One Bully Or Another

Millions have said it, hundreds of millions know it, billions around the world feel the pain caused by it. Our systems of government have been broken. The oligarchs install the people who best suit their needs. In my lifetime I have seen the results of letting this continue. The breathtaking paucity of ideas expressed by the two major candidates for President of the United States of America breaks the hearts of virtually everyone who has been paying even a shred of attention to their antics over the past two years or so. We are seeing the seething hate of folks who think they are discriminated against by the current system morph into hate for "minorities", who collectively make up the majority of the population. We are also seeing those who have been abused by the system the most being bullied into supporting a candidate who has applauded every step of their trail of tears, not as a compassionate supporter, but as a cheerleader for business as usual (in other words, greed, racketeering exploitation and continuous exploitation at the hands of the uberwealthy). Is it any wonder that the average United States citizen just wants the electoral process to be over?

Is it really a choice when you must choose between a corrupt and merciless political pawn, seeking to be Queen and an avowed racist, sexist and former billionaire who has squandered his fortune destroying the lives and fortunes of countless people? The majority think not, however, according to the oligarch-owned media, these are the choices which confront us. Their minions and "believers" tell us that the other choices are futile "throw away" votes, worth less than an old tissue. Some even claim, with a sense of self-righteous authority, that a vote for a candidate that you actually believe would make a good President, or that represents the only viable option for saving human life on the planet, will be a vote for the person we dislike more. Those who are buying the big lie are convinced that this is the best we can do. I have voted for people who lost elections before and that rhetoric does not scare me. I know, in every fiber of my being, that if I had voted for the lesser of the two evils more than once, I could not live with myself. When we make mistakes, we must learn to live with ourselves. Part of the act of self-forgiveness involves making sure we never make that mistake again. Learning from the mistakes we make is part of the healing process.

My mother used to teach me that bullies do not care one whit about their prey. The actions of every bully, down through the ages has been about their own feelings of inadequacy, their own feelings that have grown out of a sense of lack of love, their own belief that they have to "prove" their worth by their attacks on others. I believe that I have posted the Power and Control wheel before, but to give this post some visual content, here we go again:
Once you understand these terrible processes, once you have felt the sting of them perpetrated upon you, once you understand that the only reason those who use these tools of oppression continue to use them is because our culture inculcates the values upon which they are based, only then can one realize the depth of depravity that gave rise to them in the first place. The psychological point of view from which these actions grow is the abused and neglected child that lives within all of us.

I have had many people argue, claiming "My parents loved me.", "I had the best parents, they never raised a finger toward us." or "In my family, we always knew that we were loved." Some have even claimed that, "Some people are just born psychopaths." Science has proven otherwise. all children are born compassionate, concerned for the welfare of others, cooperative and gregarious. One of the best proofs of this comes when a baby cries in the supermarket and all the other children turn to look. They actually care about that child that they don't even know. We were all like that once and only through experiencing our own abuses and neglect at the hands of those who raise us do we become callous and/or annoyed by the cries of people who are hurting. I have seen abusive doctors, lawyers, teachers, soldiers, politicians and religious leaders reduced to blubbering snot-nosed children when they uncover the deepest roots of their own belief that "tough love" is a thing, that abusing others and trampling others rights to be supported and affirmed are less than their own. The justification we use is simple enough once we learn to see it. It goes like this. I felt hurt by people who loved me, so the act of hurting others is actually an expression of love for them. However, when we learn to read the messages that lie beyond the kaleidoscopic lens of the power and control wheel, we see that continuing this abuse, generation on generation can only create more pain and suffering.

Please share this post with as many people as you know in the U.S.of A. We have the largest tool of oppression on the planet, the U.S. military and we are allowing them to export hate around the globe. If for no other reason than to stop the bombing, going on right now across seven nations illegally, we must turn our backs on these practices and call out the power and control exhibited all around us, every day. I have said it before, but I will end with it again, "We are peaceful, loving people and we are voting, voting for our lives!"

The Real Trickle Down

We have had a fiction rammed down our throats for decades. Since the time of Ronnie Reagan, who has not been told that a rising tide lifts all boats, or that there would be salvation for our way of life by letting the wealthy keep more of their income? It is all crap. The real fact is that when you are at the end of your rope, a rising tide takes you off your mooring. If your boat has holes in it and is foundering, the rising tide cannot even be perceived, because you are so busy bailing. We have known for decades that the rich do not invest money in creating jobs, they do not invest in making the lives of others better, in fact, their donations are usually strategic, supporting things that help with tax avoidance, not improving the lives of common folk. No, their extra money goes to off shore tax havens, founding shell companies to get even more tax breaks and to prop up their own public image and/or portfolios. We have been sold a bill of goods. Economists have warned for decades about the risky nature of tax breaks for the ultrawealthy and the last few decades are proving them right.

I am not bitter, just confused at why we let the stupidity and lies of long-past generations rule our thinking over the recent ones. In fact, when you turn on your tee vee today, in 2016, you will see the vitriolic hate and lies that led to the whole tax reduction strategy, the lack of regulatory agencies reigning in greed. We see directly the weight of the world coming down on the poor and what is left of the middle class in favor of even more tax cuts and freedom from regulation for the oligarchs.

What you will not see is the militarized "police" forces clashing with water protectors, you will not see the fact that a single drop of oil can contaminate a million drops of water, you will not see the flagrant takings of the uber-wealthy classes that come directly out of the pockets of the poor. The closest you will come to seeing that the average American is worse off now than they were in the sixties and seventies is when you actually walk through virtually any neighborhood in our formerly great nation. Lest I sidle up a little too close to the flaming hemorrhoid's campaign slogan, let me make clear that the former greatness was not built on a single raving multi-millionaire's lunatic ramblings, but on a series of fortunate events such as the highest number of union employees in our nation's history. The residual effects of the WPA (Works Progress Administration), the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), and a host of New Deal programs that made life for the average American better over the course of decades. We also have documented benefits that have come from many of the social programs that are not so easy to see, because they raise the floor under the most vulnerable in our society instead of exploiting them...medicare, medicaid, pensions, legalized abortion and AFDC. Instead, we have languished under the unbridled capitalism and what you will also not see on the tee vee is the daily robbing of the poor to help feed the uber-wealthy.

The pain is what trickles down, the poverty, the poison of ecological destruction and the erosion of our property values.

One case in point is the recent raising of the speed limits here in Wisconsin. This draconian measure was the idea of  a very small group of very wealthy individuals who can easily afford to pay fifteen percent more for their fuel. The average fuel economy drops significantly when we travel at more than fifty-five miles per hour. The exponential increase of wind pressure as we travel faster and faster is undeniable if you are a physicist, however, we let people who only want the extra money that decreased fuel efficiency for all cars driven on the highway will shift to the fossil fuel giants. On a typical hour-long commute, about half the driving distance is in town, so there are no time savings realized with the higher highway speeds, my own commute, from Near downtown Green Bay to downtown Appleton (exactly 33.3 miles) increases by less than four minutes. Time savings has nothing to do with the increased speed limits. The risks are borne by us all. The costs as well accrue to us, shifting more money to giant corporations. Every ten miles per hour faster that we travel doubles the probability of death when there is a collision. Welcome to the basic boring bullshit of thinking as opposed to bailing out the uberwealthy. If we travel 70 MPH the increased risk of death if we do crash is 150% higher than if we were only going 55. As anyone who has driven lately knows, the speeds that some people drive ranges up to and over eighty MPH! These folks are increasing the risk of death if there is an accident by 250%!

Interestingly, I continue to drive 55, because I cannot afford 15% more for fuel, even if it is cheaper than it was ten years ago. My own experience has taught me that if I cannot arrive at my destination relaxed and alive, I probably don't want to be there anyway. I'm sure that more than eight minutes a day are squandered doing less important things than getting to work. If you hate your commute that much that you can't afford eight minutes a day to do it safely, move closer to your work, telecommute or try a different job. I'm sure that your skill set is more broad than you even realize. The petrochemical giants only do one thing and it is poison the planet. Invest wisely. It has a direct effect on our collective future.

Stay tuned for part two of this post, I've got to invest some time into feeding myself. Digging potatoes that are the tenth generation of a small handful of free tiny spuds that I have cared for, invested in and enjoyed eating for a decade...the finest things in life cannot ever become "commodities". As a great musician, Greg Brown, has sung thousands of times, there's only two things money can't buy...true love and homegrown tomatoes! I would add to that list, homegrown anything (today it is potatoes).