Letter to My President

14 Jun

NO on more money, soldiers, or equipment being spent on Iraq. There is no face to be saved, that childish notion was never an option. Every minute spent there only compounds the idiocy of our original transgression in 2003. Bush has definitely moved on, by what right are we still held hostage to this atrocity, why aren’t the rest of us allowed to move on? Whether we left in 2004 or left today or leave ten years from now there will be no difference in that county; women will continue to be regarded as chattel regardless of the rotation of men in power. This is the true raw measure of our irrelevance in Iraq. Despite all of our killing we’ve just been treading water in someone else’s befouled pond. Time to exit; take the usual pounding from the right wing about the resulting cataclysmic nation security failure that’s sure to come. It’s time to face the reality of our power within the universe. It’s time to get humble, go home and attempt to clean up our own abundant messes.

We can start with a job for me. I am 67 years old, worked damn hard all of my life, was laid off almost three years ago, cannot afford to retire, mortgage not paid off, have burnt through all but a few thousand dollars of my savings. These are the “Golden Years” American style. My daughter is 32 years old, was laid off four years ago, back living with me. Unemployment long since gone for both of us. I still send out resumes frequently, sometimes get phone interviews, occasionally get a face to face interview. Face to face interview from last week . . . was told they received thirty resumes for the one position, they granted interviews to only three applicants. I got one of those interviews but not the job. And my country’s priority is to dump obscene amounts of money into the black hole known as Iraq and Afghanistan, eh, to keep me safe. Hoorah.

Instead of sending me back a flowery form letter how about sending me a job, I live in the San Francisco area.

Power To The People.

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Bergdahl: A Dessenting Opinion

4 Jun

Of course for all of us millions that weren’t there we don’t know the specifics yet of what took place for Bergdahl on June 30, 2009. News reports say that he left his assigned Forward Operating Base before he was scheduled to go on guard duty that date. His FOB appears to have been Sharana, if so, not a mere hill or ditch running through the landscape. If so, the Sharana photos look like there would have been more than one soldier on guard duty at any given time. Negative news reports say that Bergdahl deserted his post implying that he was on active guard duty and just walked away leaving the FOB exposed to attack. Did the soldier that Bergdahl was to replace desert his position before his replacement arrived? On this date, per the Army logs, was there ever a period of time when the designated number of guards were not on duty?

By all reports so far it would seem that Bergdahl resigned. The military of course calls it desertion; the working world calls it resigning. He shed his soldier stuff, guns, rifles, and then quit the soldier job. It happens thousands of times every day in America, people max out, lay down their building keys, office card keys, ID badges, etc. and quit the job that has become literally intolerable to work. The job Bergdahl was working was far worse than most jobs we give the boot to here at home and the consequences of quitting he faced as a result were staggering.

Oddly enough through the negative reporting there hasn’t been any mention of his being a fearful person, a man afraid of dying. That is his reasons for resigning so far as reported don’t seem to have anything to do with the classic fear of dying on the battlefield of war. Many already have started calling him a coward but from what was he cowering? He left unarmed, figuratively naked into a severely hostile environment with possibly his only asset being the power of his clearing conscience. People may not agree with his reasons for quitting or his timing but he can never be accused of quitting for profit.

So called leaders do start wars for profit and for the personal acquisition and sensation of power. And some soldiers slowly discover the lies wars are built on. Understandably they become disillusioned over time and a few, like Bowe Bergdahl, act upon what has been discovered before their tour is over. Per the war masters most of the disillusioned have the good grace to finish out the macabre contract and quietly kill themselves when they get home.

Those in the country who blood lust for a court martial regarding the six soldiers that died searching for the guy that left the war; let them start instead with the guys that told the enormous lies to launch the wars, Bush, Chaney, Rumsfeld et. al. And in the charges don’t stop with these six that lost their lives, add on the thousands of US military personnel dead over the decade of these wars and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghani people dead from our wars. Unfortunately, as the collective American psyche operates chances are that once home Bergdahl will have a miserable life and Bush, Chaney, and Rumsfeld will continue their’s in great comfort. This scenario is the cowardice.

Power To The People

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Racism Alive and Well

23 May

Many people try hard to say that racists such as Cliven Bundy and Donald Sterling are an aberration.  That all is ok in America now, really; after all we have the black president now, twice actually, so it must be true, racism must be dead in America.  What is true is that in the last two presidential elections enough non-racist Americans of all races voted and fortunately outnumbered the racists that voted.  Certainly not the same as racism is in the past.  One only has to look at gerrymandering to see the current strength of racism and bigotry in America.  There doesn’t seem to be much debate, republicans do have the smaller party, yet they totally dominate the House.  Despite getting fewer popular votes in the last election, because of gerrymandered districts they maintained control of the House.  If you contort the districts to concentrate the bigots and dilute the non-bigots in the correct proportions you can steal the prize, it’s math not democracy.  Not very honorable but then honor is not the objective; power, control, and ultimately money is the objective.  Regardless of district manipulations it still takes a real boat load of bigots to pull this off; a handful of left-overs from a mythical by-gone era won’t cut it.  Republicans understand well the potential inherent in bigotry.  They already have the rich folks but to stack the numbers they really need they cultivate these bigots like sand in oysters. And bigots are an easy mark; they are so consumed with their hate for the “others” that they can even be openly lead to vote against their own self interests.  And the media really needs to stop referring to these congressional republicans as ideologues.  It’s dishonest and makes them (the media) complicit in promoting the scam.  Call them what they are, hard core strategists protecting their individual revenue streams for as long as they possibly can.   This is classic hair on the knuckles.  The country be damned, the constituents be damned, it’s business, it’s about staying flush.   I get it, I wish I was flush.  Now if we were to follow the logic of black president = racism dead  we would have to conclude that if Hillary wins the presidency then wife/girlfriend beatings in the US will cease and desist, that girls and women will no longer be sold into sex slavery in the US, that pay for women will no longer be less than that of a man, blah, blah, blah.  

Power To The People

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Duck Dynasty

23 Dec

Christians: generally the worst messengers of god and christ. The bible was written by men. Right there, men are not characteristically the best messengers of the heart, women are. First and foremost jesus, by legend a supreme being not a man, spoke from the heart. The bible in all its iterations is what a bunch of guys thought, fantasized and said a couple of thousand years ago. And likewise a whole bunch of other guys have tweaked it over the ensuing centuries to further their own mortal agendas. The bible is a 100% faith based publication. You can’t prove that god or jesus said anything at all that is attributed to them in that book. The party line is that these men, the original propagators and the tweakers, were either inspired by god or jesus to speak doctrine or even better yet they claim that god or jesus actually spoke to them. Enter the faithful. I once asked a Jehovah Witness that approached me with the book if he would believe me if what I was about to tell him was truly a bonafide inspiration from god. He smiled sweetly and said no. I asked him why not and he just smiled nervously again, dodged the question, hit the reset button and resumed the party doctrine. Within any so called christian community if I were to repeatedly insist that god or jesus was speaking to me directly, using me as a mouth piece, I would be put on Halaperidol or Thorazine and moved into “the system”. It is unfortunate that christians can’t just get with the spirit of jesus and drop kick the book of man. This new pope would like to get there but he too has a hard time retiring the book. And sadly, even if he were so inclined his crew would never allow it; he would be muzzled and put to pasture tout suite. Actually, he better watch himself. Contrary to popular catholic lore the pope is not the head of the church, the institution is the head of the church and the pope is a sentimental suggestion. If Phil Robinson was really as tough and hard boiled as he sells himself on TV he would walk naked with jesus, no biblical safety net just the raw spirit of jesus.

Power to the People

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Syria

11 Sep

It takes great discipline and strength to say no to military action, especially if you wield the biggest stick. Like Hollywood starlets we need to stop reading our own press, it’s poisoning our character and compromising our security. We need to put our ego in check; Jesus the Savior we are not we lack the purity of heart. Beneath the propaganda our choices of who to “save” have been self-serving; one doesn’t have to look any further than the civil war in Sudan. Two million dead, lots and lots of dead children, where was our divine intervention then? With our appetite for manipulation our military should be reserved exclusively for our defense. Any foreign use of our military should actually really require congressional approval. Calling these wars police actions, conflicts, and proportionate strikes (to name a few) is a deliberate evasion of the Constitution. The Constitution – Article I, Section 8 Congress shall have the power to declare war . . . . . . Requiring congressional action should put an end to war right there. And we also need to stop doing a Madison Avenue on these war ventures trying to pass them off as BS preemptive Homeland security measures. The best preemptive security program we could employ is one of clean living, leading by example (starting with fair voting rights), lots of well thought out foreign aid, educating and training people in relevant fields and then sending them back to their countries to help build strong US friendly nations, refusing to trade with ass hole nations regardless of the economic down side for the US, and remaining open to dialog to name a few.

A fool proof acid test . . . . . If, as a result of military action, you can’t definitively measure an increased liberation, power, and autonomy of the women in the region then the action has been an obscene waste of blood and money; it has been covertly orchestrated solely for the base purpose of material advantage and/or ego gratification. This is not a test because women are more important than men, it’s a test because consistently women’s status within a society is an unequivocal marker of its evolution. Like it or not this is just the way it is, everywhere. Don’t kid yourself, to “free” a man only to have him continue a sanctioned practice of oppressing women is no victory at all. This cannot be finessed into a feel good ending. To rationalize that one human’s freedom must come first before another’s can eventually someday in the future somehow follow is pure crap; a patriarch’s prescription for never. If Assad and his men win the civil war will there be no more child brides? If the Opposition men win the civil war will there be no more honor killings? From a female perspective this exercise is all just so much political masturbation.

Power to the People

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Racism and Obama

24 Jul

Largely I don’t see what Obama can do to reduce racism. Racism is a disease of the heart and mind. It’s nurtured so early in childhood in the family home, in school, in the neighborhood, in the social settings that parents drag their kids to, even church. It’s reinforced throughout the years. Peer pressures can compound it further in the teenage years. Etc, etc. However, there are things that would help . . . . .

Federal legislators should work tirelessly to pass laws that standardize anti-discrimination behavior throughout all the states. They should not be satisfied with the federal laws that are already on the books but ones (for example) related to voting rights, and gerrymandering, etc., etc. Not only can the states not be trusted to do the right thing, they have no right to choose discriminatory practices in the first place. This whole notion of States’ Rights as a holy untouchable concept is such crap. Back when the Constitution was penned one can understand the need they saw for a Senate structured as they wrote it but things have changed (for example) populations are extremely mobile now unlike back then and the Senate no longer is the guardian of the minority it is now ruled by the minority through the filibuster. If the main function of the Senate has, in reality, morphed into preserving a State’s “culture” then we’re now operating like the Sunnis and Shiites. Additionally, through gerrymandering the House in no way represents the will of the people; again it is ruled by the minority. Abolishing the stacked decks through legislation could not cure racism but it would help make racism harder to practice.

Then there is commerce. Certainly corporations don’t want black and brown co-mingling with their daughters but they don’t mind at all having black and brown dollars co-mingling with their investments. People who are discriminated against must realize the tremendous value and power of their collective wealth. Overwhelmingly corporations have no loyalty to white when it comes to profit. Negative impact on the bottom line sends intolerable pressure through the system. The 1955 Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott seriously impacted not only the bus company financially but the shop keepers of Montgomery as well. This year we saw business interests such as the California Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers pressure the GOP to switch-up and pass immigration reform because businesses want the cheap labor. Currently this is a huge resource that goes untapped in any meaningful way.

Another is the already “browning of America”. This cannot be stopped and cannot be reversed. We are not a nation of just one race, or two races or three races. As far as I know we are the most racially, culturally, religiously, etc. diverse country on the planet. What are the chances that we’re going to give up our highly developed palate for multi-national cuisine? No way, even places like Texas and Wyoming have Thai restaurants. Also extremely important is the birth of inter-racial babies, this cannot be over emphasized. The more bi-racial citizens inhabiting the neighborhoods of America the more racism will suffocate. Praise Jesus. This is a long term process but so goes the definition of evolution.

Power to the People

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Veterans and the Draft

2 Jun

I hold a minority view with regard to our most current veterans. Although I marched/protested against the obscene Vietnam War in the 60s and early 70s I have since donated money to Vietnam Veteran organizations because those veterans were overwhelmingly drafted, poor, and disproportionately people of color. Today’s veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are all volunteers. Now in this blindly patriotic goo that the nation wallows in I have to be very careful to preface my minority opinion with the sincere wish that no harm come to any military personnel or veterans. I wish them the same peace and good life that I wish anyone. However, I do not thank these veterans for the “job” they have done. I did not ask them to aid and abet Bush and posse in starting these latest obscene wars. The Bush/Chaney/Rumsfeld wars could never have been consummated without these people that volunteered to do their bidding. They have not made the world safer for me and my love ones; they have increased the danger. Since these wars were launched the number of people hating Americans has only multiplied. I wave no flag; they did not serve to protect my freedom nor democracy, they served to massage the egos of megalomaniacs and fatten the coffers of corporate America. I am profoundly sorry for the bad choice these veterans made, the gangs they joined, the death and destruction they dispensed in my name, the invisible target they’ve helped pin on my back. It’s illogical for Progressives to be against wars born out of an obscene set of lies and likewise glorify those who executed it even if you consider them unwitting pawns. Obviously, as with any contract, this country should expeditiously honor any commitments made to military people at the time of their induction, however, to parade them, to exalt them as heroes, is nuts. That kind of thinking only muddies the waters; it’s a closeted co-sign of the wars themselves; it’s Progressives not wanting to take heat. One way to slow this whole pathology down to a crawl is to reinstate the Draft. But not just the Draft in its old form, no amp it up, raise the age limit (not all people have to serve on the battlefield), include women, include of age students, include folks with really good jobs, rich people as well as middle class people (in this country the poor people are already a given), handicapped people (yes handicapped people don’t have to be on the battlefield to contribute skills). Citizens should have to be truly too old or seriously too messed up in order to get an exemption from the Draft. All Draft selections and exemptions should be considered a fully open public record with draftee’s names, counties, names of Draft board members, and reasons for exemptions. Boy wouldn’t that be fun.

Power to the People

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Separation of Church and State

27 Oct

What can we do to bring evangelicals in touch with the spirit of Jesus? How can we help Christian Americans at least attempt to walk in the shoes of Jesus? Clearly Jesus was not a rules man; he was a fearless man of the heart. How can we give the born again folks the courage to unclench that book and instead embrace Jesus? These are truly a people whose hearts need to be thawed out and set free. God knows, US Christians really need to be educated about their scary kinship to Islamic extremists. These two groups are the heads and tails of the same radioactive coin.

Or, maybe forget that futile task; maybe it’s just time to man up and kick the Christians out of Congress . . . . . return to the intended secular government. You know, all that Founding Fathers rah rah that so many Americans are fond of citing, such as . . . . . December 1791 Bill of Rights: Amendment I: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Of course this amendment guarantees that members of Congress as well as the electorate can be card carrying members of any flavor belief system that suits their fancy, even the equally legitimate beliefs of the agnostics and atheists; however it is firmly stated, folks in Congress can make no law that establishes a religion, that includes segments of a religion as well, an in-utero or procreation segment for example. Regardless, there is a lot of that going on these days. Lots of God said this and Jesus said that according to today’s Christian law makers. This is willful distain and discard of Constitutional intent. It’s a stealth, arrogant “father knows best” attempt, through legislation, to put one religious group in power over the rest of the citizens. If members of Congress can’t put together a simple argument based on merit without invoking God and his posse then the argument is inherently suspect and ultimately unlawful. Laws crafted out of a Christian belief system are an unlawful imposition of a religion on any citizen with a different belief system. A citizen does not have to belong to a popular religious club in order to have responsible, moral standards in life or in law making. Example . . . . Everyone in the country is against child molestation regardless of a religious preference or atheist persuasion with the exception, of course, of the pedophiles and as we have learned some of them go to church regularly. We don’t need scripture from any organization for us to want and create anti-pedophile legislation.

If millions and millions of Americans can be mega taxed and made complicit in an enormous killing war machine that they vehemently oppose on moral grounds (regardless of religious affiliation or abstention) then why should specific Christian dogma be favored for special consideration/treatment in any legislative process?

Power to the People

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Our Stupid Commitment in the Middle East

23 Oct

The Jewish people of the Middle East are no ally of the US. By definition allies make collaborative decisions based on what is best for every group within the alliance, however, the Jewish people of the Middle East make decisions based solely on what they think is in their best interest. They justify that their horrendous past suffering has bought them an exemption from this tenet. Regardless of decades of US support, enormous financial support, enormous enough to be a detriment to our own vital domestic needs; political support that has alienated us from most of the rest of the world and put us at risk; support without which the Jewish people of the Middle East could not ignite and win (whatever that means) the next disgusting war; the Jewish people of the Middle East, without hesitation, are willing to throw the US under the bus. This is being punked; in this regard we are a chump nation. We are the rodeo clown chasing the bull.

Unfortunately the Jewish people of the Middle East are no different than hundreds of other groups through out time that worship old scraps of paper but learn nothing from their own devastating history. As most groups do, they have foolishly chosen instead to wrap themselves in wrath, self-righteousness, and entitlement. They then take their political Viagra religiously and beat the crap out of some other group. Where’s the evolution in that?

Perhaps we are emotionally unable to reject the position of the Jewish people of the Middle East because we can’t help but identify with their invasion and domination some 60+ years ago of a faraway land and people, just like we did here with the indigenous people of the East coast. Or, perhaps we just need to seriously invest in alternative domestic sources of energy.

We do need to end all support for the Jewish people of the Middle East and finally keep the money at home to help repair our education system, our infrastructure, our unemployment, et al. We need to publically disconnect from the Jewish people of the Middle East before they drag us into yet another immoral blood sucking financially crippling war, this time with nutso Iran for God sakes. Just as an aside, how are the Iranians going to drop an Atomic bomb on the Jewish people of the Middle East without killing a ton of their Muslim brethren too? Not sure how well that would be received in the neighborhood. The Jewish people of the Middle East, like all of us, need to learn to get along with their neighbors. This is the neighborhood that they supplanted themselves into some 60+ years ago. It’s plain, their neighbors are numerous and not Jewish, these neighbors of theirs are ancient and not going away; and most of these neighbors are fabulously wealthy. Most importantly, these neighbors also have their own old scraps of paper that; likewise, they mindlessly worship and vigorously wave as the absolute word of their God. Stalemate. If the Jewish people of the Middle East can’t learn to get along with their neighbors then they sew their own fate, just like all of us. If force and aggression are the only arrows in their quiver then they are not as smart as we’ve credited them with. If the word of their God is the sum total of their title to real estate then they are doomed by their own arrogance. As with all of us, eventually it boils down to pulling the poker out of our asses regardless of our history. The truth is that none of us is chosen beyond anyone else.

Power to the People

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Uncertainty My Ass

19 Oct

There’s a nasty myth being promoted by the right wing, being heavily circulated and co-signed by the media, and going undisputed by elected democrats.

This is the myth that businesses are hoarding dollars on their Balance Sheets and refusing to hire because the poor darlings are wrought with uncertainty about the economy. Pure crap.

First, with regard to the campaigns: both republicans and democrats have been falling all over each other with vows to maintain or exceed existing aids for businesses (such as tax breaks) and promises to create additional ones (such as reduced or revised regulations). Assurances that businesses are held as a protected class abound and are well advertised. By all, businesses are currently being touted as the very saviors of the America way of life. A business owner, big or small, would have to be brain dead to have missed these positive and well disseminated pledges.

Second where’s the need, just for example, to make capital expenditures when the margin can simply be grown by squeezing the workforce? This is not just people being replaced by automated machinery or computers, this is people being laid off in droves and the remaining work force made to do their work too with no additional compensation; doing it just for the privilege of remaining employed (for now). Albeit lazy, this is hardly a revolutionary approach to growing margin and collecting bonus. Laying people off is a hell of lot easier than hustling market share . . . . margin remains steady or even increases, where’s the uncertainty in that?

This “uncertain economic future” ruse has been cultivated to both explain away increased profits while keeping the work force in a constant state of gratitude for having even the crappiest jobs. Workers are afraid to take sick days, afraid to take vacation days, afraid to take lunch hours, and above all, afraid to complain about anything. Hoorah.

Power to the People

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