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Tag Archives: As I see It

Status Woe


Now that the Congress is has a majority of Dupublicans, the down  hill slide has begun. No matter what anyone thinks, these folks especially the most vocal ones do not- I repeat do not have the best interest of the country in mind. If this was the case we would not have had a government shutdown, we would not have the immigration reform issue as an issue, we would not be struggling with the ACA (Obama care). Bear in mind that the only thing these twerps want is name recognition and media coverage. Mitch and John probably do not even like one another since one is a “Yankee” and the other is a “Reb”. It is unfortunate that with all of the progress we have made in this country  that we have made none in the area of race. I would venture that the most vocal of us do not share or care about the Racial views of the few but the few seem to get the most press. In this country of immigrants, we are still lagging in realizing the heritage that made us could be the heritage that breaks us. Out true feelings in the Congress has been made clear with the election of a “non white” President. The only thing the Congress apparently sees is skin color and ignoring what is presented as  positive changes for the country as a whole. The ACA which has had issues could have been better had Congress addressed it as they should have and made changes where needed, instead they naysaid it and offered no improvement except  concepts of death camps and poor coverage. With the Majority now being the party of “no”, we are in for an underperforming Government which may be unprecedented. The latest issue is the Keystone XL pipe line. There are no less that 10 oil pipelines crossing the US right now. One more will not create any significant amount of jobs  and the completion of it will end most of them. The only purpose of the pipeline is to move oil sands across country which is being accomplished now by modified rail cars. To make matters worse the Congress has tied this bill to the funding of Homeland security which once the bill is vetoed will allow them to blame the President for not supporting  Homeland thereby attempting to put the blame elsewhere. Simple fix detach the XL pipeline from Homeland funding and debate the pipeline separately instead of playing games with the National Security. This is why we are in “Status Woe”

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Someday We will Get It


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The recent news in Ferguson, MO. could be looked at from the view of John Brown or perhaps Nat Turner. If indeed the Police situation in Ferguson is as bad as it has been portrayed then maybe  John Brown or Nat Turner were correct. If the situation in Ferguson is as bad as put forth by the residents then maybe “spike Lees’ film  “do The Right Thing” was correct. Each instance depicts an aggressive stance against  an authority that mirror’s the ante bellum south and even South Africa in the recent past. If the “white’ citizens of Ferguson knew about the abusive nature of the police and did nothing then perhaps they are as culpable as the authorities. All American citizens have the “right” to freedom of expression under the law but even now that appears to be elusive in some parts of the USA with the citizenry standing on the sidelines and accepting it as long it doesn’t happen to them. There are still some of us who accept the inequity of the “color line” as white privilege until it arrives at their doorstep, then it becomes “those people”. It is possible that at some point all of us will arrive at the same destination without a “Ferguson” and then there will be equality.

Just Do It


 The Dupublicans now have control of the Congress, it is now time to put up or shut up. As an aside this past election shows how terms are managed by people not lawmakers.

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Why?


Recent and ongoing events in the Near and Middle east will eventually affect us all. We as a nation can understand in various degrees what is needed to secure certain parts of those areas and hopefully bring cease fires and peace. Our deeper understanding is explainable by remembering the prelude to WWII. This prelude if anyone has paid attention was televised in a series called the “World Wars”. Aside from the personalities explored, there were the actions and events. These actions and events gave rise to the WWII personalities some of whom began the building a foundation of eventual murder, mayhem and intolerance that fueled the final madness of A. Hitler. This individual caused the devastation of  his Nation and betrayed his “Allies”. The Japanese were duped into the war by Hitler by virtue of their feelings of being slighted at the peace table after WWI (they felt dishonored ). All of this to bring us to the present and past at the same time. There has been conflict in the middle east for thousands of years and primarily on a religious basis. Now with modern weapons several factions are determined to do what Hitler attempted to do and impose their will and religion on others even their own countrymen. The UN at best is protesting but doing nothing of merit. The US is being looked to for help and we have given it but we as a country can no longer afford to lead the charge alone, we need the collective assistance of the UN (that is part of their function). We have Russia attempting to return to the post WWI “glory” days of Stalinism in the midst of the middle east problem. As a country our President is attempting to stay out of another protracted conflict and it’s inherent negatives. The big winners in all out conflict led by the US are the same people who are backing many of our Congressmen and women with boatloads of cash. The Shadow people who have benefitted from recent Supreme Court decisions and the stale mate in Congress. Simply put-this is not our “Grandfathers war”. Recently I had to have some software issues resolved on line with an out of country source (India). While we  make jokes about outsourcing but in many cases now the communication is better but still takes awhile to resolve the problems. As I was waiting for stuff to happen the agent engaged me in conversation and in the course of this conversation, I asked where he was located and he told me he was in India. I asked what his opinion of the events occurring in that part of the world and in succinct terms he said: “the ordinary people are just trying to keep their heads down and hope for the best outcome for them. The government  is in dysfunction much as ours is and we just want things to be better.” This leads me to understand that we as people in general need to put more attention on what our government is doing or not doing rather than what is written by the media in general. There are still some media content providers who still provide comprehensive coverage and reporting but the “mainstreamers” in the media are still presenting the attention-getting headlines with no content. It appears to me that reading between the lines should be the rule and not the exception in these times.  

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The Middle East


The Middle East is in turmoil again, still and possibly forever. The prime driver of this turmoil appears to religion first and ethnicity (?) second. Looking at the region as a whole: Arabs, Turks, Persians, Balochs, Pashtuns, Lurs, Mandaeans, Tats, Jews, Kurds, Somalis, Assyrians, Egyptian Copts, Armenians, Azeris, Maltese, Circassians, Greeks, Turcomans, Shabaks, Yazidis, Georgians, Roma, Gagauz, Mhallami and Samaritans are all residents of the middle east and the middle east sits right on top of the African Continent and just west of the Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine, etc.) Along with these Middle Eastern residents you have influxes of Northern Africa, Coastal Africa and from the South. With all of this confluence of cultures and regional differences and religious sub sects, you might wonder how they manage to live near one another-well they do not do very well. What has occurred over the past 20 to 40 years is the poorest of all of these countries have been exploited by many better off members of their same country but often of another religious sub sect. These variations have allowed the rise of the religious zealots (kind of Hitler like) whose adherents to the older  religious fight  as to whose Islam is it? Is it the Original espoused by the Prophet Mohammed or the one espoused by the followers who split after his death? To really understand  in a short way, these zealots are no more than criminals who as Hitler did incited people to riot, kill and loot in the name of religion (Hitler was just plain Bat Crap Crazy) but do nothing to improve the lives of the people they purport to help. To add fuel to the fire we have the Russians who are essentially a missiles throw from the area and seemingly are on that track, their actions further destabilize the area as they have interest in the area. When you add the Chinese incursion or buying into Africa and a little fingering in the Mid East, its a recipe for a regional war which will surely involve the world in a way that may leave nothing but devastation for years to come. We have here in America a Congress and other pundits who are castigating the President for inaction , poor leadership and waffling but not looking at the big picture and long range implications of jumping in without looking. The volatile mix of people, religions and crazies in the mid east is not a recipe for peace without some group effort at eradicating the “crazy” in the Mideast.

Traditional definition of the Middle East

The following countries are included within the Middle East, which is corresponding to Western Asia, excluding the Caucasus, Greek Cyprus, and the inclusion of Egypt:

Take It the Whitehouse.


 

Senator John McCain has made statements to the press about how the support efforts in the middle east should be handled. He may be right but these statements should be made in closed chambers with the President and the  Joint Chiefs of Staff, This electioneering only serves to inflame the public with  misinformation, these “bullet” points do no more than create more dissatisfaction with the President for reasons of creating dissatisfaction with his party. I appreciate Mr. McCain’s knowledge of the situation but a real concerned citizen would and should be making these statements in the forum that will give the best results. The press and public cannot decide to send troops and material support to another country , only the president and Congress can. It is my hope that Mr. McCain being the solid citizen and former military hero that he is does not lower himself to the level of Sara Palin, Ann Coulter, Charles Krauthammer or one the well televised talking heads whose sole objective is to sell books and gain market share on television. Remember this is about spending our resources both in money and manpower.

 

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Like Whoever You Want!


 

The item below is indicative of the problems we have as voters. We all want everything to be solved by the government yet we do not support the government by voting out non functioning legislators who promise the world and give us nothing but promises and more election slogans. We can blame the president (whoever it is) but Congress likes it this way so they can act s saviors when the only saving they are doing is their own “a**es” and staying in office . There is nothing wrong with not liking a candidate for any reason but to after think is a waste of time when the problem has been in front of us all of the time and that problem is “535” folks who serve no one but themselves and once they retire (on our dime) they join forces with big donors to further undermine the legislative process with tons of money and donations.
Americans really wish they had elected Mitt Romney instead of Obama
Alex Wong / Getty Images
Alex Wong / Getty Images

Mitt Romney 2014?

Americans are so down on President Obama at the moment that, if they could do the 2012 election all over again, they’d overwhelmingly back the former Massachusetts governor’s bid. That’s just one finding in a brutal CNN poll, released Sunday, which shows Romney topping Obama in a re-election rematch by a whopping nine-point margin, 53 percent to 44 percent. That’s an even larger spread than CNN found in November, when a survey had Romney winning a redo 49 percent to 45 percent.

Two years ago, Obama won re-election with about 51 percent of the vote.

Of course, the poll should be taken with a grain of salt. While Obama is actually taking on the tough task of leading the nation, Romney is sitting comfortably on the sidelines. Still, the finding comes as foreign and domestic crises have sent Obama’s approval rating tumbling back to 40 percent, per Gallup.

Also in the CNN survey, a record-low 46 percent say Obama “shares [their] values,” while only 49 percent say he is “sincere in what he says,” also a record-low.

– – Jon Terbush

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Who Is Responsible-Really?


The common thread in out political system is the voting public. We as voters have access to a myriad of sources for information (formerly called news) yet we rely on from one to two main sources for that information. Any person over the age of 60 remembers when news was reported by people who genuinely cared about what they were presenting and made every effort to insure the accuracy and correctness of that content. Those who can will also recall when politicians actually worked for their constituents even though we winked at their indiscretions and errors. We as voters were more informed with more accuracy then than now. In the information age, the truth has a hard time keeping up with the non truth as information is instant and immediate but often incomplete. To get to the question” who is responsible-really?”. Answer appears to be the voters as we have allowed ourselves to advertised into “boxed” thinking. We have a political system divided by Red states, blue states , conservatives, liberals and on and on , we have stopped being just people with differences and making the effort to live with those differences to move the country in the correct direction. We are currently in the grips of a poorly functioning, divided government dominated by barrages of blurbs, sound bites and buzzwords which do no more than confuse and incite. It is small wonder that since WWII up to the end of the Vietnam era, we made progress and thereafter we started to go backwards in allowing inept political representatives make decisions that affect us many years later. Right now we have a High court that has in effect reversed years of progress in equal rights for all of us. Next shoe to drop will be reversals in the Affordable Care Act, the Congress will be delighted with this even though they are complicit in its failure by not participating in refining it rather than using it as a negative in a political campaign. These reversals are just a part of the overall failure of our seat fillers to do the job they are paid to do.  It would be a great blessing to have a unified government even with the differences in ideals but that cannot happen until we as voters remove ourselves from party loyalty and back people who Really have the interests of All of us in their minds and will fight for them.

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Middle East & Eastern Europe


As we now know and have believed the Rebels backed by Russia are out of control and now the UN is finally making moves to act. My personal observation is simply send UN forces to put down the rebels and restore Ukrainian sovereignty. Administer the required justice to the rebels up to and including imprisonment for the murders of a plane full of civilians. We all know that Russia is the force behind them and we should not stand still for it.  It is bad enough that the middle east is in a  precipitous position  without the threat of Russia asserting control over once held territories. Anyone believing we  (the UN) should not be involved is living in a fairy tale and keep I mind that there is a brewing issue with China and Japan which could at anytime grow. We have one more small but dangerous area, North Korea a regime that has allowed its people to starve while still threatening its neighbors and everyone else. We all need to pay attention to this as it could be our future.

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Jointly and Severally


President Obama has been lamed for Eric Cantor’s political primary loss-WTF!

Hillary Clinton has been blasted for here book signing tour and from out the past (?), a former victim has accused Hillary of malfeasance while a defending counsel.

The Congress  (some of them) are blaming President Obama for the escalating war in Iraq yet Vice President Joe Biden warned of this event in 2009 (Obama’s second in command).

Dick Cheney and his daughter have condemned the President for cleaning up their mess by removing troops from an unwinnable war.

It appears that the Dupublicans are desperately trying to gain control of the Government while the Scamocrats are desperately trying to hold on to what they have.

Meanwhile the assorted candidates for the Presidency, Congress and all other State offices around the country are jockeying for position to ascend to some higher office or at least be seen in a National forum.

Jindal used humor in criticizing the Obama administration on several fronts, referencing the Bergdahl prisoner exchange and the deadly attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.

“Are we witnessing right now the most radically, extremely liberal, ideological president of our entire lifetime right here in the United States of America, or are we witnessing the most incompetent president of the United States of America in the history of our lifetimes? You know, it is a difficult question,” he said. “I’ve thought long and hard about it. Here’s the only answer I’ve come up with, and I’m going to quote Secretary Clinton: ‘What difference does it make?'”

The conference featured most of the well-known Republicans considering a 2016 presidential run, including Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. Jindal is expected to announce after the November midterm elections whether or not he will launch a presidential bid.

Meanwhile we the people are bombarded by seemingly true sound bites and buzzwords that do not mean anything but some urges us to vote for them sight unseen.

One old cliché fits this country’s election and governing process “caveat emptor”.

Remember only you can get better government (paraphrasing Smokey).

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