Happy New Year 2023

I am ready. Time to say “fuck off and die” to 2022. I don’t make resolutions, but this year needs to be a better one, so I’m choosing to sculpt a better future in my mind, and watch it appear in my life.
2023: It begins. #newyear

Bianchi Particular is hard to find in the US. Gotta go to Buenos Aires.

Merry Solstice

Jesus didn’t die for my sins.
Jesus was murdered because he stood up for the poor; killed because he championed the ‘unclean’; the immigrants; the needy.

Jesus was assassinated by the church for doing good and preaching peace, targeted because he threatened their profits and the status quo.

Jesus died because he spoke truth to power. Then his killers created a bunch of lies and rules in His Name, that they’ve used ever since to exploit the uneducated, rather than teach them to be free.

Merry Christmas. May the Truth actually set you free. Happy Solstice. May the rebirth begin.

A Veterans Day Poem

by Jamie Gray

We sent them fight
We sent them to die
Now The ones who came back
Have to fight to survive

We owe them our future
We gained from their loss
We can’t leave them to suffer
In the weight of their cost

The flag it still waves
The red white and blue
Oh say can you see what
They’ve given for you
When you wake up today
Safe at home or afar
Give thanks to the soldiers
Wherever they are.

#VeteransDay2022

Conjurer of Bytes, Notes & Words. Seeker of Truth, Peace, & Harmony. Jamie Gray lives in upstate NY.

Politics Sucks

It’s just another election. Another chance to vote for someone you don’t know or care about, and hope they care about you, even though you know they don’t care about you. Two parties with one goal: to keep us regular people from wanting more.

The more we want, the less they can take. They make promises, but things move very slowly in government, and especially at the Federal level, change comes slowly. It can be frustrating. I’ve been expecting cannabis legalization ‘soon’ since 1980. Maybe it will happen this decade. Frustrating.

But I believe this election is different. They’ve taken away just about all they can take, from as many people as they could, and now they are coming for our democracy. Now they want the power to decide who wins the election without regard for our actual votes. They want the power to override the choices of the people, because their own choices are so unpopular that forcing them upon us is the only way.

It may be the one party that’s pushing for a more authoritarian America than the other right now, but in truth it’s the system that allowed it to get THIS bad. Our elections have become about money and manipulation, not issues that most people care about. Re-election and party loyalty have become more important than American progress and the Constitution.

Our government has lost it’s way. Once the greatest democratic experiment in the World, American politics has descended into a system of corporate rule, where the number of dollars is more important than the number of votes. Two party rule means we get to vote for two sides of the same old shit, and lack of term limits and ethics standards means it can be very profitable to be a lifetime politician.

We get to choose which politicians work for the corporate overlords, instead of public servants who work for US. Our government is run by an elite ruling class, rather than everyday Americans in service to make America better for All.

The Founders would cringe at the horror that we’ve wrought from their precious framework. But they also gave us the power to fix it…IF we choose to use it. IF we decide to reform our corrupt system, and refuse to allow our vote to become completely meaningless. Before the corrupt political elite make sure that we can’t.

I will vote tomorrow, and I’m voting BLUE because there are too many MAGA election deniers running on Team Red, and democracy is just too fucking important to fuck around.

#Vote #Election2022 #VoteBlue #Independent

Authors Note: All opinions expressed here are just that: opinions. If you don’t like mine, I probably won’t like yours either. Let’s just nod, and walk away. Maybe come back with solutions instead of opinions. Because of the two, only solutions actually matter.

Close To The Edge

America is on the edge. Many of the freedoms and the progress we’ve made toward civil rights are on the verge of being eliminated.

I’m not trying to scare anybody, but the time for business as usual is over. Thanks to greed, lies and partisan politics, the Rights of Americans have been abused and degraded. Police shoot at unarmed citizens because they are afraid. That should tell you something about the climate on the streets of America…if you’ve been living in a box and haven’t seen it for yourself already. Violence is everywhere. The System is Failing. Shit is breaking down, and things may get ugly.

It’s actually good news, if you can look past the painful present into a better, more equitable future for All. But the truth is, things usually have to break really badly, before they get fixed in America. Slightly broken just won’t do in the USA.

The bad news is that first, people will get hurt. Innocent people, who did nothing except try to live their lives. The assholes of the world will get a little richer and more powerful, and some people will die. Acceptable losses they’ll say. I don’t agree.

At some point though, people will get sick of the same old rich people fucking over everyone else. People will reach their breaking point, and demand better, and I think we’re very close to that precipice. But in America, things have to get REALLY BAD before that happens. Unless it affects people directly, let’s face it: We Americans just don’t give a fuck.

I know. Some of us do. If you’ve read this far, you probably do. I know I do. But so many intelligent, kind, and generous Americans avoid politics completely. Because by and large, American politics is a disgusting abuse of the public trust, legalized bribery at the highest levels, leaving the average voter relegated to just a number to be manipulated, based on race, religion and zip code. I get it, and I don’t blame them for not wanting to dirty their hands.

But we’ve ALL consented to being treated this way, either tacitly by not voting, or actively by voting, but not demanding better choices. They get away with it because we let them. They will keep taking, abusing our trust, until our vote means less than nothing, if we let them.

Here’s why: Government shouldn’t be done by career politicians, a privileged class of elite liars, skilled in wordcraft (most of them). It should be volunteers, who serve their country briefly, and then return to private life. Doctors. Teachers. Sanitation engineers. Artists. Secretaries. Bartenders. People who know about living in America and who want to make the best choices for Americans.

But more importantly, government should serve the people. All the people. Not just the ones who can afford to influence the politicians with their ‘donations’.

That can only happen if the millions of smart, caring, non-voting citizens, decide to get involved in ‘politics’, and use their voices…and their votes…to demand better.

Demand term limits
Demand money out of politics
Demand demilitarized police
Demand equal rights
Demand an end to the corporate oligarchy
Demand better choices
Demand transparency
Demand Truth
Demand Democracy

Get informed. Get involved.
Vote. November 8th.
Do it. Just fucking do it.
We can be part of a bigger solution, not the same shit different day DC dog and pony show they think is fooling us. We’re not idiots.

Authors Note: All opinions expressed here are just that: opinions. If you don’t like mine, I probably won’t like yours either. Let’s just nod, and walk away. Maybe come back with solutions instead of opinions. Because of the two, only solutions actually matter.

Democracy Matters.

They say your vote matters. This year it really may. Across the country, election deniers are running for offices that can affect the outcome of future elections. If they are elected, they could change the results of elections, despite the will of the voters. It’s clear they are willing to lie and to cheat in order to win, because they know that their policies are so unpopular they couldn’t win any other way. It’s a disgrace to America.

Look. You and I both know it. The American political system is fully corrupt. Lobbying is legalized bribery. The GOP may be the first party to have abused it to the point of absolute lawlessness, based on lies about the election. But for years, both parties have conspired together to exploit and manipulate The People.

Our economy is essentially a ‘caste system’ that allows the elite to profit no matter what, while the average American gets a smaller and smaller piece of the pie. They tell you anyone can make it, but only a few actually do. Corporation shareholder meetings and the Federal Reserve Bank decide our futures, not our votes.

Yet so many of us just accept the shitty system, as our future grows bleaker. So many folks don’t even bother to vote. Nothing changes until The People Demand Change. Peacefully. Sans insurrection.

We need to do a LOT to fix our political system. But, without fair elections, we won’t be able to do anything, and all of us but the wealthiest will be completely voiceless about our futures.

Register. Vote. November 8th, 2022. If you’re not sure who to choose, vote Democrat. Democrats at least will let you choose your shitty future from your shitty choices.

Two Kinds of People…

There are only two kinds of people in this world:

  1. People who want to live their lives by their own rules
  2. People who want to tell others how to live

If you’re in the second group, kindly go fuck yourselves with a fire hose. ~jg

Authors Note: All opinions expressed here are just that: opinions. If you don’t like mine, I probably won’t like yours either. Let’s just nod, and walk away. Maybe come back with solutions instead of opinions. Because of the two, only solutions actually matter.

New York Native Jamie Gray is a Conjurer of Bytes, Notes & Words; Seeker of Truth, Peace, & Harmony.