Note to Bernie and Staff

Instead of absorbing blows or ignoring them when people call you Socialist, how about some Socialist ed?
Richard Wolfe now has more students all over the country then he ever did when he was a professor of economics at various elite institutions.
Why not bring Wolfe or Bernie to groups of interested voters?
Wolfe's audiences are right where Marx is:  Capitalism can/must be improved.
One important lesson for all is our concerns about Socialist governments:  Russian gulags, de-education of intellectuals by Mao in the 60s, and many others disasters.  It's interesting to learn governments were never the concern or ideas of Marx.  He focused on the actions of labor, capital, employers, customers, and workers and how they interact with each other.
Let's not forget there are a lot of people in this country and others are looking for ways to fix Capitalism.  Just like Karl Marx.  And Bernie.
If you refuse to think about this, you're a charter member of the Hillary Vision Team.

Note to Genius High-Paid, Low-Vision Political Experts on Joe vs the Bern

Bernie the Socialist didn't listen to you in 2016 and 2020 and accomplished electoral miracles.  He brought out voters, got lots of votes, raised bucks the hard way-- $2.70 at a time, against all the odds you list.  The fact that it was impossible and never going to happen and completely against the rules of American politics didn't stop him or us who support him.

I know this contradicts every cynical thing you've learned to become the wise, blessed with behind the scene vision, geniuses you are paid for-- but sometimes one small voice calling out in the wilderness is heard by many. 

Greta Tunberg, Richard Wolfe, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are telling you the mood of the present and the structure of the future.  How much longer will you pretend you don't hear the voice of morality and justice?

Want Trump More Involved in COVID Response?  Bribe the boy!

      I think even the densest among us must have noticed the number of stories in the past five years that have Trump and the subject of bribes in them.  The number of his closest associates (Manafort, Kushner, Cohen, Flynn, etc., etc.) who are in jail, on the way to jail, or already pardoned and implicated in/arrested/serving time for bribery-related charges.
       And let's not forget to give credit where credit is due.  Has not Orange Leader pioneered a whole new approach to Presidential bribery?  I refer of course to having an expensive place he visits on weekends for bribesters to also visit, have dinners, and other access points to the president to arrange, transfer, and legitimate bribes.  AND the bribesters pay to stay at Trumps' digs!
      If that isn't using creative, stable, genius to advance one's own goals AND design new forms for the art of the bribe, I don't know what is!
      So, if you think we're not responding enough or correctly to this COVID virus, starts shoveling the bribes and the names of the companies you want to get the contracts to any Trump landmark near you and we can have this country in full response! 
      There just has to be profit channels for Trump and his co-conspirators.

The Trouble With Good Old Joe

He IS a good old boy type of guy.  An important skill/behavior mode for a politician. 

He is certainly practiced at working the room: grabbing hands, shaking hands, keeping his hands off women's hair.  He joshs and can give and take like he was on the street-- many years ago.

But when he told a woman he doubt the veracity of her statement, he used a John Wayne line, no longer acceptable especially from a man to a woman today.  He called her a "lying dog pony soldier" if I remember correctly.  Great for moving and shaking with the good old boys-- very out of touch with the movement of where social morality is nowadays.

Joe's made mistakes in his Senatorial career:  treatment of Anita Hill before the Senate Judiciary Committee, going along to get along with some he won't chose to support today.  I hope.

But the moment that made it clear to me that Joe was NOT my candidate for the Dem nom.  When sparring with an audience member

Trump Gratitude, Chapter One

I am SO grateful Trump is not in charge of COVID response!

       I just heard a short piece on KQED about a reporter crossing a European border.  Hazmat clad medicos came on board his bus and quickly, and orderly wanded each passenger and passed the bus on their way.

       I couldn't help but think: "How about if Der Trumpster were in charge?"  Would he hold up each bus and each passenger until they paid a toll directly to him?  Would he require a pledge to vote for him?  Or better yet, institute Early Convenience Voting.  You'd vote right there and then, after paying your toll.
      Oh, that Orange Leader!  Who else can you think of who protects us best by doing the least?

How About Competing For College Admission The Old Fashioned Way?

      I'll never forget being in the seventh or eighth grade and being sent to a Saturday class to prepare to apply to Catholic high schools.  It felt like a straight jacket of the mind but you could feel it make you stronger at test taking skills AND actual academic knowledge.
     I went on to get in to a good prep school, Chaminade High School, in Mineola, Long Island and a good college, Holy Cross, in Worcester, Mass.  I liked Latin and Greek and psychology. 
     Who knew those interests would one day help me prepare others to take college and graduate school admissions tests?
      After majoring in ancient Greek in college and teaching Latin in some high schools, I went into psychology.  I took the undergraduate core courses and started grad school in school psychology.  I taught psychology at a few institutions as well.
     As I say, I had no intention of preparing myself to prepare others to take the SAT, GRE, MEDCAT, LSAT, ACT, GED, and MAT tests, but that's what happened. 
     It turns out that classics majors, year in and year out, get the highest verbal scores on those standardized tests.  Greek and Latin make up approximately 60% of the English language words we use.  Knowing the Greek and Latin stems, prefixes, and suffixes is quite handy in deciphering new words in English and other popular languages.  Who knew?  But it's true!
     Studying psychology I learned the science of academic testing and item construction and test taking strategies.
     Besides the above tools, I've also found out that there are some paths that seem certain and short and don't work out-- like bribing your way in to the college of your choice-- and other tried and true ways that really work, educate you, and can bring a lot of fun, happiness, and wealth.
     Some fruitful paths:  (1) finding a book you like to read and carrying it with you and reading it all the time.  (2) Learning the Latin and Greek words that unlock the puzzles in so many other words. (3) Studying the dictionary, (4) Writing a journal of your efforts and results everyday.  (5) Setting up a serious schedule on which to accomplish 1, 2, 3, and 4.

     For more information, write me at chuckjagoda1@gmail.com

Don't We Already Have a Bill of Rights? Why Do We Need Another One?

People living without conventional shelter need our own Bill of Rights. Some of us are unsheltered and also counted in other categories as well: women, disabled, veterans, elderly, abused, unemployed, foreclosed, immigrants, mentally handicapped, addicted, etc., etc.

Some of those groups have Bills of Rights as well. Sometimes they're called things like The Declaration of the Rights of the Disabled Persons or the Deaf Chilr's Bill of Rights.

The United States has a Bill of Rights. Make that The Bill of Rights. The earlier Britsh version is called The Declaration of Rights.

Why do groups, whole countries, and even individuals have bills of rights?

Because if you want rights, you must claim them. And the louder and more cleverly you claim them, the better.

-You need a bill of rights when you declare your independence.

-You need a bill of rights if you want recognition, support, and sympathy for your cause.

-If you have a series of things you want and you're not getting, you want to lay claim with a bill of rights.

So that is why people who sleep on the ground, in vehicles, or in shelters need a Bill of Rights for Unsheltered People.

Rhode Island recently passed a “Homeless Bill of Rights.” We believe California and the nation should do likewise. And the sooner the better.

The unhoused of Palo Alto have suffered a number of discriminatory setbacks in the last 40 years. People used to camp along San Francisquito Creek, the border between Palo Alto and Menlo Park.

Then the City of Palo Alto “parkfied” it and no one is allowed to sleep in a City park. That is a rule without any point other than to discourage us differently-sheltered folk from hanging around.

Just like Palo Alto's sit/lie ordinance. Purely a “homeless not welcome here” nuisance for unsheltered types—no other point. The list goes on and on.

We need to draw a line, start moving the other way—toward making life more livable for the unsheltered (who are really just the rest of us only further down the economic slide from middle class to out-on-your-ass) and stop the persecution of the poor.

Support the California Bill of Rights for the Unsheltered. And the U.S. Bill of Rights for the Unhoused. Because it's time. Because we're people. Because as surely as the sun shines, there will be those of you reading this now in your nice home who will wake up one day as one of us, like it or not.

Because if we don't name our rights and claim them, we don't have them. And YOU won't have them either--when you're reading this where we are now--on the street, in a Mc Donald's, in your vehicle, in a shelter, in the library, leaning on your worldly possessions in a shopping cart, at a garbage can you just scavenged for recyclibles.

We are you, only further ahead in this multi-year economic slide from grace to flat-on-your-face.

You couldn't spend what you have left of your precious resources any better than helping us and very possibly yourself or a family member in the not too distant future.