TheWiseOldFart

When I was a young boy, many years ago, I remember hearing the adults around me say: “Why do I bother reading the newspaper? It’s nothing but bad news.” When I was in high school, one of my teachers gave the entire class an assignment requiring us to read the entire first section of the local paper. It was the Los Angeles Times. As I expected, it was mostly bad news. However, what I read today and what is reported on television is far worse than it was in the 1960’s. First and foremost, I believe that most of what I read is filled with lies of omission. I find that the mainstream media is no longer trustworthy. When I fact check their stories, I discover that they seldom contain the complete truth. There is at least one mass shooting every day somewhere in America. Hate crimes have risen by nearly 1,000 percent from where it was in 2015. The greed of corporate America has angered most Americans to a level I once thought unthinkable. A man who shot and killed the CEO of a major healthca...

h Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart Unlike Trump’s personal Gestapo, Neo-Nazi organizations, the LGBTQ community is no threat to anyone, anywhere. They simply seek the same rights guaranteed to heterosexuals by the Constitution. So, let me ask you a question: “why should our government feel it necessary to issue a warning to the LGBTQ community who will be celebrating Pride Month in June?” Where is the time machine used to move America and parts of the world backwards into the 1950’s? Authorities warned US citizens abroad to "exercise increased caution". Violence against the LGBTQ community across our nation is also expected. "Stay alert in locations frequented by tourists, including Pride celebrations," a warning issued by the state department said. IN JUST FOUR YEARS, TRUMP AND HIS AMERICAN FASCIST PARTY RECREATED AMERICA INTO A COUNTRY DOMINATED BY ANGER, HATRED, AND BIGOTRY Prior to 2017, the worst of America remained in the shadows, or in the slime at the bottom of cessp...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart   Domestic terrorism and the rise in mass shootings with the use of legally obtained firearms have become America’s number one danger to its people and an embarrassment for a government which continues to ignore the facts. In a recent hearing, Senator John Kennedy failed miserably in his efforts to protect his party’s choice to ignore the safety of 330 million Americans. Since 1976, the NRA began moving away from being an advocate for gun safety into a lobby to increase gun sales for gun manufacturers and gun sellers. The Republican Party eagerly accepts campaign donations from the NRA, and to show their gratitude continues to protect the NRA from any legislation which might lessen the profits of their owners. After every mass shooting, those who call themselves “Republicans” today offer their “thoughts and prayers” but do nothing. Instead of taking action, they attempt to change the subject into a discussion founded on fantasy and half-truths. On Tuesday, D...

  Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart   I always agreed with Mark Twain until 2017. “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.” The ‘country’ refers to the American people. Until I began to see growing support for the worst man in America, who is also the least qualified presidential candidate in history, I believed in America because I believed in our people. However, I no longer believe that millions of our nation’s people love their country and therefore I am not sure that the United States is worth saving. America has never been a great country. More than half of our nation’s people harbor racist beliefs and cherish their bigotry towards others who are not like themselves. Beginning in June of 2015 this problem escalated. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported an 800 percent in hate crimes. Although this old, obese, white man attempted to overthrow our government, committing the definition of treason, he remains free to continue spreading anger, ha...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart   It is an irrefutable fact that today’s pseudo-Republicans hate the principles of our Founding Fathers, and have no interest in the future of the American People. Studies prove that they are opposed to every issue favored by the majority. The leader of their party is a lifelong criminal, a sexual predator, a fascist, the biggest traitor in American history, and the worst American president by far. I couldn’t make this s**t up. The truth is that the real Republican Party began to implode in 1981. Trump and his followers completed its demise in 2017, and it will never return. The ideals and principles of the former Grand Old Party are dead and forgotten. Today’s group has moved so far to the right they have embraced the ideas of fascism. Human rights, liberty and justice for all, and the ideals of understanding and compassion have long been forgotten. Money is their only god, and support from the wealthiest five percent of our nation’s people is priority numb...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart   Where am I? What country am I living in? I know it’s not America, at least not the America in which I was raised or the America I remember 40-50 years ago. Never would a man or woman become or president if he or she was not an American. If where I’m living is the United States, why is our government allowing corporations to rape us financially. What’s with the growing interest in fascism? Why is our government ignoring the escalating danger of domestic terrorism. The only things I recognize from my younger years are pervasive racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and extreme sexism. Here are three headlines which made me shake my head and say to myself, “what the hell?” [FBI Whistleblower: Giuliani was made an Asset by Russian Intelligence Trump - Russian Spy Biden arrives in Florida to survey Idalia's toll from the sky and ground. DeSantis won't see him] The first is no surprise. Putin’s presence was constant in Trump’s world from June of 2015 when he de...

  Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart   I’m old enough to remember when the news contained some positive and even uplifting stories. Of course, that was more than 50 years ago. Today’s television news would never report something which does not contain sensational stories, bringing emotions to the surface, guaranteed to increase advertising dollars. This story is not entirely about domestic terrorism and the gun violence which accompanies these tragedies. It is about a new atmosphere of anger, hatred, and violence which dominates our daily life and therefore television news. Like mass shootings, we hear about the commission of hate crimes almost daily. Before Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2017, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported an 80 percent rise in hate crimes committed against minorities, various non-white ethnicities, non-Christians, members of the LGBTQ community, and women. In 2021 a rise of 12 percent from 2020 was recorded with 65 percent of those crimes commi...