Wednesday, December 16

Made In America Is A JOKE...

According to AmericanManufacturing.Org,  70-80% of all products sold by WALMART come from CHINA, leaving only 25% or so to be supplied by AMERICANS...

WHY IS THAT?

Americans DEMAND lower prices and they don't really care where those items come from as long as they are cheap...  Unfortunately, the more WALMART sell items to Americans, the more it actually BENEFITS THE CHINESE...

It's nothing personal...  just business...

According to MGTRADING.Com, about 21% of all imported goods into America comes from CHINA....  that represents ONE FIFTH of all imports...  closer to ONE FOURTH than ever before and that number keeps increasing.

DID YOU KNOW THIS???
China Ocean Shipping Company, Limited, formerly China Ocean Shipping (Group) Corporation, commonly known for its abbreviated name COSCO Group, or simply, COSCO, is a former Chinese Government owned shipping and logistics services supplier company. ... In 2012, it was among China's top 15 brands.

* * * * * * * * * * 

According to Wikipedia,
A Made in USA mark is a country of origin label that indicates the product is "all or virtually all" made in the United States. The label is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

In general, goods imported into the United States must have a country of origin label unless excepted, but goods manufactured in the United States can be sold with no origin label unless explicitly required. U.S.-made goods that must bear an origin label include automobiles, textiles, wool, and fur products. Any voluntary claims about the amount of U.S. content in other products must comply with the FTC's Made in USA policy.

A Made in USA claim can be expressed (for example, "American-made") or implied. In identifying implied claims, the Commission focuses on the overall impression of the advertising, label, or promotional material. Depending on the context, U.S. symbols or geographic references (for example, U.S. flags, outlines of U.S. maps, or references to U.S. locations of headquarters or factories) may convey a claim of U.S. origin either by themselves or in conjunction with other phrases or images

I Can Understand...

One of the most popular phrases that AMERICANS use (and why I don't understand) is "I UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE GOING THROUGH..."  And personally, I find this incredibly INSULTING because NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE exactly what the other person is going through or experiencing.

I remember going to a high school reunion and these reunions happened about every 5 years or so and I had missed several due to a divorce, relocation to another State, and dealing with the side effects of cancer.  My of my friends with whom I traveled through Europe after graduation, criticized me horribly for not attending and using cancer as an excuse because he had prostate cancer, surgery, and treatment and managed to attend.

That bothered me for a long time until I went to a Urologist who informed me that for many years Urologists have been able to easily control and contain prostate cancer minimizing the side effects of surgery and treatments.

Now, I think about this SO-CALLED friend of mine and I see him for exactly who he is and who he is not and rather than telling him to stick his head up his ass, I simply prefer to no longer refer to him as my friend....   along with all those others so called friends of mine who agreed with him that night and treated me accordingly.

And while no one knows exactly what the other person is feeling or what his/her body might be experiencing, I do know what it is like to FEEL AND EXPERIENCE DEPRESSION and how that feeling permeates throughout the entirety of one's body no matter how hard mentally one tries to control it.

I also know what it is like to have depression come and go but never leave and just as soon as one starts to feel better, one never knows for sure how long that will last...  sometimes, the cycles are short, sometimes long...  but they are always there...  and, they seem to be managed a little better the older one becomes because the outcomes, especially being retired, no longer matter.

Living In The USA Without Worry

The Decade Ending in 2020...

I was worried about:

  1. the democrats gaining power
  2. the USA becoming socialistic
  3. the wealthier becoming wealthier
  4. the blacks getting special treatment 
  5. the white man made to feel guilty about slavery
  6. increases in taxes for everyone
  7. increases in our national debt
  8. the stock market not growing favorably
  9. rap music lyrics about killing whitey
  10. the defunding of police to appease blacks
  11. the increasing decline of our high school education
  12. the increasing watering down of our college education
  13. the rapid increase in immigration
  14. the steady increase in healthcare
  15. the tracking of our personal information
  16. the censorship of the conservative voice
  17. the control of public thought by the media
  18. the decline of our democracy
  19. the end of our democratic republic
  20. the rewriting of our US Constitution
  21. the removal of our Bill of Rights
  22. the decline of our religious beliefs
  23. the growth of artificial intelligence
  24. the reduction of our military
  25. the global economy shifting towards China
  26. the growth of China:  militarily & economically
  27. the increase in global terrorism
  28. the increase in global poverty and hunger
  29. the increasing side effects of global warming
  30. the USA becoming a third world country
  31. the increase of illegal drugs the USA
  32. the increase of American drug addicts
  33. inflation preventing economic growth
  34. robotics taking away American jobs
  35. loss of the First and Second Amendments
  36. Artificial Intelligence learning on its own to evolve
  37. the increase in American Crime
  38. Americans no longer interested in STEM education
  39. Iran and North Korea becoming nuclear powers
  40. not being able to end systemic racism
  41. Medicare for ALL payments increasing our national debt
  42. free college education payments increasing our national debt
  43. medical resources not available in a timely manner for the elderly
  44. accepting the fact that the sick and elderly just need to die
  45. technology giants controlling our global future
  46. abandoning our desire for space exploration
  47. allowing greed to destroy our pursuits of happiness
  48. giving up our liberties to a political few
  49. believing that the ends justify the means
  50. the US dollar no longer the international currency of trade
  51. the decline of democratic capitalism
  52. the growth of global communism
  53. the growth of Islam & the decline of Christianity
  54. turning our backs on disable veterans
  55. continuing to fight unnecessary wars in foreign countries
  56. unable to stop the ideology of terrorism
  57. the increase of global hatred towards Americans
  58. unable to stop a race war in America
  59. the USA unable to pay off its national debts
  60. getting paid in credits instead of currency


Tuesday, December 15

EDUCATION in the USA

Elementary School prepares us for Junior High School...  and, Junior High School prepares us for High School...  and, High School prepares us for College... but, does very little to prepare those graduates who are not going to College...

Why is our educational system designed this way?

An Undergraduate Degree prepares you for a Masters Degree...   and, a Masters Degree prepares you for a PhD...   even when the college graduate has no desire to pursue anymore education...

Why is our High Education System designed this way?

CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG... but the USA also needs:
  • carpenters
  • electricians
  • brick layers
  • construction workers
  • farmers/laborers
  • mechanics
  • hair dressers/barbers
  • waiters/waitresses
  • cooks/bus boys
  • taxi drivers
  • mail deliverers
  • secretaries/clerks
  • cafeteria workers
  • roofers & gutters
  • auto assemblers
  • house painters
  • retail workers
  • fast food workers
  • street cleaners
  • road repair crews
  • luxury pool builders
  • airline personnel
  • motel/resort workers
  • baggage handlers
  • steel workers
  • carpet makers
  • furniture makers
  • call center operators
  • stockers & shippers
  • lawn care workers
  • limo drivers
  • maintenance workers
  • machine operators
  • welders
  • truck/bus drivers
  • military personnel
  • blue collar workers of all sorts, shapes, and sizes
AND YET...  all we seem to care about is COLLEGE...  COLLEGE...  COLLEGE...   and it would appear to me that OUR LEADERS are OUR LEADERS because we perceive them as SMART not as being STUPID....

BUT WHEN...  I look at what we have done and what we have created here in the United States of America, I see a FRIGGING MESS of STUPIDITY on display instead of the brilliance of our intellectual capacities...

SMART PEOPLE DON'T JUST THINK ONE WAY...  and yet, our education roads are all ONE WAY HIGHWAYS...

Who Are We As A People

I look around the rest of the world and I see the:
  • British
  • Scots
  • Irish
  • Germans
  • Italians
  • Spanish
  • Russians
  • Egyptians
  • Arabs
  • Chinese
  • Japanese, etc., etc., etc.
I look around at those living in the USA and I see:
  • Blacks or People of Color or African Americans
  • Native Americans
  • Caucasians or Non-Hispanic Whites
  • Hispanics & Latinos
  • Asians
AND...  if I am not mistaken, there are...
people of color in ever country for the most part...
there are white people living in other countries...
there are Asians and others...

BUT... only in America do we classify the races...
In AMERICA, I see a country that is tearing itself apart with ideologies and hatred and the guest for MONEY, POWER, and CONTROL has left us fighting each other instead of becoming unified...

AND...  if we are really serious, then the term Americans pertains to all residents of the AMERICAS which includes:
  • Canada
  • United States of America
  • Central America
  • South America
AND...  while we are fighting each other to maintain the sanctity of our individual races, the following areas are suffering:
  1. EDUCATION
  2. HEALTHCARE
  3. FREEDOMS
  4. POVERTY
  5. DISABLED VETERANS
WHAT CONCERNS ME MOST OF ALL IS...
we talk and talk about more and more people having free college education but we do not talk at all about the QUALITY of that EDUCATION...  and, it really does not matter how many people have college degrees if they learned very little when competing with the rest of the world whose countries took their education seriously and improved the QUALITY...

We can offer healthcare to more and more people to show everyone how great we are, but if the efficacy and quality are not there from the getgo then all we have done is mislead the general public, giving them something they don't need or that does not help...

SIMPLY GIVING MORE COLLEGE EDUCATION AND MORE HEALTHCARE TO MORE AND MORE PEOPLE...  DOES NOT MAKE US SMART...  IT ACTUALLY MAKES US RATHER STUPID...  ONCE WE ARE COMPARED TO THE REST OF THE WORLD WITH WHOM WE MUST COMPETE...

Our Voices Are Never Heard

To make the claim that I am white trash would be giving me a complement even though my parents wanted a better life for me...  as they raised me middle class with middle class values and integrity but I threw that all away as soon as I was old enough to leave home and make it on my own.  I spent some time in college and in the military and fulfilled all my obligations both to my country and to myself and spent enough time in Churches to know all the main sermons and lectures and while I cannot hold a tune, I did my best at being polite while everyone else was singing.

I paid my taxes every year like a good citizen and voted in elections until I realized that our vote and beliefs made no difference to career politicians...  as they were going to let the country go where it wanted to go until someone bitched about the treatment...  and, the first to bitch were the African Americans who used slavery as a race card...  pointing out quite vividly that racism is systemic in America...  and, when something is systemic it is damn near impossible to remove even once the government makes it illegal to be a racists.

  • Racism just does not live in the bellies of white folks.
  • Racism lives in the minds of the blacks as well.
  • Racism lives in the pocketbooks of the wealthy.
  • Racism lives in the hearts and souls of the poor.
  • Racism is not just cultural it is socio-economic
BUT...  to white trash like myself...  what does it matter anymore?

OUR CREATOR MADE US ALL SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT SOME WOULD BE BETTER THAN OTHERS...  it is in their DNA...

AND...  it really does not matter how I was born or into what class in like...  what matters is how I ended up and what class I am in now and will forever be until I die.

  • I am not wealthy
  • I am not athletic
  • I am not gifted and talented
  • I don't have a photographic memory
  • I am not a talented actor
  • I am not a talented musician
  • I am not a good public speaker
  • I am not a good listener
  • I have nothing of value to offer anyone
God made thousands perhaps millions of us like this all over the world...  we are the ones that follow others because we do not have the instincts to lead ourselves.  We have no special skills...   and, little desire to make ourselves better...  we simply exist and pay our bills and try to enjoy the limited life we have been given.
  • We are invisible to politicians
  • We are invisible to the courts
  • We are invisible to the legislative
  • We are white and cannot use slavery as our crutch
  • We pay our bills on time and live simply
  • We live in houses that have the same square footage as mobile homes
  • We don't protest in the streets, riot, or loot
  • We keep our heads down and do as we are told
  • We are never thanked or appreciated
  • We are never rewarded for our behavior
  • We die alone and without fanfare
  • NO ONE MISSES US AFTERWARDS...  it is like we were never here...

Monday, December 14

Jeepers... Creepers... Get A Load of those Peepers


 

Ready For Breakfast?


 

Just Passing...


 

Saluting All Drunk Americans


 

Visitors


 

Who Rules?


 

All Enemies


 

The Agony of Sophia

In 2017, social robot Sophia was given citizenship of Saudi Arabia – the first robot to be given legal personhood anywhere in the world. Bestowed with this great gift, Sophia has embarked on a distinguished career in marketing.
  SOURCE: WIRED, author:  Emily Reynolds...  the article continues with the notion that Sophia is destined to have a worthless life in Marketing because as robot, she has no sentient rights...  obviously, her creator is fighting for those rights and the rights of all future robots so that they will no longer be treated as a product or a commodity.

The creator of Sophia believes that we could have sentient robots as soon as 2030...  only 10 years away...  which is not long at all in the world of technology...  in 2000, we believed that this MIGHT HAPPEN in 2050 but we were not really sure...  and now, 20 years later, we are making life altering predictions to take place in 10 years, one half that time.

This happened only 3 years ago, and 1 year after Donald Trump was elected President and very few people in the world knew about it...  or, if the press knew they decided not to write about it...  and yet, it will soon be reality when we start mass producing robots and they gradually start to take our jobs...  actually your job, since I am retired...  sorry...  I think that I would rather lose my job to a male robot rather than a female one...  but, I am not sure as of yet, how to tell the difference.




Sunday, December 13

More Sunday Cartoons

 











Morning Coffee Routine Forever and Ever Amen


Sundays...  are special days...  religious days for some...  relaxing days for others...  while some see Sundays as just the ending to a nice long or short week...  and, the last day before we have to being all over again...

Being retired and no longer in the so called "rat race," I see Sundays as a day of reflection whether it be spiritual or not because it seems like I am always involved in some sort of spiritual reflection every day of the week.

Just like when I was working, all my days started with coffee, but my coffee was either consumed in haste because I needed to go or consumed while driving to work in a car...  as where I worked all my life, I never needed to use public transportation.

But...  my days typically started differently than most...  because I would get dressed and drive to McDonalds at 5:00 am and drink several cups of coffee slowly as I wrote in my journals.  I was there about an hour or so maybe 90 minutes, then I would return home, shower and get dressed for work...

Being retired, I no longer need to get up that early and drive to McDonalds but I do drink several cups of coffee while continuing to write in my journals.

However, my coffee is no longer regular but decaf and instead of drinking it straight, I put in two spoons of sugar free Cappuccino Mix even though once it is mixed up, it never tastes like the "real thing."





 

Did Our Past Really Happen?

I watched a NETFLIX movie series yesterday about American Crime and one of the characters made the following statement:  "I just sitting alone in a room with all my failures."  This phrase touches a lot of people at every level of our socio-economic profiles because at some point-in-time, we have all been left with failures of which they either motivate or destroy the beholder of these truths.  But, there is a bigger picture...  there is always a bigger picture...

As Americans and members of mankind and the human race, all we have in the future is our memories of the our past...  and, we keep those memories housed in the memory bank of our mind...  somewhere inside that head of ours or we keep them in a container of photographs and video clips....  of which again, very few of us ever go back to take a looksee...  unless we are sharing with others or are lonely.

NO ONE EVER ASKS THE QUESTION:  Did those memories actually happen?  Sometimes, when we look back into our forgotten world of photographs, we see images of us, they look like us, but we don't remember doing this or that...  Has our subconscious blocked it out or is it possible that it never happened.

Once our past is GONE it is gone...  it never reappears to confirm what we just experienced, felt, or endured and yet we are more or less certain that it did, in fact, happen, just the way we remembered....  but, what about a year later, or five years later, or a decade, or half a century...  is our past really accurate, are our recollections of our past accurate either?

When I wake up in the morning in bed, after sleeping all night, I immediate conclude that this is exactly what I just did...  SLEEP...  but, I cannot prove it in a court of law because it is gone and the actual past of the person sleeping with me is gone as well...  never to be proven other than assuming it was sleep we just experienced after getting out of bed, but we do not know for sure...  since that past is GONE FOREVER...

I can look at the clock on the wall or on the computer and see that I have been sitting in this chair and typing on this computer for 20 minutes or more...  but, how can I prove that this is what I was really doing 10 minutes ago, since my past is GONE...  I am assuming...  I am extrapolating...  but within some level of comprehension, I can NEVER BE SURE of the PAST because the PAST is GONE.

Komic Korner Kartoons










 

Saturday, December 12

Less Than Two Weeks Away and...

It is Saturday once again in the Valley of East TN, and yesterday I finished all my fall activities outside when I cut back (some might say severely) my Japanese Maple back to 1/4 to 1/3 its pre-cutting size but only after it had shed all its leaves.  It took me a couple of hours as I tried very carefully not to get poked by any cut branches as I am on Xarelto and bleed like a gutted hog.

The temps are in the 60's for the rest of this week even though the days start out below the 40's and for me it is difficult to venture outside when it is cold nowadays...  I like warmer weather but not with a high humidity.

As I was sitting on my front porch watching the cars go by which in my location is really not many (but it gives me something to do), I finally realized since I have not been watching much television these days and thereby inundated with commercials that we are less than two weeks away from Christmas.

And...  this got me to thinking a tad...  when Thanksgiving rolled around about a month ago, even though my health is poor but better than some that I had a whole hell of a lot for which to be thankful, the least of which was the fact that I was still above ground.

But...  Christmas is a different kind of holiday and instead of being thankful when become mindful of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ...   however, Christian beliefs are no longer shared by MOST AMERICANS and yet we still hypocritically celebrate the holiday by giving gifts and going on vacations...   and, if we are not really Christians and not really celebrating our beliefs, then WHY THE HELL ARE WE EXCHANGING GIFTS?

So...  let me see if I can understand this...   we don't believe in Jesus and even though this is his birthday celebration, we are giving gifts anyway...

Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists must really think that we are STUPID...  STUPID...  STUPID...

AND...  the sad part about all of this is the fact that the NON CHRISTIANS exchanging gifts because of a religious birth do not think they are being hypocritical because they do not attend church services on Christmas Eve nor do they offer prayers before eating their meals....  and these damn non Christians will go heavily in debt buying gifts to exchange for a religious holiday about which they do not believe.

Know It All