In Truth -- Thinking About Ebola

Some think I am simply an alarmist or just a negative person.  Truly, I do not want to be but I am not one who denies or does not look at truth, no matter how unpleasant because in truth, science is our superior brain's armor against extinction.

I posed a thought I had about Ebola (and other viruses like D68) to a cousin of mine who is a doctor and a Stanford Medical School graduate.  I value his opinion when I try to evaluate lots of positions I take because he is so well read and most especially, on medical issues, because it is his area of expertise.

I ran by him things I was thinking about and asked if I was correct in an opinion about the Ebola virus I wanted to write.  He said what I said is well known and that I should publish it.  So I did below:

What I fear is not only Ebola but is the fact that every living thing is geared for survival and viruses are no exception.  What Ebola could do and what even AIDS does is show viruses' uncanny ability to mutate.  It provides living proof of evolutionary truth and the biological imperative of all living things -- man and viruses alike – to survive by any means necessary.

Unable to be seen with the naked eye aids the virus's amazing ability to survive sometimes too through mutation and to find a host – us – who have no immunity to it.  It is the mutation of these viruses into something easier to transmit that is the possibility which chills one’s soul.  Is D68 simply a mutation of the polio virus?  We do not know yet.  In the case of Ebola what I have read and what the CDC does not always say in public is they worry about its mutation. 

So far Ebola is NOT easily caught.  So far like AIDS it is spread only through contact with bodily fluids of an infected patient.  Unlike AIDS, though, one is only allegedly contagious when symptoms appear.  The biggest problem with AIDS is its ability to mutate rendering treatments and especially vaccines improbable if not impossible to develop.

That reality is especially worrisome. If Ebola did morph into another virus like it which could be easily spread through a cough, a sneeze or touching the button of an elevator then it would pose a societal existential threat.  It is then and only then that we are looking at a pandemic that could kill millions.  In addition, when our medical support system are coming down with the disease and dying who will treat the living sick?"

My cousin labeled it “Pneumoic Ebola” and further said it could "kill millions."

From climate change to infections disease science rules the day.  Those who would deny it do so at not only their peril but ours and not only their children's peril but everyone's children as well.

We must let science and its truth lead the way and then we, who are not science proficient, should scrupulously follow what its experts say we should do.  Science and the truth it brings is the only truth that, in truth, can set us free!

The ONLY science deniers are Republicans and it is why we must elect Democrats, the believers in science, to become our leaders.  It is true in the governor's office, it is true in the national Congress and it is true in the Presidency as well.  DEMOCRATS GET OUT THE VOTE.  Elect Martha Coakley governor no matter how many phoney ads Baker has trying to trick Democratic Massachusetts voters into voting for him, a Republican.  DO NOT DO THAT.  His party is the party of ANTI SCIENCE and ANTI CHOICE whether he says he individually is not.  When push to shove he will toe the Party line because the money sits there! 

Pass this to anyone you like!

Exceptional Nation -- Traitorous Jurists

Headline: Supreme Court To Hear Another Case On Housing Bias

 

“WASHINGTON (AP) — For the third time in recent years, the Supreme Court will consider taking away a powerful legal tactic the Obama administration and others have used to combat housing discrimination.”

See news article here or the link below my opinion.

The five so called "conservative" charlatans on the Supreme Court in the area of civil rights are eviscerating one by one advances gained over centuries for African Americans and other persons of color.  This part of the Court has no conscience, no empathy and no humanity if they are capable of doing such things.

I can fathom -- sort of -- the four “conservative” white men of privilege on that court eviscerating minority rights but Clarence Thomas, the resident conservative token H.W. Bush black man is one of the most intellectually bankrupt and morally corrupt hypocrites in robes to grace the Court. This is a black man who if our national culture had not advanced in the area of civil rights through progressive changers and liberal justices he would not be wearing the robes he does.  He would be eating at segregated lunch counters, he could not even go to the bathroom if there were not a "colored" one available nor could he go to a movie and sit anywhere he chose.  He surely never could have gone to the school of his choice without affirmative action and he never could have married the white woman he did.  This hypocrite votes the way he does and eviscerates minority rights saying nothing from the bench during argument when those (or really any cases) come before the court.

Clarence Thomas could never have led the life he did without justices who had the decency to decide in favor of policies for which progressives advocated.  Civil rights workers, progressive men and women of all stripes fought and died for the right of all of us to achieve our pursuit of happiness.

Clarence Thomas should remember Loving v. Virginia because that case gave all in this nation the right to marry whom they choose irrespective of race where in some states it was illegal to do so.  Clarence Thomas owes his life to the brave civil rights workers, lawyers, and protesters-in-the-streets who received bricks, bats and water hoses to their person so he and everyone else could have the advantages he has had.

The evisceration of what should be settled civil rights law by these "conservative," as FDR called his own nemesis court, "old men" is disgusting in extremis.

Justices Thomas, Scalia, Alito, most times Roberts and sometimes Kennedy are traitors to those things that truly make an exceptional nation!

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/02/supreme-court-housing-bias_n_5920484.html

YET ANOTHER REASON WHY DEMOCRATS SHOULD GET DEMOCRATS AND OTHERS TO VOTE DEMOCRAT ON NOVEMBER 4, 2014.

It's the technology, stupid --- NOT!

Mr. Duncan, the Ebola patient at Texas Presbyterian Hospital presented TWICE there with flu like symptoms and was sent home once with a course of antibiotics (useless for viruses and dispensed wily nily.)  He was admitted two days later with more severe symptoms, giving him plenty of time to interact with the population. Now 100 people who came into contact with him either directly or indirectly, including children, are being tracked and/or quarantined.

The blame, now, is being taken off hospital medical personnel and is being placed on a  technology glitch? Hospital big wigs are saying the computerized software did not share the TRAVEL part of the information so the treating physicians did not see it and did not know he traveled to Liberia.  Now that is kind of an important question concerning Ebola one would think?!  West Africa, including Liberia, is where over 3000 people have died from it!

Blame it on technology when you want to absolve humans of fault. A hugely horrible virus is out there in west Africa and medical personnel all over the world are informed of it. Travel, beyond almost ANY of the other questions one could ask a presenting patient, is one of the MOST IMPORTANT questions that should be asked everywhere.  Maybe the doctors there or someone should have asked that vital question and made sure it was shared or if not ask why it was not. 

Human beings are the ones who program these computers and human beings are the ones who see the data. Do you think one just ONE doctor or medical personnel could have asked an important question when they saw Mr. Duncan the first time and make sure that important information was shared?  Uh, let's see, Mr. Duncan, have you traveled to west Africa?  Easy question, right? Couldn't someone see they were NOT getting the most important data -- TRAVEL -- imparted to them then kick someone's posterior and say hey you know what why am I not getting travel info to help make my diagnosis of Mr. Duncan?

NO ONE RECOGNIZED the lack of travel information TO BE IMPORTANT? Oh, yeah Rick Perry, governor of Texas, let's see how you can blame it on Obamacare or how about blaming it on YOU who will not extend the Medicaid portion of Obamacare so people are not forced to use the ER for their primary care? 

Democrats, get out your thinking caps and see why the head of the State of Texas, Governor Perry, his cronies and his Board of Health staff were not monitoring hospitals and the questions they ask of patients because it was known it was just a matter of time before a case of Ebola would happen here and whether a patient traveled to west Africa or not is a slightly important question to ask and then to share, doncha think?!!

EBOLA IN THE US IS IN TEXAS -- WHY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS GOING TO LOSE.  GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE AND DO NOT LET THESE KNOW NOTHINGS WITHIN AN INCH OF HIGH OFFICE AND POLITICAL POWER!

The HATCHET MOMENT!!!

My faith is being restored!!  Martha still has the lead but it is very close.  She came out fighting Baker's eye popping paid for by the Republican party's scurrilous, mendacious and mean attack against Martha Coakley's efforts in prosecuting child abuse cases.  He downright lied.  So what else is new in Republican land? That is what Republicans do ... they LIE ALL THE TIME.  Martha was was by joined by Deborah Eappen mother of Mathew Eappen who died while in Louise Woodward's care and she supports Martha whole heartedly and calls her one of the most ardent fighters against child abuse and for children that Massachusetts has seen and she should know as Martha Coakley was front and center on the Woodward case and its prosecution!

I call this the "hatchet moment." I named it after the know nothing Scott Brown who accused the great Elizabeth Warren (who of course supports Martha Coakley) about Warren's Indian heritage by slurring her and his cronies waxing into a RACIST Indian war hoop chant.  Scott Brown lost the election for Senate and I believe it was at that moment he blew it and even more so because Warren was light years better than Brown. 

Likewise Martha Coakley is LIGHT YEARS better and more qualified than Baker.  Baker and his Republican cronies said the WRONG THING at the worst possible time.  It is going to be his downfall.  He BLEW IT!! So, GET OUT THE VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS EVERYWHERE, WORK FOR AND ELECT MARTHA COAKLEY THE NEXT GOVERNOR OF THIS FABULOUS STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS and send Baker packing like we did Scott the know nothing Brown!!!!

The article is in the Globe is pasted below send this email to anyone you choose especially Democrats everywhere to GET OUT THE VOTE! Those who are out of state get out to vote -- and do not step on your own toes.   VOTE the ONLY party that is for the 98%, the Democratic Party!

Coakley ‘disgusted’ by TV ad, calls on Baker to condemn it

By Jim O’Sullivan

 | Globe Staff   October 02, 2014

Josh Reynolds for The Boston Globe

Martha Coakley was joined at a press conference by Deborah Eapen (left), mother of Matthew Eapen, who died while in the care of au pair Louise Woodward, and state Rep. Jim O'Day (right).

SOMERVILLE -- A visibly angry Martha Coakley on Thursday demanded that Republican rival Charlie Baker condemn an outside group’s television advertisement that accuses the Democratic attorney general of not doing enough to protect children.

Coakley, who at one point choked up discussing her work on behalf of an abused youngster, called on Baker to seek the removal of the advertisement, which is paid for in part by the Republican Governors Association. The ad blames Coakley for failures in the state Department of Children and Families, or DCF, which resulted in the deaths and abuse of children.

“That is absolutely over the top, it’s outrageous, and I am disgusted by it,” said Coakley, who was flanked at her Somerville campaign headquarters by Debbie Eappen, the mother of Matthew Eappen, the 8-month-old who died in the care of his nanny, Louise Woodward, in 1997. Coakley prosecuted the case against Woodward.

She was also joined today by Democratic attorney general candidate Maura Healey, a former Coakley aide.

Coakley accused Republicans of “using child abuse as a political football.”

In response, Baker’s campaign did not directly address whether they would ask for the ad to be removed. Spokesman Tim Buckley said in an e-mail that Coakley “has yet to explain to voters her decision to fight child protection advocates seeking to reform a broken DCF that has placed the Commonwealth’s defenseless children in harm’s way. While Coakley defended the embattled agency and refused to call for the commissioner’s resignation,” he wrote, “Charlie Baker proposed a detailed plan to immediately fix the broken agency.”

Polls show Coakley and Baker essentially tied in the race for governor, with less than five weeks remaining before the Nov. 4 election.

Earlier in the campaign, Coakley had called on Baker to sign a pact designed to limit outside advertising, which Baker declined. Asked Thursday whether she would insist that anti-Baker super PAC ads funded by her allies be removed, Coakley demurred.

An aide later said that Coakley was not asking for Baker to call for the removal of other GOP super PAC ads, just the one discussing child abuse.

Vehemently VACCINATE

I am sure most of you know and I am pasting a link below about the news story that Children's Hospital in Boston has received four children exhibiting polio-like symptoms similar to ones seen in Colorado.  Polio-like symptoms for those of you who are unfamiliar with the polio virus itself means paralysis usually bipedal in both limbs but can be all limbs.  This paralysis often does NOT improve so one is left with polio's significant orthopedic and other consequences throughout ones life of a virus that is initially neurologically based attacking cells in the spinal cord and killing them. 

The virus seen now is an enterovirus labeled D68.  Polio, too, is an enterovirus that means that it is ingested at first and if it breaks through to the blood stream it can cause paralysis and even in rare cases death.  How close to polio is to D68 I do not know and neither does the medical community yet.  A non-medical suspicion I hold (I am not a medical expert) is that viruses evolutionarily mutate and wonder if D68 had done that from polio but this is not based on any medical fact.  It is simply educated questioning by me.

I know that there are some who do not realize the devastating effects of polio and are adverse to vaccination.  The ONLY treatment for polio is prevention through vaccination.  Vaccination SHOULD be mandated by law if one is to enter their child in school so a permanent herd immunity can develop.  Children are most at risk but adults are too.  I do not know if it is mandated in Massachusetts.  My opinion is that ALL vaccinations available to humans should be given and/or taken even by adults. There is, as far as I know, absolutely no connection between vaccination and a disease such as autism.  That is a false connection and, in my opinion, a morally indefensible one.

You will do your child NO favors by not immunizing them and you will do our nation at large no favors either.  In my opinion, it is criminal not to vaccinate and I am living proof of why I vehemently hold this view.  Polio paralysis is a life-long significantly life-altering disease that requires active attention always.  It is disfiguring and sometimes painful, it is significantly disabling, it is psychologically difficult, it is expensive and its consequences later in life are profound.

I do not know where D68 will lead and if a vaccination can be perfected for it but the one fail-safe preventative is, of course, thoroughly hand washing MANY times throughout the day for at least 30 seconds or the time it takes to sing "Happy Birthday" especially after doing those excretory functions all humans must do to survive and if you are cooking and/or serving food.  And I might add do not enter the population if one is sick.  If you have to sneeze do so in your arm and try not to touch your eyes or your face.

I am a vehement vaccination advocate and have many personal reasons why I am.

The link is here or below

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/09/30/boston-childrens-hospital-treating-patients-with-polio-like-symptoms/

Transparent

Natalie Rosen

16 mins ·

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3502262/

Transparent (TV Series 2014– )

Created by Jill Soloway. With Jeffrey Tambor, Gaby Hoffmann, Amy Landecker, Jay Duplass. An LA family with serious boundary issues have their past and future unravel when a dramatic admission causes everyone's secrets to spill out.

I have not seen this yet but Now With Alex Wagner the WONDERFUL afternoon commentator on MSNBC had Jeffrey Tambor the lead actor on for an interview. She called this series magnificent and and the actor brilliant. For the little I've seen in clips plus the interview of this wonderful actor this is I think a must see. I believe it is on a new thing for Amazon called Amazon Prime unfortunately I do not have it but at some point I HOPE Netflix will maybe or I will get it as a rental on DVD.

Write a comment...

Suicide Prevention

I am a poll watcher because I am a fervent believer in science and the statistical math from which all polls spring even though my own abilities in math fall into the stratosphere of negative numbers.  Polls, math, and science often do not agree, however, and so the question arises again who does one trust?

Nate Silver has been my guru of pollsters for many reasons mostly because he was one to get the 2012 prediction of the re-election of the president correct and predicted Ohio for the president. 

I also looked to Silver because I found his predictions then before the election of 2012 comforting as Rove and his band of merry immorals danced a frenzy around Fox News computerized Fox election central calculation room desperately trying to find a result that declared a pounding victory for his boy Romney. The only pounding that Faux Fox News gave the romping Rove was that which the president delivered to him.  Yes, I was giddy that night watching Republican racists wring their hands trying to figure out what oh what could they do to gain the minority vote.  Republican is an oxymoronic word that connotes the opposite of egalitarian politics.  Republicans trying to gain the minority vote is like the Ku Klux Klan trying to make a kosher meal.

Mid-term election November 2014 finds me in a worrisome stew.  The pollsters, almost all of them, EXCEPT Sam Wang of Princeton are predicting a Republican takeover of the Senate.

Republican takeover of anything is impossible for me to digest but Republican takeover of the Senate makes me, well,  suicidal.  How ANYONE on planet earth who is not part of the 1% megga wealthy can bring themselves to vote Republican I will never, if I lived to be 110, understand.  The explanation as I see it is white racism on steroids.  Even though the president is not on the ballot white racists are voting for Republicans because they loathe a black man in the oh- so-historically-white house.

Take pity on me and work your posteriors off for a Democratic victory across the nation to prevent a suicide.  Just kidding -- maybe.  Send this to anyone you choose especially minorities and women to get them to vote Democrat and find ways to vote even IF the rancid Republicans try their damnedest to rob us of the vote.  They cannot if you play by the rules and then show up November 4, 2014.

Call, write, smoke signal, contribute do ANYTHING you can to prevent a Republican takeover of the Senate.  We could lose EVERYTHING we have gained ... EVERYTHING.  I and we cannot take a Republican victory.  Republicans RUIN a nation and then rely on Democrats to save us from drowning.  PLEASE for my sanity crush Republicans in November. Prove Sam Wang right and save a life!

It's a Girl!!

Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, tweeted early Saturday morning that she had given birth to a baby girl named Charlotte.  A plethora of congratulations are pouring in on blogs one of which, of course, is mine.  Carrying one's genes on to the next generation is, for most, a celebratory event even if those genes one day get lost in an ocean of DNA.

It is that part of carrying on one's genetic heritage to the next generation for those of us who do not have children -- at least for me -- is the part I miss. Always contemplative about such things I think most know life and raising a child in it is not all roses and daffodils.

As I watched "The Roosevelt's: An Intimate Portrait," a Ken Burns's documentary Franklin Roosevelt, the future 4-term president, was a most loved and privileged only child. But his birth into this patrician family of wealth and privilege did not shield him from life's vicissitudinous onslaughts. Tragedy struck the gifted man upon whom fate, it seemed, always had shown and devastated his once beautiful body. Polio in the extreme permanently paralyzed both his legs. I commiserated with the life's burden he was forced to bear in the prime of his life, interrupting its trajectory as it placed a Herculean detour in his hoped-for road to the presidency. 

I wish Chelsea, her husband and the child's famous grandparents well and hope the she grows up smart, healthy and strong as even privilege carries no guarantees. Franklin Roosevelt made his lemonade out of the sour-lemon fate he was dealt.

But in the brilliant film "Ordinary People" Beth, the mother of a beloved son who was killed in a boating accident cries to her brother on a golf course of wealth when he tells her to be happy. She says to him:

"Happy? Ward you tell me what's happy? But first you better make sure your kids are safe. That none of them have fallen out of a tree, or been hit by a car, or drowned in that pool you're so proud of! Then you come to me and tell me how to be happy!"

I love that scene, for which Mary Tyler Moore should have gotten best actress because it snaps us into reality that for some life does not always bring a festive New Year's Eve joy but a long difficult journey through a mountain of uncertainly.  I wish for Chelsea's child the ability to plod on through the inevitable bramble seeking the light and the gift we are given for a very short time to see that light and all the beauty that shines through.

The Coffee Cup Salute

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO KNOW EXACTLY WHY REPUBLICANS CAN NEVER EVER BE ELECTED TO ANYTHING NOT EVEN DOG CATCHER.  CONSERVATIVES IN THEIR OWN DISGUSTING FASHION BY THE FOX NEWS CONVEYOR BELT WANTED TO GET A BELT IN AGAINST GUESS WHO?  YES, THE PRESIDENT FOR HIS SO CALLED "COFFEE CUP SALUTE."   JOHN STEWART GAVE IT RIGHT BACK TO THEM IN TRIPLICATE.  WATCH AND ENJOY AND WHILE YOU ARE AT IT DO WHATEVER YOU MUST DO SO THAT THESE UTTER IMBECILIC, RACIST JERKS NEVER BE ALLOWED TO WALK UP THE CAPITOL STEPS OR THROUGH THE WHITE HOUSE DOOR!!!


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/26/1332511/-Jon-Stewart-slams-Fox-News-Hannity-on-Obama-s-coffee-cup-salute-critique#

Derek Jeter Delivers

I am a Red Sox fan from my toes to my brain but this man just captured me. Derek Jeter, as Brian Williams said on the evening news last night, will walk into the Hall of Fame. I haven't read about this game winning at bat last night, Jeter's last at Yankee Stadium after a storied career because I want to see it on TV today.

This veteran Yankee great of all greats in league with Ruth, Gehrig, and DiMaggio ends his baseball career in storybook fashion. Even I, with Red Sox in my blood, love him. In these days of sports and world corruption he shines like an angel -- a principled, man. I am crying just reading the first paragraph about the game last evening.  I am sure I will be a puddle of tears when I see it on TV this morning.

Good for you Derek Jeter for giving the nation your best and for giving it a much needed moment about which to cheer for a good and honorable man. What a breath of fresh air he is amid all the bickering, anger and violence of the nation and the world.

He never married because he felt he could not give a family and children the necessary attention his big career demanded.  Even that is the soul of a great man.  He wants to marry and have a family now and I suspect he will have no trouble finding one.  The woman who shares your life, Derek Jeter, will be a lucky one. Good luck to you. This Red Sox fan says thank you very much for delivering the wining run of your final game in the House that Ruth Built.  It is a symbolic winning moment of your entire winning life!!

EXACTLY what is needed!!

http://www.npr.org/2014/09/25/351277631/prominent-muslim-sheikh-issues-fatwa-against-isis-violence?sc=17&f=1001&utm_source=iosnewsapp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=app

Prominent Muslim Sheik Issues Fatwa Against ISIS Violence

Sheik Abdullah bin Bayyah is considered one of the most influential Muslims in the world. As a respected scholar, he has issued edicts to explain why groups...

npr.org|By Dina Temple-Raston

The ISIS Crisis -- A Decision

Listening to the president's persuasive eloquence at the UN, knowing that now we have Arab allies among others in the armed coalition, and knowing this president thinks things out scrupulously I am comfortable in my support for his decision to act against ISIS and its affiliates.

The reports today from smuggled out film of the kind of humanity (if one wants to call it humanity) that ISIS, et al is I am sickened by their nauseating brutality and the monstrosity of their faux religious ideological belief if you want to call it religious belief.  Islam surely is not about that.

Another French tourist hiking in Algeria was captured by the ISIS arm of death, promptly decapitated posting the decapitation along with other unspeakable behavior after the beheading on the Internet -- the fourth beheading barbarism in a short period of time.  The other atrocities ISIS & Co. commit are enumerable.  Who could allow these monsters born from the depths of a swamp to gain the foothold they are poised to gain if not stopped?

Covering up women Taliban style is not enough for ISIS.  Women in an ISIS world would be covered in black from head to toe with NOTHING -- and I do mean NOTHING not even an eyebrow -- showing.  The outrage at these outrageous sects leads me to conclude what the president has ordered is correct.  ISIS, Inc. cannot be allowed to commit Medieval madness in the extreme.

I answered my question.  Whom do I trust?  I trust this president and the US military with Arab and other support in its attempts to rid the world of this savage and rapacious scourge no matter how long it takes. 

We can ask nothing more of our gigantic power and expect nothing less.  The US military is the only thing that stands between you and a new Dark Age!

 We naturally need to elect Democrats across the nation so the brilliance of this president can be enhanced over the next two years.  Think about what could be done and the legacy he would leave.  SIGN UP DEMOCRATS ACROSS THE NATION AND BRING THEM TO THE POLLS NO MATTER WHAT THE REPUBLICAN OBSTRUCTIONIST BRUTALITY DOES TO PREVENT IT.  DO NOT LET THEM.  OVERTHROW THROUGH OUR EXAMPLE OF THE ELECTORAL PROCESS THIS REPUBLICAN NIGHTMARE AND LET THE PRESIDENT LEAD FOR THE BETTERMENT OF US, THE 98%!

Who Do You Trust?

There was a game show hosted by Johnny Carson in the early sixties called "Who Do You Trust?" (Should have been whom but I digress.)  In our time as a rationale for war who you trust is not a game show. 

I do not like war as it tends to kill lots of human beings many innocent and so I was initially against an air strike within Syria. I am still troubled by it not because the bestial behavior of ISIS, a brutally warped monstrosity, does not warrant elimination but because I simply do not know who is telling me the truth within the maze of anarchistic and religious conflict in the explosive Middle East of which this nation has been an integral and in 2002 an offending part.  Is ISIS an existential threat to the west?  Truly, is it?

The lies spun for war in this nation have been many.  I will not enumerate them now but they surely include Bush's uber lie of WMD in Iraq creating the current never-ending explosions in that neck of the woods. Some say our historical memory is short and filled with historical fluff told by the winners.

THIS time the rationales for Fear, Inc, are ISIS, ISIL and the Khorasan Group (sounds like an insurance company.)  The war may and perhaps will, as the president said, go on indefinitely.  The true dilemma is whom can I trust?

Our commander-in-chief has a brain and is surprisingly this time finding allied support from a variety of Arab states who each have their own agenda.  The words of war protestors "no more war" are like dust in the wind.  They disappear into the cacophonous sound of the media stratosphere. The media talking heads blather on with few complex points made in the space of five minutes experts are given for each topic.  Can they help it if our McDonald's nation wants news in the space of time it takes to cook a hamburger and has no patience for complexity?  If points are made by "experts" the experts often get paid handsomely as mouthpieces for one defense industry or another which is not transparent. 

Who can I trust?  I suspect I will never know so, yet again, I acquiesce to war.  In that neck of the chaotic woods filled with many who hate this nation rightfully or wrongfully can one take the chance that this president is wrong or worse lying? 

Whether the nations of the Middle East survive and build democratic states is of no concern to me.  BUT what is of concern to me is that this nation not suffer another attack and with it the possibility of nuclear peril. 

At least for now (I reserve the right to change my opinion) I will take the words of our president as truth and support him because our very lives and this nation's existence depend upon his not lying to us. 

Whom do I trust?  I still do not really know do you?

A Beautiful Quote

I have completed viewing two episodes of another Ken Burns Masterpiece -- "The Roosevelts: An Intimate History."  Teddy Roosevelt the early 20th century president has been the focus.

There are some great men and women who drop by our home for a visit, knock on the door and, while not perfect men or women, do some perfect things which help us all.  Teddy Roosevelt, I believe, was such a man -- a rough rider, a bull moose who had a violence in temperament to be sure but also possessed a softness of soul. 

He spoke the following words I thought to share because they are so poetically beautiful and profound in context.  They encapsulate a part of who he was:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic" delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910

My Letter/Call to the Secret Service

I am UTTERLY APPALLED, angry and completely incredulous about the rancid Secret Service security breach of the presidential residence and I made my feelings known by calling the Secret Service which is exactly what Americans should do if they have strong feelings about something.  Do NOT keep it quiet make your voices heard.  I am sickened by this failure of the Secret Service to guard OUR  president's residence. 

This president has received more angry threats, more opposition, more Congressional Republican intransigence, more Fox News lies and bile than any president in US history.  There are those evil forces in this nation especially Republican and Tea Bag forces that want this president to fail WE MUST NOT LET THESE UGLY FORCES WIN.  We must step up to the plate and tell the Secrete Service in no uncertain terms that THEY CANNOT FAIL not even once to protect the president.

Why was the door to his residence not locked?  Why was this insane man with a knife even allowed on the grounds of the White House?  I give up my rights to the People's House when the president's security is at risk.  HE COMES FIRST, HIS SECURITY COMES FIRST and the SECURITY OF HIS FAMILY comes first. 

Secret Service GET YOUR organization in ORDER.  This is serous business and the lives of many people here and around the world are at stake. Revamp your processes.  I do not care what you do but PROTECT THIS PRESIDENT 100% and DO NOT FAIL!  Shame on you.  I am stunned and sickened by this lack of security.  GET YOUR ACT IN ORDER and do your job!

WHY YET AGAIN REPUBLICAN CONTROL OF ANYTHING IS OUT OF THE QUESTION.  GET DEMOCRATS REGISTERED AND TO THE POLLS ON NOVEMBER 4, 2014!

Democracy Now interview--Naomi Klein a must see

EXCELLENT interview by Amy Goodman (Democracy Now) of Naomi Klein.  You do not have to take my word that Naomi Klein is brilliant and spot on correct with respect our climate change catastrophe.  See the interview of her below and a link to her book "This Changes Everything Capitalism v. The Climate" and .... then ACT!

here or http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2014/9/18/naomi_klein_on_motherhood_geoengineering_climate

Her book "This Changes Everything Capitalism Vs. The Climate" is at the link below or here.


http://www.naomiklein.org/main

The Roosevelts--An Intimate History

ANOTHER REASON TO GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE.  KEEP FDR ALIVE. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS THE ONLY VEHICLE FOR THAT.  SIGN UP TO VOTE ALL MINORITIES, AFRICAN AMERICANS, HISPANICS, WOMEN, THE YOUNG, THE DISABLED, THE ELDERLY AND ALL THOSE YEARNING FOR JUSTICE.  VOTE WHETHER REPUBLICANS TRY TO OBSTRUCT YOU FROM ENJOYING YOUR BASIC FREEDOM OR NOT--THE RIGHT TO VOTE.  PASS THIS AROUND TO ANY YOU CHOOSE!

"The Roosevelts--An Intimate History" is FABULOUS PBS programming by Ken Burns.  Again and again Ken Burns staggers me with his brilliant documentarian efforts from "Baseball" to "The Civil War" and to now to "The Roosevelts--An Intimate History." How much genius can exist in one man?   (See links to info below.)

I ignore my boycott of certain PBS programming which I see may not be influenced by the Koch Brothers. I continue to boycott PBS by not contributing money and not viewing that which I know is influenced by Koch's, in my view, hostile takeover of PBS and NOT polluted by Koch billionaire right wing extremist money. I'm waiting for PBS to air "Citizen Koch" which, of course, was squelched.  Maybe then I will rethink my stand.

Thank you, Ken Burns, for this masterpiece about a family I adore. I make no secrete of loving, especially, FDR. I went to Hyde Park to see his home and his presidential library.  I saw FDR's, Eleanor's and their dog Fala's graves.  I stood there and cried for a nation that once was on a trajectory for helping the 98% but has morphed now into an ugly Republican oligarchic takeover by the 1% richest. Even Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican, wanted a more egalitarian nation and his trust busting emanated from that much to the chagrin of his own Patrician class.

How I long for the leadership of the Roosevelt era. The social conditions were nasty but the leadership reached Olympian Heights. My FDR, whom I never knew except through my parents' eyes, I love him even now. May someone come along as great as he to save our nation from the oligarchic obstructionist Republican reign of terror nightmare of division it is. I keep looking for that leader but do not see him/her ... yet!

See link here or http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-roosevelts

Can't we all just get along?

It is hard in today's Dickensian-like hard times to find some levity.  The only metaphor for our times I could think of was the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz who, when dying as water was splashed on her, said "I'm melting.  I'm melting."  And the world is in fact global climate change melting.

Beyond that sad fact if one looks at a map there is conflict in countries seemingly everywhere.  I have never experienced in my lifetime an entire world at war until a reasonable facsimile of it seems to exist now.  My list does not even mention the soon-to-be-vote of Scottish secession and maybe even a revolt in Spain.

"What a world, what a world" said the wicked witch as she was melting in the Land of Oz.  What a world, indeed!

Can't we all just get along?  Did Oz's Dorothy or Glenda the Good Witch say that?  No, I think I did!

Thanks to "Wars in the World" here or at the link below are the hotspots:

It lists the following plus other in depth enumerations which I will not, of course, include:

By continent: 

Africa

Hot Spots: Central African Republic (civil war), Democratic Republic of Congo (war against rebel groups), Egypt (popular uprising against Government), Mali (war against tuareg and Islamic militants), Nigeria (war against Islamic militants), Somalia (war against Islamic militants), Sudan (war against rebel groups), South Sudan (civil war)

ASIA

Afghanistan (war against Islamic militants), Burma-Myanmar (war against rebel groups), Pakistan (war against Islamic militants), Philippines (war against Islamic militants), Thailand (coup d’etat by army May 2014)

EUROPE

Chechnya (war against Islamic militants), Dagestan (war against Islamic militants), Ukraine (Secession of self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic)

MIDDLE EAST MAYHEM

Hot Spots: Iraq (war against Islamic State Islamic militants), Israel (war in Gaza Strip), Syria (civil war), Yemen (war against and between Islamic militants) and Somalia.

Not to be forgotten:  The US led coalition to bomb ISIS/ISIL in Iraq and Syria -- GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!  And then what?

 AMERICAS

(5 Countries and 25 between drug cartels, militias-guerrillas, separatist groups and anarchic groups involved)

Hot Spots: Colombia (war against rebel groups), Mexico (war against narcotraffic groups)

How important is a vote for Democrats?   VERY.  Republicans never met a war they did not love or an issue of war fear it did not want to promote!  GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE in November 4, 2014 STOP REPUBLICON OBSTRUCTIONISM TO OUR BASIC DEMOCRATIC  RIGHT -- THE RIGHT TO VOTE!!!

http://www.warsintheworld.com/?page=static1258254223

LION KISSES!!!

 On a HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY note, the video below is GORGEOUS. How much do I love our four legged beauties --- A LOT. Save our lovely environment vote REPUGLICRATS OUT of office!


here or


http://www.vitality101.com/Fun/lion-kisses-rescuer

Stream of conscious--GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE:

How anyone on this planet can vote for the RepublCON Party I will NEVER on planet earth know. These 1%ers have those Baggers who support them utterly, totally significantly DUPED.

Send this around if you want. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE urge African Americans ALL OVER THE NATION to sign up to vote no matter how many rotten obstacles these VILE obstructionist Republicrats put in their way. IMPORTANTLY HISPANICS MUST, MUST, MUST, MUST get out to vote. Immigration reform will come later when the president can do it IF we can finally get a majority in both houses. Democrats HAVE the majority of the populous but in the mid terms some in the electorate, mind explosive to me, do not think it important to vote. That is a recipe for disaster.

DO WHAT YOU CAN BUT GET OUR DEMOCRATIC VOTERS ALONG WITH INDEPENDENTS WHO MIGHT VOTE DEMOCRATIC OUT TO VOTE: GET HISPANICS, AFRICAN AMERICANS, WOMEN, THE YOUNG, THE ELDERLY WHO DEPEND ON SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE, HEALTHCARE AND ALL THOSE WHO ARE NOT MEMBERS OF THE 1% RICHEST WHO ARE MAKING A HOSTILE TAKEOVER OUT TO REGISTER AND VOTE. DEMOCRATS MUST GET OUT THE VOTE. YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT A REPUBLICAN HOUSE AND A REPUBLICAN SENATE WILL DO TO US AND TO OUR PRESIDENT. HE WILL FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES BE DONE. DO NOT LET THAT HAPPEN. A PRESIDENT WITH CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORT WOULD MAKE THIS COUNTRY THRIVE.

TRICKLE-DOWN ECONOMICS IS REALLY TRICKLE UP TO THE 1%; UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATIONCREATES SPENDING WHICH CREATES JOBS AS DOES UPPING THE MINIMUM WAGE AS DOES INFRASTRUCTURE REPAIR AND ON AND ON TO DO WHAT GOVERNMENT AND ONLY GOVERNMENT CAN DO. DEMOCRATS KNOW THIS!

OUR COUNTRY WILL DIE UNDER A HOSTILE REPUBLICAN TAKEOVER AND WE THE MAJORITY 98% WILL DIE WITH IT! YOU, YOUR CHILDREN AND FUTURE GENERATIONS DESERVE BETTER. CONTRIBUTE AND SIGN UP DEMOCRATS AND GET THEM OUT TO VOTE!

Can't Get Fooled Again

After 9/11 I was angry as most here were.  Although a lifelong anti-war liberal Democrat I took the attack by Al Qaeda and the horrific heap of metal and pile of bodies it left personally as if I, too, had lost a loved one in the attack.  It was exactly what Al Qaeda wanted us to feel -- anger.  My fury like so many others could not be quelled.

When W. Bush stood on the fresh pile of 9/11 rubble in New York and said

"I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!"

a cheer ran through me as if, since Vietnam, I never protested a war at all.  I wanted revenge and watched the explosions from my TV at work set up for that express purpose so that we could watch the US bomb Sadam Hussein and Iraq into oblivion.  It was as if I were watching a July 4th fireworks display.  No dead bodies from the bombing, of course, were shown but simply a night sky beautifully lit up like Francis Scott Key was sitting at Ft. McHenry writing the words to the Star Spangled Banner, our national Overture, written about our flag from afar during the 1812 War and British invasion.

We now know that the Bush/Cheney administration and all of its cronies took us to a hellish 13 year hardly short Iraq War based on lies. Sadam Hussein hated Al Qaeda which was not even in Iraq until AFTER the US invasion.  There were no WMD, the trumped-up lie that gave the necessary rationale for war the US could peddle to the UN.  We were NOT greeted as the liberators the Cons said we would be. 

The Cons conned us into a 5000+ American dead war because no one -- not the people, not the Congress, and surely not the media -- thought critically to ask the critical questions about the trillion buck war which was supposed to pay for itself but still in religious war form rages.  ISIS, the more brutal Al Qaeda offshoot, never there before is there now, and has become the latest rationale for war and perceived-by-us threat as it blasts its way toward a territorial huge Islamic caliphate. 

Again, we are being asked by our previously anti-war president to go back into a war we just left by first sending more planes to bomb and more advisers to advise failed states.  The only thing sure is more of us will die.

Are we not asking the hard questions again?  It seems not as the desire to bomb is now supported by 67% of the US population.  Sometimes there is no answer that will correct a problem. The cancer the president describes correctly is the nature of ISIS and it is exactly that -- a religious century’s long cancerous dispute that continues in a part of an Arab Spring world which looks nothing like spring and more like eternal war that will continue generationally.

Like some cancers sometimes one must face facts no matter how much one "fights" it will ultimately return.  And so it will be with ISIS; no matter how many are killed more will take their place.  Americans with their white hat black hat world view cannot understand that it is not as simple as kill the bad guys. The “bad guys" always return and worse the hats the Arabs see us wearing are colored black and used as proof the west wants to defeat Islam their sacred creed.  We cannot understand that because we are fed our own propaganda from a corporate media that slants its news to feed its hungry advertisers to get us to watch.

I am VERY skeptical of it all. I have been third degree burned once angered after 9/11 because I accepted W. Bush's horrific Iraq war based on lies. Now should I get burned again because explosive religious war bombasts decide to do what comes naturally to them and behead two journalists who took a huge reporting risk going to a tinderbox morass to report on a group that propagandizes them by killing them horrifically and placing it on YouTube?

America should think well on what it does before it becomes involved in an eternal generational conflict which will kill our own and sap whatever resources we have left. 

The Middle East we KNOW is about oil, the fuel of life.  We have needed desperately to get off it as an addict hooked on heroin needs to get clean.  Oil kills not only us in war but pollutes our earth we need to live destroying it through climate change and filth.  Alternative sources of energy must be developed quickly and oil ultimately ditched to get the Middle East heroin monkey off our backs.

Before we begin on our latest war venture as George Bush so in-eloquently put it:

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

For once I agree!

Moulton the Magnificent

Those who do not care about Massachusetts politics you can ignore this but mark my words -- as either being out on Planet Pluto or presciently correct.  You will have to wait until 2020 to see if I am.  I will be, well who the heck knows where I'll be, but I will say this anyway.

I know Seth Moulton is not even in my district.  I don't care I am giving a shout out to this man whom I never even gave a first thought never mind a second to.  He did something big AND he is a fabulous candidate for the 6th District of Mass. He unseated a nearly two decades Congressman Tierney from the 6th.  This is why I love politics especially when someone comes from out of nowhere to win.  (Republican rhymes with town, of course, an exception!)  Seth Moulton did just that and he is a Democrat.

Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself but I will say it anyway.  This man is going places.  That district is his I predict for as long as he wants it.  I see a halo of Jack Kennedy II above his head.  Seth Moulton is a former Marine, a Philips Academy alum and Harvard grad to boot with a major in physics and -- excuse the looksist comment -- he is stunning.  Am I dreaming?  This is why I love Massachusetts and its all blue Congress -- Warren and Moulton, et al Nirvana.

Until he proves otherwise, I LOVE THIS GUY and say a big congrats to the 6th District that finally found a worthy man! 

Saving Lives

It is comforting to know there are still honorable people working for what we, as a nation, should want -- humane, ethical good government.  We should accept nothing less.  Through hard work we MUST NOT and will NOT give Republicons the victories they are so assured they will get.

Onward to electing Democrats throughout the land and nationally holding the majority in the US Senate.  How phenomenal too if the miracle of flipping the House Democratic occurred.  Okay so maybe that is a bit much -- NO it isn't.  We deserve the excellence of leadership that in our time exists solely within the Democratic Party, a Party whose platform includes caring about the poor, valuing  science, a Party that is diverse and a Party that cares for those who cannot care for themselves.  It is a Party which will create jobs, infrastructure and a host of other things because of Republican obstructionism we cannot do.

It is honorable to be a liberal, honorable to be progressive and ever-so-honorable to be a Democrat.  Do not falter and do not fail, as the drought stricken California proves science correct. Science is the only method to arrive at truth and is correct more times then it is not. Global climate man-induced climate change is a fact and we know Republicans through their corporate masters want to keep business as usual.  Don't let them!

Elect Democrats across the nation and save lives!

The Laws of Physics

'THE LAWS OF PHYSICS ARE NON-NEGOTIABLE'

THE LAWS OF PHYSICS ARE NON NEGOTIABLE!!!  Click on the link to this story.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/green/

House of Cards -- A Winning Hand

Keven Spacey, Robin Wright and a host of other actors did what I thought was the impossible -- create a series I love more than "Mad Men."  Okay, so the two series are completely different artistic endeavors but I have a yardstick for how I rate the excellence of a film or series no matter which genre into which it falls.  I won't hold you in suspense, my yardstick is how many times I look at my watch.  Through this series the only reason to look at the clock was in hope that the hour did not draw too late so I would have to curtail my viewing.

I am a binge watcher of "House of Cards" and now have some idea even though I do not drink nor have I ever taken drugs of what pull addiction has on one's brain.  I cannot stop watching this series.  It is about Washington and its Machiavellian machinations guaranteed to glue you to the seat even if things political are not your cup of tea.  Perhaps you enjoy playing cards instead.  If so, this series is the most winning hand you will ever play.  I highly recommend it!

Martha Coakley--A Governor who can Win

Someone asked me if there was a Republican in the Massachusetts gubernatorial race whom one could consider. I told her in our time the two Parties are, sadly, diametrically opposed to one another.  It means something now if one is a Democrat or if one is Republican.  There is, therefore, in my opinion, never a good reason to vote Republican because if one votes Republican one is voting for a conservative social agenda and destructive economic policies as well.  If one is Republican one must strictly adhere to the party line.  It means they are against marriage equality, against a woman's right to choose, pro NRA and the expansion of gun owners' rights even when it means the right to carry in a classroom and even in a church.  If one votes Republican one would be voting for a strong religious influence in government and away from the Constitutional Separation of church-state Clause. 

Adding to that, one would be voting science deniers into office, one would be voting for those who want to keep the division of wealth in favor of the 1% by supporting tax law that shrinks the middle class.  If one votes Republican one would be voting for taking an ax to government programs that support the poor, the disabled, and the elderly.  One would be voting for a Party that supports ultimately an end to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as we know it. 

Republicans are against the strict regulation of Wall Street and government oversight of the big banks.  They support trickledown economics which has never worked.  One would vote for a Party that shut down government and is threatening to do that again.  The Republican Party would even vote against raising of the debt ceiling so America could not pay its bills send us into default and the world into chaos.  It is a Party that wasted taxpayer money voting to eradicate the Affordable Health Care Act 57 times offering nothing to take its place.  It is a Party that cares nothing about most of you.

The Republican code words are "small government" but that really means few government programs and oversight agencies except for the military as most Republicans never met a war they did not like.

If one votes or is Republican one sinks or swims on one’s own with no one but no one to help you out in times of trouble in an economic system, mostly Republican-created that has provided plenty of trouble for the middle class with it. 

I want a Democrat in the Governor’s office who will oppose all those aforementioned Republican policies.  I want Martha Coakley as governor because she is an experienced Democrat, she is smart, and she is progressive.  She has proven that many times.  I think she is capable and best of all she is a Democrat who can WIN against the Republican Baker in the general election.  I, therefore, unequivocally and for all those reasons passionately support Martha Coakley for governor of Massachusetts.