiring candidates carrying the torch for them. If we as a country want to stop these types of events we need to elect people who “get it”. No one is perfect but an elected official needs to be more like a judge and that is to evaluate ALL of the information (evidence) and make a decision based on that information however unlike judges these are politicians whose focus is get elected and probably create more chaos while doing nothing of benefit to any of us.

 

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