Talk Radio Inconsequential Outrage

     Talk radio hosts go on and on for hours, feeding their fan base a steady diet of inconsequential outrage. And if the outrage is not inconsequential, it is highly selective, reflecting only what is important to their pampered lives and the prima donnas they protect.

       

How Conservatism In Florida Goes Against The State's Financial Interests

     The deregulate everything mantra means the right of corporations to pollute and overdevelop. Less regulation does not mean economic boom. Less regulation does mean a bloom in toxic algae, ocean dead zones, and a more degraded environment. Deregulation will not spur economic growth in Florida. Deregulation means environmental degradation, which harms Florida's most important industries; tourism, real estate and retirement.
       Politicians in Florida, democrat or republican, should be at the forefront of environmentalism. Who will want to live in or visit the sunshine state if it is full of toxic algae blooms, dead zones, a Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic ocean too polluted to swim, fish, or be around?
       
       

Who Pays The Price For Cheap Meat?

     The fast food industry is hugely profitable because it benefits from not incurring the true costs of its business. Cheap meat is not really cheap, no matter how much money is made by fast food corporations, or by their meat producers and suppliers, or by any of the other companies that benefit from cheap meat.

      These corporations are not held responsible for the enormous environmental damage and harm to human health that results from the agricultural and industrial practices that support the meat they sell or produce. The waste from pig farms, the inefficient use of land and agricultural resources to produce crops used to feed livestock, the runoff from fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals, and much more, have contributed to enormous degradation of land, poisoning of rivers and lakes, and dead zones in places like the Gulf of Mexico*. 

      There has been some focus on the fast food industry and how human health is impacted by the direct consumption of their products. Some attention, although hardly enough, has been paid to the humane care, treatment and slaughter of animals raised to be eaten. This is an area still far too lacking. Cheap meat too often means misery.

       Little attention has been paid to cheap meat's impact on the environment. Fast food and other corporations involved in the cheap meat business are not held accountable for environmentally damaging agricultural and industrial practices and how these practices affect human health.
       Cheap meat is cheap for a number of corporations, but exacts a heavy cost that the public, not the corporations, ends up paying.

            

           

( * The impact on oceans from the fast food industry's use of plastics, disposable gloves and other non biodegradable items is significant.)

            

Dead Zone In The Gulf Of Mexico; Cheap Meat And The Drive To Deregulate

     The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana is considered the largest ever. This will adversely affect Louisiana's shrimp industry, tourism, recreational fishing and the income that generates, and far more. The wastewater and agricultural runoff that flows from the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico that causes dead zones in the Gulf remains an enormous problem. With significant cuts to the budget and authority of the EPA, the harm to the Gulf of Mexico will not abate.
      Agricultural practices that serve the meat industry are more than inefficient; they are destructive. The demand for cheap meat comes at at an expensive price. The heavy load of nutrient pollution from farms kills the land, rivers, and places like the Gulf of Mexico where much of it ultimately ends up.(And this is to say nothing regarding chemicals, pesticides, herbicides,etc).
        The mantra that deregulation, fewer regulations, or removing regulations is nothing but a positive for business and the economy might be true in some cases, but it is not that simple. The Gulf of Mexico is a jewel that supports jobs, businesses, and much more. Destroy the Gulf, and the economic and environmental harm will be on a scale far worse than can be imagined.
          The fate of the Gulf rests in the hands of the states that keep a blind eye to agricultural practices, large meat producers and fast food corporations that are responsible for how corn and soybeans are grown in order to feed livestock, state and federal governments, and more. Corporations must not be given a free pass to ignore the environmental damage that results from the agricultural and industrial practices that support the meat they are selling.
           Eating beef, pork and other meats are choices, not necessities. But allowing that choice to continue to support unsound agricultural practices that destroy lands and seas means people are cutting their own throats. The Gulf Of Mexico needs protection, including from every state whose runoff ends up there.

         
             
       

Social Media Drowning Intelligence In Advertisements

        Social media is furthering one of the most mind numbing, mind dumbing things that mankind ever created; advertisements. Social media is full of this inescapable annoyance. Meanwhile, new generations of children are subject to an increased assault on their intelligence by advertisements.
        When social media forces people to watch a whole advertisement before they can watch what they want to watch, it is better that people turn it off. Social media needs to learn that ads may be inescapable, but forcing people to watch them is not.

Americans That Made China (Not America) Great Again

     Conservatives, republicans, liberals, democrats, capitalists and anti communists assisted in one of the largest transfers of wealth and power by sending much of the United States' manufacturing and industrial base overseas to China. They talked about patriotism, but greed came first. China offered cheap wages for workers, few or no benefits, low environmental standards, and low work safety standards. People jumped at the opportunity.
       And now for the results: much of China is polluted. The U.S. lost much of its industrial and manufacturing base. Much of the United States has become a low wage service economy. China is now the leading source of ocean contamination by plastic and non biodegradable waste. The Chinese army is strong, supported by a strong industrial base that supports China's large army. China is asserting itself in places of strategic interest not only to the United States, but also to southeast Asian nations. China scours the world for minerals, lumber and resources to feed the industrial base that the United States gave it, with no regards for wildlife, the environment, or local populations. Trillions of dollars are wasted as the United States, China and Russia squander their wealth on bloated militaries.
       None of this may have happened if the United States did not hand to China on a silver platter its industrial and manufacturing base.
        Imagine if none of this happened. There would be more well paying jobs in the states. The U.S. middle class would be stronger. Wealth would not be as concentrated in the hands of a few, especially those that profit from cheap overseas labor and poor working and environmental standards. China would not be aggressively asserting itself in the South China Sea and elsewhere. China (and Russia) help enemies of the United States in ways that would not be possible if China did not possess the industrial base the United States gave it.
       Greed won, not common sense, and now a heavy price will be paid.

U.S. Moderation Out The Door; The Search For Easy Answers

    What kind of country does the United States want to become? A nation where the voices of moderation are increasingly lost? A nation where political discourse becomes nothing but name calling? Many people dismiss their opponents with simplistic labels; right winger, socialist, liberal, and so forth.
     People with the ability to think for themselves usually embrace ideas and beliefs that cross political spectrums. We are destroying constructive political discourse by labeling and stereotyping.
     The United States is moving to extremes, and losing the center ground of moderation.
     The recent trend to dismiss any news that someone does not like as fake does not help. The internet is full of lies, distortions, and propaganda promoting one hate group or another, but that does not mean that because those idiots lie and create false realities, all of the media is fake.
      If people keep thinking there are simplistic answers to complex problems, we will continue learning the hard way that all this creates is more trouble.
      The U.S. thought all that was needed in response to Al Qaeda and the Taliban was a full scale invasion of Afghanistan. No one wanted to learn from the Soviet Union's experience in Afghanistan, or the British experience, or from Afghanistan's long history. We could have destroyed the Taliban and Al Qaeda with military intervention, but without the full scale invasion. We also had the northern alliance working with us.
        All we have to do, thought Bush and company, is invade Iraq. Everything will be easy and there will be democracy across the middle east after that.
        Over 15 years later, the United States is still bogged down in Afghanistan, with no end in sight. Regarding Iraq, the foolish and reckless invasion led to disaster. (Hopefully a Kurdish country will be established. The one good thing that can come from all of this bloodshed.)
        Obama, also searching for easy solutions, withdrew from Iraq, leaving religious minorities unprotected. Genocide resulted, which may not have happened if not for Bush and Obama.
        Do people honestly think Trump has an answer to the huge, entrenched gang problems that are destroying neighborhoods across the United States because he talks tough about one gang? Oh, the so called right will scream, this is a defense of the vicious gang MS-13. No, destroy MS-13, but be mindful that their enemies will be strengthened, and the United States will still have the same huge gang problem, with or without MS-13. There is no easy answer to the entrenched American gangs and American gang culture that have now spread from the United States to other countries.
        There are millions of people in the United States illegally that are honest, hardworking people that have been doing the jobs that Americans do not want to do. Trump said he would go after the criminals that are here illegally. Even Reagan made an accommodation and opened doors to hardworking people in the United States that were here illegally and that are not criminals.
        There is no Reagan in the white house, and voices of moderation are being lost. Now families will be torn apart as compassion, including the compassion and reasonableness that Reagan displayed, dies along with moderation.
        It is hard to have a discussion about health care without hearing the screams about socialism. France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, England, Norway, The Netherlands, Canada,  Israel, and other close allies of the United States, have universal or widespread health care and are not communist or socialist nations. Millions of people with preexisting conditions may be left in the dust.
        There is a huge problem in the world with Islamic jihadists and Islamists. But moderate and secular Muslims cannot become the target of animosity. Trump may talk tough about the threat of Islamic radicalism, but it is the Trump administration that recently concluded the largest arms deal to Saudi Arabia ever. Make no mistake that the source of much of the Islamic bigotry and radicalism that is destroying this world is promoted by Saudi, Qatar, Iran and other oil rich countries.
        Trump was elected because he told people what they wanted to hear. It helped Trump enormously that Clinton was his opponent.
         Trump diverted attention to Hillary and away from himself. He made promises and boasts that many people bought.
         He had no health care plan, no idea how to deal with North Korea, no idea how to pursue peace in the middle east, no idea what to do about America's gang problem, no idea about America's drug problem, no idea how to stop Russian aggression, no idea how to stop China's destruction of the disputed South China Sea islands, no idea how to bring jobs back to the United States, no idea how to revitalize low income communities, no idea how to drain the swamp that he has now filled with the same wall street people that were swimming before in the swamp, no idea how to stop Russian cyberattacks, no idea about climate change, no idea how to stop environmental degradation, no idea about a lot of things he pretended to know about.
         People fall for  easy slogans and promises. Obama did it with his slogan, "Change You Can Believe In". Trump with his slogan, "Make America Great Again". What will be the next politician's slogan?
           People want easy answers. People are easily seduced. Especially if there is money behind the boaster, or some big name organization (that is how, for example, many ineffective animal related organizations collect millions), or some celebrity.
           There are no easy answers. The world is complex, and the sooner people face that complex reality and quit buying into easy answers and solutions, including those offered by religions and politicians, the better off humanity will be.