This just in: I am going to first quickly state how I feel about abortion. I will then follow that with a statement I found online that seems to be a pretty good explanation for why people support abortion.

My take: Abortion is not something people want. No one is saying, “Let’s have unprotected sex so I can go get an abortion.” It’s just the “least bad” option for an unwanted pregnancy. Statistically, banning abortions “Does not reduce abortions,” but rather, “Increases the dangers to women that choose to get illegal abortions.” Politicians (Republicans) support anti-abortion legislation because it brings in the single-issue voter; that voter that doesn’t care or understand anything other than “abortions are bad, mkay?”

Now for what I found online. It is attributed to Pastor Dave Barnhart.

“They aren’t pro-life, they’re pro-forced-birth.

“The unborn” are a convenient group of people to advocate for. They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor; they don’t resent your condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, they don’t ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, they don’t need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, they don’t bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike; they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn. It’s almost as if, by being born, they have died to you. You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone. They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus but actually dislike people who breathe.

Prisoners? Immigrants? The sick? The poor? Widows? Orphans? All the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible? They all get thrown under the bus for the unborn.“

I liked this.

Now for a great piano video. Watch the whole thing. About halfway through it takes off. To really appreciate the second half, you must first, appreciate the first half.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: What does Chris Rock have on his face? Fresh Prince.

Will Smith should be charged with assault. Why? Because he assaulted someone. “He was just protecting his wife’s honor,” you say. So, you get to decide what is justifiable assault? He should be charged and forced to state his defense.

Why am I making a big deal out of this? Because wealth does not mean you are entitled to a different set of laws and justice.

Wealth and power should not equate to leniency.

Once upon a time, I would watch something on the news about Trump and think, “Finally, he is caught red-handed and will have to pay a price.” I have been wrong every. single. time.

Men of power defying Congressional subpoenas have nothing to fear from today’s legal system.

A supreme court justice is the only one out of 9 that tried to keep certain January 6th documents out of the hands of Congress. These particular documents had emails with his wife urging Trump’s Chief of Staff to overturn an election. Clarence Thomas used his position on the Supreme Court to try to keep these emails secret. And…goes on to say he is impartial.

He would face consequences except that the Republican Party has come out publicly and said there is no conflict of interest here that they can detect.

This is eerily similar to Trump’s first impeachment. You may recall that Trump threatened to withhold weapons from Ukraine unless they “did him a favor.” Republicans didn’t think there was anything wrong with this. It couldn’t be extortion because Trump didn’t specifically say, “I extort thee!”

Republicans are even against prosecuting the people that stormed the capital on January 6th, resulting in several deaths. This was an attempted Coup that that Republican Party has referred to an “normal political discourse.”

There is a problem here. If you are coming back at me with “They all do it,” then you are a part of the problem.

Here is a funny video…

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: According to many MAGA Republicans, if Donald Trump was the president today, there would be no war in Ukraine. Should you believe this?

The answer is NO. There is a reason for this. The Republican Party has a long history of promising and then not delivering.

Let’s just take a couple of examples.

How many of you are enjoying the replacement for Obamacare that the Republicans promised you would get as soon at they were in power? No one? Really? Could it be that after a decade of promising to “Repeal and Replace”, they actually did nothing about it once they were in power? Ask them about it…crickets.

How many of you enjoyed filing your taxes on a post card and then watching as our national debt dropped after the Republicans passed a massive tax cut for the rich? No one? Really? Instead, we got a massive $8 trillion added to the national debt.

The Republican Party has made itself a national party by promising all sorts of things and then actually delivering nothing; excepts wealth to their donors.

It’s not like they do this some of the time or most of the time. They do it ALL of the time.

They are a 1-trick pony.

Why do we keep falling for this? The answer is psychologically based. We think things like “Well, maybe they can’t deliver on this or that promise but if only a little bit is true then its worth the risk.” Or, there is the “fear factor”. This is the same thing churches use to fill the tray. “Follow us or go to hell.” Republicans will tell you that you will lose your guns, or a recession will hit or we’ll be thrown into a needless war. All just made up to feed your fear.

Here is the news…not even a little bit is true.

As educated voters, we need to stop being Charlie Brown when Lucy offers to hold the football for him to kick.

Here is a music video…

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: The president of the United States does not control gas prices.

I recall when George W. was president and gas prices shot up for some reason. Fox news spent a lot of time telling us that the president doesn’t control gas prices. A couple of years, later, Obama was president and gas prices spiked. Fox then spent a lot of time telling us it was Obama’s fault.

What is really happening here?

When the price of oil goes up, the price of gas goes up. Makes sense. The price of oil goes up when the demand rises faster than the supply. In short, oil becomes more scarce and thus, it becomes more expensive. OPEC bases its entire output on this idea. They cut back on supply until the price goes up to where they want it to be.

Also, uncertainty in the market can make people behave as if oil is in short supply because they believe it will be in the future. This is why wars involving oil producing countries causes prices to go up. We fear that the war will slow production and thus, lower the global supply.

So, where does the president come into play?

The short answer is “Nowhere.”

The president does not create demand; the consumer does.

The president does not tell private oil companies how much oil to produce. Right now there are thousands of drilling permits issued by the government that are not being used because the oil companies don’t feel it is profitable to do so.

None of this is a secret. In fact, this is something you would learn in the first couple of hours of a Economics 101 class.

Republicans said, “Don’t take oil from Russia.” They are basically joining support for Ukraine, albeit, a little late. They don’t mention that we sell more oil to Russia than we import. In short, if there was no war, cutting off Russian oil would have virtually no impact on gas prices.

Today, Republicans, who are historically terrible at economics, are claiming that the president is raising gas prices. These people, and those that nod along with this statement, are either stupid or believe that you are stupid.

Don’t be stupid.

Here is a music video…

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: Right now, Putin is angry. He grossly miscalculated how the war with Ukraine was going to go and now he desperately needs to find a way to get out of the mess he created without seeming to have not won.

I think it’s time for me to give my take on the war.

First of all, I can’t overstate how impressed I am by the Ukrainian will to fight for their country. Their president is an inspiration that will quite possibly grow if the Russian dare to take him out.

Russia appears to have made the following bad assumptions:

1. Trump would be in power and thus, allow Russia to do whatever it wanted. Trump would have pulled the U.S. from NATO by now.
2. The world would have treated the invasion much as they treated the Crimea annexation. The simpler, safer thing would be for everyone to just ignore what Russia was doing.
3. A fast overthrow would have meant that supply lines would be far less important. Instead, the war is dragging on and fuel/food for the attacking forces is simply not ready.
4. Somehow, the Russian people would go on believing that Nazis had taken over poor Ukraine and Putin needed to go in an save them.
5. The Ukrainian forces would not be willing nor equipped to put up much of a resistance.

Had Putin’s assumptions been correct, he could have added a huge country to his own domain with very little effort.

However he was wrong on every single assumption.

I have a few other opinions:

1. We, NATO, should not put in a no-fly zone. To do this, we would have to enforce it. This would mean engaging Russian forces in the air and on the ground. This would include taking out long-range surface to air missiles inside of Russia. This means war.
2. A war with Russia will mean the use of nuclear weapons. This is a war where no one wins.
3. Giving planes to Ukraine is a bad idea. First of all, they are Russian MIG-29’s which the Russians will have no trouble shooting down. Secondly, hand held surface-to-air missiles and anti-tank weapons are plentiful. Use these.
4. The U.S. embargo of Russian oil is symbolic and thus important.
5. The President of the United States has no impact on the cost of gas. There are plenty of oil leases (thousands) already approved so if the oil companies want to drill for oil, they can.
6. Fox News appears to be an arm of the Russian propaganda machine. There are people in Russia that think Putin is fighting Nazis. They think this because their only source of news is Russian TV. In the states, we have much the same issue where people only get their news from FOX and thus, are fans of Putin.
7. Republicans did the following: (1) Claimed that Biden was making up stories about a Russian invasion of Ukraine and (2) After the invasion began they claimed we weren’t prepared. These are the same Republicans that turned their heads when Trump tried to extort Ukraine by holding back promised weapons; resulting in the first Trump impeachment.

I think there is little doubt that the government in Ukraine will fall. Putin has too many weapons. This does not mean that the war will be over. I think it could be years of fighting before eventually, one side will give up. My hope is that Putin’s own people turn against him.

Now for a music video…

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: I took 6 COVID tests in 9 days. All negative.

I needed a chest X-ray so the doctor told me to take a home test. If the test was positive, I should stay home. If the test was negative, I needed to come in and take a “real” test before they would e-X-ray me. The home test was test #1.

The home test was negative so I went to the doctor’s and took the “real” test which was test #2.

I was flying to Europe on a Tuesday so I needed to take a rapid PCR test withing 48 hours of travel. I found a CVS site online that did such a test and I scheduled it for Monday (24 hours before my flight). It seems no one tests on Sunday so I had to cut it close. No worries, this was going to be a rapid test. I get to CVS and they say, “Yes, some of our sites have rapid tests but this one doesn’t. I don’t care that the website you used to schedule this test told you differently.” I took the test knowing that the results may not be ready in time for my flight. That was test #3. (Cost $136)

Since CVS was not guaranteeing my results on time, I scheduled a rapid test at the airport 4 hours before my flight. This was test #4. Cost ($240)

I go to Budapest for a couple of days. I’m returning on a Sunday so I scheduled a test 28 hours before my flight. This was test #5. (Cost $50)

The morning before my flight, I’m checking to make sure I have met all the testing requirements; especially the 48 hour thing. As I scroll through all the fine print, I discover that a test is needed within 48 hours before most destinations but….if you are flying to the United States, I needed to have a test within 24 hours. So, I got in the car and drove down and took test #6. (Cost $50)

So, 6 tests in 9 days at a cost of nearly $500. All negative.

I am not anti-mask. I am not anti-vax. However, I am really, really getting tired of all this.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: To no one’s surprise, Putin has invaded Ukraine on the pretense of Keeping The Peace. However, the obvious truth is that this has been a typo in his stated mission. It’s “piece” not “peace” that he is keeping. “I’ll keep that piece of Ukraine and that piece over there and….”

All this is happening 240 kilometers to the east of where I sit right now in Budapest.

People are dying from a war that was started to simply feed the ego of Trump’s idol. Putin wants a legacy of recreating the Soviet Union. People are dying and it’s all on him.

Putin has plenty of backers; people cheering him on as his murderous spree continues. Fox News, Trump, Pompeo and a whole slew of Republicans think this is all just fine. Why? For one reason: They oppose the position of a sitting Democrat president because it strengthens their political position. In short, Republican support Russia because they want more power.

Meanwhile, Putin is spinning a web of lies that are second in line only to those spun by Trump. Why does Putin tell so many blatantly obvious lies? For the same reasons our Republican party tells obvious lies, they both have a base of people who will believe anything they say. Putin wants war. Russians want justification. Putin says, “Ukrainians are killing children and they need to be stopped.” That’s good enough for the right.

Now for a music video…

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: I’m going to list 3 companies that I recommend we all avoid. There are certainly more to avoid than these three but I made my selection on a vary narrow criteria: Thus must be very bad at the very thing they claim to be best at.

Let the countdown begin:

Number 3 on my list is United Parcel Service (UPS). Their sole purpose for existing it deliver packages quickly to anywhere in the country. Now, back in the days before Amazon, we use to put up with UPS missing a delivery date now and then. I recall a time about 20 years ago where they lost my order. I actually wrote and asked them if my order was the first order that they ever tried to deliver. When they found the order and returned it to the sender, they still tried to bill be. I had to remind them, “I pay you to deliver, not to try to deliver.” Right now I have a package that was sent 5 days ago on a 2-day delivery. After 2 days, it got to within 50 miles. It sat there for a day and then was shipped to Los Angels, 400 miles away. It spent a day there and now it about 100 miles away…where it has been sitting for nearly 24 hours. Amazon, meanwhile, is still making 1-day deliveries on time as promised.

Number 2 on my list is AT&T. For a number of reasons, I think this is the worst run company in the country. They have gobbled up other companies from time to time only to see them fail. In short, everything AT&T touches…dies. They have overbilled. They made my mom cry when she tried to cancel. They billed me for months for an account that I never opened. Right now, they say, “Move to AT&T and get use our software to stop you phone from being SPAMMED.” Right now, the number on phone spammer seems to be someone concerned about my lack of car warranty. However, I get spammed at least 3 times a week from AT&T telling me that I have qualified for a special offer. The company promising to protect me from robo-calls is one of the worst robo-call offenders in the country.

Number 1 on my list is McAfee anti-virus software. I’m sure you’ve had this experience. You buy a new computer and McAfee is already installed. This is called a “feature” when it is actually an intrusive virus. From the very first day, the installed software reminds you that there are other features you can upgrade to. Uninstalling it is nearly impossible. But, I got it done. Then, 2 months later, I started getting McAfee popups that said, “You have several virus infections.” When I close the popup, a browser automatically opens up and tried to sell me McAfee protection. This goes on constantly, making work nearly impossible. So the anti-virus software tries to sell you software by inserting a virus into your computer telling you that you have a virus so the company that installed the virus can get rid of it for you. I fail to see much of a difference between McAfee and ransomware.

Now for a music video…

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: If I ever had to sit in a room with a bunch of elected officials to try and resolve some very simple issue, “what’s for lunch?” as an example, I would would be soon looking for a window to jump out of.

There are objective arguments and subjective arguments. Take math as an example of an objective argument. Someone presents a research paper for peer review and it gets trashed. Why? The argument goes like this: “I trashed this because in line 3 you failed to carry the 3 and thus reached a wrong solution.” Everyone could agree on that. Everyone.

In a subjective argument, someone at a school board meeting says, “We need to burn all books that have any content that contradicts the bible.” An opposition argument may be, “Who says that your interpretation of the bible is correct and how do you know that you know the will of God?” The first person will fire back with, “No, you shut up.” Both convincing arguments and the winner is simply a matter of opinion.

Politics, which should be packed with object based arguments is nothing more than a bunch of voices spouting unsubstantiated opinions with a belief system that says, “The louder one is the more right one is.”

So count me out.

I have dibs on this position of non-participation. I expect better out of you.

Local, state and national offices are being filled with people wearing QAnon t-shirts because the rest of us have more important things to do.

Thus, we get the government we deserve.

I feel that we may be reaching a tipping point where one of two things will happen. First, we may say, “Enough of this bullshit” and get some rational people to run for office. Alternatively, we may just say lazy and let the QAnon idiots take over.

Interestingly, the choice is completely ours.

So get out there and participate. I’ll watch.

Here is a cute video…

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: I think that there is wrong-think amongst the American populace. Excuse my Orwellian “newspeak” language but I feel that “wrong-think” is an apt description for how we view our political structure. Of course…this only applies to people that aren’t me.

Let’s start with my theory, developed through observation, that there are 3 types of Republicans. (1) There is the man on the street; in rural America. This person is a loyal Republican and has been so for generations. (2) There are the super rich that will never have enough for themselves. Finally (3) Elected Republican officials.

Here is how the three operate together. The super rich pay the elected officials to take advantage of the gullible “loyalists”. All in one political party.

If it suits the Republican Party to hate Russia, then the elected officials say, “We hate Russia” and the loyalists agree. If the next week it suits the Republican Party to love Russia, they say, “We love Russia” and the loyalists agree.

If the Republican Party says, “BLM protests are too violent” the loyalists agree. If the Republican Party says, “Attacking the Capital is all a part of legitimate political debate” the loyalists agree.

If the rich need a tax break, they pay a Republican who tells the loyalists, “You will be getting a higher paying job because of a tax cut” and the loyalists believe. When the better jobs never happen, the Republicans do two things: (1) Collect their bribes from the super rich and (2) Blame the Democrats on the lack of new jobs.

When Republicans do everything in their power to stop Biden from accomplishing anything on his agenda, they blame Biden for not accomplishing his agenda and the loyalists agree.

When Donald Trump was found guilty of working with Russia to win the 2016 election, Republicans reported that the exact opposite was the actual findings; and the loyalists agreed in spite of direct and overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Having about 50 million Americans that practice virtually no critical thinking on their own is quite an advantage. The Republican Party can do whatever they want and 50 million people nod knowinging.

It’s like in the book 1984. At one point, a character notices that the enemy of the state seems to be the exact opposite of what he was told just a short time earlier. He never quite makes the effort to see that he is being told opposite stories. This enables Big Brother to claim progress in non-existent wars while giving the masses an enemy to be made at. In a Big Brother world, there is no need for critical thinking.

I find this both disappointing and frustrating.

I’m disappointed that we, as a county, are made up of so many sheep.

I’m frustrated that logical argument and direct evidence have no impact.

For example: Everyone wants bridges to be updated. When Biden fails to get the money because Republican opposed his agenda (just because they don’t want him to get credit,) then the bridges don’t get fixed. When you point out to a Republican loyalist that the reason bridges are not getting fixed is because Republican officials stopped it, the loyalists disagree. They can see the votes and still disagree. Ask they what they think happened and they will say, “Biden is a failure” as if this explained something.

Alas…

Now for a music video.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim