Dr. Jekyll, Animal Farm, and No Ordinary Time: I used the titles of the works of classical authors Robert Lewis Stevenson, George Orwell and contemporary historian Doris Kearns Goodwin because their works offer, in content, much of what I thought about the latest civil liberties elimination bill.

Glenn Greenwald embedded video within his opinion “The Real Definition of Terrorism” (See link below). Senator Carl Levin’s comments on the Senate floor offers proof that the president will sign NDAA 1031 Citizen Imprisonment Law in a few days. It also offers proof, according to Greenwald, that “Carl Levin claimed as part of the debate over the detention bill he sponsored with John McCain that it was the Obama White House that demanded removal of language that would have exempted U.S. citizens from military detention without charges”

At first glance I was overwhelmed that a president whom I ardently supported, worked for, wrote endless opinion in support of, and in whom I completely believed, may be the Mr. Hyde of the infamous Dr. Jekyll. It is hard if not impossible to accept and yet, this bill indicates our President, a Harvard Constitutional Law professor, could be just that.

The bill he is about to sign would strip ALL of us of our civil libertarian rights most especially under the Fourth and Sixth Amendments by giving the president UNLIMITED executive power to detain for an unlimited time, without trial, and now even execute a person on the president’s say so alone even IF that person is an American citizen and even IF that person is on US soil. It would eradicate The Fourth and Sixth Amendments to the US Constitution as we know it. This bill is eerily Orwellian in its conception.

Our Fourth and Sixth Constitutional Amendments in order state:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

This soon-to-be latest grievous usurpation of power given by Congress to our president tosses to the wind our Constitutional Bill of Rights mandates. This would be in any other ordinary time a clear infringement and a destruction of the pillars upon which our form of government stands. I agree it would be – in any other ordinary time. But what if this is NO ordinary time?

With the benefit of hindsight we are able to see what our nuclear age looks like. We are able to see this since an actual nuclear bomb was exploded by the US and used on Hiroshima/Nagasaki Japan to end World War II. The US is the only nation to have ever used this device on human beings and their environment in the theater of war. We can see clearly now what the word nuclear means by its evidence.

The unparalled destruction from those nuclear blasts had, in history, never been seen by man. It reached far into the future causing not only the physical destruction of land, buildings and the death of 250,000 people but also included the perpetration of hideous birth defects and cancer for future generations of Japanese who were first exposed.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki shows the extent of damage the explosion of a nuclear device (size small by all accounts) can do. Hiroshima is a mirror for mankind to see what happens when our nuclear age moves out of the text book into reality.

May we say our enemy, the so called terrorists whoever they may be, would IF they could explode, at the very least, a dirty bomb on this nation? We know for certain as Al Qaeda has said that IF they could get their hands on such a device they would NOT hesitate to use it. Some Islamic clergy have given their religious permission slip for such an action. One could argue US egregious actions have prompted such permission but that does not matter now. What matters now is that it exists.

I suggest our Founders wrote our Constitution in quite an ORDINARY time. That is they wrote it when warfare was quite different. We as a nation could bathe in the luxury of Constitutional principle because the consequences of that age were by comparison to present time not dire. No one then, could know what the development of nuclear weaponry was or what it would mean for the survival of not only a country but for the survival of man on this planet.

Glenn and others (including me) academically argue comfortably in the security of an auditorium, classroom or home the notion that our country is stepping on its sacred document. We do not consider that this is no ordinary time. It is not the time in which our Founders lived, nor is it even the time in which our 20th century World War I president, Woodrow Wilson, lived.

What if our so called enemies whether here or abroad obtain a nuclear device with the intent of using it on us? What would YOU do? What lengths would YOU go to prevent this? Are the heretofore sacrosanct edits of our Fourth and Sixth Amendments worth the utter destruction of this nation of 300 million plus and its generations to come?

These are notions I believe we must consider as Pakistan becomes more and more an enemy and less a friend. Pakistan has nuclear weapons. This world could not be known to our Founders and not known for generations which came after them but now it is very well known to us. What are we willing to do and what are we willing to give up to protect this nation from an enemy who knows no boundaries? What are we willing to do to protect our nation from the perils of our age and MOST importantly is it really necessary to alter if not destroy our constitutional principles to do so?

http://www.salon.com/writer/glenn_greenwald/

Why they hate us: If you ever want to know why they hate us, read this. It surely is NOT for our "freedom!"

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n24/mohammed-elgorani/diary?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3324&hq_e=el&hq_m=1354499&hq_l=6&hq_v=e9a2fbf93a

OCCUPY WINTER: Michael Moore (his email below) is a precious asset. He tells us that Occupy Wall Street is here to stay in many venues. The harsh winter that the extremist, fanatical, uncaring and brutal right wing NUTS created by their stupid inattention to the FACT of science, climate change,will be a MINOR inconvenience. Do what you can as I will. Please forward this to anyone you like and please know Occupy Wall Street is on your side even IF you are part of the 1%. EVERYONE is a 99%er because this Great Recession the creation, made, bought and sold is the child of Wall Street and it affects EVERYONE even them but they are too greedy to notice it. Without a middle class a society becomes stagnant like a third world nation and without the American Dream which has slowly slipped away a brain drain here will be going to nations that have promise. DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN.

Support Occupy Wall Street as best you can by Occupying Everywhere which is what we and the Occupy movement are doing. They cannot stop us, they cannot kill an idea, and they cannot kill our spirit.

Let's look forward to winter and USE it to show how utterly we are committed to the cause.

Best,

Natalie


MIKE'S LETTER:

The Winter of Our Occupation ...a proposal from Michael Moore

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

Friends,

And now it is winter. Wall Street rejoices, hoping that the change of seasons will mean a change in our spirit, our commitment to stop them.

They couldn't be more wrong. Have they not heard of Washington and the troops at Valley Forge? The Great Flint Sit-Down Strike in the winter of 1936-37? The Michigan Wolverines crushing Ohio State in the 1950 Blizzard Bowl? When it comes to winter, it is the time historically when the people persevere and the forces of evil make their retreat!

We are not even 12 weeks old, yet Occupy Wall Street has grown so fast, so big, none of us can keep up with the hundreds of towns who have joined the movement, or the thousands of actions -- some of them just simple ones in neighborhoods, schools and organizations -- that have happened. The national conversation has been irreversibly changed. Now everyone is talking about how the 1% are getting away with all the money while the 99% struggle to make ends meet. People are no longer paralyzed by despair or apathy. Most know that now is the time to reclaim our country from the bankers, the lobbyists -- and their gofers: the members of the United States Congress and the 50 state legislatures.

And they're crazy if they think that a little climate chaos (otherwise known as winter in the 21st century) that they've helped to bring about is going to stop us.

I would like to propose to my Occupying sisters and brothers that there are many ways to keep Occupy Wall Street going through the winter months. There is perhaps no better time to move the movement indoors for a few months -- and watch it grow even bigger! (For those who have the stamina to maintain the outdoor occupations, by all means, keep it up -- and the rest of us will do our best to help you and keep you warm!)

The winter gives us an amazing opportunity to expand our actions against the captains of capitalism who have occupied our homes with their fraudulent mortgage system which has tossed millions of families out onto the curb; a cruel health care system that has told 50 million Americans "if you can't afford a doctor, go F yourself"; a student loan system that sends 22-year-olds into an immediate "debtors' prison" of working lousy jobs for which they didn't go to school but now have to take because they're in hock for tens of thousands of dollars for the next two decades; and a jobs market that keeps 25 million Americans un- or under-employed -- and much of the rest of the workers forced to accept wage cuts, health care reductions and zero job security.

But we in the Occupy Movement reject this version of the "American Dream." Instead, I suggest we shift our focus for this winter to the following actions:
OCCUPY THE WINTER

A proposal to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street from Michael Moore

1. Occupy Our Homes. Sorry, banks, a roof over one's head is a human right, and you will no longer occupy our homes through foreclosure and eviction because well, you see, they are our homes, not yours. You may hold the mortgage; you don't hold the right to throw us or our neighbors out into the cold. With almost one in three home mortgages currently in foreclosure, nearing foreclosure or "underwater," the Occupy Movement must form local "Occupy Strike Forces" to create human shields when the banks come to throw people out of their homes. If the foreclosure has already happened, then we must help families move back into their foreclosed homes -- literally (see this clip from my last film to watch how a home re-occupation is accomplished). Beginning today, Take Back the Land, plus many other citizens' organizations nationwide, are kicking off Occupy Our Homes. Numerous actions throughout the day today have already resulted in many families physically taking back their homes. This will continue every day until the banks are forced to stop their fraudulent practices, until homeowners are allowed to change their mortgage so that it reflects the true value of their homes, and until those who can no longer afford a mortgage are allowed to stay in their homes and pay rent. I beseech the news media to cover these actions -- they are happening everywhere. Evictions, though rarely covered (you need a Kardashian in your home as you're being evicted to qualify for news coverage) are not a new story (see this scene I filmed in 1988). Also, please remember the words of Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur of Toledo (in 'Capitalism: A Love Story'): Do not leave your homes if the bank forecloses on you! Let them take you to court and then YOU ask the judge to make them produce a copy of your mortgage. They can't. It was chopped up a hundred different ways, bundled with a hundred other mortgages, and sold off to the Chinese. If they can't produce the mortgage, they can't evict you.

2. Occupy Your College. In nearly every other democracy on the planet, students go to college for free or almost free. Why do those countries do that? Because they know that for their society to advance, they must have an educated population. Without that, productivity, innovation and an informed electorate is stunted and everyone suffers as a result. Here's how we do it in the U.S.A.: make education one of our lowest priorities, graduate students who know little about the world or their own government or the economy, and then force them into crushing debt before they even have their first job. That way has really worked well for us, hasn't it? It's made us the world leader in … in … well, ok, we're like 27th or 34th in everything now (except war). This has to end. Students should spend this winter doing what they are already doing on dozens of campuses -- holding sit-ins, occupying the student loan office, nonviolently disrupting the university regents meetings, and pitching their tents on the administration's lawn. Young people -- we, the '60s generation, promised to create a better world for you. We got halfway there -- now you have to complete the job. Do not stop until these wars are ended, the Pentagon budget is cut in half, and the rich are forced to pay their taxes. And demand that that money go to your education. We'll be there with you on all of this! And when we get this fixed and you graduate, instead of being $40,000 in debt, go see the friggin' world, or tinker around in your garage a la the two Steves, or start a band. Enjoy life, discover, explore, experiment, find your way. Anything but the assistant manager at Taco Bell.

3. Occupy Your Job. Let's spend the winter organizing workplaces into unions. OR, if you already have a union, demand that your leaders get off their ass and get aggressive like our grandparents did. For chrissakes, surely you know we would not have a middle class if it weren't for the strikes of the 1930s-1950s?! In three weeks we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the workers in my hometown of Flint, Michigan taking over and occupying the General Motors factories for 44 days in the dead of winter. Their actions ignited a labor movement that lifted tens of millions out of poverty and into the middle class. It's time to do it again. (According to the Census Bureau and the New York Times, 100 million Americans either live in or near poverty. Disgraceful. Greed has destroyed the core fabric of our communities. Enough!) Here are two good unions to get your fellow workers to sign up and join: UE and SEIU. The CWA are also good. Here's how to get a quick primer in organizing your place of employment (don't forget to be careful while you do this!). If your company is threatening to close down and move the jobs elsewhere, then it's time to occupy the workplace (again, you can get a lesson in how to successfully occupy your factory from my movie).

4. Occupy Your Bank. This is an easy one. Just leave them. Move your checking and your credit card to a nonprofit credit union. It's safe and the decisions made there aren't based on greed. And if a bank tries to evict your neighbor, Occupy the local branch with 20 other people and call the press. Post it on the internet.

5. Occupy the Insurance Man. It's time to not only stand up for the 50 million without health insurance but to also issue a single, simple demand: The elimination of for-profit, privately-controlled health insurance companies. It is nothing short of barbaric to allow businesses to make a profit off people when they get sick. We don't allow anyone to make a profit when we need the fire department or the police. Until recently we would never allow a company to make a profit by operating in a public school. The same should be true for when you need to see a doctor or stay in the hospital. So I say it's long overdue for us to go and Occupy Humana, United Health, Cigna and even the supposed "nonprofit" Blue Crosses. An action on their lawns, in their lobbies, or at the for-profit hospitals -- this is what is needed.

So -- there are my ideas for the five places we can Occupy this winter. Help the foreclosed-upon to Occupy their homes. Occupy your college campus, especially the student loan office and the regents meetings. Occupy your job by getting everyone to sign a union card -- or by refusing to let the CEO ship your job overseas. Occupy your Chase or Citi or Bank of America branch by closing your account and moving it to a credit union. And Occupy the insurance company offices, the pharmaceutical companies' headquarters and the for-profit hospitals until the White House and Congress pass the true single-payer universal health care bill they failed to pass in 2010.

My friends, the rich are running scared right now. You need no further proof of this than to read this story from last week. The Republicans' top strategist met privately with them and told them that they had better change their tune or they were going to be crushed by the Occupy Wall Street movement. They didn't have to change their greedy actions, he assured them -- just the way they talk and PR the situation. He told them never to use the word "capitalism" -- it has now been made a dirty word by the Occupy movement, he said. Only say "economic freedom" from now on, he cautioned. And don't criticize the movement -- because the majority of Americans either agree with it or are feeling the same way. Just tell the Occupiers and the distressed Americans: "I get it." Seriously.

Yes, in just 12 short weeks we have killed their most sacred word -- Capitalism -- and we have them on the run, on the defensive. They should be. Millions are coming after them and our only goal is to remove them from power and replace them with a fair system that is controlled by the 99%. The 1% have been able to get both political parties to do their bidding. Why should only 1% of the population get to have two parties -- and the rest of us have none? That, too, is going to change. In my next letter, I will suggest what we can do to Occupy the Electoral Process. But first we must start with those who pull the strings of the puppets in the Congress. That's why it's called Occupy Wall Street. Always better to deal with man in charge, don't you think?

Let's Occupy the Winter! An #OWS Winter will certainly lead to a very hopeful American Spring.

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@MichaelMoore.com
@MMFlint
MichaelMoore.com


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Another Letter to my Japanese Friend--Fukishima Revisited: To My Good Friend: I just saw this on the Associated Press (on Huffington Post) (Linked below). It reiterates and reinforces all that I have written about Fukishima and the corporate controlled news which now even in the US reports nothing on it until they must and governments both here and in Japan cover-up the continuing bad news. It is my feeling the public MUST be kept informed even if it seems we can do not much. Our voices, though, have some power as Occupy Wall Street here has shown during this man-made economic Great Recession, despite the corporate controlled negative news coverage. OWS has been a force for great good.

It is so important for others to keep aware of this nuclear madness so that (1) they can take necessary precautions such as washing food well and dawning protective gear where necessary and (2) so that NO more nuclear energy plants are built..NONE, NADA, EVER. They are NOT safe especially in a climate changed world and especially at sites near faults or oceans. Nothing nuclear is fail-safe.

My sources tell me foods here on the west coast are showing signs of radiation contamination. Yet NOTHING is said by the media or the president. I personally cannot confirm that BUT one particular source called the Fukishima blast and melt down correctly exactly when it first happened. He has said it was leaking then and suffered a major China Syndrome-like meltdown. Moreover, he has said radiation has been detected here.

The TEPCO plant leaked CESIUM, one of the most toxic substances known to man. TEPCO is shameful as is our own government and media in the US for not continually focusing a revelatory light on this catastrophe.

Stay safe and well.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/05/fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-power-plant-leaks_n_1128868.html

Razing Cain: Yes, the spelling of razing is correct as the pestilence that was Herman Cain's feeble run for the highest office in our land was RAZED ... i.e. destroyed. Praise the lord! What must others watching American "presidential" politics think of this nation? The Republican slate is a carnival of candidates that makes the word stupid seem benign. It is shameful. I am embarrassed that this is the BEST the so called loyal opposition can do. They are so disastrously moronic.

This group puts forward opinions which will appeal to the small but vociferous radical right wing religious extremist base because they know they must if they want nomination. What a system this is that puts NOT the MOST qualified up for a vote but the most UNQUALIFIED trying to seek the most powerful position in the world with his finger on a button that could obliterate all of us in a nanosecond.

It is true we have had others who were LOW on the academic scale but this slate puts even them to shame. Shame on the Republican Party for calculating the best way to get Romney elected is to put stupids around him, shame on the candidates who hold such erroneous and deadly beliefs -- those who deny the undeniable of climate change or evolution.

These issues are not up for grabs they are FACT. Simply because they go against an academically challenged segment of our illustrious country does NOT make those things any less true and NOT up for debate. The earth is NOT flat and the sun does NOT revolve around it. Just because you would like to make the earth flat or the center of our galaxy does not make it TRUE.

Wake up America these candidates are HAZARDOUS to your health!

Power Governments Cannot Suppress -- Howard Zinn Back to the Future There is no one who had a more fundamental impact on my own politics than Professor of History at Boston University, the late Howard Zinn. I perused FORATV for my own edification and came upon a 2007 lecture at Brandeis University three years before his death and one year before Barack Obama won the presidency.

His words STILL resonate with me today. His words are uncannily prophetic, infinitely humane and no less true today then they were when he uttered them. What he says sings to me and compels me as they did in 1968 to take the positions I do. I provide the link below for you to learn as the title of his popular book "A People's History of the United States." It is the history of our country looked at from a different perspective with a critical eye of government, its policies and its consequences. He was a profundity to me unlike any other. I miss him so even until this day.

Occupy Wall Street is a look back to a time that was not different from our day in 1968 and it is a look to the future of our nation as well. I am sure Howard Zinn would approve of it and reiterate what he so often did that power comes NOT by who is in the White House but who stands in front of it that counts.


http://fora.tv/2007/01/28/A_Power_Governments_Cannot_Suppress#quickreply

The Case for Evolution: This (link below) is a brilliant lecture by the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. He is a scholar, an author and a professor at Oxford. His newest book is "The Greatest Show on Earth" and his book written in 2006 is entitled "The God Delusion." Here is his lecture at the Berkley Arts and Letters.

Evolution, he says, is FACT -- undoubted, endlessly provable FACT. It cannot be debated, he says, and is so with more surety than even the historical fact of the Holocaust.

I think this lecture is worth listening to and it will allow you, as I already have, to come to the conclusion that there is NO doubt and cannot even be debated, that evolution is fact ... not theory ... not supposition ... FACT. If you have any doubt about that I urge you to listen.

http://fora.tv/2009/10/07/Richard_Dawkins_The_Greatest_Show_on_Earth#fullprogram

Extremism in the Face of Liberty is a Great Vice: Barry Goldwater's acceptance statement during the 1964 Republican presidential nomination "Extremism in the face of liberty is no vice; Tolerance in the face of tyranny is no virtue" sank him.

Egypt voted yesterday in its first democratic election. One of the most compelling Egyptian statements was spoken in the interview of a taxi driver in Cairo about his opinion on the Muslim Brotherhood, for whom he voted, winning big. “They look to God,” the tax driver said “They must be just.”

I am dismayed by this statement but I am not shocked by it. It is what one gets when many if not most of those who vote are illiterate; so illiterate that pictures had to be drawn on ballots so they could more easily vote. The essence of those cultures easily elect those who in reality are the least democratic among us, tolerate no dissension of belief, view things in black or white and act accordingly violent when anyone transgresses or violates their prevailing belief. When the uneducated vote in our times they often vote for religious leadership. The patent absurdity of the notion “They look to God,” because “They must be just” is obvious to those of us who are critical of power, critical of religion and critical of dogma no matter who says it.

One need only look to our own country which sports some of the most religiously extreme candidates in the world from the Christian extremist right. It does not matter whether it is Islamic, Christian or Orthodox Judaic religiosity. When people from these groups win man as a whole looses. The ability to exchange a diversity of opinion even if that opinion eschews religious mythological belief becomes impossible. The essence of what it means to be a free speech democracy is severely compromised if not lost. Cultures who do this remain stuck and even regress into reactionary nationalist politics. They are uncompromising, extreme and, often, extremely violent.

There is nothing better than an educated populous that attains a balanced understanding of world history and the events that follow. A nation based on a religious litmus test is a nation which cannot and will not advance. It is only through secular leadership that man can develop his natural and genetically ordained ability to think, create, and scientifically grow using the intellectual gifts all of man is fortunate to possess.

In sum: those in the west who wish for "democracy" in the Middle East ought to be careful. You may get what you wish for and often it is not whom you want!

Algorithms in the Theater of War: The link below is about the headline in “McClatchy News”: “Pakistan blocks U.S. troop supplies after NATO kills 24 near Afghan border”

The US, of course, will continue to deny it and use as the excuse that US troops were fired upon. What is the truth? We cannot know if we are not in the theater of war. What I do know is the US will continue to deploy troops long after troops are needed and where the US goes, it stays, let's face it, for decades or, perhaps, never leaves. One need only to look at Europe and Japan after WWII. We are still there as occupiers perhaps once removed. Will we EVER be totally out of Iraq? Answer: NO. Bin Laden is dead. Will the US pack up from Afghanistan and monitor its actions from afar? Answer: NO.

The US can control a LOT BUT what it cannot control is other variables it cannot calculate into its algorithms of war. Iraq is proof of that. Our neoconservative jackasses thought the invasion of Iraq would be a war to pay for itself, over in matters of weeks and that the Iraqis would greet our soldiers with sweets and flowers. The sweets and flowers never came but civil war did erupting after the mother of all shock-and-awe invasions based on lies flatlined. Not only did the Iraqis not greet us with sweets and flowers they established Shiite control hand-holding with the Shiite mullahs of Iran giving Iran much greater power than it had when they were at war with Sunni Muslim Sadam Hussein’s Iraq from 1980 – 1988. Hussein was even supplied arms by the US.

Moreover, the US could not control the outcome of its Iraq War disaster or a million widowed Iraqi women. It could not control the millions who were refugees into a destabilized Syria with no money and no work many forced into prostitution. If women refugees die from disease or if Syrian security forces jail or kill them it is simply the collateral damage of war. These are expendable people; people who do NOT count.

Moreover, and MOST importantly, pertinent to the headline above, the US cannot control the stability of nations its own Iraq War destabilized, including and most important of all, the nuclear-armed Pakistan. I quote from the December 2011 issue of the Atlantic Magazine:

A country [Pakistan] that is home to the harshest variants of Muslim fundamentalism, and to the headquarters of the organizations that espouse extremist ideologies, including Al Qaeda, the Haqqani network, and Lashkar-e-Tayiba, nuclear bombs capable of destroying entire cities are transported in delivery vans on congested and dangerous roads. And Pakistani and American sources say that since the raid on Abbottabad [in May this year to kill Osama bin Laden], the Pakistanis have provoked anxiety inside the Pentagon by increasing the pace of these movements. In other words, the Pakistani government is willing to make its nuclear weapons more vulnerable to theft by jihadis simply [in a bid] to hide them from the United States, the country that funds much of its military budget".

The actions of the United States of America matter. If the US and its satellite NATO continue to dot the Arab landscape with boots and bombs then we will continue to read alarming bylines stating that Pakistan closed its border to Afghanistan so US troops cannot get supplies.

The US was the nation that pushed for the Nuremberg trials which demanded the individual, when necessary, oppose illegal, unconscionable, inhumane acts of governments even in the theater of war. It did not say with the exception of the US.

I do not want, of course, to sacrifice my own nation or its security but its security is enhanced when the world looks to the US as the penultimate moral compass. Our moral compass has been broken for years and in need of significant repair. It needs a change in direction. If we do not change our direction we become a nation of hypocrites sowing the seeds of our own destruction.

In the Internet age the world watches, the world waits and it listens. America controls a lot but it does NOT control it all!

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/11/26/131396/nato-forces-kill-at-least-24-in.html#ixzz1epvJS3Mn

MEDICARE: As much as I might disagree with my relative on certain issues I have to admit he gets his predictions right a LARGE percentage of the time. He is a Wharton School of Business graduate, has had much business experience, and has appeared on NUMEROUS radio, TV, the Progressive News Hour and KNOWS what he is talking about.

His latest article the following is chilling. If you do not think YOUR medical care is on the chopping block unless you have incomes like Bill Gates then you are wrong. This is why it is IMPERATIVE to overturn the Tea Bag and a Republican led Congress while keeping the presidency progressively Democratic as well.

In short they want those who cannot work, who cannot afford insurance to die. Yes, it sounds histrionic i.e. excessive but I can assure you it is NOT. George Carlin was quite correct in his American Dream Utube. Look it up.

Read this opinion for your own health and welfare and that of your children and act accordingly. The title of the opinion and the link to his blog is below. If you think it cannot happen to you you are wrong. It CAN and it WILL.

Bipartisan Deal to Slash Medicare and Medicaid - by Stephen Lendman

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/

Thanksgiving Day Thoughts: There are so many issues in our country and the world with which we must grapple. Thanksgiving, I think, gives us pause to stop and reflect upon those things in life that should gain prominence and separate for us what is significantly important from what is not. I think of Thanksgiving as our national day of meditation that should calm us, force us to reflect, be with those we love and lead us to rationally think about what we do and the consequences of how we do it.

In this Internet age information, true or otherwise, is sent in the second of an eye’s blink. One can say one heard a giraffe reading “War and Peace” and someone somewhere would believe it true. Facts in our culture are often taken as fiction and fiction is believed to be fact.

From the whirling dervish of Sandusky, the alleged Penn State pedophile, to the explosions in the Middle East, economic upheaval that is much of Europe and the barbed vitriolic division at home is enough to drive a sane man into the snake pit of insanity. How can we right these most egregious wrongs? I am as guilty as those I criticize for allowing my passion for critical analysis to appear as angry in tone as it is razor sharp in message. For that I apologize.

What is wrong with man that he cannot control his appetites for money, his lust for power and the anarchy of his sexuality? Those facts of life, necessary to cultural advancement if unchained lose their rationales for being and propel man to his inevitable destruction. Greed is necessary to help us create new things, money is a necessary tool of man’s economic advancement and sexuality, of course, is necessary to continue the species. And yet we use these necessary things to excess, hurting those we claim to love and even killing those with whom we may disagree.

There are those in human history who come at opportune times to show us a better path. They gain notoriety for what they say but as man is wont to do he perverts the goodness of their words honing them into a destructive force. I am not Christian. I have, though, loved the many elements of Christianity’s teaching. It is a humane compass. Jesus is supposed to have said “He who has not sinned cast the first stone.” Jesus is supposed to have said “Why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? Jesus is supposed to have said “I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Jesus is supposed to have said "But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also."

I will never be a member of any organized religion or even accept other elements of faith but the purity of the words of Christ handed down through the ages, albeit difficult to follow, give a roadmap directing us how to treat the other who occupies the same planet as we. Thanksgiving for me is the Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement without the fast) of our nation because it teaches us to appreciate what we have, apologize for the caustic things we do or say, change the things we can and vow to do better next year. Happy Thanksgiving.

If you do nothing else please click on the link--guaranteed to inspire!-- something positive from ME? yes!: Guaranteed to amaze and inspire even a curmudgeon like ME! ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg0_ITG01bs

The Greatest Good--a Thanksgiving Hope: We all need meaning in this life and life has certainly thrown many curves my way but despite my sometimes curmudgeon-like attitude and, perhaps, often because of it, I try to improve the lemonade and make a sweeter drink.

I attempt to use my writing skills to convey humanitarian political and philosophical sentiment and promulgate humane principles that advocate the greatest good for the greatest number. (See the interesting link below on Jeremy Bentham -- a Utilitarian and 18th century influence of modern political thought. He was way ahead of his time!) I am hoping some of my ideas are read, considered or even used as a yardstick for future generations who may study this era to understand what some thought. I am hoping my written opinions will be seen advocating ideas which try to live up to our Constitutional creed that brilliant men wrote in a flicker of history and inscribed on the hearts of our nation and the world. They created a path for man to choose discourse, debate and compromise instead of war.

It did and does not always work with ease as we can see. It often takes time; sometimes generations and we become impatient. The Constitution is though, I believe, our road map to a better life. The nation has gone through many trials in its journey but even in the harshest period the road was cleared and the path made better; improvements made and prepared by one generation for the next.

I hope we persevere through this difficult economic and violent period. I have thought often about Ted Kennedy's words he spoke in eulogy of his assassinated brother Senator Robert Kennedy delivered on June 8th, 1968. He described his brother as a man "who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it." And so that sentiment which I heard so many years ago has become imprinted on my heart to advocate for politics which can best create the greatest good for the greatest number.

I can think of no better legacy to leave nor better thoughts to impart. It is through that dialogue the maladies of today’s night can evaporate into tomorrow's morning mist and it is my hope the generations which follow will do better than those they leave behind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham

Who are the 1%? If you want to know who the 1% are and against whom the 99% are protesting click on the link below. Not only does it name names but it tells you exactly what they are worth and what they perpetrated to arrive at this dubious distinction as the worst. It is from Brave New Foundation a group the puts out documentaries telling the truth of often egregious events. This group wanted people to vote on who they thought were the most significant ones responsible for the dire economic state of not only the US but the world.

It is a most interesting cast of characters AND you can be a part of the vote. Democracy in action!

If you cannot click on the link cut and paste it into your browser

http://whoarethe1percent.com/

Captivating Performance—J. Edgar: Saw the film J. Edgar and loved it. I think Leonardo DiCaprio is becoming one of this country's premier actors. He can play just about anyone and playing J. Edgar was no exception. I was in particular riveted to his performance and consider it Academy Award worthy. In addition, Judy Dench’s performance as Hoover’s domineering over-protective rather cruel mother was her usual great.

I gave it an eight star out of ten review on the IMDB site. I love various eras in post WWI US history, knew many of the issues presented in the film, knew about Hoover's alleged homosexuality and his life-long relationship with Clyde Tolson. We will never know, I suspect, if that relationship was consummated but the affection both clearly had for one another was obvious. Contrary to what interviews of the director, Eastwood, suggest I think the film does NOT elude to Hoover's homosexuality it shouts it and that the love of his life was Clyde Tolson. It is crystal clear from various scenes and emotional moments between Hoover and Tolson and because a straight man usually would not subvert his desire not only for sex but for having a family life ESPECIALLY if one were in a high position of power like Hoover was. In addition, the two men were never out of each other's company whether it was lunch every day or after hours. Moreover, and even more telling Hoover left nearly his entire estate to Tolson and finally they were buried close to each other in the same cemetery. If it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck it’s a duck! His relationship vis a vie the film I think made it CRYSTAL clear where Mr. Hoover's inclinations lay.

In essence the film depicts Hoover as an Oedipally neurotic hypocrite. He went after other people's suspected immoralities but kept his own proclivities secret. It is because of his homosexuality AND also because he wanted to keep his job that, I believe, he created his secret file. According to the film that file was shredded by his loyal secretary Ms. Gandy when Hoover died. An article in the Washington Post says all of his secret files can be read. Why the discrepancy I do not know.

Was the film perfect? Probably not but I came away from it feeling about Hoover what I felt the many years since the protests against the Vietnam War and that was that he was a paranoid anti-Communist seeing one in every closet, was a tortured man, tyrannical in nature and prone to valuing the supremacy of the state over the civil liberties of the individual destroying lives in the process. His lust for power and his temper were brutal and his idiosyncrasies obvious. I admit to his creation of a superior national police agency, the FBI but I loathed him in life and 40 years after his death and viewing the film I still do!

I recommend it for those who love the history of that period, love seeing excellent acting and for those who find Hoover's tyranny -- J. Edgar that is – entirely fascinating.

Monitor the Vote: Huffington Post has an excellent link which is entitled and says:

"What are the campaigns doing where you live?"

It further states:

"The 2012 races are already out in full force in many early primary states. We want to hear about the campaign ads, robocalls, mailers and signs you're seeing in your community. Tell us about it here or send us information via email at offthebus@huffingtonpost.com."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/20/mitt-romney-defends-aides-purchasing-hard-drives_n_1103585.html

I sent them and the Democratic Party the following:

I think this is an excellent thing to do.

It is VITAL as the Republicans have utterly NO scruples and will stop at nothing no matter how unethical, fraudulent and
possibly illegal to try to deprive those who would vote Democratic of doing so. They even gerrymander districts to get it out of Democratic hands. They MUST be scrupulously monitored in every single state by those of that state who want to see fair elections while trying to get the most who can vote TO vote especially in minority, Hispanic, and young voters of all ethnic groups who often vote Democratic. When the time comes Democrats need to have a legion of volunteers to help people get to the polls especially the elderly, the disabled or those who may not have transportation who usually ARE or vote Democratic as well.

We should have armies of professionals including lawyers who know the law in each state. If any crap that Republicans are known to do like telling voters the election is on a different day or that they must have certain identification documents they do not need is found to be suspicious or unethical an immediate PUBLIC inquiry should be illuminated and begun.

Further, our people should be advised of people like James O'Keefe who nefariously brought down the Democratic voting registration group ACORN unjustifiably. We should NOT have capitulated on that one. O'Keefe's photo and others who may be his assistants should be WELL known to Democrats so that they do not get caught by him as he "investigates" Democrats and will show only selected bits of what he has done to make Democrats look as bad as possible.

I do not have to tell you Republicans are VICIOUS, mean and subversive to us. They are utterly Machiavellian and will use any means necessary and I do mean ANY means necessary to subvert and defeat Democrats. DO NOT LET THEM!!!

A Manifesto to Undermine the Occupy Wall Street Movement: At Rachel Maddow’s suggestion we taped “Up With Chris Hayes” early this a.m. on MSNBC. In case ANYONE on planet earth had any doubt, the Goliaths are coming to slay the Davids of Occupy Wall Street. The memo acquired by MSNBC/Chris Hayes (linked below) exposes the law firm of banksters and lobbyists Clark, Lytle, Gedulig and Cranford offering their memo and a method to undermine the Occupy movement. I also provide an MSNBC link to the story itself.

Exposing the memo is one of the greatest media efforts to uncover the truth of just whose wealth is attempting to control the 99% and impart justice to its smarmy cabal which has perpetrated the greatest economic fraud on our nation. It illuminates the power of both Cable and the Internet to sometimes work for the collective good.

The memo exposes the lengths the big banks and those that represent them will go and the behavioral treachery they will manifest to destroy the people's movement of Occupy Wall Street. Clearly, the 1% are scared. We, of course, assume there are hundreds of memos like it using other firms to undermine Occupy Wall Street.

I urge my political allies to read it and send the link below to those whom you know will understand the importance of exposing this treacherous behavior and hopefully they will send it around to their friends and allies too.

I spare no one not even those on the left who do not meet my high standards. Rachel Maddow and her many colleagues at MSNBC including people like Melissa Harris Perry professor at Tulane University as well as the commentators like Keith Olbermann and soon Cenq Uygur at Current TV have NEVER disappointed me. Occupy Wall Street and the progressives at MSNBC and Current TV are in the process of saving lives and saving our country along with them as well.

They are ALL party of my daily routine.

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/CLGF-msnbc.pdf

http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/19/8884405-lobbying-firms-memo-spells-out-plan-to-undermine-occupy-wall-street

The Sinking or Saving the Ship of State--America at a Crossroad: I awoke to read the following MSNBC headline: "Middle-class areas shrink as America divides into 'two-tiered society' of rich and poor." This is just plain sad. It makes me sick at heart. I remember another America down at difficult times but rising to meet the challenge. Will we do so again? The country is at a crossroad and had a choice after 2008 of living or dying during this Great Recession era with its passenger eternal war. In our nation's history during trying times of great peril -- the Revolutionary War, Civil War, The Great Depression and World War II -- it drew the lucky number. I thought by the election of Barack Obama in 2008 the country had drawn the lucky straw yet again. But, it seems this time, we did not.

The American people in their infinite wisdom -- with a little help from the seditious Koch Brothers billionaire money men -- created a Tea Bag monster party and from stupidity and/or racist ideology installed an intractable obstructionist Congress. It seeks to sink the country not save it. The Republican goal: to defeat this country's first black president by any means necessary. Consequently, what was needed could not get done. Moreover, my hope, Barack Obama, decided to place in the most important financial positions the very foxes that killed the chickens -- Geither, Summers and their cronies of Goldman Sachs, et al of Wall Street. Not only did they protect their buddies on Benedict Arnold Street but they saw easy prey in Obama himself and refused to do what he ordered -- Read Ron Suskind's book "Confidence Men" which reveals this utter failure of leadership and back room treachery betraying a naive president.

Since a Republican Romney or anyone else in that sorry mess of Republican presidential candidates will sink this country deeper into its quicksand and elevate the rich higher all of these god forbid potential presidents are UNACCEPTABLE. It will be, if any of these rancid Republicans are elected, the icing on a poisonous cake. PERHAPS and it is a BIG PERHAPS this president and this obstructionist Republican Congress know they will be kicked from here to kingdom come if something is not done to ameliorate the country's fatal disease. Perhaps there is finally a righting of the ship of state -- PERHAPS.

I say this with great fear and trepidation that it is not so. I hope I am correct that these egregious wrongs will be righted because IF I am not right all or certainly most of us in the 99% know our very lives are at stake -- especially so for the young! Empires come and empires go. Many stay for the, at first, happy ride but those of us who are unlucky will be on board for its fall and will get to experience a tragedy the likes of which we have never known.

Recall the Vile governor Scott jerk Walker of Wisconsin Please donate if you can by clicking on the link below to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin to unseat the vile Scott Walker. Then get prepared to unseat Kasich of Ohio, Scott of Florida, Rick Snyder of Michigan and LePage of Maine. Send them a message they will NOT forget. The left is here and we can dwarf the fascist tea baggies. Do NOT let them win. Support Occupy Wall Streets everywhere by supporting the Democratic parties everywhere. They are not perfect but they are a damn site better than the disloyal opposition. We have just begun to fight!

http://www.wisdems.org/?no_splash=1

Cough Cough: Jeff Jacoby never ceases to amaze me. Now he is advocating for the tobacco industry against graphic medical depictions of the effects of smoking on a box of cigarettes. In his November 13 editorial "We can Still Breath Deep on Free Speech" he yet again runs true to form. He thinks the harsh medical depictions on the box are just too much, go too far and are not needed in preventing smokers and others who are thinking of taking up the dastardly habit not to do so. I used to be a smoker as a teenager many years ago. My relative who is a pulmonary specialist later pleaded with me to accompany him on rounds to see the carnage that smoking tobacco creates.

If Jeff's Jacoby's daughter or son was thinking of taking up the habit and saw on a cigarette box the man with his chest cut open for treatment due to the effects of smoking wouldn't he be THRILLED that that grotesque picture of reality was something they saw and because of it avoided by decades their own suffering and early death caused by the effects of tobacco use? Those amazing rough pictures on the pack are TRUE and they SHOULD be seen. It is too bad some judge somewhere thought they went too far. If they prevent even one death I say they are worth it but we know the depictions would prevent many more than that and the tobacco companies stood to lose a lot of money if those pictures were allowed to remain. It is why they fought so hard against them.

I consider it a kind of free speech used by the state to do something good for the people. I guess Jeff cares only about the rights of corporations he thinks are people instead of the flesh and blood real human beings who are saved by any means necessary from buying the poison the tobacco corporations are
just dying (pardon the pun ) to sell!