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Showing posts from June, 2019

Political thoughts

Mitch Mcconnell denying the raise was an principled act. Nobody gets a raise. We should recognize when demonized people stand for principle. Maybe he just did what the polls told him, but still it's in line with the philosophy instead of bare knuckles power grab. I'm sure Trump has done such things too, just can't think of any off hand. One party celebrates the winners, wants to get out of the way of these great people. Feels government is a hindrance. They were so sick of the idea of Hilary that they elected something far worse. There's actually a perverse joy in thwarting liberals by certain conservatives. They don't want to do anything, they are the party of doing nothing. They are quite happy to have Trump wreck up the place, despite him being the opposite of everything they believe in. They'll take his crumbs plus annoying the opposition over anything constructive. I do believe that we need this yin and yang. There are unintended consequences of prog

Founders of America

I'm reading These Truths: A History Of The United States by Jill Lepore and am struck by reading a history that emphasizes the rebellion against slavery. There were parallels in not wanting taxation without representation and slavery that many pointed out. If we could have only abolished slavery at the beginning we could have saved ourselves a lot of trouble. I'd say one trait of American history is that we give in to greed quite easily. I thought about setting myself a course of learning about the founders : John Adams   First vice president and second president. Benjamin Franklin   Author, printer, political theorist, politician, Freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. Alexander Hamilton  Wrote most of the Federalist Papers. Inspired musical Hamilton. John Jay  Wrote 5 of the Federalist Papers. First chief justice of the USA. Thomas Jefferson   He wrote the Declaration of Independence . Third president. James M

Macau

I've got an idea. Perhaps this blog could be about the geography I learn talking to people in the multicultural city that I live in. I look up Wikipedia and talk to the people. They often don't seem to know some of the facts, but they also find a kind of comfort that someone recognizes that like the Philippines is named after King Philip of Spain or whatever. I met a woman and her daughter, who was playing with my daughter. She said she was from Hong Kong. I noted the British left 22 years ago. She said the protests going on there were about extradition to China. I read once that Hong Kong had the most bookstores. I noted that I only know of 2 in Queens (Astoria and Kew Gardens). Then she said she was actually from Macau . I looked that up. It's a gaming city that Portugal gave back to China in 1999. Three fourths of it is reclaimed land. Like Battery Park City in Manhattan. Interesting facts: 4th highest life expectancy in the world. Big income disparity.