The Tumbling Spike Protein Tale (Article) - 6/14/2025 9:37:36 AM
Turning against institutions is nothing new. In the early Industrial Revolution, disgruntled Dutch workers threw their sabots (wooden shoes) in the machinery. Hence, creating the word, sabotage.
I never heard of spike proteins. My only experience is that all of the people that I know that had the Covid vaccines had mild versions, of Omicron, like me. And all of the people I know of that had not taking the virus seem to have had not only severe cases, with recurring outbreaks, but some death.
There's a risk and everything, but a very big risk in following wild rumors by gossipers online.
Ron
Is Covid Dementia Making Everyone Crazy? (Article) - 3/17/2025 1:39:28 PM
I know you're into Covid related conspiracies, but I don't think that it's Covid proteins that are the cause of anger in our society.
I could state many causes from the dumbing down of education, to societal expectations not meeting their desires, to pesticides and other harmful ingredients in our water and food like lead and plastic in our bloodstreams.
My father was carbon monoxide poisoned by his new tractor on his 18 wheeler that seeped carbon monoxide into the cab. He never exhibited any angry behavior or dementia after that. He was the calmest guy I ever knew, especially when around angry people. He could easily dispatch them from his days in golden gloves and work as a loading and unloading truck driver.
Being fired for no reason or bullied on the job can result in a man or even a woman coming back to the workplace to kill. During my work life I had several people after me for one reason or another and we had several people that had to be escorted out by campus police because they were hooked on cocaine.
Cocaine gives delusions of grander, followed by deep depression. Other drugs that I have followed are even worse. They may be your culprit, not long Covid. The people I know on long Covid are struggling just to survive. Every one of them avoided the vaccines because of influencers like Robert Kennedy and you.
Ron
DTR2E, Wastelands, and Fallout (Article) - 6/10/2024 2:02:43 PM
I am old enough to have gone to Saturday movies that cost $0.10 where I got to see all of the episodes of Flash Gordon and some of the episodes of Buck Rogers. They were quite laughable in their depiction of the future like so many books and movies have been ever since.
I grew up with the computer from doing binary coding to the Internet that I embraced and started my website in 1997. However, I'm old enough not to have not been interested in computer games that were just basically old battles fought over and over in settings that may or may not have been futuristic. I saved a lot of money and stuck to movies and television that betrayed the future in many different ways, most of it downright fantasy like the Lord of the Rings and its popular spinoff, Dungeons & Dragons. Those games and the ones that follow like Fallout on for those young people that have unlimited spare time, are bored with their easy lives and have money to spend before they become responsible.
I agree with you about fallout. Fallout and collateral damage go hand in hand. I have written a number of apocalypse scenarios in my stories and even in two novels, because people are thrilled by reading stories that seem to resonate with their feeling that everything is going to hell. Wanting a hero to come along and save everything from evil.
The duality is that things are really getting better for most of us. AI is helping us a great deal become more understanding and getting things done more efficiently and easily. But there are those who fear AI has some kind of mental (spiritual?) malfunctioning intelligence that will create a scenario like The Terminator or others along those lines like Predator.
Apocalyptic stories should be read, played or watched with entertainment in mind and not reality or fear. We are highly capable of fixing all of the bad things we've done in the past once we fess up to them. Until we do, we will still have them nagging on our brains thinking that they are going to bite us like in the President's Analyst… "I'm not paranoid, it's the telephone company!"
Ron
United State of Arrogance: 10 Years Later (Article) - 9/16/2023 11:23:45 AM
Ten years ago you were one year a single parent and down in the dumps about it. So you wrote that essay that I'm thankful I haven't read.
So now you are down in the dumps, still, finding blame with every aspect of society and coming up with no solutions whatsoever. About the most pessimistic attitude I have ever seen in anybody.
And you write about arrogant Americans. I agree. We are banking on a very complex and interactive society that the pandemic clearly showed us, we need. Without it, things go to hell quite quickly. But that doesn't mean everybody goes dystopic. Particularly in recent disasters, help comes quickly and comes from ordinary and caring people.
Where you get your data from, I don't know. But you are totally unscientific and totally wrong, especially when you think you know what the lion in the room is and don't.
While I like your last paragraph and have been doing much of what you suggest for a long time, that won't solve anything if global warming continues at the rate it is and has been carefully calculated. To counter what's happening to our atmosphere, we have to act together, positively, to solve the problem before it's too late. Not just write essays on blaming everything because of wild ass conspiracy theories without an ounce of proof.
It was a drought in Syria that resulted in clashes leading to the Syrian war. One of the first indicators of global warming forcing human migration.
Ron
Third Times the Charm: Comeback #2 pt 2: Content (Article) - 8/3/2023 12:07:45 PM
This is an excellent article. Everything you wrote about writing makes a lot of sense. I can't believe your productivity and your energy to produce. I agree with you about producing work. Looking back, I can't believe all that I've written on many subjects through many venues. Only recently, have I turned to fiction. Glad that I was able to experience so much during the first 60 years of my life enabling me to write on almost any subject I wanted.
Perhaps it is my age and physical condition that keeps me from going down some of the rabbit holes you've been diving into.
I don't agree with your politics or your reasons for why you have those answers that are not really backed up by data other than hearsay. But you have the right to write about anything you want and I will respectfully just disagree when disagreeing is warranted.
Ron
Third Times the Charm: Comeback #2 (Article) - 7/15/2023 1:27:53 PM
Some great advice for writers and wannabe writers. I congratulate you on your success with your novels, card games and other innovations, as well as your successful marketing plans. It's okay to be in the red, for the reasons that you have given.
I continue to disagree with you on EVs and AI. I realize that both of these terms have been misused politically and for many scams and failed attempts to profit from them. But the fact remains that Elon Musk is the richest man in the world because, like Steve Jobs, he is able to take an idea and put it into practice despite all the naysayers, and even profit from it.
You make me recall, when I wrote my monograph on artificial intelligence back in 1972, my doctoral advisor told me, "There is nothing artificial about intelligence," and required me to change the title of the monograph to Intelligence and the Machine. I have scanned it and need to post it here, because the idea is very much older than the current hype. But AI is real and crude at this time, but will improve in time. You can download and read the monograph here…
https://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewarticle.asp?id=76056&authorid=3918
I took required English all the way through all of my school grades and college. But I took only one writing class as an elective in my senior year. I really enjoyed the class and the good grades and praise that I received encouraged me to begin writing fiction as I neared retirement.
You missed one occupation requiring writing where one can make a good living, especially if you write textbooks--higher education. My entire career, both in industry and in higher education, required copious writing. Mostly nonfiction, but I was able to write poetry and use it throughout my career along with many articles in refereed journals. I didn't start writing fiction until 1999 with my first novel. That sold well as an e-book the first couple of months.
Ron
24 Years and Done (Article) - 7/8/2023 1:55:26 PM
You seem well aware of all of the extremes and have the vernacular to describe it in a way that makes it distinctly unpleasant, even if it isn't true. Congratulations and arriving in the middle.
I lean to the left only because power and money on the right trumps everything else. And I believe the science that tells us that gender is, unfortunately for you and other haters, "a genetically fluid," thing. Some people have both genders and can literally go f**k themselves without it being an angry expletive. They are probably happier because they don't have to get involved in relationships with the opposite sex that never seem to turn out the way both parties wanted.
I can't recall being registered for any party but I did, like you vote in the primaries for Democrats a time or two. Up until recently, Democrats owned me according to my email, but I unlisted them all except for heroes like Tammy Duckworth or Elizabeth Baldwin from my home state of Wisconsin. It was interesting when I found the most far right Republicans glomming onto me recently as an old buddy. Couldn't even unsubscribe them. Fools.
Ron
History on Repeat: Titan vs. Titanic (Article) - 6/25/2023 12:45:21 PM
More than anyone would ever want to know about the two disasters. I agree that almost everything you wrote here is accurate according to the many sources it came from. The one you referred to but didn't really state, was the arrogance of Stockton Rush.
Also, you didn't mention that thousands of deep-sea submergence in many vessels from several countries for very long time have resulted in no fatalities until now. That is very impressive compared with the tragedies in space. I thought I heard somewhere that the Titan had been to the Titanic 13 times before. Like the two shuttle tragedies, when a piece of hardware is used in very harsh conditions, over and over again, refurbishing or preparation for the next use tends to slide over time. I have a high school friend who worked on the Air Force Shuttle Program. He quit the Air Force and retired because he knew the shuttle system was aging and not maintained like it should be anymore.
Ron
2024: A Bridge Too Far for Trump and Biden (Article) - 6/10/2023 11:03:55 AM
I agree with you about the two former presidents running again, but not on the rest of your story. Some 1,300,000 Americans died from the pandemic and very few of those from a reaction to the various vaccines by competing companies, not "millions." Not even thousands or hundreds. Perhaps, a handful of unfortunate people with underlying reasons in their immune systems which caused their death.
Trump is gone already. The indictments are as good as convictions. Those prosecuting would not have brought the charges had they thought he had an ounce of innocence, given the political climate and very real death threats to anyone who would question the Donald's integrity. Many Republicans are coming forward now and doing just that, testifying against his excesses.
Biden has not done the evil things that you claim. But he is getting older and lacks energy to really lead the country into the world economy like he should. Running the US presidency is "No Country for Old Men." There are very promising young Democrats waiting in the wings.
I voted for Bernie in the primaries, too. But Hillary one. While I didn't like her boost from being married to a former president, I voted for her because I knew that Trump was a loser simply by watching his trumped up Apprentice TV series for 10 year where he acted like a pompous king, ordering everyone around like they were stupid and playing favorites like a spoiled brat.
Ron
A Beer and a Pedo Fetish Walked Into a Bar... (Article) - 5/29/2023 1:24:37 PM
I haven't been paying attention to Bud Light commercials and don't know Dylan Mulvaney is. It doesn't seem like news worthy of an article when we have the world economy possibly upset by a stalemate over the US debt used as a bargaining chip and global warming ignored or set back by right wing foot dragging and profiteering.
If the banned book list is fake, it's probably the work of the Russians, doing everything they can to put a schism between the conservatives and progressives in our country. You're right. Kids these days know how to access banned books, just like I found one of my advanced Jewish classmates reading Peyton Place when I caught her after lunch. Made me wish I had a copy. Kids these days have easy access to porn, however you define it. Sex is glorious and we should treat it as such.
When I was in high school, our music teacher, who I thought was gay, and our football coach probably was too small to ever play football, like me. Both married girls right out of high school. And I think they were engaged in doing it with both of those girls long before they graduated. Back in those conservative good old days, most people thought nothing of it or that it was none of their business. The football coach suddenly joined our church and came to church with her months before she graduated.
Ron
Chicken Little Freak Out 2023 (Article) - 5/20/2023 11:17:27 AM
You are right about the "chicken little syndrome" that has been around for a long time. Rumors are not facts and they spread like wildfire, generally between people who trust one another, making them powerful even though they aren't true. For example, when we hear about all the deaths from tornadoes around the country, they are not extraordinary. I recall that there were those that rumored that the tornadoes had increased immensely because of our aboveground nuclear testing back in the 1950s. When the media reports it with exaggerated words, some people take that exaggeration and increase it through their social networks, online or not.
It's easy to dispel your Covid-19 vaccination fears that seems to be widely accepted among social circuits but bears no basis in fact. I just checked the international source of deaths, so far. United States, regardless of its size of population has the highest rate of death from the virus, per capita, than any other country, 1,161,019. In other words, approximately .3225053% of our population yet far greater than India's 440,000 deaths with a much larger population, why is that? Actually, our death rate and the world death rate was much better largely because of government action using quarantine, isolation, masking and vaccinations to wipe out the disease that was originally projected to kill 3.5% of the world population. The vaccinations, in some countries mandatory, ensure some immunity that will last a long time.
Why was our death toll much higher than all the other countries? Probably because we have a very large number of people that were susceptible to the disease through their lifestyle and illnesses. Many being kept alive by stringent measures like heavy doses of drugs and even dialysis that eventually results in death anyway. But for those that were seemingly healthy, like your friends who took the vaccine and died, their immune systems were just not ready. But the secondary reason simply was that in this country we have freedom of choice. I have heard so many who neglected to get the vaccine or believed the rumors about the vaccine and ended up getting Covid-19 and are now suffering long-term consequences. Like my younger brothers.
As a result of trials, vaccines are required to state any aftereffects, including death. I recall on Thanksgiving morning 1963, in the hospital preceding my exploratory spinal surgery with the neurosurgeon, him telling me that there was a 50% chance that I would experience some paralysis (I only had weakness in my left arm and hand) and that there was a possibility of 10% that I would die. With my parents present, although I was 20, I consented by my signature. Only to be awakened on the operating table to see if I was alive. Woke up again in my hospital bed with no function below my neck. After much pain of feeling and function coming back, and five weeks, I walked out of the hospital with paralyzed hands and arms, never to run again.
I could've gone on a campaign against any spinal surgery or even sued my neurosurgeon for malpractice. But that disclaimer that I signed made it impossible, even though my neurosurgeon told me that I was "my only failure" in thousands of operations to save people's lives from spinal injury and conditions. When my twin brother had a similar operation after being paralyzed in a ski accident, he recovered function. While I avoided further spinal surgery, I've had several surgeries and even one in 2012 that saved my life.
All this talk about the failure of the government and pharmacy corporation greed and malfeasance is mostly just talk, downright rumor. I'm sorry for your experience with those close to you. But there will probably was an underlying cause of their deaths other than the vaccine. Of the myriad vaccines that I've had ever since my childhood smallpox and polio vaccines, I have never had any side effects, including my four Covid-19 shots. Except, occasionally, a sore muscle from having the needle injure the muscle a bit that quickly heals.
Ron
A Confluence of Confluences (Article) - 5/11/2023 11:10:02 AM
A pretty draconian view of the world. And glad you are doing it worldwide rather than the narrowminded scholars, researchers and politicians who only view their narrow corner or niche in society, ignorant about all the rest.
But much of your data can be challenged. I won't go into it because it would take way too much time of mine. There is an economist who writes here that has some simple solutions for improving US economy and the world that everyone should be paying attention to.
From my little knowledge of history, back when we had "unlimited" resources fueled by wage slaves coming from Europe and other places in the 19th century, booms and busts were very common well before neoclassical economics. Almost all the great civilizations boomed for a while and then declined and disappeared. While I agree with you on the hidden unemployment rate and some of the waste caused by borrowing--gambling with future, there are those, like me who has always paid off my debts quickly, but used debt to get ahead economically and free from worry in my retirement.
Many have predicted dire consequences in the future. But I don't think anyone predicted Covid-19, except in science fiction novels and movies. BTW your statistics on vaccines are literal baloney and have no basis in fact. But I will agree that people in economic pain tend to turn towards drugs as a solution to their despair. Doctors who prescribe dangerous drugs are just as liable as pharmaceutical companies that make them. Two things help keep people away from drugs: financial security and education. I'm for putting that poison symbol on regulated drugs and making them over-the-counter so that anyone can buy them cheaply and pick their poison, like we do liquor… The number one drug killer of people in United States from the data that I saw.
There have always been good trends and bad trends. No one can predict the future. But I can predict that I will see the end of my life before anything really draconian happens. But I see global warming and its consequences, not the weather, is the greatest challenge in the 21st-century, and you didn't even mention it--the elephant in the room. You did mention sustainability. Unfettered corporations seek sustainability by adulterating their products when raw material sources get to expansion or dry up. Like reverting to a cheap plastic when paper costs or glass recycling becomes too high. Resulting in plastics in the ecosystem that we will never be able to remove. Especially in our bodies and blood streams.
Ron
Two Parties, Two Middle Fingers (Article) - 4/29/2023 1:03:20 PM
I'm glad we only have two parties for you to beat up on. For the most part I agree that neither one has a clear approach to the future and there's a lot of money wasting and hypocrisy going around. Why are they don't belong to any party. But vote for individuals because it's my right. And the senile old bas-retards need to fade into the woodwork in all branches of the government.
But I don't agree with fringe theories about vaccines that are not proven by real statistics. I do agree that the population "bomb" is starting to reveal itself in many ways, including the pandemic and senile leaders, young and old. We are in for some rough times.
Ron
United State of Drug Use (Article) - 4/17/2023 9:51:54 AM
Life is not a carrot and stick situation. It can be all carrot. I'm all for making drugs more readily available if they are relatively harmless, and by prescription if they are more harmful. Starved of income, the cartels south of the border would go away.
The so-called, socialist democracies, have much fewer incidents of violent acts (they still do) than we have in this country. You certainly can't ignore the power of the gun manufacturers, growing wealthy through several unnecessary wars, who want to continue high profits during times of peace. Unfortunately, people find that even their local news describing the latest horror that took place in the neighborhood will cause them to run out to buy guns for their "protection." There were several gun shops and only one elementary school where 23 children and teachers were killed.
By making drugs illegal like we did with prohibition, we have destroyed many countries south of the border and created a whole lifestyle around cartels and gangs where weapons with high firepower are the tool of the trade. Murder is the way to wealth and power. We have created the monster with drugs, guns and using false claims of "cure" for any kind of pain or apparent weakness, particularly in children.
I have lived a great life totally drug-free, except for alcohol, perhaps the most dangerous drug. But I always drank in moderation and felt good, never felt angry like I saw my father back in the good old days when he had a high-paying Teamster truck driving job. And during those good old days there was all kinds of murder, rape, incest, bullying, sexual harassment and assault going on that wasn't reported and never got out of the neighborhood. The biggest difference between then and now. Crime was much more prevalent, but unreported and often swept under the rug rather than being prosecuted.
Thirty years ago, my muscle spasms and loss of ability to walk required a drug called baclofen. I'm still taking the same dose I was given then. My spasms have not been "cured" but I'm not ready to face those spasms without that drug. And then in 2017, after experiencing three blood clots, I have been taking xarelto, a blood thinner. Like blood thinners have helped my brother and my father with replaced heart valves, and my mother with diabetes and swollen legs until she reached 95. But the last thing I would ever take would be an opioid no matter how much a doctor would claim it would ease my "pain."
I applaud you for part of the story. But I find you writing a one-sided rendition. Particularly, while claiming that the Covid vaccine was dangerous, while the facts show just the opposite. But sometimes, people believe the rumors from anecdotal accounts and not real statistics.
Ron
Writing: Longhand vs. Typing (Article) - 12/8/2022 12:19:43 PM
Thank you for your journey in writing that has brought you to a new understanding that the way you write determines how your writing turns out. I have found that true as well.
I heard that they are no longer teaching cursive writing in schools. From the beginning I admired my mother's cursive writing that was like the writing chart on the top of the blackboards in my English classes. I strove to write as clearly as her or as consistent as Egyptian hieroglyphics that didn't change over 2000 years and were much more difficult than our writing, like Chinese and some other alphabets.
I only have my signature on my Social Security card when I was 16 for a view of it back then. When I didn't pay much attention to my writing. But when I reached my doctorate, I wanted to make sure that my cursive writing was readable, along with my signature, unlike those that choose some quickly scratched symbol as their unreadable signature.
I learned architectural lettering in high school in drafting classes. I took typing my sophomore year in high school and remain a rather poor typist. I wrote most of my school work in cursive and typed it if necessary on an ancient Royal with letters full of gunk giving it a unique look. Never thought to clean it, just typed.
When I first was paralyzed, I couldn't write at all. But when I got my right-handed hand splint, I began writing with ballpoint pens with rubber surgical tubing over the body for grip. I tried not to make errors because I couldn't erase them like I could with pencil. But I never used a dictionary and was an atrocious speller. At some point, I stopped writing cursive and started using Flair pens because they flowed so smoothly and were in color.
When I became a professor, I always had secretaries. At one point I told people that I could keep three secretaries busy with my writing. But they were always loaded with work and my work came back slowly until I started typing with one finger on my first computer in 1987. By 1993 I was seeking voice dictation systems to speed my work. By 1998, I was losing my lower abdominal muscle stability and found that while I could still type and point the mouse, I could no longer write either cursive or lettering. Making me grateful for my ability to dictate this.
Once I got Dragon, where I could dictate whole phrases and sentences, I found that my writing was much different from when I typed it one finger at a time. I know now that I write overly long sentences, use words that are not necessary, and often, words that I didn't dictate are dropped in that I need to edit out. Like you, I would love to go back to cursive writing and be able to sign my name again at book signings. To write like you do on the fly. But I'm grateful for being able to even write this long response to your article today. Now, back to my latest story…
Ron
Great Reset Attempt #2? (Article) - 11/16/2022 11:57:17 AM
The president of Poland rightly announced this morning that the two explosions in Poland were likely either Russian or Ukrainian that were off course and were simply accidents.
From the thousands of pictures of buildings destroyed by Russian rockets, earlier shelling and bodies recovered showing many assassinations, the 40,000 civilians killed seems reasonable. In most of the places where these killings took place, Ukrainians moved in quickly, took the wounded to hospitals and buried their dead. When lines of tanks were destroyed in the initial retreat of Russian soldiers, some were executed when they got back to Russia, I saw one shallow gravesite of a mass grave of Russian soldiers who were not taken back to Russia like most modern armies do.
In the occupied territories, now being recovered quickly, with no "rope a dope" wasteful maneuver by Russia being hard pressed by economic sanctions and the lack of advanced warfare equipment having to get some from China and from Iran--drones.
Finally, this is the strangest war ever. While Ukrainians are clearly whipping Russians within their territory, all of the destruction and loss of life as been in Ukraine. What has Russia suffered from all of this death and destruction to its neighbor? Only economic sanctions and Russian soldiers. Ukrainians are smart not to invade Russia. The Russian people have the same resolve that the Ukrainians have. Putin was just too stupid to understand that when he decided he would save ethnic Russians in the Donbas region by annexing the whole Ukrainian country.
With every town and village that has been recovered in those areas occupied by Russians, there are countless civilians coming out of hiding cheering on their saviors, those same Nazi ethnic cleansers doing sadistic things to the poor ethnic Russians in the area for over 10 years.
Cow shit and vulture rumors. Keep spreading it. It is spreading pretty thin.
Ron
The Hype Age (Article) - 11/14/2022 11:04:03 AM
Very thoughtful and true to a fault. But hype has been around for a long time. Land developers enticing poor people in Europe to come to United States to their fabulous cities in the West only to find slave wages and miserable work on farms or in factories. It wasn't very long after that PT Barnum, the prototype for the Donald, declared, "There's a sucker born every minute." There still is.
Medicines like cocaine and marijuana sold over-the-counter as cures. Back in the happy days of the 1950s you could cure your tired blood with Geritol (rhymes with alcohol) and your liver with Carter's Little Liver Pills. Peach pit therapy cured cancer. Lobotomies cured mental illness. Ronald Reagan was promoting smoking as a healthy thing to do. All the Jewish people in Hollywood were communists. We were all told that we had to stop communism from creeping into Vietnam by drafting our young men to save the day, "over there." Ronald Reagan hosted General Electric's Theater… "Progress is our most important product." Why did they stop using as a slogan? Too progressive?
We are in an information age now where information is at everyone's fingertips who holds a cell phone in their hands. Information is coming at us fast and furious. Like you, I stay in the middle and try not to join even though everyone wants me to "register," so I can get more of their particular hype that is always better than the other guys'. A lot of stupid AI salesmanship in our face. And more trickery and thievery than ever before.
I have to believe that people are still kind and good and wanting to do the right thing. We Americans with our supposed freedom seem to have to have something really drastic for us to all get together, cooperate and solve a problem without wandering off the need at hand. It will take more disasters like 9/11 and Covid-19 before we wake up and fly right. Let us just hope that is not too late and we stand on the edge and watch ecosystems fail in our lifeblood, our planet rebel to our behavior.
Ron
Biden vs. Trump vs. DeSantis 2024 (Article) - 11/13/2022 2:30:37 PM
I think it's too soon to come up with the presidential candidates of 2024. As I recall in 2020, a whole cast of characters came forward and were trounced by Trump. But so much shit has happened surrounding Trump's behavior the Republican Party may just decide to kick him to the curb, giving DeSantis the nod.
If the scenario plays out the way you describe, Republican conservatives will be split and lose the election handily. I'm looking forward to new presidential candidates coming out of the younger woodwork and surprising everyone with their popularity. Things are happening much faster with the Internet powering people to greatness and taking them down faster than ever. Like I stated before, Biden should step down and become another Democratic grandfather resting on his laurels, not in the presidency, but his lifework for working people no longer valued.
Ron
Political Parties Need Banned (Article) - 11/12/2022 10:47:14 AM
I agree with you that the two political parties in power are corrupted by money, now hidden nicely by the Citizens United Supreme Court decision allowing political PACs to conveniently pass dark money onto candidates who constantly beg for more rather than working on meeting the people in their consistencies and hammering out platforms that resonate with their constituencies rather than their party.
Unfortunately, our election laws that require a majority to win, except for the presidency, requiring a second shot at it by aristocrats in the Electoral College force third parties out of the picture with runoff races resulting in only two parties with a chance of winning. Throughout our history those two parties have changed several times. The Republican Party started as a very progressive party of Abraham Lincoln. It has gradually become a very regressive party. Especially when the southern Democrats, dreaming of the return of the plantation South, became Republicans and shifted it further to the right.
I see no reason why, like you wrote. That candidates, only collecting petitions, can be selected to be on the ballot without a party. banned because they cost money. But free debates among the top candidates should be allowed and televised for free, along with interviews. The Internet allows countless ways for candidates to be known without spending lots of money in the process. And the idea of going to every house in the state like George HO Bush did in Florida with shoe leather is still an admirable way for the people to get to know you.
I don't know if you have the link to the world statistics on Covid-19 that I have, but the good old USA has the most deaths per million of any other country in the world. Why is that? We are a free country and so many, believing rumors about vaccines didn't vaccinate, and that's why we reached 1 million deaths by the end of 2021.
My extended family didn't get Covid-19 because we were vaccinated. We all got Omicron this year, but got over it quickly with no aftereffects. There have been only about 100,000 deaths so far in 2021 –, largely because anti-VAXers finally got the vaccines and Omicron, while highly contagious, is not as deadly. Those that died already had conditions that were exacerbated by the virus. They just died quicker. Unfortunately, many spent long hospital stays with expensive treatment before they died anyway, like my father with four months of agony in the hospital from a hospital bug that killed him after heart surgery in 2005.
I'm sorry to hear about your friends and family that believe that the vaccine killed them. No vaccine is perfect. And I've heard that people get strong reactions from vaccines. That is the vaccine building antibodies and normal. In all the vaccines that I've taken, I never had any reaction after. But I've watched very manly men scared to death of a little needle in the arm. Some of them were great bullies but sissies when it came to good medicine. When you join the real military, you have to take the vaccines without complaining.
The fact is, while data from China is either missing or suspect, the countries around China that cracked down with the most stringent mandates, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan resulted in death rates 1/10 of here in the United States. Of course, people in Asian countries have diets that don't result in the kind of conditions that we have from diet and lack of exposure to exotic viruses in younger years.
And as far as false threats, the use of the Nazi ploy and the ethnic Russians suffering in Ukraine cannot account for Russia's continued terrorizing the entire Ukraine population with massive destruction and death from the sky. The brave Ukrainians would never be able to force the World War II style Russian assault back home without help from the Democratic world.
Vladimir Putin's land grab is now being supported by drones from Iran. The rumor that the retreat is just part of the plan with Russian bringing modern weapons to bear is simply not true. They had to go to Iran to get modern weapons. In the meantime, Russia, while economically devastated, suffers no physical damage or death of their people except unwilling troops on the front lines. Is that fair?
China has wiped out fishing in the South China Sea. It has been trying to take islands beyond Taiwan all the way to the Philippines. Taiwan has the primary central processing unit chip making company in the world, making most of the electronic computer-based devices like cell phones possible. It takes up to six months to make one CPU chip. Your device no longer has Intel in it. One reason why Taiwan should not be handed over like Hong Kong was.
Ron
The DeSantis Effect (Article) - 11/10/2022 12:02:11 PM
That was a good assessment of the two who are claiming to be the front runners for 2024. There are a lot of us that think like you do, and hope that they will step down politely, (at least Biden) when told that they lack what a president should be to lead the country regardless of party.
Ron DeSantis is off my radar, so I looked him up. He has come out of that skull and bones (exact title I'm unsure of) club at Yale that George W. Bush belonged to. George led with his emotions and with the strong control of Dick Cheney, and rates as a very poor president leading us into war with Iraq and Don Quixote skirmishes with Al Qaeda.
My pick would be Cory Booker. He is every bit as good as Obama had loved wherever he governs. A man of the people.
Ron
The Great Screwup (Article) - 10/4/2022 1:57:13 AM
I will go with the scientists over fearmongers every time. I have taken all my shots as they became available, and have not had even a mild case of sniffles. Even a twit like DJ has relied on the work and the word of scientists, even while berating them. That is hypocrisy.
United State of Problem Denial (Article) - 11/22/2019 2:27:51 PM
I would agree with you on Russia phobia, from my perspective based on Marxian phobia, largely because people believe that Russia is still a communist state and they fear communism the same way that McCarthy wrongly did back in the 1950s. Putin and his former KGB strongmen have taken over Russia largely because the Russian people have been conditioned for so long to bend to the strongmen who run everything, like the Russian mafia, or else… They've seen it happen for generations and generations. Why Russia's population is declining. It's all strongmen running things that is causing a lack of growth all around.
Dr. Forina Hill made it abundantly clear in testimony yesterday, that it was the Russians who sent all that misinformation into social media where gullible right-wing people picked it up and spread it around like jam on women are inferior sandwiches. Like Dr. Hill stated, those smears have long been debunked, but I get them in my email to this day. Why is it that people still wish to change the past to their liking even when it already changed to their liking?
I agree with you on military spending and overreach. We need to get out of trying to be the police for the world, and especially, meddling in foreign affairs. Our past history with regimes around the world should be an indication. Military failures that occurred like the attempt to rescue the hostages in Tehran and the failure to protect and rescue the ambassador to Libya when Gadhafi fell will haunt us forever, along with the failure to recognize that the Twin Towers could be brought down by the simple mechanism of hijacked passenger planes. But the military-industrial complex has too much at stake to give up their hold on the United States budget easily will.
You failed to mention the multinational corporations and oligarchs of this country that use their money and influence to control elections and foreign policy to their interest, like our president recently removing troops from a portion of territory were Kurds live, only to send reinforcements to protect an Exxon oil installation. The same reason we got into Iraq in the first place. Not Osama bin Laden, but oil.
So, you were/are afraid to go to college because you might find someone smarter than you to figure you out. I ran into your kind in college quite often. Some of them became professors. I got three degrees in five colleges and taught in another five. I will agree with you that the quality of education has declined because of the dumbing down of content and grading as some sort of way of buoying up inadequate behavior. Otherwise, my observation is entirely different from yours. What I saw was an emphasis on teaching how to make money, professors finding ways to make money both with teaching and outside of teaching, often research of no value. I also saw the money shifting from teaching the basics, like philosophy, logic, mathematics, physics and English to business courses and the latest highest paying job opportunity that shifted from science and technology to business and accounting. Administrators and bean counters now make the most money. Philosophy and core course teachers now make the least and football coaches and athletic directors often make more than college presidents. I see little influence of Marxism in classroom teaching. I do see an exchange in ideas between students who are free while in college to engage in groups that find causes worth protesting.
Ron
Freedom: A Great Lie (Article) - 11/20/2019 12:50:08 AM
"Show me a country with a constitution that bans any form of punishment no matter the offense, and I'll show you a 'free' country."
Sounds to me more like a fight to the finish where the winner is the last man or woman standing. Technically, you are correct. He or she would be free to do just about anything, until a bad ass bear came along and ripped him into human steak burgers.
Potential Sources of the Poisoned Mentality in US Politics (Article) - 11/2/2019 1:13:27 PM
I disagree with you on Hillary. I don't recall the "brain fart" you claim was her downfall. But I do recall some Russian-made articles that spread widely through social media accusing her of heinous crimes and it is widely known that James Comey's announcement that he was reentering the investigation into her email server caused voter distrust of her character. Not to mention that she was a woman and many men will not tell you that they do not want a woman as our president.
I agree with you on social media, like this website, where people can operate under a nom de plume and spew whatever kind of hatred they wish until they are stopped by discerning readers and trounced out of business. I also agree with you on drugs. With one exception. I have a serious condition--spinal cord injury caused by surgery. For the first 30 years of my paralysis I avoided medication. After a brief failed episode with prednisone, 27 years ago, I started taking baclofen regularly to avoid muscle spasms. I still have spasms, and some are quite violent and often keep me awake at night or irritated during the day. I developed reflux from losing stomach valve muscles. So I have taken Zantac, and more recently, Ranitidine, the generic nonprescription. When I learned of the cancer possibility, my physician immediately gave me the OTC Pepcid. So far it is working. But the only way I can avoid reflux at night is to lie on my side and be turned by my caregivers at least every half hour. Believe me, reflux is something that I don't want to experience or I wouldn't be able to dictate this comment or swallow, ever again. Also, about three years ago, I was put on a blood thinner after multiple blood clots caused by forced inactivity. So far all of these drugs don't seem to have any interactions or affect on my mental state… Generally positive and required by aging.
I agree with you on bullying. But I've seen it my entire life and protected others from being bullied. The Internet allows bullying to thrive through ignorance and intimidation. I agree with you on chemicals and substances like asbestos and lead in the environment. Fortunately, I have avoided through my work and home life, exposure to known hazards. You nailed it with your explanation of why the economic gap is one of the most serious problems facing the nation. I fail to comprehend why so many people on the losing end of this equation are voting for the very thing that is causing their problem, "unregulated" free enterprise. Everybody wants to get rich. Only a very few know how to get it other than by winning the lottery and then blowing it. People go into business without a clue.
You failed to mention grade inflation and inadequate support of teachers and teaching. Partly brought on by teachers becoming teachers without having to learn a basic discipline other than teaching pedagogy. Private schools certainly aren't the answer. Anyone who goes to higher education expecting that it will get him or her "a job" is mightily mistaken.
A very good article overall that I believe people should read. I'll be passing it on…
Ron
