Another report from the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee

There are so many people who depend on the government dole, ala periodic checks through the mail, that I am embarrassed. After all these are otherwise normal humans.
The whole setup here is such that many who need checks for their reasons stay by the mailbox on the check day, so to defeat those who raid mailboxes for their own reasons.
And the best intents have failed when I see and observe those who get, like a check for $30,000 from the government, then spend it on drugs vice their families, or savings. Just for me, the children should get some benefit, but that just is not happening up here. And when pills are $80 a pop, then drug addicted parents are sacrificing their kid’s future. And they don’t care.
What a waste of humanity.
And as a child of the 60’s who was indoctrinated that marijuana was a victimless crime, well things have not worked out as most expected. It seems funny that back when the Beatles impacted us, most on the Cumberland Plateau bad mouthed long hair and drug use. Now most do it. Even in the 80’s when I drove an Isuzu Trooper up here, people looked at me funny, like I was some communist sympathizer, even when I served in the USMC.
Like I said, this is just a report.

These are times we can tell our children about

Seldom in life can one be on the inside observing vast changes going on. Such ideas suggest the forming of a new third national party, and perhaps the fading of one or both of two present national parties.

One has to go back to the American civil war, or the American revolution, as local examples of such times. Our ancestors were just as fervent and smart as we are, I think. And our American tradition and culture suggests voting to solve the frictions in our future, but there are other options as has happened before. Now voting and organizing takes time and energy, but these are times we can tell our children about as we see it going on.

What seems galling these days is that so many of our federal executive and its hired members and the federal legislature and its hired members are simply disconnected from their constituents these days. This smacks of royalty, at least for the time they have legal authority. And even now nepotism is kicking in our USA too many times, which is also galling to most Americans. The themes of the Weimer Republic in the 1930’s or King Louis the 16th in France are coming back to too many minds. Yes the times were different then, but we humans are pretty much the same over time, I think.

What happens when our federal government announces some kind of emergency, and usurps some kind of new rule that replaces our Constitution, and all its checks and balances limitations on power?

Good intentions, and throwing money at obvious problems, goes nowhere, too often. But that is what we in the USA have been doing for decades.

Also we have been electing so many of our representatives over such a long time. So it seems logical we Americans are also part of the current situation and problems. Now maybe we will change, assuming our votes still count.

What happens when all the federal government payments don’t come in our future? That is coming too, I think. Any government has to pay its bills, and this depends on income to dispense the wonderful benefits we in America have today. Right now it takes borrowing on our national reputation to get the extra money over tax income, and that may end sometime too soon. What a shame as to who messed it up the most. And our federal government and taxes make up some pretty good stuff, today.

The federal government has a choice. All it probably will do is “inflate” the value of our work and the dollars we earn. For a simple example, 10% inflation over 4 ½ years will make a million dollors worth half that. Even in simpler terms, going through the drive through bank machine will make us pay more for the same thing. And there are long term losses, too.

Yep, these are times we can tell our children about.

We’re different here in the USA
Most don’t know it, just because they live here. But many others do know it. Americans living around the world know it. And so many immigrating here know it, too. It is the same as why our ancestors came here, to better their and their family’s lives. That is so simple, most may not recognize it these days. And it is still alive and well thanks to a Constitution that is unique in human history. Yep, we are different, and lucky, too. There are worse places to be born. And yet so many Americans do not recognize it. It is simply beyond their American experience, and what is normal to them. And if we Americans are thought of as mongrels, so be it. Mongrels are considered to be genetically superior, and we probably are.
You know that change is constant. Ideas like American racial laws and the double standard have faded as the older generation humans who had these ideas imbued have died off. So what is coming, since we are all humans in the end. Now the future is always scary, but that is what our vote is about, assuming our votes still count, as in no voter fraud or other such fixing ideas happen. If our vote doesn’t count, then things resort to ideas like revolt or civil war, in the end.
There have always been ideals and good intentions to improve societies, often called communes. The older ideas are based on English family stuff, and more recently hippie communes. I personally live in Tennessee where efforts in these directions have been tried, and failed, mostly do to human traits. But God Bless these efforts…they continue. Hope always springs eternal.
Now can we just be humans in America, the new world. And are we humans in America these days one federally united country, or an united states with all the diversity that is promoted in so many ways. I suspect the latter, but that is just my politics.
Now it is fun, to me, to be older, before I die, which we all do, eventually. The idea of what I thought was the way to go at a much younger age depended on having the older generations die off. Now it has happened (they died off) , but my trust in 2009 in my fellow humans leading us today also are also failing, as is wasting our best intentions and monies.
Last, another American trait is our productivity. Most wake up in the morning and want to do well for our families. And we are still pretty productive. In the past, our state and federal laws and practices have supported all this human stuff. If the idea of those in power is to change to something else, we Americans should vote on it, don’t you think?

Ideas for going forward

Here we as a USA country are in a recession, the winter is coming, and too many fellow citizens have income problems that make them and their families colder and hungrier and life style changing than they want to be.
For most of we USA citizens, the last half century has been comfortable and confident, as the status quo worked out. Something good must have been going on.
Now cycles of boom and bust seem to be a part of life, all over the world. Perhaps it is just a part of our human nature. Perhaps we have done some things that have intensified the boom and the bust? Here in our USA we have had two national parties for at least 8 generations (I count a generation as 20 years, genealogy wise), and we USA citizens have supported all this past stuff and elected all these people for a now long time. And the cycles have continued, boom and bust, for a long time.
And here we are again, questioning ourselves and how we got into the present mess we are in, and how can we get out. Part of this questioning is more underlying thoughts about our future, and ways to improve from the past. And this kind of discussion and debate even went on before our times and by our ancestors. They were smart, too. But now it is our turn.
I am from the school of thought that says identifying a problem is only part of what is needed. One should also offer solutions, ideally three, that decision makers can act on, if their judgment says so.
Here’s three American ideas, or at least I think they are American.

1) The government solution.
a. Term limit our legislators at all levels, federal, state, county, city, and school boards. Start with the federal legislators, maybe even one house like the House of Representatives. Now the amendment process required is long and often arduous, but we have already term limited the federal presidency, and we can do the same to the federal legislators. And I suspect the Congress will never limit themselves, so it will take the states to get this done. Since the process requires both proposing Amendments, and then ratifying these Amendments, it will take a long time, but one has to start sometime.
b. Require we in the federal government and its budget to live within our means (by amendment). This is commonly called a balance budget idea, like most families do. The results will be gut wrenching, but that is going to happen anyway and too often and to too many when we USA people can no longer get federal loans to pay for all these good things we have right now.
2) The American people solution.
a. I think most USA citizens believe in the idea of governments to rule us and provide the benefits we most appreciate, like police and fire safety, clean water, waste water treatment, electricity on demand (like keeping our refrigerators and freezers working all the time), and public national defense, since most think we still have enemies. If this is the case, which I think so, then our elected rulers at all levels should promote laws and policies that enhance all these things. Assigning priorities is key as to whom we decide to elect.
b. I also think we Americans have become used to the idea of Social Security and Medicare to take care of so many of us, to include our old ancestors who begat us (like our parents). This has much to do with the decline in the birth rate, I think. In the old days, one reason so many couples had many children was to take care of them when they got old.
c. Standards that seem to make sense are a wave of the future. The idea of ethics seems to be gaining force. The idea of PC and moral equivalency seems to be fading, as it should. We are a melting pot whether we like it or not. The value of education without brains or morals seems to be more doubted than it has in a long time. What is right or wrong is not inherited or innate; it is taught, mostly at home. And this idea is beginning to assert itself. And I only suggest we teach our kids our values, more so in our future. Anyway, we have to start somewhere.
d. The rule of those from the North East, to include schools and business institutions will come to an accommodation with the rest of the USA people, I think. After all, these NE people are Americans, too, as well as the rest of us, whom I think make up the majority. Things will sort out in the end, but the tidal motions will be difficult as people go through change.
e. Out of wedlock births are shameful. Kids with both a mother and a father at home are better off for the long run. The idea of shame as an American standard needs refurbishing. There is no moral equivalency for this idea.
3) The human solution.
a. Having a problem is less important than what you do about it.
b. Who knows what we Americans will do about the future? We, as humans in America, have three options. Voting (our traditional course), revolting, or a having a civil war, are the options.
c. Perhaps the government cure can be worse than the disease?
d. The human factor is always alive.
i. People just want to hear things straight. Parsing of words and phrases too often confuses. Just having a human explain things in a way we can understand is always most important.
ii. People will always accept criticism, like peer or spousal criticism. People will also resent insults of all kinds.
iii. People just want to have faith, and believe in their leaders, no matter what their leaders political beliefs. Trust, and again, faith, is key. Violate trust and faith, and all is lost to humans. Faith that our votes count is so key to continuing to support all our governments and Constitution.
e. This is the new world. All bets are off. We can do what ever we think will help our families and our future.
i. Consider a third national political party in our future... kind of like the Whig Party. Even Lincoln was a Whig before he became a Republican. The present day Tea Party stuff seems to be in that direction.
ii. In the last 5 generations, most third party efforts have been based on a personality, and funding. This time, the effort is based on an idea. The times they are a changing.


Yes we, as USA Americans, have a way forward. And it appears it will take time to happen. But by golly, it will happen. Things will change, as always.

Would do you think?

What do we want, as in what do we want to vote for?

Most people, to include Americans, are disgusted with the ideas of nepotism, and cronyism. I suspect at all levels, to include school board, city, county, state, and federal. Most of us just want to live, and have an opportunity to go through life, and along the way, make things better for our kids. That is so simple, it is almost hard to believe. And add in the factor that so many are so busy in their lives that they don’t pay too much attention to present day politics at all levels, well, that is pretty much what is happening.

Voters should be ruthless about their values, and votes.

But what happens when too many of we USA citizens good cold and hungry, and can still vote. There are many professional organizers of the vote for the poor, but the majority of Americans who might be cold and hungry will show up in the end, and the winter is coming.

Another effort is on the way, I can suspect. The cold and hungry need to be addressed, and their families will help the most, I think.

This is the old idea of social security, by the way. That’s why we had more kids than we do these days. In the old days, our kids would suffer and take care of us old people.

In the meantime, who do you believe? And then vote.

One plan for our human future

It is pleasing to see political discussion about our human future on this earth. After all, other species reigned supreme before mammals and humans do so these days. Change is constant, one may say.

And the green house effect has been underway for a long time, and is still working its magic. For example, about 12,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age, New York city was about ½ mile under the ice. Is that what we want to try restore?.

Where I live is south of the ice line as I read it, but things would have been pretty cold here anyway, like in our ideas about northern Siberia.

And the main friction is whether it is humans who are doing this warming enhancement, or is it mother nature future stuff which is beyond our influence.

My vote is towards mother nature, which is dismal in it’s prospects hundreds of years in the future. So we have time to adapt, but I suspect not reverse. If it sounds hopeless, it may be. And we humans are part of the problem, though a small part compared to mother nature.

There are many ways to adapt,and I suspect we will, over time. My guess is humans will survive what happens,anyway. Along the way, most will die, and some will survive by some kind of less than our modern experience.

In other words, things look bleak. And we cannot do much about it.

Bummer.

How come the girls in cheating don’t get the same standards as the boys?

Just wondering given the latest Tiger Woods stuff.

I mean more men cheat on their wives than wives cheat on their husbands, I think. Most of us have known some of both, unfortunately.

And what is new? And most marriages are pretty normal, I also think.

What is new, and disappointing to me, is that the women who knowingly have sexual affairs with married men are also sluts. They both are.

But it is never reported in most of our American media this way. Hence there seems to be a double standard being reinforced by our American media.

What a shame.