This just in: I found the following video online yesterday. I could not say it better myself so I won’t even try.

This just in: Psychological projection is a defense mechanism people subconsciously employ in order to cope with difficult feelings or emotions. Psychological projection involves projecting undesirable feelings or emotions onto someone else, rather than admitting to or dealing with the unwanted feelings.

In simple terms, at least for me: A bank robber is videoed robbing a bank. The police stop him outside the bank and say, “You’re under arrest.” The robber caught red-handed responds with, “No, you’re under arrest for robbing a bank.”

This “projection defense” is the unwritten first law of the Republican playbook. If they are caught doing something that they know they shouldn’t be doing, step one is to accuse the other party of doing that very same thing.

For example, Donald Trump lies obviously and continuously. One of his favorite adjectives he uses to describe someone that he no longer likes is to call them “dishonest.”

Republicans call any attempt to hold Trump accountable for things like (1) lying and providing false information to further his political campaign (Stormy Daniels) or (2) Attempting to get a state official to aid in the overturning of a fair election (Georgia) or (3) Income tax evasion and insurance fraud (New York) or (4) Illegally hoarding highly classified documents and then lying about it (twice) or (5) Inciting a violent attempt to overthrow the United States government. Just to name a few. To the Republican party, attempting to even investigate these potential crimes is an abuse of power.

Republicans are projecting when they do this. They ignore things like (1) Barr reading the Muller report and then publicly and wrong reporting that the report cleared Trump of all claims about Russian interference or (2) DeSantis in Florida using his position to punish Disney because they came out publicly against his anti-LGBTQ initiatives and pledged to stop supporting Republicans in the state.

What does this mean to me?

I try to fact-check things if possible. I do have a couple of shortcuts. For example:

1. I try not to believe that something is true just because I want it to be true.
2. I look for “projection”. For example, is Matt Goetz accusing someone of pedophilia? Is Lindsey Graham taking anti-LGBTQ stances?
3. I look for inconstancies. For example, would a headline like “Biden is against school lunch programs for the poor” really be consistent with what we know about Biden? Is it reasonable to think that Donald Trump broke the law?
4. I know that Fox News and MSNBC are both extremely biased so I never hang my hat on a position that they put forth.
5. Do a few Google searches. Check the source of those searches.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: The reason we can’t have nice things is that our politicians are corrupt.

The reason this is the case has been the case and will continue to be the case is that the only ones that can pass laws to stop corruption are the very people that profit wildly from the corruption.

Now, just in case you are getting ready to say, “Yes, they all do it,” pause for a moment. Yes, there have been instances of a Democrat or Independent acting corruptly. However, the Republican Party has institutionalized this behavior. If you are a Republican, you are expected to be corrupt.

Republicans are paid by the insurance lobby to make sure healthcare remains profitable for those that sell it.

Republicans are paid by big oil to oppose Green Energy so that big oil will continue to profit.

Republicans are paid by the gun lobby to make sure millions of guns continue to make their way into households across the country.

Republicans give tax breaks to the rich and to corporations because these entities pay them to do so.

There are other things Republicans do that falls short of corruption but are just as damaging.

Republicans legally create laws that prevent voters from voting against them.

Republicans have redefined Gerrymandering so that they can be in a vast minority and still win elections.

Republicans don’t treat poverty issues because there is no money in it.

Republicans don’t solve economic problems because the solutions often are counter to what their donors are paying them to do.

Republican choose hot topics such as abortion or immigration to attract single-issue voters.

I was a Republican. I have not been one since we invaded Iraq on a false premise. An invasion that led to 20 years worth of needless was in the middle east.

I left the party when the evidence was overwhelming to me that they had no interest in actual governance. They were simply corrupt.

And…they become more so every day.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

As far as I can see, the Republican party lacks any ability to govern.

Let’s take a look at their positions on major issues:

1. Gun control: Love the gun
2. Feeding the poor: Not on the agenda
3. Ukraine: Half support, half like Putin
4. Homelessness: Not on the agenda
5. Abortion: Complete ban, including birth control
6. Immigration: Don’t care but like the problem since they can blame it on someone else. No solutions offered.
7. Education: Unimportant
8. Military: Love it. The entire party is funded by the defense industry
9. Voting: Oppose all efforts to let people vote that don’t vote Republican
10. Campaign finance: Unrestricted and unregulated
11. Healthcare: No plan
12. Taxes: Cut them on the rich
13. States rights: Opposed to any state right issue that might get Trump in trouble
14. Election fairness: Election was stolen even though there is no evidence and they secretly admit it was fair.
15. LGBTQ: Nope, against it. Want to make it a crime
16. Books: Ban them if they talk about slavery, misogyny, murder, revenge, homosexuality or anything that is uncomfortable.
17. Opinion of the Bible: Think the Constitution should be based on it even though it promotes: slavery, misogyny, murder, revenge, homosexuality and many other things that make people uncomfortable.
18. The poor: No plan
19. International Affairs: One plan – oppose anything the Democrats initiate.
20. Climate change: Denialists
21. White supremist: Like looking in the mirror but don’t say it out loud.
22. January 6th: Normal political discourse.
23. Next candidate for president: Trump
24. What should be taught in schools: Up to angry parents that don’t believe in science and think school is where the Bible should be taught.
25. Mass killings: A good time to send thoughts and prayers and buy more stock in gun manufacturing.
26. Inflation: They don’t understand the causes or solutions but they love it because they can blame it on someone else.
27. Small government: Yes, with the exception of controlling your sexuality and what you learn in school, who can vote, how you raise your kids, how your taxes are spent and stuff like that.
28. Racism: Love it, but can’t say it out loud
29. Opinion of voters: Doobs
30. Opinion of Free Press: Great so long as that only applies to Tucker Carlson

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

The Right has been calling the Left “woke” for the last couple of years. They do this even though they are unable to define the term itself. I believe it has 2 definitions that apply simultaneously. The first is that you don’t believe in what I believe in. For example, one person that is anti-LGBTQ will call a pro-LGBTQ person “woke” because their beliefs differ. The second is racist. “You are woke because you support political correctness.” This last statement is code for “I want to live in a white Christian American but I’m not allowed to say that our loud.”

As I read the papers today, I see Tucker Carlson hates Trump and thinks that Joe Biden won the election. He also says just the opposite on TV because, according to Fox owner Rupert Murdock, that’s where the money is. People will watch if Fox supports Trump nonsense. The greater the audience, the greater the ad revenue.

Trump started the rumor that he was going to be arrested yesterday. Online, the top 2 comments about this were: (1) Which of his multiple crimes is he going to be arrested for and (2) Is it possible that Trump will be tried as an adult?

Trump supporters start calling the United States a “police state” because they are arresting a man that they like for crimes he is believed to have committed. Gym Jordan, yesterday, called Trump’s payoff to a porn star an “accounting error.”

The Republicans are investigating Hunter Biden. I have no problem with this. If he committed a crime, he should do the time. However, when one of the investigating Republicans was questioned about this, they admitted they had found no criminal activity thus far but would continue to investigate until they found something. By this logic, every person in the country could be subjected to an investigation.

There is so much hypocrisy/duplicity in the Republican Party, I no longer try to keep track. Corruption is their brand. I see nothing to contradict this and evidence daily to support it.

I have also discovered, sort of, the reason that there are any Republican supporters out there.

Here it is: Back in the 70s, McDonald’s introduced the Quarter Pounder. Not to be outdone, Burger King introduced the 1/3 pounder. Burger King’s offering failed because a large portion of the American public believed that a 1/3 pound burger was smaller than a 1/4 pound burger. This is why we have Republicans.

There is significant evidence that the more educated you are, the more you know, and the less likely you are to vote Republican.

I bring this up because the problem isn’t Tucker Carlson or Fox news. These are instances of people taking advantage of the market. It’s like blaming an umbrella maker on the rain. There is going to be rain. The umbrella maker is just capitalizing on this.

If Fox news and Carlson disappeared, their replacements would start competing for that slice of the market the very next day. Why? Because there is money in it.

Thus, the problem is not the media. The problem is with the consumers of that media. People seek out someone telling them what they want to be true, even in the face of contrary evidence.

So, when your neighbor tells you he/she votes Republican, you know you are looking at a sponsor of a fascist form of government. They would certainly deny this because they won’t think of it this way. They think they are following the truth.

They will say, I vote Republican because I always have. They won’t say, I support a racist based political party because I am secretly racist. They can’t see that far. Once they have their desired beliefs confirmed, they stop inquiring about the truth.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: I have been reading about things like Bullet Trains in Japan, Universal Health Care in Canada and World Leading Free Education in Finland. This makes me wander, “Why can’t we have nice things here?”

I look at what the Biden administration has been pursuing; things like Universal Healthcare for all, Affordable Education, World Class Infrastructure and I think again, “Why can’t we have nice things here?”

It certainly looks like Democrats are trying to do the “people’s work.” But why is it taking so long?

The answer is simple, Republican Obstruction.

Republican’s, right this very moment, are trying to make the economy fail. They are doing this for two reasons. First, they want to be able to blame the Democrats for it when it happens and secondly, those that benefit are the super rich elite…the Republican billionaires. There is a third reason and it is perhaps the most likely…that is that Republicans are bad at math and have no understanding of economics.

So, if you are a Republican and you vote Republican simply because they are wearing your team’s colors, are you part of the problem?

Let’s take a quiz and see… (For best effect use you Jeff Foxworthy voice in your head as you take this).

If you think an insurrectionist like Jim Jordan should be the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee…you may be part of the problem.

If you think putting prolific liar (and possible criminal) George Santos on any committee is a good idea…you may be part of the problem.

If you think Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said she would have been armed at the January 6th insurrection, should be on the Homeland security committee…you may be part of the problem.

If you think Lauren Boebert, who dropped out of high school and only got her GED after being elected is qualified to be on the House Oversight Committee…you may be part of the problem.

If you think that we should “strengthen” entitlements like Social Security by limiting who has access to them by, for example, raising the retirement age…you may be part of the problem.

If you think Donald Trump is anything more than a mobster in a suit with numerous debilitating personality disorders…you may be part of the problem.

If you think Putin is a good guy…you may be part of the problem.

If you think Christianity should govern our country…you may be part of the problem.

If you think “small government” means banning books, abandoning historical education about race and telling a woman that she must build a baby in her body against her will…you may be part of the problem.

If you think immigrates are “taking your job” … you may be part of the problem.

If you think Fox News is anything other than a Fear/Hate machine…you may be part of the problem.

If you think higher education is bad for our country…you may be part of the problem.

That’s enough for now. You may have noticed that all of the things that I think make you “part of the problem” are positions that the Republican Party is currently and openly embracing.

Just sayin…

Time to save the world…

Jim

This just in: I think Biden is old but I don’t think he’s senile. I think Biden is soft-spoken, but I don’t thing he is not determined. Overall, I like his performance. Under his administration, our government has managed to get a lot of things done.

Let’s look at a couple of things…

1. Ten million jobs created since 2021
2. Actions taken to lower household energy costs by $100 per year.
3. Gas prices are dropping sharply
4. Passed gun safety regulations
5. Unemployment at historic lows.
6. Inflation, while high, is low compared to other countries and is dropping
7. Strong action against COVID
8. Massive infrastructure investment
9. Massive aide to Ukraine
10. Raised minimum wage for federal workers

There have been a couple of investigations as well. For example…

1. The commission looking into January 6th.
2. The investigation into Trump hiding and lying about having classified materials.
3. Numerous prosecutions of Jan 6 terrorists.

Let’s take a look at the Republican Agenda.

1. Calls Social Security and Medicare “entitlements” as if they are the government doing a favor for undeserving people. The GOP wants to lower the payments to people. In other words, once you are too old to earn, you will make less than before the GOP took over.
2. Cutting costs that help the IRS to do its job. The CBO is already projecting more than $100 billion in lost tax revenue as the GOP protects the billionaires that contributed to them.
3. Eliminate the Ethics structure that monitors the behavior of congress.

The GOP also has a couple of investigations of their own…

1. With regards to Hunter Biden’s laptop, why are there boner pictures on it?
2. They plan to impeach Joe Biden although they have not yet come up with a reason to do so.

There is some good news here. The GOP is so hopelessly incompetent and divided that they will not accomplish anything.

There is one exception to this.

One of the “give-aways” that McCarthy handed out to gain the speakership was an agreement to oppose all legislation supported by the Biden administration. This is something the GOP is good at. They are great at making sure nothing happens and then blaming someone else for the results – that nothing happened. They are also great at promising things and then not accomplishing them and then – blaming someone else for their failures.

So, let’s see how this plays out.

Right now, I intend to actively look for positive legislation introduced by the GOP.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: If I had to pick a single issue that is damaging us as individuals, as a country, or as a world, it would not be wars or pollution, or the economy. It would be tribalism.

Tribalism is the root of all fear, of all conflict and of all hate.

Tribalism refers to belonging to a group. I am American. I am white. I am male. These are all examples of groups that I belong to. In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with this.

I grew up in Wasco, Ca, a small town of about 7,500 people. This town had two elementary schools; Carl Clemons and Palm Avenue. For some reason, we kids at Palm Avenue viewed the kids from Carl Clemons, most of whom we’d never met, as “from the wrong side of the tracks.” They were inferior. They were poor. They we not as good as us. I don’t recall being taught this but the rivalry was real.

There was only one middle school so in 6th grade when I was 12, the two groups merged into one. I was surprised to find that the other kids were just like me. There were no differences. After a few weeks of school, who came from which elementary school was unimportant and often forgotten.

Then came high school. Our rivals were the nearest small town which happened to be Shafter. We viewed them in much the same way as I viewed Carl Clemons. We even had a Shafter Day where everyone would dress up as poor people, pretending, once again, the “others we not our equal.”

College was a little different. I went to the Naval Academy where our rival was the Military Academy at West Point. All day long, you could hear the freshmen, Plebes, shouting, “Go Navy. Beat Army.” We always knew the number of days until the Big Army-Navy game. However, at the end of the game, both teams came together as one. We knew the rivalry was fun but we also knew we were all on the same team.

Rivalries are fun. They gives us a reason to watch the game; to cheer for one team over another. But they are just for fun.

Unless, you forget that they are not…just for fun.

As adults, if we are not careful, we will fall into the Tribalism Trap. And, it’s not like there is just one trap. White tribes against non-white tribes. Asians against Europeans. This religion against that other on. Republicans against Democrats.

None of these tribes are real beyond the space we give them in our heads. When people of different tribes intermingle, the boundaries go away. We find out that the “others” are not evil or less worthy. We become one.

What put this topic in my head was the recent election for a senator in Georgia. Hershel Walker was possibly the most unqualified candidate for any national office. Moral, intellectually, experientially, on every measure one could think of, he was grossly unfit. Yet, he got nearly half of the state to vote for him. Why? He belonged to the Republican tribe. Had he been in the Democrat tribe, we would have seen the same thing happen.

If we want to get along. If we want to solve issues like racism, poverty, or immigration, we will need to all get on the same team.

Tribalism prevents that from happening.

What to do about this? I don’t know. I can only work on myself and that is a full-time job.

But, I think it’s important to notice.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: As the Republican Party becomes more and more unhinged, they are starting to remind me of children at play.

Remember when we were kids and used to play like we were adults? We’d watch the “big people” and then pretend that we were them. We tried to copy them without really understanding why they acted like they did. After all, we were children.

Let’s look at a few examples. Remember, these are people “playing” like they think adults act.

Republicans run for office saying, “Biden raised your gas prices!” Their playmates clap wildly, pretending to understand the economics of a free economy. They also pretend that since their Party Officials noticed high gas prices, that is all it takes to fix the problem. The children then go and vote for their Republican heros.

In response…The elected pretend adults announce their top priority for when they take office: Investigating Hunter Biden’s laptop.

This gets repeated over an over again. High inflation, the war in Ukraine, immigrants at the border. In all of these instances, the problem is pointed out, the other children clap and then vote as if their party can fix something.

The response is always the same in the end…Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Why, you may ask, is Hunter Biden’s laptop so important?

No one really knows. Remember, these are children we are talking about. They saw investigations into Trump for any number of things ranging from asking Ukraine for a bribe to hording top secret documents in a tool shed to election interference to sedition on January 6th. They saw this and decided that this was how adults act. The underlying cause of the investigations didn’t appear to be important to them. The Republican take-away from all of the Trump investigations is that this is what the party does when its in power.

Republicans cherry pick problems and then tell you, “look at what we noticed”. This make people vote for them.

Republicans support election interference and they project these actions onto they other party and people vote for them.

Republican accuse Democrats of doing a lot of things that only the Republicans do. Check out this partial list of Republican pedophilia.

Republicans vote for someone because when he was in college he played football and they remember his name.

I can’t make this stuff up.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: The party that brought you tax breaks for the rich, racism, and forced pregnancies has discovered the real cause of inflation. It appears to be Hunter Biden’s laptop.

I can’t make this stuff up.

Republicans held a press conference yesterday and clarified that their top priority was investigating Hunter Biden. Without proof, they assert that he used his position as then Vice President Biden’s son to make about $50,000 in Ukraine that he would not have ordinarily made on his own.

We must get to the bottom of this. Our entire nation’s economy depends on us knowing if Hunter Biden was given favors or not.

A completely unrelated topic: A year ago, Saudi Arabia invested $2 billion in Donald Trump’s daughter’s husband. The same husband that is buddies with the Saudi Prime Minister, the same guy that killed a journalist and had him dismembered for writing unflattering stories.

Back to the real issue which is, of course…BENGHAZI and Hillary Clinton’s emails. We need to find out why the previous FOUR investigations into Benghazi failed to find any evidence of misdeeds.

As far as Hillary’s emails are concerned; she testified when asked, for 11 straight hours. Yes, she was careless and got a good scolding for mishandling confidential information.

On a completely unrelated topic: Donald Trump had troves of material classified above Top Secret. This is stuff he denied having and then when he was caught with it, he said, “I used telepathy to declassify it just before you guys got here.”

Anyway, the Republican got me excited. Some of them want to get out of Ukraine altogether. Some of them want us to fold God into the constitution. Some of them want to impeach Biden on charges that they haven’t figured out yet. They are saying, “We know he did something, we just need to figure out what it was so we can impeach him for it.”

Meanwhile, on the bottom of the cover of a New York newspaper, “Local man makes an announcement.” It directs you to page 26 where at the bottom, it mentions that Trump is running for president again. Just what they need – Orange Jesus.

What about inflation? Income inequality? Abortion? Healthcare? NATO? China? Voting rights? Jobs? Trade?

I’m sure they have plans for all of these…right? Any moment now….any moment…

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim