The golden rule to me: is the one from the Torah. Not the due unto others version – it really is simple: That which is hurtful to you, don\u2019t do to others. So I get that\u2019s negative and such but we seem to have shifted so much to defining what is good for others lets just focus on what isn\u2019t good. And bullying, focusing on things that restrict, scare, hurt and subdue seems to be the way. We have defined what is the will of the lord as the law of the land, despite that being the opposite of what we started this country with. We have defined the Republican Party as fear and focus on economic fantasies – pulling in people who have no idea how this all works. So this is another year where I just don\u2019t love my options. Ever since 2016 where I had no choice but to vote for Hillary Clinton and yet we still had a nightmare of a situation where a president who I didn\u2019t trust or consider to be a good human. And that matters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So I won\u2019t say who I voted for this year but I will say that I didn\u2019t like my choices. The fear of congress going to the crazies that now represent the Republican Party is real. Gone are the days of John McCaine and Mitt Romney – where the focus was on fiscal conservative policy and real definition of what could be libertarian social issues to downright fundamentalist Christian conservative policy. It alarms me how these people demonize Islam because of the fundamentalists there but ignore what is going on it our country with white supremacy and demonizing all others (including Jews, Black People, Asians and others). It\u2019s in code – but lately it is our right there. I\u2019ve seen political ads that express concern that there is an attack on white america – omg<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway perhaps some day there will again be a place for me in the GOP but for now I hold my nose and vote – hoping that we don\u2019t spend our way into oblivion. It hurts me the most to lose people close to me with these views – on both sides. I cannot believe how the ends justifies the means – with the means being pulling in truly terrible people. The means being suppressing the weak and focusing on cowboy tactics – with the Wild West in vogue and the way to happiness in broken liberalism that isn\u2019t liberal or libertarian at all. The best choice is a wonderful old man who is trying to bridge the gap at the helm but stuck in the past. The big looming threat is the leader of the GOP who most people just don\u2019t see him putting in place ways to consolidate power in the federal government while all the time saying he isn\u2019t. It is crazy really – all focus on one thing, with one to one marketing – the one thing that matters to you but accumulates to one bad man in charge. Breaks my heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll stop now – perhaps I shouldn\u2019t share these thoughts and they really are vague for that reason. But I guess the days of the economic fiscal conservative and liberal free science based thinking are gone. With an understanding that Capitalism is king but not perfect and at times we need to build from the middle without hindering the top. To offer programs for the people who need it that give them the power and dignity to get out from under. It is possible. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The golden rule to me: is the one from the Torah. Not the due unto others version – it really is simple: That which is hurtful to you, don\u2019t do to others. So I get that\u2019s negative and such but… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-thoughts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3mX8K-83K","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":39603,"url":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/30\/hobby-side-gig-or-moonlighting\/","url_meta":{"origin":30984,"position":0},"title":"Hobby, Side Gig, or Moonlighting?","author":"Jimmyc","date":"September 30, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Photography has always been a passion of mine, but never an income stream. 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This isn\u2019t\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "photography"","block_context":{"text":"photography","link":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/photostuff-1-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/photostuff-1-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/photostuff-1-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/photostuff-1-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/photostuff-1-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":26869,"url":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/26\/trends-and-the-shift-in-retail-banking-sales-and-investments\/","url_meta":{"origin":30984,"position":1},"title":"Trends and the Shift in retail banking: Sales and Investments","author":"Jimmyc","date":"December 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The retail banking market has come out of the financial crisis with a new outlook on how to engage new customers and how to retain and cross sell others. \u00a0The shift to omni-channel, multi-channel whatever is something that has been happening for a while now but its largely focused on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Banking Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Banking Tech","link":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/category\/banking-tech\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22990,"url":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/25\/about-me-new-online-biography\/","url_meta":{"origin":30984,"position":2},"title":"About.me – new online biography","author":"Jimmyc","date":"October 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"So I've seen About.me in a few situations, usually among the people in my professional graph that are creative and technical. \u00a0I finally put one together and it was an interesting exercise. I tried to take a different approach - more work-life integration, who I am as a person in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/jim-mtn1.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/jim-mtn1.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/jim-mtn1.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/jim-mtn1.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/jim-mtn1.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":28979,"url":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/23\/microservices-and-other-shifts-in-techspeak\/","url_meta":{"origin":30984,"position":3},"title":"Microservices and other shifts in techspeak","author":"Jimmyc","date":"May 23, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the past 30 years selling technology solutions, the raw materials of the products I sell have changed many times. 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They fixed things.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/img_7701-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C809&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/img_7701-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C809&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/img_7701-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C809&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/img_7701-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C809&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/img_7701-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C809&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":36508,"url":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/21\/travel-and-focus\/","url_meta":{"origin":30984,"position":5},"title":"Travel and Focus","author":"Jimmyc","date":"June 21, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Many times I\u2019ve heard people talk about how they want to see the world and Travel, and then I\u2019ve heard other people talk about how they just want to see the USA. Here\u2019s the thing, I agree. 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