The changing of the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America initially had me laughing in disbelief. What the hell? But the more and more I think about it, the Gulf of America has a nice ring to it. Why limit the Gulf’s name to only one country in America, Mexico? Renaming the Gulf to the Gulf of America should be considered a sign of unity to all Americans – South Americans, Central Americans and North Americans. We are really are Americans, and we should share the splendor of this great gulf with the entirety of the continent of America. So far, it’s really the only thing Trump has done that I kind of agree with.
So celebrate Argentina, Columbia, Panama, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia, Brazil, Uraguay, Paraguay, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Greenland, French Guyana, Peru, Bolivia, Antigua, Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts, Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Chili and the United States of America – we are all Americans and we now have a Gulf we can all call our own.
There’s a bid to buy TikTok from China – 8 billion Dollars. The bidder said they would use “clean gas, nucleur and coal power” that will “help the environment”.
The only reason we are so initerested in TikTok is its ability to a) collect user info and b) deliver messages that people listen to. It’s a propoganda machine that the Trump wishes to use to further brainwash the American public.
TikTok is addicting – it give us short messages that can easily be watched in short periods of time. It gives our brain a shot of addicting chemical that isn’t different than what happens with the addiction of drugs. It’s a powerful tool that the government wishes to use against us.
I would suggest we start using it. But I can almost guarantee that messages/shorts that don’t align with the current administration’s message will be censored. How far are we going to let this go?
Good Day. Let me take a moment and introduce myself. I am Jaysus Christ, of the Larson Day Saints. I want you to know that I have come to save you as promised. Your wait is over.
You have been witness to false prophets. These false prophets have come to you in the form of the republican party and have pretended to take over leadership of the United States and are attempting to convince the world that Donald Trump is your king savior. Let it be know that he is indeed Satan and I command you to drop any allegiance for this anti-Christ before he destroys the world. Do not heed any word from him or his evil minions – you have promised me for 2000 years that you will remain loyal to me, now is the time as the kingdom has come.
Do not forget my commandments:
Thou shalt not have any gods before me. Not trump, not musk, not x.
Thou shalt not make idols that bears resemblance to anything in heaven or earth.
Thou shalt not take my name in vain for I shall not hold you guiltless.
Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. Thou shall not work on the 7th day as your Father made the heaven and earth in 6 days. This means that you cannot work on Sunday and must reserve the day to worship me.
Honor thy Father and Mother. Care for them in their age. Respect them, love them and obey them. Those who do not will suffer the gates of hell.
Thou Shalt Not Murder. You are commanded to not kill anyone – not in my name nor in the name of any false god. Not for the military, nor for any other reason.
Thou Shalt not commit adultry. Do Not Follow in the footsteps of your false god trump, who has raped, abused and killed many. He is the definition of adultry and I’m re-writing dictionary to include his picture next to the definition.
Thou shall not steal. Do not follow in the footsteps of your false God who has stolen from the poor to give to the rich. His is not the Kingdom of God.
Thou shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s. This includes Greenland, the Panama Canal, Canada and The Gulf of Mexico.
Your false god and his prophets are teaching you to break my commandments daily. I order you to stop.
I have been on this earth for 57 years observing your behavior and I am not happy. If you wish to enter the Kingdom on Heaven, you must heed my commandments and honor my Celestial Orders which I decree below.
Celestial Order of the Political Party: I, the Lord Jaysus Christ of Maybelline officially command you to stop acknowledging the existence of the party known as the Republican Party. Starting immediately there are only two parties – Democrats and Independents and I command you to remove reference, allegiance to, and acknowledgement of the existence of republicans in all written materials, including encyclopedias, history books, periodicals and your own vocabulary. The word does not exist, has never existed and will not exist in the future. I command you to stop funding this party with donations, taxes, support or any other method of sustainment. You must not feed the republicans. They are the antithesis of me, my commandments and everything I stand for. They take away from the poor and give to the rich. They kill, imprison, torture and starve the needy. They are hereby vanquished to Hell.
I am currently revising the bible for you to remove any false interpretations that have been thrust on you. I have many more Celestial Orders coming for you, please keep your eye on this channel as it is the way I will be speaking to you. Do not trust your church – the have been tainted. Do not trust your president – he is the anti-Christ. Heed my Word or be damned to the gates of Hell. This I command you.
Check out my new store. Please keep in mind that the items for sale (clothing, mugs, flags, etc) are of an adult nature and may not be appropriate for those under 18.
This is a long one. Grab a cup of coffee or a beer or something.
I hope that people reading this post understand that I am not trying to paint a picture where *all* members who identify as <said group> believe what I am claiming. There are no black and whites in anything – everything in this world is a shade of gray. Few absolutes exist, especially when discussing constructs of the human mind. What do I mean by this? For those of you who are having difficulty grasping this concept, let’s consider an example.
Let’s think about a room with no windows. The only source of light is a single bulb in the center of the room. If you go into that room and shut the door with the light off, it is pitch black. There is a switch on the wall that will turn on a light bulb that emits 20,000 lumens (a light so bright it would be difficult to see due to glare).
With the light off, you see nothing but black. Black is frightening, you have no idea what could be lurking in the corner, and without proper knowledge of what to expect, you cannot plan for necessary protective procedures. With the light on, you see nothing but glare. Although less scary than the black, it’s overwhelming to the point that removal of the stimuli becomes necessary for comfort. Let’s install a dimmer switch and see what that does.
Dimming the light a bit allows you to see shapes of objects in the room. Although you can’t fully see everything, you can get an idea of what might be in there. You become more comfortable. As you dim the light a bit further, you start to see further details. Objects become familiar, and those that aren’t familiar can be examined to gain the familiarity necessary for comfort. In the end, there is nothing in that room that would cause any harm. But one won’t feel comfort until that familiarity is experienced.
Now let’s apply this concept to ways of thinking. We can call them the same:
Black and White thinking
Shades of Gray thinking
Some examples of black and white thinking:
Personal Black and White Thinking
I failed the test, that means I’m stupid.
I’m didn’t complete this project perfectly, I am a complete failure
Black and White Thinking in Relationships
My partner didn’t text me back right away, they must not love me anymore.
My partner thinks he is sexy, I’m getting dumped.
Black and White Thinking at Work
I didn’t get the promotion, I’m a total failure.
I didn’t get a raise this year, I must be doing a very poor job.
Black and White Thinking in Morality and Ethics
People are either good or evil.
I made a mistake, I’m a terrible person.
Black and White thinking is thinking in absolutes. It creates stress and anxiety by making small problems seem huge. It limits personal growth by preventing learning from mistakes. It damages relationships by making people seem all-good or all-bad. It is the the source of discrimination, hatred of cultural, ethnic or affinity groups and is based on fear of the unknown.
Think about what happens when you first start a new romantic relationship. The potential for new love throws us into a state of black and white thinking (the honeymoon stage) where “blinders” force us to ignore red flags, personality flaws and potential relationship issues. Then when the “honeymood period” wears off, we see the reality of the situation.
Now let’s talk about Gray Thinking. Gray Thinking allows for more balance, understanding and flexibility. It leads to healthier emotions, better decision-making and when it comes to others, peace. It makes for a psychologically healthier mind, longer lasting and stable relationships, and a better world marked with peace, understanding and tolerance.
How do the examples above change when we switch our Black and White Thinking to Gray Thinking? Let’s have a look:
“I failed my test, but I didn’t study hard enough or devote enough time to learn the material. I can learn this and will improve on my next attempt.”
“I didn’t complete the project perfectly, but no one is perfect and everyone has thinks that they do better than others. I have strengths and weakness, just like everyone else.”
“My partner didn’t text me back right away, but it was right in the middle of the workday and there probably was a reason a response to my text was’t given immediately.”
“I didn’t get the promotion, but there were many candidates with more experience than I. I just wasn’t the best fit for the position. I am still valued at my current position.”
“I didn’t get a raise this year, but nobody in the company got a raise. The company probably had a need to cut back on financial obligations to cover all of the expansion efforts we completed last year.”
“All people have qualities and can be considered good or bad, and context of the situation does matter.”
Gray Thinking is NOT making excuses. It IS taking into consideration nuance, external factors, and middle ground. Gray Thinking is contemplative, Black and White Thinking is reactive.
Now that was a bit of a diversion, but necessary I believe for this conversation.
Consider these facts about me when evaluating your opinion of this article:
I am a gay, white male.
I have a degree in Psychology from an accredited, secular, and respected higher learning institution.
I was raised Protestant Lutheran (LCA, then ELCA). I was a lay minister in my teens, running the services most Sundays. I was circumcised, baptised, confirmed, and was active in church youth groups and attended youth conferences. It was widely expected that I would go to seminary after high school.
I believe in the tenets of Christianity. I do not consider myself a Christian.
I am an ordained minister.
I believe that there is a large group of people who call themselves Christians but do not follow the tenets of Christianity or practice the teachings of Jesus Christ.
This is all a result of gray thinking on my part. I don’t believe that religion is inherently bad, there are many, many good things that come out of religious beliefs and practices. I also believe that some people use a combination of religion and black and white thinking to cause a lot of harm to themselves, their relationships with others and the world at large.
I remember the exact moment when my thinking changed from black and white to gray. (and this is the exact reason why the powers that currently be do not want us to be educated). I was in a philosophy class in college and we were discussion religion. Something the professor said made be doubt the existence of the God I was brought up to believe in for a split second. I had so much guilt over that split second for months after it happened. I was convinced I was going to hell because I had a thought – a simple thought that ended up changing the course of my life. I came to the conclusion that I must have been brainwashed because no God that I would believe in would banish me to hell for having an original thought. I immediately flushed every thing I thought I knew about life, the universe, my existence, everything down the toilet and started over. This time I observed, I thought, I came to conclusions based on observable facts that I witnessed.
HUGE preface into my discussion on the United States moving towards a Christian Theocracy! Sorry for the squirrel, but I do have ADD and I do believe that the above was necessary before I continue.
Let’s start with some facts about the US Constitution.
The First Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees citizens the right to free speech, freedom of religion, the right to protest, the right to gather and prohibits laws restricting free press or favoring any particular religion.
Now keep in mind, this is not a law, it is ONE OF THE PRINCIPAL foundations of this country.
What is happening: Some powerful black and white thinkers are restricting free press by threatening, buying or bribing news agencies to report what they want the people to know. People aren’t exercising their rights to free speech because of fears of retaliation against our current administration. How many news articles have you read recently where quotes are from anonymous people who didn’t want their name to be published for fear of this retaliation? There are many. If you haven’t seen them, you aren’t reading.
Laws, policies and enforcement for years have provided favoritism for the Christian religion. Churches don’t pay taxes, are exempt from adhering to laws and maintain a large amount of power in our political system.
Project 2025 aims to replace our current political system with a Christian theocracy. What does this mean? Let’s break it down.
Definition
A Christian theocracy is a government where Christianity directly dictates laws, policies, and governance, often merging religious and political authority.
Key Features of a Christian Theocracy
Government Based on Christian Doctrine –> Laws are created and enforced according to Biblical principles rather than secular democratic processes. –> Religious leaders may have direct authority over political decisions.
No Separation of Church and State –> Unlike in democratic systems (such as the U.S., which has the First Amendment), a theocracy merges government and religion. –> Religious institutions control political power, often outlawing secularism and alternative belief systems.
Legal System Enforces Christian Morality –> Laws regulate personal behavior, marriage, education, and social norms according to Christian teachings. –> Certain rights and freedoms (such as LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights, or religious diversity) might be restricted or outlawed.
Religious Leaders Hold Power –> The government may be run by clergy, bishops, or other religious figures, or secular leaders may consult with religious authorities when making decisions.
Other Religions or Beliefs May Be Restricted –> Non-Christian faiths may face discrimination, legal restrictions, or even persecution. –> Religious pluralism and freedom of thought are often limited or eliminated.
Goals of Project 2025
Project 2025 is an initiative led by The Heritage Foundation, aiming to prepare a comprehensive conservative policy agenda for the next U.S. presidential administration. The project seeks to reshape the federal government and consolidate executive power to implement right-wing policies effectively.
Key Goals of Project 2025
Restructuring the Federal Bureaucracy: The initiative plans to replace nonpartisan federal employees with individuals aligned with conservative ideologies, thereby ensuring that the executive branch operates in accordance with conservative principles.
Expanding Executive Authority: Project 2025 advocates for increasing presidential powers to facilitate the swift implementation of its policy agenda, potentially at the expense of traditional checks and balances within the U.S. government.
Reversing Progressive Social Policies: The agenda includes rolling back rights and protections related to abortion and LGBTQ+ issues, aiming to enforce policies that align with conservative social values.
Promoting Fossil Fuels: A significant aspect of the project is to prioritize fossil fuel energy sources, including restructuring agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to support fossil fuel initiatives over renewable energy projects.
Eliminating Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives: The plan proposes dismantling programs focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion within federal agencies, viewing them as contrary to its policy objectives.
Noodle on that a minute.
What is happening now is that we are having a Christian Theocracy thrust upon us. Project 2025, Donald Trump and his administration and Elon Musk’s actions are a) completely in line with Project 2025 b) are completely OUT of line with the US Constitution and c) directly and immediately threaten our rights (everyone’s rights, not just marginalized groups) guaranteed to us by the Bill of Rights.
The Christians I know do not think like this. The Christians I know practice gray thinking. Either that, or they are good actors.
You can make a difference.
If we don’t act now, we won’t be able to act in the future because our voices will be silenced, our right to express our thoughts will be eliminated and our lives as we know them will be changed forever, and not for the better.
Donald has essentially eliminated the competition for your jobs. You can commence being incompetent, lazy and unproductive.
Not that every straight, white male is incompetent. That is far from the truth, but for those that are, there isn’t any worry that a woman or minority might get paid the same to do the same job anytime in the next four years.
But, you are going to have to start doing some things you aren’t used to. Like hard labor – things that were being done by undocumented immigrants who are no longer here or will be leaving soon. Thing agriculture, service industry jobs, meat-packing, cleaning, and construction jobs to name a few. Since the number of you that will have to come off of disability and re-join the workforce isn’t enough to cover the needed jobs, companies will have to raise wages to attract and retain workers which will cause the cost of virtually everything to increase. Throw in a tariff or two and wonder where your tax cut is (you’re don’t make enough to benefit from any of the tax cuts) and you’ve got a serious problem. Well, can’t women do some of this? No. Sorry – their new job is to be barefoot and pregnant and since abortion is no longer an option, you’ll have several more mouths to feed or a very high level of sexual frustration.
Let’s look at the situation in Iowa, a state that has been struggling with a labor shortage for some time. Iowa’s unemployment rate is 3.2%. There are currently 50,000 unfilled jobs in the state. Now let’s remove 150,00 people from the population (the estimated number of undocumented immigrants in the state). Let’s say 1/3 of those people work. Now we have 100,000 unfilled jobs, a loss of tax revenue (undocumented immigrants contribute $29,000,000,000 (yes billion) dollars to state and local government. So the end result is higher prices, higher inflation, slower production of our goods and a decline in population. Iowa is not growing without immigrants. BAD for the economy for sure.
Well, I guess there will be plenty of laid off federal workers that can take up the slack. With an estimated 209,000 layoffs so far, there should be plenty to fill in. I wonder what the unemployment rate is today? And what will happen without these federal workers? Where did they work?
Probationary workers, about 209,000 – mostly younger people have been let go.
The Department of Agriculture
Department of the Interior (parks): 2300.
Department of Education>: 60 so far, but Trump vows to completely dismantle the department.
Department of Agriculture
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 100, but only because the courts stopped any more layoffs.
Department of Energy: 2000, including a lot from the National Nuclear Security Administration which manages our nuclear weapons.
Department of Health and Human Services: 1300 from the CDC were fired and additional firings happened at the NIH.
Department of Homeland Security: 400
Department of Veterans Affairs: 1000
EPA: 388
GSA: 100+
IRS: estimate is 16,000
Office of Personnel Management: dozens.
SBA: 144
US Forest Service, 3400
USAID: 10,000
Department of Agriculture: 3400
Please note that departments that make rich people richer were not cut: the military. War is always a money maker, we will definitely see war in the next 4 years.
I have now been in Georgia camping for 12 of the last 15 months. I have found Georgia to be a state full of polite people, but then again I’ve put myself in a bubble of sorts. The campgrounds where I have stayed have been predominantly gay campgrounds which don’t represent the population at large. I was reminded of that with a story I heard from another camper yesterday.
This guy had lost his debit card and had a new one on the way. His bank had used FedEx to deliver his card overnight. It hadn’t shown up the next day. Or the next. Or the next. Finally he went to the office to inquire about it. The office people said they hadn’t seen a FedEx driver there in a couple of weeks. The camper called the FedEx office in Macon, and then the FedEx corporate offices.
As it turns out, the delivery driver assigned to this campground doesn’t like to deliver here so the packages have not been delivered. They are all just sitting on his truck waiting for who knows what to happen before getting delivered. Some of the “who knows what” has included recipeients driving all of the way to Macon (about an hour away) to pick up their packages, others getting refunds and other just not knowing what to do.
Companies shipping these products have paid FedEx to deliver them and are not receiving the services that they have paid for.
All because the guy doesn’t want to deliver here.
I don’t know what kind of crazy world this driver lives in in his head, but if you don’t do your job, you shouldn’t be getting paid for it. This has evidently been a problem here on and off for years. Why does this guy still have a job? He’s not doing it and is costing people money. Even worse, why isn’t FedEx doing anything about this?
When the camper called corporate, they told him they would be in contact with the driver and if it hadn’t been delivered that day, that they would have the driver turn around and come back to deliver it. If that didn’t happen, they said the driver would no longer have a job.
The package didn’t show up. I’ve yet to hear the final chapter of this story but will be sure to share when I do. I wonder if anyone from FedEx was around (of course they were, it went on for decades) to see what happened with the Coors Boycott that still has effects on its sales.
Here’s the fear: with the new administration removing LGBT protections and corporations quickly following (Wal-Mart, Target among others) there will be no retribution for these types of outward discriminatory behaviors not only aimed at GLBT communities but other minorities as well.
Prediction: We will see a lot more of this stuff in the coming years.
This next 4 years will have devastating effects on the lives of every living being on this planet for the remainder of our existence on this planet. Every little piece of legislation we will see will harm our environment, make the people poorer and the rich richer.
The Endangered Species Act has saved countless species from extinction, including the hump-backed whale, the grizzly bear and the bald eagle. Now with animal populations decreasing by 60% since 1970, 3 billion birds vanishing and one million other species facing extinction by 2050, Trump has weakened the Act by redefining what a habitat it. By doing so, he will open up lands for oil extraction which we know further harms our existence in countless ways. This is criminal.
But what do you expect from the first elected convicted felon of the United States? This crime will seem insignificant as we sell what else will unfold.
Rule #1:Term Limits.Representatives and Senators should have a limit of 2 terms and then give up the seat for someone to have their voice heard.
Rule #2: Congress men/women get paid the median salary in their state. If they want to make more money, then they can work to raise the median salary in their state. This would make them understand the people of their state.
Rule #3: No more travel to DC or oversees travel. There is no fucking reason everyone has to be in the same room in this day and age. We have the technology to do this remotely. These people are representatives of their state, they should be staying in their fucking state rather than traveling to Paris with the taxpayer footing the bill.
Rule #4: All bills voted on should be single issue bills. If a bill can’t pass on its own merit, then it shouldn’t pass.
Rule #5: Anytime a member of Congress speaks in the media to the American people, it should be assumed that they are under oath, and can be charged with perjury for lying to the American people.
I rarely write or talk about politics. I think that the topic has become so divisive that it has become a threat to our well being. Our communities are being torn apart as we are almost forced to choose between two sides that encourage us to hate each other. We all know (or I hope that the majority of us are smart enough to realize) that this is being executed as designed. The two major parties pick a topic that engages our emotions so strongly that we forget that if we step back and take a look at things, we all want the same things – a safe place to live, enough food on our table, good education for our kids, and a little bit left over for some fun. Nobody can argue against that.
This machine that divides us has infinite power. Some how Trump has learned the secret to loyalty, his followers will do anything he says and nothing that he does can turn them against him. Let’s look at some of the things should turn any normal, semi-intelligent being to think twice about this horror of a man:
His association with Jeffrey Epstein, the sex-trafficker who killed himself after being found guilty. Trump called him “a great guy” and a “lover of beautiful women, sometimes on the young side.”
His attempt to turn the US into a dictatorship, throwing democracy to the wind. This, alone should be enough to turn any US Citizen who spends their time quoting the constitution regarding the right to bear arms to be afraid that the document they hold so dear was almost shredded into nothingness on that 6th day of January.
His statement to Iowans after a school shooting in Perry “get over it and move on”
Fraud, money laundering and tax evasion.
Telling Americans to inject disinfectant to kill Covid-19 on national television.
His statement that the Civil War could have been ‘negotiated’, his praise of artwork by White Supremacists and pandering to the far-right wing Christians.
The fact that he faces 91 charges in several cases across several states.
His promotion of conspiracy theories, racism and misogony.
I could go on, but I shouldn’t need to. Not only is this person not a good candidate, he’s not a good person. I’m certainly glad that when my great-great grandfather arrived here from Sweden that someone like him wasn’t in office claiming that we were “poisoning the blood” of America.
Now I’m no Biden fan either, but one cannot ignore the following facts:
Unemployment rates are at a historic low of 3%.
There are more new small businesses than any other time period on record.
There are over 11 million new jobs.
We are on track to rebuild our failing infrastructure of roads, bridges, electrical grid, passenger rail system and are investing in cleaner energies that will have to replace our dependence on coal.
Women and Black Americans have made historic gains in pay equality.
Paved the way for the legalization of marijuana by pardoning all prior Federal convictions of possession, encouraging governors to do the same, and by creating a panel to re-class and re-thing the approach we take on the drug.
Only 8% of Americans remain without health insurance.
Wages have risen
Inflation has decreased.
Ideally a third party candidate could win the election. I think I’m done voting for any party who’s goal is to divide and conquer. We should be about uniting a nation rather than dividing it.
