Vice President Henry Wallace on Fascism

Let's talk about nasty things like Slavery, Christianity, Fascism, and the like.  The Catholic Church actually held a debate to determine whether the natives (women) that Columbus met in his journeys to the new world were actually Human.  The Church finally decided that they were.  (Otherwise Columbus and his men would have been guilty of bestiality.   Still the stance of the Bible against slavery and prostitution is not all that stellar.  Neither slavery nor prostitution are spoken against AS INSTITUTIONS in the Bible but both seem accepted.  Some suggest that those who hid Rahab the prostitute safe on the wall at Jericho, actually had sex with her, perhaps as payment.  Jacob is spoken of as visiting a prostitute and there is no condemnation.  Polygamy is accepted- - with elaborate regulations as to wife "seniority" or whatever.  Slavery is spoken of ("Regulated" like we want to do with pot) in the Bible.  In terms of the Confederate Flag, I would suggest that if you have Civil War veterans in your family tree there is no harm in having a confederate flag on the wall.  But as with our own American Flag, many who fly it have highly suspect motives different from you and me.

It should be noted that these neo Conservatives of today aren't against "Big Government", but they are against democracy.  Thom Hartmann was referring to the 'final vote count" in Florida favoring Gore - - appeared burried in the New York Times in November of 2001 when the post 9 - 11 hysteria was rampant, and the Times didn't want to "unduly embarrass" President Bush's position of leadership.  In the book "The Revolution of 1800" there was a tern called an "interregnum" that was tossed about during the latter part of the Adams administration- - referring to a period in English history where Chromwell stormed parliament with men with bayonettes disbanding parliament.  Some were worried that due to changing demographics- - the election of 1800 might not be held, because of the growing population and democracy of "western states" such as Tennessee and Kentucky.  Some would say there is little chance of that happening today.  After all even in the depths of national War such as 1864 and 1944, we held Presidential elections without question.  But today we are concerned about "security".  If releasing a report on CIA torture is considered "an endangerment of security" today, who is to say that an election dominated by a record number of Latino immigrants- - won't be considered a "security risk" tomorrow.  "Ring of Fire' points out that if the Trans Pacific Partnership trade bill gets passed like the President and Republicans want the former "fire wall" of a democratic senate won't be there to stop it, and if the President says it's OK, suddenly it's OK.  Just as if President Obama is not sure about the ethics of torture- - - the President may not be as eager to further causes of individual rights as we might think.  The trans pacific partnership will undermine democracy in America in any number of ways.  

It has been stated by Thom Hartmann that the apperatus for a police state in America was put in place by President Bush and Congress in the form of the Patriot Act and other legislation during this post 9 - 11 period.  We still never got to the bottom of just who sent those Congressmen those anthrax laced envelopes.  The Patriot Act was passed "With all deliberate speed".  We now have the infrastructure for a police state, we just need to activate it.  Now there is a hint that Republicans will be passing these "Christmas tree" bills of legislation that HAVE to be signed off on because they contain needed budget items- - but have a lot of little perks for conservatives - - and institutions like Chase bank.  There are also provisions to abolish the planned sale of marijuana in the city of Washington DC.  It was Thom Hartmann's suggestion that this particular article from 2004 be resurrected, on the subject of what Henry Wallace, one time Vice President of the United States, thought on the subject of Fascism.  Here is that article.  It's a little unnearving, isn't it?

Published on Monday, July 19, 2004 by CommonDreams.org

The Republican National Committee has recently removed from the top-level pages of their website an advertisement interspersing Hitler's face with those of John Kerry and other prominent Democrats. This little-heralded step has freed former Enron lobbyist and current RNC chairman Ed Gillespie to resume his attacks on Americans who believe some provisions of Bush's PATRIOT Act, his detention of American citizens without charges, his willingness to let corporations write legislation, and the so-called "Free Speech Zones" around his public appearances are all steps on the road to American fascism.

The RNC's feeble attempt to equate Hitler and Democrats was short-lived, but it brings to mind the first American Vice President to point out the "American fascists" among us.

Although most Americans remember that Harry Truman was Franklin D. Roosevelt's Vice President when Roosevelt died in 1945 (making Truman President), Roosevelt had two previous Vice Presidents - John N. Garner (1933-1941) and Henry A. Wallace (1941-1945). In early 1944, the New York Times asked Vice President Henry Wallace to, as Wallace noted, "write a piece answering the following questions: What is a fascist? How many fascists have we? How dangerous are they?"

Vice President Wallace's answer to those questions was published in The New York Times on April 9, 1944, at the height of the war against the Axis powers of Germany and Japan.

"The really dangerous American fascists," Wallace wrote, "are not those who are hooked up directly or indirectly with the Axis. The FBI has its finger on those. The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power."

In this, Wallace was using the classic definition of the word "fascist" - the definition Mussolini had in mind when he claimed to have invented the word. (It was actually Italian philosopher Giovanni Gentile who wrote the entry in the Encyclopedia Italiana that said: "Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." Mussolini, however, affixed his name to the entry, and claimed credit for it.)

As the 1983 American Heritage Dictionary noted, fascism is: "A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."

Mussolini was quite straightforward about all this. In a 1923 pamphlet titled "The Doctrine of Fascism" he wrote, "If classical liberalism spells individualism, Fascism spells government." But not a government of, by, and for We The People - instead, it would be a government of, by, and for the most powerful corporate interests in the nation.

In 1938, Mussolini brought his vision of fascism into full reality when he dissolved Parliament and replaced it with the "Camera dei Fasci e delle Corporazioni" - the Chamber of the Fascist Corporations. Corporations were still privately owned, but now instead of having to sneak their money to folks like Tom DeLay and covertly write legislation, they were openly in charge of the government.

Vice President Wallace bluntly laid out in his 1944 Times article his concern about the same happening here in America:

" If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States. There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful. ... They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead."

Nonetheless, at that time there were few corporate heads who had run for political office, and, in Wallace's view, most politicians still felt it was their obligation to represent We The People instead of corporate cartels. "American fascism will not be really dangerous," he added in the next paragraph, "until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartelists, the deliberate poisoners of public information..."

Noting that, "Fascism is a worldwide disease," Wallace further suggest that fascism's "greatest threat to the United States will come after the war" and will manifest "within the United States itself."

In Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel "It Can't Happen Here," a conservative southern politician is helped to the presidency by a nationally syndicated radio talk show host. The politician - Buzz Windrip - runs his campaign on family values, the flag, and patriotism. Windrip and the talk show host portray advocates of traditional American democracy as anti-American. When Windrip becomes President, he opens a Guantanamo-style detention center, and the viewpoint character of the book, Vermont newspaper editor Doremus Jessup, flees to Canada to avoid prosecution under new "patriotic" laws that make it illegal to criticize the President.

As Lewis noted in his novel, "the President, with something of his former good-humor [said]: 'There are two [political] parties, the Corporate and those who don't belong to any party at all, and so, to use a common phrase, are just out of luck!' The idea of the Corporate or Corporative State, Secretary [of State] Sarason had more or less taken from Italy." And, President "Windrip's partisans called themselves the Corporatists, or, familiarly, the 'Corpos,' which nickname was generally used."

Lewis, the first American writer to win a Nobel Prize, was world famous by 1944, as was his book "It Can't Happen Here." And several well-known and powerful Americans, including Prescott Bush, had lost businesses in the early 1940s because of charges by Roosevelt that they were doing business with Hitler. These events all, no doubt, colored Vice President Wallace's thinking when he wrote:

" Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion. American fascists of this stamp were clandestinely aligned with their German counterparts before the war, and are even now preparing to resume where they left off, after 'the present unpleasantness' ceases."

Fascists have an agenda that is primarily economic. As the Free Dictionary (www.thefreedictionary.com) notes, fascism/corporatism is "an attempt to create a 'modern' version of feudalism by merging the 'corporate' interests with those of the state."

Feudalism, of course, is one of the most stable of the three historic tyrannies (kingdoms, theocracies, feudalism) that ruled nations prior to the rise of American republican democracy, and can be roughly defined as "rule by the rich."

Thus, the neo-feudal/fascistic rich get richer (and more powerful) on the backs of the poor and the middle class, an irony not lost on author Thomas Frank, who notes in his new book "What's The Matter With Kansas" that, "You can see the paradox first-hand on nearly any Main Street in middle America - 'going out of business' signs side by side with placards supporting George W. Bush."

The businesses "going out of business" are, in fascist administrations, usually those of locally owned small and medium-sized companies. As Wallace wrote, some in big business "are willing to jeopardize the structure of American liberty to gain some temporary advantage." He added, "Monopolists who fear competition and who distrust democracy because it stands for equal opportunity would like to secure their position against small and energetic enterprise [companies]. In an effort to eliminate the possibility of any rival growing up, some monopolists would sacrifice democracy itself."

But American fascists who would want former CEOs as President, Vice President, House Majority Whip, and Senate Majority Leader, and write legislation with corporate interests in mind, don't generally talk to We The People about their real agenda, or the harm it does to small businesses and working people. Instead, as Hitler did with the trade union leaders and the Jews, they point to a "them" to pin with blame and distract people from the harms of their economic policies.

In a comment prescient of George W. Bush's recent suggestion that civilization itself is at risk because of gays, Wallace continued:

" The symptoms of fascist thinking are colored by environment and adapted to immediate circumstances. But always and everywhere they can be identified by their appeal to prejudice and by the desire to play upon the fears and vanities of different groups in order to gain power. It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice. It may be shocking to some people in this country to realize that, without meaning to do so, they hold views in common with Hitler when they preach discrimination..."

But even at this, Wallace noted, American fascists would have to lie to the people in order to gain power. And, because they were in bed with the nation's largest corporations - who could gain control of newspapers and broadcast media - they could promote their lies with ease.

"The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact," Wallace wrote. "Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy."

In his strongest indictment of the tide of fascism the Vice President of the United States saw rising in America, he added, "They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."

Finally, Wallace said, "The myth of fascist efficiency has deluded many people. ... Democracy, to crush fascism internally, must...develop the ability to keep people fully employed and at the same time balance the budget. It must put human beings first and dollars second. It must appeal to reason and decency and not to violence and deceit. We must not tolerate oppressive government or industrial oligarchy in the form of monopolies and cartels."

This liberal vision of an egalitarian America in which very large businesses and media monopolies are broken up under the 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act (which Reagan stopped enforcing, leading to the mergers & acquisitions frenzy that continues to this day) was the driving vision of the New Deal (and of "Trust Buster" Teddy Roosevelt a generation earlier).

As Wallace's President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, said when he accepted his party's renomination in 1936 in Philadelphia, "...out of this modern civilization, economic royalists [have] carved new dynasties.... It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction.... And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man...."

Speaking indirectly of the fascists that Wallace would directly name almost a decade later, Roosevelt brought the issue to its core: "These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power."

But, he thundered in that speech, "Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power!"

In 2004, we again stand at the same crossroad Roosevelt and Wallace confronted during the Great Depression and World War II. Fascism is again rising in America, this time calling itself "compassionate conservatism." The RNC's behavior today eerily parallels the day in 1936 when Roosevelt said, "In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for."

It's particularly ironic that the CEOs and lobbyists who run the Republican National Committee would have chosen to put Hitler's fascist face into one of their campaign commercials, just before they launched a national campaign against gays and while they continue to arrest people who wear anti-Bush T-shirts in public places.

President Roosevelt and Vice President Wallace's warnings have come full circle. Which is why it's so critical that this November we join together at the ballot box to stop this most recent incarnation of feudal fascism from seizing complete control of our nation.

To Torture Or Not To Torture

I cannot picture myself as a Christian ever thinking "Torture is a good thing and secrecy about it is a good thing - we should keep it up to keep our country free of terrorism".   Yet this is exactly how people like Sean Hannity and apparently a bunch of CiA chief's think.  They firmly believe in that old chestnut "The ends justify the means" and that all these tortures and renditions of suspects in far flung countries around the world actually "save lives" and are the guardians of our Liberty, or something such as that.  I have wondered "If I decided to "test myself" and try to "Will myself" to "become one of them" the question is whether it would be "possible to do it", you know, just to prove that I could.  Neil Savedra is really big on Will worship and says you can set your mind on any goal and will yourself - - "make a decision" to do something like be a Born Again Christian (and all the political baggage apparently, that comes with that) if I only have the Will or grit or determination or whatever.  And I guess we're supposed to look to Neil as an example, after all he takes the trouble to share these little chestnuts of wisdom imparted to him by his theology professors or what not.  But as I considered "Turning myself into Sean Hannity" or whoever Neil Savedra regards as a Born Again Christian I should emulate- - I came to the sobering conclusion that I could never pull it off.  Certain things aren't in certain people's natures.  I have had to face the sobering reality mindful of expressions such as "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result" (something people with frustrations about Church life should keep in mind) and I do not regard this statement as either "smug" or "too cleaver" but merely accurate.  "Giving Christianity one more try" - - - giving far right conservatism one more try- - or "hating your fellow man" one more try- - - seems silly even as a completely "accademic experiment".

Some things Christians say are just nonesense when you analyze them.  They say they hate "situation ethics" and yet "situations' pervade legal law, even rules of police conduct as to what use of force is permissable under what circumstances.  You hear people like Chuck Smith say "I don't believe in circumstances" and yet Chuck Smith's whole life was - - the totality of all of the circumstances of Blessings in his life.  And you hear people say things like "You are not in charge of your own future but God is" but of course - - IF my future is NOT in my hands, but another's, then how is it- - I AM THE ONE who is fingered for "Not living up to God's ideal"?  There is an old Love Song track about "It's better riding in the back seat rather than driving".   Yet people riding in the back seat are rarely held liable if the Driver is arrested for speeding or an illegal lane change.  

I wonder what "God's" position is on - - petroleum products verses alternative energy fuels with a low carbon footprint?  You know, at least I admire Sean Hannity.  He at least wants to HELP people- - find a job in the oil business, for example.  But I can't help wondering whether oil profits for a start up opperation- will be as high at sixty dollars a barrell as they were at 120 or whatever it used to be.  Even Judy will tell you that you have to get "over that hump" to get into a zone where your business can make a profit and you can even AFFORD to even hire more workers.  (Selah)

Here are some aimless thoughts on "keeping it optimistic".  This computer crashed, but I can be thankful that none of this file was unsaved at the time.  I’m also grateful for the fact that in general the computer seems to be working better lately.  I’m grateful that I checked both CD drawers and there were no problems.  I’ve wondered about Dr Levy’s statement that all of us should “compare down” and be grateful and upbeat about whatever we have.  Unfortunately Dr Levy never seems to have shared that optimism with himself because he’s continually negative about the economy and I might even infer that his time of taken up by other things trying to survive economically and has no time for us.  This might just be the first year since I’ve been in Dr Levy’s class that he hosts no Christmas party.  Still we should be grateful for all of the parties these previous years- five of them for me.  Judy called and somehow this topic of optimism crept into the dialog.  I expressed optimism about the economy for the next year at least saying the stock market should be OK till then.  Judy immediately launced into a thing about how bad her business is doing and some GNLD office in another state had to shut down.  There was talk about how no small business runs a profit for the first five years, and never ending are the complaints about government regulations and endless paper work.  When I said something about not being sure what I needed for Christmas this year she responded “contentment is a good thing”.  But Judy had also said that what drives business is a desire for new things and the ability to buy them.  I have gotten “less than encouragement” as far as bolstering my own confidence to get a job at this age, and have the money myself to stimulate the national commerce by buying things.  I tried to be encouraging in saying “Well the Republicans are in firm control of congress now.  Maybe they’ll pass something”.  Judy had no response to this.

Failing to prosecute the fraud of the big banks is dooming our economy.

But it’s also illegal. Specifically, one of the top experts on bank fraud – William K. Black – says that the Bush and Obama administrations have both broken the law by failing to break up the insolvent banks.

Similarly, failing to prosecute those who created a policy of widespread torture is destroying our country’s reputation and hurting our national security .

Why?

Well, top experts say that torture creates new terrorists.  Prosecuting the torturers would help to reduce the hatred – and terrorism – which comes from the horrendous program of torture.

In addition, top counter-terrorism experts say that indefinite detention – such as we have at Guantanamo – increases terrorism.   Colin Powell’s chief of staff says that the Bush administration knewthat most of the inmates at Guantanamo were innocent, but kept them locked up indefinitely to avoid the embarrassment of admitting that they’d tortured innocent people.

In other words, Guantanamo is being kept open – and innocent detainees imprisoned forever – in order to try to cover up the torture of innocents.  Prosecuting – instead of covering up for – the torturers would allow the innocents to be released … thus taking away one of the main causes of terrorism: indefinite detention.

And as Darrel Vandeveld – former  prosecutor in the Guantanamo military commissions, and current Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve – wrote:

Torture is a crime and the United States engaged in it. Those are two indisputable facts…

The process of self-examination and accountability has been, and remains, the only way to move forward and regain our moral and legal grounding…

We have a Department of Justice for a reason, and now it’s up to Attorney General Holder, the nation’s top law enforcement officer, to do his job and appoint an independent prosecutor to follow the evidence where it may lead…

It is critical that we hold accountable those who authorized, those who legally sanctioned and those who implemented the torture policies of one of the darkest periods in our nation’s history. What is at stake is nothing less than our democracy.

Democratic Senate Releases Long Awaited CIA Report

The democrats had wanted that CIA report on torture - - for the past five years according to Norman Goldman.  The democrats have to release it now because if they don’t do it now- - the Republicans will never allow this thousands of pages report to see the light of day.  This morning John Mc Cain gave a major speech and Dianne Feinstein made a major speech on the subject.  I myself intend to go back and listen to both speeches in their entirety.  No need to tell you there are other things besides water-boarding in this “enhanced interrogation”.  The Bush administration was misled by the CIA on these activities.  There were “sexually demeaning things”, and I’m not sure what that entails.  Does it go as far, for instance, as threatened castration, or perhaps electrodes to the genitals like in Peru?  We know that it involves forced anal feeding, which seems strange.   There were things like major dehydration, and forced stress positions for hours on end, and even broken bones involved.  The democrats are insistent that no useful material was gleaned from these practices.   In fact the CIA did them even after it had been determined that NO useful information could be obtained.   Many at the CIA felt they had gone too far, but there was a cabal of “forty or fifty people at the CIA” who made all of the policy decisions.  (more so than the President)  People like the Republicans and Sean Hannity are just as insistent, for example, that Bin Laden’s compound could not have been located were it not for this “enhanced interrogation”.  Thom Hartman has mentioned how George Washington treated our British POW’s kindly in the Revolutionary war, at George Washington’s insistence.  Word of this got around and even former British soldiers were brought around to sympathizing with our cause of Independence.  “We shall give our captives no grounds for complaint”.   Even Germans wanted to surrender to the United States in the closing weeks of World War II rather than the Russians because they knew they would be treated well.

This country has had standards for treatment of prisoners of war for a long time.  We had the Geneva convention accords in 1954 that most nations of the world have signed on to.  We know even in Islamic countries or in North Viet Nam, they were under pressure not to go too far “over the line” of what is permitted under these accords.  How strange, therefore, is it that the beach head of Liberty and Justice all these years, would be the one to make a break with this world tradition.  If we prosecute other nations such as the Japanese for crimes - - - well, what do you think?   Sean Hannity took the opportunity to get hysterical over the release of that CIA torture and abuse of power report.  He won’t say that a blasphamus video against Islam could have triggered Bengazi, but he will say that the release of a report the rest of the world besides we citizens already suspects anyhow, and ten year old material at that- - well this will have dire national security risks according to Sean Hannity.  He’s being inconsistent.  But stranger was his statement saying that “If you’re going to make a value judgement- - waterboarding subjects where they survive just fine- - isn’t as bad as Obama’s drones killing over a thousand civilians, not tomention a couple a hundred children”.   If he’d stopped talking right there, he would have made his point.  But then Sean says “Actually this is one area in foreign policy where I actually agree with the President”.   So Sean by his own admission would have the deaths of perhaps thousands of civilians-  -  tried, convicted and executed without a trial for God knows what crimes.   I think the democrats would have a field day playing back Sean’s remarks as an example of war-monger thinking gone wild.   After this Chad screwed over Sonny on “Days of our Lives” luring Sonny into signing a tricky contract where he’s left holding the bag.

Rush Limbaugh was on one of his ‘I love sexual harrassment’ campaigns.  These conservatives kind of go into default “the woman is guilty” modes, nowadays.  When Rush speaks of “Dan Rather making up stories about George Bush’s national guard days” you know that Rush speaks of ignorance because this history is well documented.   Rush is so STUPID I’m not even sure he knows the exact reason WHY Dan Rather was fired.  Nowadays, whenever a conservative hears charges made by a woman of rape, they automatically assume she’s lying.  Then he brings up some example of a person nobody ever heard of, where we don’t have the facts to begin with- - and says “There’s your proof”.  In terms of friends of “Jackie” testifying, her friends state that “Something bad happened to Jackie in the late fall just before finals and her teachers let her take her finals off campus”.   I would imagine that if I’d been drugged and raped I’d be disoriented and confused as to the exact details, which is kind of the whole point.  Back in the ‘eighties they didn’t have DNA evidence, you know, so women who made rape charges then – it was a throw of the dice.

There are a lot of occurrences of the world “Dimension” in the “Marcus in Exile” blog - - a veritable treasure trove of them.  Last August there is an extended reference where I am trying to explain the concept of psychic congruency.  It dawned on me that “things” of an animanimate nature- - are a lot easier to predict the course of than are the actions of living beings- - particularly intelligent beings like man.  Since the stock market is the action of these same “beings” stock prices therefore, are also very hard to predict and you’ll go broke trying to pick a Mathematical pattern.  In the two dimensions of time there are latitudinal and longititudal time.  Longitudenal time is the one we live by - - which can be pictured in the same way as longitudinal gravity.  For instance if you launch a space craft at the equator and put it in orbit, it will STAY on the equator.  If you launch it 25 degrees “latitude” then it has to make up for it by- - - having stretched the map of the world out on a flat surface where it goes on repeating forever- - you would hence see sine waves that can easily be averaged out.  The Golden Mean is a ratio- - and if you were to graph it (one number as X and the other as Y) then it too would soon even out to a straight line.  Likewise there is an equation where the end answer is Base E, where the same thing happens- - only here you get the “hatchback” line where the reading gradually flattens out into base E.   But my big point though is that other “latitudinal” events occur with intelligent beings to upset a smooth predictable path.  If you view Feng Chue strings as such a distraction- - these, when you transverse a Feng Chue string – would activate or trigger some new event that had not been present before.  Such events arguably have a psychic “reality” of their own in the trans-verse zero dimension of unformatted space (we went into in August)   Here like interacts with like.  These EVENTS are psychic in nature and so are we, our souls or “psyche”.    It’s kind of another of these l,atitudenal verse longitudinal things.  The strings themselves are longitudinal.  You travel along the string and all is well.  I employ these strings - - as a means of showing that they as psychic THINGS - - but are not subject to the laws of physical impulse travel such as by an electromagnetic medium.  Hence there are no speed limitations because the whole string basically vibrates at once like a standing wave.   We have said you can see an analogy of this in transversing magnetic flux line in an electric generator.  Again, this is latitudinal action.   One might wall the concept of Weight- - - or Force or Thrust - - as FORCED Acceleration.  Not acceleration in an orbital field such as a comet would experience where it stays in the zero gravity longitrudenal frame of mind- - but there is a forced acceleration - - or one might argue “Something that would produce gravity”.   Today on Days of our Lives we learned about Melanie going to the casino and figuring out that if you counted cards in Black Jack, you'd improve your ODDS of winning.  So the casino doesn't see you win EVERY TIME, but what they do see - - you've heard of 'bending the cost curve" but here you bend the time axis so you now have a fundamentally altered direction or course or destiny.  It's as though some "outside force" had invaded the tranquil Universe of the Casino Owner, and introduced an "outside factor" not in their 'Universe' which has materially changed the course of what is - - "normal and expected".   In fact many Religions allude to such a thing as somehow "gaining the advantage" in life itself.   Only in one of my eleven dimensions do I speak of "materiality" in terms of substance.  In fact not that long ago I lamented that things like gravity and force and speed acceleration was not a dimension.  Now of course I have it as a whole dimension essentially of nothing but gravity and distance and speed and mass.  

Many would wonder about this whole idea of "speeding up" and "slowing down" of Time itself.  Let me say right now that aside from the - - optical illusions you see in Special Relativity - - I know of no situation where people live in "realms of time of varying speeds".  But if such a thing were to occur - - - let's say that you throw a valley ball to me.  You're in normal time and I'm in a realm where time is "consumed" more slowly.  LESS time gets USED but you actually see things going slower.   When that ball gets to me, it's as though the ball were filled with sand or something.  It's as heavy as a rock in terms of bowling you over.  In MY world seeing things from YOUR world- - - the mass of everything is increased.  That is things are harder to accelerate and harder to decelerate.  I would say FORCED accelerations referring to what I said above.  In other words all of YOUR time- - has made the mass of YOUR objects a lot heavier- - harder to speed up and slow down.  But it would be a little like a bowling ball on the moon.   It would only weigh not quite three pounds were you to pick it up.  But if you lob that ball to me it would BOWL me over- - because I would FEEL not three pounds of pressure but all sixteen pounds of thrust or force.   But again I'd say,  I know of nothing in the real world where you could even test this idea out.

Infallability May Be Setting the Bar Too HIgh

I turned on the Jesus Christ show.  The first question Neil made a complete ass of himself.  This lady was calling her Pastor, “Father” and she didn’t make it clear whether it was in any Catholic setting.   However Neil took his response completely out of context and made stuff up.  I’ve been in a number of church settings where the teacher just makes stuff up and proclaims it as fact.  In this case Neil said “Well Jesus wasn’t talking about literally calling people “father” because we obviously all have parents.  But rather this was against the doctrine of infallibility that “I” wanted to guard against.  This is the whole meaning of “Father”.  Just substitute “infallibility”.   The whole problem is that at no time is there the slightest claim that the Jewish priests were infallible, and the whole concept is contrary to Judaism.  But more importantly, the doctrine of Papal Infallibility did not arise till the year 1870.   But then this guy comes on and asks about pornography and masturbation.  In refutation of Neil’s advice to him - - you can’t escape ever seeing a scantily clad sexy young female in today’s society unless you move to Switzerland or something.   Neil spoke of “My professor always told me if you’re not supposed to be in Santa Monica, then don’t come to California”.   The absurdity of this is obvious.  If you’re a kid and your mother tells you to never go into a Liquor store- - she doesn’t mean ‘Don’t even walk down the same street with any liquor store on it”.   But a more fundamental problem exists with Neil’s whole concept of sin.  It’s the “If Only” sindrone.    “If it just weren’t for this one sin, you’d be perfect and I could accept you, but now I can’t”.  And then there are unforeseen consequences.  If I gave away all my meager possessions- - to the poor- - first of all I would be poor myself, which the Bible ALSO says it’s not a good thing to be.  But next it would make me dependent.  I might even be dependent on the teacher who advised me to make myself poor.  But what if, for me, being dependent is a more besetting sin than was being addicted to possessions?   It was about five to seven when I went to the store and got a dollar small cup of coffee from that lady at the store and drank it back here.

I watched Meet the Press, and a little of Face thje Nation, and that show was talking about former water-boarding in the CIA and did it produce any good and useful results?  There is apparently a report on the subject that Republicans in congress don’t want released to the general public, because our enemies might make some sort of illicit use of the material.   In subsequent news during the day, this rhetoric became almost alarmist about “When this report on Torture comes out it will put lives at risk around the world”.   It’s almost as if it’s a controversial decision for our own people to be made aware of what our government was doing ten years ago.  I guess there was some sexual shaming going on.   Maybe we’ll even find out something we didn’t know.  Since we, like Israel have about a hundred to one kill ratio- - we should be saying “Go on - - make my day.   Kill four of our guys and we will kill thousands of your people”.   And I’d add “You know we’ve got a nice little arrangement.   We like killing, and you Moslems like dying.”  (Selah) “Meet the Press” talked too much about police matters.  There was this new leader of the California State Senate, and some rivelry between him and this College Regent guy who used to disparage and belittle him when they were in the State Legislature.  This guy claims our college tuition has gone up percentage wise more than almost any other state.  He also said something strange.  He says the reason why the tax revenue fluctuates so wildly is because California relies way too much on the income of rich people, and they apparently suffer more from economic down-turns when we have those.  I decided I needed to listen to this guy for one ten minute segment because there were things I didn’t know.

Breakfast with the Beatles was at nine and the last song I listened to before lunch was “Well, Well, Well”.   It was an all John Lennon Sunday in honor of the 34^th anniversary of his death, which is tomorrow, also on a Monday.  I had actually forgotten about that anniversary.   In a new low in stupidity- - now in addition to those "Don't let your loved ones serve time for being drunk" attorney ads, we have gun attorneys advertising on KEIB telling you eighteen ways you can shoot your neighbor and get away with it.  I can see their next slogan now "If isn't a free shot if your neighbor's kid pays for it with his life".   Now Sean Hannity is taking up the chant first led by Rush Limbaugh in January of 2009 saying "Obama being elected President won't help race relations one bit".  Now from the other side Sean Hannity is saying in retrospect "Where is all this talk on racial harmony we were told about?"  But it's more akin to giving yourself a Hi Five for a job well done, just like with the poor economy you do a hi five to your congressman and say "Good job, well done" as you see the economy languish.  By the way everyone in my social circle has heard the song 'Merry Christmas" by the Waitresses.   Also I thought 'Lady's night" at bars was legalized long ago since it's such a transcendent part of society now.  I guess I figured that men were not a "minority" and therefore couldn't sue.  [edit]  We had grapes for desert.  But we also had an encore of the crackers and cheese we had last night.   To paraphrase the Ruttles song "I have always thought in the back of my mind- - Cheese and Crackers - - I have always thought that the world was sublime- - Cheese and Crackers.   You know there was one element of truth with that whole early fall rapture date with the Federation.  It was almost like a "heads up" because- - - contact with earth people like me- - has become much more limited- - as far as the Federation is concerned.  There is almost like a "wall of separation" now between me and Mal Evans.  The last time I saw John Lennon - - Mal Evans said "Don't talk to John about politics", which made me a little paranoid.

If Mitt Romney had been elected president he'd have a lot to be bragging about now with the 320,000 new jobs last month and the stock market closing in on 18,000 and our higher energy production and lower gasoline prices.  But Stephanie and friends wonder "Does the media not mention these, like on any of the Sunday news shows, because of that N word in the White House?"   Is that "illigitimization" of this President still going on?   Of course in our blame the victim mentality "Well that guy who was choked to death made the decision when he gained all that weight and let himself go- - " about his own death.  It's really his own fault for being out of shape.   New York apparently is paying fantastic ammounts of money out in Civil Law suits against the NYPD.   I guess it was Chris Le Boy who said "That NYPD police chief sounds a little thuggish to me".   Meanwhile in Louisiana Mary Landreau lost out to the Republican in the final piece of the US Senate composition puzzle.  Now the Republicans have a net gain of nine US Senators.  And the race was lost because of Mary's speech on race that one day saying Louisiana has had a lot of racial problems and inequities in the past.  This statement could not go unchallenged in the halls of FOX news.  So the dog whistle speech here is "If you want to Send A Message you don't think our fair state is racist, then vote for me- - and not that N-word lover, Mary Landreau".  

Let’s talk about this book TV joker intellectual that was on C-Span.   Not all card carrying right wingers are raving maniacs.  Sometimes they are gentile older intellectual types, but you have to listen to their words.  First he says “A fanatic gets his political power because he never questions his own political beliefs, and you don’t question it in hearing him”.  And he also says “This type of person usually has high self esteem because he lives in a world without any internal conflicts”.    Then the strange statements started.  He said that our gountry was forty percent socialized and that forty percent of every dollar you make goes for some sort of government program.  He also said that old government programs never shut down that there is a rachet type system of government where once a new program “locks in” it can never be taken back.  He also said “The Republicans try to get rid of programs- like privatize social security- but the system prevents them from doing it”.   If you listened to this guy you’d never know medical benefits were cut drastically a few years ago in California - - and maybe a few got restored just recently.  Some weren’t.  I still haven’t gotten the renters rebate since 2007, which was the last year.   This guy says that old people are spoiled with medicare and social security- - and that people are overcompensated for inflation.  This is a flat out LIE because as I have repeatedly told you- - the real inflation rate for the needs of older people is WAY above their paultry 1.3% increase or whatever it is.   He then said that “Anybody who speaks of the inequity of income in the United States, should not be trusted because we don’t want to penalize people for doing well”.   Dr Levy has done a lot of this clap trap rhetoric saying that the tax rate for rich in European Countries is around sixty percent.  The top marginal rate- - is 45%.   You say “Then the person at the top marginal rate pays 45%?”.    No.  Let’s say the top marginal rate is $400,000 dollars.  That means that if you earn DOUBLE the top marginal rate- - then HALF of what you make is taxed at 45%.  The other half is taxed at a lower rate.   People open their mouths and spread their ignorance.  Then there is the line of “The trouble with socialism is that pretty soon you run out of other people’s money”.    In truth the Federal Reserve gives the richest of Wall Street bankers FREE MONEY to the tune of three Trillion dollars- - and rising, with the idea that they are to lend it out- - which they DON’T do.   If that money had been lent out- - just think how much better the US economy would be today.   But I would say to this intellectual guy- - -   “If you can look at the inequity of income in this country and not think something is very wrong- - there is something wrong with you”.    However,  I can remark that too many Black women are having children out of wedlock.  But would you infer from that simple statement that I’m for mass sterilization of Black women of child bearing age?  Of course not.  And if I say to you ‘You know your liver isn’t very healthy and if you fixed your liver problems you’d feel a lot better”.  It would be paranoid for such a person to respond “OH I know- - you just don’t TRUST ME around alcohol - - you’re trying to stick an alcoholism rap on me- - and I resent that.”    Do you see my point?  Just because I’m saying it’s the sign of an unhealthy society for the rich to have such a disproportionate part of the pie- - it’s wrong to infer that I’m some kind of a socialist in the tradition of Vladimir Lenin or something.   I would add as a final note that in a world of great abundance- inequity assumes less importance.  But in a world of extreme scarcity- - like poor children fighting over food- - the idea of equally dividing that resource carefully - - - assumes a greater importance than it would have otherwise.

Losing Faith in the System

I guess for me the "bloom is off the Rose" as far as the birth of the nation of Israel is concerned.  There's no more moving string music playing in my mind.  The founders of Israel no longer have a golden halo around them.  It wasn't like they just prayed to God and one day God spoke - - and suddenly all of this free land just opened up and God says "I have given this land to you so now enter therein".   I'm heard from multiple sourced a lot of Israeli citizens aren't particularly religious and some don't even believe in God.  I would like to think Israel's founding is a fulfilling of Ezekiel 37 - - but when you actually look at the nitty gritty of how the nation of Israel came into being- - you see all the warts and blemishes of various people.  I guess some force led me to do the research I've been doing - - and maybe my faith in God is undermined just a little.

A lot of things are unwraveling such as this University of Virginia thing.  When I saw the UVA headline I thought “What?  Rape in a tanning booth?”   The FOX news coverage of this totally sucked.  The guy was a complete jerk and the “bubble headed bleach blond” has this “gleam in her eye” as she spoke of how wrong Rolling Stone was to take up this story or listen to “Jackie”.  Personally since this case has been around a month and been a source of major turmoil and change on the University of Virginia campus- - I’m not ready to chuck the whole story yet or say that there IS no issue with Frat initiation gang raping of women on the U of VA campus.  I mean the worst thing we could take away from this is the idea that there IS no problem with Frat initiation gang rapes- or that women have to be careful about being drugged on dates.  I mean even guys have to watch about being drugged- - like J J was on Days of our Lives.  J J wasn’t raped but his reputation was “sexually assaulted”.  Be careful!   Someone can slip a Mickey in your drink just like that in the blink of an eye when you’re not looking.  The LAPD is opening its own investigation as to so many women being sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby.  Apparently the word “Rapist” was spray painted or something on Bill Cosby’s Hollywood Star.  But I’m not going to “Go Off” on Rolling Stone’s journalistic integrity merely because there may be questions about how material for this one story was compiled.  But FOX news would love it if people started having bonfire parties burning copies of Rolling Stone, or something- - because their dedicated journalism has gotten to the root of issues near and dear to progressives.

And then we have Chris Christy and how there will be no indictment of the New Jersey governor.  This should come as no surprise and it’s another of those “signals” that they have been telegraphing for months.  Of course if Christy doesn’t like a particular prosecutor he just fires them.  If some College goes against him politically- - Christie takes away the endowment they were scheduled to get.  If you are the major of Hoboken- - then you don’t get your flood relief that had been in the pipeline.  And nobody will act on a simple phone message “Time for a traffic jam in Ft Lee” without a pre-arranged plan.  To think that such things occur spontaneously like that is to believe in the tooth fairy.  I’d go back to creationist doctrine here.  Things that happen are things that are “Designed” and planned out with thought ahead of time.  A series of purposeful events just don’t spontaneously occur by chance.  Just like in the OJ DNA thing- - someone else’s DNA wouldn’t spontaneously “degrade” and suddenly ALL of it would miraculously turn into OJ’s DNA.  It doesn’t happen.  I can’t imagine that anyone would take Christie’s candidicy for President seriously any more after “Bridge-gate”.   (Selah)

Let's talk about space exploration.  They say this Orion rocket that was launched yesterday was the first spacecraft in forty years designed to take human beings way higher than a simple earth orbit.  And they showed this over-sized capsule lowering back down to earth.  But they say it will may be after 2020 before any human beings go up in this craft, to go first to the Moon but maybe on to Mars.  But at long last it looks like forward progress has resumed after a 42 year hiatus.   Paul talked about this Jim Webb infrared telescope with a solar shield to keep the thing from heating up from the sun.  With infrared rays this would assume importance.  I wondered how you could look east and see the birth of stars and look west and see a similar thing.  Keep in mind all those stars were billions of miles closer to us when that light left them than those stars are now, thankfully for us.  Paul thought a major math formula would take a pretty massive computer but I explained that math is the strong point of computers.  They’ve always been really good at that.  You can pile on - - overlay - - one tricky mathematical formula on another in Excel and the computer has absolutely no problem with it.  Kepler didn't have the advantage of computers and had to come up with his three laws of planetary orbital mechanic using just the brain God gave him, and a whole lot of pains taking inductive logic leading to a demonstrable therum.

A twelve year old boy killed himself over the issue that this boy tried out for the position of Cheerleader.  It’s strange.  This is in a middle school.  I guess the kid was bullied and we never like that.  But I can’t picture a kid just going off and doing something like this- - either becoming a cheer leader- - or killing himself when he got flack from other students- - either one.  But I guess these stories of bullying connected with gays are making their way into the general media more and more.  Some Christians would respond that we ought to eliminate protections for all bullying.  This would be wrong.  Even if it’s something I personally would regard as a big joke- - I realize I’m not everybody and certain people are more sensitive on certain issues than other people are.  And these “Tween” years are sensitive ones for both boys and girls.

My beef with a lot of these “Religious panel” discussions debating belief in “God” pro and con is that I resent the notion that the issue is “being at war with God”.  After all if I’m an atheist I can’t be at war with God because I don’t believe in him.  My issue is with human beings and most notably church people.  I don’t want to be attacking church people and their reasoning and being told “This issue isn’t about any particular religious doctrine but a belief in God himself”.   I’ve mentioned before that my Deism has four components.  First of all, required is the idea that God is eternal- - or immutable and unchanging.  He doesn’t “make up the rules as he goes along” or arbitrarily change the rules for different sets of people.  If you’re a Jew or have “a love for the Jewish race” I guess you are received warmly in Israel.  And you will look for all the good things about Israel such as being pro Democracy and your life being more “normal” as you’ve come to know it, than it would be in an Arab country.  So if you become what they want you to be- - then they’ll accept you.  But Israel is a nation who kind of makes up their own rules that apply to certain people and not other people.  But I don’t believe in a God where it’s OK to marry your sister or already inbred first cousin or something- - and that’s fine- - if you’re in ancient times- - or be a polygamist- - - if you’re a classic Mormon- - - but if you’re just an ordinary Joe then it’s NOT OK to be a polygamist.  Of course then there is the whole idea about Jews in the tribulation and suddenly blood sacrifice offerings are fine and acceptable once more - - if you’re a Jew.  But not for anybody else.  With dyspensationalism you get this bifurcation of all regulations for human condeuct and I reject that.  So I’m not a dispensationalist.  I am a Deist meaning “There is a God” but one I can’t approach or schmooze with any time I wish.  My ‘’Faith” also requires objectivism, meaning the existence of this God is not dependant on MY belief in him.  By my “Faith” I can’t alter reality or make Real what inherently does not exist.  And finally of course I am a Determinist- - meaning that I am in basic agreement with the Baptists and Presbyterians on an amazing number of “theological issues”.  I am not a fan of “Free Will” or “Write your own ticket” – so again my belief sounds fundamentalist.