Rita's Spur to Action

This country, the United States of America has gone completely off the charts.
Trump has taken over the sanity of a large portion of the population.. The major news casters of CNN, ABC, CBS and FOX have given Trump 400 million dollars  worth of free publicity per month, but No one seems to care.

He is a consummate liar. He has a history with the mob. He has dealt with the Mafia over and  over again out of choice..  Apparently he has done business constantly with the Gambino family boss John Gotti, but when a reporter asked Trump about his highest stake gambler in the casino, Trump said “I wouldn’t know him if he stood in front of me”.

He knowingly ordered limousines made by another  known crook who was convicted for the theft of auto parts. No one seems to care.

Early on in his career Trump’s lawyer  was Roy Cohn. Roy Cohn was totally supportive of Senator McCarthy, the most right wing fascist America has ever produced.Careers and lives were destroyed by these people and their outrageous lies. No one seems to care.

The fact that he advocates for a police force that sounds like the Gestapo, or that he has bankrupted one company after another,or  that he lies like a rug,that he flip flops on every issue because of his abysmal ignorance. No one seems to care.

His foreign policy consist of building a wall across the Mexican border with the United State.Where really will that wall go? No one seems to care. Actually he should start in Maine, come all the way down the coast past New York City and run down and around Florida, the Gulf, and California all the way up the pacific coast to Canada. Maybe then he can keep out this strange influx of illegal immigrants whom he views as rapists. His ideas are mainly stupid but no one seems to care.

He brings  immigrants  into the country to staff his hotels because he wont pay the higher  wages to people who are  legal American workers. No one seems to care. If you want to talk about outsourcing jobs, I hear that he has his clothes made in China because its cheaper. His third IMMIGRANT wife also has her clothes made there I am told. I don’t know if this is true. But it probably is.

This man, Donald Trump,who is hoping to become  the President of the United States of America  does not even speak English properly.   No one seems to  care…

Despite the fact that he has never served a day in any of the armed service, even in the reserve, he thinks that he knows how a to run the Pentagon, the  Airforce, the Army,Navy and the Marines.. He also seems to think that he has the right to criticize Senator McCain for having been shot down,captured, tortured and imprisoned, because he considers him to be a loser. No one seems to care

He has  never held ANY public office or government position and his ideas and knowledge of  foreign policy were gleaned from his experience in running  a Miss Universe Beauty contest in Moscow. No one seems to care.

The fact that he has been married three times. What does that say about family values? No one worries about his family values or his attitude towards women. He would punish women and deny them  the right to make their own choices regarding their bodies. No one seems to care about that either.

He is a narcissist, an egotist who has to put his name on any surface he can put it on. He even franchises his name so that he can get it in more places. His name is on every building for ten blocks on the Hudson River. I am told that he didn’t even build those buildings.They are only franchises. Now he is putting his name on the old Pose Office in Washington D.C., a beautiful old building which he will convert to a Trump hotel. The sign says, “Trump, Coming to Washington”. . His name is franchised all over the country, and he collects major money for that. The banks have loaned him millions as they can’t let him fail because he owes them so much. None seems to care.

IF HE WERE NOT TRYING TO BECOME PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES it might not matter that outside of the Real Estate business he doesn’t know much about anything.  That he is basically an ignorant man.He has little or no understanding of the underlying issues in America. He does not like the American labor force. He will not help people who need help because they are losers. He will make a great country great again by destroying this country and all the values that it has had. He will divide the Nation and encourage anger and  violence.He has already demonstrated this at his rallies. No one seems to care.

Were he to become the President, he would make this country the laughing stock of the entire world. Our allies are quaking in their boots. They are already beginning to have doubts about our ability to support  our partnerships. No one seems to care.

Tell me ONE good thing about Donald Trump, just ONE, because I can’t think of any.Tell me one reason that this  man should represent the United States to the World. He’s against the poor. He’s against the immigrants. He’s a racist. He’s a misogynist. The fact that he is ignorant, cynical and a consummate and perpetual liar , totally without principle. No one seems to care.

He has no platform and no policies because he is basically ignorant  and unqualified to be The President of The United States of America. He only knows how to slander Hillary because she’s a woman. The irrelevant fact that he is fat, ugly and looks like a blow fish who poorly attempt to hide the bags under his eyes by wearing pink makeup, no one seems to care because he is a man.

Hillary may not be perfect. No one who has been in the political arena for any length of time is likely to be pure as the driven snow. But Hillary has served this country long and well.  If you want to make changes in the Government,vote for a Senate and a Congress who will support  making those changes.Call the Newscasters .Get Trump off the airways or at least give equal time to Hillary. Make your voice heard. If you care. Take action. Dump Trump.

 

By what god given right does Donald Trump have to be Judge and Jury of anybody who has ever served in the United States Armed Forces? As far as I know, Trump has never served for one single day in any capacity for the benefit of the United States. And Probably avoided service in the armed forces as well.

Senator John McCain served in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam war, was shot down, was severely wounded and carried off to the most incredible, horrible prison torture cell in Vietnam. I have been there, I have seen what it was like . I know how the Vietnamese treated their prisoners during the Vietnam war.

One has the right to agree or disagree with Senator McCain’s political views, but no one has the right to condemn his service to the Unite States of America, neither as a Senator or as a member of the armed forces. Unlike Trump who has done nothing else for this country except to bully people, for six years McCain chose to stay in prison. He could have gotten out sooner, but chose to stay with other imprisoned members of the armed forces. How dare Trump call McCain a looser?

Now he has the nerve to appoint himself as Judge and Jury of another American soldier, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl who served in Afghanistan. I personally don’t believe that any soldier in his right mind would leave the safety of his post and go AWOL in a place like Afghanistan. I don’t know what state of mind he was in at the time of his defection. I realize that it cost the lives of other American Soldiers who had to go out and search for him. It certainly endangered them.

How dare Donald Trump who has never served a day in the military publicly condemn a soldier. At least let the man have the right to go through the proper channels to be tried and judged. How dare Trump decide who is a traitor, and who should be shot and killed.

Trump is a proven cheat and liar. As far I know, he is not known for his service, but rather, presently for his dis-service to this country. He has demeaned the electoral system, and by so doing he has demeaned the Presidency.

I have heard that trump is wearing a bulletproof vest. I guess he thinks that there are people out there who think that it is he who should be shot.

As a young actress in the late 1930s, when I was a kid around town looking for acting jobs, everyone was looking to get America straightened out. Jobs were hard to find, if not impossible and there were breadlines on Broadway. We were young and we thought we could get this country straightened out. Many young people in those days signed the Communist Manifesto. Most of them weren’t communists but they fell for the idea of making everything work, of promises made but never to be kept.

Roosevelt ameliorated the situation by creating the Works Progress Administration (WPA) that employed millions of unemployed people (mostly unskilled men) to carry out projects like the construction of public buildings and roads, the Public Works Administration (PWA) that addressed the infrastructure problems, the Social Security Administration (SSA), the Resettlement Administration (RA) that helped relocate struggling urban and rural families to planned communities which later became the Department of Agriculture and numerous other paths to employment. These were some of the needed and necessary corrections to the capitalistic system. We need to do that again!

But jumping on the Bernie Sanders bandwagon of promises does not tell you how to get from here to there. Voting for Bernie Sanders is not the answer. He does not tell you that you will have to pay for those dreams— not just the rich and wealthy but also the poor and hungry. He does not tell you that you have to vote for a unified Democratic Congress and Senate if you really want to see changes made. Without doing this, without your vote for the right members of Congress, Bernie Sanders will get nothing at all done. You may follow him down the path of broken dreams or you can get out there and vote for a reformed Congress and Senate.

So get the support of a Democratic Congress and choose a candidate who knows how to get it done. Someone with the knowledge, the background and the connections to make real change instead of just empty dreams. Get out there men, women, girls, boys! Make it your business to know which members of the Congress and the Senate you need to vote for. Make your dreams come true instead of falling for empty promises.

America wake up before it is too late! I have watched the rise of Donald Trump with fear and trembling. Right from the get go I thought this man was a “clear and present danger” to the US. He is a demagogue. He is a rabble rouser, a crowd pleaser, a tough guy, a false God, and yet a pied piper.

He collects the poor, the less educated, the unemployed or underemployed, the disillusioned, and he promises them the sun, the moon and the stars. Of course these people go along. But so did the German people go along with Hitler. This is what I find so frightening. I remember Germany before WWII. I remember Hitler at Nuremberg, whipping the public into a frenzy with the belief that he would make Germany great again and give it back to the Germans. Trump promises to give America back to the Americans and make it great again. He also promises to put up a wall. Remember the wall in Eastern Europe? Doesn’t that sound familiar? Has he completely forgotten history? Or is he banking that you won’t remember or care?

The man is a quintessential bully. He doesn’t have a practical platform to stand on. Look at the man’s record. When he is criticized, he counters with “That’s a lie” even though it is there on record. He says he started with nothing, but if you take time to look you see he received his money from his family. His grandfather was a pimp, his father had ties to the Ku Klux Klan, and Trump ran a University that was a sham. He stole people’s money, he is a thief and a liar and yet he lives off of franchising his own name, claiming one of quality and success. Look harder and you see he is nothing more that a consummate liar, a clown and a crook. He is a Hitler in the making. Remember, Hitler was elected by the German People. Is America going to go the same way?

Was I wrong? Is it too late for Syria? Excerpt from an article by Christoph Reuter from Spiegel Online International.

Abandoning Syria: Few Options Left for Stopping the War

By Christoph Reuter in Beirut

Can the Horrors Be Stopped?

A country is hemorrhaging people. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are on the road, traveling to Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands, or they have already arrived, and millions will follow suit. The exodus is putting a long-ignored question back onto the political agenda in the West: What can be done to stop the horrors in Syria?

Four years after the beginning of the uprising, a quarter of a million are dead and the political proposals by the United Nations, the German foreign minister, the United States government and others sound very much like proposals in 2011: Negotiate, apply pressure and seek a political solution. The situation is complicated by announcements from France and Great Britain of their intention to participate in air strikes against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria. But what they overlook is that the overwhelming majority of Syrians are not fleeing from IS, but from Assad’s barrel bombs, the Syrian Air Force and the generally hopeless situation.

IS primarily controls sparsely populated desert areas in eastern Syria. According to reports by the Syrian Network for Human Rights, Assad’s soldiers killed about 11,500 people between January and August, while IS killed 1,800. Among civilians, at least 10 times as many people die as a result of the regime’s attacks than at the hands of IS.

IS has made adjustments to cope with the air strikes. Its troops now tend to operate in towns, in which they prevent the residents from fleeing by erecting checkpoints and imposing draconian punishments. This prevents Western forces from effectively attacking IS.

The Assad Question

The refugees are responsible for growing political pressure to find ways out of the war, but their plight does nothing to change the status quo, which has led to the failure of every negotiated solution to date. Russia and Iran want to keep Assad in power, and the West is unwilling to overthrow him and oppose the Russian veto in the UN Security Council or jeopardize Iran’s compliance with the nuclear treaty. Two UN special envoys have already failed to resolve this conflict situation, and a third one is heading in the same direction. Staffan de Mistura has announced new negotiations for October and wants to introduce decentralized task forces, but he has not even mentioned the central issue: Should the goal be to remove Assad or to allow him to remain in power?

The world had already made more headway in earlier negotiations. When influential Syrians from both camps met for secret negotiations at Château de Bossey on Lake Geneva in October 2013, everyone, after initial difficulties, was surprisingly in agreement. Even an advisor to Assad was acquiescent and was not opposed to a peaceful solution. “We will fight down to the last building in Damascus. But what happens after that? The country is ruined. No side can win or stop fighting.”

The meetings were hosted by Switzerland’s Center for Humanitarian Dialogue. As one participant recalls, both sides were exhausted and prepared to make extensive compromises. In the end, the negotiations failed because of one person: Assad. Everything was negotiable, but he had to go, the representatives of the opposition demanded. The participants agreed that a solution was in the hands of the Americans and the Russians.

If there is any solution for Syria anymore, it would have to be similar to the tentative plans suggested in 2013, which called for exiling Assad, his clan, key generals and their families. Those also included extensive amnesties for combatants on both sides, power to be handed over to local authorities — and a common fight against IS. But this type of solution would have required military pressure on Assad, which Washington was never willing to agree to. Even a proposal to install no-fly zones in several Syrian border regions, so that people there could survive without air strikes, was repeatedly rejected.

But then, in August of this year, there was a brief moment when Western diplomats hoped that Iran’s leadership could be willing to agree to Assad’s removal in return for concessions. The Iranians had already secured extensive control over what happened in Damascus by having generals and intelligence chiefs who opposed them removed.

One notable deposition involved the longtime head of Syria’s Republican Guard, Dhu al-Himma Shalish, a close relative of Assad. “With that, the Iranians have direct physical access to Bashar,” said one Western diplomat with good contacts in Damascus. The Iranians also could have deposed Assad, but they didn’t want to.

Meanwhile, the Russians have arrived. In recent days, several Russian navy transport ships have landed in Latakia harbor, fully loaded with armored vehicles and other military equipment. Some 300 soldiers with Russia’s 810th naval infantry brigade are reportedly also on board. Three giant Antonov 124 cargo aircraft and a passenger jet landed at the nearby airport. Mobile housing for 1,000 men and a command post to monitor air traffic have reportedly been installed. Russia is upping the ante on its already massive military aid for Assad.

It is doing so under the pretext of a joint fight with the West against the “terrorists.” But Russia has a very different notion of what constitutes a terrorist than the US or Europe. Putin subscribes to Assad’s definition, which ranges from rebel groups supported by the US to IS militants. Based on the involvement of Russian troops in fighting in the east of the Latakia province, it’s clear who Moscow sees as the prime target: Syrian rebels. The Islamic State isn’t to be found anyhere near that particular theater of battle.

Different Countries, Different Goals

It is unclear what President Vladimir Putin’s strategic goals are in Syria. Is he merely trying to secure Assad’s home region in the mountains between Latakia and Tartus, and preserve Russia’s only naval base in the Mediterranean? Or does Russia intend to re-establish its vassal Assad’s control over the entire country?

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards already failed in a similar attempt. In 2012, they began sending their own troops and combatants with the Lebanese Hezbollah group to Syria, as well as arranging for the deployment of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans. Despite these efforts, the Syrian regime is running out of troops. The fronts are softening in the north and south, and IS has been able to capture natural gas fields and the ancient city of Palmyra in the east. Analysts estimate that this year the Assad regime has lost about a fifth of the territory it controlled in 2014.

There has been little international support for the Syrian rebels — a product of the fact that individual countries are pursuing different goals. The US only wants to fight IS and has implemented a $500-million program to train Syrian fighters. Most of the 54 men in the first of these US-trained units were abducted by radicals with the al-Nusra Front, because the group believed it was the target of the campaign. Saudi Arabia and Qatar tend to fund Islamist groups, which the United States mistrusts. And Turkey is seeking allies for its war against Kurdish separatists with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

A negotiated solution still seems a long way off, at least as long as Assad remains in power. Negotiations can only succeed if both parties stand to benefit. But from the very beginning, Assad and his top leaders chose a path that permits only victory or defeat. And Russia supports them on this path.

Putin is now counting on those in the West who believe that the priority is to fight IS, and that this requires supporting Assad. But his ongoing rule is the original reason for the conflict. Besides, Assad is unable to fulfill these expectations because he controls less and less territory. He has no lack of weapons, aircraft or funds, but he does lack soldiers.

The only way Syria can survive as a nation is if the two large camps, consisting of the moderate rebels and the Syrian army, band together against IS to preserve the country. This could easily work without Assad, but not with him.

Failure to Act

Since the days of his father, dynasty founder Hafez Assad, fear was always a major component in Syria’s principle of rule. It not only includes subjects’ fear of those in power, but also their own followers’ fear of everyone else. The Alawite religious community, to which the Assads belong, makes up one-tenth of the Syrian population. The most effective way to preserve the Alawites’ unconditional loyalty was not preferential treatment but fear of the Sunni majority. And this fear was systematically stoked with such campaigns as the bloody suppression of a rebellion by the Muslim Brotherhood in Hama in 1982. Even after Hafez’s death, any attempt at conciliation was blocked. Fear of revenge by their enemies has turned the Alawites into perfect hostages of Assad. The president, in turn, fears that negotiations will lead to his demise, and that loyalties could be destroyed and pave the way for new protests, because tens of thousands of Alawites have also died defending the family dictatorship without the promised victory ever materializing.

Two years ago, it still would have been possible for the West to intervene on behalf of the moderate rebels. But skeptics feared that intervention in Syria would lead to more violence and deaths, the triumph of jihadist radicals and the collapse of public order. All of these things have occurred — not because, but despite the fact that the West did not intervene.

If US President Barack Obama had ordered air strikes on the military’s nerve centers following Assad’s poison gas attacks on the Damascus suburbs, the regime probably would have collapsed. At the time, intelligence services were already observing efforts by officers and soldiers to defect. But Obama apparently was unwilling to risk an overthrow of Assad and the resulting power vacuum.

But what could have been worse than what happened after that? In September 2013, IS had not yet begun its victory march, around 130,000 people who are now dead were still alive, and it would have been much easier to preserve the entire country than it is today.

There are many indications today that a partition of Syria is the most likely future scenario. Iran and Hezbollah have withdrawn their forces from large parts of the north and south since the beginning of the year. They want to focus on defending the core region controlled by Assad, which they can hold — the densely populated strip from Damascus to Latakia.

A partition of Syria would probably be the biggest favor the world could do for IS. A Russian-Iranian protectorate in the west would stand in the way of any unification of the entire country, and it would mean abandoning the rest of the country — to the delight of IS “Caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who knows that the Syrian rebels alone cannot defeat Islamic State.

No Way Back

The gradual dissolution of Syria makes it extremely difficult to find a solution for the entire country. Two other parties to the conflict have already taken control of large portions of the country. In the north, troops with the YPG, the Syrian branch of the PKK, control the three traditionally Kurdish areas along the Turkish border. And even though the Kurdish party leadership in Syria consistently denies wanting to establish its own state, this is precisely what Western intelligence officials believe it intends to do. This is why the Turkish government is doing everything in its power to prevent the YPG from capturing more territory. Hezbollah, in turn, has captured a broad strip of land along the Lebanese border in a move that could disrupt the country’s delicate confessional balance.

It may simply be too late for Syria.
The hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees apparently agree. It is often overlooked that their exodus to Europe has only just begun. Many Syrians were already leaving the country before, but now everyone wants to leave — not just opponents of the regime, but also those who had kept a low profile, Assad’s followers and supporters. Syrians in all political camps have lost faith in their country’s future.

The wars for control over the decaying country make a peaceful solution virtually impossible. These wars know no borders, as evidenced by IS’ campaign of conquest in Iraq and Ankara’s fight against the PKK. The longer all of this lasts, the more difficult it will be to stop Syria’s demise. And the longer the hundreds of thousands who have left remain in exile, the more unlikely they are to return. A bombed city can be rebuilt, but a destroyed country, abandoned by those who want to live a life of dignity, work and raise children, is a different story.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan.

Full article:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/many-syrian-refugees-fleeing-civil-war-have-lost-faith-in-a-solution-a-1052576.html

This mass immigration of entire populations from the Middle East is a phenomena that the world has never seen before. Even after the Babylonia Exile of 539 BC, when the entire population had to flee, even then in terms of the numbers of people, it was nothing like this nor was it voluntary. They were forced into exile. In the 1930s, when Jews fled Germany it was because they were specifically targeted for death if they remained. I believe that all nations of the world should offer aid to individuals who are personally targeted for annihilation and therefore have been forced to flee.

However, this situation of entire populations leaving their countries and fleeing across continents, expecting permanent care, shelter and jobs in a recipient nation is an entirely different concept. This is the first time in history that entire nations have fled to other countries in search of a better life somewhere else. If they succeed, what will stop millions of others from following? Are these people here to stay or are they just seeking temporary shelter? And why is it that Saudi Arabia hasn’t stepped in. They are fellow Islamists and have air-conditioned tents all set up. If there is a temporary solution, there it is. But that is not what these refugees are looking for. They are looking to take what others have, fleeing their war torn country where they cannot stay and fight without international support.

What kind of a message does this send to the millions of people who are waiting for legal entry into the US and other countries? And what kind of signal are we sending to all those living on subsistence diets or who can’t earn enough to survive here in the United States? I think we should close our borders, keep these people on their own turf and help them there as we should have been doing for the past 60 years or more.

As their exile is voluntary, the problems posed by such masses of people present an entirely new set of issues. The cost to the recipient countries will be enormous in terms of language, religion, culture and economy. The obvious solution is not by opening the gates for entire nations to move from one end of the planet to the other. The obvious solution is, and has always been, to help these people on their native soil. Every revolution, the American, the Russian, the French, have been won by those who stayed on the ground, who faced death and fought for their freedom and for the safety of their own land.

This is something very different. The Syrians have doubled their population twice in 60 years and suffered historical droughts. Out of pure prejudice, they did not seek help from the Israelis who have developed the best irrigation systems in the world. Syria has rivers such as the Euphrates as well as access to the Mediterranean. Why didn’t the Western World help them then? America bears much responsibility, as well as does the rest of the Western World. And what solution is provided by their running away? These problems will not be solved here, there or anywhere else other than on the home turf of the Middle East and all of Africa. These are problems of overpopulation, drought, power-mad leadership and the failure of the Western World to take up the cudgel and fight a war against poverty and hunger.

This mass immigration is playing right into the hands of ISIS and Assad. The fewer discontent people Assad has to deal with, the better from his point of view. And the fewer people ISIS has to deal with, the greater amount of territory they can take. ISIS and Assad, though enemies of each other, each represent a threat to every country in the world. ISIS is supporting their tyrannical rule by illegally selling historical artwork and oil, as well as through ransoms from kidnappings, and seem to have no end to their military supplies. Meanwhile, the Western World seems all too happy to buy their oil and illegal artwork. And who knows if amongst these millions of immigrants, ISIS and Al Qaeda haven’t scattered their sacrificial lambs to raise havoc in each and every country across the Western World by placing moles.

I believe this mass immigration to be a clear and present danger to every recipient country. I believe all borders should be closed and a united world effort to solve these problems on their home turf, whatever is required. We, the Western World, will be destroyed by this if we do not accept this clarion call to action.

I have lived most of my life as a resident of New York City. My mother grew up here, and her mother lived here.  My two sons have grown up in New York City, and my grandchildren have grown up here as well. In my entire life here, it never occurred to me nor to anyone else whom I have known, that  dishonesty and criminal behavior could ever put people on an even playing field when applying for a job.  Mayor De Blasio has now set this City on the road to ruination. This man is without conscience. He must be forced to resign, or else he should be impeached. He was swept into office because no one came out to vote. He won by default. This is the most dramatic demonstration of the failure of the American people to take responsibility for their lives and to take the responsibility that is inherent in the idea of a democracy. It is the failure of this public to accept the obligation as citizens to go to the polls to vote for the best person who is entered in the political battle at that time.

Mr. DeBlasio recently signed a bill (Int. No. 318) into legislation making it illegal to run a credit check on someone who is applying for a job. He then fortified that legislation with additional regulations that makes the use of a criminal background check illegal for job applicants in most occupations and professions.  So any criminal can from now on come to work in your building, for your family and maybe even for your school. This is the most unconscionable law ever passed by any ambitious lunatic in government in the nearly 250 year history of this country.  A heroin addict or dealer who has served time in prison can now attend to your child, can work in any capacity in your building, your school, your hospitals, as your housekeeper, your babysitter and your child’s school bus driver. There is no end to where this can lead.

The DeBlasios are depraved. According to the newspaper accounts, this Mayor’s wife was being paid $175,000  when he took office. Supposedly, she was the advisor and assistant to the Mayor. The hue and cry against this abuse caused her to resign. She then hired her friend who was living with a criminal or ex con. I sense that this may be the root of this ill-conceived law. This is their revenge against the City and its inhabitants for having taken public action against Charlene De Blasio and her friends. I absolutely cannot see any other rational reason for such a destructive law. This is an invitation for all honest, hardworking people to leave this city and flee to the countryside or any other place where honesty and integrity are still a factor in our lives. The effect of this on Business is mind boggling. Any corporation with any fiduciary responsibility to the public will be decimated by this law. This leaves corporations and individuals vulnerable to law suits by any perspective employee who has a criminal record . This will certainly be an additional reason for corporations and other businesses to leave the city.  De Blasio is a depraved maniac.  People! Please, men, women, girls, and boys–get out there; hit the streets. Protest in masses. That’s the only way to stop this insanity.

Manhattan is undergoing many disruptive changes. None of them are really good for the city. Ex Mayor Bloomberg had some strange notion that if you turned the city over to the Real-estate Magnates, and IF they got away like burglars with the money from their ridiculously tall buildings, this would bring money into the city. And, that there would be some kind of trickle down in the housing shortage.  Well, I grew up in the Real Estate Business, so I have a pretty fair idea of the of New York City property values. Yes, there is little space in some parts of the city, so of course it’s a great temptation to build upward. Even if doing so  destroys the street life, the quality of life, the Central Park Life and even though it brings nothing to the City itself. Only very tall buildings with ten to thirty year Tax abatements so that for that length of time no money is seen by the City. The money that these buildings bring are largely secreted funds from other countries, and are being illegally laundered in this New York Real-estate .The Real Estate magnates, the so called developers sell the property to these people as soon as they can build them and they get their money and then are gone with no Taxes to be paid to the city. They then stick their money somewhere in the Cayman Islands. They aren’t really crooks because they are aided and abetted by the system.

The real issue here is that no one except these rich foreigners can afford to live in this city anymore. Normal working people are having to move farther and farther out of town. The rents have become ridiculous and the government is doing nothing here to create affordable housing. They talk, they talk and in the end they help the Real Estate magnates to create even less affordable housing.

I walk the City streets day after day. Everywhere I look there are stores for rent. I know that the rents are impossible and lack any connection to reality. Stores can only afford a certain rent. They simply cannot make enough money to pay these astronomical prices. Even Wall Street banks are looking elsewhere. What was the point of building buildings that no one benefits from? We can’t any longer maintain our restaurants, our stores, or our Wall Street banks in this city. We will be left with nothing but empty streets on the ground floors with only the very wealthy foreigners affording to live here. Young people and artists and students and working people have already fled the City. In five more years, this will be a desert with only the very rich and commuters filling the streets in the daytime, and fleeing back home out of town in the evenings.

What ever happened to the idea of affordable housing? I know that Real Estate magnates can’t make that much money on the kind of housing that is needed to maintain the foundation of this City. BUT I do believe that they too must be able to understand the need. That need can be filled, and money can be made but NOT in the most densely populated part of Manhattan. Build elsewhere in town where there is space. BRING THE RENTS DOWN SO THAT STORES AND PEOPLE can afford the city. Make it once more a livable place to be. We have everything going for us, Opera, Ballet, Theater, Concerts, but no one can afford them and no one can afford to live here to attend them. The City depends more and more on Tourism. Like Disney World, we are becoming an amusement park which people come to visit but not to stay. This is suicide.

The Gun Manufacturers have a motto: “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people” Their point is that it’s not the guns that are the problem. It’s the people.  Well, I have to wonder how the American people have allowed themselves to be talked into this kind of rubbish.Just this past week a New York City newspaper reported that 53 people were injured due to gun violence with thirteen people shot on Saturday alone. At a recent wedding at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan a man was totting a gun in his pocket. Someone brushed past him and the gun went off. Several people were shot and wounded. Here’s a case where the person didn’t even pull the trigger and the gun went off.

However that’s not the typical story. Of course it’s true that people with guns shoot people. Children with guns shoot other children. What is the answer? Take the bloody gun away from the child and take the gun away from the grownup. I can tell you from firsthand experience that if you have a gun there will at some point be a temptation to use it. I once was frightened in my own home and grabbed my son’s riffle and almost shot my housekeeper whose car had broken down and she had decided to sleep over. I have never again allowed a gun in the house. Having a gun may in itself provide the temptation to use it.

I have yet to see a situation in which having a gun made someone safe. If you do have a gun hanging around the house and someone breaks in and attacks you, the chance of ever getting that gun from wherever it is kept is probably nil. Two cops sitting in the front seat of their car, carrying guns in their holsters, were shot by an  angry nut. What good did their guns do them? On the other hand, the Police are supposed to be trained in the use of their weapon. I am a big supporter of the Police. By and large they do a wonderful job of protecting our communities. I do agree that they too need to have more training in how to shoot without necessarily killing the perpetrator. However, the civilian who owns, and now can legally own and carry a weapon in public need have NO training whatsoever. He needs to have a driver’s license to drive a car. He has to pass a test in order to receive that. The gun carrier doesn’t even need to pass a test. All he needs to do is to file for a permit. No one even checks his character. We do a better job on choosing people who can live in a Coop than this society does on Gun control.

Come on everybody. Why can’t we vote down the Gun Lobby and  make the world a better, safer place?