Micro.blog, which is the platform for this blog, now supports categories. I am mulling over whether to add them here, but so far I have not found the need.
Living The Dream
I’ve had the same reaction to Howard Schultz’s comment about the American Dream as Dave. When I was growing up the American Dream was equated to the Middle Class, by which I mean adults aspired to having a comfortable life and dreamt of a better life for their children.
While I do agree with Schultz in that another way to describe the American Dream is to be successful, I think the biggest problem is measuring success by wealth. The focus on wealth in America is allowing us to accept the huge income inequality that exists in our country.
For me, Schultz implying that Elizabeth Warren and others want to punish him and others for being successful is totally wrong. What we want is for the very wealthy people to contribute a share to society commensurate with their ability.
Schultz might want to put on an indepedent label, but his ideology is conservative Republican selling himself as a Democrat Ross Perot.
It is not the job of Congress to simply pass a President’s legislation. It’s their job to represent the people of the United States.
Even colder today
My house has too many windows. It’s cold almost everywhere. #FirstWorldProblems
Baby it’s cold outside
Dear world. Can we please stop with the satisfaction surveys? I just asked Google Home to convert 12 degrees Fahrenheit to Celsius , which it did, and then I asked how happy I was with the answer. Really?
The entire mitten (Lower Peninsula) of Michigan is getting snow, except my house that is in a small pocket where it’s not snowing for another four minutes.
A mitten covered with snow.
At church today the pastor in his sermon suggested we consider Christianity as different from other religions rather than better. Then, this afternoon I came across this quote in Thomas Cahills, “The Gifts Of The Jews”.
God wanted something other than blood and smoke, buildings and citadels. He wanted justice, mercy, humility. He wanted what was invisible. He wanted their hearts—not the outside, but the inside. There is no way of exaggerating how strange a thought this was.
It should be clear by now that the only way out of the government shutdown standoff is for the Senate to override the President’s veto, if one comes. If Republican Senators have the courage to live their oath and serve all citizens of the United States, they can easily gain bi-partisan support to override the President and THAT is how our government is intended to work!
When did we forget that the United States is not governed by a king?
Dear Republican Senators. You should be nervous, and the U.S. Constitution gives you the power to open the government, you simply override the President’s veto. You serve the citizens of the United States, you do not serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States. Your job is not to just enable what the President wants, your job is to write laws that govern our country. Do your job. A good first step is to pass and override any veto to the appropriations laws to open the government. The next step is to replace Mitch McConnell as your Senate leader.
Simply serving at the pleasure of your party’s President is in practice nothing more than a monarchy/authoritarian rule. If you truly believe in democracy, if you are to uphold your oath to the Constitution, you will exert your authority as the co-equal branch of government who has as one of its primary purposes oversight of the executive branch of government.
Do your job. The Republic depends on you, otherwise we slip in to the same tyranny from which we revoluted against and it will be under your watch and will be your legacy.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked legislation on Wednesday that would reopen most of the government currently closed during the partial shutdown.
Again, McConnell is the reason for the government shutdown.
Amazon is testing an autonomous delivery cart. What it doesn’t show is where it starts from, how it delivers along its route, how one is notified it is waiting for you to pick up your delivery, and how it secures other people’s packages.
I do not like Amazon’s in-house delivery because it is not as professional as Fedex, UPS, or USPS. What I observe is that their drivers do not know their route and will “deliver” your package anywhere.. you might find in your neighbor’s back yard.
Why are glasses so expensive? Capitalism at its unchecked finest.
The real problem with the zeal in declaring anything fake news is the question of who decides what is real news? The problem isn’t whether or not something is fake, the real problem is how is something decided to be real.
When Trump says someone’s reporting is fake, what is really saying is that if he isn’t the one telling you then it is fake.
My Federated Wiki has reached 100 pages.
The exorbitant prices confound patients and doctors alike since insulin is nearly a century old now. The pricing is all the more infuriating when one considers that the discoverers of insulin sold the patent for $1 each to ensure that the medication would be affordable. Today the three main manufacturers of insulin are facing a lawsuit accusing them of deceptive pricing schemes, but it could be years before this yields any changes.
Again, to fix health care you have to address the pricing and the fact that ever component of health care is gaming the system.
Today I am thankful for my house that is my shelter from the cold and a furnace that keeps me comfortable.
The worst outcome for the #NFL. There is no reason why the Saints are not going to the Super Bowl other than a horrifically missed call by a ref. 🏈