I exxagerated about BLM

     The Black Lives Matter Movement has fascinated me this year.  If you read their principles, you will find much to admire.  The principles sound idealistic.  I really wish you would look them up on the BLM website.  This advocacy group has grabbed public attention like no civil rights organization has done in many years.  The group was founded by three women.  BLM shows up every time police have shot a black person this year.  But that isn't all they do.  BLM wants to be a forum for all of the many sub-groups in the African American community.  I read that they want to reach out to people of color around the world.
     This week I reported that BLM is receiving huge donations.  I repeated a story that BLM had received $350 million from Hillary Clinton's friend George Soros.  Well, I was wrong.  The correct figure is $33 million in the last few months from Soros and another $67 million from other liberals.          My contention was that Black Lives Matter is growing rapidly in influence.  They are talking about organizing at the local level, all over the United States.  So my original comments, about the growing BLM media sensation, were correct.  We are going to hear a lot more about Black Lives Matter in the next few years.  And whatever happened to traditional black organizations like the NAACP?
    The year 2016 has not been kind to liberals.  The British voted to leave the European Union.  The Democrats suffered a big defeat.  White people who backed Barak Obama four years ago have turned to Donald Trump.  Right wing politicians are on the ascendency in Europe.  The Philipines have elected a nationalist.  Yet, Black Lives Matter is thriving.
     There is something I want you to do for homework.  Go to the BLM website.  It is inspiring.  Then go and visit Breitbart.  There are definite similarities.  Both groups are enlisting common people.  Both are enthusiastic about their causes.  BLM and Breitbart aim to rally common people.  I may be uninformed but I think I can support both organizations at the same time.
     Black Lives Matter seems idealistic and very sincere.  They seem a lot nicer than they are portrayed in the media.  Breitbart has a bit nastier tone.  They love to poke fun at liberals.  Some of the jokes and insults are a little harsh.  Still,  Breitbart is trying to connect with common people in a vast grassroots forum.  I think the difference comes from the differing speaking styles of Democrats and Republicans.  Bernie Sanders and Al Gore come across as painfully sincere and idealistic.  Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh come across as sarcastic and very funny.
     In conclusion, I am sorry that I misstated the amount of contributions that Black Lives Matters has received in the last few months.  They are thriving while the Democrats are in a tailspin.  I urge you to read everything you can find on BLM.  We may be seeing the beginning of the next Martin Luther King.

Who benefits from hate speech?

At least six mosques have received vile and threatening letters.  I would be very worried if my family attended any of these mosques.  The writer claims to support Donald Trump, but does he (or she?)
Who benefits by this letter?  If a person wanted to bomb a mosque they would have already done so.  So the purpose of the letter is to frighten people.  Donald Trump is trying to court gays, blacks, and other minorities.  His coalition of moderates and independents have been fickle in the past.  These people supported President Obama in the past.  Anything that increases racial fear weakens Trump's coalition a little.  This is why Hillary Clinton kept warning about a white backlash. It never happened because oppressing minorities is short-sighted and immoral.  According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of racist whites in America has dwindled to no more than 6000.  It is possible that a racist white person wrote the threatening letters.  It is also possible that one of Hillary Clinton's bitter, die hard supporters wrote the six letters.  When something like this happens again, ask yourself who benefits the most?  i learned that from watching Agatha Christie movies.

Why do you like what you like?

     Some things are easy to understand.  I often feel too tall so I autoselect short women.  Almost everyone in my family has red or auburn hair and very fair skin.  I was the only one with brown hair until it turned gray.  I am attracted to girls with fair skin and red hair.  My weight has often been a problem so I gravitate toward super slim girls.  I am a clumsy dancer at best.  No, I am an awful dancer.  So I like women who move with the grace of a ballerina.  You could describe all of these preferences as compensating for what I was not.
     Some of my preferences make less sense.  Why do I seek out black girls to talk to at parties?  I have no special history with black girls.  I just head for black girls without thinking.  There is no special pattern to my dating history.  Why do I love the outdoors when my family doesn't even like going out in the backyard?  Why do I love certain movie stars and barely tolerate other equally good performers?  I love taking tests and surveys.  I don't know why.  I usually chose trying new restaurants over going to places I know for certain that I will enjoy.  Why do I love politics when my whole family is apathetic on the subject?
     All I am asking is that you ask yourself why you strongly prefer one thing over another.  Think about it.

The Democrats have chosen Nancy Pelosi again

Today's headline is good news for Republican. Nancy Pelosi has led the Democrats in the US House of Representatives for the last 14 years.  This coincides with the near collapse of the Democratic party as a national organization.  You have to go back to 1929 to find fewer Democrats in Congress.
Until a few months ago, I wasn't aware that Nancy Pelosi was still alive.  She has been nearly nonexistent in public for the last few years.  I am told that she is a good fundraiser.  Well, the vast amounts of money that the Democrats raised in 2016 didn't help at all.  I read that Hillary Clinton spent ten times more money than Donald Trump's campaign.  So the Democrats ignored Pelosi's losing record and picked her again.  As a Republican, I am glad.  It started me thinking about other dubious party nominations over the years.  I remember the bland Hubert Humphrey who was chosen by the Democrats in 1968.  He was, unfortunately, the vice president for the deeply unpopular Lyndon Johnson.  Four years later the Democrats picked McGovern in 1972.  This extreme liberal suffered the biggest loss to Richard Nixon.  In 1976 the Republicans thought it was a good idea to chose Gerald Ford over the extremely popular Ronald Reagan.  The US voters never forgave Gerald Ford for pardoning Richard Nixon.  He had no chance of defeating Jimmy Carter.  Carter proved to be a good man but an inept politician.  He suffered a huge defeat to Ronald Reagan.  During the 1990's Bill Clinton was a two term and very popular president.  Yet Al Gore chose to speak out against Clinton's policies when he ran in 2000.  Al Gore was very liberal and he had zero public speaking skills.  People made jokes about Gore's wooden and stiff mannerisms.  That was a curious choice on the part of the Democrats.  John Kerry was a better choice in 1984.  He was tall, handsome, and a good speaker.  The Republicans attacked him for ties to Cuba and for his doubtful military record.  Do you remember the swift boat scandals?  In the end, Kerry was easily defeated by the extremely unpopular George Bush in 2004.  That was the year a young senator made a name for himself when he spoke at the 2004 Democratic convention.  Barak Obama is arguably the best speaker in almost 100 years.  The unusual thing about Obama is that the Democrats actually chose a gifted leader for a change in 2008.  The Republicans countered with John McCain.  Even though McCain is a war hero, he was distrusted within the GOP because he often compromised with Democrats.  McCain was a flip-flopper who couldn't be trusted.  After Obama's success, the Democrats turned to the most hated woman in America to lead them in 2016.  I am not saying that Hillary Clinton is a bad person.  The Democrats did know in advance how Republicans feel about her.  2016 will be remembered as a curious choice or Democrats.  I don't really blame Republicans for Donald Trump.  He outsmarted the party, outmaneuvered his opponents, and made fools out of the media pundits.  Trump took the Republican party in a blitzkrieg campaign.  It will be interesting to see how the GOP modifies party rules in the future.  So back to the start of this blog entry.  The Democrats have reelected "Loser" Pelosi over her young, photogenic, Rust Belt challenger named Tim Ryan.  Remember that name.  I predict that he will be famous some day.  Meanwhile, does anybody want to take a bet on the Democrats chances in 2018?  I am going to take the safe bet and bet against "Loser" Pelosi and the Democrats.

How to criticize people

I am a big Harry Potter fan.  I have read all of the books several times, including the minor books like Fantastic Beasts.  I cried at times when I read "The Cursed Child."  I purchased and viewed all of the HP movies many times.  I use Pottermore and other websites.  I went to the theater on the day that the movie "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" opened in my area.  I bought a ticket for the very first screening.  Well, I hated the movie for a whole bunch of reasons.  The first thing I did was to send a tweet to J.K.Rowling herself. She will probably never it read it but maybe one of her assistants will give her a tally of the positive and negative comments.  The next thing I did was to go to the Harry Potter websites.  I argued that the movie was historically inaccurate.  I mentioned that shooting a movie in sepia colors doesn't make it historic.  I had about ten other reasons why I thought this movie was awful.  The response was dramatic.  How dare I criticize J.K.Rowling?  Didn't I realize how eagerly her fans had waited for the movie to come out?  Didn't I realize that JKR wrote the book and the movie script?  Well, that was what I was trying to say.  The movie was what you would expect as an amateurish first attempt. Perhaps JKR will write a better script next time.  I can tell you that I am extremely unpopular among JKR fans.  So I went silent for two weeks.  The initial reviews of the movie were glowing.  They always seemed to mention that the movie was making a lot of money.  By the second week, the reviews were less enthusiastic.  The last time I checked, a few vloggers and bloggers have been critical of "Fantastic Beasts."  I think that most fans will finally decide that this movie is a stinker.  Everything I have been saying is leading up to one key point.  Sometimes timing is important when you want to say something unpopular.  I think that tweeting JKR directly was the right thing to do before criticizing her movie.  If I had to do it over again I wouldn't have been so quick to criticize something that people had waited for.  Next time I will wait until  the time is right before verbalizing my opinions.  Maybe I will try to be less harsh at first.  Sooner or later most Potter fans will reach a common conclusion about this movie.

Am I racist?

The answer is I think so.  I grew up in the state of Maryland in the United States.  I witnessed frequent racism.  The situation in Maryland is much better four decades later but I probably soaked some up.  I was asked several times if I thought that white people are better than black people.  I always said that I considered whites and black as equals.  Good answer?  Not so fast!  I considered all people equal because I was born Jewish.  I used to think that Jews were better than all of the other peoples in the world.  That is racist!  Now let's move on.  I would never say the n____ word but I root for the Washington Redskins.  Is one racist word better than another?  The r_____ word is hurtful to Native Americans.  They usually don't like the word "Indian" any better.  Have I ever repeated a racist joke?  The answer is yes.  I feel bad about that now.  Eventually, I found a book of racist jokes.  Every chapter was devoted to a different ethnic group.  There were chapters on Irish, Pollocks, blonde women, Mexicans, African Americans, Hispanics, and  Jews.  Hey, what a minute!  I fall into the last two categories.  Racist jokes didn't seem funny anymore.  So evolved and learned but I wasn't completely free of racism.  Most of my work has been in hospitals where most of the patients and staff are African American.  I have dated several black women over the years.  One of my friends back in the 1990's commented on the fact that I only went out with light skinned African American girls.  Well, it was true.  I hadn't noticed that.  After that comment, I started paying attention to very attractive dark girls as well.  For a while, I only went out with girls with the darkest skin.  Oops! I was being racist again.  Now that I am in my 50's I go out with any woman from any race who shows an interest in me.  Am I less racist or just desperate?  I read an old book by the humorist Larry King.  I am not talking about the talk show guy who got married eight times.  I am referring to Larry King the humorist.  That Larry King wrote a raunchy and witty autobiography which he titled "The Accidental Racist."  He wasn't trying to be racist.  He actually liked black women.  Every so often the Larry King would say or do something which caused embarrassment and regret.  I identify with him.  I think it is important that I don't want to be racist or sexist or biased against anybody.  I believe that God created and loves everyone.  Fortunately, my friends seem eager to point out my flaws.  

Try witnessing

Seventh-Day Adventists, Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses understand that the way to increase membership is to talk to as many people as possible.  The first two organizations are the fastest growing faiths in the world.  I am using a similar approach on behalf of the Republican party.  I try to get to know as many Democrats as possible.  Losing is no fun.  I talk with Muslims, foreigners, and anybody standing next to me in the check-out line.  I talk.  I make friends.  I learn things.  I spoke to a fascinating man who fled from Libya. He was no fan of Hillary's regime change in his country.  I talk to people about my fruit and flower gardens. We argue about sports.  I share jokes--even Trump jokes.  I am making connections with Democrats.  I even talk about the feuds and loud arguments within the Republican party.
I just don't know why I haven't tried to talk about God as well.