Friday, July 04, 2025

I Love America

This 4th of July, I'm not sure what to be more discouraged about, the ideologies of the current President or the congress that keeps bank-rolling them...all not under the premise of more limited government, but by unvarnished increasing the size and scope of it (ICE is now the most heavily funded law enforcement agency in the government...does seem right to anyone?) to enable the priorities of the President.

Because...

I love America.

Though there are growing parts of it that I love less and less, I love America.  Not for all the vagaries and travesties it has wrought throughout its history, but for the ideals of freedom it represents.

And, selfishly, I love America for the personal benefits that I have enjoyed from that freedom (I know that not everybody has, for all kinds of reasons — choices they’ve made; choices that others have made — and that tarnishes my enjoyment). 

Both its great ideals and amazing beauty are wonderful to behold.

In many ways now, I am afraid for both.  Values seem to be overtaken by the power of money.  Perhaps, it has always been this way, but it seems like it is getting worse.  Though some people have always treated others badly, it now seems fashionable to do so.  

The common good seems more like an after-thought at best.  People seem myopically focused on their own needs and no longer seem to consider how those are met, at least in part, by the things we gain from a common good point of view.  Leaders seem more energized by personal gain through the manipulation of the common good than the ideals of them overall.  Serving the common good seems to have been completely reconfigured.  

Sacrifice for the sake of others at one point seemed emboldening; now it seems to be passé. 

As my recent posts reflect, it is easy to point out the prevailing fallacies of our time.  But, I love America and want to be a part of promoting its ideals even more.

The America I love...loves each other.

The America I love...looks out for the disadvantaged.

The America I love...values differences.

The America I love...invites people to a vision for all people.

The America I love...does not promote fear.

The America I love...protects what is good.

The America I love...acknowledges where real power comes from.

The America I love...works at unity (not uniformity).

The America I love...honors sacrifice for the benefit of the common good.

Does any of this seem like what is happening now?  Well, not really, but if we can just get all these immigrants out of here....  Seriously?

I'm getting together with friends and family today and doing many of the things we have all come to enjoy about the innocence of our freedoms.  I will eat hotdogs and ice cream, drink a beer, throw water balloons and...wave a flag for America (pics to follow).

But, in the back of my mind, I will wonder (even fear) if what I love about America is actually still here...for the common good (or even for me).

Thursday, July 03, 2025

Strengthened By Use


Courage is very important.  Like a muscle, it is strengthened by use.

-- Ruth Gordon

Wednesday, July 02, 2025

'Big Beautiful(?) Bill', Con’t

Please read this. We don’t have time to wait. People will suffer.

Senator Chris Murphy just sent out this report from the Senate Floor: He specifies what each American can do, pronto. He says we do not have the luxury of waiting until mid-terms or 2 years at the rate the dismantling and deletions of our programs have taken place:

“Last night in the Senate, something really important happened. Republicans forced us to debate their billionaire bailout budget framework. We started voting at 6 PM because they knew doing it in the dark of night would minimize media coverage. And they do not want the American people to see how blatant their handover of our government to the billionaire class is.

So I want to explain what happened last night and what we did to fight back:

The apex of Republicans’ plan to turn over our government to their wealthy cronies is a giant tax cut for billionaires and corporations. And they plan to pay for it with cuts to programs that working people rely on. Popular and necessary programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP, are all being targeted. In order to pass the tax cut, Republicans have to go through a series of procedural steps. Last night, they took the first step which requires them to pass an outline of their plan, but with it, any senator can offer as many amendments as we want. So my Democratic colleagues and I did just that.

Now, we knew that Republicans would largely unanimously oppose them, but we had two objectives here. One, Republicans were forced to put their opinion on record — many for the first time — on the most corrupt parts of Trump and Musk’s agenda. Two, as I’ve been saying, I am going to make every process and procedure as slow and painful as possible for as long as my colleagues choose to ignore the constitutional crisis happening before our eyes.

So what did we propose?

We proposed no tax cuts for anyone who makes a billion dollars a year.

We made them vote on whether or not Elon Musk and DOGE should have limitless access to Americans’ personal data.

We made them vote on whether to protect IVF and require insurers to cover it. Every single amendment Democrats proposed was shot down.

On almost every single amendment, Republicans universally opposed it. Every Republican voted against our proposal to prevent more tax cuts for billionaires. The corruption and theft is happening in the open here.

The whole game for Republicans is taking your money and giving it to the wealthiest corporations and billionaires — even if it means kicking your parents out of a nursing home or turning off Medicaid for the poorest children.

They know what they are doing is deeply unpopular. They are offering a tax cut to the most wealthy that is 850 times larger than what they are offering working people. Oh and by the way, any tax cuts for working people are going to be washed out by higher costs for basic necessities, like health care and food. It’s a fundamental injustice.

Thanks to your pressure and support, many of my Democratic colleagues have joined my effort to do everything we can to make sure they cannot destroy democracy and steal your money in the dark of the night. We are being loud about what is happening. I’m going to continue to grind the gears of Congress down as much as possible to make it that much harder and slower to get away with this corruption. That’s why the votes lasted until nearly 5 AM.

DO NOT PRESS SHARE. JUST COPY THE ENTIRE POST AND PASTE IT ON YOUR OWN WALL.

This is a five-alarm fire. I don’t think we have two years to plan and fight back. I think we have months. It’s still in our power to stop the destruction of our democracy with mass mobilization and effective opposition from elected officials.

So we can’t miss any opportunity to take advantage of opportunities to put Republicans on the record and shine a light on what is happening.

And you have a role to play in this as well. I need you to amplify what’s happening, support the leaders who are fighting for you to make sure they can continue speaking truth to power against Musk and Trump’s billionaire cronies, and show up at rallies and town halls.

Use every tool at your disposal to send a message loud and clear about how you expect my colleagues to lead and fight in this moment.”

-- Chris Patrick Murphy, US Senator


The insidious part (of which there are many) is that our President is gloating about what this will enable him to expand against people he has wholesale characterized in terms quite similar to those used in Nazi Germany less than 100 years ago (just trade Jews then for immigrants now).

Most Republicans are either too naïve about what is happening or too scared to stop him (only 3 Republican senators voted NO on the bill).


Polls continue to show the majority of Americans oppose the bill.


We have to wake up before it is too late.  At that point, saying "Gosh, I just didn't know..." will be such a pitiful response.  We need to respond now (especially, since we didn't earlier — that's on us as Trump has told us all the way along what his intentions were...and are).

Tuesday, July 01, 2025

Differentiation Comes From Clarity

Companies that offer too many options often struggle to differentiate. Differentiation comes from clarity of WHY, not excess of WHAT.

-- Simon Sinek