“Let there be fear!” – Republican Platform

Posted on October 30, 2018 by admin

This just in: I first went snorkeling in the Philippines. Having just been stung by a jellyfish, my assumption was that everything in the water wanted to kill me. So, I put on this mask which only let me see what was straight ahead. I ended up swivelling my head back and forth the entire time. I was afraid of what I couldn’t see. I was afraid of the unknown.

I’ve carried this experience with me for decades. I use it in my professional life where I am a Change Agent. I have found that people resist change, in large part, because they “know” the current situation while the new situation is “unknown.” When I educate them and take away the “unknown”, I also take away the fear and resistance.

This brings me to the Republican Platform; a platform which can be summarized in the following way: “Create fear and fight any information that would take that fear away.”

A prime example is the issue of immigration. Yes, we should not let illegal immigrants into the country. This doesn’t mean that we need a wall. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t find ways to make it easier or faster for people to enter our country. In fact, if we are to continue our economic growth, we need immigrants by the millions.

Republicans say, “Democrats want open borders.”

Republican say, “The caravan coming up from Mexico is filled with terrorists, gang members and diseases like leprosy.”

Republicans send 5,000 troops to fight off the caravan.

If people knew the truth, none of this would matter. The caravan is made up of less people than it takes to fill a high school football stadium. It’s made up of women and children. When they get to the border, they will have the same rights that every other person has when they come to our country. 5,000 troops is about one soldier per child.

This is easy information to research. Get online and look it up.

The problem is, too many Republicans are hearing what they want to hear and therefore look no further for answers. They want Non-Whites out of the country and if they need to fear this caravan to justify that…then that is what they will do.

This same fear is applied elsewhere. We drop out of trade agreements because, “They are unfair and the world is ripping us off.” This is nonsense but…creates fear.

We keep Muslims from entering the country to appease the Conservatives (those that long for a pretend history of white and Christian America) and we use fear of terrorism to justify this.

The Far Right (A combination of Republican and Red Bull) send out pipe bombs and shoot up a synagogue. Republicans see that this is causing fear so they immediately say, “Democrats are blowing themselves up so that you will blame Republicans.”

Trump has said that without his guidance, the United States will turn into Venezuela. That is fear.

Trump calls the press an Enemy of the State. This is an attempt to keep you from reading and thus believing any narrative that didn’t come from him. He wants you to be fearful and knows that knowledge will make that more difficult.

My recommendation is twofold. First…read a book. If you want to understand tariffs, watch a couple of youtube videos on the issue. If you want to understand the Fed and interest rates, take 15 minutes and you’ll understand. If you want to find out about the world…watch a combination of sources. If you want to know what the Republicans are doing about healthcare…it’s all online.

Secondly…vote. I truly believe that if everyone in American understood the Republican stance on any issue, they would turn away from them. Well…almost all. There are white Nationalists that understand Trump completely and he is their man.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

Immigration – The Racist Dog Whistle

Posted on October 19, 2018 by admin

This just in: Trump and the Republican Party are hanging their hats on the immigration issue. This is really saying, “We are the party of white people.”

Let’s unpack this a little bit to see why I might say this…

I was watching Republican Rick Santorum on CNN this morning. He actually said, “Democrats are campaigning for open borders.”

When it was pointed out to him that no Democrat has ever said that, Santorum responded with, “They are saying that everyone has an opportunity to come to the United States.” He is falsely claiming that this is the same as saying, “The doors are wide open and you can come right in.”

What Democrats are saying (and everyone should also be saying) is that you have an “opportunity.” This means everyone is welcome to apply. Everyone is welcome to knock at the door and seek a life in the United States. Everyone has the opportunity to come. It does not say all will make it through the door.

Santorum also said, “Immigrants are taking all of our low paying jobs.” The term “all” is the problem here.

Our country has more jobs that people to fill them. There are plenty of “low paying jobs” if someone wants one. I know this because I work in manufacturing all over the country and every site has the same complaint: “We can’t expand our operations because there are not enough people to fill the jobs.”

So….Both of his points, (1) Democrats want open borders and (2) They are taking our jobs, are false. However, if you want to keep Non-Whites out of your neighbor, then you will find the anger you need to support this nonsense.

But let’s continue…

Barely a day goes by when I don’t see a headline where a Republican official is found to be a member of a white Supremacist group. This does not mean that if you are a Republican, you must be racist. What it seems to say is that if you are racist, it is very likely you will respond to Republican Racist messaging; messaging like “Mexicans are taking your jobs.”

Immigrants commit crimes at a higher rate than White Male Americans…right? Wrong. You will certainly find that some immigrants commit crimes, but data shows that they do it at a far lower rate than American Citizens.

Immigrants come to our country to get free food and healthcare…right? I suppose you could argue this because they are looking for a better life. Many come here to escape rampant crime or extreme poverty. However, when they get here…they go to work. They pay taxes. They buy stuff. They build stuff. They contribute to our economy.

So, the racist says “They are taking our jobs and just come here for free stuff.”

These same racists vote for people like Trump who, according to the state of New York, didn’t pay about $400,000,000 in taxes that he owed.

So, immigration issue is about race. It’s not about jobs. It’s not about the money. It’s about non-white people and the need to hate them.

If you are a Republican and vote Republican, you are supporting this type of belief.

Up, up and away…

Jim

The insanity of Trump’s economics

Posted on July 3, 2018 by admin

This just in: It has been said that economics is a “soft science” because the outcomes of certain actions are not always predictable. In fact, there is an entire field of economics known as Behavioral Economics, that tries to find out why this is so. This diversity of outcomes from a repeated experiment is why we find several economic opinions that all differ with regards to nearly any given topic.

But there are some things we can count on, either by observation or irrefutable logic. On these types of issues, the economic world is in nearly unison with their recommendations.

One such issue is Trump’s fantasy world of economics. Nationally and abroad, the absurdity of Trump’s actions are astounding anyone that is paying attention.

Let’s look at a broad view of what I mean.

I will lay this out in steps, trying to put order to something that is nearly random.

Trump wants to deport millions of illegal aliens. These are people that have raised families here. They pay taxes. They commit crimes at a much lower rate than others. And, this is important, they are filling many of the jobs that most of us would not take due to the low pay. Trump’s policy of deporting these people is, in large part, justified by “They are taking away jobs that belong to U.S. citizens.” Somehow, Trump is saying that for every field hand we deport, a high paying job is Silicon Valley opens up.
Trump, and the Republican Congress passed a tax bill that takes from the nation as a whole, and gives to the vastly rich. There are two ideas behind this: (1) Rich people will hire us to mow their lawn if they have more money. This is known as Trickle-Down economics and is the most widely disproven economic theory there is. And (2) Corporations will use their tax breaks to raise wages. This makes the assumption that corporations are benevolent. Instead, companies exist to make a profit. If they already have employees that come to work for $x per hour, why would they pay more? In fact, they didn’t. Instead, they are in the process of buying back company stock which has the effect of enriching shareholders, not workers.
Trump cut subsidies for Green Energy, one of the fastest growing industries in the world today. Many of the jobs in this industry are good paying. Instead, Trump is investing in coal and other fossil fuels; an industry that is rapidly shrinking.
Trump dropped out of the Trans Pacific Partnership and is now threatening to drop out of the World Trade Organization. There is no clear reason for doing this but the outcomes are certain. These are the exact steps one would take if they wanted to reduce the amount of goods we sell overseas. Confusingly, Trump complains about the Trade Deficit all the time. He thinks its a bad thing (it’s not) and then he does the exact opposite of what it would take to increase exports.
Trump is putting tariffs on everyone that pisses him off. As president, he can levy a tariff as high as 25% if it is deemed necessary for national security. So, suddenly, Canadian cheese imports are a threat. The result of this is two-fold. First, is causes our trading partners to levy counter-tariffs against us. These counter-tariffs raise the price of our goods overseas. Harley Davidson is a good example of this. Tariffs placed on their product means they will sell fewer of these overseas…unless….they move the factories and jobs overseas…which is exactly what Harley Davidson is doing. Secondly, we now pay more for good that are imported. If we put a tax on imported steel, then everything that uses imported steel will cost us more. Already we are seeing spikes in goods like automobiles.

In summary, Trump touts jobs and then does everything he can to eliminate them. He claims he is putting more money into the hands of the middle class and yet, they small amount we all get from the tax cut is quickly eaten up by the higher prices we are paying for anything imported.

And here is the kicker. Europe, China and the rest of the world want to make this stop. they actually want to know what it will take to make Trump stop this Globally Destructive behavior.

The thing is, even Trump doesn’t know what he wants. The conversation goes like this…

Trump: Here are some tariffs on the rest of the world.

The World: What can we do to make you change your mind?

Trump: I have no idea.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

A Return to Facebook

Posted on July 1, 2018 by admin

This just in: I left Facebook on May 1st and took the next 2 months off. I seemed to have survived just fine.

My plan was to come back and start all over. I would “friend” very few people; mostly those of a like mind. Instead, Facebook hooked me up with everyone that I left behind. This is a bit of a problem since one of the reasons I left was that I got tired of reading one Russian produced meme after another. A surprising number of people I grew up with will believe just about anything. In many cases…it’s the Dunning-Kruger effect on steroids.

I intend to be blocked and to block in abundance.

I’m still not into conspiracy theories.

I still think “Thoughts and Prayers” have zero impact on gun control.

I still believe that science is a real thing.

And I’m certain that Donald Trump is a corrupt con man.

So, not much has changed in the last 2 months.

So…what’s on my mind today? I know that may not be important to you but it’s why I blog in the first place…to put it down on paper so my head won’t explode.

On Netflix, the SciFi show “The Expanse” has to be one of the best things out there. I read where the SciFi channel had to drop it because, even though it was popular, the production costs were just too high. In steps Jeff Bezos (Amazon owner). He is a big fan of the series and is now footing the bill for season 4.

Pork Bellies are good with anything.

Radiatore pasta is the best pasta to eat when covered with chili and cheese.

On the Trump is an idiot page….(yes, I still do this)

Two weeks ago he met with Kim-Jong-Haircut of North Korea and announced that he’d solved the nuclear crisis. Last week he said North Korea has already sent home the remains of 200 MIA from the Korean War. Now, it looks like North Korea is actually accelerating its nuclear program AND….no, it turns out North Korea has not returned any remains.

Trump has managed to take the immigration issue and make it worse. I won’t go into all the details because it has be blanketed by the news already.

Trump’s genius economic mind, the one that caused him to declare bankruptcy over and over again until Russian banks bailed him out, came up with the idea of tariffs. For no apparent reason, he has started a trade war that will raise costs and cost jobs…around the fucking world!

For no reason at all…

Trump’s economic advisor went on television and bragged about how well the new tax plan is working. It’s causing record economic growth and shrinking the deficit. When the entire world pointed out that this was false, he changed his story to “Well, we think it will happen in the future.”

Meanwhile…common wisdom says that when a new president takes over, the economy still belongs to the previous president for one year. The reason for this is that economies don’t change overnight. So, the stock market continued to grow and unemployment continued to drop during Trump’s first year. This should rightfully be put on Obama’s record. However, after 1 year, starting in 2018, the stock market has had its worst year since 2010. Economists around the world are starting to talk about the recession that will come. They blame 2 things for this: (1) The Republican Tax cuts for the rich and (2) Trump’s trade war.

Watch this bit on Trump by Jon Stewart.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim