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Thank God We Averted "Disaster"
While the train wreck of the phony debt ceiling crisis occupied the media and voters for much of the last several weeks, public health and the environment were quietly being mugged in the back alley on Capital Hill by a ruthless gang of Tea Party Congressmen armed by a cabal of dirty energy corporations, chief among them Koch Industries. But this mugging will have permanent consequences for all Americans, including diminished quality of life, more cancer causing contamination of your water, dirtier air, poorer health, shorter life spans, and higher medical bills. Yes, you and your family are going to take a quite hit for the Koch Brothers team. But it will provide more billions in profits for these Titans of fossil fuel which is their noble contribution to “shared sacrifice.”
Multiple tactics and weapons are being used in this mugging. Contradicting every study that’s ever been done, the Tea Party gang started labeling the EPA, and its enforcement of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, “job killing” to persuade voters there was something sinister about environmental protection. Then they started their legislative machinations, like attaching dozens of “are you kidding me?” riders to the appropriations bill that funds the EPA.
Those riders include such gems as allowing uranium mining on the door step of the Grand Canyon, with the likelihood of contaminating the lower Colorado River and the drinking water for 30 million people. Mind you that right now the federal government is spending a billion dollars to clean up 50 year old uranium tailings near that same Colorado River at Moab, Utah. Other riders are as deranged and senseless as blocking the tougher fuel standards the Obama Administration just got the auto makers to agree to, needlessly wasting billions of barrels of oil, creating more pollution for you to inhale, costing consumers more for gas, and turning the thermostat even higher on a dangerously overheating planet. By show of hands how many of you were hoping your new car--if you can ever afford one--will get worse gas mileage?
Another rider would allow unregulated discharge of pesticides into our waterways. How many of you are concerned that your kids haven’t been getting enough pesticides in their food and drinking water? Undoubtedly, if you could just jack up your family’s cancer risk a bit more someone would come knocking on your door to give you a job.
Other riders will prevent environmental restrictions on the devastating practice of mountain top removal mining, prevent the EPA from enforcing our bedrock air pollution regulations, allow loggers to decimate the remaining acres of our national forests that haven’t already burned down or been destroyed by the pine beetle, and of course, prevent the EPA from regulating any greenhouse gases. The Tea Partiers are determined that no regulations will be left standing after this environmental demolition derby. Ahhh, I can smell those new jobs already.
According to the Los Angeles Times, “Washington insiders say they've never seen such a breathtaking assault on the environment.” But these riders are just the warm up. Already this year the Tea Party led GOP engineered the largest percentage cuts in the EPA of any federal agency, and they are likely to drive the knife deeper into the wound with every future budget battle starting again in September.
But it gets worse, much worse. The budget deal struck just in time to avert financial disaster, agreed to by both houses and signed by Obama, will cut “non defense discretionary spending”, which includes the EPA, health and climate research to 50% of current levels. This will essentially dismantle the EPA and prevent it from administering the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts which were the greatest bipartisan legislative achievements since the Civil Rights Act.
Even this is not the end of it. This budget deal will similarly eviscerate clean energy research and initiatives, virtually sanctifying our continued dependency on dwindling and increasingly expensive fossil fuels, perpetuating our smothering in their pollution, and kissing good bye our last chance to avert climate armageddon. But it will assure the Tea Party of their ultimate triumph over science, reason, and hope. Thank God we averted “disaster.”
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43 Comments so far
Show AllThank you, Dr. Moench. Great points! A few years ago when I thought the Bush Junta did as much harm to the nation (and portions of the planet) as was possible, I wrote a story entitled "The Greater Good." Its premise involves a renegade Buddhist monk who comes to America, and decides to use his meditation class to collect a small group of committed students to do a mind-over-matter project, of the clandestine sort. They all set their sights on seeing Air Force 1 go down...
In the story, the plane goes down, but instead of its nefarious political murderers dying, they are taken in by an Indigenous tribe in South America, and forced to see what their deeds have wrought.
Given the details of your article I would hope that there is a Buddhist monk out there, or teacher of refinement of the mind's hidden capacities, who might find that select group, and work quickly to see that the Koch Brothers soon breathe their last gasps.
While it's true that they are a symptom of the diseased state of our sold-out on national graft and corruption system, rather than its cause, it still would seem the Greater Good to get that noxious duo OFF of this plane...
Truly, it is hard to wrap one's mind around the type of insatiable greed that would kill the planet, and all the sentient wonders upon it; for what, another pound of gold?
There should be an INCOME ceiling... and every time anyone surpasses it, they get to recycle the bounty back into the commons (or for projects that suit the common good). This feeding of the sick minds of our times, so they can in turn purchase the law makers, is a deal with the devil; or about as satanic as any modus operandi could be.
There are already SO many poisons in our waterways, air, and soil... added to whatever is streaming over silently from Fukushima, that the Disaster Capitalists positioned to profit from Cancer-as-business-model, will see profits go up in direct proportion to how quickly living systems (along with human beings) become extinguished.
What a plan!
I liked your story. I especially liked the bit where the perpetrators come face to face with the consequences of their actions while they are still alive, and not in some future life.
The self-righteous are betting on Armageddon, and they always hedge their bets.
Yes, if all else fails, their fallback is "God will forgive you if you believe"
It's an airtight approach (or so they believe).
And here you thought they were only after FDR's legacy.
Of all the Nixon stuff one could dismantle, I'd have chosen his unholy pact with Kaiser that led to the current U.S. health (sic) care situation.
But that's just me.
Do the Tea Partiers and the wealthy who are in favor of these laws believe that God will filter their air and water, too? Or do they just believe that radiation and pollution don't really harm us, that chemicals in their nourishment will actually help them grow?
Do those in the media that spread these lies believe that they will be safe somehow?
Do they believe that their children will be immune to all these things?
This deal, cutting Medicare and Social Security, and poisoning "our waterways, air, and soil" condemn many to early deaths. Perhaps when enough influential people sicken and die from all this, there will be a movement to bring back even stronger, protective laws than the laws now being undone.
It's too late now, never mind years down the road...
The Lord will provide. God has a plan. The Lord worked through George W Bush in his mysterious way. Surely President Rick Perry will get us back on the Lord's fast track. Embrace Armageddon. As Mr. Perry's minister friend has pointed out, Hitler and his plan for the Jews was really God's plan to get the Jewish people back to their true home so that Armageddon can begin. Only the faithless worry about pollution and other completely immaterial things. One only needs joy. Thoughts not about Him are simply wasted time.
In answer to your first question, a great cartoon by Gahan Wilson appeared in The New Yorker a few weeks ago. It showed a man with a boy on his lap, both of whom are wearing "space suits." The man says to the boy: "Then one day some wise man realized that it doesn't matter what happens to the environment as long as we wear these nice shiny suits."
To the extent that the whackos in Congress think at all, they must be thinking like that.
The scary thing is that at least some people (generally right wingers), some who view themselves as "scientific" "rationalist" non believers DO think that way: they believe that scientists will automagically come up with solutions to all the problems of environmental degradation.
Thanks for these (mostly very funny) replies. Here's a link to the cartoon:
http://www.newyorkerstore.com/2011/and-then-one-day-some-wise-men-realized-that-it-didnt-matter-what-happened-to-the-environmen/invt/137205/
An income ceiling is good. Expropriation would be better, assuming that we have a reasonable government, a very big assumption indeed.
Don't you just want to give up on this country sometimes and say to the greedy bastards who are destroying everything decent,"It is yours. Now live in it."
Open Letter To President Obama
Dear Mr. President,
A massive kill-off of the citizens of the United States is taking place and Billionaire Buffett is right when he declares that he and his Fellow Buffetteers are winning.
Is he also correct when he states that we aren't seeing this?
The truth at the door is in the house, Mr. President.
To murder and get away with it has never happened and it never will. I want to see this world's Master Killers escape the wrath of those they have slain, and are slaying, ... by never dying. I want to see them hide behind their religion when they are dead.
Yours Cordially,
Leland Mellott
Years ago I found myself pretty much in the same untenable kind of situation we now find ourselves in, only mine was dealing with a woman who had an independent space in the office I worked in, who's actions not only made my life a living hell, it was also undermining my health and putting me at risk for deadly consequences further down the line. There was no talking to her without being attacked, any more than trying to reason with these people. After dreaming up every imaginable nasty thing I might do to make her feel and suffer as I did, and knowing I was incapable of such acts, I came to the end of my rope. If I couldn't change the situation, I'd have to leave my job.
So one night after I'd gone to bed, thinking about her and what to do, I asked for whatever help might be "out there." A few days later, just before I woke up, a voice said "you should treat her with caring and compassion; and love her as yourself. It really wasn't the answer I was hoping for, but I knew I needed to try it. So on my way to work I stopped and picked up donuts for the office, and took a couple of them to this woman, simply saying I thought she might like them. A few days later I took a break, went into her space, and started talking to her about the job she was doing, which was filing all day. I expressed my feelings about what a tough job it must be. Then I went back to my desk. I repeated these kinds of actions several more times, and was amazed when she suddenly stopped doing what she'd been doing that made me so miserable. We even managed to become almost friends.
My point is that maybe with our collective consciousness we could change the way these people see things. I've heard many times how well this works in various situations. Might be worth a try?
Probably wouldn't work with these people, considering the "Lord" that most of them really follow. After reading about some of them on AlterNet.org or talk2action.org, I think we'd be better off riding like Paul Revere to spread the alarm because what's coming is far worse than the Red Coats.
shadre,
I've been thinking along these lines as well for quite a while now. Something seems to happen when one small change occurs in the milieu. I believe it is a scientific fact! For those of us who are more spiritually oriented, we can call it God or the fey or whatever. For the psychologically inclined it is behavior modification or "affecting the system." For New Age people it's positive thinking.
Whatever we call it, one small change can have a huge impact. My theory is: If we visualize the way we want the world to be, it will slowly begin to move in that direction.
Be prepared shadre for many CD posters here to rip apart this idea. Seems this is "New Age" thinking, or yuppie or ex-hippie nonsense.
What people don't understand is....when you as an individual react differently ...it is you who change. The environment and milieu respond to your differentness in a different way.
Inanna; No rippers yet, thankfully. I agree with what you say. "It" is called many names, and they all begin in the mind of the individual, and like a rock thrown into a pond, a thought can ripple out and influence those within its sphere.
Shadre: What you effected was admirable. And I've also experienced this type of thing. In fact I was part of a "Master Mind Prayer Group" that really did see some mini miracles result. I believe certain maladies can be prayed away, but probably not something as complex as cancer. The analogy is that there is an overwhelming mental sickness to many beliefs that have been brainwashed into people causing systemic rot to fill the gap where clear spirituality ought to flourish. Organized religion being a major culprit... and certain things cannot be easily prayed away. The rot goes too deep.
Thank you, Siouxrose. I've seen a lot of things in my life brought about by the power of the mind, some by me, some though a group of people focusing on someone or something to enact change, but it wasn't a prayer group, although I know do work, and sometimes don't. My great grandmother died at 69 when her church's prayers did nothing for her gall bladder disease.
I've come to believe, just from the things I've experienced on my own, that we each have extraordinary brain power - much more than just intellegence. We only have to realize it's there, and learn to use it. I've always attributed the not knowing to organized religion. I consider myself lucky to have lived the first eighteen years of my life without that hindrance, and have always been a free spirit and free thinker. And after a few short years in a church, I knew it wasn't for me, and the analogy you mention is so right on.
ThinKingOutsIDe..., I agree that what I did concerning the co-worker wasn't because of anything to do with the power of my mind. Where the voice telling me how to treat her came from, I don't presume to know. I simply followed the advice, and saw the results, and knew it had been a much better way to solve the problem than putting something nasty in her coffee to make her sick, or any other such thing would have been.
I also have talked to enough far right conservatives not half as bad as the "Kochroaches" and others, and know it's wasted effort, even more so than trying to talk to a drunk. But I do believe we have extraordinary brain power that we don't realize we have, and I believe this because I've somehow connected to it a couple of times accidently and I know its there. I think we (early people) had it and used it easily until the advent of christianity and church rule, when we were forbidden to use it, and have been kept under the heel of churches ever since and it's become a forgotten attribute.
My second point was about as a group, sending mental images to these people. I've heard of that being done, but have never tried it. We're at the point where something has to be done to stop the madness.
"I believe certain maladies can be prayed away, but probably not something as complex as cancer. "
If gawd can create the universe and everything in it, along with cancer, surely s/he shouldn't find it too complex to heal it or would have been good enuf in the first place not to have brought it forth in the first place. Or, are you suggesting that the praying is the problem? Maybe gawd only hears prayers from those who pray of simple health issues, like ingrown toenails or pimples?
It is so weird that people can believe in a "higher power" and pray for it to rectify a problem, while never blaming the "higher power" for creating the problem in the first place.
I believe that this gobbly-gook is one of the major reasons this world is so fucked up. Humans can't understand how to fix problems because they have given away their power to do so to a higher authority - gawd, the sun god, mother nature, the rich elites, and the politicians. Living in a fantasy world of tooth fairies, angels and alien abductions, is all part of the dumbing down that keeps our world ruled by the few for the benefit of those few.
I would tend to agree with you Struggle. The proposition put forward by Shadre and supported by Siouxrose is admirable but I think ultimately doomed. As a student of pyschology I can put some belief in the power of positive thinking or the placebo effect, or whatever you want to name it, indeed I have even felt it work in my own life. But to live thinking that the answers to problems lie outside of myself, or those around me is enfeebling.
Be the change that we want to see. I agree with that, but the crucial component is that we have to be, not god has to be, or gaia, or whatever. As you point out, all to often faith in these others is a matter of convenience. God fixes the problem but never causes it, how can that be? Embrace the power of being human, embrace the change that we can affect. Waiting around for a higher power to change the minds of some business tycoon who probably prays to the same god and feels he is doing said gods work is worse than impotence to me, it is willful surrender.
CosmicCrushed - I've never believed that the answers to problems lie outside of myself, and having been basically alone in crowds my whole life, I learned very young how to deal with my problems myself. But there have been a few times in my life when the problem was beyond me. At those times I've "put it out there" not just to whatever diety there might be, but to all of my beloved dead. And once, when I asked if I should do a certain thing that could cause harm to me, and after "seeing" a banner over me naming the thing I was torn over, and a multitude of voices followed me out of sleep saying "Don't do it!" over and over, I also knew there are many things in this universe that we don't know a thing about.
I would certainly agree that there are many things in the universe that we know nothing about. Are they spiritual, perhaps. I've reached the point where I simply don't believe it. I've never witnessed a ghost, or god, or the supernatural, as far as I can tell. I often have a hard time believing or understanding people who have these types of experiences. I am in no way trying to diminish your comment, but I don't understand it. If you mean it literally then it makes no sense to me, if you mean it a different way then I don't understand it.
I have had many life experiences myself that have come to confirm my belief in non-belief. I try to respect the opinions of those who are more spiritually inclined. I do not claim to be correct but have simply formed my opinions based on personal experience. I may be proven wrong anytime, I accept that, but I don't expect it.
Fair enough, CosmicCrushed. We've all lived different lives, had experiences that were ours alone, and, I think, interpret those experiences based on our whole life experiences. I've yet to find anyone who's lived as I have, or had similar experiences, except for one of them, and I don't generally talk about them for that reason. I've also listened to experiences others have had, and can't connect, so I know what you're saying. I respect everyone's belief system, or way of thinking - so long as they don't try to force it down my throat.
Master Mind is the name of a technique of focused prayer/intention taught at Unity Churches. How DARE you suggest I would make that, or anything, up?
Cosmic Crushed: I find your post so full of items I don't agree with, it would take pages of response. And the fact is, I'm just not that interested. To presume that believing in something beyond the self, some vast shaping principle, negates the will to action is your own dichotomous projection.
Those, who, like Jimi Hendrix, "Have been experienced," need not argue the proof of that which was revealed to them to the earthbound types who never get it... because they argue themselves into remaining inside their own Hermetically sealed box.
Ta Ta.
I would read your response Siouxrose, should you be inclined. I have appreciated your responses in the past and consider your opinions to be more valid than most I see on this site. You have given me respect for astrology, probably wrongly on my part, by helping me understand it as a framework with which to view events.
I recognize this medium is not the most conducive to any serious or particularly deep conversations. We are limited to little more than soundbites, like the pundits we all seem to disparage. I do not feel though that I have sealed myself into a box. I am openminded, and continually try to stretch my understanding. I will be taking part in my first sweat lodge next week as well as undergoing some other traditional Carrier-Sekani activities. It is my sincerest hopes that I experience a spiritual event; that being said I am not trying to force it, or minimize it. I am simply looking to partake and grow.
I hope we can continue our disparate discourse into the future.
Thank you, for the humane response. I GENUINELY hope you have an experience that logic, alone, cannot explain. And while I think Robert Jensen went too far into the Christian worldview in his article posted today, what he says about the limits of science, and how it reflects the mindset based on DOMINATION over nature, does hold immense value.
From the mental tennis matches on this site, I have decided to present a series of mini-discussions on astrology. One will focus on how the basic archetype work, another on how those archetypes reflect MUCH about our political processes. These are universal prototypes that factor into every phase of time, and impact persons all across the globe. I just finished a new book, and now I have the time to wrap my mind around these tutorials which I will be posting on You Tube.
It's next to impossible to discuss a subject when one has years of background in its research (and practice), with those who own very superficial views. It would be like me discussing how the brain functions with a neuro-surgeon. Forty plus years of reseach is equivalent to a ph.D.
I agree with Shadre that each person has experiences that reflect their worldview, sometimes with surprising gifts offered to expand upon their perception. These moments of catharsis are seldom planned... they are a gift of serendipity and align with what Hamlet meant by "There are more things in heaven and earth than dreamt of in your philosophy, Horatio." Shakespeare often used mystical material in his works, and these generally remain contemporary because he was a master at understanding human character and its weaknesses.
Make sure you drink water at that sweat lodge!
And you're right... I could say that just as orgasm (at least in women) cannot be forced but is rather yielded to, the higher states of consciousness accord with a similar process.
Question. Who would be willing to place a bet of some 1 billion dollars , that the US would see its Credit rating downgraded?
Well it seems a single investor using a hedge fund dis just that and made a return of some 10 billion on his investment.
Way back during the countries founding, that oft quoted Benjamin Franklin (one of the so called "Fathers of The Country") was postmaster of the Pennsylvania. He also owned a Newspaper. As postmaster he passed an edict that forbid all rivals newspapers from using the Postal service.
The game is rigged folks. It has been since the country called the United States of America was founded. There will be no "fixes" coming from the same people who are running the con.
Do not miss "Inside Job", narrated by Matt Damon, now On Demand on Starz
The capitalists stole the concept of a third party by inventing the Jim Jones type tea sippers. To place the blame on them is the same delusion as placing it on only the republicans. Think about how many believe in the republicans and the democrats.
The whole government is corrupt and can never be fixed through the system.
The Good Doctor should remember that the Left got rolled because their political leverage was weak. There was and is no opposition. Frankly the Professional Left has no one but themselves to blame for all of this. They created a void by becoming republicans look-a-likes and the TP filled it. Look to get rolled and rolled again. Unfortunately its too late. The storm is just beginning and there will be little interest in doing anything but keeping a shelter over your head, irregardless of how that shelter is heated or how they get around.
I hope I'm wrong.
Thank god? Frankly... the almghty, white male, father-sky-god-man that supposed-lie rules Planet Over-Birth-Earth from his golden toilet throne in the KKKristian dictatorship of heaven had nothing to do with the folly of Amerika's debt crisis. Jeeesass, Elvis, Muhammad-mad-mad and El-Ron (the Hubbard) had nothing to do with it either. The cause of Amerika's debt crisis, as well as the cure or failure, is man made. We own it!
What to do? I think we the people should let the ruling class (and their Tea KKKlaner puppets) have everything they want. Everything! Then... we shall have a full blown revolution by those who manage to survive the nuclear holocaust... and/or Mad Max anarchy. I have concluded that the $ystem is so irreparably corrupt and broken... that we have to burn down the damn village in order to save it. Shooting on sight the banksters and other denizens of corp-rat culture might be a good place to start.
Oh, how I long for the days when I thought Bob Dole was bad!