Counting My Blessings for Solstice

This Solstice, I take a moment and invite myself to count some of the things I am, at the moment, abundantly grateful for. So, in no particular order, I begin.

I am abundantly grateful to my Creator for Life. Your hand has lifted me from the jaws of Death so many times and graced me with abundance in spite of my shortcomings.

I am grateful for the good luck that I have managed through employment and unemployment to maintain enough cash flow to keep a safe, dry, warm, and beautiful house above us with all the conveniences of modern times. I am grateful for my bountiful garden, for fresh raspberries, and eggs.

I am grateful that my old body still can run, jump, ride a bike with no hands, and climb a tree. I am abundantly grateful for my mother with whom, at 95, I will spend a few weeks in August, and that we can still have substantive talks about anything. My mother gives me everything unconditionally.

I am abundantly grateful for my 2 handsome, intelligent sons, Moses Sunbeam & @Ari Sunbeam, who now both live with me. I am grateful for their good health and how they pitch in and help me around the house and the rental units. It is such a relief to not have to do it all alone! And it is a pleasure to cook for them, eat together, work and play together. I am grateful for the renewed opportunity to guide my adult children with mothering.

I am grateful that I live in such a vibrantly rich area which is not only low crime, but also is filled with overlapping communities all actively striving to make the world a better place. I am grateful to the River Oak Charter School community to which I have contributed for 7 years, and will soon lamentably be moving on. I am grateful to the Kol Ha'Emek community who are my extended family. I am grateful to the political activist community with whom we fight a non-violent uphill battle to Heal the World, תיקון עולם tikkun olam. And I am abundantly grateful to Yoga Mendocino for providing the nourishment I need for my soul.

I am also grateful for the many friends with whom we have shared our lives, and for the amazing adventures past, present, and future. Family and friends are the 2 greatest treasures and I have them in abundance. I am also grateful that I have a warm and friendly relationship with my X.

Most of all, I am grateful for the level of consciousness in which I dwell where every person is loved, and I am very rarely provoked by my children. My needs are few and so are my disappointments. I am so filled with gratitude that petty upheavals don't rock my boat, and I surf the crest of the tsunami when it arrives.

Why Germany is ahead of the USA in green energy

One friend sent me this cartoon depicting a for-profit corporate dirty energy mogul emphasizing his monopoly power over the energy sector except for solar, which he touts as not feasible. 

I replied: Riggggghhhht!

By: Occupy Hamilton (Ontario)

• • Linda said:  It seems to be in Germany.
  • I replied:  Speaking of Germany, their industrial output has increased in the last decade unlike the other Western nations which lost the bulk of their manufacturing base to overseas. Germany has accomplished increased success in industrial manufacturing by 3 things: socialized health care which saves business from having to pay for medical insurance, a well educated workforce (socialized education), and pro-manufacturing government policies. While unemployment rose in much of the world, it dropped in Germany in the last decade.
  • I added: And Germany leads the world in percentage of energy derived from solar, nearly 50%. One would presume that Germany's lower unemployment and higher manufacturing rate may be related to how busy they have been converting their nation to sustainable energy. Obama tried to jump start the economy with the conversion to green energy, but the corporations that own our Congress blocked most clean energy legislation. That's because the ultimate plan of the corporate powers that run our government is to bankrupt the nation, subvert the Constitution, then foment a revolution that will put them blatantly in power and turn the once golden USA into a banana republic for them to exploit for our rich natural resources. LISTEN! Our government is already selling off public lands to make ends meet. That's because tax cuts reducing government revenues doesn't leave enough money to pay for essential government services. Thank you Howard Jarvis and Grover Norquist! Dumb down the public and they'll buy whatever lie you tell them.
    

     

    http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1JrPxs/inhabitat.com/germany-sets-new-solar-record-by-meeting-nearly-half-of-countrys-weekend-power-demand/

    Buddha Al said: Sure beats eating radioactive contaminated food!

    I replied: Exactly! Or having so much air pollution that 50% of all children have asthma.

    
    

    • Buddha Al said:  I have an electrical engineering degree and have done work in solar power and similar projects and might jump back into it again. Love the concept of non-polluting energy which helps free us from relying exclusively on fossil fuels or dangerous atomic power plants.
    • Allison brought up an interesting point: I'm no expert on solar panel construction and development but as I understand it, they are very expensive to produce. Not only in money but also in the resources that go into making the solar panels. A lot of pollution and non-recyclable things are produced while making solar panels. I know that it has been discussed about making gigantic areas in the desert for panels but the result was that it would be so cost prohibitive to produce the panels in relation to the electricity that they would produce in return. How Germany did it? I don't know.
    • I replied: Germany has a Parliamentary type of government in which the Green Party is very powerful. Note: there are no members of the Green Party currently in the US Government. Germany also has free, high quality primary through university education, and therefore has a well-educated electorate, unlike the USA where we have an astounding number of adult illiterates. The free education system in the USA has been progressively underfunded so that public school don't produce a well-educated electorate. The current US Government believes that public school funding is "government waste," and is trying to transfer public school funding into private, for-profit schools. 
      Shakti Das chimed in with: Quite correct, Robin. The US Greens have advocated "proportional representation" for over 20 years, but there is a media blackout. However in my county there are Greens in government, but not in federal office. The closest thing that we will get this year that smells like sanity is to elect Norman Solomon for US Congress. He's on the June ballot as you know and has strong Green values.
      Allison added:  I think solar energy is a great idea but it would have to be 'better' in terms of pollution/money/materials for the benefits returned.
    • Buddha Al replied: Yes unfortunately silicon wafers also produce some pollution when being manufactured. However I don't believe we are going to stop using electronic devices because of this.
    • Shakti Das said: As with any investment, one should look at the cost/benefit ratios as well as the long term return on investment both in terms of personal expenditure and in environmental terms of sustainability. pollution, and natural resources. If one looks at a solar panel 20 year plus life cytcle it is a huge plus when compared to coal or other fossil fuels both in terms to personal costs(utility bills) and environmental/pollution costs. However every location needs to be evaluated on an individual basis. For example in the Northern California one needs some south facing exposure (as the sun is always south). Sunny locations pay back faster than cloudy regions, etc. Another renewable source is solar that is not home located but generated at a central (sunny) location. A third consideration is a hybrid system utilizing solar, hydro, and/or wind either co-located or at a remote location. These studies have been done in Germany and elsewhere showing that solar is very cost effective. It also does not have the health risks and health costs that are associated with coal, fossil fuel, and nuclear production. Another major advantage is that solar is an unlimited resource, while the costs of fossil fuels will continue to rise as supplies dwindle.
      

      
      Shakti Das added: In every calculation Nuclear Power always comes out last in terms of costs. It's a loser for the taxpayer and consumer, always winds up subsidized by the government.
    • Allison replied:  One thing that amazes me is this. When I point out to people that how power plants 'make' electricity by using nuclear, coal or other fossil fuel, is to make steam! Simply that. Heating up water to make steam to turn turbines to generate electricity. Some people simply don't believe me. They actually think nuclear power plants 'make' electricity from nuclear power. It astounds me that many many people don't understand that the purpose of burning fossil fuels or using nuclear power rods it just simply to heat water into steam to make turbines turn.
      

      
      Allison added: Yes, Shakti, you are correct, we do need to look at the long term costs/returns in these different power generating sources.
    • Shakti Das replied:  Good point Allison. Only 100-160 years ago, most people understood their technological support structures; i.e., food, shelter, energy, transportation, water supply, and medicinal systems; hence, this created a sense of security/control as if survival was not complex and was at the same time earth based. Withe the relatively new advent of big cities, Big Ag, mono-crop agriculture, Big Pharma, industrialized urbanization, and centralized power producing grids, people in general have lost knowledge and control over these basic survival mechanisms. That disconnection not only fosters a sense of dependence upon "the system" and a lack of self-reliance, but also negatively influences our ability to make wise economic and political decisions at the polls, because we are not cognizant of the factors behind such. Strangely those who are cognizant (the cognizanti) are deplored and feared because they dare to question the confused paradigm; hence new information (such as alternative energy, environmental sustainability are feared and rejected -- do not compute. It is to Germany's credit that such fear does not rule. Even their electoral system has over 90% turn-out ratios of eligible voters, compared with the US 40%. I think it is very valuable to continue to question past assumptions and apparent contradictions. Our children will thank us for doing so. BE WELL!
    • I replied:  I am proud to say that the City of Ukiah produces their own electricity. 44% comes from local geothermal wells. Another 36% comes from large and small hydroelectric. Another 20% comes from coal & natural gas. Less than 1% comes from nuclear, solar or wind.
      http://www.cityofukiah.com/pageserver/?page=utilities_powerlabel
       
      

      
      

      City of Ukiah - Power Content Label
      

      www.cityofukiah.com
      

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Some thoughts about Capital

I am currently reading the autobiography of Fidel Castro, pub. 2005. Castro amazingly predicted a worldwide financial collapse based on the way the USA just kept printing up more and more money. Fidel keeps referring to the USA as the "empire." And regarding brutality, the hypocrisy of our nation taking the moral high ground while promoting terrorist attacks against Cuba for 55 years, is appalling. Castro's viewpoint, based on ethical values and honor, has really opened my eyes about who the terrorist really is, and what is Capital.

Castro says that capital is the product of your labor. In other words, capital is the food that farmers grow, and the land that produces food. Capital are the sweaters made in Irish villages, and embroideries made by Hmong grandmothers. Capital is what we produce by our labor, which is equal to wealth.  Does that make every knitter a capitalist? What is a Capitalist, anyway?

cap·i·tal·ist   [kap-i-tl-ist]

noun

1. a person who has capital,  especially extensive capital,  invested in business enterprises.

2. an advocate of capitalism.

3. a very wealthy person.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/capitalist?s=t

So, I’m right.  #1 says anyone with capital.  So it would include a whole cottage industry of women that knit sweaters, right?  Is their stock if knitted sweaters, and their storehouses of yarn, and their sheep and their meadows, the means of production of all those sweaters, are all capital?  If so, then are those Irish village knitters capitalists? 

According to this dictionary meaning, the answer would be YES. 

Let’s see what the dictionary defines as capital. 

cap·i·tal     [kap-i-tl] Show IPA

noun

4. the wealth, whether in money or property, owned or employed in business by an individual, firm, corporation, etc.

5. an accumulated stock of such wealth.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/capital

So number 4 requires that the cottage industry knitters must be in the business of making sweaters.  In other words, they intend to sell the sweaters, or use them as barter. 

The reason I am pondering these facets of meaning, is that we usually think of capital as something had by only rich people living in mansions. 

But the concept of capital being the products of my own labor personalizes it and gives me a sense of control of my own capital. 

Suddenly I see the classical capitalists as climbing on the backs of the workers who they depend upon to produce capital for the benefit of the few. 

I realize that no one can be truly poor if they can produce capital as the fruit of their own labor.  Even if you live in a rammed earth home with a flimsy thatch roof, if you can produce spinning tops or handspun fabric or woven baskets or rubber tire sandals, you have wealth and capital. 

So now, what is Capitalism?

Here’s the same online dictionary again:

cap·i·tal·ism   [kap-i-tl-iz-uhm] Show IPA

noun

an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.

Origin: 1850–55; capital¹  + -ism

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/capitalism?s=t

Note:  public service and co-ops are excluded from this meaning of Capitalism even though state owned businesses and co-ops may produce capital commodities.  As such, then capitalism is dedicated to the greedy enrichment of the one at the expense of the many. 

The Capitalists hate the Communists, right?  Here is how our information is whitewashed.

As seen in this dictionary passage, the word “capitalism” originated in the mid 1850’s.  Please give credit where credit is due.  It was Karl Marx who coined the word in his book, The Communist Manifesto in 1848. 

Marx defined Capitalism as an economic system in which subjective moral value is separate from objective economic value. Subsequently, economics became divorced from ethics.  I’ve noticed that in many investor friends; it seems like perfectly moral and upstanding citizens of the community can invest in the most toxic and destructive industries and never have a flicker of a qualm about how they made their profits. 

So in Capitalism, the capitalist is the one who buys up all the land where the sheep graze, take ownership of the livestock, and provide wool for the knitters who work for a pittance to provide the capitalist with sweaters to export.  The capitalist figured out that he could get more money if he bought a million Irish sweaters, and sent them in a packing container to Boston, rather than selling them locally where the market was already saturated with home knitted sweaters. 

Before the capitalist arrived, all the village knitters labored together for the benefit of the whole village.  Once the capitalist takes possession of the means of production, knitters work for the capitalist and the capital wealth is transferred out of the village into the coffers of the capitalist.  Oh yeah, Ayn Rand; I bet it makes you HOT just to think about transferring all that wealth from the worthless peons who let it happen.  I think I’m starting to understand what Marx and Castro were talking about. 

Which begs the question of how did the capitalist wrest the means of production away from the villagers in the first place? 

Unarmed, non-violent Truth tellers are a threat to the Tea Party

For nearly a year, I had been attending the monthly meetings of the Ukiah Valley Patriots, our local Tea Party.  My original intention was to forge a coalition between activists who want to bring about a more representative government, and Tea Party activists.  Since both myself, and the Tea Party, hold the Constitution in high regard, I thought we had a lot in common. 

At first, I was appalled at what I heard and saw there, and wrote letters to the editor about it.  But then, the UVP leader, Duane, asked me to stop writing bad things about them in the newspaper.  I explained that I only write the truth the way I see it, and Duane couldn’t disagree that what I wrote wasn’t true.  He was mainly concerned with the UVPs being portrayed badly in public, and so I stopped writing anything about them while continuing to silently attend the meetings, observe, and take copious notes. 

Granted, we may be on different sides of many issues, but in a free republic, we can disagree with our neighbors and still be friends.  I continued to be appalled at the reactionary propaganda fed to the attendees, and the militant language they used to face every issue, but admired the very organized grass-roots techniques they were using.  Without even hearing what I believe in, Duane stated that we have nothing in common.  He threatened that if I didn’t stop coming to the UVP meetings that they would have to make it a members-only event.  Considering that many members of the UVP are licensed to carry concealed weapons, and pack heat at all times, I'm lucky they didn't shoot me. 

Well, the steering committee of the Ukiah Valley Patriots met and changed their bylaws to make it a member-only group, and presented their proposal to the general membership in January, which approved the change.  They passed around a mission statement, and an allegiance form.  20 attendees signed the allegiance form; I, and another courageous man, didn’t sign, and we were promptly asked to leave the meeting.  The reason was to not “discuss tactical actions with the enemy.”  When they say “enemy,” they mean me. 

The UVP state they organized in order to preserve the Constitution, and their core values, which include fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free markets.  They write that the architects of the Constitution stated that the Creator endowed us with the right to own property along with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Oops!  I guess I missed the part about the Creator giving us the right to own property.  Ask a Native American if the Creator gave us the right to own property. 

I am totally impressed that an unarmed, non-violent little old lady like me, dedicated to the Truth, and motivated to listen to what others believe in, trying to find commonalities, could be such a powerful “enemy” that a group would have to change their bylaws to get rid of the threat I pose to their membership just by my presence.  Although I avoid pride and don’t seek power, that still makes me feel very powerful.  I observe the feeling of power, and let it go into the stream of phenomena. 

Some thoughts about Fidel Castro

I have been listening to the audiobook autobiography of Fidel Castro.  It was in the form of an interview in 2005 between foreign journalist Ignacio Ramonet, and Fidel himself.  The transcript had to be approved by Castro first before publication, and was translated into English, and performed by 2 actors for my enjoyment.  I borrowed it from the Public Library. 

One major theme throughout the tale was ethics.  Fidel explained that there is subjective and objective ethics.  Subjective ethics are about honor, protecting the innocent, being able to sleep at night.  Subjective ethics are about seeing international corporations coming into a nation and exploiting the human and natural resources to depletion for their own profit, and seeing the indigenous people being robbed of their capital legacy. 

Another shocking realization that has lifted the wool from my eyes is that the USA, the land I was raised to think had the moral high ground, has been sponsoring terrorism on the sovereign nation of Cuba for 55 years starting with our beloved JFK.  The fact that the microscopic nation of Cuba has persisted this long in spite of the acts of aggression from its giant nearby neighbor only attests to the validity of Castro’s assertions. 

And why should giant USA be threatened by the tiny little Caribbean nation of Cuba?  Why not be friends and trading partners like we are with Communist China?  The obvious reason is that the validity of Castro’s philosophy of ethics is so infectious, that it threatens the corporate oligarchy, which has been in control of our government for longer than we think. 

Castro actually admired JFK for withdrawing from the 1961 Bay of Pigs and admitting defeat.  He understood that Kennedy had inherited the plot from Eisenhower.  Castro’s forces had taken 1200 prisoners of war, which they ethically exchanged in 1962 with lawyer James Donovan for $53 of private medical supplies.  On the other hand, the non-violent Cuban 5 in the USA unethically all got life sentences, and Luis Posada Carriles, a convicted terrorist, lives free in luxury in Miami. 

Once again, our media portray Fidel Castro and Che Guevara as dangerous maniac armed revolutionaries.  But when you read their writing, they were totally rational and ethical.  They both saw the corporate machine robbing every resource possible if not stopped by persons with ethics.  They heroically stood up to the plate, but corporate censorship and spin have rewritten history to make the corporate oligarchy the good and moral side, and Castro and Guevara were on the bad and destructive militant revolutionary side. 

What Fidel & Che began to fight is upon us all with spades now, worldwide.  We are drowning in the toxic wastes of the for profit corporate depletion of our natural and human resources.  We are fed up with governments that serve corporate interests over the interests of the electorate, and enable our nation to descend into a banana republic.  Let We the People unite to non-violently create a “wall of separation between corporation and state” by amending the Constitution to define a person under the law as a human being, and money is not speech.   And with another amendment to mandate public funding of political campaigns with an eight-week campaign limit. 

We can solve the issue non-violently with a constitutional amendment

The new fire in the growth of Liberty and Democracy initiated by the Arab Spring and OWS has accelerated the process of our sovereign People taking back control of our government from the corporate oligarchy. We will non-violently take back our government from within the system set up by our Founding Fathers by amending the Constitution.

The Supreme Court never actually ruled in their Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railroad 1887 that corporations are persons under the Constitution. The justices actually REFUSED to rule on that issue in this decision. Yet, the court reporter, a schill for the railroad barons, wrote it into his headnote, and as such, a century of court decisions have been based on this false precedent.  This is a 115 year-old corporate farce! 

In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled in Buckley v. Valeo that political money is speech and is protected under the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights.

On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court made their worst decision to date, even worse than the Dred Scott decision. In Citizens United v. FEC, the Supreme Court legislated from the bench that if corporations are persons under the Constitution (1887), and money is speech (1976), then corporations and trade unions have the right to free speech under the First Amendment and can spend unlimited amounts of undisclosed money to influence elections. This decision overturned a century of campaign finance reform, and was certainly the most anti-democratic decision in history. 

The Citizens United decision opened the floodgates for international corporations to buy our elections. It drove the final nail into the coffin of Democracy, which is now dead. We no longer live in a Republic with government by the People. Our elected representatives are beholding to the special interests that financed their election campaigns, and not to the electorate. The whole system is seriously, seriously flawed. 

We need to take our government back. The Declaration of Independence 1776 says, “to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Short of an armed revolution, many people have concluded that we may be able to solve the issue non-violently with a constitutional amendment. A sudden rash of amendments have been proposed to Congress in both Houses. Most of them concern campaign finance reform. A couple of the proposed amendments go right to the crux of the issue. They propose that only human beings are persons under the law, and money is not speech.

The Sovereignty of my Body and Fukushima generated cesium-137

On 20 February, 2012, Jon Letman wrote in Thruthout: Radioactive or Not, Tsunami Debris Could Seriously Impact US's, Canada's West Coasts.  The author assured us that the tsunami debris washing up on our shores was released before it became contaminated with radiation. 
The following are some thoughts I had about Letman's article. 

After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, I monitored radiation levels around the nation.  Without regard to alpha, beta, or gamma designations, but rather simply by counting Geiger counter beats/minute, the highest (nearly critical) amount of radiation hit, not the western shores, but rather the peaks of the Rocky Mountains. 

A significant level of radiation landed on California, Oregon and Washington, and contaminated the grasslands of the western states so as to contaminate the milk supply.  So I stopped drinking mammal milk for about 4 months, and bought iodine pills to have in stock in case a nuclear disaster was announced here in the USA.  Iodine-131 has a half-life of only 8 days, so there was nothing to worry about there.  But cesium-137 has a half-life of over 30 years.

Of course, we can't expect our government to announce a radiation disaster unless there is profit to be made.  Otherwise, our government will cover it up in order to keep people pacified and continue shopping for consumer luxuries.  Anyway, it would damage big Agra-business if folks found out their food supply was contaminated with cesium-137. 

After entering the body, cesium concentrates in muscle tissue. The biological half-life of cesium hydroxide is only about 70 days.  Accidental ingestion of cesium-137 can be treated with Prussian blue, which binds to it chemically and reduces the biological half-life to 30 days.

That brings up the issues of private property and sovereignty of my own body.  Like with Monsanto patented pollen, if the radiation falls on the grassland of an organic dairy or organic grass-fed beef or bison farm, the meat/milk is no longer organic, and the farmer's business is destroyed for 30 years.  And as has been recently proven in court, the industrial polluter will win the case and the organic farmer loses. 

And if I am sovereign over my own body, and I choose to live far away from industrial pollution so that the air I breathe is cleaner, and then I am forced to inhale radioactive iodine and cesium because an industrialist far away made choices that I oppose and ended up contaminating me exactly as I had anticipated, what recourse do I have to uphold the sovereignty of my body?  NONE! 

That's why we have entered a new Dark Age.  And it will become much darker when the US & Israel invade Iran and begin a nuclear winter. 

An evolution of Government Waste - The transfer of public wealth into private hands

Looking at a graph of job growth since 2008, Allison said:     I wonder, though, how many of those new jobs during the Obama presidency were in the government sector? Not saying that that is what it is, just wondering.  
Lisa replied:     A job is a job is a job. Lots of folks would be very happy if they could get a government job.
Allison:     Yes, that is correct, Lisa. Problem is, with all the 'government' jobs, that just adds to more of our tax money being used up on payroll for those jobs. Please don't misunderstand me, I don't mean to make it sound like people don't deserve jobs, but we all know how much waste there is in our government. We all know how much 'overpayment' is gone through in giving jobs to 'special interests', paying back favors, etc. "A job is a job is a job" is an incorrect way of looking at it. Yes, I'd be happy to get a government job, too. Especially if I could get paid mucho bucks for doing essentially nothing worth the pay. [author note: government jobs = union jobs]  Again, I'm not saying that all, or even 'most' government jobs fall into that category, ok?
Bodhi commented:   There is waste and corruption in both private and public sector jobs. Our government has only very few means to raise revenues to pay for jobs, and levying taxes is one of those means. If we want police, firefighters, roads, infrastructure, public health, unemployment, public schools, social safety net, etc., then the government needs to raise taxes to pay for these services. Left to private companies, the CEOs would be making $M's while the workers may not be earning a living wage. Either way, the assumption of "government waste" measured against private greed, corruption and waste, which can be documented in spades either way, is a weak argument. As far as I understand, Obama only talks about "private sector" jobs. The graph in question doesn't specify public or private.
 
Allison:   Right, Bodhi, that's why I wasn't trying to 'blame' government jobs for waste. Nor was I trying to 'blame' private sector jobs. But, when there is an overload (or unneeded) abundance of 'supervisors' of 'supervisors' of 'supervisors', that doesn't help raise taxes, nor does it (in my opinion) help improve the country. As in 'private' sector jobs, waste is wanton...and unnecessary (well, unnecessary unless you're one of the 'supervisors of supervisors, Assistant-VP to the Sub-Associate-Jr VP, and so on). But, in government sector jobs, it steals money (as wages) from something that might actually be getting something done instead of cushy jobs created in return for favors or paybacks. Hell, what did I just say? That applies to private sector work, too!

Bodhi:
Right! You are assuming that your taxes pay for people in government jobs who do nothing. Let's take CPS, Child Protective Services, as a hypothetical example to explore the concept of do-nothing government jobs. Reagan began to shrink government by cutting taxes, and this became the Neo-Con dogma. In 1980, CPS had a staff of people serving the public need. When the Neo-Con revolution convinced the general public that private is always better than public, and the Constitution never said anything about protecting children, CPS became expendable as "waste."

Then, year after year, budget after budget, "waste" was cut out of the budget in order to "shrink" the government. The obvious long range plan was to cut funding for government agencies to disempower them, and then prove how useless they are, and get rid of them.  Now, 30+ years of budget cuts have left an underpaid, understaffed, overworked, workforce which appears to be doing nothing because their hands are tied with no funds. The next step in the Neo-Con plan is to have a massive sell-off of government assets. Government assets are OUR ASSETS. Because WE are the government. WE are the People! And all government assets belong to us! I heard they had to cut the budget and closed a lot of parks. Today, our government is auctioning off OUR ASSETS, closed parks, to private interests. I'm telling you, it is ANOTHER NEO-CON TRANSFER OF PUBLIC WEALTH INTO PRIVATE HANDS.  (Neo-Con = new con artist.) 

NATIONAL MOVE TO AMEND SPOKESMAN TALKS ON ENDING CORPORATE RULE

The new fire in the growth of Liberty and Democracy initiated by the Arab Spring and OWS has accelerated the process of our sovereign People taking back control of our government from the corporate oligarchy.  We will non-violently take back our government from within the system set up by our Founding Fathers by amending the Constitution.

The Supreme Court never actually ruled in their Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railroad 1886 that corporations are persons under the Constitution.  The justices actually refused to rule on that issue in this decision.  Yet, the court reporter wrote it into his headnote, and as such, a century of court decisions have been based on this false precedent. 

In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled that political money is speech and is protected under the 1^st Amendment in the Bill of Rights. 

On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court made their worst decision to date, even worse than the Dred Scott decision.  In Citizens United v. FEC, the Supreme Court legislated from the bench that if corporations are persons under the Constitution, and money is speech, then corporations & trade unions have the right to free speech under the 1^st Amendment and can spend unlimited amounts of undisclosed money to influence elections. This decision overturned a century of campaign finance reform. 

It opened the floodgates for international corporations to buy our elections.  It drove the final nail into the coffin of Democracy, which is now dead.  We no longer live in a Republic with government by the People.  Our elected representatives are beholding to the special interests that financed their election campaigns, and not to the electorate.  The whole system is seriously flawed. 

We need to take our government back.  The Declaration of Independence 1776 says, “…to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.  That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."   

Short of an armed revolution, many people have concluded that we may be able to solve the issue non-violently with a constitutional amendment.  A sudden rash of amendments have been proposed to Congress in both Houses.  Most of them concern campaign finance reform.  A couple of the proposed amendments go right to the crux of the issue.  They propose that only human beings are persons under the law, and money is NOT speech.    

Don’t miss David Cobb, the very knowledgeable speaker sponsored by Move to Amend – Ukiah, who will be speaking in 5 cities around Mendocino County.  I’ll be there at the Saturday Afternoon Clubhouse on February 13 to hear him.  You should go too. 

Thoughts about Anarchism

The word "Anarchist" is used with very different meanings depending upon who is talking. merriam-webster.com says "1) a person who rebels against any authority, established order, or ruling power. [That could be any teenager.] 2) one who uses violent means to overthrow the established order." That description could include George Washington, the Tea Party, as well as Che Guevara. It could also mean meatheads that get a thrill out of provoking a riot. I've noticed plants from White Supremacist camps who are charged with provoking a riot; these are also included in the definition of anarchist.   

But there are also non-violent Anarchists, who advocate the reduction of central government influence, and increased local control of government, by non-violent means. Non-violent anarchist used to be #3 in the dictionary meanings, but seems to have been purged. Often those from Europe and South America understand this aspect of Anarchism.

In other words, Anarchism is when the People take control of the government whether it be through violent means or by non-violent means. If this is true, then Anarchism may be the only true Democracy!.

The Bonus Army Marches on Washington 1932 & 1933

Humanitarian, Herbert Hoover (R.), was renowned for feeding the starving European victims following the Great War, and coordinating private relief efforts after the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.  During his tenure as President (1929-1933), 17,000 WWI veterans and their families, along with 26,000 civilians, marched on Washington DC in order to get the promised post-war bonus that had been postponed due to the Depression-related government’s lack of funds.  The 17,000 homeless, unemployed veterans were camped out across the Anacostia River close to the Capitol. 

Hoover’s Attorney General, William Mitchell, ordered the hobo camp removed.  General Douglas MacArthur and Major George Patton commanded military tanks and the cavalry to forcibly remove the Bonus Army, and burned the shanty town to the ground.  Military veterans, proud of their patriotic service, destitute and without medical insurance, 20% listed as disabled, saluted at attention as Patton and MacArthur approached.  Unexpectedly, they were slashed by sabers, shot, had their meager huts and crops trampled by tanks and burned to ashes.  This was a repeat of a less violent but similar incident in 1783 when veterans of the Continental Army marched on Philadelphia to receive the unfulfilled promise of their bonus pay.  Needless to say, Hoover lost his re-election bid later that year to a landslide victory for FDR.  

A similar march occurred a year later during the tenure of FDR.  Roosevelt ordered the homeless veterans fed 3 meals a day, sent his wife, Eleanor, to lunch in the shanty town, and had 25,000 of these veterans hired into the Civil Conservation Corps.  Yet, Roosevelt vetoed a bill to pay the bonuses early, but Congress overrode his veto, and the bonuses were paid.  

As demonstrated by Herbert Hoover, left to Republicans, the poor, homeless, disabled, and military veterans would be bulldozed into a mass grave because social services would be deemed “wasteful spending” and not profitable.  At least a Roosevelt Democrat would provide 3 square meals a day and give them jobs. 

Why We Left the USA - [I couldn't have said it better myself!]

Why We Left The United States:

Because on December 12, 2000, the United States Supreme Court nullified the results of a national election and installed George W. Bush as president. And then I saw millions of my fellow Americans deliriously happy the Rule of Law was broken by the Supreme Court of the Land so “their guy” could… “win.”  

That’s when I knew partisanship had ultimately won out over reality. More Americans believe in angels than election fraud. If millions of Americans could turn a blind eye to a stolen election, simply because their side stole it, and then have that coup legitimized by not only the Supreme Court… but by all of MainStreamMedia… then I knew the country I lived in was not the land of my birth.  

I can’t emphasize this enough. Millions of Americans were ecstatic that George W. Bush won regardless of how he won. Unquestioning blind partisanship was more important than the law to these people. But more ominous was MainStreamMedia ratifying the coup. At that moment Corporate Media proved they were committed to the destruction of our democratic republic. 

That was pretty scary to witness. We’ve all heard of similar ham-fisted tactics used in banana republics South of the border… but this was happening… here!

That’s when I began formulating my Crazy Stupid People Theorem. Whoever thought the Supreme Court’s decision was part and parcel with a “Normal Transfer of Power” was either Stupid, Crazy, or… Evil. Americans who didn’t know it was essentially a coup were either Stupid, or Crazy, or a little bit of both. If anyone knew it was an outright theft of Americans’ votes… and they were perfectly OK with that… well… what else could you call it other than Evil? The subversion of our right to choose our elected representatives strikes at the heart of our country’s founding principles. But again, and this is what continues to confound me, millions of Americans thought it was just fine and dandy.  

Along with millions of sane Americans… I didn’t “Move On.” I could not understand why it was so important the institutions Americans trusted most to protect its freedoms and principles had crammed George W. Bush down our throats.  

Then 234 days into Bush’s first term as president … the attacks of September 11th 2001.  And from that day on… everything the Bush/Cheney regime did to distort and transform the United States of America into something… unrecognizable… was because of 9/11.  It all came down to 9/11… period. The buck stopped there.  

And as we were all walking around in a daze, coated with the ash of human beings and pulverized concrete, we were spun into the Ultimate War Crime; wars of aggression. As Chris Hedges wrote, “ … We became what we abhorred. The deaths were used to justify pre-emptive war, invasion, Shock and Awe, prolonged occupation, targeted assassinations, torture, offshore penal colonies, gunning down families at checkpoints, massive aerial bombardments, drone attacks, missile strikes and the killing of dozens, and soon hundreds, and then thousands, and later tens of thousands, and finally hundreds of thousands of innocent people.“  

Then the dawning realization… the 9/11 trigger mechanism that caused Hell on Earth for the people of Afghanistan and Iraq… was a grotesque lie. [YEAH!] This was the ultimate Horror piled upon horror. 

Hundreds upon hundreds of statements from members of the Senior Military and Intelligence Services, Law Enforcement, Government Officials, Engineers, Architects, Pilots and Aviation Professionals, Professors, 9/11 Survivors and Family Members, Artists, Entertainers, and Media Professionals, are on record saying the Official Account of 9/11 is: "False", “Impossible”, “A Bunch of Hogwash”, “Total B.S.”, “Ludicrous”, “A Well-Organized Cover-up”, “A White-Washed Farce”, “Absurd”, "Fatally Flawed", "Not Possible.”  

The lies the Bush/Cheney Regime told us that led our country into The Ultimate War Crime were predicated upon the lies the government previously told us about the attacks of 9/11.  

As Ralph Lopez wrote, “The biggest problem with the 9/11 Truth Movement is where it leads: a place dark and evil beyond imagination. …when hundreds of American military officers, pilots, engineers, and CIA veterans stepped forward to say they believed the official story to be a monstrous lie, I was shaken to the core. …The conspiracies led to the deep dark hole that we are ruled by criminal psychopaths."  

This is about as bad as it gets. We knew the government covered up how and why 3,000 people died on 9/11, and then went on to use the attacks as an excuse to do everything we find reprehensible today. And again… corporate media ran cover for the government.

If we can’t believe the government’s cover-up, we’re left with three options:

• Conclusion One: They Made It Happen.
• Conclusion Two: They allowed it to happen.

Or …

• Conclusion Three: The attacks of 9/11 were possible because of massive incompetence on the part of the Bush/Cheney Regime.

If Incompetence is the least offensive rationale to explain the actions of the Bush/Cheney regime, then… why has there been no accountability?  

Involuntary manslaughter is an unintentional killing that happens during the commission of a misdemeanor or because of gross negligence or carelessness. According to Federal sentencing guidelines, Involuntary Manslaughter is punishable by 6 years in prison.  

Shouldn’t someone (or a lot of someones) from the Bush/Cheney Regime be prosecuted for the gross negligence that led to the deaths of almost 3,000 people?  Not in post-9/11 America.

But while we struggled to map out just exactly what a post-9/11 America looked like… another stolen presidential election knocked us to our knees.

We knew it was stolen in Ohio. We knew how it was stolen. [Kerry had ample funds left over from his campaign to pay for a recount or an investigation and refused to challenge the results in Ohio.]  And once again the corporate media buried the truth by ignoring it.  And the blind partisan Crazy Stupid People rejoiced in the prospect of “Four More Years” of the Bush/Cheney Regime.  

Throughout it all the majority of Sane Americans made the same strategic blunder over and over and over again. We were used to signing petitions and having protest marches. We treated these people like they were politicians. But the Bush/Cheney gang were not politicians. They were Gangsters and Thugs. Politicians periodically bend to the will of the people. Thugs. Don’t. Care. These people wipe their ass with petitions. When Dick Cheney was told that two-thirds of Americans said the war in Iraq was not worth it, Cheney replied, "So?"

That’s who we were dealing with. Gangsters who completely ignored the will of the people. We could write all we want, and call all we want, and demonstrate all we want… but by following their rules… we had the unlimited freedom to be ineffectual.  

The Republican Machine, aided and abetted by Corporate Media, stole the presidency of the United States twice. Together they started two wars and have killed over a million people. How could we think they would back off and play nice because we all wrote scathing e-mails or marched in protests? They were Thugs. We were supposed to arrest Thugs, put them on trial, and if guilty, put them in jail. But we didn’t do that.  

We decided to "hope" instead. We hoped the Bush/Cheney Regime wouldn’t completely destroy the country before 2008. We hoped the same corrupt voting systems that delivered us George W. Bush would magically allow us the autonomy to elect someone to save us from “the Evil-doers.” We hoped a Constitutional law professor would restore the Constitution. But most of all we hoped, for the first time in living memory, that a politician would deliver on his campaign promises.  [Hope is a feel-good emotion that ignores the current facts and promotes a delusion as something positive.]  [George Bush also ran on "hope and change" in 2000.  Doesn't anyone else remember but me???] 

The policies of the Bush/Cheney Regime are still in place under the Obama administration. We still have the wars of aggression and occupation. Innocent people are still killed every day. We still hold prisoners in Guantanamo Bay who after almost ten years have yet to be charged or tried for any crime. The Bush/Cheney/Obama Regimes have given away trillions of dollars to people who engineered the largest financial swindle in recorded history. And they, along with our honest-to-god war criminals, continue to walk free, unindicted, unaccountable, and above the law.  

As Michael in NY wrote you in October 2009, “ … my belief is that the American system has lost its capacity for reform.” I’ll take that to the next step… the American system has lost its capacity to govern! Corporate interests under the guise of Partisanship über alles. 

And as Paul Craig Roberts wrote the other day, “Obama regime appointee Cass Sunstein, a Chicago and Harvard Law School professor, thinks the 9/11 movement, for challenging the official “truth”, should be infiltrated by US intelligence agents in order to shut down the fact-based doubters of government propaganda. When a law professor at our two most prestigious law schools wants to suppress scientific evidence that challenges government veracity, we know that in America respect for truth is dead. The notion that a country in which truth is dead is a “light unto the world” is an absurdity.”  [Don't forget, the Milton Friedman Neo-Liberal school of economics also comes from Chicago, a city famous for their gangster culture.] 

I find that nothing short of terrifying. And real solutions are nonexistent.

And so… after 10 long years, and finally having enough money… we left. It may be completely illusory, but it feels like we have a future here. It feels more substantial than… hope. It feels like we finally have come home.

Regards,  Bob

And in reply, Felix Bartholomew added this:

Well, ever since the Marbury v. Madison case of the early eighteen hundreds, our Supreme Court has systematically taken more & more power from the other two branches of government (the Executive & Legislative) that was never voted on, never introduced as ideas or legislation, and has never been challenged.

We worry about money in politics and poverty or apathy? We should worry and be angry about our nine (well really five) kings in black robes

Our interpretation of law by inserting unanswered and focused, partisan direction through precedent has led to the damaged and broken version of this idea call the United States of America we accept today. Unfortunately, from our failed education system through monetary starvation and our monopoly media Republican propaganda delivery system, the very people that can, and should demand the return of rule of law through legislation don't even know that it is they, not an ethereal they (the government) that need to demand this be reversed. It can be done, and maybe some day, it will be. Or not.

The one thing that gives me some hope is this. This nation, these United States of America, this constitutionally limited, democratically elected, representative republic is the only one of its kind in the entire history of man that was founded on an idea, not through genetics or geography. As an idea cannot be destroyed, it will stand through all of this. But, an idea can be repressed and/or perverted. It is our legacy and responsibility to restore this grand experiment, this honorable idea of the governance of a society through the strength of our example of human rights and self respect must be restored if this is not to falter and become something studied for its demise and not for its collective desire to strive toward 'a more perfect union'.

Its up to us, the we, in We the People, to change this back to the foundation that we started out with where there were three equal, branches of government ...

... not nine kings & queens  in robes dictating to their subjects what they will or will not do. This is precisely what we fought back against in the first place when we declared our independence from England.  Ironic, really, don't you think?

"A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sin and suffering."  --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816.

My third visit to the Tea Party - The Threat of Islam to America

Today, August 18, 2011, the Ukiah Valley Patriots featured a speaker from the Bay Area named Peter Friedman.  He claims to have studied Islam for over 40 years.  His 2-hour lecture was entitled, "The Threat of Islam to America."  He introduced himself as a good Conservative, having had the opportunity to fly Reagan around during his election campaign. 

Mr. Friedman began by admitting that he is scared of Nazis and Muslims.  He declares that Yasser Arafat's uncle, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, sent 23,000 Muslims to work with the German SS during WWII. Therefore, all Muslims are a threat.  He conflated Auschwitz with Islam.  He claims that the Hamas charter names the Rotary Club, Lions & Freemasons as enemies of Islam.  His website is called: www.islamthreat.com.  

Mr. Friedman conveyed his outrage that the California city of Santa Clara gave permission to build a mosque in which an imam calls Muslims to prayer five time per day.  He repeatedly played the sound to the audience of an imam calling people to prayer.  To me, it brought memories back of magical and holy days living in Udawatekele, Sri Lanka, in which the call to prayer down in the valley echoed up through the hermitage where I was meditating in the hilly jungle.  Mr. Friedman compared the sound to a dog caterwauling.  It this point, it became very apparent to me that Peter Friedman was fomenting blind hate.  


He outlined the 4 stages of the organized plan of the Islamic Conquest:

1. Infiltration
2. Consolidation of Power
3. Open War
4. Totalitarian Islamic Theocracy

He went on to express outrage at New Jersey's Governor Christie appointing a Muslim judge.  Now we have Sharia Law in New Jersey! he exclaimed.  My unspoken response was to silently ask, Do Christian and Jewish judges bring Bible law?  If so, I presume he would agree with that as a good and normal thing.  Do Chinese judges bring Buddhist, Taoist or Confucian law to the bench?  Now that the Supreme Court consists totally of Catholics and Jews, would Mr. Friedman find that objectionable?  I was under the assumption that our law is based on English Common Law codified by Henry II in the 1160's, followed about 55 years later by the Magna Carta.  Not wanting to disrupt his build up of hate, I remained silent.  Friedman added that the Constitution is based on Biblical law. 


Friedman gave examples of the first step, Infiltration, by siting that Muslims are going around during this economic downturn buying up distressed properties.  He claimed that Rupert Murdock is buying into the Mideast media market, and therefore had to get rid of Glen Beck who presented an obstacle to the lucrative deal.  He added that the Holy Land Foundation was laundering money for Hamas.  During the bust, they found a road map on their computer composed by the Muslim Brotherhood of all US operatives.  Posing more examples of infiltration, he claimed that the Muslim Student Association runs San Francisco State University, and beats up Jews on campus.  Friedman concluded this portion of his lecture by conflating the 501(c)(3) status of a religious mosque with the "fact" that all Muslims speak political speech is designed  to overthrow the government of the USA.  


I could take it all in up to this point because I haven't studied this topic very much, and I didn'tknow the extent of the veracity of his facts.  But then he went on saying, "King Obama is full of crap!"  Since Obama's father and grandfather are both Muslims, therefore, Obama must be a Muslim.  Claiming to be a Christian makes Obama an apostate.  Friedman went on to say some very disrespectful things about President Obama that were so inflammatory that it discredited anything else he had to say.  


He went on to talk about Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, identifying it as the home of the Muslim Brotherhood. President Nasser made the Brotherhood illegal in Egypt, and then survived 2 assassination attempts.  Then he described the American educated Muslim fundamentalist, Sayd Qutb, who published a book called "Milestones" for which he was arrested and was martyred by hanging in 1966.  Friedman showed a convoluted chart reminiscent of Glen Beck showing all the connections which prove the Muslims conspiracy to take over America, promulgated by the Al Qaeda magazine called "Inspire." 


Friedman stated that the World Trade Center got hit on 9/11 to commemorate the 1683 defeat of the Ottoman Empire's invasion of Europe.  He didn't mention that Salvador Allende was assassinated by the CIA-backed coup in Chile also on 9/11.  


Friedman states that Obama said in a speech that Islam has always been a part of American history.  He asked, did any Muslims come over on the Mayflower?  He has a copy of a letter signed by both Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton from 1785 asking Ambassador Lamb why Muslims feel hostile toward Christians.  Although Jefferson had a Koran in his library, he was studying it to know his enemy.  


Friedman claims there are 35 known terrorist training camps in the USA, two of which are located in California.  Muslims believe every word in the Koran because they believe it comes straight from the One God.  I thought to myself, so do fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist Jews of the Bible.  And so do Mormons of their books.  Friedman exclaims that Islam is a cult!  (I hear some Christians say the same thing about the LDS church.) 


The main message of the Koran is world domination of all non-Muslims.  Book 9, v. 29: "...fight all those who do not believe in Islam, unless they pay the tax (jizya).  Jihad is mandated in the Koran.  Allah means the One God.  Juihad means slaying Jews and Christians.  Greater jihad is an internal struggle; lesser jihad involves killing infidels.  Takiya is sacred lying in order to advance Islam. 


Friedman asks, "Can a Muslim be a trustworthy American?"  NO!  Why do we even have Muslims in the army???  The first war ever fought in the new nation was against the Barbary Pirates (Muslims).  The average IQ in the Middle East is about 70 due to inbreeding.  The Koran commands Muslims to beat their disobedient women.  (The Bible commands us to beat our disobedient children right in the town square, as well as stone to death: 1) a virgin who is raped but doesn't call out for help, 2) the rapist, 3) a homosexual, 4) someone who works on the Sabbath, 5) anyone who takes you to the house of worship of another religion, 6) anyone who even talks to you about another religion, 7) perpetrator of incest, 8) bestiality, 9) cursing your parent, 10) necromancy, 11)witchcraft, 12) snake worship, 13) child sacrifice.)  The Koran even forbids making friends with non-Muslims.  Our local judges are afraid to insult a Muslim, and therefore end up with Sharia law.  Our laws are based on the Bible.  "Hindus don't have a holy book."  Therefore, Islam and Democracy can't co-exist!  The Smith Act of 1940 makes the overthrow of the US Government a felony.  


It was offensive and crazy that they allowed Congressman Kieth Ellison to swear his oath of office on a Koran.  Friedman then conflated Congressman Ellison with a terrorists (for being Muslim), and implied that he is violating the RICO laws.  If Iraq is a Muslim nation, and our RICO laws make it illegal to aid or assist aliens into the country for the purpose of terrorism, and all Muslims are terrorists by definition, then WHAT ARE WE DOING IN IRAQ???


The Arab Spring has brought about a "peaceful revolution" in Cairo, but they have no idea what democracy is!  Especially with an IQ of 70.  "There is an unholy alliance between Liberals and Muslims in the USA.  Liberals are using Muslims to do their dirty work,"... and Muslims are exploiting the opportunity with Liberals with intention to crush them later.  


Mr. Friedman mentioned that his lecture is prohibited in UK due to the risk of inciting people to violence.  Having mentioned the Sermon on the Mount and Christ's proscription to "Love thine enemies," I asked him if he loves his enemies.  He replied, "I'm not a Christian; I'm a Jew."  I said to him that his angry tone of voice could very well incite someone to violence.  He retorted, "Well, Yeah!"  


As the lecture ended, Duane, the MOC, came up to me and asked, "Why do you even come to these meetings?  To collect dirt on us?"  I replied, "To form a massive coalition in order to restore democracy to our federal government."  But I was thinking that Duane must have a guilty conscience if he thinks there is dirt to collect at his meetings.  Certainly, these 2 hours of hate could be considered "dirt."  


The chaplain of the local prison was a member of the crowd.  After the lecture, he complemented me on my good question about loving one's neighbors.  I was surprised to see a man of the cloth in a crowd of hate mongers.  He never even said a single word to stop this tirade of hate.  He was joined by the man who says the beginning and final invocations to Jesus Christ at all these Tea Party meetings.  I asked him why he prays to Jesus Christ when not everyone in the room is a Christian.  He replied something about the father, son and holy ghost, and the holy ghost applies to everyone.  I asked how, if he is a Christian, that he could tolerate so much hate toward Muslims.  He was surprised at that question because it was so obvious to him, Muslims deserve it because they are attacking us.  And when I joked about how these Christians are always badmouthing these other Christians, he agreed that the Catholics are the anti-Christ, and the Mormons are a cult.  


Even 2 weeks after this meeting, I am still reeling from the hate fomented by Peter Friedman, and by the 30 people in that room who all agreed with him, including the chaplain and the praying Christian.