I like reading.  My mother used to tell me it is not so much what you read or how much you read but what you are doing and thinking while you are reading.  Because of that I reread books and come away with a different interpretation.  I read slow mainly because I get inspired reading a first page and start writing.

I like writing.  Writing helps me organize my thoughts.  I write for me, for my enjoyment.   I like good writing.  Not always because of the message.  The NEW YORKER has great writing but the logic is wrong .  I like the sophistry.  The ability to trick people into believing that what you are saying is true.  When I write I have to research and when I research I learn.

I like learning.  The other sunset I saw the light reflect off the leaves of the eucalyptus  and quaking aspen trees.  The trees looked like silver.  The next morning I got up early to see if this happens in the morning sun.  Sorry you will have to learn for yourself.

I like discussing.  I have a friend who not only discusses a topic but listens.  She doesn’t judge me, or say she knows how I think,  I miss her and always feel like a child playing when we talk.

I like challenges.  I play Sudoku nightly but my real challenge is to beat the computer at chess.  I think my computer cheats but that’s another story.  I like the challenge of completion.  I like to finish writing a story.  I like to finish my daily yoga.

I like to complete things.  That could be on my headstone.  That would be funny.  Starting a project is the first part of the challenge.  Maybe the real challenge is finishing.

I like liking.  I know what I don’t like.  I prefer to only write about what I do like.  Sometimes I must contrast the like with the dislike.  Doesn’t mean I’m negative.  I prefer to think I am aware.

I like humor.  There are days I laugh all day.  Because I live alone that becomes a concern.  My mother would ask “Why are you talking to yourself?”  I would respond, “Because I want to have an intelligent conversation.”  She’d mutter, “That’s my boy.”

I like reading, writing, learning, discussing, challenges, completing, liking and humor.  Somehow that does not sound like a perfect opening line.

I am apolitical.  I will not vote in the coming election.  I have no dog in the fight.  So I can give an objective opinion.  I am conservative but I do not support the Republican party.

In 1995 Ross Perot took enough votes away from Bob Dole to give the trailing candidate Bill Clinton the victory.  The same scenario is here today. Donald Trump will win as a Republican but the Republicans are faced with the ultimate dilemma.  Since I believe that both parties are the same (confederacy of psychopaths) they simply pretend to make speeches and do things that suggest they are representing you but once elected they are set for life.  To lose a recumbent race simply means they keep all their benefits (none of which they voted for you), they maintain a retirement package that they can retire comfortably but in the meantime they can make serious bucks as a lobbyist.  Ann Rynd hit it right on the head in ATLAS SHRUGGED.

As a registered Republican (in Florida you have to be of one of the two parties to vote in the primary) I am truly horrified at how people dislike me and others for being Republican.  They refuse a difference of opinion, go out of their way to shut your ideas out and hypocritically do what they claim their opposition party does.  In order to do this they must do two things–get the press to show only right wing fanatics to the exclusion of left wing fanatics and put things in legislative bills (because without a line item veto or similar process it is all or none)  so when the other side opposes they can claim you are a baby killers, pension cutter despicable cold hearted person.  If the bill for child care passes someone gets a bridge to nowhere in the process.

But no matter it remains a front to keep the battle of the people going.  While the Congress lives well the sheep actually bleat at each other, black v white, Republican v.Democrat, hetero v, homo etc.

You want to stop it.  Take away the lottery prize.  When the US set up Congress the idea was to serve and literally volunteer your service.  Take away the retirement, force the same benefits on them that you have, get rid of the need for lobbyists.

America believed in “hope and change” but got an exponential increase in what went before.  The lies increased, the benefits increased and people fought more dearly not because they felt they were right but because THEY WANTED THEIR BELIEF TO COME TRUE. To me the truly funny part is people clamoring around Hillary Clinton  saying the Republicans have no worthy candidate when their offering fills the definition of antisocial personality.

So if Hilary or a Republican choice wins, it is business as usual.  There are some good Republican candidates, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio are the least indoctrinated and most pure of the group but they will be crushed by the system.

The real power is at the state level and the appointed positions in the government.  I must restate this crucial truth  THE REAL POWER IS AT THE STATE AND LOCAL LEVEL AND THE APPOINTED POSITION IN THE GOVERNMENT (like the heads of FDA and FBI etc.)

But the one candidate who breaks all these rules is Trump.  He has no allegiance and would love to replace all the department heads with people who have a clue outside of an ideology.  But if the Republicans allow him to carry their flag he will also dismantle the gravy train tracks they play on.

Go Figure

I like good writing.  I read Amy Davidson from THE NEW YORKER magazine because she writes well.  In my opinion THE NEW YORKER leans heavily to the left while I am a bit to the right.  But good writing is good writing.

I recently read an article by Amy Davidson that said Scott Walker is against the environment so much so that he doesn’t even like recycling.  At least that is how the article made it sound to me.  I told you she is good.

So I wondered what political candidate could ever imply yet state a position against environmental issues.  So I wrote to Gov. Walker and asked for clarification of her statements.

While emailing to Gov. Walker I came across a Newsy news feed that said the FBI was investigating Hillary Clinton’s email files.  I think Hillary Clinton’s dishonesty has been well documented but the news media insists on protecting her.  In this newscast they said that the FBI investigation does not mean she has done anything wrong and that her office is cooperating.

Now I am sensitive to the tone not the words because I expect denial from her office like I expect Gov. Walker not being against the environment.  But he has to defend that while Hillary gets a pass.

Am I wrong?  Am I reading into this?  Can someone clarify these feelings?

My education as a neuropsychologist centered around science and statistics.  I came to rely on peer reviewed journals and the scientific method.  It proved a better way to measure a treatment than  “I have a 96 year old uncle who smoked three packs of cigarettes a day and he’s sharp as a tack.  Smoking is not as bad as they  say”

Then something changed.  Actually it changed gradually.  The news became a battle for subscribers, single agenda groups began to sprout, the internet gave everyone a free voice, news became short bursts.  The CONTRAS were born.

The CONTRAS make money by a slick campaign against the current way of business.  Sometimes the CONTRAS are right, at least to point out that something seems strange.  Here you get your conspiracy theorists.  They make money by doing what they claim the other guys are doing.  They lead you down a path that says you are being mislead.

So you have one side, let’s say Big Pharma, selling a drug that makes millions and a blogger who makes a living by telling you that Big Pharma is a crooked business.  The Big Pharma lobby is paying the elected government officials to let their agenda and eventually their product to be fast tracked through the system.

Big Pharma did studies and if you watch 60 MINUTES, the program is sponsored by the ads of medications and illnesses you might not know exist.  The small time blogger did no studies but knows that making this much money must be supporting an illegal process.  So who do you believe, then what do you do about it?

If you are an American you choose a side and defend it.  Usually you take the side of the underdog because that’s the American way.  Since Americans no longer engage in critical thinking they spout information in the sound bites or blog bites they read or hear.

Americans complain about everything but when it comes to doing something they do what they are tricked into believing.  The power at the polls is just a small but necessary part.  The message has to be sent that Americans want honesty and transparency.  The non elected agenda pushers are in their positions and as the VA debacle showed they are reluctant to get off the gravy train.

I have so many friends who vote based on appearance. The current American government is the most obscure (non transparent) regime ever.  They have hidden vital pieces of information from their electors.

But as it turns out they need not do that.  Because you can lie repeatedly and move on without all the cloak and dagger stuff of being transparently nontransparent.  Case in point.  Hillary Clinton said she was poor and mired in debt.  Then her 142 million tax declaration, over a period of years, came out.  This does not include the non profit foundation.

Go figure!

I am writing my thoughts a step at a time for two reasons.  First to make sure I stay on point.  Secondly so that I don’t lose me as my reader.

Living outside the US I can clearly see the cultural disease that manifests from within.  Not all things are bad just the important ones.  I have time to read, write and research.  What a pleasure.  I have to actively avoid giving my empty hours to others

The small slice of Americans who have expatriated and now live in Ecuador show all the signs of cognitive dissonance.  They have made up their minds and then seek reasons to support it.  The food is better here (it is), the people are friendlier(?), followed by a litany of rights and wrongs in the US.  Despite their complaints, so many return to the US but not until they spin the dissonance.

Because they do not research, let alone understand, their thinking process, I can observe how they think.  I see it as being better than looking through a microscope as I am in the solution itself.  My observation is not hidden but my interpretations are.  The expats imitate the governments control of free speech by shunning those who openly oppose their views.

The first thing I observed is that Americans like to fill their time with activity.  When I taught psychology at the university level I came across an expanded version of Sigmund Freud’s defense mechanisms.  The expanded version was by Anna Freud, his daughter. She divided the defense mechanisms into four categories from basic to advanced.

The most primitive being denial and the most advanced being altruism which included volunteering.  That little chart remains in my memory.  I now see what my mother meant when she said, “You will learn that volunteering comes in many forms, many are not as they seem.”  Thanks mom, I see it.

The good intention in volunteering often masks its real purpose to/of the volunteer.  I see a reward system to the recipients that can lead them to avoid their responsibility.  For example, the need of love, touching, praise and education for an orphan or abandoned child is not disputed.  However the bigger issue is the responsibility of the culture.

By giving the fish without teaching how to fish becomes the issue.  How to address this problem through action and not spin remains the problem.