What is that dirty little word?

The conversation in America is avoiding a dirty little word.  At least one would expect it to be a dirty little word because it has disappeared from our vocabulary.  It has six letters so it is small like a dirty little word but this word can be expressed in polite company, in academic circles or when children are present.  The word is in the dictionary but most Americans under the age of forty probably do not know what it means.  You see, there is one problem with this word and the reason it is not used in America, the dirty little word is not politically correct.

All of our politicians for forty years have been silenced fearful to even mention this dirty little word for to some just speaking the word is akin to a treasonous act.  The vested interests roll out all the hyped up labels like isolationist or protectionist in order to shut down the slightest mention of this word.  No politician could withstand the assault that would come against them should they buck the vested interests.  As a result, the dirty little word is not talked about, ever, not by just plain folk, our politicians or a single media outlet.  We voters need to start talking and asking questions about that dirty little word, tariff.

The American people have been duped so long that most of us do not know what the word tariff means.  The Webster definition is “a list or system of taxes placed by a government upon exports and/ or imports.”  This simple definition is the way that all countries have operated for, perhaps, thousands of years.  Tariffs were and now are imposed to protect the national interest as defined by each government.  That is the rub, our politicians in America have confused the national interest with their own money interest which to them is more important than jobs for the people.  Our politicians fund their costly politics and their sometimes costly lifestyle by playing along with the vested interests opposing tariff taxes.  Their silence has been too easily gained.

The political mantra and rallying point against American tariffs is the often verbalized phase, free trade.  Democrats and Republicans have been united in their support of free trade for the last forty years, be it the Bushes or the Clintons.  I ask, what has it gotten the average American?  Personal income for the last forty years has flat lined while it has gotten more and more difficult to pay living expenses because of government intrusion into our lives.  The multitude of trade deals put in place by our politicians has depleted the middle class and forced millions of American on government assistance. We tell our kids the truth, nothing is free in life, somebody pays.  

The medium income in America is around $40,000, I ask, who can raise a family of four on that income anywhere in America but especially in California?  The answer is that it is not possible, you either have a high paying government approved and supported job or you experience the tragedy of being on the government dole.  There are few winners, the relatively rich are getting richer and the relatively poor are getting poorer, the middle class, the historical strength of this nation, is fading away.  Am I exaggerating our predicament?  Just ask the supporters of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump about the new normal America.  The people are not happy and they are angry. 

Mr. Sanders and Mr. Trump are the only presidential candidates railing against the American vested interests who have purchased the demise of the middle class.  Who are the free trade political operatives?  You guessed it, the Wall Street charlatans and their big business cronies with their stock market profits.  You know, the ones who gave us the financial collapse and then had their hands out so our politicians could bail them out.  Our politicians obeyed on cue with taxpayer money.  That was only half of their plan, they also wanted cheap money to feed the stock market and thanks to the Obama administration cheap money they got.

How long is America going to tolerate this injustice?   Hopefully not long if we, the voters, remember that dirty little word.  I will even say please.

 

G.Goslaw

Landers, CA.

How do the people figure into politics, circa 2016?

Ever since the computer came around I have resisted and let the younger generations show me up.  Finally, I have forced myself to explore the unknown.  It may be because retirement is sometimes a bit boring or that a small slice of self-respect has at last risen to the surface, anyway, I took a course in Microsoft Office at the Copper Mountain Community College this past semester.  During all of the semester I felt like a duck out of water but everyone was extremely patient and supportive of this newbie.  It has been a very long time since I sat in a class room.

The experience informed me most about the quality of the young people attending the college, these are serious folk who value the opportunity that the college offers.  Looking back over the years I wish that I had taken life and learning as seriously as these kids.  Professor Boyer-Whitehurst assigned a Power Point project for each of us to present to the class, asking that we choose a subject that we were passionate about.  Doing as I was instructed, I prepared a presentation entitled, “Our Broken Economy”.  The point that I was trying to make was that the economy is a reflection of our politics but I was not aware that politics is sort of taboo conversation around campus.

Our politicians have always had their grubby hands in the economy but this new American economy has become politicized beyond all recognition over the last fifty years.  It was my hope that through the presentation I could convey to this new coming of age generation, the implications that our current economic environment was about to impose upon their lives.  Of course, they know the difficulties before them.  One of the ladies in the class almost yelled out during the presentation, “what can we do about it?”  I was so stretched trying to get the presentation fit into the allotted five minutes, there was no time to address the question but a class discussion was in order.

The simple truth is that our American economy is owned by corporate business folk through their lobbyists and politicians in Washington D.C.  As never before, both political parties have been hooked by the dollars flowing from big business in order to control the political agenda.  What do they want?  Simply stated, they want cheap labor and cheap money.  Our politicians have coughed them up to get elected and then cashed in, ignoring the interests and needs of the people who elected them.  The word that best describes their debauchery is treason, national treason selling out America and the American ideal of upward economic mobility for all.

 

The Democrats are the hypocrites who have their hands out while speaking empty rhetoric about the middle class and a “living wage”.  At the same time their espoused policies cut off the legs of the working class preventing upward mobility.  Policies like big spending, overseas trade deals that give away jobs and open borders immigration, all combining to further divide America into the rich and the relatively poor and getting poorer.  Hillary Clinton is the poster child for this duplicity but she has plenty of company.  President O’Bama is the grand poohbah of hypocrites.   His policies distract the people by dividing the electorate with racial animus while he opens the floodgate of cheap labor through both legal and illegal immigration.   I know how big his library will be, it will be befitting his royal status.

 

The Republicans are the worst offenders of the people.  They taut capitalistic ideals and a free economy as an excuse to give American jobs away overseas and to give tacit approval to the same immigration policies of the Democrats.  More importantly, the GOP only advances candidates for president that will give due deference to their big business donors.  The people have caught on to their deceit and this accounts for the popularity of “The Donald”, who is the only Republican candidate bucking the establishment GOP scheme.  America will conclude that Mr. Trump is the only real alternative to politics as usual.  Will he be any different if elected president, who knows?  At least he is talking the right game now.

G.Goslaw

Landers, Ca      

     

What are the people to do?

Everybody’s cousin is commenting on the Republican Debate so here goes.  The prospect of terrorism upon America took center stage Tuesday evening magnified in the wake of the massacres in both Paris and San Bernardino, California, USA.  Americans can no longer hide behind the “it won’t happen here” attitude engineered by the politics of Barack Obama.  Those chickens have flown the coup and the people are left vulnerable, exposed to Islamic terrorism by the political correctness of the one person charged with the responsibility of protecting the American people.  Yes, the failed one is our homeless president.

The American people have landed in the soup of terrorism that we all would rather ignore.  Can’t do, we no longer can hide as if the 14 deaths and 30 wounded in San Bernardino are acceptable losses, as if they don’t matter.  All lives matter except the Jihadies.  The families and friends of those two should be prosecuted to the full extent of our laws and then sent packing to distant shores where they will surely find life more accommodating.  Gitmo would be a suitable situation.  How did our politicians arrive at the conclusion that America has to house all the bad guys in the world?

This tirade could go on and on but let me tell you what really ticks me off, comments such as those by Governor Christy at the debate when he said the people of America are scared as a result of Islamic terrorism.  Scared, really?  Our politicians do not know the people they are seeking to represent, scared?  The American people are angry, we have been insulted by pathetic human beings and our politicians portray us as huddled together like a group of nesting penguins in the Antarctic winds.  We Americans are angry, enraged and pissed off at the terrorists and our slippery politicians.

The gutless Democrats should be worried about the guns flying off the shelves of the gun shops because it says that we, the people, have awakened to the reality that the government will not defend our honor, they will not defend our borders or our lives, therefore, we must defend ourselves.

G.Goslaw

Landers, CA   

Political Correctness

Political correctness in the face of terror threats is a fool’s mission!

Radical Islamic Terrorism has struck San Bernardino County.  This Monday morning the Board of Supervisors trotted out to address the carnage that occurred on their watch last Wednesday.  There were expressions of sympathy for the families of the victims and deserved praise for the community first responders who gave assistance to the victims.  All of this is well and good but there was no semblance of accountability.  Was the attack so unexpected that no one except the terrorist couple be held responsible for the deaths of our neighbors?  Was it not possible to see this coming?  Have we not been warned? 

Please allow me to place the blame for our national inaction in the face of real danger at a few doorsteps.  The terrorist threats have not been taken seriously because they have been buried in the president’s political correctness agenda.  This agenda has not only filtered through our national government but every state government that is controlled by Democrats.  The agenda says we must not take action to protect the country from radical Islam because we must not offend the American Muslim.  Fourteen Americans died in San Bernardino, thousands have died over the last twenty years, how many more Americans have to die before we hold the Muslim religion accountable?

Islam is the only religion that kills or ever has killed in the name of their God in order to advance their religion among the peoples of the world.  Islam is all about political control whether through peaceful manipulation or violent killings or outright war.  Until America accepts the fact that this militarism is at the core of this religion, we infidels will never be safe.  No appropriate national action to respond to the violent threats will ever be advanced by our Democratic power structure.  No action is not an excuse for possible overreaction.  Nation building in Iraq was an overreaction but no action is suicidal.  Appropriate measures must be taken even when our American Muslim citizens are offended.  If they will not fix their religion, they are accountable.

This opinion will be submitted to the Hi Desert Star newspaper in Yucca Valley California.  Their editor says that they have a corporate policy not to publish opinion that criticizes a particular religion and they have rejected a number of similar opinions. You will have to read this on my blog.  As for their corporate policy, it is rooted in the same political correctness that is enabling the terrorists to kill Americans and the newspaper also makes themselves accountable for the bloodshed.

Indeed, it is a difficult time to be a liberal Democrat, no?

G.Goslaw

Landers, Ca

An Opinion

(Is the Muslim religion a threat to America?)

America is asleep at the wheel.  Have you ever been asleep at the wheel?  When did you wake up?  Were you alerted by the bumps along the edge of the road or did you only wake up when recovery was no longer possible?  If so, despite your foolishness, you survived but you risked your life and the lives of others.  Will this country, America, the country that each of us is blessed to inhabit, be so fortunate?  Please allow me to speak one opinion.

Our America will not survive the threat of radical Islam unless we wake up to the danger posed by this religion.  The threat is real, radical Islam is not a passing religious ideology to be managed until it loses influence in our world.  Radical Islam is a very old world order that has been fighting for world domination for 14 centuries.  The ideology will always remain in the hearts of it’s faithful, it will not modify the goal of world domination, it only adapts to current circumstances in the short term.  The goal is religious, it is social, it is ethical, it is militaristic and it is primarily about political control.

Radical Islam is not just another religion like all the others. This assumption is the primary reason for our lethargy, this religion preaches the control of every person and every facet of the lives of the living.  The concept of freedom, personal or corporate, is to be wiped from the dictionary and the daily lives of everyone in their expanding world order.  There is no freedom under radical Islam, it only makes exceptions for horny men and the religious elites.  Is this the new America that our political leaders, under President Obama, wish to bring upon the people?

If so, he and they are doing an excellent job of turning out the lights so the American public can remain in the dark and asleep.  The refusal of our president to call the threat by name, Radical Islam, is a case in point.  The argument made by politicians and Islam sympathizers is that we must protect the good Muslims. This is a noble goal but we must assume that there are few good Muslims because we don’t hear from them.  When these terrorist atrocities are perpetrated by Muslims believers, the so called good Muslims are either hiding or asleep like the rest of us.

There have been visible Muslim believers who have spoken up on certain occasions and who respect the notion of freedom for all, men like Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.  The regular Muslim community, however, is silent or asleep.  A few Muslim organizations seeking to change the religion do speak up but no Muslim religious leader has ever or will ever utter a single word against Radical Islam no matter how many people are slaughtered.

The question must also be asked, even in our drowsy state, why are the Mullahs silent?  Please, let me repeat the question, why are the Mullahs and the Mosques silent about their brothers who commit mass murder of those who cannot defend themselves and bomb airliners?  Most of us were taught at a very early age that 2 + 2 = 4, the answer to the question about the silence of the Mullahs is just as simple.

 

Could it be that the religion itself is inherently a terrorist organization that insists, one way or another, upon world domination?   Dah….

G. Goslaw

 Landers, Ca

     

    

    

How Far !!!

Hillary Clinton has to win the presidency or go to jail.  Those are the only options in her future.  If she becomes president she will only be a mouthpiece for Obama who has control of the evidence that proves she mishandled secret documents.  This is the deal she is striking right now. 

That is not what we need, another Obama presidency in absentia.  The Obama remake of America can then continue but if the Republican candidate wins, it means prosecution and prison. 

Our America stinks, how can anyone vote for a Democrat?

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.

  

Mom

Mom died Monday night.  The circumstances of this death are not what most needs to be told.  I am not glad that she is gone but this family drama has long needed to have a page turned.  Mom and Dad entered this world at the beginning of the last century, coming under the influence of a newly birthed Protestant denomination that, with other denominations, reacted against the closed religiosity of that day.  These new denominations emphasized the work of the Holy Spirit, bringing God down to men "to set the captives free” (Luke 4:18).  These new denominations gathered together into two movements or traditions, the holiness movement and the charismatic movement in America.

Mom and Dad lived the tenets of the holiness movement, a gathering of like believers that quickly was to become their first family.  The outer world was of little concern except as a field to be evangelized, this drama was to consume most of their energy.  Bob and Margie were very much a success among their greater family, Dad preached to the people from his heart and with a style that said my journey is your journey, this is the way to approach God.  Mom played the piano and sang the songs of the Hymnal like a soprano bird, her voice was not like all the others and carried an authority that was captivating.

They were a great ministry team for the church and the greater family, who praised and honored them their entire lives, including Mom’s 95 years on this earth.  This is and was, as it should be for they were blessed and were a blessing to thousands of people through their gifted ministry.

This also was not the entire story for they had another family, three sons.  The circumstances of one’s birth are as varied as the sands on the beach and the genes that combine to give every human being an individuality, a uniqueness, in the midst of challenge.  We all have our uniqueness as a gift from God and our challenges are just as much a gift from God but they leave us with the mostly unanswered “why” question.  Some of us appear “luckier” than others to be challenged by the lesser challenges which seem less of an influence.
 

The first son of Bob and Margie was challenged by a difficult birth blocking oxygen to the brain that proved to be debilitating throughout his 53 years on this planet.  Why were the second and third sons spared such a fate?  The answer of course, in a limited sense, is that we were not spared and that like all persons under the sun, the challenges are only different.
 

There is an old saying with some truth to give us, it says, “don’t speak ill of the dead”.  If the   speaking is done from a selfish bitter place, silence should rule the day but covering up the truth of a life lived robs the next generations of learning lessons, both positive and the negative life priorities of their ancestors.  As best as I understand my motivation it is to bring truth to the discussion of my departed parents.
 

It must be said that whatever liabilities they tolerated in their own lives, each liability was probably learned from their own parents and the circumstances of their own birth.  Also, my words are mine alone and no other family member should be held accountable for them, only me, the infamous second son.

This label is well deserved for my history is replete with doing the wrong things, at the wrong times, for the wrong reasons.  This propensity will probably remain a part of my life, even in these twilight years.  However, it has taken a life time to come to grips with where this all began.  While living it I had no clue.  The short answer is that I wanted and needed to be valued in the eyes of my father, to sit at the dinner table to talk and eat, to hear him ask, how did school go today?  One time, just once I would want to have heard him ask, what do you think about this or that, son?  You know, that small talk that says we’re in this together.  It never happened.
         

Being the silent compliant son did not get the attention of either of my parents so I became the rebellious black sheep of the family, messing up every real opportunity that happened my way. Looking back, this too was a failure for it produced not a single word of response, reproach or anything from my parents.  In my mind I can hear them bemoaning their son, “what he needs, only God can give.  When and if he gets saved and sanctified, then we will have our son.”  No, Mom and Dad, you needed to have had at least a friendly relationship with your children.  Your emotional life and relationships were all about the mission field but I do not remember you ever praying with your own children.  Something was amiss.
 

I like to think that this part of my heritage was not passed on to my children but it was the mother of our children who refused to let me be detached.  Zac and Kristin were both adopted and each struggled in their own way to know of their birth parents and each has wonderfully made that connection.  Not knowing was the issue, they considered that the “worst”.  I would like to respectfully disagree, the worst is knowing and being ignored for some greater good, that is the “worst”, to be ignored.

Thank you, blog, for giving me the opportunity to get this off my chest and turn the page, finally, hopefully, maybe.  Enough said.

       

G.Goslaw

      Landers, Ca.