Liars Figure

When I was young and learning about the world I would at some point have to navigate, my father told me many things.  Some of what he said stuck and as is the way of humans, a lot of it did not.  One somewhat trite saying that he used to whip out fairly often, turned out to be true; 'figures don't lie, but liars figure'.

Yesterday, in conjunction with the absolutely amazing .............. horseshit that spewed out of his mouth justifying his decision to renege on our country's promise to all of the other countries in the world to work towards leaving an inhabitable planet for our progeny,  he took the opportunity to throw some figures out there, suggesting he's had a huuuuuuuuge positive effect on our country's economy.  Well, the figures he threw out there are true when isolated to the last three months, but don't smell as grandiose (mixing my metaphors) when placed in a larger context.

What d. j[ackass] said was:

"Before we discuss the Paris Accord, I'd like to begin with an update on our tremendous, absolutely tremendous economic progress since Election Day on November 8th. The economy has started to come back and very, very rapidly. We've added  ..........  more than a million private sector jobs."

First of all, why in hell do his handlers think they can claim responsibility for all positive economic news since election day?  That is plain out stupid and meant only for stupid people to consume. Of course his handlers wrote "private sector" because this does not include government jobs at the local, state and federal levels.

CNNMoney tracks net jobs including private and public sector jobs (in other words, all jobs).  Since the beginning of the year, there has been a net increase of 594,000 jobs.  Well of course that begs the question, what about the other 406,000 jobs if there have been a million jobs added?  And since he said "more than", then I'll take it a step further and ask, where's the other half million.  

Neither of these figures are wrong.  They're both true.  So what we, the 'consumers' of this information need to 'figure' out is what these numbers truly mean when taking in the meaning of each number in relation to the other.  The figures don't lie, but the liars sure do figure.

Today is my day off, so I tuned into John King's show on CNN, Inside Politics with John King.  He presented a graph titled Jobs Added.  It measured job growth as reported by the government, from June of 2016 to May of 2017, one year.  I've included a link to the video of the show so you can get a visual check on trump's oversold achievement.  The segment starts at the 12:25 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coUQNvH0Jwo

Yes, jobs have continued to be added in the months since the inauguration, but the number of new jobs added per month pale in comparison to the months of January 2017 back to June of 2016.  I also suggest that giving any administrator credit for any economic successes or failures four months into her or his term is like suggesting that the commander of an aircraft carrier says change course and it happens in four minutes.  It simply doesn't work that way.

Lastly, I will point out that there was an open letter to trump in The Wall Street Journal, from many CEOs of major corporations, asking trump to remain committed to the Paris Climate Accord.  Below, is a list of the companies whose CEOs signed the letter:

3M Company         Allianz SE         Bank of America Corp.         BROAD Group
Campbell Soup Company        Cargill Inc.        Citigroup Inc.        The Coca-Cola Company
Corning Incorporated      Cummins Inc.        Dana Incorporated      The Dow Chemical Company
E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company     General Electric          The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Harris Corporation      Johnson & Johnson        JP Morgan Chase         Kering
Morgan Stanley      Newell Brands Inc.       Pacific Gas and Electric Company 
Procter & Gamble Company      Royal DSM        Salesforce          Solvay
Tesla Inc.      Unilever        Virgin Group            The Walt Disney Company

Although these are two separate subjects that I have brought forward today, he presented them at the same time, so I f eel free to combine them as well.  The only way that I am able to tie them together is to note that in one of the fastest growing business and manufacturing sectors on the planet, clean energy, trump has just shot us in the collective foot.  Without government support and subsidies in this industry that is just in its infancy, its groth will be stunted like an under nourished child..  The price will not be driven down due to economies of scale.  I should say, we won't be the one's reaping the benefits of the economies of scale, China will, and they will have the lock on the next big thing.   In the next four years China has pledged $360 billion (with a 'B') and 13 million jobs to clean energy.  By reneging on the climate accord, trump has trumped us.

In closing, I need to note that as the chief liar, trump is the liar in chief.  Today, I saw a picture that asked the question, 'what's the difference between trump and a sack of shit?'  The answer was, 'the sack', but  I beg to differ.  The answer is not 'the sack', the answer is, 'the sack of shit doesn't lie'.


http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/01/news/economy/trump-1-million-private-sector-jobs-paris-speech/

https://hbr.org/2017/05/u-s-business-leaders-want-to-stay-in-the-paris-climate-accord

Rejecting The Paris Climate Agreement Is Just Brilliant (?)

d. j[ackass] trump is all about money and jobs right?  In advance of trump's expected announcement of rescinding our country's commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement, today, i started digging around and thinking.  The first thing I need to let you know is that the best reason to walk away from the rest of the world is because President Obama helped to make the Paris Climate Agreement happen.  I'm not kidding that is the best reason (as far as trump is concerned).  Don't be fooled by his crap about jobs.  This has nothing to do with jobs.  If it did he would and could clearly see that the Paris agreement is the path to the future, in the same way that fossil fuels were over a century ago or transistors for electronics in the 1960s.  The clean energy sector is already ramping up quickly.

I am concerned for the well being of all persons.  If trump is truly concerned about the shrinking coal market and the jobs that are provided by coal, then I'm ok with our country supporting the aging coal mining labor force as a way to thank them for their hard work in fueling our country's engine in the past.  These miners have been worked hard, let's give them a decent retirement.  But, don't be so silly as to think that he's helping our country with meaningful and relevant employment in the future by renouncing the climate agreement.

Our country needs to make adjustments in education so that we produce a labor force capable of building clean energy sources.  It will not be a workforce based on brawn, it needs to be based on brains.  Even the manual labor in this industry will need to have a good education.  If we walk backwards, on the path that we have traveled, the rest of the world will build clean energy, drive down the costs of building it, and will own the future.  Our country, on the other hand, will be left in the dust of our glorious past.

While researching this post, I ran into what I thought was a really good blog to watch, going forward.  Now here's a radical group with a nefarious agenda. An agenda hell bent on causing suffering for everyone.







Here are some highlights from the post I read:

Renewable Energy Surges Globally with China and India in the Lead

In January, China announced a plan to invest $360 billion in renewable energy through 2020, with a goal of creating 13 million jobs.

Steep cost declines in the cost of renewable energy continued

Solar costs hit record lows

China leads the charge on renewable energy

The post reported that China's President Xi said the following at The World Economic Forum in Devos earlier this year;  I believe he was speaking to d. j[ackass]:

“We should honor promises and abide by rules. One should not select or bend rules as he sees fit. The Paris Agreement is a hard-won achievement which is in keeping with the underlying trend of global development. All signatories should stick to it instead of walking away from it as this is a responsibility we must assume for future generations.”

http://blog.ucsusa.org/rachel-cleetus/renewable-energy-china-india


Just ahead of trump's first rough draft for a budget was released in March, U.S. News pointed out on March 15th the following:

Whatever else the Republican Party and the [t]rump White House thinks about the problem of Earth's changing climate system, the clean energy sector is now creating new jobs faster than almost any other sector in the American economy. That's an inescapable fact – one that is supported by GOP and Democratic voters alike.

Follow the "supported by" link, above.  Even a majority of trump's base knows better.

https://www.usnews.com/news/at-the-edge/articles/2017-03-15/clean-energy-is-seeing-explosive-job-growth-dont-let-budget-kill-it

Lastly, I wish to note that withdrawing from the climate agreement puts us in great company among our  world  neighbors.  The only other countries on the planet that are not participants of the agreement are ......... wait for it .......... Nicaragua and Syria.  Good going trumpy boy.

Outrage

Soon after placing yesterday's post, I noted that a large amount of outrage had been registered from all segments of our society and that Kathy Griffin had apologized for "going too far".  So I go back to Judeo-Christianity ........ two wrongs don't make a right.  This is, of course, true.  Look at the middle east.  6,000 years of:

- you did this to me, so I'm going to do this to you;
- oh but you did it first, so now I'm going to do it back to you again
- now I'm doing it to you again, slap back no tag backs

And on and on.  The story is as old as humanity.  In our country, the Hatfields and the McCoys.  I don't know about other cultures, but I suspect they have the same story.

I am not suggesting that Kathy Griffin's photo, that was released yesterday, is not a disturbing image; it is.  It fits into the human condition of responding to egregious behavior with similar behavior.  In this case, it is no more harmful than other behaviors I will list below.  In fact, some of what I will refer to will be more disturbing, and yet the level of outrage from some segments of our society will be almost non-existent when compared to what I have seen  in relation to Griffin's photo.   So, here we go.

“You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever,”

We all recognize this comment and we all know who made it. And yet this person has not experienced a reaction that ruined his career.  All Kathy Griffin did was give us a visual representation of part of what trump said.

Tuesday, August 9, 2016:

"Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment.   By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks.  Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know."

Again, we all know who said this.  This is no less disturbing to me than the image that Kathy Griffin posted.  In fact, to me it was more disturbing.  To me it was a direct incitement to shoot someone.  The fact that it was Hillary Clinton does not make the comment any more or less disturbing.  I don't  know, maybe trump was doing a 'stand up routine'.  Maybe he's a comedian.  And yet ........ there was not enough outrage to prevent him from becoming the head admin of our country.  If my memory serves me well, there was backlash regarding this comment, but I don't remember a lot and I seem to recall that some segments of our society didn't seem have an issue with this comment.

October 8, 2016, one month prior to the election, again,  this "locker room talk" needs no introduction:

"I'm automatically attracted to beautiful [women]—I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything ... Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything."

I don't see this as any less egregious than Kathy's photo.  It's easy enough to build the image in your mind of trump walking up to a woman and grabbing her pussy (and I don't mean her cat, I mean the same part of a woman's body that he did). 

May 26, 2017, I don't hear any large amount of outrage here.  Jeremy Joseph Christian did not allegedly stab three men, killing two, he just plain old did it.  You can throw the word 'allegedly right out the window.  Don't tell me you can't judge a book by its cover, see the photo of Christian below.  The men that were killed, spoke up to Christian on a train while he verbally abused two teenage girls who were Muslim, one wearing a head scarf.  I'm not hearing nearly the amount of outrage about this.  I hope no one is going to tell me that what Kathy Griffin did as a comedian warrants more outrage than this.

This morning eighty people were killed and over 300 injured in Kabul, Afghanistan.  I have not taken a read on world response yet, but I'm willing to bet that many of those that found Griffin's photo offensive will have nothing to say about this attack.  By the way, I am in no way saying that the lives of the victims in Manchester or Kabul are more or less valued than the other city's lost lives.  And because I see all lives as valuable as any life, then why will I not see the same level of outrage regarding a much larger bombing in Kabul than in Manchester.  You know, I hope I'm wrong, but I don't expect to be.

So .......... I will not be recanting my support for the photo Griffin posted.  I think it's funny.  As I explained yesterday, I have been bullied way too many times in my life to have anyone dictate to me what I find funny, just as i will not dictate to anyone what they find not funny.  

I will say a few things in closing.  He who is without sin, cast the first stone.  And like so many of those that are outraged by Griffin's behavior, but show no outrage regarding any of the incidents mentioned above like to say, 'get over yourselves and move on'!

Bully for Dark Humor

I ......... am a proponent of dark humor.  I am a purveyor of dark humor.  I have made jokes about death for most of my life.  Jokes about the death of my family members and jokes about my eventual death.   So, it should come as no surprise that I find the photo shoot that was released today by the comedian, Kathy Griffin funny.  I can see how most will find the photo over the top, but I have no issues with it.  And I am clear about my reasons.

When I was young, I was bullied for many years and by many people.  I have the pictures to prove it.  I carry them with me every day.  Some days I view the pictures with more clarity than others, but they're always there, right there in my mind's eye.  I'm willing to bet that most people who were bullied can say the same thing.  I also know how a felt after each incident.  I was filled with fear, shame, anger at the perpetrator, anger at myself for not being tough enough, anger for those that watched passively or cheered the bully on.  The overriding feeling I had though, was that what I wanted more than anything else at that moment was ............ you guessed it, revenge.  I could visualize what I wanted to do to this person who bullied me and it wasn't pretty.

I felt all of these  feelings, because I'm human and like it or not these are all human feelings.  Judeo-Christian ethics preach peace, and I certainly agree with that philosophy and have said so in my writings.  Another course that Judea-Christianity would have us, we humans, walk, is to not have violent, gruesome thoughts.  This I do not agree with.  The reason is simply as humans, we do have these type of thoughts.  There just isn't any way around it.  That is part of what being human is.  I do not believe in acting on violent or vengeful thoughts.  In fact, I believe that suppressing those types of thoughts increases the possibility of a person acting on them.  In order to act and respond in a responsible way, we need to be aware. conscious of the feelings driving our actions.  To suppress is to keep feelings in the realm of the sub-conscious, where we can act on them and not even know we are doing so.

Bill .......... what the hell are you rambling on about?  Just this.  I suspect that many comedians were targets of, victims of bullies when they were young.  I believe that many comedians have and as part of their profession use dark humor as a way to work through these deep wounds that may have been placed in the child of their being and need expression as adults when bullies are encountered.  I don not know if this is true, but I'm willing to bet it is, and I am not a betting man.

With this in mind, I speculate that Kathy Griffin may have run into a bully or two in her lifetime.  They may have been males who harassed her as trump proposed he had carte blanche to do to any woman.  Maybe I'm wrong, but again, I bet not.  And therefore I present the following and say 'bully for you Kathy'.








http://www.tmz.com/2017/05/30/kathy-griffin-beheads-donald-trump-photo-tyler-shields/

Free Speech

As I was driving to work this morning, I heard an interview on NPR about free speech on college and university campuses.  I do not feel the need to go into a lot of detail about the article, suffice it to say that many higher education institutions have 'speech codes'.  Of course, as is my usual operating procedure, I looked up the phrase 'speech code' and found the following:


A speech code is any rule or regulation that limits, restricts, or bans speech beyond the strict legal limitations upon freedom of speech or press found in the legal definitions of harassment, slander, libel, and fighting words. Such codes are common in the workplace, in universities,^[1] and in private organizations. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_code 


I believe that all persons have the right to speak within these parameters.  I am aware of instances where speakers have been invited to university campuses, by on campus groups, and have been shouted down or had a campus experience violence with the intent of having the person to not be heard.

In February, when the wounds of trump's inauguration were still raw, there were violent protests at Berkeley and NYU due to speakers that were set to speak on these campuses.   I saw an article from the Boston Globe about violence at Middlebury College in Vermont.  Middlebury has always been a small peaceful school nestled in the mountains of Vermont.  This March a social scientist, Charles Murray, who had been invited to speak to the campus by students and the President of the school ( who did not support Murray's philosophies), was physically attacked along with one of the school's professors who was with Murray.  This is not ok on a lot of levels.  Neither is any type of violence as a form of protest.  The photo below is shows Murray speaking at Middlebury and the students turning their backs on him.  To me this is a much more effective protest and at the same time does not impinge on his freedom to speak out  about how he sees the world.  I assume he was not attempting to incite violence, like trump did in Kentucky and other venues during his campaign prior to the election.  Middle bury junior, Sabina Hague pointed out that since trump's election she sees people on campus digging in with their ideological heels.






Other notable instances of speech being curtailed were at DePaul University where two conservative speakers Milo Yiannopoulos and Ben Shapiro were banned from campus, at the Unversity of California, Irvine campus, A pro-palestinian grop used violence to attempt to stop an event sponsored by students supporting Israel. Three students were arrested at Kellogg Community College for handing out pocket Constitutions in a public space on campus.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/03/04/middlebury/hAfpA1Hquh7DIS1doiKbhJ/story.html

We are familiar with the approximately one hundred students that walked out on their commencement at Notre Dame when pence started to speak.  This and the turning of backs on a speaker are legitimate forms of free speech in response to speakers that we do not agree with.  It is important, though, for all people, around the world to be able to speak their minds without violent reactions.  It is especially important that all voices be heard on college and university campuses where discourse and debate have always occurred and must continue to occur for human knowledge and ethics to continue to evolve.  The truth, both morally and scientifically are strong enough to stand up to ideologues who are what I would label as misguided.

In our country, the kkk and the american nazi party have as much right to assemble and speak (as long as they are not inciting  violence) as a Congressperson or a Senator.  The ACLU has fought for the first amendment liberties that are an integral part of the fabric of our country.  Extreme right wing groups are not the only ones capable of violence and attempts to shut down free speech.  We are all humans and therefore all have the same emotions eating away at us, no matter what political views we hold.  It is incumbent on all of us to rise above this type of behavior even though we now find our country embroiled in a decisive battle of cultures and ideologies.  For those of us who are resisting trump and those that he represents, I still endorse what Michelle Obama famously said, "when they go low, we go high".  We all need to remember this and we all need to stay on the high road.  We are that good.

Introspection

Yesterday afternoon, I sat down in the living room and struck up a conversation about jared kushner and other things trump with my son.  He is very bright and as most 20 year olds assertive about his thoughts.  I respect what he says to me because I know he has a level head (for the most part, I mean, after all, he is just a few weeks shy of 20, c'mon now).  I was speaking from my gut, not from a reasoned place.  Each time I opened my mouth I was sounding very childish and my son pointed this out to me.  And what he told me cut me deeply.  He said I was being an extremist.

At first, I pushed back.  I mean, who wants to be called an extremist?  Who wants to think of themselves as an extremist?  He asked me if I thought that suicide bombers think of themselves as extremists.  I answered 'probably not'.  Truth be told, as I am writing, right now, I really do not know the answer to that question, but at the moment, I was willing to follow my son's lead.

It also came out in the conversation that I call my representatives frequently.  He pointed out that when the time was right and the issue at hand warranted it, that would be a good time to call, but calling frequently only showed me as an ass to the people who answer the phone  and that the representative I'm calling never knows about my call.

Of course these insights from my son  hurt my feelings, but I want to look at the points he made and give them real consideration.  First though, I must note that I was immediately proud that an ideal I taught him since he was nine or ten has taken hold; extremism in any form is dangerous.  He's got it.

So ........ am I an extremist?  Well the issue that I need to tackle first is what is extremism and what defines an extremist.  It seems to me that the concept of extremism is highly subjective and depends on the perspective of the person using the label.

I found some definitions for extremism which both referred me back to the word extreme

Definition of extremism

1: the quality or state of being extreme
2: advocacy of extreme measures or views : radicalism

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extremism

ex·trem·ism
ikˈstrēˌmizəm/
noun

the holding of extreme political or religious views; fanaticism.
"the dangers of religious extremism"

https://www.google.com/search?q=defione+extremism&oq=defione+extremism&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.5007j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

So, I looked up 'extreme'

Definition of extreme

1a : existing in a very high degree extreme poverty

 b : going to great or exaggerated lengths : radical went on an extreme diet

 c : exceeding the ordinary, usual, or expected extreme weather conditions
3 : situated at the farthest possible point from a center

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extreme

So I lookked up 'radical'

Definition of radical

3 a : very different from the usual or traditional : extreme 
   b : favoring extreme changes in existing views, habits, conditions, or institutions 
   c : associated with political views, practices, and policies of extreme change 
   d : advocating extreme measures to retain or restore a political state of affairs

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/radical

Okay, now I've got a basis to work from.  Am I going to 'great or exaggerated lengths'?  With this as the test, I'm willing to say yes.  Am I 'exceeding the ordinary, usual or expected'?  Again, I'll say yes.  Am I 'situated at the farthest point from the center'?  To this, I say no.  Am I 'very different from the usual'?  To this i say no, considering what has become usual in order to protest and remove trump.  Am I 'very different from the traditional'?  Yes and no.  It is certainly not the traditional if we are talking about normal involvement in relation to our county's direction, but I believe it is traditional at those times, in our country, when it is in peril.

Now we come to the last three definitions for radical  The word radical seems to be interchangeable with the concept of extreme.  It is not me that is 'favoring extreme changes in existing views, habits, conditions or institutions'.  My political views are not 'associated with political views, practices and policies of extreme change'.  Given the fact that trump and bannon are proponents of these two definitions of radical, I can see that I am 'advocating [ ] measures to retain or restore a political state of affairs'  However, I am not able to label those measures as 'extreme' and from my perspective my advocacy is directed at the well being of our country, not at the body politic.

So.......am I an extremist.  In total, I have to say no.  What I am is a citizen who is concerned and actively resisting the radical extremism that we have been presented with in the forms of trump, bannon and sessions.

Do I have the ability to be childish?  Yes.  And I'm clear about that.  Sometimes i have to let my inner child have his say.  But, something else that my son pointed out to me was that not everyone who has taken on a job in the trump administration should be painted with the same brush that I use on trump.  Some of these men and women do want to work for what they believe is the betterment of our country and to that end I am willing to pay those individuals the respect that they are due.  There are those, though, that in my opinion are not due my respect, and i will always make it clear who those individuals are.  Whether it is using lower case lettering for their names or assigning them nick names that i deem appropriate, it will be clear.  If I disagree with someone's philosophy, I will still give them the respect that they are due, but I will express my opinion regarding their philosophy and how my views differ.

All's Quiet

Here I am, we are, on this pleasant Memorial Day weekend Saturday, and all is quiet.  For me, the quiet is unsettling.  In four months and seven days we have been exposed to so much chaos and turmoil that this quiet day seems abnormal, disquieting if you will.  There is a take away to this though.  It all reminds me of a similar dynamic on a smaller scale.

My experience tells me that when a child is raised in a dysfunctional home; a home with alcoholism, or drug addiction, or a gambling addiction, or any kind of addiction, or even no addiction, but where there is mental or emotional illness, the child experiences chaos.  The child grows to be an adult and in one way or another recreates chaos in her or his life because it is what they know.  It is what they are comfortable with.  It is the way that they have experienced the world and have a core unconscious belief that chaos is how the world should be.  When that person's world becomes free of chaos, they feel uncomfortable, anxious, on edge, hypervigilant.  They would rather not feel these emotions.  These emotions were the warning signals that something bad was going to happen, but they didn't know when.

Now let's take this picture and expand it a couple of different ways.  These first four months of trump being the administrator of our country have been, from my perspective, extremely chaotic.  I have become "comfortable" with the chaos.  On a day like today, I do feel anxious.  I know more chaos is coming, but I don't know when.  America is my home and there is a great deal of dysfunction in our family.

The next way that I see what is happening in our country has to do with speculation regarding trump's home life in his family of origin.  I believe, I obviously do not know, that trump was raised in a dysfunctional home.  I believe trump became used to chaos and that chaos is an integral part of how he conducts all aspects of his life.  I believe that his chaotic lifestyle was reinforced by money.  Money is obviously a reinforcing agent for trump.  I believe that he has seized on and exploited the dysfunction of our American family because it is familiar to him and he is comfortable with it.  I believe that he has exposed us as a dysfunctional family and keeps us embroiled in chaos because that is how he is most comfortable.  This is pure conjecture and I will most likely never determine if it is true, but it all fits for me.

As I was thinking this through and writing about it, my son asked me if I had heard the latest report from The Washington Post, that jared kushner proposed back channel communications to the Russians in December of 2016.  Reports are that this back channel suggestion was not acted on by either party.  Thank God.  some more chaos