Ex-Patriotion

With all the talk of late about people choosing to leave the country if one or another presidential candidate wins in November, I got thinking about what it would take for someone to make that choice.  

Apart from those who leave to escape the law or hide assets in Aruba, what would cause a person to become an ex-pat? (if anything)  I wonder if any non-Jewish Germans left their country in the late 1930's when it became obvious that Hitler was taking the country to war for reasons of conquest or opposition to his policy toward the country's Jewish population?  

In this county would it be the arresting of all people of the Muslim faith (as suggested by one candidate)?  Would it be the policy of torturing POW's or killing of the families of suspected terrorists?  Would it be a sense that the country is following an immoral domestic program, or the suppression of the Constitution to allow for dictatorial powers by an executive?

In the 1960's and 70's countless young men left due to the conduct of a war, but many did so to escape the military draft, even thou some left for reason of moral opposition to an unjust war.

During the era of Jim Crow and the early civil rights campaign, people did not leave to oppose our racial relations issues.  People in the south did not leave over the wide-spread lynching of black Americans.  So what would it take for some people to move to Canada or Ireland?
Update Aug 29, 2016.  The number of Americans living abroad (nonmilitary US citizens) estimate to be 8.7 million.  In 1999 there were 4 million.  Accuracy may be in doubt.

News items of interest to myself that I once would have posted to Face Book I will now post here.  July 2016.

July 2016:  Hillary Clinton's E-mail investigation is in the news (and has been for quite a long time) again because the Congressional investigation has ended at a cost of $ 7 million.  I would like to know "how many jobs did that congressional effort create?"

Trump's comments about Mexicans and Muslims (negative always) has created a attitude in this country that bigotry is fashionable again.  People in the public eye can create a atmosphere that makes others follow along.  JFK created a atmosphere of public service and many young people went into teaching or the Peace Corps; a positive impact I would note.  Jimmy Carter made conservation  fashionable and people walked more and drove slower and wore sweaters instead of turning up the heat and using more electricity.  On the other hand, Ronald Reagan made it fashionable for us to hate the government and there are now militia groups arming themselves so they can take down the government if they so desire.  Now Trump, with his tirades against Muslims and Mexicans and immigrants has increased the occurrence of racial and group hatred.  And instead of blaming Trump for the impact of his actions, we blame Obama for them.

At the end of Bill Clinton's term of office the budget had a pretty nice surplus.  Al Gore and democrats wanted to set that money aside to fund Social Security well into the future.  Put the money in a "lock box" Gore said.  George Bush and the republicans wanted to return that money to individual tax payers.  Because Bush won a corrupt election the surplus was returned to individuals, the vast majority going to the wealthy like himself and Dick Cheney.  Now with the Social Security fund is running low the republicans want to cut the benefits to Social Security.  How anybody today depending on SS to provide basic needs and voting for republicans has to boggle the mind.

US Constitution

It seems to me that those who talk so much about Constitution know the least about it; except for one half of one Amendment.  Those who complain about federal government "dictatorial" actions should study the document.  There are so many ways the Constitution divides and separates power to protect a system based on democracy.  Powers are granted to the state government and the federal government.  Education, for example, is a state responsibility;  national defense a federal.  Separation of powers grants to each branch fields of action, the Amendments grant to the people protection against abusive government.  

The Constitution works, not always perfectly, but it works.  Its wrong that some who don't get their way want to change it; they would not come up with anything better.  If we don't live by the law we live by the one who presently holds power.  That is a receipt for disaster.

Political Speech

When politicians or pubic figures (like Ronald Reagan or Donald Trump and others) who trash talk the government they give emotional support and encouragement to those who just want an excuse to be violent. As in Nazi Germany the anti-Semitic laws of Nuremberg and before that the anti-Jewish retoric led directly to the gas chambers at Auschwitz.  You can't preach hate and not expect some of the flock will take it to the next level.

Items from The Nation Dec 21, 2015

One of every seven black children has a parent in "behind bars', while one in every 57 white children do.  Jailing of blacks, while obviously impacting the male black population, is also having a huge negative impact of children, something that is not often noted.

Ralph Nader, consumer advocate, wrote Unsafe At Any Speed causing a major impact on auto safety in this country.  It is noted that his book caused the creation by LBJ of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  The standards the NHTSA created (safety regulations) "reduce(d) the rate of deaths per mile driven by nearly 80 %"...saving as many as 3.5 million lives (some experts claim).

"Laissez-faire" is really "laissez isn;t always fair" re article on Nader.  There are three ways that capitalism can be improved by government.  First, prohibit, like discrimination in hiring.  Second, mandate "floors of behaviour" like how much pollution can be tolerated.  Third, disclosure of things like nicotine and tar in cigarettes, or industrial pollution, or cribs that kill, etc.

United States history;  the period after the Civil War was marked by and increase in democracy-former slaves could vote.  That was called Reconstruction.  That was followed by a reduction is voting rights for black, a period called Redemption.  Then with the passage of the Voting Right Act in 1965 (VRA) a period called the Second Reconstruction.  Now with the Roberts Court and the gutting of the VRA we have a Second Redemption period.  What next?

Some thoughts for today Dec 13

One of our few key Arab allies in the Middle East has just now decided to let women vote.  Saudi Arabia- an oil rich dictatorship with human rights issues and possible support for Islamic terrorist-is a partner of ours in bringing democracy to that part of the world.  Doesn't seem to me like the plan is working.

In an op ed article in The Record today a writer for the Bloomberg news noted that a "erstwhile Republican campaign icon" (?) wrote a letter to a father who lost a child in a shooting rampage in California in 2014 and said that while he sympathized with the father for the loss of his child he also said "...your dead kids don't trump my Constitutional rights".  Could someone have really sent that letter?

The Navy reported today that its newest ship-USS Milwaukee-broke down at sea on the way to its home port in Mayport, FL and had to be towed home by a salvage ship.  This is the littoral combat ship (whatever that is) 

My Bio re Ben Carson.

I was just re-reading the Ben Carson bio the other day and I thought I should up-date my own.

Just in case I decide to run for president one day (of my nursing home), I thought it would be wise to start on my biography so that I could use it for a campaign book at that time.

My life started at a young age and the first memory I have is the attack on my mother when I was 8 years old.  She had tried to limit my time reading smutty magazines so I attacked her with a meat cleaver.  But it wasn't too serious, other than to drive our car with on one arm (standard shift); it was only a "flesh wound".

In high school it was during the time of the Soviet space shot of Sputnik.  Students in my school were very much enraged as this was the time of the Cold War and many kids wore t-shirts with phrases like "Kill a Commie for Mommy" on them.  Tensions were very high and at that time there was a foreign exchange student, a Union of Soviet Socialist Republican, who was under threat of physical abuse.  I took it upon myself to shelter the young lade-whose ID number was 34-22-34...wait that was another number.  Well never mind that.  At risk to myself i sheltered the young lady in the back of my family station wagon in the parking lot of the high school; the school backed on to a wooded area and was very private.  We had to hide under blankets to keep from being seen by the squads of roaming students bent on violence toward this young thing.  It was touch and go the entire time.

Nearing graduation I was in a quandary as to where to continue my education.  I was pleased to have received a full scholarship to the Electoral College, but realizing that I would only have to go to class one day every four years, it was obvious that completion of a degree would have taken a lifetime.  For that reason I decided to enroll in NorthEast Puduck University in rural Missouri.  It was just a coincidence that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republican babe was enrolled at the same school (in order to escape form those right wing nut jobs in my high school).

It was at NEPU that I encountered personal violence of the extreme nature when I was held at gunpoint by a gang of gun toting militia members in a Mexican fast food exchange.  They were determined to find the cook's helper-a Mexican-and do violence to him.  I protected him by shoving him into the meat locker.  Unfortunately, I forgot that I hid him there till the next week when he was found frozen stiff.  I tried to do the right thing but in fact I just f---ed it up.

I will continue with my bio at some later time.  Stay tuned.