Touring the Valley

They're Looking at You

"Gestapo men", public domain, Wikipedia

ICE is now a huge military force, with a budget bigger than the militaries of most nations. It isn't part of our national defense. It operates only within this country's borders. It does not track down drug cartels or violent gangs. It isn't looking for bank robbers, rapists, or murderers. It will now be receiving from Medicaid and the IRS information that used to be considered private and confidential. Ask yourself what history tells us about countries that have huge internal militarized police forces with operatives whose identities are concealed, arresting people without warrants, moving them to undisclosed locations, imprisoning people without trials, and accumulating vast dossiers of information on the entire population.

Food Shortages Are Coming

Photo by Adele Payman on Unsplash

Many Americans are unaware of how much of their food comes from California. They think California is just two or three big cities, and ignore the fact that it is a largely agricultural state, supplying nearly 70% of the nation's fruits and vegetables. If the Republican regime succeeds in its goal of destroying California's agriculture, the entire country will experience shortages and higher prices. In addition to providing your fruit and veggies, California produces about 20% of U.S. dairy products and about 80% of the country's fresh cut flowers. If the workers are driven off, tons of valuable food will sit in the fields and rot. Imported fruit, already expensive, will experience extreme price increases driven by tariffs.

Random Thoughts

Big Fishes Eat Small Ones, 1556, Pieter Bruegel the Elder

If an envelope that comes in the mail says "Important information" on the outside, that's a sure sign that it is extremely UNinmportant.

Here's one of those things I see on TV that is so unlike real life I start yelling at the screen. A person comes home at night, enters the house or apartment. It's dark, but they don't turn on the light! They wander through the dark house into the kitchen for a drink (still in the dark) or into the living room to just sit on the couch in the dark. If it's a crime show, there's a killer lurking in the house who ambushes them in the dark. Or some unpleasant person from their past (with remarkable burglar skills) is in the house and surprises them with sarcastic remarks. Or their roommate has already been murdered and they stumble over the body in the dark. In any case, why didn't they just turn on the damn lights?!!?

People keep saying, X is a distraction from Y. But, really, they are doing both X and Y because those are both things they want to do. Doing everything all at once is not a distraction, it is a strategy to overwhelm us.

I just don't understand the mentality that looks at uber-rich people and says, "We need to give these guys more money."

If a religion can be damaged by someone's disbelief or satire, then it is too weak to benefit anyone.

Imagine the mind of someone who wants to make poor people poorer, hopes to see more children die, looks forward to increasing the number of homeless people, wants health care workers to be unemployed, and likes the spread of infectious diseases.

Random Thoughts

Image by Mollyroselee from Pixabay

Someone who really believed in "America First" would want America to be first in education, to have the finest and most prestigious academies and universities and the most well educated population. Wanting America to be "First" would mean wanting excellent public education available to all.

It is horrifying to me to see how often "peace officers" are unable to control their emotions and will start screaming and using threatening body language toward civilians over trivialities or imaginary incidents.

What kind of country turns the military against its own citizens? What kind of government arrests people for asking questions?

Someone who really believed in "America First" would want America to be the healthiest nation. That would mean making great health care accessible to all. It would mean supporting medical research, having excellent hospitals, employing the best professionals, educated here and recruited from abroad.

There were countries I didn't visit, because they were dangerous for tourists. Now I live in one.

Someone who really believed in "America First" would want us to be first in science and technology. This would mean promoting excellent public education, encouraging universities and industries to perform high-quality research, and attracting the best minds both from home and abroad.

Someone who really believed in "America First" would take pride and pleasure in our great national parks and public lands. This would mean embracing the responsibility to care for and preserve our unique natural resources, keeping them safe now and for the future.