Tag: Bernie Sanders

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Why Donald Trump getting elected POTUS is not the Apocalypse or End of Days, as so many liberals claim, by Louis Brown

(1)                       
Most Democratic politicians and rank and
file Dems. Are “devastated” by DT’s victory. I’m not.
(2)                       
When I could not vote for Bernie Sanders,
I chose Jill Stein. But even she is overreacting in her revulsion for DT
(3)                       
DT claimed, for example, he is going to
impose tariffs on products, especially on automobiles that are imported here
from foreign countries especially when those products could/should have been
produced here. Buy American!
(4)                       
The allegedly pro-Labor Democrats claim
that protectionism is in the long run counterproductive because it impedes free
trade. Well, yes, when so-called free trade makes companies profitable, which
it does do, 99.9% of the profits, however, go to the upper 1/10 of 1% of the
population. The American working class gets unemployed and impoverished on a
massive scale.
(5)                       
Also, DT has hinted that he is going to
adopt Rand Paul’s isolationist foreign policy. I he does, that means peace for
a change. All we are saying is give peace a chance. What is the actual
difference between left-wing pacifism and rightwing isolationism anyway?
(6)                       
DT said he will do business with Bernie
Sanders when the time comes.
(7)                       
Most everyone has noticed that Hillary
Clinton goes to war at the drop of a hat while Barack Obama has fallen head
over heel in love with perpetual war in Afghanistan. The American people do not
want this war at least not forever. If HC got into office again, it would have
meant more and bigger wars and endless hostile trade deals.
(8)                       
In other words, DT is promising (at least)
important concessions to the real liberal left. We should be gratified not
“devastated.”
(9)                       
Over my life time, I have been told that
protectionism and isolationism are unworkable and extremely destructive in the
long run. Considering everything, this is exactly what we desperately need
right now.
(10)                 
Did you notice that Hillary Clinton’s campaign
attracted the approval and support of three undesirables: Meg Whitman, Michael
Bloomberg and Henry Kissinger? That should make you suspicious. “Be afraid, be
very afraid!” as Rachel Maddow puts it.
(11)                 
Bernie Sanders heroically and ultimately
unsuccessfully tried to dissuade HC from courting the favor of Wall Street and
its leaders. I think Bernie Sanders should think in terms of starting a third
political party, he should abandon the sinking ship that is and will be soon be
the “new” conservative Democratic Party, as it becomes more bellicose and
hostile to American working people, the Dem. Party will, next election,
definitely shrink dramatically in size and influence.
(12)                 
I thought the election campaign went on
too long; the word “hate” was used much too often.
(13)                 
Of course, Hillary Clinton did get more
votes than DT, yet DT is going to be President. That does seem unfair.
(14)                 
Anti-Trump Democrats repeated endlessly
that DT was a racist and hated and disrespected women. Personally, that did not
ring true at least not to my ears. DT is not a racist and he does not hate
women. In fact, in general, DT seems broad-minded and willing to negotiate.
(15)                 
My elder and elderly brother, until this
last election, voted Democratic, Democratic, Democratic in almost all
Presidential elections. In this past election, he voted for DT. DT appears to
be actually less of a rightwing reactionary than Hillary, if he follows through
with his campaign promises. If he does keep his promises, he will be reelected
easily 4 years from now.
© 12 Nov 2016 
About
the Author 

I was born in 1944, I lived most of my life in New York City,
Queens County. I still commute there. I worked for many years as a Caseworker
for New York City Human Resources Administration, dealing with mentally
impaired clients, then as a social work Supervisor dealing with homeless PWA’s.
I have an apartment in Wheat Ridge, CO. I retired in 2002. I have a few
interesting stories to tell. My boyfriend Kevin lives in New York City. I
graduated Queens College, CUNY, in 1967.
Posted on

Meaningful Vacation — Massachusetts, by Louis

I cannot remember the
lady’s first name, although her last name must have been Inman, but, sometime
in the 1970’s, she invited me to stay a week in Bridgewater and North
Chathamsport, Massachusetts. Her house was in Bridgewater and her summer house
was in North Chathamsport. I remember it was early October because we went
swimming in Massachusetts Bay, and the water was still warm. After the swim I
would return to her summer cottage and take an outdoor shower to wash off the
saltwater. The main event of the vacation was the Inman family reunion, which
was very well attended. Whoever these people were, they were my distant
cousins.
We then visited several
17th Century graveyards and found Inman’s, Aldrich, Jenks and
Winthrop gravestones. As time went by, I used to think about the original pilgrims
— what was in their minds? What made them tick? There is the version of their
first arrival in 1620 that we all heard in school, which was presented as a
patriotic story.
Much has been written
about the pilgrims, but the two books that I think best describe what the original
pilgrims believed in are Pilgrim’s
Progress by John Bunyan and The
Protestant Ethic by Max Weber, sociologist.
17th Century
Puritan society of the Massachusetts Bay Colony had its drawbacks. Gay people
were unmentionable. Most Jews and Quakers went to live in Providence, Rhode
Island where tolerance for different people was the order of the day. The
strength of the Puritan society depended largely on killing the native American
population. Religious non-conformity and political dissent were not tolerated. And
then the Salem witch trials came along in 1690. The Puritan neighbors were
constantly going to court and suing each other over small and large plots of
land, and water rights. The plentiful court records indicate why we have such
good genealogical records for that period.
It is true that the
modern version of Puritan society is a world-wide empire called the United
States of America, but does this world-wide empire live up to the standards of
the original Pilgrims? Do its moral drawbacks outweigh its so-called moral
superiority?
Bernie Sanders claims the
U. S. government has been corrupted by Wall Street. I would say that this is
one example of immorality that modern-day Puritans should disapprove of. The U.
S. empire tends to bully third world countries and has not solved the problem
of white people in the U. S. bullying black people and rich people bullying
poor people. Our foreign policy seems much too bellicose. Our whole capitalist
system seems to be based on greed rather than on sincere Judeo-Christian
moral precepts.
Protestant Work Ethic
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Cover of the
original German edition of The
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

The Protestant work ethic (or the Puritan work
ethic) is a concept in theology, sociology, economics and history which
emphasizes that hard work, discipline and frugality[1] are a result of a person’s salvation in the Protestant faith, particularly in Calvinism, in contrast
to the focus upon religious attendance, confession, and ceremonial sacrament in the Catholic tradition.
The Protestant work ethic is often credited with helping to
define the societies of Northern Europe, such as in Britain, Scandinavia, Latvia, Estonia, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland. British colonists and later Germanic immigrants brought their work ethic to British North
America and later the United States of America. As such a
person does not need to be religious in order to follow the Protestant work
ethic, as it is a part of certain cultures.
The phrase was initially coined in 1904–05 by Max
Weber in his book The
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.[2]
The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World to That Which Is
to Come; Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream is a 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of
religious English
literature,[1][2][3][4] has been translated into more than 200 languages, and
has never been out of print.[5][6]
When I read The
Pilgrim’s Progress, I found it extremely entertaining; the bad aspect
of the book was its apparent emphasis on being narrow-minded and humility
meaning self-deprecation. It trivialized many aspects of Christianity such as
the sacraments. But it did explain how 17th century Puritans
thought.
© 21 Apr 2016 
About the Author 

I was born in 1944, I lived most of
my life in New York City, Queens County. I still commute there. I worked for
many years as a Caseworker for New York City Human Resources Administration,
dealing with mentally impaired clients, then as a social work Supervisor
dealing with homeless PWA’s. I have an apartment in Wheat Ridge, CO. I retired
in 2002. I have a few interesting stories to tell. My boyfriend Kevin lives in
New York City. I graduated Queens College, CUNY, in 1967.