2016 Election update

There are currently 16 Republicans in the race and maybe 3 Democrats.....

Mrs. Bill Clinton is the front runner for Demo's but Bernie Sanders is getting all the positive press while she just keeps having to defend her e-mail account. Since this issue seems to (or so alleged) involve national security, we aren't able to know exactly what is what.  Somewhat like the Trans Pacific Trade Pact and the Iranian Nuclear deal.

WE AREN'T ALLOWED THE INSIDE SCOOP BECAUSE WE ARE.....????????

And yet for the next 15 months every person running for President will promise totally transparency when it comes to how the government should be run.

Donald Trump is leading the polls in at least two states, maybe three, and Celebrity Apprentice is  the top rated TV show in those states....and the show plays on a loop 24/7 in Des Moines....or not.

We are in the golden age of celebrity but if anyone thinks The Donald could generate more than 12% of the popular vote then that proves Molly has become commonplace in our society....right along with coffee and Viagra.

If you have to ask what Molly is than you are either 90 or 4...or drunk.  I suppose that along the Bible Belt of America there are those who have no idea about designer drugs because they are taking their own psycho-pharmaceuticals and of course those are prescribed and legal.  I'll trade you a Zoloft for a Zanex....(and those both might be misspelled, which proves I take neither)

BY THE WAY......ANYONE WHO IS IN JAIL FOR POSSESSION OF POT
SHOULD BE
RELEASED
TODAY

Slightly off point but needed to be stated.

Back on track......

The first Republican debate is next week and they are only allowing 10 candidates to participate.

How entertaining will it be to watch The Donald fire the other candidates?  He'll probably be using the event for his next show.....CELEBRITY POLITICIANS.

Travel with me through time and just imagine for one second..........

the  Presidential Election takes place on November 8th 2016.......the ballot says

REPUBLICAN.......DONALD TRUMP and Carley Fiorina
DEMOCRAT..........BERNIE SANDERS and George Clooney

That's three celebrities and one politician........

Sounds rather silly doesn't it?

And so the following ticket doesn't show silly?

REPUBLICAN.......JEB BUSH  and Chris Christie
DEMOCRAT..........HILARY CLINTON and Bernie Sanders

So many things can happen between now and then but
just check out this last ballot

Stranger things have happened.......

REPUBLICAN.........RICK PERRY and Rand Paul
DEMOCRACT.........JOE BIDEN and Jerry Brown

AND AMERICA MARCHES ON.......


Be sure to watch the first GOP debate on AUGUST 6
presented by FOX News.......


Michael Timothy McAlevey

Some of you think Iran is a problem

Rank	Country	Spendi($ Bn.)	% of GDP
—	World total	1,776.0	2.3
1	United States	610.0	3.5
2	China[a]	216.0	2.1
3	Russia[a]	84.5	4.5
4	Saudi Arabia[b]	80.8	10.4
5	France	62.3	2.2
6	United Kingdom	60.5	2.2
7	India	50.0	2.4
8	Germany[a]	46.5	1.2
9	Japan	45.8	1.0
10	South Korea	36.7	2.6
11	Brazil	31.7	1.4
12	Italy	30.9	1.5
13	Australia	25.4	1.8
14	United Arab Emirates[a]	22.8	5.1
15	Turkey	22.6	2.2

DEFENSE BUDGETS OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES

Some people seem to be flipping out over our "deal" with Iran.

THE FIGURES LISTED ABOVE SHOULD CLARIFY SOME ISSUES.

Japan has 54 Nuclear reactors and they basically tried to conquer half the world with Germany taking the other half.

When was that exactly?  500 years ago?.....400 years ago?.....300 years ago?......100 years ago?.....??????

HOW ABOUT 1941? 
WHICH THE LAST TIME I CHECKED, WAS 75 YEARS AGO......

AND FOR MANY LIVING AMERICANS IT SEEMS A LOT CLOSER THAN THAT.

I understand why Japan and Germany have large defense budgets......Russian, China and North Korea are their neighbors.

Do we have regular checks to make sure Japan isn't building weapons?

During the 20th century both Japan and Germany were batshit crazy and I'm quite sure there are factions within both of those countries that would like us to pull out our troops and leave them alone.

I keep thinking that we give billions of dollars to Israel for the sole purpose of not only defending themselves but to take care of anyone in their neighborhoods who want to create major problems.

Iran's defense budget is perhaps in $30 billion range...but they don't make the above list because of verification problems.

One Nuclear Reactor couldn't begin to offset the amount of nuclear weapons Israel has.

WE DON'T KNOW THE EXACT NUMBER BUT SINCE ISRAEL AND THE UNITED STATES ARE PARTNERS I WOULD ASSUME THAT THEIR NUMBER IS FAIRLY LARGE.

I don't think anyone should have Nuclear weapons or Nuclear reactors but that ship has sailed and it ain't coming back to shore anytime soon.

Israel and Turkey should be able to handle any situation in the Middle East but then again Turkey is 99% Sunni Muslims thus no one really has a handle on what they will do...so in reality, Israel is the only true partner we have in that region.

I THINK THEY ARE WELL STOCKED WITH EVERYTHING....AND I'M ABSOLUTELY SURE THAT IF THEY NEED MORE WE WILL GIVE THEM MORE.

ONE REACTOR IN IRAN IS NOT A TABLE TIPPING EVENT.

FOX NEWS AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WOULD HAVE US THINK THAT THIS IS WORST EVENT THAT HAS HAPPENED TO GLOBAL PEACE IN OUR LIFETIME.

I see much bigger issues with other countries.  And a few of those other countries have already shown in recent history that they can't be trusted.

Do you get my point?

Michael Timothy McAlevey

RECENTLY COMPLETED ARTWORK and pregnancy

Just completed this 40" x 50" canvas.  2"wrapped box, ready to hang.  Oils, Acrylics and Inks.

Single Line Flow Motion Design.   Follow the line from top left corner.

I can't do much bigger without a movable dolly.

Most definitely for sale......but I spent 4 years working on it......of course I've done 300 pieces in the meantime but I always drift back to this big guy and keep layering and layering it....so I won't be giving it away.

It's more expensive than a signed and numbered Steven King novel but much less that a Tesla.

It's up to you to ask the magic question.

I'm either going to name it something simple like "Biggie" or just make it #1 in this particular size.....maybe Naylor in honor of the new baby boy who finally arrived about two hours ago for my niece Victoria and her husband Michael.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Nations or Corporruptions

Paul Kahn, professor of law and the humanities at Yale wrote a piece this morning for the OP-ED section of the LA TIMES. 

"FEAR CORPORATIONS OR FEAR NATIONS."

The jest of the piece says that we should be worried more about the nation-states concept than about how corporations are running the political show and controlling our individual rights.

 The following two statements summarize his article

"Today, the threats posed by corporations increasingly shape everyday understandings.  Many people rightly worry that the transnational corporation is not subject to democratic political control but, on the contrary, controls our politics.  They believe that government policies support corporate profits over individual success."

"We do not have more to worry about from transnational corporations than from other nations.  The world is not yet done with nation-states. Indeed the world is becoming more dangerous; we have exhausted the post-Cold War peace bonus.  One only need to look at the disasters in the Middle East, the fear along the western border of Russia and the changing political alliances of Southeast Asia.  These are conflicts driven by resource scarcity, religious differences, ethnic division and sheer political power. They are not conflicts driven by corporate interests."

Now me....no longer Professor Kahn.........

I'M GOING TO SIMPLY SAY......HUH?

The corporate interest involved in resource scarcity cannot be overlooked.  The corporate interest involved in oil and gas production cannot be overlooked when one tries to determine how conflicts get started.

Organized religions are the strangest form of corporations that have ever existed....and they are tax-exempt....and they have always displayed a desire to control individual thoughts and actions.

In fact, I might consider that initial corporations were formed from enterprising merchants looking toward the church on how to manipulate their flocks.....I mean stocks.

I believe that we do have nations that still want to increase their power but I've always heard that if you want to solve the case.....follow the money.

Corporruptions cannot be overlooked when he comes to who wants to control what.....and when one looks at the physical conflicts, both religious and resource control efforts, taking place around our planet...it's important to realize that business is thriving in some very large munitions corporate headquarters.

AND THOSE CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS ARE BASED IN

CHINA

RUSSIA

and

THE UNITED STATES of AMERICA

Please Professor Kahn, don't give the benefactors of global conflicts a pass.......follow the money.

The dangerous part of this is that our corporruptions aren't based in the White House.  China and Russia seem to be their own corporruptions and there in lies the rub.  Neither one of those powers seems to be democratic.  At least in a democracy we have checks and balances......and see, one more example of following the money.

By the way....the OP-ED section of LA TIMES is always entertaining.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Charleston

After that insane 21 year old asshole killed 9 people inside a church in Charleston, S.C.  a good portion of the aftermath conversations centered on gun issues.

GUN ISSUES?

I'm a strong advocate of getting rid of assault weapons and increasing the intensity of background checks when it comes to purchasing a firearm.....BUT seriously the MAIN issue at the core of this horrible event goes so far beyond gun control that I'm rather startled.

 

THIS INCIDENT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GUNS!

 

It's like saying that in 1957 when a black man was found hanging from a tree in Mississippi that ROPE and TREES should be eliminated and controlled.

 

The scary part of this is that the asshole might have been motivated and pushed to action by the numerous police vs black incidents over the last six months....but rest assured that his racism isn't a newly discovered personality trait.

 

AND WHAT IS EVEN SCARIER IS THAT SOMEHOW THIS IS A TANGENT OF HOW A RACIEST PERSON RESPONDS TO HAVING TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT A BLACK MAN IS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

 

I have no idea what would motivate a person to walk into a church, sit down and talk to people for an hour and then kill them.  Of course I don't have the gene which dictates I could kill someone unless it was unavoidable to protect my daughter. 

 

MOTIVATION is the key word while trying to understand the chaos taking place inside one's mind.

 

I'm going to be very surprised if the asshole's parents worked on either of the two Obama campaigns.  Pretty sure there weren't HOPE signs on their front lawn in 2008 or 2012.

 

The issue of racism is by far away the main issue involved in this incident and maybe the main sociological issue facing our country.   So many of us thought it was a issue that seemed to be disappearing.....of course that's easy for my Scottish, Irish and German white ass to say.

 

It would be rather ironic that when Barry leaves office in January of 2017 that suddenly everything started to clam down regarding violent racial confrontations.

 

Each one of us has to examine our personal prejudices and we need to do the examination on a regular basis.

 

When doing the exam it's important to subject both your family and educational stimulus to  a thorough form of scrutiny.  From jokes to stories one must realize the undercurrent of how racism takes shape.

 

EXAMPLE

From a personal moment in my youth. 

 

When I was in the second or third grade I had a nun( Sister Mary Margaret) tell me "that if I received communion with a sin I committed, and didn't confess, then as I was walking back to my seat  my skin could turn BLACK."

 

ABSOLUTELY TRUE STORY!

 

Once I finally realized that the nuns were batsh*t crazy I was able to let that nonsense fly into the neverland of HUH??? and not let it affect me (maybe).  Of course I think I was 16 when that awareness took priority and my social viewpoints started taking a personal direction.

 

I was very lucky to meet a friend around that time whose entire family of 9 had been raised Catholic but didn't seem to be affected by the irrational silliness of their educational upbringing....and whose parents were sensible, reasonable and loving people.

 

Of course I have no idea if they were those type of people really, but since my friend is the smartest most eloquent liberal I have ever known, I must assume that it was their parenting.

 

He will probably say it was ALL HIM.....which might be true.

 

The point I'm making here is that when someone does what this asshole did in Charleston then I would think there's a BIG chance that the asshole's family has to take some of the blame........HOW MUCH OF THE BLAME IS THE MAGIC QUESTION?

 

ENOUGH WHERE THEY SHOULD BE HELD FOR QUESTIONING?

 

I THINK SO......MAYBE NOT CHARGED WITH A CRIME BUT AT THE VERY LEAST QUESTIONED ON THEIR VIEWPOINTS REGARDING RACE RELATIONS.

 

Is that over the top?

 

IT SURE AIN'T EVEN CLOSE TO BEING OVER THE TOP COMPARED TO WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT HISTORIC SOUTHERN AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCH.

 

And once again I'll say......

 

THAT MOMENT IN TIME WHEN HE CHOSE TO END 9 PEOPLES' LIVES.....HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH

GUNS.

 

HATE IS HATE AND TOLERANCE AND ACCEPTANCE DO NOT ENTER THE PICTURE WHEN SOMEONE HATES SOMEONE

BECAUSE THEY HAVE DIFFERENT COLOR SKIN

 

TOLERANCE AND ACCEPTANCE

NEED TO PLAY A MUCH LARGER ROLE IN OUR SOCIETY

 

COULD I BE ANY CLEARER?

 

Michael Timothy McAlevey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on few recent events

Tim Hunt, British Nobel laureate and biochemist, resigned his post at the University College London school because he said...."Let me tell you about my trouble with girls (which already makes millions of women crazy...as I recently learned from a police woman in Santa Monica)...three things happen when they are in the lab: You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticize them, they cry."

He actually was knighted in 2006 by Queen Elizabeth II

....and at the time he said she smelled like a little girl....and she makes love like a little girl....and then Bob Dylan sued him for plagiarism and he had to pay $12.56 cents to settle the case.


ONE OF THE ABOVE THREE ITEMS IS NOT TRUE........but each one seems just as silly as the other two.

Oh....you don't think being knighted sounds silly in the year 2015.  Only the Brits could keep such an antiquated system in play for hundreds and hundreds of years.

And on top of that...........all commoners seem to love the system.....which just makes me say.....huh?

*****************

al-Qaeda said last week that the Islamic State (IS) is a extremist group and they are going to crush them.

THERE ARE SO MANY DIRECTIONS ONE COULD TAKE WHILE TRYING TO ANALYSIS THAT STATEMENT.....I KNOW NOT WHICH DIRECTION TO TRAVEL.


******************

If the GOP allows every Republican, in office, any office, to run for President then it will be official.

THEY ARE ALL GOOFY!

*******************

Rick Santori needs to go to Pope school....and Rick Perry thinks glasses are going to make the difference this time around.

*******************

Jeb is announcing today and Hillary announced over the weekend and that's pretty funny since both have been collecting money for the last three months.

*******************

Fast tracking a trade pact that would seem to create more off-shore jobs doesn't make any sense.  At the very least it should be discussed COMPLETELY.

*******************

The Steve Jobs book by Walter Isaacson is a must read for anyone interested in technology, business, early LSD trips, meditation, not blinking, and of course design.

*******************

Over the weekend I listened to various Republicans claiming that Obama has no plan to defeat The Islamic State.  IS HE SUPPOSE TO REVEAL ALL ASPECTS OF HIS PLAN? it seems that US air strikes, combined with Kurdish ground troops, are making headway in Syria's northeast.  It was reported this morning that 250 towns and villages have been taken away from IS.  THAT APPEARS TO BE A PLAN.....DOESN'T IT?

IT'S STILL A SUNNI VS SHIITE WAR IN CASE YOU'VE FORGOTTEN.

If we hadn't gone to Iraq in 2003 it would still be a war between those two factions of the Islamic faith.

CAN WE REALLY CHOOSE A SIDE IN THIS INTERNAL BATTLE OF ISLAM?

And please remember that they have been going at each other since 700 AD.

********************

I'm seriously excited about TED 2........pretty sure TED was the funniest movie I've ever seen.

I'm practicing my laugh right f**king now......

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Unions and what you haven't considered

There appears to be definitive correlation between the diminishing middle class and the reduction of labor unions.  I think I might know one of the reasons that unions seem to be out of favor with the general American public.

First you have to accept that labor unions were a vital force in helping to build the American middle class.  Outside of full employment because of WW11, labor unions created income advancement unequalled since the beginning of the industrial revolution. If you don't accept this premise than the rest of this article is going to travel about four inches over your dome.

One of the major problems with unions today is that certain organizations use the word union when in truth they aren't unions but exclusive clubs for a limited amount of people who make huge amounts of money.

The Major League Baseball Players Association should change their name to.....

"PRIVATE BASEBALL ORGANIZATION" 

There are 800 men playing Major League Baseball and the starting salary is $450,000.

The fact that every few years the MLBPA goes on strike SIMPLY BLOWS PEOPLE'S MINDS AND THEY SUB AND NOT SUBCONSCIOUSLY
HATE
UNIONS
(and especially people who belong to actual unions...which is weird because they don't like hating themselves)

The contracts are comparable to CEO contracts.  Get fired....get full pay for length of the contract.....even if you have completely sucked at your job.

Privilege is the first word that comes to mind when I think of professional athletes

Union is the last word.

AND PEOPLE ARE TURNED OFF BY THE ANOMALY OF WHY THESE ORGANIZATIONS NEED A UNION TO FIGHT THEIR BATTLES.

THE PROBLEM COMES DOWN TO THE MAN OR WOMAN, WORKING FOR WAL-MART OR SAFEWAY, WHO THINKS THE PART TIME EMPLOYEES SHOULD UNIONIZE SO THAT PERHAPS THEY CAN SECURE FULL TIME JOBS.....KNOWS THAT IT CAN'T HAPPEN.

BECAUSE SOMEONE ELSE WILL STEP IN AN TAKE THAT JOB  AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC WON'T STOP SHOPPING AT WAL-MART BECAUSE THEY HATE UNIONS AND THEY HATE UNIONS BECAUSE THE ONLY TIME THEY EVER HEAR ABOUT UNIONS IS WHEN MAJOR SPORTS STARS SAY THEY ARE GOING ON STRIKE.  AND THE AMOUNT OF MONEY INVOLVED IS SO LUDICROUS THAT NOTHING MAKES SENSE AND THEREFORE IT MUST BE THE PLAYERS UNION CAUSING THIS NON-SENSICAL EVENT.

WORK WITH ME HERE......

First you need to do a little research and verify the reduction of labor unions over the last 30 years.

Then you need to tie in the inequality of income over the last 25 years.....

I understand that outsourcing both service and manufacturing jobs is a huge part of the equation but please note that many of the corporruptions that adopted their off-shore positions did so because there are no unions in Viet-Nam or Mexico....besides no minimum wage.

The profit margin increase needed to satisfy a shareholders position is also a factor.

The United States government employs 22,000,000 and that's one powerful union.  Imagine if powers that be informed all government employees that they would immediately be working 20 hours a week and that their pay would reflect the time reduction.  There would be no more health insurance for anybody working less that 40 hours and the only 40 hour employees would be upper management.......like Congressman and Senators.

The Middle Class is evaporating for many reasons and whether or not the young entrepreneurs in this country come up with ideas that aren't just app related for the smart phone and start making things again....then it's going to get much worse before it gets better.

IT WILL GET BETTER....BUT IT PROBABLY WILL TAKE A MAJOR
EPISODE
FOR THE TIDE TO TURN
AND WHEN THAT HAPPENS LABOR UNIONS MIGHT BE IMPORTANT ONCE AGAIN.

BECAUSE AFTER ALL IS SAID AND DONE......LABOR UNIONS ARE SIMPLY PEOPLE BANNING TOGETHER TO GUARANTEE A FAIR SHARE OF THE ECONOMIC PIE.

Baseball, Football, Basketball and Hockey players do not belong to a UNION.  it's an exclusive men's club that gets a whole chunk of the pie.   And by the way.....professional golfers don't count because they only get paid by performance.....and it's not a team sport and no one owns them. 

And truth be known I've never joined a union and I most likely never will unless of course I sell one of my scripts and the Screen Writers Guild forces my hand.

As an artist I've got about as much chance of joining together with other artists to form a union
as I have of a monkey flying out of my ass.

Actually I've got a better chance with the monkey dealio.

Anyway.....quit thinking of unions having anything to do with professional sports.

Unions are vital to make sure the worker gets treated fairly.

Not every owner of every business is a money hungry son of a bitch.....but when one looks at how businesses have been run since the dawn of employment....the stats don't favor the worker.

Unfortunately the dawn of employment is slave based labor,...so it's a hard trend to break....unless you are a member of one of the four major professional sports organizations.

You not only broke the slave labor enigma................you obliterated it.  But unfortuantely there are less that 5000 of you.  Like I said, it's not a union....it's a club....a very very private club.


Michael Timothy McAlevey

I simply don't understand.

The other day I had three retail operations asking me for $1.00.   I denied twice and accepted once.

Two were for military family assistence and one was for hungry children.

With the annual defense budget ranging from $600 to $750 BILLION, depending on who you talk to and funds not fully accounted for, I just assume there is enough money to handle ANYTHING military.

Speculation is that a million children in the United States go to bed hungry every single night.

Then I thought about the amount of charities and foundations there are; combined with social programs in the billions and Walgreens is asking for a dollar donation in order to FEED hungry children.  (And they didn't have anymore red noses....but I did get a sticker)

I started looking into charities and discovered some very interesting facts that make me realize that I just don't understand.....ANYTHING.

(following figures are from 2014......http://www.forbes.com/top-charities/)

UNITED WAY has an annual revenue of $4.2 BILLION
and the government (you and other tax payers) gives them another $270 million.
Their top executive makes $1.9 million a year.

GOODWILL has a annual revenue stream of $5.3 BILLION
and the government (still you) gives them $465 million in support.
Their top executive makes $635,000 a year.

YMCA has an annual revenue of $6.6 BILLION
and the government gives them $606 million
Their top ex makes $515,000 a year.

THE TOP TEN CHARITIES IN THE US GENERATE APPROXIMATELY
$30 BILLION.......annually.....and please note that there are hundreds of charities...if not thousands when you count church organizations.

THE FACTS AND FIGURES GO ON AND ON AND ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS LOOK AT THE DIFFERENT WEB SITES DEVOTED TO CHARITIES.

WITH THE AMOUNT OF MONEY BEING GENERATED EACH YEAR BY CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS AND WITH THE SIZE OF FOUNDATIONS,SUCH AS THE BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION,COMBINED WITH OUR SOCIAL PROGRAMS.....

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT ANY CHILD GOES TO BED HUNGRY IN THIS COUNTRY?

I SIMPLY DON'T UNDERSTAND

I'm willing to learn if you have an answer.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Are you wondering?

To the right side of my article you will see APPLE, GOOGLE AND MICROSOFT.

THOSE ARE NOT ADS.....those are news stories about the three most visible technology companies in the world....and probably the most financially successful.

You can click on any one name and read the latest "stuff" about those companies.

Why would you want to read about those companies?

I'm just guessing, but if you use a computer or a smart phone then you use product created by one of those three titans.

THE MOST AMAZING SINGLE FACT REGARDING THOSE THREE GIANTS IS.....

APPLE AND MICROSOFT HAVE SOLD YOU PRODUCTS FOR YEARS AND YOU HAVE GIVEN THEM LARGE AMOUNTS OF YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY

I'VE YET TO MEET ANYONE WHO HAS EVER GIVEN
GOOGLE ................
....................................ONE PENNY.

Of course I don't hang out in the advertising circles.......and that's their main source of income.....and maybe their only source of income.  They keep trying different revenue streams like GLASS but the public just yawns and then Googles the following question...."Does Google make anything.....and if not, how come they have a market cap of  $365 BILLION?????

And then Google answers by simply saying......"Please narrow your question...and how do you spell sour grapes."

GENERAL MOTORS has a market cap of $56 BILLION

APPLE market cap is $739 BILLION
MICROSOFT.............$$392 BILLION

GOOGLE.......$365 BILLION
FACEBOOK.....$257 BILLION

FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE basically do not charge their users ANYTHING

FREEFREEFREEFREEFREEFREEFREE service.........to use their product.

(THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.....is always claiming to be on the verge of going bankrupt because of helping poor people get food and medical attention....but that's another story and right now let's just focus on the companies who are doing BLOCKBUSTER BUSINESS WITHOUT MAKING ANYTHING)

GM has 216,000 full time employees
Google.......55,000
Microsoft.....128,000
Apple.........92,000
Facebook.....9,199
NETFLIX......2,189
US Government.....22,000,000

(Netflix market cap is $37 Billion and they have 2,189 employees.....no wonder their stock is $615 a share.


APPLE, MICROSOFT, GM....Make THINGS.

GOOGLE AND FACEBOOK ...........Hook you up with information and friends.

It's actually a miracle that WE make anything in this country.....when one looks at how much money can be made through social interaction and entertainment.

OF COURSE I KNOW WE MAKE MUNITIONS AND WEAPONS BUT I WAS TRYING TO AVOID THOSE SUBJECTS RIGHT NOW AND JUST KEEP IT LIGHT AND BREEZY.

Back to original point in case you think I've wandered.......which I definitely have a knack for doing from time to time.....but remember it's called MIND JAZZ for a reason.

THE THREE COMPANIES SHOWN AT THE RIGHT OF MY CURRENT ARTICLE SHOULD BE COMPANIES THAT HOLD OUR INTEREST.

I've been considering the possibility of replacing one or two with something new but those three are the leaders in the world of technology and
why not just follow the leaders......

EVERYBODY ELSE DOES!

(Netflix has 2,189 employees and a market cap of $37 Billion.......I hope that stuck out as you read...even at $615 a share it might be a good time to buy)

How long before NETFLIX gets bought by ??????????

Oh....and by the way.....FRANKIE and GRACE is another piece of great content from the Reed Hastings school of entertainment.


Michael Timothy McAlevey

Yes...it is early for us but not for them

The 2016 Presidential election is just around the corner.  Now the corner part of that statement varies from block to block and person to person.  There is a certain percentage of the American public who couldn't care less and aren't quite sure who is who and what is what.  Then there's another portion who will vote for President but won't vote in the primaries.  And then there those who will vote in the primaries but won't read any of the ballot measures that are included....but they will vote.

An uninformed vote might be the predominate form of vote in this country.

I'm just guessing but out of 300 million people ( 250 eligible voters) I would put the percentage of fully informed voter at around......20%.

My friend Tom, who is much more politically acute than I, would put that number at around 5%.

One doesn't have to be fully informed to participate in the political process....from a voter's standpoint.

But and this is a HUGE BUT........if the fully informed percentage of voters was in the 50-75% range WE WOULD SEE AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT POLITICAL ATMOSPHERE.

WHAT IF THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO COULD VOTE IN A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION HAD TO TAKE A CURRENT EVENTS TEST?  IF THE TEST CONSISTED OF QUESTIONS THAT WERE ONLY POLITICAL IN NATURE........how the system works and who is on the Supreme Court and so on and so forth.......THEN THE PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE ABLE TO VOTE WOULD PROBABLY DROP TO......

2%  which would be 5 million people......and now as I actually write that number I realize that my friend Tom might be overestimating his 5%.

ARE THERE 5 MILLION PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY WHO ARE FULLY INFORMED OF THE WORKINGS OF OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM AND ARE AWARE OF CURRENT EVENTS THAT AREN'T BASED ON CELEBRITY BASED KNOWLEDGE?

The only people who are politically in tune are those who are playing the game of politics....and of course those who are tied into the lobby arm of the game.  The lobby arm of the game is a very powerful arm and seems to be getting stronger and stronger.

When the Supreme Court ruled that corporations were no longer limited in their campaign contributions......that set an entire new game afoot.

WHAT I'M ACTUALLY TELLING YOU IS THAT WHILE YOU DON'T GIVE A FLYING RAT'S ASS ABOUT THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION....THERE ARE ABOUT 250,000 FULLY INFORMED PEOPLE WORKING THEIR ASSES OFF RIGHT NOW TRYING TO GET THEIR CANDIDATES INTO THE WHITE HOUSE IN JANUARY  OF 2017.

PRETTY SOON THAT NUMBER WILL GROW TO 500,000 AND BY THE FIRST OF SEPTEMBER 2015 THERE WILL BE A MILLION POLITICAL WORKER BEES TRYING TO PLEASE THEIR QUEEN.

WHO IS THAT QUEEN GOING TO BEE FOR EITHER PARTY?

YOU DON'T CARE?

And there in lies the rub......you don't care and THEY know it and all THEY are trying to do is sell you the brand name of THEIR soap.

THE NAME
THE NAME
THE BRAND
THE BRAND

THE NAME
THE BRAND

AND THAT'S WHY RIGHT NOW THE ODDS ARE EVEN MONEY THAT THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION WILL BE

CLINTON VS BUSH

THOSE TWO NAME BRANDS ARE SO INGRAINED IN THE AMERICAN PSYCHE THAT FOR ANYONE ELSE TO EMERGE, IT WOULD MEAN THAT JEB OR HILLARY IMPLODED

I'm not saying that can't happen........

Is Hillary the best that the Democratic party has to offer?
Is Jeb the best that the Republican party has to offer?

I don't really think so.....but after all is said and done......the only thing that matters in an uninformed environment is

NAME
BRAND

AND THOSE TWO are like Coke and Pepsi......we know there are much healthier and better things to drink but the numbers don't lie and Coke and Pepsi are king.....and then on top of that if anything comes along that might rival their sales....they just buy em and fold them into their base camps.

I haven't had a Pepsi or a Coke for quite awhile.

Water, 100% juice and Canada Dry Ginger Ale just makes a lot more sense.....but so does being informed....and that doesn't seem to be any type of current trend that will be sweeping the country anytime soon so......

Get ready for a major dose of Clinton Bush.....which just doesn't sound very enticing......does it?

And I apologise for the image I'm leaving you with.

CLINTON /BUSH 2016


Michael Timothy McAlevey

Just remembering how things are

Yesterday I was walking to the market and saw a single white thistle in the middle of a lawn.  I'm pretty sure it is called a thistle.  Small white stalk with a ball of wispy white things on the top. I haven't seen one in quite a long time and since there was no breeze I decided to pick it and look at it and walk with it for awhile.  It seemed to me that I remember something about making a wish and then blowing the wispy white things off.  Of course I also thought that was kind of silly but I made my wish anyway and blew.

The cascading petals (for lack of a better word) went off in a soft billowy motion and gently floated to the ground.....very slowly floating down to earth.

It was quite lovely and the moment froze and then my thought was......"Sean was like a thistle."

I lost my 92 year old father three years ago and never once asked why. We celebrated his life and every time I see his plague on Tuesdays at the golf course, I always say...."Hi Dad."

It's very hard to celebrate the lost of a teenage child, an only son, and the older brother of your only daughter.

Today Sean Maximilian McAlevey would be 37 years old in his physical reality.  I have no idea how old he is in his non-physical reality.

I lost my 15 year old son 22 years ago and the why word has only surfaced about 10 million times.

WHY is a simple little three letter word that actually never gets answered when it comes to the lost of someone you love. But the truth is when you lose a relative who has lived a full life there is no reason to ask why. You celebrate their life.  You tell story after story and you go forward.

When you are a young child and you lose a parent  often times that parent is replaced by a new parental figure.  It doesn't always work out well but when it does, it works wonders on repairing the heart.

There's no replacing a teen age child.  If you are lucky enough to have another child, who is younger, than pretty soon there will be another teenager....but when this type of horrible experience enters your reality it hangs behind the consciousness................just waiting for another hammer to drop.

I've been asked numerous times over the years how I managed to get through such a devastating experience.  I always answer the same way....."not really sure I have gotten through it."  After all I'm an artist who doesn't seem to get the respect needed to sustain a normal lifestyle....and I just keep creating more while waiting for the crowd to form.  That's pretty insane if you think about it, so in reality I've haven't really gotten through anything.  I'm in the clutches of some odd awareness that keeps telling me to be positive...and stay creative....and stick to the path that has been shaped by the experiences endured since 1994.

I care so much more about how my daughter is doing than how I am doing and I'm not really sure that losing her older brother when she was 8 isn't harder on her.  The WHY word pops up when you are growing into adulthood and once more there are no answers.

This isn't one of those deals where you can say....it's been 20 years get over it!

I was a adult and had previously formulated ideas and theories about physical reality and non-physical reality and while I was able to share those with her it doesn't really make every thing ok.  Areas of  spiritual awareness and anything having to do with death and lost are areas that have to be built within oneself.

We can read what other people have gone through and what they think and what they believe, but if you don't work it out on your own.........it becomes a big dent in your subconscious.

It's not an easy thing to work out.

I don't expect people to make concessions for my daughter but she is a very sweet person and when friends of hers don't take everything that she has been through into consideration, before they act rude toward her, then I really feel something is wrong with the program. 

People can be so stupid sometimes that it just pisses the fuck out of me.

Not being able to celebrate Sean's 37 birthday with him pisses the fuck out of me.

There's nothing I can do about that, but there should be some things I can do to make sure my daughter associates herself with people who have hearts large enough to accept her and whatever she is going through.

If Sean was here I think he might be kicking some butts.......but then again if Sean was here today there won't be a giant
WHY
hanging over our heads.

Birthdays for non-physical reality beings can be fairly quiet.

I love you dude....wherever you are.

Dad.

A Mind Jazz reprint that still has us saying.....WOW

Friday, August 29, 2008

TRYING TO TRUMP THE MO WITH HUH?

The first move by John McCain to undermine the momentum from the Democratic National Convention was made this morning in Dayton, Ohio.

John McCain and all of his supporters have been moaning and groaning about the lack of EXPERIENCE in BARACK OBAMA'S life....and that there was no way he was qualified to be President of the United States after only four years of being a United States Senator. That argument is now off the table.

JOHN'S FIRST MOVE WAS TO SELECT

SARAH PALIN

My first reaction was......I didn't even know Michael Palin's wife was in politics.

Then I discovered she is the Governor of Alaska
and
all I can say is.....

HUH?

Is this a move to start drilling in Alaska?

I'm looking forward to the debate between
SARAH PALIN and JOE BIDEN
BUT
FIRST
I NEED TO LEARN
ANYTHING
ABOUT

SARAH PALIN

WOW......I bet Mitt Romney is sitting in his office right now saying the exact same thing.

wow

Michael Timothy McAlevey

 

Easter Bunny left out

The last article I wrote for Mind Jazz omitted a very important fantasy entity known as the Easter Bunny.

Didn't mean to snub the King of Hares but you will have to admit it's one of the goofier tales that we tell our little ones.

I realize it's all in good fun and for those who learn not to take fairy tales too seriously there appears to be very little damage.

VERY LITTLE DAMAGE is the key phrase to digest.   It doesn't take a lot of damage to make an adult not view life in a realistic fashion.

It's one thing to have sweet little fantasy stories occupying each and every holiday and it's another thing to extend those fantasies into a belief system that not only controls your adult behavior but convinces you that anyone not seeing it your way....IS WRONG.

And of course that brings up the concept of religious indoctrinations as they are calmly interchanged with silly fictional human and non-human characters so that it's almost impossible not to believe in something that is void of all reality.

BECAUSE OF THE INTERCHANGING PRINCIPLES TAKING PLACE AS A CHILD WE ARE FORCED TO ACCEPT SOMETHING FROM THE FANTASY LIST, AND WITH THE SERIOUS GUILT TRIP WHICH IS APPLIED TO RELIGION, BY OUR PARENTS AND PSUEDO SPIRITUAL GUIDES, THE RESULT IS......WE BELIEVE IN EXTREMELY CRAZY SITUATIONS THAT ONCE AGAIN TOTALLY UNDERESTIMATE THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE.

I understand the principle of group control and ceremonial events that allow human beings to join together to celebrate, sing and share common ideals.

But it's important to also understand that as the next stage of human evolution unfolds there will be less and less need to create fantasies in order to develop bonds with each other.

EACH AND EVERYONE OF US SHOULD BE A CELEBRATION......in spite of our flaws and quirky behavior. 

The opportunity to share food and song and dance shouldn't need a illusionary FIGUREHEAD to make occasions of human interaction seem important.

We are lucky to be alive and that should be enough.  How we practice our individual moral code of behavior should be based on how we treat other human beings. 

The fact that there really is a Creator of the Universe should be more than enough. 

Why that always results in groups of us needing to gather together seems rather silly and perhaps that's why we create these incredible fantasy creatures.  WE CAN ALWAYS BLAME THE NONSENSE ON SOMETHING LIKE

THE EASTER BUNNY.

In truth...there are some much deeper fantasies involved in Easter than a bunny who hides eggs.....

BUT
let's just ease up a bit for now and enjoy one of the special illusions created from our greatest human ability.....

THE ABILITY TO TELL A STORY AND THAN MAKE IT INTO
A FULL BLOWN
REALITY

happy easter

Michael Timothy McAlevey