Thursday, November 21, 2019

Thanksgiving

Timeline of Thanksgiving:

1492 - Columbus set sail with the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria.
He set out to sea with the order of Queen Isabella,
to establish a spice trade route to a new world.

1607 - The first Explorers landed in North America;
and set up the Jamestown Colony.

1619 - More settlers came.

1620 - The Pilgrims sailed on the Mayflower
and landed on Cape Cod.
The trip took 55 days from England to Plymouth Rock.
They landed on November 11th, 1620.

1621 - The first Thanksgiving was held on Wednesday November 24th, 1621.
The feast was between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians.
The food consisted of: Waterfowl, Venison (deer), Ham, Lobster,
clams, wild-berries, pumpkin, and squash.

1776 - The Constitution was ratified and we became the
Republic of the United States of America.

1781 - George Washington recognized the Day of Thanks
on the last Wednesday of the month of November. 

1863 - During the Civil War President Abraham Lincoln
moved Thanksgiving to the last Thursday of the month of November.

1939 - Since there were 5 Thursday's that year in the month of November,
to restore order President Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to the
second to last Thursday of the month.
This created the capitalistic Christmas shopping day
on the day after Thanksgiving known as Black Friday.



Now no matter what Thursday of November that Thanksgiving falls on,
let us not forget the first Thanksgiving that the first settlers celebrated,
with the Native American Indians as a sign of Thankfulness and Peace.



Saturday, November 2, 2019

My Two Cents - Trump Edition

My two cents;
I am tired of all the propaganda.
Here are the facts about the bad Trump has done.
He enacted the trade war with China,
which actually hurt farmers.
His tax plan gave tax breaks for the wealthy.
He walked back The Clean Air and Water Act,
Dismantled the EPA, and is a Climate Change Denier.
He backs Russia over our own Intelligence Agencies.
He lies over and over again to the US Public.
He withheld Aid appropriated by Congress for political favors.
He had the troops withdraw from Syria,
and allowed Turkey to slaughter our Kurdish allies
and their families. And gave the Safe Zone to Turkey.
He degraded the Affordable Care Act without the promised fix.
He quadrupled our National Debt in less than 3 years
when he promised to erase our debt in 4 years.
Every person he hires is unqualified,
IE Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education,
Ben Carson for HUD,
Rick Perry for Secretary of Energy;
none of these people are qualified at all.
Not to mention having his unqualified family
running offices in the White House.
Obama had a Dr. Ernest Moniz as the Secretary of Energy.
A highly qualified person. A scientist and nuclear physicist.
Instead of "Draining the Swamp"
Trump has added to it with more corruption than ever.
Trump did NOT divest himself of his private businesses
which is against the “Emoluments Clause” of the Constitution.
Not building the wall that  He promised to.
He had control of congress for two years and failed.
He broke off the Iran Nuclear Deal without replacing it,
now there is no nuclear inspections by UN in Iran.
Trump is a self proclaimed deal maker,
but in reality all he does is pull out of deals. 

Trump is very un-presidential. 
He spreads many conspiracy theories and lies
and has enacted many bad policies:
The birther movement, the Email scandal,
the bullying of Biden, and of the disabled,
the cyberbullying on twitter,
the name calling of the Mexicans and Muslims,
and to politicians, the fake propaganda he spreads,
the hate he spews, rise of hate groups and white supremacist groups,
more and more mass shootings in schools, churches, synagogues,
the Ukraine controversy, praise of Russia and of dictators,
climate change denying, pulling out of the Paris accord,
crises at the border, kids in cages indefinitely,
and this is our President.
SAD!

I am sad at times to be an American. 
It is truly not the America I grew up in. 

Now Trump is finally under impeachment of his many crimes.
Here are a few:
Paying off porn stars - bribery (18 US Code 201), 
unethical business practices, 
admitting to sexual harassing women, 
quid pro quo with Ukraine (18 US Code 872), 
soliciting foreign officials (52 U.S. Code 30121), 
misappropriation of funds, need I go on.

A personal note:
To me Trump will never compare to Reagan (my favorite Republican president). 
And not even Reagan's plans were all good for this country. 
He failed with the Voodoo Economics with the trickle down effect
in his 1986 Tax Reform Act which gave out subsidies to big oil companies,
and many Americans were unemployed; he hurt the unions and the factory workers. 
He also hurt the environment by lowering the emission standards. 
But Reagan worked with both parties and got things done. 
He had respect by nearly everyone. He worked on relations with Russia. 
His foreign policy, in the end, put an end to the cold war 
and in 1991 the Soviet Union fell. 
He enacted the Iran Contra deal to fight the war on drugs;
though many guns, monies, and drugs got smuggled under this deal. 
He enacted gun reform after he was shot. 
And was against Automatic and semi automatic high-powered weapons
in which he put a permanent ban on automatic weapons 
and a temporary ban on semi automatic weapons. 
He got the Berlin Wall torn down. 
Reagan increased defense spending and nearly built up a 600 ship Navy fleet.
At the time we needed a big military,
however it also began the Military Industrial Complex
that Eisenhower warned us about.  
He enacted the Star Wars Program, built up NASA, and was a great Military President. 

Sadly many also died during the Reagan Administration:
10 Embassy attacks
318 deaths
1 US ambassador killed
18 CIA officers
254 Marines
Number of investigations 1

But under the Obama Administration (My favorite President):
there were only...
2 Embassy attacks
4 American deaths
yet there was...
13 investigations.  

And Trump calls the Impeachment Inquiry and the Russian Investigation a big witch hunt. 
In my view the big with hunt was the Clinton E Mail scandal, and the Benghazi investigations. 

That is my Two Cents.
 

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Why not be kind!

Why not be kind, instead of hating:
I had a friend who said they cannot be kind
because of the way he was mistreated in life.
So I am going to be hateful to others as they were to me.
That to to me is no excuse of not being kind.
That to me is the best reason for being kind.
Jesus was mistreated, but he was kind.
He spread joy to nations.
I had a hard life myself, the way I was treated at times,
being bullied in school, having a speech impediment,
the combat I endured, the evil I seen in the world.

A house fire I had, and the loss of my son Ken. 
And deal with PTSD and Pain from my ailments.
But I am still kind to others.
Kindness begets kindness.
Hate begets hate.
Sadly less and less are being kind today,
hate is on the rise, cyber-bullying by the President,
the hate he spews,
and many follow his bad example.
I chose not to follow the bad example of hate,
and stand against it; I combat it with kindness.
And hope others will follow.
COMBAT HATE WITH KINDNESS!

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Year End Letter 2019

YEAR END LETTER 2019

As this year end I await another to begin.

For nearly 3 years ago our son Ken passed away. For last year we had a house fire.
And this year there was much road work. Way too much noise.
So 2020, the Year of the Dragon, is going to be our year!

I rode my bike a lot this year. Though could not ride on the river trails until late in the season. They were flooded. So rode around my old block a lot. Even though I got in a bad bike crash this year and my face was swollen up; I got back on my bike the following week and rode. I did my work out routine at the YMCA, did Tai Chi at the VA, and swam a lot as well. Since I feel much pain in the winter and my body gets tight; I bought a bike trainer to ride my bike in the house to keep my legs moving. And my total gym is hooked up.
I just won’t be swimming as much in the winter.

My wife and I had one of the best summers this year, in spite of the road work. On Father’s Day weekend we went to West Lake. I kayaked and she hung out at the beach. In July we went camping at Sugar Bottom Camp Ground at Coraville Lake. We camp there in honor of Ken. And on the first week of August we went to Graceland. On the first day we arrived in the late afternoon. So we swam. Then for dinner we had Memphis BBQ. On the second day we went to visit the Tennessee Karate Institute, but due to rehab we were not able to get inside. We had a fun river boat ride on the Mississippi River on the Island Queen. And we had dinner at the Half Shell. Our waitress was a friendly girl named Crista. I had the Memphis shrimp and my wife had steak. Then on the third day we went on a VIP tour of Graceland. It was awesome seeing Elvis’s mansion, his cars, his jumpers, and the slide shows of him doing Kenpo. For he was an inspiration on a lot of peoples lives. An inspiration on my life and the karate I have done. We had lunch at the famous Glady’s Dinner. My wife took a pic of me sitting in the Cadillac booth. I had a huge pizza by the slice. Now as the year winds down I am awaiting another long winter. As the climate changes the winters get colder and colder; and longer and longer.

My son Tim is back in college. He is finishing his mathematics degree online at
Southern New Hampshire University. He is living with his girlfriend Rachel.

Not much else to say about this year. Just awaiting to see what 2020 brings.

Timothy L. Kerofsky, MA and family

Friday, October 11, 2019

Kindness

My friends on my Facebook and Twitter you so me post about being kind all the time.
For Kindness begets Kindness is what I post a lot.
I am going to go further today than this simple post whom which the Pope also says a lot.

Kindness begets kindness,
hate begets hate,
compassion begets compassion,
and violence begets violence.

Think about this my friends.

There is a rise of hate and violence today. There is less kindness and less compassion.

We can overcome hate with kindness and violence with compassion and forgiveness.

To make the world a better place be kind.
To make the world a better place give a smile.
To make the world a better place give a hug.
To make the world a better place help another.

For kindness is powerful.




Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Will we fall?

History – The Fall of Republics
Are we next?

By: Timothy L. Kerofsky, MA


There was a question asked to me by one of my friends named, Doug Walson. He asked me, “Will society as a whole ever change for the good, or will it keep spiraling downward like it had been?” Well, society on earth will fall one day as it is foretold in Revelations 21.
There will be a new heaven and a new earth.
And all things will become new.
That is the day I am waiting for;
for it will be a glorious day.

As far as Republics, which the United States really is; I call it a democratic republic, every Republic has fallen. The worst was the fall of Rome! This can be compared to the United States today. Trump vowed to “Make America Great”, yet America was already great.
Instead we are now like Rome in the 1st century.

Our politics have broken down. There are bad faith arguments between the political parties. And the government is not working together to get anything done. And elections are rigged, just like it was rigged with Trump by Russia in 2016.
The Roman Republic lasted for over 400 years,
But it never recovered.
Will we, the Republic of the United States, recover?

The United States of America is younger than Rome was when it fell,
but we are in a bad predicament.
Will we overcome this political nightmare? If the parties work together like during the times of Kennedy, or even Reagan, though a Republican he was respected by both parties,
like Kennedy.
They worked together for the good of America - For the good of our Republic.

Americans have overcome many obstacles; the fall of the twin towers during 9/11, the bombing in Oklahoma by Timothy McVay, the Boston Marathon Bombing, and many other atrocities on our homeland. But can we overcome this?
Is our time coming?

Here is some history of the United States of America: the first settlers came here in 1619. And then the Pilgrims came here in 1620. Sadly we slaughtered many Indians and took their land. I did a report in one of my college sociology classes about us being the first terrorists. Andrew Jackson made the Indians march on the trail of tears. Then in 1776 our constitution was ratified and we became a nation. The nation –
The Republic of the United States of America.

The founding fathers were well versed in Roman culture and literature. In fact our constitution is based off the Roman Republic. The historian Polybius laid out the clearest description of the Roman Republic’s constitution where representatives of various social classes, the power of the elites and the power of the mob, was the heart of Rome; which is like the United States today. The top one percent of the billionaires controls the other 99 percent of this nation. There is very little middle class today.
It is mostly the rich or the poor.

  Rome was ruled as a Republic for 482 years and fell. And was ruled as a monarchy. Before that Rome was a vast Empire which lasted for 1500 years. It is the longest the world has ever seen, but not the biggest.

The biggest empire was the Ottoman Empire which lasted from 1322 to 1922. It fell during World War 1. The empire consisted of; Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Hungry, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Macedonia, Romania, Syria, Parts of Arabia, and northern Africa.
It was truly a vast empire.

Rome chose to let their democracy die. Then it became very violent and unstable. This was due to the growing wealth inequality, partisan gridlock – no bipartisanship, political violence, and pandering. They did not protect their political institutions, so the Romans turned to the perceived stability of their vast empire. However, the violence grew unstoppable and the degraded republic fell. The midterm elections in the United States of 2018 talked about many of these exact topics.

Watts states, “Above all else the Roman Republic teaches us modern citizens the changes that come from condoning political obstruction, and courting political violence.” I add that furthermore when leaders and presidents engage in corrosive, abusive behaviors, the republic that they represent, if the behavior is not changed, will truly fall!

Only if the blind can truly see what is really going on in this world and in this nation.
There are kids in cages. There are Muslims being tortured in China. There is Russian interference in our nation. There are camps that were just like Nazi camps in North Korea. There are mass shootings in America in schools, mosques, and churches.
Hate, sadly, is on the rise.

Paul Krugman states, “It takes a willful blindness not to see the rise of fascism and our current political nightmare.”

Republic institutions do not protect against Tyranny! And when tyranny comes it flourishes.
Even when maintaining a republic façade.

Adrian Goldworthy states, “…no disappointed Roman politician sought the aid of a foreign power.”

Sadly, Trump in 2016 asked for the aid of Russia to smear Hillary Clinton. Today he is doing the same thing with Joe Biden in asking the aid of Ukraine and China to smear his good name.
In  my opinion, in Trump’s view winning domestic political struggles is all that matters.
The good of our republic be damned.

It is getting worse today. Trump’s bad example for America; the bullying, the name calling on twitter, and the hate he spews. It is not the America I grew up in! I grew up in an America in which there was bipartisanship in the parties, in which Democrats and Republicans worked together to resolve issues for the good of America – for the good of the United States Democratic Republic.

Today it is the total opposite.
The process of destroying the democratic substance is, sadly, underway.
It is the discouragement of minority voting; a de facto one party state with the fiction of a democracy. It is a rigged political game in which the other side can never win.
“Redistribution from the poor and middle class to the wealthy is a consistent theme in the modern Republican party.” Paul Krugman

In conclusion:

Sadly the erosion of our democracy is well underway and there is no guarantee that we will ever be able to recover. If there is to be hope in the redemption of the American Republic it has to start with the recognition of how bad things really are. Our Democracy is on the edge and that is for certain. If things continue the way they are going in America – the Republic of the United States will one day fall! If we do not replace hate with kindness, bullying with compassion, acceptance with action; especially on things like climate change, immigration reform, our infrastructure, feeding the hungry, helping the poor, just being Godly, doing what Jesus would do. We are stewards of this earth; we have to protect it, and its society. If we don’t and we continue on this spiraling downward path, yes we, our republic will fall
and then the world will follow. 

Thursday, September 12, 2019

Facts of 9/11

Some 9/11 facts:
1. 15 of the 19 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia,
yet we never set sanctions against Saudi Arabia because of oil.
2. The FBI suspected attacks were going to happen,
but there was no communication
between them, the CIA, and other agencies.
3. American flight 11 hit the North tower at 8:46 AM NYT.
4. United flight 175 hit the South Tower 17 minutes later.
5. American flight 77 hit the Pentagon at 9:36 AM Eastern time.
6. United flight 93 crashed into Shanksville field
in Pennsylvania at 1003 AM; which the Passengers on-board
stood against the terrorists and the quote "9/11 Lets Roll"
was formed and lives in history.
7. At 9:59 AM the South tower fell
and 29 minutes later the North tower fell.
8. A new organization was formed after 9/11
called the Department of Homeland Security
in which Thomas J. Ridge was the first director.
9. Bush enacted the global war on terrorism
in which troops went to Afghanistan to hunt for Bin Laden.
10. Obama sent seal team 6 in to kill Bin Laden
on May 2nd, 2011.
11. The Iraq war really had nothing to do with 9/11.
It was based on lies and falsehoods on
Weapons of Mass Destruction which was never found.


RIF about 9/11:
Did you know that the original Bin Laden plot of 9/11
was not just the attacks on the twin towers and the Pentagon,
but attacks to the towers in Chicago, LA,
and in Texas oil fields as well?
He wanted to see America tremble. Sad!

Monday, September 9, 2019

The Spider:


There once was a spider who lived in the laundry room rafters.
His name was "Speeder".
He was fast and jumped.
One day he jumped into a bucket of water.
And a strange object with perforations,
went underneath him
and he got on the spoon with a flump.
He got lifted higher and higher,
toward the rafters where he lived,
but climbed down the spoon onto a hairy hand,
he got brushed off and fell onto dry land.
He climbed onto a pipe,
speeding up toward his home,
to meet his baby spiders and his wife Philicia 18,
for he does not want to be alone.
Now he is up on the rafters,
where he will live until the hereafter.
By: T.L. Kerofsky, MA