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To Other Countries,

I don’t know if you have the same problem as we do in the United States, but I am so damn sick and tired of all the lying on TV.  I guess a lot of Americans have fallen prey to it over the last couple of decades, but even they are starting to see the light. 

Wales has the right idea.  Make it illegal for politicians to lie.  It’s so insulting what Maga is doing in the United States.  They claim gas prices are down when we blatantly know what we paid two years ago and what we are paying now.  Same with groceries and electricity.  They claim inflation is under control when we see our paychecks giving us fewer and fewer goods every month.  They claim America is HOT when the housing market is in shambles with interest rates above 7%.

America is doing the same thing on the International front.  The politicians lie about everything.  They think they are dominant when they are fragile.  They think they are the cool guys when they are protecting the largest international pedo-trafficking ring in modern history. They think they are the tough guys as they rob people of health insurance and affordable food.

American politicians are nothing but a bunch of lying jackasses who think they are better than everyone else.  You know what makes matters worse?  They already have enough money that they don’t have to work for the rest of their lives.  What makes this worse is other’s people’s lives are just some game to them.  It’s all some f’ed up chess game except the pieces on the board are real people.  How deplorable do you have to be that you will starve people and rob them of basic needs to live so you can have 5 houses instead of 3. 

Even worse yet, they do it in the name of Christianity. 

What I don’t understand is why we keep electing them.  This makes us complicit.  Actually I will tell you why.  Too many Americans can’t be bothered to do something.  They live in their little bubbles and as long as no one touches their bubble they will let the other people have free reign.  What they don’t realize is their bubbles are eroding.  They haven’t popped yet…but they will soon, very soon.

Whatever you do, do not become like the U.S.  I think we started shifting in the 60s.  Corruption outweighed integrity.  Ever since then, the rich got richer, human rights went downhill, democracy became under fire, and human decency was lost to greed and power.

Please, look at us as an example of what not to do…at least since the 70s. 

I got kicked out of this thing because I accidentally tried to sign on through Google. When I created my account, I was trying to avoid Google.  So here I am, over a week later, with Google watching everything.

Whatever.

I know I said I was writing to clear my head.  That changed when I realized people from other countries could read through this.  By the way, I couldn’t write on this thing, because I mistakenly signed in with Google, so then I had to reset all my parameters because Goolge was trying to override my Yahoo account.

Ok…here we go…

Please do not become like America.

I just returned from a Sales Conference in NJ.  We stayed at a fancy hotel.  People flew in from all parts of the world.  We even had a celebration.  The company rented a space …I wasn’t going to name the space because I thought I might get in trouble with the company.  You know what?  I have different values than the company.  Let them fire me.

The event was held at the Maritime Museum.  Open bar, professional decorators.  Bus transportation to and from the venue.  Someone even thought it would be brilliant to have some guy in stilts dress up as a modified version of Bumble Bee dance on the dance floor.

Meanwhile, we pay factory workers less than $16.00 per hour.  I field weekly calls about how we are not paying past due invoices.  Major carriers have suspended service due to these past due invoices. 

My boss’s boss had a conversation with me.  He was telling me he knew the market.  He understands how people work.  He knows the business.  This was all in relation to how I am supposed to hire and fire people in a dual dynamic of people reporting to me in the U.S. and in India to maximize profit.  I needed to fix things.   Note: all of this occurred in the midst of a celebration of working together on a global scale. 

During our discussion, we spoke about moving forward in technology.  I mentioned talking to the IT contact in India.  He reprimanded me sharply.  Why…I didn’t follow the structure.  The proper chain of command.  For the record, I already went through the proper structure and chain of command.  I was invited into a group discussion by the U.S. contact and the IT support leader from India or the Middle East.  I’m not exactly sure where he is located. 

My point.  The leader reprimanded me because he felt I was going outside of the boundaries, when in fact I was doing everything properly.  He was misinformed.  He had to assert his power rather than take two seconds to ask me why I was going in the direction I was.

To those of you outside of America, this is what is wrong.  America has a blind power structure.  It can’t even function within its own parameters.  It has also built a strong base of fear upon this whole dynamic.  I am scared to death I will be fired for posting this. 

So why am I doing this.  Because I believe in people.  I live in a tiny house.  I don’t want power.  I’m already paid $15K below the going rate.  I live below my means, not above them.  I am willing to take a pay cut to do the right thing.  I believe that strength is in working together without suppression.  I guess, in a way…they don’t have anything on me. 

Honestly, after seeing what happened at this convention, I am not even sure I want to work for this company anymore.  They say they want to listen, but they don’t. 

I am different.  I don’t want upward mobility.  I live within my means.  I want to prove myself by helping people and bringing forth equality, not going up some ladder where I live in a better house or have fancier clothes.  I guess what I’m trying to say is, they are not offering me anything substantial, quite the opposite.  Not working for them won’t change my personal directives.

So those of you in other countries, please don’t become like this.  Stay true to helping others.  Stay true to sharing the profit for everyone, not the elite.  Stay true to working together, not with elites.

I think it’s been series of events over the course of several decades.  The main comments being:

1) defending education at the primary level (esp. teacher pay) and making higher education unaffordable – i.e. Removing critical thinking from the general population and making them increasingly susceptible to propaganda

2) dominance of unfettered corporate control including change in workforce rewards, lobbyist, removal of monopolistic controls, unlimited promotional spending, and unlimited income disparity between the lowest workers and CEOs

3) propaganda, the constant influx of America is great when its festering in decay, culture wars, normalizing racism, and deployment of Christian Nationalism

4) isolationism, most white rural Americans haven’t traveled, are American culture centric, don’t speak other languages, and remain vested in the ‘American’s do it best’ mentality while America is deteriorating in education, manufacturing, innovation, technology and overall growth

5) tiered judicial system with no punishment for the upper class and zero enforcement of judicial rulings.  Basically, no one in America who makes $5M or more per year ever gets punished and everyone ignores judicial rulings bc judges never hold anyone in contempt let alone contempt with jail time.

So where to start. Well, let’s start with the Iran war which cut through America propaganda and bravado.  We aren’t the power we were purported to be.

America is about to enter the age of ‘tail between the legs’ to use an American idiom.  We have squandered our greatness into corruption and abuse.  We have sacrificed our collaboration and innovation to racism and hate.  We have forgotten why we founded America.  We have thrown aside our very foundations and supplanted them with lies and hypocrisy.  

The melting pot is rusted and broken. The America dream is a corrupted lie transformed into a brutal nightmare.  The Land of the Free has been shackled into the bandage of racism and isolation.  2026 America is the biggest lie.  The only thing any non-millionaire could ever thank Trump for is bringing this to light.  

I had no idea people from other countries could read these.  Knowing that, I would like to share my thoughts on America’s downfall from a rural, not so educated perspective. I’m making that qualification bc I’m not here to argue against people who study these things for a living.

I think it’s been series of events over the course of several decades.  The main comments being:

1) defending education at the primary level (esp. teacher pay) and making higher education unaffordable – i.e. remove critical thinking from the general population and making them increasingly susceptible to propaganda

2) dominance of unfettered corporate control including change in workforce rewards, lobbyist, removal of monopolistic controls, unlimited promotional spending, and unlimited income disparity between the lowest workers and CEOs

3) propaganda, the constant influx of America is great when its festering in decay, culture wars, normalizing racism, and deployment of Christian Nationalism

4) isolationism, most white rural Americans haven’t traveled, are American culture centric, dont speak other languages, and remain vested in the ‘American’s do it best’ mentality while America is deteriorating in education, manufacturing, innovation, technology and overall growth

5) tiered judicial system with no punishment for the upper class and zero enforcement of judicial rulings.  Basically, no one in America who makes $5M or more per year ever gets punished and everyone ignores judicial rulings bc judges never hold anyone in contempt let alone contempt with jail time.

So where to start. Well, let’s start with the Iran war which cut through America propaganda and bravado.  We aren’t the power we were purported to be.

America is about to enter the age of ‘tail between the legs’ to use an American idiom.  We have squandered our greatness to corruption and abuse.  We have sacrificed our collaboration and innovation to racism and hate.  We have forgotten why we founded America.  We have thrown aside our very foundations and supplanted them with lies and hypocrisy.  

The melting pot is rusted and broken.  The America dream is a corrupted lie transformed into a brutal nightmare.  The Land of the Free has been shackled into the bandage of racism and isolation.  2026 America is the biggest lie.  The only thing any non-millionaire could ever thank Trump for is bringing this to light.  

It blows my mind that business managers still think its trendy to “tell it like it is.”  What is this 1985?  The idea of projecting dominance and masculinity are long gone.  In fact I chuckle inwardly when I see male managers strutting around with straight backs, bulging bellies, and an overly aggressive attitude.  I just want to hand them a business card that says “Welcome to 2026.  Respect and cooperation have replaced testosterone induced ego trips.”

Any manager with even an inkling of self-awareness should realize that the new generation of worker is not in tune with “old school.”  They want respect, flexibility, new ideas, compassion, and collaboration.  If they want to add a heart symbol at the end of an IM, so be it.

The worst part of all this.  Those are the managers that strut around all day, bark orders, and then collect the largest paychecks.  To top it all off, they can’t even perform half the tasks of the people they manage.  Luckily these dinosaurs are slowly becoming extinct. 

So cheers to all the new age managers and workers who share ideas, work together, and treat each other with respect.  Know that if you work for one of these assholes that they are the dumbass and you are the person that holds true validation.

I do two things to deal with the stress and chaos of the world.  I go hiking to think and clear my mind.  Anything still lingering on my mind ends up on here.  I never thought I would be writing on here.  A friend suggested it.  I thank her for that.  It is somewhat therapeutic.

I am so conflicted tonight I can’t even focus on a single topic.  My mind is a maelstrom of wars, taxes, wages, affordability, corporate politics, family strife, male egos, religious hypocrisy, propaganda, price gouging, corruption, the list goes on and on.  Maybe a topic will materialize through stream of conscious thought.

I didn’t vote or pay attention to the news until Trump.  Why then?  I realized we had just elected the biggest idiot on the planet into a position of power.  It scared the shit out of me.  I was afraid every day at what new horror would face me as I crawled out of bed.

I still can’t believe the number of people who justify sitting back and letting things play themselves out.  I could understand if this was simple politics.  But it isn’t.  This is so much more.  It encompasses morals, human rights, medicine, food, pedophilia and genocide.  This is about looking deep within yourself and asking – how would I feel if I was the person of color being sent to a concentration camp or being deported.  How would I feel if I were homeless in Ukraine going into the winter again.  How would I feel if I were a Palestinian in Gaza ridden with disease, no food or shelter and my homeland a wasteland?

I think a lot of Americans, especially the ones who can’t be bothered to feel, to look at someone else’s perspective, or to spend time helping someone else outside of some computer clicks, have become complacent in their own excuses to justify living in a bubble.  As long as I don’t have to see it or hear about it, I can pretend it doesn’t exist.  I need this bubble because it is really hard to cope right now.  I disagree.  We should be popping these bubbles, not strengthening them.

I know I’m spoiled.  I am not rich, but I have food, shelter, electricity, a computer, tv, and a car.  Compared to people in Gaza, I live like a king.  I make a point to imagine what these people are going through.  I refuse to live in a bubble while other people suffer.  I try to take a pin to that bubble as much as possible and remind myself that I am truly fortunate.  If it is emotionally stressful to think about the news, then I need to grow stronger, not ignore the news and pretend other people’s pains aren’t my problem.

I think it’s hilarious that humans are arrogant enough to think that if there were extra-terrestrials that they would actually want to make themselves known to us.

Let’s think about this.  A species has the technology to explore the stars.  They come across our tiny planet.  They study us from afar and discern the following:

• Their leaders are sexual abusers
• Their leaders grift, lie, steal, cheat, and manipulate through propaganda
• Their leaders deny food, medicine and healthcare to the poor
• They are constantly at war with one another
• They are racist
• They are willing to harm one another to satiate their greed and lust
• They have a tiered justice system based on wealth and power
• They choose greed over a stable climate
• The list goes on…

We must look like neanderthals to them.  Actually I never met a neanderthal.  Given the state of America, ICE, and the corrupt administration, neanderthals might have actually treated one another better than modern man.  The point is we would look brutal, unevolved, chaotic, cruel, and petty.

I bet extra-terrestrials have already flown by our solar system.  Only instead of making their presence known to us, they probably deployed space beacons declaring Earth a biohazard.  Stay clear.  Visit at your own risk.  Hell there’s probably stellar gases in the shape of a skull and crossbones superimposed on a depiction of planet Earth lying at all nearby thoroughfares.

So I decided to try gaming.  After lots of research, I finally decided to order a gaming computer online rather than visit a big box store.  I eventually decided on one particular site, went through the checkout process, then paused.  Delivery requires a signature and I was about to go out of town.  I needed to speak to someone to confirm a ship date.  I took a screenshot of the order in the hopes the store would honor the 5% discount the following day. 

When I was on the phone with the agent the next day, I noticed the price had increased by $100, and the discount had been replaced by a $150 coupon.  This was a net loss of $50.  I asked the agent why the sudden price change.  She was unable to provide a reason.  She said their pricing was subject to change at any time.  That seemed arbitrary to me, especially since the promotional offer had also changed.  What?  You guys just make up pricing ever night at midnight?

I asked her if I could send her my screenshot so she could honor the previous pricing.  $50 is a big deal to me.  She took it to her supervisor who denied my request.  I was flabbergasted.  I couldn’t believe they were going to risk my sale over $50.  It didn’t make sense to me.  I know they make more than $50 off a computer.  It was in their best interest to honor the original pricing and get the sale.  It’s not as if this was a word of mouth, trust situation.  I had the screenshot.

Needless to say, I went to a big box store the next day.  When I told them what happened, they honored the online store’s pricing.  They got the sale.  I took the computer home that same day.

Is this the Peter Principle in action?  Someone got promoted to Supervisor who can’t think for himself?  Someone who started as a customer service agent, was good at their job, got promoted, and is now incapable of understanding the larger picture?  Or was this a situation where “I promoted my best buddy who has no clue what profit margins, first time impressions, and customer loyalty means?” 

Regardless of what we call it, I think we can all agree we see more and more incompetent people in high places.  Did you know CEO’s are taught in school to go into a company and maximize profit, CEO wages, and bonuses even at the cost of running the company into the ground?  The idea is you go in and get rich fast and then move onto the next company or make enough your first go around to retire, never once caring for the people who work for you.

I hope we have reached a point where some values return to the workplace and replace this unnecessary greed.  Sure, you need profits to survive.  However, you don’t need excessive profits to the point of exploitation.

I was brought up Christian.  We went to Sunday School and church every Sunday.  I would bite my cheek, pinch myself, and daydream to try to stay awake.  Everyone dressed up and acted like they were each other’s best friends, although I knew differently.  They all judged and talked to one another behind their backs.  Don’t get me wrong, the intentions were good and I think most of them really did try to be good people during those two hours of worship every week.  Of course, by the time dinner was on the table all was forgotten and replaced by the pragmatism of 20^th century industrialism within a capitalistic society. 

I didn’t really know much about Islam, just that they were the bad guys.  I would ask why they were bad and the response generally centered around terrorism.  My thought was if we judge their entire society by their terrorists then the rest of the world gets to judge U.S. Christianity by the KKK…at least in my 11 years old mind.

Today I work with U.S. based Christians and Muslims from India.  I’m going to tell you the Indians are nicer, smarter, harder working and more compassionate.  I have never seen them act out of entitlement.  I have never even heard them complain once in over a year. 

Why am I talking about this?  Because someone needs to tell the other side of the story.  Someone needs to bring light to the truth and not let political propaganda shape American’s views who have never spoken to anyone outside of their own state, let alone from another country.

Honesty, I think it’s sad how quickly U.S. Christians succumb to fear, a fear that relegates them to hate and judgment.  I am no longer a Christian.  I try to practice some of the teachings of Jesus.  I would be curious, though, what Jesus would say if he appeared out of nowhere today.

When I tell this story, it always ends with…dude, you shouldn’t have done that.

A couple years ago we hired a single mom.  Although she never talked about her family life or any life outside of work for that matter, you could tell she struggled.  She was quiet, basically kept to her self.  She wasn’t very good at her job.  You could tell this job was either for insurance, survival or both.  She and work both knew it was just a matter of time.

It was yearly reviews.  This particular company offered the bare minimum.  Everyone received at best a wage increase that barely countered inflation.  They always boasted about what it gift it was to be giving such a raise, hoping you were stupid enough to not realize you were basically just maintaining your current spending power.  I’m not the most educated person, but I know basic math.  Wages <= inflation does not equal a raise.

Anyway, I went to the manager and offered to donate $1/hr of my salary to her.  I’m young, live a modest life alone.  She needed it more than I did. 

It was the only time I have ever heard my boss raise his voice.  You would have thought I had just committed corporate espionage while simultaneously murdering a child.  I was told never to pull a stunt like that again or I would be fired.

To this day, I don’t understand why this was a bad thing.  Is this what is wrong with America?  We punish people for trying to help others?  So what if we set a precedent.  Who does it harm?  I don’t know.  I feel like this is exactly why live in a …what do they call it…a “K” shaped economy.  People have made it a sin to care for others, to help others, to make individual sacrifices for others.  I don’t care what anyone else thinks, I do not regret that day. 

She no longer works there, by the way.