All we heard for months without end, is that Trump was going to have Mexico pay for the wall. His supporters went nuts.

Now, this same Trump is glorifying in the attention of his own massive ego, in demanding $5B that Congress (you and me) don't have and isn't about to give him, for this same wall, or he will shut down a govt that, quite frankly, isn't getting much of anything accomplished at the moment anyway.

How does this work, exactly? The same farmers that put him in office, are now suffering due to his trade tariffs and non-knowledge of international economics and global trade.

More jobs were promised, bringing manufacturing back to America. Then, five car plants closed, the tariffs he imposed forced the steel industry to raise prices which slowed production which rippled into businesses nationwide.

Dozens of his appointees have resigned. Five have been convicted. The only business being conducted in Wash. are investigations.

We thought Nixon's administration was slimy and crooked and under-handed. This administration seems far worse on the surface. Promises made not kept, statements made then flip-flopped. Three chiefs of staff in two years. At least two attorneys general. The list goes on.

Near as I can tell, the only citizens to benefit from two years of Trump, are MAGA hat sellers, and every corporation that got a permanent tax cut, as opposed to the rest of us who got a temp. tax cut that btw, will add $1T to our already staggering national debt.

A non-Congress declared war in Afghanistan enters its 18th years with no end in sight, with our own Army about to prosecute one of its own for killing the enemy.

Anyone else confused?

On this sad day 77 years ago, we were attacked. The next day FDR convinced Congress to declare war on Japan. Three days later, on Germany, and Italy, and, six months later, on Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania, for technical reasons.

Since then, the eleventh and last time Congress declared war, we have sent men and women to war 34 times. How, is this possible? Uphold the Constitution, my ass. More like, how do we, Congress, President, Mil. Indust. Complex, get around the Constitution.

34 Times. 34.
Here's the list. Try to grasp that the civilian deaths involved usually far out number the soldiers killed, on both sides.
Korea 1950
Iran 1953
Laos 1953
Lebanon 1958
Cuba 1961
Vietnam 1961
Thailand 1963
Dominican Republic
Bolivia
Cambodia
Zaire 1978
Gulf of Zidra, Libya
Lebanon Civil War
Grenada 1983
Libya 1986
Iran-tanker war 1987
Tobruk 1989 shot down two Mig-23s
Panama 1989
Gulf War 1990
Somalia Civil War 1992 - ongoing
Bosnia 1992
Haiti 1994
Kosovo 1998
Sudan and Afghanistan 1998 Al Qaeda and O.B.L. arise
Afghanistan 2001-ongoing, no end in sight
Iraq 2003 - overthrow and execute Hussein
Pakistan 2004 -ongoing
Somalia 2007 -W.O.T. (war on terror)
Libya 2011 - overthrow Gaddafi
Uganda 2011
Iraq 2014
Syria 2014 - ongoing no end in sight
Yemen 2015 -ongoing no end in sight
Libya 2015 - 2nd Libyan Civil War, ongoing no end in sight

-------------------------------------------
You might want to ask your Congressional rep a few questions. Almost none of these threatened the security of the United States. Many were to depose leaders we simply didn't like. Several have no end in sight, so teach your children to shoot straight. Their skills clearly will be needed.

Where's the United Nations when we need them?

Eisenhower was right. Beware the Military Industrial Complex.

It's why your roads and bridges are crumbling and outdated; your schools are poorly equipped and your teachers poorly paid; your national electrical grid outdated; your transportation systems totally inadequate; your water quality poor, and getting worse; your national healthcare system an international disgrace; why 40m Americans go to bed hungry every night, including about 11m children. In America.

But we have money, endless supplies of money, for the M.I.C. No president since JFK has stood up to The System.

Hell, we can't get 60% of us, to go to the polls and vote. We must like things just the way they are, and the heck with the Pursuit of Happiness.

Our government went to bed with corporate America during WW II and never left. Eisenhower's departure speech in '61 warned us of letting the M.I.C. take over. He was proven right. I have no idea how to get Congress's hands out of the corporate trough, and vice versa. I know that the Deplorables are being ignored, have been for decades. Our laws and founding documents have been been twisted, adjusted, denied, to the point where the FF would not recognize that which they created. Only Congress can declare war, yet the last time they did so, was Dec 8, 1941. Can someone please explain all the wars we have fought since, all over the globe, feeding our national war machine? Guatemala, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Korea, Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait, Panama, Afghanistan, and too many African countries to name? None of these conflicts are legal, by our own Constitution, yet we fund them to the tune of billions and the blood of our sons and daughters, for decades. Money, and people, that could have been utilized to improve our Pursuit of Happiness, also in the Const., here at home. Instead, we raise money every few years for yet another monument to our Fallen, in Washington. Town squares nationwide are full of such memorials. Ridiculous and un-justified. Our national defense budget dwarfs every nation on earth, yet we send 40m of our own to bed hungry every night. Our national electrical grid dates to the 1930s, our national highway system to ther 1950s, our air traffic control system to the 1970s. Our passenger trains mostly stopped running in the 1960s. Amtrak is a East coast-focused bottomless pit into which taxpayers have zero choice but to pour in billions. They have yet to turn a profit since 1970. "Since its foundation in 1970, the company has never generated a profit. Government subsidies to the tune of $46 billion have kept the company afloat since 1970." What population allows such tax dollar waste? Well, we do. We used to have dozens of airline company choices, retail choices, medical choices. Today we are at the mercy of a tiny handful of each, who do and charge whatever they want, despite the supposed existence of some anti-trust laws. Helluva country to leave to our children and grandchildren. We don't care, either. How long has it been since 60-65% of us voted in a national election? Try 1960-1968. Nothing close, since. I'm not bitter so much as I am disappointed in how we have turned out as a nation. Our 1963 coup d'etat turned this country in an entirely different direction, one we don't seem able nor, more importantly, willing to change. But, this is just me after two cups of morning coffee.

From a national news story on-line this Nov 12, 2018, about the youngest Thousand Oaks shooting victim, age 18, come her devastated family's comments:

We believe that there is a message that's out there."

"What's the message?" Cowan asked.

"To us, it's to be kind to one another. It's to put down your technology, put down your phones and look at somebody and have a conversation. It's not about gun control; this message is about doing something bigger, to be with your community, to love one another."

"All things that you don't have to legislate?"

"Right. Exactly," said Arik.

Adam added, "To get to the point where we can have a conversation about anything political, it has to start here [points to heart]. It has to start with the soul, because we've lost that."

Arik said, "What if somebody walked up to the guy and just asked him how he was doing that day and said 'hello' to him or did something that may have just changed his mind, instead of ignoring, or whatever we're doing?"

Cowan said, "You know what people are going to say, though – skeptics are going to say it's too simple, that that sounds great about being decent and kind and reaching a hand out, but I think most people are going to say it's too complicated."

"But I think it starts there," said Tamera. "You start with imagining, 'Wait a minute, what if that was my child, or my niece, or my cousin?' It will get you in a place of just having some sort of human decency."

If there's any doubt there's a deficit of decency, look no further than the family's social media.

Adam said, "You should see some of the tweets we got after Alaina died. Oh, I got one, 'You deserve it. You worked at Fox News.' And it got liked by about 78 people."

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I think it's not about the weapon used. But we've made it too easy in America to use a gun for all the wrong purposes. Screening guidelines, rules, and regs. have proven worthless time and again. Known mentally un-balanced people still gain access to weapons one method, or another. We are, nationally, a gun culture, perhaps like no other country in the world. I am not interested in international comparative statistics today. Means nothing.

This family received hate e-mail with almost 80 people LIKING the hate messages. Think about that. Who does that?

When I was substituting in a Summerville SC high school classroom last Spring, I asked the students in each class that I had that day, to stand up and name all their classmates. This was March. No student in any class could do it. They meander the halls in a daze, on their phones, cap-wearing, pants-dragging, elbow and shoulder-bumping, not holding doors for each other, and they don't even know their classmates. I would venture a guess that this scenario could easily be repeated in schools and communities across our nation. Meanwhile, administrators focus on test results and graduation rates, as if that was all that mattered.

I sit in traffic at green lights, because the moron in front of me yapping on the phone hasn't noticed anything. I honked at a female motorist last month, twice, to keep moving at various stop points, and she flashed her middle finger at me, all the while not once putting down her phone to safely drive. She was old enough to have h.s. age children. It's where kids get their behaviors from.

There isn't an older teacher alive that won't tell you our family structure in America is seriously broken. The rudeness, the open defiance, the impulsive anger, the standard dis-respect to any authority figure, is standard. Now, how did THAT happen?

Mass shooters could have used any object to wreck havoc and death. But from a hotel room high up on a strip, it's awfully difficult to throw knives and swing axes, etc. Just spend a week bringing an arsenal of weapons up to your room, and have at it. The Newtown Sandy Hook slaughter anniversary is almost upon us, and this family above, is absolutely right. Nothing has changed. No movement from Congress or the NRA or their fans or opponents.

A massive social more change is necessary, I believe. This love affair with all things gun-related simply has to stop.

Additionally, we need to take violence out of our culture via the various media forums out there. Video games, tv programs, movies, music, it's disgusting what is available, and what sells.

Additionally, our returning soldiers need a mandatory decompression week, minimum. No work, just spend time with fellow soldiers, counselors, totally relax, and importantly, talk about their experiences with other veterans, before being released to their families and to pick up their lives.

More gun laws aren't the answer. It's not the weapon. It's all of us, locked into our technology and not simply acknowledging the presence of each other, talking to and with each other, greeting each other, knowing who our classmates are, etc.

An increasingly impersonal world, guarantees more slaughter.

Just felt like calmly ranting. Thanks.

We bought thoroughly into the concept that rich white males knew what was best for us, meanwhile sending us into endless conflicts without official declaration, killing millions, losing thousands of our own, so Fortune 500 companies could become even more powerful, along with banks. 

We bought that Columbus was a good guy, that eminent domain and manifest destiny was good. We sat back and watched our leaders take us into conflict after conflict that had absolutely nothing to do with keeping us safe and free. 

The result has been millions dead around the world, a nuclear shadow the likes of which we have no full understanding of, and a country history of genocide, invasion, disruption, discrimination, while totally straying away from the Pursuit of Happiness and other specific goals and general ideals found in our national documents.

Millions of American citizens knew the Vietnam War was wrong. We didn't listen to them, and we enlisted and we served and we died and we came home changed physically, mentally, and emotionally. Not all of us landed within Vietnam or actual combat, but we were all part of the effort.

Fast forward 50 years, and I can see clearly now. Much more clear, than ever. The national Pursuit of Happiness has been corrupted, hopefully not forever, by an increasingly and well-funded corporate world, and an allegedly defense-minded govt, that cannot rein itself in.

Congress last declared war on Dec 8, 1941. Since the end of that conflict, we have invaded/attacked Korea, Guatemala, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and have forces in over 70 countries. We define patriotism solely as serving one's country with military service. 

We set aside the genocidal conduct of America since at least 1900's attacks and slaughter of the Hawaiian and Philipino people, and the Native Americans the previous century. We downgrade and spin this in our nation's textbooks. We do not pause to think of the the millions of civilian casualties who have died in conflicts around the globe in actions instigated by our own govt in the names of freedom and democracy, but in truth, mostly for profit. 

Now, we have multiple calls for a Space Force, apparently to be funded from our empty treasury. We have forgotten about the plaque we put on the moon in 1969: "..we came in peace for all mankind."  Clearly that's out the window.

When we will truly become a peaceful, non-violent nation devoted to the general health and well-being of all of its residents and all of our worldy neighbors? When will we stop stirring up war around the globe? Imagine a different kind of patriotism. Imagine all living as one.

Imagine.  We live under a nuclear threat so great it's un-imaginable.

Let's try pursuing Happiness. And Peace. 

Food for thought:

Nuclear warheads out there:
Russia: 8500
USA: 7700
France: 300
China: 240
UK: 225
Pakistan: 120
India: 110
Israel: 80
N.Korea: 10 and probably less than that.

US. spends 35% of total global military spending of $1.6T: $590B in 2017; 639B this yr; $681B next year.

US: 11 aircraft carriers; 12th, named after Pres Ford, to cost over $13B. A slight cost over-run.

Hunger in America:
1 in 6 of us is hungry, or "food insecure." One. In. Six.

17.5m households, about 48.8m fellow Americans, are "food insecure" meaning they wonder where their next meal is coming from.

Over 13m children go to school hungry every day.

Some 2.5m US children, are homeless.

Our four electrical grids will cost us $5T to replace/upgrade. That's five trillions.

Now, think about our interstate roads, bridges, train tracks. Think about cleaning up our polluted waterways.

We are in our 17th year of war in Afghanistan, bodies still coming home, no end in sight. Our president wants to form a Space Army. Only wants about $20B to get started. Last time I checked our national debt was in the trillions.

Would one of you please explain all this?

Our Declaration of Independence set as a goal, for all of us, to be able to Pursue Happiness. Doesn't seem to me we are on the right track as a society, at all.

Eisenhower was right.

The last time Congress declared war was Dec 8, 1941. Look up the long list of nations we have invaded/fought against since. How I do not know. What in the hell, is going on?

Shame on all of us, for voting the way we have over these last 78 years, for not paying attention to our govt, our neighbors, our fellow citizens.

Our national system must change. All the major changes in our culture have come from the people, not the govt and its back-up, the military. Today, we have exactly the same problems we faced 50 years ago during the tumultuous 1960s: unpopular war, stagnant wages, racial divide, a populace divided, extensive poverty, poor education, lousy health care, an in-active Congress. Women got the vote in the 1920s by marching and protesting for it. Blacks got the right to be considered human beings, by marching and protesting and dying for it.

It makes no difference which political party sits on the throne. The system itself is corrupted, by the rich who have all the money, who buy off the politicians, who lobby Congress with dollars un-interrupted, who replace college professors whose courses and versions of fact they dis-agree with. The bankers and corporations who influence Congress and the courts to pass laws favorable to only them.(How many bankers went to jail in the housing crash?)

Folks can go on about either party in a never-ending debate. Until we change our govt. system, nothing will change, indeed, nothing has changed. We remain a war-based economy, feeding the arms dealers and stirring up problems around the world, still attempting to influence which people lead which countries, while ignoring those tyrants whose resources we need (the Arabs of Saudi Arabia, for one.)

We are bogged down in Afghanistan going on 17 years now with zero end in sight. The Russians were smart enough to pull out of there ages ago. We have soldiers in 70 countries around the world. Why? We have some 40m of our own living in poverty. Why? We have over 30m children on a federally assisted school lunch program. Why? Wages have stagnated for about 40 years. Why?

Our national "defense" budget is close to one trillion dollars, certainly headed that way. Who are we defending ourselves against? Every dime spent on "defense" is one not spent on our infrastructure, our health care, our electrical grid, our schools. We put a plaque on the Moon in 1969 claiming that "...we came in peace for all mankind." Now, we want billions to start up a Space Command to prepare for space war. From who? Martians?

Where's all the wealth? Why aren't American workers better off materially? Why are farmers losing their farms, the dairy industry chief among them? Someone has all the wealth. Why do basic pharmaceuticals cost so much, out of the reach of too many of us? Why do we have to choose between utility bills, and health-maintaining drugs? The gap between the haves and have-nots, which has existed since the Puritans landed at Roanoke and Jamestown, continues to widen and is un-sustainable. Our national debt is reported to be about $20 TRILLION. That's a number I cannot comprehend.

Stop fighting among ourselves, stop pointing fingers at each other, and let's figure a way out of this ourselves. Because our govt sure isn't going to help us.

Found this on Facebook this Sunday morning, Aug 19, 2018. Interesting points made. My reply is below.

------------------------------------------------------

Written by Ted Nugent

Take a little trip to Valley Forge in January. Hold a musket ball in your Fingers and imagine it piercing your flesh and breaking a bone or two. There won't be a doctor or trainer to assist you until after the battle, so Just wait your turn. Take your cleats and socks off to get a real Experience.

Then, take a knee on the beach in Normandy where man after American man Stormed the beach, even as the one in front of him was shot to pieces, the Very sea stained with American blood. The only blockers most had were the
Dead bodies in front of them, riddled with bullets from enemy fire.

Take a knee in the sweat soaked jungles of Vietnam. From Khe Sanh to Saigon, anywhere will do. Americans died in all those jungles. There was no Playbook that told them what was next, but they knew what flag they Represented. When they came home, they were protested as well, and spit on For reasons only cowards know.

Take another knee in the blood drenched sands of Fallujah in 110 degree Heat. Wear your Kevlar helmet and battle dress. Your number won't be Printed on it unless your number is up! You'll need to stay hydrated but There won't be anyone to squirt Gatorade into your mouth. You're on your Own.

There are a lot of places to take a knee where Americans have given their Lives all over the world. When you use the banner under which they fought As a source for your displeasure, you dishonor the memories of those who
Bled for the very freedoms you have. That's what the red stripes mean. It Represents the blood of those who spilled a sea of it defending your Liberty.

While you're on your knee, pray for those that came before you, not on a Manicured lawn striped and printed with numbers to announce every inch of Ground taken, but on nameless hills and bloodied beaches and sweltering
Forests and bitter cold mountains, every inch marked by an American life Lost serving that flag you protest.

No cheerleaders, no announcers, no coaches, no fans, just American men and Women, delivering the real fight against those who chose to harm us, Blazing a path so you would have the right to "take a knee." You haven't Any inkling of what it took to get you where you are, but your "protest" is
Duly noted. Not only is it disgraceful to a nation of real heroes, it Serves the purpose of pointing to your ingratitude for those who chose to Defend you under that banner that will still wave long after your jersey is Retired.

If you really feel the need to take a knee, come with me to church on Sunday and we'll both kneel before Almighty God. We'll thank Him for Preserving this country for as long as He has. We'll beg forgiveness for our Ingratitude for all He has provided us. We'll appeal to Him for Understanding and wisdom. We'll pray for liberty and justice for all,
Because He is the one who provides those things. But there will be no Protest. There will only be gratitude for His provision and a plea for His Continued grace and mercy on the land of the free and the home of the Brave.
It goes like this, GOD BLESS AMERICA.

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Mr. Nugent makes some valid points. But, America is more than soldiers sent to die in foreign lands for corporate profits. Because that is what has been on-going since the end of WW. II.
Congress last declared war on Dec 8, 1941. Since then, we have invaded: Korea, Guatemala, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, not a single country of which ever did anything to us. We invaded some of those countries because their leaders no longer served our broad interests: think Noriega, Hussein, Bin Laden, and others. We currently have troops stationed on the six inhabitable continents. Why/ What African country ever has bothered us? Where's the threat? Better yet, where 's the media, besides being a complacent tool of power, afraid to speak out.
Our WH leader wants to militarize space, and he's not the first. We left a plaque in 1969 that says that we came in peace for all mankind. It would be nice if we lived up to that, remembered that, educated our students about that. I strongly believe that what mostly black NFL players and others are protesting, rightfully, is the treatment of Americans here at home. They are aware of the Tuskeegee (sp) Airman of WW II, of the valiant service of black soldiers and sailors during WW II, reduced to servant positions and segregated units. Their relatives returned to the country they defended only to be told to get off the sidewalk when a white person walked past, to never look a white person in the eye, to drink from segrgated fountains, to stay out of the city pool, to eat in the back of the restaurant by entering through a separate door, and to go home by sitting in the back of the bus. They protest over the failure of their govt, our govt, to protect their basic human rights during the Civil Rights protests of the 50s and 60s, when our govt sent no troops while blacks were beaten, hosed, dog-savaged, bombed, threatened, in direct violation of our 14th Amendment. 
They kneel and protest against the failure of half a dozen Congress-passed Civil Rights Bills since the 1870s, none of which were put into full effect. They kneel and raise fists in defiance of a system that to this day in 2018, keeps them from enjoying their pursuit of Happiness like the rest of us. They pay higher loan interest rates, get turned down for more mortgages, are told some areas of town aren't for them, have no nationally known banks and grocery stories and retail and industry that comes to their neighborhoods, get the tail end of city services, live on the last streets to be cleared after snow storms and Mother Nature's wrath.
They are tired of gentrification, of having interstate hwys built through their neighborhoods, being told over and over and over again, no, and, wait. Their schools are worst-funded, in worst shape, and no hope is in sight, since property-tax system remains in place, and how much tax can one raise from impoverished people and their property? Mr. Nugent is entitled to his white-bread opinion, but he left out the actual history of our country and our govt, always white-dominated, always corporate-driven. We have so much to change in America. We should start by stop re-electing the same people to office. America exists for all. Well, it's supposed to.

Manage

My reply to Mr George Will's Aug 12 column on Wanting Peace by Preparing for War:

Imagine, instead, if the Big Three had not made plans to rule the post-WW II world, but instead supported the concept of ALL European and Asian nations being part of such plans.

Imagine Eisenhower's administration NOT ignoring the post-Russia death of Stalin period, during which time Kruschev and company were not interested in a Cold War. The Cold War existed for the precise purpose of helping the military-industrial-political complex take power in America, Constitution be damned. And that is exactly what has happened.

There is a large alphabet of govt. agencies, some we know about, some we doubt, that exist to keep Americans in their place, and keep up the facade that the Pursuit of Happiness is alive and well, that individual freedoms for ALL people should exist. They in fact exist to insure govt and corporate control of all facets of our lives. Ever ask yourself why your life hasn't improved, while at the same time corporate CEOs rake in millions in salaries, stock, and golden parachutes, all the while fixing nothing, changing nothing, hiding their profits off-shore, refusing to invest in USA infrastructure, hiding behind armies of tax and other lawyers?

Mr. Will picked a certain point in his perception of history and pontificated from there. It didn't have to be this way, and it shouldn't be this way. Genocide, poverty, hungry children, racial strife, disasters, crumbling infrastructure, horrible economy, lack of hope, and that's just in what used to be America.

Only Congress can declare war. They last did so on Dec 8, 1941. Since then, we've invaded:
Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Grenada, Panama, Cambodia, Laos, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan. We went after foreign leaders we didn't like in Latin America and Middle Europe, many of whom we removed from office after having funded them until they were no longer needed by us. Not so much as a peep out of Congress, who funded all of this anyway. We filled up our national and local cemeteries with our youth under mis-guided patriotism.

Mr. Will's commentary is one-sided and absent severe facts. But, this is what newspapers are supposed to do, help citizens think critically about those they put, and keep, in power.

The imbalances in our country these days, are staggering. I don't mind someone becoming wealthy, if they built a better mousetrap. More power to them.

If, however, they manipulated the law (the rules for all of us), then I have questions. Our tax code remains a dark maze that almost no one can figure out, except armies of tax lawyers. That's a clue right there, that lawyers choose to specialize in tax law.

How well off are we as a nation, when the richest one percent control the power to change our laws, control who our teachers and professors are, and the versions of what they teach, and how, from K-16 and beyond? This is NOT what we were taught, nor is it what we are teaching now, about how govt works.

The moderate mindset for a couple of decades now has been, " I got mine."

Our national infrastructure is crumbling.
State-wise, many of our states are operating in the red and are near bankruptcy (see Il).
Locally, is there a wealthy school district in the state? Safe school busses, good brick and mortars, well-paid teachers, non-hungry student bodies, well-supplied classrooms not funded out of teacher paychecks?

Imagine how much better off the country would be as a whole, if employee salaries were living-wage, and CEO salaries were set in the Real World, compensation for work actually performed?

Our housing market is making another bubble, already. Using the rule of thumb that one can afford a home costing three times one's salary, it appears few in-state daily working residents can afford to live here (SC), rent here, much much less buy here. All homes are grossly over-valued, due only to a shortage. No effort to build affordable housing seems near.

The greater Charleston median income is reported to be about $53k. Times 3 = $159k. That is the recommended housing cost, $159k. This paper doesn't even bother publishing the sales of homes under $200k. Reviewing the real estate listings in this paper reveals a handful, maybe, of homes available for under $200k. We read this week that about, what, 105k more homes are scheduled to be built? Who, exactly, is going to afford them? Folks making $12 hr, roughly the national poverty level, don't even have a bus system to get back and forth to work. If their job is in downtown Charleston, hip boots and wading gear are a requirement. Forget using a bicycle. Few paths, lanes, or bridge routes, and bikes don't pedal well when water is over the wheels.

The out of balance economic conditions in our country are right up near the top of the national priority list. Yet, we continue to wage war in Afghanistan (commander #17 just took over in June, year 17 of our involvement, with no end in sight). All that is in sight, are flag-draped coffins returning home. We don't address the national debt. We don't address fixing any part of our infrastructure: a national electrical grid from 1930; an interstate hwy. system from the 1950s; a non-existent national rail system that once functioned beautifully. We abhor education as a nation. We refuse to fund it properly. We let our homeless sleep under bridges, the better to be out of sight and thus out of mind. Our mentally ill roam the streets, and sometimes the only meal our children get, is from schools when they're in session. Yet we turn around and laud athletes for outrageous contracts, and sit back in shock as golden CEO parachutes billow down around us, the execs laughing all the way to rich get-aways.

We have a president not working with Congress or the media, instead content to issue Executive Orders, the act and mindset of a monarch and a dictator, a ruler, not a leader. We can fix all this, if we get involved, vote, and stop bickering at each other.

Imagine.

Imagine $10m being spent on what really matters.

At $80k per, 125 desperately needed new school busses for the state.

A homeless shelter or three, or five, around the state.

A domestic violence shelter or three, or five, around the state.

Marriage counseling before marriage to lower the domestic violence statistics.

Mental health counseling clinics, to help people before they solve their little problems, with guns.

Imagine.

Imagine an educational facility built to educate students academically and vocationally, because not all want to nor should, go to college, at least not right away. 

Imagine students taking all on-line courses at home, and venturing out to apprentice jobs in the afternoon, learning a trade and earning school credits.

Imagine students who want to play sports, signing up for local teams and paying their own way.

Imagine students who to play an instrument, signing up for local lessons and paying their own way.

Imagine no public funds wasted on a school library for a generation who cannot read and cares not a whit about wanting to do so. 

Imagine an entire student body of athletes not put at death risk through CTE and other injury possibilities, by banning football (heresy in the South). Imagine the savings to taxpayers of not having to build another Friday night stadium for four home games annually, not having to foot the light bill, the insurance bill, the medical bills, the traveling bills, the equipment bills.

Imagine this state climbing out of the bottom ten of national education rankings, and becoming a shining example of progress and forward-thinking actions.

Imagine.

Nah....what's worked/damaged our kids in the past and present, is just fine with us.

Dori Garcia Mata I suppose you as a parent might do things to try and make a better life for you children and family, the fact that they cross to work to feed and support their families to give them better education and opportunities, these things help people, citizens or not who want a better life NOT become thugs and criminals...most of these people are forced into crime (crossing illegally)...to eat, or escape oppressive conditions...and then they come here, work, contribute, have families, and someone decides its a good idea to rip them from their families....heartless is the only way I can say..taking babies, children from their parents. Saddening, sickening, empathy, is gone.(A Facebook post on whether or not a law exists to allow separation of children from parents, 18 Jun 2018).
My reply, same day:Dear Bleeding Heart Mata, I have plenty of empathy for those deserving. I too am against the splitting up of families. Like every other country, we too have entry processes, procedures, and laws to qualify for and follow, when requesting to come here. I guarantee you many many countries are not nearly as pleasant as we are when people cross THEIR border without their permission. NK will lock your butt up, quite probably torture you, and sentence you to years of hard labor. None of this mamby-pamby migrant camp crap. Look, I don't know how to differentiate between the truly needy seeking aslyum from war in their country, the only reason I can think of for granting asylum, and those seeking work. If people want to work in America, we have procedures for them to do that, by bringing legal documents, not forged ones, by applying, by waiting for OUR approval, and leaving, when their permit expires. They're certainly not taking up "the jobs Americans don't want", that is for sure. And, too many of them have come illegally, to do deliberate or accidental harm, then dash back across our border to avoid our punishment laws. I lived 20 yrs in the SW and witnessed our police officers being killed by illegals, our citizens killed and injured by drunk driving illegals, who also dashed back across into Mexico to avoid prosecution. I taught their children for 12 years, while they refused to learn English and become citizens, and falsified forms to enroll their children in our schools, thus putting huge unfunded budget requirements on our school districts and taxpayers I watched their gangs terrorize entire city sections, trafficking in drugs, sex, murder. I understand. Most are truly needy, some are flat out criminals and will never change. I say, again and again, we should secure our 1500m southern border with our troops, round up those who cross, and send them back immediately. No more water stations in the desert, no more sympathy or empathy. If we run background checks and find some who were here illegally before, those are the ones we arrest and confine. Those are the ones we tell Mexico to come get, at Mexico's expense, and send the incarceration bill to Mexico. Come here legally. Do no harm. Live in peace. It really isn't difficult. What Trump and the other idiot Sessions and the BP assholes are doing, is against all known basic human rights, and it needs to stop, now. Personally, i put far more blame on the adults deliberately bringing pregnant women, and all the children, across illegally. They caused this mess. Let us not forget Mexico, who is allowing all of this to occur. Our govt is simply making it worse. Comprende? If not, read this again. Geez.

Manage

I think that if you are happy with the conditions around you, meaning you have the means to do more than just get by on a daily basis, you stick with the worthless incumbent.

On the other hand, if you are fed up with:

• a crumbled state-wide road system in near-universal dis-repair and ineffectiveness;
• crumbling bridges, a too-high percentage of which already have been designated as must-replace, but no such work has yet to be started and nothing is scheduled in our future;
• a far too-old inventory of un-safe school busses, not being replaced nearly fast enough;
• tax give-aways to corporations just to settle here and pay minimum, non-living wage salaries;
• near-total lack of sound, Common Sense ethics from just about every employee in the State House, representative or not;
• political lobbyist families with un-due influence throughout the state;
• a dismal and rapidly getting-worse public school system, in which under-paid professionals continue to teach out of sheer dedication until they burn out and quit from lack of financial, professional, and community support;
• the good old boy back-room dealing in Columbia and across the state, where the same old insanity is guaranteed to continue with winks and backslaps and handshakes; people to whom politics is just a game, the end point of which is to be remembered as having done something with their lives, rather than simply serve two hard-working terms and then permanently step down.
• the lack of internal controls within the State House that have allowed far far too much power to be concentrated in the hands of just a few at the head of too many critical committees, thus blocking any and all method and manner of progress this state desperately needs;
• a traditional adherence to an ancient tax code, in which owner-occupied homes pay almost nothing to support schools and services, while dumping that responsibility increasingly on business owners large and small;
• the same people having the audacity to continue to run for re-election, as if professional politician was ever supposed to be a career, and then watching numbskull voters proceed to do just that, vote for the incumbent without caring;

then it is time for you not vote for this incumbent governor, who as an individual is no doubt a fine human being. Nothing will change, unless we the people, we Deplorables, get off our collective duffs, put down our devices, and start paying attention to those we elect to represent us, to make our lives better.

Because what we have put in state-wide offices to this point, has proven by mis-guided actions, decisions, behaviors, to be an un-mitigated disaster. It doesn't have to be this way. 

(insert your state's name, and see if this is still accurate, overall. I bet it is.)

Instead of having junior high and high school varsity sports programs for a very select few, here's a thought.

Eliminate all such programs. They're expensive and cater to a few.

Replace them with mandatory four high school years of physical fitness programs. Running, cycling, sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups, weight lifting, nutrition information, and intramural competition for EVERYONE. And everyone showers afterwards. It's a concept.

Sports are advertised as being great for school morale, spirit, pride, personal growth and character development. If true, then why are they limited to a small handful in multiple sports in both sexes?

Any teenager wanting to play sports at a different level can join local club teams. Same attitude goes for learning to play a musical instrument, cheerleading, whatever.

Short and long-term benefits are all good. Healthy, happy people turning into healthy happy adults with probably fewer expensive health issues as they pass through life. Good for all of them and all of us.

A public comment received in the local Summerville, SC newspaper, in reference to a discussion about the apprpriateness of high school students walking out to support the MSD H.S. students of Parkland, FL:


"John Schwendler um sir i don’t know you but you have the wrong idea. us students are not completely self absorbed in our phones that we can’t care about each other. our phones are what keep us connected and informed. i don’t know if you know this but what you said is incorrect. you can’t stereotype of as a typical teenagers who only care about our phones. most of us care and are trying to make a difference even if it is a small one and you saying, “i’m glad the students are putting their phones down long enough to care about each other” is making us out to be children who only care about our technology. don’t put us down."

My response on Saturday Mar 17, 2018:

Allow me to cue you in to reality. Are you ready? My perception:

I subbed in a high school classroom this week, as I usually do. I asked students in each class, all day long, to stand up and name each of their classmates. No one could do it, not all of their classmates. And it's March, not August....something is wrong, if  students don't know everyone in their classes by now. Could you do this? I don't expect them to know everyone in school, just to clarify. Five days weekly with the same students in all their classes, and no one knows each other?

I can't get students to put away their phones. I have watched you walk into each other, walls, doors, door posts, food carts, custodians, custodian carts, all while your head and eyes were down locked on your little phones. You stand outside the front doors awaiting entrance, and you are on your phones, not talking with each other. Check your student agenda for cell phone usage rules, because every last one of you violates those rules daily. Trust me.

I do know enough about you, from covering at various schools, and having taught awhile myself, to know this much. You are the most self-absorbed, close-minded, non-inquisitive generation to come along in America, ever. The majority of you have few inter-personal skills, can't carry on a conversation, nor write a paragraph on any subject, with correct grammar and spelling. Most of you don't read, in fact you hate to. Most of you don't hold doors for each other as you pass in and out of bldgs and hallways. Most of you rarely say Excuse Me, Please, Thanks, or simply, Hi. There are reasons many students feel alone and bullied. See the last sentence.

You are commenting, about the way you currently live your life, because it is the only style you have known. To me, it is an empty, soul-less existence. Most of you care little about the world, and those around you. Almost none of you ask questions, other than " do we put our names on our papers?" Most of you didn't want to participate in a simple walk-out because "we'll get in trouble". Dare I stereotype all teenagers? Of course not, just as you should not stereotype all adults. But my comments are based upon two year's exposure to high school students in multiple local schools, and in middle schools in another state across the country where subbing also appealed to me, so that I wouldn't have to deal with rude students and idiotic parents.

I stopped subbing in middle schools here, because the students are extremely rude and disruptive. Those are the same reasons their teachers are leaving the profession in droves (look that word up).

Nearly every classroom I cover, has signs posted within: No Cell Phones! No student pays attention to that rule whatsoever. Has it ever once occurred to any of you, how much more you could be learning, and would have learned, had you put your stupid little phones away? Cluess, absolutely clueless.

Your generation is rising, quickly, to move into society and one day be the majority. I shudder to think what you will do with your opportunity to improve the world, nation, state, community. Call each other?

One last thought: sentences begin with capital letters, sweetie.

Sen Orrin Hatch is delusional. He believes 40 years of "service" was a good thing, and that he was somebody, and that he accomplished something.

Nonsense.

It is one of the most self-centered do-nothing, alleged ruling bodies in the Western world, full of pompous self-satisfiers, mostly rich, over-whelmingly white, who prowl the halls making deals, cashing in from corps and lobbyists, all the while forgetting about who sent them there, if indeed they ever cared in the first place.

We Deplorables are to blame largely, for this mess. We don't care who we send to Washington, nor how many times we do so. Term limits are in our hands, people.

Two terms, and go home. No retirement, no lifetime medical, just go do your bit and come home. Representation was never supposed to be a profession. These windbags can't praise themselves enough.

Take a look around at the shape our beloved country is in.

Crumbling infrastructure: roads, trains, electrical grid, air traffic control, all in dire need of replacement for the 21st century.

Everyone seems to have a gun, but no impulse control.

Everyone seems to have a cell phone, but no social manners.

Someone look up, please, the last time Congress passed a budget on time. Their latest evil habit is to kick that can down the road every time they come around a curve. This is NOT why we overpay them, and over-benefit them.

The DEFENSE budget is two-thirds of one trillion dollars. Think about that while you drive on crumbling roads over rusted bridges to worn-out school buildings through delapidated neighborhoods, where hope was abandoned decades ago.

Our involvement in the Afghan war is now 16 years and no end in sight. Prepare to send your children off to war, because they will be going.

The nuclear clock is a half-second from midnight, the lessons of 72 years ago apparently forgotten.

Best news is, almost 4 dozen are stepping down this year.

It's a start.

Go home Hatch. And stay there.