Colin Powell's Party

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olin Powell's candid statement exposing the blatant racism of the Republican party is a bold step forward. Bravo, sir!  Referring to the president as "shuckin' and jivin'" is indeed deeply and perversely racist.  As Powell points out the term is a holdover from the heinous days of slavery.  The slavery economy, the time when an entire country's system was based on white men making money selling other men into so abject a condition that they were valued not as men at all, but as lower than a horse.  A dog had more freedom.

This alone, makes me ashamed of my American background.  I am glad to see that my people arrived in this country from Ireland some time after the Civil War.

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Powell is correct.  Racism is indeed, despicable.  And yet while he criticizes the GOP, there is nothing in him which would reject Republicanism.  He cites the fact that his father and grandfather were Republicans.  

So what?

I grew up with a grandmother who hated FDR so badly that one could not bring up the name in her presence without it being noted that you were asking for trouble.  My mother voted for Reagan.  I had a very difficult time forgiving her for that.  Wouldn't even speak to her for several years. 

Not until she lay dying.  

If I could overcome all of that sort of Republicanism then surely Colin Powell, who has achieved so much more in this world than I.  I am a zero.  Powell is a giant.  So what is stopping him from doing the right thing. Namely, walk away from the Republican party.  It isn't what you think it is.  The GOP is now the cradle of more corruption than Powell can imagine.  Dishonorable men, altogether.  Liars, frauds, war mongers and mediocrities.  And proud of it!

Just as I overcame the Roman Catholic Church's indoctrination.  Granted, I still love a great cathedral.  I just don't buy the doctrines, dogma and all the rest of the crap from the Roman Church.  The Inquisition was reason enough for the Church to cease its existence and if it were in any way a decent religion it would have recognized its gross error and walked away from all spiritual claims.  In my view, the Roman Church has just a little too much compassion for itself.    

And as for Republicanism:  Well, let me simply say to Colin Powell, this:: 

"When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas." ▀

  

From Decadence to Dust

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ecent readings confirm for me --- as if it needed saying yet again, --- that a civilization in which each person works only for him or her self, with no regard for the common good, is headed in one and only one direction:

Decadence unto Death.

So much for the culture of selfishness and greed.

The great American architect Frank Lloyd Wright put it best.  Wright's observation went like this:

America is the only country in recorded history to go from primitive to decadent with no discernible intervening culture.

So where did we go wrong?

Well, here is a nice little word for you:  COMPASSION.  Chew on that one for a while.  Take your time.  Chew thoroughly.

Compassion is the only mode or path by which a civilization may survive.

I am not talking about Compassion as a nice little extra which may or may not enter the fabric of culture according to the whim of the individual.  Quite the contrary.  Without compassion as the outstanding characteristic of any given culture, it will fail sooner rather than later.  Such a culture does not have a chance.
History is filled with fallen civilizations. Indeed lost civilizations are more the rule than not. Even the longest lasting and highest achieving civilizations such as Egypt, China, and India, which recorded history for 4,000 years each, eventually fell to decadence.  And from decadence to dust.

And those are just the civilizations which lasted long enough to be recorded or to leave behind a record of their passing.  It seems the only destination of any human civilization.

If you want to make war, or exploit a people, go right ahead but keep in mind that you will ultimately fail.  Or if you don't fail you will lead your tribe into failure.  It is written in the DNA of Selfishness and Greed.

Medieval Christianity was correct in naming GREED as one of the 7 DEADLY SINS.

Rome, and Byzantium had their heyday and then got mired in excess.  Greed, Gluttony, Slavery, led them into decadence.  In fact, those are a few of the very qualities of decadence.

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Milton Friedman was one of the most influential economists of the latter 20th Century.  Friedman came out of the Chicago School of Economics, at the University of Chicago, when the department was headed by one Friedrich von Hayek, who, himself, came out of the so-called Austrian School.  Friedman was so important an economist, hawking as he did, Capitalism with a big C.

One of Donahue's questions had to do with Greed.  Friedman came back quick and asked Donahue "Do you know anybody who isn't greedy, Phil?"  And when Donahue had no quick and easy answer,  Friedman followed it up with this:  "Of course you don't. Greed is a universal human trait. And everybody has it." Friedman touted greed as if it were a virtue to be cultivated.  

But history has posted its warning over and over again.  Now America must choose which path it wants to take.  The naked greed of Wall Street and the oppression from the Fascism which comes naturally from all the wealth being held by 1% of 1% of the population.  And really the proportion is considerably smaller.

Or shall we rise up as a people, nobly and with honor.  And say with Thom Hartmann, you may have One Billion Dollars BUT, you may not have more than One Billion Dollars.  Period.

NSA, Fascism, and Right Wing Media

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hat is most disturbing about the National Security Agency revelations which we have as a result of Edward Snowden's heroic stance as a whistleblower,  is the fact that the people of America just don't seem to give a damn.  They seem to be living in fear of another 9/11 terrorist attack.  They have been groomed by high priced Public Relations (PR) firms and ad agencies.  What those tools of conservative thought did not do the think tanks and right wing media did.  If you should mention the gravity of the situation, say at a wine and cheese neighborhood get-together, such as in my neighborhood, you will see people suddenly look over your shoulder and excuse themselves the better to greet a long lost friend.    

But here's the point:  all of the evidence gathered from the WTC ruins point to a false flag inside job.  And when anybody of importance steps forward to point this out publicly, all of the mainstream media suddenly pile on him to try to make him or her look like a nutcase.  

So the real conspiracy is right there in plain sight:  Why does media persist in trying to make anybody who steps up with hard evidence look trivial, ridiculous or worse, insane?  Traitorous, even!  

I can think, offhand, of some very good reasons.  They are reasons nobody even in liberal media wants to spell out, though the evidence points overwhelmingly in one direction. Namely, that since the right wing media (and it is all or 98% of it, right wing media.  This bullshit fable of Liberal Media, while once true, is now a myth used by Right Wingers to fight off charges of treason.  

Very quietly, first Reagan, then GHW Bush, and then GW Bush castrated the FCC.  George W Bush placed Colin Powell's son as its Chairman; of which there is no more loyal Right Wing extremist!) So the Right Wing marched in and said all media can be owned by whoever wants to buy it.  Whereas originally, one could only own one or two sources of media in a single community, now you can own it all.  

But not so fast!  

The Right Wingers snapped it all up during that window known as the Bush administration.  And that is why Warren Buffet famously has said that "...America is definitely engaged in class warfare..." 

And his side is winning.  

Actually, the one percent has already won! 

And all of the owners and publishers of media, The Suits, are members of the Tribe of Righties.  They know all about the who, what, why, and where, in fact, responsibility for 9/11 and more, much more, lies. 

But they are keeping mum.  

For at least the next 50 years.  

You know how it goes.  Now, after more than fifty years some real information is leaking out about the JF Kennedy and Robert Kennedy assassinations, as well as the death of Lee Harvey Oswald, and Jack Ruby, not to mention Sirhan Sirhan, and even the CIA agents who were photographed at each of those assassinations.  It is also true that such information can be found on the Internet.  Now do you begin to understand why Comcast, and Verizon and any of the large corporations are so hell bent on acquiring the exclusive ownership of the Internet?  

Today, all American based multinational corporations are Fascistic in their corporate culture.  Big Agra, Big Pharma, Big Oil, Coal, and so on.  All of them are anti-American liars!  Oh, yes, Fox News!  Populated entirely by LIARS!  I will talk more about Fox's disposition toward lying outright, bald faced lying.  And makes no bones about it!  They lie the way you drink coffee in the morning.  Of course, they are owned by one Rupert Murdoch, who, although one of the worst criminals in the world, is still strolling the boulevards and most likely will never be brought to trial.  Rupert Murdoch has powerful protectors in Congress.  

Newt Gingrich is one of Rupert Murdoch's most ardent protectors.

After observing the scene for many years I can only conclude that the entire right wing conservative movement is nothing more than a collection of pirates, liars, murderers and traitors.

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The Koch Brothers Exposed

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hanks to LINK TV I finally have gotten to watch the Koch Brothers Exposed documentary.  And it is now understandable as to why they wanted it blocked on PBS.

These are very bad people.

Their father made his money in Russia in the 30's with the help of Stalin.  So to start with, the Kochs are
anti-America.  It is fair to say that everything that is wrong with America right now, all the negative reports about Obamacare, all the climate denier reports, the fracking, is the result of  deliberate campaigning by the think tanks formed by the traitorous brothers.  Everything you have heard about the buying and selling of the United States Congress, your senator and representative --- and mine ---  is all due to the heinous activity of the Koch brothers.  And they have not stopped at the Congress, the 2 now entertain the radical conservative elements of the Supreme Court.

Parasites.

Hanging is too good for them.

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he interesting thing to me about the latest move by Senate Dems in using the "Nuclear Option" is the pundits reaction.  Dana Milbank's column today is "Yes, but...yes, but" all over the place.  Milbank acknowledges the Republican atrocities but can't quite forgive the Dems going all the way to changing the rules.

There is an old but notorious joke which my brother brought back from Mississippi's U of M where he went to school.  Seems there's a little black man minding his own business and a bunch of white crackers come along and begin to harass him.   Finding he does not respond to their abuse, they challenge him to a fight. After some time he finally agrees, very quietly, to fight against their champion who turns out to be twice his size.  They bet big money on their guy and against the small black guy.  The crackers are smiling wide as the white bully advances.  But the black man lashes out and with one punch knocks the big guy clean out.  He turns to the white men and asks for his winnings.  But the crackers yell, "No, no, that wasn't enough. We really meant two out of three times." and stuff like that.

This second match they tie the black man's hands behind his back and then sound the bell.  As the giant approaches, the black man, left with only one defense, kicks the giant in the cajones and the guy falls to the ground convulsing.  The black man hops over to the white crackers and asks for his winnings; but once again the whiteys scream and yell and demand one more fight.

This time they bury the black man in the ground up to his neck and pack the ground tight.  Then instead of a white man they release 6 mad dogs to run at the black man's head.  But as the dogs run up to him he somehow is able to bite each of the dogs' testicles clean off and all of the dogs whimper and die.  But the white men keep their distance and shake their fists, yelling, "Fight Fair, Niggah!"

If you guessed that the white crackers represent the Republicans you would be getting my meaning..        

fter years of consideration, meditation and deepest mentations, I must at last, if I am to be honest, say that the GOP and the values of the vast majority of its adherents, admirers who so self-identify with its principles that they count themselves as one among many, beings afflicted with the painful conditions of poverty, and addiction, just as the poor do; in fact, the poor are so confused by their own lack of information, despite plenty of opportunities for access to important information which might bring happiness that they constantly walk this path harming themselves unable to stop.

Certainly they are not possessed of happiness now, and have little chance of finding it.  They are like beings who are tortured by so deep an itch that when they come to their moment of wealth, instead of enjoying it, they scratch the itch in so frenzied a manner (which in itself leaves little opportunity for and peace and joy.) But instead, the poor and the wealthy alike are fed wrong information by the moneyed conservativeist purview, who are the root cause of all problems on earth.

The problem is that in lifetime after lifetime they never find happiness and have no way of handling their misery other than with overindulgence.  Much as one would like to have compassion for them the reality is that drag down civilization.  Having accrued large amounts of wealth, they feel it is their right to therefore wreak their own reflection on the planet.  Unhappily their reflections are ugly and devoid of grace and goodness.

When most our paths have been smoothed, especially by wealth, based on what we know of samsara, or the Matrix, the smoother the pathway the more rot is crumbling the roadway from underneath, even as we travel.

So what is the answer?

As the Buddha said:
Stop doing evil.
Do only what is good.

And do not think that because you wish to do good things that the Universe will let you.  No.  It takes a million small things, before you are allowed near the big things.  Until they fully understand the terror of their situation they will continue to avoid it --- until one day they die and all of that energy goes to the moon.

SSI & Transitioning from Type Zero Civilization to Type One

e need to expand Social Security and not reduce it, nor privatize it so that Wall Street criminals who wait like jackals can devour it.  President Obama seems always ready to cut Social Security before the Republican Leadership even asks for it.  

He puts it right on the table.  

If he does it even one more time, I, for one, will be happy to see him impeached.  He seems always ready to dance to the tune of the War Profiteers.  (Doesn't anybody see war profiteering as a bad thing anymore?) The Military Industrial Complex is an abomination.  And those work work there need to seek more gainful employment.  Otherwise, they, too, the little guys are enemies of humanity.  

They are pawns in the corporate zero sum game of backward looking exploitation of planetary resources. They are why we live in what is now being called the Type Zero Civilization and the little guys who work for them are willingly participating in the ruination of this planet for all time.  

Renowned scientist Michio Kaku, who has written extensively popularizing advanced ideas in physics, discusses, in the video below, the three major stellar civilizations. What is a Type One Civilization; a Type Two Civilization through Type Three Civilization?  And where do we here on this planet fit in?  

Our global civilization exploits our own natural resources a million times faster than they can be replaced.  

We are therefore a Type Zero Civilization.  

We are not even close to being a Type One Civilization.

Please play the video and listen carefully as Kaku discusses the various stellar and interstellar civilizations. You will begin to see how today's orgy of greed for money and power is not merely holding back this country, but is criminally endangering our planet and destroying humanity's bid for survival.  

It is obvious that such an accomodation as Social Security is actually a step along the way toward the transition from a near-jungle mentality which some are pleased to call civilization here on earth, to a Type One Civilization.  And so is Solar Energy, Wind Power, Geothermal energy, and the like.  And the consumption of natural resources such as oil and coal for burning to create energy are a fool's way to a destitute planet.  

This old school animalistic King of the Hill, chest beating, sort of civilization is a long ago worn out model worthy only of being dropped into the sewer of the legion of already dead planets.

Take, for example, a criminal outfit such as BP who has already fouled one previously beautiful ocean, not to mention the other oil and gas and coal corporations, and tell me why they are they not in jail?  I know the usual answer.  They are the rich and powerful corporations; and people like me are considered outsiders --- to say the least, if not total lunatic fringe, wishing for Utopia.  

The problem is that there isn't any more time to waste indulging the conservatives their ancient and not very satisfactory vision of civilization.  We are so much closer to extinguishing the possibility of human life surviving on this planet than conservatives can imagine.  They think there is all the time in the world and even if we do fuck things up badly and we already have done, some ingenious soul of a scientist or conservative engineer will come along and fix everything.  

This is a foolish Utopian dream.

The time has arrived for the visionaries to step forward.  Only they can lead humankind into a sustainable  future.         

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Expand Social Security infographic via Democracy for America