(Sunday Homily) Massacres in Paris: The Apocalypse Is upon Us

Brilliant, unique and interesting interpretation By Mike Rivage-Seul of the Apocalypse spewed in hundreds of fundamentalist churches throughout the land. I urge you to read it and THINK! Think about what your leaders are asking you to do. Ask the question why and who does it benefit.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Sunday-Homily-Massacres-by-Mike-Rivage-Seul-Apocalypse-Apocalyptic-End-Of-The-World_Empire_Isil_Jesus-151114-803.html

Dr. Irvin Yalom discusses Death

What I have not heard yet and what plagues me about death is not only the inevitably of it BUT worse for me losing those I love, family, friends, etc. Even though we are all in this together we face it really alone and especially alone if we are left but our family and friends have died.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMbkIYpZ1v8

Il n'y a pas de mots

There are no words!

My Letter to Senator Warren

Senator Warren, I just got through listening to your book "A Fighting Chance" on CD. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I am one of your ardent supporters from Framingham you mention in your book. I have been a supporter of yours since I first saw you on Bill Moyers PBS show. When you ran for the Senate to take back the seat Teddy Kennedy occupied for 50 years held after his death by a Republican the views of whom Teddy would have loathed, I cheered as it returned to Democratic hands.

I could not be with everyone at the Copley Plaza Hotel cheering your Senate victory because I am disabled from polio. Yes, I was one of the unlucky ones who contracted the dreaded disease inducing paralysis before Dr. Salk and Sabin freed humanity from its terror. FDR who began the March of Dimes to find a vaccine for it proved to me government can work for the greater good. If my legs are not so well functioning my mouth surely is and my pen writes, I humbly say, rather well.

I cried at the end of your book out of sadness and empathy when your beloved dog Otis died and I cried out of happiness when you won that seat back for the people of Massachusetts. Teddy would have been so proud.

I have watched you closely over the years and every time Rachel Maddow has you on I am glued to the interview. I will work hard for any Democrat who wins the 2016 presidential primary as I did for you for the Senate. I am hoping, one day, you will take a seat in the oval office and I will live to see that day too.

I love you Senator Warren. You give me hope and instill the same for the powerless and hopeless many. May you be in our political midst for many years to come. Finally, you have proven, despite all odds, we the people have a fighting chance!

Yalom's Cure

This clip below is in English and hit a bulls-eye to so much about which 
 I have given thought. It's short.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B_PGY3eN6Xw

Wrong

I confess, I did not watch the Republican debate last night. I could not because it hurt too much to hear their spewing that passes for policy truth when I know they are the Trojan Horse waiting to strike and kill a nation. I could not watch those who are the most unqualified for the highest office in the land burp policy as though they knew what they were talking about. I could not look at a Ben Carson, the most unqualified in the group, whose belief in fantasy which included hitting his mother with a hammer in his youth, stabbing someone and whose ego makes him think he, the most unqualified of the sad Republican slate, could handle the Herculean task of assuming the presidency of the strongest nation on earth and who will hold the nuclear keys to the box that could annihilate the globe.

These science denying know nothing Republican candidates are poised to destroy this nation if not by weapons then by doing nothing to stop the climate disasters we have seen with frequency so vividly across the nation. Science denial is their most egregious sin as man's knowledge of science is the key to our species' survival. The key to Republican survival is to court the richest oil, gas and bank barons who support their candidacy with oodles of cash.

The Republican Party genius is that it has made their Tea Bag and other middle class income supporters think they are all about them. They surely are not. They are, as I and others much smarter than I, have said so many times about the top richest 1% and care nothing for most of you.

All the Republican tax plans will add trillions to the debt, take programs away from those who need them most and nearly all pledge this nation to eternal war in the Middle East. If this is what you want for your children and succeeding generations then by all means vote Republican. Vote for a Republican Party that is mendacious – lying ALL the time and doing so with impunity.

Republicans will never have an immigration plan as they will NEVER deport 11 million Hispanics and others or build a wall and make Mexico gleefully pay. They will never round up 11 million human beings who will go happily into the night like Jews to the German slaughter. Hispanics and others will fight back and it will be bloody sending millions to their graves or jails in privately owned prisons that are already stuffed to the gills belching humanity that cannot fit into their crowded cells.

I have sat on the left humane side of the political spectrum and have been a strong Democrat all of my adult life. I did so not because I think Democrats are always right but because Republicans in times of significant economic upheaval and war are nearly always wrong. You simply have to look to modern history to believe it.

Ben Carson and the Truth by Charles Blow

This serves to emphasize my point.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/09/opinion/ben-carson-and-the-truth.html?comments#permid=16611904

Eighth and Ninth Wonders of the World

"Dr. Ben Carson Plays Defense as Biographical Questions Pile Up" -- link here or below.

After what has been uncovered about the probable fabrications of Dr. Ben Carson’s life by him, it is the eighth wonder of the world that this man has gotten to be a Republican front-runner for the presidency, the highest most powerful office in the land arguably the world.

It is the ninth wonder of the world that Fundamentalists and other humans cannot accept truth scientific or otherwise in the face of unmistakable falsehoods of Biblical myth or the mounting evidence of the personal lies a presidential candidate tells about himself.

Those who support him will turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the truth even if the truth is in front of their nose because it is so important to their mental health that all of these fabrications and untruths are really true. If they are not true, which a rational mind would know they are not, then I am guessing the Fundamentalists and their world with them would collapse. It is frightening, indeed, when in the face of Carson’s obvious lies he gains not loses support within mostly Republican ranks.

Carson promotes these lies, in my opinion, to make money and oodles of it. One should never give money to charlatans whether it’s people peddling religious falsehoods or snake oil salesmen trying to sell you junk. You may think they care about you but they don’t. What they do care about is their own bank accounts and making millions off the suckers who swallow their tripe. Carson, it appears, is smart enough to float a made up story about his own life that sells to Fundamentalists and others gullibles.

The truths of science and its experts cannot be denied as they ensure survival of only the fittest when its laws are known, admitted and followed. Those who reject the truths science tells us will die out. It is the evolutionary law of nature and it has been billions of years correct!

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/dr-ben-carson-plays-defense-biographical-questions-pile-n459411

Democratic Forum--Auditory Excellence

 If you want to hear policy at the adult's table then I paste for your enjoyment the questioning by Rachel Maddow the Great of the three Democratic candidates for the presidency. I have never seen or heard more professional, brilliant political programming than the one led by Rachel tonight.

It was a pleasure to listen to it and entertaining to boot. If you did not catch it on MSNBC I paste it below or you can get it on the Rachel Maddow online site. It was a gem and could not be more different from the Republican Barnum Bailey Circus. How anyone in this nation can even contemplate being Republican and worse voting Republican I will never know.

Listen to excellence here or below.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/democrat-forum-msnbc_563d4e8fe4b0b24aee4a7fc8
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/democrat-forum-msnbc_563d4e8fe4b0b24aee4a7fc8

Gran Mal Seizures

Ben Carson admits fabricating West Point scholarship. Carson's campaign on Friday conceded that a central point in his inspirational personal story did not occur as he previously described. Linked here or below:

What a LYING charlatan to fabricate all that and think he is going to get away with it that no one is going to check as he runs for the highest most powerful office on earth. Carson, you JERK, if they checked W. Bush's draft dodging status they will SURELY check everything you say.

The press needs to report the allegedly 8 medical malpractice lawsuits two of which have apparently been adjudicated. He LOST but they have non-disclosure of fee agreements. They have pics, however, of the patient and it is tragic. Makes me think the payment was hefty. Well if you were a brain surgeon and allegedly left a sponge in someone's skull or allegedly diagnosed a malignancy where there was none I might want a little cash for those gran mal seizures!

Just shows to go you you do not have to be brilliant to be a brain surgeon. Kind of makes me think of Leonardo DeCaprio in "Catch Me If you Can" based on a true story of a man who fabricated many occupations which included being a doc. Now just what does Johns Hopkins have to say?


http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/ben-carson-west-point-215598

Vote Distribution In Kentucky Is A 'Significant Anomaly'

What you should know: Republicans steal elections and think nothing about the ethics of doing it. Just ask Al Gore in 2000 and if you research it I am sure there are many instances of more Republican fraud. Funny they are the ones who prevented persons of color and other Democrats from voting to "reduce fraud." Oh sure. Believe that and I'll tell you another lie.

The election in Kentucky was an anomaly. Here is the link that casts doubt on it. The problem is proving it now is difficult and in my opinion Conway conceded too soon.

Moral for 2016: Watch YOUR voting booth and make sure things are ethically pristine. Do so all over the nation!

http://crooksandliars.com/2015/11/we-may-never-really-understand-what

Citizen Charlatan

Carson is a charlatan times 10 and has had six medical malpractice suits against him during his tenure at Johns Hopkins.  I have on good authority Carson is NOT all that great a physician and not really that respected in his field. He got lucky because he was on a team there that separated conjoined twins but after that things went south (pardon the pun)  including a case when he left a sponge in the brain of a woman he operated on and erroneously operated on another for a brain tumor she did not have. I have not read the links in their entirety but I will post them for you below.

In sum Democrats, progressives and liberals must get off their asses and vote. Only 30% voted yesterday and while Rome was burning Democrats fiddled since 2008 and even earlier than that to maybe 1972 when Nixon planned his southern strategy. This horrendousness is done by mainly older whites but the country will NOT stay that way. The Republicans knew that and did their homework; Democrats made up of the youth vote concentrated on the next IPhone or tech gadget and did not think it was important enough to vote in off year elections. 

These idiots in Kentucky just took 400,000 off of health car and these Baggers fail to see the Republicon (sic) Party is NOT about any of them. They care about racist conservative social issues more than they care about universal health as a right or if someone goes to bed hungry it is society's obligation to feed them. That's the domain of Democrats who FAIL miserably to tell their truth!

http://www.occupydemocrats.com/ben-carsons-long-history-of-medical-malpractice-will-shock-you/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3264044/Ben-Carson-sued-malpractice-six-times-including-girl-suffered-facial-disfigurement-woman-claimed-left-SPONGE-skull.html#ixzz3qZIrQwDb

Worries -- BIG Worries

I have worries -- big worries -- about our nation. Since the late 60's when I was imbued with great hope, when voices like the late Howard Zinn influenced me like no others could I had the bright enthusiasm of a 20 year old who thought all things humane were possible. Prof. Zinn always said change comes from the bottom up but judging by yesterday's 2015 state/local elections and if one wants to use it as a bell-weather election which I did, very very few bottom up efforts won. In Kentucky my yardstick for a bell weather state saw a Republican governor elected for the first time in many years, turning Kentucky more red than ever. Other states hopeful of obtaining Democratic majorities in state legislatures did not such as Virginia. Moreover, equal rights including LGBT rights lost in Houston as did the legalization of marijuana lose even for medicinal purposes in Ohio.

Where is this nation headed with its steeped in gerrymandered Republican districts and a Republican Party soaked in cash and allowed to use it?

When I look at the 2016 presidential slate especially on the Republican side I turn white with fear nauseated by what I see and hear. It could happen that either a wild Trump appealing to our nation's worst racist instincts actually could win. Even worse than he, in my opinion, is the horrific brain surgeon Carson proving that you don't have to be a brain surgeon to be smart. He is simply the worst of the worst and more frightening because he is a person of color who just may take some African Americans votes who voted for Obama away because they do not realize how extremist Evangelical fanatic this guy really is and many persons of color are very religious which may be his appeal to them. Imagine a man of science believing in Biblical creationism and eschewing the science based truth of evolution. Is that possible? I say only in America.

Is there hope or should I simply take my toys and go home, hide under the covers and forget the hope that once burned so brightly in me?

I WILL NOT SAY AGAIN AFTER THIS AS I AM TIRED OF SAYING IT GET OUT AND VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS AS IT SHOULD BE CONSUMMATELY OBVIOUS BY NOW WHAT WE ALL WILL LOSE. IF YOU DON'T YOU WILL GET THE VIOLENT, RACIST, HEALTH CARE AND MEDICARE, SOCIAL SECURITY REPEALING NATION ONE DESERVES IF ONE DOES NOT VOTE DEMOCRAT ACROSS THE NATION!!

The Preeminence of Science

Ben Carson Leads 2016 Republicans In New National Poll. See story here or below.
 
Why is this nation the laughing stock of nations that value intellect, science and the truth they bring to the advancement of man?
 
How is it possible that Ben Carson, a man SUPPOSEDLY of science, indeed, a neurosurgeon, denies what even my 9th grade biology high school teacher and all preeminent scientists especially in the fields of biology, virology, infectious disease, chemistry, archaeology, and more know to be true and provable multiple times over? Evolution is NOT theory as is our popular definition of theory. Evolution is FACT and Carson denies it.

One cannot understand the mutations of bacteria, viruses, the progression of infectious disease and these microscopic beings' evolutionary ability to survive despite all drugs thrown at them without understanding evolutionary DNA mutation. Evolution explains ALL life on earth.

How is it possible that a man, SUPPOSEDLY acknowledged in his field of neurosurgery, holds the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial backward belief in the anti-intellectual reactionary era of Tennessee and Appalachia at that time?

It has been said by some that Carson, when he does NOT become president, and he will not, will earn millions from the religious fundamentalist science denying communities through book deals, religious lectures, Christian TV and many other venues of the truth denying Evangelical religious extremist environs. Carson knows he can make millions from them and from those who ridiculously and erroneously think the Bible science.

Those who value intellect, academics, science and its proof should NOT allow him to get within an inch of White House power! We who love the truths of science should research his medical background at Johns Hopkins to see how a science-denying charlatan can overtake even Trump. Both men are preeminently unqualified for the presidency.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ben-carson-nbcwall-street-journal-poll_5637e8cce4b00a4d2e0b97f7?ref=topbar

TransCanada Shelves Its U.S. Keystone Application

YEEEEEHAAAAAA!! Activism works!!! I just said when the story broke that the Canadian NEWLY elected VERY LIBERAL Justin Trudeau government probably had as much to do with the sinking of this disgusting tarsands trans oil pipeline as did the very effective opposition here. Rachel Maddow just said that was so. I cannot believe I called it I say humbly. A BIG WIN for the planet and a big loss for filthy, disgusting, polluting, climate destroying rancid oil!!


 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/transcanada-suspends-us-permit-application-for-keystone-xl-pipeline_5637fafee4b027f9b969d94d

Sweet Sweet People

Metrojet Crash: What Could Cause a Plane to Break Up in Midair? Story here or below:

My vote: A BOMB on board creating an explosion. Why? 1. It is being said by many experts that the plane was solid -- lets out mechanical failure; 2. A missile? No, ISIS does not have the capability of shooting a missile that far up. 3. EXPLOSION? -- YES either a suicide bomber which these fanatics think will get them 152 virgins in heaven or someone surreptitiously left it on-board and then got off the plane. My final vote: A suicide bomber. Sweet sweet people -- NOT! 

Mr. Putin:  Your move!

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/russian-plane-crashes-in-the-sinai/metrojet-crash-what-could-cause-plane-break-midair-n455591

What a World

Curious, a Russian passenger plane en route from Egypt to Russia crashes in the Sinai probably killing all on board. Story here or below. I have questions. Sure, it could have been mechanical failure or weather events or even a bird but now that Russian bombers are working their magic in Syria and given the proclivities in that neck of the woods to be so utterly chaotic anything is possible. Yes, I do mean anything.

Simple answers are a thing of yesteryear and even then information was controlled. Remember the Maine, remember Gulf of Tonkin, remember the vanishing WMD of Iraq -- lies, lies, lies, and more lies. We the people of innocence pay the price. It, I am sure, is no different in Russia maybe even in triplicate.

The power brokers think they have unlimited control over every quixotic event in which they sink their boots. They don't. Others have a say in the matter and the innocent pay with their blood. Is that true in the case of the Russian passenger plane? I do not know but because the plane was flying from Egypt to Russia and Russia is bombing Syria to prop up Assad my warning lights of sabotage are blinking.

I could be wrong and proof with its revelations must determine the verdict IF one could only get at the truth.

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

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russian-passenger-plane-disappears-radar-n454971

CNBC Republican Debate Performance

The Republicans are kvetching (complaining) about the debate moderators and CNBC. The RNC as of this writing fired NBC.

I believe, however, the questioners must have planned the questions they would ask a bunch of carnival barkers who should never be near the oval office. I believe the moderators were dedicated to giving what they THOUGHT the Republican primary voter would want -- low on substantive policy (the most important thing for analysis) and heavy on gotcha sensationalist nonsense that has nothing absolutely nothing to do with how a candidate would govern and what, importantly, POLICY they would implement to perfect their vision.

This is a nation of about 350 MILLION human beings. Is it important for the questioners to stress poll numbers and insults? I think NOT but obviously CNBC came into the "debate" thinking that would make for riveting entertainment which translates into money. After all most news is entertainment.

If one wants hard hitting, smart good news, one should turn to "Democracy Now." That's an idea how about having Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales deliver the questions in the next Republican debate? Oh, of course not, God forbid presidential contenders should answer challenging questions even if they are not from the right wing extremist part of the spectrum!

Family Pride -- My Cousin with John Kerry

This is my cousin Jon Finer (second from the left) the great grandson of those who made it out of the pogroms of Eastern Europe and certain death for the Jewish people of that area.  He now stands with our Secretary of State negotiating with Iran to prevent nuclear war.  Imagine!  THIS is what makes our nation great.  Do not let a small hateful segment of our population ruin it!

The Republican "Debate" -- The Vice of Extremism

The Republican Party cannot get its act together. It is impossible because they ARE what millions saw on stage -- Extreme, more extreme and most extreme.

One lonely Republican, Kasich, realizes the moderation and normality it takes to govern. The rest are trying to outdo each other and seek the most extreme right wing perch on which to land. Normality and moderation are not words in the Republican lexicon in our time. Even the extremists are split between more extreme and most extreme. Hence it is an impossible mix the views of which the nation itself does NOT reflect.

Moreover, the Republican extremist game on immigration, 11 million Hispanic Roundup, or a variation thereof will lose them the Hispanic vote and thus lose the election as Mitt Romney so astutely predicted.

Reality speaks. If Republicans do not wax right wing extreme they lose their base and the primary vote. If they win through extremism and enter the general election they lose it to the Democrat.

Republicans and Republicans alone have created the combative barbed wire prison in which they live and the key of moderation to exit they do not possess.