This just in: I have a certain way that I check on news to see if its real. See if you can pick it out.

Democrats believe that Trump tried to overthrow the election. They base this decision on interviews with people that we in the room and from both parties and they made this information public.

Republicans say the election was stolen from them. As proof they offer “Well, we didn’t win.”

I’m with the Democrats on this.

Another…

Democrats believe that infrastructure spending is not only good for the country but that it will pay for itself by higher taxes on the extremely rich. This perspective is backed by the obvious decay in our infrastructure, the strain on families coping with healthcare, daycare and eldercare. For economic proof they offer a letter signed by 15 Nobel Laurates in Economics that strongly support this idea.

Republicans don’t even want to pay for the $7.8 trillion dollar debt they ran up the last time they were in charge. As evidence, they say, “We are not going to raise the debt limit which allows us to pay for bills we have already created.”

I go with the Democrats again.

For decades…DECADES…the Republican Party has seen government as a grift machine to be used for self enrichment and the enrichment of their donors. They have virtually no interest in governing. They have not passed a single bill that benefits the American public in years. They have lots of meaningless phrases like “Communism” and “Government takeover of healthcare.” None of these have any effort behind them that exceeds what it took to cause air to pass over their windpipes as they spouted this nonsense.

If you vote Republican, and I don’t mean to be harsh, you are either uneducated or you are longing for a White, Christian nation, (aka racist).

On a completely unrelated front: Today’s big headlines are the congressional report detailing how Donald Trump and the Republican Party tried to overthrow a legitimate election AND how the Republican Party is refusing to pay the bills that they ran up during the Trump years hoping that you will believe spending by Trump from 2016 to 2020 was somehow actually done by Biden.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: I found out a couple of years ago that I have 2 slipped discs in my lower back. Here is how I deal with this.

I’ll do this using a simple list:

1. Never overdo it. Even on days when you feel great, limit what you to.
2. You will have bad days. I use Advil and Pepcid. I can feel these days coming in advance and I try to stay ahead of the paid. In other words, I don’t wait until its really painful.
3. Bad days don’t last forever.
4. Going up and down stairs may feel okay but your back does not like this.
5. No twisting.
6. Daily yoga for about 20 minutes. No twisting poses.
7. Lots of core exercises every day.
8. Don’t sit for more than 15 minutes in a row.
9. I hang upside down for 1 minute a day (I have a device for this). Don’t hang upside down for too long as you will start to stretch things that are not meant to be stretched.
10. I walk at least 5 miles a day.
11. No heavy lifting.
12. Jacuzzi daily using the jets as needed to relax tight muscles.
13. Lose weight. All exta weight in your upper body is supported by your thin little spine.
14. Pay attention to what you do/did. If you are having a bad back day, ask yourself, “What was I doing yesterday that may have caused this?”
15. Have a routine and keep track. I can tell you what days I missed my morning yoga over the last 3 years.
16. No running!
17. No standing in one place. It’s weird but standing is bad and walking is good.
18. Use a lumbar support when sitting.
19. Have good posture, standing and sitting.
20. Know that pain will pass. A bad day or week does not mean you are done being pain-free. It will pass.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: I am a citizen of the United States. I am a citizen of California. Which do you think is more important to me? (Hint, it’s not California)

If you jump into your local Way-Back machine and watch our forefathers constructing our Constitution, you will see a lot of effort went into protecting “states rights”. In my view this was because the smaller, less populous states, wanted to have an equal say in government.

The solution was the senate.

As we know, the Legislative branch of our government has 2 bodies, the House of Representatives and the Senate. The number of people that represent each state in the House is based of population. If you have a state with a lot of people, your state has more representatives. The Senate representation has nothing to do with population and everything to do with land. If your land is a state, it gets 2 representatives. If its not a state, it gets zero.

What this means is that California, with a population of around 40 million has 2 senators, each representing about 20 million people. West Virginia also has 2 senators however, the state is basically empty so each senator represents about 900,000 people. The thing is, the 2 California senators have exactly the same amount of power in the senate as the 2 senators from West Virginia.

Not exactly democratic. So why not change this? Because if you do, the Republican Party will no longer be able to rule from its minority position.

You see, 50% of the Senate is currently representing about 56% of the population that live in Democrat states. The other 50% of the Senate is representing about 44% of the population that live in Red states. The Democrats vastly outnumber the Republicans but the Senate allows them to act like they represent half of the American public.

In short, if you are from a Blue, Democrat state, your voting power in the senate is less than 1 vote per person. If you are from a Red, Republican state, your voting power in the senate is more than 1 vote per person.

The result…we often see minority rule.

Combine this with Gerrymandering and the Electoral College and you will find weird, undemocratic things like only 1 Republican President in the last 30 years received the majority of votes from the American public.

This is why the relatively few Wackos in our country are making policy for the rest of us.

Which is why we can’t have nice things.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: The more white, the more Christian and the more uneducated you are, the more likely you are to vote Republican.

The “white” fits in with the racist slant of most Republican positions.

The “Christian” fits in with a personality willing to believe anything so long as you wish it were true.

The “under educated” thing is the most helpful for the Republican Party. The more people understand the facts about a thing, the more they wonder why anyone would ever vote for a Republican. Thus, the GOP targets the white, gullible, uneducated portion of our population.

Let’s take a look at how this plays out. We are approaching a point in a couple of days where we will not be able to pay our debts because of an artifact known as the “debt ceiling.” All that is needed to avoid an economic catastrophe is for Congress to agree to raise the ceiling like they always do.

Here are their positions as stated by their party leaders. I’m putting it in quotes but rest assured, I’m paraphrasing.

Democrats: “We need to raise the debt ceiling so that we are authorized to pay our national debt. This means we can pay social security. This means we can pay our military. This means we can make payments on the $7.8 trillion dollar of overspending that took place under the Trump administration. It has nothing to do with our current budget or the current talks taking place with regards to infrastructure. It just means we are allowed to pay our current bills.”

Republicans: “We can’t support the communist budget of the Democrats while they allow non-whites to flow across our borders. We need to support our troops just as God intended us to do. If we don’t stop them now, they will turn us all into Chinese. And furthermore, budgets are important and we can’t allow for unsafe elections while Democrats are funding abortions with buy-1-get-1-free coupons.”

See? The GOP only has to get in a couple of meaningless phases and their sheep follow. Say something bad about non-whites. Say something about God. Make up other stuff that sounds scary because the illiterate you are pandering to won’t know the difference.

This….this is why we can’t have nice things.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim