Off the wall … Over the top … Out of bounds … and across some lines …
In the Age of Trumpery …
Trump supporters are now insulting me for opposing all things that their man does because I'm now blinded by bias. Good grief. I've thought he was an arrogant creep for many years before his ill-fated presidency. Such a statement impugns my critical thinking, my logical mind, and character.
Truth is, if he ever does or says anything I agree with, I now feel obligated to leap in its support. But I don't expect he will ever do that. He lives is a psychotic bubble and is not likely to do anything smart at all. He has now totally alienated most all of Central and South America, and the National Football League and all professional athletes at almost the same time. He can’t even express condolences to the widow of a fallen soldier without seeming to be a self-serving idiot.
The bubble will soon burst and I will remain a critical thinker. I’ve been fighting against bias all my life.
It is my view that after many years of political science courses in our universities -- we practically invented the term -- that Americans have failed utterly, a complete F, for electing a man with little character and no qualifications. F.
What other education subjects are we failing -- reading, writing, arithmetic? We can't generate clear thoughts much less express them on paper. We can't balance or understand our interest-bearing finances and wind up deep in debt, and slaves to our jobs in order to pay interest. Maybe Americans are failing a lot of subjects.
But we are good at conjuring up conspiracy theories ...
We are now in the process of building another wing in the Conspiracy Theory Towers. Some will now believe nothing they are told about the Las Vegas shooting by "them" and will imagine a new truth and find the grainy video or phone call record to prove it. Actually, assassins most often work alone, but usually their connections help the theorists develop some kind of amorphous conspiracy that puts them in the all-knowing ‘know’ while others believe the lies.
Here’s the thing. We must learn to beware of people who love guns and have grown up with the acrimony that so many live in their hearts and minds. Living with one's own contemptuous bile often explodes into infamy. We are never taught to love one another in our system, and that should start with birth and on into kindergarten and into all elements of our education system, forever and always.
Jesus said ‘love one another’ and that’s the magic key for everyone. Alas, we can’t find the lock.
“Motive? He don’t need no stinkin’ motive.”
There is plenty to discern from the Las Vegas tragedy, but no one's eyes seem to be open. Consider these things.
America provides no protection to its people against homicidal maniacs but it does allow them to have all the firearms they want. It's good for business and the NRA buys all the politicians it can.
We could also see the carnage caused by one man and ask ourselves if military style combat weapons have a place at the corner gun store, or even in hunting. They are intended to kill people and we sell them willy-nilly in a country full of innocent people who just want to feel safe.
We might also note that just about all of the concert goers and country music entertainers are GOP gun rights people, hunters and Obama haters, so the tragedy of this is ironic.
We might also consider the bankrupt idea that armed people can stop this kind of thing. No way.
We could also see that it is madness for a gun store to supply this kind of arsenal to one man without blinking an eye. And we can see that background checks won't stop such killers, many of whom have never been flagged before.
We might also consider that the 2nd amendment was essentially to allow citizen militias to organize under law and protect the fledging country against the pissed-off Brits or Indians or whatever. President Washington didn't want a standing army at the time. Citizen militias helped put down the Whiskey Rebellion. The law was not intended to protect gun nut radicals who hate the government and repudiate all authority in favor of their arrogant, ignorant selves. Gun ownership should be a privilege, not a right.
So should voting since Americans have proven they can elect a president who is unqualified in every possible way. Lots of food for thought going around ... Let's also consider that there is no reason on earth for anyone to try and disappear a second shooter, and no evidence that he was linked to anyone else. Loners do a great majority of killings and there's no need to spring up a conspiracy theory around them.
And finally ..... what are the motives? No mystery at all. It's personal contempt and acrimony that many people harbor in their hearts and minds. They don't give a crap about anybody but themselves. Know anybody like that? They probably own guns.
Monuments … Symbols … Reality …
Americans are quick to fight over symbols but they rarely confront the realities behind them, or even understand what they are.
The South doesn't need to change its historic flags and monuments. It needs to change its twisted, contemptuous and hateful attitude about the federal government, which has been the best friend I've ever had in terms of supporting me and my life goals. Thanks Feds. Everybody else is trying to make a profit off me.
Oh, wait! I praised the federal government as my best friend and benefactor as an American. Is that the sound of heads exploding out there? Has anyone ever done that? Or has everybody swallowed the business deity preachings that demean and distrust our government because it provides services for which they can't earn a profit?
Ben Franklin said the congress had drafted up a newfangled representative republican form of government — "if you can keep it." Immediately, private profiteers began trying to tear down its impartiality and ethics with bribes and coercions. Still today, clusters of special interests control our political parties and they cut through our system like wormwood undermining our congress and subverting all legislation to their benefit.
When you complain about political corruption, remember that there would be none except for Big Business interests and their perk-pouring lobbyists. As soon as we send a bright young idealist to Washington, they begin destroying him with bribes, threats, coercions and party whip herding, to force him in line with the rich donors
Boy Soldiers in Gray
I don't really care that rich planters and their politicians fought to get out of the union. The University Greys, who are honored with a statue at Ole Miss, had little to do with philosophy, politics or slavery. They had no choice but to leave the campus and serve as soldiers. They went bravely to Pennsylvania and were doomed in Pickett's ill-fated charge.
Don't move their monument to a cemetery for dead soldiers on the back end of the campus; they're much more than dead soldiers. They were virtually ALL of the institution. When they left, it closed. I see no dishonor or racism in honoring our conscripted fallen warriors who were used in the war, whether they wanted to be there or not.
If we want to protest, let's go after the Nazis and hate mongering Aryan Nation bigots who dishonor our monuments by flocking to them for their vulgar displays. Nazis killed more Americans than any other ideology. Flying their flag should put a person in jail.
Americans need to quit fighting over symbols and pay attention to real problems; they need to quit defacing monuments, mosques and cemeteries at night and start facing up to the stark reality behind the symbols in broad daylight. These monuments have little to do with racism; it's in the hearts and minds of people, including those millions of people in the north and south who continue to believe the myth that whites are better than blacks. Sorry but this has NEVER been so.
The whole battle over Symbols seems to be going downhill. We fought over the Confederate flag on the Ole Miss campus, then a Southern planter symbol, Colonel Rebel, then a song, Dixie, which appreciates the South and does NOT support slavery or the Confederacy, then a monument honoring bravery, valor, sacrifice and tragedy, and now .... a banana peeling.
Good grief. Some student mindlessly hangs a banana peel in front of a cabin that houses black students at a retreat. He says his action meant nothing; he only hung it there rather than throwing it on the ground. Some will never agree with this, no doubt.
Are they saying that monkeys eat bananas, and Negroes are like them? How bizarre and stupid can you get?
It’s time to quit equating black people with food anyway. Too many white man pictures of cute black kids eating watermelon symbolized this food. Hadn't heard about banana characterizations until lately.
And there's ribs and fried chicken. One black comedian said he would no longer ride the train with his paper bag of greasy fried chicken, bad for the black image. To move up in the world, he would be seen carrying a briefcase instead but .... images be damned. The fried chicken is inside the briefcase. "I ain't giving up my fried chicken."
Of course, there's also the image of the big Black Mammy producing the very finest soul food you can get in Dixie. My grandparents cooked just as good as any black person despite this iconic imagery. Often, people can't figure what the imagery means. Do they celebrate Aunt Jemima or does her Madison Ave. semi-existence demean blacks?
It’s in the eye of the beholder most often, and many beholders have chips on their shoulders.
Why did we kill so many of ourselves?
A lot of Southerners want to argue vehemently that the war wasn’t about slavery. They seem to think this makes their cause more righteous.
History books record that, after the war started, Lincoln embraced the very strong abolitionist cause to get nobility, and freed the slaves so that they were no longer an economic asset. The value of black slaves had surpassed the value of cotton at that point and they were having children faster than you could plant cotton crops.
After the Proclamation, there was no perceived value to this human flesh at all and, when the word got out all over the South, blacks were highly mobilized to make that freedom a reality -- such a powerful ray of hope. Great heroism and courage was shown in the Underground Railroad, which is celebrated by a museum in Cincinnati, and probably a statue somewhere or other.
So he freed them to take away their property value. Southerners considered them to be livestock and priced them accordingly and controlled breeding. Their total value was higher than the value of cotton after intensive breeding for years. Making money ... like a cow and calf operation.
If the Confederates had wanted any respect, they would have cooperated with the global outlawing of the slave trade. They persisted for many years in the most vile enterprise in the world. Then they tried to bust up the union when most all of the decent people in the Southern states did not want to secede. The big money planters controlled state politics and duped their fellow citizens into war to protect their cotton and slave empire.
While on the subject, let’s consider this:
Our culture is nothing to brag about. We oppressed and killed the native population, practiced slavery until the horrible civil war in which we killed ourselves in huge numbers.
After the war came widespread government-business corruption, labor and race riots and total economic depression brought on by paper assets frauds. FDR managed some social programs that has created a floor against total collapse as before, but the rich now hold 98-99% of all wealth again, and the rest of us are in deep debt and working hard to pay them interest.
Our political parties are both clusters of special interests which support themselves with all (100 percent) of legislation. Most often the special interests write it. This is a major GOP problem with health care; it's hard to put up a decent bill when the insurance giants write it for you. GOP stock portfolios are also stuffed with war industry investments so the more fear and violence in the world the better for their bottom line. It takes a lot of petroleum, weaponry, bullets, shells, bombs and missiles to run a war.
Alas, oil, gas and coal now own the presidency and Congress again, so expect no progress in that regard. To boost petroleum and war industry stocks, the GOP is headed for a war ... somewhere, anywhere just so they can use vast amounts of petroleum products, which shortens the supply so that we pay a lot more at home. It's called having your cake and eating it also. Overall, it's called fighting for freedom, with 'freedom' being a meaningless generality. It is never freedom from US bombs; you can count on that.
Secretary of State Tillerson is knee deep in it.
He likely just wanted the job to enhance his oil and gas biz with all the political power in the world, to collaborate with the Russians on fields, ports and pipelines, and fight competitive natural energy. Once he does all he can for himself, he may well back out of the Trump Swamp with a little righteous indignation, and earn praise for a Trump Dump. He will have his cake and eat it too.
Offensive Defense
We need a real Defense Department too not a bunch of bully boy war profiteers who want to start up little wars for their stocks. Let’s get real, if possible. I don't see that we have any legitimate interest in the middle east. The people are too primitive to see beyond their hatreds and vengeance and we need to concentrate on the 21st century and its opportunities, not the 12th or 13th.
These savage and acrimonious tribal people with their opium crops, Bevis and Butthead rationale, and bizarre beliefs need to try and get their shit together on their own. They hate white Americans so screw them.
As for North Korea, we need to make one strike and make sure we nail the fat boy before they know what hit them. South Korea and we should be poised for a massive strike if they try to retaliate after fat boy's palace gets blown to bits. This would be a great favor to the North Korean people. Un is the enemy; kill him. Insist on surrender and then send the people some food. With him gone, they will clamor to get it and develop a new regime and get out of the world’s doghouse.
Quick takes …
Love and Gender: There should have never been any kind of issue around whom humans choose for intimate sharing and sensual love. That doesn't have anything to do with law. There is no God of reality who condemns this, only narrow-minded scripturists.
Money and God: Religions find ways to instill fear and control people with devil tales and always want a tithe before you even buy groceries. God is free and costs nothing but your time and attention. All human-related propositions are designed to get your money and turn a profit. Money is god to most people on earth and its evil forces never cease a barrage of lies and distortions to turn you against your elected government and corrupt it with direct payments to all politicians, educators, charities, whomever they want to buy. Seems like most everybody is for sale, one way or another. But, of course, the vast majority of people are helpless anyway. It's all they can do to get two jobs and make interest payments to the banks if they want their family to survive. They are too busy to fight the Dark Cabal; they are working for it.
Real and Fake News: If you only read the best and most reliable mainstream news services and papers you don't have to worry much about statements that are not true. They don't publish them. They do publish “what people said” however, and that’s not completely reliable, but they don’t say that it is.
Since the New York Times and Washington Post have exposed so much corruption over the years, there are countervailing forces which seek to undermine their credibility. It doesn't really work. The Media have been instrumental in bringing down many a crooked politician. Facts and truth always win out with the mainstream media which nailed Nixon, called LBJ's hand in Viet Nam, and exposed (!) Bill Clinton.
Since Trump called them the 'worst people in the world' they will assuredly play a major hand in cleaning out the Orange Swamp too. Investigator Mueller has a huge team of Roto-Rooters and the backing of all of our American institutions (except the coal companies and some of the war industries) to get it done. Enjoy. History in the making, the unraveling and reweaving of a federal government.
U.S. News Media: We have the finest journalism in the world, with some warts like the Murdoch bias media. Major city papers, excellent news magazines, fine subscription based news writing at Truth Out, Politico, Collective Evolution. Lots of good stuff right in front of us. But since the media has been so good at exposing corruption, then corruptors like Nixon, Trump, and the W. have thrown a lot of shade at it.
The NYT has a bank of lawyers, editors and administrators to stand behind every sentence they report since Americans want to sue at every opportunity. They and others present solid reporting, writing, reasoning and research that gives you just about all you need on any subject. Intellectual and philosophical thinking by well-educated people fill their publications.
Cable news only provides a little shiny coat of lacquer, pictures and good-looking rip and read news faces sitting on facades. No time for anything but a surface sweep. They often have little understanding of vital issues and their corporate owners don’t want them going there anyway.
Rely on deep journalism; we have the best. Blow off the poisonous fields of partisan weeds all over the internet. Alas, they use Facebook as their nucleus since it’s free and available. Leave it to the cretins to screw up every new communications achievement.
Cults andReligion: The word ‘cult’ conjures up many a bad image. And indeed, who can know how they will develop? The Jesus cults were finally adopted by the Romans who put their Christian flag up front of his armies with the other ones. Over time, the papal hierarchy was created and the pope sent military into Greece to destroy all the pagan temples, kill their followers, torture and parade the body parts of priestesses in the streets, destroy the 'heathen' culture. Greece has never recovered.
So cults can grow into wicked institutions that can virtually usher the world into an age of darkness. Americans more or less carry the christian flag wherever they bomb and do battle, and many of them do not respect other religions, as Jesus did. Some still rail that if you worship more than one God you will go to hell. Take our One God or go to Hell. But they created hell in the first place and most assuredly people in or out of any evolutionary faith are saved if their intentions are truth, beauty and goodness.
This is not yet a planet that can accept Altruism or selfless service. They see no profit in it. Profiting from their fellows is the way that they pay homage and worship the Almighty God for most men -- wealth. Currency is its idol and symbol. Making profits shows you are a winner and the luxury items you give yourself are symbolic of your brilliance. Alas, it is poetic justice that many wealthy people aren't really too happy and many feel unfulfilled. That's what happens when you always serve yourself.
And before we wrap up another issue …
More Trump suicide all around. Flake just did something that the Evangelical Christians will note very seriously. He broke with Trump and they know they should consider doing the same. This is significant.
Happened the same day that Sen. Corker stated his disdain for the guy, thereby opening the floodgates for any and all other Republicans to do the same thing. It's okay now, even advisable. Get away from him. That includes all former presidents and all former GOP candidates for president. He is now roundly despised.
Same day ... he attacks a Florida congresswoman and alienates forever the congressional black caucus, as well as grieving war widows everywhere.
Plus, General Kelly now thinks he's a blithering idiot who can't even express condolences and put him in a bad spot with faulty information. The entire Pentagon, of course, is already suspicious of this dolt and mad because he has previously insulted them and all of the intelligence agencies.
And also .... like Scarlett O'Hara famously said: Tomorrow is another day, and Trump will continue to try and run things by the seat of his baggy pants. Great irony that after firing people for over 10 years on un-reality TV, he himself now becomes the most hapless Apprentice in the history of the world, and on the way to the world's biggest firings. It will reverberate across the world and save our republic.
FIRE AX Issue 3…. October 2017
FIRE AX 3 — OCTOBER, 2017
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