Ray’s Rants of the Week

There are many topics of discussion that are considered to be “slippery slopes.” Religion is a big one. Sports is guaranteed to cause an argument—which team is better; favorite players; your team sucks!; etc. Politics is another dangerous subject in today’s times. Democrat vs. Republican; conservative vs. liberal; one race against another. It makes one want to vomit.🤮

In social media, I unfollowed many pages involving politics back during the days of Obama. I got real tired real quickly of all the mudslinging, back-and-forth shitshow. I used to be rather vocal about my political leanings and what I thought of one politician or another. I decided it needed to cease and to make my presence more peaceful and neutral. For this post, however, I will show some of my political opinions. You may agree or disagree with me. Go ahead, believe what you will. I respect your choices. All I ask is you respect mine. In that way, we can all live in harmony.

Politically speaking, I do not affiliate with any political party. I don’t align myself strictly with the beliefs of any of the parties out there. I consider myself somewhat conservative, as I believe the federal government is currently way too big and bloated—too many departments, too many redundant employees. Much of the fat should be trimmed. The government overspends way too much. Just the interest paid annually on federal debt and borrowing is over $300 billion (that’s twice Jeff Bezos’ net worth). It spends roughly $120,000 per second. That is utterly insane and mind-blowing. The United States Government spends more in one second than many people earn in a year.

There is way too much “security” around. There are cameras pointed at you almost everywhere you go. Since 9/11, airport security is ridiculous. Americans are exchanging freedoms for the illusion of security. The government is spying on everyone. There are logs hidden somewhere with thousands of terabytes of data that the feds have on everyone in this country. Like hell they’re not spying on us.

Gay marriage? Doesn’t bother me. Two guys or two women love each other and wanna get married? Go for it. Just don’t force someone to make a cake if they don’t want to. Black Lives Matter? Only their lives? No one else’s lives matter? Marijuana? Decriminalize it, at least. If they don’t want to make it legal, then at least make it so people don’t go to jail over a joint. Hell, if all drugs were decriminalized, then regulated/taxed, the black market and the cartels would disappear in a hurry. Maybe?

Anyone notice that, according to the [state-run] mainstream media, I am a member of the most hated group in the country (oh, excuse me, most entitled): middle-aged, Caucasian, heterosexual, conservative, Christian male. I’m white, straight and somewhat old. I’m also a man. That automatically makes me hated amongst many people in the country. I grew up in southern California, in a predominantly Hispanic population, but I am a white boy.

What other political Pandora’s boxes can I open? Let’s see……what do I think of Donald Trump? He’s a slimy douchebag (okay, he always was). He has a huge case of open-mouth-insert-foot, especially on Twitter. I think someone should take away his iPhone or laptop (or whatever he tweets from), and make him actually do his job. Has anyone ever told Mr. Trump that you can’t lead this country from a fucking golf course? And I thought Obama’s vacations/golfing were excessive! Trump’s Secret Service guards are making hella overtime with all his traveling, just so he can play golf. Golf, of all things. It’s a stupid game: to hit a tiny white ball into a tiny hole 400 yards down the line, hoping you don’t hit the ball into a sandbox or water. To need 75-150 acres of land to hit a little white ball less than two inches in diameter is a bit overkill, don’t you think? As George Carlin once said, “Just be glad you found it. Put it in your pocket and go home. You’re a winner!”

Will there be a second Trump term? No one knows right now. If it were up to most people, no. Would Hillary Clinton have been better? I highly doubt it. I personally think she would have been worse. Many uber-liberals would have tried pulling the gender card with everything she would’ve said or done. “Oh, you don’t agree with queen Hillary? You’re sexist!” Yeah, I can see that argument would’ve been used ad nauseum.

Back to the group thing. I believe everyone should be treated equally. No one is better than anyone else. Why do there have to be special laws passed supposedly protecting “minority” groups who actually make up the majority? There are laws to “protect” so-called minorities—but do they protect minorities, or simply punish white, heterosexual men, just for being white straight dudes?

Now here’s what I don’t understand: the whole gender/sexuality thing. It used to be that you were either male or female, depending upon whether you were born with a penis or a vagina—you were born with either “girl parts” or “boy parts”. I saw a chart one time, and I kid you not, there were listed at least 20 different “gender identities”. It had pink and blue figures. One was half pink, half blue. One had one arm one color and the rest the other. I’m sorry, what in the actual fuck is that? Oh, my left shoulder is female. Huh? And what is all the sexuality stuff? I get hetero-, homo-, and asexual. What the fuck is “pansexual” mean? Or “genderfluid”? Are these people suffering from a mental illness of some kind? Or did I just warp into an alternate reality sometime since 2000? I honestly don’t get any of this. Maybe I don’t want to get it. Perhaps I’m just old-fashioned. No, we shouldn’t go back to calling black people the dreaded “N word”. And why is it frowned upon to call a black person black? Why is it now “people of color” or “African-American”? Hell, why divide everyone into a sub-sub-subgroup? Aren’t we all just “Americans”? Is it really necessary to dissect every possible group of society? Isn’t it just a way to divide us, rather than unite the people?

As for immigration, the border shouldn’t be wide open. We shouldn’t allow people to flow freely into this country, especially illegally. And if you’re here illegally, we should see why. Many are here “illegally” because their parents brought them here really young. If you don’t have proper documentation, and you commit a crime, BOOM! Out you fucking go! If you want to come to the USA, great. Just to it the right way. Jump through the hoops; fill out the paperwork; pay the fees; do everything right. You jump the border and want to mooch off the country? Get the fuck outta here! If you’re already here and “undocumented”, but you’re working and being productive, let’s find a way to make you legal. I’m all for immigration, so long as it’s legal and done the right way. And I don’t care what country people are immigrating from. That doesn’t matter. Enter legally or get the hell out of here. One more thing about immigration: don’t separate little kids from their parents. Keep the immigrant families together, regardless. It’s inhumane to do that.

Far from being an exhaustive list, this has been some of my political views. Don’t expect me to delve too much more into politics, as it’s sloppy, messy and can result in fights, arguments and hard feelings. I long for the days when people could express themselves and agree to disagree, then move on. Maybe those days are long gone. I would hope not. Here’s to hoping, anyway.

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed reading is as much as I did writing it. Until next week, be joyful, be prosperous, be safe and be well.