Month: November 2019

On the Eve of Equality

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone

 

Of course…  I’m just paraphrasing. The phrase does vary some. It all depends on which version YOU read, what language you speak, what continent you’re from… even the AGE of the ancient text from the religion that you believe, because ALL of them teach the same guiding principle: No one is without fault.

 

I WANT to believe I am without fault. As I retrace the steps in MY life, I’ve tried to end friendships and relationships on EVEN TERMS. I know I still owe a few hundred dollars to a handful of people. Literally… TENS of dollars! Amounts so insignificant, if paths were to cross today they’d be brought up more in jest than in demand. Or at least… I hope.

Perspectives are individual and personal. MY view of the world is different than ANOTHER person’s, and so-on for each one of us. We live our lives according to the law as it is lived in OUR lives. Not in perfection, not in isolation, but definitely in evolution. As we accept new ideas and new people into our lives, our views CHANGE, and we see things in a new light. It reshapes the lens through which we view ourselves.

Knowledge and understanding of the views of others EXPANDS Justice, it does not CHANGE it. It expands our definition of what is “right”. It can also make us reconsider what it is we define as “wrong”.

 

On the Eve of Equality, I find myself taking stock of MY deeds and MY actions. When I think back 20 or 30 years, well… I was a teenager! As I consider my behavior as a young man, I cannot say I was a saint. But, I CAN say any offense I’ve committed against another has been confronted and settled, and understanding has been reached.

Any debt in that regard has been paid. Not simply in terms of Legal Justice… but also in terms of individual, personal understanding and Justice. I would not want crimes committed against me to go unaddressed, and I have attempted to live my life the SAME WAY.

I have always seen women as EQUALS. As a young man, I was unaware of the inequality faced by women. Now, looking back through this new lens, I hope everyone I’ve ever worked with truly felt respected and appreciated, and always felt judged based on their abilities… as that has always been my intent.

 

I see it as a sign of STRENGTH to examine yourself and to question your actions, and say ‘I’m sorry’ when it is required. It’s NOT a sign of weakness or deficiency. Once you learn what you’ve been doing is wrong, and you do NOT take corrective actions in your life… THAT is weak. You’re making a conscious decision to continue to do what is wrong. That is not the path of enlightenment. On an evolutionary timescale, that mindset is a dead-end.

 

Even though they are found on the same side of the equation, Vengeance should not be equated with Justice. We must endeavor to BALANCE the scales, and at the same time avoid turning a criminal into a victim… and vise-versa.

And, as always… with compassion.

 

JC

“… an Alternative Narrative”

Pelosi_Trump

 

Donald Trump’s actions as President make NO SENCE when viewed in isolation. Random, chaotic, contradictory… even self-defeating. He acts as if he is POWERLESS in situations where historically, we’ve looked to our President for action. He asserts himself into situations where NO President has before, causing more harm to others than he would if he had just stayed SILENT. He embraces EVERY opportunity to ENRICH HIMSELF through the powers of OUR Office, and he seeks to remove programs designed to provide aid and comfort for those who need it most.

The ends of ANY evil plan hatched by the most VILE among us could be carried out with EASE and in SHORT ORDER if they were to ascend to the Office of President… yet Donald Trump, with his party holding ALL THREE BRANCHES of government, could not deceive enough people to Repeal and Replace Obamacare, a talking point issue supported by the GOP for just shy of a DECADE.

 

Losing the MAJORITY in the House does NOT advance the agenda of Donald J. Trump.

Not compromising on FUNDING for the Border Wall and SHUTTING DOWN the Federal Government for over a month does NOT advance the agenda of Donald J. Trump.

Advancing the dis-credited theory of Ukrainian Interference in the 2016 US Presidential Election does NOT advance the agenda of Donald J. Trump.

Using a personal cell phone, known by the Intelligence Community to be monitored by the heads of State of foreign adversaries, to conduct illicit political activities, does NOT advance the agenda of Donald J. Trump.

Welcoming the Russian Ambassador into the White House while barring all US reporters and allowing Russian media EXCLUSIVELY into the Oval Office, does NOT advance the agenda of Donald J. Trump.

None of this creates effective governance, and none of this lends itself to success. None of these actions would help ANY President find success or achieve their goals… whether their intentions were to do GOOD or create TYRANNY.

 

They make the President of the United States look WEAK.

They make the President of the United States look CORRUPT.

They make the President of the United States look DANGEROUS.

They make the President of the United States look UNSTABLE.

They make the President of the United States look INEFFECTIVE.

 

They make the President of the United States look IMPOTENT.

 

What Donald Trump has done as President of the United States thus far, creates GRIDLOCK. What Donald Trump has done as President of the United States thus far creates DIVISION.

What Donald J. Trump has done as President of the United States thus far does NOT advance the agenda of the President, the Congress, OR the people.

It advances the agenda of the ONE person who worked the hardest to secure his election.

 

It advances the agenda of Vladimir Putin.

 

LOOK… the President of the United States is just as flawed and weak as every other democratically elected leader… they’re ALL THE SAME- CORRUPT.

American Exceptionalism is just a MYTH…

… is there anyone in this nation who believes a President should EVER say that?

 

Vladimir Putin does NOT believe it is POSSIBLE… Vladimir Putin does NOT believe in American Exceptionalism.

Vladimir Putin suppresses the VOICE of his people, seeks to take away retirement benefits from retirees, and STEALS the wealth generated by the sale of the nation’s resources. And when the PEOPLE of Russia RISE UP en masse and demand FREE and FAIR elections… he sees the handiwork of the C.I.A. He doesn’t see his people pleading for a BETTER LIFE.

 

He sees PARANOIA and ESPIONAGE.

 

He does not believe in the ability of the Russian people to STAND UP and SPEAK OUT and hold him accountable… so they must have been HELPED by someone else… of course! It was “THEM!” It’s EASY to make America the scapegoat when you feed your people LIES… and America has a PUPPET serving as President.

 

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Government by-proxy… EVERYONE’S got a hidden agenda. Political party proxies, business proxies, non-disclosure proxies, and just plain GREED, self-centered and selfish.

 

I have a mortgage that’s UNDERWATER from all the bullshit that went down in 2008.

I have TWO teenaged boys who will (hopefully) have to pay for college in a few years.

I have a car payment.

I worry about my boys when I drop them off at school, I worry about the divisive conversations they’re seeing online.

I raise the kids and take care of the house while my wife is the breadwinner.

I am the husband of a PICU nurse who saves the lives of babies born with broken hearts.

I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) in 2016. (…of all the things I THOUGHT I could someday get, childhood diabetes was NOT on that list at age 36!)

 

I have a pre-existing condition.

 

This is MY AGENDA. That’s what’s on the FRONT of my mind. THESE are my constituents.

 

I was BORN and RAISED in this city, and I am proud to call Kansas City my HOME. The problems faced by me and my family are the SAME problems faced in California, or in Dallas, or in Detroit. Racism happens NORTH of the Mason-Dixon Line and sexual discrimination in the work place happens to MEN, too… especially when it comes to raising a family.

 

I have NO PROXY INTERESTS. I have no DARK MONEY hidden agendas holding me DOWN. FREE and CLEAR… I plan on aiming for the STARS.

We must CLARIFY what it means to be an American. We must REMEMBER who we are!

LONG LIVE THE CONSTITUTION!!

Long live the OFFICE of the President of the United States.

 

JC

 

 

 

 

 

Follow Your Heart

Everyone seems to be worried that the American People don’t understand the phrase quid pro quo. Latin’s HARD! Well, you know… I AM pretty handy with a SMARTPHONE! Hooray for Google Translate.

I’m surprised they didn’t go with the phrase tit for tat. I guess maybe they felt that phrase wouldn’t arouse enough support…

Since we’re ALL speaking Latin now, I’d like to inject another Latin phrase into the conversation: ad astra per aspera.

 

When 90% of what you see is SKY… it’s not hard to dream of the STARS.

 

After completing his education, my father moved to Kansas City from a small town in central Kansas, in search of a job operating a printing press. He would eventually get his foot in the door with a local publisher and start a family here, calling KC home. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, my dad and I would drive three hours to Salina to be with our family. Almost every year, at least one holiday. Three hours on I-70. In the middle of Kansas…

If you’ve never driven it… the prairie rolls out from the base of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, stretching east across half of that State and almost ALL of Kansas. For 8 hours, the prairie grass surrounds I-70. For as far as the eye can see, cows and wheat… I guess you could say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder! As a KID, that drive felt like an eternity.

As I grew up, year-over-year, passing the same towns and reading the same signs, one thing stuck out: Almost EVERY big city along I-70 has a sign that reads, “Home of US Astronaut____.” Seriously! As a kid, I found it funny that a State like Kansas, a State that focuses so much time and energy into working with the earth, could produce so many people willing to pilot a SHIP among the STARS.

 

Whether literal or figurative, the idea of such an aspiration seems BORN within us here in Kansas. Though this land is bountiful, that bounty is only secured through blood, sweat, and tears. Work that begins BEFORE the sun rises and continues well after it has set. Once the hell-fire of the afternoon sun has faded and the job is done, the cool evening breeze rolls in. Wiping the sweat from your brow, you can’t help but look UP into the heavens and ponder the depth of the beauty painted across the firmament.

 

That light, that we lift our eyes to SEE, is what guides us on our journey. For we ALL know, that our future… our collective fate, is determined by the skies above.

 

We understand decisions made in an instant can mean LIFE or DEATH, and swift action SAVES LIVES. When the winds start turning and the clouds darken the horizon… just as they have tonight… the pressure DROPS and the warm, moist air suddenly turns CRISP. The front ROARS into town, bending trees to such a degree, certainly any other tree on EARTH would be split in TWO! BUT, these ancient trees ARE un-earthly… THEY’RE FROM KANSAS! They’ve stood longer than I have, and will no doubt outlast ME by many years.

The unique nature of this State shapes the character of everyone who’s called her HOME. Knowing that what’s GOOD in life can be taken in an instant gives you an added appreciation for what you have, and a strong desire to ensure it continues… for as long as the fates allow.

 

KS
Ad Astra per Aspera… to the STARS through difficulties.

 

In 1861 when the FREE STATE convened to make ad astra per aspera its State Motto, such a journey was only a flight of fantasy, a simple allegorical story of the Struggle of Mankind. BUT, I have no doubt, if you would have told those Kansas Farmers 160 years ago that some day we WILL fly among the STARS… they would have agreed.

“It is inevitable! And while you’re UP THERE, see about sending some RAIN our way…

It’s been too damn DRY.”

 

JC

… while you still can.

This is Ink Girl.

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ink_girl

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From Wikipedia:
Dong Yaoqiong (Chinese: 董瑶琼; born 1989), who owned the Twitter account @Feefeefly, is a young woman who previously lived in Shanghai and was born and raised in Zhuzhou, Hunan province, People’s Republic of China. Before her disappearance, she had been working as a realty agent and had been a dissident in China for a while.

She went incommunicado from 4 July 2018 after uniformed men visited her apartment on the same day that she streamed live video from the square of HNA Group headquarters. The video showed her criticizing the Chinese communist party-style high-pressured governance, authoritarianism as well as brainwashing process imposed on Chinese people. She is also shown splashing ink on a poster of Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, whom she called a dictator on social media.

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“Right now there are a group of people wearing uniforms outside my door. I’ll go out after I change my clothes. I did not commit a crime. The people and groups that hurt me are the ones who are guilty.”

— Feefeefly

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She’s on my mind everyday when I’m on Twitter. I see the President’s Tweets as if they were his re-election posters. The ink I hurl STAINS his face with TRUTH. A stain that cannot be washed away or simply papered over. A stain that will last… long after he is gone.

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Screenshot (3)

trump

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TODAY we are truly writing our Nation’s HISTORY.

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I was moved to speak today by this piece from www.forbes.com:

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Screenshot (4)

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A $1 BILLION A YEAR INDUSTRY.

… and HERE in the United States, we have civil forfeiture, for-profit prison systems, legislatures beholden to DARK MONEY for re-election… is it THAT much of a stretch? As inconceivable as it might seem right NOW, can you SEE the path?

Can you see that destination from HERE?

…

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STAND UP and SPEAK OUT!

When you defend the rights of OTHERS, you defend those rights for YOURSELF.

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Dong Yaoqiong splashes ink on face of portrait of Xi Jinping
A man with a bicycle walks past a building covered in posters of Chinese President Xi Jinping in Shanghai, China, March 26, 2016. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo – S1AEUJNFZLAA

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The United States must reclaim its place as a LEADER and DEFENDER of Human Rights throughout the world… that STARTS when we hold ourselves accountable.

LONG LIVE THE FIRST AMENDMENT!!

— Jack L. Charbonneau,

INDEPENDENT candidate for President of The United States of America.

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(Post format and layout edited on December 1, 2022- JC)

Where Will They Draw the Line?

 

22 Veterans commit suicide everyday in the United States of America.

 

Why.

 

Is it a lack of leadership in the VA? Is it the political games played by elected officials with the FUNDS allocated for their care? Is it a lack of opportunity back here in the States when they’ve finished deployment? Is it an incompatibility between training received in the military and training required in the private sector?

While I believe all of these play some role, I believe it’s DEEPER than that. I believe pride in our mission objectives has been lost. When we see our soldiers ordered to abandon a key ally, abandoning families and communities… we see only a small piece of an even larger, camouflaged problem.

When it’s reported that FUNDING for military defense in Ukraine was being withheld until their government complied with demands made by OUR elected officials, remember… there’s MORE to that story. What’s NOT being reported? We are lucky that we have this SMALL glimpse of what is being done in our name. They stored transcripts of conversations in a highly classified server in the White House, specifically conversations they KNEW could put them in legal jeopardy…

 

What else is on that server?

 

The corruption suffered in our government now bleeds over into our military, forcing men and women of HONOR to do DIS-honorable things… because they know the dangerous place where we STAND today, and they want this nation to endure.

Blood AND treasure expended… and members of the Senate say, “The President did nothing wrong. I see no quid pro quo. Well OF COURSE I didn’t read the transcripts… even if I did they would show he did nothing wrong.”

 

 

… and we STILL fight in Afghanistan.

 

Would President Trump have asked Osama Bin Laden for dirt on his political opponents? Would the GOP find THAT acceptable? What IS “acceptable”? Is there NOTHING sacred to them anymore, other than retaining POLITICAL power?

What would it take… is there STILL a red line that no one should be allowed to cross?

 

Vindman

 

 

STAND UP AND SPEAK OUT!

 

Thank you to the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces for securing my right to STAND here today and do just that. FOR THEM… let us restore HONOR in our mission abroad and hold OURSELVES accountable, raising the bar for everyone else.

JC