I searched the ‘net for a Black and Decker hedge trimmer. An hour later, I received an email from Walmart.com with a subject line of “Are we reading your mind?” Inside was Walmart’s recommendations for me…the top of the list? A B&D hedge trimmer. Reading my mind? No, I’m being cyber stalked.
I have a presidential theory. There is a huge manual of national secrets that each new president is shown after being sworn in, and sworn to secrecy. I wonder what the American citizen does not know, and what the government does know about us…each individual us. I mean, if WalMart knows...
Was the above a conspiracy theory in disguise?
Is what happened in Chicago on Friday at Donald Trump’s rally a foretaste of what’s to come when certain groups of people don't like what's being said or who is coming to town? We have a recent history of riots in Ferguson and Baltimore, where their own mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, told the police to "give space to those who wish to destroy.” And then there was Detroit’s housing riot in 2013. (There weren’t enough vouchers for free housing and people went ballistic.) It’s a little disconcerting, isn’t it?
Words of Advice:
- No need to roll your hair on a rainy Monday...and for sure don't use spray paint (for covering gray roots) on a rainy day. Or a hot day when you may be sweating. Don't ask me how I know that.
- Yoga pants may not be the best choice of clothing...especially when you wear them so tight that anyone behind you is subjected to thinly stretched material across your ample derrière. Here's some good advice: get a larger size and wear a longer top.
- If you haven't worked much of your adult life, and never (or rarely) worked full time, and you are "feeling the bern," don't get your undies twisted when your smarter, non-socialist friends give you the facts about socialism. I believe it was some of your ilk rioting in the above mentioned cities.
Happy Monday, Y'all!
I like the new background on the blog :) Our realtor in California explained how they embed cookies into certain sites based on what you have done for research to advertise houses, etc. That explains WalMart and so much more. Looked at flowers to order for son/family on arrival of the baby and 5 minutes later tons of flower ads on Facebook. There are no secrets any more if you are on the Internet and social media.
ReplyDeleteI like your theory, there may be some fact to it.
Our country is going to be in terrible trouble if Bernie Sanders gets elected. But he does have people who think highly of him.......that is scary if they don't realize exactly what socialism can do to a country
betty
My experience with Bernie lovers are mostly students who haven't worked in the real world. There are a few adults that I know personally who like Bernie, but I question their intelligence, so...
DeleteGet an ad blocker and you won't have anymore facebook ads...or ads on youtube, or any ads! I love mine!
Oh, and I don't think Bernie Sanders has a chance of getting elected even if he won the nomination, which I doubt seriously he will.
DeleteJust today I was going through my Picassa photos and noticed that photos were put into albums from old phones and computers that I didn't put there. Obviously, someone saved them but it wasn't me. It's creepy. And LOL spray paint on grey roots? I can only imagine.
ReplyDeleteDon't imagine the spray pain. It might have its uses, but probably not recommended! I also came across a Picasa web album on an old computer with some old photos that I was glad to get back. It didn't occur to me that I didn't put them there, but I sure don't remember it. Hmmmm
DeleteSo many conflicting thoughts...
ReplyDelete1. While people have the right to free speech, they do not have the right to cause chaos in lawful assemblies. The protests should have remained outside.
2. While I loathe "blaming the victim", Trump is not a stupid man--so hard for me to admit that--so he had to know that staging a rally ON U of Illinois campus in chicago would result in massive protests and shenanigans. I mean it is the home base of the infamous and creative protest planner, Saul Alinsky that Fox loves to mention when talking about left-leaning Dems.
I can't believe that Trump was naive to what would happen, although I do think that his narcissism is sufficient to think that he, by the sheer force of his will and personality, would best the protestor and force them into compliance--making him look like a tough guy who wins. Just MHO.
3. There have been riots at political rallies and conventions before. I was present--I mean right there--during the riots ad the Dem convention in 1968. It was terrifying. the visual is still firmly etched in my mind. Vietnam War, the draft, social unrest, along with some candidates who sounded much like Trump at their rallies all fueled that fire.
There is little new under the sun.
4. Computer ads. freak me out. My son thinks I'm qute amusing.
5. Speaking of my son. Margaret, he is brilliant. Really. He works at a nearby university in their IT department. He is on call 24 hours a day. He is only one of 3 people on campus who is certified in all aspects of of all things computer--from how to build and repair them to how to write code. He is 40 years old and yet--->
He is working the campaign in his area for Bernie Sanders. :o
I have no explanation for it except that being on campus 50 hours a week has stunted his cognitive growth. sighhhhh.
6. Just FYI, and so you don't worry about my cognitive growth, as of today, I am no longer a Democrat. I applied to switch party affiliation to the Reps and received notice today that the switch has gone thru. It was harder than you'd think for me to do despite the fact that I haven't voted for a Dem president in decades.
I come from a very political family on both sides--state office holders, local office holders, campaign workers. All Democrats in this primarily blue collar area, but the Democratic party left me long ago and the current screeching the virtues of abortion and gay marriage has me in a permanent cringe.
Of course, Trump is pretty cringeworthy, too.
My apologies to all those I have offended. :}
Deb
ugh! Poor son! Maybe he'll come back to his senses! lol I have relatives who are Bernie fans, too. It's beyond my comprehension.
DeleteI have to tell you...I never dreamed you were a democrat! haha glad that's over!
My parents were telling me about the riots and unrest from the 60s this weekend. Sometimes I forgot that as much as stuff changes, it stays the same...or comes back around again. Who would have believed that 50 years later, civil unrest is as bad as it still is?
Cringe-worthy Trump. Yeah. I have to believe that God will save him. That's my prayer.
hah. Talk about coming back around---for the younuns who don't remember--that 1969 convention was in ---> Chicago. Yep.
DeleteReally, tho, what a referred to as social unrest was much worse than we havenow. If you recall, just a few months before that convention both Martin Luter King, Jr and Robert Kennedy were assassinated and in a truly Trumpian attitude, the guy who was mayor of Chicago......Oh, what was his name...Oh. Was it Daley? At any rate, he told police to "shoot to kill" any protesters. Yes. That helped.
We must pray--and I know yo are--against the possibility of more violence. As you mentioned re: Ferguson, etc, their is violence bubbling already which makes Trumps rhetoric so foolish, and dangerous. The spirit roaming the earth to seek who he may desire is on the alert; we must be, too.
Uhhmm. Didn't mean to get so dark and doomsdayish on you. :}
I know the issues of the 60s was worse than we have now. I didn't mean to make it sound like I thought it was as bad today as then. It is still bad today, but there was some atrocities going on back then...I just have no words for it. Doomdayish? nah. We deal in truth around here.
DeleteOh, you didn't make it sound like today was worse! It just occurred to me that my offhand "social unrest" was way too much of an understatement and I needed to correct it. it IS poisonous out there today and I have to admit that I'm just a bit bewildered, for lack of a better term, by it. Ihave a kind of "Wait. What?' kind of feeling. Of course, I live in a seriously NOT urban area that city fold would call rural. :} We don't think it's rural unless cows are involved, and there are no cows on main street. Shoot, you need to drive almost 10 minutes before you see a cow. chuckle.
DeleteAt any rate, we're not urban and most neighborhoods would be judged to be working or are middle class and multi-cultural. I may be more aware of injustice and unrest if I didn't live in Pennsylvania's version of Mayberry.
I fully understand that Mayberry living. I mean...Alabama...what can I say?
DeleteI think poisonous is a good word. Deceived. Strong delusion. I am just so glad that I know Jesus. What do people do who don't know Him?
Ask someone to explain the difference between socialism and communism. We strongly suspect, at least without the use of cows, they can't.
ReplyDeleteIt may be a little difficult to explain the difference without the use of cows, but I'll give it a shot. The easiest way to think of it is that socialism is an economic system that has the goal of everyone receiving the full benefit of his labor--rather than receiving a token of what his labor produces, with the balance going to the employer as profit and to the government as taxe. Socialism is, in fact, an economic system that is closer to capitalism than to communism...in theory, not practice. The difference between socialism and capitalism is that the workers own the "business" and equally reap the benefits and the cost. Capitalism has a business owner who reaps the benefits and costs of the business, with the workers pay being part of the costs. In capitalism, good business owners give their workers good pay for good work; unfair business owners pay as little as possible while expecting much more labor than is reasonable so that the owner can have most of the pie, while the workers receive a meager sliver. Socialism is a share and and share alike--everyone gets an equal sized slice of the pie.
Deleteto boil that down, again without cows, in both capitalism and socialism,everyone has their own private property--only the ownership of the means of production (the business) is different. In capitalism, the owner owns and the workers don't are dependent upon the integrity of the owner for their share.. In socialism, the means of production is a shared venture, owned by all involved and shared equally by all involved. The harder you work, the more benefit you reap. Product/funds/resources are distributed according to effort not status. Socialism prefers it's government to be a democratic type which allows for the input of all of the people.
On the other hand, communism is both an economic and a political system. The ruling entity (the state) owns everything. There is no private property of any kind, no private business, no equally shared business, and no religion. Everything is state controlled, decided, and distributed. Theoretically, the "everything" is distributed according to need. Of course, the state decides what you need and what will satisfy that need. There is no mutual decision-making or voting and, usually, armed forces help people to comply with what the state decides is in their best interests.
The problem with socialism is two fold: One is that human nature, being what it is, can't manage a fair, share and share alike, arrangement. Someone always wants to wing, to rule, to game the system. Historically, true socialism fails to materialize, often by the design of those who really wanted communism and were just selling a dream in order to get control.
The other problem is that socialism is spun into the Bernie Sanders' model, which is a benevolent form of communism and not socialism at all. It is a political and economic system which distributes resources according to need, not fairly according to effort. It enslaves the producers of resources to provide for those who prefer to not exercise effort. It is a "benevolent" communism in that the desire is to meet needs--whether they are legitimate needs or not--bountifully. And a democratic form of government is desired there is no intent to use armed force to insure compliance. (Of course, one wonders what would happen if all of us who earn a paycheck decide to stop earning...)
Either way, socialism is doomed to failrue.
Sorry this is so long. It would have been shorter with cows.
Something I'd never thought about, but I believe what you said is pretty spot on..."true socialism fails to materialize, often by the design of those who really wanted communism and were just selling a dream in order to get control." Yep. I involuntarily shudder to think of Sanders in control. Hillary, too.
DeleteOh, I think Bernie is sincere is his dream selling, really wanting to do good. It's just that his form of socialism is really quite dangerous...not that any form of socialism works. Just look at the early church--they had the purest form of socialism, and had trouble pulling it off. (Did I hear a gasp??)
DeleteIt really was socialism, you know. Those who had extra brought it into the church leadeers who distributed that extra to those who had need. Everything was held in common. Syas so. However, unlike Bernie's version of socialism, everyone was expected to do what they could. Men were explicitly told that they were to work and provide for their family and if they didn't work, they were not to be fed. Women were given tasks they were to fulfill. Widows had to qualify as widows indeed. No one had a free rice--but, as I noted above and as it said in the Word--they held all things incommon and those who had extra gave to fill the gap for those who were short of enough.
And then along came Ananias and Saphira. And so it goes...
See--still no cows.
I don't remember reading everything was held in common. In the case of Ananias, Peter said:
DeleteActs 5: 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? 4 While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”
So I just assumed it was not compulsatory. (My spell check says "compulsatory" is not a word. Sounds like it should be a word.)
Soon, these replies are going to be their own post. Sharing was not required and like true socialism, the people held their own private property; it was not owned or controlled by a higher authority.
DeleteRe: "all things in common". That is KJV phrasing. I sometimes fall back on that without thinking since it was the version I read first and longest. :} Here it is in NIV.
Acts 4:32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
Oh yeah, my comment section is about to have a nervous breakdown! It's never seen so many comments. I think that's the way God intended for the church to be, that no one would be in need. But as you've said, and as we can see...it had issues from the get-go, and of course the issue was people.
DeleteI can tell you The Donald has all of us outside the US scared, and desperately hoping these supporters of his regain their senses before elections. The world seriously doesn't need another head of state, let alone of such a major global player as the US, who condones—even encourages—violence that way.
ReplyDeleteOk. Off my soapbox now :) I'm visiting over from the A-to-Z Challenge, making the early rounds. See you in April!
Guilie @ Life In Dogs (and member of co-host Damyanti's team, D's Company )
Ha! This is brilliant. I love the advice.
ReplyDelete