Coffee Chat

 

Sometimes, the best therapy is just this....a cup of coffee, your best friend and endless conversations!! I miss mine more everyday!!

Ok, so my coffee chat today is also my daily social media update. I know so many get upset by them, but I refuse to be so distracted and/or blinded, that I don't pay attention to details. Every time I have lived with "blinders" on, it has bitten me! Being blindsided by problems creates worse problems! I would rather talk through or debate, get the thoughts out of my head so I can actually FIX the problem...not bury it. 

So, let's dive into some conversation. My first thought, missing my best friend...that is most definitely a daily thought! Having a best friend, especially one that has been with you through thick and thin, is priceless. One that understands what you can't find the words to explain, one that you may not talk to often but you can pick up where you left off even if it's been a year or more, and one that never judges you...just reminds you we all make dumb choices at times....that is priceless!! In a word of fakery, when loyalty to your face while stabbing you in the back has become normal...those true friends are rare. 

As usual, I start my days with gratitude and prayer. Some days it remains fairly easy to hold to that all day. Others, not so much! In the world today, it's easy to get discouraged. We are all facing an uphill battle, on no less than one front. Many are battling health issues that consume all their energy. Many are struggling with financial issues, and as I have stated for years now...even more are struggling to juggle paying their bills and still being able to eat. It's upsetting, I get it, but it is a sad reality that we are having to live with. If you aren't struggling with something today, thank God and go be a blessing to someone who is. We are constantly being bombarded with tragedy to a point of becoming desensitized to it. We spend our days busting butt at our jobs, racing through our commutes, having dinner with our families, mindlessly vegging out on the noise box, and then going to bed so we can do it all again tomorrow. So, while we are living in this vegetative state, the politicians are selling out our country to the highest bidder, destroying our money supply, making themselves wealthy at our expense, ripping away our rights, allowing crime sprees across the country with no consequence to the criminals, destroying our economy while they continue to print money and spend, continue to increase our tax burden so our citizens are one emergency away from bankruptcy, lie to our citizens to get you to vote for them - knowing full well they are just snakes in the grass - especially those that 20+ years into their careers as politicians, and they haven't done a damn thing to actually help anyone - except themselves! So, when I get irritated at people that refuse to see what's happening, it's not only justified but maybe it's a good time  for others to take off the blinders too. 

Yes, researching the circus we live in, takes effort, time, and facing the music. However, it's a necessary evil. Something I read years ago, has stuck with me and is fitting for situation we are currently living in. After World War 2, some Germans were asked "how and why they didn't try to stop the Jewish from getting on those trains or protecting them," they said, "we didn't know." They knew! They just were too scared and too willing keep their heads down so they didn't have to see what was actually going on. Do you realize we are facing the same general situation today? Too many are content to just keep their heads down, ignore what's going on, and/or are too afraid to face the reality of what is going on. It's terrifying, I'll give you that. Cognitive Dissonance is no excuse!! Thinking you can do nothing about anything happening, is a crutch. These are things that have created the very environment we are currently living in. People have gotten lazy and complacent. We have to fix these problems. When political spending is exceeding not only our tax monies but also our GDP, we have to demand accountability. $1 Trillion in interest alone, is being added to our federal debt every single quarter! This is not sustainable. If you don't care, try to think about what you are leaving on the heads of your children and grand children. If you are getting close to retirement, and think you can have social security to help with your income...think again! Social security and medicare will be insolvent in less than 5 years. How do you feel about having to "come out of retirement," at 67-70 years and go back to working 40+ hours a week? Think your pensions are safe...think again. What exactly is your pension linked to? The stock market, commercial real estate or bonds...if our dollar is removed as the world currency and the commercial real estate market continues to collapse...how are you going to live on a non-existent pension? Do you realize how many pensions are bonded to the commercial real estate? Teachers unions, unions, governments(local, state and federal); do you know what yours is bonded to? What about those 401K's linked with the stock market? Anyone remember the last stock market crash when 401K's dropped hundreds of thousands of dollars from those 401K's? What about all this spending allowed through our Congress. In case you don't remember Civics classes...the Congress is supposed to hold the purse strings to our budget. That makes every Congress since 1970, responsible for irresponsible spending habits. Why haven't these representatives been held responsible? Did they all fail economics class so badly they don't grasp how to budget? Why has the U.S. spent so much, sending it to other countries or entities so callously that it has enslaved the American citizens? Why have we allowed it?! How would your household work if you managed your money like our government is? Are you living your life like the government....living on credit? What would happen if you went to work tomorrow, only to find out that you no longer had a job? This is a very real reality for hundreds of thousands of American's today. 

I get so frustrated when I hear people brush off the reality we are facing in our country. I have heard every excuse in the books for why people don't pay attention..."it's too depressing," yeah, it is...imagine what it will feel like when you can't buy food, or end up homeless. "I can't do anything about it, so why worry," Really? Why not start holding your local reps accountable? Why not shift from this corrupt 2 party system and start behaving like American's and keeping those reps feet to the grind? "I don't have the time you do to research," ok...I get it. I sacrificed a lot of time to research, like 4 years, but digging even 30 minutes a day is a start. Turn off Netflix for 30 minutes, get on a search engine and dig into real information...not the same crap the news media is spewing. You'd learn quickly that the media isn't even giving you half the story anymore...it's more like a few lines from a 1000 page book, that every single channel is set to repetition so you start to believe the nonsense. Learn what words really mean, not the word salads that have become common place by not only this administration but our Congress and Senate too, and both parties. Figure out where you stand...not by party, a job or union telling you where to stand, or fear of a friend/family member calling you names. That's childish and petty manipulation. Understand that we are not all going to agree on everything, and that is a GOOD thing!! Too much of a good thing, is still too much. When we are no longer allowed to have conversations and debates, due to censorship or name calling, we are no longer a free people. When one belief is the only acceptable belief, you are not free...that is tyranny. 

I know the world today is unsettling at best! I've watched good people lose family and friendships because they chose to be educated instead of blindly following the masses. I've watched good people lose their livelihoods because this economy has killed their jobs, their farms, their businesses, and caused them to end up in divorce courts. So, while it may be "easier" to just keep your head down, you are enabling these cycles to continue. You can't entirely blame a government for running amuck, when very few are willing to demand accountability. It is our responsibility, as American citizens, to know our rights, our laws, to demand the elected reps to actually work FOR us, and to fire those that refuse to do so. Those reps have ZERO right to be sending billions to any other country when our own is in shambles. Those reps/admin are sending bills to other countries to defend their borders, while ours has swinging doors. There is zero reason to send money to any other country when we have veterans and citizens living on the streets, going without necessary healthcare, food or medications. There is zero reason that our GDP is made up of 70% government spending, instead of manufacturing...which would create good jobs in America again. It would decrease our dependency on imports, and provide necessary income to local communities through the tax base. The same can be said for our prescription medications that are now imported from China, of all places. Our oil from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela at exorbitant costs. Much of our foods, clothing, etc. are now imported instead of being made in the U.S. Between the outrageous taxes, and regulations in the U.S.; that drove our manufacturing out of this country. Sure, we all complain about everything being made in China or other countries....but those we have elected the past 54 years, have created this repetitive cycle of tax, spend, debt; that has now reached nearly $36 Trillion. 

Do your own research. Don't comment if you are just going to say you don't have time, it's too depressing or whatever...just keep your head down and follow the masses, don't worry about the sounds of slaughter...just sing or turn your music up louder. When all the weaker individuals have perished, your time will come too. That's just how history has continuously repeated itself. This is why History is such an important educational tool. It's not there for you to like, it's there for all of us to learn from...and hopefully, stop the repetitions. If you are in a good place, I am happy for you. Go out and be a blessing to someone that is not so lucky! 

We are 6 months from another selection/election. I will be voting, even if I question the results. I will know, that I at least did my part. One thing so many, myself included for a while, has neglected to remember from Civics class...who holds the White House for 4-8 years is LESS important that who we elect to serve in the Congress and Senate. Some of those people have spent their entire adult lives in those chambers. Get out there and learn about those wanting to represent your state in either of those chambers. While you're checking that out...find out about your state reps too. We do not need more of the same, as we have faced with 50+ years of unaccountable Senators and Congressmen(no, I don't need to change that to differentiate men and women). That is a title, not a gender dividing term. This political correctness is bull shit. Most of you reading this are AMERICAN....start acting like it, and stop buying into all this division. We could ALL learn so much from each other if there wasn't a constant push for divisions, those that are offended by everything, and those wanting to have a pity party because of something that happened long before most of us today were alive. Yes, America is just like EVERY OTHER COUNTRY, we have scars and poor behaviors. That does not mean we can't break those generational traumas and not only do better but be better. We must DO and BE better for our children and our grandchildren. It is OUR responsibility to stop these traumas of war, famine, excess and division. We need to celebrate our differences, teach those around us the base values of being a good human being and the value and character of living a good quality of life. If you are a religious person, then you should know, we are supposedly ALL children of God. Made in his image and likeness. Stop preaching a passage while promoting division - whether that be gender, race, religion, or whatever. Not a single person on this Earth sits high enough to judge another. Yet, we hear of that every single day in every social circle there is. When you truly understand what has happened throughout history...NOT what is generically taught in public schools, you will understand the persecutions that have taken place for thousands of years. Just in America alone.... Original settlers lived along side the Native Americans for hundreds of years before the Native Americans were persecuted by the religions and governments of both the newly formed America and the Native Tribe elders. Before that, Native American's held slaves from not only other tribes, but also the white settlers that were here. The slave trade of black people was started by OTHER black people, in fact Africans were rounded up by other blacks, taken to ports and sold off - to blacks and whites, long before it happened in America. Let's not forget the Irish and Scottish that were enslaved and send to America to work in cotton and potato fields. Slavery, relocations and hostile take overs have happened world wide for literally thousands of years. While all of this is seriously messed up, wrong and sad...it is part of ALL our history. The only way to fix it, it to learn the truth and do everything we can to break those traumas. Instead of using them as an excuse to not to excel, we should learn what has happened and do everything we can to stop it from happening again. Sadly, this requires a lot of people to look at things from a different perspective. It's difficult, or at least it was for me. There is still so much more for me learn. I am hoping to have a real conversation with the one person, that I know personally, about the Native American side...at least for one tribe. Because I know I have a different opinion, I need to know more. I want to know that perspective too. This is where so many have failed. Just because we may not agree on everything, doesn't mean we hate on each other or even will agree after a conversation...but the conversation is required to grow. 

Today, like most days for me, learning is so important. Listening to that which weighs on my mind and heart, my intuition if you will, means stepping outside my comfort zone. It means being able to stand alone, if necessary, to get facts not propaganda. It usually means being a burr under someone else's saddle too, because not everyone is willing to grow and learn. That's ok. 

When you upend your life to make it one of continued education, questioning everything and adjusting your personal life to allow for that growth...it's a little unsettling for some. As always, keeping your home and family prepared, staying peaceful in a world of nut jobs, and not following the masses(usually the "m" is silent)...it's not for everyone. Pray for guidance, safety and health; then go out and be a blessing to someone today.