Donald Trump’s Campaign: “Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain!”

Donald Trump’s campaign is a sham, just like the man behind the curtain. PHOTO: “The Wizard Of Oz” MGM

Donald Trump’s campaign reminds me of a scene in “The Wizard Of Oz.” After finally reaching The Emerald City, Dorothy, the Tin Man, Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion stand trembling in the presence of the “Great and Powerful Oz.” Toto pulls back the curtain on the booth, revealing an ordinary man pulling levers, spinning wheels and talking into a microphone. Turning, he knows he’s been found out and says, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! The Great Oz has spoken!” Dorothy and her entourage sadly realize that there IS no wizard – there never has been!  It’s all been a scam.

Donald Trump is foisting a huge con on the American people in his 2016 election campaign. While receiving more press than any other candidate, he’s doing a very good job of bullshitting America.

He manipulates the ratings-crazed media, constantly showing up on TV in person or as a call-in.  News reports feature him almost daily with some jaw-dropping situation at a rally or an asinine statement he’s made.    His Twitter rants and insults cause upheaval.  He’s doing everything to keep the attention ON him – just as a narcissist would.

Meanwhile the media stands silent, waiting to cover his next ridiculous racist outburst and  the possibility of garnering a ratings rise. Everything he says or does is guaranteed to get news websites more clicks, TV shows higher ratings and more likes and shares on Facebook and social media.

The press is falling all over itself trying to keep up with the daily barrage of antics so they aren’t left in the dust by competitors.  What they don’t seem to be doing, however, is making an effort to dig really deeply into The Donald’s past, good old-fashioned investigative journalism.

This campaign is nothing less than an elaborate ruse, a daily carnival of smoke and mirrors, designed to distract attention from the issue of how mentally, emotionally and morally unsuitable Donald Trump really is for the Presidency and how obviously dangerous he is for this country and the world.

If anything, the media should be leading the outcry against this man.

Instead, they are not paying any attention to the man behind the curtain.

Guns, Bribes, Corporate Greed: What Has Happened To Us?

Day after day I sit at this computer reading news headlines, and day after day I wonder what in the hell has gotten into us?

Lately it seems  that we’ve lost our flipping minds!

Missing lately is a sense of common sense.

Our respect for others is gone, any sense of compassion for the citizens of this country by corporate America has vanished. Our voice in government has been obscured by money & influence. It’s like “We The People” don’t matter any longer.

GUNS:

Under the Second Amendment, as least for the moment, citizens can buy guns that are almost identical to military issued weapons.

These weapons have only two purposes:

• To kill as many humans as possible in the shortest time.
• To kill them so effectively that they are literally shredded.

However, these military-type weapons are legal for ordinary citizens to buy because one can use them for target practice or hunting or shooting events.

That’s nice.

That’s also insane.

Why are citizens allowed to have firearms so close to what police or the military have?

This is even more insane!

This is a lack of common sense and responsibility by our highest court and the United States government.

It’s kowtowing to special interest groups (read NRA) and a ridiculous fear that we’ll hurt somebody’s feelings or ~God forbid~ violate Second Amendment rights.

Bullshit!

There are plenty of other firearms to have to hunt and target shoot with.

Grow up, people!

~~~~~~~~~

GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION & INFLUENCE:

Our government has been corrupt for a long, long time.  I am not a political law person, just  an ordinary citizen who has some questions.

Why isn’t it illegal to influence our government officials?

Obviously lobbying isn’t.  Obviously bribery isn’t.

It’s done in the halls of this government and in every state every day!

If it IS illegal then we need to lock up most of our government!

The only losers:  the majority of the American people and the environment.

For instance, companies like Monsanto are using the world as Guinea pigs with GMO food, herbicides, pesticides and the United States government is letting them get away with it.

We are dying of increased rates of cancers. Our pets are dying of cancer, bees are disappearing, our groundwater has high concentrations of Atrazine and Round-Up.

Little children are getting cancer whereas this was once a disease of older people.  The FDA, USDA, EPA have been influenced – or should I say -threatened – by Monsanto and other monolithic companies.  Yet we have our richest of the rich like Bill Gates, under the guise of being a humanitarian, is promoting Monsanto’s agenda to help feed ~and poison~ the world!

We are also being systematically poisoned and sickened by food corporations by the use of additives and chemicals that in some cases, have only the say so of the manufacturer that they are safe.

The FDA has ruled for the food companies, allowing manufacture and sale of these foods, using the test results OF the food company’s biased testing, while omitting review of any independent tests.

This is fraud!

We are held hostage by the corporations and our own government.  Oh, there are a few who are fighting for us in Washington but those who are in it for the greed and money outnumber them.

To me the scales have been tipped so far out of the hands of the American people to favor corporations.

We literally have no say any longer.

What has happened to our elected officials working FOR THE PEOPLE instead of the corporations?

Simple:  money!

This is despicable!

What can we do, though?  If the ones who write and pass the laws are influenced against us – how can we ever hope to change things?

I am sickened at what our government has become:  fighting like a bunch of little children, totally ignoring why they’re in government in the first place ~and~ ignoring the American people…, but still they bicker on, passing watered down legislation to supposedly protect us or help us.  The corporations and special interest groups have more money and thus, more voice than “We The People.”

This is NOT our government any longer – we have been shut out!

~~~~~~~~

CORPORATE AMERICA:

The American worker is screwed.

Back to corporate America:  GREED reigns and the workers who are out on the floor of the large corporations are treated almost like slaves.

We’ve lost our jobs to third world nations to “save money” in corporate pockets.

Walmart, the nation’s largest employer, buys clothing from factories in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia – yet they still screw their own workers regarding wages and benefits.

Before Obamacare, companies like Wal-Mart, Lowe’s and others adopted the cost saving initiative of only hiring people part-time for just enough hours NOT to qualify for any benefits.

I worked for Lowe’s from 2003-2007. When I was hired people could work full or part-time.  Now, only their top store management and some department people are full time.  Everyone else is hired part time.

The corporations of this country are purposely destroying the lives of most of the workers in this country by denying hours, a living wage and benefits.

We are going to become a service-orientated nation, fighting over jobs at fast food restaurants.

We are going to die premature deaths because ~like me~ millions of people cannot afford healthcare so we do not go for regular checkups.

More of us are going to lose our homes because we cannot get enough work to keep up the mortgage payments or taxes.

WHY?  Because this country is now run by greed by corporate America!

They will NOT invest in this country; they will not spend the money it takes to create the jobs that millions of us need.

They will just continue to take, Take, TAKE and walk on the broken backs, shattered dreams and lives of the average American citizen.

SHAME ON YOU CORPORATE AMERICA!  You can save this country but you won’t.

~~~~~~

Where IS common sense?

Why has it left our government?

Why aren’t WE THE PEOPLE organizing and fighting back to get OUR country back?

Why do we have corporations making decisions and literally, running our lives?

Don’t we matter anymore?

RELATED:

MONSANTO:  Feeding and Killing the World (Food Truth Freedom)

Atrazine & Round-Up: Persistent Chemicals  (Food Truth Freedom)

We The People -PETITION- Your Voice Needed on GUN CONTROL – NOW!

It’s TIME for better gun laws!
Photo: Simon Howden

Editor’s note: Don’t just “view” this – have the GUTS to sign it! It’s anonymous!

We need to tell our elected officials not to let the NRA hold our government hostage on gun control. WE NEED TO DO THIS NOW! The NRA  is bringing out its big guns for this gun legislation fight. They are convinced that the gun provisions being submitted to our lawmakers will never pass.

Let’s prove them wrong!

If you agree that it is time to take our country back; time to have our elected officials work for us; time to stand up for ALL the victims of gun violence, be it in Newtown, Aurora, Oak Creek, The Long Island Rail Road, at Virginia Tech, Columbine, The Sikh Temple in Joplin Missouri; in our inner cities, the young black men in inner cities who are dying every day to gun violence, the little children in inner cities who are being killed by drive-by shooters — to ALL who have died at the hands of gun violence — NOW is the time to SPEAK UP for ALL THE VICTIMS!

I have started a petition on the White House “We The People” page. It needs 150 signatures to be visible on the We The People page. It needs 25,000 signatures to get to the president.

We The People:

Don’t Let The NRA Hold This Country Hostage Over Gun Control.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/dont-let-nra-hold-country-hostage-gun-control/LrncYgsT

Please copy and paste this link on your Facebook page.

Send it out in e-mails, on Twitter in any form of social media you choose.

It needs to go viral!

I am sick of the NRA’s poisonous rhetoric on gun control. 

• Their uncompromising attitude over ANY changes to gun laws.

• Twisting the Second Amendment – trying to convince the American people that an assault weapon is a covered under their Second Amendment Rights. (this is total bullshit – there are plenty of other guns to choose from that you can have your 2nd Amendment rights!)

• Buying & threatening our government officials who, over the last 40 years have let the NRA get their way regarding gun legislation.

• Litigating their way through the American legal system for their own agenda

• Voting against the global initiative of gun bans.

• Promoting their secretive brand of racism and right-wing views

• Spreading lies that “the government is coming to take your guns away.”

• Coming just short of advocating treason, telling their members that they need to be armed and ready. (see above)

All of this information is out there.  It’s even on the NRA site.  It’s been in articles from esteemed publications.  We need to spread the word about what the paranoia and lies and influence they have in Washington.

IT’S TIME TO TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK

Scream louder than the money;

Scream louder than the influence & threats to our government and democracy!

Scream louder because we are tired of innocent people & children being killed on our streets!

SIGN THE PETITION NOW and SCREAM LOUDER than the NRA!

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/dont-let-nra-hold-country-hostage-gun-control/LrncYgsT

CNN’s Piers Morgan Stays Calm While Alex Jones Freaks Out; Tries to Air Conspiracy Theories INSTEAD of Talking Gun Control

Right now Alex Jones is the best advertisement for new gun regulations I can think of.  If you haven’t seen the CNN segment watch it HERE.  Be forewarned:  this man’s tirade is disturbing and sad.

In the so-called interview, Alex Jones went off the deep end.  He didn’t talk, he SCREAMED!  Piers Morgan attempted to ask questions and kept a level head. He  didn’t stoop to his guest’s  immature level and shriek back.  Jones ranted on, changed subjects and mimicked Morgan’s British accent like a childish bully taunting someone on the playground!  Still Piers Morgan played the calm host.

In a few minute’s time Alex Jones, completely off subject and still screaming, managed to introduce many of the conspiracy theories he’s famous for.  Honestly, the man looked like he was going to have a heart attack!

Obviously CNN decided that he wasn’t going to get second chance to face off with Piers. He was hustled off the set and escorted out to the street.  This is where it gets even scarier!

Then on this video filmed after returning to his hotel room In NYC,  he’s going on about getting thrown out of the CNN studios, saying  Piers Morgan panicked. I think that’s  a bit on the side of bravado and bullshit, frankly!  CNN probably decided they’d had enough of an out of control guests’  verbal rampage. Then he presents an idea that armed undercover agents for Mayor Bloomberg were shadowing him as he left CNN’s New York studios. Well, of COURSE there probably were security from CNN right outside the building, but Jones, ever the sensationalist, wanted to add more drama to his plight!  He then told his audience that if anything happened to him and the NYPD said the “crackheads got him,” that he’d really been murdered by Mayor Bloomberg’s henchmen.  Can you say:  par-a-noid?

Watch the second video shot by Jones and his cameraman and you won’t wonder why his CNN segment was cut short.

Even Glenn Beck waded in on this fracas calling Jones a “conspiracy freak,” and “Not only does he have insane points, the way he communicates them are 100 times crazier, which makes him the perfect candidate for mayor of Crazy Land.” 

Jones asserts that the government is “coming to take your guns away,” the same idiotic notion that the NRA subscribes to.  Alex Jones and his ilk are spreading lies that mirror Hitler’s takeover of Germany.  He seems to envision our military going house to house searching for weapons, thus the need for all Americans to arm themselves to the teeth and fight to a bloody death for their Second Amendment freedoms!

Oh for Pete’s sake children – grow up!

After Newtown: Taking Care of America; Mental Health & Guns

Mental health issues need to be addressed.
PHOTO: CDC

The hearses have finally stopped winding their way through the streets of Newtown Connecticut. The media circus has moved on. The news reports about this massacre may have slipped from the top news in the nation’s headlines, but the tears have far from dried.

This does not mean it’s time to forget. It means that now we should set about rationally changing the treatment of mental health in this country.  We also need to address the gun laws in America.

Not being a mental health professional, I have absolutely no right to comment on revamping the mental health system.   There seems to be many inconsistencies, loopholes and a huge black hole that the mentally ill are dropped into.  This has got to be addressed now, and under a microscope.

The National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors Research Institute reports that $4.35 billion has been cut from state budgets from 2009 to 2012.

A report in Human Rights Watch indicates that 56% of state prisoners and 45% of federal prisoners have symptoms of mental illness.

In 2009 The National Alliance on Mental Illness rated the United States on its care and treatment of the mentally ill.  We got a “D,” folks.

This is where all the mental health professionals come in.  Those who have studied, treated and know the particular system of their states and federal agencies, along with insurance plans and any thing else having to do with it. I hope to God they’ve got some answers. Instead of cutting budgets, this country needs to take a long hard look at the mental health system’s allocations.

Maybe we should be spending less on war

and more on caring for our citizens;

Less on going into space

and more on the realities of human life here on Earth.

It has been reported that Adam Lanza’s mother was considering institutionalizing her son, but this still is a disputed fact.  In many reports, however, it was noted that prior to the shootings in Newtown, Mrs. Lanza was clearly worried about her son’s mental stability.  He was becoming more withdrawn, despite her attempts to get him out into the world.

Those who would blame Mrs. Lanza in part for the shootings, have no way of knowing what the situation was regarding the security of the guns in her house.  Perhaps, being aware that her son might be unstable, she took extra precautions with her firearms; perhaps not.  We will never know.

Events like Newtown, Aurora, Columbine, the LIRR shooting and other high-profile mass murders like Virginia Tech overshadow the fact that every single day in this country many people die as a result of guns.

In 2011 the FBI reported that 8,583 people died in gun-related homicides. These are only the  homicides.

When murder hits suburbia, a quiet town like Newtown, it becomes a headline.  However, deaths in inner cities occur every day in places like Philadelphia,  Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore and St. Louis may have a brief mention in the local crime blotter.  Rarely these make headlines. Violence in America has become an accepted aspect of life, especially in inner cities.

Children die every day in this country’s inner cities to gun violence.  Whether it is due to gang disputes, drugs, a burglary gone wrong or drive-by shootings, homicide by guns make up a disproportionate percentage of deaths.  The CDC finds that about 85% are black males, between the ages of 10 to their early 20’s.

Frustrations are magnified in inner city life.  Generational poverty, segregation from mainstream America, and a lack of  economic opportunity, it’s a plague of inner city life.  Coupled with the  routine of violence in inner cities, it’s become expected, almost the norm…, a very sad version of the “norm.”

Randolph Roth, in his book,  American Homicide points out that the overall risk of being murdered in the United States is greater than in any other country.

Perhaps schools need to focus more on conflict resolution skills in every school across this nation, especially in the metropolitan areas. The lesson learned should not be:  somebody pisses you off and you go get a gun to solve it; you are bullied at school so you get Dad’s gun, go back to school and shoot those who’ve bullied you.  Schools need to take bullying more seriously because this seems to be a trend leading to school shootings and gun violence.

Gun laws need to be changed and enforced.  Loopholes in gun purchases need to be closed.  Assault-type weapons, and SWAT team gear should be taken off the market, available only to police  through regulated channels for  law enforcement professionals.  The average citizen does not need an assault rifle – period!

The gun lobby, the NRA, literally cut its own throat last week in saying that they would not make any concessions where assault rifles were concerned.  They’ve gotten their way in Washington for too long.

It’s time for the United States government to listen to us.

The NRA and the gun manufacturers should go wash the blood off their hands because they have the not only the blood 28 people who died in Newtown, but the blood of thousands across this country.

RELATED:

Prisoners with mental illness.  (Human Rights Watch)

U.S. rating of mental illness care (National Alliance on Mental Health, 2009)

Gun Deaths in U.S.  (HuffPost)

We Must Not Forget The Innocents: Contact Lawmakers, NRA, Music Industry & Others

Protect the innocents.  PHOTO:hinnamsaisuy-FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Now that Newtown is starting to fade from the top of the headlines it does not mean that we can simply forget.  Sadly, the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary school seems to be a tipping point in this country for revised gun control measures.

So, as the funerals come and go, the attention dissipates, we must not let Newtown and the slaughter at the Sandy Hook Elementary School fade.  It is our duty as responsible citizens in a supposedly civilized country to keep this issue in the forefront of the minds of our lawmakers.

Have YOU contacted your representatives in government?  If not, and you don’t have the contact info handy, here it is:

USA.gov

We cannot let fade into obscurity the families of the 28 people; 20 families of the children, 6 of the school staff and the shooter and his mother included, have suffered grief that few of us can imagine. This was not just death, it was 27 murders and one suicide.

Additionally, we must strive to remember that Adam Lanza was mentally ill.  He should have received treatment.  We’ll never know why he didn’t. There are accounts that his mother struggled to bring up her son normally. Perhaps she was one of the millions of parents who just thought he was “a little odd” or “awkward,” and didn’t want to admit that her son suffered from mental illness. This is something else we’ll never know because, his mother, Nancy Lanza, was the first victim.

It is up to us as compassionate humans to do what we can to help prevent another horrific shooting. We all have a duty to come forward and support the mental health advocates for changes in the system.  Again, we need to keep on our elected officials, giving them as many ideas as we can so that they can craft legislation and expand the mental health sector of our society.  **Particularly if you are involved in the mental health sector, those of you are most qualified to step forward and comment on the issue.** ~Please help those who cannot articulate for themselves.~ 

President Obama has appointed Vice President Joe Biden to collect and disseminate information regarding gun laws and mental health treatment reforms, as well as a reduction of violence in the media.

Contact Joe Biden:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact-vp

No matter what your stance on gun laws may be, it is our moral duty as citizens to, as my hero Frank Serpico says in the header of this blog:

“Sometimes you have to go up against the odds

to do the right thing.”

This IS the right thing:  to change the gun laws to take these weapons off the market.

The NRA needs to do the right thing and realize that it’s time to change their stance. Although an organization which not only teaches respect and responsible ownership of firearms, it should soften its testosterone-soaked good ole boy image.    Democrat Rep. John Yarmuth (Ky.) said: The NRA “has spent untold millions of dollars instilling fear in our citizens and our politicians,”  and that the NRA, “wants us to believe that the best protection against the irresponsible and lethal use of guns is for everyone to be armed.”  

The NRA has a chance to do better by the victims of all the deaths caused by military-type assault weapons and semiautomatics over the years.    Its radical stance on the literal interpretation of the Second Amendment must come into modern times.  Through fear it has repeatedly told its members that the administration is out to take their guns away. This just isn’t true. Now it’s time for the NRA to make some concessions in gun laws.  In this way it can help save lives.

Contact NRA’s law center:  https://www.nraila.org/secure/contact-us.aspx

NRA,  general contact:  http://contact.nra.org/

The movie industry, video game manufacturers and music industry can remember and honor the innocents by changing what is offered in theaters, in musical endeavors and video games to impressionable children.  Violence begets violence.  Glorification of killing from any genre: movies, games, music and on television leaves indelible impressions. Children have become desensitized to violence.  They learn from what they see.  Undoubtedly, one lesson which seems to have been gathered by our young is that to deal with bullying by killing or using violence.  This is an unacceptable behavior in adults, but in children?  How many of the past school shootings were sprouted from the mind of a child who was bullied?

Contact The Motion Picture Association of America: http://www.mpaa.org/about/contact

Contact the Recording Industry of America:

1025 F ST N.W., 10th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20004  or at 202/775-0101.

Contact Video Game Manufacturers:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_game_publishers

In the coming days and weeks, do not forget.  Do not let our members of Congress forget, nor the House, or the Senate.  Contact the NRA even if you aren’t a member.  Do the same to the music and television industry and video game manufacturers. Remind them that they too, must have a hand in responsible use of the media.

Remember the innocents.  Out of this horrific tragedy can some some good and hopefully  all of us can make this country a safer place.