Uvalde. Another School Day in U.S.A

One more Flight over the Cuckoo's Nest called United States

Another day in the life of America. Nineteen children and two teachers are butchered. The world watches as the same old things are said about the American virus Loveofguns 22. It started right at home folks - you can't blame any other country.

What follows has all been said before - the claims and counter-claims and all of the logic and illogic associated with the crazy illness that is unique to America. Still I can't help it - I have to repeat them again. If it changes one high profile person's mind it will be worth it.

Let's first reiterate the usual bullshit and then ignore it again.

1. "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." Tell that to the parents. This dingbat kid didn't use poison darts, a crossbow, or any other weapon - he used a gun. So did Kyle Rittenhouse.
2. "The solution is more guns." Arm the teaching staff, janitor, gardener, bus driver, even the cooks if there are any. Not worthy of a reply.
3. "The second amendment gives him the right." Balls. Does it say a six year old can carry a weapon? No. Why not? Because the Constitution assumed a degree of common sense back when most Americans had some. That has all changed. It also says nothing about how those arms can be used, just that one can "bear" them and nothing about their nature, purpose, or ammunition.
4. "Any change to gun laws is an attack on my individual rights." So are men telling women they can't have an abortion whether stated in the Constitution or not. More bull.

The list goes on.

I have not heard one sensible argument put forward which justifies an individual citizen's ability to buy and possess assault weapons. Likewise what is the argument to permit gun merchants to sell them? What is next - tanks and/or a cruise missile in every driveway? Tow bars to pull your Howitzer behind your SUV for a picnic?

Some readers right now are probably reacting by saying that 70%-90% of Americans do want change. The other side probably have their own statistics. Who cares? If such percentages want change then they should get together and fire - vote out of office - their Representatives in either House who keep rebuffing any changes to gun laws. Most of them are paid by gun lobbyists.

For months now most of us have found Putin's actions in Ukraine repugnant especially when innocent citizens and children were murdered. How could he be so callous? How can your fellow citizens who are gun lovers be even more callous when children's bodies are torn apart by another American shooter?

The Red flag law of Florida does not prevent qualified people from purchasing and owning guns. red flag laws - Google Search. It does give police the right to seize existing weapons from those who pose a threat to themselves or others and has been used many times. Similar laws should be instituted and enforced in all states.

The other day someone said it was now easier to get an assault rifle than baby formula. What a powerful statement!

Some American leaders in both government and business apparently value their guns more than those poor kids' and their two teachers' bullet riddled bodies.

#thebrewsterblock

Russian People in Democratic Countries, Please Speak Out!

Let's Hear some Russian Free Speech!

Years ago I worked with many Russian people who had immigrated to Canada. I don't recall which international crisis was happening but it involved Russia. A female colleague's strong nationalism showed when she declared that the West only likes Russia when they think she is weak. True. She wanted her motherland to regain its former glory and standing as a world force to equal America. She got quite heated about it.

I didn't ask her why she remained here and did not return to Russia but her feelings were understandable. We on this side of the ocean forget that Russia and many other countries overseas have histories of rising and falling, conquering and expanding, rebelling against and recreating their leadership hundreds of years before anyone even knew about our far off lands. We are mere babes in arms or perhaps babes with arms in the military sense.

However since many people have immigrated to more democratic countries and presumably enjoy their ability to speak and write freely, let's hear from some of them.

Surely those who live here now and have seen the horror of Ukraine through the lens of western media and not the fake news of the motherland, they must have seen some kind of light. For sure you can refer to many American transgressions in other lands but I don't think it was ever to wipe out an entire people.

When has Ukraine ever attacked Russia or the Soviet Union? This is somewhat like American forces attacking native North American tribes again as they once did when settling the new west. It was wrong then and would be unspeakable now.

In addition surely they would be the best means of getting the truth to relatives at home. Unfortunately we have heard of some family ties being broken when those back in Russia refuse to believe their own families who now live in the USA

Western media would love to give you a platform or soap box from which to repeat what Putin and his forces are doing. Why are you so silent?

Do you also believe that Ukraine is not and never was a nation? If nothing else you should now understand why so many believe that Ukraine should indeed be part of NATO.
Ditto for Finland and Sweden.

Please make use of the freedom to speak which you now enjoy.

#thebewsterblock

Abort these Abortion Proposals - BEFORE it's too Late

While You Still Have the Right to Choose - Choose to Keep that Right!

In the last few years we have heard more examples of hypocrisy from politicians than probably ever before. The winners hands down are Republicans. Top of the heap are the Trump appointed Supreme Court Justices. 

We all heard them say that they would consider Roe vs Wade to be a precedent. It has indeed been for almost 50 years. In hindsight, if you listen to the cleverness of their answers during their appointment hearings it just adds to the hypocrisy. These people are expected to play it straight and say it straight. They failed.

The enormity of this hypocrisy goes way beyond the Supreme Court. Some 26 plus states are prepared to ban the right to choice for women.

Why is this hypocrisy?

1. Many of these high minded politicians who claim to stand for American ideals are the same ones who yelled and screamed bloody murder at the mere prospect of being told to wear a mask to fight COVID. They yelled even louder over mandatory vaccinations. Why? It was an attack on their rights and personal freedoms. Nobody could tell them what to do with their bodies. How can such protestors - and many of them are men - then turn around and suggest that they and their governments have a right to tell women what they can or can 't do with their own body?

2. Each and every one of them knows damn well that if their own daughter or even their wife has an unwanted pregnancy, they would find somewhere to perform the same procedure they profess to find offensive.

3. They know that rich people (like themselves) will be able to afford these procedures, but poor people will not be able to. Hence the law will not be applied evenly to all people.

4. If doing the right thing is their claim, then they will have to double down on finding and prosecuting all of the deadbeat dads who impregnate spouses and girlfriends and then skip town. If the woman must give birth to her child then the man must help pay for his child! Once again there is a double standard - hold the woman accountable, but not the man.

5. If women are prepared to join the armed forces and in many cases give their own lives for their country, then they should also be able to control its destiny back home.

6. Many of those who want to take away this right will for sure be gun owners. After all, they have a right which they claim "bear arms" gives them. What about all of those people young and old who die because of the misuse of those guns? If human life is so sacred then this is even more hypocrisy,

One final point. There are enough couples who abuse their children horribly when they do have them. Surely this number will go up if they are forced to have a child against their own will. The same thing often happens to adapted children.

I predict that there will be some politician who claims to be for this denial and then finds out that his mistress is pregnant. See what happens to the ideals then. If the mistress wants the child he is toast. If she does not and they secure an abortion, he is toast if she ever talks. Without a settlement, she will.

There will be more attempts to set back the clock. Just wait.

#thebrewsterblock

Press Corps Dinner

Again Biden turns Trump into a Chump    

Anyone who watched President Joe Biden and Trevor Noah last night had to be impressed. Trump could never have pulled it off.

Once again however it was Noah - who stems from another part of the world - who made everyone watching and everyone present appreciate how important it is to enjoy free speech with no consequences. Trevor opened by making the point and closed by reiterating it. Then we all enjoyed and had a laugh because of it in between.

Imagine indeed what would happen to any Russian who pulled the same punches on Russian media. He or she would instantly transform from stage stand-up comedian to prison
sit-down comedian somewhere in Siberia, never to be heard from again.

In all of the major wars including this one in Ukraine, how did the rest of the world really know what was going on? Where would we be now if those early warning systems had not triggered potential and real victims to band together against the aggressor? Thankfully we appear to be doing it again.

Except in one place in particular - the aggressor nation itself, where there is no freedom of speech. There are probably a few others as well, all authoritarian regimes.

The scary part for me was that Trump and his cronies at Fox were attempting to move America into a similar system. I have no doubt if Trump should ever get back in, that he and his puppets will try to change the law to allow a President to stay as long as he/she wants. The other branches of government would be ignored, just as Putin is ignoring established norms.

Every day we are finding out more about how the Republicans and the right tried to fix the last election in their own favour. It was never the Democrats, and the world knows it.

How do they know this? If I have to explain I have failed dismally to make my point in this post.

#thebrewsterblock

SEO for Blogs. What's Trending?

Where are YOUR priorities?

One of the things that have always been on the minds of bloggers is how to get higher viewership. The fact is that blogs had their heyday many years ago and have been replaced by the likes of Facebook and Twitter. They face the same challenge as newspapers. Few people want to read or even think. They just want entertainment. I knew this when I began but here I am. I would rather write for my own entertainment than watch the crap that is on TV or play electronic games.

There are thousands of websites whose hosts claim to be able to share the secrets of making money by Blogging. It didn't take long to find that most of the more popular sites indeed made money by telling readers one thing: how to make money by Blogging. A lot of it is the technical side but generally these "bloggers" never write anything creative at all. Today this is adorned with lots of video as well.

To put this in perspective, this is like placing an ad claiming you know how to turn anybody into a professional baseball player will can make millions per year. The subscribers receive some snail mail or email telling them to place an ad just like the author. Tell people you can make them into a professional ball player and watch the cash roll in!

Seriously though, the most sound advice I found is simply to use the many tools available from Google to find out what is trending. Identify what people are searching for and write good quality material about THAT. This makes perfect sense, but the key is quality - consistent quality. My problem is that I just don't relate to what people are seeking. I just don't give a flying "F" about the Kardashians or who just cheated on whom in the Etalk world.

So just from curiosity I started typing random arguments (words) into the www.google.com page and looking at the numbers under the reply. It was entertaining to say the least.
Most of these numbers are in the billions or hundreds of millions. They really only represent places on the entire internet that might have a reference to the argument submitted. I also see that they are only estimates and that in some locations Google has dropped them.

Try it for yourselves. If these numbers tell you anything it is that in my opinion our priorities are all screwed up. This has always been the case - sitcoms over news; game shows over documentaries; smutty over intellectual. Here is what I entered, sequenced by declining number of hits:

Environment change 10,240,000,000 (10.24 billion)
God                             4,580,000,000
Sex                              4,400,000,000
Cancer                         4,320,000,000
Stroke                         4,270,000,000
The war in Ukraine     4,150,000,000
Heart disease             4,130,000,000
Global warming          3,600,000,000
Kim Kardashian          3,070,000,000
Kardashians               2,780,000,000
Botox                          1,490,000,000
New York Yankees     1,140,000,000
The Garden of Eden      586,000,000
Abraham Lincoln           443,000,000
Adolf Hitler                    137,000,000
Elvis Presley                 122,000,000
The price of gas              68,700,000
Nuclear war                    59,500,000
Toronto Blue Jays           48,900,000
Gobboldygook                   1,420,000 (misspelled)
Gobbledygook                       19,000

I'm sure that God is pleased to see people are concerned about the space that he/she created but maybe a bit ticked that we messed it up so badly. Being almost tied with "Sex" might put us in disfavor as well.

It appears that many people are more concerned with their own demise than that of the Ukraine. I am not sure why Heart disease lags behind. It is good to see that that global warming beat out the Kardashians, but not by much.

Botox and the Yankees made the billion mark but things fall off dramatically after that. Not sure why but the misspelled Gobboldygook got more hits than Gobbledygook by a factor of 75!

When I entered "Thebrewsterblock" it scored 4,300,000 which was an old nickname. There used to be a small hotel chain and bus line in western Canada by that name but the number amazed me. The big let down was that my actual blog name (based on this) which is www.thebrewsterblock.com mustered a mere 480.

And that is why I write for my own enjoyment!

Brewster
#thebrewsterblock.com