Esoteric Meandering Shouting Into the Void

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

   I have just read an article about how our state legislators have been using their supposed powers to take advantage of almost anything they want to name as a privilege. This may sound like a new game and in some states it may well be fairly recent that this kind of action is being taken. Truth is that the national legislative body, better known as Congress, has been on this joy ride for a long time, 60 years.

   A very popular farm bill was going through the required 3rd reading in both houses and someone stuck a rider to the bill. That rider would not have found favor with the voting public had they known it was added as it gave the Congress the right to basically thumb their noses at the people that elected them and allowed for what we have today.

   The members of Congress need only serve one term to get retirement. That retirement is full pay and benefits as if they were still expected to be present for legislative duty. They can then go on with becoming a lobbyist or do speaking tours and all the rest. They do not have to ask the voting public for any of these benefits, they just simply decide that this is what they want and put it in place for themselves without the need to clear it with us.

    If this sounds like a train wreck, it should. When you realize that most of the people that serve in Congress make decisions in situations that they have no idea of, it is not good. By that I mean most have not served in the military, yet they decide the fate of people in the military both during years of service and after they retire. They make decisions for ordinary people that retire on a pension and yet most have never known of anyone that retired on a pension as they are all pretty well off to start with. They make judgements on legal issues and most never studied law, and that includes the Supreme Court as there is no requirement for legal training to be named to serve. Will not say that is the case at present but it has happened. As for today’s lot of justices we have mostly rotten apples not cream of crop.

   Members of Congress can get away with almost anything, write a bad check for thousands of dollars and they are just told to make it right and they walk away as if nothing happened. Let a member of the military write a bad check and he or she will most likely get an article 15 unit level punishment which could include loss of pay, loss of rank, extra duty and a bar to reenlist. The service member has no direct impact on how our country is run, can not enact a law, is not a visible representative of the government but the service member is certainly treated as if this was the crime of the century.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

  More evidence is coming forward now that a new team of congressional investigators is on the job. Bias tells me that this group could probably make Bambi look like a vampire bat and Jeffery Daumer a vegan. New evidence that just now tells a whole different story of Russiagate. Had never heard of that before but we do have some rather imaginative people running around on capitol hill these days.

   The FBI did not send all those tweets and twitter to show how much they admired Putin or Kim or the Chinese leader or that ever so loving person that runs the Philippines. That was done by Donald no one else and yet he is being pictured as a Patriotic American when he is not. Why can’t we have elections for life like China? When Kim speaks his people sit at attention and hang on his every word, why can’t my people do that? Just a couple of examples of truly believing that your quest for power is for the good of the nation.

   Let’s hear it for the storming of the Capital on Jan 6th when 5 people died because of absolute stupidity and a quest to hold the reins of power at all costs. Did those 5 people mean anything? Did their deaths serve any purpose? No they were collateral damage to one man’s ego and that was the bottom line. Did he care, in a pigs — choose your word

.

   Now all the mighty misinformed that went to that party are going on trial in DC where they are supposed to be tried. This is terrible as they can not get a free trial in DC because they have not bought and paid for judges in the courts in DC. The jail there is terrible, food is bad, treatment is terrible, we don’t have beer night or anything we want to be sent to Gontonomo in Cuba.

    Well as expressed before I do not think they would get much of a welcome but if they are sent there it should be understood that no matter how a trial turns out they can never return to the United States. They are pretty much like the members of a religious cult, they lead around by their noses and are called a flock for a reason.

    Just like Jim Jones and the kool aid we have promises of promises but no actual reward has yet been seen for any of the followers. They run to rallies and donate money and listen to an echo chamber of crap coming from the most radical of their party. If they think he has had an original idea they are in pretty barren territory. The loyalty that is shown is strictly one way as even his most trusted lawyer has gone to jail and Donald let it happen when he could have told the truth and saved someone that had been covering his back. 

   Now we have the Supreme Court weighing in on veteran benefits and they are making the decision to hold vets to the one year out of service to file for compensation or no compensation. Guess it is time to get rid of the current members of the court by any means possible, legally. Since at least 2 of them committed perjury to get into the court those two should be immediately removed. Then the one whose wife has a major distaste for the United States and wants to turn it into some sort of dictatorship under the most unqualified person to hold office ever, also needs to go as it stands to reason he does not make many decisions without his wife telling what decision to make. That should cut down on the trash load coming from that branch of government.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Sometimes although more than 1000 miles apart and not having discussed our own rants great minds can be having very analogous trains of thought. This gives me hope that others are seeing a reading the insanity that is out in the ether and arriving at similar conclusions.

The current House that is controlled by, lets call them what they are, the clown car caucus has done nothing that is of consequence to their constituents, they have held hearing about Twitter, the Biden Border Crisis, and how the DOJ has been weaponized.

What is the point of these hearings? I am honestly asking because the clown car is not offering any solutions to the presumed issues they are shouting about.

Let’s see they claimed that Twitter removed content at the behest of the Joe Biden… Yes, the Biden’s (as a candidate) campaign asked that inappropriate pictures of his adult son be removed as per Twitters content guidelines. That is something any user has the right to do. Donald asked (as the President) for posts to be removed because they offended him personally. That is a clear misuse of executive power, in fact there have been many instances of executive over reach, demand Disney restrict or fire late night hosts because their monolog were unflattering to the deal leader.

The border crisis has been thoroughly humiliating for the republicans especially MTG when she herself pointed out that the amount of drug seizures at the border have increased under the Biden administration, I’m sorry somehow that is a negative I assumed stopping more was better.

Jim Jordan has been consistently owned by the democratic members of the committee when they continue to illustrate how the DOJ was weaponized by the former guy.

I genuinely hope that the clown car continues to drive headlong toward the cliff because it only strengthens the Democratic Party and degrades any belief that they have any inclination to do anything for the American people whom they claim to represent.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

I just read the writeup about America is a War at Home on the Great America News. This is very much a conservative site as all the problems are blamed on Democrats and Biden.

What I see as a lack of understanding that America did not begin as one brand of religion country. The founding fathers did not name a God or deny that people are different and yet equal, even if they did allow slavery. 

Now we are being told that if religious dogma and free market methods are not followed, we are somehow unfit to be American. They claim this is not about white supremacy, but it is and denying that we have just recently been home to people with other than heterosexual tendencies is very narrow minded. Also, the business of the classing of every person that attempts to come here from somewhere else as an illegal alien is just crap. Putting them on buses and sending them to DC is not an answer for someone that is supposed to be in a position of authority.

Do not know what to do about it, maybe finding a way to get rid of the vipers in the mix would help but as long as we have the hate mongers we are screwed. I wonder if they have ever thought about how things might work if they would only try to work through a problem rather than blame it on others and deny that there can be a way to solve it.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

The current Republican House hearing are doing a great deal of finger pointing without any fact checking to corroborate their assertions. That is of no surprise to House Democrats who continue to let Republicans step on their own dicks.

Some of the “facts” that the cons reference are counter to the narrative that they are trying to promote. Margorie T Green has referred to increased fentanyl deaths using family and lost acquaintances as refence placing the blame on the Biden boarder policy although these recorded deaths happened in 2019 and 2020. Curious how the current policy caused deaths prior to its implementation.

The republicans want the current Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, removed because of the increased amount of seized fentanyl at the border. They also continue to place the blame on undocumented persons coming across the border as the prime movers of illegal narcotics.

 Here are facts according to the CATO Institute:

• Fentanyl smuggling is ultimately funded by U.S. consumers who pay for illicit opioids: nearly 99 percent of whom are U.S. citizens.
• In 2021, U.S. citizens were 86.3 percent of convicted fentanyl drug traffickers—ten times greater than convictions of illegal immigrants for the same offense.
• Over 90 percent of fentanyl seizures occur at legal crossing points or interior vehicle checkpoints, not on illegal migration routes, so U.S. citizens (who are subject to less scrutiny) when crossing legally are the best smugglers.
• The location of smuggling makes sense because hard drugs at ports of entry are about 97 percent less likely to be stopped than are people crossing illegally between them.
• Just 0.02 percent of the people arrested by Border Patrol for crossing illegally possessed any fentanyl whatsoever.
• The government exacerbated the problem by banning most legal cross border traffic in 2020 and 2021, accelerating a switch to fentanyl (the easiest‐​to‐​conceal drug).
• During the travel restrictions, fentanyl seizures at ports quadrupled from fiscal year 2019 to 2021. Fentanyl went from a third of combined heroin and fentanyl seizures to over 90 percent.
• Annual deaths from fentanyl nearly doubled from 2019 to 2021 after the government banned most travel (and asylum).

We need to start addressing the problem at is source and stop pointing fingers to make some political point. The House under Nancy Pelosi did not spend its time endless placing blame. I know there are some out there that will cry that under Pelosi dear Donald was impeached twice and there was a House committee to investigate 1/6 “How is that not finger pointing?” I would argue that because those were based in fact and evidence to corroborate their validity was presented. Everything that the current house is attempting to justify has been roundly slapped down by quoting their own record back to them.

I go back to the point that Republican persist on the flatform that Government does not work and based on their current performance they are actively proving their point. The point that when Republicans are handed the wheel they will do their very best to run the car into the ditch and then blame someone/anyone else for the problem.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Big word I know but it’s a word that seems to adequately describe today’s republican party. I am sure I am not the only one to wonder about the inconsistence positions that “the right” take. Let’s go ahead to list them.

• Free Speech
  • Republican Governors
    • Banning books.
    • Bans on teaching subjects that they dislike.
    • Bans on right to peaceably assemble.
• Pro-Life (republican anti-abortion stance,
  • Pro Capital Punishment (Death Penalty)
  • Pro-Gun
    • No gun regulations only “thoughts and prayers”.
  • Pro-War
    • Always I favor of expanding Military Funding
  • Against Expanded Health Care
  • Fighting to keep pharmaceutical prices high.
    • Against the $35 monthly cap on insulin

The list could go on and on and it is mind boggling that some how hardly anyone points out the hypocrisy. The other point in my bewilderment is that they cry fowl over nearly every measure put forward to fix an issue but they never seem to propose a solution and if when they do it is a non-fix or actually exasperates the problem.

How is it that a large segment of our population keeps putting these disruptors in positions of power? I know over years of partisan shenanigans the republicans have redrawn maps that insure that even with a majority they can still stay in power. The state of Wisconsin in a prime example the state tend to vote 50/50 on most things but somehow the Republicans hold a super majority in state government. That super majority even stripped the Governor, who is a democrat, of nearly all his elected authority so that they could push threw their agenda. The state even has a majority supreme court that continues to strip rights away from its citizens. Thankfully that may be changing because the public gets to vote on judges and they have a election coming up that could change the complexion of the court to represent the people in a more just and positive direction.

I know I am rambling, but my bewilderment in the juxtaposition of touted republican talking points and their actual actions that are in opposition to those “beliefs” have been a constant nightmare for the sane public and I hope I am not the only one who thinks that way.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Much to Vladimir Putin’s displeasure his, what he thought would be a 7-day, invasion of Ukraine has now passed 12 months. He underestimated his prey, yes, I am calling Ukraine his intended prey. That is a mistake the despots often make presuming that they have the upper hand. After one year Putin has not broken Ukraine’s resolve only strengthened it as well as the unification of the western alliances to stand up to his oppression.

Still the propaganda is out there that Russia is the hero in this scenario, that Putin is only trying to rescue Russian Ukrainians from oppression and the tyranny of Ukrainian President Zelensky. Putin has bought into his own hype that the Ukrainian people feel that they need rescued, well at least that is what he is feeding his citizens that he has effectively cut off from any outside media.

It is well known to the western alliance that since taking power in 2000 that Putin’s aim has been to bring back the glory of the former Soviet states and through fear and intimidation many of the Russian satellite countries have fallen in line. Ukraine had had a Russian puppet as a President, Viktor Yanukovych 2005-2010, that Putin desperately wanted back in the seat of power. When Zelenskiy defeated Poroshenko, who was decidedly more pro Ukraine than Yanukovych, Putin must have thought that the newly elected Actor/Comedian would be a push over. Most certainly the invasion plans were in place with the presumption that Trump would remain in the White House and U.S. assistance would not be provided. Sad to say that President Biden has a considerably different opinion that Donald did and is a far better Politician and Diplomat that 45 could ever hope to have been. With Biden’s leadership NATO as galvanized behind Zelensky without actually entering the war itself.

At this one year mark in is apparent that the U.S. and European countries have to be more involved in defending Ukraine, hopefully not with boots on the ground because we don’t want a Third world war. Biden has already promised tanks and missile systems to Ukraine, my hope is that our Navy can keep ports open for Ukraine without shots being fired.

I support democracy and Ukraine and sincerely hope that this conflict doesn’t last another year.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Admittedly we have gone overboard with celebrating pretty much everything in this country , National Donut Day, National Hot Dog Day, you name it you can probably find it on a calendar. Now a Neo-Nazi group is attempting to have a National Day of Hate and actually disturbing flyers and leaflet propaganda promoting it. It was supposed to be last Saturday February 25^th and of course an anti-Semitic group would want this egregiously offensive day to be a Saturday. Why you may ask… well in the Jewish faith Saturday is Sabbat a weekly 25-hour observance, from just before sundown each Friday through the completion of nightfall on Saturday, Shabbat is more than just a day off from labor. It is a day of physical and spiritual delights that is meant to illuminate certain key concepts in the traditional Jewish perception of the world. So of course this hate group wants to defame a day holy to Judaism with hate and ugliness.

I totally agree with the 1^st Amendment, “The First Amendment provides that Congress make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise. It protects freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” These hate groups only spout that they have the right to free speech and can say whatever they please. I disagree with that, it has been established that you can’t yell “FIRE” in a crowded theater and what these groups are doing is equivalent. Stoking hatred and rage toward a particular community only increases the amount of violent actions taken against said community and for no viable reason.

These same instigators of hate are the very first to cry that Black Lives Matter marches were unlawful and have actually had police forcefully break up peaceful marches and protest. Now when they are calling for a National Day of Hate all the groups they are targeting are told to avoid gathering in groups or not to go out into public. Why are the people that are being threatened the ones that should be inconvenienced, why aren’t those calling for hatred labeled as the offenders not just as citizens exercising their 1^st Amendment rights. BLM hasn’t been afforded that honor, BLM has been called a violent mob even when they are peacefully walking down the street holding hand and unarmed.

This unjust treatment harkens back to the Vietnam protest and the freedom riders of MLK’s day, I thought we had grown up has a society but obviously I was sadly mistaken. ☹        

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Black History Month was signed into law in 1986 but that wasn’t the first time it had been proposed. It was Carter G. Woodson, the “father of Black history,” who first set out in 1926 to designate a time to promote and educate people about Black history and culture, according to W. Marvin Dulaney. Black educators and Black United Students at Kent State University first proposed Black History Month in February 1969. The first celebration of Black History Month took place at Kent State a year later, from January 2 to February 28, 1970.

It’s a sad state of our national prejudice that although the idea was presented in 1926 and the first time it was celebrated on a local scale was 1970 but it took another 16 years for Black History Month to be adopted into federal law. Now in the state of Florida their Governor Ron DeSantis  wants to ban the practice and has effectively removed any black studies classes from K-12 schools and is actively trying to remove the curriculum from college campuses. The lily white  (Italian decent) DeSantis criticizes the teaching of Black History, labeled by the right as CRT, as just making white children feel bad about themselves.

God forbid little Jaylin knew the real history of how others were treated in the past. The first black children to be integrated into public schools in the 1960’s had to be escorted by federal police and were still threatened by white adults. It would be terrible if children today knew that their grandparent were violently racist.

There are members of our federal government that vehemently oppose the removal of confederate statues from town square decrying that we want to remove history. Most play ignorant to the fact that those monuments were not erected until the 1950’s specifically to assert white power to the black communities they were erected in. Even Robert E. Lee argued against creating Confederate war monuments on battlefields, which would “keep open the sores of war.” Our favorite dirt ball MTG said that if she were black, which she is not, she would be proud to see these statues and reminisce how far black people have come. To me that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.

I lived in Germany and they do not fly the Nazi banner or have statues for Adolf Hitler to remind them of how far they have come since WWII, but we still have places the fly the flag of the confederacy that waged war against it own and lost. My question is why we allow it.

Collin Kaepernick kneeled to bring attention to bring attention to unjust police practice against minorities and he was summarily chastised and drummed out of the NFL. MTG called for a National Divorce on the floor of the House of Representatives and “crickets”, an elected member of our federal government is calling for it dissolution and that doesn’t hold our attention for more than one new cycle.

Our nations history has had in moment of glory but also its ugly beginnings. No one can claim that we started out with all men created equal, it didn’t work that way. The slave states had the 3/5 clause added into the constitution because they wanted the representation of population in the government. The only people that could vote in the beginning were white land owners and that was it. That all seems equal right. When Lincoln freed the slaves the black population still didn’t have any rights, maybe it would have been different if he hadn’t been assassinated but we will never know.

Black history is part of our national history and should not be painted over just because its truth offends some. The best line I have been told is if you are offended by History good, we are supposed to learn for history, not be entertained by it.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

Everything is a competition it seems, be it in a classroom, a workplace, on the road, even in bed you will encounter an attitude that A is better than B. Our politics is all about competition that is the sum of everything that they do. It means doing whatever is necessary to make the point that one party is better than the other and we do not care how much damage we do to the country as long as we prove that our party is in charge.

  Our recent incident with balloons from China and how all this money was spent to shoot down a harmless balloon. It was reported that the last administration allowed 3 of these harmless balloons to overfly the country and we did nothing about it, now the Chinese leader has it in his head that the air space over America is free to occupy as he sees fit. This creates a dilemma as this President signaled that we are not allowing foreign objects or vehicles to be in our skies. That is not the attitude of the former person that held the office that seems to have nothing but vacant space between his ears and does not mind having all kinds of things floating in it.

  Competition or one upmanship seems to be the game for sending bus loads of people from the border to DC. How do I get my name in front of everyone and make others seem inadequate? Can I take a gun into a school and kill more children than the last idiot did? Am I able to cause more destruction at this rally than anyone else, how fast can I drive, how much can I drink, or smoke or eat before the effort causes me to become sick and die? 

   Wouldn’t it be nice if the competition was to see how many were kept from going hungry or getting people off the streets and into adequate quarters, have enough warm clothing and be able to see a doctor if needed all the things that say we are civilized and we take care of our own.

   So now the city of Seattle has enacted a law to do away with castes which I was unaware of as a problem. Should have known that we just can not get away from the idea that if you have anything that gives you the idea that you are better than someone else that thing is played like the winning card in a game. For all that have been born of the human species we came equipped with mostly equal parts that all work the same way and are kept alive because we consume food for energy and that blood flows in our veins. The blood can be shared one to another with some consideration for type as for some reason we do have different types of blood, another reason for believing in superiority.

   It is generally easy to tell who has the wealth and who does not. Sometimes it is easy to tell who has been able to excel in one field or another but it is impossible to look at someone and tell their blood type. Diversity makes life interesting and if we were all alike in every way it would be like living on an island of goons or being the members of an ant colony.

   Take the interesting part a little farther and you find that all these various people have something different to offer in the mix and again adds more interest to the mix. Books, plays and movies have been written about people’s differences and the results of crossing the line between those differences. The results have been as awful as walling a daughter up and letting her die to the widely celebrated marriage of Diana and Charles or Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier. 

   We all are aware that in breeding will bring problems to a family line whether it be outright idiocy or hemophilia it is not good. History has shown that some families have somehow convinced the rest of the people around them that they were somehow superior and they ruled over others. It did not stop them from going to war to kill other family members, it did not stop them from deciding whose son would marry whose daughter like it or not and the ruling of most of the European continent did not stop WWI.

  In all the strife and contests and disagreements and general bickering over who is better than someone else the real difference is something not viewable from surface experience. The reason is that blood types do not leave a visible difference and that is the only thing that makes us truly different. If you need blood you have no idea where it came from except that someone generous enough to take the time and effort to donate did it out of the generosity of their heart and that saved your life. If you had that transfusion check and see if you are different in any way, crave a strange food, like different music, anything at all, more than likely not so what are the differences?