Please. Please stop. Lose the language. Refrain from displaying your ignorance by understanding before you speak. Free speech is a right, but reckless use of speech is a personal hazard.
Let’s face it, we are all guilty of speaking without knowledge. The tongue is a loose canon. It often engages before the brain has time to give it direction. I’m guilty, even here, where I have time to think out and measure my thoughts.
But this one has been going on for years. Media pundits, politicians, and the average American perpetuate the lie over and over and over.
The United States is not a Democracy. Yet that term is used to describe us by even those who govern us, people who should know better. I know, I’ve ranted about this before, but it is an issue that needs to be addressed, just as often as the lie is perpetuated. It is the only way to clean it from our country conversation, and discourse.
Let’s find out, by starting with one of the biggest of the HOT TOPICS – Immigration
A January 2024 Pew Research poll indicated that 76% of Americans believe that immigration has become a crisis in the United States.
In another Pew Research poll on Voter Issues, done in September of 2024, 61% of voters said that immigration was one of their top issues in deciding where to put their vote.
July 2024 Gallup Survey 55% of Americans want to limit immigration. In the same poll, 2/3 of Americans believe immigration is a good thing, while 27% said it is a bad thing.
These aren’t simply right or left ideas. Yes, Republicans and Democrats poll differently within those polls, but in all cases we are talking about over 50% of the country.
As of 8:35pm on 11/06/2024, the current popular vote totals in one of the most contentious Presidential elections in history are 72,560,841 votes for the Republican candidate at 50,9% of the total, and 67,871,826 votes for the Democratic candidate at 47.6% of the total. In the 2020 election, the Republican candidate received 74,223,369 votes with 46.9% of the total, while the winning Democratic candidate received 81,282,916 votes with 51.3% of the total. The 2020 winning candidate triumphed with 306 Electoral votes over the losing candidate’s 232 Electoral votes, despite only winning 477 counties against the Republican’s win of 2,497 counties, and while winning only 1 of the 19 bellwether counties. Achieving beyond all expectations, the Democratic candidate received 11,793,400 more votes that the record high of Barack Obama of 69,489,516 votes in 2008.
Today we mourn for the 15,073,618 voters who have passed in the past four years since the 2020 election. Or perhaps, they were already dead and just failed to haunt us during the 2024 election.
No, really. Are you ready? This isn’t just any election. It may be the most critical in our history, certainly in my lifetime. I know, you’ve heard that before, possibly every four (4) years, but this time… It’s true.
Why? Depending upon the outcome, we may have nearly 1/2 of our society on the watch list. Yeah, even this post, could be a red flag. A simple matter of freedom of speech, of questioning, of criticizing, could get you on a list November 6, 2024. It depends on the party taking power. We are that divided as a nation. It isn’t enough to win an election, we have to bury our opponents. Doxing, bullying, destroying has become the norm. And our government is getting crazy about those who don’t comply. The intimidation and weaponization of our judicial system, can’t be ignored. They are on the hunt, and they won’t stop if they win on 11/5/2024.
In 2021, eight out of ten Americans, or 80% believed we needed to protect our voting system with identification. In 2024, that number is up to 84%, and yet the leaders that be, and those who hope to manipulate our voting system, continue to make the argument that it is an unfair expectation. Here’s a Ballotpedia article comparing the idea of voter identification to the Poll Taxes of the Jim Crow era. This article and this way of thinking tries to insinuate that voter ID is in some way a white, Anglo conspiracy to disenfranchise or keep other ethnicity, underprivileged, and simple minded individuals from having a right to vote. Bullshit! You need an ID to buy alcohol or tobacco; to cash a check, to check into a hotel, to buy a gun, to drive, to hunt or fish, to fly, to get into Disneyland … the list goes on. Nobody is making an argument that these required id usages are disenfranchising individuals from doing any of those things. In fact, here are twenty-two and twenty-four different things you need identification in order to do in this country, and here you will find seven things for which the US Federal Government requires identification.
You know, I grew up in a Navy family. We lived from coast to coast. I was surrounded by other military kids most places I lived. Yeah, mostly white kids, but not all. I also rode a bus at one time where I was only one of a handful of white kids on the bus. Those were the days when the bus was filled as full as it could get. By the time we got to school every seat was filled and so was the aisle between them. Though that bus was packed with mostly chocolate brown skin, I wasn’t treated any different. In fact, since I was one of the youngest on the bus, many of those other kids kind of took care of me. I didn’t really notice a difference between us, maybe the way others spoke, the kinds of things that made them laugh, maybe the differences in the way we dressed, but those are things that make all kids different.
I try to stay somewhat apolitical on this page, and I’ll do my best here. I like to write, so I do think about words, what they mean, and how they are used. There’s been a lot of use of the term Settled Science in the past few years. Its been used to describe different subjects including weather and climate, disease, origin, humanity, and energy. To be honest, it’s tossed around by both sides. To me, there is something a little conflicting in the use of that term – Settled Science. It is often used to dismiss the differing theories, opinion, discoveries, and even the search for other answers.
There has been a lot of conversation, and even action, on the political front with companies or corporations getting involved in politics. On one side of the aisle are those who want to CANCEL companies and individuals based upon their positions. Cancelling involves trying to remove them from existence; eliminating the competition in whole. Attacks are aimed at doxing, blocking, obstructing, and destroying the opposition using whatever means necessary.
On the other side of the aisle are those who promote boycotting companies by taking their money elsewhere. Some contribute that boycotting is the same as canceling, but it is not.
I know. I know. I’ve just posted on this. But this “Evil Corporate Greed is Causing Inflation” bullshit going on on Twitter is driving me crazy. How can you be so simple, single minded?
Hey, I’m not a big corporation fan. I worked for one for over thirty years and my thanks was a layoff and a severance that went straight to paying my bills. But the idea that Corporate Greed is the cause of inflation is just so one-celled thinking that I can’t stand keeping quiet about.
So, for a moment, let’s just pretend there is no such thing as the “Evil Corporations.” Heck, let’s just pretend we are back in 1890 and every business is individually owned. All we have are bars, general mercantile stores, and livery stables. You go into your favorite bar and you order a shot of whiskey. You’ve been paying 25 cents for that shot of whiskey for as long as you’ve been coming to that bar. But guess what, today whiskey is 50 cents a shot. Can’t blame it on evil corporations, they don’t exist in our imagined world. Well, it’s just that damned old bar owner trying to get rich. Aren’t we all?
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) meets with Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran on November 23, 2015. Putin arrived in Tehran for talks with Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, with the Syrian conflict expected to be high on the agenda. The one-day visit will also see Putin take part in a summit of gas exporting countries. AFP PHOTO / SPUTNIK / ALEXEI DRUZHININ / AFP / SPUTNIK / ALEXEI DRUZHININ (Photo credit should read ALEXEI DRUZHININ/AFP via Getty Images)
You know I speak my opinion, but I try not to get too Repub/Demo on here. But I’m just going to say it. If you buy into this shit, you are as dumb as a rock. None of these guys can be trusted. I’ve heard it the peace pleaders, they believe we should do anything for peace. Well, I think we should do a lot for peace, but not just anything. And I don’t think we should suspend belief for peace. Quite simply the only way you can believe that Iran will honor any peace agreement, is by suspending belief. They have proven it over and over. They have considered the US the Great Satan for years. They aren’t going to suddenly accept us.
Now, you have people saying that since we can’t use Russian oil, we’ll be able to buy Iranian oil after the nuke deal. Bahahah. Really? Like they would sell us a piece of bread if we were starving?
Well, if we make this deal, we keep them from having nuclear weapons. Really? The deal is to get them nuclear weapons.
And the idea that we have Russia, bed partner to Iran, negotiating a nuclear agreement for us, is beyond stupid. We are watching them invade a country that did nothing to instigate a war. How? Why? Under what circumstances could we ever trust them?
I say it again. If you buy into this shit, you’re a few beers short of a six-pack. When folks see you out and about, they say “There’s a village missing its idiot.”
