Sinking Ship?

Most of the rats are staying loyal, but a few have fled. They probably can't tell the ship is sinking because they have been allowed to move to the upper decks of this administration.

Rats tended to be forced to live below the lowest deck since they weren't considered passengers so when the water would start to rise they were among the first to know.

Still, its hard for many republican politicians to buck the President because he does have his rabid supporters who are fine with his MAWA(Make America White Again) program.

He only got elected because a system designed to protect slavery originally (the electoral college) got him elected by the narrowest of margins.

Of course he liked the maps showing the one that made it look like he dominated since the red states occupy significant space.  However you represent people, not geography and the majority of the people voted for someone else.

A series of unfortunate events allowed him to win a few states by very narrow margins and squeek out an electoral college victory.

His is trying to recreate them but so far its not looking good.

Hopefully it Good Riddance.

Juneteenth in Tulsa?

There are many things in history that are glossed over or misstated, after all it is written by the victors.  Even in incidents where the victors have nothing to boast about.  We are currently seeking reactions to some memorials that commemorate people from history who are being viewed differently.

Whether you agree that Columbus mistreated native Americans in pursuit of wealth of if you celebrate his heroism for venturing on a hazardous ocean voyage is often a matter of perspective.  

One event that happened nearly 100 years ago in Tulsa Oklahoma had no victors but lots of victims.  The Greenwood massacre wiped out a black neighborhood called Black Wallstreet.  

The ostensible reason was an incident involving a black teenager and a white female elevator operator.   What actually happened is unclear, the young man was lynched, but it sparked one of the worst white riots ever experienced in this country.

While it was covered up for many years or misrepresented it is now well known.

What makes this relevant today is that in a period of significant unrest over racism, the 

President has decided to hold a rally there on Juneteenth, a date significant to the black community.  

Whole you may think the President is entitled to have a rally any where, and he is, but this looks like a slap in the face to black Americans.

Really?

A Better America

The idea that America has been in some sort of decline is simply not true.  America has been changing and to some extent our post World War 2 privileged status is long since gone, but at no point has America been stronger or in fact more prosperous on the whole.

One thing has happened is that the growth in wealth has been uneven.

This has fueled a certain amount of anger among those who used to have a better share of the wealth, in general non college educated men.

They held a lot of good paying jobs in manufacturing particularly which actually required little more than showing up and doing fairly simple tasks.

Robots are cheaper, don't need benefits and don't show up or stay home because they got drunk.

Now the robots improve the bottom line and that wealth goes to the owners and executives.

So for that group of Americans things look worse, but the only solution is for them to get new skills that are needed, and since it wouldn't be in the same numbers as when unskilled workers were on an assembly line, most of them aren't going to do it.

Even worse, they've been led to believe that the people responsible for their problems aren't the factory owners and executives (although in fairness it is just business) but trade deals, immigrants, the Government, liberals and environmentalists.

So they don't like those people, although clearly none of them were actually responsible to any great extent, it was technology.

Now we aren't going to reverse technology, if we did our companies would be non-competitive but we can improve life for Americans in ways that keep making America better.

These are the progressive goals, a cleaner environment, health care for all, education for all, combat climate change, treat ALL people fairly, and allow individual freedom as long as it doesn't infringe on someone else's freedom.

What job you qualify for or can hold is up to you but whatever it is, you should have air to breathe.

Lets make America better and better.