at the end of the whip...

So the Biblical wisdom  rings true, sow upon the wind and reap the whirlwind. For me there is another and more apt analogy; at the end of the whip the sting is felt.  For the rest of the world watching Typhoon Haiyan was like the flight of a whip through the air, where the storm struck, its sting has left an indelible scar.  Surrounded by the seas, the seas may never seem the same.

It recalls times in every place when the whip's sting raised anguish.Times when all the things we have made seemed to melt away, and we are like the man who turns to the stone to hide and the stone speaks- there is no hiding place. Since we have fueled the air with carbon and moisture, sown heat and
energy, the whirlwinds are upon  us all.  There is still the persistent myth that Western money, denial, and ignorance will prevail.  In this ignorance then, we wait for the whistle of wind and the sting of the whip....hdm

Vacant minds....

Stupidity---
the government shutdown and default on US debt is based upon it- so it is now the dominant theme in U.S. politics the demonstrated Stupidity of the Republican Party and the presumed stupidity of the American public.  It is important not to underestimate either force- Republicans use Stupidity like the Jedi used the the force.  It is strong within them and they exude it when they act.  It seeps like a low cloud when they fill a room- choking off the air needed for thought. 

They see they world through this cloud and the American people are to believe  that Democratic-led national health care is a national crisis that threatens he future of the country, so much so that Republicans are justified in attacking the national economy.  They see the public as accepting that Democrats have therefore failed to deliver a strong economy and are to blame for the shutdown, the default, and the economic harms of sequester, killing jobs legislation, small business legislation, infrastructure, and the national rail improvement- (can't put all the economic growth they have killed here I would need a new FB page) The question then is how stupid are the American people-  they start with many Caucasian-Americans who want to believe something evil about Obama- Fox News ran a comedy spoof that Obama is paying to keep a Muslim museum open in the Shut down- as a News item,  see  they want to believe anything evil. 

Then there are the Republicans who have decided to do anything, support anything to stop Obama- truly even in the Civil War Era there has not been a political party as destructive as these Republicans  Tea Party- a group of incredible phonies( so many of them actually live on the Government as military retirees, ex-civil servants, teachers  so forth), who claim credit for the blood sacrifices of our Nation's Heroes- yeah, they do, they say the American traditions of freedom are theirs. In summary they posses an over saturation of stupidity- more than a human mind can hold-- I see Donald Trump and I think about the movie  MIB--  aliens inside of stuff...hmmmm

The republicans( no caps  they are no longer a proper noun - just a semi-curse word like...Poop)  believe they can convince Americans that Obama has done all of these tings: damaged our Nation's credit, damaged our military, brought on the debt of the last 60 years of warring around the world for profits-- ye, and they are right, most Americans are inclined to believe all or part of it--- like those poled during the campaign who felt Mitt Romney deserved credit for killing Bin laden--- ahh thank you Fox News -- you keep us so well informed.

A murder of justice

It was ritual combat in the court room and the prosecution defaulted-- big time. They lost jury selection and then lost the jury-- did you see the social distance between the prosecutor and the star witness-- the lady on the phone-- the prosecutor treated her as if she were an alien-- speaking an unearthly language. The jury did the same and the quibbles over  why she didn't go to her murdered friend's funeral mattered more than his murder. That was the case- the stalking and the evidence of the victims state of mind-it was a beautiful piece of evidence-- pearls on a string-- yet flung into a trough, the jury became a group of feeding hogs-- looking only for the rancid garbage.

In America, Blacks have not been granted the dignity of freedom.  Their freedom was won by incredible sacrifice, blood,  ages of tears, and destruction of life.  The history of Black America is the prototype for exploitation: converting lives into mere wealth, as if wealth had any worth in comparison.  The values that firmed the raison d'etre of America were such- a range of false nobility and truthful greed.  To the greedy one must conceded: the seem to lack human souls but they were brutal in their treatment of humanity and the truth- money matters more than any human life except their own heinous existences.  The revelation in the Trayvon Martin murder is that the community of which he was a part has claimed dignity; they have claimed his dignity. He lives on in the hearts of many millions- people who see him as human, as a life destroyed without reason; as evidence of our collective will to keep our young and make a better world for them. We claim the dignity of American freedom, we have fought and created it not just for others. Not just for the indolent rich who thrive on the work of others, but for the young and helpless, the old and needy-- for all who are here in this amazing place and in this challenging time. 

Now the natural advantages of white male status have long since faded away we live in the still brutal vestiges: the war machine that keeps our economy keyed to killing dark skinned people somewhere on the globe; the use of inherited wealth and privilege to drive millions into poverty who would by their own effort ascend to wealth.

First, we see a law like Stand your Ground- men with concealed handguns free to push their presence on an unsuspecting and unarmed world-- but there is a flaw in the formula.   A law can be changed as the hearts and minds of an enlightened people change.  Despite purchased legislators, there will be a wave of truth-a Democracy is a difficult thing to destroy. It takes more than a frightened little man with a handgun.

Second, this trial and this result will have a greater impact than one imagines- the Murder of Trayvon Martin will /has galvanized a greater community of people who can see American injustice-- while those who are blind to it will wallow onward. But this blessed coalition will flourish-- righteousness is like spring rains...it makes us grow-- into mighty trees...hdm

Brasil desperta

 Brazil Awakens!!!

 .

Brasil desperta
olhos, corações de repente abrir
eo som de pés marchando

It is the most welcome sign of progress when the people see the wrongs against them and say " NO More"  I read stories- young men who watched their mothers perish while receiving poor health care. Students who want more opportunity to climb the ladder for success. Parents who want better life for their children.  It has been going on for a long, long time  but now-- as if lifted by the same wind-- all of these hearts begin to fly....
 It is a blessed and rich country now  the people want to share the blessings..and for my part it is a wonderful thing to see.
A class of rich and powerful have grown on the backs of the poor. Corruption and influence have become tools of wealth.  Honest work has become a badge of relative poverty.  Low wages prevent movement in society, we become trapped while doing all that should be done: honest work, paying taxes, raising families, and obeying the law.

 uma pedra
uma pedra no meio do caminho  
para o progresso ...e justiça

This is not new but the anger is fresh.  The acceptance of injustice is not new but it has filled Brazilians to the brim...they can accept no more.  There is not a single event that lighted the fuse, a price increase in public transportation was like a prism in the midday sun- it focused light on one subject. It has burned quickly to ignite the black powder. It is nation that began like most of the Americas in an era of total loss of freedom for many to the gain of the few. 

The heat the Sun, 
the blood of its Saints, 
all  seems mixed with the power of the seas.

The beauty of land and people
remembered in loss of freedom: once endured in Black skin;
endured again in Dictatorship.
Now, it cannot be, because something rises from within.
A long simmered coal that glowed heat
until breath of spirit touched it thus;
 now, a fire burns...and burns!


 I can only hope that in the US the poor are watching and learning that action speaks louder than money...that Democracy is a thing of the People. Equality means making a society in which everyone has  a fair and reasonable opportunity to succeed.  Where the paths are made easier because we lift the road to meet our children's feet.  Where a stone in the road is where stumbling giants fall and the people stand strong

 ouvirmos
mesmo na escuridão ouvimos
sussurros da alma do sol

...hdm

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

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

Divine Winds

History and legends tell of two incidents when the nation of Japan faced certain defeat by invasion and the enemy armada was destroyed by storms-- the armadas of Kubla Kahn-- and the storms that intervened to save them were called Divine Winds(kamika ze).  The word became infamous later in WWII as Kamikaze, there it was the last gasp of a defeated nation; an incredible choice to squander its youth in a vain attempt to extend a certain defeat.  This 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. The need 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.  Yes, 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

Tell Don't Ask

The so-called Conservative Right, the self described soul of the Republican Party has given the best political issue yet to the Democrats and President Obama- IT IS their social agenda. Instead of Don't ask , don't tell- (that strange deal with being Gay as if being gay was just discovered instead of being as old as people)- this is some Republicans telling the rest of us:  DO AS WE SAY, WE KNOW HOW YOU SHOULD LIVE YOUR LIFE.

They want to tell us to give up sex until we marry, that we must only love someone of the opposite sex and the same race; they want us to accept that white men are often frightened of dark skinned people and should have the right to shoot anyone who frightens them; and they want us to generally accept that women should be subservient to the men in their lives.  They also believe that the federal government is the root of all evils and that war is the solution to any problems that frighten a Nation of White  men.  This is so much like the 50's when the cities experienced White flight- now is White fright, and integration, busing, and Women's Lib showed that the country was truly going to the dogs.  The problem with all of this is simply- who are these jerks who think they ought to tell anyone else how to live the one life we have been given; I mean: when I want to worship someone i get down on my knees and pray.

There is a deeper problem to all of this, the Arizona Syndrome- where Whites feel the shrinking power of their disappearing numerical majority, and the fact that logic and reason have decimated the White voting bloc.  We are no longer a nation of White Men. It is too difficult now to convince women they need a man to control their lives, it is impossible to convince young people that being selfish helps their country, it is totally out of the question to get many normal people to trust big business after they have seen their assault on our jobs( gone overseas to low bidders); home equities ( the housing crisis and credit crisis); wars for Republican profits ( i mean how else can you explain Iraq-- that a group of thugs with box cutters exposed our miserable leadership and therefore we spent 3 Trillion dollars and 8 years at war) They still control the money and have invented a game only they can generally play- trading derivatives-  one Hedge Fund Manager earned $3 Billion one recent year- while we cut schools and teachers, and trash pickups, and healthcare, and food to the hungry, housing for homeless---ahh what would Jesus say..? or Budha? or Muhammed? or Bubba the local homeless Vietnam War vet now begging under a bridge? (probably saying Ohh myyy Jesus!)

We are not the first country to have a weird Right Wing attempt to take over a society, and like the others ( oh, say Germany with Hitler, Brazil during the military dictatorship) there is a corp of deep pocket wackos who are using a political party to advance interest which i think arise straight from their frustrated sex drives--well i am giving a great deal of credit which may not be due-- they may simply be more or less insane or power mad.  The point is that they want to control behavior- who sexes whom, who decides to give birth, who marries whom, what kinds of sex, whether she submits to a man or not.  They are not content to wage wars, destroy lives around the globe, convert mankind's few opportunities for progress into bloody venges and revenges( is "venges" a word?- should be, anyway...how can you have re venge without first having a venge).

We live in a golden age- glad captives of a time when the globe can be easily embraced. It can be further embraced by a global pollution, excess of automobiles, carbon fuel burning, ocean trashing, woman bashing, rule by petty dictators and machine guns every goddamn place! OOOORRRRR it can be embraced by progress such as the incredibly rapid adaptations to computers, the internet, smartphones--technology puts us to the lie when we say we cannot change,  fundamentally change-- we already have, and in record times:  what maybe 10 years for the embrace of the internet and maybe 7 years for the embrace of the smartphone technology.  Wireless communications mean we don't have to wire-grid and pave-over the world in order to industrialize enough to feed and employ our swelling masses.

This is a Golden Age of opportunity for social Greening, progress on the things which deeply trouble our societies- on a global basis- water, food, the safety and equality of women- putting an end to war, creating productive capacity to give business and careers potentials to millions more ...it is in our busy little hands. Hands which can turn palms up in surrender or grab something we all know is true--the moment to realize we are what we do; and we can be so much more than we now do.

Leaving Baghdad ( Part One)

There may be tears in Baghdad, definitely some in many homes in the U.S. as our troops leave Iraq- a season of homecoming joy hopefully awaits thousands of brave men and women in uniformed service.  I expect there are deep doubts and fears that spur tears that will fall and stay in Baghdad, to the extent that a feeling of safety was connected to the U.S. military presence, it too will be leaving.
There were some moments in this road to and from Baghdad that are remarkable - that stand out in memory.  For me, like the tips of undersea volcanoes that breach the waters- stepping stones to the eye, but in deeper reveal- they are great mountains.  The first was the incredible silence over my City the day after the terror attacks in New York City, the raw feeling in my eyes, and the silence as air traffic and commerce seemed stilled.  How we talked in hushed tones.  Then the revelation that our government had been asleep at the switch, National Security Advisor  specialist in defeating the Soviet Union, might not even have known what Al Qaeda was.  How they featured then dropped the pursuit of Bin Laden.  Then how Bin Laden appeared in Republican reelection campaign ads, the Boogie Man.  No one said hey wait--dint you promise to bring him in?  We paid Pakistan to help hunt him down; turned out he was living large in Pakistan.  A spectacle:  Presidential candidate saying - My opponent would not even have gone to war...ahh, the humanities!

We turned on the war machine as a TV event, shock and awe on Friday night special.  We sent our soldiers on a blind alley rush to Baghdad with reporters looking goofy in military garb- flinching at every remote blast. Sandstorms grounded air support- oh, if there had been an army there to oppose us--such poor, poor leadership.  The glory was vain, Saddam was hanged but it was a big lie that he brought down the Towers--a lie many Americans still believed.
Eight years of war and my country seemed stranger each passing day, a government taught us to fear, the American spirit, crushed underfoot like a spent cigarette because leaders failed and wished us to believe nothing greater was in us.  I remember a disabled war veteran, taking off his artificial leg to pass an airport screening. We spent billions annoying citizens, reinforcing the big scare.
Teaching fear and limitation, but it was merely the first of many such waves-- later we were too broke to make jobs here -the new jobs that fuel the economy and make even more jobs; debt has made us unable to grow--I guess they forget or some never knew- America is tougher than words of doubt.  It was tough enough to fight poverty in the 60's, fly to the moon in the 70's, meet cold war communists in the 80's- somehow, a pile of loans does not seem to equate to nuclear missiles in Cuba.
Again the teacher brings a message of fear, to a creature of hope and determination.  In the animus of our nation, as if the body politic were a human body, the  national skin reacts to the irritations of those repeated doses of fear... a burning sensation.

Infrastructure...

My life on a T-shirt, yes

voter suppression left an impression

not soon to be lost, imagine wardrobe costs:

conservative voter liberation,

against labor org limitations

and the incredibly WRONG  right wing

yes, WRONG WING attacks the West Wing

and the best things in t-shirts

are not wet anymore, that would harass

those beautiful...glasses, we are  brittle edges

drifting on the cusp of freedom, borrowed time

upon  ignored infrastructure

it crumbles but much more important- social ones

Will America once again fear its children

growing up so loose now, almost feral

Right Wing song, wrongs 'neath a shadow

so long, and growing, sowing

seeds of dim sighted greed.  When

comes the harvest, my life on a T-shirt

would be grim...

do you know where your children are

or more important, alone on mean streets in the night...

do you know where ...their children are?

Veterans Care...

The Iraq story just took a turn that many had foreseen, the care of the injured soldiers as a measure of how much this Administration and ruling political party really care about the heroes of their war in Iraq. The first middle east war was far more righteous following the incursion into Kuwait but the treatment of gulf syndrome as a political football bothered a lot of people...this one shocks the conscience of a nation.
Yet we have really seen this before, once taken away from creating political divisions, this group has not shown an adequate ability to manage. It boasts often of the contracting out of it's work but rarely of it's own demonstrable achievements in management. Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans showed that even in a crisis that takes lives of innocent Americans, political considerations remain at the top of the agenda and the costly hours spent on how to create political gain in Louisiana in the face of the killer storm has come to light and may not go away.
This administration also gets very high marks for its news management and even from the ridiculous spectacle of "embedded reporters" in the Iraq invasion to now, they have shown excellence in keeping certain news items in a narrower range than expected or due...this will be a test given the new makeup of Congress. Shabby treatment of wounded soldiers makes the pro-military positions and attitudes seem like something completely insincere.

Draft Not Needed to Limit War

The draft won't limit the initiation of force- oh it would be different if there were a universal draft- we would have more personal engagement to the power elites if their own children had to go off to earn their copororate dividends by risking their lives in combat-- Mr. Rangel we owe you a great national "thank you" for putting that thought into the mainstream.Using drafted soldiers would not really affect the decision to use force it would really only go to the end war public pressure as the casualties might begin to mount. We have seen the innate appeal to Americans to support troops once committed to combat. The modern constitutional interpretation of war powers- and post 9/11- gives unlimited discretion to commit troops to the Executive. The all volunteer army has shown it runs out of volunteers in these confused and unclear policy situations like Iraq--we have had to move national guard forces into the theater of combat and extend tours of duty to maintain person power as needed. This has been an effective drag on continuing to escalate the military role. The best approach to avoiding war is to interdict the cycle of wars tied to presidential re-election campaigns. With all due respect the hundreds of $billions, loss of thousands of lives, and further destabilization of a critical region was a too steep price to pay to unseat one petty dictator in Iraq and re-elect a mere politician in Washington, D.C..

Did He Think That God Wouldn't Notice?

SEEMS that the leader of the faith based people has resigned... In the middle of campaigns to ban gay marriage .
They used to call them busy bodies or gossips-- now they call themselves "best friends" or spiritual guides or concerned this or that and such ...but there have always been people who want to tell everybody else how to live their lives.
They sometimes come at you with history--"The founding Fathers.." bit--or they come at you with a Bible in one hand and a mouthful of anger and judgment- the religious authority bit--but almost always with these "movement" types we have found that they talked the talk but couldn't walk the walk--Now the leader of the faith based people --who have been hammering away at gay rights and gay marriage to destroy them both--turns out to be GAY-- not only that but BUYING GAY SEX--Whoa!! the faith based people must be spinning in their graves and they ain't even dead yet!
This is the kind of moment in a play where Shakespeare would say the Very Vaults of Heaven would Crack...but you know-- with these particular faith based folks you wonder if Heaven has anything to do with it at all-- (what is that ...is that a whiff of Sulphur !)
I saw the faith based folks supporting a war that has taken many lives--not quite a thou shalt not kill crowd-- I saw them get on board to bring down reproductive rights--well at least that was with the thought of preserving life--then I saw them go after Gays to turn them into a kind of second class citizen -even amending the Constitution- be-e-e-c-a-a-u-u- s-e the faith based folks don't like what Gay people do--how they live--how they choose to live. And they have pretty much judged them and called them everything but a child of God.
Well it turns out the Gay folks aren't so different from the faith based folks after all-- and it turns out- and this is a HOOT- both groups(while at war over gay rights) are being led by Gay people.
Personally, I have gay people in my family, among my close friends, and even if there weren't I would hopefully feel the same way-- if you want someone to think your way ..fine ...try and convince them( I always welcome Jehovah Witness especially when they get me out of the shower, all cold and wet--I greet them warmly-- cookies and milk anyone? --and thank God when they leave--is there a more welcome sight in all of nature than the backs of a group of Jehovah Witnesses--I think not!).
But who is so cool that they can morally condemn other people? I mean unless they are hurting someone else--like a spouse abuser, a child molester( even if he is a congressman in charge of preventing child molesting); and I am thinking here that Fate, Karma, Universal Justice-- somewhere there is a special place for the secretly Gay religious leader who condemns Gay people in the name of God ( there's that Sulphur smell again--that is so weird!)
I'm expecting denials and worse before this story is over-- but for now I hope people think about this next week when they vote in several states to take away some of the civil rights of Gay people which is just another way of saying Children of God.
So maybe the faith based folks need to amend their definition of holy marriage-- one man and one woman-(and one other man preferably by the hour but we won't talk about that.... or the Sulphur).

This Is Not a Test...

its an investment in a nuclear future for a nation and government left wanting by years of self imposed economic isolation--no not a nuclear energy future nor even a nuclear weapon future - but a trade, banking, and credit concession filled future due to the threat of nuclear weapons development. The world stage is somewhat bare- the major actors ( U.S., Britain) bogged down in a civil war in Iraq; France, Germany, and most of the EU bogged down in economic competition with the ravenous Chinese economy- this leaves an opening for North Korea to gain concessions it has been unable to gain by diplomacy or other forms of military threats. Japan and China will be in the queue with the major western powers to ante up a price big enough to forestall more development. On the surface it may appear as multilateral negotiations with a strong regional flavor but underneath it all is the newly weakened U.S.--weakened by the enormous strain and expense of Iraq so that adventurous governments everywhere realize that we will be most reluctant to open a new front anywhere. Venezuela, Cuba, various forces in Africa and the middle east will be emboldened by the success of North Korea-- the costs of Iraq are beginning to come back to bother the West-- the Bush Doctrine- the set of policies and circumstances that justified the invasion of Iraq in self defense: to eliminate a threat from weapons of mass destruction and terrorist collaboration. The Bush Doctrine has seen it's second application: the invasion of Iraq was the first; the nuclear arming of North Korea is the second; it appears that more can expected.