Stephen Sovie's Blog
Random thoughts about politics, social issues and life in general written by a retired old guy who likes to write about what's important to him.
So, What's Your Problem With Rotaries
Nail Fungus Cure - You Gotta Be Kidding Me!
What About My Freedoms?
I Guess Times Have Changed
During the time of the American Revolution, our colonial "patriots rebelled against the tyranny of the English King and English Royalty. They believed that no man was above the law and fought for independence from the privileged ruling class. America won that fight and continued to hold that principle, of no man is above the law, in great reverence, until recently.
Today, Queen Elizabeth II, announced that she has stripped all military and royal titles from her second son, Andrew, who is embroiled in a sex scandal involving underage girls. He can no longer be referred to as Prince Andrew, as he is now a private citizen. Even royals must be held accountable for their actions.
Meanwhile, back in the colonies, members of the wealthy class and government officials accused of sexual misconduct are held in high esteem, by patriots of the day. Hell, one of them was elected President and some sit freely as Republican members of Congress. Being investigated or under indictment is no obstacle to serving in the government.
How things have changed!
If I Write a Blog, Will Anyone Read it?
Should You Monetize a Small Personal Blog?
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Image by Karsten Paulick from Pixabay |
The most popular option for monetizing a blog is through the placement of ads on your blog. The most widely used of these is AdSense from Google. It is quite easy to apply for AdSense and be accepted. There are no minimum traffic requirements for AdSense, but Google is very strict and unforgiving. I had AdSense on one of my blogs in 2011, but it was disabled after a friend of mine unknowingly started to click on my ads daily. I appealed the decision in 2011 and was immediately denied. Ten years later I tried again and was once again immediately denied. When you appeal, Google states that it may take 2 weeks for a decision, but their decision came within a couple of hours. I'm sure they didn't even read my appeal.
I was upset with the loss of Google AdSense but in reality, since I didn't have traffic numbers in the thousands every month, I wouldn't have made anything more than a few cents. For AdSense and similar ad campaigns that rely on clicks to pay, you would need at least 1000 clicks per month to earn a dollar! There are alternatives to AdSense and other similar companies, but they rely on thousands of visitors a month.
Using affiliate advertising, such as Amazon or eBay, is also very popular for smaller blogs. I have used Amazon ads on one of my blogs for quite some time. The ads look very pleasing on my blog, but once again I haven't earned a cent. Infolinks is another popular way to monetize a smaller blog and is quite easy to set up. I am using Infolinks, but have not reached the minimum payout threshold of $50 yet. The more you post, the better the chances of earning money are.
Finally, if you want to "earn" some money to help allay the costs of maintaining your blogs, you can beg! By this I mean you can come right out and ask people for donations through sites such as PayPal or Ko-Fi. I have the buttons for both of these sites on my blogs. I have received several donations from the use of these sites, but nothing to brag about.
It is easy monetizing smaller personal blogs, but it often is not productive. Unless you have unique content or a unique niche you're going to have trouble drawing a substantial amount of traffic, which results in revenue. As with anything involved in blogging you have to be a prolific writer, but that alone will not guarantee success. I've put many, many hours into my blogs with little to show for it.
If you want to write a blog and not have to worry about domains, hosting, and monetization I would suggest you join and write on Medium.com. For $5 a month you can read and write as much as you want and actually earn money for your efforts. I have been writing on Medium for a couple of years and usually earn enough money to cover my monthly membership fee, plus enough money for a coffee and donut. The more you put into your writing the more you will get out of it. You're not going to get rich here, but it's better than breaking your neck over maintaining a blog, unless, like me, you like the challenge. Check out this link for more information. But anyway, good luck in whatever you do.
All Politics is Local, And All Hate is Local
USA Today
Former House Speaker, "Tip" O'Neil, once said, "that all politics is local". This was true back in the '70s and even more true now. Over the past 4 years, we have seen a drastic increase in the number of hate crimes in our country. In the past year, since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a 150% increase in violent crimes against Asians. This can be primarily attributed to former President Trump, who insisted on referring to the disease as "the China virus"' in an attempt to blame Asians for his incompetency and negligence that killed half a million Americans. Of course, most Americans are not educated or intelligent enough to understand the epidemiology of this virus and cannot tell the difference between a Chinese person, a Japanese, Thai, Korean, Indonesian, Indian, or any other person from Asia. They react to fear-mongering and blame all Asians.
Trump did not invent racism and hatred, but he legitimized it and used it to divide the country, for his own purposes. Racists, bigots, and haters have always been hiding in the shadows in this country. Up until Trump was elected they were prominent at the local level, but not as evident on the national stage. They controlled who could vote and who their communities sent to Washington to represent them.
During the Trump administration, the rights and freedoms of minorities were fair game. Immigrants, people of color, the LGBTQ community, and Democrats were vilified and attacked. The Republicans in Congress allowed Trump to trash the Constitution and the foundations of our Democracy. They refused to condemn him or hold him accountable for, not only unconstitutional acts, but criminal acts. They refused to vote for his impeachment.
When Trump lost the 2020 election and refused to comply with the will of a majority of the American people, Republicans allowed Trump to continue to lie and spread conspiracy theories about the election results. They supported him in his attempts to overturn the election and refused to recognize Joe Biden as the legitimately elected President.
Finally, on January 6th, Trump supporters, with the full cooperation and support of Trump, attempted to overthrow our democratically elected government. This insurrection caused the deaths of police officers and endangered the lives of the House Speaker and prominent Democrats in the House and Senate. Trump's supporters even endangered the life of Vice President Pence.
While Congress was being attacked, Trump and his co-conspirators in the Pentagon purposely held back the National Guard from putting down the insurrection. As order was finally restored, Congress reconvened and continued to vote on the certification of Biden's electoral votes. Even with the blood and destruction of the attempted insurrection still evident in the halls of the Capitol 147 Republicans voted to overturn the election.
Since this attack on our democracy, many of those same Republicans have attempted to block Biden's cabinet nominees. One successful blockage was an Asian woman. Every single Republican voted against the Covid relief package that gave much-needed relief to Americans suffering from the pandemic. As Republicans in Red state legislatures are busy introducing laws to suppress the votes of Blacks and other peoples of color, they are trying to block bills strengthening voter rights and women's rights. Republican Chip Roy(Texas) criticized a hearing on violence against Asians arguing that discrimination is free speech.
The House voted to award the Congressional Gold Medal to police officers protecting the Capitol during the insurrection, but 12 Republicans voted against it. The bill now goes to the Senate where I'm sure some Republicans will be opposed as they try to trivialize the insurrection and their part in the treasonous act.
Trump may be gone, but white supremacy still rules in the Halls of Congress. It's always been there, but now the Republican Party has made it a tenet of their party. Racism, bigotry, and hatred will be a governing principle in the passage of future legislation if the Republicans are allowed to have their say. This is not indigenous to Washington. This is local.
US Senators and Congressmen are our representatives. They represent our views, beliefs, and opinions. They represent us. These racist, bigoted, hate-filled members of congress don't decide on their own to become members of Congress. Their constituents elect them to represent them. If the local constituents are racists, bigots, and haters they'll continue to send those people who espouse their beliefs to Congress.
If we want to end white supremacy, racism, and bigotry we must begin at the grass-roots, the local community. And that means we must address these issues in our schools, churches, and in our own families.
So, What's Your Problem With Rotaries
Fixing the Grid - Flickr I have lived in two states and two countries that have had rotaries, traffic circles, roundabouts, or whatever yo...
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Image by Karsten Paulick from Pixaba y I've been writing blogs since 2011 and admittedly have made little or no money doing so. I...
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Neatorama Lately, I've been seeing the phrase "I miss the America I grew up in" quite a bit on social media in respon...
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Image by Satheesh Sankaran from Pixabay Christmas is only a couple of day...