My wife, Jan Edwards, was talking to an activist friend today, Nancy Price of the Alliance For Democracy. Nancy is known (and should be better known) as a water activist. So she gets asked to speak about water issues (especially who owns it and how it should be distributed). But what she really wants to speak about, she says is an extension of NAFTA called the SPP (Security and Prosperity Partnership).
Basically, the SPP is going to globalize parts of the United States. Globalize in the sense of ridding these areas of local control, including environmental and labor regulations. Apparently workers who are not U.S. citizens will be brought to these zones to work for sub-minimum wage.
SPP sounds horrible for people and the planet. It is based on the principle that economies must always expand. It was created with no input from 99.9% of the citizens of the U.S., Mexico, or Canada. It is corporate rule, international corporate rule, pure and simple.
So why don't people know about this? Sure, citizens in the U.S. are used to being ruled like sheep without consultation, but usually once something this big is set up, the New York Times and other hyenas that pretend to be a free press in this country gloat about it, if only in the Business section.
I read the financial pages every day. I have for years. I don't read every article, but I look at the headlines at the New York Times and CNN/Money online. I read The Economist, in the paper edition, every week.
Not only did I know little about SPP (though I did know about the Canada to Mexico superhighways they are building), I did not even know that in 2006 Congress passed, and George W. Bush signed, a law allowing the Federal Reserve to pay interest to banks for the money they are required to keep in reserves. I found this out yesterday because the Fed is thinking of actually implementing this option. It is an outrageous scam. But I'll have to write more about this later, because I want to present an even larger scale picture of our social-economic-political-environmental problem.
The rich people and their corporations have an army of lawyers, lobbyists, consultants and their demonic helpers to pass treaties and legislation, and to litigate in the courts. We have Nancy, an unpaid, volunteer activist. Nancy is a formidable person. In a fair fight I'm sure she could take on 10 spawn of Stanford Law School and defeat them. And there are a few more Nancies in the U.S., and even some paid activists in groups like Public Citizen.
But my side loses, over and over again, because of the Armies of Hell. The campaign donations. The phony "progressive" candidates for high office. Highly paid lawyers who can scare the brave and creep quietly like deadly fungi into the very fabric of American government.
We need to take their money away, first and foremost. By any means necessary. Money has always been the root of their power. Leave them with their money and nothing is safe.
I am tired of hearing from aging ex-corporate lawyers, generals, CIA agents and politicians that the system is bad and they wished they had not done the dirty deeds they did.
If we are going to save this planet and a scrap of dignity for ordinary human beings, it is time to declare war. We seem to be incapable of seizing the government; the two-party system is designed to prevent that. I suggest that we make America ungovernable by the parasitic elite.
You don't have to be a lawyer to disrupt a lawyer. You just have to put in the effort.
People have hopes for Barack Obama. Let us use that hope. Let us give Barack, or Ms. Clinton if she wins, and even John McCain if we wins, a to do list with some deadlines. And if they can't meet the deadlines, let's fire their asses. The whole lot of them. Let's burn their wicked laws and issue new law that is healthy and wholesome.
Six months, I think, is sufficient to dash any reasonable hope. So here is what I demand, and suggest that you demand, that Barack Obama and Congress sign into law within 6 months of Barack's inauguration:
1. All U.S. troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan (except the customary guards at U.S. embassies).
2. A single-payer health insurance plan for all Americans.
3. A required 40 mpg highway fleet average for new non-commercial automobile/SUV sales.
4. Repeal of NAFTA and the WTO trade agreements.
5. An 80% income tax on all persons' income of over $50 million a year, with all securities held by people in this category marked to market for tax purposes.
Of course my list could be longer and more detailed, but if they achieve those five things, I'll be very impressed and have to shut up for a while about what a bad lot the Democrats are.
If I were a betting man, I'd bet 5 to 1 that not a single one of these goals will be achieved by the deadline, and 2 to 1 that none of them will be achieved during Barack's four years in office.
For more of my opinion, visit my Politics page.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Goodbye, Pope
The Pope came to the United States. He raised money. He left. He's a celebrity, like Paris Hilton, but craftier and less honest.
Some 2000 years before the bishops of Rome [the ruling city of the Roman empire hated by Jews and early Christians alike] started peddling the idea that they were dictators-for-life of the Christian churches, Ikhnaton, an emperor of Egypt (Egypt ruled the upper Nile then, and what we now call the nations of Israel (or Palestine), Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) declared there was only one God, Aton, which he identified with all of nature. Eventually Ikhnaton was overthrown and other gods were given their due, but the idea of one god (but not the identity with nature) eventually spread to the Jews, the Christians, and the Moslems. Christians are a bit weak on the idea, with their three-gods-in-one theology, but however much the boys might argue among themselves, the Trinity has always been willing to smite all other gods.
The Pope is a fraud and just about everyone knows it, including many of the nominal Catholics in the U.S. He preaches morality, but if he were moral himself the first thing he would do is stop pretending there is any holiness in clawing your way to the top of the church hierarchy. He might try a few reforms, a little consistency within the framework of Catholicism. He might note that invoking Mary as the Mother of God, and then saying women can't be priests, is a bit off. He might acknowledge, as most Protestant Christians have done, that celibacy and sexual hypocrisy are linked. He might allow priests to marry.
When Luther challenged the Church and lived to tell about it (unlike his heretical predecessors, the Hus and Wycliffe), the Church hierarchy noted that any deviation from Catholic dogma would lead straight to atheism. They were wrong. Honest and truthful enquiry may indeed lead to rejecting the Catholic concept of God, but religious splits are usually thinly disguised political power struggles. Each new faction claims to represent the true God.
The major fascist powers (Germany, Italy, France, Spain), Catholic all, last systematically murdered non-Catholics in the 1930's and 1940's. But things are heating up. Much of the butchery in former Yugoslavia had religious tones as well as ethnic aspects. The possibility of another round of militant Catholicism is quite real.
I suppose if we were all taught to believe in Nature, and to try to be objective and ethical in our lives, someone would invent religion and it would spread like wildfire among the imbalanced personalities of the world. The thing I saw growing up Catholic was that the Church was an engine of craziness. It was designed to make people crazy. And yet it had to keep people somewhat functional. Too crazy of a congregation and no one is going to be together enough to tithe. Channeled craziness, that is what religious institutions are looking for. General Franco's soldiers saw no contradiction in thinking of themselves as good Catholics and shooting people in cold blood because their names were on lists of people who had not been attending Mass, compiled by priests who were supposed to be the protectors of their communities.
See my religion pages for more commentary.
Some 2000 years before the bishops of Rome [the ruling city of the Roman empire hated by Jews and early Christians alike] started peddling the idea that they were dictators-for-life of the Christian churches, Ikhnaton, an emperor of Egypt (Egypt ruled the upper Nile then, and what we now call the nations of Israel (or Palestine), Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) declared there was only one God, Aton, which he identified with all of nature. Eventually Ikhnaton was overthrown and other gods were given their due, but the idea of one god (but not the identity with nature) eventually spread to the Jews, the Christians, and the Moslems. Christians are a bit weak on the idea, with their three-gods-in-one theology, but however much the boys might argue among themselves, the Trinity has always been willing to smite all other gods.
The Pope is a fraud and just about everyone knows it, including many of the nominal Catholics in the U.S. He preaches morality, but if he were moral himself the first thing he would do is stop pretending there is any holiness in clawing your way to the top of the church hierarchy. He might try a few reforms, a little consistency within the framework of Catholicism. He might note that invoking Mary as the Mother of God, and then saying women can't be priests, is a bit off. He might acknowledge, as most Protestant Christians have done, that celibacy and sexual hypocrisy are linked. He might allow priests to marry.
When Luther challenged the Church and lived to tell about it (unlike his heretical predecessors, the Hus and Wycliffe), the Church hierarchy noted that any deviation from Catholic dogma would lead straight to atheism. They were wrong. Honest and truthful enquiry may indeed lead to rejecting the Catholic concept of God, but religious splits are usually thinly disguised political power struggles. Each new faction claims to represent the true God.
The major fascist powers (Germany, Italy, France, Spain), Catholic all, last systematically murdered non-Catholics in the 1930's and 1940's. But things are heating up. Much of the butchery in former Yugoslavia had religious tones as well as ethnic aspects. The possibility of another round of militant Catholicism is quite real.
I suppose if we were all taught to believe in Nature, and to try to be objective and ethical in our lives, someone would invent religion and it would spread like wildfire among the imbalanced personalities of the world. The thing I saw growing up Catholic was that the Church was an engine of craziness. It was designed to make people crazy. And yet it had to keep people somewhat functional. Too crazy of a congregation and no one is going to be together enough to tithe. Channeled craziness, that is what religious institutions are looking for. General Franco's soldiers saw no contradiction in thinking of themselves as good Catholics and shooting people in cold blood because their names were on lists of people who had not been attending Mass, compiled by priests who were supposed to be the protectors of their communities.
See my religion pages for more commentary.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Not Quite Random Thoughts
I've been busy for several weeks creating an index for a 1300 page book on a very tight schedule. During this time there have been a lot of things I have wanted to write about. The sad state of politics in the U.S., of course. The Pope's visit to the U.S. The rebellion of the monks in Tibet. Developments in the economic and business world. Essays inspired by some books that I managed to read parts of during this trying period. And my philosophy of natural liberation, in particular the idea of natural revelation.
Here's a list of books I have finished reading, sitting in a stack, waiting for reviews and commentary:
The Cosmic Code by Heinze R. Pagels
The Outline of History by H. G. Wells
The Fifties by David Halberstam
Chiang Kai-Shek by Hollington K. Tong
Memoirs by Harry Truman
Vietnam by Stanley Karnow
And I'm part way through reading:
On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins
A History of Egypt by James Henry Breasted
The Great Wave by Christopher Benfey
But it is easier to find energy to read than to write. I have barely kept up with my gardening, which I want to write about both in and of itself and because it inspires thoughts on natural revelation. I am behind in my regular paid work (the book index was extra work). I am writing this on my old, backup computer because the new one needs repairs.
Oh, yes, the global famine is gathering steam, something I have been warning people about with my population articles at www.iiipublishing.com
Still, in the next few weeks I hope to produce some interesting writing for the readers of this blog, my Dissecting the Bull blog, and my assorted Web sites. Yikes! What has Congressman Mike Thompson been doing? Not even I know, because I have not had time to post to Mike Thompson Watch, and it takes some research to find out.
William P. Meyers
Here's a list of books I have finished reading, sitting in a stack, waiting for reviews and commentary:
The Cosmic Code by Heinze R. Pagels
The Outline of History by H. G. Wells
The Fifties by David Halberstam
Chiang Kai-Shek by Hollington K. Tong
Memoirs by Harry Truman
Vietnam by Stanley Karnow
And I'm part way through reading:
On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins
A History of Egypt by James Henry Breasted
The Great Wave by Christopher Benfey
But it is easier to find energy to read than to write. I have barely kept up with my gardening, which I want to write about both in and of itself and because it inspires thoughts on natural revelation. I am behind in my regular paid work (the book index was extra work). I am writing this on my old, backup computer because the new one needs repairs.
Oh, yes, the global famine is gathering steam, something I have been warning people about with my population articles at www.iiipublishing.com
Still, in the next few weeks I hope to produce some interesting writing for the readers of this blog, my Dissecting the Bull blog, and my assorted Web sites. Yikes! What has Congressman Mike Thompson been doing? Not even I know, because I have not had time to post to Mike Thompson Watch, and it takes some research to find out.
William P. Meyers
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