I am betrayed....

I'm not having the best spring of my life.  Money is short, bills are high, time is fleeting and I'm feeling overwhelmed.  I realize that, and it isn't an isolated occurrence, I've spent the vast majority of my life feeling overwhelmed.  I had reached a point where being overwhelmed wasn't as disturbing to daily life.  I was keeping things together and getting stuff done.  But so far this year, that hasn't been the case....

I am just a hot mess right now.  Talked to Rose about it the other day, and she helped me find the end of the thread that lead to this moment....
I've got stuff to do.  I've got to take a shower and get moving.  I was getting ready to do that and felt like some music....
And what do I get?

Second song on the shuffle, and that's right where I'm at.  Sitting here crying alone in my room...
I've been broken, and the new break is dredging up all the old ones, it always does for me.  The new break was a stealth hit.  It took a confluence of events to allow the true pain to surface.
I've been weepy, cranky, and short tempered.  I've been VERY conscious of Steve's absence.  I've seriously been wondering what I have to show for my life, and why I bother to keep trying...
I realize now that the depression has had me for a few months.
And that's a slap in the face with how pernicious the whole negative spiral can be.  Luckily, I'm not too deep in.  I noticed the spiteful, petty, competitive, and unfair tendencies in my thoughts of late.  Rose and I talked about it.
I admitted that I'm angry.
And now I'm ready to own the betrayal.  Got there with this post to FB this morning.

The times, they are a changing....
And if We the People can't see the writing on the wall, and step up and take this country back from the oligarchy now, with a clear vision of the changes we want, then we deserve a Trump presidency.
I was still hanging onto the thin edge of my Democratic alignment, still hoping that my party was really better than that.
And I'm pissed as all Hell at the betrayal this primary season has turned into. I'm tired of the manipulation, the lies, the fraud, the hypocrisy, the wars, the fear, and the hate.
And I'm not just pissed at politicians. I'm pissed at this entire country. I'm pissed at my fellow citizens.
We are supposed to be better than this, people. In this country All Men Are Created Equal. (We should have amended that decades ago to be All People Are Created Equal, but it was a start to something good.) We are supposed to be fair, non-judgemental, compassionate, just, free, and equal. These are the ideals of our founding.
And in the U.S. today, these are all as endangered as the spotted owl.
Have we really strayed so far from Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin that we are just going to happily march ourselves, and the rest of the world, into a global Fascist Oligarchy? Are we really going to let a small group of psychotic pigs decimate the world?
Seriously?
Clinton is the clear choice of the establishment. Trump is just there to scare the Hell out everybody and herd them into Clinton's waiting arms. A vote for Clinton is a vote for the Oligarchy.
I may be wrong, I was wrong about Obama, but I believe Sanders is making a serious bid to change the system. He's engaging people in the process. He's pointing the way to what this country should be. Reminding people that government is supposed to 'PROMOTE THE GENERAL WELFARE'. It's in the fucking preamble. It comes right after 'provide for the common defense' which is the bit the corporate world folks (Clinton) want you to remember, so a lot of people miss it. But, it is in there and it's time we all remembered that....

Yes, I am disappointed, angry, and depressed.
I am aware of the negative spiral.
I'm working on it....

I am a 'conspiracy theorists'...

I confess.
Yes, for decades I have believed that all is not what I've been told it is.
Thinking about it now, in reflection of a conversation from yesterday, I realize my basic, rabid mistrust of authority figures stated when I was 5 in a doctor's office.  That moment sparked a couple of life long love/hate relationships and a basic mistrust of everything and everybody around me, cuz if people who care for you are willing to really, really hurt you, anything can happen.
Shortly after that, religion and I had a permanent falling out after they tried to tell me I was guilty for something that happened centuries before I was born.
Sorry, guys, I'm only responsible for my actions and bad choices.  I'm not taking the rap for somebody else.  I don't care who it is, or what you think.
So, by the age of 6 I'd had a profound break with respect for authority, because it was authority.  It takes more than a label to get my respect.
And I don't believe what I'm told.
I don't believe in climate change because I've been told it's happening.
I believe in climate change because I see the birds migrating later in the fall and earlier in the spring, and I see new, more colorful, little song birds mixed in with the sparrows.  The weather now is different than when I was a kid.  The storms are getting bigger.  The winds are stronger than I remember.
So, I've been questioning the basics of everything since I was a kid.
And the older I get, the more I realize that it's really worse than I imagined.
Watching the primary season unfold is an eye opening experience.  On one side you've got old white guys swaggering around making the usual overblown disingenuous promises, and spreading fear and hate.  One openly wants to make this God's kingdom on earth.  (The founding fathers are spinning in their graves.)
On the other side there's lying , cheating, and bribery going on.
And that's the Democrats, They are supposed to be the ones above that sort of thing.


And that was last week.
It's about 3am Monday morning and I have no idea why I'm sitting here instead of going to bed.  Except, my head won't shut up.  There's almost always a crowd of thoughts and voices running through my head like rabid squirrels on crack.
I've learned to ignore the noise, for the most part.  But, I frequently wonder if ignoring the nose is the wisest choice.  For one thing ignoring the noise keeps me from writing.  Without that noise, I have nothing to say.
But, there's a lot of stuff mixed in the noise, and that's a hurdle all by itself.  Like right now there's a very loud voice telling me to just stop typing, and go to bed.  That, with the gardening thoughts and plans that keep springing up, and the guilt over not having more done, the insinuous voice telling me I'm a looser with nothing to show for my life, worries about money, wondering what to get for dinner tomorrow night, knowing I have a long day of work ahead....
That all has a tendency of derailing the train,  Takes a lot for coherent thought to get through all that.
And, unless I've got time or I'm so pissed off I don't care how long it takes or having a funky moment, like now, I don't write...

Well, the voices of my better angels prevailed.  Sleep won out over thinking.  I went to bed.  Got up.  Eventually got my lazy carcass moving, cleaned up the patio some, moved laundry along, did the 6 jobs that were due yesterday and today, bought some plants, came home, ate, dealt with the animals, watched some more Glee, and went to bed.
And now it's Tuesday.
And I'm procrastinating on the moving part of this day.  I'm contemplating the possibilities.  I have a job open that I could go work on.
And that could happen.  Ya never know.
But my intent for this day is yard work.  We've got plants, they need a home.  But, in my experience things change, sometimes drastically in a small frame of time.  There are many and varied things I really need to do.
I need to work on the garden.
I need to do laundry.
I need to clean up around here.
I need to print documentation and my tax return this year, cuz someone filed a return with my social already.
I need to go get dog and cat food.
Etc, etc, etc......
And from here there are several topics and slants to pursue.  There's the idea that started this post, which has been with me for a very long time.  There's a daily post with the doings of HappyDale.  There's thoughts and musing kicked up by conversations with my SFAM Rose.  I could comb through the last couple of weeks for an echos post.
I have plenty of things to do and say.
But I'm sitting here feeling like a bunny in headlights, and I don't know winch way to jump...
Cuz, I realize that the world is way more screwed than even I thought it was.
And there's really not much I can do about that.
I believe in the power of positive energy.  But, I'm having difficulty holding onto a charge.  I'm in the middle of rough patch and it seems that no matter what I try, no matter how positive I am, there's always something, some major or minor negative occurrence to overcome.
And I know I'm not alone in the constant, unrelenting struggle to just get by, to keep the bills paid and food on the table.
And that's part of the reason this country is where it's at.
The vast majority of the population is overburdened, exhausted, and numb.  We have been worn and dumbed down, divided and terrorized, medicated and mesmerized, poisoned and starved.  We are nothing more than cannon fodder, dead peasants, and cheap labor.
And, I've come to believe, this is intentional.  This is being done with malice of forethought.  The fear and hatred is planned and scripted.
And if we don't wake up and smell the napalm, they are going to leave nothing but scorched earth.
It's taken a lifetime for me to fully accept that what I see in this country today has been consciously engineered.  But I've moved past the belief that it's a wholly natural state.

FBEs from the last couple of days....

 March 28, 2015
 Quotes from and comments on the article linked.  These are things we seriously need to fix.

 'The wingnuts went ballistic, posting on the Facebook page of a local television station that if the girl wanted to speak Latin, she should move to Latin America.'

This is one of the biggest problems in this country.
And if you don't see the glaring inaccuracy in the quoted statement, you are part of the problem.

'Too many Americans naively believe that the 1% have their best interests at heart, and they fail to realize that when unions are strong and their members earn decent wages, that money goes back into the economy.'

That's another problem we need to fix.....

9 basic concepts Americans fail to grasp

March 28, 2015
Comment on the article cited.

Oh yeah, the war on is drugs is working, for the PTB and their minions.  It's working to keep the for profit prisons full, give the police state a reason to seize private property and search people's houses without warrants.  It's working to keep people running scared of both their neighbors and the police that are supposed to protect them....

For Years, DEA Agents Attended Illegal “Sex Parties” Paid for By Drug Cartels, Using Govt Buildings

Also love how the the Justice Department says:

“The Justice Department law enforcement agencies do not have adequate technology to enable them to detect that type of misconduct.”

REALLY?!
You guys know when some poor Schmoe from nowhere makes a date with his mistress, yet you can't monitor the electronic communications of your own agents?
Let's say it all together now,  BULLSHIT!

 March 27, 2015
Response to meme quoting Sean Penn on Bush and Cheney creating ISIS.

Yes, the PTB do manufacture our enemies, both directly and indirectly.  Wouldn't surprise me if there are NSA or CIA agents embedded in some of the groups to facilitate their formation and determine their agenda.
Look up some of the released documentation, they've been doing this for at least the last 60 years...

There really are 2 separate and vastly different entities inhabiting the U.S.  There's the Military/Industrial Empire run by the captains of industry and finance, foreign and domestic, that seeks to control and consume the whole world, and then there's the Average Joes, who just want to own a yard and go on vacation a couple times a year.
The Empire has been growing since the late 40's early 50's and is on the cusp of end game.
And not handling it very well....
But that's a whole nother post entirely....





March 27, 2015
Comment on the article cited.

'Next, it was revealed that the Kochs own a 200,000 acre cattle ranch in Montana that has received more than $12 million of state and federal subsidies since it was founded. Two-thirds of the cattle operation is on public land, which means the Kochs pay grazing fees that are far below market rates while taxpayers make up the difference.  (In 2011, the state of Montana proposed raising these fees to get them closer to market, and a guy from the Kochs' ranch showed up to the hearing to protest this increase.)
This grotesque set of facts—two billionaires taking subsidies while trying to block our poorest citizens from getting assistance for medical care—was not well received by the press or public when it was brought to light.'

Kochs burning bridges in Montana Medicaid fight

'The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows...'

Everybody Knows, Leonard Cohen

The rich taking from the poor to give to themselves.  That's what the Tea Party is all about at its heart.  Anything else they espouse is lip service and sham.

FBEs from the last few weeks....

Random thoughts and opinions.....

'These are not the words of a man who wishes to establish a Christian theocracy. Jefferson promoted tolerance above all and said earlier that his statute for religious freedom in Virginia was "meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammeden, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination." He specifically wished to avoid the dominance of a single religion.'

'Declaration of Independence (1776)
The most important assertion in this document is that "to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."'

 Founding Fathers: We Are Not a Christian Nation

The power comes from the people, not from any god.
Our founders went out of their way to keep religion out of government. They knew first hand that a government of faith, any faith, leads to oppression. We need to look no further than the divine arrogance of Israel, the tyrannical zealots of Sharia to see the danger of mixing religion and government.

Feb. 28, 2015
Thoughts after reading the article.

 The war was never meant to end. It is never meant to end. War is a big profit maker for these guys and a few others. As long as they are making money there will be no end.

Mar.. 4, 2015
Response to a meme quoting the likes of Cheney and Rumsfeld on the Iran war a decade ago.
If you're tired of seeing young people bleed and die for ungrateful old people, it's time to radically change the system.

It doesn't have to be violent.
And if I'm getting MY country back, there will be reasonable gun control. A back ground check, waiting period, and license are not too much to ask for an easier way to kill things.

 Mar. 5, 2015
Response to a meme from the gun owners of America about taking the country back.  I'm all for the right to keep and bear arms.  I'm also in favor of imposing some common sense and restrictions.  I don't trust my fellow man to act sensibly.  From what I've seen of the open carry crowd, my distrust is justified.

'Take, for example, Wal-Mart, which recently made headlines by announcing it would spend a billion dollars a year raising the wages of its lowest paid employees — a minor tweak to its low-wage business model. Over the past 10 years, according to data compiled from its public filings, Wal-Mart has spent more than $65.4 billion on stock buybacks — about 47 percent of its profits. That’s an average of more than $6.5 billion a year in stock buybacks, enough to give each of its 1.4 million U.S. workers a $4,670-a-year raise. It is also, coincidentally, an amount roughly equivalent to the estimated $6.2 billion Wal-Mart costs U.S. taxpayers every year in food stamps, Medicaid, subsidized housing, and other public assistance to its many impoverished employees. In this context, how can stock buybacks be either morally or economically justified?'

 Column: The biggest scam bankrupting business and the middle clas

It can't be. It's part of the recipe for the Fascist state this country is turning into. Hanauer sees where this is going, and has looked past the corporate end game to the pitchforks, which will come.
Not that I agree with Hanauer that a new, more balanced, capitalist state is a glorious achievement.
I don't agree that profit is the only motivator of the human spirit.
I think we could do better than a longer, more balanced game of Monopoly.....

 Mar. 11, 2015
 Thoughts on the article cited.

I say we should let Bernie Sanders & U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren save their money. They should forget about bowing and scraping to the self-appointed aristocracy. Let's run a true grass roots, social network campaign for them. These two should be our next president and vice president. I don't care which is which, let's just all agree to write them in....

March 23,  2015
Response to a status update from Robert Reich about Ted Cruz's official entry to the Republican Primary.
People want Warren and Sanders to run.
Both have said they can't afford it.
Neither will be able to raise the necessary money.  Which is an extremely sad thing to say in this country.
Both of them could do a lot to pull this country, and the world, out of the downhill slide to destruction we are tipping into.
I would like to see Bernie Sanders as the next president of these United States.  I'd be happy with Warren.  My ideal would be 8 years of Sanders/Warren and 8 years of Warren/Sanders.  I believe the two of them would pull together and haul this country out of the slime pit it is turning into.
I'm writing them in in 2016, Sanders for president, Warren for Vice-president, and I'm getting as many people as I can to join me.
We are the American People and we can pull off the greatest Hail Mary in history.

To the cult of Ayn Rand….

One of many rants that’s been brewing…

This one goes out to all Libertarian, conservative, ‘I built this’ selfish asses.

Get over yourself.

You may have rearranged some stuff, but you didn’t really build shit.

Did you get up at dawn one morning figure out how to make fire, out of nothing and keep it going?  While you were at it you slapped together a little thing called the wheel, then you got the whole farming, domestication of live stock, food chain thing up and running in time to have orange juice with the morning bacon and eggs.

After breakfast I suppose you knocked off smelting, blacksmithing, concrete, power, lights, etc, etc…

REALLY?

Was watching ‘The Story of an Animated Drawing’ the other night, Walt Disney explaining the history of art in a nutshell.  He goes all the way to back to the cave painting of Lascaux.  (And now, he’d have to go farther in both time and location.)  Cuz, without those crude paintings on the walls of caves there is no animated drawing.

The same is true for all that we have today.  Without the millions of people that have walked this earth before us, we have NOTHING.

The whole of your daily reality is a cooperative experiment that was started thousands of years ago.  Without that cooperation, we’d still be scurrying through the tall grass and getting ate by everything around.

Even if you are totally off the grid and making everything for yourself, you owe the knowledge to someone who came before you.  You didn’t do the trial and error experimentation to figure out which plants are edible.  You learned, at least that, from someone else.

YOU DIDN’T TAKE THE EMBERS FROM A LIGHTENING STRUCK TREE AND MAKE THE FIRST FIRE.

YOU DIDN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO COMBINE THE INGREDIENTS TO MAKE THE FIRST LOAF OF BREAD.

YOU DIDN’T INVENT THE WHEEL!!

Even if you just want to consider the here and now, you didn’t do it all by yourself.  Whatever you built is connected to PUBLIC services, at the very least roads, which generations of American taxpayers paid for.

And here we should all take a moment to remember that many, many large corporations, which the Libertarians champion and support, don't pay taxes

Also, consider, whatever your goods or services might be, if someone doesn’t COOPERATE and buy what yer selling, you don’t make any money.

In light of the fact that cooperation is vital to your health and well being, don’t you think you should grow up, grow a conscious, and join the human race?

Oh yeah, without the millions of people that came before her, Ayn Rand couldn't have written her crap.

I am an exile....

 House Republicans Kick Off 2014 By Ignoring Everything the American People Want

 'Will repealing the law create even one job, contribute to GDP growth, or address the income inequality devastating the economy? Of course not, and Republicans admit the only reason for pushing the repeal effort is to “make overseas Americans far more sympathetic to Republicans and have an impact on fundraising”'

Where's the will of the people in this?

'Rape audit refers to requiring a rape victim who sought an abortion to prove to an Internal Revenue Service auditor that they were “legitimately raped” to claim a deduction under healthcare expense on their tax return.'
'However where women’s rights and healthcare is concerned, the Republican religious right will force, by legislation, the IRS to access, monitor, and audit women’s health and wellbeing. Will the “rape audit” bill create one job, boost GDP growth, or address income inequality decimating the economy? No,'

WTF?

The country that I grew up pledging allegiance too, the country I believe in, is gone.  It has been usurped and overthrown.  In its place sits a changeling, a Fascist empire, run by a psychotic, lunatic fringe seeking to control the world and enslave the majority of the population of the planet.
What I see around me, the avarice, ignorance, and apathy, the fear and division, is not the land of the free and the home of the brave.  This is more like the land of the feeb and the home of the slave.
If we are brave; why can't we tolerate people who don't look like us?  Why can't we respect people who hold different beliefs?  If we're so brave where's all the fear, anxiety, and hatred coming from?  If we're so brave why can't be comfortable with teeth that aren't gleaming white?
As for the free,,,,
Well I just paid to be able to drive my car on the public roads.  If I want to go fishing next summer I'll have to buy a license.  I have to watch where I walk, or I could possibly step on someone else's property.
This country has the highest incarceration rate in the world.
The police are gearing up for a war.... 
The United States of liberty, equality, and justice for all, has one foot in a grave and the other on a patch of oil.
What I see when I look around is the corruption and decay of the Roman Empire, not the reason and compassion of the Enlightenment.
People, the United States I pledged allegiance too was born in the free thinking of the Enlightenment, not the legions of Rome.
You want me to swear allegiance to a second rate empire?
I don't think so.
People so afraid of their neighbors that we feel the need of stand your ground laws?  People so stingy they don't want to chip in a little so their neighbor can go to the hospital after he's been shot by some rabid gun nut?  People so selfish that we'd rather pay for bigger and better bombs than help out after a catastrophe?  People so unaware and unobservant that they can't even see what's in front of their faces?  People so apathetic and oblivious that they can't even be bothered to help govern their country, when they have the opportunity?  People who think problem solving skills and a good education are elitist and suspect?
This is not my country.  These are not my people.
And these are not the citizens that the founding fathers crafted this country for.
And this is not the city on the hill.
This is a will-o-the-wisp that's gonna suck the human race right off the face of the planet.
Except for the better few who have all the resources.
I don't think anybody should pledge allegiance to that.
Stop buying, everything, the hype, the fear, the chemicals, the tooth whitener....
Just stop buying.
And start thinking about what you really want to spend your life on.
Cuz that's what those green paper slips really represent.  That's what you're selling so you can buy into the system.  That's the real currency of our grand and glorious Risk and Monopoly shell games.

FBE...

Or FaceBook echo.
It occurs that a lot of my political/social observations occur as random FaceBook comments lately.
And FB being FB, I'm not sure anybody even reads them.
Not that I think anybody is really reading the blog, but there's more of a potential here than there.....
So, there's gonna be FBEs here from time to time.  Starting with this one.
I think it's worth tossing this pebble into the pond.

Ya know, if we all want things to change in this country all it would take is a minor public sacrifice.
Don't shop this Christmas.
Give handmade gifts, give someone your time or your assistance instead of some cheap coffee mug.  Be gauche give cash.
Stay home this weekend.  Save gas, spend time improving your surroundings in some fashion.  Catch up on whatever it is you need to catch up.  Take a nap, read a book, give yourself a facial and a manicure, take a long, hot, soak in the tub, instead.
If you must shop, shop local, shop direct.  Go to craft fairs and buy direct from the artist.  Shop second hand and antique.  Shop small and unique.
And consider this.

If everybody spent a relaxing weekend at home this Thanksgiving...

The sales the following couple of weeks would be even better! 

Cuz the retailers would freak out over the massive surplus bursting out of their storerooms and try to move it as fast as they could.

Taking money out of Christmas or, at least distributing it lower down the ladder,  Would be a severe blow to the corporate capitalist model.  Many of the large retailers gamble on making the bulk of their income at Christmas....

But we all know that the American population, like sheep at a slaughter house, are gonna line up for the fleecing...

From the Pragmatic Party...

It’s time to start thinking about the present and dealing with the shit.

How we got here is not the priority, and it doesn’t matter what the founding fathers believed or wanted.  We are here, now.  The country is in extremely sad shape, and it’s time we start cleaning up the mess.  Our infantile empire is starting to show and it’s already on life support.  We need to make some radical changes.

I’m not fond of people who complain with no ideas, so here are some ideas….

 We need an overhaul of the welfare system.

I fully believe that we should provide for every citizen in this country.  We have the capacity, and no one should be homeless or hungry.  However, there ain’t no such thing as a free ride.  If you want to address all the complaints of free loading, you introduce a work requirement and change how the support is delivered.

We need to work toward a new program where every able bodied person contributes something to the system for the aid.  Eventually I see this system becoming support mainly for young people making the transition to independent living.  But I believe the ideas will work well for much of our present population.

10 hours a week of some productive contribution will get you 3 hots and a cot.  We give this to the prison population for nothing, so I think we can extend it further.

And it’s literally just 3 hots and a cot.  I envision the cot being something like a coffin hotel; a foam floored space that’s big enough to lay flat in and sit up straight.  I’d design them with shelves and compartments built into the wall and provide a networked computer.  They’d be comfortable enough, but not too comfortable.

These would be housed in dorm style facilities.  The three hots would be severed in a cafeteria.  All food severed would meet basic nutritional requirements.  (New guidelines would stipulate that all material and supplies would be American made and obtained locally as much as possible.  Contracts would favor smaller business.)  Medical care would be provided on site (By doctors and medical students working off their public service.)  Child care would be provided through the schools.  Much like dorms there would be facilities for printing and other business services, and there would be an organized program of entertainment and events.  There would be public spaces provided both in door and out door.

I believe that such a facility would work equally well for students, people struggling to get back on their feet, and the differently abled in our society.

15 hours of service will get you a 12x12 room with a private bathroom.

20 hours gets the 12x12 with one small bedroom.

These would still be housed in dorm style complexes, and meals would still be in a cafeteria.  Accommodation in these complexes would also be available on a for rent bases with reasonable rates.

The people staying in these arrangements would be employed supporting the complexes.  Jobs would be assigned, with an effort to place people in work they would enjoy.  Somebody who hates kids wouldn’t be placed in the daycare.  As time goes on these complexes would maintain gardens.  People in this system would also take up things like picking up trash on the streets and along the highway.  We could start containing and recycling the trash that is blowing around our landscape.  We could use these civilian cores as a means to clean up and recover the inner cities.  Develop job training programs for construction and carpentry and maintenance with an emphasis on developing a sustainable life style.

It’s a way to clean up our streets, in more ways than one.

And I hear many of you groaning about how to control all this…

For now I can see this being controlled by a board made up of residents, contributors, and officials.  Surely some of the dorms that are already out there have regs that can be adapted.  But I'd keep it minimal, and the room is a private space, no surveillance allowed.  Everyone has a right to some privacy, weather we like it or not.

Cuz, I for one, don’t care that there are some slackers that will work their ten hours a week and then loaf the rest of the time.  Personally, I don’t care if they work their ten hours and spend the rest of their time zoned on their drug of choice.  If that makes them happy, so be it.  As long as they show up and do the work, they get the three hots and a cot.  Keeping the required number of hours fairly low, gives those with the ambition to find other employment, or pursue some other goal, the opportunity to do so.  This would be a major aid to the artistic community and also a pulse for scholarly pursuits.

Along with this I’d make education and basic job training non-profit.  Education through the doctorate level should be free, with the requirement that the student perform public service in exchange for the degree.

And only those that make the grades advance to the next level.  If you can’t maintain at least a C average, you don’t get the education.  Combine this with job training programs and apprenticeships, acknowledge that all work is respectable, regardless of what it is, and let people find the best place for themselves.

I have a very wise and intelligent friend that regrets the fact she choose collage over beauty school.  Maybe in a better system she would have chosen differently.

I think we need to scale some of modern life back, to build a network of smaller communities, to simplify and live local.  I would love to be able to walk to the corner shops and buy what I need for dinner tonight, fresh and cheap.  I think life would be better with a resurgence of main street, small farms, and mom & pop stores.

But, I think I’m done with thinking for now.

Cuz day light’s burning and there’s stuff I need to do…..

Pay no attention….

Have you ever stepped back stage?

Even if all you’ve ever done is a grade school performance you should be aware of the concept that all things have a hidden aspect, something that’s outta sight

And outta sight is outta mind…

The most obvious example is the theater with its proscenium arch and curtain.  What you see in front of the curtain isn’t even half of what is going on in that space, at that moment.  I’ve been on the stage, behind the curtain, in the dressing room, in the light booth, and out front working the house.  While you are, hopefully, comfortably seated and enjoying the performance, people are scurrying all around you managing your encounter, and the ones you see aren’t all the people involved in crafting your experience.  People who are not even present at the moment, had influence and input into your perception.  What you see is just the first ripple of the moment.  This is even truer for film than stage.

Think of the cooking show that takes you into the kitchen, the ‘back stage’ of the restaurant, and then realize that has a whole nother back stage.

What you see is never all that is there.

When you look at another person, do you see their brain, heart, guts?

No, if the person is alive and healthy, you don’t see all that.  You just accept that’s all there, cuz you’d really rather not see all that, cuz if you do see all that, then there’s something wrong….

OK, back track from the wild tangent, and think about all the back stages there are in real life.

And then ask yourself why you think you know who is really running your life?

The republicans and the democrats and the rabid right nut jobs are all actors.  They are the show, what’s in front of the curtain.  Let’s think about the back stage.  Let’s consider how much time, energy, and money is being put into this show, and ask, who’s the director? Writer? Producer?

In theater and film you get a list of cast and crew.  Where’s the crew list for modern politics?

Just who is it that is running this show?

I’d like to know.  Cuz they are really screwing things up.

We, the people of the planet, have the resources and ability to provide a comfortable and sustainable life for most everybody on the planet.

So why aren’t we?

Why do we have people starving?  Why is anybody living homeless?  Why are people dying from treatable illness?  Why is money always the greatest public concern?

Do we really have to bomb people into the stoneage to be safe?

I'd be willing to bet that if most people had enough to eat and a comfortable place to live, they wouldn't be so interested in taking things away form someone else.

Why do some people get fifty rooms all to themselves while someone else is living in a card board box?

If we live in a free market economy, why are we subsidizing any business?  What, exactly, happened to survival of the fittest?  How did we get anything that's too big to fail in the first place?

It's time for average people around the world to wake up and start demanding answers.

It's time to demand to be allowed back stage.