Today I attended my first Tea Party meeting. I didn't even know that there was a Tea Party in Ukiah Valley, but there certainly is. I had heard that a social activist group met every 3rd Thursday at Jensen's truck stop restaurant. Believing that all we activists need to stop being many little fractured groups but coalesce on the big issues in agreement, I set out to make advances toward coalition. Much to my surprise and horror, I found myself at a Tea Party meeting.
The first thing I encountered was a smiling Christian looking man welcoming me and handing me a sign in sheet. The only other person in the room was a man with "Dirty Old Man" written on his cap. I ordered my dinner, and decided to sit as far away from the dirty old man as possible. They had glossy multi-color pamphlets calling themselves the "Ukiah Valley Patriots." I consider myself a patriot because I am passionate about the Constitution. I discovered that is one of the things we all had in common, a passion for the Constitution. In fact, this week they started a weekly series of teaching the Constitution that was so well attended that they ran short of materials.
I struck up a conversation with the first man, Duane, and asked about the history of this group. They began about 10 months ago; their first action was to protest taxes. I studiously asked what their issue was with taxes. Do they want to eliminate them. Duane said he can't talk for the Tea Party, but his personal belief is that there ought to be a flat tax, the same for everyone, and no loopholes. As we chatted, more and more people filled the room. I thoroughly agreed with Duane that the tax system is broken and a flat tax equal for everyone would be more fair. Then I asked him about eliminating deductions for depreciation, mortgage interest, charity donations, etc., and I saw people looking at me like I had struck an irritating cord in them. One man talked about corporate welfare and corporate loopholes, and I found I totally agreed with him.
Another man stood up and talked about how home-schooled children go to public school and are turned into liberals there with notions like welfare, medicare for all, and free lunch. He complained passionately that there was not a single Tea Party member in that assembly that was polluting the minds of our youth and turning them into liberals. He later repeated his tale to the full group and added how we must shape the minds of our youth while they are still young.
Considering that it was the eve of the 1-year anniversary of the anti-Constitutional Supreme Court decision called Citizen's United v. FEC, I went around asking people what they thought of that decision. The only one who had ever heard of it was Ms. secretary, who declined to talk about it. I think, by that point, she had already identified me as the enemy.
Pretty soon, the room was packed. I envied them because our little progressive group can barely get 5 people to attend. The Democratic caucuses barely got 40 people to attend, and another 40 attended in Eureka, for a total of 88 Democratic voters in a 5 county region. There were 41 people in this room, including myself. On the whole, the majority were Caucasian. I overheard people talking about their ancestors coming over on the Mayflower. There was one Hispanic man who covered up his accent speaking a careful general American, but I heard the little inflections in his voice and pronunciation of certain consonants that revealed his roots. There was one Hawaiian. We pledged allegiance to the flag, and prayed to Jesus Christ to guide us in doing the right thing.
I noted a fat, hardbound copy of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I had recently read the book to find out what all the conservative references were all about. There was only one person in the room that had also read it, the secretary, who had the same name as me. She said, "It is certainly a great book, isn't it?" I replied that it was amazing. I gazed around at the many blank faces in the room and realized that this was not a very literate crowd. In fact, there were only 4 slim people in the room. All the rest were obese. Ms. secretary was one of the slim, literate ones.
As they followed the agenda with the order of business, the key presenter was a man donating 100 conservative books up for grabs. That's all he had to say. So, in his place, a retired police chief got up and talked about listening to three days of Glenn Beck talking about George Soros. He was inspired to Google George Soros and presented us with a 3-page summary of all of his connections. He connected Soros with Goldman Sachs, which was a surprise. I looked it up afterwards, and found that Soros had purchase up to 40% of Goldman Sachs in 2008, but dumped the stock later saying that the banking sector was insolvent. After a good 10-minutes of badmouthing the EVIL George Soros, someone mentioned that he did all that totally out in the open! The room was aghast! I was also silently aghast that patriots that love free enterprise and the Constitution, would find it shocking that a philanthropic capitalist would operate in the open.
After the former police chief mentioned Soros' history as a Jewish Nazi collaborator, he related a tale of a billionaire starting several investment and philanthropic organizations, as well as political action groups and think tanks. Everyone was repeating how evil Soros is. Then I asked the speaker if he had ever heard of the Koch brothers. He hadn't. Ms. secretary corrected my pronunciation of the name. She obviously had heard of them. I mentioned that, save the Nazi collaboration, all the rest sounded exactly like what the Koch brothers were doing, using their billions to open political action groups, investment groups, and think tanks. Several people contested that there is nothing at all similar about Soros and the Koch's. But Mr. former police chief later asked me to write down their name so he could look them up. He thanked me for mentioning them. With all the talk about Soros, some in the crowd mentioned the Committee on Unamerican Activies, and said that McCarthy was right and should have been allowed to continue his work. A chill rose up my spine.
Then they began talking about the Smart Meters that PG&E is planning to install on everyone's property. They were incredulous that the hated liberals were actually on the same side as they were. They proposed joining with the liberals on this issue. Some people thought that was very humorous. I shrunk down in my chair, because it was becoming very apparent that the liberals were their sworn enemies, and I could easily be considered a liberal. One woman succinctlty summed up the whole issue for the Tea party: She's just tired of everyone telling her what to do. I pondered this statement. A whole political movement has been built up because people are tired of being told what to do. It seemed ludicrously petty to me.
Eventually, they asked for topics for future meetings. I suggested two. I suggested that they discuss the book Atlas Shrugged, which made everybody giggle. Duane thought it was a good idea. I also suggested that they hammer out an ideal model of what they would want the good government to look like. Ms. secretary sneered that we already have that; its called the Constitution! I contended that the government currently in place believes that they are abiding by the Constitution. And that the Supreme Court justices that passed the Citizen's United decision believed that they were providing a correct interpretation of the Constitution. Ms. secretary replied that the Supreme Court has nothing to do with the Constitution. I tried to explain to her that it is the purview of the Supreme Court to interpret the gray areas of the Constitution. I added for example that Ayn Rand said our founding fathers wrote Capitalism into the Constitution, but I can't find that reference. I only see rights to freedom of speech, the pursuit of happiness, and ownership of land. Ms. secretary exclaimed that those ARE capitalism; they just didn't have that word at the time. My model idea fell on deaf ears. The group that equates ownership of land with Capitalism is sure that they have the only right interpretation of the Constitution as opposed to liberals, socialists, Democrats, the Supreme Court, and all the current elected officials.
Not everyone in the room were as adamant as Ms. secretary. Those who felt their privacy invaded by Smart Meters and defended the right of free enterprise to lay off whatever workers whenever they want, move factories offshore whenever, and to pollute the air, water, and soil freely in the name of profit, might be receptive to the idea that pollution which involuntarily ends up in our bodies is another kind of invasion of privacy.
I haven't decided if I will ever go back again. We were in accord on many issues. I wondered where they got all the money for the slick brochures and T-shirt/sweatshirt sales, and all the books on the Constitution. I suspected that Ms. secretary knew their group had been funded by the Koch brothers, and the others didn't. Several people said my presence made this one of the liveliest meetings yet. I enjoy lively meetings and debate with folks who have different beliefs than mine. We'll see....
In my goal to replace the current government with one more responsive to the Common Good, and in my notion to create a massive coalition of disparate groups in order to non-violently accomplish this goal, I wonder if it will be important for me to continue to attend their Tea Party meetings. I might plant seeds of Peace in the more moderate Tea Party participants which will bear fruit in the future.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
A liberal Dose of Reality by John Cory
A Liberal Dose of Reality
16 January 11
Reader Supported News | Perspective
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."- Samuel Adams
o far there is no direct factual connection between the violence in Tucson and the toxic GOP and its subsidiary Tea Party screaming mobs, or the despicable daily spewing of hate-radio or the crazy chalkboard diagrams of the coming end times.The false equivalency by the right wing and corporate media that the left does it too is merely a deflection intended to distract and shift focus away from them and their tactics. You can't connect the dots, they say.
A drop of ink on porous paper slowly seeps across the sheet. Multiple drops in multiple locations eventually bleed together without any external help. No one has to connect the dots; they connect themselves.
Thirty years ago Ronald Reagan said, "... government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem."
Plop.
Over the next three decades, vilification of government became a self-replicating meme. Big government fed the cash-driven paranoia machines. Politics got religion with the Moral Majority, which was neither, and Jerry Falwell made a devilish new BFF in Ronald Reagan. The Christian Right was born.
Plop. Plop.
Bogus welfare queens were created from thin air. The dismantling of Unions and the Fairness Doctrine turned news into a product for the corporations, who insisted that they owned the airwaves, not the public. The public good was tossed aside in favor of free-market profiteering without protective regulation.
Money is free speech and some of us have more freedom than others.
Plop. Plop. Plop.
With all this madness came Iran-Contra, the Savings and Loan crisis, HUD grant-fixing scandal, the Lobbyist scandals, EPA scandals and more. An estimated 130 Reagan officials were indicted and/or convicted or investigated for misconduct and/or criminal violations. But Reagan was the best president ever says the GOP.
Big government is bad. Small government, small enough to fit in a President's zipper is good. God be praised.
Boom.
The Great Microphone of Anti-Democracy was created and funded under Reagan and allowed to grow and smear at will over the following decades.
Politics became reality television. The profits of fear made millionaires of the new hate-media puppets, supported extremist think tanks and generated a publishing industry dedicated to the propaganda of self-appointed "real" America; all in the name of the corporate owners of America.
And where has our liberal progressive movement been?
Pointing out their victimhood at the hands of the GOP and how the GOP is mean. Ignoring the elimination of investigative journalism. Scrambling for consultants and pundits to appear on the TV to provide "balance" while agreeing that both sides do it. Gently promoting "objective" media in a world rewarding biased punditry and outright lies.
Woe, is us! It is so unfair. Whatever can we do?
We need to get off our ass and quit pretending the bastardization of corporate media is something new, or that the hateful politics of the right wing cannot be defeated. We need to face reality and stop looking to billionaires and millionaires to fund us or rent us a megaphone to speak to the people.
We also need to disabuse ourselves of the illusion that the Democrats are on our side, or that they represent liberals and progressives let alone the concept that they represent everyday citizens. Modern Democrats are Mugwumps straddling the fence between self-enriching celebrity and GOP corporate compromise.
All of this is obviously more complicated than my simplistic presentation. But I'm a simple guy that believes in the KISS principle. Keep It Simple, Stupid.
And if we think MSBC is the anti-Fox or that it is the liberal platform needed today, then we are just dumb. Snark and shouting and satirical lists are not news reporting or analysis, just tribal entertainment for the converted and like-minded.
No, we need to walk our talk. The other side will call us names no matter what we do, so let us embrace their hatred, as FDR said. Let us be proud radicals and fierce promoters of the common good.
Unions and organizations like the NAACP and La Razza have money that could be used to invest in a non-profit internet/newspaper/broadcast network instead of being spent on lobbying politicians.
Think of it, our own news outlet that conducts investigative reporting and covers real issues. Public subscriptions for print editions and sales of apps for iPad and other devices would provide support money too. Media of, by, and for the people!
Think of putting Robert Parry, Chris Hedges, Sy Hersh, Amy Goodman, Laura Flanders, Glen Greenwald and so many other wonderful voices together in one powerful force of messaging.
We pick a half dozen or so prime issues to promote - issues that overlap compatible areas so as to serve multi-functional roles. Here's a short list off the top of my head:
- End the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. War creates graves, not jobs.
- Universal Healthcare - explain why the US spends $7500 per person on healthcare while most other countries spend $3500. Is it American exceptionalism, or just plain greed?
- Promote government spending on infrastructure like roads, parks, schools and bridges and playgrounds. Immigrants can earn a living and progress toward citizenship by repairing and building infrastructure and paying taxes including Social Security taxes. Jobs, immigration and saving Social Security all rolled into one.
- Taxes - progressive and enforceable on all persons including corporate persons. Taxes are not evil or onerous, they are the investment in America that sustains all of us.
- Financial Reform regulation to protect the people. To paraphrase George Carlin, if we're concerned about street crime - that means Wall Street too.
- Labor must be protected. The right to a living wage. The right to collective bargaining to protect the powerless from the powerful. Labor is not a product - it is not enslavement for corporate enrichment.
- Bring back the Draft with some modifications that expand the age groups, limit exceptions, and include private contractors being converted to active duty and subject to military pay scales. Government contracts must be severely restricted. To profit from death and bombs cannot be a government function. Conservatives should love this because it is patriotic and confirms their mantra that government does not create any jobs. Right?
- Support Marriage Equality. "If you're against Gay marriage - don't marry one!" (I saw that on a button.)
Impossible? Why?
In an interview on Democracy Now! Slavoj Zizek pointed out, "Did you notice how strange the word 'impossible' functions today? When you talk about private pleasures and technology, everything is possible. But the moment you go to social changes ... practically everything that disturbs the market is impossible ... we will live forever ... whatever you want ... we will travel to the moon - that's all possible. But a small social change of more healthcare is not possible."
Corporations don't see "impossible." Conservatives did not see "impossible." Fox News and talk-radio were not built in a day, but over years.
If we don't unite and combine our forces, progressives and liberals will drown in the coming corporate GOP takeover of democracy.
In the Pennsylvania coal strikes of 1902, miners wanted to cut their work week from 7 to 6 days and cut their work day from 10-12 hours a day to 9 hours a day and raise wages. George Baer, president of Reading Railroad, spoke for the owners in what became known as the "divine right" letter when he wrote: "... the rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared for - not by the labor agitators, but by the Christian men to whom God in His infinite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of the country."
When the letter became public, support shifted to the miners as the public saw what was headed their way. An informed citizenry is the greatest fear of every corporate driven government.
It took progressives years and years to bring change and enlightenment to workers and politicians alike. People like Ida Tarbell, Eugene Debs, Emma Goldman, Sinclair Lewis, W.E.B. DuBois and so many others all fought and organized and published their cause and the cause of the everyman and the poor and the sick. And it worked; not always in big events, but in small continuous determined steps.
To quote Edward R. Murrow: "We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it, and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late."
An ink drop on porous paper slowly seeps across the sheet. Add another and then another, until at last they bleed together to forge their own image and shape.
"Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts." - Edward R. Murrow
-PEACE-
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
2011: A Brave New Dystopia by Chris Hedges
The two greatest visions of a future dystopia were George Orwell’s “1984” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” The debate, between those who watched our descent towards corporate totalitarianism, was who was right. Would we be, as Orwell wrote, dominated by a repressive surveillance and security state that used crude and violent forms of control? Or would we be, as Huxley envisioned, entranced by entertainment and spectacle, captivated by technology and seduced by profligate consumption to embrace our own oppression? It turns out Orwell and Huxley were both right. Huxley saw the first stage of our enslavement. Orwell saw the second. We have been gradually disempowered by a corporate state that, as Huxley foresaw, seduced and manipulated us through sensual gratification, cheap mass-produced goods, boundless credit, political theater and amusement. While we were entertained, the regulations that once kept predatory corporate power in check were dismantled, the laws that once protected us were rewritten and we were impoverished. Now that credit is drying up, good jobs for the working class are gone forever and mass-produced goods are unaffordable, we find ourselves transported from “Brave New World” to “1984.” The state, crippled by massive deficits, endless war and corporate malfeasance, is sliding toward bankruptcy. It is time for Big Brother to take over from Huxley’s feelies, the orgy-porgy and the centrifugal bumble-puppy. We are moving from a society where we are skillfully manipulated by lies and illusions to one where we are overtly controlled.
Orwell warned of a world where books were banned. Huxley warned of a world where no one wanted to read books. Orwell warned of a state of permanent war and fear. Huxley warned of a culture diverted by mindless pleasure. Orwell warned of a state where every conversation and thought was monitored and dissent was brutally punished. Huxley warned of a state where a population, preoccupied by trivia and gossip, no longer cared about truth or information. Orwell saw us frightened into submission. Huxley saw us seduced into submission. But Huxley, we are discovering, was merely the prelude to Orwell. Huxley understood the process by which we would be complicit in our own enslavement. Orwell understood the enslavement. Now that the corporate coup is over, we stand naked and defenseless. We are beginning to understand, as Karl Marx knew, that unfettered and unregulated capitalism is a brutal and revolutionary force that exploits human beings and the natural world until exhaustion or collapse.
“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake,” Orwell wrote in “1984.” “We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.”
The political philosopher Sheldon Wolin uses the term “inverted totalitarianism” in his book “Democracy Incorporated” to describe our political system. It is a term that would make sense to Huxley. In inverted totalitarianism, the sophisticated technologies of corporate control, intimidation and mass manipulation, which far surpass those employed by previous totalitarian states, are effectively masked by the glitter, noise and abundance of a consumer society. Political participation and civil liberties are gradually surrendered. The corporation state, hiding behind the smokescreen of the public relations industry, the entertainment industry and the tawdry materialism of a consumer society, devours us from the inside out. It owes no allegiance to us or the nation. It feasts upon our carcass.
The corporate state does not find its expression in a demagogue or charismatic leader. It is defined by the anonymity and facelessness of the corporation. Corporations, who hire attractive spokespeople like Barack Obama, control the uses of science, technology, education and mass communication. They control the messages in movies and television. And, as in “Brave New World,” they use these tools of communication to bolster tyranny. Our systems of mass communication, as Wolin writes, “block out, eliminate whatever might introduce qualification, ambiguity, or dialogue, anything that might weaken or complicate the holistic force of their creation, to its total impression.”
The result is a monochromatic system of information. Celebrity courtiers, masquerading as journalists, experts and specialists, identify our problems and patiently explain the parameters. All those who argue outside the imposed parameters are dismissed as irrelevant cranks, extremists or members of a radical left. Prescient social critics, from Ralph Nader to Noam Chomsky, are banished. Acceptable opinions have a range of A to B. The culture, under the tutelage of these corporate courtiers, becomes, as Huxley noted, a world of cheerful conformity, as well as an endless and finally fatal optimism. We busy ourselves buying products that promise to change our lives, make us more beautiful, confident or successful as we are steadily stripped of rights, money and influence. All messages we receive through these systems of communication, whether on the nightly news or talk shows like “Oprah,” promise a brighter, happier tomorrow. And this, as Wolin points out, is “the same ideology that invites corporate executives to exaggerate profits and conceal losses, but always with a sunny face.” We have been entranced, as Wolin writes, by “continuous technological advances” that “encourage elaborate fantasies of individual prowess, eternal youthfulness, beauty through surgery, actions measured in nanoseconds: a dream-laden culture of ever-expanding control and possibility, whose denizens are prone to fantasies because the vast majority have imagination but little scientific knowledge.”
Our manufacturing base has been dismantled. Speculators and swindlers have looted the U.S. Treasury and stolen billions from small shareholders who had set aside money for retirement or college. Civil liberties, including habeas corpus and protection from warrantless wiretapping, have been taken away. Basic services, including public education and health care, have been handed over to the corporations to exploit for profit. The few who raise voices of dissent, who refuse to engage in the corporate happy talk, are derided by the corporate establishment as freaks.
Attitudes and temperament have been cleverly engineered by the corporate state, as with Huxley’s pliant characters in “Brave New World.” The book’s protagonist, Bernard Marx, turns in frustration to his girlfriend Lenina:
We increasingly live in Orwell’s Oceania, not Huxley’s The World State. Osama bin Laden plays the role assumed by Emmanuel Goldstein in “1984.” Goldstein, in the novel, is the public face of terror. His evil machinations and clandestine acts of violence dominate the nightly news. Goldstein’s image appears each day on Oceania’s television screens as part of the nation’s “Two Minutes of Hate” daily ritual. And without the intervention of the state, Goldstein, like bin Laden, will kill you. All excesses are justified in the titanic fight against evil personified.
The psychological torture of Pvt. Bradley Manning—who has now been imprisoned for seven months without being convicted of any crime—mirrors the breaking of the dissident Winston Smith at the end of “1984.” Manning is being held as a “maximum custody detainee” in the brig at Marine Corps Base Quantico, in Virginia. He spends 23 of every 24 hours alone. He is denied exercise. He cannot have a pillow or sheets for his bed. Army doctors have been plying him with antidepressants. The cruder forms of torture of the Gestapo have been replaced with refined Orwellian techniques, largely developed by government psychologists, to turn dissidents like Manning into vegetables. We break souls as well as bodies. It is more effective. Now we can all be taken to Orwell’s dreaded Room 101 to become compliant and harmless. These “special administrative measures” are regularly imposed on our dissidents, including Syed Fahad Hashmi, who was imprisoned under similar conditions for three years before going to trial. The techniques have psychologically maimed thousands of detainees in our black sites around the globe. They are the staple form of control in our maximum security prisons where the corporate state makes war on our most politically astute underclass—African-Americans. It all presages the shift from Huxley to Orwell.
“Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling,” Winston Smith’s torturer tells him in “1984.” “Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty and then we shall fill you with ourselves.”
The noose is tightening. The era of amusement is being replaced by the era of repression. Tens of millions of citizens have had their e-mails and phone records turned over to the government. We are the most monitored and spied-on citizenry in human history. Many of us have our daily routine caught on dozens of security cameras. Our proclivities and habits are recorded on the Internet. Our profiles are electronically generated. Our bodies are patted down at airports and filmed by scanners. And public service announcements, car inspection stickers, and public transportation posters constantly urge us to report suspicious activity. The enemy is everywhere.
Those who do not comply with the dictates of the war on terror, a war which, as Orwell noted, is endless, are brutally silenced. The draconian security measures used to cripple protests at the G-20 gatherings in Pittsburgh and Toronto were wildly disproportionate for the level of street activity. But they sent a clear message—DO NOT TRY THIS. The FBI’s targeting of antiwar and Palestinian activists, which in late September saw agents raid homes in Minneapolis and Chicago, is a harbinger of what is to come for all who dare defy the state’s official Newspeak. The agents—our Thought Police—seized phones, computers, documents and other personal belongings. Subpoenas to appear before a grand jury have since been served on 26 people. The subpoenas cite federal law prohibiting “providing material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations.” Terror, even for those who have nothing to do with terror, becomes the blunt instrument used by Big Brother to protect us from ourselves.
“Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating?” Orwell wrote. “It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself.”
Orwell warned of a world where books were banned. Huxley warned of a world where no one wanted to read books. Orwell warned of a state of permanent war and fear. Huxley warned of a culture diverted by mindless pleasure. Orwell warned of a state where every conversation and thought was monitored and dissent was brutally punished. Huxley warned of a state where a population, preoccupied by trivia and gossip, no longer cared about truth or information. Orwell saw us frightened into submission. Huxley saw us seduced into submission. But Huxley, we are discovering, was merely the prelude to Orwell. Huxley understood the process by which we would be complicit in our own enslavement. Orwell understood the enslavement. Now that the corporate coup is over, we stand naked and defenseless. We are beginning to understand, as Karl Marx knew, that unfettered and unregulated capitalism is a brutal and revolutionary force that exploits human beings and the natural world until exhaustion or collapse.
“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake,” Orwell wrote in “1984.” “We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.”
The political philosopher Sheldon Wolin uses the term “inverted totalitarianism” in his book “Democracy Incorporated” to describe our political system. It is a term that would make sense to Huxley. In inverted totalitarianism, the sophisticated technologies of corporate control, intimidation and mass manipulation, which far surpass those employed by previous totalitarian states, are effectively masked by the glitter, noise and abundance of a consumer society. Political participation and civil liberties are gradually surrendered. The corporation state, hiding behind the smokescreen of the public relations industry, the entertainment industry and the tawdry materialism of a consumer society, devours us from the inside out. It owes no allegiance to us or the nation. It feasts upon our carcass.
The corporate state does not find its expression in a demagogue or charismatic leader. It is defined by the anonymity and facelessness of the corporation. Corporations, who hire attractive spokespeople like Barack Obama, control the uses of science, technology, education and mass communication. They control the messages in movies and television. And, as in “Brave New World,” they use these tools of communication to bolster tyranny. Our systems of mass communication, as Wolin writes, “block out, eliminate whatever might introduce qualification, ambiguity, or dialogue, anything that might weaken or complicate the holistic force of their creation, to its total impression.”
The result is a monochromatic system of information. Celebrity courtiers, masquerading as journalists, experts and specialists, identify our problems and patiently explain the parameters. All those who argue outside the imposed parameters are dismissed as irrelevant cranks, extremists or members of a radical left. Prescient social critics, from Ralph Nader to Noam Chomsky, are banished. Acceptable opinions have a range of A to B. The culture, under the tutelage of these corporate courtiers, becomes, as Huxley noted, a world of cheerful conformity, as well as an endless and finally fatal optimism. We busy ourselves buying products that promise to change our lives, make us more beautiful, confident or successful as we are steadily stripped of rights, money and influence. All messages we receive through these systems of communication, whether on the nightly news or talk shows like “Oprah,” promise a brighter, happier tomorrow. And this, as Wolin points out, is “the same ideology that invites corporate executives to exaggerate profits and conceal losses, but always with a sunny face.” We have been entranced, as Wolin writes, by “continuous technological advances” that “encourage elaborate fantasies of individual prowess, eternal youthfulness, beauty through surgery, actions measured in nanoseconds: a dream-laden culture of ever-expanding control and possibility, whose denizens are prone to fantasies because the vast majority have imagination but little scientific knowledge.”
Our manufacturing base has been dismantled. Speculators and swindlers have looted the U.S. Treasury and stolen billions from small shareholders who had set aside money for retirement or college. Civil liberties, including habeas corpus and protection from warrantless wiretapping, have been taken away. Basic services, including public education and health care, have been handed over to the corporations to exploit for profit. The few who raise voices of dissent, who refuse to engage in the corporate happy talk, are derided by the corporate establishment as freaks.
Attitudes and temperament have been cleverly engineered by the corporate state, as with Huxley’s pliant characters in “Brave New World.” The book’s protagonist, Bernard Marx, turns in frustration to his girlfriend Lenina:
“Don’t you wish you were free, Lenina?” he asks.The façade is crumbling. And as more and more people realize that they have been used and robbed, we will move swiftly from Huxley’s “Brave New World” to Orwell’s “1984.” The public, at some point, will have to face some very unpleasant truths. The good-paying jobs are not coming back. The largest deficits in human history mean that we are trapped in a debt peonage system that will be used by the corporate state to eradicate the last vestiges of social protection for citizens, including Social Security. The state has devolved from a capitalist democracy to neo-feudalism. And when these truths become apparent, anger will replace the corporate-imposed cheerful conformity. The bleakness of our post-industrial pockets, where some 40 million Americans live in a state of poverty and tens of millions in a category called “near poverty,” coupled with the lack of credit to save families from foreclosures, bank repossessions and bankruptcy from medical bills, means that inverted totalitarianism will no longer work.
“I don’t know that you mean. I am free, free to have the most wonderful time. Everybody’s happy nowadays.”
He laughed, “Yes, ‘Everybody’s happy nowadays.’ We have been giving the children that at five. But wouldn’t you like to be free to be happy in some other way, Lenina? In your own way, for example; not in everybody else’s way.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” she repeated.
We increasingly live in Orwell’s Oceania, not Huxley’s The World State. Osama bin Laden plays the role assumed by Emmanuel Goldstein in “1984.” Goldstein, in the novel, is the public face of terror. His evil machinations and clandestine acts of violence dominate the nightly news. Goldstein’s image appears each day on Oceania’s television screens as part of the nation’s “Two Minutes of Hate” daily ritual. And without the intervention of the state, Goldstein, like bin Laden, will kill you. All excesses are justified in the titanic fight against evil personified.
The psychological torture of Pvt. Bradley Manning—who has now been imprisoned for seven months without being convicted of any crime—mirrors the breaking of the dissident Winston Smith at the end of “1984.” Manning is being held as a “maximum custody detainee” in the brig at Marine Corps Base Quantico, in Virginia. He spends 23 of every 24 hours alone. He is denied exercise. He cannot have a pillow or sheets for his bed. Army doctors have been plying him with antidepressants. The cruder forms of torture of the Gestapo have been replaced with refined Orwellian techniques, largely developed by government psychologists, to turn dissidents like Manning into vegetables. We break souls as well as bodies. It is more effective. Now we can all be taken to Orwell’s dreaded Room 101 to become compliant and harmless. These “special administrative measures” are regularly imposed on our dissidents, including Syed Fahad Hashmi, who was imprisoned under similar conditions for three years before going to trial. The techniques have psychologically maimed thousands of detainees in our black sites around the globe. They are the staple form of control in our maximum security prisons where the corporate state makes war on our most politically astute underclass—African-Americans. It all presages the shift from Huxley to Orwell.
“Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling,” Winston Smith’s torturer tells him in “1984.” “Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty and then we shall fill you with ourselves.”
The noose is tightening. The era of amusement is being replaced by the era of repression. Tens of millions of citizens have had their e-mails and phone records turned over to the government. We are the most monitored and spied-on citizenry in human history. Many of us have our daily routine caught on dozens of security cameras. Our proclivities and habits are recorded on the Internet. Our profiles are electronically generated. Our bodies are patted down at airports and filmed by scanners. And public service announcements, car inspection stickers, and public transportation posters constantly urge us to report suspicious activity. The enemy is everywhere.
Those who do not comply with the dictates of the war on terror, a war which, as Orwell noted, is endless, are brutally silenced. The draconian security measures used to cripple protests at the G-20 gatherings in Pittsburgh and Toronto were wildly disproportionate for the level of street activity. But they sent a clear message—DO NOT TRY THIS. The FBI’s targeting of antiwar and Palestinian activists, which in late September saw agents raid homes in Minneapolis and Chicago, is a harbinger of what is to come for all who dare defy the state’s official Newspeak. The agents—our Thought Police—seized phones, computers, documents and other personal belongings. Subpoenas to appear before a grand jury have since been served on 26 people. The subpoenas cite federal law prohibiting “providing material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations.” Terror, even for those who have nothing to do with terror, becomes the blunt instrument used by Big Brother to protect us from ourselves.
“Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating?” Orwell wrote. “It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself.”
Monday, October 11, 2010
Water is Essential for Life
As a public health nurse, I learned that modern Public Health began in London when Dr. John Snow discovered in 1854, that sewage dumped into the Thames caused folks downstream to get cholera. When there were few people on Earth, dumping waste into water sources didn't have much effect, since it all got washed downstream. But as populations grew, the issues of providing food and clean water, and exporting waste from highly dense population centers became a critical issue. As such, governments arose to organize food and water transport in, and waste disposal out. Pigs became a valuable cog in this great wheel because you could keep a pig in a small pen in the backyard and feed it all of your kitchen wastes and night soil. In turn, the pig would produce juicy little piglets for you to eat or sell. Ancient governments created aqueducts and underground pipes for municipal water supplies, as well as engineers to maintain them. Of course, the ancient Romans used lead for their water pipes which then caused a great deal of mental retardation and some bizarre imperial behavior.
Here in California, water is a huge political issue. As the most populous state, as well as the fruit and vegetable basket of America, water is in great demand. Although water is considered by some to be a basic human right, and by others as part of the Commons, private corporations are buying up water rights in order to sell it to the people at cutthroat prices. Case in point: the cities of Boulder Creek and Stockton. As the environment declines, I foresee water filling stations to rival gasoline stations.
Even the popularity of plastic bottles of water is based on the suspicion that our tap water is not safe to drink. Considering that taxes paid to governments are used to build water and sewage treatment plants, and when taxes are severely cut, then governments no can longer afford to clean our tap water or treat the sewage before dumping it into the water source. Now it turns out that the plastic of the water bottles contains BPA which feminizes everyone that is exposed to significant quantities of it. I filter tap water at home for drinking and cooking.
In the popular fiction series, Dune, the indigenous people of the desert planet Arakis wore water recycling suits in which they drank their own sweat and urine. When a member of the tribe died, they would render all the water from the corpse, and pour it into their sacred underground lake from which they drew all their village water needs.
Although the Ganges River is turbid with pollution, the popular belief is that it purifies everything it touches. The elderly of India wait to die on the banks of the Ganges so their ashes can be thrown into the river after cremation. I swam in the Ganges.
Considering the purification qualities of water, I find it quite amazing to consider that water, a fluid mineral countless millenia old, actually does clean and purify everything it touches. Water is precious and amazing. Even in the Holy Bible, water is mentioned in the second sentence of Genesis.
Here in California, water is a huge political issue. As the most populous state, as well as the fruit and vegetable basket of America, water is in great demand. Although water is considered by some to be a basic human right, and by others as part of the Commons, private corporations are buying up water rights in order to sell it to the people at cutthroat prices. Case in point: the cities of Boulder Creek and Stockton. As the environment declines, I foresee water filling stations to rival gasoline stations.
Even the popularity of plastic bottles of water is based on the suspicion that our tap water is not safe to drink. Considering that taxes paid to governments are used to build water and sewage treatment plants, and when taxes are severely cut, then governments no can longer afford to clean our tap water or treat the sewage before dumping it into the water source. Now it turns out that the plastic of the water bottles contains BPA which feminizes everyone that is exposed to significant quantities of it. I filter tap water at home for drinking and cooking.
In the popular fiction series, Dune, the indigenous people of the desert planet Arakis wore water recycling suits in which they drank their own sweat and urine. When a member of the tribe died, they would render all the water from the corpse, and pour it into their sacred underground lake from which they drew all their village water needs.
Although the Ganges River is turbid with pollution, the popular belief is that it purifies everything it touches. The elderly of India wait to die on the banks of the Ganges so their ashes can be thrown into the river after cremation. I swam in the Ganges.
Considering the purification qualities of water, I find it quite amazing to consider that water, a fluid mineral countless millenia old, actually does clean and purify everything it touches. Water is precious and amazing. Even in the Holy Bible, water is mentioned in the second sentence of Genesis.
Motivational talk from Boot Camp
What has happened to our elected officials' obligation to protect the Common Good for the benefit of all the People? As an American, I love my liberty and want to protect my right to the pursuit of happiness. NOW is the time to ACT! Let us join together in a mighty coalition to restore justice and democracy back to America. Join me in this effort right now. If we don't act now, we may never get another chance.
It has been 150 years since the corporate Robber Barons got the Supreme Court to grant personhood to corporations in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad. The process of corporations co-opting electoral influence culminated in the latest blow to Democracy when 5 Supreme Court justices voted in Citizens United v. FEC to open the floodgates of corporate influence. It is now the civil right of corporations and trade unions to buy elections. What happened to the social contract our elected officials have with the human citizens of the United States?
On September 28, 2010, an appeals Court Exempted Corporations from Alien Tort Law
A federal appeals court has ruled US corporations can no longer be sued for human rights violations abroad under the longstanding Alien Tort Statute. Earlier this month, the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Alien tort claims can only be brought against individuals, not corporations. The ruling dismissed a lawsuit accusing the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell of complicity in the murder and torture of Nigerian activists including Ken Saro-Wiwa. In a separate opinion, Second Circuit Judge Pierre Leval criticized the ruling, writing, "The majority opinion deals a substantial blow to international law and its undertaking to protect fundamental human rights… So long as they incorporate, businesses will now be free to trade in or exploit slaves, employ mercenary armies to do dirty work for despots, perform genocides or operate torture prisons for a despot’s political opponents, or engage in piracy—all without civil liability to victims." from DemocracyNow! 9/29/10
So now it is clear, a corporation is a person with civil rights to donate unlimited amounts of campaign financing to a political candidate, as well as the right to free speech, but can't be sued for human rights violations. Are corporations persons or not? Shades of Skynet....
It has been 150 years since the corporate Robber Barons got the Supreme Court to grant personhood to corporations in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad. The process of corporations co-opting electoral influence culminated in the latest blow to Democracy when 5 Supreme Court justices voted in Citizens United v. FEC to open the floodgates of corporate influence. It is now the civil right of corporations and trade unions to buy elections. What happened to the social contract our elected officials have with the human citizens of the United States?
On September 28, 2010, an appeals Court Exempted Corporations from Alien Tort Law
A federal appeals court has ruled US corporations can no longer be sued for human rights violations abroad under the longstanding Alien Tort Statute. Earlier this month, the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Alien tort claims can only be brought against individuals, not corporations. The ruling dismissed a lawsuit accusing the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell of complicity in the murder and torture of Nigerian activists including Ken Saro-Wiwa. In a separate opinion, Second Circuit Judge Pierre Leval criticized the ruling, writing, "The majority opinion deals a substantial blow to international law and its undertaking to protect fundamental human rights… So long as they incorporate, businesses will now be free to trade in or exploit slaves, employ mercenary armies to do dirty work for despots, perform genocides or operate torture prisons for a despot’s political opponents, or engage in piracy—all without civil liability to victims." from DemocracyNow! 9/29/10
So now it is clear, a corporation is a person with civil rights to donate unlimited amounts of campaign financing to a political candidate, as well as the right to free speech, but can't be sued for human rights violations. Are corporations persons or not? Shades of Skynet....
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
The CEO President
You know what really gets to me, Christians that love to hate. I’m referring to Christians who are willing to kill their neighbor because maybe they’re a Muslim, a Jew, a Black, or something like that. And I ponder now on why would a Christian whose life is guided by the Prince of
Christians are willing to believe that Mary was a virgin, that Jesus was completely chaste and never had sex or children, and that women need to be subservient to men. Many Christians believe that you can go to hell with yourself on Saturday night, then go confess your sins on Sunday morning where Jesus will love and forgive you no matter what you did the night before.
That person will also be gullible enough to believe that the 9/11 attackers did it because Muslims are fundamentally maniac jihadists. They may also believe that Muslims need to be wiped off the Earth. I ask, what if those same people found out that it was really an inside job, perhaps the CIA, that planned the 9/11 attacks that destroyed the Twin Towers? And that it was CIA put George Bush in office, and arranged the Supreme Court to overrule the Florida Supreme Court in a state’s rights issue.
Maybe it was the CIA that told George Bush to say, “I am the CEO President.” You know what? I should have realized it then, but I realized it today. Bush declared in 2000 that he was going to be the CEO President and run the country like a corporation. I’ve got to say that there is absolutely nothing democratic about a corporation. It is run from the top down whether it has stockholders or not. The main purpose of a corporation is to make profits. If there are stockholders, then the main purpose is to generate earnings per share to the stockholders, and profits for the CEO and other administrators.
A Democracy, or a Republic, is made of the People. A republic is a form of government in which the people retain supreme control over the government and there is no guy at the top calling all the shots. A Democracy is for the People. As far as I can see in our government, the President is the executor of what the Congress tells him to do. Congress is the legislator that represent the People. Their job is to enact legislation according to the needs and will of the People. And the President is the executive that carries out the will of the people. Such is a democratic republic.
A corporation is run by the Board. Similarly, a democracy is run by the houses of Comgress. In a corporation, the Board of Directors is responsible to the stockholders to the ultimate result of EPS (earnings per share). Yet, a democracy is responsible to the total electorate to provide services for the protection and welfare of the People and the Commons. How can you provide for the welfare of the People if you don’t also protect the Commons? And so, a democracy is not a profit driven venture. Our government and country are not for profit; they are for people. The top down governance plan of a corporation is neither democratic nor to benefit the public. So when GWB stated in 2000 that he was the “CEO President,” I should have known then that the corporations had taken over our country, lock, stock, and barrel.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
The NAACP asked me about civil rights
Here is my response:
Hate is clearly on the rise worldwide. As has been the practice over the centuries, hate is a tool of those in power to unjustly acquire cheap labor and natural resources while fomenting the general public to carry out the injustices based on the derogatory status of the hated population. Whether the object of hate is blacks, browns, asians, Germans, Russians, Iranians, women, jews, muslims, commies, hippies, pagans, witches, etc., it is all a device to control the masses by those in power.
As long as our government spends more money on perpetual wars than on the health, welfare, and education of our citizens, generations of youths will be raised in an environment of hate. It will be all they'll know.
Legislation is no longer a viable solution. Legislation and regulation validate the unjust conditions by definition. The legislators and regulators are more beholding to the war-profiteering corporations than they are to the electorate. The Constitution has become irrelevant.
We need a NON-VIOLENT revolution to replace our government with folks who will represent the People instead of the war-profiteers. The cause of the NAACP is legitimate, as is NOW, NARAL, Greenpeace, NRDC, SPLC, ACLU, Amnesity International, etc., etc. But I need to focus all my energy on the fundamental ROOT CAUSE of the injustices that are giving rise to hate and racism: corporate power controlling the government.
Hate is clearly on the rise worldwide. As has been the practice over the centuries, hate is a tool of those in power to unjustly acquire cheap labor and natural resources while fomenting the general public to carry out the injustices based on the derogatory status of the hated population. Whether the object of hate is blacks, browns, asians, Germans, Russians, Iranians, women, jews, muslims, commies, hippies, pagans, witches, etc., it is all a device to control the masses by those in power.
As long as our government spends more money on perpetual wars than on the health, welfare, and education of our citizens, generations of youths will be raised in an environment of hate. It will be all they'll know.
Legislation is no longer a viable solution. Legislation and regulation validate the unjust conditions by definition. The legislators and regulators are more beholding to the war-profiteering corporations than they are to the electorate. The Constitution has become irrelevant.
We need a NON-VIOLENT revolution to replace our government with folks who will represent the People instead of the war-profiteers. The cause of the NAACP is legitimate, as is NOW, NARAL, Greenpeace, NRDC, SPLC, ACLU, Amnesity International, etc., etc. But I need to focus all my energy on the fundamental ROOT CAUSE of the injustices that are giving rise to hate and racism: corporate power controlling the government.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
BP should restore the Gulf to pristine condition
For over 30 years, the annual Rainbow Gathering has constructed a city in pristine wilderness for up to 30,000 to occupy. The city is constructed using fallen timber lashed together, rocks and mud, all found right at the site. By the end of the Gathering, new roads, footpaths, pit toilets, and trash are to be found everywhere. For the next month, a team of dedicated volunteers comb the area and carefully pick up every candy wrapper and cigarette butt until no trash can be found. Teams of naturalists loosen the soil along all newly trodden areas and painstakingly transplant the same natural flora that can be found in the untouched areas. By 3 years later, it is impossible to have known that there was a city of 30,000 people on that spot. The pristine condition of each wilderness area is meticulously restored.
I would like to see BP, Exxon, and other oil drilling companies held to the same standard as the Rainbow Family of Living Light. First of all, the government that issues the drilling licenses must keep a bond for each oil well equal to the estimated cost of cleaning up a spill. In the case of a 5ft pipe tapping into a well the size of the Gulf of Mexico, that bond would be several hundred billion dollars.
Next, BP will need to not only remove 98% of the oil from the water, coast, sand, and coral reefs, but also restock the Gulf with all the natural species that were there before they started drilling. That would necessitate a complete study of the flora and fauna of the drilling area before a drilling license can be issued. In the case of the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe, that would mean cleaning all the sand on the floor of the entire Gulf, all the coral reefs, restoring the pH of the water, removing all toxic dispersant chemicals from the water, re-oxygenating the water, and restocking fish and wildlife from manatees to coral to plankton.
BP has set off a catastrophe that threatens all life on Earth; no amount of money or effort will be able to restore the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea back to pristine condition. Since this process is virtually impossible, then all offshore drilling should be permanently banned.
I would like to see BP, Exxon, and other oil drilling companies held to the same standard as the Rainbow Family of Living Light. First of all, the government that issues the drilling licenses must keep a bond for each oil well equal to the estimated cost of cleaning up a spill. In the case of a 5ft pipe tapping into a well the size of the Gulf of Mexico, that bond would be several hundred billion dollars.
Next, BP will need to not only remove 98% of the oil from the water, coast, sand, and coral reefs, but also restock the Gulf with all the natural species that were there before they started drilling. That would necessitate a complete study of the flora and fauna of the drilling area before a drilling license can be issued. In the case of the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe, that would mean cleaning all the sand on the floor of the entire Gulf, all the coral reefs, restoring the pH of the water, removing all toxic dispersant chemicals from the water, re-oxygenating the water, and restocking fish and wildlife from manatees to coral to plankton.
BP has set off a catastrophe that threatens all life on Earth; no amount of money or effort will be able to restore the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea back to pristine condition. Since this process is virtually impossible, then all offshore drilling should be permanently banned.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
We Have No Seeker to Close the Crack in the Earth
I am a fan of a TV series called, The Legend of the Seeker. One of the major themes in the series is that the Seeker has to close a crack in the Earth from which the Keeper (the master of the underworld) is sending up creatures of death to destroy mankind.
The petroleum catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico reminds me of the rift from which the baylings spew forth on the TV series. The Seeker’s evil brother, Darken Rahl, hungry for power and in league with the Keeper, seeks to outwit the Seeker and unleash the End of the World. To me Darken Rahl represents the petroleum companies. The Sisters of the Dark remind me of the Republicans, and the equally devious Sisters of the Light remind me of the Democrats. The series is rife with power hungry double dealers and intrigue; you never know whom to trust.
Unfortunately, today’s world has no honest Seeker accompanied by a Wizard and a Mother Confessor to close the rift. There is no hero that’s gonna pull us out of this one. The oil companies have let the genie out of the bottle and all life on Earth will pay the price. A total ban on offshore drilling is overdue. Call your members of Congress and tell them to BAN OFF SHORE DRILLING!
The petroleum catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico reminds me of the rift from which the baylings spew forth on the TV series. The Seeker’s evil brother, Darken Rahl, hungry for power and in league with the Keeper, seeks to outwit the Seeker and unleash the End of the World. To me Darken Rahl represents the petroleum companies. The Sisters of the Dark remind me of the Republicans, and the equally devious Sisters of the Light remind me of the Democrats. The series is rife with power hungry double dealers and intrigue; you never know whom to trust.
Unfortunately, today’s world has no honest Seeker accompanied by a Wizard and a Mother Confessor to close the rift. There is no hero that’s gonna pull us out of this one. The oil companies have let the genie out of the bottle and all life on Earth will pay the price. A total ban on offshore drilling is overdue. Call your members of Congress and tell them to BAN OFF SHORE DRILLING!
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Desolate in Broward County
November 8, 2004
Greetings from south Florida,
I just came from a birthday dinner celebrating my mother's 88th birthday. Much of the discussion around the table was about last week's election.
My mother was too distrustful of the system in Florida to vote by absentee ballot. She stood on line a total of 5 1/2 hours over 2 days to finally cast her vote. She was sure to press the review button to make sure all her votes were correct before she pressed the vote button. Everyone she spoke to on line for those many hours was voting for Kerry. My mom lives in Broward County.
Aunt Rita said that her friend pressed the review button and found a straight Republican ticket. Her friend called the election monitor who cancelled the ballot and allowed her to vote again. The second time, the review was correct. And then she pressed the vote button. My mom's friend Henny didn't review her ballot. My nieces were volunteer lawyers at the polls. They reported that the Republicans at their polls were very calm and courteous. They suspected the calmness of the Republicans in face of the fact that all the people on line were talking about voting for Kerry was due to the pre-arranged victory of Bush in Florida. The Republicans were acting like they had nothing to worry about.
We discussed the investigations currently being mounted by various organizations like BlackBoxVoting.org
I feel utterly desolate in Broward County. My mother, who is often wise and has seen much in her 88 years, said there's no use in investigating it. She said the investigations will go on for a while, and then they will disappear, and no one will mention it anymore. Like when Senator Kerry was investigating the elder Bush's involvement with illegal drug trade during the Iran-Contra Affair, and suddenly it disappeared inconclusive. My mom said she is so sick with the results of the election and the outright rampant corruption of the Republicans and the impotency of the Democrats, that she can't even watch the news anymore. She is totally burnt out on the one party system our government has evolved into. She just wants to live out her remaining years.
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.
"The world desires to be deceived; therefore it is deceived. "
(Attributed to Petronius)
Friday, May 07, 2010
An Open Letter to California Assembly Speaker John Pérez
Honorable John Perez,
I heard that you are considering cutting funding for In Home Support Services. I strongly hope you retain funding for IHSS.
I am a Credentialed School Nurse with a Masters Degree in Nursing. I have been laid off my school nurse job and replaced with an unqualified, inexperienced nurse because with my level of education and experience, I am too expensive for school. All other school nurse positions within 100 miles have either been filled by a neophyte nurse, or not filled at all. School districts around California no longer can afford to comply with CA Ed. Code or Federal IDEA laws or American Disabilities Act laws regarding school nurses.
Therefore, my main bread and butter right now is IHSS. I took a pay cut from $5000/mo as a nurse to $1200/mo as an IHSS worker. The SEIU also provides me with medical insurance, but will not insure my 2 sons, who are currently uninsured. My job with IHSS pays most of my mortgage. Thanks to this job, we have a roof over our heads.
In addition, thousands of seniors and disabled people are living cheaper in their own homes with the help of IHSS rather than moving to nursing homes and board & care institutions. There are not enough beds in nursing homes and board & care institutions to accommodate all these people. I assure you, I have searched far and wide to find a placement for the disabled Korean War veteran that I take care of, but either they can't take a person who needs his level of care, or it is beyond the veteran's meager budget.
Thanks to the SEIU, IHSS workers earn $9.90/hr. The SEIU worked hard for several years to raise this rate up to where it is now. The previous rate, and even the current rate, is not a living wage. All IHSS workers have to have several jobs in order to live. I took this job because the previous IHSS workers of this Korean War veteran would steal his stuff and sell it, pilfer his pockets for forgotten money, and steal his credit cards. The previous IHSS immediately before me racked up $4500 in credit card debt for the disabled veteran in a period of 7 weeks paying her cell phone, PO box, 4 new tires for her car, personal skin care products for herself, magazine subscriptions, and daily restaurants for dinner. She didn't cook. It was elder abuse.
Low wages for IHSS workers leads to elder abuse. Discontinuing IHSS altogether will overload the system with indigent seniors and disabled people with no beds available in our current institutions.
If your aim is to stimulate free enterprise by dumping the impoverished seniors and disabled on to the streets hoping to stimulate private investment in beds for people who can't afford to pay for them, you are very, very mistaken.
IHSS is part of the social safety net that our government is designed to promote for the general welfare of the people as is stated in the preamble to the Constitution of the United States. In addition, God commands us in the Bible to provide for the sick, elderly and disabled in our communities. Since the state of California no longer values the education or health of our children and has followed a course decades long of cutting public education and public health, it obviously has higher priorities than serving our youth, jobs, and future industry. Now the state of California wants to cut off funding for IHSS which keeps the elderly and disabled safe and cared-for in their own homes.
The state of California sounds like it is in a suicidal, self-destructive course, yet continued paying a decade worth of cutthroat rates for energy based on fraudulent contracts signed with ENRON in 2001. It seems OK to violate the social contract the elected leaders have with the electorate to serve the Common Good, but it is not alright to violate the fraudulent contracts made with ENRON. I think the budget priorities of the state of California are very mixed up.
The state has already cut me down to my knees by cutting funds to public education. Don't cut me down to the ground by cutting funds to IHSS, my main income and the only way my Korean War veteran boss can continue to live at home on a small fixed income.
DON'T CUT IHSS!
I heard that you are considering cutting funding for In Home Support Services. I strongly hope you retain funding for IHSS.
I am a Credentialed School Nurse with a Masters Degree in Nursing. I have been laid off my school nurse job and replaced with an unqualified, inexperienced nurse because with my level of education and experience, I am too expensive for school. All other school nurse positions within 100 miles have either been filled by a neophyte nurse, or not filled at all. School districts around California no longer can afford to comply with CA Ed. Code or Federal IDEA laws or American Disabilities Act laws regarding school nurses.
Therefore, my main bread and butter right now is IHSS. I took a pay cut from $5000/mo as a nurse to $1200/mo as an IHSS worker. The SEIU also provides me with medical insurance, but will not insure my 2 sons, who are currently uninsured. My job with IHSS pays most of my mortgage. Thanks to this job, we have a roof over our heads.
In addition, thousands of seniors and disabled people are living cheaper in their own homes with the help of IHSS rather than moving to nursing homes and board & care institutions. There are not enough beds in nursing homes and board & care institutions to accommodate all these people. I assure you, I have searched far and wide to find a placement for the disabled Korean War veteran that I take care of, but either they can't take a person who needs his level of care, or it is beyond the veteran's meager budget.
Thanks to the SEIU, IHSS workers earn $9.90/hr. The SEIU worked hard for several years to raise this rate up to where it is now. The previous rate, and even the current rate, is not a living wage. All IHSS workers have to have several jobs in order to live. I took this job because the previous IHSS workers of this Korean War veteran would steal his stuff and sell it, pilfer his pockets for forgotten money, and steal his credit cards. The previous IHSS immediately before me racked up $4500 in credit card debt for the disabled veteran in a period of 7 weeks paying her cell phone, PO box, 4 new tires for her car, personal skin care products for herself, magazine subscriptions, and daily restaurants for dinner. She didn't cook. It was elder abuse.
Low wages for IHSS workers leads to elder abuse. Discontinuing IHSS altogether will overload the system with indigent seniors and disabled people with no beds available in our current institutions.
If your aim is to stimulate free enterprise by dumping the impoverished seniors and disabled on to the streets hoping to stimulate private investment in beds for people who can't afford to pay for them, you are very, very mistaken.
IHSS is part of the social safety net that our government is designed to promote for the general welfare of the people as is stated in the preamble to the Constitution of the United States. In addition, God commands us in the Bible to provide for the sick, elderly and disabled in our communities. Since the state of California no longer values the education or health of our children and has followed a course decades long of cutting public education and public health, it obviously has higher priorities than serving our youth, jobs, and future industry. Now the state of California wants to cut off funding for IHSS which keeps the elderly and disabled safe and cared-for in their own homes.
The state of California sounds like it is in a suicidal, self-destructive course, yet continued paying a decade worth of cutthroat rates for energy based on fraudulent contracts signed with ENRON in 2001. It seems OK to violate the social contract the elected leaders have with the electorate to serve the Common Good, but it is not alright to violate the fraudulent contracts made with ENRON. I think the budget priorities of the state of California are very mixed up.
The state has already cut me down to my knees by cutting funds to public education. Don't cut me down to the ground by cutting funds to IHSS, my main income and the only way my Korean War veteran boss can continue to live at home on a small fixed income.
DON'T CUT IHSS!
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Bush turns his greatest failure into his greatest victory - old post
Having suppressed and ignored good intelligence, having fired the agents who provided it, having sent the air defense teams to Canada to do “exercises” so that they were unavailable on 9/11, and having sat dumbfounded in a classroom in Florida allowing 3 more planes to be highjacked after hearing the news, George W. Bush turned his greatest failure into his greatest victory by declaring himself the “War President” and carrying out a retaliatory vendetta in the Middle East. With a little spin, Bush will turn each of his monumental failures into a glorified victory which will require even more suppression of civil rights, more job losses, more vendettas abroad, and more debt for our unborn grandchildren to shoulder. It is truly amazing how Bush’s spin masters can keep the wool pulled over the eyes of America.
9/1/2005
9/1/2005
Saturday, February 20, 2010
These Crazy Times - Comment from Grandpa Dan
Let Obama hear this. If you want to know the opinion of the grassroots, then read the opinion of Grandpa Dan,
Grandpa Dan is a WWII veteran living the American Dream. He was born of European immigrants fleeing Pogroms. He was drafted into the military and served in WWII. The military taught him watchmaking, and he used GI Bill to open a jewelry and watchmakers shop after he got out of the service. His business grew, he retired to Florida where he became friends with my mom. He now lives in assisted living where he enjoys the good life with his wife and writes political commentary to his personal friends.
I also would like to comment that it is unconstitutional to have private militias on our own soil, yet we tolerate firms like Xe/Blackwater building bases in North Carolina. Then we cut domestic spending in order to bankrupt our treasury waging endless foreign wars paying top dollar for "security services" from private militias funding their massive buildup of strength.
When US militaries and National Guards all are exhausted from endless foreign wars, the private militias building up on our own soil will easily overtake the skeleton crew left behind by budget cuts.
Subject: These Crazy Times
This is one of those times when the purpose of my writing weighs more on its therapeutic value to me , than imparting information....sort of like a Catholic at the confessional or an orthodox Jew at the Western Wall.....
Yesterday I received my latest issue of "Mother Jones".....The front cover shows a photo of an American soldier beneath which is the caption, "Age of Treason-This soldier is ready to take up arms against the Obama Administration. A further photo shows the same soldier holding a pistol across his chest, forefinger "At The Ready".... He is not alone".......
I found the accompanying article depressing for a variety of reasons , not least of which is the wide number of well known's who lend approval to what this soldier represents......
While reading this disturbing tale of modern day dissidents, my mind drifted back to my teen-age days when "The Young Communist League" and "Bund Meetings" were in full bloom.....All of the malcontents, the extremes , both left and right , had suddenly found their voices ....loud and clear....
The biggest difference between then and now is that Then it was more or less subterranean, and mostly all talk , and now it appears to be preparation for an armed rebellion..........Never in my memory did participants attend public political gatherings , armed with sidearms , rifles and shotguns.....Open talk of violence against the U.S. Army and the Administration....Hidden is the racial bias which belies the supposed advances we have achieved in social justice.....
Normally I shun quotations , but the coalition of the very far right has taken on dimensions which appear to me as more dangerous than any outside enemy could possibly pose....The open hostility they display is so widespread that it resembles an uncontrollable wildfire .....Some quotes follow:
"He , (Lee Pray, the soldier on the cover) , considers the Bushmaster (a $ 5600 rifle and scope ) his preparation to take on the U.S. Government when it declares martial law"..."His belief that that day is imminent has led Pray to a group called "Oath Keepers" ...."A patriotic org . of the 'Right'....."Established itself as a hub in the sprawling anti-Obama movement that includes Tea Partiers, Birthers, and 912ers , Glen Beck, Lou Dobbs, and Pat Buchanon have all sung it's prases"....
"What makes the Oath Keepers unique is that its core membership consists of men and women in uniform, police, and veterans....At their ceremonies , they pledge to protect the Constitution , but then vow to disobey" Unconstitutional" orders from what they view as an increasingly tyrannical government"...
"........They are recruiting military buddies, stashing weapons, and ammunition , running drills, and outlining a plan of action" ...."The Brass would be shocked by the number of soldiers willing to turn against their Commanders" ...."Pray is both a Birther and a Truther...He believes that he is following an illegitimate , foreign born president, in a war on terror launched by a government plot --9/11".............And much more .....
It is all too easy to brand these dissidents as crackpots but the likes of " Glen Beck, Michele Bachman, and Sarah Palin, all share the same animus" .....It seems to be a pandemic....You may have noted the revival of the notorious Birch Society ....
The days ahead bare close scrutiny.....Love, Grandpa Dan
Grandpa Dan is a WWII veteran living the American Dream. He was born of European immigrants fleeing Pogroms. He was drafted into the military and served in WWII. The military taught him watchmaking, and he used GI Bill to open a jewelry and watchmakers shop after he got out of the service. His business grew, he retired to Florida where he became friends with my mom. He now lives in assisted living where he enjoys the good life with his wife and writes political commentary to his personal friends.
I also would like to comment that it is unconstitutional to have private militias on our own soil, yet we tolerate firms like Xe/Blackwater building bases in North Carolina. Then we cut domestic spending in order to bankrupt our treasury waging endless foreign wars paying top dollar for "security services" from private militias funding their massive buildup of strength.
When US militaries and National Guards all are exhausted from endless foreign wars, the private militias building up on our own soil will easily overtake the skeleton crew left behind by budget cuts.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
An Open Letter to President Obama
Dear Mr. President,
Your administration and your party are in trouble. That is clear from the elections in Massachusetts and Virginia, from the drop in your approval rating, from the rise of conservative opposition groups. In fact, the whole USA is battered and on its knees waiting for the final blow.
This is a time when progressive forces in this country need to mobilize to prevent a backlash that will take this country further to the right. Without decisive Congressional action to benefit the Common Good, opposition candidates will win big in the next election. Progressives, as well as your own supporters, are disappointed and demoralized. Look at me.
In 2008, I realized that "Hope and Change" is not a substantial political platform, and remembered that George W. Bush ran on the same platform. I understood that when you talked about getting out of Iraq, that it meant waging wars elsewhere. I realized when big media, while broadcasting over the public airwaves, excluded all "peace" candidates from the presidential debates, that they were pre-selecting for the US public exclusively pro-war candidates. I was not fooled by your vacuous rhetoric of Hope and Change. I did suspect that you might attempt to put through populist programs while appeasing the war profiteers with endless foreign wars. But you haven't.
As 2010 dawns, change looks to me like more of the same. We got more war, more torture, more innocent collateral damage, more fodder for spawning new, young terrorists. Your concept of health care reform is to mandate Americans to buy private health insurance without any real cost controls. You block what is known to work well, Medicare-for-All, and instead, provide a massive giveaway to the health insurance industry. Health insurance companies are reporting record profits for 2009 and are raising their rates by 40%.
After being laid off my job at school due to the budget cuts, I am now working 7 p/t jobs and barely making ends meet. My union-provided insurance has high co-pays and deductibles and doesn't cover my children. My income is too high for them to be covered by Healthy Families, so they remain uninsured.
On the environment, one of your top priorities, you came back from Copenhagen with yet another non-binding resolution, more clean coal & clean nuclear, and a closed-door decision to wait until the planet's average temperature rises another 2º to catastrophic levels, to boot.
Instead of helping struggling homeowners and small businesses during the financial crisis, bank executives were protected and rewarded and we have yet to see reform. And Ben Bernanke, who enabled the world-wide financial collapse, was reappointed! Wall Street firms ended 2009 with record bonus and profits while unemployment remains in double digits.
President Obama, after the Citizens United decision, I am hopeless! Your concept of change is to exacerbate the injustices enacted by the Neo-Cons. The change I believe in puts people and our planet before industry, it promotes Peace, international law, and human rights instead of militarism. As you are asking Congress to approve the largest Pentagon budget in history, plus another $33 billion to pay for your Afghan surge, the prophetic works of Dr. Martin Luther King sound a clarion call: A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. The endless wars are also bringing our country to economic death.
We have 3 branches of government that all collaborate with big business instead of defending the Constitution and the well being of the natural people.
We need renewed leadership, we need you to show us—not in words but in deeds—that you can stand up to corporate interests that are blocking us from real healthcare, environmental and financial reform. We need you to show us—not in words but in deeds—that you will stand up for the Constitution, for due process, for the rule of law. We need you to show us—not in words but in deeds—that you lead this country out of endless war to a nation that lives in peace with its neighbors.
In the meantime, without a change from pro-corporate to pro-populist policies, I pledge to replace your administration and Congress with a new guard (and mobilize others) that will not collaborate war-profiteers and other big business, but enact and defend policies of social and environmental uplift.
May 2010 be a year of renewed commitment and movement toward the change we so desperately need.
Sincerely,
Your administration and your party are in trouble. That is clear from the elections in Massachusetts and Virginia, from the drop in your approval rating, from the rise of conservative opposition groups. In fact, the whole USA is battered and on its knees waiting for the final blow.
This is a time when progressive forces in this country need to mobilize to prevent a backlash that will take this country further to the right. Without decisive Congressional action to benefit the Common Good, opposition candidates will win big in the next election. Progressives, as well as your own supporters, are disappointed and demoralized. Look at me.
In 2008, I realized that "Hope and Change" is not a substantial political platform, and remembered that George W. Bush ran on the same platform. I understood that when you talked about getting out of Iraq, that it meant waging wars elsewhere. I realized when big media, while broadcasting over the public airwaves, excluded all "peace" candidates from the presidential debates, that they were pre-selecting for the US public exclusively pro-war candidates. I was not fooled by your vacuous rhetoric of Hope and Change. I did suspect that you might attempt to put through populist programs while appeasing the war profiteers with endless foreign wars. But you haven't.
As 2010 dawns, change looks to me like more of the same. We got more war, more torture, more innocent collateral damage, more fodder for spawning new, young terrorists. Your concept of health care reform is to mandate Americans to buy private health insurance without any real cost controls. You block what is known to work well, Medicare-for-All, and instead, provide a massive giveaway to the health insurance industry. Health insurance companies are reporting record profits for 2009 and are raising their rates by 40%.
After being laid off my job at school due to the budget cuts, I am now working 7 p/t jobs and barely making ends meet. My union-provided insurance has high co-pays and deductibles and doesn't cover my children. My income is too high for them to be covered by Healthy Families, so they remain uninsured.
On the environment, one of your top priorities, you came back from Copenhagen with yet another non-binding resolution, more clean coal & clean nuclear, and a closed-door decision to wait until the planet's average temperature rises another 2º to catastrophic levels, to boot.
Instead of helping struggling homeowners and small businesses during the financial crisis, bank executives were protected and rewarded and we have yet to see reform. And Ben Bernanke, who enabled the world-wide financial collapse, was reappointed! Wall Street firms ended 2009 with record bonus and profits while unemployment remains in double digits.
President Obama, after the Citizens United decision, I am hopeless! Your concept of change is to exacerbate the injustices enacted by the Neo-Cons. The change I believe in puts people and our planet before industry, it promotes Peace, international law, and human rights instead of militarism. As you are asking Congress to approve the largest Pentagon budget in history, plus another $33 billion to pay for your Afghan surge, the prophetic works of Dr. Martin Luther King sound a clarion call: A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. The endless wars are also bringing our country to economic death.
We have 3 branches of government that all collaborate with big business instead of defending the Constitution and the well being of the natural people.
We need renewed leadership, we need you to show us—not in words but in deeds—that you can stand up to corporate interests that are blocking us from real healthcare, environmental and financial reform. We need you to show us—not in words but in deeds—that you will stand up for the Constitution, for due process, for the rule of law. We need you to show us—not in words but in deeds—that you lead this country out of endless war to a nation that lives in peace with its neighbors.
In the meantime, without a change from pro-corporate to pro-populist policies, I pledge to replace your administration and Congress with a new guard (and mobilize others) that will not collaborate war-profiteers and other big business, but enact and defend policies of social and environmental uplift.
May 2010 be a year of renewed commitment and movement toward the change we so desperately need.
Sincerely,
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Liberation in Buddhism
In Buddhism, there is nothing to depend on. There is no force outside that will give us salvation. There is nothing permanent that we can always count on. Some say we can only depend upon ourselves. Others say that even our selves are not dependable. That leaves us with nothing permanent in which to set anchor.
Many people have a high value for Hope. In fact, the last 2 presidents used Hope as their campaign platform. The proselytizing Christians bring Hope for Salvation to people of color with a blonde, blue-eyed God man while exploiting these same people for natural resources and cheap labor. Hope in Buddhism is defined as Delusion. Delusion believes, for example, that something is nothing, and that nothing is something. Delusion is a form of ignorance, which is the root of all becoming (making Karma).
Buddhism Dictionary on Delusion (Ignorance):
"Delusion refers to belief in something that contradicts reality. In Buddhism, delusion is ... a lack of awareness of the true nature or Buddha nature of things, or of the true meaning of existence. "
In the same way, every thing (karma, n.) only has the meaning that we ascribe to it. There is nothing to hang on to. Its a true wonder how much of our existence is constructed on beliefs. And how so many of our beliefs are founded upon nothing more than morés.
The facts that there is nothing permanent to hold on to, or that things have no intrinsic meaning other than what we ascribe to them, or that our own self may be completely void of anything substantially permanent beyond a force of becoming, is not depressing, but good news! "Freedom's just another word for 'nothin' left to lose, but nothin' ain't worth nothin,' but its freeeeee."
It is here when we realize the joy of putting down the Wheel of Karma, and just terminate the becoming force (bhavanga). Making no more Karma doesn't mean dead or nihilist. It is a state of Grace in which the right thing occurs without the Ego craving or clinging. Such a state of Grace is full of joy and energy. Quite the opposite of depressing.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Another Catastrophic Blow to Democracy
Just when you thought that every last vestige of Democracy had already been shot down, now it's official. Corporations no longer have to hide the cash they invest in our elections. Thanks to the recent decision by the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, corporations now have the right to donate unlimited amounts of money to politicians.
The 5-4 ruling reverses a century’s worth of federal legislation and court decisions limiting the influence of corporate money in politics. From now on, all elected officials and the laws they enact will be funded by big corporations. It is the worst decision made by the Supreme Court since Dred Scott in 1857, when the the Court ruled that people of African descent were not protected by the Constitution, could not be US citizens, and no law could prohibit slavery in federal territories. The Dred Scott decision resulted in the Civil War.
I wonder if Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission will instigate another civil war?
Get free bumper stickers to protest this injustice:
The 5-4 ruling reverses a century’s worth of federal legislation and court decisions limiting the influence of corporate money in politics. From now on, all elected officials and the laws they enact will be funded by big corporations. It is the worst decision made by the Supreme Court since Dred Scott in 1857, when the the Court ruled that people of African descent were not protected by the Constitution, could not be US citizens, and no law could prohibit slavery in federal territories. The Dred Scott decision resulted in the Civil War.
I wonder if Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission will instigate another civil war?
Get free bumper stickers to protest this injustice:
Help Us Give Away Action Bumper Stickers! Put a sidebar button on YOUR site (like the one to the right) linking to the bumper sticker page. Here is the code:  |
Monday, December 28, 2009
We Have All Been Betrayed
After eight years of the Bush & Cheney Whitehouse, we all thought that sanity would resume once the Democrats were in the majority. There arose an historic opportunity with 60 Democrats in the Senate and a large majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives, that policies favoring the Common Good of the public would finally return to America.
Yet, our Democrat majority Congress continues to bankrupt our nation with the escalation of unending wars, mandates to enrich private medical insurance companies which unethically gouge prices, bailouts to banks with borrowed funds which they don’t even know who are the recipients, and a predetermined accord to allow the planet’s ambient temperature to rise by 2º before reducing carbon emissions. Not only have the American People been betrayed, but so have all the people on our planet.
Our government was instituted to secure and protect the rights of the people, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, and promote general welfare, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. When the government ignores the majority of the people, which want Peace, universal public health insurance, and a binding accord to save the planet from global climate change, and instead become destructive to these ends for the protection of corporate profits, then it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.
Governments long established should not be changed for light causes. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariable the enrichment of a handful of mega-profiteers at the expense of all the rest of the people, as well as most of the other species on Earth, it is the right and duty of the people to throw off such a government, and provide new guards for our future security and welfare.
We must therefore acquiesce in the necessity to hold our own government, Democrat, Independent, and Republican, Executive, Legislative and Judicial, all responsible as unlawful tyrants, and replace them with a government that will serve the welfare of the people.
The founders of our country were armed militant revolutionaries, but enough blood has been spilled already. Unlike George Washington, Marquis de La Fayette, and Ernesto Che Guevara, we must overturn the tyranny within our government by dropping our differences and uniting in opposition. We, the People are an overwhelming majority, if only we could resolve our petty differences and unite. We must unite NOW!
People, as they are, prefer to unite under a charismatic leader. We thought that leader was going to be Barak Obama. Although Obama may be charismatic, his bent is toward protecting profiteers at the expense of the public. Who will be the charismatic leader to galvanize the public and convince the armed forces to defend Democracy rather than corporate interests?
Thursday, November 26, 2009
How Long Will We Be Able to Bail Out the Boat?
Working 50 or so hours per week while "unemployed," I have thus far managed to avoid financial ruin and lean only lightly on my dwindling savings. Curiosity led me to analyze my current income and major expenses.
I managed to bring in about $32,000 in the first 10 months of 2009. This includes the ample salary of the job that laid me off last June, wages from p/t work in my profession, plus p/t work doing computer repair, graphic design, health assessments for insurance companies, selling nutritional supplements, rents from rental units, giving care through In Home Support Services, and unemployment insurance.
I was curious to see where I spent that money. As expected, 13.75% went to groceries for my son and I, that's $93/wk. I don't know about you, but $93 seems to buy no more than 2 bags of food. Lucky for us, we grow a lot of our own food, mostly fruits and vegetables.
13.75% groceries.
11.9% automobile expenses including repairs and gasoline.
4% dining out.
5.9% donations.
7.5% out-of-pocket medical expenses inc what insurance denied.
11.1% taxes.
35.4% mortgage interest excluding the principle.
23.1% to insurance.
113%
The most surprising portion, 23%, was paid to insurance companies: malpractice insurance, life insurance, auto insurance, homeowner's insurance, cell phone insurance, and medical insurance with large copays that doesn't cover my children who remain uninsured.
Considering that the mortgage interest is a premium on a tangible asset which provides my family with shelter from the elements as well as safety and comfort, our home can be considered well worth the more than third of my income paid to the bank as loan service. But the quarter of my income paid out to insurance companies will never be seen again. It just seems appalling that families need to pay out such a large proportion to a predatory racket that is tantamount to extortion. Insurance lobbies may soon get Congress to make all insurance mandatory.
113% of my income in 2009 was spent on food, automobile, medical expenses, mortgage interest, donations, taxes and insurance. Additionally, I also purchased clothes, house repairs, utilities, telephone & internet services, school supplies, gifts, bank fees, union dues, cleaning supplies, mortgage, credit card debt, travel, and membership in the health club where I work out 2-3 times/week. Going to the movies is beyond our budget; we watch free DVD's from the public library, or stream movies on the internet. I can't afford to pay membership to my professional organization this year, thereby forgoing the perk of free vouchers for uninsured students to get eye exams. Fortunately, I saved some money when I still had a f/t job with benefits, which we now draw upon to survive.
All I can say is that we are the lucky ones. We have kept our heads above water and have not skipped any mortgage payments. By word of mouth and with the help of my friends and unemployment, my son and I have been treading water. The fact that I have to draw upon our savings to keep us afloat is like bailing out the boat while the hole in the bottom gets bigger and bigger. How long will we be able to bail out the boat?
I managed to bring in about $32,000 in the first 10 months of 2009. This includes the ample salary of the job that laid me off last June, wages from p/t work in my profession, plus p/t work doing computer repair, graphic design, health assessments for insurance companies, selling nutritional supplements, rents from rental units, giving care through In Home Support Services, and unemployment insurance.
I was curious to see where I spent that money. As expected, 13.75% went to groceries for my son and I, that's $93/wk. I don't know about you, but $93 seems to buy no more than 2 bags of food. Lucky for us, we grow a lot of our own food, mostly fruits and vegetables.
13.75% groceries.
11.9% automobile expenses including repairs and gasoline.
4% dining out.
5.9% donations.
7.5% out-of-pocket medical expenses inc what insurance denied.
11.1% taxes.
35.4% mortgage interest excluding the principle.
23.1% to insurance.
113%
The most surprising portion, 23%, was paid to insurance companies: malpractice insurance, life insurance, auto insurance, homeowner's insurance, cell phone insurance, and medical insurance with large copays that doesn't cover my children who remain uninsured.
Considering that the mortgage interest is a premium on a tangible asset which provides my family with shelter from the elements as well as safety and comfort, our home can be considered well worth the more than third of my income paid to the bank as loan service. But the quarter of my income paid out to insurance companies will never be seen again. It just seems appalling that families need to pay out such a large proportion to a predatory racket that is tantamount to extortion. Insurance lobbies may soon get Congress to make all insurance mandatory.
113% of my income in 2009 was spent on food, automobile, medical expenses, mortgage interest, donations, taxes and insurance. Additionally, I also purchased clothes, house repairs, utilities, telephone & internet services, school supplies, gifts, bank fees, union dues, cleaning supplies, mortgage, credit card debt, travel, and membership in the health club where I work out 2-3 times/week. Going to the movies is beyond our budget; we watch free DVD's from the public library, or stream movies on the internet. I can't afford to pay membership to my professional organization this year, thereby forgoing the perk of free vouchers for uninsured students to get eye exams. Fortunately, I saved some money when I still had a f/t job with benefits, which we now draw upon to survive.
All I can say is that we are the lucky ones. We have kept our heads above water and have not skipped any mortgage payments. By word of mouth and with the help of my friends and unemployment, my son and I have been treading water. The fact that I have to draw upon our savings to keep us afloat is like bailing out the boat while the hole in the bottom gets bigger and bigger. How long will we be able to bail out the boat?
Friday, October 30, 2009
Capitalism is conflated with Democracy
The Gringo in Chile wrote to me and said:
Good Morning Bodhi,
What's your take on this "hot" area? I feel this Administration is making more progress with health reform and global peace that I have seen during my entire life. Love to hear your opinion.
From Chile,
My reply:
The war profiteers own our big media corporations that control the mainstream airwaves. Anti-war political candidates are excluded during election campaigns from airing their voices on mainstream media. They are ridiculed and belittled, with character assassinations. The only candidates that we see on TV are the ones that have agreed to collaborate with the war profiteers.
That said, Obama got elected with a little help from the war profiteers. Don't forget, Obama refused public financing of his campaign and therefore, raised more money than any other candidate in history. A significant portion of his campaign funding came from the war profiteers.
Now that he has been elected, his campaign promise was to get out of Iraq and fight the REAL war in Afghanistan where Al'Quida is located. He was never the "peace" candidate. Now that he is in office, he doesn't necessarily have to comply with the generous supporters that want favorable conditions for more war. On the other hand, if he crosses the war profiteers, they will assassinate him - DEAD. If he crosses the peace-niks, they will complain without violence, maybe have another sit-in. If someone constantly had a sniper pointing a killer weapon at you just in case you slipped-up the rhetoric, what would you say?
I believe Obama will maintain perpetual war to keep the war profiteers happy while he tries to slip in some popular reforms under their noses. The same with Wall Street and Health Insurance. He took their money for his campaign also. That's why he is approving more corporate giveaways to banks and insurance companies.
In Peace, Bodhi
Gringo replied:
I also began with the usual capitalistic hype about Che. He is portrayed as an insane, revolutionary thug. But now I understand that the CIA disinformation campaign prefers to keep us intellectually uninformed, and emotionally charged against such an "enemy" of capitalism. Additionally, American education has historically conflated democracy with capitalism. In regard to Che Guevara, they want us all to be Tea-Baggers. And they have succeeded for 40 years.
Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism are economic systems. Democracy, theocracy, plutocracy, dictatorship, monarchy, feudalism, are political systems. There is nothing automatic about capitalism being a democracy or communism being a dictatorship. Such is the misinformation in our American educational system.
On the contrary, when you think about it carefully, capitalism is an economic model where a corporate CEO that usually answers to a corporate Board of Directors dictates all policies from the top down. There is nothing democratic about it at all. On the other hand, communism is an economic model in which classically, all the factory workers own the means of production equally, and theoretically all have equal say in the management of the assets and the profits. That sounds far more democratic to me. I say classically, because Marx and Engels did not include farmers in the proletariat. Mao Tse Tung was the one who expanded the proletariat to include not only factory workers but also farmers. And I say theoretically because the major models of communism in the world today are dictated in practice from a central committee, quite contrary to the theoretical model. An economic system in which all the workers have a say in the management of the assets sounds way more democratic than the capitalistic system. How did the disinformation campaign ever convince us of the opposite?
Good Morning Bodhi,
As for our new administration. To me, it feels like America is making great moves towards global unity. I am some what confused about our involvement in Afghanistan.
What's your take on this "hot" area? I feel this Administration is making more progress with health reform and global peace that I have seen during my entire life. Love to hear your opinion.
Gringo
My reply:
The war profiteers own our big media corporations that control the mainstream airwaves. Anti-war political candidates are excluded during election campaigns from airing their voices on mainstream media. They are ridiculed and belittled, with character assassinations. The only candidates that we see on TV are the ones that have agreed to collaborate with the war profiteers.
That said, Obama got elected with a little help from the war profiteers. Don't forget, Obama refused public financing of his campaign and therefore, raised more money than any other candidate in history. A significant portion of his campaign funding came from the war profiteers.
Now that he has been elected, his campaign promise was to get out of Iraq and fight the REAL war in Afghanistan where Al'Quida is located. He was never the "peace" candidate. Now that he is in office, he doesn't necessarily have to comply with the generous supporters that want favorable conditions for more war. On the other hand, if he crosses the war profiteers, they will assassinate him - DEAD. If he crosses the peace-niks, they will complain without violence, maybe have another sit-in. If someone constantly had a sniper pointing a killer weapon at you just in case you slipped-up the rhetoric, what would you say?
I believe Obama will maintain perpetual war to keep the war profiteers happy while he tries to slip in some popular reforms under their noses. The same with Wall Street and Health Insurance. He took their money for his campaign also. That's why he is approving more corporate giveaways to banks and insurance companies.
In Peace, Bodhi
Gringo replied:
Good Morning,
Great piece of work and very clear. Oh!
Guess its difficult to stay optimistic while being aware of the facts.
I have no idea how we can continue to finance these wars.
As a people we must continue to downsize. Grow our own food.Be Peace, share Peace, just maybe someday Peace will prevail.
Been researching quite a bit about this incredible Che Guevara, as he is so popular with Latin Americans. His photos are everywhere in Chile. I started by taking an American, capitalistic attitude towards this guy but after some research I find myself understanding this Man. In fact, I am beginning to like him!
In two days we'll begin this 900 mile trip to the central coast....taking the same path that "Che" did in, what, 1957? I have decided that southern Chile, although quite beautiful, is to pro-German. Everyone is trying to be white and caught up in this western mentality.
My reply re: Hola Bodhi
Did you mention Che Guevara because you read my comments about him in my blog?I also began with the usual capitalistic hype about Che. He is portrayed as an insane, revolutionary thug. But now I understand that the CIA disinformation campaign prefers to keep us intellectually uninformed, and emotionally charged against such an "enemy" of capitalism. Additionally, American education has historically conflated democracy with capitalism. In regard to Che Guevara, they want us all to be Tea-Baggers. And they have succeeded for 40 years.
Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism are economic systems. Democracy, theocracy, plutocracy, dictatorship, monarchy, feudalism, are political systems. There is nothing automatic about capitalism being a democracy or communism being a dictatorship. Such is the misinformation in our American educational system.
On the contrary, when you think about it carefully, capitalism is an economic model where a corporate CEO that usually answers to a corporate Board of Directors dictates all policies from the top down. There is nothing democratic about it at all. On the other hand, communism is an economic model in which classically, all the factory workers own the means of production equally, and theoretically all have equal say in the management of the assets and the profits. That sounds far more democratic to me. I say classically, because Marx and Engels did not include farmers in the proletariat. Mao Tse Tung was the one who expanded the proletariat to include not only factory workers but also farmers. And I say theoretically because the major models of communism in the world today are dictated in practice from a central committee, quite contrary to the theoretical model. An economic system in which all the workers have a say in the management of the assets sounds way more democratic than the capitalistic system. How did the disinformation campaign ever convince us of the opposite?
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
593 H1N1 deaths generates a National Emergency
Although Obama recently declared the H1N1 flu a national emergency, it still remains that there are 36,000 deaths in the USA from the regular flu every year, but there has been less than 600 deaths this year from the H1N1 flu. President Obama is not calling a national emergency for the 36,000 that die from regular flu.
Preventable deaths last year in the USA that were not declared a national emergency:
MD errors (iatrogenic) 2,200,000
Nosocomial 2,000,000
Tobacco 440,000
Obesity 287,000
Diabetes 71,300
No medical insurance 45,000
Influenza 36,000
Suicide 33,300
Infant deaths 28,527 (2500 of them from SIDS)
Alcohol 22,000+
Anaphylaxis 15,000+
War in Iraq & Afghanistan 5,130 (American GI combat deaths only)
(pvt contractors, deaths in
hospital from war injuries,
friendly fire, and accidental
deaths not included)
Asthma 4,000+
Domestic violence 1000-1600
H1N1 flu 2009 593 Only this one is declared a national emergency.
I am confounded at the hullabaloo caused by the H1N1 flu rather than the sharp increase of smoking among youths and young adults, or obesity rates of 1 in 3. I believe the H1N1 "pandemic" preparations are nothing more than a drill for the real pandemic in the unknown future.
If only they could get MD's to wash their hands, we could prevent the majority of the 2M annual deaths from people catching a contagious disease in the hospital (nosocomial disease). Where's the national emergency about this? Maybe they can rush through a vaccine that will prevent hospital patients from catching diseases before entering the hospital. Or better yet, a vaccine that will promote hand washing among doctors. How about a vaccine that will prevent greed in corporate executives?
I believe the declaration of a "national emergency" is nothing more than the means for another corporate robbery of taxpayer funds to pay BigPharma for a vaccine that grandfathered in safety testing from another similar vaccine.
Preventable deaths last year in the USA that were not declared a national emergency:
MD errors (iatrogenic) 2,200,000
Nosocomial 2,000,000
Tobacco 440,000
Obesity 287,000
Diabetes 71,300
No medical insurance 45,000
Influenza 36,000
Suicide 33,300
Infant deaths 28,527 (2500 of them from SIDS)
Alcohol 22,000+
Anaphylaxis 15,000+
War in Iraq & Afghanistan 5,130 (American GI combat deaths only)
(pvt contractors, deaths in
hospital from war injuries,
friendly fire, and accidental
deaths not included)
Asthma 4,000+
Domestic violence 1000-1600
H1N1 flu 2009 593 Only this one is declared a national emergency.
I am confounded at the hullabaloo caused by the H1N1 flu rather than the sharp increase of smoking among youths and young adults, or obesity rates of 1 in 3. I believe the H1N1 "pandemic" preparations are nothing more than a drill for the real pandemic in the unknown future.
If only they could get MD's to wash their hands, we could prevent the majority of the 2M annual deaths from people catching a contagious disease in the hospital (nosocomial disease). Where's the national emergency about this? Maybe they can rush through a vaccine that will prevent hospital patients from catching diseases before entering the hospital. Or better yet, a vaccine that will promote hand washing among doctors. How about a vaccine that will prevent greed in corporate executives?
I believe the declaration of a "national emergency" is nothing more than the means for another corporate robbery of taxpayer funds to pay BigPharma for a vaccine that grandfathered in safety testing from another similar vaccine.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
