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Tag Archives: My Opinion

Reverse Diarrhea?


It is apparent the former President DJT is a danger to America and its allies. We must believe that whatever DJT promises to do if elected no matter how outrageous, are his intentions and purpose. His presidency would be a culmination of all of the evils that currently exist among the dictatorial leaders he so much admires. There will be mass deportations (or attempts) for anyone perceived as other no matter their citizenship (born or naturalized). It is unfortunate that through a systematic and steady erosion of what history is taught or altered that many do not get the benefit of the true past 100 years of history. Our allies will remain as steadfast for us as we have been for them. Keep in mind that these allies have similar national issues as we now experience and with that comes the extreme actions we see in the middle east. We are at a turning point where we need to fully back or retreat from support of some of our allies who appear to be riding the Despot train much to the delight of prominent leaders whose sole objective is backwards looking and attempting to create the conditions that caused the second great war which destroyed countries and millions of lives. It is clear that many voters are undecided, uncommitted or not voting, my question to those folks is “Do you want the type of “non-government that DJT will give us since he is (supposedly) one of the 1%? His type of governing preceded the Great recession and ultimately the Second world war. The Authoritarian and despotic rulers rose to prominence and decided to attack other countries who disagreed with their politics. If you believe enough is enough then do not vote for DJT!!

Life Or Death!


Recently I was told about a younger friend who had foot amputated due to diabetes. This not unusual to have limbs removed due to the disease however in this case all symptoms were ignored for perhaps years. This is an issue with me in that Men in general fail to pay attention to their health and or ignore changes in their health. 20 years ago, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, while the detection was early, and the disease contained in the gland itself I elected to have it surgically removed. At that time there were few options other than surgery, those options were, chemo, radiation and “radioactive” seed implants. Depending on general health, chemo, radiation can cause strokes or near strokes. There is the chance of the disease spreading with other remedies, surgical removal often offers the best remedy with one of its side effects being erectile dysfunction. Other side effects can occur but what most men are concerned about is ED -THERE IS A PILL FOR THIS! There is no pill or remedy for death if you do not monitor this health issue (or any other). Any other side effects usually can be addressed in some form by your physician (if you have one). I vehemently urge men to get physician you like and have regular visits to insure your health. Get real with your health and you will live a better life or just live! To paraphrase “Smokey Bear”- Only you can save your life with regular health visits!

Postal Malfeasance? or Political Ignorance?


Louis DeJoy (born June 20, 1957) is an American businessman serving as the 75th U.S. postmaster general. He was appointed in May 2020 by the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service (USPS). Prior to the appointment, he was the founder and CEO of the logistics and freight company New Breed Logistics and was a major Republican Party donor and fundraiser for Donald Trump.[1] DeJoy is the first postmaster general since 1992 without any previous experience in the USPS.[2] His companies still hold active service contracts with the USPS, generating controversy over conflict of interest.[3]

DeJoy was criticized for cost-reduction policies enacted after assuming office in June 2020, including eliminating overtime, and banning late or additional trips to deliver mail. The Postal Service also continued responding to long-term declines in first class mail volume with ongoing decommissioning of hundreds of high-speed mail-sorting machines and removal of the lower-volume mail collection boxes from streets. These practices were also criticized as mail delivery became delayed. The changes took place during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election, raising fears that the changes would interfere with voters who used mail-in voting to cast their ballots, possibly intentionally. Congressional committees and the USPS inspector general investigated. In August of that year, amid public pressure, DeJoy said that the changes would be suspended until after the election,[4] and in October the USPS agreed to reverse all of them.[5]

In March 2021, DeJoy issued a 10-year plan called “Delivering for America” to stabilize the finances of the Postal Service by slowing first class mail delivery, optimizing transportation networks, cutting post office hours, and raising prices. The plan assumed Congress would relieve the USPS of the requirement to pre-pay retiree health care costs, which with DeJoy’s urging it did with the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022.

DeJoy attracted criticism and lawsuits from environmentalists and Democratic governments when he decided to purchase 90% gasoline-powered delivery vehicles in 2022, which he justified in part by the agency’s financial situation. After additional federal funding was provided by the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 and Inflation Reduction Act, DeJoy revised these plans twice; the final version orders 83% electric vehicles through 2028 and 100% electric thereafter.

I put the current Postmaster general’s Bio to explain my comments (opinion). Mr. De Joy is a Trump crony who along with Trump has no idea how the postal service works. While the agency has and still has problems (all solvable). The agency requires someone who can look beyond the issues that do not plague ordinary businesses. The postmaster General cannot be fired by the Congress or the President. The Board of Governors have that authority. At this time there are 5 Republicans on the board and that may be the block to fire De Joy. Until some moderate board members are elected there will be a Dejoy in control with no real direction as to improving the postal service. There is no Joy in having DeJoy.

What Do We Have?


Democracy:  system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.

Republic: system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives:

The two descriptions above appear to be the same until it’s interpreted by any one of many factions or beliefs. The Names can and have been interchanged over the years to suit the speaker or factions that follow the basic tenets of each. It is unfortunate that “buzz words” and “alternate” descriptions dominate the airwaves and print as “news” creating a confusion or conflation of facts which serves to sway the thinking of voters. When the public can no longer deem the media as credible then we have the crumbling of a Republic or Democracy. It is a fact that some of the worst historical wars and human tragedies have occurred when the basic ideas of those two words were replaced by the darker side of humanity espoused by charismatic people whose sole objective is their own personal gain. We can’t have it all or any if we are not informed on the facts. This brings up the Media that either tells the fact or distorts them (lies). We need to choose and be open to the truth and historical facts.

Defininition


“Men are most apt to believe that they least understand“

Michel de Montaigne

The last 4 years of the Trump administration has shown how gullible some of us are, the GOP has embraced the lie line in pursuit of “their” agenda to the detriment of their constituents and the Country. The GOP has made commitment to the “big lie” regarding the election and making talking points about what they have done and attempted to do but ascribing those talking points to the Dems. The prime example that has been offered without foundation is “packing the courts”, which Mitch McConnell did during the Trump Presidency. Now Senator Grassley is asking for additional vetting of John Kerry when he made no such demands on the unqualified members of TOTUS’s cabinet and inner circle. No Matter your political preference, it is important to understand the basis of all political actions by either party. Remember that the average pay for members of Congress is $174000.00 annually plus additional money for committee assignments and office perks for supplies and staffing, this rounds out to about 42 million dollars paid out over 20 years in office (notice I did not say service!). Upon retirement the average annual payout is 75 to 80 thousand dollars. A real parallel to our current political landscape can be found in the Star Wars saga from the series beginning to the last issue of the franchise. You do not have to be a fan but the progression is remarkable similar. If we as voters are not paying attention we will have another soul sucking government under the NEO GOP led by dictator like elected officials whose sole aim is their well being and taking us back to pre civil war government or worse Putinesque style government.

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Where We Are


These past four years and counting have given us ( the voters) an opportunity to see what real government is about. For years many of us have been spoon fed the idea that Government is the enemy yet we have elected the same representatives time after time by party, ideals or espoused ideas while ignoring the character of the candidates. It is unfortunate that the GOP aka Dupublicans) in one form or another has been the party of NO, small government and regression. This is not to say the The DEM’s (aka Scamocrats) are better or worse but it seems more voter friendly. These two parties have been a desperate struggle for the support of the people but primarily through fear and semi to full on lies. The leaders have spent years peeing on our shoes and telling us it’s just raining! We again have a President whose aim is to take care of the voters (at last) while the antis of all sorts are trashing what’s being done by screaming about the cost to future generations, If these actions are not taken now no matter the expense, there will be no future generations to speak of. TOTUS left us in poor shape and the Congress under the GOP allowed it, the GOP is the party that has spent millions for recounts on an election decided by the people ( ESSENTIALLY ATTEMPTING TO NEGATE OUR VOTES!). Now the same party in many states are redrafting voting laws to depress the vote in future elections, all of this smacks of theft by the people we voted in to help us, not themselves. As voters we have the duty and right to look carefully at who we have elected and their actions regarding our well being, if we cannot positively state that those electeds are working for us then we need to change the deal by voting them out. WE need to remember that what happens to one of us, affects us all no matter how little or how much. Quickly about immigration: TOTUS stopped sending aid to our Southern partners which assisted them in curtailing crime and boosting their economies. Once this funding stopped then the baser elements of those countries emerged, increasing the migration flow and allowed the creation of arcane immigration rules that essentially created the “border Crisis”. Where we are now is we have a President who understands what is needed and is bucking a headwind of neer do well Congressional members who have convinced some of us that big government is bad and poor state government is good. States are limited in what they can accomplish, the Federal government is not hence the many executive orders and big spending bills that should have been done years ago. If it is not clear now, it will be as the GOP continues on its backwards trek into reconstruction while attempting to stop NEO Reconstruction. There is no upside to the GOP’s opposition to the Biden plan for Americans and they know it yet they espouse the idea that this spending on much needed infrastructure which will produce jobs is wrong. It might be well to look at China and Europe’s transportation systems of high speed rail which could have been accomplished here if our Neer do wells in Congress had backed it. The issue with elected officials is that they are swayed by a generous flow of money from Lobbyists and large dollar donors but their actions do not benefit the voters that they owe allegiance to.

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We May Not Understand Now, But We Need To


After all of ( or most) of the post election idiocy it is now time to address the multiple elephants in the Congress. We as voters need to pay attention to the members who are still engaged in actions that belie their mandate to follow the Constitution. Former President Trump at this point has the minds and souls of some Congressional members. Right now some of those members are campaigning to unseat members of Congress who are in favor of impeaching former President Trump so he cannot run for office again. It is well to remember that the past 4 years under TOTUS has done us more harm than good. The “normal” dislike of Government has become hate to the state of anarchy but somehow the exciter in chief is coming out “clean” when in fact he has instigated and orchestrated more unrest than the Civil War and the 100 plus years after. It is bad enough that we have never fully progressed from post reconstruction but to endure what DJT did and for a another potential run for President is too much to bear and we shouldn’t have to. We (voters) need to look carefully at these “Trump pursuers” before re electing them. We should if possible remove them from the Congress as they will not change and will not advance the cause of the people. There will not be and never has before been any legislation enacted by Congress that pleased all American voters but we have the ability to change the makeup of our legislature when we feel we have to. Our sole purpose in voting is to elect the best people to represent us and we have not done a very good job in the last 50 to possible 100 years. There will never be a perfect “Union” as envisioned by the framers but there can be a better one than we have but only if
We the people” use our intelligence to vet and vote for people who are looking forward for us ALL!

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Over $3.65 Million in PPP Loans Given to Businesses With Ties to Trump Organization, Kushner Properties


Natalie Colarossi  46 mins ago, Newsweek

So it appears that we (voters and Citizens) are being “Madoffed” by the trump Organization

tOver $3.65 Million in PPP Loans Given to Businesses With Ties to Trump Organization, Kushner Properties

An analysis of data released by the Small Business Administration (SBA) shows that properties owned by the Trump Organization and Kushner Companies were given over $3.65 million worth in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans – raising questions about the fairness and distribution of loans intended to aid small businesses during the pandemic.Donald Trump wearing a suit and tie: Donald Trump boards an elevator at Trump Tower in New York City on January 16, 2017. According to data released by the SBA, properties owned by Trump's family and the family of Jared Kushner were major beneficiaries from COVID relief loans.© DOMINICK REUTER/AFP/Getty Donald Trump boards an elevator at Trump Tower in New York City on January 16, 2017. According to data released by the SBA, properties owned by Trump’s family and the family of Jared Kushner were major beneficiaries from COVID relief loans.PauseCurrent Time 0:28/Duration 1:00Loaded: 50.95%Unmute0Fullscreen500 Delta staff have tested positive for COVID-19 and 10 have diedClick to expand

Following months of litigation, including lawsuits from 11 news organizations, the SBA released a dataset on Tuesday of every small business that received a PPP or Economic Injury Disaster (EIDL) loan.https://products.gobankingrates.com/r/d9360ea31bf06ea8b9d0ef49288e28fb

An initial review of the data by NBC News found that a number of businesses with ties to President Donald Trump‘s family and the family of Jared Kushner – Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser – were major beneficiaries of the program.

PPP loans were originally meant to support small businesses and allow them access to funds that could help with payroll, rent, utilities and mortgage interest payments. Over $700 billion worth of the forgivable loans were approved by Congress and the Trump administration under the CARES Act, and rolled out in the Spring.

But the SBA data shows that businesses tied to the president received millions of dollars in aid, and many reported that the money did not go to retaining any jobs.

According to NBC News, over 25 PPP loans were given to Trump and Kushner real estate properties, paying rent to those owners. Among those, only fifteen properties self-reported that they only retained one or zero jobs with the money.

One of those loans included a $2,164,543 loan to the Triomphe Restaurant Corp., at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York City. The company reported the loan did not go to keeping any jobs, and later it closed altogether.

A Kushner property in New Jersey called LB City Inc, received a loan for $505,552.50 that it used to keep 155 jobs, while four tenants at a Kushner-owned New York City property received more than $204,000 combined, and retained only six jobs.

Furthermore, two tenants at Trump Tower received more than $100,000 and kept only three jobs.

These figures add to a slew of criticisms from government watchdogs and small business owners who feel the loans were not distributed in a fair and equitable way.

“Many months and broken promises later, the court-ordered release of this crucial data while the Trump administration is one foot out the door is a shameful dereliction of duty and flagrant mismanagement of a program that millions of workers and small businesses needed to get through this pandemic,” said Kyle Herrig, president of the government watchdog group, Accountable.US, according to NBC News.

In response, Christopher W Smith, General Counsel for Kushner Companies said that the notion that Kushner Properties improperly benefitted from the loans is “completely untrue and amounts to nothing more than politically motivated nonsense.”

“Exactly two Kushner Companies’ hotel operations affiliates received PPP loans. Every provision of the PPP program has been comprehensively abided with respect to each of the two loans – and every penny of the funds received from the program was utilized to fund employee payroll and benefits costs to maintain jobs imperiled by the COVID pandemic and associated lockdown measures,” Smith said in a statement given to Newsweek.

The SBA data also suggests that over half of the intended PPP funds went to just 5 percent of recipients, with larger businesses benefitting more than their small business counterparts.

Watchdogs have also warned that several billion dollars may have gone to fraudsters and ineligible businesses, while small businesses owned by people without strong banking relationships faced limited access to funds.

Accountability groups have since set up publicly searchable databases like SearchPPP.com so people can see how the loans were used themselves.

But the SBA defended its handling of the pandemic assistance on Tuesday.

“SBA’s historically successful COVID relief loan programs have helped millions of small businesses and tens of millions of American workers when they needed it most,” an SBA spokesman said in a statement.

Newsweek attempted to reach out to the Trump administration and Trump Organization for additional comment, but did not hear back in time for publication.

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GOP or Conservative Right Morals


Separation of Church and state is what allows a person to worship as they want without Government interference but not to the point of Religion altering the Government for the sake of religious beliefs. That being said the push for the installation of the new High court justice who is a conservative republican and catholic. The hope is to keep the court conservative for years to come. This shift shows how unconcerned the GOP is about the needs of the voters (all of them) and the country. Their aim is to consolidate and maintain their big money donors, many of whom are Conservative Christians whose narrow focus on religion is closing the gap on separation of Church and state. This gap allows for individual worship choices and the medical choices of the individual citizen. The bottom line is that the GOP has shown that they are for sale and will sell out the country as required.

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Racial Mix of The United States


The table below represents the percentage of the American Population by Race. White alone has the most significant rate and followed by Hispanic or Latinos than Blacks or African Americans.

S/NRacePercentage
1.       White alone,76.6%
2.Black or African American alone, the percentage13.4%
3.*American Indian and Alaska Native alone, percentage1.3%
4.Asian alone5.8%
5.Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone0.2%
6.Two or More Races2.7%
7.Hispanic or Latino,18.1%
*Prior to the arrival of White Europeans the American Indian or Native Americans population was 60 million

By combining all published estimates from populations throughout the Americas, we find a probable Indigenous population of 60 million in 1492. For comparison, Europe’s population at the time was 70 to 88 million spread over less than half the area. Jan 31, 2019

Looking at the numbers on Native Americans at the time that Columbus arrived and the population numbers now, it is 6.79 Million people. this is approximately 1/10th of the original estimated numbers pre Columbus. What happened to all of those people? This decrease was brought on by the crass and dangerous Europeans who took what they wanted as they did in Africa and other countries. There was and unfortunately still is a racial component in all of this but we as people fortunately have become blinded regarding the fate and effects on other ethnic and racial groups. These statistics are a primary reason to elect a new National leader and his abettors in Congress. This is the only way we can become a truly UNITED States. As a nation we have plundered or allowed to be plundered our natural resources (which includes the skills and abilities of the many ethnic groups). Our primary cause for the lessening of our values is the people we elect to represent us. Educating ourselves in what our elected officials do in our names is important and we need to do it to have the kind of Government promised by the Constitution. Remember: the two (2) middle letters in the word “POLITICIAN is “LI”). What affects one affect all.

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