Tag Archives: America

Some Thoughts on our Political Process

I received so many calls and emails about caucuses on Super Tuesday that it drove me loopy. I know why I got them and I was still pissed off. I really think the idea of carpet bombing likely attendees with GOTV/ persuasion calls and emails is an outdated strategy that has a reverse effect from what it was designed for. These calls are unsolicited and thus perceived as cold sales calls. People don’t like their lives interrupted.

The problem is the bean counters determined you could reach more voters more cheaply by phone than through the mail. Which is true. And you can’t guarantee people will read the mail whereas you can when you reach them by phone. But psychologically speaking, because of the very fact that the person receiving the mail has the choice to read it, it is a less threatening and irritating means of communicating. Because of this I feel, although the number of folks receiving mail is lower, the numbers that get the message are higher. I also feel that if government is the sender of a caucus notification mailer more people would read it upon reception than if it were sent by the candidates. Along with the information about date, time and place of caucuses, candidates could present introductions and persuasive arguments for government to include in the mailer, so that the voter has additional choice in educating themselves.

We must start treating the voter as an owner of government instead of a customer, a real person of value to society, instead of a number on a tally sheet. Enough of his rant and on to another.

Attending your caucus or voting in your primary is the first step in fulfilling your constitutional DUTY to elect those who represent YOU in determining how YOUR taxes are spent and what YOU can and cannot do as YOU interact with society. There is a direct correlation between your vote and your budget and your liberty.

It seems some of the very same people that insist our government is of the people, by the people, and for the people, don’t quite understand what that really means. So many people, including the mainstream media, use the term “our democracy” as short hand for “our government”. This is only partially true. Our government is a Democratic Republic.

Sometimes people forget that we are a republic. I think it’s assumed we know that, since we elect representatives. Thats what a republic is, government by representation. This is the “of the people” part. Our government its made up OF the people we elect.

And yes, we are a democracy, in the sense that our government is elected “by the people”. That’s what democracy means, a government chosen BY the people, usually through free elections.

And the part that is most under attack is the FOR the people part. Our government is supposed to and was designed to work “for the people” and not for corporations or banks or defense contractors. Their interests don’t always line up with the people’s interests. But it sure seems that government works for them instead of us.

So how have these entities taken over. Even though there aren’t a lot of people that run them they have used the thing they have an abundance of that most of the people don’t have. They have an abundance of money. Their money gives them a huge advantage over us. They corrupt the “of the people” by “buying” their hand picked candidates. Largely through the media they have made it very expensive to run for office. The average citizen, without large amounts of donated money, can’t afford to run for anything but small local offices. The people with the money find someone who is attractive and well known and connected and gives them the money they need to run a winning campaign. We all know that nothing is free. For their money those donors get special favors from their “bought and sold” representative.

Having stolen our “of the people” they next work on the “by the people”. First they get their bought and sold representatives to pass laws making it hard for certain people to vote at all. Of course these voters are on to the moneybags and their plan to take over our government. This is why the would be overlords attempt to get their paid off legislators to take way those smart voter’s vote.

Less obvious but maybe more effective is how they discourage people from voting. First they use their money and the elected officials in their pocket to create fear among the people and encourage greed. Then they use the fear and greed to get folks to accept them as their saviors, as the only ones who can protect them and their money. These people will then walk through walls to vote for them.

Next they use a function of the American way of life to discourage people from voting at all. They know that they have their core group of frightened followers who will do anything they say. The fewer people that vote the more electoral power their core has and the fewer people they need to persuade and the more money per vote they can devote to that persuasion. And getting people to eschew voting is relatively easy.

Americans have a finely tuned, well oiled, throroughly developed propensity to assign both responsibility and blame to others. When the corporations and banks, the army of the plutocracy, can convince people that government is to blame for their miserable lives, that all politicians are lazy and crooked and that there is no difference between the parties, plenty of people will just throw up their hands and say their vote doesn’t count. They feel justified in not voting. Their feelings that they have no say in what happens to them are substantiated.

Our government is, by design, participatory. Only by participating do we TRULY respect, honor, and act in accordance with the constitution. If we don’t attend our party caucuses, or vote in primary elections we are giving away our chance to have a say in what government we have.  Do you really think that under 15% of the people, and often much less than that, should determine who will even vie for public office. It just makes it easier for the dominators to dominate. We aren’t going to ever get out from under the yoke of oppression by rolling up and giving up because we think our constitutional duty is meaningless.

That is a bald faced lie.

 

Playing From Behind Again

Yesterday’s assignment was to write a blog post saying exactly what we want, to the person or persons we really want to talk to. We were also to include a new element in our post, one that we have never worked with before. I have never embedded a photo into my blog posts so I will attempt to do that a bit later in the post. Here is what I really want, without filter, to say.

There are lots of people I really want to speak to directly, under the illusory protective umbrella of this blog. To choose one group out of many is a somewhat daunting task, but today I’m feeling like speaking to those who proclaim themselves Christians, and miraculously, devout Christians.

Not all, but many of them, by my humble moral standards and mandatory incomplete understanding of scripture and the Christ, love to slavishly quote the Bible without having the foggiest notion of what it really tells us.

Thank God for Martin Luther. These people will still have a chance to gain heaven through their faith alone. For their works are not only not good works but are often cruel and damaging works, and can also include disdain for and the absence of good works. Yes, they are charitable, but just as they cherry pick Bible verses to support their profound misunderstanding of their role as Christians, they cherry pick whom to be generous with. Like the Pharisee in the parable of the Good Samaritan they judge who is and who is not deserving of their charity.

Somehow they believe that because they are more pious and devout and “Better Christians” than others they somehow deserve most favored VIP status here on earth and extra compensations from the divine coffers. They demand that absolutely everyone accept certain of their doctrine, while personally ignoring other of their religion’s precepts. They malign those religions whom they accuse of violently forcing everyone to convert, while expecting everyone to accept that theirs is the only true religion and thus the only moral arbiter.

They advocate for an American theocracy, claiming Biblical law supersedes Constitutional law, while condemning other theocracies across the world as authoritarian fanatics.

I could go on.

Before I go let me illuminate just one hypocrisy I see in the western, predominately racially white, Christian Church. Jesus was undoubtedly a Palestinian. Had he been tall, white and blue eyed he would have been suspect and likely would have had a difficult time convincing his Jewish followers that he was the messiah.

So, did Jesus look like Barry Gibb?

picture-jesus-greg-olson

Or like a common era Jew?

gallery-1450102902-screen-shot-2015-12-14-at-91810-am

I’m not sure this second guy would be real popular with the TSA. Not to mention he would be persona non grata to certain other currently newsworthy persons.

I thought we were created in God’s image, not the other way around.

 

Frustration Thy Name is Legion

I’m confused.

Did President Obama have our diplomats in Benghazi murdered to keep us from finding out about the IRS targeting conservatives or did he have the CIA create Hurricane Sandy so we would forget about Benghazi or did he have those kids in Connecticut killed so we would stop blaming him for the hurricane or did he hire those Russian kids to bomb the marathon to make us forget about gun control or did he bribe Snowden to leak NSA spying info so we wouldn’t remember how we killed the Russian kids to cover up that they were Obama’s patsies or did he pay off the jury to acquit George Zimmerman to make us forget how he spied on everyone or did he purposefully screw up the Obamacare website to make us forget Benghazi, again, or did he sign a ton of executives orders like a tyrant to make us forget how awful Obamacare is, again, or did he hire kids from Central America to invade the USA to make us forget Benghazi AND how awful Obamacare is or did he give ISIS the weapons to form their caliphate to make us forget whatever it is we’re not supposed to remember or did he really pay Hamas to fire rockets at Israel, knowing they would in turn eventually invade Gaza and help us forget that he is a treasonous dictator or did he just have the Air Force shoot down the commercial airliner over Ukraine to make Putin look bad and make everybody forget all the horrible stuff he has ever done in his entire life to fulfill his lifelong goal of hatefully killing America, including never deporting anyone and not finding that airplane in the middle of the Indian Ocean?

Wow, I just know Lenin and Hitler and Saul Alinsky and Charles Manson and Bill Ayers and Satan, (who is probably Bill Ayers anyway) are having a beer together in hell and praising their demonic Kenyan love child for destroying America forever. Except for that Charles Manson and Bill Ayers aren’t dead yet I’m sure all of that is true because Mark Levin appeared to me in a dream and told me so.

Actually the reality is much more insidious. Our President is working in league with former Vice President Dick Cheney. Strange but true. His foreign policy is leading us to pine for the return of the Neo-cons and their Plan for a New American Century. That little trick of calling him the worst president in his lifetime (which means the worst President in history) shouldn’t fool anyone.

Yes folks, what we need is a cleansing dose of military backed world dominance. Just throw a little more money at the Pentagon and we can once again enforce that elusive concept known as American national security interests, with massive destructive power, at will. Of course we all know how @70 years of that has worked out. I mean we haven’t had any Brave American soldiers killed or maimed for nearly a week now. Maybe.

Perhaps the current concurrent crises in the Ukraine/Russia and Israel/Palestine will delay us initiating the Crusades 2.0 we have been so joyously hurling ourselves toward. That would be a consolation prize of dubious but little value. Perhaps some high roller somewhere took a ton of money on Brazil and bought off Colombia to injure Neymar and then bought off the home side, Black Sox style, to blow the match with Germany. Of course that cheat will be using his new found riches to back that cute corporation who sat behind him in biology, way back in middle school, in her quest to become the first corporation to be elected to congress (at least officially).

So excuse me, as I’m off to find some closely held religious beliefs I can use to enable me to break laws I find inconvenient, while letting sinners do whatever they please, providing they buy what I’m selling and they aren’t women who work for me.

Not only am I confused but my reasons for being frustrated are legion.

Drones and Contradictions

Found as a Facebook comment 3/8/2013 by permission

One primary purpose of law in a civil society is to determine compromise policy between 2 opposing positions. In a democratic republic these contradictions are normally between individual rights and the good of society. They are debated by our elected representatives who define policy through laws. Those laws are scrutinized by the courts. A vulnerable link in this chain is the influence of public opinion on the choices of those who are ostensibly elected to represent us, their constituents. Considerable frustration is created when the people feel government does not listen to their will. At each level of government there are alleged realities that dictate action that is virtually incomprehensible to the public. Those who are aware that these are artificial constructs are more frustrated than most and this can lead to active opposition to government.

Our task is to overcome the despair of believing we the people cannot change policy by revealing the right thing to do to our politicians, who have an agenda that does not necessarily serve the common good. We bemoan the fact that in the turbulent sixties and before that in the late 19th and early 20th century the will of the people, acting with courage to challenge the government, was able to actually influence policy. We fear that the numbing down of Americans makes it nigh impossible to move the needle of public outrage to the tipping point. Many of us see this truth as a crisis of the highest order, threatening the very life of the republic. Many days I fear this is true. Some other days I have more faith in the system, coupled with the righteousness in the hearts of what I pray is most Americans.

I can see circumstances where this power to kill American combatants on American soil, who are involved in overt acts threatening society, either collective or individuals, needs to be available to government. I also feel that the line must be drawn at murdering non combatants, unless their logistic and strategic planning actively leads to combat. There needs to be a national debate on the definition of combatant and the overall philosophy and legality of the use of drones. I can also understand the paranoia of the more libertarian of our brothers and sisters that this power is dangerous for citizens. How we resolve this conflict of human interests will say a great deal about America’s soul.

The thing I find unconscionable in all of this is the lack of transparency, honesty and accountability of the administration regarding the scope of drone attacks in all situations, domestic and foreign. I am a strong Obama supporter but he and his people really (past tense expletive starting with F) up on this whole program. Frankly this sort of clandestine use of deadly power has been a hallmark of US foreign policy for decades and it’s use domestically, although less pervasive and conspicuous, has always been there as well. The more this nasty behavior which we find more and more appalling as we continue to learn of its existence is fomented on the innocent, the more the people demand public accountability and this is a good thing. However it creates another conundrum of just how much the revelation of our dirty deeds hinders national security and puts American intelligence operatives in harms way.

So the challenge of society to find a via media between opposing forces, both with some apparent value, continues. We must do all we can to hold the feet of the powers that be to the fire at all costs. The future of our way of life hangs in the balance.