oldindex

Betsy DeVos, our Education Secretary(!) applauded the “progressive nature” of Bethune-Cookman University as being "real pioneers when it comes to school choice," failing to recognize that BCU was one of the only choices available to Black people in America at that time.

She probably went on to say that Slave Ships similarly were the early pioneers of true choice in international cruises, permitting intercontinental excursions by their passengers at an affordable rate. Here’s an early image from Betsy DeVos’ presentation to the Association of Travel Agents touting Slave Ship sorties:

“Our passengers retire to the opulence of their cabins after enjoying a spirited game of shuffleboard. Dinner at 6! Formal loincloth required!”

Captain Phillips of the Hannibal says, “Join us on your next voyage. You’ll be treated like family!”

A related quote and reading resource to help you boost your Critical Thinking skills:

“Herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor, — all men know something of poverty; not that men are wicked, — who is good? not that men are ignorant, — what is Truth? Nay, but that men know so little of men.” W E B Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk

James Comey: Is this Cuba 1950s, or the United States 2017?

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Live from the Banana Republic of the United States:

James Comey’s dismissal as Director of the FBI at this instant in time, at this point in America when we are so precariously balanced at the edge of the precipice, during this moment when many of us are questioning the integrity of our Election process notwithstanding who we individually had embraced only a few months past, has the potential to throw us on the rails.

Fulgencio Bautista as he prepared to leave Cuba, fearing for his corrupt, worthless life, could easily read the writing on the wall: Can we be certain that the light ahead is the end of the tunnel, and not an oncoming train? I cannot. My inclination is to heed Stephen Hawking’s words and try to find another planet to colonize next week: forget about 100 years from now.

The Senate needs to set-aside partisanship and take control of this government before it is too late.

A related quote and reading resource to help you boost your Critical Thinking skills:

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.” - Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World

Everything below will be moved to the Archives section in the weeks to come as we reformat the publication.

Thank you - J Warren & GL Hill

The Constitution does not stipulate that Free Speech is guaranteed only for those with whom you agree

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

You see: That’s the problem with our Constitution. Either everyone has the right to express their opinions, within legal parameters, or nobody does. The people at UC Berkeley, God bless their befogged vision of reality, don’t quite understand that Ann Coulter’s audience has the Constitutionally guaranteed right to listen to her speak, notwithstanding how divergent her opinions may be from those who oppose her ultra-conservative approach. It’s the way things are.

I don’t know why this is so difficult for the Left to understand; This basic premise has been in-place since I can recall, allowing American Nazi’s to march in Skokie and African Americans to do so in Alabama. It seems as though, and this is only a gut sense, that the Right has less difficulty comprehending this fundamental aspect of our democracy.

It also seems as though the more divergent we become in America - and that abyss is becoming more enlarged each day - the less we are willing to tolerate that which we demand from others for ourselves. Just an observation.

Holy Crap, BAT Man!

Jack Dulouz, Contributing

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

New Tax plan promises that taxing everything that enters into the US will provide the financial salve needed to keep our ship afloat. Simply, the BAT or Border Adjustment Tax, is supposed to bring a financial windfall sufficient in size to make up for the lost revenue associated with a Corporate Tax reduction of from 35% to 15%. Small Business would benefit as well, seeing the same reduction point - 15% - from the current 39.6% top end.

Not bad. In fact, it’s a great idea if it weren’t for the fact that America’s consumers haven’t figured out how to get along without buying on-the-cheap Chinese products from Walmart and elsewhere.

In fact, as written elsewhere in this journal, if American consumers - many of whom profess to be Patriots, judging by the sloganization of pickup truck bumper stickers - did their job and bought American made products the BAT component of Trump’s tax revisions wouldn’t be necessary. (Drive through a Walmart parking lot sometime and count the Trump stickers: You’ll come to the same conclusion. It’s sadly ironic.)

Here’s the bottom line en plein air: For the BAT to save the day, add 20% to everything you buy right now made elsewhere. Perhaps that will incentivize you to shop American Made products. And if you can’t find the junk you absolutely need - some useless trapping of technology that facilitates your continued intellectual erosion - consider doing without it.

North Korea: An easier way

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

We don’t need to destroy the country, we only need to eliminate a few key people, the most important of whom are North Korea’s leadership council, including the lunatic ultimately in charge. (Of course, I acknowledge that somewhere in North Korea someone probably has authored the same sentence as above about us...)

Be that as it may, if we initiate what is certain to be a major conflagration in that area of the world, we can expect to see casualties of immense proportions of those categorized as Collateral to the conflict. Although many North Koreans embrace and endorse Kim Jung-un’s vision of their dystopian (from my perspective) reality, they are no more than victims themselves of the propaganda machine that drives the institutions and government agencies that control North Korea’s society.

In an article a few years ago we had asked, Will Somebody Please Kill This Guy. The question still stands. During Castro’s reign in Cuba the CIA developed more than 600 assassination plots many of which were attempted: obviously unsuccessfully. In this age of increased technological capability and enormous clandestine agency budgets, can we not do what we must do to eliminate Kim Jung-un without setting Asia on fire?

Mother Of All Bombs

(MOAB)

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

To set the record straight, each of these “Mothers” cost US Taxpayers $16 million. I am not a fan of ISIS or of the newly-introduced ISIS-K, which sounds like a breakfast cereal: “ISIS-K! Get a great start to your morning with the only cereal chockfull of the vitamins and minerals essential to anyone lopping off the heads of Infidels! I eat it; Mohamed eats it! You should too!”

Be that as it may, apparently it was a successful strike garnering about 36 fatalities and eliminating much (reported) ordinance that might/would have been used against those who oppose ISIS. Begrudgingly, I have to admit that this is the way War is supposed to be waged against those who propose to commit abhorrent acts against innocents: And there have been many who have fallen under the knives of these mindless cretins.

We have received, and I would guess it’s a fairly accurate summation given the remoteness and purpose of the facility, that no civilians died in the attack.

President Trump scores a point on our Score Card. To those who criticized the attack: Come up with a better way.

Did you vote for someone named Trump?

GL Hill, Publisher

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Bet you’re wondering where he went. Everyone assumes that all politicians lie when running for office: about what he or she will do when elected, and how they will shape the direction of the government involved. Trump, though, has probably set a new record for flip-flops, change-overs, about faces, reneges, take-backs, do-overs, and re-thinks.

If I had voted for him I would be disappointed: but I didn’t, so from my perspective, his altered course appears hopeful.

The only thing he hasn’t come to terms with yet is the issue of Immigration, and that will fold eventually, too. There’s nothing more dismaying, from my perspective, than someone in a leadership capacity who does not seem to have either read History or has forgotten the lessons associated with our past. Immigration is key.

As we’ve written before, our economy is dependent on Immigration. Our Manufacturing and Agriculture and Service industries are all dependent on the availability of people who are willing to perform those jobs the rest of America won’t. Trump is learning that lesson, but, not being very bright or well-read, it will take awhile.

We could point him to the experience in California during 1959 to the 1960s when then-governor Pat Brown introduced the Bracero program to permit Immigration sufficient enough to cope with California burgeoning Agricultural production needs. Or, we could just give him a copy of the Grapes of Wrath, something I’m fairly certain he has never read, to help him understand the transient nature of the industry, and ask him to identify today’s Jodes in America: They no longer exist.

For a very large part of America, without Immigrants you’re clothes will remain dirty, your car will never be washed, your lawn will become a forrest, your restaurant food will never be served, virtually nothing will be manufactured, and the list goes onward.

He’s flipped on China, Yellen, Federal Workforce freeze, Russia, the Middle East, North Korea, and I’m waiting for him to announce his divorce from Melania in favor of a Gay relationship he’s developed with a Black, disabled Nigerian immigrant whose Health coverage is funded through Obamacare. You never know with this guy...

Mexican Drug Cartels and Chinese Industry

GL Hill, Publisher

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

What do they have in common? While Trump amused himself with discussions on Trade Deficit, South China Sea, North Korea and a host of other (JHFC!) issues, the Trade Deficit continues to grow to, maybe this year approaching, One-Half Trillion US Dollars. And, it’s all kind of a Drug Cartel thing, although we are reluctant to admit it. (Although we have made the point for years herein.)

Look: Everyone knows that there would be no Drug Cartels active in the US today if people didn’t use Drugs. Kind of goes without saying, doesn’t it?

Trade Deficit? Same thing: If you didn’t buy so much junk made in China - owing to your addiction to quickly and cheaply gratify yourself with disposable stuff - Trump wouldn’t be having this discussion with Xi.

Consumer Spending in the US is about $12 Trillion. About one-third of that is directed to the acquisition of Disposable Crap, as the Economists say. That’s $4 Trillion every year, a very large part of which is finding its way into Communist China’s economy.

Good job...

A lot of talk about Economic Stimulus

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

But nothing beats Bush’s! The non-Twitter crowd may recall the war with Iraq that led to the complete destabilization of the Middle East, the consequences of which we are (and will continue to face) for decades to come. It is no truncation to imagine that Trump is a direct result of that war, and that destabilization: “The flutter of a butterfly’s wings...” Sadly, even perpetuated by Obama: A Legacy War.

And that war was based solely on a form of Economic Stimulus, by Bush and family, to benefit those whose interests lie in the lifting and refining of hydrocarbon products, such as those who secured the rights (through a contrived auction while children in Iraq were still, as they are now, dying) including Exxon-Mobil, BP, Shell, and the usual suspects behind most nation building by us where geographically there is Oil.

Two of the world’s largest Oil reserves. Net value? Trillions of US Dollars. Cost to American taxpayers? It will be years before we know for certain.

Now that’s Stimulus!

The new Pig Iron plan: Trump introduces New, Cheaper facet to Obamacare

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

In an effort to contain costs, President Trump has issued an Executive Order whereby Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum levels of Obamacare will be joined by a lower cost, higher deductible plan designated as Pig Iron. The new Pig Iron plan provides the following benefits: If for any reason an insured absolutely must seek1 medical help, an immediate2 payment of up to $10 for that occurrence shall be paid by the insurer, not to exceed a total payment amount in any one year of $50 to any named insured.

Monthly premiums for the Pig Iron plan, enthusiastically supported by Stephen Hemsley of UnitedHealth Group whose annual 2014 salary topped out at more than $60 million, according to the new rule, shall not exceed $100 per month to the named insured. (That would be you...) It is anticipated that Speaker Ryan will introduce legislation amending Medicare to a similar extent this legislative session.

1 “Must Seek” is defined as a total volume blood loss of at least 3 pints, or a tumorous growth defined as “Bigger than a Breadbasket”.

2 Here “Immediate” means within the forthcoming 18 month period.

Trumpcare America: A Sneak Peek

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Paul Ryan, our Speaker of the House, will be placing Trump’s Obamacare replacement before Congress.

At this writing, Paul Ryan proposes to bring Obamacare’s replacement to the House for a vote. Here’s an excerpt of the bill: an exclusive to http://TheIndependentDaily.com.

Section 197.3, Colonoscopy

Whereas the cost of a colonoscopy ranges at present from a low of $2,500 to more than $4,000, depending on geography and complexity of the patient’s colon (i.e. Obesity, Sharp turns in the colon, Dietary habits, Whole Kernel Corn consumption, Presence of woodland creatures or Lightbulbs) a colonoscopy for the Elderly, and for those who otherwise would have been covered under the heretofore replaced Obamacare statutes, shall be conducted in the following manner.

Exploratory Device: Through a Special Buy arranged with Home Depot, the below Waterproof Video Inspection System, with 3 foot waterproof probe shall be made available to qualified individuals at the indicated cost of $119.00. Under the adjustment tax provision of Trumpcare, a credit of $1.90 may be taken against one’s positive personal tax obligation, therefore substantially subventing its cost.

President Trump’s Colonoscopy Adviser, Kellyanne Conway, offers the following procedural recommendation:

Sit comfortably while naked on a stool that has had a one inch hole drilled in its seat base.

Turn on the device.

Place the probe end in your mouth to moisten it.

Insert the probe all the way into and through your sphincter.

Push it far enough in so that you can feel it bumping up against your intestines deep inside.

When you think you’re at the point shown in the picture below, look at the camera screen and check out how freaky your colon really is! OMG! Click a still image and post it to Facebook: a really cool selfie.

Then, take a look at the image below and check out your colon for any of the things described in the picture. If you have any of those things, Trumpcare will not cover any procedure - is that the right word? - to make it better, but at least you know where you stand, or sit (LOL). (Please note that I tried this procedure and found my head somewhere near the picture of the polyp, whatever that is.) Remember, it sucks to be poor, but in some alternative reality, you may be rich right now. Good for you!

Happy Hunting. KC

First, we all give our government a million bucks...

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Although we often write about our Trade and Budget deficit, as well as some other publications (apparently not as many as should), I’m always surprised at how little Americans understand about our impending disaster.

In a checkout line at a store the other day I erroneously embarked on a discussion with a man as old as I who swore to me that Trump has already brought down the Budget Deficit by as much as $12 Trillion. What can one say in reply to that type of misinformation without risking life and limb at the hands of a crazed and deluded (am I being redundant?) Trump supporter.

No, the Budget Deficit has not shrunk and continues to skyrocket day-to-day now approaching - steadily, I might add - $20 Trillion US Dollars. Our Per Taxpayer overall debt right now is in excess of $800,000, including all unfunded liabilities (contingent expenses we may anticipate predicated on acceptable accounting).

Our Budget Deficit alone is a staggering $165,500 per Taxpayer.

And the very bad part is that while you - America’s Consumers - managed to bring down the Trade Deficit with your favorite Communists, the Chinese - in December, you’re back at it again with a record January 2017 Trade Deficit of $31.3 Billion. Just for January! The highest Deficit recorded for January.

Look: I don’t care if Trump is your President or not. The reality is that we are heading for a very bad end if we do not change our ways. At the very least, Stop buying Chinese products.

Stick this in your Browser: http://www.usdebtclock.org. We’ve often pointed to it for realtime data. Make it part of your weekly routine. It’s fun: See how much farther down the toilet we go from week-to-week!

El Día de los Muertos del Gobernador Ducey

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

No tenemos voz en el futuro de Arizona de ahora en adelante. Doug Ducey se inclinó por los intereses de aquellos que alinean sus bolsillos y los de muchos de nuestros legisladores: La Chamber of Commerce, entre ellos. Fue nuestro puncihment, en realidad, por los arizonenses quien tomó la iniciativa de resolver el problema de los salarios por debajo de la subsistencia en nuestro estado.

Usted ve, como un pueblo votante, decidimos que la gente debe ser pagado lo suficiente para al menos poner algún tipo de comida en sus mesas y mantener la vida, a pesar de lo pobre. La Chamber of Commerce no estuvo de acuerdo con eso, junto con otros intereses especiales - las grandes compañías que operan en Arizona, pero están basadas en otras partes.

Ahora el proceso de la Iniciativa no ha sido meramente trabado, pero para todos los efectos, destruido. Por lo tanto, ya no tenemos voz excepto a través de cualquier influencia que podamos tener con nuestros representantes electos, lo cual les puedo asegurar en Arizona es nada, a menos que paguemos para jugar - mucho.

En Arizona, al igual que en toda la nación, nuestros padres fundadores habían garantizado nuestro proceso de Iniciativa. Nuestra legislatura no estuvo de acuerdo con esta premisa, y ellos, junto con Ducey, han hablado así.

Como un aspecto muy importante, el tema de la Proposición 206 - la Iniciativa que aumentó el Salario Mínimo de Arizona - fue desafiado en la Supreme Court of Arizona. En una votación unánime, el Tribunal se negó a oír los argumentos presentados por la Chamber of Commerce, et al.

Nuestro Attorney General, Mark Brnovich dijo en un comunicado emitido por su oficina. "Como Attorney General, mi trabajo es defender el imperio de la ley ... La constitución está diseñada para proteger nuestros derechos, no es una herramienta para ser usada para socavar la voluntad del pueblo".

Sr. Brnovich, estás en lo correcto: socavar la voluntad del pueblo es obviamente el trabajo de nuestro gobierno.

Governor Ducey’s Day of the Dead

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

HB2404: The Bill that killed Citizen Initiatives in Arizona

No Voice in running Arizona any longer. Doug Ducey folded to the interests of those who line his pockets and those of many of our legislators: The Chamber of Commerce, among them. It was payback, really, for Arizonans taking the initiative to tackle the problem of below-subsistence wages in our state. You see, as a voting populace, we decided that people should be paid enough to at least put some sort of food on their tables and sustain a semblance of life, notwithstanding how meager. The Chamber of Commerce didn’t agree with that, along with other special interests - big companies who operate in Arizona but are based elsewhere.

Now the Initiative process has been not merely hobbled, but for all purposes, destroyed. Thus, we no longer have a voice except through whatever influence we may have with our elected representatives, which I may assure you in Arizona, is Nothing, Nada, and Zip, unless we Pay to Play - a lot.

In Arizona, just as in the nation as a whole, our founding fathers (and mothers) had guaranteed our Initiative process. Our legislature didn’t agree with this premise, and they, along with Ducey, have thus spoken.

As a very important aside, the issue of Proposition 206 - the Initiative that increased Arizona’s Minimum Wage - was challenged at the Arizona Supreme Court. In a unanimous vote the Court refused to hear the arguments advanced by the Chamber, et al.

Our Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a statement issued by his office. “As Attorney General, my job is to uphold the rule of law...The constitution is designed to protect our rights. It's not a tool to be used to undermine the will of the people."

Mr. Brnovich, you are right: Undermining the will of the people is obviously the job of our government.

Elon Musk is here to save the day

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

After conquering Electric Vehicles, Mars, the Moon, and designing machinery to bore massive tunnels to circumvent traffic, Musk now takes on the Australian Power problem, which I did not know existed.

On Thursday, Tesla executive Lyndon Rive had said the company could install 100-300 megawatt hours of battery storage in 100 days to abate Australia’s problem. When asked on Twitter how serious he was about the offer, Mr Musk said if Tesla failed, there'd be no bill.

On Friday, Mr. Musk said that he can cure hemorrhoids, cancer, Erectile Dysfunction, and teach your dog to crap outside. On Saturday he plans to feed humanity and bring about World Peace.

On Sunday, He will rest.

Who have you become America and Arizona?

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Hateful rhetoric and, far worse, acts of violence on the rise in America: So Trump let the Ignorance Genie out of the bottle, and in America today intimidation, threats, and brutality are now in vogue. The darkest elements of some members of our society are starting to surface, and the result is pitiable and speaks volumes about us. I sometimes think I must have awoken some time ago in an alternative universe. Perhaps I did. If Kurt Gödel were here I might ask him.

So much Hate

So much Anger

So little Self-Respect

So little time to Live:

To burn-off your life fomenting Hate against your own kind seems so contrary to God’s design

Yet many of you do: Spit in God’s face

We’re closing the door on Democracy

Slamming the shutters against those who seek shelter

From the Terror of Life around them

Why?

Not me. Not You

Not the United States of America

Would be If

That had happened to us

This is not Arizona

Where for the Decades prior we have lived as one:

Black and Mexican cowboys punching cattle together with the Whites

Sweating and Bleeding to build a great State from a Territory

Out of nothing but the barrenness of mostly arid Desert land

And the promise of a better Life together

We are not the same People as we were then

This is not the America

This is not the Arizona

That I loved

Arizona reinterprets the Bible:

“For where two or three gather in my name... there is a riot”

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

While I am ashamed at my home state for taking such an oppressive step, I am not surprised. The pendulum so essential to eventual balance has swung far right in our country, and it is nowhere more apparent than in states harboring those with limited intellectual capabilities, such as here. Fear always takes precedence in the last throws of life for any organism, and apparently our Republican lawmakers see the demise of our society as a fait accompli, so they are quickly rallying to shore up those laws that permit dissent and Free Speech...just as Hitler did in the 1930s.

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself.

-John Adams

And apparently that’s what we’re about today.

An example of our self murder? Our legislature is working overtime to castrate the Initiative process whereby our citizens promote those laws they feel our little bit of society needs in order to advance, and to overcome the Special Interests who feed many of our Legislators with gifts. To take Greed out of the equation, we citizens sometimes promote our own laws and allow the rest of us to decide if the idea has merit. If it does, it becomes law; if it does not, the concept “goes away” (for awhile, anyway).

The Republican majority of our Legislature imagines that this process leads Democracy to a bad end, such as it did when we voted in the Minimum Wage Increase, but not when we voted down Recreational Marijuana. Paying people a Living Wage they saw as a bad idea because it took profitability and sustainability from Arizona’s locally-owned small businesses, and I agree, but also from our large businesses - chains that operate and earn from our population while giving nothing back but below-Living Wage employment: These are the companies that feed the Chamber of Commerce, and in turn put money in the pockets of our Legislators. “Mom and Pop” do not.

Permitting those Arizonans to use Marijuana recreationally and legally goes against the grain of Distillers, Vintners, and others who supply our population with the most devastating drug the world has ever known, Alcohol, and once again puts money into the pockets of our Legislators through Special Interest. It also robs the Criminal Justice System, on which we’ve become largely dependent for job growth, of their primary “Clients”, and the Health Care system which views Alcohol as a ready future source of business, from Rehabilitation to Surgery to “Therapeutic” drugs. As well it frees up the Mexican Cartels to continue to control the trafficking of Marijuana in Arizona: Think of them as the Wal-Mart of drugs, operating in Arizona (while paying below Living Wage in Wal-Mart’s case, and selling products made primarily in China) and sending profits elsewhere.

The Republican majority also imagines that the streets of Phoenix are running amuck with paid agitators whose job it is to stir the cauldron of unrest and incite our brother and sister Arizonans to riot. Under the proposed laws, this would not be permitted. In fact, under the revisions planned, Free Speech would be significantly terminated, because, as we all know, nothing leads to disaster like allowing someone to publicly utter hateful views without restraint: That’s how we ended up with a President Trump.

All of what lay now before the Legislature and Governor Ducey portends a very bleak future for Democracy in Arizona, if they are passed into law. And, while I’d be pleased to enumerate the various considerations referenced above, it’s much easier to point you to a very concise and well-constructed recap at the Arizona Republic, at this link.

If you do nothing, you are to blame for the results: You are the first line of defense for Democracy and the Constitutional guarantees we hold dear to us. Whether Left, Right or Center, remember that if one goes, they all will. That’s the bitch about the Constitution: You must support things you like, and things you don’t.

Kay Granger, down yonder in Texas:

Flying the Friendly Skies of Lockheed

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Kay Granger, House chairwoman of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee says that there is no comparison between Lockheed Martin’s F-35 - per her, the clearly superlative - and Boeing’s F-18. This is why our government is broken!

Why? you ask. Because Kay Granger is a big time recipient of Lockheed Martin’s largesse. The Number One contributor to her 2015-16 campaign was, you guessed it, Lockheed Martin ($125,300) with all others falling dramatically below (second was Bass Brothers Enterprises at $23,900).

Under any other scenario, Judicial or any other you may conceive, someone who had received this level of funding from a special interest would be required by either law or ethics to recuse themselves from any decision-making process effecting the outcome for the contributor. Not so in our government.

Why do we permit this? Inherently it is corruption on such a high level that it defies logic. So, under these circumstances, Who cares what Kay Granger has to say?

Trump: Backpedalling on China but Right about who we are

(and don’t forget about Israel)

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Short lived, was Trump’s commitment to get tough with China. In his most recent pronouncement, Trump’s decided in fact that China’s OK and that Taiwan isn’t worth the trouble, apparently.

You do understand that most of what this loud-mouthed blowhard promised will dissipate like ripples on a pond, don’t you? So far, the only thing he’s done is deport a few representative Mexicans who worked hard at their jobs and filled a much needed role in our labor force: Pointless and detrimental to those deported from what was not long ago their country, and harmful to us as a society. The real issue of jobs, and their return, as he had promised during his campaign, is fast becoming a non-issue for Trump, as evidenced in his posturing with China. Moving Ivanka’s shmatas is far more important.

And then there’s Israel: A brewing bromance with Benjamin is likely to result in the continued oppression and camp-incarceration of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children whose lives will continue to slip through time as forgotten victims of Netanyahu’s hardline Hitleresque approach to suppression and eradication of the Palestinian people. Netanyahu's Final Solution...shared by Trump, as well.

Trump says that it’s up to Palestinians and Israel to hammer out a peace accord. Right. And in the meantime Israel may expect much more from us in the form of weaponry and funding to continue their pogrom against the Palestinian people.

For too long our world, and specifically our country, has been captained by the incompetent and evil: Trump is just one in a long line for the last 30 or more years. Evil deeds done to others in the name of Capitalism; Chauvinism premised on some lofty ideal that does not exist except in the wallets of the very wealthy who are steering this country and this world to the brink of extinction environmentally. We are today, the Evil Empire. From atmospheric atomic testing in the 1960s without thought, without pause, without concern; to the introduction of Agent Orange, specifically Dioxin, into the soil and genetics of the people of Vietnam (and exposure of our own troops) leading to lingering, long-term, and sometimes deadly consequences, such as to one of our contributing writers, Jack Shepherd, whose maladies are directly traceable to the effects of Dioxin while serving his country - you and me - in Okinawa where the perfidious agent was stored for deployment.

Want to see the American legacy in Vietnam? This is it, neither photoshopped nor altered, a Vietnamese child born without eyes (the least shocking image I elected to include):

Today, three, four, five generations after and the effects continue unabated; and then, of course, there are the land mines and unexploded ordinance...

In America (and much of Europe) we’re striving to bury nuclear waste in vast quantities without doing the simple math to understand that this is not a sustainable solution. And through other forms of energy production we pump out 50% more in Greenhouse gases than the earth’s flora and oceans can absorb and convert, while we continue to clear land of trees and pollute the oceans vital to our survival, and will leave nothing to our children but a nearly dead planet. We are a truly stupid people.

Most recently, we’ve allowed the vast simple-minded of our country to control the direction we took in Iraq beginning in 2003: A sad lingering episode perpetuated by Obama, as it likely will by Trump. At the behest of America’s greatest traitor, GW Bush, we invaded and destroyed a country that had absolutely no involvement in Terror events that occurred in the United States, but instead held the promise of vast wealth at the West Qurna and Majnoon oil fields, having slipped through Russia’s grasp and suddenly available like a prom queen whose date was hit by a bus the day before. Today, the usual suspects control the fields - Exxon-Mobil, Shell, et al.

Unfortunately, Iraq’s a drop in the Blood Bucket when it comes to our history of murder and mayhem. Trump was erroneously chided by both Democrats and Republicans for having the audacity to cite our record as Killers: Most authorities agree that the US either directly or through our variously funded proxy wars, has successfully murdered at least 20 million people worldwide since 1945 only. The figure could be as many as 40 million or more when including those who later died of their injuries, children lost due to starvation from the disruption of infrastructure, and the poisoning of the environment. As an aside, more than 21,000 humans die every day (every 24 hours) in our world due to Starvation, many related to the damage we have wreaked on their ability to grow and distribute adequate calories and proteins: A painful death for all involved, including those who are helpless observers. Conversely, yet sadly still, in America, we lose 4,000 humans per year to Hunger. (In a related article in this journal I had erroneously cited the Vietnamese death rate at 2 million from our involvement in Vietnam: Robert McNamara (our then Secretary of Defense) put the number at 3.5 million. That’s a hell of a legacy.)

While I would give anything to think otherwise, I have to believe that we are certainly on the precipice of collapse either from our own strange, perverse treatment of our earth, or by the hands of those in whom we place our future. And, while I am not particularly religious, I sometimes think I see the hand of the Great Adversary at work. From my perspective, we can only withstand so many more years of this disequilibrium, hatred, corruption and greed before it all comes tumbling down. Maybe it’s already too late...

You can ask Cayla anything!

(and she’ll listen and store everything you say.

And what your parents say, too.)

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Germany had the good sense to ban this doll, but not America. This is Cayla. She’s your daughter’s newest bestest friend. She can ask her anything she likes and thanks to her sophisticated high-speed Bluetooth link, she’ll find just the right answer to her question, then file away the nature of her inquiry for when she is older and applying for a high security job with the government, and they’ll know that when she was seven she asked Cayla the best way to kill her parents... and the President.

Cayla can also be hacked by your next door neighbor, Murray - the guy with the old delivery van - who watches your daughter play outside through his upstairs window that conceals him from the waist down.

Cayla’s made by Genesis Toys. Here’s their website. You’ll note that they were “funded” in 2013. You’ll also note an absence of corporate information, including country of manufacture, board of directors, stockholder information, and the typical other data found on a corporate website.

Want to be really scared? Here’s the YouTube video for Cayla.

Here’s the most intriguing paragraph from the Federal Trade Commission action taken by US Privacy groups: “Genesis Toys (“Genesis”) is a company incorporated under the laws of Hong Kong, China.11 (Italics ours) Genesis is based in Los Angeles, California, and is located at 2229 Barry Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90064, United States. Genesis is the maker of the My Friend Cayla and i- Que dolls and companion applications, as well as several other interactive toys and robots marketed and sold in the United States.12 Genesis Toys claims that My Friend Cayla has amassed over 1 million fans worldwide.13”

I used to have a “family name” but now it’s a Brand

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Tom Hiddleston (some English guy who was diddling Taylor Swift, to whom I have never intentionally listened...) has been reported by the UK press as having his Brand impacted by something that happened. (I was far too disinterested to read the entire article.) More locally, Ivanka Trump’s Brand has been impacted by Nordstrom’s decision to drop her clothing line.

Everybody has a Brand rather than a Name now.

I suppose we ought to change how we approach the whole Family or Surname practice and just switch over to Brand: it’d be like changing to the Metric System, which we’ve been so successful at doing. Employment and Credit applications can easily accommodate the change. You too can do the same: Instead of asking, What’s your last name? next time try, I didn’t catch your Brand?

Then, maybe, if someone utters some invective about you, like, say, You’re an empty-headed moron whose father, likewise a cretin, is now in a leadership capacity which 20 years ago would have been considered an unbelievable nightmare, Kellyanne Conway will come to your defense. (In what Alternate Universe did this person become America’s Spokesperson anyway? Jesus...)

Remember, it’s no longer important to protect your good name; Now, you must protect your Brand.

Betsy DeVos

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Meanderings: Our Public Schools are in deplorable shape. We’re graduating young people who are incapable of formulating even the simplest thoughts into written expression. We’ve fallen to somewhere around 40th position globally in education as a result. Our Public Schools pander to all sorts of whims and fancies rather than focusing on education, electing to cater to issues of little consequence to learning, but focus instead on the personal lifestyle choices of some of our children. It’s time for a change.

But, oughtn’t the person who is responsible for redesigning our educational system have at least a requisite level of experience and education? DeVos holds a BA degree in Business from Calvin College (and we all know what a free-thinking guy Calvin was): That’s the type of major someone with a drinking problem in college selects in order to mitigate classroom attendance and study requirements to free up more time for partying. An undergraduate level Business degree is...worthless in the job market. It is a clear sign that the person didn’t have the minimum required commitment to explore graduate level studies in their field of interest.

DeVos has never had a child of hers attend Public School, and neither has she ever attended a Public School, which to my mind is rather like a Catholic priest offering advice on how best to achieve a satisfying orgasm in a marital relationship.

So, setting aside her obvious and glaring inadequacies for the position of Education chief for the United States for some period into our future, let me ask you: Exactly how screwed are we?

A day that will live in infamy: the Bowling Green Massacre

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

I was slouching at my desk, a cigarette drooping from my lips, the ash clinging tenuously and precariously over the keyboard of my Mac with the radio playing softly from across the room when the mellow sounds of Weird Al’s rendition of Ave Maria were interrupted by a News Flash. I tore my attention away from the Haiku poem I was writing, Sex After 60, as the report waved across the room and screwed itself into my eardrum. It took a moment for the physics of it to make sense...then the shock and horror - O, the Horror - settled slowly on my inner being casting a pall that remains to this day.

Even now, when I recall the Bowling Green Massacre, I am aghast. I am saddened. I am forlorn. I develop severe flatulence and for days I am lost in a fury of farts and sleeplessness, as are others around me while we stew like a cheap suit in the memories of it all.

I never finished the Haiku about Sex After 60. Instead I wrote:

Bowling Green my heart

Is forever waiting sans

The lives that were lost

It isn’t my best Haiku, but it says everything that needs to be said about a tragedy we all must live with forever. The ash fell like a plane crash from the end of my cigarette and landed on the “B” key: A sign from God that He/She/It approved of this humble Haiku ode? I think so...

¡Quid Pro Quo Mexico!

Mexico: The 51st State

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Well, once more we agree with President Trump. This time it’s his Mexico thingy: sending troops in to do what Mexico’s government cannot. Here’s an excerpt of an article called, “...the 51st State” from about three years back. You can find it here in our Archives section. But, as you’ll see, we disagree - to a large extent - with his ban on immigration.

First, given Mexico’s present state – overall and in every way imaginable – we cannot suppose why any law-abiding, hard-working Mexican (particularly those with a family) would want to live there any longer. Over our many decades of life, the aforementioned description applies to the vast majority of Mexican nationals we have known.

Second, considering this no BS assessment, why would we Arizonans enact a law that would retard the progress of the good people of Mexico who wish to emigrate to the United States to avoid what by any standards is a hostile existence fraught with dangers, death, and persecution?

Third, and most importantly, if our goal during Bush’s administration was to truly liberate a country in order to advantage from the Oil and Mineral wealth therein, which it was, why did we not invade and liberate the Mexican people? We would have destroyed the Narcotics industry, substantially reducing crime and incarceration in America (we’re Number 1 in the world); We could have availed ourselves of additional Oil reserves; Mexico’s proximity to us would have facilitated invasion, conquest, and nation-building at only a small fraction of the trillions of US Dollars spent in Iraq; Our troops would not have been absent from their homes and families for years on end; We would have – truly – stabilized an important region in our hemisphere, and lent greater intransience to the rest of Central and South America.

Fourth, the citizens and government of Arizona, including Joe Arpaio, would be more inclined to treat those illegally-entering our State with greater kindness and less as a quid pro quo for the abominable treatment received by Americans across the border, often resulting in torture, extreme abuse, and death. So, rather than eyeing Iran, Somalia or other nether regions of the world as prospective next targets, why don’t we concern ourselves with our immediate and most pressing situation?

Or, is doing away with Narcotics detrimental to the economics of our Law Enforcement, Judicial, and Prison industries?

About 17% of the 318 million of us are Hispanic. We’re distributed, according to the Census Department, throughout the US.

There is no good argument against Mexico becoming a single, or multiple additional states, to the US, thus allowing for a higher level of self-governance, greater safety for (current) Mexican citizens, a reduction (or potential elimination) of Narcotics and Human trafficking, more equitable border demarcations and processes for passing between regions, increased market opportunities for America’s manufacturers and retailers, and improved economic conditions overall.

The United States is not in the same position it was thirty years ago when the wage difference for the average worker between countries was so extreme: we have nearly reached the point of stasis. The symbiotic benefits of this solution are too great to ignore.

Tens-of-thousands of innocents are being murdered in Mexico every year from either being caught in the cross-fire of Cartels and Gang Warfare, or as targets of opportunity: The violence will find its way here to our doorstep soon enough if we continue to ignore it.

Guest Column (unedited):

“Trump is a Good Man”

by Jerrod D. Tatum, PhD (‘12, Trump University)

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Now lookie here: You’ve got to give this man some thyme. Hell! He just got into office and yall are just a shouting and carrying on about Muslins not being able to get into our country but your not thinking correctly. You see, your sufferin from what I call a trunkated sillyjism which meens youre logic is all screwed up, or as my Jewsh frends say, Your messhugina, but I aint sure if I spelt that right.

Back when I got my PhD from TU I wrote my desertation on this very subject and I know watt I’m talking about because I got a fine education. So listen: Muslins are not bad people, but you gotta watch them carefully.

Statestiks are important so heres a couple you need to think abut: 100% of Muslins believe in a god called Ala. What’s up with that? How can you believe in something that looks like you cant abreviet Alabema corre tly?

Here’s another: 20% of Muslins believe that theyre women should where bags over there heads. How ugly must they be? Do they say things like “She’s so ugly shes a 2 Berka woman?” I ask you.

Another? OK. 78% of muslins want to kill us because were better then them. I had a pie chart about this stuff with my desertation but I lost it when my computer took a shit from a bug I piked up at a porn site, sorry.

In conclusion. Let’s give our great President Trump a chance and not talk about throwing his ass outta offyce before his time is up. Thank you.

(Editor’s note: The above is “fake news” and is not intended in any way to disparage Trump University or the capabilities or qualifications of anyone who may have graduated from (or sued) Trump University.)

Great Revelations from Trump:

“(Torture) absolutely works!”

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

I did not know this! Trump was referring specifically to Waterboarding. He was not talking about molten lead being poured into the Torturee’s sphincter while suspended inverted, which apparently does not work. (I know it would have only a negligible effect on me.) Nor was he speaking about having one’s testicles beaten with a two pound hammer, which is just mildly distracting from my perspective.

Of course, there’s always the tenuously effective “electrodes to the genitals” while being beaten with a pipe on the head, shoulders, and knee caps: Just a good weekend, really, especially when followed up with sleep deprivation for a period of at least 72 hours.

Experimental drug-induced delirium resulting in permanent brain damage and psychosis, such as the CIA used in the 1950s, was just Trend-Setting as many of my generation know, so that was out as an effective means of torture, at least if your subjects were Hunter Thompson, Kesey, Kerouac, or Ginsberg.

Anyway, as per our new President Trump, we’ve at least identified something that “Works” and works “Absolutely.” On the Big Board incidentally, shares in Simulated Drowning, Inc. have risen 12.3% in the last two days. I wish I would have gone long on them.

Our Last Thoughts

Joseph Warren, Editor; GL Hill, Publisher

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

America is a nasty place and getting nastier all the time, but that apparently won’t stop the DOW from breaking through the 20K mark.

Something changed what seems like some few years ago (but was actually decades past) when the rhythm and pulse of our generation began to wane being subtly replaced by the greed and hate and avarice of the generations to follow.

A graphic might depict a world of promise at the end of the 1960s and early 1970s emerging from the struggle of Civil Rights and a Bad and Ill-Conceived War centered against the overwhelming values of those we opposed, upward trending toward a probable enlightened outcome, and from that turmoil a racial balance here in America was germinating from the adolescence of youthful ideas and concepts steeped in a cultural change of a very profound nature (except in the ignorant darkness of geographical anomalies thankfully constrained to regions of our country), bound together through music and a cultural understanding that didn’t separate but unified. Then, it wasn’t so much important who we were individually, but more, what we were to become as a collective.

Some time after though, suddenly and seemingly inextricably the trend line on our graph crashes downward, spiraling toward what seems today to be an unavoidable conclusion.

Increasingly it’s difficult for me to write about America today because for many of us we have become so loathsome to ourselves (although we are reluctant to acknowledge it), and to the rest of the world. I am, at most times, ashamed to be an American.

We have become the outrageous and annoying drunk at a party whose never-ending repetitious cajoling and invectives pass beyond the mildly humorous to the extreme and, under those circumstances, ordinarily would result in being 86’d out the back door for wont of a more homogenous gathering if there were someone capable of doing so.

We are the schoolyard bully. We are the class clown. We are the gangland boss bent on controlling what remains of a deteriorating geography of influence as gentrification encroaches and diminishes our gang turf. We are the last dying gasp of an ignorant beast clinging to life as the natural consequences of aging are about to squash what remains.

Many of our troubles lay at the feet of popular social media where everyone, notwithstanding their level of ignorance and irresponsibility, may now find a voice that speaks to those of shared stupidity, like Breitbart and others who previously would have been confined to backwoods pamphleteering and barnyard gatherings, but now project a much louder calling to the rabble that infects our society, including the growing legion of displaced and increasingly unread and unthinking Americans whose understanding of politics and life comes from 14 word snippets projected by like-minded morons: Quidnuncs who thrive on a daily stipend of hate; Legions of the avaricious who seek wealth predicated on spoon-feeding the fodder of hate to those who unwittingly serve their financial purpose; Effectively nothing more than pimps and pushers, like Facebook’s Zuckerburg and his like, who feed upon the impotent of mind and soul.

In this anonymous vacuum of the Internet it’s acceptable, as an example, to call a black person a Nigger to better displace them from equal social standing from the person hurling the pejorative, although there is no difference between either the labeled or the labeller, in truth. And what differences there may be are so innocuous and contrived they matter not at all. It’s just a behavior essential to Sartre’s earlier and still valid postulation that we demean others to elevate ourselves, owing to our inability to adequately define ourselves to some self-satisfying degree.

Freely on media like YouTube those who couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket profane the sometimes very gifted and noble and accomplished abilities of others in the field of Music, as an example, taking some satisfaction in their ridiculous and obscene comments and believing that they are thus, in some strange way the performer’s equal or better. Slanderous and maligning half-truths and bald-faced lies are the norm. Insidious attacks against those who are less than perfect, while the attacker remains hidden in the shadows of likely anonymity concealing their less-than-perfect visage.

It’s not Fake News; it’s plain old lying, just as we called it when we were kids.

From the depths of ignorance, feeding like flesh-eating bacteria devoid of any normative standards, every conceivable aberrant view is endorsed online all under the guise of the Free Internet, and so thus protected against all intrusion by government and those who seek to control the rampant idiocy abounding – to try to legislate some sense of civility because the masses are truly incapable of moderating themselves.

While hailed early on as the vehicle by which Free Speech might be guaranteed for every citizen, in truth there are so many voices now clamoring for recognition on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere that no voice is really heard except for the most spiteful, aberrant, and obscene. It is to that end that people like Donald Trump and his legions of simpletons have striven to corral attention through aspersions and enmity.

Today, now, the Internet is to a very large extent a sewage pipe through which every manner of perverse human verbal and visual fecal matter flows - a witch’s brew of defilement. It has become what each one of us ought to have known it would become when a voice is freely given to any society where one-half of its population is below average.

Many years ago now we quit watching commercial television for reasons too obvious to state, yet today, the Internet, when we are left freely to roam about it, is a far greater cesspool than television had ever been at the point of our resignation.

Plainly, this is what America is today: A Shithouse, with all of the pervasive smells, bacteria and germs, and an increasing infestation of rats who permit or incite hate and proffer ignorance.

Do we disagree with what Trump proposes to do? As a matter of fact we agree with about 60% or more of his platform, but we grew up listening to Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Reagan whose messages were clear, articulate, educated, and from our perspective, enlightened; while Trump is nothing more than a self aggrandizing inarticulate slouch, better suited to giving the Valedictorian address at the Des Moines campus of Trump University. We are not proud to think of him as our leader. We are, at least for now, embarrassed. Maybe he’ll pull it out of the hat.

Such is the nature of American Politics today... Like a lot of us, we’ll keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best. Who knows?

Make America Great (in bed) Again!

I thought he was bringing jobs back to America?

GL Hill, Publisher

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Yeah he probably was bunged up in a Russian hotel room with a bunch of Russian Slappers... I don’t find that disappointing from a moral perspective: It’s a time-honored tradition with male politicians, religious leaders, and others of all political affiliations and spiritual inclinations (Catholic, Baptist, Muslim...), notwithstanding how devout they claim to be. (In fact, the more devout, the more likely I expect that at some point some “great revelation” will come forward exposing them, through photograph or video, sexually involved with either a live boy or a dead girl in a hotel room.)

It’s Trump’s breach of one of his top campaign promises I find most disturbing: Bringing jobs back to America. If I understand the claim correctly, these were Russian “workers” and not American. Do we not have sufficient talent in the field of Hookers, Tarts, Hustlers, and Whores in America who adequately meet the job specifications for Donald Trump? Are America’s Trollops not capable of performing fellatio to a satisfying degree?

Obviously it’s a matter of Human Resources Training and Development: There are several government funded programs available to bring about higher skill levels on the part of American workers, and we must develop the skills necessary to compete more effectively against Russian Scrubbers if we expect to maintain our position in the global Sex market. China is fast approaching from behind, and while they may be long on talent, as everyone knows they’re short on technology; Russia is obviously at the head, and proposes to hold that position in the global Sex Trade industry. So, while tomorrow may never come, Donald Trump must; and it’s up to us - all of America - to take matters in hand and Make America Great (in bed) Again.

A practical guide to life on January 21, 2017

GL Hill, Publisher

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Here’s what’s happening on January 21 2017, the day following Trump’s inauguration:

At 0803 hours (EDT) China will declare war on the US, Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam.

At 0804 Trump will send Meryl Streep to the front lines of the conflagration.

At 0910 hours the White House will issue a directive that all Muslims shall from that point forward wear a yellow crescent on exterior garments (“Read the movie” for free here in pdf), and in the ensuing two weeks report to centralized relocation camps spread throughout the United States where they will undergo Christianization Therapy.

At 0930 hours all Mexicans will be immediately deported from within the United States, whether here legally or not, and Congress will introduce and pass a law requiring America’s senior citizens to assume the jobs previously performed by Mexicans. Failure to secure meaningful employment by all those age 62 or older whose retirement household income is at or below $100,000 annually, will result in the revocation of Social Security payments and loss of Medicare.

At 1005 hours it will become lawful to “grab a woman by the pussy” at work, rest or play, notwithstanding the relationship of grabbee to grabber.

At 1020 hours Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will form a more “perfect union” and announce the details of this union through both Tweets and appearing ensemble on the next Degeneres show.

Beginning at 1030 hours, Trump will issue a series of Executive Orders requiring, amongst other acts: that Google eliminate all nude images of Melania from the Internet; ban the sale of Hybrid and Electric vehicles requiring that they be replaced by Coal Burning technology, such as the well-known Smelter Speedster; and establish an Office of Obedience, the chief directive of which is to monitor all Internet communication for potentially defaming comments regarding the Office of the President, Republican members of Congress or any member of the Trump family, arrest offenders, and sequester them indefinitely in various federal facilities.

No wonder everybody’s dying...

“Ain’tcha glad” you don’t live in California?

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Reviewing the many and diverse new laws coming to Californians January 1...I am amazed at the extent to which the government deems it appropriate to intercede in the lives of its citizens in all facets, in all ways. Truly an Orwellian Nanny State, if Orwell had a nanny, I am compelled to apologize for the actions of my brother Jesuit, Gerry Brown, and ask that Californians do a better job of sheperding their lives in the future to avoid a similar reoccurrence, lest the plethora of laws promulgated in 2016 splash over the border of California onto our statutes, as has been the case occasionally before.

Enough to give Sartre bowel irregularity, Californians now must deal with an assortment of restrictions on Gun ownership to Smoking to Alcohol to Texting to Birth Control to Voting to Crapping. (And to think that in the 1950s as a Boy Scout I used to ride the Blue Line in LA with a .22 rifle to target practice: I wonder what would happen today?)

Everything’s regulated in the Golden State, and will become more so in the near future since California is sure to replace Brown with someone of a tantamount mindset.

For a pretty good look at what California has to offer, the LA Times has encapsulated all that’s new here. After reviewing the list, maybe we in Arizona should consider building a wall between here and there...never mind Mexico: This was their land anyway.

Kerry’s finally right about something:

Sheldon Adelson and his Band of Singing Jewish Cowboys take on the Heathen Palestinian Renegades in, Bad Day at the Kibbutz

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

When I was a boy roaming my neighborhood streets of Los Angeles - Highland Park, before it became Gentrified and way before it was a slum, and at the time was a working-class enclave - many decades ago, one of our favorite games was Cowboys and Indians – for the unfamiliar, a game whereby a group of boys (and girls) choose sides and become either a Cowboy or an Indian. Given the life expectancy of an Indian, I was always amazed at how many took on the role of (expected) underdog and opted to be defeated in play.

A few basic rules were: Cowboys had guns and Indians didn’t; Indians could hide and surprise a Cowboy; Indians were supposed to lose. Alas, the outcome was not so certain in play. In historical fact, though, it was. Read full article here.

Service Employees International Union

Leading the fight for the $168.92 an hour wage

Joseph Warren, Editor

http://TheIndependentDaily.com

As the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) prepares to deal with the “likely” realities of Republicans in all aspects of government control, they have elected to become more cost-effective in their operations by ordering a 30% cut in operation expenses. The SEIU is not giving up on their fight to bring a living wage to their represented employees, but have resigned themselves to the reality that it will take the next change of administration to bring about a more amenable playing field.

Making a living wage of only $168.92 per hour, the leader of the SEIU, Mary Kay Henry is confident that the union can withstand this certain-to-be-tenuous period in their history, and that she can hold fast during these darker times while existing on her meager wage, which works out to about $300,000 per year plus perquisites, plus benefits, plus...

That’s the sort of can-do attitude that’s made America what it is today.

Food for Thought

GL Hill, Publisher

http://TheIndependentDaily.com

In 2015 there were at least 1,152 Americans killed in the United States by the Police. In the same year there were 5 people killed by Terrorists.

Make of it what you will...

A New Regular Feature in TheIndependentDaily.com:

Who Said It?

Donald Trump or Josef Goebbels

Joseph Warren, Editor

http://TheIndependentDaily.com

One of Donald Trump’s stated goals is to contain and control information access on the Internet, probably owing to the astronomical number of pictures of our soon-to-be First Lady nude and in very suggestive poses. Also, if the Internet is used for it’s most effective purpose, it becomes a place where people may share salient, thoughtful, critical ideas regarding, amongst other issues, Politics. So, we invite you to play a new game you’ll find regularly within our pages for at least the next four years, Who Said It? Here’s our first quote:

“There was no point in seeking to convert the intellectuals. For intellectuals would never be converted and would anyway always yield to the stronger, and this will always be `the man in the street.' Arguments must therefore be crude, clear and forcible, and appeal to emotions and instincts, not the intellect. Truth was unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology."

Who Said It? ANSWER: Well there are far too many polysyllabics for it to have been Trump. But the ideas expressed are obviously very Trumpesque. So if you answered, Goebbels, score a point. In our next issue, we’ll use a quote regarding Semites (i.e. Jews and Muslims) and it’s sure to be a “Stumper”.

Heads-Up, Trump: Healthcare is the only reason our GDP hasn’t dumped!

Joseph Warren, Editor

http://TheIndependentDaily.com

Old Age. A sound economic reason to live longer thrives in our nation’s GDP - Gross Domestic Product. We have literally sickened our way out of the Great Recession, to some nebulous level, by insisting that the addled and lame - real or imagined - old and young, continue to “hold on” for as long as possible, dumping them into cold storage at one of the ever-growing number of faceless, tritely-named care facilities where they live out the rest of their lives largely ignored stewing in a (sometimes figurative, sometimes not) stewpot of their own shite and urine, or at one of the many thriving local hospitals specializing in MRI-based destruction of their “patients” on a Quantum level. Read, Thinking About Getting an MRI? Maybe, think again...

Why? Because without Healthcare, we would have experienced many years of (near) GDP contraction rather than the pitiful growth attributable to the Services sector: Minimum Wage and futureless, much as those waiting to expire in “Pleasant Gardens Care for the Suggestively Afflicted.” The National Health Expenditure Accounts (NHEA) are the official estimators of total health care spending in the United States. Here’s their statement regarding 2013:

“U.S. health care spending grew 3.6 percent in 2013, reaching $2.9 trillion or $9,255 per person. As a share of the nation's Gross Domestic Product, health spending accounted for 17.4 percent.”

17.4 percent. In this same period - 2013 - US GDP increased roughly by $604 billion, or about 3.7 percent. And, while it would be nice to think in some utopian drug-induced haze that President Obama intended Obamacare - the Affordable Care Act - to be a benevolent gesture toward the huddled masses of uninsured, the reality is that it was good for the economy, and will continue to be so.

In this case, the Huddled Masses are people like Stephen Hemsley, CEO of Unitedhealth Group, our nation’s top insurer, whose 2012 income exceeded $40 million, followed by 2016 at more than $60 million. Read, Obamacare, a Compilation.

Obamacare will be repealed only when the US GDP is capable of sustaining growth without the substantial contribution made by Healthcare. To do otherwise, would be to throw us back into Recession, or damn near it. So, quit smoking: It’s bad for business. If it were otherwise no one would give a good rat’s ass if you did. Surely you cannot believe that your life means anything to our government unless and until you become an integral part of the Pharmaceuticals, Imaging, and Useless Surgery practices called Medicine, today.

Normalized Russia

Joseph Warren, Editor

http://TheIndependentDaily.com

If nothing else, and there is little else to say, normalized conditions with Russia are long overdue. As with Hussein and Iraq (and a host of other countries) our current and prior leadership has worked to vilify President Putin and Russia - to make you see Russia as more than just reminiscent of Reagan’s Evil Empire, but to make you believe that the former Soviet Republic is Russia today reincarnate. Nothing could be more untrue.

Can we anticipate a more equitable balance with Russia and Putin after Trump’s inauguration? Yes, decidedly, and for the good of both Russia and the United States. It’s a refreshing change that will probably lead to a more homogenous global community less rife with tension, and leading to a greater resolve in the Middle East.

Our reaction to Russia, Crimea, Ukraine was nothing more than a game played by those who controlled President Obama’s actions. Most Americans would be hard-pressed to point to them on a map, aside from express a salient opinion.

The Muslim Question: A Final Solution

“Read the movie”

Joseph Warren, Editor

http://TheIndependentDaily.com

Three years ago we (Warren-Hill Productions) wrapped up a Shooting Script for a short film entitled, Then and Again. It was a poignant look at America at some point in what we believed was the United States sometime in the future.

In this short film, a woman and her child are protected - hidden - from local organized rabble who are rounding up the town’s ethnic population. It is set in an undefined time and place (and shot in Black and White) leading one to conclude that it is a rehash, as it were, of some small tale from Berlin in the 1930s. Half-way through the film it is revealed that the setting is the United States, and rather than Jews being corralled and branded with yellow Stars of David for identification, and subsequently imprisoned, it is a pogrom directed at America’s Muslims, now required to wear yellow crescents on their garments for ease of identification and containment.

At the conclusion the woman and child are arrested by militia, and the gentile sequestering them faces an undescribed, but assuredly not pleasant end. We’ve cast the film twice from fairly local talent but have never been able to raise a budget to bring it to production.

Why I am sharing this with you now? Frankly, I had thought this was a picture of America 20, 30, or more years in the future. Today, following San Bernardino and the attacks in Paris, along with the growing number of Hate Crimes fueled largely by the ignorant rantings of Donal Trump, it appears that, in Texas at least and perhaps in other unreported areas of our country, the wait is over: Bigotry and the willingness of the human mind to pass blame for one’s failings at the feet of others, as Sartre would have concluded, seemingly exceeds Einstein’s prescribed Universal Invariant of the Speed of Light.

Two years ago I approached various Muslim leaders seeking their support in the production of this short film, to no avail. They were not interested in supporting a production that might bring Muslims to the forefront of some part of America’s focus. It is the same reason many identified as that for not wanting to align themselves with the film we completed years ago, The Abduction and Trial of George Bush, which you may watch online here.

Such is the way of most Muslims: They are like you and I. They are reluctant to be held under a spotlight and examined as something unusual or different in a world where sameness is seen as safety. They are our physicians and clerks and mechanics and neighbors and they are as much a part of our humanity as the bigots and hate-mongers in Texas and elsewhere who are desperately seeking an excuse for who they are.

Hate is not a solution, even when uttered by a billionaire like Trump.

Read the movie for free here in pdf, and perhaps come away with a more enlightened view.

You Voted! Good for you. Now get ready for the future...

Joseph Warren, Editor

http://TheIndependentDaily.com

The Coming of Deseret

Installment One

From the Seattle Times, Jonas Lindquist reporting:

“Less than one year ago I sat at a table under an umbrella at an outdoor bistro with an associate of mine while we commiserated on the ill state of society.

“We talked about the economy and how, although it seemed lackluster and stagnant, was as regular as a clock in its recovery. We spoke about politics and how in many times past we opined on the logical successors to leadership of these United States. We talked about our families – our wives and our children. We spoke about what we would do after we retired.

“We planned our individual futures and ‘prophesized’ that, although fraught with difficulties, the United States would continue, just as empires in the past had long succeeded in doing. We conjectured that eventually a future generation might bear witness to the collapse of the United States, and when that time came we speculated that it would be a period of immense upheaval.

“We mourned the loss of reason, but saw the world today as a place where the new logic that had settled in on the populace, although exceedingly different from what we perceived as the norm, was not deadly. Change has always been subtle. Change has always been slight. Who could have calculated, say, just five years ago in 2012 that the United States would end with such swiftness? In retrospect, I suppose anyone who has read history could have predicted it. It’s just that we were all so involved in our day-to-day lives: sitting at outdoor cafes, talking about politics, working, shopping, dining out, thinking about the future, while the ship sailed on with no one at the wheel.

“It’s ironic. It’s even thrilling in an eerie way to see something so wonderful caught in its last throes of life, like a great ancient beast finally caught by one too many spears from a horde of long-lost hunters. What will tomorrow bring, I wonder?”

(Jonas Lindquist was killed April 9th, 2017 while covering the Battle for Spokane. This was his last dispatch.)

To read the entire story, Click here and scroll down to Deseret.

Trans-Pacific Free Trade: Freely Trading American Jobs for Chinese Crap

Joseph Warren, Editor

http://TheIndependentDaily.com

“Vietnam to be among the biggest winners...”

What? Again? - Ed.

Designed to benefit large corporations the above agreement has been signed by Obama and is pending ratification by other involved countries. We here, and many others have warned that this is not a step in the right direction, and will likely result in the liquidation of jobs, on a wholesale basis, in America resulting in the further erosion of employment in meaningful economic activity - Manufacturing.

Currently less than 62% of our qualified workforce are employed, the remainder being on some form of disability, unemployment, or part of the vastly growing underground economy trying to eek out a living pursuing some form of Third World activity. In the last Jobs report we experienced a jobs gain of about 150,000. That, in itself is too low in a country that must add millions of jobs in order to restore Housing and Service employment to a sustainable level.

Now comes Trans-Pacific: In November 2016 we need to vote-in leadership who will walk away from this catastrophe and return America to a self-sustaining basis. Most of those in the current line-up are not that person. Who is? While I hate to group the two together since they are so diametrically opposite in all other ways, only Trump and Bernie Sanders have a grasp of what needs to be done, insofar as America’s beleaguered economy is concerned.

Here’s how the group responsible for this agreement summarize things for Vietnam:

“Vietnam to be among the biggest winners, according to the Eurasia Group, with the agreement potentially boosting GDP by 11 percent by 2025, with exports growing 28 percent in the period as companies move factories to the low-wage country, the report said.

“Reduced import duties in the U.S. and Japan will benefit (the) country’s apparel manufacturers, whose low labor costs have enabled them to grab business from China...”

Make an effort to pay attention, please. If not for yourself, at least do so for the future of America.

Fancy Yourself a “Good Christian” and still buying Chinese-Made products? shame on you.

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Here are two paragraphs from Julie Makinen’s LA Times contribution regarding China today.

“China is in the midst of what many overseas scholars say is its harshest crackdown on human rights and civil society in decades. Since Xi Jinping came came (sic) to power nearly four years ago, hundreds of activists, lawyers, writers, publishers and employees of nongovernmental groups have been rounded up. Many more have been threatened and intimidated. Internet news sites have been ordered to stop publishing reports from sources that aren’t sanctioned by the state.

“Even as China has been touting its efforts to boost the “rule of law,” some critics of the government have vanished under mysterious circumstances in places like Thailand and Hong Kong, only to surface months later in Chinese custody, claiming rather unbelievably they had turned themselves in voluntarily. Many of those detained have appeared on state-run TV confessing to crimes before they have had a day in court.”

Many of us have tried for years now to remind you that when you buy a product made in China, you are supporting a Communist regime. Communism has not become kinder and gentler; it is not nicer, cleaner, more tolerant, spiritual, or humanistic: It is still Communism and one need only look to China to see how today, Chairman Mao, a man who oversaw the massacre of about 70 million of his own citizens from the beginning of the Long March through to 1949, lives on in President Xi Jinping.

So, whether you are of Jewish, African, Mexican descent, or a derivative of any number of previously (or currently) persecuted minorities; or a writer, political activist, filmmaker, spiritual leader, or just someone who believes that we humans are entitled to fundamental respect and due process under any political circumstance, and you’re still buying products made in China, shame on you, too.

Although not widely covered by the US’s popular media, we’ve just handed a record $38 Billion to Israel to buy more weapons

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

And they no doubt will be tied to purchases of weapons made in the US, the one product we still make in abundance. According to the report in Al Jazeera, Obama claims that, "Both Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and I are confident that the new MOU will make a significant contribution to Israel's security in what remains a dangerous neighborhood...”

Why is it so dangerous in “the ‘hood?” Primarily because Israel has systematically set out to destroy the Palestinians; the US has destabilized the Middle East resulting in the rise of, amongst others, IS; Russia has supported the continued oppression and (now) genocide of the Syrian people; the US has handed over more than $50 Billion to Iran so that they may acquire updated Russian armaments; and...

The list of stupid acts by stupid people bent on bolstering profits in assorted industries, none of which remotely benefit mankind except to ultimately reduce population while insuring suffering, is nearly endless. Essentially, we and Russia have set the stage for Proxy Armageddon. By the way, China has a pretty good-sized finger in this Machiavellian pie nowadays, too.

Body Count: Children Massacred in Syria

GL Hill, Publisher

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

About 6,400: That’s the number of Children killed by Mortar attack alone in Syria between 2011 and February, 2016. Nearly 6,000: That’s the number of Children killed by Airstrikes and Barrel Bombs. Children who were shot exceeds 2,000. Since 2011, nearly 1,000 Children were Executed. Several hundred Children have been Tortured to death, along with an additional more than 1,000 who were killed in other creative ways by Islamic State, Syrian government forces, and the US-backed coalition.

Here’s the chart, borrowed from the BBC, but you can research the numbers yourself at the Syrian Violations website, although they suggest the site is under construction, it’s active and functional.

Prevaricators Touting Free Trade

GL Hill, Publisher & Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Misinforming the public has always been a trait of Journalists with Agenda, Left and Right, but nowhere has it been more troublesome than in a recent LA Times article - OpEd by Daniel Griswold - wherein he seeks to abruptly manipulate the American public’s opinions regarding the death of manufacturing in America at the hands of the Chinese. It’s called Trolling, the technique, that is, of offering counterpoints to a popular opinion in order to sway readers to an opposite point of view, typically earning the Troll direct or in-direct compensation. Thus, Griswold, in his article, would like you to believe that Manufacturing in America owes its resurgence - which it isn’t experiencing notwithstanding his words to the contrary - to the glory of Free Trade, particularly with Asian economies (i.e. China).

It’s pure fabrication.

Now, if he had said, Americans need to understand that they can alter the course of Manufacturing in America by shopping for, and buying, USA made products (of which there are many for nearly every facet of your life), we would have agreed. But he didn’t.

Here’s the way this rolls out: Read our older article, What’s Really Wrong with the US Economy, then read Griswold’s piece in the LA Times. You be the judge...

All we ask is that Griswold quit Trolling for the Chinese government, and let the American Consumer judge on what best to spend the 60% to 70% of our GDP related to Consumer spending: American jobs...or Chinese.

You must be at least this intelligent to own a firearm: Cop or Citizen

Please note: You may reorder any category below “Some of You” to fit your political preference. Thus, GWB may be inserted where “Your Cat” is categorized, or, Trump moved to “Your Dog” or Rand Paul may be removed completely: He does have an MD, though. As to Adlai Stevenson, if you don’t know who he was, then you are immediately excluded from voting, since he was significant to recent American History. If you don’t know who Einstein was, then you must surrender your driver’s license, and you may not use any implement sharper than a wooden spoon.

Arizona Schools: Why We’re Failing as a Country

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Throwing more money at a failed system. Proposition 123 barely passed this last election. What is Prop 123? It’s a poorly conceived idea by our Republican governor to offset the probable consequences of litigation that has been pending for some time whereby our legislature has, purportedly, underfunded our public schools system. To offset this legislative failure, Governor Ducey pushed Proposition 123 to (eventually) empty out the state’s trust fund - something that many argue ought not to happen. As a result on June 30, $191 million will be paid out to our schools.

What will happen with the money? According to all sources it will be used to pay bonuses and raises to existing staff. In Kingman (Kingman Unified School District #20, or KUSD) that will likely be the case, as well. Read the full article here.

Tony Blair Says, “I’m sorry...”

Joseph Warren, Editor

http://TheIndependentDaily.com

Tony Blair may be facing more than the casual inquiry in his spearheading the debacle known as the Iraq War. On a televised BBC interview Blair said that he’s sorry about the way things have worked out in Iraq. He contends, wrongly, though that had Hussein not been toppled from power that Iraq may have degenerated into civil war much like Syria today, failing to understand that Syria is today embroiled in a civil war owing to the destabilization of the region when Hussein was taken out of power.

This is a fairly simple syllogism to follow, yet Mr. Blair’s inadequate intellect precludes his following the equation. Mr. Bush, on the other hand, caught in the quagmire of his own confused and idiotic thoughts - indicative of the Bush family - has yet to understand that he did anything wrong.

Look: Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11. The war was (and is) a contrivance intended to benefit those who acquired the subsequent leases to the Majnoon and West Qurna Oil Fields - Exxon-Mobil, et al. - two of the largest Oil deposits in the world. We’ve talked about this since 2003, prior to our invasion of Iraq.

Watch, The Abduction and Trial of George Bush, here. Perhaps someday both Bush and Blair will stand trial for their criminal misdeeds...

Shouldn’t people who advocate on one side or another of the Firearms Issue at least have a basic understanding of what they’re talking about?

Joseph Warren, Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

I apologize for the “wordy” title but I can’t think of another way to approach the issue. Time and again it seems that those arguing for and against Gun Control measures seem to miss the point entirely, owing to their lack of experience and clarity of thought.

Foremost, it really doesn’t have anything to do with the type of weapon, whether capable of firing 15, 30 or ten rounds: they’re all deadly weapons, and in the hands of an experienced and practiced user are capable of reaping as much carnage regardless of whether it has a black plastic stock, or a conventionally fashioned wooden stock. Read the full article here.

Little Ahmed says, Thanks George Bush For Making Us Safe

Joseph Warren, Editor

http://TheIndependentDaily.com

13 years following the liberation of Iraq, the legacy of GWB lives on. Having won their hearts and minds, as was GWB’s stated goal, we also liberated their landfills and their children from schools so that they may strip food, recyclables, and miscellaneous garbage from the dumps of what is now a Third World country. Read the full story here at Al Jazeera and learn more about our American legacy.

Little Ahmed “Working the Dump”

A Good American Doesn’t Die

Joseph Warren, Editor

http://TheIndependentDaily.com

Ever wonder why the government wants to keep you around longer, well beyond your Sell-By date, when in reality many of those who love us most would rather see us die, for our own good and theirs?

Like everything else in America it comes down to Economics: AARP (American Association of Retired Persons); the Gray Panthers, a less-than-audacious “advocacy” group for older folks notwithstanding the use of “Panther” in the name; and the multitude of other organizations all professing to advance the well-being of we Old People, won’t talk about it because they, like our Gross Domestic Product (GDP), are reliant on sustaining our miserable selves into the future as long as possible to maintain membership. (Imagine perpetuating an organization that depends on the enrollment of people who have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel: a daunting task!)

We’ve written about this before in an article entitled, Cold Storage, which you can read here. In that article we speak to GDP growth as being heavily reliant on Health Care in America, and suggest that Obamacare’s repeal will not likely happen unless and until other facets of our GDP are shored up and can replace the loss that will certainly occur if Health Care’s participation is reduced as a result of the repealment of Obamacare.

Here’s some new information: The Department of Health and Human Services has released figures that show Health Care now accounts for more than 17% of GDP. In other words, of all industries in the United States, nearly one in five dollars generated through Services, Manufacturing, and Government are attributable to Health Care – providing Health services to our citizens and non-citizens alike, young and older.

What does this mean?

It means that if it weren’t for Health Care we would have experienced far more negative growth periods of GDP. Likely, we would still find ourselves mired in an officially recognized Recession (Depression). But, of course, anyone who’s not employed in the field of Health Care already knows this…or should.

Was this an Obama sleight of hand to jettison America out of the Great Recession while providing the added benefit of vastly enhanced corporate earnings for the industry, including Health Insurance? Or simply a well-intentioned effort to bring Health Care to millions of Americans who otherwise would have been without?

I suppose it depends on which side of the fence one finds one’s self. Either way, your body, no matter how seemingly addled or worthless it has become, remains an important component in our economy. If you die, you impede the mission of the Health Care Industry and risk throwing us back into recession or worse.

And, while you’re at it, read, Thinking About Getting an MRI? Think Again, here.

“Bown fur Coleg”

Joseph Warren, Editor

http://TheIndependentDaily.com

“Yesterday's graduates went off and founded today's companies; it's becoming clear that tomorrow's graduates may not be qualified even to apply for jobs with them.” - Eric Rosten, Bloomberg

Which reminds me: SAT Scores are in. We’re doomed. Reading Comprehension - for the benefit of those having recently taken the SAT test, that means, “Reading something and getting whut it meens” - is the lowest since 1972; 495 out of 800, to be exact. Writing has fallen off considerably, too: 484 out of 800, or the lowest...ever. Math in America? Well it doesn’t take a genius to know that 2+2 = whatever. Math is way down as well.

Where does that leave us as a nation? So much talk about the growing Wealth Gap. So little about the ever-increasing Ignorance Gap: In America we continue to pump out some very bright young men and women from our institutions of higher learning, yet, simultaneously (that means, “At the same time”) we are disproportionately creating an actual proletariat to a very frightening magnitude.

“Ignorant Rabble” cannot participate in government to the extent needed to insure that the views of a democratic society are reflected in the actions of its elected officials. Society becomes ever-more guided by the instincts and needs of the Elite. That in turn leads to its eventual collapse. When? It’s like Global Warming, I think: Maybe hundreds of years from today, or...maybe next week. Perhaps a good Nuclear Winter is the cure for all of our ills: The Chinese appear up to the challenge.

Refugees or Migrants: Hate in the “Next Europe”

Joseph Warren

http://TheIndependentDaily.com

Europe is struggling. Economics, overall, and “Globalized Indifference” (Pope Francis’ term) have all steadily eroded the commonality that once was the impetus behind the Union: The same thinking that brought us together here in the US nearing 250 years ago. Now, add the consequent damage likely to occur as a result of the incredible influx of Migrants (or Refugees, if you prefer) and the simmering strife becomes far more perceivable and real.

To address the changing world in which Europe exists, academicians and others have been invited to participate in a gathering of ideas termed, Next Europe. Read the full article, here.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

Companion Read to our editorial on Nagorno Karabakh (below)

By, Bruce Janigian, Special to: http://TheIndependentDaily.com

(Distinguished international attorney, Bruce Janigian, who led a US team of presidential election monitors in the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh, found the election standards and rigor to exceed anything he observed in the USA, which, by the way, also has its elections monitored by the OECD. Janigian offered his comments to this journal. -Ed.)

“Interestingly, what our State Department has to say regarding Nagorno Karabakh is yet another unjust intervention and incitement in the region: ‘The U.S. remains actively engaged in advancing a peaceful settlement of the conflict. Cooperation among the U.S., Russian, and French mediators is excellent. The United States does not recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent country, and its leadership is not recognized internationally or by the United States. The United States supports the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan…’

“This could actually be characterized as inciting a war! The region has been calm after this little nation freed itself against the onslaught of far superior Azeri forces over twenty years ago. Now as the little children grow in this new and free republic, free because of all the brave farmers who fought to protect their homeland and their faith, the mighty United States gives ammunition to Azerbaijan. Both figuratively and literally. Israel is busy selling arms there, including advanced US weapons. Read the full article, here.

A Novel Novel: Persona Non Grata - End of the Great Game

A novel by Avery Mann (Bruce Janigian), 2015 Paperback

Reviewed by, Joseph Warren, Editor

http://TheIndependentDaily.com

Searching the many back pages of this journal will yield three – maybe – book reviews intentionally framed to bring our readership some insight into a useful, enjoyable reading experience. Most of our “Reviews” aren’t reviews at all but bibliographic notes leading to a specific resource wherein one might find greater insight into the subject being discussed.

This is one of the former. Why? Because when I’m not immersed in the sciences or history or politics I just love a good mystery. Who doesn’t? It’s the stuff of diversion, and God only knows we could use a little of that as we watch the rollout for the upcoming elections. Read the full article, here.

The Economics of Starbucks

Joseph Warren, Editor

http://TheIndependentDaily.com

Still paying five or six bucks for a cup of Starbucks? $26,695 is the current median wage in America. That equates to about $12.80 per hour, gross. Net? Somewhere around $10. So the median American worker will work for 30 to 40 minutes of every workday to buy a cup of Starbucks. (And we complain about working for the first few months to pay our taxes for the year!) Even Starbucks employees would have to work about half-an-hour if they worked elsewhere. Read the full article, here.

Cold Storage: Our Dependence on Healthcare to Grow our GDP

Joseph Warren, Editor

http://TheIndependentDaily.com

“Inside every Gook is an American trying to get out...”

- Full Metal Jacket

Joseph Warren, Editor

http://TheIndependentDaily.com

And they’re getting out with Billions of US Dollars in hand. No one remembers the war with Vietnam, least of all the 58,000 of our dead brothers and sisters in uniform. Not to mention the 2 million or so Vietnamese who died while we - America - were involved in the conflict after the French. Many of us knew it was a bad idea to begin with. Curiously silent these days are those who struggled to convince us that Vietnam was a “Good” idea, and winnable, much like our current president, and his equally ignorant predecessor have built and sustained our involvement in the Middle East. Read the full article, here.

A Good Chart to Consider When Buying Chinese-Made Products:

One-Fifth of Americans on ADHD Drugs

Joseph Warren, Editor

http://TheIndependentDaily.com

And that is why things are the way they are in America today. Critical Thinking cannot take place in a mind muddled by incomplete thoughts and bits of data - especially that garnered through the television and related media: 63 million Americans, 53% of which are “adult” age. No wonder we’re a mindless collective of misdirected cretins bent on self-destruction. Racial Hatred, Violence - both Foreign and Domestic, Ignorance Regarding Basic Economic Principles, and the list is endless.

We don’t read. We don’t think. We’re spoon-fed our information in digestible bits of not more than five seconds or a few words. Twitter, as an example, limits its users to the perfect level of communication for a critical thought in today’s world. Genius, really, when you think about it: any more misspelled words and abbreviations would be wasted on the majority of Americans - those who try through pharmaceuticals to improve their thinking capacity, and those who probably should. Read the full article, here.

Looking for a past article?

Very often relevant to today’s events: Use the Index to Recent and Distant Past Articles

Or use the Google Search Below or Click Here.

(You must allow Google Ajax Search.)