Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Thursday, July 27, 2017
Meanwhile, in Pakistan
Sunday, July 23, 2017
Japan and Phillipines Need to Cough Up $$$
Saturday, July 22, 2017
Mexico, a Kleptocracy
Friday, July 21, 2017
South Africa Going Down the Tubes
The Clintons
Monday, July 10, 2017
The New Vice: Gas Stations
The trouble with Republicans is they talk about wanting to reduce the deficit, but only when it comes to programs for the poor and the middle class. In reality, the Republicans want to spend all the money they can on their two love birds, the military and the rich. Tax breaks for the rich, and at the same time big increases to buy expensive toys from the defense industry, which means huge bonuses and cost overruns and the usual corruption, negligence and lack of oversight that allows Republican cronies to get richer without breaking a sweat. That's the real reason Republicans want the increased defense spending, because it is a way to spirit off vast quantities of moolah from the U.S. treasury.
Thursday, July 6, 2017
Canada Got It Right
But no, they won't adopt Canada's system, and why? Because the penny-pinching bean-counters want to leave the middle-class saddled with an inadequate, complicated and confusing maze of health care insurance. As for the poor, let the chips fall where they may, seems to be the motto. I suppose it is ironic that those who don't believe in Evolution seek to practice it upon their fellow Americans.
Ironically Scared of Death
If a man kills another person, it is a bit rich that he objects to society exacting justice. Scared of death? Grow a pair, I'd say. Easy to pull that trigger--not so easy to be on the other side, eh?
If people object so much to the death penalty, one option I would support is that these folks personally pay 100% of the cost of incarcerating the killer for life, as well as the cost of reparations to all victims' families, the exact amount to be determined by the victims at their own discretion. If the victims want millions, then that's what the death penalty opponent should pay. Billions or trillions would most likely exclude any possibility for parole, although perhaps collections could be taken among all the death penalty opponents in the world. I'd like to see the first victim-trillionaire.
I also believe those opposed to abortion should pay 100% of the cost of raising those fetuses that would otherwise be aborted. They can pay for college, as well, at a four-year institution of the parents' choice. That would probably run to about a million dollars. I say cough up the money, if abortion is so bad. Get a second job moonlighting at McDonald's.
What we don't have in the world at this time is any shortage of human beings. The number being generated far outnumbers the number lost through the death penalty or through abortion, and it could be argued, the quality gained is better than that lost. If a mother seriously wants to off her offspring, if that is her final choice, then she probably was not about to give birth to a rocket scientist, a saint or a great leader. Daddy must not have been all that great, is the most likely conclusion. Never a good scenario for a kid to grow up unwanted. And there are killers a-plenty in the world, and offing a few here and there through the death penalty is not going to keep this world from turning. If a killer's death brings a small measure of solace to the victims, or relief that they won't have to attend any parole hearings, so much the better.
Friday, June 23, 2017
Alright, Canada!
On the one hand, it is surprising, because Canada is not known for its military, but on the other hand, Canada is an awesome country with its act together. I have long believed the United States should study Canada and reproduce its health care system, election system, and probably education and police as well. Canada does things right.
The strongest contrast is between Canada's superb health system and the horrible political football that is our health system, where a poor person just goes to the emergency room when things get bad enough. Our problem is caused by the Republicans. They want to let the poor die, because the poor deserve it, in their view, for being lazy, unlucky, immoral and/or stupid, and evolution needs to occur. Let Mother Nature take her toll and cull out the weak. The Republicans figure, let the poor suffer and die, and that way, there are less of them to worry about, and the ones that survive will work harder to stay alive. The Democrats say, wait a minute, other countries have health care and aren't going broke, why can't we? And healthy poor people tend to be happier and more productive than sick poor people. The question is whether poor people are a resource or a liability. Republicans say liability, so let 'em suffer, let 'em die.
In the end, Republicans don't care about the poor, and Democrats do. The irony is that a lot of poor people vote Republican just because they like that lilly-white Republican brand. It's all about race and tribal identity. Obama was a Negro taking the place of a long line of old white men. It got the racists all up in a lather, and they crawled out of the woodwork, enough for the Republicans to steamroll to victory in D.C.
The greatest irony of all are the religious right, the self-professed "Christians" that support Trump and the Republicans, based upon things like abortion or gays or whatever the current socially conservative brouhaha might be. I really have to call into question their religious scruples in supporting rich old white men letting the poor suffer and die, just so the rich can get richer. Is that would Jesus would do? Eh? I think the liberal churches have it right and are more in tune with Jesus, and if I were ever to go Christian, it would be the real, authentic Christianity, not this faux Christianity of the religious right, with their Biblical literalism. They take religion like lawyers, not like saints. They can't be right.
Thursday, June 15, 2017
The Angry Male Shooter
It would be interesting to know whether incidents of men going amok have been on the increase or decrease through the centuries, both nationally and worldwide, but I think records are sketchy prior to the advent of computer databases. I suspect that the present time is not much worse than times past. The only thing that may have changed is that guns are easier to get, cheaper and more powerful. That, and news coverage is pervasive--we drown in instant information about every single incident. In the past, things were covered up much more easily. Incidents of men running amok were only reported locally, sometimes only by word of mouth, rather than blared out in the headlines on the Internet. We must not be misled by our Information Age into thinking the situation is worse than it is.
Friday, June 9, 2017
Laziness Vs. Dishonesty
There are many who see that Trump is Corrupt, and then rationalize that "everyone is corrupt, so what does it matter, and Trump says the things I believe, so he is all right." This is not surprising. It is to be expected. Selfishness is common, base, whereas Ethics is a real stretch for H. Sapiens, a recent innovation that we are gradually adopting.
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Trump's Corruption
Friday, June 2, 2017
The Paris Climate Accord
One, we continue buying oil from terrorists and criminal states. They will give us a haircut. They are colluding right now to raise the price of oil to make the U.S. pay more. Russia is an evil, war-mongering kleptocracy, pure and simple. Saudi Arabia finances global terrorism, Islamic fanaticism, and religious intolerance, as do many other oil-producing nations. That results in more crime, more war, and trillions spent overseas bombing towel-heads. Global warming drastically increases as bombs and intentional destruction release carbon into the atmosphere, and the people on the ground obviously don't give a hoot about emissions.
The second alternative is the one I prefer: the U.S. produces the carbon-based fuels we need, and we quit transferring so much of our wealth into the hands of criminals and terrorists. This will, in the long term, reduce global warming, because there will be less crime and less conflict in the world, as the criminals and fanatics lose funding. The only reason ISIS was ever a problem was because the Arabs had too much money in their hands, and they don't know what to do with it. Cause trouble is the only thing they know how to do. Same with Russia. More money, more trouble.
Anything that keeps wealth in these United States and out of the hands of the ne'er-do-wells of the world is a good thing. Saudi Arabia in a thousand years has not freed women from slavery, and Russia, given a hundred years, still has a greedy tyrant at the top who starts wars of aggression to acquire territory. Anything to starve those nations and their fellow-travelers is, on balance, good for the world, and will help to stop global warming.
Saturday, May 20, 2017
Iran and Rouhani
Whenever I get down about the U.S., I just browse the information we have on Iran, and that scenario is far more depressing. In Iran, suicide is justifiable, even rational, given the prognosis, a nuclear holocaust, and the current state of affairs, a police state where torture is the norm. To procreate in Iran is evil, and only an evil person would want to have children there. Death is moral and ethical in Iran.
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Automation Nation
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Indonesia
Sunday, April 23, 2017
The Failure of the Establishment
In the final analysis, evil intelligence will triumph over good incompetence, ten times out of ten. The only reason good prevails is that is the only way that does not lead to self-destruction. Evil vanquishes itself--intelligent or not. The very nature of evil works against it.
If mankind is, on balance, evil, then the next conclusion is self-evident.
Thursday, April 13, 2017
Love Versus Despair
What I want is universal love in the final outcome, as conflicts cease and nations unite to resolve the real problems facing mankind: global warming, disease, poverty, pollution. Kim Jong Un barks up the wrong tree, lives in the 1950s, does not live in the same time we do. Whether he goes or not is irrelevant, but he must cease disturbing geopolitics and shut the hell up. When global media cease trumpeting his nonsense, then his prognosis for continued breath improves. That is my advice for the regime of N. Korea, and I hope they don't take it.
Universal love is not such a far-fetched hippy notion; it is achievable, even now, with Putin and Xi and Trump dominating the headlines. There is yet hope.
The Mother of All Bombs
Saturday, April 8, 2017
Stockholm
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
techlorebyigor is my personal journal for ideas & opinions