Bernie in 2020

Didn't know this until today.  Significant, I think.

Bernie is running for president, again.  He was only recently re-elected to the Senate so if his attempt is not successful, he will still be in the Senate.

It will be an uphill battle, like it was in 2016.  I remain convinced that he would have won back then if the primary was not rigged against him.

Age will be an issue.  So will his standing as a "democratic socialist."  The oligarchs, both democrat and republican will mobilize against him. no doubt.

I've already contributed to his campaign, on a monthly basis, as I did three years ago.

We need to take sides, to stop bringing a knife to a gunfight. It's time for that "revolution" that Bernie called for, actually, past time.

The Phoenix bird symbolizes rebirth.  I plan to post it within my almost completed book My Country Tis of Three.   A local artist did the rendition for me, thus no copyright violation.  So I guess, in that context, it is not so much a revolution we need, but a rebirth, a rededication of the ideals I am told,  this country was founded on.

"With liberty and justice for all."   ???????????????????????

Okay, originally, the intent was a benefit for white men who owned property.  That has morphed, a great deal.  Women have the the vote now.  So do all eligible citizens of the United States of America, including those of color or of a different national origin or "religion."  None of that could have happened without the ratification of the constitution and its defense and transformation over the years.

I published a letter to the editor today:

 I am a retired teacher with thirty some years in the classroom. The first ten were in non public ( Catholic ) schools, but the rest were in public schools. I've written a book on the subject of education and sections of four other books I penned all have excepts on the matter. There is a gulf between public and non public education. Public education is far more egalitarian in method and in spirit,  and is the underpinning of democracy, as it takes an informed and somewhat enlightened populace to make our system of government work. Secretary DeVos and her GOP confederates have virtually NO interest in maintaining our democratic traditions and seek, instead, to establish a revival of the feudal system that dominated Europe in the dark ages. They MUST be stopped or the American experience will be at an end.

I apologize  for NONE of what I say, zany as it may sound.  Our rights and our privileges are being eroded and/or taken away by some selfish and openly evil sorts.

Not hyperbole. Not hysteria.

I wish it all were just my over active imagination.  I do.  My letter to the news and record will most certainly be lampooned and discredited by the usual few.  It happens all the time.  I'm quite accustomed to it by now, but my status with the local editorial page editor has made me "a VIP," something he refers to me as, not myself.

I don't have a lot of money or political clout, but what I have, I give.

Many credit me with being a wizard with the written word. And it's said that the pen is more powerful than the sword.















I hope and I pray that things never come to something like what is portrayed to the left.  It has happened twice in our history and with as much rancor, unbridled anger and division as exists in America now,  it could happen again, on some level.

Some believe it already has.  There has been more than one mass shooting, inspired by the spirit of intolerance and division at the national level.  That is a fact that is hard to refute.

If things degenerate to a low enough level, the American people might be left with no other alternative.  That will be more than tragic.

My developing saga And Reap The Whirlwind is based on that scenario. I have been crafting it since 1972 and am determined to complete it this time.

Then, we will see if the pen is indeed more powerful than the sword.

It's said that Uncle Tom's Cabin was at least, a partial cause of the War Between the States.

Let me be straight forward and emphatic:  the ONLY kind of revolution that I favor is one without bullets, bombs and bodies.

It's been done before.

The Soviet Union and the "Iron Curtain" fell without a shot being fired.  Jim Crow fell without an uprising. Woman got the vote without bloodshed.

It can happen again, but we must begin the process right away.  The stronger the forces of the alt right and oligarchy become, the more likely it is that it will not be swept away except for violence. The selfish and the self absorbed will not yield to anything else.

That would be insane, utterly insane.

Pretty much true. No denying it.

What wounds me most is that so many working class people are being pushed into voting and advocating against their own good.

The Roman church advocates against abortion and gay rights, but overlooks that republicans also advocate against medical care for all and for a culture that sees war as profitable.

I haven't been a part of the Catholic Church for some time now.  That is one of the primary reasons why, that and the growing stain of sexual abuse that the church has covered up for generations.

Is this the kind of things that JESUS would support?

I think not.

Cold and wet

and it's not just the weather.

The more I write of my book My Country Tis of Thee, the more enraged I become. We are being robbed, lied to and manipulated by some purely evil and self-serving people.

And so many just don't see it.

The last election did some damage to the Trump Agenda, but the painful reality, at least for me, is that there are still some democrats out there who are owned and operated by the oligarchs, the ones who would "own" us as proverbial serfs.

The peril is real.  Some laugh at me. I only hope and pray that what I say is wrong because as delusional as to many Americans are, now, it will be far too late to stop the death of our democracy by the time its imminence is realized.

cold again

knew it wouldn't last.  It is still winter, after all.  My year in Florida definitely thinned the blood.

Saw the former CEO of Starbucks on CNN last night.  He's pondering an independent run for president.  Didn't some of what he said, mostly because of how he said it or did not say it.

I suspect he is actually just a decoy, a stalking horse for trump.

No doubt about it...

Cold cold cold!!!!

but not nearly so much as up north....

Some states have closed schools because it is so very cold.n 43 here yesterday. Not balmy but above freezing.

Trump used the cold to dis climate change.  "We need it back!!!"  what an ass.

Too many corporate sponsored democrats.  We need something different and new.

well, the government is open again...

for now.

But things could go south again in a few weeks. No one is budging on the wall funding issue. And declaring a national emergency over the situation on our southern border seems ludicrous given than illegal alien flow is at its lowest point in decades.

It's all about Agent Orange and his ego.  Most things have been.

I submitted another "radical"letter to the editor just now to the Greensboro news and record.

I do not understand how any reasonable person can support Donald Trump anymore. He just engineered the longest government shutdown in American history at the behest of Ann Colton, aka Secretary of State Colton, then caved for the same deal he had agreed on weeks ago, one voted for unanimously for the United States Senate. The man has insulted the disabled and families of veterans who gave their lives for their country. He lies constantly. No one wants to be his chief of staff. John McCain asked that he NOT be invited to his funeral and his appearance at the HW Bush funeral turned the affair frigid when he arrived. Under his tutelage, children have been wrested away from their children and put into cages. Others have been tear gassed. Interesting how that caravan moving north to invade our country seemingly evaporated the day after the midterm election when it could no longer be exploited for political gain. How many of his associates have now been indicted for suspected complicity with a foreign power or for lying to the FBI or to congress? And they were so concerned about Hillary’s emails?

The Imbusciles will doubtless lose their fecal matter over it.

There's a crazy thing going on lately,  all inspired by the motion picture, Birdbox, the tale of a woman and two children trying to survive a world invaded by beings who cause people who see them to do crazy things.  The trio sets out on a journey to a community that is deemed "safe," but must do it all blindfolded.  If they look, they die.

                                                              cute little bugger, but can
                                                           you  see doing this for a day or two?

                                            

Last evening, I saw a family (I think they were a family) walking on Oak Arbor road, out in front of my house.  Two of them (I believe they were young girls) were finding their way blindfolded, one of them almost crash landed in the ditch between my yard and the street. Yes, their father or some significant male, walked with them, but he was also walking three dogs on a leash and thus couldn't keep a watch on them.  Cars tend to drive down our street as though it were the firecracker 500. Kind of scared me some...

    This one stayed blindfolded for 2 and a half hours during a science experiment.  She handled it really well, but then, the whole thing took place inside the science museum...

The things we humans get ourselves into.

they've made a left wing revolutionary out of me

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No sense in denying it anymore.

This from as LONG time resident of the south and middle west who always thought being called "liberal" was closely aligned with being dubbed a communist.

I don't believe I'd go so far as taking up arms. For one, at 70 years old, I don't think I would make much of a guerrilla, even though I am retired special forces.

Neither do I particularly believe that shedding blood will solve our issues, only make new ones.

Not sure, now, how consistent my faith in Jesus would be with violent overthrow.

Still, most revolutions are not violent.  Tbey represent change, sometimes radical change. Already written and self published two books on the matter:  The Well Behaved Seldom Make History and A guide for a second American  revolution. 

I am working on yet another non fiction, My Country Tis of Thee that advocates for some drastic changes in our country and culture and am also working on a work of fiction And Reap the Whirlwind, a modern rendition of It Can't Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis.

I've come to question many of the "truths" I grew up with:

• the United States of America is the greatest nation on earth.

I no longer believe that. We might have been once.  Not anymore .

• We are a "shining light on a hill."

I don't believe this either. Doing the research for my books has brought me to see some of the horrible things we have done as a country and as a culture. Didn't set out to do that, but facts are stubborn, irrepressible things.  If some of may acquaintances  knew how I felt, many would have nothing to do with me.

• we are a christian nation

No we're not.  We're good at quoting scriptures (out of context, of course) and being judgmental of those who don't believe as we do, but so far as being all affirming, as Jesus, did - that's not happening. Not anymore.  I've left the Roman Catholic Church, this time for good, I believe.  There are a lot of factors involved there, most of them explained in another publication of mine, Reflections of a Recovering Catholic.  I admit to having been somewhat judgmental myself, but as already said, facts are tough things to ignore.

• capitalism is a good economic system

Not anymore. The greedy and malevolent have seized control of our country and our economy. "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer" has become more than a cliche.  Am I then a communist? No. Communism is dead.  Any system of government or economics that locks its people in with guns and barbed wire deserves to die.

Our problems are not economic. Our issues are people,  corrupt, evil people who have little to no regard for anyone but themselves and seek to restore feudalism to the planet where the few have all the political and economic power and the rest of us become virtual serfs, yoked to a system of servitude.

What galls me most is how many of those eventual serfs are advocating their own servitude. They're gulped the proverbial "kool aid," accepting the notion that government and taxes are both evil, that any and all who advocate equality represent those who want "free stuff" and getting the use of "other people's money."  I have yet to comprehend how universal healthcare is an evil thing, when it benefits  everyone.  Congress already has it.  Tens of Millions of ordinary citizens do not and many die each year because of it.  The oligarchs control the media and our access to what is really happening in our country.

The United States of America was, ideally, founded on the notion of equal opportunity, or so we've been led to believe. I've come to question this as well. 

In reality, the original document, called our constitution, was written to favor white MEN, who owned property.  Only through vision and revision of the original concept did we get what we have now. Those in power right now, would dilute and eventually eliminate the gains we've made. I am utterly convinced of that.

The above account is not fiction.  The forces of greed have sought this kind of solution for over a century.  Presidents like Nixon and Reagan and now, Trump have brought us to the precipice. Others of both political parties have done not enough to impede them.

Hence my political "radicalization."

If we do not resist the encroachment on our liberties, they will be gone within another generation. I am utterly sure of that too.