Blaze

Happy Memorial Day and God bless all those who have gone before us.

Certain things stand out in my memory. If anyone were to ask me what was my favorite movie it would be impossible to choose just one because there are soooo many really good ones that have been made.

From all those movies, there have been certain lines that have really stood out. All of us would probably agree that "make my day" or "I'll be back" are a couple of them.
One of my very favorite was from a film made in 1989 that starred Paul Newman as the flamboyant governor of Louisiana, Huey Long, and Lolita Davidovich as his sweetie, Blaze Starr.

As i remember it, Blaze was a young girl leaving home to make her way in the world as a stripper in New Orleans. Blaze sought the wisdom of her Mother before leaving and asked her if there was anything she could tell her that would help her along the way. Her mother told her "Blaze, Honey, never trust a man who says trust me".

Great line.

I seldom go the movies any more. Maybe 4 or 5 times a year. I went to see "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" several weeks ago and it was a winner, looking at contemporaries of mine dealing with the discontents of aging. Penelope Wilton in a supporting role should get an oscar.  But this is not to be a movie review.

As i mentioned in a previous post, i start most of my days before daylight with a large cup of French roast and my email. i get a lot of email. From friends and family of course, and a good bit of news reporting, every major newspaper in the world is available for reading. i usually spend little to no time on the stock market and sports, as i prefer world and national events, social issues.  Some of the websites are interactive so i can even throw in a comment now and then if i wish. If i am not careful i spend too much time reading people argue with each other, kind of a you said, no you said, fest. A bit Jerry Springer even. i could cliche you and say it breaks the monotony, but i have no monotony.

A lot of the comments are from people that are reasonable and thought provoking, but there also is a fringe element of anger and hatred that is exchanged that is remarkable. A lot of the articles are sometimes predictable; there are Tom Friedman, Robert Reich and Paul Krugman, then there are Erick Erickson, Charles Krauthammer and George Will. That pretty much covers left to right, but not the far far right. There are other brilliant writers outside of the mainstream, I delight in finding them. Mark Ames is one and i have a link for you after this bit of repulsive trivia.

The far far right or the fringe does a disservice to intelligent discourse. I don't want to have anything to do with people like Charles Worley, the Baptist Minister in North Carolina who last week said they should take all the lesbians and put them behind one fence and the "queers and homosexuals" behind another fence, and humanly drop food into them till they die off. You saw it. You heard it. Here it is if you can stomach it.  Worley sermon. (please use the printed link to connect to video as the one posted somehow was removed, probably by the source.)

Disgusting people like Worley are totally irretrievable, completely out of the main stream and will not change, don't waste time trying to communicate with them. They are the fringe right that always vote Republican and most Republicans cannot stand their hateful positions. After all, if you can't trust your preacher who can you trust. These people and anyone who really believes Obama is not a bona fide United States citizen are just too far stupid to communicate with. Don Trump wants you to trust him. George Will said Donald Trump is a "bloviating ignoramus with a very low IQ". You hit a home run on that one, George. Trump doesn't know Jack

You gotta be jussmartenuf. We all understand that nothing is free. It all has to be paid for. No free lunch unless you're buying drinks or rolling the dice. There is a great sum of money out there, enough to go around, but it doesn't and we all know why. A lot of folks can't see through the smokescreen put out by biased sources. Can we really trust the sources we gather from?

Money is basically made only three ways: 1. You work for it; you paint a house, you wait on customers, you go to your office every day and keep books, teach pathology or teach school, etc. 2. You put your money or others money to work; a 401K, investment in your own lawn service or lash salon, or gamble the stock market. 3. You make money off of people; you hire a salesperson who sells your products at a profit, you pay people to do work and create a profit for you. (Of course you can inherit it, but someone had to make it first.)

So let's visit a bit about an article by Mark Ames who i mentioned above. i think it is interesting and provocative to reasonable people of all political persuasion.  It is all about how the Russian economy was looted by the ruthless oligarchs that developed when the socialist system in Russia privatized. The looting of billions and the suffering and death of hundreds of millions was the result. It goes on to tell of oligarchs here in the US who are looting our system with no reprisal. These are leading pillars of industry. You will see the parallels to our society today, they are there, shadows in our system that need light shined on them. Who are the other oligarchs in our society? Read oligarch and come to your own conclusion.

May i say at this time, i have close friends and people that i admire who are of all political persuasions, but they are not of the radical fringe. Virtually all Democrats want fiscal responsibility same as Republicans. Heck, even the right wing Forbes states that Obama is the smallest government spender since Eisenhower, would you believe it, what with all the false information being spewed by ideologues. Who ya gonna trust?

Virtually all Republicans want all our citizens to have preventive and rehabilitative healthcare along with prosperity. But we cannot simply austere ourselves into prosperity. I think the Republican party has abandoned more than half of the Republicans that belong to it, or at least abandoned them on critical social and fiscal issues. Republicans themselves decry issues such as the personal freedoms many of their party wish to destroy. So my Republican friends, let me tell you what you can do about it.

Abandon the Republican Party, at least for now. To support it is to support the radical fringe that is so vile. The party is immobilized by the radical fringe that is so angry they cannot think clearly. Join the independents and Democrats in voting for Obama this November. You know he will listen to us and you know Grover Norquist will not. Let's put America back on the right track together. The oligarchs have us divided over issues that are red herrings. Together we can focus on the social issues like health care for all and fiscal issues. Corporations and the oligarchs who control them make billions and pay little or zero taxes. We all know that is a truth, many say so themselves. We can dump the members of congress of both parties who are oligarchic puppets.

But we must do this together, we're all in it together. Out of many, one. Think about it

I'll be back. Trust me.