http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/19217 AMERICA IS BROKEN! &nbsp; The RICH and powerful have turned the U.S.A. into a third world country. Just look at the hundreds of millions of dollars they are spending to get themselves elected as President. What&rsquo;s in a name? No matter, Democrats or Republicans or Liberal or Conservative&hellip;it&rsquo;s all just about THEM! &nbsp; How many of those hundreds of millions of dollars would it take to build more hospital and clinics, bridges, infrastructure, schools, houses, and factories to put people to work making a decent wage instead of outsourcing to India, Malaysia, China, etc. We could actually start MAKING things in this country again. &nbsp; We need to start taking our country back again and go back to our roots. I don&rsquo;t know what the answer is but maybe if NOBODY voted&hellip;.NOBODY would get elected. Do you think that would send them a message? Do we still have a chance to turn this around? &nbsp; Those who have not learned from the lessons of the past, are doomed to repeat them! &nbsp; Jim Richards &nbsp; AMERICA IS BROKEN! &nbsp; The RICH and powerful have turned the U.S.A. into a third world country. Just look at the hundreds of millions of dollars they are spending to get themselves elected as President. What&rsquo;s in a name? No matter, Democrats or Republicans or Liberal or Conservative&hellip;it&rsquo;s all just about THEM! &nbsp; How many of those hundreds of millions of dollars would it take to build more hospital and clinics, bridges, infrastructure, schools, houses, and factories to put people to work making a decent wage instead of outsourcing to India, Malaysia, China, etc. We could actually start MAKING things in this country again. &nbsp; We need to start taking our country back again and go back to our roots. I don&rsquo;t know what the answer is but maybe if NOBODY voted&hellip;.NOBODY would get elected. Do you think that would send them a message? Do we still have a chance to turn this around? &nbsp; Those who have not learned from the lessons of the past, are doomed to repeat them! &nbsp; Jim Richards &nbsp; en-us Jim there should be a limit that a presidential Canada raise and spend. they spend Multi millions to get a 250.000 dollar a year job. It never has made since to me. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/19217/#c_178096 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/19217/#c_178096 Jim there should be a limit that a presidential Canada raise and spend. they spend Multi millions to get a 250.000 dollar a year job. It never has made since to me. I couldn't agree more Jim. This has always driven me insane!! http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/19217/#c_178108 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/19217/#c_178108 I couldn't agree more Jim. This has always driven me insane!! I am a Republican with Democratic leanings. There is absolutely not one republican presidential candidate that I would vote for this year. Sadly I keep thinking of what will happen if we don't vote in a candidate with experience on a global level. Hillary is the only one that has my vote and believe me I am not happy with that conclusion. Honesty and integrity and passion don't cut it in this race. It's not right but this is the reality. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/19217/#c_178127 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/19217/#c_178127 I am a Republican with Democratic leanings. There is absolutely not one republican presidential candidate that I would vote for this year. Sadly I keep thinking of what will happen if we don't vote in a candidate with experience on a global level. Hillary is the only one that has my vote and believe me I am not happy with that conclusion. Honesty and integrity and passion don't cut it in this race. It's not right but this is the reality. As corrupt as things are, the vote is your last refuge of civilization. Once you give it up, or the vote is made meaningless, barbarism is all you have left.<br /> <br /> Vote. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/19217/#c_178189 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/19217/#c_178189 As corrupt as things are, the vote is your last refuge of civilization. Once you give it up, or the vote is made meaningless, barbarism is all you have left.<br /> <br /> Vote. <strong><font size="3">No matter how messed up you think our country and political process is it is still the best in the world and we are lucky to be living in America. People in many country's don't get to vote,They are told where to work and how to live. If they speak out against their leaders&nbsp;or system of government they are jailed or killed. Thank god that i&nbsp;was born in America where i have the freedom to talk loads of sh-t about Bush, vote for anyone that i choose to and burn the American flag without the fear of being executed.This country might&nbsp;not be perfect but there is no other place i would choose to live.&nbsp;<img onmousedown="setCurrSmiley('img3','10/10_6_9','Moony%202');doContextMenu(0);" id="img3" ondragstart="event.dataTransfer.setData(&quot;Text&quot;,&quot;&quot;)" title="Moony 2" ondragend="insertSmiley(&quot;10/10_6_9&quot;,&quot;Moony%202&quot;)" onclick="insertSmiley(&quot;10/10_6_9&quot;,&quot;Moony%202&quot;)" alt="" src="http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/10/10_6_9.gif" align="absMiddle" border="0" /></font></strong> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/19217/#c_178237 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/19217/#c_178237 <strong><font size="3">No matter how messed up you think our country and political process is it is still the best in the world and we are lucky to be living in America. People in many country's don't get to vote,They are told where to work and how to live. If they speak out against their leaders&nbsp;or system of government they are jailed or killed. Thank god that i&nbsp;was born in America where i have the freedom to talk loads of sh-t about Bush, vote for anyone that i choose to and burn the American flag without the fear of being executed.This country might&nbsp;not be perfect but there is no other place i would choose to live.&nbsp;<img onmousedown="setCurrSmiley('img3','10/10_6_9','Moony%202');doContextMenu(0);" id="img3" ondragstart="event.dataTransfer.setData(&quot;Text&quot;,&quot;&quot;)" title="Moony 2" ondragend="insertSmiley(&quot;10/10_6_9&quot;,&quot;Moony%202&quot;)" onclick="insertSmiley(&quot;10/10_6_9&quot;,&quot;Moony%202&quot;)" alt="" src="http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/10/10_6_9.gif" align="absMiddle" border="0" /></font></strong> I agree wholeheartedly with the Big D.&nbsp; As of now we are still the best country to live in and we STILL have the right and freedoms to speak our mind.&nbsp; But I will caveat that with the notion that you have to constantly protect that right.&nbsp; As soon as things start going in a direction where you are no longer &quot;allowed&quot; or you have to be afraid to speak your mind because you will be treated unfairly compared to your fellow citizens who toe the &quot;party&quot; line then this will no longer be a great country to live in.&nbsp; Look around you and look at what passes for news these days and see if what I said still applies.&nbsp; There is nothing wrong with questioning everything you are being told.&nbsp; Freedom of thought goes hand in hand with freedom of speech and once you are being dissuaded from your own thoughts thats a huge red flag to question WHY.&nbsp;&nbsp; And maybe they are right,&nbsp; and maybe they are&nbsp; wrong, but you should be free to question with impunity.&nbsp; And I use &quot;they&quot; as a free pronoun to mean anyone or any group who tells you or pressures you to think in their &quot;special&quot; way.<br /> <br /> As a simple example, look at the people who post on Tehachapi News and get constantly attacked just because their views differ from someone else.&nbsp; It seems to come out a lot when folks post about a religious topic more-so than any other topic.&nbsp; These are the people to fear, because they don't just want you to agree with them, they want to control your thoughts. Thats about as scary as it gets in my opinion.&nbsp; There's a huge difference between having a rational argument, the hospital situation is a good example of that, and a non-rational argument based on some internalization of faith, which 99% of the religious blogs are a good example of,.&nbsp; One you can question and argue freely using logic and reason and facts, the other you cannot reason with because reason and facts are not a factor in belief.&nbsp; I will leave it to the reader to decide which applies to which. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/19217/#c_178284 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/19217/#c_178284 I agree wholeheartedly with the Big D.&nbsp; As of now we are still the best country to live in and we STILL have the right and freedoms to speak our mind.&nbsp; But I will caveat that with the notion that you have to constantly protect that right.&nbsp; As soon as things start going in a direction where you are no longer &quot;allowed&quot; or you have to be afraid to speak your mind because you will be treated unfairly compared to your fellow citizens who toe the &quot;party&quot; line then this will no longer be a great country to live in.&nbsp; Look around you and look at what passes for news these days and see if what I said still applies.&nbsp; There is nothing wrong with questioning everything you are being told.&nbsp; Freedom of thought goes hand in hand with freedom of speech and once you are being dissuaded from your own thoughts thats a huge red flag to question WHY.&nbsp;&nbsp; And maybe they are right,&nbsp; and maybe they are&nbsp; wrong, but you should be free to question with impunity.&nbsp; And I use &quot;they&quot; as a free pronoun to mean anyone or any group who tells you or pressures you to think in their &quot;special&quot; way.<br /> <br /> As a simple example, look at the people who post on Tehachapi News and get constantly attacked just because their views differ from someone else.&nbsp; It seems to come out a lot when folks post about a religious topic more-so than any other topic.&nbsp; These are the people to fear, because they don't just want you to agree with them, they want to control your thoughts. Thats about as scary as it gets in my opinion.&nbsp; There's a huge difference between having a rational argument, the hospital situation is a good example of that, and a non-rational argument based on some internalization of faith, which 99% of the religious blogs are a good example of,.&nbsp; One you can question and argue freely using logic and reason and facts, the other you cannot reason with because reason and facts are not a factor in belief.&nbsp; I will leave it to the reader to decide which applies to which. <p><strong><em><font color="#333399" size="3">Many thanks for all the positive comments. I got just what I wanted...HOPE!</font></em></strong></p> <p><strong><em><font color="#333399" size="3">Jim Richards</font></em></strong></p> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/19217/#c_178288 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/19217/#c_178288 <p><strong><em><font color="#333399" size="3">Many thanks for all the positive comments. I got just what I wanted...HOPE!</font></em></strong></p> <p><strong><em><font color="#333399" size="3">Jim Richards</font></em></strong></p>