Can We Try Trickling Up

The Trickle-Up Effect.

"Or, it is sometimes referred to as the Keynesian economics in which stimulation is enhanced when the government lowers taxes on the middle class and increases government spending. The Trickle-Up Effect is an economic theory used to describe the overall aggregate demand of households and middle-class people to drive and support the economy. The theory was founded by John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)."

"Keynesian economists often argue that private sector decisions sometimes lead to inefficient macroeconomic outcomes which require active policy responses by the public sector, in particular, monetary policy actions by the central bank and fiscal policy actions by the government, in order to stabilize output over the business cycle. Keynesian economics advocates a mixed economy – predominantly private sector, but with a role for government intervention during recessions."

In other words,

if you leave it up to the private sector alone,

there would have been another

Great Depression 
not just a
Great Recession.
(2008)

The Federal Government had to bail out

The Auto Industry,

The Housing Market,

The Banking System,

and that is to name a few of businesses they have helped in recent years.

"Keynesian economics served as the standard economic model in the developed nations during the later part of the Great Depression, World War II, and the post-war economic expansion (1945–1973). The advent of the financial crisis of 2007–08 caused a resurgence in Keynesian thought, which continues as new Keynesian economics. In theory, if the interest rate at which businesses and consumers can borrow is decreased, investments which were previously uneconomic become profitable, and large consumer sales which are normally financed through debt (such as houses, automobiles, and, historically, even appliances like refrigerators) become more affordable. A principle function of central banks in countries which have them is to influence this interest rate through a variety of mechanisms which are collectively called monetary policy. This is how monetary policy which reduces interest rates is thought to stimulate economic activity, i.e. "grow the economy," and why it is called expansionary monetary policy."

In contrast;

"Trickle-down economics is a rhetorical term used to criticize free market economics. No economist has ever supported trickle-down economics, which is the idea that giving the wealthy tax breaks will encourage them to spend more, and so this wealth will "trickle down" to the less wealthy."

Thank you

Wikipedia.

There are always two sides to every argument.

Just don't blow off what I am saying here

and not research the facts for yourself.

Some people will always believe what they are told,

even if there is proof against it.

I have one friend who will vote for

Donald Trump

because,

as he puts it,

"I don't want to waste my vote."

As far as I can tell,

he always votes Republican no matter what.

I have a

Brother-In-Law

who always votes against the

Incumbent,

even when they are a

Honest Politician.

Stating,

"Nobody should be in Office longer than Four Years."

He uses this policy from voting for the

President

down to the

Local School Board Official.

This is,

In My Opinion,

Those Two People Wasted Their Vote,

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

“Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.”
- Adolf Hitler -

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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If it's worthy enough,

I'll answer you in a Post.

Thanks for reading.

Be Kind To Everyone.

I'll Be Seeing You.

Nuns With Bad Habits - The Movie

Coming this fall.

The movie you have all been waiting for.

Straight to a streaming service near you.

It has chills,

it has thrills,

it has spills,
that you have to see to believe.

One point two billion

Roman Catholics

cannot be wrong.

You will be on a roller coaster ride with our protagonist right from the start beginning with her early grade school days.

You will sympathize with her as she writes 500 times;

I will not talk in class.

You will agonize as you watch as her hands being repeatedly hit with a ruler.

You will empathize as she is forced to do the illegal duck-walk outside in the school yard for not showing enough respect to the

Sisters.

Watch with a friend because there is nothing more scarier in real life
than
Nuns With Bad Habits!

 

This movie has not yet been rated.

This is,

From Independent Film Maker,

Jim Hauenstein,

 And,

“At St. Bernardine’s the nuns never liked me. Especially Sister Mary Bitch-and-a-Half. I think that was her biblical name.”
- Kathy Griffin -

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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or leave a Comment.

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I'll answer you in a Post.

Thanks for reading.

Be Kind To Everyone.

I'll Be Seeing You.

Believing Life Is All A Good Joke

Over the years,

I have told my children that it is good sometimes to read the opposition's referendum.
To look at another
Religion's Bible
like the
Torah
or the
Quran.
That way you will have a better idea why they think the way they do.

I have read the
Quran,

Mein Kampf,

The Communist Manifesto,
and other political
and religious books to see what stirs the hearts of

Men & Women.

So,

to be fair to our

President,

I went out

and bought a copy of

Donald Trump's

book;

The Art of the Deal.

He must have foreseen his future,

because the book has

Four Chapter Elevens!

What?????????????

"Tonight we honor a self-made millionaire. He started with nothing, worked hard, and made a fortune ... That man is Fred Trump, Donald's dad. That's right, for all his self-starter bullshit, he's basically Jaden Smith with a comb-over."

Seth MacFarlane

"You put up more useless hotels than an autistic kid playing Monopoly."

Lisa Lampanelli

"Donald Trump, without a doubt, you're a New York landmark. Which means it's only a matter of time before you bulldoze yourself to build some gaudy, tacky monstrosity and put your name on it."

Larry King

"And Donald, I’m not even sure if you’re aware of this, but the only difference between you and Michael Douglas from the movie Wall Street is that no one’s going to be sad when you get cancer."

Anthony Jeselnik

"Melania, you look so beautiful tonight. Give her a round of applause. You’ve been such a good sport. So gorgeous. These two are so compatible, because they both yell out Donald’s name when they climax."

Jeff Ross

OK,

one last joke about our

President.

Asked what his new Foreign Policy is going to be if re-elected,
The President said,
"If you mess with the United States, there will be hell toupee!"

Jokes are from

Comedy Central's Roast

of

Donald Trump

in 2011.

This is,

Still Believing Life Is All A Good Joke

And If You Treat It That Way,

You Will Never Stop Laughing.

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”
- Charles Dickens -

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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I'll answer you in a Post.

Thanks for reading.

Be Kind To Everyone.

I'll Be Seeing You.

A Thought Experiment

I have been busy lately so I haven't had the time to write here on my
Blog.
That may sound ridiculous to you since,
supposedly,
we are still on quarantine.
But,
really,
I have been.
With family matters that I will not go into details here on this
Blog.
Certain family matters should always stay within the family.
Not for the world to see
or judge.
So I would like to bring back one of my favorite
Thought Experiments
I had in recent years.
From July 24th 2018 my
Post
Why The Tardis Is The Perfect Spacetime Machine

*****

Often,

when I want something to read,

I will go back

and reread one of my favorite books from my youth.

I recently decided to reread

"The Time Machine,"

by

H.G. Wells.

A classic?

Of course.

But,

reading it as an adult,

it got me thinking.

Spoiler Alert.

H. G. Wells' main character invents a

Time Machine,

which he uses to travel 800,000 years into the future.

I thought about
Time Travel.

First,

the basics.

   Would you be able to breath when you landed back on Earth? During the Permian–Triassic extinction period, enormous volcanic eruptions filled the air with carbon dioxide, which fed different kinds of bacteria that began emitting large amounts of methane. The Earth warmed, and the oceans became acidic. Killing 96% of life that existed at the time. With today's Global Warming, who is to say what kind of atmosphere the Earth will have 800,000 years into the future.
   Now, how does one know, when traveling 800,000 years into the future, that the spot where you started from, isn't now part of a large oak tree, or maybe part of a building, and you materialize into one of them? Or, through Plate Tectonics, that the land mass where you started from isn't now underwater? Remember, 270 million years ago, there was only one land mass on Earth called Pangaea. Until it broke up, because of those Plate Tectonics, into the Continents we love and know today.
   Eight hundred thousand years into the future, why would you think that you would materialize on the same spot anyways. A million or two, years ago, the Earth was spinning on it's Axis a lot faster then it is today. Due to a transfer of the Earth's rotational momentum to the Moon's orbital momentum, which is called tidal friction. This is slowing the Earth's rotation down. It is only 4 cm a year, or 1.57480315 inches per year. But, times that by 800,000 years, you will have moved 19.8838782 miles away from your original starting point.
   You might also be buried underground. It is estimated that almost 300 metric tons of cosmic dust and meteorites falls to the Earth each day. The Earth is getting bigger. Three hundred metric tons might not seem like a lot, but times that by 800,000 years and you get 5.29109e11 pounds of extra debris on the planet. (This Link is for those who don't know what the e stands for on a calculator.) Sure, a lot of it falls into the oceans, but some of it on land. So what would the landscape of the Earth look like in the future?
   Now it goes deeper then this. At first I figured, since the Earth is traveling through space at a rate of 19 miles per second on it's elliptical orbit around the Sun, you would have to choose the same date each year for your materializing or landing on the planet. You would have to calculate in for each Leap Year as you travel because it takes the Earth 365.242375 days to travel around the Sun. If you choose some random date, the Earth might be on the opposite side of the Sun.
   But it even gets deeper then that. According to NASA, our solar system is orbiting the center of the milky galaxy at a velocity of about 828,000km/h or 514,000 mph. Which means, even if you only went forward one year in time, our solar system would have moved 187,610,000 miles away from the spot you started from. You would end up closer to a Mars' orbit then to the planet Earth's.

This is why

Time Travel

is so difficult.

Besides the power constraints.

You have to calculate in

Minkowski's Space.
The person who first came up with the concept of
Spacetime.
You will need a craft that travels in
Space
as well as in
Time.

Which brings us back to the

Tardis.

The perfect

Spacetime Traveling Machine.

This is,

Yes,

This Is The Kind Of Stuff I Think About,

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

“In some sense, gravity does not exist; what moves the planets and the stars is the distortion of space and time.”
- Michio Kaku -

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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Thanks for reading.

Be Kind To Everyone.

I'll Be Seeing You.

I'm Being Pulled Over

Living in

California

I have met and I am friends with

American Indians,

Black Americans,

Spanish Americans,

and

Asian Americans.

I am also very proud to say that I am

Friends

with one of the nicest person I have ever met.

He is loving family man,

has great character,
and is from the country of

Mexico.

I have heard stories,

from some of my friends,

on how they have been treated by

Police.

And in all walks of life,

there are good

and bad people.

Even in the

Police Force.

I am trying to get the word out on how people of any color can protect themselves from corrupt police.

Try using

Siri.

"Hey Siri, I'm getting pulled over."
 

Amid the widespread protests and anger over police brutality, an iPhone shortcut that allows users to automatically record their interactions with the police is gaining popularity. By saying, "Hey Siri, I'm getting pulled over," the shortcut -- which a user must first install themselves -- will pause any music that you're playing, turn down the brightness of your phone, turn on the "Do Not Disturb" mode to block any incoming calls, open up your front-facing camera and start a video recording. It also sends a message to a predesignated contact, letting them know that you're being pulled over and where your current location is. Once you stop the recording, it sends a copy of the video to a predesignated contact and gives you the option to send it to your iCloud or Dropbox. The "Police" shortcut was first created back in 2018 by Redditor Robert Petersen, but it has been recently updated to fix any bugs and is now called the "I'm being pulled over" shortcut. By Alicia Lee, CNN

This link has a video you can watch to learn how to install the app
and use it.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Siri+pulled+over+shortcut&docid=13846551217676&mid=1DBC420B005C5D45376E1DBC420B005C5D45376E&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
This is, 

Hoping Someone Made A Program Like This For Android

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

“Most middle-class whites have no idea what it feels like to be subjected to police who are routinely suspicious, rude, belligerent, and brutal.”
- Dr. Benjamin Spock -

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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or leave a Comment.

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I'll answer you in a Post.

Thanks for reading.

Be Kind To Everyone.

I'll Be Seeing You.

They Never Stop Coming

Hello. For those of you on the ruling council who might not know who I am my name is Elijah Forester. I once held the title of Professor of Chemistry at Westminster College. At the request of council member Dinah Reynolds, I was tasked with finding an answer to the reason why the virus hasn't killed off most of the zombies. Why they never stop coming? I have been interviewing every lucid person I come across and people just barely holding onto their humanity before turning into a zombie due to the virus. If there is only a limited number of healthy human beings left in the world, the math would tell us that unless they are overrunning compound after compound with hundred of thousands of fresh people to infect, they must be dying off. With the compounds that we are in communication with and trade with, we know this is not happening. I asked each separate compound if they know of any large group of people which may have fallen to the zombies recently and all have said no. Of course, the first thing I did after that was to question every person here on the compound. But the survivors here, were of no help. They knew just as much about the reasons for the epidemic as any of us. It wasn't until I came across in my research, surviving military personnel that were stationed at Dugway Proving Grounds. Which used to be about 85 miles southwest of here. When Utah still had traversable roadway and Salt Lake still had electrical charging stations for cars. One officers, before we had to terminate her, said the Dugway Proving Grounds were used by the old U.S. Army as their main biological and chemical weapons testing site. She told me that they were developing a new deadly weapon which could easily be spread across the globe without the detection of any foreign power knowing where it came from. She couldn't go into any further details because the virus quickly destroyed her mind at that point. But I was sure it was the lead I was looking for. I asked our security patrols to search for more military survivors and recently infected soldiers. Bringing the infected ones to me as quickly as possible. Soon I was brought a male officer, who had the same rank as the female officer I interviewed a few days prior. He seemed to be the identical twin of the female. This male officer pretty much confirmed the information I got from the first officer. Now this is where things become strange. Before I continue, I want you all to understand that I didn't come to my conclusions lightly. I have checked my findings several times over and I can only come to one conclusion. After interviewing those two people who looked exactly alike, I figured the odds were pretty high against identical twins, with the same rank, would be stationed on the same base at the same time, but it is not unprecedented. Then, after another infected female officer was brought to me who looked exactly like the other two, I asked myself, could there possibly be triplets stationed on the same base? Not believing the evidence. Then an infected male officer was brought in. Yes, he looked liked the other three. After another female, then another male was brought in, all infected, I had my answer. I want you all to know that the pattern still continues today. So I can only come to one conclusion. You would think that 15 years after the fall of civilization as we knew it, why there wouldn't be a decline in zombifications, the only possible reason is, the weapon the United States Government was working on, was cloning infected individuals with the zombie virus to send them to other counties and infecting their citizens. Somewhere along the line, it got away from them, and somehow, it seems the mechanism which creates these zombies is automated to work without human supervision or intervention. My findings show that it will probably not stop producing zombies until it runs out of material or someone goes to the military base and destroys the facility!

 This is,

Answering That Age Old Question Of Why They Never Run Out Of Zombies In The Movies Or On Television,

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

“I love zombies. If any monster could Riverdance, it would be zombies.”
- Craig Ferguson -

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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Be Kind To Everyone.

I'll Be Seeing You.

I Did It Again

I really don't know why I do it too!

You see,

I have the bad habit of pissing people off who I have known for a life time.

When I was in high school one of my best friends at the time,

Mark W.

and I made a pack.

We said we would never discuss

Politics,

Religion,

Women,

or

Motorcycles.

Because we would always get into heated arguments.

I have told this story before in my

Post

I agreed to never talk about Politics, Religion, Women, and  Motorcycles.

It might be okay to do it here on my

Blog

to encourage debates but not on other social media outlets

or communications where my audience is not world wide.

Some of these people haven't seen me in over 35 years

and I still have a way of getting under their skin.

I believe everyone should have their own opinions on these subjects

or on any subject.

As long as they are not contradicting universal truths.

Such as,

The Earth Is Round Not Flat!

The four subjects I mentioned earlier,

that I should stay away from

Politics,

Religion,

Women,

and

Motorcycles

do not have universal truths behind them.

They are a matter of opinion.

I hope it is never too late to say

I'm Sorry.
Sorry to my friends
Al,
Steve,
Todd,
and
Jeff.

I'm still the

Punk Ass Kid

who used to get in arguments all the time

and piss people off for the fun of it.

Like I tell my kids all the time,

"Everyday, I work on becoming a better person."

Hopefully,

someday I will accomplish this mission.

This is,

Don't Get Mad At Me Because I'm Beautiful,

Get Mad At Me Because I Have A Big Mouth,

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

“By means of personal experimentation and observation, we can discover certain simple and universal truths. The mind moves the body, and the body follows the mind. Logically then, negative thought patterns harm not only the mind but also the body. What we actually do builds up to affect the subconscious mind and in turn affects the conscious mind and all reactions.”
- H.E. Davey -

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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Sign up as a Follower,

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I'll answer you in a Post.

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Be Kind To Everyone.

I'll Be Seeing You.

Electric Dave Has Something To Say

I believe my
Post 
What Now? 
from
February 8th, 2017
is as timely today as it was back then.
 *****
 I have found out over time that if I talk about certain subjects,

such as

Politics,

people like to classify me as a

Left Winger

or

Radical.

I even had one person say they would no longer read my

Blog

because I expressed my opinions on all sorts of subjects
and that I like the hacker group

Anonymous

because of what they stand for.

My original intent was never to alienate anyone,

but to start a conversation between my readers

and myself.

Except for a short stint with a character I called

"The Jeff,"

no one has left

Comments

consistently to have a debate.

And if you have read any of the banter between

"The Jeff"

and myself awhile back,

you would have seen that I would admit to my mistakes when I was wrong.

That is what debating is all about.

I will also admit that sometimes I would make outlandish statements to stir some action up,

but I have found that I do not have that kind of readership.

This is why I have gone back to my original intention of telling stories on this

Blog.

But,

with that being said,

I have also invited people to use my

Blog

as their forum if anyone has something they would like to tell the

World.

Well,

one of my oldest living friends has taken me up on it.

We played in various

Rock Bands
together,

with different names,

but basically as the same group.

  To me,
he will always be known forever by his stage name;

"Electric Dave."

And now,

a few words from

"Electric Dave."

What now?


     We’re only about three weeks into the Trump Presidency, and if nothing else is certain, of this we can be sure: Trump is exactly who we thought he was. The only part of the electorate who were genuinely duped were those who voted for Trump believing that his bluster, bigotry, and authoritarianism were simply campaign tactics that, under the watchful eye of the adults in the room, would soften into a circumspect and morally legitimate Presidency. Well, so much for that wishful thinking.
     The rest of us went into this with eyes wide open knowing that the man has not a shred of common decency, nor, as diplomacy and leadership often require, the patience to pretend to have any. If “you’re fired!” is one’s mantra, one has become accustomed to having sycophants immediately jump upon command, and business adversaries tremble before one’s threats and bullying, it must be hard to make the leap into the idea that the office of the President is that of a public servant whose job it is to serve the entire country, not just white billionaires, even if it is billionaires and millionaires who routinely put people into office on the pretext that campaign money is the equivalent of free speech and corporations are, after all, people, too, God bless us every one. Trump’s reaction to the Women’s March is indicative of his hostility to the idea that opposing viewpoints are what actually make America great: he is genuinely pissed off that he can’t fire more than half the nation who think he’s a perfect ass.
     Though it’s not my intent here to re-litigate the failures of our two party system, it should be apparent to anyone paying attention that its dysfunction has reached the point where it is no longer supportive of a democracy. And while it is tempting to lambast the poor, benighted mob who voted for Trump for their stupidity, I have a suspicion that many of them (and, unfortunately, the rest of us too) will feel the burn soon enough as the warm glow of his faux populism becomes the scorched sand of his bloody-minded Realpolitik and smash-and-grab economics. I wonder what the Trump crowd will say when the repeal of the Affordable Care Act causes significant portions of them to lose their health coverage; when Trump’s disastrous trade policies (such as his proposed tariffs) make even their, yes, quasi-jobs go away and the cost of consumer goods rise exponentially; when the self-fulfilling prophecy of terrorist recruitment begins to rise in response to his tirades and ill-informed foreign policies and erstwhile allies begin to abandon us; and when corporations, already riding the whip hand, are further empowered to increase the economic imbalances that make this country the plutocracy that it is. Perhaps that it’s Obama’s fault. Or Hillary’s fault. Or Mexicans. Or Muslims. Whatever.
     No, the question I wish to ask is, what do we (and I do mean we) do now? First, we must refuse to give in to the defeatist attitude that resistance is futile. It is tempting to do so in a situation where the GOP holds the Presidency (OK, sort of—is Trump even a Republican?), the House and Senate, and will soon, amidst the fracas of the nuclear option, install a reactionary Justice on the Soo-preme Court, tipping it back into neo-con control. But despite these factors, the truth is, resistance is not only possible, it is our duty. We cannot afford to buy into the trope that resistance to Trump and the craven GOP is un-American. (The hypocrisy of the GOP crowd, who fought Obama tooth and nail every inch of the way and who now claim that wanting Trump to fail in his demolition job of American values is un-American is exquisite.) No, dissent and critique are as American as apple pie and NASCAR. I was told by friends in 2003 that my resistance to Bush II and the War in Iraq was unpatriotic and I was un-American, and we all saw how that turned out. And despite some state legislators who are trying to turn protesting into a crime, civil disobedience and peaceful demonstrations are also very patriotic, especially when they cause Trump to get pissed off. Then you know you’ve struck a nerve. (Admittedly, it isn’t hard to do with Trumplethinskin.) Every time he lashes out irrationally at people who won’t love him, he depletes his own strength by further diminishing his credibility. I don’t buy this notion that we lend him credence when the media cover his Tweets and rants; his credibility is being weakened daily, and the more he wastes political capital, the more he makes unsound soundbites, the sooner even his supporters will have to abandon him, and therefore the sooner we can impeach him and remove him from office. Trump-baiting is a fine art, and, if it weren’t so sad that we cannot have an ounce of respect for the President, it would be fun. I know someone who used to say during the Bush II days, “Well, if you can’t respect the person, at least respect the office.” I haven’t heard her say that lately.
     So, continue protests, continue to write your elected representatives and voice your opinion, and continue to throw sand in the gears of this dangerous political machine. They can’t ignore us all and all the time. And certainly Trump can’t.
     But we must also reach out to those who did vote for Trump or otherwise made it possible for Trump to be elected and convince them that we have a common interest in rejecting not only Trump and Trumpism, but this bogus political system established by the rich for the rich. Yes, the Democrats are spineless jerks and corrupt, too, but they may yet come to their senses. The Republicans, however, have fallen in line behind the rough beast that now slouches into Bethlehem, so resist the equivalence arguments. So, even while pointing out the corruption that plagues the whole system, we need to help people develop a perspective. We must do what we can to bring the facts to light—the real facts, not the bullshit that passes for truth on Fox, Breitbart, and the other media trolls. Only then will the façade begin to crumble. One of the reasons that Trump and GOP are so hostile to public education (Betsy DeVos for Sec of Ed—really?) is that an educated electorate is a less easily manipulated electorate. With this in mind, defunding public education is one of the top priorities of the neo-cons.
     The whole point is that unless people are educated, they cannot make informed choices. And yes, I know that to certain ears that smacks of elitism, but if you don’t believe in the difference between knowledge, fact, reason, and expertise on the one hand and “alternative facts” and foolishness on the other, the next time you need major surgery, go to an unlicensed quack for treatment. You’ll be doing us all a favor. I’m simply suggesting that we all need to do what we can to keep Trumpism from becoming the new normal by calling out lies and speaking truth to power. This is not elitism, it’s common sense and self-protection. If maintaining that science and facts do matter is elitist, what have we come to? In George Orwell’s 1984, in opposition to the party of Big Brother, which sees truth as fungible and adaptable to the political needs of the moment, Winston Smith thinks to himself that there are truths and untruths, and so long as we understand this, we can remain human. And so one of the ways we maintain our freedom is to oppose a Trump administration that lies and lies and lies, and knows only power. We must agitate for facts and reason and truth, and educate people to tell the difference.
     One of the ways you can become an educator-agitator for the common good is to continue to have conversations with people, and not just those who already agree that Trump is an asshole and needs to be stopped. While I sympathize with the attitude expressed by some of my friends about Trump supporters—“Well, there’s just no talking to those people”—I would suggest that since most people are not as deluded and depraved as Trump himself, but feel desperate (or were made to feel desperate) exploit this gap between their beliefs and those of Trump himself, who is more on an island than he’d like you to think. So talk to people and give them actual facts and true personal stories. The more examples you can present where actual people are adversely affected by Trump’s actions and policies, the more genuinely decent folk will be willing to listen to the other side. Bill Clinton perfected the art of bringing up an individual’s story during town hall meetings and speeches in order to illustrate or prove larger points. So don’t simply assert things, however true they may be, like “Trump’s across-the-board federal hiring freeze is a stupid policy!” Back it up with examples. Talk about the person you met recently who is a translator and analyst who received security clearance for a job doing intel work for the Army, but whose job was frozen indefinitely by Trump’s mandate. Not only does this policy adversely affect the individual in question, but it could put our troops further in harm’s way by denying them the intelligence they need to protect themselves, and who wants to take unnecessary risks with the lives our fine young men and women who stand ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for our country every day? So find these stories and be prepared to give chapter and verse if challenged.
     This of course will not work on Trump himself and others who, like him, have no shame and no capacity for reflecting on the possibility that they may be in error. However, I believe with Anne Frank that most folks are decent and agree generally on the principles of democracy, fairness, and equality. If this were not the case, then we’d be in even deeper shit. Demagogues like Trump are successful in winning over these otherwise decent people through fear and scapegoating and pretending that self interest is a zero-sum game: I win means you lose. But those of us who live and work in communities, businesses, schools, etc. know that we are successful to the extent that we all cooperate, and we know that we need buy-in from everybody. You can steamroll some of the people some of the time, but you can’t steamroll all of the people all of the time. 
     But you can sure try by gerrymandering, denying people the right to vote, and by engaging in other tactics of intimidation. This is where we also need to rise up in our districts and demand that rule of law be maintained. Clearly, the mentality of Trump and the GOP is that they will do whatever they can in order to extend and maintain their dominion. Travel bans, racial targeting for suppressing the vote, and, of course, the mind-boggling stupidity of proposing the wall are all intended to bolster the support of those who are as racist and bigoted as Trump and his advisor, Steve Bannon, but these policies are not embraced by the majority of Americans and their adverse repercussions for all Americans are patent. The metrics of political calculation may have been off for the General Election, but the changing demographics of the country suggest that such a male chauvinist, white supremacist political philosophy cannot be sustained indefinitely. And, it will take even more authoritarianism to enforce this philosophy in the short term. 
     However, the mere presence of women and persons of color will not assure true diversity and inclusion in our representation unless we make this a central part of our mission. White Americans of good faith who thought they were burying the spectre of racism with the election of Barack Obama have ignored or apologized for the seedy underside of portions of middle America, whose own fears have been used against them. Jobs have been lost to technology and the necessity for global capitalism to maximize profits at the expense of people, but rather than recognize the true sources for the shrinking of the middle class, Trump and his ilk appeal to a savage tribalism of blaming the other. The lukewarm and even apathetic reception Hillary received from black voters was owing in part to the fact that the Democrats have taken the black vote for granted for too long, and people are fed up with the failed policies of neo-liberals, who have made their Mephistophelean pacts with big money. This is why the Democrats were foolish to torpedo Bernie Sanders, whose real populism actually stood a chance against the faux populism of Trump. 
      Which is why we need to find a different political way, and a way to talk about all this. The trolling of fake news and the President’s attacks on the media and free speech need to be rebuffed in the strongest possible way. Trump and his surrogates—both external (yes, Putin, I mean you!) and internal--cannot be allowed to control the media and the narrative or we are lost. There has never been such a threat to the Republic by a sitting President in our history, and it is up to us to expose the lies, denounce the divisiveness, and stand up for our rights. 

-- Electric Dave

 

 This is,

I Applaud The Electric One For Taking The Time Out Of His Busy Schedule To Pen A Few Words For Us,

And I Believe Sometimes These Things Need To Be Said,

Even At The Cost Of Losing Readers,

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

“Generally it must be stated that realpolitik has been better at dividing than at ruling. Take it as a whole since Kissinger called on the Shah in 1972, and see what the harvest has been since.”
- Christopher Hitchens, -

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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Sign up as a Follower,

or leave a Comment.

If it's worthy enough,

I'll answer you in a Post.

Thanks for reading.

Be Kind To Everyone.

I'll Be Seeing You.

Must See TV Or See It On Your Computer

The 

Oxford Dictionary

defines the word  

Avant-garde, 

if you use it as a noun as,

"New and unusual or experimental ideas, especially in the arts, or the people introducing them."

Or, 

as an adjective,

"Favoring or introducing experimental or unusual ideas." 

My favorite explanation is from someone,

who took the time, 

to write an article for  

Wikipedia,

"The avant-garde pushes the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo, primarily in the cultural realm. The avant-garde is considered by some to be a hallmark of modernism, as distinct from postmodernism. Many artists have aligned themselves with the avant-garde movement and still continue to do so, tracing a history from Dada through the Situationists to postmodern artists such as the Language poets around 1981." 

However you want to describe it, 

it is something that is so unusual, 

that at first you may think,

"This isn't Art, or Theater, or Music, or Literature! It's vulgar, childish, or bizarre!"

But, 

then it draws you in, 

and you begin to understand it 

and enjoy it.

During my youth, 

the first 

Avant-garde Artist 

I enjoyed would have been  

David Bowie. 

Of course, 

I knew about 

Salvador Dali,

and the pre-Hippie group,

the 

Beatniks.

But my introduction came from  

Bowie. 

Others soon followed, 

like 

Brian Eno,  

Laurie Anderson, 

and when  

Patti Smith 

first came out on the scene.

There are so many to choose from that I only picked the ones that I could remember right away.

But nothing, 

in my lifetime so far, 

has ever compared to the 

Art, 

Music, 

and  

Visuals 

the group 

The Residents

demonstrated over the years.

I first saw them play a gig in Milwaukee, 

Wisconsin,

in the middle 1980s.

I didn't know the band at all, 

but my date did.

She wore a large black garbage bag as a dress with a hole in it to expose her left breast.

That was my personal introduction into 

The Residents.

Yes, 

I have loved them ever since.

Not just because of that one event, 

but I was so enthralled watching them live,

that I bought all their albums soon afterwards.

(CDs hadn't come out yet.)

I'm happy to say that they still tour 

and you can see where 

and when on their website.

http://www.residents.com/home/page1/index.html

What I'm really excited about is the new movie about their careers coming out later this year called,

Theory Of Obscurity. 

I can't wait!

This is,

Thinking About That Date I Had And Her Breast - But For The Life Of Me - I Cannot Remember Her Name - I Know - I'm A Pig,

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

“Okay, let's see if I got this straight. The butt is the new breast, and the lower back is the new ankle. Now if only we could figure out where the brain has moved to.” 

- Celia Rivenbark -

You can rent this film for as little as a

$1.99

on

YouTube!

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

Like what you are reading?

Sign up as a Follower,

or leave a Comment.

If it's worthy enough,

I'll answer you in a Post.

Thanks for reading.

Be Kind To Everyone.

I'll Be Seeing You.

R.I.P.
Hardy Fox