There are "bad apples" in every segment of the population and I would submit that there are a LOT of things white people say that might seem totally innocuous until you hear it from a totally different background and perspective.

I would also add that I was fairly oblivious to discrimination directed toward me until a friend of mine from NYC pointed it out one summer night in an art program I was in before starting college. One simple statement altered how I saw the world and my place in it, eye-opening, revealing.

We, as a nation, have become MUCH more intolerant of alternate points of view. It's not just about race. It's about sexual preference, gender, religion, educational background, anything and EVERYTHING that sets us apart from each other, that can be used to regroup individuals into a classification.

"I don't want to sit near you because you've got a big beard or you're wearing a sleeveless t-shirt or you kissed that girl too long. Something about you makes me really uncomfortable."

No, something about YOURSELF makes you really uncomfortable, you're just projecting that discomfort on me because you can hear the ticking sound I make and you wonder if it's a bomb.

Yes, this has happened to me personally even though my prosthetic tricuspid valve "beats" consistently faster than 60 times a minute.

I make no excuse for these supposedly racist "Berner Bros." Neither does Sanders. He doesn't ignore the issue, but he tries not to direct too much attention to it either. I won't argue the strategy. I think the media draws more attention to it than it's worth considering all the aspects of his campaign.

I've yet to see serious attention being given to the sheer VOLUME of supporters that show up at his events. I've yet to see any stories relating to the VIBE at these events, the warmth and genuine positivity. No, what makes news is when a few dozen people at a caucus let their frustrations boil over until a chair is tossed to the floor and coarse words are heard for a moment before officials get escorted to their next event.

Meanwhile, arrests are made and people get sent to the hospital for injuries received at a Trump event. While that's news, it's three 'graphs followed by five reiterating his poll numbers and insurmountable lead in the GOP. It's not the headline.

We, as a nation, are still reeling from the 9/11 attacks, the aftermath caused not only by terrorists from overseas, but also by the actions of a president and his team that overstepped their bounds to do what they thought was the right thing to do to protect our nation and the unintended consequences and legacy from those actions.

We still have a LOT to account for to the rest of the planet and to ourselves. We've created much of this new racism and bigotry. In some ways, it has always been there, but now it is much worse than before.

We're not teaching our past in school. We're not teaching tolerance and compassion at home.

Those that are in power, that want to be in power, are capitalizing on this. Not everyone, not Bernie Sanders, but most of them are.

This racist charge is a pretty weak attack on Bernie Sanders.

THIS is pissing me off. The past day or so I've noticed stories suggesting that there is a conservative bias in Facebook. Arstechnica posted as such, as did the NY Times. I know that Facebook algorithms are designed to "tailor" content on your news feed to links, stories, ads, people, that you might have an interest in. OK, fine, that's an advertising trick. The same reason why you see ads for stuff that you looked for on Amazon come up when you're looking at the Time Magazine website, a trick in tracking cookies and other "hidden" things your browser does while you surf.

Remember that, right now, you are being tracked. I'm not doing it, but this site is. Perhaps I could tap in to that some how, maybe if I was trying to make money on this . . .

Anyway. My point is the TRENDING garbage at the time of the image above. That's a screen capture of my Facebook page, as I see it on my computer. Bernie Sanders won the primary in West Virginia and what's "trending"? Hillary.

DAFUQ?!?!?

Media bias. Who benefits the powers that be (corporations) more in this election cycle? Clinton or Sanders?

Frankly, I doubt anyone with a large chunk of change is seriously looking forward to four years of a staunch independent thinker who has made a career and a life over fighting for the common man, the minority, the downtrodden living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Hillary has shown time and again that she listens to big business, responds to it, helps it. Same with Trump. Trump is the epitome of big business, a failure several times over but he's savvy and knows how to manipulate uncertainty to his personal advantage. Both Hillary and Donald do this.

Sanders is a common man who was arrested protesting for civil rights, not for him, but for other men and women, equals, who had the misfortune to be born non-white.

I'm still voting for Bernie, even if it means a write in as long as it won't mean Trump wins. Hillary isn't change, she is status quo ante.

Not a rant.

"hexagon" 9"x 12" oil pastel and graphite on paper 

It can't all be about politics . . . I'm an artist, a creator. Most of my life I've played 'cello. I started before first grade and still play today, though I don't get to play as much as I used to and it's nearly always just for myself. In high school I took an art class on a whim and at the end of the year the teacher put his elbows down on the desk I was working on, looked at me and stated plainly, "You're coming back next Fall, right." It wasn't a question.

Then I took a photography class, "old school" with all hand processing and a K1000 (I borrowed my dad's so I didn't have to share one of the school's Pentax cameras with a classmate.) I spent a semester processing film and making prints in a darkroom. I mixed chemicals, I pushed limits on the enlarger, had great fun.

I never thought of my photography as an art form unto itself until after college. It was always a tool toward my drawing work. 

"Chuck Taylors" 32" x 24" graphite on paper

By the way, if you know what to look for, you can find this on-line still, from my first ANCIENT website, an archived (and now almost defunct) part of the Internet, again from the 1900's.

The background on this blog right now is another work, a collage I did as part of a series for a design class in college. I'm not sure if I like it yet, too "busy" I think. But it's there for now.

I'm still figuring out all this Blogger stuff works and these posts are more or less me playing it by ear, pushing the buttons, watching what happens, the reactions. Apparently you can't post comments, but on my side it looks like you can, or at least I can. Maybe you need a Google+ profile first? I'll work on that.

Or, maybe I won't. I don't want nasty comments on my blog, legitimate or not.

Is "art form" one word or two?

Every person I talk to who supports Trump seems to have the same reason for their support, because he says things that buck the system, that he's not following the traditional lines that a candidate for president follows in trying to win over voters.

He's like a "Ross Perot" in that he's clearly speaking from a position that is radically different than any of the other candidates. He speaks his mind, doesn't really hold back, doesn't even have a "filter" really for what comes out of his mouth. A lot of people like that about him, that he doesn't care what's appropriate and not appropriate to say in a rally or a debate.

Ok, fine, but we're not trying to find the next TV reality star, we're not trying to find the next popular hero or misfit or celebrity. The United States Presidential Race is about finding the appropriate leader for one of (if not THE) most powerful nations on the planet.

This is where I think our mainstream media has been doing a tremendous disservice to the American People. To hear Leslie Moonves talk about how great Trump has been for ratings. He really doesn't give a flying fuck about how Trump would be as president, as long as his company is raking in money. That's scary.

The second point is substance. Great, Trump is a master of the moment. He attracts a LOT of attention, is a master at selling his brand, his image, his celebrity for all that it is worth and then some. But there's literally NOTHING behind that image. He is a facade, carefully crafted to make the sale, to earn the vote, to push a product or idea, but there's nothing behind it, no substance:

"The biggest problem this world has today is not President Obama with global warming, which is inconceivable, this is what he's saying. The biggest problem we have is nuclear – nuclear proliferation and having some maniac, having some madman go out and get a nuclear weapon. That's in my opinion, that is the single biggest problem that our country faces right now." - Donald Trump during a debate when he was asked about current trends in nuclear proliferation and the capacity for "rogue" entities to acquire a nuclear capability.

On the very surface, it sounds ok. He used the big words, pronounced nuclear properly, and sort of touches the point, or at least states that we need to be able to trust the people we put in charge (does Trump doubt the trustworthiness of our own armed forces?)

But that's it, an answer that's skin deep. he says nothing about the potential for dirty bombs from materials in the former Soviet republics, nothing about the potential in North Korea, India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, north African countries . . .

He doesn't say anything about our aging arsenal or the arsenals of other world powers. He doesn't say anything about disarmament, disposal, or even peaceful use of nuclear power . . .

In fact, at one point he redirects the question toward global warming (which is an inaccurate term, the issue is climate change) and says it's beyond his comprehension.

He will incite his supporters toward violence then disavow any connection to an assault during or after one of his events. He's offensive, if not racist and bigoted. He really doesn't care who's toes he steps on or who gets hurt by his vitriol. He says things to get noticed, to stay in the headlines, and he's winning the popularity contest because there are too many people who won't look beyond the flash and consider his message or the depth of his platform and not enough who will and recognize just how impractical or nonsensical his positions are.

"EDITORS" NOTE: This is a rant. I don't understand everything in this world and I won't claim to. If you understand everything, you are fooling yourself and being a fool because you simply can not understand everything, it's against our nature as humans. We strive for it, the best of us work toward a greater understanding of the world around us, of ourselves, but we will never understand EVERYTHING, it's the nature of the game. I decided to repost this from Facebook because I often go off on a tangent there first. In the future, maybe I'll go in to more detail using this forum. Facebook for "previews" of coming attractions . . . .

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We are so egocentric we don't realize we are the only country in the "modern world" that DOESN'T have universal healthcare, reduced or free college tuition, paid maternity leave, and the like . . .

Yes, those countries pay a bit more in taxes to support it, but they're also THRIVING. Look at the European Space Agency, leaps and bounds ahead of NASA these days in unmanned space exploration. All the biggest advances in atomic physics have come out of Europe lately too, better cars, phone tech, medical advances.

The United States is NOT a world leader in Science and Industry any more and you can't blame Obama for that. You can blame fifteen years of war against fictional enemies in the Middle East to line the pockets of stockholders in oil and defense contracting, commercial prisons, Christian propaganda, xenophobia, and the misguided notion hat we are somehow better than everyone else.

( insert snazzy caption here )

The only people in this country that have ANY right to say they don't like foreigners or are against immigration are the Native Americans, the aboriginal populations of this nation that have been brought to near extinction by white privilege.

I'm sorry, but some people are different. They have a different point of view, different motivations, different needs, different desires, and that's perfectly fine!!! Get over it.

I can't stand most country music, but that doesn't mean I have any right to wipe it off the face of the Earth.

As long as we treat each other with decency and respect, that's all that should matter.

Radical "Islam" gets attention because to radical, violent, and SEEKS attention. But that's not the entire religion and, in fact, most Muslims reject such radicalism out of hand because it does NOT represent them.
No more than the behavior of Christians during the Crusades represents modern Christians.

Live and let live.

Bernie is trying to represent the people, not status quo or big finance and industry.
WE THE PEOPLE starts the Declaration of Independence, not, "We the corporations" . . .

Plausible deniability

It wasn't my idea. I've tried and failed a few times trying to get a blog moving and I think for the most part, the failure was in not taking the time to understand the mechanics of making it all work. I've had a Blogger account for years and years and did nothing with it. I "followed" two blogs, one with Buddhist leanings and one my wife had to do for college that she simply stopped doing when the class was over.

I write a lot, but probably not enough, and I rant from time to time on Facebook and elsewhere. I've had a few people suggest I should start a blog and this is me testing the waters (again?) and seeing what comes of it.

I still need to work through how to do this, pardon the learning curve, but I'm going to see if I can at least spend some time DAILY to work things out with little posts and such.

For now, this is what I got, any CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is welcome. Thanks.