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California Free Press
With Ocasio-Cortez/Markey Bill Reportedly on Horizon, Expert Says Green New Deal Must Include 'Fossil Fuel Phaseout'
Published on Thursday, January 31, 2019 by Common Dreams
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), another vocal backer of the broad proposal, suggests it has enough support to pass the U.S. House
by Jessica Corbett, staff writer
Democratic Sen. Ed Markey (Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) are working on Green New Deal legislation that could be made public as early as next week. (Photos: U.S. Congress)
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (Mass.) are working on Green New Deal legislation that the pair may unveil as soon as next week, Axios reported late Wednesday.
Those plans were confirmed by a spokeswoman for Markey as well as Varshini Prakash, co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, the youth-led advocacy group that has led powerful protests across the country—including at the D.C. office of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.)—in favor of the proposal, which would combine bold climate action with green jobs and other measures aimed at creating a more just economy.
"Now is this country's chance to break free of climate half-measures and adopt policies that will actually save lives."
—Janet Redman, Greenpeace USA
The text of the bill, however, has not been finalized, according to Axios—meaning it is still unclear how closely it will align with the draft legislative document promoted by Ocasio-Cortez and the Sunrise Movement. That proposal called for a transition to 100 percent renewable energy within the next decade, a federal jobs guarantee program, universal healthcare, and a House Select Committee to hammer out the details.
While welcoming the news, Greenpeace USA climate director Janet Redman said in a statement that any Green New Deal bill must include a "fossil fuel phaseout" for it to be taken seriously.
The idea behind their proposal, she said, "is inspiring, bold, and transformative—but it won't get us to a future in which the most vulnerable are protected and global temperatures stop rising if it doesn't include a hard stop on fossil fuel expansion."
"We have to continue radical encouragement of climate leaders in Congress to get us where we actually need to be if we're serious about staving off the worst impacts of the climate crisis," Redman emphasized. "Now is this country's chance to break free of climate half-measures and adopt policies that will actually save lives."
HUGE news📣 a #GreenNewDeal bill is on the way
It's up to us to make sure it stays strong & is supported by our Reps, so we're laying out our game plan on Feb 5 at 8pm EST via livestream!
Join a nearby house party to tune in: https://t.co/mpuwpQGQCt https://t.co/9T5GLzBDuy
— Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) January 31, 2019
While some Democrats who have announced their 2020 presidential candidacies—such as Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Kamala Harris (Calif.), and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.)—have said they support a Green New Deal, the Sunrise Movement has vowed to maintain pressure on members of Congress to ensure the plan put forward lives up to the bold proposal they've been fighting for and doesn't become a watered down bill that merely borrows the increasingly popular buzzword.
"The biggest win is it's on the radar... Presidential candidates are going to be asked if it is on their agenda. That is good."
—Greg Carlock, Data for Progress
"The biggest win is it's on the radar," Greg Carlock, one of the directors of the think tank Data for Progress, which has put out its own proposal for a Green New Deal, told the Washington Post on Thursday.
"The next win is we have a committee on which we can discuss it," Carlock added, referring to the U.S. House Committee on the Climate Crisis, which some progressives have criticized as Pelosi's "weak" replacement for the version envisioned in Ocasio-Cortez's draft.
However, as Carlock noted, it still provides an opportunity to push the idea forward. "We now have a space we didn't have three months ago. It is on the agenda," he said. "Presidential candidates are going to be asked if it is on their agenda. That is good."
Although the details of Ocasio-Cortez and Markey's plan aren't yet public, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)—another vocal supporter of the Green New Deal backed by climate campaigners—told MPR News this week that the broad proposal has enough support to pass the Democratically-controlled U.S. House.
"I'm one who is urging my colleagues to really take this opportunity to not just issue resolutions and talking points, but for us to actually put a real bill on the table and to allow us to have a real conversation on this issue," Omar said. Opposition to the proposal, she added, often comes from Republicans and those worried about changes in their daily lives.
"We will hear from folks who say, 'I can't drive my big truck,' or, you know, 'My family has been in this line of work for many generations,'" she said. "And for us it's about making sure that we're having a conversation with them about what it means to sustain a future for their children and their grandchildren."
With climate change deniers in Washington obstructing real solutions to the imminent crisis facing our planet, states like MN must lead the way forward on a #GreenNewDeal.
Our environment and our communities can't wait!https://t.co/70qpP5HB2H
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 30, 2019
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Posted at 08:49 AM in Common Dreams, Green New Deal | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Off the Top of My Head
Don't Cry For Me Venezuela
by John Lawrence, January 31, 2019
We have seen a whole bunch of US and CIA backed coups in Latin America like the 1976 coup in Argentina that ousted the democratically elected Isabel Peron, the 1973 coup in Chile that ousted the democratically elected Salvador Allende and installed the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, the overthrow of the democratically elected, left-leaning Jacobo Arbenz in Guatamala. Arbenz was overthrown during the US-backed 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état leading to right-wing US-endorsed authoritarian governments.
The pattern is all too familiar. The people want a better life so they elect a socialist or left leaning President. In Venezuela's case it was Hugo Chavez in 1999. Unfortunately, Chavez died of cancer at the age of 58. His successor is the current democratically elected President, Nicolas Maduro who is also a left leaning socialist. Naturally the US wants to get rid of him because he's a left leaning socialist and also Chavez nationalized (or socialized) Venezuela's oil industry. Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, but due to mismanagement it's not producing that much oil.
In the meantime, China has invested huge sums in Venezuela's oil industry in an attempt to get it up and running again and obtain the benefits of Venezuela's oil for China, a nation woefully deprived of any oil reserves. China is not too much concerned that Venezuela has a socialist government. The US playbook is to apply economic pressure by means of sanctions to Venezuela, bring the economy to its knees and then cheerfully install a President more to its liking. Hint: Not a socialist. So US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has announced that the US recognizes Juan Guaido as Venezuela's President even though he's not been democratically elected.
This pits the US directly against China which has, so to speak, taken Venezuela under its wings. Again the Venezuelan people are mere pawns suffering under a crappy economic system made much worse by US sanctions. The Chinese need oil and Venezuela badly needs investment in its oil industry. The US would like to see Venezuela's oil industry privatized again. However, China now owns a 49% share of it so that privatization does not look like a good option as far as China is concerned. What does the US want - a privatization of the 51% still controlled by the Venezuelan government. Presumably Exxon or Chevron (which is being sued by the Ecuadoran government for pollution) would step in and become more or less equal partners with China? It will never happen.
So the US once again is involved in an oil dispute. Adding fuel to the fire, it prefers right wing dictatorships to democratically elected socialists. It didn't end so well in Iraq when the US couldn't tolerate Saddam's threat to sell oil in some currency other than dollars. Is it any wonder that Latin Americans are migrating here to get away from the economic conditions in their countries brought about by their own mismanagement and US sanctions? The oil needs to be left in the ground if global warming is to be prevented. Why are we fighting over access to oil? Can't we all get along and switch to renewables?
Posted at 08:34 AM in John Lawrence, Off the Top of my Head, Oil, The US, Venezuela | Permalink | Comments (0)
Just Like Iraq, Warns Venezuela's Maduro, US Wants to 'Get Hands on Our Oil'
Published on Wednesday, January 30, 2019 by Common Dreams
"We will not allow a Vietnam in Latin America," says nation's president ahead of opposition demonstrations on Wednesday
by Jon Queally, staff writer
Pro-government supporters attend a rally against U.S. President Donald Trump in Caracas, Venezuela in 2018. (Photo: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)
Warning that U.S. military intervention could lead to a Vietnam War-style conflict, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said that while he's willing to open talks with opposition leaders he will not bow to the demands of foreign "imperialists" and accused the U.S. government and other right-wing forces—like was done in Iraq and elsewhere—of trying to get their "hands on our oil."
Maduro's latest comments, which came via interviews and a video posted online, arrived just ahead of planned street demonstrations by the nation's opposition on Wednesday and amid new threats via U.S. national security advisor John Bolton who continues to lead the charge for regime change on behalf of the Trump administration.
"If the U.S. intends to intervene against us they will get a Vietnam worse than they could have imagined."
—President Nicolas Maduro
In an interview with Russia's RIA Novosti published Tuesday, Maduro rejected demands by the opposition and the White House to step down or hold snap presidential elections. While the U.S. has recognized president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as "Interim President" of the country, Maduro said that while he believes new parliamentary elections should be held the next presidential election would not be until 2025, as scheduled. Though the opposition largely boycotted the 2018 presidential election last May—and they were criticized as fraudulent by some—Maduro won with more than 67 percent of the vote.
"Presidential elections in Venezuela have taken place, and if imperialists want new elections let them wait until 2025," Maduro told RIA. However, he added, "I'm willing to sit down for talks with the opposition so that we could talk for the sake of Venezuela's peace and its future."
In a video posted to Facebook early on Wednesday, Maduro accused the U.S. "empire" of conspiring with right-wing forces both within Venezuela and abroad of conspiring together to seize power, but warned that any attempt to overthrow his government by force could result in yet another overseas civil war instigated at the behest of the Americans.
"We will not allow a Vietnam in Latin America," Maduro declared. "If the U.S. intends to intervene against us they will get a Vietnam worse than they could have imagined. We do not allow violence. We are a peaceful people."
He added, "I ask that Venezuela be respected and I ask for the support of the people of the U.S. so there isn't a new Vietnam, least of all here in our America."
According to polling conducted inside Venezuela, an overwhelming majority of people—from across the nation's political spectrum—would oppose U.S. intervention and disapprove of the economic sanctions that the Trump administration has only increased in recent days. As Ben Norton reported for the Grayzone Project on Tuesday:
More than eight out of ten Venezuelans oppose international intervention, both military and non-military, in their country, as well as the crippling sanctions imposed by the United States to force leftist President Nicolás Maduro out of power.
According to a study conducted in early January 2019 by the local polling firm Hinterlaces, 86 percent of Venezuelans would disagree with international military intervention. And 81 percent oppose the US sanctions that have gravely hurt the South American nation's economy.
While the Trump administration continues to back opposition forces and threaten military action, progressives and policy experts—including people like Jon Rainwater, executive director of Peace Action—argue that more peaceful and democratic alternatives exist to address the nation's very real economic and political problems.
"Imposing coercive economic measures has been a staple of American foreign policy for quite some time, despite their penchant for failure and the collateral damage often left in their wake," Rainwater wrote in an op-ed for Common Dreams on Tuesday. "As for the military option, there's no reason to think it would go better than the invasions of Iraq or Afghanistan."
Instead, he suggests, the U.S. should end its threat and foster dialogue between Maduro, the opposition, and third-party actors who vow to put the interests of all Venezuelans first.
In addition to the United Nations, he wrote, "The Vatican as well several Latin American nations have brokered peaceful dialogue between the Maduro government and the opposition. Recently Uruguay and Mexico have called for resumption of talks and a 'new process of inclusive and credible negotiations with full respect for the rule of law and human rights' to prevent bloodshed."
The Trump administration and members of Congress, he added, should support the kind diplomacy that can deescalate tensions and avoid the possibility of war.
"We've seen the regime change movie before," Rainwater concluded, "and it doesn't end well. Let's take it off repeat, and speak up now to avoid another senseless, costly, ill-advised American war."
Posted at 08:14 AM in Common Dreams, Oil, Venezuela | Permalink | Comments (0)
How Lovingly Are We Expressing Intelligence?
Ernest Holmes said a mouthful with these words: "Body or form is the necessary outcome of self-knowingness. In order to know there has to be something to be known. Body is a concrete manifestation existing in time/space for the purpose of furnishing a vehicle though which Life may express itself." Page 373 Science of Mind.
Well! That would be you and me. We are one of the trillions of ways Life (God) brings itself out of the field of the invisible into the visible. We reveal its nature to the degree of our awareness that we possess its nature! What is its nature if not Intelligence and Love? How intelligently are we expressing Love? How lovingly are we expressing Intelligence?
There is freedom in self-realization. It varies in each one of us according to how much we can believe in our wholeness and spiritual origins. We did not arise in a void. We are the evidence of the activity of Spirit taking form for the joy of experiencing this particular dimension of reality. That puts us in a very favorable position. We have the entire Intelligence of the universe at our disposal. We are the owners of a vehicle that is fully loaded. As we give ourselves more opportunities to be seen and known for who we really are, our lives get better and better. God, itself, is silence. We give it voice. God is Love. We give it relationships. God is supply. We give it circulation. God is Joy. We give it play. God is creative. We give it something to create. God is peace. We prove it to be so.
Carol Carnes www.centerforspirituallivingbakersfield.com
Please circulate some supply through us via pay pal
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Posted at 08:00 AM in Dr. Carol Carnes, Living Consciously | Permalink | Comments (0)
The New Retirement Calculations
Retirement has become a fuzzy concept. It used to be that there was a standard retirement age - 65 - that applied to everybody after which you drew a pension and with that, social security and your savings, you lived happily ever after. That scenario doesn't apply any more for most people. First of all pensions are a thing of the past. Most people have their retirement aspirations embodied in 401(k)s which means the stock market. If the stock market wins, you win; if the stock market loses, you lose.
The only significant calculation is the amount of money you need to last you the rest of your life. The longer you live, the more money you'll need. If you run out of money before you run out of life, it'll be out on the street for you with all the rest of the homeless. It's a shame to see 80 and 90 year olds forced to live on the street where their demise will probably come rather quickly.
The Washington Post reported:
[There is] a growing crisis in American cities, which have seen a recent surge in deaths of homeless people due to soaring housing costs, extreme weather, the opioid epidemic, violent attacks and deadly viruses.
Across the country, in cities big and small, the hundreds of thousands of people who lack permanent shelter are facing elevated health risks as communities unsuccessfully search for solutions.
In metropolitan Denver, advocates and social workers documented the deaths of 231 homeless people last year, an increase of 35 percent over 2016, according to John Parvensky, president of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. New Orleans officials reported a record 60 homeless deaths last year, a 25 percent increase in two years. In Seattle, 169 homeless people died last year, double the number of homeless deaths recorded in King County, Wash., five years ago, according to the medical examiner.
So let's say the age you retire has nothing to do with your actual age. You could retire at 35 if you're rich enough by then. You could still be working at 80 if you still needed the money you get from working - earned income - in addition to whatever money you had from unearned or passive income. Passive income could be from savings, social security, rental income etc. However, there will come an age at which you have to retire - not because the government or some corporation said so - but because you're physically and/or mentally incapable of doing any more work. At this point you would have to have enough in savings which, when added to your passive income, would last you the rest of your life.
Now for some sample calculations. Let's say that when you reach the 'must retire' age, you figure that you might live another 20 years. So if you must retire at age 80 due to health reasons, you figure the longest you will live would be until age 100. Then you figure how much you need to draw down your savings on an annual basis to supplement your passive income. Let's say that's $5000. Then you would need to have $100,000. in savings by age 80. Of course, if you die sooner than age 100, the rest of the money in savings would go to the next generation which, if you care at all about your children, is the right thing to have happen. The more the better. Intergenerational transfer of wealth is what is greatly responsible for prospering families. The lack thereof is responsible for intergenerational poverty.
My off the cuff calculation roughly accords with the "4% rule" that a financial planner came up with. It works like this:
"the "4% drawdown rule," as it is known, says you should take out 4% — later revised to 4.5% — of your savings the year after you stop working. You then withdraw the same amount, adjusted for inflation, each year after that."
The accumulation of wealth was discouraged by Jesus. In the Bible Matthew says:
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Furthermore, Jesus said, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
This is not very good advice for people who don't want to become homeless themselves. Did the homeless take Jesus too seriously?
Posted at 07:35 AM in John Lawrence, Off the Top of my Head, Retirement | Permalink | Comments (0)
A Survival Guide to Two More Years
It's doubtful he'll be leaving anytime soon. Even an impeachment will drag out for a long time. Here are 7 suggestions for what to do to survive in the meantime:
1. Don't pay attention to what he says. Pay attention to what he does.
Disregard the ridicule, name-calling, threats, personal attacks, spectacle. These are distractions.
Pay attention to his obstructions of justice, attempts to suppress the Mueller investigation, his attempts to take over Justice Department decisions over whom to prosecute, attempts to cut back freedom of the press, his profiting from his office, his endangering America internationally.
Make a ruckus about the big things, and push House Democrats to focus on them too.
2. Keep track of what his cabinet is doing to gut health, safety, and environmental protections.
Pay special attention to new rules and regulations, or changes in how regulations are enforced, that hurt people.
Spread the word. Get House Democrats to expose and fight them.
3. Don't get lost in the procedural skirmishes over House subpoenas, executive privilege, impeachment.
Support big strategic objectives: getting big money out of politics, infrastructure, cutting drug costs, protecting the Affordable Care Act, and stopping bad laws coming over from the Senate.
4. Watch what your state is doing, and be active there, too.
Support legislators and governors making progress on climate change, reducing inequality, and public financing of elections.
Fight state legislators and governors cutting back on Medicaid, imposing draconian work requirements for public assistance, seeking an Article V constitutional convention.
5. Prepare for 2020.
Help reverse state voter ID laws. Instead of political gerrymandering, push for independent state commissions to set district boundaries.
Have your state join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact to make the Electoral College irrelevant. Make sure people are registered to vote.
6. Don't let the upcoming presidential primaries divide us.
There are going to be a lot of candidates for the Democratic nomination. But regardless of what candidate emerges, keep your eyes on the prize of winning back the White House.
7. Finally: Keep up your morale and energy.
Don't fall into cynicism or despair. We've already put limits on this catastrophe. Have faith: We'll get America back.
Posted at 07:42 AM in Robert Reich, Politics, Trump | Permalink | Comments (0)
Welcome Your Greater Good
There are times in every life when it seems as if nothing is working in our favor. Eventually we will come to the realization that we must take up a new idea. Perhaps we need to change how we work or even where and with whom. If we have been trying to make something function and it just isn't responding, is it giving up if we let it go? That seems to be the big dilemma; not wanting to give up on something in which we have put our heart and soul, but which really needs to be released, at least temporarily while we regroup.
A shift in our focus also has a positive effect on our energy levels.
It is emotionally draining to try to resurrect a broken relationship or a dead end job. The moment we say yes to something better, is the moment we feel in charge again. Sometimes there is something more we need to know that cannot be found while we are entangled in the problem. We need to remove ourselves and be open to the insights that come with distance.
Today is our day to step out of limitation and into freedom. Be ready to receive what comes when you are in a state of receptivity to change. Say this out loud:
"I am free of any and all ideas that have produced this current situation. I am open to what is trying to happen for my greater good. I see it, I welcome it, I accept it."
Stay tuned in,
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The Dirt on Hillary
Here's what the Mueller investigation shakes down to in my prognostication. Trump said in a speech: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing". Evidently, Russia did just that by hacking into Hillary's personal server. They then turned the emails over to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. Roger Stone, long time Trump operative, then contacted WikiLeaks to retrieve the emails for the Trump campaign. The emails turned out to be innocuous. In other words there was no dirt on Hillary, and they were worthless to the Trump campaign. Result: no advantage to Trump and questionable dirty tricks or criminality involved. Collusion? It's in the eye of the beholder.
There is plenty of shady stuff going on here including probably collusion with Putin over a business deal to build Trump Tower Moscow. But what to make of all this? Trump aides will be sent to jail for things like lying to Congress, but is there some larger criminality that might involve Trump himself? Who knows? Maybe a case could be made. But will it? The more likely outcome is that the American people will decide in the next election whether or not a brou ha ha over Hillary's emails, albeit involving Russia, is a serious crime or not.
All indications are that Trump's base will forgive him for anything including, as he famously said, shooting someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue. But his base in and of itself is probably not big enough to reelect him, that is unless Howard Schultz gets in the race as an independent and splits the Democratic vote. Howard Schultz, former CEO of Starbucks, and self made billionaire is undoubtedly an American success story having started out growing up poor in the New York City projects. Some of his views, however, amount to amateurish pet peeves similar to the ones that inspired Trump to run for President. Evidently, every billionaire with his or her private pipe dreams think they're qualified by definition. They're not.
I'm willing to bet Trump will be gone in 2020, and a Democrat will take over at least the Presidency. Let's hope it's someone from the progressive wing of the party and not someone who will simply rehash the old Obama/Clinton policies.
Posted at 07:13 AM in John Lawrence, Politics, Russia, Trump | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Green New Deal is Not Enough: We Need an Alternative Globalization
Published on Sunday, January 27, 2019 by Common Dreams
'A better world is possible'
by Michael Galant
The rise of the World Social Forum gave a permanent home to the phrase, 'Another world is possible.'
The Green New Deal is the most ambitious climate plan in Congress.
Developed through years of grassroots activism and propelled to fame by the rising star of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the proposal has attracted the support of more than 40 members of Congress, Senators from Sanders to Booker, and even 64% of registered Republican voters.
While the details remain unclear, the general outline – a comprehensive, state-led transition to 100% renewable energy, founded on green jobs and economic justice – is both popular and necessary. Without a dramatic overhaul of the American economy, averting climate change will be impossible.
But domestic policies won't be enough.
From the birth of neoliberalism in the 70's through the rapid economic globalization of the 90's, the ruling parties of the Global North have spent decades constructing a global economic system rigged in the interests of capital.
Placing short-term profits for the rich and powerful over the long-term wellbeing of people and planet, this system is specifically designed to undermine national programs like the Green New Deal.
Under this system, capital and corporations (but not people) are allowed to cross borders at will. Powerless to the threat of abandonment, even well-meaning governments are forced to cater to capital's whims, slashing environmental and labor regulations in the hopes of attracting investment. The "global race to the bottom" begins.
Under this system, countries like the United States can feign environmental progress by outsourcing their pollution to the Global South. America regulates a dirty industry. The industry, unfettered by the corporate-friendly global governance that America helped build, moves to a new country and continues to pollute freely. America imports its products and blames the South.
Under this system, Southern nations that try to shield themselves from the whims of the global market and develop self-sufficient, local economies are punished. Institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank wield their financial weight like a battering ram against protections, demanding cheap goods for export to the North. In the food system, this means forcing small-scale, sustainable farmers to abandon their land to environmentally untenable industrial cash crops.
Under this system, the global elite have exclusive access to shady networks of shell companies and tax havens. Globally, an estimated $32 trillion sits untouched in tax havens. That's over $250 billion in lost tax revenue for programs like the Green New Deal.
Under this system, corporations can even sue national governments for regulating them. Through the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism built into many "free trade" agreements, countries enacting legitimate environmental regulations risk being forced to pay billions in restitution by an opaque, corporate-dominated international court. Ecuador is currently facing just such litigation for ordering Chevron to pay compensation after dumping "billions of gallons of toxic water and [digging] hundreds of open-air oil sludge pits in Ecuador's Amazon, poisoning the communities of some 30,000 Amazon residents."
And under this system, when neoliberal policies reach their inevitably disastrous conclusion, the rich seize on the ensuing crises to further the neoliberal agenda, while right-wing demagogues rise to power scapegoating their victims.
At its root, climate change is a consequence of the power of capital. Neoliberal globalization is one of the greatest power grabs in history.
Domestic policies like the Green New Deal, however necessary, are insufficient. To prevent global climate collapse and the emergent right-wing authoritarianism that lurks in its wings, the global economy must be radically restructured.
Restrict the movement of corporations and capital. End ISDS. Renegotiate "free trade" agreements. Stop tax havens. Dismantle and rebuild alternatives to the WTO, IMF, and World Bank. Reform and strengthen the UN. Empower national governments to regulate corporate interests. Build self-sufficient local economies.
Though the alter-globalization movement that once drew 40,000 to the streets of Seattle to protest the WTO is weaker today than it was 20 years ago, there is much to be learned from its example. In 2004, members of this movement drafted a vision of a global economic system that works for both people and planet. The subtitle of that prescient manifesto reads: "A better world is possible."
It still it is. But only if we look beyond our borders and build a truly global movement to fight for it.
Posted at 09:35 AM in Common Dreams, Globalization, Green New Deal | Permalink | Comments (0)
This Day is the Best Day of my Life
We never know for sure what this day will bring. But one thing is for certain; it is a continuum of all the days prior. Life flows, it does not start and stop. Beginnings are simply the flip side of endings and they merge seamlessly. Like a river moving under its own weight and seeking its natural level, our lives are a moving expression of what is in our deeper mind, what we truly believe is ours to have, to know, to expect. We cannot rise above that level unless and until we impart, with energy, a truly new idea.
You know the saying "today is the first day of the rest of your life"? Well, it is also the last day of the life you have been living, up until now. How about making a leap out of the past and into a now moment of spiritual truth? We are brand new, right now. We are not effects, we are Cause. We are the incarnation of pure intelligence and absolute love. We are the open doorway for all that is contained in the field of love and intelligence to come through, individualized by us.
Could today be the one that more perfectly reflects our true nature? Why not? If we can raise our inner sight to include the whole self that we are, great good must surely follow. It will be ours alone but it will be pleasing and appropriate to the best image of us we have. Say it out loud: This day is the best day of my life, so far. I am happy, healthy, wealthy and in love. All is well with me. I am blessed.
Carol Carnes www.centerforspirituallivigbakersfield.com
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The Perfect Border Security Technology
by John Lawrence
The US utilizes satellites to spy on what the Russians are doing, what the Chinese are doing and what the North Koreans are doing. We need to use satellites to spy on our own borders to see what's doing there. This would amount to an electronic border wall. At a cost of billions, the US has only 4 spy satellites in orbit. That number has been greatly increased thanks to a private company called Planet which has developed a satellite camera which can see things the size of a fist and is only the size of a loaf of bread itself. 300 of these have been deployed of which 150 are still active.They can take photos of the entire land mass of the earth every 24 hours.
Ideally, what is needed to study the border is a satellite or satellites in synchronous orbit. A synchronous orbit is one such that the satellite rotates around the earth at the same rate that the earth rotates on its axis so that it is always pointing at the same spot on earth. This is what is needed to detect anyone or anything coming across the border. A satellite in a synchronous orbit would be much further away from earth than the low orbit satellites. I don't know if the camera technology is there yet to see something with high enough resolution from that height above the earth, but it might be.
Nevertheless, the technology is there to launch hundreds of these "loaf of bread size" satellites into low earth orbit. Each one could be trained on the border so that the border would be under continuous surveillance. When one rotated out of view, the view can be handed off to the next one automatically so that there would never be a moment when the border was not under surveillance, 24 hours a day. Night time visual surveillance is already being carried out by NASA. Artificial intelligence (AI) could be used to integrate the pictures from the successive satellite views into one overall comprehensive picture that can be viewed from the ground. AI could even be used to reveal any cross border movement. Rapid deployment teams could be dropped from helicopters to apprehend any illegal entry.
So we really should be talking about how many border stations are needed, how many helicopters are needed and how much manpower is needed to make this electronic wall a reality.
Despite cross border detection capabilities, most drugs and illegal contraband including persons cross the border at points of entry. The technology is there to detect these also. It just hasn't been deployed yet. Also most persons come in legally on visas and then overstay their visas. Better visa tracking is necessary. That was in a previous Congressional bill that never came to fruition. The H.R. 1303 (115th): H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2017 died in Congress.
What is not needed is Trump's 30 foot high concrete wall. Much of the border is already fenced. As of January 2009, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that it had more than 580 miles of barriers in place. That "enhanced fencing" could be continued especially in parts of the border where all there is is a barbed wire fence.
So a comprehensive solution is possible. Will the dysfunctional Congress actually implement one and allocate the money for one? God only knows. Instead of spying on other countries, let's spy on our own border.
Posted at 08:41 AM in John Lawrence, Border Security, Off the Top of my Head | Permalink | Comments (0)
My Message to Davos Elites: Act As If Our House Is on Fire. Because It Is.
Published on Friday, January 25, 2019 by Common Dreams
"Either we choose to go on as a civilization or we don't. That is as black or white as it gets. There are no grey areas when it comes to survival."
by Greta Thunberg
"Our house is on fire," said the Swedish student activist who has galvanized 100,000 fellow teens around the world to follow her example in striking for the climate. "At Davos, people like to talk about success, but financial success has come with a price tag, and on the climate we have failed. And unless we recognize the failures of our system, there will be unspoken suffering." (Image: World Economic Forum)
The following is a slightly edited version of remarks delivered by 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg to attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Friday, January 25, 2018.
Our house is on fire. I am here to say, our house is on fire.
According to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), we are less than 12 years away from not being able to undo our mistakes. In that time, unprecedented changes in all aspects of society need to have taken place, including a reduction of our CO2 emissions by at least 50%.
"Yes, we are failing, but there is still time to turn everything around. We can still fix this."
And please note that those numbers do not include the aspect of equity, which is absolutely necessary to make the Paris agreement work on a global scale. Nor does it include tipping points or feedback loops like the extremely powerful methane gas released from the thawing Arctic permafrost.
At places like Davos, people like to tell success stories. But their financial success has come with an unthinkable price tag. And on climate change, we have to acknowledge we have failed. All political movements in their present form have done so, and the media has failed to create broad public awareness.
But Homo sapiens have not yet failed.
Yes, we are failing, but there is still time to turn everything around. We can still fix this. We still have everything in our own hands. But unless we recognize the overall failures of our current systems, we most probably don't stand a chance.
We are facing a disaster of unspoken sufferings for enormous amounts of people. And now is not the time for speaking politely or focusing on what we can or cannot say. Now is the time to speak clearly.
Solving the climate crisis is the greatest and most complex challenge that Homo sapiens have ever faced. The main solution, however, is so simple that even a small child can understand it. We have to stop our emissions of greenhouse gases.
"We are facing a disaster of unspoken sufferings for enormous amounts of people. And now is not the time for speaking politely or focusing on what we can or cannot say. Now is the time to speak clearly."
Either we do that or we don't.
You say nothing in life is black or white. But that is a lie. A very dangerous lie. Either we prevent 1.5C of warming or we don't. Either we avoid setting off that irreversible chain reaction beyond human control or we don't.
Either we choose to go on as a civilization or we don't. That is as black or white as it gets. There are no grey areas when it comes to survival.
We all have a choice. We can create transformational action that will safeguard the living conditions for future generations. Or we can continue with our business as usual and fail.
That is up to you and me.
Some say we should not engage in activism. Instead we should leave everything to our politicians and just vote for a change instead. But what do we do when there is no political will? What do we do when the politics needed are nowhere in sight?
"Adults keep saying: 'We owe it to the young people to give them hope.' But I don't want your hope. I don't want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act."
Here in Davos—just like everywhere else —everyone is talking about money. It seems money and growth are our only main concerns.
And since the climate crisis has never once been treated as a crisis, people are simply not aware of the full consequences on our everyday life. People are not aware that there is such a thing as a carbon budget, and just how incredibly small that remaining carbon budget is. That needs to change today.
No other current challenge can match the importance of establishing a wide, public awareness and understanding of our rapidly disappearing carbon budget, that should and must become our new global currency and the very heart of our future and present economics.
We are at a time in history where everyone with any insight of the climate crisis that threatens our civilization—and the entire biosphere—must speak out in clear language, no matter how uncomfortable and unprofitable that may be.
We must change almost everything in our current societies. The bigger your carbon footprint, the bigger your moral duty. The bigger your platform, the bigger your responsibility.
Adults keep saying: "We owe it to the young people to give them hope." But I don't want your hope. I don't want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.
I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is.
Posted at 07:37 AM in Common Dreams, Climate Change, Global Warming | Permalink | Comments (0)
Confirming US Orchestration, Report Details Pence's Key Phone Call to Venezuelan Opposition Leader
"The U.S. had been planning this coup in Venezuela. It was the Trump administration that told the little-known opposition leader Juan Guaidó to declare himself (unelected) 'president.'"
by Jake Johnson, staff writer
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives at a meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), on January 24, 2019 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
As U.S. lawmakers, civil society leaders, and Latin America experts continue to warn against American intervention in Venezuela's internal political affairs, the Wall Street Journal on Friday confirmed suspicions that opposition leader Juan Guaido's move to declare himself "interim president" of Venezuela this week was highly coordinated with the Trump White House and Republican lawmakers.
"The U.S. is not just 'behind' this coup; the U.S. is openly leading the coup."
—Ben Norton, The Real News
According to the Journal, Vice President Mike Pence called Guaido the night before his announcement and "pledged" that the Trump administration would support him "if he seized the reins of government from [elected President] Nicolas Maduro by invoking a clause in the South American country's constitution."
"That late-night call set in motion a plan that had been developed in secret over the preceding several weeks, accompanied by talks between U.S. officials, allies, lawmakers, and key Venezuelan opposition figures, including Mr. Guaido himself," the Journal reported, citing an anonymous administration official. "Almost instantly, just as Mr. Pence had promised, President Trump issued a statement recognizing Mr. Guaido as the country's rightful leader."
The coordination was clear to observers, but now the WSJ has it: Pence calling Guaidó and telling him to invoke the clause in the constitution that would allow him to take power https://t.co/2CzIgphfrd
— Christy Thornton (@llchristyll) January 25, 2019
Guaido's move and U.S. President Donald Trump's rapid endorsement were quickly decried as a dangerous intervention—or the beginnings of a coup d'etat—which progressives argued would dramatically worsen the country's economic and political crisis. As Common Dreams reported, over 70 academics and experts signed an open letter demanding that the U.S. "cease encouraging violence by pushing for violent, extralegal regime change."
At the center of the push to oust Maduro and replace him with Guaido, the Journal reports, were some of the most hawkish congressional Republicans and members of Trump's cabinet, including national security adviser John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), as well as officials from the right-wing governments of Brazil and Colombia.
According to the Journal, a "decisive moment" in the behind-the-scenes planning came on Tuesday, Jan. 22, when Trump met with top White House officials and Republican lawmakers the day before scheduled street protests by the opposition.
"Other officials who met that day at the White House included... Pompeo and Bolton, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who presented Mr. Trump with options for recognizing Mr. Guaido," the Journal reported. "Mr. Trump decided to do it. Mr. Pence, who wasn't at that meeting, placed his phone call to Mr. Guaido to tell him, 'If the National Assembly invoked Article 233 the following day, the president would back him.'"
Responding to the Journal's reporting on Friday, Ben Norton—reporter for The Real News—noted in a series of tweets that it is now clear the "U.S. is not just 'behind' this coup; the U.S. is openly leading the coup."
The US had been planning this coup in Venezuela. It was the Trump administration that told the little-known opposition leader Juan Guaidó to declare himself (unelected) "president."
The US is not just "behind" this coup; the US is openly leading the coup https://t.co/zbyvLTmy1p
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) January 25, 2019
The US-led coup in Venezuela was orchestrated by Donald Trump, Mike Pence, neocon fanatic John Bolton, former CIA head Pompeo, and neocon Marco Rubio, along with some hawkish Democrats, in alliance with Brazil's new fascist gov and Colombia's far-right gov https://t.co/zbyvLTmy1p
While the specifics of the attempt to oust Maduro were worked out behind the scenes, the Trump administration has never been quiet about its desire for regime change in Venezuela.
As Common Dreams reported, Trump declared in September that the Venezuelan government "could be toppled very quickly" and warned that "all options are on the table" with regard to U.S. actions in the country.
"The strong ones and the less than strong ones, and you know what I mean by strong. Every option is on the table with respect to Venezuela," Trump said.
The president and Pompeo both reiterated this warning on Wednesday, with the secretary of state threatening "appropriate actions" if the Venezuelan military does not protect U.S. diplomats, who Maduro has ordered to leave the country.
Progressive organizations, lawmakers, and advocacy groups in the U.S. have denounced the Trump administration's decision to recognize Guaido, arguing that American interference only increases the likelihood of violence and demanding peaceful negotiations.
In a statement on Friday, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) argued that "[b]oth the increasingly top-down Venezuelan government as well as the fractious Venezuelan opposition, which has at times resorted to anti-democratic methods, bear significant responsibility for the current crisis and there are important critiques to be leveled against both."
The organization concluded by calling on "the U.S. government to immediately cease and desist all attempts to intervene in the internal politics of Venezuela and break with its shameful legacy of imperial control in the region."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) echoed this demand in a series of tweets late Thursday, highlighting the United States' "long history of inappropriately intervening in Latin American countries" and declaring that "we must not go down that road again."
"The Maduro government in Venezuela has been waging a violent crackdown on Venezuelan civil society, violated the constitution by dissolving the National Assembly, and was re-elected last year in an election that many observers said was fraudulent," Sanders wrote. "But we must learn the lessons of the past and not be in the business of regime change or supporting coups."
Posted at 07:21 AM in Common Dreams, Foreign Policy | Permalink | Comments (0)
California's Goal to Get Gas Guzzlers Off Roads Conflicts With Consumer Tastes
California has set tailpipe emissions standards higher than required by the Federal government. In general the EPA sets uniform standards that all states are required to meet. California's standards are stricter, however, and up till now, Congress has granted California a waiver to depart from the uniform EPA standards required of all states. Several other states have followed California's lead voluntarily. This is what the Trump administration is trying to do away with - California's stricter standards. Since California's market is so large, many auto and light truck manufacturers have only produced cars and light trucks that meet California standards.
Meanwhile GM is discontinuing many sedan models as consumer tastes gravitate to pickup trucks and large SUVs which can't by their very nature get as good gas mileage as sedans. They have even discontinued the Volt, a plug in hybrid model that gets 53 mpg. It's also discontinuing the Cruze, the Impala, the Buick LaCrosse and the Cadillac CT6. So while consumer tastes are running towards fuel inefficient gas guzzlers which emit more greenhouse gasses (GHGs), California is requiring more fuel efficient non-gas guzzlers to be sold.
In 1990, the Clean Air Act was amended to define federal emissions standards that took full effect in model-year 1996. These were known as Tier 1 standards. Today Tier 2 standards are in effect. Tier 2 slashes allowable emissions to much lower levels than Tier 1, but more significantly it requires that vans, pickups and large SUVs be subject to the same emissions regulations as passenger cars. California's Air Resources Board (CARB) is even more stringent than Tier 2. However, the fly in the ointment here, in addition to Trump's wanting to not let California have more stringent regulations than the Federal government, is that other states can sell SUVs and pickup trucks that don't meet California's standards. Those vehicles can be bought in other states and driven to California. In this way California could end up with as many high polluting vehicles on the road as any other state.
In order to combat global warming the Federal government needs to set stricter standards for car and truck sales in every state, effectively adopting California standards at the national level. This will not happen under a Republican administration that doesn't even believe in global warming. However, if the Democrats are successful in 2020 in getting a Democratic President and Senate in addition to the House, a Green New Deal could be ushered in so that an EPA director could be appointed who would carry out the stricter standards. For our grandchildren's sake, let's hope so.
Posted at 06:46 AM in John Lawrence, California, Cars, Climate Change, Fossil Fuels, Global Warming, Trump | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Financial Secret Behind Germany's Green Energy Revolution
by Ellen Brown, from truthdig
JAN 24, 2019 |TD ORIGINALS
Wind farmer Jan Marrink poses by his wind turbines in Nordhorn, Germany. (Martin Meissner / AP)
The "Green New Deal" endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D.-N.Y., and more than 40 other House members has been criticized as imposing a too-heavy burden on the rich and upper-middle-class taxpayers who will have to pay for it. However, taxing the rich is not what the Green New Deal resolution proposes. It says funding would come primarily from certain public agencies, including the U.S. Federal Reserve and "a new public bank or system of regional and specialized public banks."
Funding through the Federal Reserve may be controversial, but establishing a national public infrastructure and development bank should be a no-brainer. The real question is why we don't already have one, as do China, Germany and other countries that are running circles around us in infrastructure development. Many European, Asian and Latin American countries have their own national development banks, as well as belong to bilateral or multinational development institutions that are jointly owned by multiple governments. Unlike the U.S. Federal Reserve, which considers itself "independent" of government, national development banks are wholly owned by their governments and carry out public development policies.
China not only has its own China Infrastructure Bank but has established the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which counts many Asian and Middle Eastern countries in its membership, including Australia, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia. Both banks are helping to fund China's trillion-dollar "One Belt One Road" infrastructure initiative. China is so far ahead of the United States in building infrastructure that Dan Slane, a former adviser on President Donald Trump's transition team, has warned, "If we don't get our act together very soon, we should all be brushing up on our Mandarin."
The leader in renewable energy, however, is Germany, called "the world's first major renewable energy economy." Germany has a public sector development bank called KfW (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbauor "Reconstruction Credit Institute"), which is even larger than the World Bank. Along with Germany's nonprofit Sparkassen banks, KfW has largely funded the country's green energy revolution.
Unlike private commercial banks, KfW does not have to focus on maximizing short-term profits for its shareholders while turning a blind eye to external costs, including those imposed on the environment. The bank has been free to support the energy revolution by funding major investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Its fossil fuel investments are close to zero. One of the key features of KfW, as with other development banks, is that much of its lending is driven in a strategic direction determined by the national government. Its key role in the green energy revolution has been played within a public policy framework under Germany's renewable energy legislation, including policy measures that have made investment in renewables commercially attractive.
KfW is one of the world's largest development banks, with assetstotaling $566.5 billion as of December 2017. Ironically, the initial funding for its capitalization came from the United States, through the Marshall Plan in 1948. Why didn't we fund a similar bank for ourselves? Simply because powerful Wall Street interests did not want the competition from a government-owned bank that could make below-market loans for infrastructure and development. Major U.S. investors today prefer funding infrastructure through public-private partnerships, in which private partners can reap the profits while losses are imposed on local governments.
KfW and Germany's Energy Revolution
Renewable energy in Germany is mainly based on wind, solar and biomass. Renewables generated 41 percent of the country's electricity in 2017, up from just 6 percent in 2000; and public banks provided over 72 percent of the financing for this transition. In 2007-09, KfW funded all of Germany's investment in Solar Photovoltaic. After that, Solar PV was introduced nationwide on a major scale. This is the sort of catalytic role that development banks can play—kickstarting a major structural transformation by funding and showcasing new technologies and sectors.
KfW is not only one of the biggest financial institutions but has been ranked one of the two safest banks in the world. (The other, Switzerland's Zurich Cantonal Bank, is also publicly owned.) KfW sports triple-A ratings from all three major rating agencies—Fitch, Standard and Poor's, and Moody's. The bank benefits from these top ratings and the statutory guarantee of the German government, which allow it to issue bonds on very favorable terms and therefore to lend on favorable terms, backing its loans with the bonds.
KfW does not work through public-private partnerships, and it does not trade in derivatives and other complex financial products. It relies on traditional lending and grants. The borrower is responsible for loan repayment. Private investors can participate, but not as shareholders or public-private partners. Rather, they can invest in "Green Bonds," which are as safe and liquid as other government bonds and are prized for their green earmarking. The first "Green Bond—Made by KfW" was issued in 2014 with a volume of $1.7 billion and a maturity of five years. It was the largest Green Bond ever at the time of issuance and generated so much interest that the order book rapidly grew to $3.02 billion, although the bonds paid an annual coupon of only 0.375 percent. By 2017, the issue volume of KfW Green Bonds reached $4.21 billion.
Investors benefit from the high credit and sustainability ratings of KfW, the liquidity of its bonds, and the opportunity to support climate and environmental protection. For large institutional investors with funds that exceed the government deposit insurance limit, Green Bonds are the equivalent of savings accounts—a safe place to park their money that provides a modest interest. Green Bonds also appeal to "socially responsible" investors, who have the assurance with these simple and transparent bonds that their money is going where they want it to. The bonds are financed by KfW from the proceeds of its loans, which are also in high demand due to their low interest rates, which the bank can offer because its high ratings allow it to cheaply mobilize funds from capital markets and its public policy-oriented loans qualify it for targeted subsidies.
Roosevelt's Development Bank: The Reconstruction Finance Corporation
KfW's role in implementing government policy parallels that of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) in funding the New Deal in the 1930s. At that time, U.S. banks were bankrupt and incapable of financing the country's recovery. President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to set up a system of 12 public "industrial banks" through the Federal Reserve, but the measure failed. Roosevelt then made an end run around his opponents by using the RFC that had been set up earlier by President Herbert Hoover, expanding it to address the nation's financing needs.
The RFC Act of 1932 provided the RFC with capital stock of $500 million and the authority to extend credit up to $1.5 billion (subsequently increased several times). With those resources, from 1932 to 1957 the RFC loaned or invested more than $40 billion. As with KfW's loans, its funding source was the sale of bonds, mostly to the Treasury itself. Proceeds from the loans repaid the bonds, leaving the RFC with a net profit. The RFC financed roads, bridges, dams, post offices, universities, electrical power, mortgages, farms and much more; it funded all of this while generating income for the government.
The RFC was so successful that it became America's largest corporation and the world's largest banking organization. Its success, however, may have been its nemesis. Without the emergencies of depression and war, it was a too-powerful competitor of the private banking establishment; and in 1957, it was disbanded under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. That's how the United States was left without a development bank at the same time Germany and other countries were hitting the ground running with theirs.
Today some U.S. states have infrastructure and development banks, including California, but their reach is very small. One way they could be expanded to meet state infrastructure needs would be to turn them into depositories for state and municipal revenue. Rather than lending their capital directly in a revolving fund, this would allow them to leverage their capital into 10 times that sum in loans, as all depository banks are able to do, as I've previously explained.
The most profitable and efficient way for national and local governments to finance public infrastructure and development is with their own banks, as the impressive track records of KfW and other national development banks have shown. The RFC showed what could be done even by a country that was technically bankrupt, simply by mobilizing its own resources through a publicly owned financial institution. We need to resurrect that public funding engine today, not only to address the national and global crises we are facing now but for the ongoing development the country needs in order to manifest its true potential.
Ellen Brown is an attorney, chairman of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books including "Web of Debt" and "The Public Bank Solution." A thirteenth book titled "The Coming Revolution in Banking" is due out soon. She also co-hosts a radio program on PRN.FM called "It's Our Money." Her 300+ blog articles are posted at EllenBrown.com.
Posted at 08:24 AM in Ellen Brown, Banking, Green New Deal, Infrastructure, Public Banking | Permalink | Comments (0)
Policymakers are realizing health is about a lot more than just care
From the Washington Post
BY PAIGE WINFIELD CUNNINGHAM
with Paulina Firozi
THE PROGNOSIS
Sen. Mike Lee (Utah) is the top Republican on the Joint Economic Committee. (Alex Brandon/AP)
A whole host of factors — such as friends, housing and transportation — affect a person's health and how much they need the social safety net. It's time the government's big health insurance programs took this reality into account, some lawmakers and policymakers are starting to argue.
Republicans on the Joint Economic Committee will release a report today finding that Americans have fewer people around to help provide care as they age compared with two decades ago. It says Medicare and Medicaid spending projections may be too low because they fail to take into account the declining social networks of aging baby boomers.
The study found adults from ages 61 to 63 are now less likely to be in close geographical proximity to their loved ones. Seventy-five percent were married or cohabitating in 1994, compared with 69 percent in 1994. The share of adults attending church at least three times a month fell from 56 percent to 41 percent, and the share of those with a child living within 10 miles fell from 68 percent to 55 percent during the same time frame.
The report also found declines in the share of adults with a good friend or a relative living in their neighborhood. This weakened network could translate to a heavier burden on Medicaid and Medicare if more adults seek formal paid rehabilitation, long-term care and hospice services as a result, the report says.
"That generation is going to have many fewer friends and children and spouses and people from church to care for them as they get old," said Robert Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard University who testified at a 2017 hearing on social capital convened by the committee's top Republican, Sen. Mike Lee (Utah).
"We're not going to just leave them on the street, so more of them will have to be cared for through paid care," Putnam added.
Posted at 08:00 AM in Washington Post, Health Care | Permalink | Comments (0)
Change Your Beliefs, Change Your Life
Today I celebrate my own arrival on planet earth, probably not for the first time, but who knows? When I was little, two and three years old, I was convinced I had come here to tell people something. I tried and tried to remember what it was, to no avail. Another pursuit was trying to "lift off." I knew I could do it if I just stood with my arms over my head long enough. It never happened, but I had a memory of floating in the air. None of this makes me special. I feel all children are little forms of big souls. Mostly we are adapting to expectations and hence, we act like we are first timers. It is rather like playing a part to please the audience.
There was a moment at age 34 when I allowed my true self to demand answers. I cried out "I don't know where you went God, but I want you back." This was very strange for a woman who had been raised by an atheist and an agnostic, who was anti-church. However, that little girl always felt the Presence of Something Else, but it seemed to have departed once I became an adult. My demand was immediately answered. Within the week I learned to mediate and two months later I was led to a New Thought Center. The message was familiar. I knew what I came here to tell people.
It goes like this: God is the word we use to try to describe a universal Intelligence acting in a field of Love bringing about visible forms of itself. You and I are those forms, as is all sentient life. Our Mind (awareness) is the way God can have a time/space experience, as we spontaneously express our uniqueness. What we think about, believe with conviction tends to be revealed as our personal experience. Hence, change your beliefs, change your Life. Mission accomplished. You're welcome. 😊
Carol Carnes www.centerforspiritualliving.com
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Mistress Speaker, the State of the Union is Crappy
I said I would make America great again, but all you got was a lousy red baseball cap. Instead I made America suck again. And now Nancy, you won't even let me come and play at your House. I stiffed Federal workers just like I stiffed the contractors who worked on my casinos. TSA workers are having to eat at Father Joe's and sleep under freeway overpasses. Payday Loans won't even lend them money until the next pay day whenever that might be.
Michael Cohen won't speak to me. I'm under inditement. My deal on Trump Tower Moscow fell through. But there's still hope for my Trump Tower Riyadh. MBS told me so. I said to him, 'Next time, don't use a bone saw!' I think the jig is up. For me and for America. Fewer people come to my rallies. My approval ratings are down in the cellar. The true believers like rats are leaving the sinking ship. America is capsizing. Even France and Germany are starting their own armies.
I probably won't run again. The White House is in disarray. Nancy Pelosi has gotten the best of me. Air traffic controllers can't feed their families. The State of America is weak. Kim Jong Un won't destroy his nuclear weapons even though I've been nice to him and don't call him "Little Rocket Man" any more. Even good old Vlad Putin is laughing up his sleeve at the State of Our Union. Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron are talking behind our backs. The almighty dollar is not so almighty any more.
Oh what a sad state of affairs. The State of the Union sucks, Mistress Speaker. The sooner I vacate the White House and go back to stiffing contractors, the better. Just do me a favor and don't demolish Trump Tower New York.
Posted at 07:28 AM in John Lawrence, Humor, Off the Top of my Head | Permalink | Comments (0)
Nothing Great Was Ever Achieved Without Enthusiasm
Emerson in "Circles" said "nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." It is easy in the beginning of a new venture to be enthusiastic and certain of success. But as time goes on, there are ebbs and flows; downturns and recovery. Staying in the enthused state has something to do with belief, of course, but also with the sense of support from the invisible power that enthuses us in the first place. If we know that our efforts are being supplied by a higher power than the economy or the opinions of the world, we can stay the course.
The example most often given is that of Edison who would not give up until he perfected the electric light. There are countless others whose names we do not know who have maintained a high level of commitment and positivity to their idea despite obstacles and even ridicule. The other night was a beautiful lunar eclipse. I thought of those dedicated men and women of the space program who eventually took us to the moon. Without enthusiasm, that would never have succeeded.
In our daily life with the obligations of family and work we might not feel enthused. Yet the Spirit is with us, always, and as Emerson has suggested, seeks new ideas to support. If we can get involved with something bigger than our individual life, we will feel its presence. A commitment to a Cause, participating in it and giving something of one's self, activates our relationship to Spirit. It has been described as feeling the "hand of God upon us." Participation breeds enthusiasm. Spirit seeks and finds the way in, that it might do its work by means of us.
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Posted at 01:43 PM in Dr. Carol Carnes, Living Consciously | Permalink | Comments (0)
As Americans Increasingly Bear 'Real Costs of Climate Crisis,' Polls Show Soaring Realization of Global Warming's Threat
Published on Tuesday, January 22, 2019 by Common Dreams
Extreme weather events and suffering they cause beginning to put dents in "ongoing multi-billion dollar deception campaign" put forth by the fossil fuel industry
Participants in the 2017 March for Science in Portland, Maine carry signs. (Photo: Paul VanDerWerf/Flickr/cc)
While President Donald Trump, GOP lawmakers, and the fossil fuel industry continue to deny the dangers of the climate crisis to justify pushing for polluter-friendly policies, a growing majority of Americans—faced with increasingly destructive and costly droughts, storms, and wildfires—accept global warming driven by human activity as reality and are concerned about it, according to a pair of polls out Tuesday.
"Together, we are demanding that elected officials at all levels step up on climate action and push forward federal legislation such as the Green New Deal that creates millions of family-sustaining jobs while transitioning our economy to 100 percent renewables."
—May Boeve, 350.org
One survey, conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, found that 73 percent of Americans polled in November and December believe that global warming is happening, a 10 percent jump since March of 2015.
Additionally, 62 percent understand that it's mostly human-caused, 65 percent think it's affecting weather in the United States, and a majority are concerned about harm from extreme heat, flooding, droughts, and water shortages.
"Despite Big Oil's ongoing multi-billion dollar deception campaign, people across America are bearing the real costs of the climate crisis, so it's no surprise we're more concerned than ever," said 350.org executive director May Boeve, in response to the results.
Anthony Leiserowitz, lead researcher of Yale study, said the poll's results are directly tied to climate-related disasters and increased awareness from more frequent reporting on the topic.
"After a year of devastating extreme events, dire scientific reports, and growing media coverage of climate change, a record number of Americans are convinced that human-caused global warming is happening, are increasingly worried, and say the issue is personally important to them," he said.
Climate Change in the American Mind (pdf), the report detailing the survey results, pointed out that "the proportion of Americans who are very worried about global warming has more than tripled since its lowest point in 2011."
Responding to the dramatic spike in public opinion shown in the poll, Leiserowitz told the New York Times, "I've never seen jumps in some of the key indicators like this."
Another new poll, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), featured similar findings. That survey found 71 percent of respondents "say climate change is a reality, and most think human activity is primarily responsible."
Notably, while the majority of Americans across the political spectrum accept the human-caused climate crisis as reality, the poll showed that 86 percent of Democrats said "climate change is happening," but that number fell to 70 percent among Independents and 52 percent among Republicans.
"Nearly half of Americans say they're more convinced now about climate change than they were five years ago, and many would pay additional fees or taxes to help combat the problem."
—Trevor Tompson, The AP-NORC Center
In addition, as Trevor Tompson, director of The AP-NORC Center, noted, "The survey reveals that nearly half of Americans say they're more convinced now about climate change than they were five years ago, and many would pay additional fees or taxes to help combat the problem."
Among the 48 percent who said they think climate science today is more convincing than it was five years ago, 76 percent credited recent extreme weather with shifting their opinions. As the center acknowledged, the survey was conducted in November, "while wildfires were burning out of control in California, though there were no significant regional differences in responses."
Given the growing number of Americans accepting and being affected by the global climate crisis, 350.org's Boeve concluded that "this is an important moment to educate and organize our communities because we should not have to sit in fear of the next climate impact, such as stronger hurricanes, superstorms, heatwaves or year-round fire seasons, that would devastate our livelihoods."
"Together, we are demanding that elected officials at all levels step up on climate action and push forward federal legislation such as the Green New Deal that creates millions of family-sustaining jobs while transitioning our economy to 100 percent renewables," she said. "We're ready to work collectively to demand the climate justice we deserve."
Posted at 05:52 AM in Common Dreams, Climate Change, Global Warming, Green New Deal | Permalink | Comments (0)
Fighting the Imperial Presidency
The President's powers are supposed to be limited. Congress is supposed to haver the bigger role in setting policy for the country at least in domestic affairs. However, Congress is dysfunctional, and the dysfunction continues even though or perhaps because of the recent elections in which Democrats took over the House. But now they can cause all sorts of problems for Donald Trump, the man who was never supposed to be President. He got elected with the help of right wing hate mongers like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Alex Jones and Fox News. When people absorb so much hate from the media they expose themselves to, they become little hatemongers too.
The Democrats are buzzing around Trump's head like a swarm of busy mosquitoes, never giving him a moment's rest. They don't want him to succeed with his agenda despite the issue of border security. It's not about border security; it's about defeating Donald Trump and his attack on the status quo. His attack on the environment and support of the fossil fuel industry is unforgivable.The fate of the earth for our grandchildren is at stake. Getting rid of fossil fuels need to be done post haste. The US needs to lead in this regard, but under Trump it has abandoned its leadership.
As far as shaking up the foreign policy status quo, Trump has done some good things and suggested others. As a result of at least figuratively withdrawing from NATO, France and Germany have come closer together. The Guardian reports:
France and Germany have renewed their vows of postwar friendship, aiming to show that the traditional engine powering the EU project is still strong, but drawing strong criticism from nationalist and populist parties advancing across the continent.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and German chancellor, Angela Merkel, signed the 16-page update to the 1963 Elysée treaty on Tuesday in the German border city of Aachen, the residence of Charlemagne, the "father of Europe" who managed to unite much of the western part of the continent in the ninth century. ...
Macron said those "who forget the value of Franco-German reconciliation are making themselves accomplices of the crimes of the past. Those who ... spread lies are hurting the same people they are pretending to defend, by seeking to repeat history."
The text promises enhanced economic and security cooperation, including the aim of a "German-French economic area with common rules" and a "common military culture" that Merkel said could "contribute to the creation of a European army".
So France and Germany at least are taking Trump's suggestion to heart that other rich countries should provide for their own defense and not depend on the US to foot the bill. This is a good thing. The US needs to close down the thousand or so military bases it supports in almost every country of the world. The trillion dollars the US spends on defense each year could be better spent on supporting the American people.
Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are reasserting the rights of Congress to control the direction of American policy making by saying "no" to Trump over his border wall despite the fact that, in some parts of the border at least, some sort of wall is needed. But let's have a more sophisticated plan for border security than just a 30 foot concrete wall from sea to shining sea.
Posted at 05:39 AM in John Lawrence, Foreign Policy, Fossil Fuels, France, Germany, Global Warming, Off the Top of my Head, Trump | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Fall of Davos Man
The annual confab of the captains of global industry, finance, and wealth is underway in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum.
Meanwhile, Oxfam reports that the wealth of the 2,200 billionaires across the globe increased by $900 billion last year – or $2.5 billion a day. Their 12 percent increase in wealth contrasts with a drop of 11 percent in the wealth of the bottom half of the people of the world. In fact, the world's 26 richest billionaires now own as much as the 3.8 billion who comprise the bottom half of the planet's population.
If Davos's attendees ignore all this, and blame the rise of right-wing populism around the globe on racism fueled by immigrants from the Middle East and from Central America, they're deluding themselves.
The real source of the rise of repressive authoritarianism, nativism, and xenophobia in the United States as well as Italy, Spain, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Denmark, Bulgaria, Greece, France, and Britain is a pervasive sense that elites are rigging the world economy for themselves. And, guess what? They are.
Message to Davos Man (and Women): Either commit to pushing for broader prosperity and democracy, or watch as trade wars, capital controls, and isolationism erode global prosperity (including yours) and global peace.
Posted at 10:29 AM in Robert Reich | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Inner Self is Always at Rest and Perfectly Intact
Emerson wrote in Spiritual Laws: "a standing army is not as good as a peace." We take that as metaphor for our mental tendencies. Are we standing in defense of our emotions, ready to strike when we feel hurt or betrayed? It is observable in many adults who one would expect to have matured beyond that stance. Yet, if we are not given the means to change our own mind about what is the truth of our circumstances, we will forever be on the alert for attack.
The ego mind is meant to protect the status quo; that is, what is contained in our subconscious and what is our deeper self-regard. It will always see us as we see ourselves, and produce effects that perfectly make us right. The conclusion, and the irony, is if we want to be loved, we must love ourselves. There is no escape from that fact. Loving ourselves means honoring the Spirit that indwells us, seeing through the physical, knowing our past does not make us who we are; that is God's business and it is in operation right now.
Who we are is new every moment if we could but see it. Meditation on a regular basis helps us to stay in that awareness. Without any doing or any reaction to us, we simply rediscover the inner self which is always at rest and perfectly intact. We are never damaged goods. There is nothing about our true self that is not lovely and beautiful. Let's start anew every day with a visit to our own heart and soul. Let's affirm our wholeness and set about our day with the cheerful expectation of a child discovering the world. Or would we rather be armed and ready for a fight?
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The Government Shutdown: Why Is Congress Getting Paid?
All the government shutdown means is that certain Federal workers - those who are paid the least - are not getting paid. All other Federal workers including the President, the Cabinet, Department heads, the Admirals, the Generals and all the highly paid government functionaries are getting paid. They never miss a government paycheck. Congress should pass a new law that these lowly paid Federal workers should be paid during a shutdown from now on.
The whole situation is so ridiculous and shows just what a dysfunctional government the American people have. This is a democracy? Where in the Constitution does it provide for a government shutdown and under what circumstances? The Constitution needs redoing. What we need is for rational people to come up with a plan for securing the border. Let the Democrats come up with their plan, and the Republicans come up with their plan. Then let them work out their differences or compromise on their differences. That is the way government is supposed to work.
Both parties agree that border security is important. There is new technology ready to be deployed that would detect illegal contraband and/or persons entering the border through ports of entry and in other places. The theblast.com reports:
Of the listed contraband, officials want the scanners to pick up narcotics, currency, weapons, explosives and harmful chemicals/biological agents. They are also hoping the devices can combat against illegal human trafficking.
As an example, the procurement request lists the ThruVision TS4-C people-screening camera that touts the ability to identify any type of item "hidden under peoples' clothing" at distances of 3 to 4 meters. It can also screen people at a rate of one every 12-seconds, which would satisfy the 100 per hour requirement.
So let's proceed with it and fund it and get it done. There is other technology available to detect people crossing the border illegally and to detect drones bringing in drugs. Shutdown or no shutdown there should be general agreement on a plan for enhanced border security. Instead all we get is political posturing on both sides. Trump wants to placate his base, and the Democrats want to deny him any satisfaction in that regard. There has been no consensus or even talk about a realistic plan. All the news is about the political posturing and nothing about an actual plan. Where's the beef?
The government should not be able to be shut down over a dispute between the President and Congress or between two political parties. The fact that it can happen represents a flaw in the Constitution. Legal scholars should come up with an amendment or a new Constitution which ameliorates this flaw. Until then it's just another example of the dysfunction of the US government.
A 'Fundamentally Inhuman' Economy: 26 Billionaires Own as Much as World's 3.8 Billion Poorest People
Published on Monday, January 21, 2019 by Common Dreams
While the wealth of billionaires increased by $900 billion last year, or $2.5 billion a day, latest Oxfam report on inequality shows "this bonanza has not been felt by the poorest half of the world, which saw its wealth decline by 11 percent."
"People generally are beginning to realize that they have been sold a bad bill of goods," said Paul O'Brien, vice president for policy and campaigns at Oxfam America. (Photo: Market Watch via Getty Images)
With Wall Street titans, tech moguls, and other members of the global financial and political elite set to gather in Davos, Switzerland this week for the annual World Economic Forum, a report published late Sunday found that the planet's richest people saw their fortunes soar by $2.5 billion per day last year as the world's poorest lost wealth.
"The economy we have today is fundamentally inhuman."
—Paul O'Brien, Oxfam America<
Titled "Private Good or Public Wealth?" and conducted by Oxfam, the new analysis found that 26 billionaires now own as much wealth as the world's poorest 3.8 billion people combined.
According to Oxfam, the number of billionaires has doubled since the global financial crisis of 2008, even as average families have struggled mightily to recover.
In contrast to the soaring fortunes of the global financial elite, the wealth of the world's poorest fell by $500 million each day in 2018—an overall decline of 11 percent.
"The economy we have today is fundamentally inhuman," Paul O'Brien, vice president for policy and campaigns at Oxfam America, said in an interview with the Huffington Post.
As the world's elite gather at #WEF19, join us and share this video to send them a message to tax the rich fairly. #FightInequality and #BeatPoverty
Join the movement here→ https://t.co/HF57H0BFAU pic.twitter.com/uuqNtaYYi8
— Oxfam International (@Oxfam) January 21, 2019
Singling out U.S. President Donald Trump and the Republican Party's $1.5 trillion in tax cuts for the rich as the kind of upward redistribution that has worsened inequality at the expense of the world's poor and working class, O'Brien said that only transformative political and economic changes across the globe will be sufficient to close the gap between the rich and everyone else.
"Inequality is not inevitable, it's a political choice."
"The recent U.S. tax law is a master class on how to favor massive corporations and the richest citizens," O'Brien said in a statement. "The law rewards U.S. companies that have trillions stashed offshore, encourages U.S. companies to dodge foreign taxes on their foreign profits, and fuels a global race to the bottom that benefits big business and wealthy individuals."
"The only winners in the race to the bottom on corporate tax are the wealthiest among us. Now is the time to work towards a new set of tax rules that work for the many, not the few," he continued, echoing the popular slogans of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. "We need economic, political, and tax reform to level the playing field if we want to restore prosperity and opportunity for all, including women, girls whose needs are so often overlooked."
Stunning new data:
The world's 2,200 billionaires grew 12 percent wealthier in 2018. Meanwhile, the bottom half of the world got 11 percent poorer.
Don't be Pinkered into everything's-getting-better complacency.
The few are monopolizing progress.https://t.co/89ZZWFpz6S
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) January 21, 2019
Citing United Nations figures, Oxfam points out that crucial public services throughout the world—including in wealthy nations like the U.S. and the U.K.—are suffering from crippling austerity as the global financial elite and massive corporations hoard economic gains, thanks in large part to regressive government policies that allow them to pay minimal taxes and enrich executives with massive pay packages.
Meanwhile, workers are forced to scrape by on starvation wages.
"People generally are beginning to realize that they have been sold a bad bill of goods," O'Brien said. "Today, 262 million kids are going to stay home because there is no funding for their education, 10,000 people today will die because they don't have access to basic healthcare that could easily be funded through proper fiscal systems."
Oxfam's analysis concludes that only a "human economy" that guarantees essential services like healthcare, education, and housing to all—funded by higher taxes on the ultra-rich—can begin to resolve the inequities that are producing mass suffering and threatening the existence of the planet.
According to Oxfam, "if the richest one percent paid an additional 0.5 percent tax on their wealth, an estimated $418 billion would be raised a year. This alone would ensure an education for the 262 million children currently not in school and provide healthcare that could save the lives of more than three million people."
"Inequality is not inevitable," Oxfam's report concludes, "it's a political choice."
Posted at 10:09 AM in Common Dreams, Billionaires, Inequality, Wealth | Permalink | Comments (0)
Overcoming Our Resistance to Achieve Our Good
This is my birthday week. January 25 is the actual date but I am already thinking about who I am at this advanced age. It has been a long run from babyhood during the second World War to now. There have been moments of sheer delight and some terrifying ones. I still have friends from kindergarten and many new ones I cherish as well. There has been world travel and great adventures. But the one thing that truly made my soul open up (excluding the birth of my children) was learning to meditate and then the discovery of New Thought spirituality.
Prior to that, it seemed to me that the world was living with false ideas. I could not accept the version of Reality that had a man in the sky dictating our lives. But I felt the Presence and cried out for answers. Immediately I was led to a class in meditation and a bit later to the New Thought Center near my home. It was a revelation to hear what felt true. In those days it was called the Church of Religious Science. I was very much against institutionalized religion, which meant I had to overcome my own resistances to walk through the door. But isn't that what we always must do to move beyond where we are into something greater?
Our resistance might be fear; fear of rejection, fear of losing something, fear of being challenged, fear of being fooled, fear of looking silly. Don't we often go through something like that when we start a new relationship or interview for a new job? Overcoming our own resistances is a huge part of life that we don't give much credit. It is rather amazing what our mind can do when it senses some Good that doesn't look like we thought it would. Can you trust yourself to know when your Good is being offered? If it turns out to be not so good, you will know it, but the great gift will have been the triumph over fear. That alone is what lifts us out of survival into thrival. Once activated, we never lose that power.
Carol Carnes www.centerforspiritiualivingbakersfield.com
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Trump's Revenge: Trump Tower Moscow?
Let me start off by saying that I don't like a lot of what Trump's done or that he stands for. His pooh poohing climate change is his worst sin. His appointment of neocons like John Bolton and others is abhorrent. Tax cuts for the wealthy? Disgusting. But I do like a few things: his meetings with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un to name two. As far as his supposed collusion with Russia, he probably colluded to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. I don't think he gave American top secret information in return for a building permit. All the rest is really nit picking. Lying to Congress, perjury - these are all things where competing lawyers yell gotcha! The rest is a bunch of hooey that Democrats are using to bring Trump down, and you can hardly blame them for that after the best qualified candidate in the 2016 election - Hillary Clinton - lost to a blowhard, male chauvinist with no government experience even though she won the popular vote. But then it was a crying shame that Al Gore lost to George W Bush under the same circumstances.
If it takes a business deal by the President of the US to build a hotel in Russia in order for the US and Russia to become friends and end the neo-Cold War that the neocons have restarted, then I'm for it. But it's the last thing the US military and military-industrial complex want. Why? They would lose money and power and prestige. They want a country not where there is peace in the world with America playing a constructive role. They want world dominance with the US in the dominant position. It enhances their positions and their reputations. To make peace with Russia or North Korea would cost very little money, but to keep war and the threat of war at the forefront of American foreign policy costs a lot of money. That's the crux of the matter.
The Democrats want to make their policy of proving Trump guilty of something their main priority. Something nefarious like selling secrets to the Russians. But what Trump is guilty of is right there in plain sight: denying climate change and giving tax cuts to the rich among other things. The Dems are staking their whole claim on Trump's "colluding with Russia." Over what? We know the guy wants to use his position as the most powerful man in the world to line his own pockets. But somehow that doesn't rise to the level of treason. Nor is it worthy of impeachment. It is worthy of voting him out of office in the next election, however.
The Dems would be better off to adopt the agenda of the progressive wing - the Bernie Sanders wing - and agree with Trump at least in that part of his agenda in which he wants better relations with Russia and North Korea. It is really a peace agenda. Maybe they don't like the way Trump has gone about it, but improving relations with our "enemies" should be what American foreign policy is all about, not a continuation of the Cold War and a justification for spending even more money on the military and the military-industrial complex. Spend it on infrastructure and bettering the lives of the American people instead.
Posted at 09:22 AM in John Lawrence, Foreign Policy, Off the Top of my Head, Peace, Trump | Permalink | Comments (0)
97 Year Old Prince Philip in Car Smash. Emerges Unscathed.
The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, husband of the Queen of England was involved in a "smash" as the English say while driving his Land Rover. It was the Prince's fault as he pulled out onto the A149 and T-boned an oncoming Kia. Despite his advanced age the Prince likes to drive himself. He was without the royal protection officers. The Queen was not amused. She herself is the only person in England who is not required to hold a driver's license, and she could presumably order Prince Philip not to drive any more. But will she?
It was Prince Philip's fault. He pulled out onto the A149 while the oncoming car had the right of way. The other car was carrying two women and a baby. The baby was unhurt, but one woman had a broken wrist and the other scratches on her knees. The man who pulled the Prince out of his overturned car said he had royal blood on his hands, but Prince Philip was basically unhurt. He was taken to the nearby Queen Elizabeth Hospital at King's Lynn and released. Buckingham Police released a statement, saying: "On doctor's advice, the Duke of Edinburgh visited the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn this morning for a precautionary check-up. This confirmed His Royal Highness had no injuries of concern. The Duke has returned to Sandringham."
He was sure to get a good dressing down from his wife, the Queen. However, within 24 hours, another spanking new Land Rover was delivered to the Sandringham estate. Prince Philip said that he was dazzled by the sun and didn't see the oncoming Kia. The first words he uttered were, "I'm such a fool."
If the 97 year old Prince can still drive his own car, maybe I'm selling myself short with my plan to stop Ubering and Lyfting at the age of 82. I was planning to get rid of my car and just take public transportation and an occasional Lyft or Uber myself. You can get a senior transit pass for $18. You can't beat that. I figure I'll save about a thousand dollars a month by not driving. But I'm making money Lyfting and Ubering so maybe I'll reconsider and keep doing it until I'm otherwise indisposed. I just hope I don't end up like Prince Philip having an accident, or a smash as they call it, at the age of 97.
Posted at 08:20 AM in John Lawrence, Off the Top of my Head, Uber and Lyft | Permalink | Comments (0)
See the Good and Praise It
Leaders do not have to be perfect human beings to be visionaries, to make life better for others. In our social media culture, we have become "outers." Quick to condemn, ridicule, find fault with or just plain criticize people for anything and everything they do or say, we are losing our spiritual sight.
It is one thing to be discerning but quite another to be hateful. The expectation of "saintliness" is childish and is a kind of spiritual malpractice. Not everyone, in fact most people, are very good with great power. It is easy to lose one's sense of appropriateness when you are being worshiped or feared. However, there are those who have managed. President Jimmy Carter comes to mind.
This week we honor the birth and lifetime of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was a flawed person but his work in the world opened the pathways to greater freedom and equality for millions of people. His efforts on behalf of African Americans had a profound and positive affect on the women's movement and Gay rights, as well. Let's see through the superficial to the heart of the matter. This man was courageous, stalwart, wholeheartedly involved with the vision of a world that works for everyone. He has earned our respect and admiration and most of all, our gratitude.
Spiritually, we will do well to see the Good and praise it. At the same time to call it forth when it seems to be missing. There is a soul present in each one of us. It is trying to be seen and known, but sometimes the ego gets in its way. Affirm with me today about anyone who you have seen as a problem:
"I see through the façade of negativity into your very soul. I call forth the beautiful self who is standing before me. I refuse to condemn. I praise the potential and give it open space to be revealed. All is well with us."
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Protesting Outside GOP's 'Lavish Retreat,' Federal Workers Demand End to Shutdown Amid Growing Calls for Strike
Government employees are "being treated in a mean and humiliating fashion," says Barbara Ehrenreich, who is calling on TSA employees to walk off the job
"It's past time for McConnell to call the vote instead of partying with his colleagues at Nationals stadium," the AFL-CIO wrote on Twitter. (Photo: Bradley Herring/Twitter)
Amid growing calls for federal workers to walk off the job in protest as President Donald Trump continues to hold their paychecks hostage and downplay their financial hardship, government employees rallied outside of the Washington Nationals' ballpark in the frigid D.C. weather on Thursday to demand an end to the government shutdown as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his fellow Republicans held a "retreat" inside the stadium.
"Clearly McConnell thinks his lavish retreat is more important than 800,000 families," declared the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), one of several unions that took part in the demonstration.
Facing severe economic pain from the shutdown—which is now the longest in U.S. history—the workers called on McConnell to immediately allow a vote on House-passed legislation that would reopen the government and put an end to the pervasive financial anxiety and safety risked posed by the lapse in federal funding.
"It's past time for McConnell to call the vote instead of partying with his colleagues at Nationals stadium," the AFL-CIO wrote on Twitter.
Teamsters and all workers say #CallTheVote #StopTheShutdown @senatemajldr pic.twitter.com/sR8bsgO7B4
— Teamsters (@Teamsters) January 17, 2019
Federal workers have made their own rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." #CallTheVote #StopTheShutdown #1u pic.twitter.com/PwWK7w6nkg
— AFGE (@AFGENational) January 17, 2019
The workers' rally comes as the widespread economic strain caused by the shutdown has led some to call on federal workers to go on strike to pressure Congress and Trump to reopen the government.
Long-time activist and journalist Barbara Ehrenreich—who co-authored a New York Times op-ed on Monday urging low-paid Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers to strike—echoed her call in an interview with Democracy Now! on Thursday, arguing that public employees are "being treated in a mean and humiliating fashion."
"If enough airport workers were to either walk away from the job or go on strike, that would shut down the airports. And that would be—that would just shut down the economy."
"And our point is, don't just take this lying down," Ehrenreich said. "When Trump said this week, essentially, 'You can come back to work, but, you know, you'll get paid at some point, we can't tell you exactly when, when the shutdown is over,' that's not how you respectfully treat American workers."
"And if enough airport workers were to either walk away from the job or go on strike, that would shut down the airports," she continued. "And that would be—that would just shut down the economy. They couldn't, we wouldn't, I think even Trump wouldn't let that last for more than a few hours."
On top of the financial concerns of airport employees, a representative of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association warned on Wednesday that the shutdown has made flying far less safe and heightened the possibility of a "catastrophic event."
Acknowledging that federal law prohibits government employees from striking, Ehrenreich pointed to technically illegal teacher strikes throughout the nation last year and declared, "you have to go ahead anyway."
In a tweet on Thursday, People's Policy Project founder Matt Bruenig suggested that congressional Democrats "should promise that they will protect any federal worker who strikes in the legislation that ends the shutdown."
Posted at 07:12 AM in Common Dreams, The Federal Government | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Gathering Storm: Could 800,000 Unpaid Federal Workers Start a Revolution?
What if all the aircraft controllers and TSA agents walked off then job - the job they're not being paid to do? Travel by air in the US would suddenly cease. Americans would be up in arms about that like few other things. The economy would shut down. It would be a nightmare. Unlike other disastrous situations that some Americans have been forced to live through, this would affect the majority. The rich would continue to fly...maybe, in their private jets. But then they would have to supply private aircraft controllers or fly out of podunk airports where there are no aircraft controllers.
Trump's tweet, "I don't care that most of the workers not getting paid [because of the shutdown] are Democrats" only serves to inflame the situation. This remark is akin to that of Marie Antoinette before the French revolution, "Let them eat cake," which is the translation of the French phrase, "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche". Ironically, most French peasants could not afford brioche. Today I think you can find it at Starbucks. However, scholars don't think that poor Marie Antoinette, who lost her head in the French revolution, actually ever said that.
But today the French are at it again with their "yellow vest" or gilet jaunes movement. It is happening all over the world as latter day peasants realize that they've been shafted at the hands of the rich. They just want their fair share of the spoils. Refugees, or people living in what Trump called "shithole countries", want to live like people in the First World. They want to be stuck in traffic jams on the 405 just like rich Americans. That's what's behind migration all over the world. First worlders don't want their tax money being used to pay for pregnant illegal mothers who are dropping anchor babies at an accelerating rate.
The Trump wing of the Republican party should join hands with the progressive wing of the Democratic party because they both want the same things: an end to spending giant sums on war and the preparation for war with the money spent on the American people here at home instead. The Green Revolution would create jobs in infrastructure development and fight climate change at the same time. Federal subsidies for the purchase of hybrid and plug in electric cars would go a long way to combat climate change which is the real enemy - not Vladimir Putin. Diplomacy and peaceful pursuits could reduce tensions almost overnight with our so-called enemies.
The establishment wings of both the Democratic and Republican parties want the perpetuation of war because it's in their pecuniary interests. People are starting to wake up to the fact, however, that the trillion dollars spent on wasteful Pentagon projects could be better spent on developing green infrastructure. Our so-called allies like Saudi Arabia's MBS have left us with a bad taste in our collective mouths after the torture, killing and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi. With allies like that who needs enemies?
Here is an example of the financial profligacy and lunacy of the military-industrial complex: a Middle Eastern city consisting of 500 buildings with two mosques built in the middle of the Mojave desert so American soldiers can "playact" attacking "the enemy" in as real a setting as possible. American actors portraying Middle Easterners get paid $50,000. a year for a few months work portraying "the enemy." Then most of the troops who were treated to this "real life" spectacle were sent to South Korea instead of to Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria. What folly! Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette were more in touch with reality than are these Pentagon planners dreaming up ways to spend out tax money. They lavish even more tax money on the thousand or so military bases located in practically every country of the world lest any of the natives get restless and decide to take matters into their own hands. We must not leave anybody or any country in the world to their own devices.
There must be a better way. The status quo stinks. The Federal government is totally dysfunctional. Trump is a disaster. The only Federal workers getting paid are the military. Well, all the rest are Democrats anyway so who cares?
Posted at 06:43 AM in John Lawrence, Democrats, Off the Top of my Head, Republicans, The Federal Government, Trump | Permalink | Comments (0)
'Step Up or Step Aside': Youth Climate Leaders Occupy Schumer's Office to Demand Support for Green New Deal
"Real climate leadership means a commitment to bold climate action and a just transition. It means a Green New Deal."
"We're not going anywhere, Sen. Schumer," 350.org, one of the groups that organized the action, wrote on Twitter. "We're going to keep showing up until Democratic leaders like you step up and show the real climate leadership we need—or step aside." (Photo: 350 Action/Twitter)
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates...
Keeping up the pressure on the Democratic leadership to embrace bold and popular solutions that are aligned with the science, youth climate leaders on Thursday occupied the D.C. office of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) to demand that he either show true leadership by supporting a Green New Deal or "step aside."
"Real climate leadership means a commitment to bold climate action and a just transition. It means a Green New Deal," a 16-year-old New Yorker named Jordan declared during Thursday's demonstration, which comes just weeks after young climate campaigners demonstrated at the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).
Powerful testimony from young people at @SenSchumer office for a #GreenNewDeal with @350 @sunrisemvmt and friends pic.twitter.com/00fUBScpZ4
— drew hudson (@wealsoherdcats) January 17, 2019
"We're not going anywhere, Sen. Schumer," 350.org, one of the groups that organized the action, wrote on Twitter. "We're going to keep showing up until Democratic leaders like you step up and show the real climate leadership we need—or step aside."
We're not going anywhere, @SenSchumer. We're going to keep showing up until Democratic leaders like you step up and show the real climate leadership we need—or step aside. #GreenNewDeal #StepUporStepAside
Text DEAL to 83224 to join the action. pic.twitter.com/WOi3EYR2Vn
— 350 Action (@350action) January 17, 2019
Check out the banner folks just dropped over @SenSchumer's office here in DC: "Dear Dems—what's your climate plan?"
We need a #GreenNewDeal to address the scale of the climate crisis. This movement is here to give elected leaders a choice: #StepUpOrStepAside. pic.twitter.com/KUptbEIvhY
— 350 dot org (@350) January 17, 2019
Watch a livestream of the demonstration:
"Last month, thousands of young people took to D.C. in a show of force to fight for a Green New Deal and real climate leadership in Congress. Now we're back on Capitol Hill to demand the only feasible solution that meets the urgency and scale of the climate crisis: A Green New Deal," 350.org's Roberto Juarez wrote in an email on Thursday.
"With Congress back in session and new progressive champions Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib in office," he continued, "we have an historic opportunity to drastically alter the course of our future. That's why today, we're pulling out all the stops to ask Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democratic leadership to step up as real climate leaders."
Posted at 09:01 AM in Common Dreams, Democrats, Green New Deal | Permalink | Comments (0)
Are We God's Experiment Responsible for Our Own Consciousness?
Thomas Troward on our relationship to the One Source, which he called universal Mind, "we come into contact with the Absolute in proportion to our withdrawal from the relative." He is advising us to never associate our potential with the conditions that now appear in our life. He is saying to affirm that our wholeness is now manifesting as vital health, rather than asking God to heal something of which God has no awareness. The Source of all Life knows only wholeness. It is not in the healing business. It is in the immediate creative process business, bringing forth the proportion of wholeness we accept as ours.
Life could be so much easier for all of us if we just stuck to this simple truth. The effects now appearing are nothing more than old ideas repeating. A new idea will dissolve them. But the new idea is not an idle thought. It is the deep belief in our own spiritual heritage. We are not effects of the world. We are the incarnation of Spirit in human form. Why? Just for the fun of experiencing time/space and all it has to offer. But never are we less than our experience. We are always in charge of it.
That seems like crazy talk to most people. But crazier is the idea that God is a man in the sky doling out rewards and punishment. This universe is a system of consciousness producing everything out of itself by becoming the thing it makes. You and I are made in that image and likeness. We are consciousness producing experience from our personal sense of who we are. Let's stop playing with metaphysics by saying our troubles are good for us. No, they are errors in thinking visibly revealed. Now is the time to raise our sights and see through the illusion of limitation.
Carol Carnes www.centerforspiritullivingBakersfield.com
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Is Trump a Russian Asset?
The conventional wisdom is: America good/Russia bad. Putin is nefarious, not to be trusted, and a sitting American President should uphold the dignity of the office with all its putative decorum. So Trump sitting down with Putin and apparently having a friendly conversation must mean that Trump is a Russian asset just as Maria Butina, who wanted to join the NRA, must be a Russian spy. We must preserve the cold war mentality at all costs! If we made peace with our enemies, Lindsey Graham would be apoplectic!
I'm willing to bet, dollars to donuts, that Trump's overtures to Russia had more to do with his profiting from a business deal with Russia than anything else. It's called dollar diplomacy in which Trump's self-enrichment dollars become the diplomacy. Simple as that. Follow the money! After all the business of America is business or put another way the business of America is self-enrichment. Lindsey Graham should be pleased that a former communist country was willing to let America's foremost capitalist, namely Trump, build a Trump Tower in Moscow. It would have been a tribute to everlasting friendship based on a solid business deal and the final demise of communism.
America should be pleased with all it has accomplished in Russia. Instead of communist apparatchiks, we have Russian oligarchs worth billions of dollars just like American hedge fund managers! We have exported economic inequality to the rest of the world. It's so exciting! We should all be pleased and proud. But that is not enough. Should we really become friends with Russia, instead of Trump's pathetic version of dollar diplomacy, it would threaten the whole military-industrial-intelligence complex. Gorbachev famously said, "We are going to deprive you of an enemy." Not so fast Mr. Gorbachev. The US has taken what you've given and demanded more. The last thing we want to do is to be deprived of an enemy. It would doom our economy which is based on defense spending and low interest rates.
Thank God for Kim Jong Un who has a sensible nuclear policy which means that the US needs to have a sensible nuclear policy as well in order to thwart him. If Trump were a Russian asset, why would he withdraw from the INF treaty with Russia? Is there somebody behind him, John Bolton for example, pulling his strings? Trump's attempt to wing it and enrich himself while President has given way to those more astute, shrewd, wizened old men who are more experienced in their prolix dealings with foreign powers.
The Democrats seem to be putting all their eggs in the basket of Mueller's just-over-the-horizon report of Trump's supposed collusion with Russia. Can collusion be defined as peace based on self-interest? If so Trump is in hot water. He has made a mockery out of the Offal Office. Just think: serving McDonald's hamburgers and french fries to the Clemson football team? The sooner we get this guy out of office the better. At that point the White House will need a thorough cleaning to get all the germs out.
Posted at 08:25 AM in John Lawrence, Off the Top of my Head, Trump | Permalink | Comments (0)
As Poll Shows Majority Back 70% Tax Rate for Ultra-Rich, Ocasio-Cortez's "Radical" Proposal Proves Extremely Mainstream
"I don't think it's surprising," said the New York congresswoman. "What we see, overall, is that the vast majority of Americans know that income inequality is one of the biggest issues of our time."
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talks with a voter at the conclusion of a town hall event, September 19, 2018 in The Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) sparked a flood of hysterical and error-filled responses from the right when she suggested in a recent "60 Minutes" interview that America's top marginal tax rate should be hiked to 70 percent to help pay for bold progressive programs, but a survey published on Tuesday found that the majority of Americans are on the freshman congresswoman's side.
"This is a policy that is already popular and it's time that we embrace working Americans and it's time that the Democratic Party fights in a full-throated manner for the working class in the United States."
—Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Conducted by The Hill in partnership with the market research firm HarrisX, the poll found that 59 percent of the U.S. public supports raising the marginal tax rate on the richest Americans to 70 percent. The poll also found a "surprising amount of support" for the proposal among Republicans, with 45 percent backing the idea along with 71 percent of Democrats.
"Oh? What's that? The majority of Americans respect when you break down reasonable policy proposals that are designed to combat runaway income inequality and help fund priorities they value most?" Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter in response to the new survey. "We can win public sentiment, stand our ground, and not be scared by GOP [mis]information."
"I don't think it's surprising," Ocasio-Cortez said of the poll results in an interview with The Hill. "What we see, overall, is that the vast majority of Americans know that income inequality is one of the biggest issues of our time."
"This is a policy that is already popular and it's time that we embrace working Americans and it's time that the Democratic Party fights in a full-throated manner for the working class in the United States and to not support a marginal tax rate is to really just allow runaway wealth and inequality to persist," she added.
.@AOC: "The vast majority of Americans know that income inequality is one of the biggest issues of our time." @HillTVLive https://t.co/2eO3xwiwmL pic.twitter.com/AEK8Y3tKH3
— The Hill (@thehill) January 15, 2019
As economists and historians hastened to point out after Ocasio-Cortez first floated the idea of raising the top marginal tax rate on the ultra-wealthy to 70 percent, similar and even higher rates were the norm for much of the 20th century.
After Anderson Cooper called Ocasio-Cortez's 70 percent top marginal tax rate suggestion and other bold progressive proposals a "radical agenda" during the "60 Minutes" interview, the New York congresswoman responded, "If that's what radical means, call me a radical."
According to an analysis by the Washington Post's Jeff Stein, the revenue raised over a decade from a 70 percent top marginal tax rate on those earning $10 million or more could fund almost all of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) tuition-free public college plan, forgive over half of the student debt in the U.S., or nearly fund a $1 trillion infrastructure plan.
Posted at 08:44 AM in Common Dreams, Democrats, Taxes | Permalink | Comments (0)
Be in the Present Moment
Today may seem like any other day, but it is entirely new. Repetition is a function of our mind, not something beyond our control. Some things we prefer to stay the same but in the context of that framework, do we remain open to serendipity? If all we are doing is maintaining the status quo, then we might as well be some kind of artificial intelligence, pre-programmed to complete tasks.
In New Thought teachings, the emphasis is on present moment awareness. In other words, Spirit, acting as the creative process in us, responds to ideas in the immediate, not from the past. As far as it deduces, what we are thinking now is what we desire, expect, perceive as so. It proceeds accordingly. The Spirit is not bound by time, it knows only to act in this moment. Our disease, our lack, or our prosperity is a brand new experience. It only seems like a continuum because we have not changed our mind.
There have been countless true accounts of instantaneous healing, physical and mental. The truth is that all healing is instantaneous, as are all manifestations of any kind. Because we live in a time/space dimension we mistakenly think it took a long time to happen. No, it took as long as we needed to change our perception of who we are right now. The truth of this is demonstrable. Make a bold declaration about yourself. Put it in the affirmative form. Write it and place copies of it around your house where your eye falls throughout the day. Put it in your office, your car, your purse or pocket. Stay with it. At some point it becomes its own cause to a new experience. It will happen in some moment of right now.
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It's Raining and Cold. The Homeless Are Still Outside.
I take a shortcut every day through Walter Way. It saves me frrom going through one stop light at 2nd and Madison. Walter Way is little more than a glorified alley paralleling 2nd Street. In between there's a McDonald's, a Walgreen's a Subway and a few other fast food places. Walter Way has been home to quite a large homeless settlement for some time. The other day there were 3 dump trucks and 3 El Cajon police cars clearing out the homeless and all their possessions from Walter Way.
All the tents, shopping carts, dogs, tarps and other paraphernalia were gone by mid day. Walter Way remained clear for about a day and a half, and then the homeless were back minus some of their possessions which had been thrown in the dump trucks. I imagine they got to take at least some things with them before the workers heaved the rest of the stuff into the dump trucks.
El Cajon has a homeless problem. San Diego has a homeless problem. San Diego County has a homeless problem. California has a homeless problem. The US has a homeless problem. People just can't afford skyrocketing rents. As a senior citizen, I worry about what will happen if my life doesn't run out before my money runs out. My savings are finite. If they don't last me till I'm dead, I will be joining the ranks of the homeless too. I hate to see old women living on the streets. But they are. Limbless veterans too. People in their eighties who can't pay the rent. They will die on the streets with no one to care for them.
The San Diego Union reported:
A 64-year-old woman who had been living on the streets of El Cajon since last fall is starting a new life in Riverside County.
The plight of Carol DeLaurentis, featured in a Feb. 5 story in The San Diego Union-Tribune, captured the heart of a Temecula-based developer.
Ginger Hitzke, who has built a steady stream of low-income housing in Lemon Grove and other parts of the county with her Hitzke Development Corp., started making arrangements on Tuesday to get DeLaurentis sheltered.
By Wednesday afternoon, Hitzke had found both lodging and a job for DeLaurentis, who has been homeless since Oct. 9 when the landlord decided to take back the Lakeside property she and a roommate had been renting for five years.
Some people think that homeless people deserve their plight because they take drugs or are alcoholics. But there for the grace of God go me, you, everybody. Everyone takes drugs of one sort or other. I did this morning when I had my morning caffeine without which I would not be able to function. Need I mention the opioid crisis? Desperate people take more drugs. Functioning people take less. So what? If you're on the streets for any amount of time, you're effectively unemployable. The lucky people have family who will take them in and help them to start over. Today so many people don't.
The US is a majoritarian society. Minorities don't count for much whether the minority is of the ethnic, racial variety or those who have been shot in school shootings or those who have lost their homes to wildfires or hurricanes or the homeless. All these unfortunate people are minorities, and society in general is not willing to go to bat for them. At one time there was a War on Poverty. No more. Now there's a War on the Poverty Stricken. There are solutions to the homeless problem, but NIMBYism and taxpayer reluctance to part with their money to help those whom they consider to be worthless individuals prevents any humane solutions. The Town Without Pity has become a Society Without Pity.
Posted at 08:19 AM in John Lawrence, Homelessness, Off the Top of my Head | Permalink | Comments (0)
In our busy world, we know we need sleep. We are aware of the need to stop and be still. The misunderstanding is that we are "wasting valuable time" when we remove ourselves from the action. In all of nature, including our bodies, there is action and repose, but, as Thomas Troward wrote, repose does not mean purposelessness. It is in the quiet contemplation of what we are, that state of non-doing, that our energies are recharged. It is the thinking mind that must be mastered, not by eliminating thought entirely, but by redirecting it to its source.
Somehow, westerners have become so invested in work and achievement that we have forgotten where our true wealth resides. It is in the deeper recesses of mind, the Center from which everything flows. There is a point in us that is open to the universal mind. It comes through us according to how much of an opening we give it. This is actually the purpose of prayer, if done in a more scientific way. It is to change our perception of limitation to one of being available to what is possible.
There is no power outside of us, teaching us lessons or inhibiting our good for its own reasons. There is only the Center outflowing through us, by means of us. The means we give it to use is our love, our joy in living, our gratitude for life itself, our generosity, our vision, our self-worth, our acceptance, our belief. This is our true work; to train the mind to see the good and praise it; to fill it with ideas of growth, expansion, evolution, increase and extension of all that the Source is, by means of this life we are living. Be still and know.
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The Trump Dictatorship
The only redeeming aspect to Trump's presidency is he brings us back to basics. And what could be more basic than the difference between democracy and dictatorship?
Democracy is about means, not ends. If we all agreed on the ends (such as whether to build a wall along the Mexican border) there'd be no need for democracy.
But of course we don't agree, which is why the means by which we resolve our differences are so important. Those means include a Constitution, a system of government based on the rule of law, and an independent judiciary.
A dictatorship, by contrast, is only about ends. Those ends are the goals of the dictator – preserving and accumulating personal power. To achieve those ends, a dictator will use any means necessary.
Which brings us back to Trump.
The conventional criticism of Trump is that he's unfit to be president because he continuously breaks the norms of how a president should behave.
Trump's norm-breaking is unsettling, to be sure, but Trump's more fundamental offense is he continuously sacrifices means in order to preserve and accumulate personal power.
He thereby violates a president's core responsibility to protect American democracy.
A president who shuts down government in order to get his way on a controversial issue, such as building a wall along the border with Mexico, and offering to reopen it as a concession when his opponents give in, is not protecting democracy.
He is treating the government of the United States as a bargaining chip. He is asserting power by any means possible. This is the method of a dictator.
A president who claims he has an absolute right to declare a national emergency and spend government funds that Congress has explicitly refused to appropriate for the ends he seeks, is also assuming the role of a dictator.
A president who spouts lies during a prime-time national television address over what he terms an "undeniable crisis" at the southern U.S. border, which is in fact no crisis at all, is using whatever means available to him to preserve and build his base of power.
The real international threat to America is not coming from Latin America. It is coming from a foreign government intent on undermining our democracy by propagating lies, turning Americans against each other, and electing a puppet president.
We do not know yet whether Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin to win the 2016 election. What we do know so far is that Trump's aides and campaign manager worked with Putin's emissaries during the 2016 election, and that Putin sought to swing the election in favor of Trump.
We also know that since he was elected, Trump has done little or nothing to stop Putin from continuing to try to undermine our democracy. To the contrary, Trump has obstructed inquiries into Russian meddling, and gone out of his way to keep his communications with Putin secret, even from his own White House.
The overall pattern is clear to anyone who cares to see it. Trump's entire presidency to date has sacrificed the means of democracy to the end of his personal power.
He has lied about the results of votes, and established a commission to investigate bogus claims of fraudulent voting. He has attacked judges who have ruled against him, with the goal of stirring up the public against them.
He has encouraged followers to believe that his opponent in the 2016 election should be imprisoned; and condemned as "enemies of the people" journalists who report unfavorably about him, in an effort to fuel public resentment – perhaps even violence – against them.
To argue, as some Trump apologists do, that whatever Trump does is justified because voters put Trump in power, is to claim that voters can decide to elect a dictator.
They cannot. Even if a majority of Americans were to attempt such thing (and, remember, Trump received three million fewer votes than his opponent in 2016), the Constitution prohibits it.
The choice could not be clearer. Democracy is about means, while dictatorship is about ends. Trump uses any means available to achieve his own ends.
We can preserve our democracy and force Trump out of office. Or we can continue to struggle against someone who strives to thwart democracy for his own benefit.
In the months ahead, that choice will be made, one way or the other.
Jazz Trumpeter, Roy Hargrove, Dead at 49
Grammy winner Roy Hargrove was the best of the next generation of jazz musicians in my opinion. He was just a year older than my daughter. He died last November of cardiac arrest in New York City. NPR reported that Hargrove, who'd been on dialysis for many years, had been admitted to the hospital for "reasons related to kidney function" at the time of his death. Such a tragedy recalling the tragedy of Clifford Brown's early death at age 26 in a car crash late on a rainy night on the Pennsylvania turnpike.
According to NPR: "A briskly assertive soloist with a tone that could evoke either burnished steel or a soft, golden glow, Hargrove was a galvanizing presence in jazz over the last 30 years. Dapper and slight of build, he exuded a sly, sparkling charisma onstage, whether he was holding court at a late-night jam session or performing in the grandest concert hall. His capacity for combustion and bravura was equaled by his commitment to lyricism, especially when finessing a ballad on flugelhorn." He grew up in Dallas, where he attended Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, an arts magnet school.
In 2000 Hargrove's album Moment to Moment featuring the strings of the Monterey Jazz Festival Chamber Orchestra broke into Billboard's Top Jazz albums chart grabbing the #4 position. It is one of my favorite albums. Another one of my favorite albums, which I thought Hargrove was on, but actually it's trumpeter Nicholas Payton, is Fingerpainting with bassist Christian McBride and guitarist Mark Whitfield. Payton and Hargrove are my two favorite young (er than me) jazz trumpeters. The prolific Mr. McBride has a talk show on Sirius XM called "The Lowdown" on Saturday mornings at 9 AM in which he interviews other jazz musicians. My Uber and Lyft riders are treated to this show as I drive around San Diego picking them up and dropping them off. I am fortunate that, as I drive around all day in my 2018 Toyota Camry hybrid, I get to listen to jazz on Pandora, Sirius XM, iHeart radio, Slacker and many other stations from all over the world. San Diego's jazz station, KSDS, actually has better sound as an app streaming through my iphone than it does on the FM button on my radio. I have iHeart tuned to KCSM, the San Francisco Bay jazz station where Clifford Brown Junior is a disc jockey. How sweet is that!
The generation of Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Thelonius Monk has passed. That is the generation I grew up with having seen most of them at the Village Vanguard in New York City or at the Five Spot (Thelonius) or the Half Note where Al the waiter was as famous as the musicians who performed there. It's such a crying shame when the best talent of the younger generation is dying. However, there are some like Christian McBride who are carrying on the jazz tradition of their elders started by trumpeter Louis Armstrong who was born at the beginning of the 20th century. Jazz has always been primarily a motive force in the black community and the center of gravity in the jazz world is still there although it has morphed into many quasi art forms, some acceptable and some totally ersatz. There are those like Christian and Roy Hargrove who remained true to that code, however.
Some of the elders like Benny Golson, who is still alive at the age of 90, are still touring and performing. Thank God for that. Please listen to Roy Hargrove perform Golson's classic ballad, I Remember Clifford:
Posted at 06:34 AM in John Lawrence, Jazz, Off the Top of my Head | Permalink | Comments (0)
Life is Not a Rehearsal
I knew a girl in high school who always had a steady boyfriend. Oftentimes the boy would be a nice kid but not anyone the rest of us would date. It only seemed to matter that she always had an escort to the dances, the games, the movies. I learned years later that her mother had taught her to never postpone her life, that if she was always waiting for just the right thing, she might miss out on a lot of good times. That was pretty good advice, philosophically.
There was a book some years back titled "Life is Not a Rehearsal." I don't remember much about it, but the title suffices. Have you ever avoided getting close to someone or intimacy in general because you were holding out for a different kind of friend? Do you get out and mix it up with new acquaintances? What about work? If you are waiting for the perfect job, how many paychecks have you missed in the meantime? Get back in the game and live your life as best you can while creating space for opportunity. We do that by being involved and visible.
There is nothing more attractive than a person who finds good where they are, enjoying what is right here and right now. What travels with us is our capacity for love, for fun, for play, for creativity. It is not attached to a person, a place or a position. If we are not expressing our best self now, it might as well not exist.
Be active. Participate. Join in. Suit up! And most of all,
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Trump Tries to Tell California What to Do
The oceans are getting hotter than we thought. This has dire consequences for extreme weather as warmer oceans mean more violent hurricanes and typhoons. The ocean has absorbed a lot of the excess heat in the atmosphere caused by greenhouse gasses, but it can only do so much before it reaches its limit. Warmer oceans also mean faster melting of the arctic and antarctic ice sheets, and that means more sea level rise. New York City, Miami, London and Tokyo could be underwater in a few years. They already have huge flooding problems when tides are high or from storm surges.
The New York Times reported:
As the planet has warmed, the oceans have provided a critical buffer. They have slowed the effects of climate change by absorbing 93 percent of the heat trapped by the greenhouse gases humans pump into the atmosphere.
"If the ocean wasn't absorbing as much heat, the surface of the land would heat up much faster than it is right now," said Malin L. Pinsky, an associate professor in the department of ecology, evolution and natural resources at Rutgers University. "In fact, the ocean is saving us from massive warming right now."
But the surging water temperatures are already killing off marine ecosystems, raising sea levels and making hurricanes more destructive.
The US as a nation has ceded leadership on this issue to California which is doing its best to curb climate change despite the Trump administration's doing its best to stand in its way. California has set a goal to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. The Air Resources Board is responsible for implementing the California Global Warming Solutions Act (AB32) in order to meet the 2020 emission reduction goal. California wants to drastically reduce tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks, and the Trump administration is fighting them to not do that. California has sued the Trump administration over its efforts to limit California's ability to set tailpipe emission standards for cars within its own state. State's rights, anyone?
The Sacramento Bee reported:
The Trump plan is also a direct assault of sorts on California's unique ability to set stricter-than-the-nation guidelines on air pollution, as spelled out in the 1973 federal Clean Air Act. The Trump administration has said it wants to revoke California's authority.
It also wants to thwart California's "advanced clean car" regulations, which will require automakers to dramatically increase sales of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids in the state, from about 420,000 on the road today to 1 million in 2025.
California officials said they're ready to defend the state's authority to impose strict limitations on carbon emissions.
As things stand now, the plan would reduce tailpipe emissions by one third over the next seven years. That would also increase average fuel economy from 35 miles per gallon to more than 54 mpg; as a practical matter, building lighter cars with better gas mileage is the most effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
But in August, the Trump administration said it would freeze those standards at 37 mpg. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the relaxed rules will save new-car buyers an average of $1,850 per vehicle. But California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the stricter rules would more than pay for themselves through improved fuel mileage; he argued that purchasers would save $1,620 over the life of their vehicle.
Makes sense, right? If you get 50 mpg instead of 20 mpg, wouldn't you be willing to pay a little more for a new car up front? I did. I got a 2018 Toyota Camry hybrid that gets about 50 mpg which saves me a lot on gas. Trump doesn't care about consumers or the environment. He just cares about the quarterly profits of the fossil fuel industry.
Posted at 08:16 AM in John Lawrence, California, Cars, Climate Change, Global Warming, Trump | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Power we use to generate ideas into form and experience is the same power Jesus used to generate the effects known as miracles. There is only one power and it is present throughout the universe. It is pure intelligence and exists in a field of Love, meaning a magnetic force that brings together those things that vibrate in the same harmonic. Well, let's just put it this way: like attracts like.
Everything in our personal experience belongs with us by right of identification with it. We could also say, acceptance of it. Even the things we do not like, if we interact with them they become real to us. How to relieve the burden of what we do not want? Raise our vibration to a level where it does not exist. As Thaddeus Golas asked "what am I doing on a level of consciousness where this is real?" *
The great secret and the biggest challenge is this: It is all an inside job. Nothing changes until we change the perception that has brought it to our door. Most people will not believe it is so, but it is demonstrable. Trouble is, we are so distracted by the world, the news, the gossip, the chatter, that we do not stay with it long enough to actually lift ourselves out of the realm of the predictable and the mundane. Break the momentum today. Remove yourself from the doom and gloom. Take time to see the sky, feel the air, taste the water. Be by yourself at least some portion of every day. Sit and focus on the highest idea you can imagine. Let it begin to quiver inside. Feel the energy of it. Let it grow. Give it permission to come through you into the light of this new day.
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*The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas
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No Mere 'Stunt': Experts Warn Trump Emergency Declaration Would Spark 'Constitutional Crisis'
"The president is about to make unprecedented use of emergency powers given to the commander in chief for times of true national crisis in order to enact his political agenda."
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he visits the banks of the Rio Grande River with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and agents during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, January 10, 2019. (Photo: Leah Millis/Reuters)
As President Donald Trump continues to escalate his threat to declare a national emergency to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border—and amid reports that his administration is already laying the groundwork for the declaration—legal experts and progressive critics warned against the notion that the move would be a mere political "stunt" and argued it would spark a full-blown constitutional crisis.
"If he can claim anything is a crisis to get what he wants, there is no meaningful balance of power."
—Stephen Miles, Win Without War
"This is a constitutional crisis, plain and simple," Stephen Miles, director of Win Without War, wrote in a series of tweets on Thursday following Trump's brief visit to the border, where he said he will "most likely" make good on his threats to declare a national emergency.
"The constitution gives Congress solely the power to appropriate funds," Miles added. "They have done so and Trump is planning to unilaterally take those funds and use them for another purpose for his own political agenda... If he can claim anything is a crisis to get what he wants, there is no meaningful balance of power."
Really important to understand the 3 part crisis we're about to see unfold when Donald Trump claims a fake "emergency" and forces the military to build the wall. <thread>
— Stephen Miles (@SPMiles42) January 10, 2019
2) The President is about to make unprecedented use of emergency powers given to the Commander in Chief for times of true national crisis in order to enact his political agenda. If he can claim anything is a crisis to get what he wants, there is no meaningful balance of power. 3/
3) The President is about to use the armed forces of the United States as political pawns, not to defend the country, but to please his base. If he can use the military to build his wall, what can't he use them for? 4/
While many legal experts have argued that declaring a national emergency to fund the construction of a border wall would be an illegal abuse of power, Miles argued that there is "no reason to believe" the courts—and particularly not the conservative-dominated Supreme Court—will stop Trump from bypassing Congress to construct a border wall that most Americans don't want.
Far too many people have thought of this as simply a stunt, a way out of the #TrumpShutdown and think the courts will surely save us. There's no reason to believe that a Kavanaugh/Gorsuch court will do any such thing. 5/
In a recent piece for the New York Times, Yale law professor Bruce Ackerman argued that not only would Trump's proposed emergency declaration be illegal, "but if members of the armed forces obeyed his command, they would be committing a federal crime."
"No president in the last two centuries has invoked emergency power to fund a policy goal after failing to secure approval from Congress."
—Kristen Clarke, Lawyers' Committee on Civil Rights Under Law
"What this all adds up to is a potential crisis much graver than whatever immigration emergencies the president has in mind: A legally ignorant president forcing our troops to choose between his commands and the rule of law in a petty political struggle over a domestic political question," Ackerman concluded.
While it is not at all clear when or even if the president will declare a national emergency, Kristen Clarke—president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee on Civil Rights Under Law—echoed Miles and others in arguing that the move would spark a constitutional crisis.
"If Trump invokes 'emergency' powers to build his wall, this would thrust the nation into a constitutional crisis," Clarke wrote. "No president in the last two centuries has invoked emergency power to fund a policy goal after failing to secure approval from Congress."
If Trump invokes "emergency" powers to build his wall this would thrust the nation into a constitutional crisis. No president in the last 2 centuries has invoked emergency power to fund a policy goal after failing to secure approval from Congress. https://t.co/V3ptI8RuAh
— Kristen Clarke (@KristenClarkeJD) January 11, 2019
Warnings about the dire implications of Trump's possible national emergency declaration over a non-existent crisis came as NBC News reported on Thursday that the president is considering a plan to divert billions of dollars away from from disaster relief and prevention efforts in Puerto Rico, Texas, and California to fund the construction of "315 miles of barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border."
"Under the proposal," NBC reported, "Trump could dip into the $2.4 billion allocated to projects in California, including flood prevention and protection projects along the Yuba River Basin and the Folsom Dam, as well as the $2.5 billion set aside for reconstruction projects in Puerto Rico, which is still recovering from Hurricane Maria."
In a statement, Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) said it "would be beyond appalling for the president to take money from places like Puerto Rico that have suffered enormous catastrophes, costing thousands of American citizens lives, in order to pay for Donald Trump's foolish, offensive, and hateful wall."
"Siphoning funding from real disasters to pay for a crisis manufactured by the president is wholly unacceptable and the American people won't fall for it," Velázquez added.
Posted at 08:16 AM in Common Dreams, Trump | Permalink | Comments (0)
Collusion: Trump Tower Moscow and Putin Penthouse New York?
Trump never meant it literally when he said Mexico would pay for the wall. You can call it a wall or you can call it a barrier. Either way folks, it's got to be done. "But wait I have an even better idea. Instead of a wall we will build a beautiful moat all along the southern border of the US. A beautiful 50 foot moat and we will stock it with beautiful Florida alligators. We are going to drain the swamps in Florida, folks, and put those beautiful alligators in the moat. Then I suppose there will be some hue and cry when some baby gets eaten by one, but it's gotta be done, folks. The 30 foot walls have all been breached. The steel slats were cut through by a saw you can buy at Home Depot. We can't have that."
"As far as collusion, yes I colluded with Vladimir Putin to build a beautiful Trump Tower in Moscow. Putin and I would occupy the penthouse suite where we would work on the INF treaty if you know what I mean." "Yes, Donald, Russia will buy stock in Boeing so both nations can prosper as you drive up defense expenditures. But tell me Donald, how do you 'grab pussy.' I've tried but it always slips out of my hand." "Oh that's easy Vlad. Let me demonstrate." "Hey, you RT journalist Natasha Sweatte, come over here. Donald will demonstrate proper way to grab pussy so next time I meet with Angela Merkel instead of shaking hand, I will grab her by pussy and shake that."
"Meanwhile, after we build this beautiful moat stocked with our beautiful Florida alligators, I will be working on a deal with Kim Jong Un to build a Trump Tower Pyong Yang. Then after that Trump Tower Beijing. Yes, I will be colluding with Xi Jing Ping or Xi Ping Pong or whatever the hell his name is. He said that as long as I gave him the second biggest penthouse, he would get the Communist Party to OK the deal. Pretty soon the world will be a safer place because there will be a Trump Tower Tehran and a Trump Tower Kabul. There will be a Trump Tower in every hot spot. Billionaires from all over the world will come to visit paying off the Taliban with 'uge sums of money, Big, beautiful 'uge sums of money. It will be great, folks."
"But Trump, did you mean it literally when you chanted 'Lock her up. Lock her up' meaning, of course, Hillary? "Yes, Vladimir, we are going to put Hillary in a big, beautiful dungeon, the most beautiful dungeon in the world. The American people deserve nothing less. It will be designed by some of our most famous architects - Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity." "I can't wait to see that. We will report on RT America. I do a stock trade with you. You sell me stock in Boeing and Raytheon and I sell you stock in Russian oil fields in Siberia." "Yes, Vlad, we're going to frack the hell out of the United States, but if we can't compete with your Russian gas and oil, I will on behalf of American taxpayers invest in your Gazprom and Lukoil. We already have Lukoil service stations in the US where I think most of your Russian spies and supermodels hang out."
"Now, Donald, you're being foolish. Just stick to knitting and build big, beautiful Trump Tower Moscow, then Trump Tower St. Petersburg, eh?"
Posted at 07:44 AM in John Lawrence, Humor, Looney Tunes, Off the Top of my Head, Right Wing, Trump | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Big Economic Switcheroo
The biggest untold story about how we pay for government involves a big switcheroo by America's wealthy.
Decades ago, wealthy Americans financed the federal government mainly by paying taxes. Their tax rate was far higher than what it is today.
Now, wealthy Americans finance the federal government mainly by lending it money, and collecting interest payments on those loans, profiting when the rest of us pay them back.
Follow the money: As the debt continues to grow, interest payments are becoming huge. Taxpayers could soon be paying more in interest on the federal debt than we spend on the military or on Medicaid.
Interest on the debt is expected to hit $390 billion next year, nearly 50 percent more than in 2017, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Who's receiving these interest payments? Mostly Americans, not foreigners. And most of these Americans are wealthy investors who park their savings in treasury bonds held by mutual funds, hedge funds, pension funds, banks, insurance companies, personal trusts, and estates.
The richest 1 percent of Americans now owns 40 percent of the nation's wealth, which is more wealth than the bottom 90 percent put together.
Which means a big chunk of the growing interest payments American taxpayers make on the federal debt is going to… rich Americans.
Now, keep following the money. One of the biggest reasons the federal debt has exploded is that tax cuts, starting with the Bush administration in 2001 and extending through Trump's 2017 tax cut, have reduced government revenues by over $5 trillion.
The Trump-Republican tax cut will cause the debt to explode even further. Trump's own Office of Management and Budget predicts an added $100 billion a year in deficits over the next decade, adding up to $1 trillion of additional debt.
Keep following the money: Most of the benefits from those tax cuts are going to the wealthy. 65 percent have gone to the richest fifth of Americans, 22 percent to the top 1 percent.
So you see the big switcheroo? The rich used to pay higher taxes to the government. Now, the government pays the rich interest on a swelling debt, caused largely by lower taxes on the rich. Which means a growing portion of everyone else's taxes are now paying the rich interest on those loans, instead of paying for government services everyone needs.
That's wrong. America's wealthy have never been wealthier. They should pay their fair share of taxes. The big switcheroo should be reversed.
Posted at 08:50 AM in Robert Reich, Taxes, The Budget | Permalink | Comments (0)
Our Consciousness Is Our Reality
Ernest Holmes, one of the greatest spiritual teachers of the 20th century, taught with such simple eloquence that he was misunderstood by those who expected a statement about the nature of reality to be complicated and difficult to understand. He said such things as "nothing is real to us until we make it real" and, whatever it is, "it's as real as it needs to be" (to give us the experience of our consciousness.)
He was not portraying our experience as an illusion, but merely as a construct originating in our mind. He said "in the independence of your own reality, believe you are wonderful. This is not conceit, it is the Truth." Living from that principle has never been easy. We are participants in a whole world of constructs and they seem to be aimed at us. It feels natural to think of everything as outside of us, certainly not of our making. But try we must. Power is inherent in the one who takes full responsibility for how they interact with the field of consciousness, playing out as human expression.
He advised us to become aware of what we are contemplating throughout our day. It is the tendency of our thoughts that generate our experience, the atmosphere within our mind. Take steps today to celebrate yourself; speak well of others, too. Everyone is on some level of self-awareness. There is much work to do to raise our collective perception. Let's do our part today.
"I am a wonderful gift to life and so is everyone else."
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Eisenhauer's Cross of Iron Speech: Words of Wisdom Valid Today
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."
One F-22 Raptor military jet costs $152 million. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, the lead vessel of the U.S. Navy's latest class of carriers, and the most expensive warship in U.S. history costs $13 billion.
The cost of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) to give every American citizen $12,000 per year, the current poverty threshold, would be roughly $3.8 trillion annually. Not every American would need that amount of money. So how about the cost just to give it to the poverty stricken? According to Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, 19 million people live in deep poverty (a total family income that is below one-half of the poverty threshold) in the United States as of 2017. So to give just those 19 million people a UBI of $12,000 would cost (.06)($3.8 trillion) or $228 billion. This could be done if the defense budget, totaling about $1 trillion over all agencies concerned with defense, not just the defense department per se, were reduced by that amount. This would still leave the US with a defense budget roughly 20 times the defense budget of Russia and more than the next several highest defense budgets combined.
Wouldn't diplomacy be a lot cheaper? Isn't it about time to put the American people first? We need a Green New Deal.
Posted at 08:30 AM in John Lawrence, Off the Top of my Head, Poverty, The Military Industrial Complex, The Role of Government | Permalink | Comments (0)
Be That Person Who Radiates a Calm and Safe Energy
After having written my message for today and attempting to save it, somehow it disappeared. I cannot find it. It was a good one. Oh, well, I guess something else wants to be said.
Non attachment is healthy. We "create" everything, so it is not necessary to cling to what has been. We move on with new ideas and prove once again just how available they are. What wants to come through you today? That is the place to begin. The answer will never be to best someone, to hurt or to injure. It will always prompt us to give our wisdom, our guidance, our love, our support, our understanding, our compassion. Given expression, all of these make life better. Through them come solutions and fresh ideas.
There is a great song "someone needs a prayer today." Someone needs you today. In all the world, you could be the one person to brighten their day. You could be the presence in the supermarket that radiates a calm and safe energy. You never know how you are affecting the field until you decide to do so. In grade school we were taught that courtesy is contagious. You might be the peace contagion wherever you are. Spreading light is real, not a new age platitude.
As challenging as life may be, it is, nonetheless, coming through us, not to us. Claiming our power means to take full responsibility for how we are being in each moment. Are we reacting from our attachment to old ideas or are we responding from our innate wholeness, our access to our Source? Either way, the first person to experience us is us!
Trump's Withdrawal Plans Are a Mess, But Poll Shows Americans Ready to Bring Troops Home
Even if the administration finds a way to meet public demands for Afghanistan and Syria, new research shows the U.S. is still fighting the so-called War on Terror in 80 nations across six continents
Sgt. Michael Misheff, CH-47F Chinook helicopter chew chief for Task Force Flying Dragons, flies the American flag over southern Afghanistan. (Photo: Program Executive Office Soldier/Flickr/cc)
While President Donald Trump is by no means an anti-war president, new polling shows that the American people are ready to see significant numbers of U.S. troops come home from foreign war zones that have existed for years, if not decades.
Peace advocates celebrated reporting last month that Trump wanted to imminently withdraw troops from Syria and cut those deployed to Afghanistan by half, and a Politico/Morning Consult poll (pdf) demonstrates a large portion of Americans agree, even as military leaders and warhawks in both major political parties continue to raise alarm about scaling back U.S. military occupation or operations in those nations.
The poll found that more than half (56 percent) of those surveyed—at least "based on what [they] know"—support Trump's recent order to bring home about half of the troops in Afghanistan, or about 7,000 people, "in the near future," compared with 27 percent who oppose it.
Although support for an immediate withdrawal of the more than 2,000 troops in Syria is a bit lower, a plurality of 48 percent back that plan—again, based on what they understand about it—versus the 35 percent who oppose it.
Additionally, a plurality of 49 percent agree that "the U.S. has been engaged in too many military conflicts in places such as Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan for too long, and should prioritize getting Americans out of harm's way," compared with 33 percent who say that "the U.S. needs to keep troops in places such as Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan to help support our allies, fight terrorism, and maintain our foreign policy interests in the region." The remaining 17 percent have no opinion.
On the military front, however, the Washington Post reported Tuesday that officials are "drafting plans to withdraw a few thousand troops from Afghanistan while continuing all major missions in the longest war in American history," despite the president's demands for "a more drastic pullout."
As the Post detailed, citing several unnamed sources:
Military advisers have convinced him that a smaller, and slower, withdrawal is best for now—although officials cautioned that a final decision had not been reached and that the president could order a full pullout at any moment.
"Trust me, he's heard every single argument on Afghanistan he could hear," one administration official said, adding that the president continues to complain that many of his advisers want him to stay in "all these wars forever."
Several officials who described the plan were hesitant to name a specific number, citing the evolving nature of the discussions. But some said it could be about half of what Trump was initially seeking.
Meanwhile, in Syria, Trump's desire for withdrawal has been complicated by concerns about how a rapid American exit could impact the Kurds.
On Tuesday, the president's plans for bringing home all troops from Syria "fell into further disarray," the New York Times reported, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan refused to meet with Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton and "angrily dismissed his demand that Turkey agree to protect America's Kurdish allies" who fought with American troops against ISIS.
Those developments followed Turkey's outrage last week over U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's comments to the right-wing media outlet Newsmax. Pompeo said, according to a State Department transcript, that "ensuring that the Turks don't slaughter the Kurds" was part "of the American mission set."
But even if the Trump administration somehow finds a way to live up to public demands for bringing troops home from Afghanistan and Syria, there are dozens of other places where they will still be deployed. In fact, according to researchers from Brown University's Costs of War Project at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, since former President George W. Bush launched the so-called War on Terror nearly two decades ago, Americans are now "actively engaged in countering terrorism in 80 nations on six continents," or 40 percent of all countries on Earth.
.@CostsOfWar found that the U.S. is fighting the "war on terror" in forty — yes, FORTY — percent of the world's countries. #EndEndlessWar This Map Shows Where in the World the U.S. Military Is Combatting Terrorism https://t.co/5ieamAndmk
— Win Without War (@WinWithoutWar) January 9, 2019
Posted at 08:27 AM in Common Dreams, The Military | Permalink | Comments (0)
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