2021:  MY MAIN CONCERNS

Divided America

Public Education

Immigration

Taxes

Domestic Terrorism

Conservative censorship

One party governance

Socialism

Racism

Wealthy getting wealthier

Scarce medical resources

Increase in drugs

What is not on the list is the fact that career politicians lie to the american public and have been lying to the american public for at least 60 years...  I grew up in the 1960's and the problems that we had back then are the same problems that we continue to have today and the politicians have always promised us that they are going to take care of it for us...  and, nothing has changed...  to me that is a lie...

the other issue that bothers me is the fact that one party puts actions into place and when the other party gets control they overturn all those policies of the other party.  this is one of the reasons why nothing ever gets done...

this is what politics does for us...

they care more about the party and their re-elections than they do about doing what is right for the american public.

americans pay the price.

Plants: Succulents

 

Honest Politicians

We deserve honestly from our politicians, especially from the President of the United States...  I am not talking about past Presidents, because we all know that President Kennedy lied, President Johnson lied, President Clinton lied, President Nixon lied, and many Presidents withheld information from the public which in essence is a lie as well, but it not referred to as a lie...  just not telling the truth.

TODAY...

we have a President...  President Biden who says that the previous administration did not create the COVID Vaccine that his administration did...   not only is that a lie but President elect Biden received the COVID vaccine before his inauguration.  And, the irony about the lie is that he expects the mainstream media to push that narrative on his behalf.

President Biden says that his policies did not create in increase in illegal immigration but that the policies of the previous administration created this crisis at the border.  THAT IS A LIE AS WELL especially since the previous administration had closed the border and was building a wall.

President Biden said on the campaign trail that he would UNITE THE PARTIES but so far every bill that has passed through the Congress has had NO REPUBLICAN APPROVALS so nothing is actually being done to unite the two parties...  and, if the filibuster is eliminated, then the minority party will have NO VOICE AT ALL in the Senate as the Democrats will not any of their votes to pass legislation.

President Biden has been in office less than 100 days and has told THREE LIES to the American Public that mainstream media is not covering...

No Police

 Protect and Serve...

is the slogan that I see on the Police Cruisers that patrol our city streets and interstate highways but it bothers me tremendously when I see law enforcement hiding around corners or in the dips of roads so that drivers of vehicles cannot easily see them unless someone warns them in advance or unless they have been on that road before and actually seen them hiding...

It seems like law enforce is trying to CATCH and APPREHEND more than they are concerned with protecting and serving.

And, what is really interesting is the fact that on Monday through Friday on one of the main road connecting my city to Knoxville that has a posted speed limit of 55 mph...  in the early morning rush hour traffic from let's say 6:00 to 8:00 am, most of the traffic drives in excess of 80 mph and nowhere do you see law enforcement...  so, in essence they are saying that they do not need to protect and serve these workers...

The same kind of logic holds true on the interstate when there is a group of cars exceeding the posted speed limits...  these cars are left alone...  and law enforcement sees no reason there either to protect and serve.  However, if there is a lone car exceeding the posted speed limits then these law enforcement people will bend over backwards to make sure that they protect and serve.

This contradiction is WRONG and not only should be stopped but law enforcement MUST BE REMOVED and told to get another job.  Most drivers of vehicles know their vehicles and know how fast they are driving...  and if, they want to kill themselves and others...  that is their business and the business of lawyers who get to file law suits on behalf of the victims.

I agree with the BLM movement that police departments have abused their power and that they should be defunded, reduced in size, or in some cases eliminated.  People can learn to protect themselves and their own property.  This is one of the reasons that we have street gangs in most of our large cities...  to collect protection money from the local residents and consequently provide protection from inside and outside the neighborhood.  This process seems to be working well.

Take Care of Me

 I WANT OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO TAKE CARE OF ME...

I want FREE healthcare

I want FREE housing

I want an increase in Social Security

I want FREE education

I want a guaranteed income

I want the wealthy Americans to share their wealth

I want the police to be defunded

I want the black people to always be given the advantage

I want an end to white privilege

I want only black law enforcement personnel

I want the conservative voice to be permanently censored

I want our government to control all businesses

I want businesses to be forced to employ workers

I want our military to be substantially reduced

I want an end to petroleum crude oil and natural gas

I want an end to gasoline cars

I want an end to interstate speed limits

I want illegal drugs to be legalized and taxed like alcohol\

I want white pregnancies to be aborted

I want it to be illegal for black females to have an abortion

A Question of Ethics

(CNN Business)In September, Timnit Gebru, then co-leader of the ethical AI team at Google, sent a private message on Twitter to Emily Bender, a computational linguistics professor at the University of Washington.

"Hi Emily, I'm wondering if you've written something regarding ethical considerations of large language models or something you could recommend from others?" she asked, referring to a buzzy kind of artificial intelligence software trained on text from an enormous number of webpages.

Google reshuffles AI team leadership after researcher's controversial departure
The question may sound unassuming but it touched on something central to the future of Google's foundational product: search. This kind of AI has become increasingly capable and popular in the last couple years, driven largely by language models from Google and research lab OpenAI. Such AI can generate text, mimicking everything from news articles and recipes to poetry, and it has quickly become key to Google Search, which the company said responds to trillions of queries each year. In late 2019, the company started relying on such AI to help answer one in 10 English-language queries from US users; nearly a year later, the company said it was handling nearly all English queries and is also being used to answer queries in dozens of other languages.

"Sorry, I haven't!" Bender quickly replied to Gebru, according to messages viewed by CNN Business. But Bender, who at the time mostly knew Gebru from her presence on Twitter, was intrigued by the question. Within minutes she fired back several ideas about the ethical implications of such state-of-the-art AI models, including the "Carbon cost of creating the damn things" and "AI hype/people claiming it's understanding when it isn't," and cited some relevant academic papers.

Gebru, a prominent Black woman in AI — a field that's largely White and male — is known for her research into bias and inequality in AI. It's a relatively new area of study that explores how the technology, which is made by humans, soaks up our biases. The research scientist is also cofounder of Black in AI, a group focused on getting more Black people into the field. She responded to Bender that she was trying to get Google to consider the ethical implications of large language models.

Bender suggested co-authoring an academic paper looking at these AI models and related ethical pitfalls. Within two days, Bender sent Gebru an outline for a paper. A month later, the women had written that paper (helped by other coauthors, including Gebru's co-team leader at Google, Margaret Mitchell) and submitted it to the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, or FAccT. 

The paper's title was "On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big?" and it included a tiny parrot emoji after the question mark. (The phrase "stochastic parrots" refers to the idea that these enormous AI models are pulling together words without truly understanding what they mean, similar to how a parrot learns to repeat things it hears.)          READ MORE

 We don't care if government is layered with bureaucracy 

and incredibly inefficient...

• We demand bigger and bigger government
• We demand higher and higher taxes on the wealthy
• We demand an end to corporate greed and profits
• We demand higher wages and lower costs
• We demand increased employment for the unqualified
• We demand higher quality products
• We demand an end to built-in obsolescence
• We demand an end to CEO bonuses
• We demand an end to employee at will laws
• We demand a 4 day work week
• We demand 4 week paid vacations
• We demand 2 weeks paid sick leave
• We demand no weekend work
• We demand more minority hiring
• We demand more minority in management
• We demand an end to time cards
• We demand 50% of base pay for retirees
• We demand that all products be made in USA
• We demand that all out-of-pocket medical expenses be paid by the employers
• We demand that labor hires management
• We demand that employees be give stock options at reduced prices

Our Federal Government should CONTROL IT ALL...  The Democrats and the LIBERALS know what's best for AMERICANS...  They like to spend money and I for one like to receive money...  let the wealthy pay for it.

Socialism NOW....

CAPITALISM is an economic and political system in which the country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit rather than by the government...

It is because of capitalism the the United States has so many millionaires and billionaires because they only motivation for these people is increasing their profits.  In order to increase one's profits, one must have a labor force that can be manipulated an financially abused so that the owners can increase their profits.  These profits usually go into the pockets of the owners or back into the company to expand BUT NEVER is shared with the workforce that were responsible for creating those profits.

THIS IS WHY CAPITALISM SHOULD BE REPLACED BY SOCIALISM...

Government should own the trade and industry so that the profits can be highly taxed, used for expansion, or equally divided among the workers.  However, in lieu of sharing profits with the workers, governments can use the tax to provide free services like:

• free education
• free healthcare
• free housing
• free food
• free clothing
• free transportation
• free entertainment
• free recreation

It is TOTALLY UNFAIR that some people are born with extraordinary athletic skills and can therefore used those skills to make more money than those people who are not born with those skills...   UNFAIR...  UNFAIR...  UNFAIR...

Wealthy Whites

20% of the US population owns 86% of the
wealth...

80% of the US population owns 14% of the wealth...

Of the 2,153 Billionaires in the US only 13 were black...

A perfect example of WHITE PRIVILEGE...

OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO CHANGE THIS...

White Billionaires are the ones responsible for SYSTEMIC RACISM...

Redistribute the wealth or America will get worse and worse...

BLM won't stop the WEALTHY WHITES

ANTIFA won't stop the WEALTHY WHITES

Cancel Culture won't stop the WEALTHY WHITES

Black Presidents won't stop the WEALTHY WHITES

Liberal Supreme Courts won't stop the WEALTHY WHITES

Socialism won't stop the WEALTHY WHITES

Defunding police departments won't stop the WEALTHY WHITES

Removing Confederate Statues won't stop the WEALTHY WHITES

Gun Control won't stop the WEALTHY WHITES

Conservative Censorship won't stop the WEALTHY WHITES

We the People

OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD PROVIDE ALL CITIZENS...

Free Education

Free Healthcare

Free Housing

Guaranteed Income

OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD PROVIDE ALL CITIZENS...

An end to systematic racism

An end to Capitalism and free markets

An end to Democracy

An end to white privilege

A redistribution of wealth

An end to excessive wealth

Real time equality & equity

OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD PROVIDE ALL CITIZENS...

A reduced law enforcement presence and funding

A reduced military budget (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, National Guard)

A end to sending soldier to foreign countries to fight their wars

A legalization of marijuana & other illegal drugs

An end to speed limits on interstate highways

An end to the ownership of firearms

An elimination of opposing views

OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD PROVIDE ALL CITIZENS...

A new US Constitution that is more reflective of today's demographics

Reassurance that China, Russia, the Middle East, and North Korea is not our enemy

Acknowledgement that Russia has the fundamental right to acquire countries

That the US is not the great country that it thinks itself to be

Fixing America

After living almost three quarters of a century, I have developed the realization that American Democracy IS NOT a good form of government because it places the control in the hands of an intellectually ignorant public who has no idea what is best for them and could easily be persuaded to cast their votes in such a way that it eliminates their ability to have freedom of choice without fully understanding what they have done to themselves.  The American public is mentally lazy and politically and  economically void of any kind of intellectual commitment to acquire a working understanding of what needs to be done.

We should have a government where the general public has NO CONTROL at all like what is found in a Dictatorship or Communism.  Americans need to be told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it or else they will make bad choices.

After living almost three quarters of a century, I have come to the realization that Capitalism and our Free Market Enterprise system is COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE for Americans.  Capitalism has allowed 20% of the population to live a wealthy lifestyle while the remaining 80% live a lifestyle that is substantially less than what they deserve.

• We don't need athletes that are multi millionaires
• We don't need actors/actresses that are multi millionaires
• We don't need musicians and singers that are multi millionaires
• We don't need CEO's that are multi millionaires
• We don't need physicians that are multi millionaires
• We don't need public officials that are multi millionaires

It is the responsibility of THE WEALTHY to not just take care of their family but the rest of the population.  Their wealth should be shared with the rest of the population.  If they don't want to share their wealth, then they don't need to earn it...  but, if they do earn it they should share it.

OUR GOVERNMENT should control ALL CORPORATIONS AND BUSINESSES on behalf of the rest of the population...   and OUR GOVERNMENT should not allow the population to have CHOICES and FREE SPEECH.  

SOCIALISM and quite possibly COMMUNISM is the only form of government that should be allowed in the United States so that it can take proper care of its citizens.

Higher Gasoline Prices

Crude oil prices are on a path to highs not seen since 2014, according to one chart analyst.

As the energy sector tracks for its best quarter on record with a year-to-date gain of nearly 40%, there’s “clearly some upside” for oil prices as well, Piper Sandler’s Craig Johnson told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Friday.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude prices slid half of 1% to around $65.60 a barrel on Friday.

“I could actually see a number that could be north of 100 in the next, say, six to ... 12 months from here,” said Johnson, his firm’s senior technical research analyst.

The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) is also showing signs of life after a difficult 2020, he said.

“There is clearly a double bottom that has been made and even a higher low that has been made,” he said, citing a chart of the 23-stock exchange-traded fund.

“We’re getting a multi-year reversal in terms of the performance of the XLE compared to the S&P 500. Clearly, there are some very positive trends happening here,” he said. “These are longer-term themes and trends that are starting to unfold.”

One smaller name could see outsized benefits from those trends, Johnson said.

“Don’t forget about the mid- and small-cap stocks, too, because they’re also participating in the action,” he said, pointing to a chart of exploration and production company Cimarex Energy.   READ MORE

Transformation of America

THANK GOD FOR THE LIBERALS...  except the Liberals do not believe in God or in the resurrection or in the life everlasting...  what they believe in is the HERE AND NOW...

BUT... back to the main point...  the LIBERALS are turning America upside down...  and, in the process they will destroy all the good that was the United States of America and believe me...  I for one am glad that they are doing this.

I may be white, but I am ashamed that I am white and I am ashamed that I was raised in a lower middle class family and I am ashamed that I enlisted in the military and I am ashamed that I have an MBA...  because all I can think about is that my life should have been given to a BLACK PERSON and I should have been raised in the ghettos of NYC or Chicago or Baltimore or Cleveland...

I am ashamed that I had an average life and through my own merits was able to live better than a black person.

I am ashamed that my white ancestors were slave owners and that they created a Constitution that favors white people...   and, I hope that the blacks will one day become our leaders and pay back the white people with the same abuse that they suffered...

THANK GOD FOR THE LIBERALS because they are allowing thousands of immigrants to enter the United States without kind of vetting...   and, it is my hope that these immigrants will stay in the United States for the rest of their lives and that our United States Government will financially take care of them and their families forever.  

It is my hope that our Federal Government will give them free food, free shelter, free clothing, free education, free healthcare, and a guaranteed annual income that equals the average monthly wage of our American Workers so that they will never have to work another day in their lives...

THANK GOD FOR THE LIBERALS...

Isolationism

The United States has no business inserting itself in the politics of countries of which we do not approve believing instead that AMERICAN DEMOCRACY is the only and best governmental system in the world...  that is to say that COMMUNISM, a DICTATORSHIP, and SOCIALISM is simply wrong and not productive for a thriving economy.

THAT BELIEF IS WRONG...

The government of CHINA is COMMUNISTIC and the economy of China is thriving and will, in a few short years, be greater than the economy of the United States.  Not only is the economy thriving but the military of China, its Army, Navy, and Air Force is much bigger than the United States.

Russia is a semi Socialistic/Communistic country and while its economy is not as large as either the United States or China, it is still a bustling economy that is getting stronger by the year.  It also has a fierce military that would not be easy to defeat.   

So, Communism as well as Socialism as well as a Democracy are all three viable forms of government and one form of government is no better than any other form of government, except for individual freedom and there seems to be more individual freedom in a Democracy than in the other 2 forms of government.

The United States has been involved in the politics of global countries for over 100 years and the rest of the world has had enough of United States involvement.  We need to stay the hell out of the business of other countries.

We need to reduce the money given to the military and use that extra money to do more and more positive stuff for our residents...  like:

• free healthcare for all
• free education for all
• special privileges for minorities
• free housing for all
• guaranteed basic income for all
• basic clothing allowance for all
• guaranteed daily meals for everyone

The United States should take care of its own people before it tells other countries around the world how to manage their affairs and govern their people.

The United States should open its borders and allow whoever that want to immigrate come to the US regardless of ethnicity, social status, or criminal record.

The United States should decriminalize the use and sell of ALL ILLEGAL DRUGS as these drugs are necessary so that citizens can pursue happiness.

America is NO LONGER THE GREAT COUNTRY IT ONCE WAS...  

America is full of systemic racism...

America is divided...

America is based upon white privilege...

American education is bad and inappropriate...

American religion is false and hypocritical...

American law enforcement is a joke...

American politicians care only about themselves...

American citizens are one joint away from being fools...

Illegal Immigrants

The United States is a nation of LEGAL IMMIGRATION and the fact that thousands of illegal immigrants are coming across our borders is an indication that the United States is NO LONGER a nation of laws.  And, quite honestly, I am glad that we are no longer a nation of laws because this change favors the criminals...  and, not just those who consistently break the speed limit laws.

The United States is coming out from under the COVID Pandemic that completely disabled the entire nation...  and, all the illegal immigrants that are coming across the border are not being tested for COVID nor are they practicing SOCIAL DISTANCING which is REQUIRED of all Americans.

The United States is using TAX DOLLARS to feed, house, clothes, educated, and provide health care to Illegal Immigrants.

Most of these illegal immigrants DO NOT SPEAK ENGLISH so how are they going to live in a country without the ability to understand.  I have visited other countries, especially those that speak SPANISH and since I did not speak Spanish, I found it very difficult to get directions or to order food at a restaurant or to find out where the department of Tourism was located.

If illegal immigrants do not work and cannot speak English...  how are they going to live unless someone takes care of them.  And, if no one takes care of them, will they steal and commit other crimes in order to survive?

WAKE UP AMERICA...

Begging Illegal Immigrants

When I was in high school in Cairo, Egypt and went into downtown Cairo, I was always confronted by poor people holding out their hands begging for food and money.  These children had flies all over their faces, wore torn clothing, and looked like they had not had a shower in weeks...  these children were not begging me because I was an American but because I was a foreigner and they knew that all foreigners lived better than they lived.  The only thing that one could do was walk away and ignore these children...

TODAY...

illegal immigrants are coming across the border in Texas and when they get to the US, they hold out their hands begging for food and money because when they left their country, they left without money and a little food which was quickly eaten.  So, they have no choice BUT TO BEG FOR FOOD...  and, how long will their begging last because they have no job and no source of income in order to buy food or acquire shelter.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WILL CONTINUE TO BEG AMERICANS...

A Native American Society

Shell cups carved with mythical beings. Large effigy pipes. Beaded baskets. These are among the archaeologically significant objects excavated from the Spiro Mounds. Often overlooked, this Native American site in the midwestern U.S. is among the greatest sources of Mississippian Native American artifacts ever discovered.

Located on the Oklahoma and Arkansas border, the Spiro Mounds were part of a city complex populated from 800 to 1450 A.D. At its peak, it supported a population of some 10,000 people. The Mississippian political, trade, and religious confederation incorporated more than 60 different tribes and stretched from the Gulf Coast of Florida to the Great Lakes and from the Rockies to the Virginia coast.


The Spiro population, along with other Mississippian groups across eastern North America, was once equal to the Aztecs and Incas, yet despite its size and sophisticated trade society, its legacy is not well understood.

A groundbreaking exhibition aims to change this. Unveiled in February and running through May 9, “Spiro and the Art of the Mississippian World,” at Oklahoma City’s National Cowboy & Western...

The exhibition helps document “the single most powerful group ever to exist” in the U.S., according to Dennis Peterson, executive director of the Spiro Mounds Archeological Center.

“The people who lived [in Spiro] came to control what we call the Mississippian culture. So pretty much all the United States except for the far northeast and the far northwest, Spiro either had trade with, communication with or direct control over for over 350 years with almost no use of violent warfare,” he says.

The Spiro archeological discoveries give important insight into the culture of the ancient Mississippian people.  READ MORE

Retired in East TN

I am 73 years of age and except for battling two different kinds of cancer at the same time and having heart disease and hypothyroidism and I in excellent health...  In fact, I was in perfect health and had never gotten sick, not even a cold or the flu until I was 60 years of age.  I am a little over weight but am gradually losing weight by eating less...  not by exercising...  I am also counting my daily intake of calories, making sure that my smaller portions are actually healthy.  I don't drink alcohol, don't smoke cigarettes, don't smoke marijuana, don't eat red meat, fried foods, sugars, or dine at any fast food restaurants.

However, I enjoy eating and do frequent restaurants about once or twice a week, making sure that I bring home half my food to eat the next day.  

I eat a lot of vegetables, beans, rice, onions, mushrooms, , garlic, bell peppers (especially green ones), fish (Salmon, Cod, Tuna), and light meat like chicken and turkey.  I also eat non-fat yogurt, oatmeal and eggs.

Because of my two cancers, I stay out of the sunlight whenever possible but when I do find myself out in the sunlight I wear UV clothing that blocks out the harmful rays of the sun, and put on the highest strength sun lotion I can find.  My wife and I spend all of our 6 vacations either at Myrtle Beach, SC or in Florida along the Gulf Coast.

At 73, I still work out in the yard several times a week, especially when the weather is nice...  for instance, today I spent about 2 hours digging up bushes that we wanted to throw away, so we could turn a flower bed into a grassy area so that we would not have to spend so much time weeding.  Yesterday, after moving the lawn (takes about an hour), I spent another hour weed eating our acre lot.

UNCROWDED...  This is why I prefer to live down south and in the East TN area...  yes, we live in a community and yes we have neighbors but our neighbors are not so close that we can reach out our  windows and touch the house next to us.

East TN is not an URBAN area...  it is country...  lots of land and trees everywhere you look.  And, TVA back in the 1930's built all sorts of lakes in this area to keep people working during the Depression.

I hear birds singing instead of police sirens...

I sleep until 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning.  Get dressed whenever I want or simply wear sweats all day long.  I surf on the computer and write articles for my blogs...  and go for a walk around the community, anytime I want.  I eat when I want and leave the house when I want.  And, when I have a doctor's appointment, I leave 15 minutes early so I don't have to break the speed limit in order to get there on time.

I worked for 45 years and now I don't work at all other than teach a college night class now and again.  My income is sufficient to keep the same lifestyle I had when I was working...   am I lucky?  No, not really...  I just planned for my retirement, and executed than plan.

I can live like this for a long time.

AMERICA: Drug Capital of the World

Americans' Spending on Illicit Drugs Nears $150 Billion Annually;

 Appears to Rival What Is Spent on Alcohol

Spending on cannabis, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine by Americans reached nearly $150 billion in 2016, with a large proportion of spending coming from the small share of people who use drugs on a daily or near-daily basis, according to a new RAND Corporation report.

Researchers estimate that from 2006 to 2016, the total amount of money spent by Americans on these four drugs fluctuated between $120 billion and $145 billion each year. By contrast, a different analysis finds that spending on alcohol in the U.S. was estimated to be $158 billion in 2017.  SOURCE:  Rand.org

Americans should be very proud of themselves...  and, it is not just the younger generation that is to blame for this but our wealthy population as well as our Political Leaders.

The 1960's drug culture has finally returned.....  and, America is going to be better off for it...  now, if we can DEFUND THE POLICE, then there will not be as many cops that can catch us...

WHAT A GREAT DAY FOR AMERICA...

Changing America

You would have to have your head up your butt not to realize that America has changed and is continuing to change...

⤋ 

Defund the police movement

Critical Race Theory

Cancel Culture movement

Immigration crisis

BLM/ANTIFA

White Supremacists

Prevent Republicans From Ever Winning Elections

Confiscate all firearms

Medicare for all

Free education

Reducing our military

Increase number of Supreme Court Justices

Make Washington, DC and Puerto Rico States

Government spending spree

Increasing national debt

Reparations for blacks

White privilege

I like the idea of confiscating all firearms but the fact remains that CRIMINALS will find a way to acquire firearms so the negative aspect of owning firearms will be offset...

The Mexican Drug Cartel LIKES AMERICANS because AMERICANS buy more illegal drugs than any other country in the world.

If our businesses are not allowed to be competitive there will be other global companies who will take advantage of America and gain market share.

ARE YOU AWARE...  that China, Russia, and North Korea are forming a coalition against AMERICA...  these three countries will come after us both economically and militarily.

The Middle East will continue to be the enemy of America and will escalate their terrorist activities all over the world.