Summer Time Blues

As I prepare to roll the oldometer over another year, I feel compelled to share some observations and realizations that have sprung from looking intently at the current conditions confronting us. Some of what follows will be unpopular, non-linear, and ill-defined; normally I would apologize for that but not today. Between watching the political and cultural turmoil being 'reported', embracing all the unanticipated 'feels' of becoming a grandfather, and working, the summer as slipped by in the wink of an eye.  The concepts of 'truth' and 'integrity' have been so divorced from their actual meanings that it is willful foolishness to believe or accept anything put forth by our entertainment media complex as representative of what is actually happening in our world. So mount up and hang on as this old man goes Don Quixote on the wind turbines of today.

The Republic is Listing......on Craig's List

With little more than the brain's found in Oz's Scarecrow, one can see that our country's governance has become a mockery of the system envisioned by our founders. The culmination of this year's election will see our country rewarded with either a documented unindicted felon or a blusterous business mogul with the subtlety of PT Barnum. The Clinton crime family, darlings of a fawning media, have taken their place in history as the Bonnie and Clyde of politics, grifting, groveling, and gouging their way to wealth with a hubris and lack of shame that is exceeded only by their greed. The Donald is an enigma in wingtips and a bad attempt to hang onto hair; a fastidious dresser whose mouth often outpaces his ability to contemplate what he is saying. Unlike the career pols who spend years learning to obfuscate and vacillate to avoid actually saying anything substantive, Trump eclipsed the Republican field by daring to say the obvious; America has been sold out by her elected officials while enriching themselves and the donor class.

Corporate Media and the Company Line 

There were 50 media companies in 1983 that generated 90% of the content America consumes; in 2012 that number had shrank to 6 companies. Small wonder that network and cable 'news' reporting today is indistinguishable from SNL's Weekend Update, a Pravda parody that could not be funnier if  delivered by Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, or Harvey Corman. What passes for journalism today is a contrived and scripted spin cycle of indoctrination; information that is parsed and filtered to deflect uncomfortable truths and refocus attention on the inconsequential and superfluous. Undoubtedly the anchors and hosts of America's 'news' programs feel themselves to be the class of the media industry when in reality they are little better than TMZ or Entertainment Tonight, glibly ignoring obvious relevant events and tirelessly hammering the values and beliefs of an audience largely unable to discern the fade.The science of factually communicating an event objectively has been subverted by the need to 'shape' the perception of reality so that the bottom line is always up. How else to explain the longevity of cable news shows whose Nielsen numbers look like attendance figures for AA baseball or the WNBA? 

Cancer Inc. and the War on Drugs

This is admittedly a difficult subject because the specter of cancer visits indiscriminately and is a persistent and  fearsome adversary. My intent is not to impugn the researchers and doctors who have given their lives to stopping the carnage but there are questions about the math. The National Cancer Institute projects that annual spending on cancer treatment could be $158 billion(2010 dollars) by 2020; their budget for research this year is $5.21 billion. Those numbers have been rendered meaningless because our government dwarfs those figures with trillion dollar deficits and national debt. We have number fatigue because the figures are so far removed from our daily reality. Patent No. 6630507, held by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, covers the use of cannabinoids for treating a wide range of diseases. You can verify for yourself with the Google machine, but here is the link: http://www.leafscience.com/2014/07/25/u-s-government-patent-marijuana/. So while continuing the ludicrous claim that a plant has no medicinal value, the Fed has the only patent for cannabinoids which in their patent is described as "antioxidants and neuroprotectants". Hundreds of studies conclude that cannabis derivatives are effective in treating seizures, cancer treatment symptoms, and many types of cancer. Just another conspiracy theory we should reject because 'science' is in the pocket of our corporate controlled government. When did we sign off on Government owning exclusively a plant that grows on all the habitable soil on the planet?

Bureau of Land Management 

Because our news media is a defacto propaganda wing of the federal government, even informed and inquiring citizens have difficulty finding out the truth of events which have transpired this year when landowners have encountered the heavy hand of this agency. It is scary to realize that ranchers have been arrested and jailed and the presiding judge has sealed all information regarding their alleged crimes; scarier still is that more people have a knowledge and opinion on Tom Brady and the 'deflategate' incident than know or care about the abuses of power that occurred at the Malheur wildlife refuge in Oregon. Even less media coverage has been focused on the peaceful protest that turned violent in North Dakota this week when 'security' personnel set upon native American men, women, and children with dogs and pepper spray. To his credit, the Obama administration intervened today to halt the project until the concerns of the the protestors could be heard.  

Black Lives Matter: A+B+C2x6 = despair

There are those who would say I am 'privileged' and therefore disqualified from weighing in on this subject; my response to them is "I am privileged". Given the number of people who have ever lived on this planet, given my freedom, health, family, and ability to work, I am living a life of incredible wealth and comfort. I would be aristocracy in any previous century. That does not disqualify me from being able to reason, think, understand causality and effect. I was privileged to have both parents in a home that functioned with traditional values of respect, compassion, and personal responsibility; I cannot be the man I am without that influence growing up. I had parents who taught me that all people are deserving of respect and kindness, even if they don't behave in a way that you would recognize or approve.

A. Equating statistically insignificant fatal encounters with law enforcement as systemic racism circa 1950's Alabama is intellectually dishonest. It is a tragedy when any person has their life cut short through circumstances that could have been avoided, but it happens and will continue to happen. As individuals with free will, we get up daily and embark on a series of decisions and our education, character, and motives come to bear on each and every choice we make. Law enforcement officers are paid miserably inadequate salaries to deal with the fringe elements of our society; drunks, drug addicts, criminals. They risk never returning home every-time they dress for work. If you understand how that environment and stress could effect a person's judgement, then you will probably want any interaction with that person to be very calm, very low key, very respectful. Are there bad cops? Absolutely. The less interaction you have with police, the less likely you are to meet them.

B. If we were objective and honest on the issue of race in America we could step back and reasonably agree that there is a racist system negatively impacting black people for going on 70 years; it hides behind the illusion of compassion and its name is progressive liberalism. But we can't agree on that because 'cause and effect', 'actions and consequences' are never applied to the programs or results of the left. The driving motivation of the left is having as many citizen's dependent upon government as possible, that is why the meddling and social engineering is endless; it's simple job security. Because the true history of our Republic is largely irrelevant to most, liberals have succeeded in being the advocates of racism, implementing racism, and enforcing racism, all the while pointing at conservative ideas and principals as 'racist'.

C. "A Mind is a terrible thing to waste"....the decay of education standards, objectivity, and critical thinking skills is the legacy of progressive theory in indoctrinating young minds. The most critical indicator of the future of a nation is the educational aptitude of  its children; the NEA, Dept.of Education and the politicization of local school boards as insured that lower standards and ignorance will haunt America for the foreseeable future.

Despair. Hopelessness; Knowing your situation and circumstances are not what they should or could be, not knowing how you arrived where you are, having no clear path to making changes that will correct what is wrong. Living in a country of abundance and potential but reaching adulthood with out the skill sets, self-confidence, and belief that you can take advantage of your birthright as a citizen of America. I couldn't say these things on any 'news' program. These observations will be rejected as ignorant or racist by many and that is all I can say about that......

9/11

The truth of what actually transpired 15 years ago continues to be ignored by most people as 'conspiracy, tin-foil, nut-job' internet blather. I no longer talk to people about it in conversation because cognitive dissonance is unpleasant and we have football, the weather, and other important subjects requiring our attention. It is easier to believe that crazy Arabs accomplished the improbable rather than examining the evidence that points to the abhorrent and inconceivable. I get it. Just some facts to mull over like a popcorn hull lodged in your molar:

1. No steel frame building in modern architecture has succumbed to fire except on 9/11 when 3 buildings suffered that fate.

2. Numerous fire fighters, police, and witnesses reported explosions in the basement levels of the towers....not addressed or explained by the Commission.

3. The day before 9/11, Donald Rumsfield had a press conference and revealed that 3.2 million dollars in transactions were unaccounted for in the Pentagon's budget.

4. Evidence of short trading on airline stocks, insurance, 5-year Treasury notes prior to 9/11 that made unknown parties exorbitant sums of money.

5. WTC purchased by Larry Silverstein months before 9/11; insured for 4.55 billion; how prescient?

6. Military training exercises taking place on eastern seaboard morning of 9/11.......right?

7.The clean-up and removal of debris from the site without proper investigation: steel shipped to China like we were trying help Japan deal with Fukushima..... why the urgency?

8. Jeb Bush's startled reaction to campaign question regarding the Venice flight school, records removal on a C-130 and heroin smuggling.....oh right it's the internet wackjobs swinging wildly!

9. A/E for 9/11 Truth: career professionals calling bullshit on the Corporate Media story!

10. Project for a New American Century: "we need a new Pearl Harbor"  Rebuilding America’s Defenses, 2000.

I think, therefore I am 'deplorable' and proudly consider myself an enemy of the state as presented and reinforced by the corporate media military industrial government complex; give me truth because only the truth can sustain liberty.