Tag: trump

Your World Is Just So Small

RJ Walters

I am still pondering why people are so different in this world today. Why are there those who celebrate that they just don’t care much for other’s circumstance and places in the world. They are almost exclusively in a world centered around themselves. Everything else is just “Not my thing”. This especially troubles me with I then hear them say that they are also “real” Christians?

I think I have latched onto one of the reasons for this and that is that their world is just too small. Psychology has shown that very young children are by nature pretty selfish. All that they can preceive is their small world around them. It will take nurture and exposure to other things to move them away from this mindset. Some people just never accomplish that feat. Their world remains small and they maintain their childish selfishness throughout their lives.

canstockphoto34452912.jpgHow do we broaden our horizons? That question seems to be plaguing me lately. How do you make people come out beyond themselves? I have termed this condition as “Meitus”, that is people who have their heads stuck up the own rear ends so far that they can only see themselves. I know it is impossible for me to come up with a solution to this problem but because I am a fixer by nature I have to think about this kind of stuff.

Of course there are people like our current president who have character flaws due to one thing or another that keeps them centered totally on themselves. They don’t see any reason to move beyond that state by studying alternatives.  Then there are people who are for one reason or another just too mentally lazy to see outside themselves.  Most of the white supremacists are likely in this group. Their lives are dominated in fear of almost everything they don’t understand and due to a lazy lack of curiosity that is a lot of topics.  They say things like “science is fake truths because I don’t understand it”.  Some cling to something or someone to be their “truth”. For some it is a contrived collection of words from a bible, for others it is a person who tells them things no matter how untrue that they want to hear.

How do we make sure that people get out into the world in order to understand they are not the center of it?

 

 

“What He Really Meant…”

RJ Walters

After more than a year of this stuff I am utterly tired of the statement in the title of this post! I am tired of people around the president trying to calm the effects of the latest bomb Mr. Trump seems to launch almost daily.

2017-08-14_08-41-18.pngYes, I recognize that without the white supremacists vote he would likely not be president. I recognize that it is an important part of his base that he doesn’t want to offend since there is a slight chance that he may need them again. But even with his massive ego he needs to realize that his base made up of a WILDLY hodgepodge groups of voters has no chance of staying intact for another go around.

I’m sure the Evangelicals, who are likely the major source of his base, utterly refuse to believe that they are cohorts with neo-Nazis, the KKK and other white supremacists. Or maybe I just pray that they don’t openly endorse an alliance with other folks who helped put their choice in office.

I see the Sunday talk shows were full of White House folks who were trying to explain what Mr. Trump really meant. That veil is wearing extremely thin especially since he never acknowledges their efforts as being truthful. Why can’t he come out and say that those who live in hatred every minute of their lives are NOT worthy of any endorsement? Why is he so afraid of losing their support?

The only encouraging thing that came out of this behavior is that the senators and congressmen in his own party are  finally growing a backbone and beginning to call him out on all the outrages he spews in 140 characters or less. The only hope for us short of imminent impeachment is that the GOP finally holds him accountable for his words and actions.

“What he really meant” just doesn’t hack it anymore if it ever did…

Taking Things Away…

RJ Walters

The underlying theme of this post is about how the Republicans have unsuccessfully tried to take away things from people.   David Brooks who is a conservative reporter for the New York Times and a Friday night regular on the PBS Newshour had these words to say about that;

canstockphoto26664860.jpgThink of all the ways the Republicans have tried to trim entitlements like Medicaid or cut government. Name a signal victory. There’s not a victory. They haven’t been able to trim one agency, cut back one entitlement. They failed every single time.

And that suggests it isn’t an electoral failure. It’s not a failure of whether Mitch McConnell had the right strategy or not, though that was lamentable. It’s a failure of trying to take things away from people.

People are under assault from technology. They’re under assault from a breakdown in social fabric, breakdown in families. They have got wage stagnations. They just don’t want a party to come in and say, we’re going to take more away from you.

And so Republicans have to wrap their minds around the fact that the American people basically decided that healthcare is a right, and they figure, we should get healthcare. And our fellow countrymen should get health care.

I have come to think that “taking things away” is the most significant root cause of our society’s utter discontent. People who heard the stories of their parents/grandparents getting out of high school and immediately getting a pretty well paying job that would last for a lifetime are in shell shock. So much has happened in the last three decades to take things away from them. I think they just might be reaching for the last straw in that regard.  They are holding on by a thread.

Donald Trump was part of that “last straw” effort and of course it is becoming abundently clear that he is by no means any type of answer to this problem. I find it confusing that the GOP continues to rail against the almost 100 year old Social Security and 50 year old Medicare as if it were even possible to eliminate those things without losing their hugely cherished office. When will they ever start caring for the whole of the population instead of the privileged few? But even more amazingly, when will common folks finally see through the thin GOP veneer to understand that fact about them?  When that finally happens I’m sure there will be another party waiting in the background to quickly take their place.

I just pray that come 2020 at least one person will jump into the foreground who is up to the gigantic task of repairing all of  current office holder’s damage.  Right now that person, at least to me, is Elizabeth Warren. I think it would be fitting that she, as a Teddy Roosevelt type crusader, is the first woman president. I just never had much confidence in Hillary…

USA Declares Bankruptcy..

USA Declares Bankruptcy..

RJ Walters

The guy that currently occupies the Oval Office has declared bankruptcy several time throughout his business ventures. For him, it is just a standard thing to get out from under possibly unprofitible debt.  So, I’m sure in his mind he is thinking why not just have the country declare bankruptcy instead of raising the debt ceiling. Believe it or not given the radical right agenda of his base that seems to be a real possibility for this current administration.

Here is a little about that from my friends at the NY Times:

The debt ceiling is politically imposed, and the decision not to raise it, and therefore to choose to default, is also political. It’s something America has avoided in the past. This time, though, will be different.

This country has hit the debt ceiling once, in 1979, and then largely by accident and only to a minor extent. But even that foot fault was estimated to cost the United States about 0.6 percent in higher interest costs for an indefinite period. More recently, congressional debt ceiling brinkmanship in 2011 led Standard & Poor’s to downgrade the credit rating of the United States.

An increase in Treasury interest rates of just 0.2 percent a year would cost the government about $400 billion over the next 10 years. It also would lead to higher borrowing costs for American businesses, because borrowing rates are set by reference to Treasury rates. Moreover, each month holders of tens of billions of dollars in valid claims against the United States would go unpaid, triggering a major recession.

The New York Times Aug 7, 2017

How could this happen??  Well part of it like many other things going on now ia total inexperience and lack of competency. The other is the mindset of Mr. Trump.  He just doesn’t see the devastation that would result. He only sees the money.

canstockphoto25553315.jpgPersonally a pretty big part of my retirement savings are in Saving and Treasury bonds. Those would of course disappear if bankruptcy is declared. I’m sure I am not alone in this condition. If this administration decides that Social Security checks are on the back burner for allocating existing funds then millions of senior citizens would also have to declare bankruptcy.

Then there is China. They currently hold billions and billions of bucks of our debt.  How will they respond when they learn those bonds are worthless? I’m not an economist but I also think it would be a pretty sure thing that our national bankruptcy would result in an international depression era that would last for years.  Since Mr. Trump doesn’t read or study anything I wonder if he is even thinking of those possibilities?

For those who say  this is a “the sky is falling” scenario, you must realize that this could happen with the stroke of a pen in an unstable person’s hand. I wonder who that might be???