The Fake President Blunders On...and Other Disasters

In his search for only "Yes" men/women, Trump has reached a new height in the promotion of warmongering via his replacing of McMaster with the gruesome John Bolton.  Even a casual perusal of Bolton's history is enough to scare the bejesus out of you.  He must be the most uptight, anal-retentive, control freak in the whole country.  The man seems to love the idea of killing people, whether it's most everyone in North Korea...or Chelsea Manning.
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A few days ago, the Chinese launched their Yuan-denominated oil futures contracts in Shanghai.  China is the world's largest importer of crude oil.  This is the start of the decline of the PetroDollar.  Plus, the whole business will add greatly to the already edging-up, price inflation in the USA.

Add to the above the fact that hundreds of major stores are closing their doors for good here, unemployment is more than double what Trump's Executive Branch and the Corporate Media claim it is, income inequality has reached a record high, worker wages have increased so minimally that they still essentially are "flat", the Bond Market is collapsing, a Trade War is developing with China, and the Stock Market recently has experienced "corrections".  Does all this sound good to anyone?  I think not.

Keep in mind that the Great Depression of the 1930's (which lasted about ten years) was not so named until halfway through it.  For quite awhile, everyone thought it was a temporary, soon-to-end glitch of some sort.
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Porter Stansberry, who owns Stansberry Research (a financial analysis publishing company with almost 500 employees), claims that wages are no longer connected to productivity in the USA.  According to him, that's the main reason for the gross "income inequality" in this country.  Stansberry is controversial, and I don't know if he's an expert in the financial field or not; however, on this particular point, I believe he's correct.  Worker productivity has increased quite a bit in the last three to four decades, but wages barely have kept up with price inflation.  People essentially are being forced to work harder, sometimes at two different jobs, but they aren't being properly rewarded for it.  I suspect that's one of the main reasons (perhaps the main reason) for much of the discontent in this great Land.  The upper 10% of The People own 75% of the wealth here.  Go figure.
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Zuckerberg's supposed concern about Facebook users' privacy is laughable.  The whole Facebook set-up is designed to harvest and sell your private information.  At least, that seems to be the case.  Delete Facebook.  Be aware, though, it will take weeks to get yourself off that site...literally, weeks.
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Why is Equifax still in business?  After their unmitigated disaster involving millions & millions of SS numbers, plus the theft of their own employees' tax info, they should have been boycotted by everyone.  Those of you who check people's credit, don't use Equifax.  There's no law that says you must.  Those of you who are subject to credit checks, tell the entity doing the checking that nothing of yours should be sent to that company.  Why should you risk the theft of your identity?  Do you have any idea how long it takes to straighten out a mess such as that?  Never mind the cost.
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The Second Amendment nowhere guarantees that citizens can possess any type of firearm they so desire with only minimal regulations informing that scenario.  The purpose of the Amendment was to allow citizens to "keep & bear Arms" in order for the country to have a "WELL REGULATED militia".  That's a direct quote:  "...well regulated...".

These slaughters in schools (and elsewhere) have to end.  A citizen not in the military should be banned from possessing a weapon of war...and that includes assault rifles.  You don't need one of those to go deer hunting or target shooting.  Assault rifles are for killing people.

To be clear, I'm an owner of a firearm...but it's not a weapon of war.
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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Forget Trump - Fascism Has Been in the USA For a Long Time

Preface---
A bipartisan legislative bill has been introduced in Congress that will stop warrantless domestic spying by the Fed Gov't.
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INCREDIBLE!  It's nice that Senators Paul, Wyden, Sanders, Warren and several others are proposing a legislative bill that closes a loophole in FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) which "allows" the Gov't to conduct domestic spying--- without a proper warrant --- in the USA.  What's both tragic and outrageous is that for decades the DC politicians apparently have believed the existing "loophole" somehow supercedes the U.S. Constitution.

This proves beyond any doubt that most/all national politicians here do not believe (or are pretending not to believe) that the Constitution is the SUPREME Law of the Land.  According to their actions, both past & current, some Laws passed by Congress somehow over-ride the Supreme Law.  That's obviously not true, but no Repub or Dem ever brings up that fact.  [The only thing that can over-ride the Constitution is an International Treaty.]

It would seem that most voters are unaware of all this, or they don't grasp the danger of allowing any Law to trump (no pun intended) the U.S. Constitution.  I simply cannot fathom how anyone could not see the dangers of warrantless searches/surveillance by the Gov't.  Perhaps they do understand the extreme danger, but think either there's nothing they can do about it OR it never will affect them.  Either way, that's tragic.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

We're Voluntarily Heading to the Brave New World

Below is my response to a forwarded, satirical email from a dear friend.  In that piece of satire, a caller is ordering a pizza from what turns out to be "Google Pizza" instead of "Gordon's Pizza" .  As the conversation proceeds, the customer is amazed to discover that the business knows the caller's pizza-ordering history, medical history, finances, etc., etc.  The header of the forwarded email is:
"This could be where things are heading.

                                                                      .... Partially there now?"

My response has been edited for this venue...in particular, the last four paragraphs have been added.

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We're probably HALFWAY (or more) there already.  Plus, people who have this small electronic tower (I think one is called Alexa, or something) in their homes that they request things of, and that listens to the household even when it's turned off, are flat-out crazy...or maybe merely not thinking clearly.  

Employees at some company recently agreed to have electronic chips embedded in their hands (or maybe some other part of the body...can't remember).  There certainly are some advantages to having "chipped" humans (e.g., opening restricted doors, finding lost kids, kidnapped people, etc,), but the dangers far outweigh the benefits. Imagine what an errant gov't or company could do with such tools.

How people cannot see the danger of these things is completely beyond me.  We seem to be voluntarily heading into the Brave New World.  All because these gizmos supposedly make life "easier" & "more convenient".  The whole thing is just plain nuts... chips in humans, SMART HVAC systems, SMART household appliances, SMART cars, SMART anything, including---Hello--- SMART phones.  They're all hackable, by individuals or by institutions public and private.  Privacy not only is at risk, but privacy also is starting to be treated as some sort of anti-social sin.  The former is bad enough, but the latter is even more dangerous.

The Corporatists---the Powers-That-Be---want to eliminate privacy as much as humanly possible.  They appear to believe that's a very good thing.  As a corollary, it seems they want people who seek solitude to be thought of as anti-social (in a harmful way), off-kilter, perhaps even mentally ill or dangerous.  The Corporatocracy is working toward having us all in a closely-watched herd, or a series of such herds...because herds are easier to manage than free-thinking individuals.  In a still relatively free society such as ours, the Powers-That-Be can't rely on massive brute force to control us, so instead, they use Edward Bernays style Propaganda--- molding the public mind--- and maximum surveillance.  History shows those have been very effective.

All the above must be peacefully resisted if we are to retain any semblance of freedom.  Protect your privacy as much as possible.  Avoid "tracking" of your activities whenever possible.  Speak up against the War on Cash (the War on Un-tracked Transactions).  Avoid surveillance whenever possible.  Gov't AND Big Biz have no business whatsoever in tracking our activities unless we are suspects in a crime.  But they have adopted the attitude that everyone should be tracked and/or surveilled.  That's a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment.  According to the Fourth, the people are to be "secure in their persons, houses, PAPERS and EFFECTS" (emphasis added) unless there's "probable cause" and a properly obtained, specific, and signed Warrant.  The NSA hasn't observed that in decades...and the Big Boys in the Telecom Industry have assisted the NSA in constantly recording our emails & phone calls...1.5 billion emails per day are recorded in the USA.  The Snowden documents revealed that the NSA has a program (can't recall the name of it) the goal of which is to record "everyone, everywhere".

At times, a few "Conservatives" have said to me, "If you're not doing anything illegal, why should you care?  What do you have to hide?"  Are you kidding me?  1. What the NSA is doing in that regard is unconstitutional, and thus illegal.  2. No one needs to justify wanting & protecting privacy...it's a Natural Right.  3. There's a definite danger in relinquishing your privacy; the info obtained easily can be used against anyone who is a critic of the Gov't (or some Mega Company), especially by any rogue element within the Gov't (or Corporation)...and you would most likely never know who did the deed that ruined your life.  And all that could happen to individuals who never broke the Law.

Do I really have to remind everyone of McCarthyism?  Why in the world do you think the Fourth Amendment was created...perhaps to protect you from an errant Gov't?  Hello.  It slays me that "Conservatives" rail against "Big Government", and yet for the most part, fully support the massive NSA---many, many times larger than the CIA---and its illegal, unconstitutional activities (I'm not saying all their activities are such).  Do you support the Constitution, or not?  You can't have it both ways and still be ethically consistent...or even make any common sense.
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Not only my opinion.  Happy Trails