Thankful for ...

Thanksgiving...


Every day during my walks I encounter homeless people... It depresses me seeing people coated in grime... and on the pavement looking into the void... not noticing the surrounding and the daily life around them...
Their glassy stares makes me sad... I wished I had the $100 billion of this Bezos guy and distribute them among the homeless of the world... But I don't have that... and he has...
My brother's wife died recently... He is alone... no children... They lived in a trailer home on a big lot... They wanted to built a large house... Their home... but circumstances were not kind to them... they just had money to dig a well... and lay down the foundations of a future four bedroom home...
His wife passed away... and the place looks abandoned... run down... lots of junk and four, maybe five cars... all of them not functioning... He had a car... could not pay the bills... It was repossessed... Now he has a motorcycle... and a broken heart... He misses his wife... She was her only companion... They lives far from us... the rest of the family... 
Now the trailer is dusty... the flowers have dried out... and the foundation of their dream house worthless...
He lives like a homeless with a trailer... 
He had a quadruple by-pass... 20 years ago... he has weak lungs... can hardly breath... 
He is essentially a homeless... with a land and trailer... 
They have spent about 400 000 dollars to looks after the lot... and now he is asking 300 000 dollars for the property... But no one is interested and the adjacent lots are selling for about 
100 000 dollars... So he has something... but that real estate is not worth much... 
His demand and the offers (had no offer so far...) are in a clash!
He is a working poor... more like a retired poor...
He is adamant in his demand for the lot... 
No one is interested... with that price...
So he drags himself... like the other working and retired poor...
He was with us on the Thanksgiving few days... we took him back to his place yesterday...
...............................................................................
When I see a homeless while walking in the city... my brother comes to my mind... I cannot help the homeless much... and I cannot help by brother... he rejects all advice... and refuses help... But we take food and the rest to him every week...
We help him as much as we can... 
During the week, on Wednesday before the Thanksgiving Day... one of the homeless had displayed a sign... "Very hungry... Need food..." She had climbed few steps off the sidewalk and was in deep sleep...
People had dropped food... I did too...
....................................................................
On Friday, after the Thanksgiving... I passe by the same spot... She had left all the donated food on the sidewalk... and she was not around...
I wondered what had happened to her...
I wonder what will happen to my brother too... !
I wonder... and try to help... I wish I had the billions of Bezos 

If you're one of the millions shopping on Amazon on Black Friday, congratulations: You helped make Jeff Bezos a $100 billion man. Bezos, the founder and largest shareholder of Amazon, reached the 12-digit milestone for the first time, according to Bloomberg, one of the two major services that track the real-time net worth of the world's richest people. Forbes, the other service, shows him just scraping by, with $99.6 billion to his name. Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) stock climbed 2.5% on Friday to put Bezos over the top. The stock got a lift from reports that online shopping on Thanksgiving and Black Friday jumped 18% compared with last year. Bezos made almost $2.4 billion on Friday alone.

*****************************************************************************

I read this on Thanksgiving Day... on CNN 

news... It is such a nice story... and wanted to 

share with anyone who is interested...

Couple raises thousands for homeless veteran to thank him for selfless act

By Dave Alsup and Darran Simon, CNN

Updated 10:04 AM ET, Fri November 24, 2017 

(CNN)When Kate McClure first met Johnny Bobbitt Jr., he was homeless.

He spent this Thanksgiving resting in a hotel, his feet up on the bed, drawing up a grand plan for his new life -- thanks to several thousand dollars she raised to repay him for a good deed.

Bobbitt used to spend most of his time sitting with a sign on a roadside in Philadelphia.

In October, McClure was driving down Interstate 95 there when she ran out of gas. Scared and nervous, she got out of the car to head to the nearest gas station and met Bobbitt. He told her to get back in the vehicle and lock the door. Minutes later, he emerged with a red gas can.

He had used his last $20 to buy her gas.

Bobbitt didn't ask for money; McClure didn't have any then. Over the next few weeks, she gave him a jacket, gloves, a hat and socks. She would give him a few dollars each time she saw him.

But McClure wanted to do more. About two weeks ago, she and her boyfriend, Mark D'Amico, who both live in New Jersey, started a GoFundMe page. They hoped to raise $10,000 -- enough money for first and last month's rent, a reliable vehicle and up to six months of expenses. Normalcy.

The story ran in a local paper and later went viral. By Friday, the fund exceeded $300,000.
"I don't have an explanation for it. I think it was the perfect storm," D'Amico told CNN Thursday.
More than 10,000 people have made donations, the Go Fund Me page said.
"We wanted to make sure he was safe, and go from there," McClure told CNN Thursday. "I remember when we got our first donation, we were like, 'holy crap.'

Earlier this month, Bobbitt flashed a wide smile when they told him about the first set of donations amounted to $769.
"God, that's amazing. Damn, y'all did all that. That is awesome," he said, stroking that beard in a video McClure took then.
D'Amico told him a lot of people wanted to help him.
"People talk about Philly ... I have honestly met more good people than bad. I really have," he said. "Like y'all."

Bobbitt, a North Carolina native, lived in Missoula, Montana, according to his Facebook page. He studied nursing and was a former paramedic and firefighter. He also served in Marine Corps, according to the page.

On Wednesday night, the couple checked Bobbitt into a hotel. They gave him money for contact lenses and took him to Walmart, where he got some socks.

Mostly, he wanted to just lay in the hotel bed and watch television, D'Amico said.

On Thursday, D'Amico bought Johnny a computer. "He can't wait to get on a computer," D'Amico said.

The couple asked Bobbitt what he wanted to do with all the money. Bobbitt was hesitant to say, but he plans to make a video and explain it all, D'Amico said."The whole game changed in the last 24 to 48 hours. His expectations changed, and what he wanted to do changed," D'Amico said. "He has a couple of places in Philadelphia that got him through and got him by. He wants to pay it forward."

"His dreams aren't champagne and caviar," D'Amico said.

Bombs will NEVER Destroy Aspirations...

Fire Destroyed the Wine Country in northern California...
Check the photo... No explanation needed... After fire gutted many homes... 

And or But,

The last few days I am thinking about the "victory" in Raqqa... the "capital" of non-existent state "IS..."

Is the lose of geographic space defeat...? I am not so certain...! 

Is destruction of cities and "collateral" damage of human life... the collapse of Islamic Jihadism...? I doubt that claim...!

Destruction and death have never led to liberation...

Bombing the hell out of people have never ushered in freedom...

Two examples...

Turkey massacred and deported Armenians from their ancestral lands... possessed their fields and businesses and homes... destroyed their churches... raped their mothers and sisters... But never defeated the spirit of Armenian aspirations for liberty and freedom... and peace and the dream to return to their homeland... 

For their dream to return Armenians are inspired by the Jewish example... when after two millennia they returned to Israel...

An Armenian poet writes... "We have conquered... by our books only..." and concludes his poem by; "We exist... and will always exist... and we'll multiply..." 

The Genocide of Armenians by successive Turkish regimes will never succeed and Turkish denials will be exposed eventually... Even after two millennia Jews returned to Israel...!

Also,

Turkey has subjugated the Kurdish people... has declared them to be "Mountainous Turks..." Turks have denied the existence of a kurdish nation... They are just Turks living on the land, up in the mountains and engaged in cultivating the land and shepherding the sheep, they said... But the Kurds persisted living peacefully of Nature... and dreaming of a homeland... The Turkish regimes denied the Kurdish culture... banning Kurdish language from schools and harassing Kurdish language... Kurdish customs and culture...

But the Turks have never conquered Kurdish aspirations of  a homeland freedom and liberty...

And,

Raqqa, Syria...

The destruction of a city... an an increase in "collateral" victims... the murderous wars... the killing of the "other" has never ushered in freedom and liberty... and brought back the pursuit of happiness... 

  
Check the streets of Raqqa... Check the destruction... and decide... what next...

The globalization of terror and inhuman behaviour...

At least 5,600 supporters of so-called Islamic State (IS) have returned to their home countries as it loses ground in Iraq and Syria, a new report says. The Soufan Center, a US-based think tank, says 33 states have reported arrivals in the past two years. The figure includes half of the estimated 850 people who left the UK. The report says the returnees - most of whom are imprisoned or disappear from view - will continue to present a security challenge for years to come. IS has lost much of the territory that once made up the "caliphate" it proclaimed in June 2014, attracting thousands of jihadists from across the world. Last week, US-backed alliance of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters said they had taken full control of Raqqa, the jihadists' de facto capital.

Just a question... 

What will the returning Islamic Jihadists do...?


The Islamic Jihadists exploited the Arab discontent... and the

failure of "The Arab Spring..." along with the atrocities of the

Iraqi and Syrian wars... provided them fertile ground to sprout

and flourish...

And that same fertile ground of Arab discontent still exists...

and it will feed future waves of violence...

Maybe Western democracies and the U.S. should revise their

policies towards the Middle East... Maybe they should stop

supporting Kings and Sheikhs and despots... Maybe the world

should listen to the cries of the people and espouse their

aspirations for liberty and freedom...

Brandishing nuclear weapons have never been the answer...

Maybe listening to the people will be the better option... and

maybe leashing unbridled greed for profit and fossil fuel... will

bring in peace and prosperity to the people of the Middle East too...


Check the damage of fossil fuel... in India...


Heavy smog blanketed New Delhi last week... How much of this people can stand... will stand... Credit
Do we want to live in a polluted air like this...?
*************************************************
Progress or Globalization of Sexism...?

You'll be the judge...

Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad holds a hijab-wearing "Barbie Shero" in her likeness at the 2017 Glamour Women of the Year Awards on Monday...

Mattel unveiled its first hijab-wearing Barbie doll on Monday, modelled after fencer Ibtihaj Muhammed, who has broken ground herself as the first U.S. Olympic athlete to compete in the head scarf...

But, isn't Barbie is a sexist toy... ? And a sexist toy with a scarf is not progress but rather the commercialization of religion... as it is the case with Christmas...

A final question for no...

Why females are beautiful and males are handsome... ?

The concepts enmeshed in our language are sexist... 

A corollary, a follow up of the above question...

Why females have to paint their faces and males will look macho with a stubble on their faces... ?  

You will be the judge and eventually come to a conclusion...

Wars never Solve Human Conflicts... They ONLY Generate Resentment and More Problems...

North America Remembers...
Veterans Day ... in the US...
Remembrance Day... in Canada...
Revolution Remembrance Day (Nov. 20)... in Mexico...

But, 

Remembering veterans is never sufficient... we have to stop 

                              producing NEW veterans...

War kills... and generates new veterans...

War is never about defense... after all no one, no country has 

attacked North America in our modern history...

Read the sad reality and statistics below...

Tens of thousands of former members of the US armed services will spend Veterans Day homeless — living on the streets or in vehicles or in shelters. Nowhere is the number of homeless vets larger than in Los Angeles County, where there are about 4,800 by the latest count, a 57% increase over last year.  In Canada the situation is not better...  Veterans are subject to post trauma... and they are psychologically disturbed and depressed...  Veterans are homeless... and not only in LA county... Each city in North America has its share of veterans on our streets...

Wars kill on BOTH sides...

Wars produce veterans whom we are unwilling to take care of...

Wars cost millions too...

Today we may remember why wars should be banned...

During WW1 the Turkish government of the Ottoman Empire 

and later the republican government of Kemal Ataturk... killed 

and massacred more than 1.5 million Armenians and deported 

the rest of the Armenian population to the deserts of Syria 

where they perished from famine and sickness... They maimed 

and massacred and displaced millions of Greeks and Assyrians

and massacred thousands...

Check the sad and revoltingly disgusting story 

below...

They Sold the Bones of Greeks And Armenians Who Were Killed in Turkey. 400 Tons Of Bones Were Transferred to France for Industrial 'Use' Asia Minor Catastrophe led to the death of thousands of people and the displacement of 1,5 million Greeks. One more crime made by Turks occurred two years later and had been unknown for years. The crime had to do with the selling of the bones of all the people who were slaughtered by Kemal's Young Turks. Kemal Ataturk...The founder of modern day Turkey...It was fascistic and racist at its inception and now Turkey is evolving into a fascistic dictatorship under its Islamist regime... According to reports, the bones of Greek and Armenian victims massacred by Turks were sold by Turks to French for industrial 'use'! In total, 400 tons of human bones, which means the bones of 50.000 people, were transferred to the French industries in Marseilles. In 13th December 1924, the boat with the British flag arrived in Thessaloniki, Greece. When the workers in the port were informed of the bones, they didn't allow the boat's departure. Soon, there were demonstrations in the city from shocked refugees, who asked for the seizure of the shipment. Finally, the English Consulate intervened, and the Greek government allowed the boat to depart so that there was no conflict with the British. The newspaper 'Macedonia' that was published on 14th December 1924 confirmed the arrival of the boat in Thessaloniki but didn't mention the human bones the boat carried. The same month, New York Times published the news with the following headline: "An unbelievable story of a shipment with human bones." Also, the French newspaper Midi published the news, mentioning the human bones which were to be sold in Marseille. Elias Venezis in his book Number 31328 mentions the process of collecting bones by people who were captured by Turks. When he was 18 years old, Venezis was captured with 3.000 people. He wrote the book after he returned from the East, to describe the hardships he and other captives went through after the Asia Minor Catastrophe.

Turkey is exporting its lawlessness to North America too...

Few month ago when the Turkish president was in the US its 

bodyguards attacked a peaceful demonstration in Washington 

DC... and few days ago a report emerged in the Wall Street 

Journal that the Turkish government was going to pay 15 

million dollars to US citizens so as they kidnap a Turkish cleric 

who is a US citizen now... 

Check below... 

• The Wall Street Journal broke the news Friday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is probing a kidnapping plot involving Michael Flynn and his son... 
• Flynn, and Michael G. Flynn, reportedly discussed with Turkish officials snatching cleric Fethullah Gulen and loading him on a private plane... 
• Gulen, considered a political enemy to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, would have been taken to the Turkish prison island of Imrali, sources say...
• NBC News also reported details of the meeting, including that investigators are looking into a quid pro quo deal between Flynn and Turkey...
• There are allegations that Flynn would be paid to do Turkey's bidding while serving as President Trump's national security advisor, a job he'd been offered in the new administration...

Turkey, very much like Russia, is attempting to export its

lawless fascistic practices to the US and North America, 

and they should be condemned... 

*********************************
Wars create lawlessness... like in WW1 in Turkey... 

Wars kill and maim and generate veterans who are sick and 

homeless and suffering from stress...

I believe no one will kill another person without suffering from 

the experience... killing someone will generate stress of killing 

and dehumanize the soldiers...

Wars are evil and they should be banned...

Thinking... and Pollution and Abuses of Organized Religion...

Is this what we aspire to in the Americas?

 In New Delhi air equivalent to smoking...                                              Breathing = 44 cigarettes a day

New Delhi... India... for days the polluted air... is chilling in the 
air... enveloping the city and causing anxiety in the ruling ranks
and sickening the population...
With North American laws and legislation... we are heading in 
New Delhi's route... Rivers are getting chemical waste... the 
chimney's are still belching out toxins in the air... the oil and 
gas is being drilled like crazy... making the rich richer and the 
people sicker... 
The fracking is freaking the hell out of people and it is making 
the cities more vulnerable to quacks... 
The coal is dirty... coal miners should be retrained... and the oil 
and gas should be replaced by clean air innovations... by solar
panels and wind turbines... 
The renewable energy is the future... and we should not 
abandon that to the Chinese and Asians... 
People should rise up and "clean the swamp..." Nobody else 
will... The 1% will just lull the people with their cheap reality 
show slogans...
But citizens know better... Peoples always know better...

***********************************************
The Demonic Abuses of Organized Religions ... 
On his “The 700 Club” recently televangelist Pat Robertson reacted to the news that former members of the 1% Club have been charged with money laundering and conspiring against the US... 
Well check Pat's divine inspiration... and his suggestion to thwart justice for the RICH and POWERFUL... 

Organized Religion has been at the root of global wars and evil 
throughout history... Check his divine revelation ... 

“[Trump] has every right to shut Mueller down and say, ‘You have gone as far as you need to and I have instructed my Justice Department to close you down,’ He can do it, and he can also grant a blanket pardon for everybody involved in everything and say, ‘I pardon them all, case closed, it’s all over’ I think that is what he needs to do. He’s got to shut this thing down, he’s just got to.”

And recently... the religious abuse went unchecked...
The VP's best solution to the scourge of mass killings, as he told heartbroken families in Texas, is more prayer...
Pray for what...? Pray for how many hours... ? 
Why not ban the guns...? Everything has its limits... and so does the  2nd Amendment to bear arms... We are supposed to live in a civilized society and NOT in the JUNGLE...
RELIGION is personal... But ORGANIZED RELIGION is abusive and auctions faith to the highest bidder...
******************************************************

Wars kill and mutilate and maim 

and 

are Very COSTLY... Wars are expensive...

America's Conflicts Have Cost $5.6 Trillion Since 2001... General, can you spare a dime? A new Brown University analysis has found that the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan have cost America $5.6 trillion, or $23,386 per taxpayer. That’s three times higher than a recent estimate by the Pentagon — likely because it factors in medical care for veterans and war-related bureaucratic costs in the Departments of State and Homeland Security. The study’s author explained, “When wars end, the costs don’t stop, they grow,” noting that 2 million veterans have joined the VA since 2001.

Big powers like the US and Russia and China and Europe... 

should leave the rest of the world alone... wars initiate global 

conflicts and global conflicts create global problems like the 

refugee crisis...

Wars devastate towns and cities... and initial refugees which is 

essentially GLOBALIZATION OF HOMELESSNESS which 

we witness on the sidewalks of any major metropolis...

Stop ALL wars... and take care of the people... in North 

America and Europe...

**************************************

... and some philosophy...

Check below... It is from The New Yorker... and think about the 

question... The question has always fascinated me... and has 

provided me countless hours of thinking pleasure...

Thinking is good... do not trail Organized Religion and do not 

hail the demagogues of the 1%...  

 

No One Wants to Live Like New Delhi... in Pollution and Grime...

Is This The Future... 

New Delhi (CNN)The Delhi government is being urged to declare a city-wide health emergency, as residents endured a third (3 and +...) straight day of heavy pollution. Air quality readings in India's capital have soared since Tuesday, with one monitor showing levels in the city were 969 -- the World Health Organization considers anything above 25 to be unsafe.

November 8, 2017: Indian visitors walk through the courtyard of Jama Masjid amid heavy smog in the old quarters of New Delhi on...

Syria will join the Paris climate agreement, leaving the US as the only country in the world not signed on to the landmark climate deal...

A U.S. State Department spokeswoman ridiculed Syria’s decision, saying, “If the government of Syria cared so much about what was put in the air, then it wouldn’t be gassing its own people.” America’s withdrawal won’t be complete until 2020, but President Trump is not invited to next month’s Paris climate change summit. 
Ridiculing Syria or any other country will not be a fig leaf to cover the ugliness of the emperor...
Coal is environmentally dirty... It is toxic... pollutes the surrounding... and the renewable solar and wind energy... has demonstrated the way for global future...
After all, no US city wants to be like New Delhi...!
Ridiculing Syria or any other state does not cover the reality... It is just a farting outlet... to divert attention...
After all;
1. The factory chimneys belching into the atmosphere... are chemical weapon and gassing one's own people...
2. Dumping contaminated waste into creeks and rivers is gassing one's own people...
3. Creating an opioid crisis and addiction is uning chemical weapons against one's own people... 
4. Reviving the coal mines and using coal is poisoning one's own people...
5. cracking for oil make communities more vulnerable to earthquakes... and is similar to using chemical weapons...
6. Waging wars in foreign land is just sending the economically vulnerable youth to their death and is like using weapons of mass destruction against one's own people...

Ridiculing Syria or any other country is just an attempt to cover the ugly nakedness of the emperor by cheap fig leaves... and the people know better... 

At the end... the naked truth is that no North American or European metropolis wants to be a New Delhi... and eventually people will realize the cost of the RAPE of the land and the air and will vote people out of office... 
The world belongs to the people and the people will decide its destiny and NOT THE 1%...