Draining Away Our Collective Wealth

I have written about this before. Several years ago, one of the fastest computers in the world was designed to do one thing only and to do it very well. Every put and take, every single transaction that takes place electronically on Wall Street is now being jumped. It is only by microseconds, but imagine how this might look at the farmer's market. We all know that the stock market deals in vagaries. The traditional way of making the system work for you, "building wealth" is to buy and hold. The entire concept is based on the idea that others know best how to invest your money than you do. If you loan them money (by buying their stock or bonds) they will spend it in ways that, with luck, will  grow. The story has been the same since the beginning, but a whole new chapter opened up when the biggest player found a way to cheat the system. That system relies on time, and the fact that no matter how fast computers seem, there is now one faster and it cost billions to design and build. Back to my farmer's market example. Say you are standing in front of a stand with beautiful peas and you are tempted to get some. You only need a pound for the next night's dinner, but as you reach out to the peas, another "hand" sweeps in and removes some of them. Or, in another example, you pick up a few peas and inspect them, but after a few moments, you decide, no, these peas are a bit wilted or perhaps they are showing other signs that lead you to think there are better choices out there...the hand disappears, putting their peas back before you can bend your arm.

Microseconds multiplied by thousands of transactions turns out to be a long, long time. especially when millions of transactions are being jumped. See the real nature of the stock market is that it is psychological. Nothing physical has ever been created by the stock market, just "wealth" which, in some respects, is arbitrary. when you begin to speak with investment experts you start to hear psychological terms like confidence and fears. Very human traits that point to the fact that the entire house of cards is designed to help us feel better about risk, think we have better information than others and to make us feel secure because of the "value" of our portfolio. Here's the rub. It is not a confidence game for those who capitalize on your decisions even before you make them.

Since the inception of the system, it has been known that if you could get in before others who felt confident were able to buy, you could get in more cheaply than they would b able to, because even mere desire for shares has the effect of driving up price, so you would by definition make more than they would. consequently, when they decided to sell, you could sell firs, reducing demand for that stock and lowering the price they could sell for. When you are always jumping the buying and selling, your take might be tiny on each transaction, but collectively, you would skim off many hundreds of billions and this is now completely "legal". It has been being done for years now. Each and every stock, bond and commodity market purchase you try to make is now per-purchased by the biggest player on Wall Street. The difference between my farmer's market example and real life is that when the "peas" in the stock market are purchased, it drives up the cost of peas to everyone else and when they start to wilt, the people who put them down first also save the most money because the longer you wait, the less they are worth.

Art Cards

I am now offering Art Cards to my readers. These tiny pieces are designed with two purposes in mind. On the one hand, they share contact information, like a business card, but they are each a unique one-of-a-kind work of art. I typically spend about an hour on each one and I offer them at the price of twenty-five dollars. If you would like one for less, I am open to hearing the logic behind your request or you can send me one that has been hand-made by you!

The format is: 2 1/2 inches (approx.6.35 cm) by 3 1/2 inches (approx.8.89cm)
additionally, on the back include your name, contact info., title and number if it is part of a series.

I am open to suggestions if you would like to have a specific theme, color palette, etc.  I have about thirty cards in process, each in differing states of completeness and about the same number of completed cards ready to mail out.

Original art, direct from the artist...how could you go wrong?
Orders filled by request through the mail at: one four four five Porlier street, Green Bay, WI 54301
Or, you can always call in an order at (nine twenty) double eight four-triple two four.

Blood Red Sky

This morning, I woke under a blood red sky. Not literally of course, the heavy overcast that has clamped down over Wisconsin this past week has been too thick to really get sunrises, but the week long visit from March has been welcome nonetheless. The blood red sky that greeted me today was brought about by the atmosphere of oppression that has come across my country. The three million people who were disenfranchised by the Electoral College are just the threshold of the House and Senate of oppression that is being built in Washington, the Administration of oppression that is being assembled to exact punishment on our children, our elders, the infirm, and those precariously perched on the edge of making it.

The millions who have been thrown into prison for life over the "three strikes, you're out" clause that was signed into law by Bill Clinton were easily denied the American dream simply because of their color. They were in one of the most obvious groups that did/does not matter to the oppressors. Pay no attention to the fact that their cities are being stolen right out from under their families, never mind the fact that the majority of ecological poisoning takes place in the cities they cannot afford to leave and you begin to see the spectre of environmental racism just a bit more clearly.

The teachers have been under attack since Ronnie Reagan and many actually believe that they are in the wrong, over paid, have all summer off and other lies that are expedient for those willing to reduce their formerly respectable jobs to the level of waitstaff or farm worker. It has long been known that teachers were on the front lines in what could be described as the caring arts, but that was easily turned against them in a world that worships money. Painting them as ignorant, idealistic lazy and the like were easy once we were convinced that they were, at least, rubes. When our nation was doing the best, teachers were respected and their work was considered honorable. By the mid 1980's, that had been turned around completely. The great undermining of one of the most important disciplines in the world had begun.

They say, "Red in the morning, sailor's warning" and this is the sky that I expect to see every morning, from now on.

Going, going, gone!

We certainly have hit this one out of the park. We have, by corrupt system, elected a leader who knows nothing about how the Presidency works. We are in, or the ball at least is in uncharted territory. There are those cheering for letting ignorance and stupidity run their course and those who have elected to stand up and say openly, "This is not what our nation stands for!" In any case, we now have to choose. are we going to be content with just writing the whole two hundred years off as a learning experience, or if we are going to salvage all or part of what our ancestors fought and slaved to create.When the crack of the bat was heard, about a year ago, those who had been paying attention knew that the right palms had been greased, the right alliances formed to take our current President over the top, but that truth was too scary even for the prognosticators to admit.

A rank amateur at least loves their discipline. This guy hates the whole bloody system. His ideas and inspirations are the only ones that matter, just ask him! Pay no attention to the thousands of journalists who keep pointing out his law breaking, misogynistic tendencies, his fallacious net worth, his ties to foreign mafiosi, the fallacies upon which his truth has been built. The common  man feels affinity for the wretch because they too are out of touch, but still cling to the belief that they have the bull by the horns and are capable of wrestling it into submission. Too bad reality bats last and her name is Mother Nature.

Case in point, the recent massive outburst of tornadoes that swept across the South. The destruction left behind is as yet untold. The President has not said a word nor has he shown any interest in helping the displaced, the homeless or the states that are left to pick up the pieces and put their lives back together again. Natural disasters are to be expected with more force and greater frequency as we destabilize climate further. Not so much as one word about that in the news.

The tenuous grasp of "reality" that is being exhibited both in Congress and the Executive Branch of our government are woefully devoid of any sort of awareness whatsoever. No knowledge or learning can ever take place if you already know all there is to know and the oligarchs who rule the day are sure to reinforce your beliefs if it benefits them. Those charged with representing us know long before they get elected that they are beholden to the millionaires and billionaires who support campaigns. You and I just need to get used to experiencing taxation without representation because our ideas will never be able to amass billion dollar fortunes. Our punishment for our poverty is to not be allowed to enter the discussion. If we do we are easily branded naive, hotheads or rabble. After all, our suits are...oh, wait, we don't wear suits? Don't even trifle with us!

When our ancestors had to endure taxation without representation, they fought the War of Independence, it seems that now, we are being asked to live in the same state without being offended. This one is perhaps not the game winning run, but at least the majority is standing up to see how far it goes.
 

First Flush

This post has a hidden message that I once saw scrawled on a bathroom wall. "Flush twice, it is a long way to the kitchen." however, to keep the material somewhat sanitized, I titled it first flush in reference to The Donald. On first flush, we have seen a record setting pace of Executive Orders. I have heard counts as high as eleven in four days. To try to put this into perspective, it is most important not to look to the oligarch-owned media as part of my research for this entry, I found a main stream media outlet that claimed that the current President was not on pace to issue more Executive Orders than Obama, but doing my due diligence, something that is not as expedient in our 24-hour news cycle, I found that eleven in four days does outstrip Obama's rate of 35 per year. In this new world order, we may exceed that rate in the first two weeks of The take over of our Executive branch. Seems to be nearly complete and the dark ages that are falling upon science, upon politics and upon every aspect of our humanity cannot be defended. It is wrong to turn our heads away in shame and disgust. Unless and until we are willing to face the truth, that our government has been stolen, we can never mount a fight to get it back.

I have found reason to be mildly hopeful on just one, so that is a rate of less than ten percent. All other actions that our newly installed President has taken are non-advised (which is, in his case, even worse than ill-advised), rash, outright hostile to our nation and hazardous for the country generally. There are no rational answers for why we are allowing our nation to be terrorized by the team running the most important office and all agencies of government in our nation.

We must redouble our efforts to organize, to reach out, to stay involved in being the stand for truth in the face of lies.

Suaviter in modo fortiterin re

Gently in manner, strong in deed. This is the way we must handle the oligarchs. When I speak of sanctioning, I believe that reparations need to be made for decades and generations of assaultive behavior. Our communities, our people and the environment have suffered at the hands of our energy, our, financial and our military industrial giants. The data exists to prove negligence on the part of the largest corporations that have dominated decision-making for decades. We need a path to justice for their abuses. We can gently continue to hold their feet tot the fire, after all it is the fires they kindled themselves that have gotten us all into hot water to begin with. I do not intend to take the edge off the need for a three pronged approach, but pitchforks are not as common as they once were, so the pitchforks we have at our disposal have three different prongs.

Boycott, divest and sanction are the tools we have that allow us to continue to be gentle in demeanor but strong in action. If one should desire help in these matters, there are several places to start. Buycott is an application that you can add to your phone that allows you to become more informed about products while you are shopping and choose your purchases based on the corporate culture that brings those products to market. Another way is to speak with others about why you choose to boycott Nestle', Unilever, BP or other corporate criminals. Divestiture is more difficult because as many of us have found, the private market for retirement funds is never as simple as corporation "A" or corporation "B", to assure that the mythic investment houses remain unthreatened by regulation, virtually everything has been co-mingled into "funds", various groupings of holdings that lose their distinction within our larger investments.

In my case, I was lucky enough to be able to choose a fund with no energy holdings, but that also assures that none of my retirement income will come from renewable energy companies either. Sadly, the funds that my retirement management firm offers have no opportunities for moral and/or ethical investment in the possible futures that I hope to one day see occur. The flip side of divestiture is that there need to be alternative funds in which we can invest which echo and strengthen the monetary standing of corporations that are working toward a healthier and happier next seven generations.

Rather than the Ugly American version of this Latin phrase, "Walk softly, and carry a big stick.", I far prefer the Latin, for several reasons:
 First, because bully diplomacy disgusts me. Being a bully, whether toward  individuals or toward states (nations) says far more about the bully than the bullied. The fear, isolation and pain upon which bullying finds a place in our culture is about our failings as human beings. The greatest beast under the bed, the most important dragon to be slain and put to rest, forever is that of abuse. Science proves that the only way to be taught to be abusive and neglectful of others, is to be abused and neglected during your own formative years. Bullies feel this conflict severely enough that they lash out, for lack of the love and nurturing that were required for their own development. Letting the "big stick" become a powerful military has been the biggest threat to true security imaginable. Bullies never care about those they hurt, in exactly the same way that their caretakers ignored the fallout of their actions, or inaction. In severe pathology, the bully feels that their abuse and neglect for others is a way to show the same kind of love they received, perpetrating power and control issues across generations.

Second, the walk softly implies that there is a sneaking element that is absent in Latin. It is well-known, that even in our passing, we change the quality of the air through which we pass, the laws of unintended consequences demand that when we do interact with the world, we be gentle, abiding, because we never know when our coarseness could be mistaken for aggression. Perhaps one of the first lessons in diplomacy and statespersonship is to be refined, cultured and accommodating, not just a thug trying to keep others from getting their hackles up.

Third and most importantly, I see the language itself for what it actually was, a smokescreen for all that has been blatantly obvious since the beginning of oligarchy. The walk softly portion, when seen with open eyes refers to trying to keep our foreign neighbors at sub-revolutionary revolt by offering tidbits for their elites that make them feel commensurate power and control over their people that our leaders do, but with none of the actual power, that being delegated to the multi-national corporate and financial sectors. Once beholden, these agents loyalty is never questioned. What the words were covering for were the real actions that dangled carrots for complicity, or at least learned silence, so that corporate plunder could be legitimized.

When we practice the art of walking our path in grace, gently responding to and experiencing, rather than monetizing our environment, abundance ensues. This allows us to not only stand, but act with purpose and intensity that would be unavailable to us if we were trying to impose our vision on the outside world without grace. In very real ways this ancient truth has been eclipsed momentarily with the flash of a fraud, the art of a huckster, so adept at thievery as to be "untouchable". Ultimate coarseness, unparalleled narcissism and deplorable self serving behavior flaunts reality, and we now have these as traits of our next President. It becomes ever-more important for We the People to take on the difficult task of doing right and good in the face of the evil and deceitful behavior by our modern-day oligarchs. There has been nothing gentle or graceful about the way our democracy has been purchased right out from under us and there is nothing defensible about the deeds that are being undertaken by the oligarchs either. I trust each and every one of us to make better decisions than faraway billionaires.

The Sun Comes Back!

Yesterday was the twelveth day of X-mas and it passed with little fanfare. However, just because culturally, we have given this day short shrift, does not mean that it has no bearing on the state of affairs of the world. It certainly does not mean that everyone has stopped celebrating and it certainly bears no relation to the Christ child. It is simply the day that sunlight begins to noticeably claw it's way back from the darkest days of the year. If there were a time for Earth-centered people to feel hope, it is this very day. Intuitive people everywhere and intelligent ones will begin to feel the daylight slowly returning and with it come luxuries like spending more time out of doors, taking vacations, or staycations which are becoming more popular as more and more people reject fossil energy. The hope for our living soil to thaw and the fruits and vegetables becoming productive again.

One would think that when we pinned down the reason for the seasons, the tilted Earth, that the mythologies about the Sun's return would have been explained to the point of not needing the folklore and superstition. Instead, it seems, that the people who believe in the folk hero Jesus are feeling that they, X-tians generally or at least "their" holiday, feels to them to be under attack. This is the ultimate attempt to inject power and control into the realm of political and daily life. It falls squarely into the category of lies to prop up lies that I occasionally speak about. One of the things that abusers, bullies and psychopaths do is to attempt to make those around them feel or think they are crazy. I think the currently vogue term is gaslighting. Making your victim question their own sanity puts them in a destabilized position and they become more easily manipulated.

Looking far South of West at sunset, one moon ago we were saying, "Goodnight Sun" earlier and earlier each night. Now, the Sun comes back!

Well, I am here to say, clearly, the X-tians are not under attack, religion has never been under attack. There are those who have sought to enforce their religion on others, but that is not quite the same as an attack. There have been great strides made in creating theocracies around the globe, but they are mostly inhumane toward non-believers. The religion is not so much under attack, but the believers are persecuted for not believing the state religion. Mocking a religious belief or pointing out the fictional accounts that religions are based on also does not rise to the level of attack. Questioning the big lies never constitutes an attack, just a plea for sanity and reason. I do not say these things to gaslight anyone myself, I just don't feel comfortable letting some arbitrary and ancient tool of social control,  some arcane ooga booga continue to give traction to what I see as one of the biggest threats toward our species, the belief that God knows what she's doing and if we all pray real hard and sing Kumba-ya around a campfire, our deity will "save" us from our depravity. The truth of the matter is that we all get to make decisions moment by moment that either affirm or degade our neighbors, friends, relatives and the resy of our community.

Bigotry and hate are a problem wherever they are found and there are few "religions" that have not been corrupted by fundamentalists claiming that since their way is best, all other religions are "worse". This creates the impetus for many misunderstandings, the compounding of lies and aggression one group or individual on another. In the spirit of the Sun coming back, I want to offer just one more solstice gift to my readers. Enlightenment. It bears no relationship to what has been called religion. It is based on reality. We are all one. Please seek to celebrate this each and every moment of every day. The benefits are immediate, long-lasting, abundant and actually infinite because their results tumble down through time, when done as art and science, for the next seven generations.