Excerpt: "Civilizations in the final stages of decay are dominated by elites out of touch with reality. ... This failure to impose limits cannibalizes natural resources and human communities. This time, the difference is that when we go the whole planet will go with us."
Crazy Horse, or Tashunkewitko, was born on the southern part of the Cheyenne River in around 1842. (photo: attributed by some to be Tashunkewitko/Crazy Horse/public domain)
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This is what bothers me the most about the readership and comments here.. the very same people who rightly and loudly condemned the exact same crimes when committed by Rethuglicans, will do backwards somersaults to excuse them when they are committed by Obama.
Vote for Jill Stein!!
What is it about that quote that "sickened you"? Perhaps the realisation of your own naivete and slavish cleaving to a party that laughs at you while it exploits you and your vote?
Favors go to the rich for political favors at the expense of fairness and justice for the People, whose quality of life and promise for a better future erodes slowly enough to hold off OUTRAGE for most (distracted by reality shows, sports, feel-good "news", and out-right lies and manipulation). I'm not "crazy" just not distracted.
Actually, I'm beginning to think "Mittens" migfht be the "lesser evil"... but why trust a Rethuglican, when you can vote for Jill Stein.
No president has ever been confronted by the kind of opposition massed against him. The leader of the Senate minority said openly that their job is to ensure that Obama does not have a second term.
Money pouring in via Citizens United generates (laughable but effective) propaganda, which an unthinking populace unfortunately often swallows.
The Mad Dogs (what the Republican Party has become; it's not your grandfather's Party!!!) have been actively working to wreck the US economy so they can say Obama did it.
Yes, I wish Obama were as good as his soaring campaign rhetoric.
But remember one thing: If the Mad Dogs get in, they might well have a chance to appoint one or more Supreme Court Justices. Which means goodbye to the tattered shreds of our democracy.
But if Obama is re-elected --and is free to spread his (tiny) wings -- HE may have a chance to appoint Justices who will redress the unholy balance of this politicized Court by appointing more human beings -- if a kind Fate removes the worst reactionaries.
There is no such thing as unregulated capitalism: at best it is temporarily regulated, since the goal of capitalism is to acquire as much welath as possible, which means also gaining as much power as possible and unding any regulations in place. And that's what always happens -- that's what happened since the last round of regulations in the 1930s (Glass-Steagall , for instance).
To allow any regulations to stand is to fail in mandated legally fiduciary responsiility of the capitalist, as well as the prime directive. Capitalist's prime directive is the same as the Ferengi's or Romulans: own and control everything, everywhere. Eat the entire universe.
So they knew what we were all about right away, with our slash-and-burn, divide and conquer and ruthless, over-profiteeri ng greed.
So much damage has been visited on the planet in the process but the planet WILL survive and the wiser of us might be well-advised to ally ourselves with the wisdom and example of the native elders -and not just in the Americas but other continents -those which have not been totally turned into brutally capitalist, toxic regimes beyond repair and utterly corrupted by adopting the example of their colonial exploiters (Sadly, much of Africa, the Middle East and India).
But they are still there, those who are just waiting for the planet to cleanse itself of the cancerous plague that the hubristic enslavers that we and our dominant Euro-American culture of rapaciousness represent.
Remember Ghandi's response to the question on what he thought of Western Civilization: "I think it would be a good idea"!
Too late???
Good words.
The enslavers tried and still try to box us in to insanity and confusion-promo ting squares with sharp corners and no recourse but the great circle of life is forever, smooth, seamless and unconquerable.
And WE called THEM "Barbarians" and "Savages"!!!
MetakuyeOyasin ("All my relations" or, "We are all connected"-Lako ta or 'Human beings" language).
Or as we tend to mutter, "Amen".
We could AT LEAST endeavor to when possible boycott EXXON, BP, SHELL, B of A, CITI, Chase, Walmart, worst Pharmas, & politicians who protect them from prosecution, like Obama. Let a flawed, corporate drawn, healthcare insurance plan be his 1 term legacy. Support Senate Dems; block Romnee-Nikki Haley agenda.
acquiesce to enslavement. It's time to organize and rid ourselves of AIPAC, Insurance, big pharma, banks, and other entities that have enslaved us.
Actually Robert Eagle, it turns out that, no, in the animal world it is not a simple matter of "survival of the fittest," and if I might, I'd like to suggest you visit the work of ethologist and primatologist Frans de Waal:
Moral Behaviour in Animals, TED talk
http://www.ted.com/talks/frans_de_waal_do_animals_have_morals.html
Book
The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society
http://www.amazon.com/The-Age-Empathy-Natures-Lessons/dp/0307407772/ref=la_B000APOHE0_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341261586&sr=1-1
Interview:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1925566,00.html
Quotes
“If you ask anyone, what is morality based on? These are the two factors that always come out: One is reciprocity, … a sense of fairness, and the other one is empathy and compassion.”
“Humanity is actually much more cooperative and empathic than [it's] given credit for.”
“There's actually a lot of evidence in primates and other animals that they return favors.”
and
"The possibility that empathy resides in parts of the brain so ancient that we share them with rats should give pause to anyone comparing politicians with those poor, underestimated creatures."
Enjoy!
Under the stated circumstances, no, I wouldn't. Because, you see, all that forethought of which you are so fond and tout so highly works all ways: As a payee for contracted obligations (which I have often been, in my time, and am still, today) I *anticipate* force majeure, human frailty, and the unforeseen, and build that into my business model, so that I can accommodate reality while remaining in business and solvent.
Sh** happens, Robert Eagle, no respecter of persons, and if it has never, ever, ever happened to you I suspect:
1. you are barely out of short trousers;
2. you have used others as red shirts, and/or to pay your freight;
3. you are not a regular person, that is to say, a person who is neither a corporation nor a paid representative for corporate or other hidden interests.
If you are indeed a real, regular person, your life story is surely the stuff of tragedy, something that may be good for literature and the theatre, but is dreadful for actual people.
First and foremost, I wish you and your family the very best, and am so very sorry for all you have gone through.
The fact is, in our system (USA), all it takes is one illness, one medical emergency, to deconstruct a whole family. That initial illness/emergen cy sets off a cascade of such severe, prolonged, and intractable stresses that the caregiver(s) soon or late fall like ninepins. The situation will inevitably exhaust all available reserves of health, means, and what few outside resources may be on offer (if any)
Comes the day when everything (and I mean everything) falls on (and I mean falls on) the last able and willing man/woman standing; when he/she stumbles or loses footing, even for a moment, the game is up and then begins the long and harsh road of reconstruction of another life in ruin.
Sound dramatic? Well, it's the truth, and it's being repeated in vast numbers all over the states all day, every day.
The long love affair that so many in the USA have had with (in truth, an ersatz) "rugged individualism" is nothing more than narcissistic delusion. Those who look to a re-imagined Old West to justify malignantly regressive social policy are deeply ill-informed and they like it that way.
The only real "rugged individualists" in the Old West were the mountain men, everyone else honoured reciprocity and mutual need, because nothing less than survival was at stake.
It still is.
Your forethought and later care for your wife are commendable, but (and this next bit references provision made, and is not meant in any way to gloss over the suffering and loss of your wife) surely you can see that a certain amount of good fortune also played a part.
What of the woman without a partner/family, who loses all personal savings, employment and insurance due to and midway through a serious illness? What of the marriage where both partners fall catastrophicall y ill, employment and insurance lost long before illness is resolved or death comes? What of those who suffer multiple misfortunes at once, or serial misfortunes without time to recover?
I suspect you might find the Amish admirable in their steadfast, prudent, and hardworking ways; the Amish model includes community support for those who suffer misfortune, even misfortune begot wholly or in part by poor judgement and/or error, because, after all, we are all only human, and as such, flawed (sinners, if you prefer)
In secular society, what is government but the representative of the aggregate values, will, duties and commitment(s) of the community, as well as the means to make those manifest? Government isn't "outside over there," it is a tool in the hands of the community, accomplishing the work of the community.
We are all in this together; that inescapable truth is neither burden nor curse, but gift and blessing.
I fear that I may have given far more credit than is due: I considered that you might be a real conservative - albeit an unearthly lucky one - and, altho of fundamentally good will, not accustomed to taking on board the sometimes grim realities to be found in the lives of others.
What I have described in the Amish community is nothing like insurance, neither in character nor application, and if you think it is, you have much to learn and far to go.
The community support in face of misfortune found among the Amish is not charity, but rather, wisdom in action; in contrast, the "organized coverage" which you find such an improvement over the Amish model, is, in fact, a matter of leaving one's fate to at least the possibility, if not the likelihood or certainty, of predation and profiteering.
A "quality" contract, as any contract lawyer will tell you, is worth exactly the good will both sides invest in it, not a jot more nor less.
If ever you must resort to legal action for want of such good will on the part of the issuer of the "quality" contract you hold, you may be rather grateful for the attention paid by "government" to the fate of your "chances"
There's a reason why developing countries are still developing despite advances in medicine, education and technology. That's your homework, to figure out why.
Actually a deserted island would possibly be quite hospitable, when compared to the developed world; after all, no competition for resources and no prior (spurious) claims of ownership/contr ol of same.
I think, rather, "Go live as a poor son/daughter of poor parents of poor grandparents of displaced ("wrong" colour/ethnicit y) poor great-grandpare nts in an exploitative and extractive economy entirely corrupted by vast and ill-gotten gains to serve those who are nothing like you in heritage and who care not a fig for you and people like you, the land base, or human decency."
Oh, wait ...
Let me quote from your comment and see if it meets the basic tenets of logical thinking:
"If the poor know they are getting nothing from government then guess what?...they won't be poor because they will HAVE TO work to survive."
Why do you not apply that same thinking to the 'other side.'
How's this as a revision of your quote:
"If the rich know they are getting no bailouts from government (the people) then guess what?...they won't be rich because they will HAVE TO work within the rules of the game in order to survive the vicissitudes of the Great Casino of America, also known as Wall Street."
Betting with money other than your own is a no brainer as a gamble. Betting with your own cash makes one a lot more cautious; a lot more risk adverse.
And most troubling to me is what your comments seem to imply. Your thinking would consider a 'poor' man, earning minimum wage as a dishwasher, dropping and breaking dishes and getting fired as a correct action. But, if a 'rich' man earning millions as a Wall Street broker, loses the firm billions of dollars, doesn't get fired, but instead gets a bonus, and that too is considered a correct action. In what just world is this considered fair and just?
At what level in our society does one gain respect in your line of thinking?
As a brilliant surgeon once remarked: "All my skill, training, experience, and dedication, as well as that of my team, can be quickly and horrifically undone by a simple lack of provision of skill, training, experience, and dedication on the part of the housekeeping department and custodial staff. Post-surgical infection far too often kills patients we had thought saved by timely and skilled surgical intervention.
Everyone who works in theatre, pre-, and post-op, is an equally important part of what we do; no one is less important than anyone else, less central to best praxis and good outcomes for our patients."
The truly educated and skilled can be - and so often are - wise, and inclined to eschew false pride.
Ready? Here goes:
A Wall Street person who is educated and has the talent to get the job, is working for the biggest, most successful and profitable firm on the street. He's making lots of money and getting lots of bonuses. He makes a decision that causes the firm to lose a half a million dollars. He is fired; no severance pay, no bonus, no pension, no nothing. He has to be out of the building with just the clothes on his back.
Meanwhile, across town, an uneducated dishwasher, while doing his minimum wage job, lets a stack of dirty dishes slip through his hands causing them to all smash to pieces on the floor. The owner gives him a huge bonus, promotes him to maitre d', and gives him half ownership in the restaurant.
What just happened here?
I await your 'educated' reply.
The following came from another comment section: "Your comment is a breathtaking example of American ignorance and tunnel vision. Here's a news flash - in Australia 4 weeks paid vacation is the statutory MINIMUM, there is paid sick leave, mandatory employer contribution (10%) to superannuation, paid maternity leave and the minimum wage exceeds $17/hour (and yes and australian dollar is worth as much as a us dollar, sometimes more). On top of that we have nearly free health care, and taxes are LOWER not higher. Unemployment is between 4 and 5% and the economy is BOOMING, thanks very much. In fact the minimum wage in Australia FAR EXCEEDS median income in the US. So wake up an look around you instead of just reciting the mantras of the far right. Ensuring people have a decent income, decent health care and decent conditions of employment are good for the economy. It's time Americans woke up."
If it works there, and in other countries, why not here? I'm guessing those of you that have bought into the myth of IN-dependence, would be terrified to learn how truly dependent you really are.
A peaceful life where we trust others is only bizarre to people who think pillaging, stealing, subjugation and looking out for #1 are necessary evils and accept them as "reality."
The majority of people on this planet wish to exist in peace. It is the restless, talentless few who take it upon themselves to disrupt our precious order and dominate us. No one stands in their way because what decent thinking person could possibly conceive of such subversive actions let alone devise ways to stop them in their tracks? They are infinite in concept, conceit and application.
[continued]
Every generation, there are socially corruptive barbarians born into it. They hoard all of the resources including the human kind and hold back the progression of mankind at the pace of their own lives - then want to be worshiped for granting the opportunity for us to exist at subsistence levels. If they cannot compete or reign supreme, they destroy instead. They'll only invest into society if a maximum return is to be realised.
Imagine where we would be if it were not for the barbarians. No destruction of the Arab intellectual body. No fall of Rome. Instead we get the sodding Dark Ages courtesy of the hometown and foreign barbarians attacking on two fronts.
Does this somehow seem familiar to anyone?
http://traditionalhopi.org/
WATER
"Stop the buying and selling of life through water; stop US Senate Bill 2109. We the Hopi are Caretakers of the Earth, of humanity, of all life ... Without water, we all cease to exist. Buying and selling water, is buying and selling life. This is not a part of the natural balance ... we must join together to stop the destructive path we are ... on and protect life itself."
...
“We have a lot at stake,” [Ben] Nuvamsa, a member of the Bear Clan from Shungopavi Village, said while showing a slide of an unidentified sacred spring that had dried up. “That is sad. It made me cry because that particular ceremony depended on that spring being full, and it was not.” Without water from the spring, the ceremony could not be held, he said.
“It’s all part of the problems we’re facing with Peabody’s over-pumping. We have ceremonies where we go out and we pay homage to our springs and shrines, and we use that water for medicine, our prayers. That’s why those things are really important,” he said.
In exchange for waiving “past, present and future claims for injury to water rights and injury to water quality arising from time immemorial and, thereafter, forever …” up to $133 million would be allocated for one Hopi groundwater project."
Pass it on.
The healthcare bill has served to further divide this country and create triple the squabbling, diverting citizen attention away from domestic drones, trade agreements, attacking countries, increased surveillance, and on and on.
Democrats differ from republicans only in style.
I know there is plenty of blame to go around. I still think, however, that there are many bayonets being held to the neck of most politicans in the form of the almighty dollar (and in some cases much more-I am a "conspiracy theorist.")And I absolutely will maintain that Obama may have a bit more courage than many here realize. I think so many of my fellow leftists are so color blinded by their inate sense of fairness that they forget Obama is classified as "African American" in this nation. It is a difference maker in his inability to rally the masses.
You are not a conspiracy theorist when recognizing the faults of the system. And, you are quite right about Obama's racial identification. It absolutely has influenced the resentment of thousands of citizens, because they are subject to historical prejudices and the propaganda of the culture, not to mention the government.
I have given up on the system and, as I have written prior, am preparing for the future.
But your philosophy of giving up on "the system" sounds intriguing. Thank you (I guess.)
Independence and taking care of one's own is extremely important. I understand the sports psychology, but this is real life not a game, in spite of the actors on the stage and the players insisting on fabricating a distorted reality.
Step back and take a good look at the U.S. and the citizens. Over 300 million people. Look at what the government does and has done. Take a very good look. See the huge variety of demands from 300 million people? States that are running amok with literally insane policies and new laws? And so much more. What is the answer in keeping the U.S. afloat?
Those of us already in survival mode, we will know the real things they still have to learn.
This is economic nonsense.
Corp. and gov. abuse (Wall Street B.S., trickery by the Fed, & other financial shenanigans), ARE NOT "capitalism"!! There is no room in actual capitalism for greed and corruption. Read your Smith.
The very existence of the Fed is anti-capitalist . The majority of Wall Street trading: hedge funds, derivatives, high-speed swaps, etc. are not capitalist. It is nothing more than a government-spon sored casino, complete with house advantage.
The only Capitalist thing about Wall Street is is when it buys and sells public stock to real human beings. But that has been less of its business every year.
As for the economy: you try to blame that on "capitalism"??? What hogwash. If you chart Government intervention in the economy -- that is to say, Socialism rather than Capitalism -- against the value of the dollar, you can very clearly see an INVERSE relationship! Since 1913, when the Fed was first created.
It is indisputable. The more the government messes with the economy, the worse it has been. I have the data, from Gov. sources, and the charts. A reasonable, thinking human being who saw the numbers would have to admit it.
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