Merry Christmas

We had the gift of seeing all 4 children yesterday.  Doesn't happen often, due to life and work and just life, so I treasure it when it does.

I woke up early this morning, and I just wanted to tell you all Merry Christmas.  My wish for you all is simple.  I pray that you all find happiness and comfort today.

However that works, with whoever that means, I pray that today, you put all the burdens and slights and injuries and bitterness away.  For your own soul, for your own peace, please, enjoy the morning, with the freedom of peace.

Nothing more complicated than that.  We all deserve at least one day a year that we don't service all the negative things in our life, and instead focus on the positive and the heart warming.

Merry Christmas, wherever this finds you.  And peace to all the people of this earth.  God left us His peace, and it is enough for you.

GLYASDI

Today

Today is the day before the one year anniversary of my father passing.  It is 10 days before the one year anniversary of my sister passing.  It is less than 45 days to the one year anniversary of my oldest nephew passing.

The next six weeks bring me through a year after one of the most difficult periods of my life.  What do you do?  You have no control over comings and goings, that is the arena of God.  You can only absorb it, survive it.

I am not a sad person by nature.  I don't dwell on what is missing, because there is so much there.  But, not a day goes by that I have not missed my Mama for the last 19 years.  And not a day goes by that I have not missed my Daddy for the last year.  Not a day will pass for the rest of my life that I don't miss them both.

Neither of them would want me to live sad.  They understood that life contains separations, passings.  They knew that because they suffered their own.  Everyone does to some extent.  The price of relationships is longing and loss.  The trick of sanity is to not let longing overcome living, and to not let loss overcome the present good.

I don't know that I have good advice for that.  I am certainly no expert.  I have suffered a lot of losses.  But, I prefer to take the approach that I was blessed with many relationships.  Part of having a relationship is the fact that most likely, one of you will continue on without the other.  Friends, family, brothers and sisters, all of us that connect permanently, live with the knowledge that one will go on and the other will rest.

So, I try not to be sad.  I miss them, all of them.  I do not forget, nor do I ignore the pain.  The pain means I loved and I was loved.  And, it dulls, especially if you focus on the love.  It doesn't go away, and there are still days I have to let it out.  It catches you, unawares.  But, those are short lived moments, because the beauty of what God granted us both, in a relationship that so touched us, is far greater than temporary sadness at loss here.

I am convinced we will see each other again.  I am convinced that we will be whole, and without the baggage that we carry here on this side of the veil.  I look forward to that.  But, there are days where I just have to feel loss and sadness, because I am human.  There is nothing wrong with that.  But, it cannot be my existence.

I have to live outside of that.  I don't understand why's.  I don't understand the unknowable answers.  I don't have the inside knowledge from God.  If I stay focused on those, it will rob me of the joy that these special people brought into my life, all through my life.  I choose the joy.

Nor, am I trying to pass on "wisdom" to anyone else.  I am far from wise.  But, today, I woke up sad, missing them.  I remember Mama holding Emma, crying and smiling.  I remember Daddy laughing at me, leaning on the fender of a car he was fixing.  I remember Wanda and Lorne and I, and sledding down the hill.  I remember holding Tony when he was a fat baby, and that brilliant smile.

I choose those things to remember, because they warm my heart.  This is a very difficult time of the year for many people.  I do not know how to advise anyone.  But, I focus on things that bring me a smile.  I do not ignore the hurt, nor the missing feeling.  But, I treasure the times together that made us happy together.  It is easier for me.  Well, it is bearable anyway.

So, today, I hope that heaven has at least one '58 Ford requiring some love, a place for Mama to hold babies and give them that smile, and a hill for sledding.  And, I hope that they are watching me, so I can feel their presence.  That makes me smile through tears.  I miss them all.

Where the river runs

This time, before an inauguration and before any real events shaped by the newly elected administration, is always a tense time.  The river of American activity runs through the middle of the extremes of this time.

Because the media (I don't like Main Stream, because the actual Main Stream media for the last 5 years has been Facebook and Twitter and made up stories with no founding in journalism, just click ad returns), the supposedly objective media, failed miserably, this time is odd in comparison to the others I have lived through.

When Clinton was elected, half the country was convinced that we were going to fix Social Security, the minimum wage, taxes, and the outsized power of business to the detriment of the nation.  The other half was convinced that the young, pot smoking AntiChrist had just been given the keys to the kingdom.  Honestly, that is what the debate was like.  The only existing outlet somewhat similar to today's biased 24 hour news platforms, the McLaughlin Group, was must see TV.  Robert Novak and Pat Buchanan were predicting the end of the universe and all things Christian.  Bill Press and Jack Germand were predicting we had entered the streets of gold.

If you don't even remember that show, it was the forerunner to the personality journalist format that dominates CNN, Fox and MSNBC continually.  It would be, actually, instantly recognizable to any Millenial that watched it, except they would have no idea who all the dead people were.

When George W. Bush, (Lets call him Junior, less letters), got elected, Fox News had actual on air orgasms over compassionate conservatism and the advancement of the human race.  MSNBC had an entertaining guy named Olberman, who continually preached the coming of the Apocolypse, Ragnarok and the Fourth Reich.  No, seriously, that was how divergent the "main stream" media coverage was.  However, spiced through it all were actual facts that had been developed, sourced, confirmed and vetted by actual journalists.  Personality cult real news.

When Obama was elected, before the inauguration, there was a period where MSNBC was like soft porn.  Same funky music, same kind of satisfied smiles.  All that was missing was the white sheet drawn up over the nipples and the post coital cigarette.  Over on Fox, I think they held an actual funeral for America.  The end of all time was routinely predicted, followed up by continual surfacing of some new "evidence" of Obama's Kenyan birth.  At this point, we had kind of lost any interest in whether "news" had been sourced, fact checked, vetted, confirmed.  If it sounded good to whatever demographic was buying the stuff being advertised in the commercials, that made it true.

Now, in the new era of Trump, we don't even have the bookend cable channels.  No channel can actually embrace Trump and what he espoused, said, did and is doing.  Fox tries hard, but, after Sexual Predator in Chief Ailes was bounced, they are working hard to find a journalist, if one still exists in America, and figure out how to do that news thing.  That search for facts, truth and the American Way kind of makes it hard to just trumpet Trump (like that?).  So, Fox is left to report their joy at the Far Right appointees that parade in and out of Trump Tower.  MSNBC may have actually televised several anchors performing the harikari ritual.  Most of them have lost their pacifier and make as much sense as a toddler searching for binkie.

You can't even believe the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times.  All of them have been embroiled in some scam, scheme or cesspool of bias.  Admittedly, only on their editorial page, which seems to shock rank and file Americans that they are opinions.  Hard working reporters, doing the unfun and highly tedious work of triple sourcing, on air record, back channel confirmation, development of sources and informants, are painted with the tar brush of skepticism that America has come to give everything but whatever click bait they repost to prove that Obama is holding Bin Laden in Guantanamo to trade to the Martian for pristine birth records in a real state like Nebraska.

It has gotten that pitiful.  And, while I am not any less prone to listening to the side of the story that sounds best to my personal beliefs, I like to think that I work to figure out if what I am told has any factual basis or is, in fact, made up in some small town in Macedonia to creat revenue for some kid trying to get laid in the local night club.  I ignore anything that comes from Breitbart, the Blaze, is cited by Toni Lahren or Rachel Maddow.  There are lots of sources out there, but not all are created equal.

The Cabinet being appointed should scare us all.  Not because it is full of non-government people.  Nor because they have ideological positions.  Every Cabinet has had those exact same things.  What should scare us is the fact that there is a large component of this Cabinet that either utilizes this trumped up "news" and actually can't help themselves but to repost it and put it out there.  What that does is make me wonder if they actually have the skills to sift fact from fiction, or they are knowingly perpetuating false narratives and lending their positional credibility to erroneous material.  That is a text book definition of lying.

See, we all know Trump is no more suited to be President on Day One, than say, Obama or Clinton.  Whereas Obama and Clinton did some homework and had the requisite intellectual curiousity to dig around for a path forward, Trump has Breitbart Steve and Raisin Pringle.  Neither of those individuals has been much concerned with truth, justice or the American Way, in quite some time.  That is wrong.  They are heavily invested in an American Way that includes white people that are far enough removed from their families immigration that they are actual Americans, per their standards.  What they don't know, they will make up to suit their needs.

I pray every day that President Trump will be successful.  But, I worry every day that it is not his goal or his focus to be successful.  I don't think he much cares about the economy except as it is reflected in the success of his brand.  I am positive that he does not give a crap about anyone that is not in his social circle, except in how he can "bless" them and strengthen his brand.  It is kind of creepy.

I don't know what it means long term.  But, there are very few actual dictates on what a President has to do.  We have been lucky to usually have good men, that cared for the state of the union.  Some were ineffectual and some were corrupt.  But, most gave an effort to not appear to be solely concerned with actual profit, personally.  We don't live in that time any more.

The river of America runs through our conversations, which are mostly on line today.  It has always been where the river of America ran.  We miss the genteel time when it was at the pace of the Post Office.  It gave us time to think, to consider.  It prevented the immediate emphasis of hurt, anger and indignation to color our words and discourse.  No longer.

Now, at the speed of your internet connection, you are able to weigh in.  Facts be damned, either you are pissed or you support it 100%.  Life doesn't work that way, and after reflection, you usually end up thinking, man, I should not have said it that way.  Of course, we never post that, because we are human.  But, it is true.

The river of America used to run clear and deep and while we were on opposite shores, we were not afraid to wade the river and meet in the middle.  It was clean and it didn't hurt.  Today, the river is green, polluted and it actually burns and hurts to wade out in it and come to consensus.  We did that all on our own.  And, we can't figure out why nothing happens, why nothing works.  But, without thought and consideration, nothing works, except fire fighting.  Fire fighting is necessary.  But it is a terrible way to work every day.

Maybe, just maybe, we all work to see what the facts are, before we condemn, cuss and belittle each other.  Maybe we consider someone of a different opinion as worthy of listening to, taking seriously, even if we never agree.  Maybe we act like the Founders assumed we would and treat each other like adults.  Or, we can follow the President Elect's lead, and refuse to accept facts that contradict our public narrative.  That is what we will figure out in this Presidency, and it is going to be a painful figuring.

Things to consider

Look, I picked the election wrong.  It is no secret and I will 'fess up to what I called.  I am not overly sorry that Hillary didn't win, as that would not be much better, in the opposite direction, than Trump winning.  However, I said before the election that Trump was completely unprepared, unsuited, unqualified and incapable of being President.

Let's look at what we have to go on so far...and I get it, he is not President yet.  Please, I understand the calendar.  But, hear me out and think about my observations.  Especially if you support Trump, because you are the only power we have as a nation, that the President Elect understands.

Out of a nation of 330 million souls, approximately half of which are politically aligned with Trump, 165 million souls, and Jefferson (like Jefferson Davis) Sessions is the legal eagle to run the Justice Department?  A guy that could not get confirmed as a federal judge, in Alabama, 30 years ago, during Reagan, because of racist statements and evidence, he is the right choice for AG?  He has not practiced law or been in court in 20 years, but he said good things about Trump and stood out there for him.

Michael Flynn, a guy that got fired from the DIA job (military replication of the CIA), because of assclownery, is the right guy to advise the most militarily powerful leader on the planet, in terms of intelligence.  A pick so bad, it has to be for a job that requires no Senate approval, because that aint happening.  But, he said good things about Trump and stood out there for him.

Speaking of approval not happening, there is Steve Bannon.  Let's not call him a white supremacist.  That kind of minimizes what he is.  He is the megaphone of every creepy, racist, militant, sick society of hate power groups, all across the nation.  The Joseph Goebbels of our nation.  And, yes, considering all the Heil Trump, and one armed salutes happening, I think it is appropriate to make that comparison.  Again, a pick so bad, it can't get near the Senate.  But, he stood behind the scenes and lined up the all the hate groups for him.

Betsy DeVos, noted not for being an educator, or even all that talented an administrator, but especially noted for being one of the biggest enemies of public education in this nation, she gets picked for Education.  Nothing to be construed there, except that the disadvantaged that rely on the public education system for their unbelievably small shot at the brass ring are about to get even more disadvantaged.

Ben Carson, at least with enough integrity to understand the stakes, is being mentioned for Housing and Urban Development, and is concerned he doesn't have the ability to do the job.  Weird, but thank God for one honest man.  He wanted to be President, but HUD is too much for him.  Go figure that one out, and you are going to be able to interrupt Trumpery for us.

Nikki Haley, who is a fine governor, actually has done a decent job, but is governor of South Carolina.  I live here.  That is akin to being governor of Wyoming on the international stage, but she gets an appointment to be ambassador to the United Nations.  Sorry, but that is about as unqualified a pick as there exists.  And, I appreciate the talent and skill of Nikki Haley as an executive.  She is a very credible pick for HUD, Transportation, Interior.  But, it is like picking me to be the guy singing lead for your band.

Now there seems to be some debate between Rudy Guiliani and Mitt Romney for Secretary of State.  Good God, Romney looks like a good choice suddenly, though he has zero experience whatsoever in foreign policy.  He must have stayed in a Holiday Inn Express.  But, compared to Rudy, he is fricking Kissinger.  That is where we are people.  We have bad picks that look good, only because there is credible evidence that it is possible to pick a fruit cake, dementia patient on every foreign government's payroll.

Look, I pray every day for our President Elect.  I have a lot of skin in this game, just like you do.  I have no desire to see him fail, because that failure involves a lot of pain for me and my family.  But, this is like watching Rutgers play football and assume because they have red jerseys it is like watching Alabama play football.  This is not how responsible and reasonable government works.

The fact is, no one likes the breadth and sway our federal government has over all aspects of life.  But, just because we don't like it, does not mean we can just chuck it all and ignore it.  Even if you want rid of the Department of Education, which I hear constantly, there are huge implications to our country in that goal.  It can't just turn off tomorrow.

Well, it could.  If you want a picture of that, take a look at water quality in Flint Michigan.  The state took over and turned off the municipal actions.  And, pretty much just let it flounder.  Now, thousands and thousands of kids are lead poisoned.  Not at risk, not potentially.  An entire generation of children, in one of the most economically destitute and devastated parts of our nation, are forever burdened with the impact of lead poisoning.  Unfortunately, these kids are predominately kids of color or poor economic prospects, guess that made it okay.  And, the governor responsible for that?  A Republican that no one considered capable of being the Chief Executive.  See there things have precedents, real time, real life.

That is what the rest of America will look like, if left to the cast that is being assembled.  These are people that are woefully unqualified and unsuited for the task they are being given.  The Justice Department is not just about whether or not we investigate cops that shoot people for no damn reason.  It is the most powerful arm of the Executive Branch.  It is the most potentially intrusive, armed force on the planet, not beholden to a federal military command structure.  They actually control more guns and troops than the Department of the Army.

Those of you that were part of electing Trump, you owe the future of our country at least this much.  Start showing that you are not satisfied with the third tier picks already put out there.  Because it gets worse from here.  We have not had a completely and utterly ineffective Executive assembled, since 1928.  Herbert Hoover, and a collection of insignificants that were utterly incapable of the tasks in front of them.  We went from record highs in the stock market and economic growth after the election of one of the most "revered" Republican politicians since Roosevelt (TR).  Within a year, we saw Black Friday, the stock market crash and free fall into the Great Depression.  The next worse, George W. Bush, and his cast of clowns and Sith Lords.  Remember how great the economy looked in 2008 and 2009?

That is what happens when a President assembles a team of hangers on, B List players, amateurs and political lackeys.  The only people this President Elect will listen to, are those that filled up the polls he saw and listened to.  If you were one of the people that he actually saw and listened to, I hope that you realize what he is doing now.  Elections have consequences.

Change, in a bad way, is preferable to chaos.  A guy that won't take intelligence briefings, tweets about some Broadway actor, and can't find high calibre people for big jobs, is what chaos starts out as.  These are things that impact us every day.  All of us, but most significantly those with the least power or voice to defend themselves.

We all know that.  Yet, here we are.  Want to know why people are scared?  Want to know why people protest?  Because there is reason to be scared.  If you are the kind of person that would be okay with me taking your appendix out, this probably doesn't bother you.  But, if you are the kind of person that would go find a surgeon to do that job, maybe you should pay attention and make some noise here.

Just saying.

President Trump

Made myself write that.  The only thing that encourages me out of that title is that it is not Madame President Clinton.

Unfortunately, it is not what I predicted.  There is a bit of pride that stings in that.  But, you know, I got it wrong.  Along with a whole bunch of others, we all got it wrong, looking at the electorate.

That is the bad part for me, ego wise.  The bad part for us all, is that the only marker we have as to what this new era will be like is the campaign.

Drain the swamp, the one in DC.  Say a bunch of stuff, that no one really will hold him to.  Except the folks that came out of the hills, the backwoods, the farms and the rural areas.  Those folks are going to remember the Wall, Mexico paying.  They are going to remember stop all Muslims from immigrating.  They are going to remember 25 million jobs.  They are going to remember bring manufacturing back. Bigly.

And, no disrespect, if you voted for Trump.  It was your right, and more people exercised their right like that than did not.  I am not going to argue he is not the President, nor do I hope that he does poorly.  He is going to be my President in January, too.

The fact is, he is going to be the single most powerful person in the world.  He will have the ability to at any point, turn to the mid level military officer that is never going to be more than a few steps away, and tell them launch.  They produce the machinery of power, and the order goes out.  The nuclear complex is built on not asking why, or should we do it, it is built on asking is the order authentic, and acting, if verified.  It is a terrifying prospect.

Let me give you some history.  In 2000, I was in uniform.  Swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  Obey the orders of the President and officers appointed over me.  November 2000, the country elected a man intellectually incapable of the job.  We all knew, were kind of in on the joke.  Don't worry, he'll surround himself with smart, knowledgable people, that are in the establishment.

We got Cheney, Ashcroft, remember them.  They built a governmental system that was broken.  Regardless of ideology, they lied to Congress, the American people.  Hell, they lied to Colin Powell and got him to lie to the world at the UN.  Just to get involved in a war in Iraq, instead of focusing on Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.  We are still there 15 years later.

If you don't remember, or weren't aware between 2001 and January 2009, the other cool things they did for us, were to completely tank the economy, like Great Depression tank it.  How?  They removed themselves from the marketplace, let the corporate entities regulate themself.  They sold subprime loans, wholly unethical practices, built a big chunk of the American economy into overvalued real estate, which, when it collapsed, nearly took down the auto industry with it.

Elections have consequences.  Electing people that are "different", change agents, has consequences.  I don't think Trump is as dense as George Bush turned out to be in reality.  More worrisome, I think he is as vain, trivial and clueless as he has portrayed himself through this election.  But, that is what I think, and not what I know.

I pray I am wrong.  And, I pray that this works out.  I fear that it will not.  This is no longer a middle finger to the world, this is real.  Every single word, action and sign that Trump shows from this moment on, will cause ripples through the global economy and the world.  Every single word, action and sing that Trump shows from this moment on, will be acted upon by other players on the world stage.  There are not any do overs.  There are not any oops moments.

It is an awesome responsibility.  I don't know that it is going to turn out well.  I pray it will.  But, there is an incredible and truly scary host of things that could not work out well.  That is the risk for every new President, regardless of background.  But, never before have we spent 17 months reinforcing to a man motivated by the reinforcement, that he should ignore completely, the folks that know the answer.

Did not sleep well.  Hope I worry for nothing.  Pretty sure I am not.

Election Prediction

Kind of a weird Sunday.  We are about 48 hours from voting starting in the election.  Honestly not happy to see either major candidate win.  Neither of them are what I think this nation deserves.  But, that will not change the outcome.

On November 9th, Hillary Clinton will have been elected President of the United States.  It will mark 6 popular vote victories for Democrats in the last 7 elections (yes Gore won more votes).  It will be because a huge plurality of urban and minority voters rejected the Republican nominee AGAIN.  It will most certainly not be because the Democrats nominated someone that should have won the Presidency.

Maybe after the election, I will go into the deep details as to how the Republicans will have lost 6 of the last 7 popular votes at a national level.  But, today, just wanted to formally register my prediction.

Michigan, Democrat.  Nevada, Democrat.  Pennsylvania, Democrat.  Colorado, Democrat.  Florida, very close but Democrat.  North Carolina, Democrat (HB2, will also produce a Democratic governor and Senator).  All of the "battlegrounds" may go Democrat.  Iowa and New Hampshire, I don't know.  Ohio will probably go to Trump.

Trump will win all the places that have less people than wildlife.  And lose, significantly, the urban areas and deeply populated portions of the nation.  All the places that you have to win, to win the Presidency, he will lose, by huge pluralities.

They are both horrible, flawed, unworthy candidates.  Almost any of their challengers in the primaries would have been preferable and better.  But, big money and crazy angry got the candidates they wanted.  And, here we are.

The worry I have, as a person that has been registered Republican, has been a fairly reliable Republican vote since 1985 when I was old enough to vote, is that the party is broken.  There is a huge divide between the Republican Party and communities of color.  There is a huge divide between the Republican Party and urban populations.  In control of the party, there is now a heavy layer of people without the ability to see the forest for the trees.  They will look at the results of this election, and spend 2 years doing nothing, investigating, digging, rehashing, continuing to ignore the populations that are growing, that have real needs.

The country will never again have as high a percentage of white men as it does today.  The country will never have as high a percentage of rural voters as it does today.  The country will never have as many evangelical Christian voters as it does today.  The country has already seen the Boomers fall out of the largest voting block in the nation.

Because of that, the narrow sliver of the platform that Republican leadership is teetering on, is incapable of delivering a national election.  The reality is most of America is just fine with gay marriage.  Most of America does not see common sense gun control (no fly no buy, mandatory background checks, limits on high capacity magazines) as the death of the Second Amendment.  Nor does most of America want to see the end of the Second Amendment, they just don't want their kids shot by some nutjob with a gun they should never have access to.  Most of America does not see people of color as dangerous.  Most of America hates terrorists, but also knows several people that are Muslim and not terrorists.  Most of America lives in places that have to worry about crime rates, drug issues and piss poor infrastructure that require investment, every single day, in their neighborhood.

That is just a reality of numbers.  Either the Republicans figure that out, or they will hold on to a red crescent from Idaho to Alabama that deliver 150 electoral votes in Presidential elections and that is it.  It is that simple.  Nothing will stop the continuing change in demographics in this nation.  There will not be another 1950's, and that is not so bad.  In the 50's, there were still signs that said whites only and colored only.  In the 50's, most people suffering a heart attack died before they got to the hospital.  In the 50's, we were still living duck and cover.

Things are better, all over the world, all over this country, since 1950.  That is the message that both parties, but most especially the Republicans, better get out of this election.  The culture wars are going to be very costly, if they continue.

We will see if I am right or wrong in less than 48 hours.  But, I say Hillary gets above 308 electoral votes.  And, that the Republicans found a banner to follow that was so bad that it resulted in the most hated candidate (other than their own) to ever run for President, still won.

I don't know if they will ever admit to losing.  That is the thing that worries me most.  Even in the midst of a historic defeat, there will be a denial of the results.  All cooked up because they have seen, the smart political folks who are paid to know what is going to happen, what is coming.  That has generated the whole it is rigged line.  Pretty sad, pretty bad and pretty much all there is left.

Action needed

Below is the general outline of the email that I sent to all of my elected representatives in Congress, House and Senate.  If so moved, please feel free to copy and send.  You may not understand all of what I wrote, and if you choose to send just a simple request for understanding as to the leadership decisions and issues of the Navy, that would be much appreciated.

I have watched the crumbling of the proud service I joined in 1985.  There is continuing embarrassment of failure of new assets, to complete even sea trials.  This is the result of lack of oversight and engineering at all levels of the Naval procurement program, and particularly of this Secretary of the Navy, our longest serving in over 100 years.  There is continued failures of commands and senior enlisted leaders at commands, an increasing and troubling trend that points directly at failures of leadership in development, training and mentoring of sailors as they progress to more and more important responsibilities.  There are ongoing scandals for bribery and graft, resulting from lax oversight and poor leadership at the highest levels of Naval logistics.  Most troubling, there is a continued relegation of the enlisted community, the ultimate strength and power of the sea service, to nameless, generalized automatons, instead of highly trained, highly specialized warriors of indominatable skill and character. 

The USS Cole was not saved by anything other than the specialized training, esprit de corps, resolve and character of her crew.  They refused to go down to the deep.  They were recognized as experts and rightly regarded as heroes.  Don't all our service men and women deserve the same training, the same leadership and preparation, so that, God forbid, when they do come into the hells of war, they are ready, effective and invincible?

Please contact your elected representative and demand some answers.  The coming headline, if we do not demand change and reform immediately, is the unthinkable, loss of a multiple billion dollar national asset, WITH ALL HANDS.  We have not seen that since World War II.  And there is no naval power in the world capable of doing that to our Navy, except our Navy.

Thanks for reading, and please speak out, for the sailors, the professionals and leaders that are struggling to uphold long tradition and the pride of the greatest Naval service the world has ever known.  They need your support and your concern and your action.

This website will show you how to email/contact your representatives.  You have two Senators and a Representative.  Remember to also contact the Senators and Representatives you know served, Senators McCain, Graham, Sessions, Nelson, Kirk, Coats, Ernst, McConnell, Inhofe, and Representatives Conyers, DeFazio, Duckworth, Gohmert, Issa, Hunter, McDermott, Rangel, Sanford, Joe Wilson 

www.contactingthecongress.org


Senator/Representative,

First, I wish to thank you for your service as a veteran/Representative/Senator.

I am a concerned American citizen.  241 years of tradition, highlighting technical and professional excellence and training have been jettisoned from the Navy, with no specifics and no directions.  It is a continuation of a remorseless slide to generalization and less and less technically capable and trained sailors, putting the fleet and lives at risk.

This Secretary of Navy, Mr. Mabus, has failed in many capacities.  He has failed to oversee ethics and leadership effectively, evidenced by the Fat Leonard scandal, and the unparalleled rate of failure of commanders and senior enlisted across all Navy communities.

He has selected and promoted the most inept leadership of any Secretary of the Navy since Josephus Daniels.  His CNO's and MCPON's have been abysmally poor leaders and champions for their service and their sailors.  As former senior enlisted, it has pained me to see him completely dismantle the Chief's Mess, the source of professional leadership and elan in the Naval service.  The previous MCPON, Master Chief Stevens, and the incumbent Master Chief Giordano, have seconded the poor leadership practices, the weak and feckless direction and leadership from the Pentagon, and the continued destruction of enlisted leadership and professionalism.

With the latest decision, to remove ratings from the Navy, they had dealt a death blow to 241 years of proud tradition.  As a member of Congress, you understand the power and importance of tradition.  You understand the continuity provided and the powerful role that provides in leadership and development of each successive generation of sailors.  This decision has been roundly condemned, has generated a petition that has reached the number of signatures required from the White House, and has thoroughly angered and confused the entire Naval community.

There is no formalized plan for how this will impact the Navy.  We are told to just trust them.  We do not trust this leadership.  They have failed to properly oversee ship procurement, resulting in the embarrassment that is the LCS, DDG 1000 and USS Ford situation.  Poorly developed technology, poorly managed procurement contracts and unsustainable engineering and architechure, have characterized all aspects of our nations investment in naval armament and power.  And it continues to flounder, fail and embarrass.

There has been an alarmingly large and unending string of commanders relieved for cause and lack of confidence in leadership, an a corresponding number of reliefs of Command Master Chiefs and Command Senior Chiefs.  These are related and stem from a failure of leadership culture from the Secretary down to the deckplate.  The secretive, poorly planned and often poorly formulated directives for personnel, uniforms and leadership are translating to a poorly led, poorly effective and increasingly prevalent lack of confidence in the service leadership.  I support women in service, the ability of persons to serve regardless of sexuality.  I am not contrary to many of the controversial policies, but I am constantly baffled and concerned about the poor roll out, poor plan and strategy and poor follow up and leadership that follows these difficult transitions.

The adoption of MCPON Steven's ill advised and weak CPO 365 initiative and the consistent and constant stripping of the CPO and senior enlisted leadership community's positional authority and the loss of respect of senior officer and civilian leadership for the CPO community continue to cause issues with roll out and implementation of these poorly conceived and planned initiatives.  And is constantly visible in the repetitive failures of leadership and confidence at an increasing number of Naval commands.  The CPO community is the bedrock of Naval leadership, and it's slow death is visible in constant headlines and embarrassment.

As a member of Congress, I ask that you please take a moment out of your busy schedule, and please look into what I have listed here.  Not simply because I ask, but because I am prior senior enlisted, there are dozens of CPO's struggling to lead in the Navy today, that I trained during my time.  They deserve better, and so do their sailors.

I do not understand where the Navy is going, but all the indicators point toward continued wasting of national resources, continued poor procurement and engineering decisions, continued advancement of weak and ineffective leadership.  Our Naval service, our nation and our citizens deserve better than we have had.  And we deserve to have it identified, investigated and addressed before the chief culprit, Secretary Mabus is allowed to slink off to cozy military contract fortune.

I am furious, not that things are wrong, there are always wrong things.  But, that there is so little notice paid to an organization adrift, with endemic leadership failures, absorbing billions and billions of dollars of overruns, without functional equipment being delivered, and being detrimental to good order, discipline and morale.

Sailors deploy for six months or more at a time, regardless of whether the nation is at war.  They deserve a civilian command authority, and senior commissioned leadership with their best interests and welfare at heart, not their own personal legacy and aggrandizement.  I urge you to look into this, to ask hard questions and demand complete answers from those that owe those answers to the nation, not just you.

The Navy is being damaged, potentially catastrophically.  Not because it is asked to implement hard policies and changes, but because it is forced to execute changes and upheaval with no planning, no direction and no leadership.  That is the failure and it is significant.

Thank you for your time and attention and God bless.

From A Dad

I just want to be clear up front, that it is not my intention to infer that any other father is wrong about their daughters.  But, I have the three most beautiful daughters in world.  Period.  That is just how it is.  And, that will never change.

There is a lot of conversation going on about Miss Universe, weight, looks, misogyny.   It is all important, and one of the key things that determines what kind of person you are, depending on your reaction to them.  I don't understand "beauty" pageants nor do I understand their fascination to the public.  Of course, they usually have attractive young ladies, depending on your particular attractiveness criteria.

But, they do nothing to measure, quantify or otherwise award beauty.  Beauty is the sum quotient of your personality, your heart, your dedication, your love and your soul.  It has almost nothing to do with how you look.  Because how you look is so transient, it should not be considered in how you define beautiful.  Your heart, your soul, your love, those are eternal things and are capable of expressing your beauty.

I am not trying to get into some debate about women's rights and the worth of women.  I don't even know how to express how wonderful the women in my life, in my family, my friends, my work colleagues, are.  They are all beautiful.  And, nothing about that is wrapped up in how they look.

But, my wife, my daughters, are the most beautiful things in my life.  The only thing that is as beautiful as they are, is my son.  I have three daughters, vibrant, resilient, intelligent, caring, dedicated, talented, and excellent young women.  They amaze me, they inspire me, and they humble me with all that they are.  There is nothing, nothing, that you could explain or show to me to change that opinion.  That is about love, parenting and self knowledge.

I do not attempt to understand why God gifted me with the perfect three women to be my daughters.  I just acknowledge, He knew.  I do not mean that they are perfect.  I know better.  But, they are perfect to be my daughters.

They have courage.  They have humor.  They have honor.  They have heart.   They are wondrous.  They are glorious.  And, that will remain my opinion, my fact, forever.

So, when the public. conversation turns to "beauty" it disturbs me.  Because, I know how special that word is, and it misused to describe attractiveness, cultural norms, individual preferences.  It is wrapped up in huge personal emotions.  It is the definition, the standard of some women's lives.  It is a burden, a goal, an attainment that they cannot ever feel they reach, because it is always different in everyone's eyes.  It makes superstars overnight, but immediately turns others ugly and mean over the attention.

See, beauty is something we are all gifted with.  When a person understands that beauty is within them, their essence, and is a gift from God, that beauty shines out and is plain to all to see.  When your life is a constant struggle to remain attractive, in the delusion that is beauty, the baggage gets heavy.

We tell our young girls that their attractiveness is tied up in their self worth.  If you are "not" attractive by the judge of the public, your worth is less somehow.  That is a horrible thing to do to any person, but most especially our daughters.  They look to us, regardless of their age, or how long you have been their parent, as arbiters of their actual worth.  We are to be the mirror, the reflection of truth, gifted from God, that they utilize to stabilize and understand their world.

None of us get it completely right.  I am sure that I have failed Emma, Tara and Kasey in various ways, around maintaining their worth, their self esteem.  I am sure that I have not reaffirmed their beauty and unique brand of wonderful at every available opportunity.

That is all on me, and one of the great failures of my life.  Because they are all three, each one and together, the pinnacle of beauty to me.  And, if they have to look no further than directly behind them, urging them on to the heights of success they will achieve, to see me mirror that beauty, than I am only doing the minimum that God decreed for me.  And it is an honor I do not deserve.

We should honor all the women we know, not because they are women, but  because they are people deserving of it.  We should not be blinded to issues because of the fact they are women, but we should not assume they have issues because they are women.  Women are not the same as men, but that does not mean that men cannot understand how to live with women.

Women deserve respect.  They deserve fair opportunity.  They deserve reassurance.  They deserve challenges.  They deserve relationsips.  They deserve hope.  They deserve support.

All of our daughters do.  Because regardless, they are  some father's daughter.  It is hard to remember at all times, because we are fallible people.  But it is wrong to claim that because we are men, we can't figure it out.  That is lazy and ill advised.  Especially if you want to deal with my daughters, you better get it straight.  Not only because I am still redneck enough to get the job done if I need to, but because they are going to make certain you do.

Not all daughters receive the support and encouragement and back up they deserve.  It motivates them to be focused in ways I feel are unhealthy.  They tie their worth to their looks, and then find something ugly in the mirror and because of that error, degrade their worth.  They listen to cultural clues that tell them they are not able to do this or that.  They receive implicit and explicit messages all day, every day that lies to them about their worth and their limits.  Entire industries exist around the vanity that we enforce on our children and most cruelly upon our daughters.

It is all wrong.  And, it is beyond my ability to fix.  But, all I can do as a Dad, is wake up every day loving them more than I thought possible.  All I can do is keep telling them what I know to be true, that they are more wonderful than they guess.  All I can do is remind them and encourage them to reach for their dreams, because they are overqualified to be whatever they want.  All I can do is sympathize with their setbacks, celebrate their successes and understand, to the best of my ability, the pains and the hurts.

I don't get it right, but I never lose sight of just how blessed I am.  All three of those girls will no that someone in this world finds them beautiful, finds them exactly right, just the way they are.  I think that is the highest calling a man can have, and is the essence of being a father.  It is why we call God, Father, because He accepts us and finds us exactly right, as we are.  There is nothing by accident in the creation of the Lord.

So, when a society finds it appropriate to objectify their daughters, it is a sickness and black stain on that society.  It happens in all societies.  But like every other sin, we are supposed to stop when we realize we are sinning.  I don't watch beauty pageants.  Because they aren't about beauty.  They are about pretty, but Pretty Pageant sounds just as shallow and worthless as it is.  And, don't mistake me, those women are someone's daughter, and I am sure they are beautiful.  But they are being judged on pretty, because in a contest with bikinis or "sports wear" and world peace questions, you cannot judge beauty.  Miss Universe is an exceptionally pretty women on an objective scale.  She is beautiful to someone, she is someone's daughter and I would never call her anything but beauutiful.  But, the inference that she is the most beautiful woman in the universe is wrong.  Because she isn't all three of my daughters, and they are, all three, the most beautiful women in the universe.

So, when you hear this current debate, understand that the whole premise is flawed, and wrong.  And neither side is clean, because making hay from someone's suffering is really not any more atttractive than being someone making money off objectifying women.  Calling someone's daughter "pigs", "disgusting", "ugly", is just wrong from a person standpoint.

And, I am no holier than thou.  Won't claim that I am forever innocent of this issue, or have always understood this.  I am positive that I have failed in this regard along the way.  That is not a proud admission on my part.  It is just that deep a part of the fabric of our society.  And it goes beyond elections and such.  God does not want us to behave in this way.  It is not appropriate by any standard I recognize.

I just needed to say that, to put that out there.  Because I watched this mess unfolding, and all I thought is, that poor young lady, I hope she had someone to make her understand that none of that mess had anything to do with her being beautiful.  I don't know if she did.  But, I want my daughters to know they do, and the world to understand it when I am that man, that father, and defend them, buoy them, brag about them, worry about them, and correct any wrong crap about them.

It is a Dad thing, and from one Dad, to all the rest of you, I  hope you have a Dad in your life that makes you or made you understand this.

Morals/History lesson

I figured out what I find wrong with this election cycle.  Well, I have known all along, but have finally put some words to what I was feeling.  America has lost its moral way, maybe.

Now, I am not talking about being a Christian nation, that is a post for another time and I can definitely put some words together over it.  What I mean is we have lost our sense of good and bad, secular values of character and decency.

I suppose part of this is my nostalgia for a place and time that no longer exists.  But, I am realist enough to understand that all the things that I miss, that have gone by the wayside, are replaced with things that others are treasuring as they live through them.  Instead of drinking from a hose, my children will remember when you could not play Xbox or PlayStation on line.  They may even have foggy memories of the dial up modem, which replace my rotary phone attached to a party line memory (which in a weird way, was kind of like a stone age Facebook, lots of lurking and listening).

Time stands still for no one, nor anyone's romanticized memories.  I am not nostalgic for the world that cost my grandfather his life from a heart condition that would not have even required open heart surgery today.  Nor for the world that required me to use pen and paper, and wait 2 weeks to hear from my family, during my first extended deployment.  No satellite phones either, just MARS calls, which were exactly like Facebook without the pictures, cause two guys sat there eavesdropping on you.

There is much to admire and be thankful for, in the world that we live have today.  But, that does not mean there are not relics from the past that would be useful to resurrect in our society.  For one, we could go back to having some basic right and wrong, good and bad, expectation of morality in interaction.  Me included, look, I am just as guilty as the next person.

But, there were rules in play, that were relatively adhered to, and worked for our benefit.  We worked on racism, and maybe made progress.  And, I hate to disillusion the young folks of today, who see a world of discrimination, but, it is very different today than it was, even in my youth.  In 1973, when my family went on vacation, I remember asking my Mom if black people only lived in Maryland.  Because once we got across the Harry Nice bridge on 301, we did not see another black person until we got back across the Harry Nice bridge coming home.  All that federal desegregation stuff was good and all, but it had not yet come to be rooted in society.  There was still enough segregation in place that it was noticeable to a five year old.  Today, the segregation is replaced with economic isolation, and there are sections of every large city in this nation that you could wander for hours and never see a person of color, or wander and never see a white person.  No sign says "Whites Only", or "Colored Only" but the rent sure as hell does.  So, maybe we haven't made progress?

We worked on religious bigotry, and maybe made progress.  I was born only 7 years after we elected the first Roman Catholic, the faith I was raised in, to the White House.  There was a significant segment of the population that wondered if JFK would be told what to do by the Pope.  Honest, its true.  The great JFK was seen as something of a risk (besides being a war hero and Senator, bigotry knows no reason).  All because of his faith, and his Irish heritage, there was an entrenched minority that would never accept that he was American first, because he swore an oath to be, and believed he was a Papist puppet.  Today, we just have an entrenched minority that swears our President is Muslim, because of his name and his skin color, and swears that he is plotting to destroy America.  7 years into his term, we have nominated the chief bigot in charge of that little gem, to run to succeed him as President.  It would not be okay if he were Muslim, that must mean he is a terrorist.  And, if he swore his oath on the Kuran, it is non-binding, because only the Bible is sacred enough for oaths, though it says in the Bible not to do anything like swearing an oath.  President Obama is viewed by many as illegitimate, despite attending a Christian church (though religion is not supposed to matter) and was a Senator.  So, maybe we haven't made progress?

We have made progress on equality for women.  We haven't, I was just checking to see if you were reading.  We still have not passed meaningful legislation that determines that women are required to be paid consistently with men, for the same qualifications and experience.  We have done stuff that really is not in the best interest of equality for women, like maternity leave.  No, hear me out, because I don't have anything against maternity leave.  But, if there is supposed to be equality, there should just be parental leave, that applied to both parents, to integrate a new life and schedule into their complexity.  As long as we continue to determine difference based on sex, we continue to extend sexism.  Most women are viewed as a risky endeavor when they get pregnant, that is the reality of today.  After all, how do you manage without a needed employee for six weeks or more?  You don't worry about that with a dude.  Unless you extend the rights to both parents, and you then staff accordingly to absorb the expected absence.  That is the thing with equal, see the racial thing above.  Separate but equal never is.  And equal can't be just between one race, or one sex, or one religion.  It is either equal to everyone or IT DOES NOT FIT THE DEFINITION OF EQUAL.

I was involved in a conversation last night about wasted votes that prompted this rant.  My vote will be wasted on the Libertarian candidate, and because I don't agree with the person I was talking to, I was deluded and militant.  Well, maybe.  I am convinced, completely, that the essential thing that is American is wrapped up in voting.  Exercising that right, without fetters of taxation or publication, is everything America is based on.  We, the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and ensure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish a Constitution (and yes, I sang that as I typed it, thank you School House Rock).  In it, it states that the people elect the representatives that form that government, and the government is subject to the will of the people.

But, we were a little too afraid (maybe with some justification, you did see Trump in that debate right?) about the will of the people, so we instituted the Electoral College.  Supposedly to negate the disparity in population, South to North, but really to discount the number of black folk that were enslaved in the South.  A fascinating thing, but, in all the elections we have held, we have managed to stay basically true to the will of the people.  Except for 4 elections Quincy Adams/Jackson 1824, Hayes/Tilden 1876, Harrison/Cleveland 1888, and Bush/Gore in 2000.  Out of all of the elections, these 4 were the only ones that resulted in someone winning the election without winning the popular vote.  That is a pretty good record of getting it right, and all 4 of those elections put people in office that resulted in bad news for America.  Objective history, not just personal opinion.  But instructive about the will of the people.  (Important historical note for all those Birther/Obama is a Muslim folks)

What has happened, is that we have entrenched ourselves in a situation of hate and anger.  Blacks are angry about their treatment.  Whites are angry about their treatment.  Muslims are angry about their treatment.  Hispanics are angry about their treatment.  But, instead of identifying where those points of anger overlap, and can be addressed to the benefit of all, we devolve into name calling and bitterness.  Look, I am part of the problem as well, no holier than thou condemnation.  And if you have read this far, it is almost over, but this is important.

POLITICS WILL NOT SOLVE IT FOR US.  No candidate that we elect is going to solve anything for us.  Because our system is set up for us to solve the problem, by the will of the people.  We are supposed to vote out folks that do not do their duty, that is why the House has elections every 2 years.  They are the pursestrings of the government, that is why they have such a short term, to limit the damage they can do to the nation's well being.  The Senate, supposedly a deliberative and considered body, has a longer term, and rotating portions, to provide continuity and breadth of vision, for appointments, treaties, confirmations.  The President is up every 4 years.  If there are issues, we get to vote in a new President.

Except it has failed.  There was a Congressman from Texas on TV last night, that was a Trump supporter, who went on and on about Trump being the change we need, the change necessary, the shake it up piece that has been missing.  The reporter asked him, since change was necessary, didn't that mean he was necessarily a piece of the problem that needed to be replaced.  Painful expression, silence, then "I put my credentials up every 2 years, and the voters think I am doing a good job."

Look, my opinion, there is not a single member of Congress, House or Senate, that is doing a good job.  No budget, no long term legislative agenda, no meaningful amendment to regulation or taxation, no progress on appointments.  There is simply a partisan piss party happening.  But, we vote for them, over and over and over again, then get pissed off that it doesn't work, like we should expect something different.

Even your particular great representative, that you plan to vote for again, is part of the problem, or change isn't necessary, in the kind of nuclear explosion that Trump would be, literally.  The status quo, which is the horse blanket over Hillary, is not all that great an option either.  So either way, the political midget that is your current elected official, is of dubious value, period.

If we are to create a process by which we have power in the people again, a lot of folks like me, need to cast "meaningless" votes for other.  Because the vote tally and performance of those "fringe" candidates is the only way to break the stranglehold of incumbency the two major parties possess.  A vote for other, Johnson in my case, is a vote for different, and the first step in the machinations required to consistently field and provide a choice between R and D.  Because Redo and Duplicate are just not good things at this point.

That is not a good versus evil, religious morality.  That is a right and wrong decision for the basis of our Constitution and the government we established in 1789.  It is maybe the most important thing, those of us alive and running America today, will ever do.  Just like beating the Nazis, the Commies, waging forever war on the Religious Nutbags, getting our government back to of the people, by the people and FOR THE PEOPLE, that just might be our greatest generation accomplishment.  It worked for the Whigs/Republicans in 1856.  They nominated John C. Fremont, a cannibal, I kid you not.  He lost, thankfully, he was a major league idiot.  But, the performance was significant enough to lay the ground work for two very distinguished Whigs to vie for the nomination in 1860.  William Seward, the most able man to never serve as President, and Abraham Lincoln.  IT GAVE US LINCOLN, and who would not be happy to see a statesman like that appear on the horizon?

Just saying.

GLYASDI

15 Years

It has been 15 years since that terrible day.  I can remember exactly where I was, how I found out, and what I did for the next frantic few days.  I remember checking the names daily at the Pentagon to see if I knew any of them, either from serving with me, or because I come from the DC area, and it was entirely possible I knew the civilians killed in the Pentagon.

I mourned when the towers fell.  It broke our collective heart.  It was a terrible, dark, bad day.  We suffered one of the worst things a nation can suffer, a sneak attack upon our civilians, upon targets that were not part of our military complex.  It was cowardly warfare, condemned by the world.

I have struggled with what I want to say today.  I am always so saddened at the memory of the loss.  It breaks my heart still, those poor people, those brave responders, the magnitude of it all.  But, more, I remember the America that faced that day.  We were not a nation of angst and sniping, and the lowest common denominator we have become in these 15 years.

But, I will not use this anniversary to conflate issues.  We have a serious issue and disagreement in this country to do with the former starting quarterback for the 49ers, that has spread to others in the NFL.  I will not dignify their behavior by citing 9/11 as a reason to condemn it.  9/11 should be more important to all of us than that.  Regardless of our race, our creed, our national origin, 9/11 should stand as proof that to be American is important, is to be cherished, and makes many jealous enough to kill over it.

9/11 is proof of how much a large segment of the world's population despises our freedom, our rights, our uniqueness on the planet.  More than they even hate the Israelis, they hate us because we are free.  They hate us because they cannot erase the vision of freedom and liberty that we remain to so much of the world.  People so impoverished they make Apalachia look like El Dorado, dream of being American. People so oppressed they do not have the bare minimum requirements for life, dream of being American.  People so abused by those that pervert their beliefs for violence and power that they literally cannot show their face in public, dream of being American.

Shame on us if we ever forget why 9/11 occurred, why it is so important.  Shame on us if we care about some quarterback, more than we do remembering that even the stumbling and broken excuse for a democracy we portray is still so stupendous, it drives the oppressors and evil of the world to try to kill us.

They do not want our money.  They do not want our goods.  They do not want our lands.  They do not want anything, but to destroy us.  Because our freedom, what we represent, what we show to the rest of the world, is so precious they cannot abide the thought of it.  We forget that, in all the tumult that we currently find ourselves in.

And, shame on you, if you think that whatever your race, creed or origin may be, if you think you are oppressed here.  You think that because you have not seen what real oppression looks like.  You think that because you do not understand what living in real fear feels like.  You think that because you are uneducated as to what those words and ideas are.  You are told you know.  Your lot in this nation is light years ahead of the best those in other nations will ever hope for.

There are plenty of things I would not do for this country, torture, murder, rape, because we are Americans, and we are better than that.  But there is no danger I would not brave for this country.  And, I did so, for more than two decades.  On 9/11, I was an experienced sailor, one of the best at what I did.  I was helpless to stop the carnage.  I was helpless to do anything to prevent the deaths, prevent the pain, injury and loss.  I was helpless to explain it to my children, to myself.  The enormity of the evil we faced was beyond my description.

It was not beyond the description of much of the world.  There was rejoicing in the Mid East.  This was not condemned wholesale by the Muslim world.  This is not out of the realm of their understanding and conception, like it is America's.  This is considered something that may be justified in their faith.  They covered for, supported, financed and hid members of the groups that perpetrated this crime.  Members of the Saudi Royal family, members of the leading families in Yemen, the best and brightest of the Muslim world were complicit and culpable in many ways for accessory to the crime that was 9/11.  Remember that even our "friends" in that world are not liking us because we are America.  They need us because we are the big stick.  There is no love lost there for us, and never has been.

We have no business glossing over the enormity of 9/11, or what it brought about.  We have no business not still feeling the sting of that loss.  We have no business thinking that we have defeated the enemy.  As long as we are free, as long as we are America, they will hate us.  Be they Nazis or Islamic zealots.  As long as we are free, we are in danger, and we are at risk.

I will happily live with that risk all the rest of my life.  I will happily continue to struggle to live as we wish and still maintain the proper security.  As long as they continue to hate us, as long as they continue to desire to destroy us, I will know that my America is still the greatest light onto the world.

Whatever your particular axe to grind with America is, if you are American, give thanks for it.  It means you are allowed, gifted and expected to make your America better.  Whatever disagreement we may have, we are still disagreeing and not in combat.  We are still so much more blessed than any other nation on Earth, we have no excuse not to see that.

Walmart, libraries, free access to the Internet, freedom to move from here to there, freedom to go worship where you want, freedom to wear the clothes you wish, freedom to have children, (that one is way over abused BTW), these are all things we take for granted.  Were any of the riots or demonstrations we have seen this year around the country, to occur in Saudi Arabia or Jordan, our good friends and the good Muslim nations, most of the organizers would be facing the death penalty.  The abuse the women would suffer is not fit for description.

If you do not see the proof of our blessing as Americans, in the terrible hatred and bigotry and idolatry that drove the 9/11 attackers, and drives the terrorist organizations still, you miss the point.

Never forget, because it is when we forget why we are hated, that we lose our freedoms.  We become incapable of disagreeing.  When we forget, we elect a raving bigot and narcissist that is more like Sadam than he is any of our past President.  When we forget, we elect a criminal that will do and say anything to enrich themselves and get what they want, and that is more like Sadam than it is like any of our past Presidents.

Disagree with me.  Defame me.  Condemn me.   Curse me.  Put me on blast.  Every one of those actions ensures that we will not succumb to being like those that hate us enough to kill us.  And, if I dish back as good as I get, realize that also proves our freedom still reigns supreme.  I don't agree with anyone all of the time.  And, I really hope no one agrees with me all the time.  That does not improve America.

And our continued disagreement, our continued growth and experimenting, our continued deepening of rights and liberties and free access, will make us remain unsafe at some level.  But, those goat abusing knuckle dragging bastards will never overcome America.  Not with hate.  Not with oppression.  Not with intolerance.  Freedom will win out.  At least as long as I have breath in me, freedom will have at least one defender.

So, please remember why 9/11 is important, so those 3,000 lives are never lost in vain.  Please.  And I hope that you disagree with me loudly and clearly, for all the world to see.  That is what they hate most, and any chance we get to dig it into those bastards, we should take full advantage of it.

GLYASDI

Opinions

This business of having an opinion is dangerous.  Because, see, there is this idea out there that has taken over our society, that is a real problem for us.  See, this idea says that my opinion is somehow an attack on someone that disagrees with me.

We have lost our way in discourse.  I blame social media to some extent, none of us were prepared to have everyone read what we think, without the context of a conversation or shared background.  But, more importantly, I blame the parenting we (my generation) has inflicted on children the world over.  While it might be the best time ever to be a child, it is also the time that has been built around the input of our children.

Therefor, any hope we have to have maturity in our society is dying.  Because we tune the world for our littlest ones, we remain stuck in the juvenile world of hurt feelings and what is most important to me.  We have lost the mature perspective of what is the impact to the whole, and some ability to disregard our own desires in that search for the ultimate right answer.

This whole phenomenon of having an opinion insulting someone is right at the 12 year old level.  Now, I have been plenty offended by stuff others say and think.  Sometimes, my reactions are at the 12 year old level.  But, when it blows up, as anything juvenile eventually does, I am able to maneuver my way through the issue.  Without needing my posse or my squad to come to my defense.

As a grown up, a mature and fully realized adult, sometimes I get it wrong.  Sometimes what I think will not be agreed to by anyone.  Sometimes, sometimes I just think what I think, and if you don't like it, we are just going to have to agree to disagree.  Or you can maintain your pissed off state at me, I got crap to do.

That used to be the way discourse worked in our nation.  People of principle and discipline were in positions of authority, that accepted that not everyone will agree with them.  They did not assume that meant they were wrong, because someone got their feelings hurt.  They did not judge the worth and validity of their argument by who agreed with them, but by what they knew in themselves.  When folks they knew and respected did disagree with them, that drove introspection and self analysis, which many times resulted in a change of thinking.  All the rest of the times, people just kept thinking what they thought, but tried to do it without ascribing evil to those that disagreed.

What brought about this post?  Well, one of the people that I blame for the regression of our society has passed.  Phyllis Schafly, one of the least appreciated social engineers in American history, passed this week.  Her brand of politics, condemnation and moral superiority tinged with bigotry and disgust, were a potent mix of heady elements that post World War II America could not manage.

Where would we be today without this woman?  Perhaps somewhere in the same neighborhood that Reagan and O'Neill lived?  You know, that era when men of character and opposing views found enough common ground to work to the benefit of the nation, that place?  Remember it?  Probably not.
It has been drowned out by 15 years of war, and 8 years of corruption and morally broken leadership before that.  There was a time, not so long ago, when we did not agree on the edges, but found the wide common ground and did things.  We took care of the nation's business.  We disagreed vehemently, and with great vitriol, but we still took action.

But, as the Boomers came of age, they began a shift in the American psyche that we are living through now.  See, Baby Boomers were the children of the greatest victors the world had ever known.  They were born to gods that had defeated the combined might of the world, and knew no master or fear of the cost of their freedom.  We look at these people today, old and infirm, and still imbued with a whiff of the cocky bastard that toppled Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini.  These were men and women of great distinction, and no understanding of a world not subject to their rule.

Their children were tolerated and spoiled.  They grew to a generation that retained the idea that they were titans striding the land, but without the understanding of the cost that freedom demanded.  When war came, they broke.  They split deeply and passionately over fighting the war, and ended up with the side that hid and did not man the ramparts, actually prevailing in our social conscience.  This was a different kind of victory and a different affirmation of a shared ideology.

Now, it mattered what the individual thought, more than the cost to the whole.  These people raised their children, my generation, with this theory.  The individual worth was counted much higher than the whole.  That is where participation trophies, everyone getting something, the rise of the welfare state, the grim reaper of entitlements, and a notion that there was a moral obligation to self before country, all came to maturity.  For a while, we resisted this cancerous stance.  George Herbert Walker Bush was last of the great hero of the Greatest Generation.

We held on to an idea that the nation's priorities were often at odds and above the priorities of the individual.  We did great things.  But, when we elected the first of the Boomer Presidents, things began to decay.  Clinton was the bell ringer for the state we find ourself in.  His brand of morally ambiguous leadership just did not sit right.  While there were still enough of the Greatest Generation in Congress and the courts, we kept ourselves solvent and capable.

But, the cancer spread.  Soon, all the arms of government were populated with a layer of leadership that had never served, had no idea that they should ever serve, and no conception of what that service meant.  When these people came into the government, IN POSITIONS OF SERVICE, they had no internal measure of what that meant.  So, it became about their individual feelings, and not about the best for the nation.  Whatever your political persuasion, you can understand that where before we had Titans striding the halls of government, today, there are just stunted dwarves of little talent and little conviction.

Neither Obama, Reid, McConnell, Boehner, Ryan, Pelosi, nor Chief Justice Roberts, are people of gigantic stature and thought.  Obama comes the closest, mostly because his focus is broad enough, not because he possesses the principle required to lead and to govern.  The rest are small minded, on top of poorly talented.  There are no saviors stepping forward either.  Neither Trump or Hillary Clinton possess the internal mechanism of greatness.  They are both petty and petulant children in spirit.  Someone told them they were always supposed to have what they wanted, what they thought important, and they believe it.  Neither has come anywhere near serving, in the manner of service we hallow so greatly.

Politics has become a career that has the potential to make you one of the wealthiest people in the nation, look at the 348 millionaires in the Congress.  Harry Truman lived on his pension from the Presidency.  Imagine today, a person leaving the White House and living on what is considered upper middle class income, it boggles the mind.  Politics has become about the enrichment of personal cliques and business segments.  Corruption is nothing new, it has plagued every government established by man since leaving the Garden.

But, today, corruption is so accepted and tolerated, that we cannot imagine a government without it.  Imagine a government that passed a law requiring a cap to profiteering from medicine on the backs of Americans, instead of just coughing with embarrassment at Mylan increasing the price of EpiPens by 400%.  We can't, it is inconceivable that the government would be the instrument of protection of the people.  Imagine a government that required businesses to pay taxes that support the maintenance of the roads, sewers, water supply and infrastructure of the towns and regions they are draining?  We can't, because we have convinced ourselves that taxes are evil, and of no purpose, for our own advantage.  (And because we have not had a Congress in over 20 years that was not at least as legal as it was criminal.)

Imagine a time and place that provided work for people capable of work, instead of welfare.  Imagine a society that expected something from its citizens, for the privilege of being American, by virtue of nothing but luck on your part.  Imagine a society that valued its teachers enough to pay them adequately for the responsibility that we entrust them with.  Imagine a society that shared in sacrifice for the safety and preservation of this democracy.  Imagine a time when being American was more than an entitlement status, and was actually a personal debt worth service up to and including your life.

This society existed less than 60 years ago.  The remnants of it exist still.  But, we are so spoiled that we cannot conceive of actually being required to participate in something that requires things of us, not just gives to us.  Ever noticed that TV has always approximated the society it reflects?  Look at TV from 1956-1966, every one of us has a show that we loved from that time period that we watch even now on TVLand.  Can you see that happening with Teen Mom or Keeping up with the Kardashians in even 10 years?  The moral level of authority respected in the community is reflected in its public display.  We are no longer Brady Bunch, Andy Griffith, Bonanza; we are ThugLife and Pimpin'.

We accept Clinton/Trump, because we are not willing to go be responsible for what is happening to us.  Most don't even pay attention.  Most won't even vote.  Instead of serving, here or abroad, we won't even vote.  Too hard, too long a line, too much to pay attention to.  Yet, let someone put a picture or opinion out there that we don't like, and we will spend life energy being offended, outraged, righteous.  How dare they not agree with what we think is right.  They are either evil or stupid, and possibly both.  So, let's immediately go to the 3 year old level, "I hope you die."

This is because no one has ever risked, escaped, or suffered death next to us, doing what we do, for over 90% of the population.  Want to know what made the Greatest Generation great?  They watched the kid next to them get shot, saw the guy down the street come home in a coffin, and lied about their age to go serve and protect this nation.  They did whatever it took to get to the end result they needed for the whole.  That is why they are great, because they accepted that their price might be high, but the value was worth it to us all.

We could care less about the all, if the price is more than we care to pay personally.  That is why we cannot even stand to see someone express an opinion different from our own.  None of us, me included, are free of this taint, at this point.  Instead of assuming the opposite side of the argument is at least as correct as our own, because the real truth lies somewhere between, we assume the opposite.  If you don't agree with me, you are disturbed, wrong, evil, bigoted, small minded, and should be abused mentally and physically.

Want to know how you will know I am right?  Because this time next year, the President will be Donald Trump, a narcissistic billionaire that has no idea how dangerous he actually is because of his narcissism; or it will be Hillary Clinton, who has proved throughout 40 years under our inspection, that she will lie, cheat and steal to whatever extent necessary to get what she wants.  Neither of these people care about the whole more than themselves, and I would love for someone to show me any example they can find to prove that is not a true statement.

Our leadership reflects our best median.  Our best median is somewhere between Trump and Clinton.  That ought to just make you sick at your stomach.  If you are reading this, your parents most likely fought the Great War, or served in the 50's.  Does this nation have any resemblance to what they exerted all of their effort to achieve?  Are we doing a service to our children, or is that even too hard a view to take externally?  Do we just desire another generation of crooks that enrich the corporations, protect the wealth that already exists, and leave us even less safe, less solvent and less stable?

If you think we do, any channel will play the stuff you want to hear, it is a good time for you.  However, if you are tired of this, and tired of how immature the world around you is, you need to do something.  It is not even hard.  Just reject these two current clown shows.  Vote for something different.  Get crazy, vote for something different in every single race something different is available.  Just say no.  That does not mean not participating, they are counting on that.  It means standing up and just saying NO!  We don't even have movies to demonstrate that simple principle, but look it up, watch Mr Smith Goes To Washington.  It is not that we have not faced these things before, it is that we have no champions to follow, because we have done this to ourselves.

It should make us all ashamed to call Ryan, Speaker of the House.  Obama President of the United States.  McConnell Majority Leader of the Senate.  That should curdle all of your stomachs.  And the only way to change it, is to change it.

Good luck kids, it is going to get tough out there if we don't.  And, if you don't like either Clinton or Trump, this was not any kind of endorsement of the other.  They are both equally wrong for the same reasons, THEY ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH for my country.  I would be curious how anyone could quantify them as good enough.  In fact, there is a spot below for comment, or on the post that puts this up, go ahead and give it your best shot.  I will assume you are at least as right as me, and I will not consider you evil, twisted or broken.  I will not be offended you do not agree with me.  I don't know that you will convince me, but I will hear you out.  That is how it is supposed to work.

Remember?

GLYASDI

Mind full

I have not blogged in a few days.  I have had a complete mind full.  You know that feeling, where so many competing things are happening in your head, and you cannot break them down into groups or keep them straight?  Well, that is what happens to me when I let life overwhelm me.

So, with a mind full, the only real cure is to get it out.  So, this is going to be a series of quick hits.  I know if you read this often, you are thinking, "yeah, right."  We'll see.

The first is kind of a hot topic for me.  The 49'er guy that won't stand for the National Anthem.  I won't even type his name.  I personally think everyone has the right to their own opinion.  If that is honestly his position, more power to him.   But, as I am also entitled to my own position, I will not partake of any endeavor he is associated with.  I won't watch the game if he plays.  I won't buy the products they advertise while he plays.  I just will not participate in gaining him more financial reward to be so wholly wrong.

And, I don't even mean about his premise.  I am not black, at least I am not any more black than he is, and I have not had the experience of being black in America.  I have my own opinions about the whole subject.  But, for the sake of argument, even if I concede he is right, that is still no reason not to show respect for the flag and for those who have defended it.  The flag waving at Ft. McHenry, the flag going up San Juan Hill, the flag streaming over Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima, that flag, and those sacrifices made to take that flag there deserve the respect of every American.

If you are rich enough to live in a land that allows your opinion, allows your idiocy in support of that opinion, indulges your bias and allows your error, you are rich enough to support the men and women that have given you that gift.  It is not about the color of your skin, or your station in life.  But, if you are a young black man, earning HUNDREDS of millions of dollars, to play a game, with all the advantage and benefit that life brings, YOU SHOULD BE ESPECIALLY RESPECTFUL.

Had those men and women not stood, for you, all through these 240 years, you would not be where you are.  Had others not taken the promise and premise of that flag to heart, and given their last ounce of life to defend it, to protect it, you would not be where you are.  Had others not cared more for the magnificent whole, than they focused on the despicable few, you would not be where you are.  Had you even an instant of clarity outside of yourself, and the mistaken and egregious lies you have been filled with, you would understand exactly where you are.  And, you would think God for the blessing of living in this land of the free, protected and provided by the brave.

That is what sitting on your overpaid, unappreciative, and just flat wrong ass, during the salute to that flag and all that she stands for, means.  You ignore the blessings provided and protected by the brave that have gone before you.  It is not a black or white thing, honoring that ensign.  If it was, then you ignore all the valor of the many men and women of color that have defended and supported that flag.  If you look at that flag through the prism of race, you miss the damn point, and I have no significance to attach to you.

Stand and deliver means something to some of us.  Not about a classroom.  Not about math.  It means something about brothers and sisters lost.  It means something about an idea and a vision precious enough to risk your very life over and for.  It means something for the dedication of those who have, who are, and who will serve.  To utilize your pitiful platform of entitlement and favor, to do something that denigrates those that stood and delivered, is simple unacceptable.

I know no one in your life has ever made the world about something outside of you.  Unfortunately, for millions of us, the world is very much always about something outside of us, and we do not have the luxury nor the inclination to focus on the singular.  There is something broken and miserable in you.  You, your background, your history and your success are a joke.  The 19 year old kid that wished he had the ability to play well enough to go to college, but instead ended up on a firing line in Afghanistan, paying the ultimate price in defense of our freedom to be watching 16 games in HD, he is who deserves notice and respect.

You deserve an butt whipping, the kind you should have gotten as a spoiled 10 year old, who acts more generously than you do.  I would do it myself, but I doubt I am physically able anymore.  See after 21 years of rolling out on steel decks and vertical ladders, my knees and feet don't work like they used to, sadly.  On second thought, if I had the opportunity, I am pretty certain I could get it done, you pansy, crybaby bitch.  You don't have an ounce of my dedication and integrity, and I am a poor example compared to all the rest of my brothers and sisters in the whole long history of this great nation.  You aren't a pimple on a good man's butt.

So, keep your seat, you ungrateful, ignorant and arrogant little shite.  I don't want it.  How that makes life better for anyone, showing disrespect while being in a position granted solely by luck and providence, that is not available anywhere else in the world, I do not fathom.  You are pitiful, but you won't get any of my pity.  You get only my disdain and my disgust.  Those around you that enable your display of petulance, they earn it too.  The owners, the sponsors, the league, the players, they are all tainted by you and your smallness.  And you are too ignorant to understand even that.  Sadly, they are as well, which is why there is silence among them.

Piss off you little, pitiful, spoiled and petulant manchild.  I don't hope you get hurt.  I don't hope you have something evil befall you.  Were I able to, face to face, I would show you what I think.  Since I am not, I won't make any wishes or curses for your future.  I hope you live a long life, and in that life, you daily meet someone without an arm, or leg, or eye, that gave them in defense of your nation.  For it is your nation too, you little baby.  Sadly, it is as much yours as mine.  It is my hope the team, whatever teams you play for, hire disable veterans to stand, or sit (because their legs are gone) at attention every time the anthem is played, RIGHT BESIDE YOUR DISGUSTING LITTLE ASS.

I would like the world to see heroes on that great stage, and put in perspective just how small and trivial you are.  Bastard, just an unmitigated bastard.  I hope it is a long and blessed life, that you can never take satisfaction from, because you just are not capable of seeing the majesty around you.  Piece of shit.

I was wrong, that really was the only thing I needed to get off my chest.  Can't express how much that disgusts me.  Disgusts me more that there is not more anger over it.  We just ignore it, because we are afraid someone will think we are racist for calling out the little bitch for what he is.  It is not about black and white, though he thinks it is.  It is about right and wrong, for something that is more than black or white.  And, if you don't comprehend that, I got nothing for you.  Move along and take a seat on the bench next to that other fricking loser a**hole.

JOE

2 Party Issues

A friend posted their view on why they were voting for Gary Johnson, and the response was pretty heated.  See, my friend made the mistake of just being honest.  And, that is almost completely forbidden in our politics today.

Let me follow up.  It is dishonest in America today, to be an abortion voter.  If you are anti-abortion, you are not going to ever see it outlawed, it is not going to happen, and you know it.  If you are pro-abortion, you are not going to ever see it outlawed, it is not going to happen, and you know it.  So, casting your vote based on this opinion is as ridiculous as casting your vote based on whether you think we should have gone to war in Vietnam.  It is over, done with, and no one or no thing you can vote for will change that.  There are not any judges that you are going to get confirmed, that are going to change that.

It is dishonest in America today to be a gay rights voter.  If you are anti-gay rights, you are not going to see them outlawed, it is not going to happen, and you know it.  If you are pro-gay rights, you are not going to see them outlawed, it is not going to happen, and you know it.  So, casting your vote based on this opinion is as ridiculous as casting your vote based on whether you think 18 year olds should have the right to vote.  It is over, done with, and no one or no thing you can vote for will change that.  There are not any judges that you are going to get confirmed, that are going to change that.

The phantom of Supreme Court justices is a typical ploy used by both parties.  The reality is that the likelihood of getting a judge that is partial, in this day and age, is nearly impossible.  That is not how the system works.  And, you can be as indignant and honorable as you want, and just waste your vote and your time.

Want proof?  Look at the Voting Rights Act.  That law got gutted by the Supreme Court.  Think the system is not rigged to keep these two parties in power?  That only happened because it was good for both parties.  They know they will get back in power, and redraw the lines, whichever party is out of power at the moment.  They know the gravy train keeps rolling.  If you think the Supreme Court is impartial, the same right wing court that gutted the Voting Rights Act, which should not be partisan, upheld abortion rights five times and gay right three time.  You explain it any other way.  Comments below, I would love to be educated.

But, what your vote could do, is to dislodge the power of the two parties.  You could rock their strangle hold on America, and crack their code.  Their code is incumbency and structure.  No matter what, they don't fear losing control of the Congress or the White House, it will come back.  That is because they know they are the only two tickets to the dance.  And, business and whack job money flows to whoever has the tickets to the dance.  Without a guarantee that they maintain those key entry points to the system, they lose their vice grip on our nation that has resulted in the country we have today.

Want an illustration?  There are riots, and parts of cities being burned down over police shooting a convicted felon, that had a gun pointed at police, and was wanted.  This is simply because he was a black man.  He was shot by a black police officer.  Yet, we poisoned thousands and thousands of poor children in Flint Michigan, and the most we see are people wondering if the governor, a good Republican, will apologize.

That is how screwed up our 2 party system is.  The municipal system, and the changes that allowed Flint to occur were passed by the legislature and approved by the governor.  Want to know how come I can tell you there were Democrat votes involved?  There is no hue and cry, not even a Sharpton sighting to fight this.  The parties did it, so it is being covered over and contained.  The police are apolitical.  They can't be Democrat or Republican, so they are a safe tool to throw to the public and allow them to be angry over that.

We are played every day by the corrupt 2 party system and the media that perpetuates it.  The only way out, is to break the deadlock and vice grip the system has on our lives.  Any other election, and I would tell you it is better to vote for one of the 2 party candidates, than a 3rd party candidate.  But, this year, we actually have seasoned executives, with track records that look like the America we want to see.  (Not Jill Stein, no, not now, not ever.)

Want to know why I know they are capable and experienced?  Because every time the media discusses them, and their position, which is rarely, it finishes the piece talking about weed.  Let's make sure we throw in there that Gary Johnson smoked weed, and is for legalization.  That ought to get at least a third of the nation against him.

Weed is the most available illegal substance in the world.  It is harder to buy fertilizer than it is to buy weed.  I am not a proponent of weed, have never smoked it in my life.  But, if you want to know what I am scared of, it is not weed.  It is the continued purchase of our government by large corporate interests.  Warren Buffet, campaigning for Clinton ought to tell you that it is not about party, it is about control.  Weed is not the red herring we have made it out to be.  If you made it legal tomorrow, you would not see a sky rocket of issues, just way less arrests and life issues for people not hurting anyone.  And it is already legal in a whole bunch of places, and those smart citizens are making tax money off of it, and not jailing teenagers for no reason.

My point is, if you are looking at this election through the prism of abortion, gay rights, legalization of marijuana, you are going to lose, no matter who you vote for or who wins.  If you look at it as the opportunity to decouple the party system from our immediate future, you can vote for who you think will do the best job as President.  Who has the right record and the right background, with the right plans for America.  If you can find either Clinton or Trump to meet that bar, I can't help you.

But, if you are like a lot of the rest of us, and just completely disgusted by the choices given you by these two parties, take the other option.  Vote for something that will change America.  Vote for something that you will not have to explain to your children in 20 years, or lie to them about it.  Vote for Johnson and Weld, in the words of the fake spray tan clown, "What the hell do you have to lose?"

And, if you are worried about abortion and gay rights and weed, there are thousands of community organizations to get involved in, that actually work on the ground, in your neighborhood, helping people deal real time with those issues.  It is how we used to be activist in this nation, we went and helped our neighbors, and did not rely on the government.  If you do that, it is really not that urgent to deal with at the Presidential and Congressional level.  If your only contribution is your vote, at least consider voting for the overall picture, not just one or two issues that are not going to change.  I beg of you.

And, by all means, if you have some reason you think Clinton or Trump are actually going to be good for America, there is a comment section below.  I would love to learn how, because for the life of me, I cannot see it.

Peace brothers and sisters.  GLYASDI