ANOTHER SCHOOL SHOOTING

My wife and I made the conscious decision not to have children so I have never had anything relating to that point of reference in my life. We're both still very good with that decision despite all the snipes we've received over the years from people who seem to feel that if you don't breed and commit your life to raising offspring then somehow your life has no real meaning. But one thing I do know is that parents should not have to worry about their children being killed in a mass shooting when they send them off to school and kids shouldn't have to even have the possibility of that happening in their minds. There is a serious sociological disease in this country that needs to be addressed. I'm not a psychologist or a sociologist and I have no capitol letters after my name but unfortunately it seems that the powers that be have no inclination to listen to those that do anyway. Unless those capitol letters happen to be NRA. I am a simple writer and philosopher and observer of the human condition and right now all I can say is that the overall condition of the United States is way too violent and just pretty damn sad.

CONNECTING THE DOTS

Just in case you haven't been paying attention and connecting the dots let me provide some information.  The office of trumps' lawyer, Michael Cohen, which was raided yesterday is located in the global headquarters of a law firm called,"Squire Patton Boggs." Why do I mention that you may ask?? Oh.....because Squire Patton Boggs is advising/representing Cambridge Analytica in Britain's own investigation into the harvesting of data from Facebook and its potential role in manipulating voters in the Brexit vote that took them out of the European Union. They are even trying to sue Britain's newspaper, "The Gardian," for defamation because they reported on this. Also just to provide more information, The man behind Cambridge Analytica is a guy named Robert Mercer. He's a mega-donor to the republican party in this country and he obviously meddles in political affairs around the world. I suspected that the whole conservative Brexit thing was somehow related to the conservative brainwashing going on in this country and now as the dots are being connected that is being confirmed to me. So pay attention!!! trump's personal lawyer is connected to the law firm that is representing Cambridge Analytica. Folks this is no witch hunt!!! This is a battle for our freedom and the future of democracy.  You better damn well believe that!!!

Bruce Myers
04/10/2018

ON THE DEPORTION DACA MEMBERS

There are over 800,000 of the so called, "Dreamers," in the United States. DACA members have to pay $500 every two years to the government to stay in the program. That's $400 million in fees to our government, not including the taxes they pay.  Also, in order to be eligible for the program all applicants must:

* Provide criminal record history.
* Have paid taxes for the past 3+ years.
* Must prove that they have been providers to their communities.
* Prove that they are or have been in school and/or working.
* Prove that they have never asked for welfare or government         assistance as these are almost immediate disqualifiers.

They also all go through an extensive criminal record/background check and these are just a few of the mandatory requirements to complete a DACA application. There are more. And every two years the applicants have to repeat the process. Every two years they go through it all again. These people have to be more clean and scandal free than donald trump or jeff sessions could ever prove themselves to be.

Summary? The ignorant, trump administration is not talking about deporting people who are costing the country anything. In fact the monetary numbers being thrown around for what the deportations and lost productivity will cost us are pretty staggering!! Reportedly in the billions!!! Nor is he deporting the criminals, drug dealers and rapists he mentioned in his campaign speeches. No, he is planning to deport the best and brightest. People who are here through no fault or action of their own since they were brought here by their parents when they were children. People who have been intensely investigated and vetted and proven to be good and productive people. All this administration is doing in my eyes is proving themselves to be the ignorant, white, racist curmudgeons that I have considered them to be all along. It's trump and his cronies taking the country back. Back to the 1950's. Back to the days of white power!!
 

Just my 2 cents . . . For whatever it's worth . . .

09-06-2017

POLITICIANS LOVE RELIGION

Religion is the "faith" division of governments. A way of controlling the masses . . . Controlling the peons. That's all it is and all it has ever been!!!  Bruce Myers 11/18/2017

SHOULD MUSICIANS CARRY GUNS?

So in going along with the logic of the white house regarding teachers, since we've also had mass shootings at concerts and night clubs with live music should us musicians be walking around packing heat? Should I be strapping on my Glock when I'm up on stage? Make sure I toss it into my bag when I'm off to do a gig? huh? huh?

That was said tongue in cheek of course but is a metaphor for the absolute absurdity of the white house response. And seriously, who wants to live in a country where everyone is walking around with guns? What kind of place has this country devolved into? Nobody has any respect for anyone! People shoot each other because they got bumped into or cut off on the highway! People kill scores of others because things aren't going perfectly in their life or they dislike people of another color or they want a morbid slice of fame. What the hell happened?? This is strictly an american issue!! These things aren't happening in other developed nations. All I know is this is a poor excuse for a country that calls itself the leader of the free world!! It seems to me that this is the country they warned me about!!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

We don't yet know whether there was any collusion between trump and Russia but we do now know that Russia definitely tampered with and influenced the outcome of our election. Just knowing that is a huge! If I were one of the people who found out that I had voted the way I did based on false information being fed to me by a long time enemy of my country I would be angry. It amazes me, (well not really,) that trump supporters don't feel slighted in the least and continue to support him. A foreign power that has been a long time adversary and enemy of our country manipulated them. A foreign enemy fed them false information and they bought into it hook line and sinker. They believed the fake bad information about Clinton and they believed the fake good information about trump. They were completely used by a foreign government to achieve a goal. And the question is, why did Russia have that goal? I haven't figured out yet whether the goal was more to keep Clinton out or more because they really wanted trump in but the bottom line is that everyone who voted for trump did so based on false information. And every one of those people should now be angry and they should be asking themselves why it was so important to Russia to make sure Clinton didn't win. Why was it so important to Russia to have trump in the whitehouse over Clinton? Hmmmm? Just some food for thought..........

ARE CONSERVATIVES MENTALLY ILL?

Why is it that almost every time there's a mass shooting they discover that the shooter had ties to conservative groups? There always seems to be ties to alt right, neo-nazi, anti government militias, anti abortion, white supremacy and don't tread on me, tea party, trump supporting type groups. It's never someone who is associated with organizations like Greenpeace or The Sea Shepherds. It's never someone who is anti war and feels that war should always be a last resort. It's never someone who is for a woman's right to have an abortion. It's never an advocate for clean air and water. It's never an advocate for equality, education, marijuana legalization, sensible gun laws, gay and LGBT rights and accepting science over faith based beliefs. It's never a progressive liberal like me!!! No, it always seems to be someone who identifies as a conservative and who is a proponent of conservative values. So if these mass shootings are nothing more than mental illness as President Bonespur says and the gun laws as they exist today are not contributing to the problem, then the only thing I can conclude, based on the evidence that I have outlined, is that conservatism is a form of mental illness.

My Thoughts On The Opioid Addiction Epidemic And The Bigger Picture

Afghanistan produces 90% of the opium that goes into the world’s heroin.  The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and in effect now has control of all of that opium.  Since the time of the U.S. invasion opioid abuse and addiction has increased over six fold in this country.  During that same period of time approximately 10% of the American prison system has been privatized by for-profit corporations and that percentage is growing.  In 2016, the American share of the pharmaceutical industry was valued at around 446 billion dollars.  They prescribe the opioid based pain killers, create the addiction and then cut the patient off forcing them to get their fix illegally.  They are then forced to buy pharmaceuticals on the black market to feed the addiction that was started by the rich and powerful pharmaceutical industry!!  Ultimately they end up on heroin, (heroin that was produced with the opium that is now U.S. controlled through the use of the military in 2001.) Then if they don’t overdose because of the inconsistency of product they are eventually arrested and, because they can’t afford proper legal representation, they are thrown into the prison system.  The same prison system that is being privatized and that will be more profitable by having more people incarcerated.   

Are you beginning to see the big picture now?  The industrial military complex, big pharma, privatized for-profit prisons??  Connect the dots!!  Follow the money!!  You’re being controlled and manipulated by an elite mafia-like organization that you call the government!!  They brainwash you with patriotism and religion while keeping you down.  They create bogus issues, (kneeling disrespects the flag,) to maintain a division amongst us and also create boogie men, (immigrants,) to maintain unity and loyalty.  It’s all a farce!!  It’s all a scam!!!  It’s all a means of keeping them rich and making them richer!!  They control over 90% of the world’s wealth and they are not sharing any of it with you!!   I have no answers but I can at least see the reality of the situation.  I am awake!!  Are you?

MY SLANT ON THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL RACE

I have always been a political junkie.  I grew up during a time of change and unrest in this country and I was paying attention even at a young age.  The civil rights movement was happening and Martin Luther King, (as well as many others,) gave his life for the cause.  Our involvement in the unnecessary Vietnam War was escalating and the young, (non-rich,) people who were being drafted were protesting.  Many innocent people gave their lives there as well.  Nixon started the war on drugs to “put the niggers and hippies in jail,” and then had to resign his presidency in disgrace because of Watergate.  I was paying attention then and I am still paying attention now. I'm a life-long observer of the crazy world of American politics and I find this election cycle particularly fascinating.

This election differs from any in my lifetime and I believe any in the history of the country.  First of all the Republican Party has been forced to nominate a candidate that even they do not like so watching their convention was entertaining as hell.  It wasn’t business as usual.  It wasn’t a matter of "saying what they want to hear" this time because the party itself is so divided.  The inner circle of the Republican Party doesn’t even like their own candidate!!  He's not saying what they want to hear.  He's saying what scared, under-educated, bigoted, racist white men want to hear.

The Democrats on the other hand were pushed further left than ever by the Bernie Sanders camp.  I myself was a Bernie Sanders supporter and felt that he was the only one running who would move this country in a better direction.  He was saying things that I have believed throughout my entire life.  Unfortunately he did not get the nomination and his supporters are not happy campers after getting proof that the DNC secretly supported Hilary and possibly rigged the primary election.  Business as usual in the, “Good Ol’ Boy," established political parties I guess.  So the attempt to unify the party at the convention is interesting.  As an aside, I’ll bet the RNC now wish that they had had that kind of control over their primary process. I’m sure they would have but they just did not suspect in a million years that Donald Trump had a chance of winning the nomination.  Well surprise, surprise!!

In addition to all of that, this election cycle provides a glass ceiling being broken with the first woman in our history being officially nominated by a party as the presidential candidate. This follows another unprecedented glass ceiling being broken by the election of the country's first African American president.  An election which basically brought about the formation of the not so subtly racist, "Tea Party." Their infiltration into the Republican Party in the Congress and Senate forced our first African American president to have to deal with the most obstructive, do-nothing Congress and Senate in the history of the nation. They admitted that they would not cooperate with him under any circumstances.  They admitted, just after he was elected, that their goal was to make him a one term president.  For eight years they did everything they could do to obstruct his efforts and smear his image and despite that President Obama took the high road, maintained his focus and accomplished many good things.  I can only imagine what would have been accomplished under his presidency had we had a functioning Congress and Senate.

The great irony in this election cycle is that that same Tea Party infiltration was the beginning of the end for the Republican Party.  Their infiltration, which was largely funded by the NRA, The Christian Right, The Fossil Fuel Industry, Koch Brothers, etc and the subsequent non-function government that followed opened the door for Donald Trump!! They created Donald Trump!!  They hate him but they created him!!!  By catering to the NRA and the religious right and demonizing our first African American president to all of the blue collar, under-educated, racist, stupid white men out there through Fox News and hate talk radio they created the candidate Donald Trump.  Frankenstein lives and the people who created him hate him!!!  It's just completely fascinating!!!!

I have watched every night of both conventions and look forward to the debates.  I’m sure they will be very entertaining to say the least.  I have particularly enjoyed watching the Democratic Convention, not so much because I obviously lean toward the left ideologically but because of the overall political climate and the historical glass ceilings mentioned previously.  Last night's main speeches were by the potential incoming vice president and the President and Vice President and it was definitely worth watching.  Not to mention Lou Panetta, who has served under both Republican and Democrat administrations giving him a unique perspective on things and what he had to say was worth listening to.

Both President Obama and Vice President Biden gave great speeches.  I love Joe Biden too and would have voted for him as president had he chosen to run.  The talking heads are saying that they think it was Obama's best speech ever, which would be saying alot.  I'm not sure I agree with that but watching him speak as an outgoing president that I deeply admire and hearing the way he endorsed Hilary Clinton was great.  It was a moment in history that I did not want to miss.

I am a registered independent.  I changed my affiliation to Democrat during the primary just so I could vote for Bernie Sanders and have now changed it back to unaffiliated.  I will always vote for the candidate I feel is best for the country but at this point in time I could never vote for what passes as a Republican these days let alone vote for Donald Trump.  I’m all for having a candidate that is not a career politician but Donald Trump isn’t it.  Do I want an unstable, highly erratic, egotistical, bigoted, science denying, isolationist who grew up wealthy as the president of the United States?  I think not!!!  So in November my vote will go to Hilary Clinton.  She may not have been my first choice but she is now the best choice.  Once in office I only hope that she immediately nominates Barack Obama to fill the Supreme Court vacancy.  I don't know if he would accept after just coming off of eight years as president but it would certainly be fun watching the minds of Republicans being blown!!!

Bruce Myers
07/28/2016

THEY HANG THEMSELVES EVERY TIME

So I was out and about with my wife Saturday night and we stopped into a local bar for a beer where we ended up striking up a conversation with another couple who was around our age. They seemed like a white collar couple. She had just gotten off of work and obviously worked in the medical field and he didn't seem inarticulate. Not long into the conversation they started dropping all the stereotypical catch phrases that made them out to be obvious conservatives. I won't go into everything we discussed but I would like to point one or two things out to show just how incredibly stupid these people are. At some point they asked me if I like Obama and I said that I certainly do and that I feel that he brought this country back from the abyss that was created by GW Bush. I then stated job creation numbers and other economic statistics along with my favorite line to use on these types of people, "the facts don't lie." Which prompted his wife to say in a very sarcastic manner, "I guess that's why my husband has been unemployed for two years." Now I have no idea what this guy did for a living or what his particular skills are and I didn't care to ask. I also had no idea how ambitious or creative the man is as far as seeking employment. Here's what I was able to deduce though . . . It was at about this time that he spoke up and said, "where do you get your news and facts from?" I then explained to him that I pretty much watch all of the news channels as well as read a lot of online news and that when I hear or read something I then go to some reliable fact checking website to verify. To that he replied, "you cant get news on the internet and you can't fact check on the internet. Everything on the internet is a lie. I don't even use the internet. I never go on there." I disagreed with him of course and pointed out to him that even newspapers and magazines are now online but that's neither here nor there. Here's the thing that his little argument exposed to me. He is getting all of his information from TV and I'll bet it all comes from one channel called Fox and, he isn't using the internet in his search for a job. Here his wife is, blaming Obama because her husband has been out of work for two years and the guy doesn't even use the internet. They were just so adamant in their hatred for Obama and all things liberal that it made me sick and yet there they were also demonstrating just how out of touch and uninformed they really are. If you give any conservative enough time and let them talk long enough they will hang themselves. They will expose their ignorance. It's a sure bet every time!!

FIRST DEMOCRATIC DEBATE FOR 2016 BID

The first Democratic debate for the 2016 presidential bid is in the books and it was a very good debate! At least for the main three candidates it was.  I'm not so sure we'll see Jim Webb or Lincoln Chafee in the next one *LOL* But the debate itself was on point and full of substance and information.  For the most part they expressed similar goals and direction for the country and although they each had slightly different ways to achieve those goals they expressed those differences in a civil way. There was no childish name calling or condescending remarks. And most importantly there was no pandering to special interests groups or religious organizations or false patriotism. After seeing the first two republican debates and now the first democratic debate I would be inclined to say that it is truly befuddling to me how anyone could vote for any of the candidates on the republican ticket in 2016.  As for me, I'M WITH BERNIE!!!!!

THE PATRIOTIZATION OF ISOLATION

It amazes me what an isolationist mentality the average American citizen has.  When I look at other countries around the world, many of them much more poor than America, I see citizens that can speak at least two languages fluently and often three or four by the time they are young adults.  Yet in America very few people are multi-lingual.  We even have politicians who voice the opinion that everyone in the country should speak only English and that anyone who does not speak English should be shunned and treated as somehow inferior.  This mindset is even cheered by many citizens and the whole concept is deemed to be patriotic.  Many of these same people want to build a wall to keep people out.  Well, from where I sit a wall seems more like a way of keeping people in than a way of keeping people out.  To me it seems a symbolic way of keeping people trapped and uninformed about the rest of the world.  A way of keeping everyone isolated while telling them that we are the best at everything.  Don’t these same people remember the Berlin Wall?  Wasn’t the, (so called,) evil communist empire of China also partially surrounded by a wall?  Surely they have seen the wall that keeps the people of North Korea separate from their brothers and sisters in South Korea and the rest of the world.  Can these American citizens not connect the dots?  This is a beautiful planet that we live on folks and I embrace other cultures and people from all parts of the world.  I wish I spoke every language so that I could communicate and learn from everyone.  This isolationist mentality is just a form of control to keep the worker bees in line.  It's a distraction from the more important issues that gives the peons something to rally around. Well I, for one, can see through the propaganda.  I can see through the wall of cluelessness built to control the masses.  Associating patriotism with isolation equals ignorance and ignorance is nothing to be proud of.  To me there is nothing worse than blind patriotism.  Give me something to be proud of and I will be the loudest voice in the crowd.   Try to keep me uninformed and isolated and I will be equally as vocal for I can not remain quiet in the face of attempted manipulation and brainwashing.

I’ll end this with a quote from Mr. Samuel Clemens, AKA Mark Twain:  “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”