Does the World Get You Down?

This is my last blog.  The world is so fuXXed up that it is not possible to comment on all its absurdities.  Besides it is too depressing.  The only way to preserve sanity is to look at it with rose colored glasses, so I shall devote myself to things of beauty such as poetry and literature. 

     If you have not seen my historical novel, “The Quest for Land and Fortune,” may I urge you to go to Amazon and get a copy while they last.  It is narrative non-fiction, the people are all real, but what they said to each other and what sort of blogs they might have written, is fiction, I was not there. 

      The New York Times of December 28, 2014, had a section entitled the “Year in Pictures.  I list the cut-lines to illustrate my point.

01/09/2014  Displaced people on ferry led fighting between government forces and rebel in South Sudan.

02/24  Women took shelter from sniper fire in The Ukraine.

02/19  Anti-government protestors burned barricades in The Ukraine.

04/17  A protestor hurled a Molotov cocktail during clashes with police, Caracas, Venezuela.

04/30  A lockdown drill to address the threat of school shootings in a eighth-grade class, Belle Plaine, MN

03/12  A girl was wounded between riot police and anti-government protestors, Istanbul.

05/05  Mourners attended funeral of Julia Izotova, 21, killed during clashes between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists.

05/11  Civil War set of a vast food crisis, among the malnourished were a mother and her 5-month old. Malakal, South Sudan.

07/09  Mexican authorities deported miners on a flight back to El Salvador.

07/24  Relatives look into a hospital operating room at those injured in an Israeli air strike. Gaza Strip.

08/15  Palestinians prayed in the rubble of a mosque. Gaza City.

07/01  A Jewish woman prayed during the funeral for three Israeli teenagers who were killed in the West Bank.

07/02  Migrants traveling toward the US on a train known as “The Beast” because of violent crime.Tenosique, Mexico

09/23  A marina owner on the boat dock in the dried-up Huntington Lake CAL.

08/25  Michael Brown Sr. mourns as his son’s coffin is lowered, St. Peters Cemetery, Normandy.

08/27  Yameen Ritaj, 16, left her abusive husband during her pregnancy. Refugee camp, Jordan.

09/05  Medical workers took James Dorbor, 8, into a Ebola treatment center. Liberia.

011/25  Police clash with pro-democracy demonstrators, Hong Cong.

11/28  Senator Mitch McConnell re-elected from Kentucky. (He has declared global warming a hoax spread by those who dislike his state’s coal.)

10/18  Displaced persons camp where 140,000 have been uprooted. Myanmar.

09/27  A cradle left behind by Kurdish refugees along the Turkish-Syrian border.

11/28  Protest because Grand jury decided not to indict Daren Wilson in the killing of Michael Brown, Delwood MO.

12/08 Protestors against police brutality in the wake of Michael Brown, Berkeley.

12’16  Women mourn Mohammed Ali Khan, 15, one of 130 students killed during a Taliban attack on a school, Peshawar, Pakistan.

11/18  Ultra-Orthodox Jews listened to a eulogy for a Rabbi Killed in a synagogue by Palestinian gunmen. Jerusalem.

12/06  A four-year-old known as Sweetie, one of thousands, monitored for symptoms of Ebola. Sierra Leone

         I add one event that does not photograph--the new Republican Congress has vowed to cancel Obama's Affordable Care Act.  I suspect that much of the opposition is a continuing racist reaction to the Black President.

See what I mean.  During the Vietnam War, depressed by the daily body count, I stopped listening to network news.  I never began again.  Today, I canceled my subscription to the New York Times.

      Thanks for following my blog.  If you want more, I recommend following Bill Moyers and Robert Reich.

Student Loans

The banking lobby obtained a provision of the law that makes repudiation of a student loan impossible no matter what.  The student may go blind and unable to work, but they still owe the bank.

What Hapened to Democracy

Obama's nominee for the Appeals Court blocked by Republican filibuster, the third in two weeks.  Why do we allow this anti-democratic rule by a long-winded minority?

A poll shows that a majority of Americans believe that global warming is  happening and that humans are the problem.  Will that prevent a minority of no-nothings represented by a majority of House members from blocking action?  NO.  Jerry-rigged House districts rule.

Quest for Land & Fortune

The Quest for Land & Fortune, a work of narrative nonfiction, by Alfred Allan Schmid, traces the great themes of the American experience through five generations of actual interconnected families whose patriarchs and their intrepid wives could never be satisfied with the status quo. Whether led by their ideals or propelled by the yearning for more land or greater fortunes, these immigrants and plantation owners, Unionists and Rebels, agrarians and industrialists shaped their emerging nation even as they were shaped by seemingly greater forces.

Available on line at

http://www.schulerbooks.com/product/quest-land-and-fortune

Campaign Spending

Obama had a 245 million dollar fund to spend on his political campaign. The amount spent on campaigns is obscene, what a waste. Even worse, it is pollution of our environment filling the airwaves with noise.
These early presidential primaries are a farce. Why should trends be established by out-of-the way places? We should have a national one day primary in August where real votes are cast. The candidates would have to appeal to the whole nation and not tailor their platform to the whims of individual states one by one. We say we are one nation undivided, but it is a lie.

Same Sex Marriage

Twenty-nine states have enacted constitutional amendments blocking same-sex marriage. Twelve states bar same-sex marriage by statute. This is in spite of the fact that 53% of Americans say gay marriages should be legal. Go figure!

Get Real

Lots of people have not yet adjusted their expectations to today's realities of slow or no growth. This ranges from members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra striking for higher pay while city services are being cut and the auto companies are not flush with charitable donations any more; Students asked to pay higher tuition in Great Britain, workers in France and Greece. Some have resorted to riots and destruction to insist on what they have come to believe is their right to more.
A bright spot is Michigan State University President Simon who refused a salary increase, in part because there was no money for faculty raises this year. Now if the basketball coach would follow suit, that would be news.

Justice

"Tom DeLay, one of the most powerful and divisive Republican lawmakers ever to come out of Texas, was convicted Wednesday of money-laundering charges in a state trial, five years after his indictment here forced him to resign as majority leader in the House of Representatives." New York Times, Nov. 24, 2010.

I hope that all members of Congress take this to heart; even the most powerful must obey the law. The prosecution chose to accuse him of money-laundering, but he also broke Texas law prohibiting corporations from giving to political candidates. DeLay's tactics resulted in enough law makers to redraw Texas Congressional districts in favor of the Republicans.

Buying Political office

Former Illinois Governor, Blagovich stood trial for selling a US Senate seat. Buying and selling of political office is commonplace. Senator McCain spent $20 million in the recent primary! That's around $75 per voter.
In Michigan, the Republican candidate for governor spent $7.6 million in the primary! This absurdity is buying office plain and simple. And it all masquerades as freedom of speech according to the Supreme Court!
Big campaign contributors get something for their money. The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Goldman Sachs for $! billion and then settled for 550 million in a case of claiming that Goldman mislead investors in a subprine mortgage product. I wonder why?
And now even some Democratic and most Republicans in Congress say we must continue the Bush tax cuts for the rich so as not to spook the recovery. Why do people keep electing representatives who do not legislate in the interest of most ordinary citizens? Answer: by bombarding the public with lies and diverting their attention with reference to gays and abortion.

Conservatives Without Conscience

John Dean in his 2006 book of the above title states that what has driven him is the realization that our government has become largely authoritarian. From this premise, Dean proposed and documented two key points:
1) what is currently described as the “conservative movement” bears virtually no resemblance to Goldwater’s conservatism, and has nothing to do with restraining government power or preserving historical values. Instead, it has transformed into an authoritarian movement which largely attracts personality types characterized by a desire and need to submit to and follow authority.
2) because those who submit to authority necessarily relinquish their own conscience (in favor of serving the conscience of their leader and/or their movement), those who are part of this movement are capable of acts which a healthy and normal conscience ought to preclude.