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Aliceinwonderland: I certainly concur....no more fear votes...no matter how hard they try to scare us into voting for the least evil party. Actions speak louder than campaign lies. Think of it this way...the Dem party is used by the ruling elite to keep people hopeful for change...this keeps them mollified over and over again.. to be continuously disillusioned yet not brave enough to actually do something that will make a difference. They will continually resort to emailing, writing, petitioning, or calling their congress people which just doesn't work. They will continue to go to the ballot box and vote for the liars who will end up selling them out to the ruling elite. Constantly repeating obviously ineffective actions will keep us all imprisoned in the corrupt two party scam.
So, just this morning I read that they are going to fine anyone $5000 who instigates a demonstration against fracking. Oh well, I guess safe drinking water will become a thing of the past but at least we will be able to heat our homes with the flammable gasses from our drinking water. ;-\
Kend: Wow! I just looked it up and found that the average school year in the US is only 180 days...could that be true? Only half a year? It's been a long time since I was in grade/high school but it seemed to me that we only got about 2 or 3 months off for summer vacation. Of course summer vacation is long over with and wouldn't account for the numbers of mostly teen kids I saw at 10:00am on a Friday. Although it is not an official US holiday...perhaps they took the day off for JFK 50 year assassination commemoration. The theaters were certainly expecting huge crowds as they had the show playing in many different theater rooms...one starting every half hour or so.
Marc, having just read your long post about those dreams you had, all I can say is "Wow". Seemed genuinely spiritual as well as prophetic. More and more people will be reduced to homelessness as this country continues sinking into the toilet, while the character of everyone else is put to the test. Those who have empathy for others will respond accordingly, as will those of the Ayn Randian me-first persuasion show their colors.
As to your initial resistence to the requests of those homeless guys in that first dream, what comes to mind for me is how each of us has a conflict of interests, within ourselves; a conflict which lies between our natural tendency to protect turf & boundaries, as it were (a tendency shared with many mammals besides humans), and a desire to give, to assist, to bring comfort to others in need. I think it's safe to say that anyone who isn't a psychopath has experienced some version of this.
I've not forgotten that childhood experience you had, coming to the aid of someone who had relentlessly bullied you, when a bunch of your classmates turned against him. What an incredible story that was. And an incredible person you are. Namaste'. - AIW
Says PD, in reference to health insurance: "Stick 'em up! Your money or your life!" Well now, that about says it all- doesn't it! Just so happens that sixteen or seventeen years ago while in college, for one of my wriing classes I wrote an essay about this pay-or-die, carniverous healthcare system, titled "Your Money Or Your Life". Like, deja vu. I can conservatively estimate that in the years to have passed since then, the number of preventable deaths in this country, as a direct consequence of pay-or-die, would be in the hundreds of thousands. So I say "God bless America" without apology, since this is such a uniquely American phenomenon. And quite frankly, I don't give a flip if it offends some people. We all have a right to express our opinions. Isn't that called "freedom of speech"?
Hey PD, I say all this with due respect. This part of my post (about "God bless America") isn't personal; it's not directed at you specifically. It's just how I respond to the observation that certain individuals are inclined to use "being offended" as a device to control what others do and say. It bugs me and frankly, I feel no obligation to accomodate or comply..
Anyway... it's way past my bedtime! Later alligator... - Aliceinwonderland
Wow Marc! I too am from the S.F. Bay Area, yet I knew full well that environment and the one Trayvon inhabited were worlds apart. The very perspective Mark articulates is the lens through which I viewed Zimmerman's case from the start.
Incidently, I've made good use of those links you've shared, to CNN's articles and corresponding blogs regarding that case. And you would not believe all the stupid idiots on the blogs... good god almighty... and the amount of racism! I jumped into one of the blogs to counter some of that in my usual aggressive, confrontational style. Right before doing so, I said to my husband: "Gee I wonder how many white people I can piss off!" Quite a few, apparently. One or two of them even assumed I was black. Fine with me!
What really sticks in my craw are the knee-jerk assumptions & judgments made about Trayvon; beyond that, all the whining about Affirmative Action that continues nonstop. Of course Affirmative Action is over, and has been for years. But you'd never believe it from all the bitching and whining of white individuals claiming to have been "passed over" for college admission to make room for blacks. And oh, their sense of entitlement! Simply breathtaking. - AIW
Typical mendacity, flim-flam, how does the indirect election of U.S. Senators by a state's legislature make their election more serving of a states' rights than if the state's people elect the senator? It's more serving of the elites of a state.
Christie had it right when she said the people aren't returning the proper outcomes so, in the age of Citizens United, ALEC has an initiative to return to the politicians' direct cooperation with copper barons and such.
I don't know Knight Canada's austerity program worked great our economy is doing better than any of the G20 countries. I think you might have just ended up with 16 or 17 trillion more debt.
Palin my granddaughter is in grade two and she is in class 205 days a year. that leaves a lot of days off to go to the movies.
Right on, Sarah. No argument there!
Excellent! May worker-owned co-ops blossom on every street corner. What better way to sever our ties from the Waltons and their ilk?
Oops! I should've known better. I'm fully aware of Bernie Sanders' party affiliation; Independent, not Democrat. But no matter. Personally, I don't give a flip whether a candidate is Democrat, Independent, Justice Party, Green Party... I want substance! I want a leader willing to fight for us, to push back against the oligarchs. I don't expect miracles; I know full well what we're up against; but I need to see solid evidence of that person's willingness to call out these toadies. I'm done compromising on candidates like Clinton and Obama!
While Obama ran for his first term as our president, there were three red flags that caught my attention. Early in his campaign I stumbled across an article in the Unitarian Universalist magazine in which his plans to escalate our military presence in Afghanistan was mentioned. That was Red Flag #1. Red Flag #2: learning of his endorsement of nuclear power, hardly the wave of the future.
Red Flag #3 emerged in that year's Voter Self-Defense pamphlet, put out by a non-profit organization called Project Vote Smart, an organization I've mentioned before. Anyway this group does extensive research, digging up voting records of all members of the Senate & House, on every issue imaginable. They also rate each senator for (if I remember correctly) "political courage" or something like that. It's about all senators answering "yes" or "no" to the simple question of whether they are willing to be politically transparent. To pass this courage test, a senator would have to answer "yes". And Obama, then still a senator, answered "no". Big red flag!
I pick up on these things, often without even trying, just by stumbling across information here and there. Anytime I see warning signs like this in the future, so help me, I'm sticking to my guns. No more compromises! Because look what we've got: a corporatist war-mongering bipartisan hypocrite! Barak the Betrayer, as Loren Bliss has succintly characterized him. And I'm done with that. Finished. No more fear votes for me! (Hear that, Nachos?) - Aliceinwonderland
Now that Harry Reid has used the Nuclear Option, the oposition party is up in arms. OK Reid, the only thing to do is capitulate and undo what has just been done. I expect that will take some time, almost until the next elected Republican Senate majority takes office. The Republicans of course will vote as a block to support that action based on their current stance. And they well never use that option themselves, they know it is wrong. Right?
I went to see the new movie The Hunger Games-Catching Fire today. I had to give up on the earliest 10:00am showing because the lines of school children were way too long. Is school out? Maybe they are just playing hooky or maybe it was a field trip? Anyway, it is just so suggestive of what our country is becoming...and I am looking forward to the next, perhaps 3rd part, where District 13 nukes Panem to hell... just where it belongs. I don't know if this is the actual scenario...just guessing. ;-}
Done! Thanks for the link.
As for getting on their mailing list, that's why god made email "rules", aka filters.
Aliceinwonderland: I totally agree! I'm really, really hoping Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders runs...I would gamble on either one...for sure..even if they run as Democrats. I know Bernie is not a Democrat but an Independent. It sure would be nice to shake up the system with someone other than a Republican or Democrat for a change.
How about those Obama promises that we will be out of Afghanistan by 2014...and now...it's 2024...ten more years? Hasn't that war criminal Obama done enough damage in killing innocent civilians with his drone program? And how about those promises that we will shut down US torture camps in Gitmo? Let's face it...Obama is not representing the vast majority of those who voted for him...he is representing those despicable blood money war mongers.
PD, I salute you. Much as I enjoyed my little gloating fix, I too wasn't born yesterday. And I too am bloody tired of these stuffed shirts playing chess with our lives.
If I ever vote again for a Democrat to be president, it'll be Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders; someone of that calibre. Otherwise, it's third party for me! - Alice I.W.
Marc, you are too funny. Brilliant post. - AIW
As I've reflected in my previous comments, I am glad the Dems finally grew a pair. But don't you wonder why it took so long? Don't you wonder why this has all happened just before the 2014 elections...and just before the TPP... and just two years short of Obama's final exit?
Some Dem voters are quite aware of how the two party system is a rigged game...ie: that the Dems are part of the ruse...right along with the Republicans...of pretending that we have Democracy. Those few, once Dem, voters realize that both parties are owned by the ruling elite and that they are playing Good Cop..Bad Cop...stringing us all along so that we are all going to be so very afraid of the opposite party getting elected that we will not hesitate to vote for "the least evil" one. We are being played for fools and cowards, perhaps?
So, won't it appear even more a desperate situation, with the new nuclear option, that we keep Repubs out so that we will once again let ourselves be herded down the cattle chute in voting for the least evil candidates...the ones who we all believe just grew a pair...but who are only playing the illusive game on the behalf of those who are really in power? We certainly don't want the Republicans to have the same Nuclear option if they ever get into power. So, I'm afraid that, once again, I believe that they may manage to cow us into being so very afraid that we will all continue to vote Democrat....the ruling elite's plan B...instead of taking a chance on third party candidates.
How many people are so gullible that they believe that if the Democrats had the overwhelming majority that they would actually represent those who voted for them? So far, the Dems haven't done a very good job. They use the excuse that the bad old Repubs are the reason. But I'd venture to say that this is all a ruse. The Dems won't change anything that will side with the people vs the ruling elite.
Are we all being played here...once again?
DAnneMarc: Thanks for that very interesting story of your dream. And true..while there are people like that...there are also people who would murder you in your sleep.
You hit the nail on the head tim-mccoy. The GOP will govern with majority rule - if - not when - they get the Senate back.
To think that all of that great legislation passed by Nancy Pelosi while Speaker of the House up to the Senate only to have the GOP grinder pulverize it. We could have a 16 or 17 Trillion economy plus full employment by now and laughing histerically at the silly Europeans who are dabbling with austerity!
I have signed 2 of those complimentary letter to Senator Reid. Good idea.
About a week ago - however - he called the former lieutenant governor here in Montana - who is running for the US Senate seat being vacated by Sen Baucus - and asked him to step aside in favor of the present lieutenant governor who is running for that position as well. I wrote Sen Reid that in 2006 we had a primary race between 2 good candidates - and Jon Tester won that race and beat Conrad Burns in the general election. I told Sen Reid to stop meddling in Montana politics and deal with the Republicans who have abused the filibuster over 400 times since he was the leader of the Democrats in the Senate.
Doubt that this pushed him to action - but something must have.
Laws will be representative when we have EQUAL GENDER GOVERNMENTS, all around the world. Until then women have no true rights really as all government is decided by a large majority of men.
Mark Saulys ~ I missed that comment the original time I read this blog. It is quite provocative. I had to stand in shock and think about what you had said in order for it to make any sense. Then I realized that this crime took place in the south. Very south. When it finally clicked it made perfect sense. As a poor white boy from the Bay Area this type of racism is almost unheard of. It just doesn't happen here. However, it does happen there. Thanks for the civics lesson my friend. That really opened my eyes.
Loren Bliss ~ Thanks for that link and rest assured I will get to it and the other ones this week end. You have simply been a fortune of wisdom. I can't thank you enough.
chuckle8 ~ You are most welcome. However, concerning the budget deficit--you are probably aware that Dr. Batra was referring to the deficit as a bandaid on a unreconcilable circumstance. Much like putting one's finger in the dyke. It results in the semblance of business as usual; but, all it really represents is a temporary solution before catastrophic failure. Essentially, this economy has to get a lot worse before it ever gets better. First the deficit must be reduced. (That is a foregone conclusion because perpetual debt; or, a perpetual budget deficit, is neither possible or desirable.) When the deficit tanks so will the economy. Massive layoffs, and devaluation of currency. It is out of that chaos that Dr. Batra believes that the ideal economy will emerge. An economy where the people running it have a vested interest in the long term goals of society. An economy where wages, production, and demand are all synchronized. Please correct me if I am wrong; but, that is the gist of what I got out of the interview. Perhaps if I were a Economics major--or had actually have read closely any of the Doctors books--I could expound on those observations more knowledgeably. However, from what I got, that is the whole enchilada in a nutshell. (Not a very appetising menu item--I know.) Dr. Batra--like any good teacher--did an excellent job of breaking down the fundamentals of the economy of the world in the principal language of the great Adam Smith, so that anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of Economics 101 could understand. For that reason, I place great value on this interview with Dr. Batra.