The UVP response to my Letter to the Editor UDJ 4/27/11

Not dupes

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2011

UKIAH DAILY JOURNAL

To the Editor:

The Ukiah Valley Patriots sponsored a 12-week course on the U.S. Constitution this winter, from January 18 to April 5, using the Constitution and The Federalist [Papers] as texts. Ron Cannon was our instructor and class attendance varied from 39 to a hard core of 20 participants. Some of us were frankly amazed at the willingness of so many to grapple with a not so easy to read 18th Century Founding American text: it was a group of mostly middle aged to elderly Americans, many of them with jobs and families to support who took time out from their busy lives to take a class for no credits other than to have a better understanding of their country’s founding documents. Many interesting and stimulating discussions ensued and despite a recent disparaging Letter to the Editor from Robin Sunbeam (March 7, 2011, “Feeling Powerless”) there was a lot less spin in that class than there generally is from our so-called Mainstream Media.

Although a majority of the participants were either tea party members or conservatives, several progressives also participated and always felt welcome to contribute their point of view. To say the least, they were always cordial but never shy about expressing their differences of opinion. One can only hope that one day American institutions of “higher learning” could be as respectful of diverging points of view.

The reason we’re writing this letter is to counter certain misrepresentations in Ms. Sunbeam’s letter about both the Constitution Class and the tea party movement. First of all, although Ms. Sunbeam did attend one tea party meeting, ostensibly to check us out, she never attended a single Constitution Class meeting. Therefore, she has no evidence whatsoever to conclude that “[t]hey are teaching a class on the Constitution that spins it into a charter for free enterprise rather than a charter to protect individual and collective rights.” We might add that while the Bill of Rights was added to protect individual rights, there was very little in the Constitution to promote free enterprise or collective rights, unless by that term, Ms. Sunbeam means State’s Rights. The Constitution was mainly a founding document to increase the power of the central government after the Articles of Confederation had failed to produce a viable national government, according to the logic of the Founders. But the Constitution also limited and dispersed power in a tripartite Federalist system; or in other words, it was a document that limited the power of a central government to ride rough shod over the rights of individual Americans and the several states. Of course, it was a far from perfect document, but with seventeen Amendments since the original Bill of Rights, it has withstood the test of time.

As to Ms. Sunbeam’s misrepresentations of the tea party movement: it appears that she gets all of her information from far left blogs or news programs. There has been a concerted effort on the part of the left to portray the tea party as a bunch of wild eyed radicals or “extremists,” as the recent gaffe made by Senator Schumer makes abundantly clear, when in reality they are mostly like our local tea party group of middle and working class Americans. While Ms. Sunbeam claims that tea party participants “eat up the twisted lies being told to them by the Koch-trained liars,” most members of the tea party have never heard of the Koch Brothers and certainly aren’t trained by them (the last I heard, the Koch’s were funding the libertarian Cato Institute). It may be disconcerting to Ms. Sunbeam that the tea party is not a monolithic organization that can be summed up in talking point catch phrases like “trained by the Koch brothers” or “neocon fascists.” (I’ve generally assumed that when people run out of coherent arguments they resort to name-calling, misrepresentations, and distortions.) No, the tea party is not even one organization, but rather a loose consortium of grass roots organizations made up mostly of middle and working class Americans. One thing we share in common is a love for our country as well as a generally shared belief that our country has gone off the rails under the leadership of both political parties, as well as the business and media elites that think they know what's best for us while they bankrupt the country. Quite frankly, if that’s the best they can do, we’d be better off without them.

While numerous Republican operatives and perennial candidates have jumped aboard the tea party bandwagon, the tea party is not the Republican Party. Even so, it has been a leftist tactic to conflate the tea party with the Republican Party, one day blaming the tea party “extremists” for forcing the Republicans into holding the line on the debt limit, while on the next day, blaming the tea party for all the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush Administration. The truth of the matter is that the Republican Party establishment is not all that thrilled about the challenges from the tea party as anyone who keeps track of current events is sure to know. Both the Republican and Democratic parties have been feckless and fiscally irresponsible, but the fact of the matter is, there has been a lot more willingness on the part of disgruntled conservatives and libertarians to tackle the problem of deficit spending and our monstrous national debt, which made it tactically more feasible for the tea party to challenge the status quo in the Republican primaries, rather than the Democratic majority in 2010. As an example of why this is so, just look at the current budget battles in Congress. The tea party movement has pressured Boehner into proposing $61 billion in cuts from a budget of $3.7 trillion: That comes out to about 1.6 percent, not enough to make much of a dent, but about double what the Congressional Democrats are proposing, and as for Obama’s “tough cuts,” one would need a microscope to find them. When will the political leadership in this country finally become serious about dealing with our debt and budget woes? Before the nation goes bankrupt and the dollar is worthless, or are they waiting for an even bigger crash than 2008? Finally, we might add, most tea party members did not favor bail outs for the Wall Street scoundrels that got us into the current financial mess, unlike the political establishments for both major parties, so one might ask, who really is beholden to those Ms. Sunbeam calls the “filthy rich”?

P.S. Ms. Sunbeam finally attended the last Constitution Class meeting. We think she enjoyed the intellectual give and take, and hopefully, she now has a more accurate perspective about the class, and the fact that we’re not all a bunch of “Koch-trained” dupes, whatever that means.

Mark Amagi, Redwood Valley

Lou and Betty Morgan, Ukiah

Dave and Kathy Lowe, Redwood Valley

Mike and Brenda Smith, Willits

Ron and Katherine Cannon, Ukiah

Duane and Deborah Grilli, Ukiah

Dave Olson, Philo

What happened with my run for office?

Although the group that first tapped me to run for office, the Mendocino Women's Political Coalition, didn't endorse me, nor did my own political party, the Democrats, I garnered 25% of the vote.  And although I was still in debt the day of the election, by the end of the month, donations rolled in that paid all the campaign $8000 monetary expenses and enough left over for postage stamps for the thank you notes.  The final cost to me was in stress, a touch of PTSD, and the return of my childhood bruxism habit that I once again must train myself to quit!  My gain was in "political capital."  I'm not sure what that is or in which bank it is kept, but people look at me in a new way, now. 

I used to be a vocal citizen that the politicians pandered to by smiling, listening and nodding.  Now I see the politicians glance at me from the corner of their eye and start calculating, what's my next move? are they for or against?  The faces of ordinary people shine when they look at me.  I've developed some new friendships.  For sure, although I seem to know an astounding number of people all over the county, and in 3 counties, and I am sought after for radio interviews, I'm not sure I have a woman friend, someone I could be totally myself and disclose my inner secrets.  But through this social justice work, I am happy to say that I may now have several new female friends with whom I maintain a close relationship.  I used to be such a solitary rhino in the wild, and now people are massing up beside me.  I guess that may be part of the political capital.  I'm not sure....

Anyway, I didn't get the $100,000+/yr job as County Assessor-Clerk-Recorder.  If I had, I could have afforded all the dental transplants after I had ground my teeth down from the stress of the political office.  Instead, I have returned to being a plump old school nurse eking out a tiny impoverished living supporting myself and my adult son and feeling blessed each day that I have one more precious day of life to make this world a better place.

The Udall "Democracy for All" amendment is a Red Herring

The "Democracy for All" (Udall) amendment is a Red Herring and I am surprised that Bernie Sanders is said to be promoting it. Even Bernie's "Saving American Democracy" Amendment proposal is far superior to this tiny bone. It fails to bar corporations or other artificial entities from having rights protected under the Constitution. And it returns us to a century of failed campaign regulation.  It uses the word "may" instead of "shall." 

In other words, this amendment proposal is getting LOTS of press because it fails to mandate a ban on corporate personhood rights while promoting the false hope that regulatory boards protect people over industry profits. Unfortunately, is is too often the opposite. 

Free Speech for People apologizes about supporting this bill saying that they are also promoting a separate bill to ban corporate rights.  Unfortunately, that bill has no momentum. 

I recommend when our California Senators debate the Udall bill this coming month, that they bring up the following issues:

1) The campaign finance regulations in Arizona will be VERY different than those in Vermont. 

2) Do regulations really work?  Industry insiders tend to be the "experts" staffing regulatory boards and they habitually regulate loopholes in favor of their industry rather than protect the People. 

3) Ultimately, as long as large donations can buy politicians, Democracy is an impossible sham.  When campaigns will be publicly financed and limited to just a couple of months with private money prohibited, then public servants will bend in favor of those that pay for their campaigns, the public.  This will hopefully be the next constitutional amendment to get all big money out of politics once and for all! 

4) Regulations didn't work for most of the 20th century, what makes you think an amendment will make failed regulations any better?  Do we have to wait for another century of failed regulations before elections are publicly financed?

5) The root cause of this perversity of Democracy is the implication by the Supreme Court in 1886 that fictional persons get the due process of law promised to "all persons" in the 14th Amendment.  Any amendment proposal that doesn't pluck out the root by clarifying the status of fictional persons under the Constitution will ultimately miss the mark.  The Udall Amendment bypasses this question by saying that artificial entities "may" be distinguished from natural persons...  Its failure to clearly mandate that the protection of constitutional rights are for natural persons only makes it a waste of political capital. 

Sexual abuse and bullying, a School Nurse standpoint

"My Dirty Little Secret" from Scott Spideralamode

• From a nursing point of view, Scott's story is quite typical among drug abusers.  I researched perinatal substance abuse in my university education.  I found of those women who did not take the window of opportunity to quit drugs when discovering that they were pregnant, 98% of them were sexually abused as children.  You will find that the sluts and the bullies at school often are carrying a dirty secret.  Also, the morbidly obese girls at school.  They all have dirty secrets like Scott's that they are covering up with obesity, sexual promiscuity, drugs and bullying.  Some people wonder what school nurses do since they aren't doing bandaids and ice packs in the "nurse's office" anymore?  We research ways to reach out to these students and try to help them succeed at school.
• The other part of this equation are the parents of these children.  In Scott's case, his parents never betrayed his trust and the perpetrator was a semi-stranger.  More often, it is your mother's boyfriend, or your uncle.  And occasionally, it is your father.  And perpetrators of sexual abuse of children most often themselves have a history of childhood sexual abuse.  It is unfortunately a generational disease.

  
  
• Most often, the mother is totally dependent on the perpetrator and refuses to believe anything so horrible could be true.  In Scott's case, when his behavior changed after the incident, didn't his parents notice?  I would certainly know if my son's personality had changed and I would definitely intervene, and have several times already.  Where were Scott's parents?  Those children who have reached out for help and were heard, and the perpetrator was immediately removed from the situation, can recover and hope to live a productive and fulfilling life.  Those children who have reached out and been called a liar and punished, and weren't heard, are drug abusers, sluts, bullies or morbidly obese, all self-destructive acting-out behaviors.

  
  
• And how does the school nurse intervene? What does anybody's private family business have anything to do with the School Nurse who is paid by the state government? It is very challenging!  If there is current suspicion of abuse going on at home, like if the student shows up at school with a black eye and a bruised face and says he fell off his bike, then we at school are "mandated reporters" and we have to file a report with CPS.  Child Protective Services might investigate, but are understaffed, underpaid, and overworked.   Once the file of reports thickens, then they will intervene.  Eventually the parent will find out it was the School Nurse who wrote the report and will hate the nurse forever.

  
  
• If the child is old enough, the school nurse can try to reach out directly to the student. We never want to use shame or blame when interacting with problem families.   That makes it very tricky to come straight to the point without causing an upheaval that might cause the parent to pull their child out of school and disappear.  Sometimes, it needs to be approached very delicately over several meetings of getting acquainted and gaining trust.  It is advisable to collaborate with the school psychologist.

  
  
• But what injuries do we see at school from a child who is being sexually abused?  We can't assume every morbidly obese 1st grader, or 6th grader, are being abused.   They might have hypothyroid or their family eats a heavy lard and processed food diet.  We can meet with the family and teach them nutrition and exercise.   Educate them about the many health risks of obesity that can be avoided by reducing their weight.  And the advantages of good health.   We are keen to detect clues of self-destructive behaviors.  In kindergarten, that child might be sexually provocative to a classmate not realizing at 5yrs old that it is contrary to social mores because it is so normal at home. 

  
  
• We can't assume every slut or bully has been sexually abused. It could be that her mother and sisters all look like sluts, too, and that is the family norm.  There are plenty of other reasons to bully, often just modeling your parent's behavior.  It might be the family norm for men.  Or, it might be an acting-out behavior to cover up any number of other family or personal secrets besides childhood sexual abuse.  We need to meet with the family, and even do a home visit, always looking for clues of dysfunction or abuse.  The sooner we can intervene in an abusive situation, the sooner that student will mitigate their self-destructive behavior.

  
  
• The ideal student to school nurse ratio (excluding the severely handicapped) is 750:1.  

  The California average is 2500:1.  

  In my jobs at Windsor Unified School District and Santa Rosa City Schools, I had 5000:1.  

  
  These ratios reflect the low importance our government places on school nurses.  Not just the state governments which seem to cut the education budget first every time there's a deficit, and blame teachers when students can't achieve.  But also school districts, which put a low priority on their school nurse budget.  We compassionate idealists in school nursing think it is because the school board has no idea what school nurses do, an "information deficit" that can be solved with updates to the School Board.  

  
  But I think it is far more sinister.  I think it is a power trip.  Disrespect!  First, because school nurses, CPS workers, and public health nurses are mainly women.  Second, because they would rather blame and punish educators than proactively fund prevention, which is categorized by neo-liberals as "waste."  Ultimately, the whole system is designed for public schools to fail and the futureless products of that failed system to become the cannon fodder of the perpetual wars of the rich war-profiteers. 

What bothers me most about the NSA invasion of privacy

This is what really bothers me about the NSA's invasion into my privacy. 

Taxpayers pay for the NSA to spy on us!  In the name of "security."  We, the taxpayers, pay for great warehouses full of servers that eat electricity and give off a lot of heat.  Instead of using that heat to run turbines and produce secondary electricity, No! they burn more electricity running air conditioners on our dime to keep those giant warehouses cool enough so that they can store every last little bit of data about all of us.  Not in my name! 

The first automated data system "was the IBM punch card and card sorting system-a precursor to the computer. IBM, primarily through its German subsidiary, made Hitler's program of Jewish destruction a technologic mission the company pursued with chilling success. IBM Germany, using its own staff and equipment, designed, executed, and supplied the indispensable technologic assistance Hitler's Third Reich needed to accomplish what had never been done before-the automation of human destruction." 

Although the German subsidiary used their own equipment, IBM USA retained the patent on the punch card.  IBM violated the prohibition of trade with Germany by supplying Hitler with punch cards throughout the Holocaust.

The Nazi Party: IBM & "Death's Calculator" by Edwin Black
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/IBM.html

For those who thirst for power and control, information is key.  I presume the only reason the NSA wants all that information is for power and control.  And they charge us for it! 

Athena Melville has never been to an Occupy Ukiah meeting

Athena Melville, the co-administrator of this site, has never been to an Occupy Ukiah meeting and doesn't know what what issues we are working on or what issues we are fighting.  She wants to prohibit the other co-administrators from posting the local news, events and opinions of the group.  She erases the posts of the other administrators if they post anything original saying that we are only allowed to re-post from other sources, like she does. 

Occupy Ukiah wants to make it very clear that we are opposed to corporate personhood rights.  We are non-partisan and believe that both the Democrats and the Republicans are corrupt and violating the Constitution.  We believe that the members of Congress, most of whom are millionaires, are bought and paid for by big corporations like the petroleum industry, the arms industry, the private bank industry, the insurance industry, the firearms industry, the high-tech security industry, and the drug industry.  We don't trust them to act in the best interests of We the People or Democracy. 

Occupy Ukiah opposes the "Democracy for All Amendment," which Athena has posted 3 times to this page.  We oppose it because it gives permission to regulate campaign spending, but doesn't mandate it.  It also retains all corporate personhood rights which makes this amendment proposal a toxic misadventure and waste of the People's time and money.  Democrats are seizing it as an issue that they think will energize the base in the midterm elections.  Most members of Congress don't honestly want to limit their campaign contributions.  We at Occupy Ukiah want to cut private contributions completely out of elections and make all elections publicly financed and limited to just a few weeks of campaigning. 

Occupy Ukiah is very concerned about invasive toxins spewed by both our government and industrial wastes which pollutes the soil, the water, and the air we breathe.  We are concerned about the 3000 lbs of Roundup that is sprayed every year on our Mendocino County school campuses where our children play all day.  We are offended that our air is being polluted by industrial waste gases and particles that invade our bodies against our will.  We are in favor of banning fracking and promoting alternative non-polluting energy.  The sun emits enough energy in 1 hour  to power the whole world for a year. 

Occupy Ukiah is also extremely concerned with the overreach of the Wall Street banks, their corruption, and their conspiracy to milk the wealth of the nation into fewer and fewer hands.  We have been working for over 3 years on a solution to illegal foreclosures.  We are delighted that issue came to the public's attention for a while, but right now the public thinks the illegal foreclosure issue is over.  The only law that changed here in California was the Homeowner's Bill of Rights which curbed the worst foreclosure practices, but it will expire in 2018.  We are rushing to establish our county public bank before 2018 when we predict the next illegal foreclosure debacle will begin. 

We are also very concerned about the MERS (Mortgage Electronic Recording System) database which bypasses the role of the County Recorder robbing our county of $53,000 every year, and clouds the titles of every property that has been financed or refinanced in the last decade.  Occupy Ukiah believes that the chain of assignments on property titles should be clear.  We want to make the MERS database illegal and return the job of recording assignments to county recorders, which is where it belongs. 

Occupy Ukiah is extremely concerned about the 3 reactors melting down in Fukushima.  We keep a Geiger Counter going and note every time there is a spike in the radioactivity.  Fukushima is being managed by the Yakuza, which is making a ton of profit while not just the residents of Japan are being toxified.  The winds and ocean currents are driving the radioactive particles here to California. 

Occupy Ukiah wants to localize the economy.  We understand that the big box stores like Wal-Mart put local stores out of business while paying such low wages the the majority of their employees depend upon public assistance to survive.  We oppose that the Walton Family gets richer and richer based on public assistance.  We succeeded at preventing our local Wal-Mart from expanding into a 24 hour superstore.  Athena Melville had nothing to do with this success. 

Occupy Ukiah ran a candidate in the last election to replace our County Recorder who refuses to demand an Affidavit of Authority when recording robo-signed foreclosures.  She is enabling the corrupt banks from continuing their illegal practices rather than defend the public.  The Recorder says it is not her job to investigate crime.  Athena Melville did absolutely nothing to support the Occupy candidate. 

Occupy Ukiah is opposed to the Willits Bypass and many members have been working to oppose CalTrans' plans to destroy the wetlands and aquifer in Little Lake Valley. 

There are many more social injustices that Occupy Ukiah could support like racism, sexism, LGBT rights, the legalization of marijuana, Smart Meters, save the Redwoods, stop the Navy from killing marine mammals with sonar, GMO's, a free and open internet, the privatization of the public airwaves, and many more.  But we have decided to focus on just these 6 issues: eliminating corporate personhood rights under the Constitution, toxins from agricultural and fracking chemicals, mortgage fraud & big bank corruption, Fukushima, opposing big box stores to localize the economy, and opposing the Willits Bypass.  Only these 6 issues are germane to Occupy Ukiah.  Everything else are the opinion of Athena Melville and not supported by Occupy Ukiah. 

Under the Microscope

Doug Losak, the interim County Council, showed up Monday morning to talk to my boss at work.  It seems that 3 years ago, I applied to the County for a temporary property tax reduction, part of the 2009 American Recovery & Reinvestment Act.  It required COMPS attached to assist the Assessor in deciding how much to reduce my taxes during the economic recession.  They kept the application for a year, and then phoned me to say that they denied it based on that there were no COMPS to compare it with. 

The problem Doug brought up was that my application was printed on used paper.  The reverse side were student report cards that had been misprinted, which I mined out of the recycle bin.  I save a ton of money on paper by mining recycle bins for clean flat, uncrumpled pages.  Occasionally, I hit the jackpot and find 1/2 ream of misprints all in a nice clean pile! 

Although I had scribbled over every name or other identifiable info, you could still make out the names when held up to the light.  Over 2 years ago, I brought up the issue of confidential info in the recycle bin to my boss.  She has since inserviced everyone on FERPA privacy laws, and confidential info is now consistently shredded. 

But someone in the Assessor's Office is scrutinizing my records to try to get me into trouble.  They probably figure, everyone's got some dirt on them and they are set out to find it. 

What to do when you feel like giving up

A friend asked: "When humans keep proving themselves stupid and greedy and justice is nostalgia what do you do? Seriously, don't you ever feel like giving up? And if so, what do you do?"

Reply:

The corporate interests are happy to exhaust you.  You are looking at the half empty cup with a hole in the middle that can never seem to fill up.  That's why you are exhausted.  Please, sister M, look at the cup half full.  We will fix the hole in the middle if we all work together. 

The public is generally disgusted with the Republican extremists, but they are likely to forget very soon, likely before the next congressional election.  One of our jobs is to keep the public apprised of the extremist BS so they don't forget.  I'm reading “Brave New World” right now.  The public can all just take some Soma and sleep with propaganda quietly playing in their dreams. 

What keeps me energized is my love for humanity and my strong sense of justice.  I assume it is the same for you.  I am repeatedly shocked at how corporations and governments can wantonly and brazenly break all the laws, and no one takes them to task for it.  For example, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act is still a law on the books, but no one enforces it anymore, and so we have "too big to fail."  Another example, the MERS database records real estate transactions electronically, but the County Recorders never receive the recording fees.  Yet, I can't find a single law that legally shifts the mandate to record RE transactions away from the County Recorder.  MERS just took the liberty, and county recorders just let it happen.  I guess they were just complying with an order from above. 

The Constitution talks about several different types of persons.  It talks about We the People, citizens, people, and persons.  The Court has clarified that of these 4, corporations are legal persons but not included in We the People, citizens or people. 

To me, one way to fix the hole in the middle of the cup is to take constitutional rights away from corporations.  In addition, all elections should be publicly funded and limited time, i.e. 6 weeks of campaigning, and corporations should be barred from campaign donations the way it used to be.  What changed is that corporations have patiently spent a century eking out human rights under the Constitution, every one granted by the Supreme Court.  The first human right they won was Due Process of Law in 1886.  The corporate lawyers argued that since everyone knows that corporations are “fictional persons” under the law, then the Constitution says in both the 5^th and the 14^th Amendments that every person has the right to due process of law.  So aren’t fictional persons also persons? the corporate lawyers argued.  And so a non-living aggregate of capital designed to maximize profits achieved their first human right. 

Over the years, corporations have been granted more and more human rights.  You can get a PDF timeline corporate rights here: http://movetoamend.org/timeline-personhood-rights-and-powers.  Interestingly, the corporate Right to Privacy was struck down by the Supreme Court because they distinguished between “person” and “personal.”  The Court reasoned that personal privacy was something only a human could have, but fictional persons were undoubtedly “persons.”  So now, although corporations have the Rights to Free Speech, to Right to be Indicted by a Grand Jury for crimes, not twice in jeopardy for the same crime, nor witness against itself, the Right to Speedy trials, Jury Trials, nor be deprived of Life, Liberty or Property, Equal Protection of the Laws, but NOT the Right to Privacy.  Pretty soon a corporate person is going to run for office! 

What we need to do is create a groundswell of public sentiment in favor of a constitutional amendment that makes it clear that only NATURAL PERSONS have Rights under the Constitution, and that money is NOT Free Speech.  Such an amendment will cut the root of corporate abuse.  Next (or simultaneously) we need another amendment that makes all elections to public office be publicly funded and limited to 6 weeks; and bar outside funding and partisan election commissions or partisan electronic voting machines. 

Right now, Move to Amend is doing a canvassing campaign called We the People Listen, in which we are going door to door in our neighborhoods and asking people what their biggest issues are and if they have noticed corporations impacting their lives?  We are asking rather than telling.  I’m excited to do this.  This is how we create coalitions in our neighborhoods.  This is how we create the groundswell of sentiment and keep people awake.  Http://movetoamend.org/listen

Cutting Government Spending

Some people say they want to cut government spending to solve the debt crisis?  So I ask them, what would you cut?  Road repair?  Government pensions?  Public health?  Meat inspection?  School nurses?  The salaries of our elected representatives?  The NSA?  The military bases all over the world?  The Pacific Fleet?

Normally, balancing a budget and paying down debt involves both cutting spending, AND increasing revenues.  The government is supported by import tariffs, fees, and taxes.  We have a system of taxes in which giant profitable corporations not only don't pay their taxes, but use tax loopholes to get $Billions back in rebates.  They put their former executives upon the government corporate regulatory boards, and change the laws to favor corporations over People.  They avoid paying taxes on their ample income by hiding it in offshore tax havens, like Penny Pritzker, our President's Secretary of Commerce.  Unfortunately, we cut the budget for the regulatory boards in order to cut spending, so that now there aren't enough investigators to indict these treasonous tax evaders.  Instead, they are elevated to positions of power in our government. 

My stockbroker gives frequent seminars on how to avoid paying taxes.  To me, if I love America, then it is patriotic to love paying my taxes, because that is what will provide me with paved roads, safe meat, clean drinking water, an educated electorate, and elected representatives competent to administer these public services for me. 

Yet these unpatriotic tax evaders want to convince the public that our national debt is caused by too much spending!  Yeah!  Too much military and NSA spending!  Our military is destabilizing the world.  It is all about trashing The United States Constitution and relegating it to memorabilia for the bread & circuses while they create the Corporate States of America and exploit all the natural and human resources to depletion for private profit.  To pass time until they find another habitable planet to colonize, they will profiteer on cleaning up the mess left behind from their original exploitations.  Like Halliburton: one division tears down the infrastructure, and another division is hired to build it all back up again.  Like betting on both puts and calls.  You can't lose! 

Fascism has spread like a domino effect

From today's New York Times:
"It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal."
Vladimir V. Putin  
NYT_2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria
 
This quote brings to mind Obama's recent speech in which he referred to American Exceptionalism. 

I don't know much about Russian politics, but fascism has spread like a domino effect.  From the USA to Britain to Israel to Chile to Myanmar to Indonesia, and on and on.  The fascists are taking over the world.  Whatever euphemisms you want to call them: lobbyists, special interests, corporations, big banks, big oil, big pharma, big agra, war profiteers, neo-cons, neo-liberals are currently in power and the Constitution has been relegated to memorabilia. 

The fascists plan to gain as much power and wealth as is possible and exploit all natural and human resources to depletion without regard to havoc they will wreak.  The elections are bread and circuses to keep the public pacified as they "privatize" all the public assets.  Now is the time to choose sides and act!  Fight the fascists or become a whining victim! 

We who fight use non-violent weapons.  The fascists would love us to start shooting, because that would justify their using their mighty military and intelligence to eliminate us.  No!  We fight with PEOPLE POWER!  Get educated about the issues!  Educate your friends and neighbors!  Take control of your local governments.  GET INVOLVED!!!  Join the political action group of your choice.  Unite with like-minded other groups and communities. 

Liberty is not free.  The price we pay for freedom is participatory democracy.  It isn't a sacrifice to march in the streets or visit the office of your elected representative, it is our obligation as sovereign citizens of a democracy! ACT NOW!

Corporations have more constitutional rights than humans

We have reached a point in history in which aggregates of capital (corporations) now have the inalienable human rights described in the Bill of Rights, i.e., Free Speech, petition the government for redress of grievances, unreasonable searches and seizures, due process of law, and a speedy trial. These "Rights" have all been granted not by Congress, which makes laws, but by the Supreme Court, which refines laws made by Congress.

In the wake of the Civil War, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, and the 14th Amendment defined who can be a citizen. The 14th Amendment then goes on to state that "...nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law...." Clever corporate railroad lawyers decided to exploit the 14th Amendment in order to increase corporate power and wealth. Corporations have been considered "fictional persons" since English Common Law was codified in the 12th century. The legal fictional of corporate personhood facilitated their being taxed by government and sued in court.

In 1886, in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, the court affirmed the right of a corporation to get due process of law under the 14th Amendment. Although it may be clear to you or me that the 14th Amendment was intended for freed slaves, the fact is that the term "person" was not defined. It didn't say "black persons" or "natural persons" or "fictional persons;" it just said "person." So corporate lawyers argued that corporate persons are to be included, and the Supreme Court let it happen. Now, more than a century of legal precedents have been built on that fateful case.

The State of Vermont passed a law requiring that all Vermont dairy products be labeled if they contain Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH), a product manufactured by Monsanto. In 1996, the Supreme Court struck down that Vermont law in International Dairy Foods Association v. Amestoy (the VT attorney general). The Court ruled that the right to Free Speech also implies the right NOT TO SPEAK! And so the Supreme Court awarded an international dairy food association more rights under the U.S. Constitution than the citizens of Vermont!

Right now, several states are running campaigns to label GMO's in food (more Monsanto products). Yet, based on the 1996 SCOTUS precedent, corporate persons have the right NOT TO SPEAK; therefore, no GMO labeling law will survive judicial review as long as corporations have constitutional rights.

Members of Congress have been bought and paid for by corporations due to our current system of privately financed election campaigns. The amount of money spent on election campaigns is obscene. Therefore, we can't expect Congress to correct this error. Anyway, Congress can't overrule the Supreme Court, although the Supreme Court CAN overrule Congress! The way to correct this 127 year old misappropriation of justice is with a constitutional amendment driven by We the People.

A dozen or more amendments have been proposed in Congress to correct what is often framed as "the damage done by Citizen's United." The system was broken long before the 2010 Citizen's United decision, so this framing of the problem is a distraction from the real issue. Overturning Citizen's United will only return us to an era of inadequate campaign finance regulations. Regulations don't work because the regulatory boards are always staffed with industry insiders who weaken regulations in favor of corporate profits over the health and well being of the People.

H.J.Res 29, the amendment proposed by Rep. Rick Nolan of Minnesota, is the only proposal that eliminates ALL corporate personhood rights under the Constitution.  It is the first and most fundamental step in erecting a Wall of Separation Between Corporation and State. 

In order to rescue democracy in the USA, please demand that your Representative in Congress co-sponsor H.J. Res. 29, the We the People Amendment. Move to Amend

Do Private Contractors Really Save the Nation Money?

It is not news that the NSA is collecting terabytes of data on everyone in the world; I have been writing about it for almost a decade. I keep thinking about the utility bills taxpayers are paying to keep cool, giant banks of servers where the mines of data are stored. I even mentioned it to Rep. Jared Huffman a couple of weeks ago at at Town Hall at the Ukiah Senior Center, and he stared into space like it wasn't anything he wanted to talk about. But that was before Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the NSA. Snowden said something that made me think.

He said he had a job as a national security private contractor that gave him a "large paycheck." And I began to think about the thousands of young security analysts collecting large paychecks, as well as profits for the corporation they contract with, and the overblown compensation of the CEO's, all on the taxpayer's dime.

We are told that private is always more efficient than public servants. I disagree. I would say that the main difference in public and private is the overblown compensation charged by the private vs. the union workers of the public. It is not a case of efficiency, except how efficiently the kleptocrats are bankrupting the US Treasury and increasing our national debt while we keep the wool over our eyes slowly boiling like frogs.

I wonder if the same principal applies to Bank of America, which privately contracts with Mendocino County to manage our money for us?  Using the policy of Fractional Reserve Banking, BOA loans out multiples of their underlying reserves causing the money supply to magically grow for further investments.  BOA makes lots of money by holding our money for us.  If we had a Public Bank of Mendocino County, our own bank could do the same thing with fractional reserves and the revenues would go to enrich the County General Fund.  It is time to keep the County's money in a public bank and let the People's money work for the People. 

Issues that are too distatesteful to mention: slavery

The topic in this week's meditation class was sexual misconduct.  The teacher mentioned trafficking on her list, and rape.  I wanted to bring it home to our compassionate meditators and mentioned how the euphemism of "trafficking" takes away the impact of what it truly is, SLAVERY.  The sex slave market has exceeded the drug market at the Mexican border.  Having had a sex slave and her unwanted issue as patients while I worked in the Obstetrical Dept at the local hospital, I had done a study on the subject of modern day slavery. 

The NY Times did an extensive expose on it January 25, 2004, "The Girls Next Door" By PETER LANDESMAN
There are more slaves in the USA today than there ever have been in history.  And, should they become pregnant, their child will be sold into slavery as well.  The women are abducted off the street, especially in Oaxaca.  Girls from Europe think they are going to an au pair job in the USA.  They abduct runaways and children.  After their brutal indoctrination in Mexico,  San Diego High School boys are paid to drive them across the border into the USA where they are distributed to slave markets all over the nation.  This is one of those unpleasant stories that is distasteful for people to think about.  Like the Pope being a pedophile.  More than one Catholic priest is known to have kept a sex slave boy. 

And as far as rape, except for the time of Saint Patrick when a virgin could walk across Ireland without being molested, rape is less now than in the last couple of millenia.  I spent 5 years in India, and there wasn't one woman that I spoke to who had not been raped.  Every house servant in India can expect to be raped by the master or his sons.  What can she say? She needs the job.  And if she goes to the police, they will rape her.  And her doctor will rape her.  And her guru will rape her.  That's why girls are married as soon as they start menstruating because having been raped by whatever man had his way with her, now they want her child to be that of her husband.  The real news in India is that there are so many girls now that HAVEN'T been raped! 

Even when you read Isaac Balshevis-Singer, he describes the 19th c. Polish Catholic peasant society in which any man could have his way with any woman he wanted including his own daughter and his neighbor's daughter.  Girls grew up expecting to be raped.  Throughout the 1000 years of the "Middle Ages" aka the Dark Ages, when Catholics had a stranglehold on the entire culture, basically any thug or knight could have his way with any female he wanted.  And the king and his lord could certainly have whatever woman they wanted.  We are alarmed by rape, and we certainly should be alarmed!  But in an historical perspective, what makes it alarming is that thankfully it isn't so commonplace as it used to be. 

By the time all this spilled out of my mouth, the meditation teachers face was twisted in a tortured mask, and several people were crying.  I cry too.  But now I am taking action to foster in a new era of social and distributive justice. 

An Open Letter to VP Joe Biden on Gun Control

Honorable Vice President Biden,

Now that you have been appointed to create a new gun policy, I have a few suggestions.

1) As long as we have an imperial President who can carry out extrajudicial assassinations from a "kill list," then the culture of violence in America will grow worse.

2) As long as the NDAA allows our imperial President to detain whomever he wants indefinitely without habeas corpus or due process of law, then the President will lead the culture of violence with injustice.

3) Why do corporate "persons" get due process of law under the 14th Amendment, but NDAA detainees don't? Yet corporations are killing more American citizens every year than any terrorist has ever done by polluting our air, soil, water, and food supply while many of the NDAA detainees never killed anyone, and none to the magnitude of corporate culpability.

4) In Australia, they passed a ban on ownership, importation, manufacture, and sales of assault weapons and had a mandatory buy-back program. I think this is a good idea except for the fact that the citizens of the USA no longer trust our government to represent us for the best interest of the Common Good. Therefore, if weapons are to be removed from citizens, then the police should be equally disarmed. The 2nd Amendment was written to prevent a repeat of imperial power like King George had in Great Britain at the time, and allow a free and sovereign people to insure that we continue to have a government that represents us.

5) Senator Feinstein's assault weapon ban doesn't address the weapons that are currently in circulation and also includes 900 exceptions. Her proposed legislation is a Red Herring to toss a bone to the American People but retain a brisk market in lethal weapons. Senator Feinstein is a war hawk and corporate sellout; I don't trust anything she does.

6) We had a more prosperous economy when taxes were high and manufacturers were prohibited from moving their factories overseas. Now that corporate "persons" have the liberty to create jobs overseas using workers easy to exploit and governments easy to bribe, the middle class in America has shrunk while the disparity in wealth between the 1% and the 99% has increased upward. Tax cuts have robbed municipalities of the money they need to effectively serve the American People. And have robbed our children's futures by underfunding public schools. Budget cuts have shrunk public education; where will cash-strapped schools find the money to hire armed guards?  Even the Sheriff had to cut his staff!  

7) And finally, private armed militias like Academi nee Xe nee Blackwater, should be prohibited from having bases on American soil.   And are we going to buy back their assault weapons? 

Now that the American people have been robbed, toxified, and public property is exploited for private profit at the expense of the People, we may need our guns when the corporations come to enslave us. Which side are you on, Joe?

Buddhist meets Evangelist

At the Post Office the other day, I met a tall man beside me who was tossing his campaign literature into the recycle bin.  I urged him to vote yes on F, and explained what it was.  He hadn't sent in his ballot yet so I also promoted No on 32 and Yes on 37. 

He started up a conversation about beliefs.  We often assume a lot about strangers that we meet.  Little did he know what a learned and graced tzadik that I am.  It turns out that he was a devoted Christian, and tried to convince me that the only way to Salvation was through Jesus Christ. 

He asked why not? 
My first example used the sin of coveting your neighbor's wife.  With Christians, a lusty thought of your neighbor's wife will send you straight to Hell and the only way out is through Jesus' forgiveness.  In Buddhism, there is no control over your stream of consciousness because it is Pure, being of the mortal body, but rather the "sin" comes when you get up and go do something about it, like grab your neighbor's wife.  In Buddhism, watching the stream of thoughts and impressions is all just a passing show. 
The tall Christian rolled his eyes that I would even compare Christianity with Buddhism. 

Then I gave an example involving the Mormons.  He glared and interrupted, "What do the Mormons have anything to do with this?"  I continued my example, but he didn't see any analogy.  He declared that the Mormons are a cult thus any evidence relating to Mormons is relegated to the dust bin. 
I replied, "No more a cult than people who think Mary was a virgin." 

When I mentioned 1500 years of genocide of Jews by Christians in the name of the Prince of Peace, he again rolled his eyes with a sigh and said that the 297 years of the Spanish Inquisition was by CATHOLICS, not Christians!  And the Holocaust by the Nazi's had nothing to do with Christianity.  He said people who do things like genocide are not "real Christians."

On the sidewalk in front of the Post Office he asked me if I had sinned.  It was only a few weeks since Yom Kippur when we had fasted and thrown our sins into Lake Mendocino, taken mikvahs, and chanted our sins, then I turned, and was turned, and returned to the One. 
He asked if I ever stole, and I thought of my little food stealing problem.  In Buddhism, you can only take something if it is given.  Anything less is unskillful action.  But when I am hungry on my job, I will take someone else's food, and I know it is stealing.  I don't take a whole lunch, just maybe a slice of bread from a loaf.  So I told him yes, I steal food.  He was delighted.  He asked if I lie, and agreed that I have been known to exaggerate. 

Vindicated, he declared that only Jesus can forgive my sins. I looked him in the eye and said, "I look in here (tapping my chest over my heart) for the answers.  I don't need Jesus to forgive me."  He asked if I hate, and I confidently declared no.  I saw before me a man who considers himself a cut above all others justified by his heartfelt faith in Jesus; to me, that kind of divisive arrogance is borne of hate.  Then retorted, "It is your own choice to hate the Mormons if you wish, and Jesus will forgive you, but I don't hate."  He denied that he hates Mormons. 

He towered over me by at least a head, and was dressed casually in a T-shirt and pants.  I looked up and noticed for the first time the emblem on his T-shirt was the River Church.  I asked him, of all the Christians in the world, what percent qualify for being what he called, a "real Christian"?  He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well.  I know at least one.  Me!" 

And there you have it!  Of the millions of Christians in the world, only one qualifies for being a real true Christian.  Yet I know many people who walk the path of integrity and have advanced in their virtue to the level of tzadiks.  I am blessed to live in a community of spiritually advanced people from many schools of thought. 
The Rainbow sister inside me gave him a big hug and said, "I love you, brother.  God bless you." and we parted ways, me on my bike. 

The Crime of Vaccinations For Profit

When I was a child, we were vaccinated for small pox and polio, which were world-changing humanitarian miracles of science.

Now the corporate controlled media promote fear of pandemics and then help profiteering pharmaceutical companies sell their vaccines on contract to the government so that Public Health will vaccinate everyone at the taxpayer's expense. The vaccines used have been fast-tracked through the FDA investigation period, which department was defunded in the Bush era. It now has to rely on the corporation's own research to make safety decisions in the public best interest. Vaccinate against the perceived epidemic vs. the inadequately researched vaccine?

A School Nurse is a Public Health Nurse, by definition. Therefore, as a School Nurse, I represent the government when working in a public school. If the government is recommending full vaccination programs like the Tdap program for 7th grade in California, then it is my role to promote Tdap vaccinations for all 7th grade students.

I have traveled all over the world and was very thankful that I had taken various vaccinations like cholera. If only there was a vaccination for Hep A back then! But when Corporations have taken over the Government, and the FDA is defunded, and drugs are Fast-Tracked based on skewed Corporate provided research rather than an independent research, then I distrust everything that the Government is doing right now. Public Health vaccination programs may have once been a world changing public health miracle, but right now it has become a For Profit nightmare.

On Wednesday night at meditation group, one bright sexy young man asked, "When considering Right Livelihood, what if you work for a company that may not be totally virtuous?"  

After the group ended, I approached him up close and saw the gleam in his eye and his scent.  He sat in a chair, and I felt uncomfortable looking down on him, so naturally, I kneeled at his feet, Vajrasan.  I looked up at his young Italian-like face, his bulging biceps, his hopeful smile, the monk passing behind me in ochre robes, and felt the quickening of kundalini.  I remembered the 12 Dependent Originations and the place where the chain can be broken, the Uppadana.  Therein is where the Judeo-Christian lies Free Choice.  And there is lies the ethical question of what to do.  I choose to bathe myself in the wonder of it all, and remain as reserved and neutral on the surface as possible.  I focused on what he was saying, listening.  Every word he said bathed me in ever increasing pleasure.  I was awed at the natural response of my body to the sights, sounds, scents, and Buddhist concepts spouting from a male human.  

I told him that ultimately, it is what your hand does, and the intention behind it.  I should have added that the results may not be what you intended, but there is no karma if you had the best intentions.  Just do your best, and then you won't have regrets.  

I relayed my own ethical issues as a nurse.  I said that I always faced this conflict while I worked in the hospitals.  The hospital was run for profit, yet the role of a Nurse is generally considered beneficent.  Even the monk had mentioned "making compromises..." in his answer.  I said that sometimes you must be a paragon of Virtue in the midst of a quagmire.  

The young yogi seemed to like that answer because he lit up and began waving his arms frantically up and down bulging his huge biceps over and over.  Unfortunately, I was so shocked by the response of my body to the sight of his biceps and shoulders that I missed what he said! 

I digress....  
Fortunately for everyone, no one can give a vaccine without a signed permission. Public schools have to require vaccinations for enrollment, but also provide an opt-out by signing a Waiver. This is what saves me ethically. I frame vaccinations as an ethical choice for parents. Other School Nurses feel it is their obligation to coerce parents into compliance and downplay the waiver option. But I disagree.

And for our school Secretary, the one responsible for collecting the vaccination records to keep the school in compliance with State mandates, and with the school's Charter renewal depended upon it, having reluctant parents signing waivers is a school saver and a job saver. But now the Government with the support of the California School Nurse Organization (CSNO) has signed into law a new mandated obstacle to a parent signing a Personal Belief Waiver. Governor Brown just signed the Communicable disease: Immunization Exemption, AB 2109. This requires that a medical professional advise the parent of the risks and benefits of the vaccinations before they sign a Personal Beliefs Waiver.  It takes effect in 2014. 

The CSNO was in favor of it, because they are always trying to legitimize School Nurses. They succeeded in lobbying Sacramento into including School Nurses as one of those medical professionals. Therefore, it was a victory toward the legitimizing the School Nurse Profession. Considering the suspicious nature of placing obstacles in the way of pharmaceutical profiteers sucking off the taxpayer tit is just the price you pay when you play the game of politics. Its always give a little, and take a little. 

I mention this also in light of GMO's and CA Proposition 37.  Many of the vaccines are or come from GMOs, including the Tdap.  The "ap" stands for Acellular Pertussis.  In the old days, they used actual attenuated Pertussis cells for the vaccine.  But now, they use recombinant DNA technologies to clone the PT gene, express it in bacteria, identify the amino acids that are important for the enzymatic activity and toxicity and mutated PT gene  to produce an inactive protein. This genetically modified PT was non toxic, highly immunogenic and able to protect mice without documented harm.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8768791.  Labeling Tdap as containing GMO's, will not be in the best interest of the pharmaceutical profiteers.  They will do anything to prevent a decline in their profits from lies, to marginalization, to planting evidence, to "accidental deaths."  

Last night, at the Resilient Livelihood working group meeting, Ron Cole said that the Requisites of life should all be free, food, housing, education, and health care.  If so, there would be a thriving economy based on tons of money to spend on the wants and desires.  I agree with him wholeheartedly regarding education and health care, but being a landlord by profession, I was surprised that he, himself depending on rentals for his income, would include housing in the list.  I believe, that once properly regulated, there can be a mixed economy including Private Enterprise, Cooperatives, and Collectives.  I think like in the example of free healthcare for the indigent, that there would also be free housing for the indigent.  I can't imagine giving up my private property to the government in order to provide universal free housing at government's expense.  Anyway, as long as the Constitution protects the Right of Private Property, then they can't take it away from me except by exercising Eminent Domain.  So I'm safe for now.  

And I can't imagine for the farmers who toil to provide everyone with food, that his labor should be given away for free.  Perhaps Ron meant that the Government would use tax dollars to pay farmers to produce food.  Does that mean all farmers or just some farmers?  Does that mean all grocery stores would also be on the government's doll?  Or does it mean that the Food Bank, Free Community Dining Rooms, and the School Free Lunch programs would get supported with tax dollars, and would receive fresh fruits and vegetables from designated government-supported farmers every day?  That doesn't sound too bad! 

And even further, I take JuicePlus+, which is a mix of 17 different fruit juices known for their beneficial phytoenzymes, and my immune system has never been stronger.  To me that means that Food is Medicine.  And when you eat the right foods, your own immune system is strong enough to fight invasive pathogens without vaccines.  

But the Corporations have taken over the food industry and strips the nutrients out of food, and worse, invent new and "improved" foods with dire unintended consequences.  From the hydrogenation of vegetable oils leading to an epidemic of cardio-vascular disease, to the epidemic of Childhood Obesity & Diabetes, to the dramatic increase in Autism with Leaky Gut Syndrome, to the btCorn fed to all the livestock resulting in the bt gene being found in the cord bloods of newborns, the for-profit Corporate food industry is not in the best interests of the People.  In other words, if people ate healthy, they wouldn't need all these vaccines anyway!  Healthy nutrition is part of the standard curriculum of the Waldorf School where I work.  Many of the families in this school are also suspicious of the government these days and want to do the best, most natural thing to protect their children's health, by signing the Personal Belief Waiver, and I respect their courage to make a difficult choice. 

What the hell are the "conventions" for?

My friend asked: What the hell are the "conventions" for?

My reply: They used to be for deciding which of the candidates would be the nominee chosen by the delegates. But now the delegates have already been chosen by the media and the polls before they get to the convention, so the sets of various delegates arriving and voting is a redundant formality. 
A gala waste of money. A coronation.
A nauseating waste of good money.

If the campaign was limited to 12 weeks, then the convention would be meaningful.

And it all doesn't even matter, because all the swing states still use electronic voting machines that can be hacked in a couple of minutes by an experienced hacker. And the voting machines are produced by avowed neo-Cons. Just another way to CON their way into power.

And the swing states are often states with low levels of education and high levels of obesity who can be swayed on hot button issues that are used at every election like abortion, gay marriage, and liberty. And they systematically eliminate their competition, suffocating any voice of dissent.  They want a homogeneous society with them writing the rules.  If they can't win on issues, then they will win using dirty tricks.  They will CON their way into power. 

They are sucking away our sovereign power, and we let them! Because it is easier than fighting for justice.  But We the People are more numerous, if we all woke up and joined together to take our power back from the millionaires and corporations that are buying our elections, we together would overwhelm them.  

 

I assure you that they won't give our power back easily.  They will take out the big guns which is how they solve all problems, and there will be martyrs.  Hopefully, only a few and none fatal. 

I don't want to live in an homogenous society with armed guards on every street corner. That reminds me of communist China. I want to live in a pluralist society where we all respect and celebrate our differences, and we work together for the benefit of mankind rather than to exploit the natural and human resources for profit.