A portion of my goal is to understand how people think.  Maybe another way of saying this is how do we look at the same thing and come to divergent interpretations.  On one hand life would be mundane and possibly boring, on the other hand it would prove challenging.

I have noticed a significant change in my friends who voted for Obama.  I believe they still hold onto the delusion that their vote actually had something to do with his election.  This much I understand.  They seem to understand that after nearly seven years things have gone from bad to worse.  A few still ride the pale horse but they are looking behind them.

This week President Obama put into action a law that will change the name Mt. McKinley to Denali.  That is a good thing.  Come to think of it it is the only good thing he has done.

I look at the division between not only blacks and whites but between Dems and Reps and homosexuals and heterosexuals let alone males and females.  If only this were growing pains.  But after a growing pain there exists something that grew — usually a mature entity.

I hear and read of government statistics that show the improvement in our once great country.  But simple, and I mean simple, perusal reveals the statistics as not misleading but downright lies.  I will not even attempt to convince you of the TRANSPARENCY of these lies because it will not change the damage done, although it might make you a better person.

I just read and will continue to reread a passage that fills a blank in my understanding of people’s reasoning.  David Moser at Indiana University invented this counterfactual.  “If all circles were large, and this small triangle D were a circle, would it be large?”  The responses to this question answered so much about how we are tricked into believing something and I can now understand how people come to certain conclusions.

Up until now I used logic as my point of reference but this counterfactual gives me a new tool of understanding.  Sorry, I can’t change your thinking but I can now understand it.  Does this sound arrogant?  Adjust.

Since all politicians are liars and crooks, I’ll choose one from a crime family I think is better.  I get it.  After all they all sit in the same Congress AND we elected them AND they swore to uphold the law of the land.

The truly sad part in this equation is the news media.  We receive more honest, if not accurate news, from independent sources than from the money driven news companies.  Election coverage and controversy is an economic boost to their bottom line.

No, I take that last paragraph back.  The truly sad part of this equation is ME. I was there.  I let this happen.  I didn’t stand up and say the truth.

I was on an exercise wheel.  I went around and around because I had to pay for my familie’s cell phones, their cars, their insurances and their credit cards.  I couldn’t afford to be sick because we’d lose everything.

Well, I got sick, we lost everything.  But I got off the wheel and I recovered.  I know what to tell my kids so they can get off the wheel.  Two things prevent this.  One they wouldn’t listen because they believe they have their own answers.Two, my generation still doesn’t get it and they have the same answers for their kids that got them in trouble.

Usually the happy ending is that the family reunited and stuck together.  But the process included destroying the family and family values while get this this — claiming to fight for family values.

I am going to make this change starting today and build on the understanding of that counterfactual.  I go back to the question I wanted an answer to –“Do you believe in abortion?”  The most frequent answer I got back was “It’s a woman’s choice.”  That has haunted me until I saw the counterfactual.  I get it.

For example, I heard a fellow say we have a right to education and health care.  I turned to my Bible expert and he says there is no mention of either as a God given right.  But I compared the military budget to the health and education budget and found that the Bible does tacitly accept war, (that is a counterfactual).

I also got an email that used a counterfactual to point out problems with vaccinations.  I almost fell for it until I reread it.  The answer to that issue is relatively simple but made impossible by our culture’s thought process.

I like campaigns.  The lies, the sophistry, the rhetoric are amazing.  The way people suddenly become interested but get even stupider in their support.

I once saw a family in therapy that I genuinely liked.  The son had Tourette’s syndrome which the parents denied. He did some fairly bizarre acts.

I had to write a diagnosis for the court system and I gave the diagnosis of conduct disorder-aggressive type.  The parents were infuriated and wanted to know how I came up with aggressive type.  I cited the attack on his sister’s bedroom wall with a hammer and the time he put a knife through his sister’s door.  They said that those incidents were normal teenage behaviors. I remember the look of horror on their faces when I said these were not normal for teenagers and besides he was only twelve.

It reminded me of a person telling me what a great President, Bill Clinton was.  I reminded her that he had been impeached and those two impeachments did not even come close to the other charges that he escaped.  We don’t converse much these days.  Speaking the truth is a liability these days.  But that is the beauty of the campaign.

This does deal with a campaign.  Hillary Clinton’s rhetoric.  I listened to her pressured speech over a period of time as she first denied sending classified emails, then changing to I did not send any emails marked classified then I sent an email that  was retroactively changed to classified.  Why doesn’t she offer to take a polygraph test and end the debate?  I know why and I also know what she’ll say.

I watched a HUFFINGTON POST news report on AOL.  If you listen to an AOL news article and let the feed continue, other feeds report the same topic.  It turns out to be like those games where you read a person a story and they turn and tell the next person and when it gets to the end of the line the story is unrecognizable from the original.  I don’t know why AOL allows the feeds to continue because the story they tell does not match the collection of stories that follow.  For example the HP spoke of one email that was retroactively classified.  Forget the reality that all emails are classified from the State Department or that you are supposed to use a government protected email server, the remaining newscasts report that there were two “TOP SECRET” classified emails out of a sample of 10%, not including the ones that were erased (another issue). So either the HP is ahead of the other news organizations or they are either poor at collecting the facts or simply biased in their reporting of information against a candidate they openly support.

After the murder of the British spy who hacked her husband’s email, I would think that might make her emails safe.  However the murder was deemed “the perfect crime” so Bill was absolved.

What Hillary is not saying is where the problem lies.  All State Department employees have to go through training about secure emails.  Either she didn’t go to the training  or she actively chose a different route.  In that meeting you are told there are three types of classified documents and that you are to assume that all documents are “classified” originating from the State Department.  I get that. I understand what classified is.

I really suppose that depends on what your definition of “is” is?

My dad was a real man, a real father as one might define by modern fatherly standards. He had limited education but he had a work ethic that centered around the needs of the family, a wife and three kids.
My dad was a quiet man who held his thoughts in possibly because he had poor language skills and more likely because he had conservative beliefs in a forced liberal Chicago environment.
When my father retired as a butcher he suddenly became verbal. He said some fairly bigoted things that reflected what he lived through. He was inner city and had many negative exposures to cultures that took without earning and he verbalized this.
My parents sent me to a public school that was one of the first non segregated schools before non segregation became an issue. I had first hand KNOWLEDGE to the intermingling of cultures that my father had limited and negative exposure to. In addition, I had verbal skills, athletic skills and great educational skills.
I had to learn to observe the interactions of others and APPLY various survival techniques. I did this without UNDERSTANDING. But I had athletic skills that allowed me access and acceptance to a school of 10,000 all boys. Lane Tech was a great school.
Chicago is a very bigoted city. Each ethnic group had clearly defined boundaries, like gangs but under the guise of grown-ups. The Greeks lived in this neighborhood, the Koreans in that neighborhood, the Mexicans over there, the Puerto Ricans there, the Jews there. The only ethnic groups that shared a neighborhood were the Poles, the Irish and the Italians. That was because we were all Catholic. We tended to hang in threes, the Pole to fight, the Irish to get liquor and the Italian because his mother could cook.
Because of its bigotry Chicago is the cutting edge to intercultural understanding. Even the corrupt political machine learned how to share its corruption among ethic groups.
You can live in a bubble in any city. You can believe that the entire country behaves as your neighborhood. But my neighborhood proved a wealth of knowledge and fun. Then I went to the University of Miami.

I am  apolitical. I have opinions but I don’t express them because these thoughts of mine get twisted in the ears of those who pretend to listen.  The U.S. government has no, nada, zip, zilch integrity.  When the U.S. administration tells the truth the media bends it to fit their agenda.

Both parties lie.  Both parties are corrupt and play a game to give the impression that they are for something.  They are for getting reelected and the perks that go with the job.  So I have as much security in a socialist country as I have in a lying socialist country.

Suddenly an arrogant, egotistical, unscripted non-poltician enters the race.  I am fascinated by how he was created by the liberals and feared by the conservatives.  Created by the liberals because their constant lies make his truthfulness refreshing.  Feared by the conservatives because he threatens their gravy train.  He has the ability to either end that party or put it back on course.

I realize I am a member of the “silent majority.”  I have raised my head and taken notice as even the press can’t knock this candidate down because he, GET THIS, admits to all his faults.

I left FaceBook when a person showed a picture of President Bush and described him as despicable.  That wasn’t what got me.  That person said instead of this we (Dens) had this.  Two pictures, one of Clinton and the other of Obama.  One impeached on two of eleven accounts and a liar, the other just a liar.   The picture honestly depicted these two presidents as honorable.

If I had to identify with a party I would feel bad to say I was a Republican.  But I would feel ashamed to say I was  a Democrat.  Look at the debt, look at the impending fall out from the ACA.  Plenty has been done in six years – none of it good.  Four scandals of major import are covered up and the Dems leading candidate is buried deep in two of them.  Don’t even try to defend this.  Just hang your head in shame or raise it proudly in stupidity.

But marvel at what is taking form.

If the Republicans oust Trump (and they have to in order to continue the scam) then the White House will stay Democrat.  He will split the vote as in ’95 when Perot took the votes from the shoe in Dole and gave the little known philanderer and liar, Clinton, the votes.

You have to see the irony, the same thing can happen again.  My grandchildren will get this blog and long after I am gone they will say, “Grandpa was right.”

Being retired has saved my life.  I better add to that.  Being single, away from my family and retired has saved my life.

I have a loose daily routine that begins with a dog walk, then yoga and then I start to research, to read, to write.  I get to look at things without responsibility.  I get to watch and listen.  I have the opportunity to know a person without them knowing I know them.

I meet a lot of people. I sit and listen, sometimes from a neighboring table, and if allowed, I will ask a question or two.  I guess your reading level, your religion, nationality, family situation, finances and more.   My mother used to say, “The purpose of any conversation is for the other person to talk.”

The other day I decided that there were a few things I had needed to organize.  So I decided to fix things that needed fixing and organize things, page by page, if necessary.  I found two complete manuscripts.

I reread them and decided to do additional research as the times had changed.  Needless to say my repair work took a serious hit.

I read an article by a young girl telling me the reason Gringos come here to Cuenca.  I actually took offense and I held back giving my opinion.  I remember once knowing everything and figured she might need a go at it as well.

Honestly, I don’t know why I am here.  Funny but I don’t know why others are here but I can listen to their reasons.  I don’t believe them.  The reasons that people give change the longer they stay here.  I attempt to gauge the stage they are in according to my measurement scale.

There is the Pollyanna stage where “the people here are so nice and friendly, they seem so well adjusted”

Then there’s the Papa’s Gotta New Pair of Shoes stage.  This person or couple decides to visit other places and write about it.  “Oh look at this museum, look at this flower, see the whale.”  I never see pictures of the museums from the U.S,

PAUSE Here’s the grist of my point.  I think Americans are deeply angry people, Canadians are angrier because their not Americans (that should get some responses) It is how the American lets out his/her anger that tells the length of stay, where they decide to live, etc.

At this juncture the American mind makes a move.  Sometimes a bold move, sometimes a long overdue move, but the real person emerges.  If they retire and come here they are doomed.  They no longer have the job or hectic life to keep a wedge of comfort between them and now they are actually spending long hours together , often not able to speak the language and they say life is great.  They can’t manage the streets, they can’t stand buses let alone Cuenca buses, they have to adjust.

Once successful  busy people are faced with the reality that their livelihood in the U.S. ain’t worth squat here.  So you volunteer your services.  For crying out loud you are an American.  You worked all your life, perfecting your craft to play Mother Teresa here.  You aren’t even a practicing Catholic.  Now the anger simmers.

Many Americans open businesses.  A large portion of those businesses are selling things that are intangible.  There seems a lot of information about alternative health options.  Personally I like when somebody sells me something I can put my hands on like food.  I sound like Andy Rooney here and that worries me.

Suddenly, the topic missing the kids and grand kids comes up.  Talk takes on the form of ‘cognitive dissonance’.  You have made up your mind to return to the U.S. now you have to find reasons to substantiate it.  Now the people aren’t so nice, they seem to take advantage of your ignorance learning curve, and volunteering has limited rewards.  The kids are suffering. Meanwhile the kids back home are trembling with fear that you might return.

Another group of Americans have found bread crumbs on the path to internal understanding.  While the other group seethes in anger over politics, this group does yoga, travels around and avoids anything that reminds them of the life they came from.  They have controlled their anger by covering it up.  They have not replaced it.  Like a seed it waits for the right conditions to open.

Then there’s me trying to figure out WTF?