Category: Politics

Two Civilizations?

History tells us that civilizations rise and fall. Typically the nation state rises as it conquers the surrounding countryside and resources. Peoples are assimilated into this. The cycle is to pioneer the frontier, civilize the outlands, redistribute the resources and wealth, centralize power and distribution of the wealth, and tax production until the resources are overrun and go into decline. Concurrently government and its infrastructure further burdens the populace and the available natural resources.

Fast forward to today. We no longer make anything, as individuals, from the natural resources. Corporations have been formed to do most of that bidding with a scant few “hardy individualists” left to attempt it solo. With this love of the corporeal entity has come a furtherance of the civil and criminal rights of the non-human to the point of creating two civilizations.

If the corporation cannot feel pain and is only obligated to generate wealth at any expense then it is free of the normal human encumbrances like pain, hunger, love, empathy, and many other such feelings. Running roughshod over people and protecting their well being is not in corporate policy for the most part. Policy is sculpted to provide legal protections and not human protections.

The work of the marketeers, spindoctors, and politicos then becomes catering to the deep pockets of the corporations. Altered states of awareness are pushed onto the masses by every means imaginable in order to gain acceptance for the behavior of businesses and their representatives.

The general population is kept distracted by finance, need, manufactured want, and entertainment. As in Roman times; bread and circuses. Today it is popcorn, nuts, beer, hot dogs, halftime shows, and sporting events. And it is all sponsored by the corporeal entities.

Two civilizations exist and the general population is NOT the one benefiting the most from the experience.

What Our National Security Did Not Do

I just finished watching this documentary called “A Good American”, a film by Friedrich Moser.  The story is about Bill Binney who once worked as an analyst for the NSA.  Oliver Stone is the Executive Producer.  What it offers in pretty clear language and evidence is how badly misappropriation of public monies, corrupt Washington insider activity, political appointments, and gross incompetence lead up to the losses of 9/11 and subsequent years.

Bill and others employed at the NSA developed a program called thinthread which, when placed in the communications streams being monitored by the NSA, traced communications packets from source to destination and saved the data about the data (called metadata) into a large database.  Then, using techniques Bill developed in previous decades, reports could be made showing the interconnections between hundreds of millions of telephone and internet users worlwide.

It was so successful that it could find threats developing well before anything would happen and allow for a substantial advanced warning on threats about to happen.  Bill’s earliest use of the analytical techniques told of the impending Tet Offensive in Hue in Vietnam.  He perfected the automation of the techniques with the introduction of the personal computer.

At the NSA he was given charge of a small team of individuals to automate analysis of the data being collected.  The team quietly did that and demonstrated it’s efficacy at several “research” operations the NSA ran around the world.  It was discovering things that no other individuals or systems were able to discover.

As the world threat levels loomed and Osama Bin Laden began financing the terrorism, Bill’s thinthread was detecting those activities in advance.  The problem was that the appointed head of the agency, the director in charge of analysis automation, the assistant director in charge of analysis automation, and the newly hired systems vendor had a vested interest in making sure Bill’s thinthread did not get to play throughout the agency.  They made millions burying it and touting their nonworking, expensive, protected system offered by the vendor SAIC.

As a good American Bill then pursued notifying the Defense Department of the missteps by the bosses.  What he did not anticipate was the fallout.  The NSA had pulled the plug on thinthread and buried all information about it at the direction of the bosses who were enriching themselves pushing the nonworking system SAIC had produced.  They even went after him, his team members, his Congressional liason, et al as enemies of the state.  Later the FBI’s case was dismissed due to falsified charges.

There was another feature Bill and team worked into the code that prevented anyone in the United States from being spied upon without the proper court authority.  Those same bosses stripped it off.  The NSA is not to spy on U.S. citizens by law.  The bosses were also law breakers.

In subsequent years Bill and team tried selling this technology to other government agencies and were stymied by the NSA at every turn.  Well into the post 9/11 era the NSA still did not have or use the thinthread or any equivalent of it but instead continued to push the SAIC vendor solution.

Bill and the team members are retired now.  They had to “retire”.  Our country is at greater risk without them.  Our government agencies are accelling at their incompetency and trouncing our civil rights to privacy all at the same time.

 

A Veteran’s Story

Less than a decade after the Vietnam War I met a man who was delivering my mail. In the ensuing years we became fast friends. In those years he often would deliver the mail in the blisteringly hot July afternoons while on foot. He enjoyed being outside and the heat was just a consequence of doing his work.

On one such occasion he stopped to talk. I offered him water which he gladly took in. The conversation got around to what his experience was in the Army. We had spent time together and talked some about his experience but on this day he went into great detail.

At first he confessed that he had never told anyone this story. It was too painful a memory. He had to get this load off his chest.

He began by talking about how as an infantryman in the Army in Vietnam it was quite a grueling slog. It was punishing and it drained you. His company was often called upon to traverse the jungles, find the enemy, and engage them. It was not uncommon for them to “party it up” a bit at night at the end of one of those kind of days.

It was on one of these occasions that something terrible and life-altering occurred. As he awoke in the morning he discovered that every other member of his team had been slain during the night in their sleep. Their heads were cut off and placed on their chest. As he looked down the row of his fellow soldiers he could see a severed head on every other body.

Certainly that was an emotionally and physically traumatic experience. What troubled him most was the fact that how did he get chosen to live. This is one of the most profound emotional issues with veterans. The question is why did I survive? The answers are seldom forthcoming.

As it happened on this hot July day under the shade of the big tree in front of the house, he told the story for the first time. He nearly collapsed as he told the story and came to the realization that once again he did not know why he was spared and that he had just confessed for the first time to the pain and the suffering he had been carrying around.

Through the tears and embraces we consoled each other. What was irreconcilable was why was he chosen to live. It was never resolved at that time. What would take place years later would finally give him solace.

As with many men and women they work hard to take care of their families, to do their job well, and to make life be purposeful. This veteran performed in that manner in a stellar way. He was very good with his family. They often traveled and met together at various homesteads throughout the state. On this one occasion near Casa Grande Arizona, his question would be answered.

The family gathered together and barbecued at one of the homesteads. It was a trailer on a lot in the open desert. It was nothing fancy. They lit up the grill and cooked hot dogs and hamburgers… maybe some steaks. Everyone ate well. Lots of potluck was brought along. It was a wonderful day and as evening descended upon them they retired to their beds and their cars and the grill was placed next to the trailer. There was no wind and the charcoals were nearly out.

In the night screams awoke the veteran. The winds had come up and the grass was caught afire. The flames had begun to consume the trailer. All of the children were in the trailer. Nieces, nephews, sons, and daughters were all about to be consumed by the flames. He threw the door open and ran to the back of the trailer. He broke out a small window and began to hand the children out one at a time. The flames were burning his flesh. He was in anguish but he was determined to get those children out. The other parents gathered those kids up as quickly as they could and got them away from the trailer. By then the flames had the entire rest of the trailer involved. The window was too small for him to get out. It was obvious he was not going to make it. It was at that point that he stood up and looked out the window and waved goodbye. He had saved all the children.

It was not until some time later I heard of his demise. It was then that I remembered the confession under the shade tree in the front yard. I knew that now he would be at peace.

If you believe in the soul and the spirit and the value of life it’s difficult for anyone to go into war and to come back whole. It is our responsibility to take care of those individuals. The government and the politicians cannot do it.

I would hope that on that day under the shade tree I had given some solace to a heroic veteran. I am sure that now he is in a good place.

June 9, 2017

Bernard Lambert

Arizona Politics

In an effort to enlighten the public on issues of poorly funded educational systems, corporate control of the legislature, rampant dark money influence, efforts to block voter initiatives, and republican control of the vote and legislature, this topic will be added to the Categories listing.

The “Promise” of jobs?

The main reason jobs are an issue is that the “bread and butter” manufacturing jobs of the post World War II economy disappeared over the last 35-45 years.  While the Military Industrial Complex is well in America, it is not the employer of the ages gone by.  The component pieces of our military, consumer, and industrial goods are manufactured overseas in factories whose employees are economic slaves within that country and whose employees cannot rise out of that desperate situation.

We Americans cannot compete with that economically as our costs of living are astronomical high compared to those employees.  Further efforts to tax or tariff the import of cheap goods is going to raise our costs without any increase in employment in our country.  The international cartels of corporations will keep the price just under the level that would make sane business people invest in making the goods within our borders.

When we have frittered away the trillions we needed on infrastructure, gutted the Affordable Care Act, defunded Medicaid, and otherwise allowed the fanatical conservative right of the Republican party to refuse to support the society, we will begin to experience subsistence living akin to what our ancestors experienced around preindustrial agrarian times in America.

Simple things like running water, roads, food, electricity, communications, and transportation will become carefully and closely managed priority needs for every one of the 98%.  The promise of “increased productivity” simply means that the corporations will minimize the use of humans beings and human knowledge to produce the products for those same people to consume.

As that has gone in my lifetime the erosion of “native talent” went with it. In my parents time, post WWII, all you needed to do was produce because the want and need was unfulfilled and you could largely name your own price.  Today incomes are so low that we must return to “going without” or “producing it ourselves”.

Most people do not have the basic tools and skills to accomplish this.  The patient planning, preparation, and forbearance required for raising food is beyond most American’s skills and means.  You can still get a couple of burgers, fries, and a drink for less than five bucks. This will be available until the water, electric, fuel, and infrastructure fail or crumble.

History dictates that all civilizations will rise and fall.  The governments organized by the citizens are the cause of their demise.  Government overburdens the citizenry and causes the citizen to overdrive the resources fueling their lives.  It is gradual and ultimately leads to individuals working alone and away from the encumbrances of the politicos and their surround.  The hard working, thick skinned, determined, and unafraid will wander off and care for their small clan.  The ability to learn will be more valuable that accreditation.  Knowledge will be employed.  Philosophies will be simple.  Actions and their results will be most valuable.

What do you think?

Dan Rather’s Response to DonJohn’s speech.

We’ve seen this before. After a period of sustained chaos, Donald Trump ascends a podium, and for a moment at least, reads a relatively measured speech from a teleprompter. For the most part, in tone and temperament it is a world away from the Tweets, and the press conferences. In many ways it was standard conservative Republican fare on such topics as tax cuts, although watching Paul Ryan stand and applaud lines calling into question free trade and major spending on infrastructure shows how much the GOP elite has swung behind President Trump.

The President’s call for economic populism is a popular instinct in the country, that I think cuts across party lines. If that was the centerpiece of his agenda, I suspect his poll numbers would be much higher. But of course there is so much more we have seen over the past several weeks that show how the most controversial rhetoric of the campaign has continued from the President in office. Tonight, Mr. Trump referenced history on many occasions, seeking to give his very unconventional administration the trappings of its place in sustained American values. There were many lines that will be seen as smoothing out the edges. But bubbling beneath the surface was still a President who is stoking division. I think the most noteworthy section, and one that history will mark, was his focus on crimes from immigrants. It is a dangerous and disingenuous strawman. Yes illegal immigrants have committed crimes. But what about the Indian worker who was just murdered in Kansas? Or the little children and teachers in Connecticut? Or African Americans in prayer in South Carolina?

Nevertheless, I think that this is a speech that will play well the President’s base. If Democrats or Independents hope that Republicans in Congress will challenge the Administration, the numerous standing ovations show how faint that expectation currently is. Democrats will read between the lines on health care, the President’s language on “law and order,” his framing of foreign policy. They will claim rampant disingenuity and a glaring lack of specifics. And some may sense the low rumblings of a demagogue. But that is not how most people watching speeches judge them. Overall, I think the effect was more successful than many had expected, perhaps because of the low bar of expectation.

But there is a fundamental difference between a campaign and a presidency. The first is about words and promises. The latter is about delivering. Whether President Trump and the Republicans who back him continue in a position of strength or falter in the election cycles to come will not be determined by a few lines read to a national audience. It will be measured by jobs, health care and education. It will be shaped by the general mood of the country – the level of anxiety versus safety, calmness versus chaos.

The news cycle doesn’t stop. New challenges will emerge. New investigative reporting will be published. New legislation will be proposed, or it won’t. And our 45th President will have to appease and persuade a volatile and engaged population in a diverse and divided nation that he is the right man for the job.

  • Dan Rather – Facebook post February 28, 2017

The next evening DJ went nuts on Twitter again!

Hitler Is At Work

Read or watch these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler’s_rise_to_power

https://www.quora.com/How-did-Hitler-come-to-power

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/25points.htm

Adolf Hitler

 

After you digest this, would you not agree tht DJ is emulating Hitler? Please post your comments!

Unacceptable Behaviors

Dogmatic  Misogynistic  Bigoted  Antagonistic  Egocentric  Gauche  Bullying  Unmerciful  Untruthful  Intimidating  Elitist  Prideful  Corpulent  Acerbic  Racist  Prejudiced  Sardonic  Noncreative  Virulent  Pernicious  Vitriolic  Overentitled  Uncompassionate  Acrimonious  Malevolent  Baleful
Unoriginal  Nonveracious  Rancorous  Obese  Antisocial  Obsessive  Hardhearted  Manic  Psychopathic  Deceptive  Narcissistic  Atheistic  Avaricious  Acquisitive  Amoral  Covetous  Intemperate  Maladjusted  Neurotic  Unbalanced  Disfunctional  Unstable  Malcontented  Overindulged Condescending  Aloof  Unethical Deprecating  Eccentric Gratuitous  Unreasonable  Specious  Casuistic  Fallacious  Deceptive  Spurious Feigned