Who Really... Benefits

 

The Republicans campaign on the idea that too many Americans receive benefits, Romney and his famous 47% condemnation of America, will probably doom national Republican candidates for decades to come. There is another side to this-the idea that 47% of Americans are hopeless dependent on federal handouts because they are poor. The targets of this message are people who receive a great deal of government benefits ( a great deal more than the poor) and persist to condemn the poor for the same conduct.

 

Paul  Ryan was the poster child for this hypocrisy: social security was critical to his path; but the voters who "buy in" get subsidies too- big ones- public golf courses, marinas, exceptional care of streets and cleanups; exceptional police and fire protection, world class hospitals-- all of these things are subsidized by government and taxpayers not to mention the business side- judicial enforcement of intellectual property, protection of creditors rights-- all of these things to which the wealthy feel entitled, not dependent, and really in this age seem to constantly ask/demand more-- people in Detroit pay property taxes through the nose and can barely get trash pickups, potholes that loosen fillings. It is the overall hypocrisy of the message that makes it fail-- derivatives trades and traders get more government benefits that people on welfare by far-- they have a protected/sheltered enterprise bigger than the economies of most countries. The full faith and credit of the United States is not just a product of tax and spend balances, it is everything.  The people who fight our wars, fill the ranks of civil service, civil defense; the people who support laws and civil conduct here.  It is the parents who raise families by sacrifice and keep kids in school to learn to be productive and leaders. 

 

There are lies and then there are damned lies, and people have a way- like a sensitive sense of smell- to detect the rottened GOP core here...hdm

Gun Owners the new Lunatic Fringe

Yes, this includes a lot of friends, people I enjoy laughing and working with( yes i know it is poor grammar but it is something up with which i will put).  Point is my fellow gun owner citizens are making America unsafe, and those with assault weapons are part of a lunatic fringe that thinks it is getting ready to go to combat against the US Army/Navy/Marines/Coast Guard-- ahh you get the idea.  They say they will kill anyone who takes away their guns which are used to keep us all safe hmmmmmmm.  That is the lunatic part. 
There is no right of individuals to have weapons if that possession and potential use is a danger to us.  Like anything else we do,  it can be regulated by US  the American Government- We THE PEOPLE   or as the said in my favorite Star Trek episode  VEE DEE PEOOOPULLY-- you had to have ben there never mind!

The Second Amendment was for States to have militias and for Slave owners. The Slave plantations in the south were prisons, people held against their will by force of death.  They dint want to pay for protection so the Slavers made every white man better than the Black man and an armed deputy; required him to go catch and return or kill escaped slaves- also known as humans seeking freedom. It had nothing to do with owning guns because well everybody who wanted a black powder musket to hunt or self defend could have one  unless it was illegal.  Towns and cities or even saloons declared no guns, a State could do it- you as head of your home could do it- we as a nation can do it- except for the other part of the lunatic fringe- the legal and business establishment of gunsters.

Yes, they have created a right to bear arms which includes the latest hot things they make and sell---now, I know the Founding Fathers were a horny, and resourceful lot of men ( well a few were Gentlemen, most believed women were inferior as well as most men, a few were rapists, most were slavers which meant they were completely immoral i.e.  would buy, sell, or kill a human for a $) but they were not lunatic enough to think everybody should have a machine gun, and neither are we.  The vast majority of Americans believe we should ban assault weapons, the vast majority of TV commercials paid by gunsters comprises the only consensus in favor of more deadly weapons.  Hunting and self defense ownership -after investigation and some serious taxes- im thinking minimum tax of $1,000 per year per handgun.   I don't own one and won't. I would not allow one in my home unless by a police officer or soldier.  I don't want anyone to have one.  I think we should all learn karate or jujitsu and settle our disagreements by beating the shit out of each other with our bare hands, and if you lose go get a baseball bat and bat .400.

Fact is, many more will survive to hate each other tomorrow, that is the American way- fuss and fight and come back again  and try to be friends- this idea of slaughter is not us.  It is the gun makers, the fear sellers, those who want to believe that Whites are a dying breed-- so much bullshit associated with guns-- but when you see them at the target range- putting holes in the heart of the target-- just remember it is a rehearsal for a killing-- and why do we need to do that... why do we need to do so much of that...hdm

the Game Changer

A corporate takeover of the US government has been a mere suspicion until now, for in the news cycle of early January comes a precise method for carrying out the plan.  Backstep a bit to the Republican nomination for President, Mitt Romney and the cascade of money; the carpet bombing of the public with false claims.  Romney was a vulture capitalist- one of the small army at war with US economy and US business, ripping apart companies and selling them of to the highest -usually foreign - bidder.  They have bankers and investment groups and are a new wave of economic drain; an activity that builds nothing, takes away everything and leaves the US economy worse off for everyone except the small group of vultures that feed on the events.

Now fast forward to the next election for President, and the Democrat nominee, will probably get many more votes than the pro-Corporation opponent, but the Democrat has no chance of winning.  Electoral votes are awarded on the basis of congressional districts. Congressional districts that have been carefully carved to be Republican.  Many more voters in the State and indeed the entire nation will not vote Republican but they will be carved into fewer electoral districts and fewer electoral votes will come.  The Constitution envisioned State-wide elections when assigning the role to Electors chosen on the basis of States which cannot be carved to favor one or the other Party any more than they are now--but districts, can be shaped and designed to include and exclude specific voter characteristics.  This is how we have a Republican Majority in the House that has a popularity in the range of 20%. This is how we will have a completely un- representative Presidency too.  The weakness in the system is the State- corporate money can buy local elections quite cheaply- it is the blind spot of the Democratic party in many key states, it is now the place where the Revolution will not be televised, where Corporate America becomes- the American government, and citizens become an unwanted nuisance.

Inauguration Day

Inauguration Day was an anticlimax for me, probably for millions-- oh there was the staff Ball and the donor Balls, there was probably $300 million spent to celebrate the election which costs would exceed $3 Billion. But still for me, an anticlimax-- the joy was felt most  two days before the election when -in the critical aftermath of an epic storm- America blinked into focus, and the charlatan and all of his guise became transparent, there were people in the water, in dire peril;  and there was a hand reaching to them with sincerity and kindness-- and finally for America, the color of the hand became the color of rescue, of care, of love and compassion--the color of hope and faith, life in abundance-- yes all of these things have a color.

There was white fright, universal flight away from the rantings of a hollow man and suddenly we saw a human...He was there all the time, and many finally saw him as if for the first time.

Now, Inauguration Day was also Dr. King's Day and as I remember him, he would smile on this day, in his heart he would know, the could have been few better ways to celebrate the principles of his life, than to stand together and celebrate a vision of hope and change, set voyage to a place of greater abundance for all Americans.  It is the sad-sweet burden of men like Dr. King- they sacrificed so much so that we can be as good and bad as we choose-- freedom is that to do all things- to save lives, to collect machine guns and hope for a chance to use them-- yes, this is America, not as we wish it to be, but as it is...flawed and fabulous; cold and compassionate drunk in  anger and somehow loving in the sobered afterglow-- we are so many things and w ask so much of our leaders-- and none more than the man inaugurated  on King Day.   hdm

Django

Django

there is an issue here which should not be.  The issue basically is the reverence we feel to historical truth and accuracy, a sort of holy grail- an artifact so long lost it is a fiction and as a practical matter does not exist.   Quentin Tarantino seems to use his films to snatch and claim some characteristic of Black life as he sees it in America- the thug styles in pulp fiction, how he made the phrases M***F**** seem like a punctuation mark in nouveau Black-speak  ( let me tel you if you hang around enough Black men you see he has a point--ahhhhmeiii!)

Now the movie-- Django
It is about exploits and they appeal to people with a mindset towards video games, amazing film special effects, or movies in general which oversize physical abilities ( Iron Man, Spider man, Batman, Bourne parts 1- 100, "24"  -which i loved_-- you get the pattern). Now the Black elites seem divided , some boycott the film find its historic faults (Spike Lee, i am a huge fan). Equivocate over its artistic merits by finding difficulties in the historic record ( like Angela Rye, i am a fan- she is smart). But to many in the masses it is earth shattering,  mind expanding -gratefully received heroism.

Quaere: Why would we back away from that--???!!!
 
First one sees there are other aspects of Black history-(1) we are not the only group who can see the record or interpret it; another sobering fact- there were so many years, month and days of Tarantino's career before now when someone could have told a Django without the excesses of bad language and historical inaccuracy.  There ought to be some gratitude for an event which focuses young minds on an old history which is still very much in our everyday in America but forgotten like a campaign slogan from a lost campaign. ( The 2nd Amendment some think is about owning a machine gun, was about militias who chased down and sometime executed Black people who escaped from plantation- prison camps) . James Madison was a slave owner who hanged 30 men recaptured trying to escape from his prison camp plantation( later became president with a smalllll  p ) and was one of the drafters of the 2nd Amendment.
For example, Affirmative action ended not because Black people chose, but because the historic record was left fallow-  there are lives in being that were touched by ex-slaves, children of parents who knew their slave predecessors by witness of Mother and Father.  My Grandmother, knew her slave ancestors and she raised me- so  to say there are no present effects of slavery- well neither mule nor the 40 acres have yet arrived, and as far as I know those who were paid reparations for slavery and abolition were slave owners in the South who started this garbage to begin with.

My point is not reparations, nor Affirmative Action- my point is history and how the record is lost until found by someone like Tarantino, or Oprah, a film Producer--then the historical accuracy voices are raised when they seemed conspicuously absent in more meaningful events- like tracing the loss of wealth in Black families from the enslavement (kidnap and murder) of our slave ancestors when making public policy designed to overcome the effects of slavery...anyway

Django viewers have come to speak to me, among people i know, people I ask- hardly a scientific poll, more like random comments and rumors- like good evidence at a trial by jury  ; ) ) . I have been told that it  has appeal to people who can go to a movie, pay a lot for popcorn, and see a Black man do the wild and heroic stuff that we rarely see done by a Black man even in the imagination of fiction; and for what it is worth- for some it raises the idea of self esteem, and group esteem for many others.

Perhaps it raises an opportunity for Black leadership to promote some of those historically accurate facts and events-- you know  while so many are looking, and hungry for popcorn...hdm

the arithmetic of Gun Control

There is a flaw in the theory of the gunseller, a flaw in the mathematics.  It takes some advance calculus to catch it  but once one does it becomes obvious:  the scales of human slaughter are out of balance.
One killer's life is not the balance of an innocent- the killing of a murderer does not restore the victims, does not ease the weight of our grief-- it does nothing but give us a bad bargain- a wasted life for a precious one.  Then there is the calculus of the machine gun, the teeny centimeter pull of a trigger that can take 100 lives- innocent lives.  The twitch of a muscle that makes orphans from happy children, widows of passionate loving women; childless grief of proud parents-- who would never want to see their children dead-- we are not made for that--yet, that is the offer. The bare effort that turned a movie theater into a deathtrap and a kindergarten classroom into something I still can not speak...

Gun sellers make the White Woman of America feel safe, he -for she and her safety- must own weaponry, an arsenal!   She relishes the power of the jolt and boom. Knowing, that if someone kills her, he will die too.  Wait --No, she feels safe because no one will kill her because if they do-- they die too.  Nooo wait, there is safety in this somewhere...it can't just be  an illusion

let's see  bullets fly from bad guy, killing innocent people, and a good guy (who is passing by and sees the scene) shoots and hits the bad guy-- ok that is safety-- the bad guy dies after some innocents  die in fear and agony-- wondering of their loved ones-- the unsaid good byes on their stilled lips.
Well I am just thick, and dont get the trick.  The Second Amendment is our freedom to be safe by gunshot death--
So as we consider limiting machine guns, and trying to curtail the epidemic of mass murder sweeping over our country, we must consider that we have the power to make laws to stop killings.  Nothing in our Constitution requires abject stupidity in the face of slaughter.  We can ban assault weapons and limit gun ownership in ways we can agree-- by will of the people.  We do not owe more lives to the profits of gun sellers, we do not owe more lives to the myth that everyone has an unlimited right to instruments of destruction.  We owe it to ourselves and our children to prevent the killers from killing, as much as we can, as soon as we can- and to be more vigilant of the threat posed by businesses that sell deadly devices.

guns, guns, and more guns (part satire, but frankly it hurts too much to laugh)

I am watching the heads of the NRA( press event) talk about the need for more guns now in our schools because their members, gun makers, wish to continue to supply machine guns to lunatics in America--ahh I suspect that may be a deep splinter-ed group of the gun lobby- Lof A  Lunatics of America nooo excuse me  the Heavily Armed Flaming-Lunatics of America Secret Society  or HALF-ASS ( I know they are a little off in grammar too).

 Now it appears there has been an unstated partnership between the lunatics and the NRA:  the lunatics supply an unlimited amount of hatred,violence and Batshit crazy and the NRA provides advanced weaponry, ammunition, and a political fog through which no one can proceed to cut off the machine guns and the ammo. The political fog is a work of political art.  They took down one Maryland Senate candidate way back when  - an early gun opponent- and the legend has grown to the point of invincibility.  It is a big business but it is not like oil or food or clean water-- it is manageable,  not too big for government.  It's not like we could not live without it-- imagine the fright and panic-- a gun shortage-- lines two blocks long at Walmart for ammo---Huge black white market for used bullets!!!

Now,  supply and demand is an American tradition.  There is a demand by the  lunatics, we supply the victims- young, old, movie goers, pedestrians on NY City streets.  Now what the NRA proposes is to add the possibility of a crossfire to the equation- that spontaneous evil would be met by planned good and in the shoot out, we can also become collateral damage.  That would be progress, I mean we are probably falling behind the war-lord zones in Ethiopia, the child soldier zones in Africa or Taliban zones in  Afghanistan; we are in peril of losing the number one rank in danger per square inch of life-- so we may need to accelerate the rate of destruction in order to keep up, so the NRA says it is the one to acept the challenge- put guns in every school.

The NRA for their part is ready for their vision of America to become reality.  There will be no thought of say- limiting advanced weaponry from future sales-- no more assault rifles from Walmart, or On-line;  no ban on sales to certified homicidal maniacs ( after all they too have a need for protection say...from assault by police officers)

Life in America, a perfect storm of legislatively protected gunfire-- ahh  so we can all  love the smell of gunpowder in the morning-- will it remind us of freedom ? I dunno, I think there are at least a few other Americans who don't believe the Constitution guarantees us the right to death by gunshot...hdm

Politics~ GUNS

Politics~ GUNS

to paraphrase someone far wiser than me

when your only tool is a hammer, you tend to treat all your problems as nails

when your country believes in gun violence,
it treats all of its citizens as... target practice

I don't believe the Constitution gives a right to have weapons to individuals, there was no right to weapons at common law in England the only rights one had came from the King, and they dint believe in giving folk weapons to be used against the king-- in fact the document many cite as common law right to arms only says that Protestants should have the same weapons as Catholics-- i say give all a copy of the Bible-- that can be deadly in the wrong hands too. But i definitely do not think the Founders- slave owners, women haters, elitists were also In Sane and that is what it takes to believe we should give anyone with $400 a machine gun and ammunition. There is no torture of reason that is going to prevail on that point- and the NRA is beginning to sound like a terrorist organization.

Now i know this is too long for most of my readers here so I will summarize:

I have seen the way you drive your cars, my fellow Americans, machine guns are definitely not for you. hdm

Divine Winds

 
History and legends tell of two incidents when the nation of Japan faced a certain defeat by invasion and the armada was destroyed by storms-- the armadas of Kubla Kahn and the storms that intervened to save them-- were called Divine Winds (the word became infamous later in WWII as Kamikaze-- the last gasp of a defeated nation to squander its youth in a vain attempt to extend a certain defeat).  Kamakaze was a man made divinity and it failed. I think of this now as a great storm seems to crush some parts of my country- places i have lived and think of as my home-- and I do not think it is a Divine Wind-- there is suffering and loss of life and we should all send our prayers to those affected and any efforts we can make to help. No,  It is the impact of this storm that speaks a lesson to me-- how the sophistications and dedications to profits and business so quickly recede and lose significance when the land on which we stand disappears beneath roiled ocean waters and flood. When our systems fail, power gone, underground and above ground networks lost to unstoppable surge of tides-- it is then we are reminded of the need each of us has for others; for help in dire times, when we cannot be saved by wealth or false pride--or the sense of superiority which none of us has earned. No, it is the Divine Wind that sweeps away pettiness and we realize it could be us in the water or our child-- reaching for a rope, reaching for life itself--hoping for a Divine Wind....hdm

Politics- Republican Values

They refused to even vote on relief for people in the freezing days of winter who may be homeless, without jobs, lost possessions from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy-- they gave breaks to oil companies, to film makers-- but the people of New York and New Jersey who suffer-- well, there was a decision not to even vote on an agreed amount of emergency and humanitarian relief. The Speaker of the House became the symbol of why Americans must remove them from public offices; this demonstration that they are unfit to govern. Their policies are a confusion of public matters and a clear course to receive money from wealthy individuals and corporations. They have worked against the American interests in prosperity under the ridiculous guise that we cannot afford to spend money to care for our people nor grow our economy unless it is through war. It is becoming clear, it is them or us, Republicans or the American society we expect to live in- one based on fairness and opportunity, sacrifice for the common good, and a government that efforts to improve the lives of its citizens. To the GOP i think America will say-

goodbye and dont let the door knob hit ya where the Good Lord Split ya