With the whirlwind of information and disinformation that is targeting us these days it has become hard to distinguish the necessary from the unnecessary and the truth from fiction. Words and events are twisted and the real issues are lost in all the verbiage, as Shakespeare said, lots of sound and fury, all signifying nothing! So how do we know where to look and how to sift thru everything that is out there.
First is to realize that we cannot sift thru everything. It is an impossibility. Even if one were to use some computer program, it still would be insufficient to separate all the wheat from all the chaff. I just concentrate on what interests me, and perhaps what validates some opinions I have and hope that this will suffice.
Second of all, what we all would like to hear is policy information, details. We are getting more of that from Clinton than from Trump, from whom we receive lots of bombast and hot air, but little in the way of details. One piece of information I found interesting is the fact that Trump's check of $25,000 to Pam Bondi was actually on a different timeline than the one submitted and it makes it more obvious in my opinion and in the opinion of others that this check was allegedly much more of a definite quid pro quo. Shocking, huh, that such a thing should take place in Florida! Well....Ok, I am entitled to a tad of cynicism when it comes to Florida politics. Another piece of information was the description of a very poorly received trip of Trump to Flint, Michigan where he took the opportunity to run down the country again but apparently his audience objected and he was a bit heckled, couldn't take the heat and got out of the kitchen, cutting his appearance short. Such is the man people want to elect as President? What will he do when there is a crisis with lots of heat - tell the people to go away as he does not want to play right now? This behavior of his tells much of the man he is and the man he is not.
So is Clinton perfect? Nope. Never said so, but she is infinitely better than the other option and as for this third party of Libertarians to push for their know nothings candidates to partake in the debate - well, fishy, fishy. They are only here as spoilers and would that someone would sift thru their bits and pieces of information and check their funding for this new campaign of expensive ads in the Times and other papers. Fishy, fishy. As they say - spoiler alert!!
What bothers me a great deal is the new study - why we needed a new study when the facts were clear is beyond me, but in any case, this new study states that the improving economy seems to have bypassed some areas of the country, Appalachia being one and some large urban centers also included. I have long stated that we have our own areas of the country where people are hungry and cold, barely hanging on and how can we expect them to sign on for new programs when they cannot afford to put a piece of bread in their mouths or the mouths of their children nor put gas, as low as it is right now, into their cars to get to the centers for retraining.
We rush to feed the mouths of the world and yes, the pictures are horrifying when we see them, but people, charity begins at home and perhaps we need to tap the huge charity organizations of the dot com people and convince them to help our own citizens. What we need are true programs of feeding these families, clothing them, warming them and then retraining them - even perhaps in silicone valley jobs once their heads are open to it as their bodies are fixed and their families more secure.
We need to do the same with our urban centers which have lost the manufacturing jobs which used to provide for a large working class and allow for the progress of children, of good incomes for families, of security. Why are we allowing so many of our own Americans to suffer what is euphemistically called 'food insecurity" - simply not sure if they and their kids are going hungry to bed at night or not, having food for the next day or not!
And we do not have to go far to look for another group of people who are suffering and that is the elderly elderly, those of our seniors who have long ago surpassed their expectations of life, who have outlived their funds and perhaps even their children and certainly their old friends, who are receiving a pittance from Social Security that simply is not enough for the roof over the head, to pay the bills, afford the meds they need and put some food on their tables. So they sit in the suffocating heat of the summer with no AC because they cannot afford it and have empty cupboards. We need to look to take care of them as well.
We need to look at the reviving hatreds of old and if any class of citizens or groups of similar ancestry think that they are immune from this - think again. Today we have a class proposed to be run at Berkeley which was to study basically all the harm that Israel has done in the world (sic) and though finally cancelled due to strong protest, the fact that it was THERE says something and just imagine the next course. Perhaps how the Italians ruined the country with their Mafia or the Irish with their support of the IRA or their own gangs or the Albanians with theirs or the African Americans with their own growing gangs again and the same with Hispanics. No group is immune to hatred and misplaced emphasis and stress.
Yes, we need to be part of the world for we are a leader of countries, like it or not. People look to us and even as they shout against us and burn our flag, they stand in line for a visa to us, for a chance for their own brass ring, just as we and our parents and grandparents did in their time. But we also need to tend to the shoes of our own shoemakers' kids!
I believe that while there is no easy solve to this as the world has changed enormously and will continue to do so, there is at least a way to start on the proper path and that path is one run by Clinton and not Trump. All the accusations of Trump on Clinton echo resoundingly back on him. He wants records? Well, there they are but where are his? He states he is of the people? How? Show me. Since when has he ever been a part of the "commoners" from birth to now? How can he possibly understand their needs and woes? He makes accusations of lies? Whoa there, for how many lies have emanated from his mouth and his campaign, lies by omission and commission.
Would that we would get answers to the questions. Would that someone would find a way through the muck and actually have a workable plan for this. Would that the "America Firsters" would understand where to apply that, where it is relevant and right, and where it goes wrong, where we all falloff the cliff were that to be followed.
And folks, if you want to get even more depressed today, read the huge conclusions that scientists have reached about the "sixth extinction"
and the sea and the human condition and part in this. Not appetizing at all. We need to get down to brass tacks, to details and understanding of what is important and what is not. Proving one can stop a government from moving forward, or putting a hold on its budget and functioning is the wrong and indeed the childish and harmful path to follow. Making it Party vs Party in an adult game of ring-o-levio is Congress going off track and we, the people, need to push them back onto the correct one with demands and using the power of the votes and ballots. Hard, but can be done if only we would all band together and try.
Must add in that I just read Nicholas Kristof's column for today. I find him a mixed bag but today's title is the best. "When a Crackpot Seeks Office". Now does that not say it all!!
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