The Future of our Nation Examined Through the Eyes of Twitter

Do you ever worry about the future of our nation?
Re-reading my Twitter/HootSuite 2015 national news threads just now, proved to be alarming for me.

1. Budget War talk started early.
2. Republicans made head-spinning claims as soon as they took over.
3. Legislating under Republicans began with the meaningless Keystone Pipeline bill.
4. My own crazy state of Texas has not disappointed in its heartlessness this year.
5. The Secret Service admitted to having problems with alcohol.

The Republican budget that has just been introduced favors the "One Percent."  It would abandon large swaths of vulnerable people.  Even though they claim credit for an improving economy, Congress will do nothing to fix the essential infrastructure needed to support and continue that healthy economy.  The Keystone Pipeline benefits the Canadian economy.  Texas turns farther towards the extreme right as each month passes.  And we cannot protect the safety of the POTUS.  These realities reinforce my worry about what is happening to the USA in early 2015 .

But there are bright spots that should not be ignored.

• The Daily Beast writes: The Right Warms Up To Climate Change.
• We are understanding more about the brain.  This is Brain Awareness Week.
• Cory Booker continues to post tweets about possibilities.
• Anthony Snowden and Glenn Greenwald are still able to get together,
• Europe remains helpful to Iranian negotiation, even if Republican legislators are not.
• The state of Oregon made voter registration automatic.

Not all Congressional Republicans are stupid or corrupt.  Science continues to prevail.  Truth continues to have its brave apologists. We can count on our centuries old friend, Europe, to have our back.  Some states in the USA are not insane.  And optimists tweet.

 
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What a difference a day makes. . .

Reflections:  on America's future-

Long lines at polling places all across the nation proved to be the key reality.  The simple concept of one person/ one vote has saved the nation from beaming back to the distant political past.  Adults are still  in charge. The country will be OK.

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Man has walked . . . and driven on the Moon

 Despite skeptics, there is much good evidence that these events happened decades ago. Photographs were transmitted at the time.  Moon rocks came back to earth on the trip. The men who were there came back to tell the tale, not a made-up story, but their actual experiences.  The truth of these events hangs together for us.

Despite hearing the truth, skeptics either know and deny, or do not know that President Obama is one of us.  He is of American birth in Hawaii; the documentation is there.  He speaks English without an accent.  His childhood friends have talked about knowing him way back when.  H's good at shooting "hoops," an American sport.  He gets sad, and yes, mad when bad things happen to the rest of us Americans, his fellow citizens.

Barack Hussein Obama is the President of the United States.  Skeptics need to just get over it.

My Other Blogs: My creative website is Making Good Mondays. Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

Without fear, the goal

“Becoming Fearless” is a new featured section in Huffington Post.  I discovered this because I follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter.  I also follow a few of her guest columnists, as well as Howard Fineman, her very fine editorial director.

Huffington is fearless.  I am not read-it-all consumer of The Huffington Post; it is just too much.  But I greatly admire the fact that the “HuffPo” has been so very successful at monetizing its popular website.  Ms. Huffington herself is a model of fearlessness when it comes to striding out.  So some reflections about “Becoming Fearless” seem in order.

First, Huffington is wealthy.  Note the tie-in with Arianna Huffington’s 2006 book of essays titled, On Becoming Fearless.... in Love, Work, and Life.  Find it at Amazon.com: Kindle edition–$8.99, hardcover-$4.40, paperback-$10.73.

Second, Huffington is careful.  Read the disclaimer at the bottom of the website page.

This website is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Third, the assumption is that women have more fears than men.  The Blog section features a list of current blog posts with 10 female writers and 6 male writers.  Look also at one of the the current Sponsored Links list.  It is two-thirds pitched towards women:

Fear of being fat - “Get Skinny By Summer” by www.DietRatings.org

Fear of being old - “53 Year Old Mom Looks 33” by www.consumerproducts.com

Fear of President Obama – “Romney vs Obama” by www.msn.com.  (AP photo copyrighted by Mary Schwalm)

Fourth, advertising aims at our emotions, including fear and anxiety.  Another sponsor list  for the Front Page sub section plays on the fears of readers:

Fear of being afraid - “3 Herbs that Beat Anxiety” by www.WiseLifestyles.com

Fear of identity theft - “LifeLock Official Site” to purchase their identity protection plan at www.Lifelock.com

Fear of being in the 99% forever - “Penny Stock Jumping 856%” at www.MyPennyStocks.com

Fifth, the Huffington Post Wants you to read as much as you can on their website.  Note the tie-in with HuffPo’s Healthy Living section, aka "Fear of Dying."  Here are that page’s sponsors:

Fear of Being fat - “5 Diet Pills that Work” at www.DietRatings.org

Fear of identity theft - “LifeLock Official Site” to purchase their identity protection plan at www.Lifelock.com

Fear of a heart attack – “Heart Attack Triggers” at www.Newsmax.com 

Sixth, sponsors want something for their investment.  So they maximize exposure to the product through advertising.  It might even be fun and beneficial:  Enter Toyota Corolla’s “Most Fearless Tweet” contest.

Official Rules:
1. To enter the Contest, you must first create a Twitter account. It's free! Go to Twitter.com for the how-tos.
2. Follow @HealthyLiving.
3. Tweet about fear or fearlessness in your own life by sending a tweet to @HealthyLiving and using the hashtag Third, notice the tie-in with Huffington’s 2006 book of essays On becoming Fearless. . . In Love, Work and Life. New from $4.40; Kindle $8.99.#becomingfearless. It's that easy!

Seventh, there is widespread assumption that we are more fearful than usual these days. For example, out of some sort of morbid fascination,  I have watched a good number of the Doomsday Preppers shows on the National Geographic channel. They are a really scary bunch who base their lives on preparing for the worst things that they imagine could happen.  Somehow I cannot imagine these folks ever reading the new Becoming Fearless section of the HuffPo.

Democracy will not be automatic.

image by freeimageslive.co.uk - stockmedia.cc

We must work to preserve Democracy.  Freedom and liberty under a constitution do not come easily, nor will a nation endure without care-taking and effort.  We in the United States have lost something of our constitutional democracy since the turn of the century.  And people in the Middle East stand to gain much if democracy can prevail after their "Arab Spring."

The Arab Spring did not produce a set of Democratic governments.  Although Tunisia probably has the best chance of living under a democratic regime.  Syria is still in the midst of a civil war.  Women’s roles have come under question in all countries in the Middle East.

Civil liberties protections for U.S. citizens took a beating over the years, following the Bush administration's response after the attacks on the U.S. on 9/11/01. The U.S. government has become more and more intrusive into our everyday lives.  Even now the Obama administration is pressing for the renewal of the (FISA) Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Expectations of Democracy as a result of nation building were the hallmark of the previous Bush-Cheney administration. We came to know Neocons back then as they pursued their aggressive war agenda. They continued to have influence in the 2008 campaign. And now they still have not gone away; they are advising Mitt Romney on foreign policy.

Our political parties are less able to work together; they are becoming much more polarized.  The rise of the extreme right wing makes widespread repression of citizens' rights possible.  The government of Michigan has actually taken a turn away from Democracy.  City after city in Michigan is now run by a governor-appointed administrator.

The Occupy movement showed much promise when it began last year. A wide variety of citizens joined the protests. Recently, however, at the NATO summit in Chicago, protesters were not as numerous as some had expected.  The movement has not found its footing yet.

Democracy is not automatic.  We cannot take it for granted that the people of any country will be able to achieve to their full potential.  And we do not easily learn from our mistakes.   One of the keys to building and holding democratic institutions is the election process. The United States and several countries in the Middle East are looking towards electing their next leaders.  The best outcomes will be where citizens know what is at stake and what leadership is really all about.