Monthly Archives: June 2021

Truth Hurts

24 Thursday Jun 2021

Posted by in Israel

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            Israel was portraying itself as the victim before it became a country. In fact, they kicked out the peoples who had lived there for over a millennia. Their claim involves a twisted and fictitious history wrapped in religion.

            According to Israeli archeologists Pharaoh Ramses II had an ongoing spat with the Hittites in today’s Turkey. Ramses II wanted to expand south so he needed to protect his flank. He paid a terrible bloodthirsty tribe to relocate to the area between the Red Sea – the same Tidal swamp Moses would cross generations later – and the Mediterranean. They stayed there until their leadership became concerned the people were losing their warrior culture. They had become doctors, lawyers, teachers, merchants and other professionals. They had become embedded in Egypt’s economy and culture. After getting away they split up into groups to produce and train as many warriors as they could. One soldier went with each group to train the kids.

            While protecting the Pharaoh and becoming “Egyptians” they worshipped the Pharaoh and the other gods. It was long after they crossed the Reed Sea, but before they came off the Golan Heights, when they started to adopt their current religion.

            When they came off the Heights they slaughtered the people and their animals, leaving nothing alive. After those, they expanded by more killing or threatening surrounding tribes.

            The above historical facts were in documentaries by Israeli Archeologists sponsored by their government. The small far right religious party in Israel is the power broker deciding who might be Prime Minister. Netanyahu has allowed them to build on Palestinian lands and kick families out of their homes. The latter is the cause for this war. The far right has built on land Israel designated as Palestinian. Our constitution prohibits the taking of land without due process. Netanyahu allowed it just to stay in power. No wonder the Jewish communities are split over policy.

Research and Common Sense Needed

24 Thursday Jun 2021

Posted by in Research

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            The Chicago Tribune ran another article about jet noise. (It reminds me of a real estate deal with a small manufacturing company that repackaged gases to make aerosol propellants.) Because of the possibility of a fire or an explosion, the company was built miles from subdivisions. However, developers kept building houses until people lived across the road and plans were to cross the road surrounding them with houses.

            Just like with the airport, people complained about the possibility of fires and explosion. If they were that concerned, why buy the house in the first place? O’Hare airport has been a jet port as long as the airlines had them and today’s jets are quieter than the 707’s and 747’s of the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

            People buy houses in the floodplain and complain about having to pay for flood insurance until their home floods. Then they complain about government not doing something. It did! It told you not to live there! People are moving to drought stricken areas of the West and Southwest and wanting precious water for grass, trees, and pools.

            What happened to “look before you leap?” How about a little research and common sense? Planes are noisy and deserts are arid, DUH!

They Don’t Understand

21 Monday Jun 2021

Posted by in American Indians, Indians

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            What is the end of the attempt to obliterate all references to our country’s Indian past? I can’t ask Sarah, my Great Great Great Step-Grandmother who was a Cherokee how she feels about all this commotion concerning Indian names. Incidentally, of all the plains and Southwest Indians I have asked what they felt as their preferred designation, only one Sioux didn’t like Indian. He liked the term “First American”.

            All said they were proud to be remembered of their past instead of being forgotten. If we eliminate all references to them it will be like being forgotten. Being the name of a sports team relates to their history of competing with other tribes.

            How far are the extreme minority activists going to push their complaints? Illinois and several other states are named after tribes along with numerous cities and towns. Is their next objective to get all those places to change their names?

            Most of the people who are looking to change the names have no Indian blood in their veins they just want to help on the train or maybe they just need to complain about something. These people will move on to something else in a while. Maybe it will be the Confederacy, race, gender or something else. It will probably be something they get off the internet and will never fully understand.

GOP Morass

21 Monday Jun 2021

Posted by in Republican Party

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            I watched a documentary on how the GOP got to be in the morass it has found itself. I am old enough to remember it started with Barry Goldwater. Before, and for some time afterwards, both parties worked together to make the necessary laws and to investigate when necessary.

            Here is where the GOP went off the tracks and put America into the divisive situation we have today. Goldwater was an Arizona Senator who helped to make reading the Constitution a requirement by any brown skinned person. He gave credence to the “Jim Crow” laws used in the South by racists. Lincoln may have been the first Republican President but the party spawned the Ku Klux Klan and kept racism going. When Lyndon B. Johnson signed the XXIV amendment and other voting laws the racist Democrats went to the GOP swinging the South to Republican.

            The Republican governed states are once again scared black and brown people might flip their states so they are passing laws designed to keep them from voting. The state’s officials claim it is to prevent voter fraud but they certified after the election there was no fraud and Trump lost.

            The Republican Party has become a racist party in fact, and no longer is trying to hide it. Their choice is to keep blacks and browns – oddly not Asians – from voting or leave their racist radical supporters. We know which they have chosen.

True History of Freedom

21 Monday Jun 2021

Posted by in History

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            I realize the media often has to be brief in their talk about a news item but in the case of the Emancipation Proclamation they should get it right.

            When President Lincoln signed the document, he had to bribe the legislators with jobs, infrastructure, and that it did not include the Border States that were not part of the Confederacy. As the Union forces moved into the Confederate states, slaves left their homes and tried to follow the Union troops who didn’t always have supplies for them. An unknown number were killed when they couldn’t keep up or were caught stealing food from white landowners.

            The document took effect January 1, 1863. The last large body of Rebel troops surrendered on May 26, 1865. After the war was over the Union troops were moved around the former Confederate states to impose martial law. Shortly after the troops moved into Southern Texas, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger signed an order to free the slaves.

            However, the slaves in all of the United States weren’t freed until the XIII amendment was signed on December 12, 1865 by President Andrew Johnson.

            Wouldn’t it be nice if people got their facts straight? Slaves were not legally freed until the XIII amendment freed them.

I’m a Deficit Hawk

18 Friday Jun 2021

Posted by in Deficits, Economy

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            I remember Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich worked together to put the economy on track, raise taxes, and reduce the National Debt to the point of disrupting the world’s banking system. They paid of all the 30 year bonds, most of the 20 year, and were making a dent in the 10 year. National banks around the world pleaded to go no further because they use the bonds as a reserve.

            Some years ago I read a study about individual and corporate income tax rates. The study shows a rate up to 60% had little to do with a person’s spending and life style. Lower taxes increases management income through salary, stock options, and golden parachutes. It had little effect on operations at a rate below 40%. Those are effective rates and not one with thousands of deductions and loopholes. Bezos paid no Federal Tax and Buffet pays less than my wife and I.

            Before the Trump tax cuts, multi-billionaire Warren Buffet said his effective tax rate was less than his secretary’s. He and many other billionaire’s have said tax rates are unfair.

            President Biden has proposed a budget fixing the country’s problems but with a half-way increase in taxes. We need those fixes to help us catch up with the rest of he other advanced countries. We need the international 15% minimum corporate tax passed.

            As a deficit hawk I had much rather see taxes on the super rich and wealthy corporation go up than increasing deficit and debt. We need the fix more than we need the rich to keep benefiting from lower effective rates than 99% of us. It’s wrong when they pay several percent less than me.

Gun Control Solution

18 Friday Jun 2021

Posted by in Gun Control

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            We have several times more guns than we have citizens. We have states that have strict laws next to states with lax laws. Illinois has strict laws but Indiana’s is a reservoir of guns that are sold there and brought across the border for sale at a profit to people who can’t legally buy one.

            The Federal Government needs to make laws which will create a uniform set of laws for all states. First should be to eliminate all assault weapons and any devices which would make them into rapid fire or fully automatic ones. Second, eliminate all gun sales not made through a licensed gun dealer or a single sale through the local police department. Third, no sale until buyer is approved by a computer check. Fourth, ownership of a gun implies the owner has responsibility for its use. Guns must be stored in gun safes with trigger locks to make accidental shootings far less likely.

            Fifth, all guns shall be fired at the factory so the ballistic markings can be catalogued for comparison. Sixth, and one which will be the most protested is all guns must be registered along with a bullet fired from it by police. Liability for the gun is only transferred to new owner when done through proscribed legal means. Seventh, a mandatory minimum for any violation of above to be one year in prison with costs paid by violator. Eighth, committing a crime with a gun is a mandatory additional five years over the sentence for the crime.

            Most of these points are supported by a vast majority of the American gun owners and the rest by over 80%. So why is Congress scared of the NRA and why is the NRA fighting ideas their membership wants?

Three Cents More

17 Thursday Jun 2021

Posted by in Post Office

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            I remember when the three cent stamps were used to mail letters. Now the post office wants to raise the stamp price by three cents. We use ten to fifteen stamps each month to pay bills, so it is less than a half dollar more a month. It’s far safer than companies and organizations being able to take money out of my checking account, or some hacker getting my account numbers.

          Why does those three cents come to mind? My mailing address is probably sold by all the organizations we support; the utility companies, credit card companies, plus Jewel’s and Ace’s loyalty cards. So we get lots of mail and at least 90% is tossed without being opened. Most of the envelopes don’t have the cost of mailing to my trash can or recycle bin but in the last mail, two were for 3 cents!

            Those two organizations and thousands, maybe tens of thousands of others, could pay twice as much and the cost of a stamp could be reduced. If they stopped sending out over and over and over, think how many trees would be saved and smaller garbage dumps containing plastic over my address!

            If the post office wants to get out of the red, start by charging bulk mail a higher price. If they stopped sending so much then maybe my bills and magazines might come on time instead of a week late.

The Gray Line

13 Sunday Jun 2021

Posted by in Bribery

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            I would love to know what constitutes bribery for our elected officials. If a private citizen told a Senator that a substantial contribution would go to their campaign chest if they voted a certain way, is that bribery? If a company or group paid a Senator to talk on a particular topic knowing how the sponsors wanted the Senator to vote, is that bribery? What if a Senator or even a President reached into their campaign chests for a contribution to another Senator’s chest for a vote or toeing the line, is that bribery? Is it bribery when an elected official changes historic position and votes differently in lame duck sessions before getting a paid position in a company or organization benefiting from the vote?

            What constitutes bribery? An Illinois Representative that I had been supporting decided to run for a congressional seat and wanted my continued support. When I asked for the truth as to why, the answer was more money. The answer was very prophetic.

            A recent example was widely known. If a foreign person or group or even American Company wanted a meeting in the White House with the President, they were more likely to get one if the return call was Trump’s Hotel. The cost of those suites skyrocketed after he was elected and have gone back to normal in January. Is paying for that meeting bribery?

            Is the line so gray that there is no line? It used to be a narrow line. At what point or dollar figure has a person sold their votes and themselves?

GOPs New Values

13 Sunday Jun 2021

Posted by in Conspiracies, Republican Party

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            Donald Trump says he wants the GOP to follow his values. Let’s do an honest assessment of his values. He has married three women solely because of their being eye candy for his image. He commits adultery and brags about unwanted fondling of women. Many of his close friends have been or are being investigated for despicable acts with teenagers.

            The GOP used to have law and order as one of their party’s pillars. To follow Trump’s values they must change to say tax evasion, perjury, fraud, cyber bullying, vote fraud, and other crimes are acceptable.

            Politicians change their values as often as they change their underwear. Trump wanted to be involved with the Democratic Party but they found him to be “too greasy” for NYC politics! To get in good with them, he donated $100,000 to Planned Parenthood. When he wanted to try to be in the GOP, he became an opponent of Planned Parenthood. Swindling investors and contractors is one of his core values. According to some people connected to “The Apprentice”, he is racist and only allowed non-white people to compete because of network insistence.

            Does the GOP adopt his only true value that has never changed? His only value is to do whatever he has to do to build his massive ego even larger. He doesn’t care about anyone else. He said he has trained his kids to carry out his legacy. Does the GOP want to make his values theirs?