Li: ritual, propriety, etiquette. Hsiao: love within the family (parents for children and children for parents. Yi: righteousness--the noblest way to act in a situation. Xin: honesty and trustworthiness. Jen: benevolence, humaneness towards others. Chung: loyalty to the state and authority. --Confucius (Kong Fuzi)

All articles appear in reverse chronological order [newest first].

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I believe the past is relevant, sometimes more than others of course. In most cases we are seeing history being repeated, so it is most relevant.

Sunday, May 31, 2020

SUNDAY MEMES:





It's not enough that we are "not-racist,' it's time we were "anti-racist."

Our colonial forefathers tried non-violent forms of protest, such as negotiations, appeals to reason, and justice.

When this produced no results, they tried more aggressive forms like boycotts, demonstrations, and the Boston Tea party.

When they were further abused and oppressed, they tried revolution: The Declaration of Independence, Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, and Valley Forge. 

They formed an army.


  • When Martin Luther King peacefully marched for equal rights, he was jailed, spied on by the FBI, and eventually assassinated…
  • When African-Americans marched for the right to vote, the right to eat at a diner, the right to quality education, they were spat on, had dogs put on them, were arrested, beaten, and killed...
  • When a black President suggested he might sit down and share a beer with a white police officer and a black Professor that the officer had arrested for breaking into an upscale home, the professors home, the President was called a racist and criticized for interfering in a local matter. Yet a white President denigrates minorities, peaceful protesters, praises white supremacists, and then encourages armed protesters to march on State Troopers and political rivals during a pandemic. He is praised by the same people...

You want to know why Black people are angry...
We can’t be handcuffed and put in the police car unless we are dead (#GeorgeFloyd)
We can’t go bird watching in Central Park (#ChristianCooper)
We can’t go jogging (#AmaudArbery).
We can’t relax in the comfort of our own homes (#BothemSean and #AtatianaJefferson). 
We can't ask for help after being in a car crash (#JonathanFerrell and #RenishaMcBride). 
We can't have a cellphone (#StephonClark). 
We can't leave a party to get to safety (#JordanEdwards). 
We can't play loud music (#JordanDavis).
We can’t sell CD's (#AltonSterling).
We can’t sleep (#AiyanaJones)
We can’t walk from the corner store (#MikeBrown).
We can’t play cops and robbers (#TamirRice).
We can’t go to church (#Charleston9).
We can’t walk home with Skittles (#TrayvonMartin).
We can’t hold a hair brush while leaving our own bachelor party (#SeanBell).
We can’t party on New Years (#OscarGrant).
We can’t get a normal traffic ticket (#SandraBland).
We can’t lawfully carry a weapon (#PhilandoCastile).
We can't break down on a public road with car problems (#CoreyJones).
We can’t shop at Walmart (#JohnCrawford) .
We can’t have a disabled vehicle (#TerrenceCrutcher).
We can’t read a book in our own car (#KeithScott).
We can’t be a 10yr old walking with our grandfather (#CliffordGlover).
We can’t decorate for a party (#ClaudeReese).
We can’t ask a cop a question (#RandyEvans).
We can’t cash our check in peace (#YvonneSmallwood).
We can’t take out our wallet (#AmadouDiallo).
We can’t run (#WalterScott).
We can’t breathe (#EricGarner).
We can’t live (#FreddieGray).
We’re tired. 
Tired of making hashtags.
Tired of trying to convince you that our #BlackLivesMatter too. 
Tired of dying.
(Author Unknown. Copy and paste)  #TiredAndAngry
Google any of the above names! 


Saturday, May 9, 2020

MOTHER'S DAY: Its Surprisingly Dark History


from National Geographic:

image…In the postwar years Jarvis and other women organized Mother's Friendship Day picnics and other events as pacifist strategies to unite former foes. Julia Ward Howe, for one—best known as the composer of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"—issued a widely read "Mother's Day Proclamation" in 1870, calling for women to take an active political role in promoting peace…

"Mother's Day," Not "Mothers' Day"

…Anna Jarvis never had children of her own, but the 1905 death of her own mother inspired her to organize the first Mother's Day observances in 1908.

On May 10 of that year, families gathered at events in Jarvis's hometown of Grafton, West Virginia—at a church now renamed the International Mother's Day Shrine—as well as in Philadelphia, where Jarvis lived at the time, and in several other cities…

Storming Mother's Day

…Anna Jarvis's idea of an intimate Mother's Day quickly became a commercial gold mine centering on the buying and giving of flowers, candies, and greeting cards—a development that deeply disturbed Jarvis. She set about dedicating herself and her sizable inheritance to returning Mother's Day to its reverent roots…

Born of war, Mother's Day grew to horrify its own mother, whose fight to fix the holiday "cost her everything, financially and physically."

 

read complete article

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Even when the facts are in his favor he cannot bring himself to speak the truth. He proves himself to be a chronic liar every day.

(This is a rant, my rant. I have tried to be fact-based in my posts, which are reflective of my opinions. I've not attacked Trump's followers, have even on occasion defended him to some extent. But I have arrived at the point that I spoke of the morning after the 2016 election. I have to vent my anger and disgust. If you don't want to hear my opinion, the facts I present, you have always been free to ignore me. And as always, I encourage response... favorable or not. So read on or don't.)
All the present-day public fact-checking sites sprang up in response to the constant bombardment from Conservative Republicans that Obama was lying in 2009. But today those same conservative republicans embrace the deception and self-congratulation of this bloviating con man who is our current president. The rate of lies and deceit from Trump is astronomical in comparison to Obama and any other politician in the fact-checking era.

  • Those same conservative republicans called Obama a tyrant for using Executive Orders but praise Trump for doing the same. He has issued 151 in less than four years and is on pace to exceed Obama's EIGHT YEAR TOTAL soon!
  • Those same conservative Republicans have stood by while Trump has dismantled long-standing water protections, environment guidelines, conservation guidelines. 
  • The same Republicans have surrendered their oversite responsibilities to Trump. 
  • Trump and his sycophants have eroded nearly every accomplishment of Obama's administration with no regard to any principle other than revenge. Trump disrupted the offices that were responsible for rolling out pandemic response protocols. Yet, Trump still wants to blame Obama for everything that goes wrong. THREE YEARS LATER!

He hasn't done anything to make America Great Again.
  • All Trump has done is to undermine every one of our National Institutions from NASA to our Intelligence Organization. Trump has lowered taxes for the most wealthy while threatening Social Security and Medicare funding with the deceptive call for cuts in payroll taxes. Payroll Tax Cut Scheme is a Severe Threat to Social Security
  • For years he demanded that Obama produce a birth certificate while smearing Obama with accusations of hiding something. But four years later Trump still has not produced his Tax Returns.
  • He has ridiculed, insulted, and attacked nearly every ethnicity, institution, and former employee, and conservative Republicans want to call him an uniter? Has any past president been such a divider? NO!
  • He has phrased violent right-wing protesters, gun-toting protesters in America, as well as dictators and former KGB agents overseas. While vilifying an American Hero (for being a POW) and another American for kneeling in silent protest.
He came out under false pretenses.
  • Right-Wing Conservative Republicans attacked the long-standing and practiced Christianity of President Obama. Yet overlook the recent and convenient come to Jesus emergence of the womanizing, golden spooned playboy Donald Trump.
  • When Trumped first announced he was running as a Republican for President, most Americans and Political leaders, up until then, were only speculating about whether he was a Republican or Democrat. Most money was on the close friend of the Clintons being a Democrat. No one imagined he was suddenly going to switch from being a pro-choice non-ideologue to being a conservative.
  • Initially, he was bombarded and rebuked by the Republican leadership as being the conman and opportunist he has always been. But, then, the right-wing extremist came out of the woodwork to vote for him in the primaries, causing a crisis amongst the Republican party. Then the failed primary candidates and the less extreme right-wing conservatives saw his divisive rhetoric, xenophobia, and bullying as their best option for defeating Hilary.
  • Yes, the 'family values' conservatives set their principles and 'values' aside, selling their soul to defeat Hillary.

COVID-19   
South Korea had its first known case of COVID-19 on the same day as the US. Yet they got it under control a lot sooner. (see chart below/at the bottom)

Why?

  • There were daily briefings, written and oral, on the COVID-19 virus and the potential pandemic in the weeks leading up to the first known American case. Yet, those warnings were ignored by President Trump, who is known for not reading the briefs or attending the security meetings. (the same mistake contributed to the 9-11 attacks in 2001.)
  • The Military has stated for years that the biggest threat to our country was not a nuclear attack or foreign terrorist, but biochemical. Humanmade or natural. We have had agencies and teams in place for such emergencies, despite Trump's claims, but they were dismantled or repurposed by him. His initial statement that the existing five COVID-19 cases would be down to zero in a few days was wishful thinking. That misstatement may turn out to be the most significant presidential error of our history.
  • The 2001 Anthrax attacks were a lesson learned "..it was a disturbing realization that there was a new wave of challenges to American security. In early 2002, President George W. Bush announced $11 billion worth of funding to tackle bioterrorism, initiating a decade-long program to establish action plans for how major cities like New York and Boston would cope in the event of a mass attack." But little did they know that nearly 20 years later, their plans for combating such a hypothetical attack would be utilized on the other side of the globe in South Korea but not soon enough in the United States*

All that was bad enough.

  • But when he encourages armed protesters to storm state capitals because their governor, duly elected, is of a different political party... 
  • When he openly mulls the idea that states that didn't vote for him should get less aide than states that did vote for him...
  • When he suggests that governors should praise him to get more federal aid... 
  • When he openly suggest unproven medical methods or contradicts medical experts during a pandemic. False Comparisons Promote Apathy and Complacency
  • When he lies about his inadequate reaction to the pandemic...
After all this**, he refuses to take any responsibility for his slow response by blaming everyone else. Well, for at least a moment, I have to stop trying to be nice about it... thus my rant.

Yes, this is a rant, but it's my rant. It's long overdue because I can't get past what this man is doing to our country. His philosophy that if you repeat a lie often enough, some people will start believing those lies are paying off. I have tried to produce fact-based arguments. We have seen the long-standing hypocrisy of Trump and his cronies being ignored by many. I have hoped that the religious beliefs of some would lead them to a realization. The realization that there is a fraudulent course to this man and the leadership of the Republican party.

I do not condemn his followers for believing in him, but I will condemn some for WHY they support him and what they represent. But many support him for innocent reasons. At most, I will only consider them to be misled or misinformed, but it does scare me how much and easily they will endure before they start to question what is going on.
GlennDL


** Reminiscent of his 'asking' a favor of a foreign leader while dangling delayed aid as an incentive to investigate a political rival.

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