Book of Jamez

55 y/o malcontent, something of a writer

Tag: politics

  • We’re Ready for Better Than This

    We’re Ready for Better Than This

    Last night I listened to a political podcast that asked a question we rarely hear asked honestly. What does this country actually need right now? Not another Trump. Not another Obama. Not recycled promises about fixing healthcare or ending corruption. What we need is a candidate, and a movement, focused on real change to a system that no longer works for most people.

    Let’s find candidates and ideas that enact real change.

    Mamdani, mayor elect of New York City, ran on a platform of real change and we’ll see if he can make any of these promises a reality. People voted for him because they want the kind of change he’s talking about. Mamdani ran on some important issues that matter to New Yorkers: affordability, fare free city buses, a $30 minimum wage and more. These are things people want – not just left or right leaning people, but real people struggling or just getting by.

    I don’t want to hear “it’s too soon” or “we’re not ready for that kind of candidate” I think we’re more than ready to move on from what’s broken. I’m tired of name calling and mud slinging campaigns that lead to more of the same.

    Let’s think about what we need for this great country of ours to not just get by, but to become that dream that people always wanted it to be. Let’s list off some things that would make a change.

    1. Term limits on politicians across the spectrum, too much power for too long has let these “leaders” just get fat on the hog. No one politician should be in office for more than one or two terms. Some of these “leaders” have been in office for up to 50 years, that’s too much power and not enough responsibility.
    2. Real government/tax funded healthcare. It’s way past time for the US to join other civilized nations and enact this for our citizens. This is doable, other civilized countries do it. I’d rather pay an extra $38 dollars in taxes for healthcare then the $300 I pay out or my paycheck or pocket. Let’s make it happen.
    3. Let’s be real about the minimum wage. Current federal guidelines are at $7.25 an hour. Honestly this is an insult to people trying to pay rent, buy groceries and live a real life. No one should need to work three jobs just to live a semblance of a life. Corporations can afford it. Small businesses may feel a deeper pinch, but we need this to change. Have our taxes help small businesses overcome.
    4. Close tax loopholes for corporations that are making huge profits from our purchases or service or goods. If they threaten to move or stop selling to us, so be it, this is a land of opportunity, someone will fill that void.
    5. Tax everyone with more money than they need (millionaires, billionaires, trillionaires…) at a higher rate. Let’s get real here, they can afford it. I ran some AI ideas on taxing the richer and it makes sense so this isn’t an unrealistic idea. I’m not saying stop taxing everyone else, just saying tax them a simple, immediate amount.
    6. Quit sending tax dollars to other countries for any reason. These monies weren’t meant for them, taxes are to pay for government programs that actually help the people here, not over there.
    7. Invest in our people, infrastructure and technology. Let’s put our tax dollars to work for us. We do not have a technology problem here, we have a process, incentives and accountability problem. Let’s make everyone more accountable for what they and get rid of incentives or relying on government favors and backroom deals. Work on our own country again.
    8. Get rid of the electoral college. This is a big one. Would require a constitutional amendment. We have the technology, we can do a popular vote. Having states that have a lower population carry so many votes seems crazy. Let’s let the people decide and the majority of people at that.
    9. Legalize marijuana and other recreational drugs nationally. It’s time. Regulate them, tax them, stop incarceration of people that just want to have a little buzz. Forgive sentences of those who are filling up our corrupted prisons and let those people get back into the world. I’m clean and sober and think this is wise, I don’t plan to start using drugs again.
    10. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, let’s keep religion and those who practice it out of politics and policy. We need to move on from the faith of the goat herders and ancients and embrace a world of reality. No more laws based on what the Bible tells you, we have grown as a species evolutionarily, in wisdom, in truth. It is perfectly fine to believe, to have faith, in a higher power – it is not okay to base laws and ethics on all others.

    I’m sure there is more. Why wouldn’t there be? We have so much room to improve to grow and overcome our own deficiencies. I want a country I can believe in again, a place people admire that inspires people to be better.

    I know there are those of you that will call my ideas childish or foolish, by all means school me. Tell me where I get it wrong or why the current systems are working. But if you do school me I hope you have some ideas that will enact change and change that matters. No more broken promises from politicians and parties…. let’s do something.

    Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
  • Fear and Fury

    Fear and Fury

    I want to buy a big gun, carry it with me everywhere; frequent Chick Fil A restaurants and white churches in a rainbow shirt with it slung over my shoulder. If I feel the least bit threatened I’ll pull a Kyle Ritenhouse and just shoot people. America!

    I am afraid. I am an unabashed atheist and homo. My country has just re-elected a “man” that is a direct threat to my freedom.

    My country, the so called “land of the free” has opted to have a rapist, racist, homophobic, narcissistic pedophile for a second term. A con man who has a playbook written out to destroy our democracy and enact theocratic policies. A tyrant who is planning to deport several million immigrants that came here looking for the American dream – that which has become a nightmare.

    The Democratic Party and Independent Party (if there is such a party) need to begin now with plans for the future – did you fuckers learn anything yet? have you grown a pair? Do you have any potential candidates that aren’t approaching 80…. It’s time to stand up and fight back like you have never done before. Don’t let this monster push his agenda through. Learn to play dirty… but also start grooming your candidates for the future. If you can’t fight, if you’re too old or too weak to defend your constituents then get the hell out of the way. Don’t run Kamala again, give us new blood, give us the inspiration and hope we had with Obama.

    I’m for a younger generation of leaders, people that still recall the sting of their student loan debt, that remember trying to survive on a minimum wage. Let’s find some common strength in youth and actual values.

    I have friends who didn’t vote, or those that didn’t pick anyone for the Presidential part of their ballot. These people either “didn’t know enough about Kamala” or “didn’t think she would be respected”. Did they not know enough about Trump? Did they not see the way the other countries laughed at us his last term, except for Russia, his friends there. These friends may think I’m over-reacting and panicking. I may be.

    I may not.

    If White Christian Nationalism continues to gain in power it wont be long until they come for me. To silence me, to jail me, to end me. Believe as they believe or suffer the consequences, act as they want you to act and keep your opinions to yourself. You think censorship stops with Jeff Bezos turning off the Washington Post voice? You think their idea of “god” and religion are just going to let you believe the way you want – ha.

    Today on Facebook many of my friends turned their profile photos to black. I have many friends and many of them did so. I did so too. I’m mad. I’m serious about the gun thing, at least about getting one. I want to be able to defend myself when they come for me. I’m mad and folks that didn’t vote. I’m mad.

    The monster that was elected – a felon, a rapist, a racist, a fascist and more. A man who has insulted every sub class of America and threatened violence upon his enemies, firing squads I mean really. “Oh, he didn’t mean that” Sure Jan, sure. A threat to the promise of America an end to a once beautiful democracy.

    I’m sad.

  • America’s Crossroads: From Bush to Trump – A Call to Defend Our Freedoms

    America’s Crossroads: From Bush to Trump – A Call to Defend Our Freedoms

    In recent history I recall being worried about George W Bush getting re-elected as he was pushing a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. It was a terrifying thought to me, that there was that much discrimination and hatred out in our country trying to deny me and mine our basic rights. W never did get far with his idea and maybe it wasn’t as popular as he thought.

    Now our country faces an even greater threat to freedoms. Not just freedoms for homosexuals but freedoms American’s take for granted each day. A threat to the foundation of our country a threat named Donald Trump.

    I don’t say this lightly. We’re speaking of a man who has threatened American institutions such as freedom of the press, and the electoral process. A man who has mocked and laughed at our disabled, our prisoners of war, our leaders. Someone that has made an embarrassment of himself and the country to the world stage. He’s a person that instigated a mob onto the US Capitol and threatened to hang people.

    He’s a rapist, he’s prejudiced, hateful. He’s a conman of the highest degree.

    A friend argues that he “tells it like it is” and that he’s been “railroaded”. That he’s good for America and just wants to make America great. My friend plans to vote for him and nothing I’ve argued has swayed his opinion of the man or gotten him to change his vote.

    Photo by Sachin Bharti on Pexels.com

    I fear for America, there seem to be so many people cheering on this megalomaniac that he has swept the primaries and is slated to run again in a Presidential race. This man does not care about our country, depite what his hats say. This man cares only for himself and those groveling mongrels around him… and those only to a certain degree.

    I’ve come to the conclusion these people that continue to support this evil are one of three things:

    1. Stupid – just plain simple minded idiots
    2. Conned – they have bought into his whole con hook line and sinker, they can’t see a the forest for the trees.
    3. Traitors – these are people who want a dictator in power; who decry the democracy, freedom and forward movement of our country. Who laugh at the idea of hanging our leaders in the Capitol rotunda.

    I have another friend who won’t vote for Trump, but also is not voting for Biden… she’ll cast her vote for an independent, no matter the cost to the election results. I can’t sway her either.

    Despite my fears of George W Bush winning a second term, which he did. My fear for our country, our values and our very existence at this moment is greater than I thought it would be.

    I urge you to vote in the up coming election, to look with open eyes and heart at what’s truly at stake here. Lives of people you love are in danger; hopes and dreams of many about to be lost and the stupid, conned or traitorous will just laugh as it happens.

    I HAD AI RE-WRITE THIS:

    As our nation progresses, some individuals may find that their initiatives do not gain as much traction as initially anticipated. Presently, however, we confront a more profound menace to our liberties—not merely those of the LGBTQ+ community, but the fundamental freedoms that Americans cherish daily. This threat goes by the name of Donald Trump.

    My assertion is not made lightly. We discuss a figure who has actively undermined American institutions, including the freedom of the press and the integrity of the electoral process. His disparagement extends to marginalized groups, including the disabled and prisoners of war, as well as to global leaders, tarnishing both his own reputation and that of our nation on the world stage. Furthermore, he incited an insurrection at the US Capitol, advocating violence and endangering lives.

    Trump’s record reveals him as a sexual predator, a proponent of prejudice, and a purveyor of hatred. His tenure epitomizes the epitome of a con artist.

    Despite these stark realities, some contend that he “speaks his mind” or has been unfairly targeted. They assert his purported benefits for America, unfazed by evidence to the contrary.

    This steadfast support for Trump troubles me deeply. It suggests a populace either misled, wilfully blind, or actively hostile to the principles of democracy and progress.

    In my view, those who continue to champion Trump fall into three categories:

    1. The Misguided: Individuals lacking critical insight, deceived by simplistic rhetoric.
    2. The Ensnared: Those who have fallen victim to Trump’s elaborate deceit, unable to discern truth from manipulation.
    3. The Subversives: Individuals who actively seek authoritarian rule, rejecting the core tenets of democracy and embracing chaos.

    Furthermore, I have encountered acquaintances who, while refusing to support Trump, also refuse to endorse an alternative. This indecision, while ostensibly principled, risks complicity in the erosion of our democratic values.

    Reflecting on past elections, including George W. Bush’s second term, my apprehensions for our nation’s future have only deepened. I implore each of you to exercise your right to vote in the upcoming election. Consider earnestly what hangs in the balance—lives, aspirations, and the very fabric of our society. To disregard these perils is to invite their fruition, and history will judge us harshly for our inaction.

  • Differences

    I don’t know what to do with “friends” that disagree with me on moral issues. It’s a bit of a quandary.

    There is right and wrong and the two are usually pretty easy to tell. There are, I suppose, gray areas as well – things that don’t fit in right or wrong. However, the moral issues I’m talking about are pretty stark.

    For instance, I think it’s wrong to murder people. Now most people I know would agree with that statement I’m thinking.

    But what about abortion, I’ll hear, you support that don’t you? Well yes I do. But I have a different definition of life than some people do I guess and think it’s not my body or my embryo so it’s none of my damn business. Do I think this is a gray area… yeah I guess, but it’s fueled by religion and that taints everything really in my opinion.

    Murder, taking the life of another human being… that’s black and white. It’s wrong to take another life. This isn’t a “well I’m not sure” or a “but what if”. I believe that taking another life is wrong. Even in self defense I think you could wound pretty significantly without ending their life. It’s not up to us to decide who lives and who dies…

    In the case of Kyle Rittenhouse I find that I have many friends who think he did nothing wrong. That it is ok to leave your home, with a gun, travel outside your neighborhood and patrol the streets as a vigilante. He shot three men, killing two of them, but they think he did nothing wrong that he’s “innocent”. I can’t wrap my head around it – I can’t see their point of view. I can’t fathom a world that thinks what he did was ok.

    Article: Kyle Rittenhouse is Evil

    I’m a fan of vigilantes. I read and love comic books and have since I was a kid. Most superheroes have moral codes that keep them from killing, keep them from doing things that are wrong. Maybe that’s where I’m messed up, I relied on comic book heroes for my morals and reverence for life. Batman says “heroes don’t kill”.

    But I do have a very close friend who said “I just don’t know” when I was talking about the Rittenhouse case. I’m hoping that they just aren’t familiar with the case, that there isn’t a gray area in their minds that is letting them think he might have been doing the right thing.

    This can’t be the right thing. Killing people can’t be the right thing.

    I have friends that I strongly disagree with on political nonsense. They swing way right, I swing in the middle. I’m not a fan of either of the big parties, I’m not a fan of career politicians, geriatric nominees, or suppressing the vote. I think both parties lie enough to the citizens of our country that they should be tried for crimes against our nation. It’s awful. Here, vote for the lesser evil.

    And that I guess depends on your definition of evil. Right and wrong again, you know it when you see it.

    I think it’s right to provide food stamps for families in need.. this is because I grew up in a family that was needy and those stamps kept me fed sometimes.

    I believe that religion has too much say in politics and the rights and responsibilities of the human race.

    I think if we’re the land of the free and the home of the brave, we should all have the same rights and responsibilities.

    I’m not a fan of the death penalty. Why should they get off so easily? My grandmother had a bumper sticker that read “some people are so opposed to murder, they’ll kill anyone that commits it”

    I don’t think we belong in any more wars, we’ve done enough damage to the world and it’s time to come home and fix up our own side of the street.

    I believe suppressing votes is happening because a certain party is afraid of the voice of the people.

    I believe the people have lost their voice to distractions from social media to fake news… fake news is all of it, it’s all designed to get you to react and less about informing you of what’s going on.

    I believe Donald Trump incited a riot, and that people in this riot wanted to overthrow the government based on his urgings.

    I worry that I have friends that believe in chem trails and microchips in vaccines.

    I worry that I have friends that think the one doctor they found on YouTube the disagrees with all the experts is the guy to believe.

    What I want is, sigh, I’m not sure what I want. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what I want. What we need is for people to be able to identify good and bad on the same level again…. if we ever did to begin with. We need there to be repercussions when you do something wrong, those repercussions should be equal to the wrong that was done in some way other than death.

    Here’s the thing, I don’t think of myself as a nice guy. But I am. I give rides to people that need rides, I grant my shoulder to those that need one to cry on, I listen when no one else has the time to listen. Am I the one to decide what’s right and what’s wrong? I’m not the best guy for the job. But I believe and was taught that you know. You know down deep what’s right and what’s wrong. You know killing others isn’t right. You know hurting others is wrong. You KNOW these things, without me having to tell you or manipulate you … you just know… I have to believe I’m not the only one who just knows when I’m doing right or when I’m doing wrong.

    But what do you do with these friends that “don’t know” or think bad is good… how do you keep them as friends, how do you not argue with them or worry about the world with them thinking the way they think.

    You can unfriend them on Facebook I suppose, but what about real life, life outside of “Meta” lol

    Do I have to argue with them? no. Do I have to agree with them? no. But can I keep good conscience knowing they have a different definition of right and wrong than I do… it’s like me believing 2 + 2 = 4 and them believing it equals 7. Can I be ok with them thinking it’s what should be four is seven? I don’t think I can.

    I have a friend, Robert, who gives no fucks. You don’t see reality – unfriended. You hate on people/races/gender identity what have you – unfriended. He’s very strict about it and vocal on how he feels and sees the world. I respect him and I know he believes 2 + 2 = 4. I’m not Robert, I still tolerate the ignorant, hateful, arrogantly incorrect… I still allow them to pollute my timeline… Part of it is curiosity, I want to know what crazy shit they’re thinking today.

    But I don’t think it’s good for me. I’m not sure… it’s a gray area for me.

    This was a long rant, I’m not sure I went anywhere with it. Right is right, wrong is wrong… it’s never been hard for me to tell the difference, I don’t know why it is for others.. or why what’s right has become something so wrong.

  • Mumblings

    The sick thing keeps holding on and continues to be sick – I wasn’t actually referring to the President but it applies there too.

    My cough remains (and it drains me, saps all my energy) and the more I talk the less I can talk – it seems. I folded a load of laundry this weekend and had to take a nap after as I was beat. The only thing that has been alleviated since I started the antibiotic is pain. My throat doesn’t hurt any more and that’s a really nice thing – thank you science.

    I’m going to call my doctor this morning and try to see him to see if this is something else or just a virus thing. Hopefully he can get this all sorted out.

    Work folks think it’s a nice change from me talking all the time and my friend Vanessa is happy I’m not singing at my desk all day (I’m never sure if she doesn’t like my singing or just finds it odd that someone sings at the job). (more…)

  • Flag Fury

    It’s no more the rebel flag; than Columbine was about trench coats or rape is about clothes girls are wearing.

    Its about living in a culture where its ok to hate others based on their religion, gender, sexual orientation, race disability or a million little things that people hate other people for. People hate entire other religions and races because they were taught to. People somehow learn in “religions of peace” that it’s ok to discriminate, they condemn other lives because they are different than theirs. Our entire culture creates schisms between things that are one way and things that are another way – it’s painful, it’s hurting us and we’re letting it.

    “Racism isn’t born, folks, it’s taught. I have a two-year-old son. You know what he hates? Naps! End of list.” Dennis Leary

    A friend posted an article on Facebook the other day “15 Things Alcoholics Anonymous Can Teach the Church” and I liked it, but I’m rather anti-religion and pro-AA (even though some courts have ruled AA a religion and I can see that). Number 10 in that article is “Don’t shoot your wounded” and it says “Judgment or the perception of judgment is often felt in churches”.  That’s often what I think of when I think of churches – hate, fear, demonizing.

    In some respects this can be considered a true statement. The KKK considers itself a “Christian” organization and they think they teach “Christian” principles. Al Queda, Isis, The Westboro Baptist Church all think they teach their idea of “God”‘s principles too.

    We teach girls how to keep themselves from being raped when we should be teaching boys how to not be rapists. We have politicians that blame and entire religion for terrorists acts that happen domestically and abroad. We focus on the color and stars of a flag instead of the tragedy and how we can do a better job (NRA has great spin department I think).

    I know many old people that hold prejudices that they’d held for decades. It was taught to them when they were so young and now it’s the only truth they can see. This worries me… but then I remember what I’ve seen in Alcoholics Anonymous – where we teach love – where human beings who once were the most desolate of society rose up and became contributing members of society and sought only to help another man.

    Today we should mourn. We should reflect back on the lives lost and the good they had done. We should look to the future and see what we can build now, learning from this. We need to teach a message of tolerance, love, hope to the country.. the whole world.

    Start with me. Start by being open minded to things different that I am. Start by reaching out and sharing my experiences with others, letting them know I’m not so different than they are and we have a common bond.  Start by being a better human being… start by loving, giving, helping.

    But don’t focus on a flag – sure it’s in poor taste, but it didn’t pull a trigger, it didn’t share hate… it just is. It has power when you give it power…

  • Run Out of Hate

    My first thoughts when I heard about what happened in Boston yesterday was “this is religious based”. I wasn’t thinking Muslim at all I was thinking US “Christian” that feeling in the back of my head wont go away. It’s a sad state to think organizations that should be teaching love and peace are the first to pop into my mind when I see acts of terror and hate – or maybe not so surprising. I saw on the net all kinds of people jumping to conclusions and all kinds of other people telling people not to jump to conclusions. So I’m not going to start pointing fingers at a million hate spewing, discriminatory assholes in US churches, but I really want to.

    My next thought jumped to the OK City Bombing and Timothy McVeigh and the rampant amount of gun nuts that need machine guns to hunt deer and wild pheasant. Some of those people call upon Jesus’s name and have bumper stickers that say “Guns, God and Guts” or some crap – like their god is perfectly all right with the continued killing of innocent children, mothers, fathers, daughters, brothers and friends.

    But the phrase that keeps coming back into my head is from AA:

    “If we were to live, we had to be free of anger. The grouch and the sudden rage were not for us. Anger is the dubious luxury of normal men, but for us alcoholics it is poison.” – As Bill See’s It, Page 5

    That applies to me as a sick individual that shouldn’t hate anymore and when I do I have measures/tools to take care of it. But it should apply to our country now too. We are a country that is filled with hate, fear and intolerance of others. We are a country that reacts violently, forcefully and dangerously.

    I think we’ve had our fair share of hate and violence and oppression and need to give it up. Maybe it’s time we found a different way, a better way. Perhaps so many people in other countries that hate us would look more kindly if we were in fact kinder and less concerned with oil and the size of our tanks. Maybe we could again be the land of the free and the home of the brave by helping other people to become better people and finding ways to make the planet safer for even the lowliest members we have.

    Something has to change and someone needs to lead the way. All this hate and fear are dangerous to us as individuals and even more so as a country … a nation… a world.

    We have to be free of anger – or it kills us.