Recently we saw Gasland 2, and I recommend everyone see it whether they currently feel threatened by fracking or global climate change. The above map shows you how much of the nation is. For those who don't like to think politically, this political issue (and yes, it is one) is about the future of the physical world as we know it and even more, an abuse of power where corporations have bought out both parties in our country. It's where money talks and your personal health or well being--- pffffft!
We value our personal space, our lives but we just don't realize that our media and current government aren't on our side. From what he has said so far, Obama is not on our side. Neither party is. A lot of the information on hearings and data collected that the film discusses didn't make it onto any news programs-- including the so-called left wing programing.
Here's the thing. Government, media, they are not more powerful than us-- not if we get informed and act. It's a choice. We have options but not if we put our heads in the sand for what's happening, not if we are easily distracted by things that actually have less importance to our future lives.
Currently the film is on HBO, but I expect will eventually be on Netflix. Watch it. If you think you don't care, at least be informed. Don't just read the Koch brothers massive PR campaign on the benefits of natural gas. Watch this film-- then check out the facts it presents. It could make the difference for your children and grandchildren's lives. There are other alternatives for power but they don't make the money this one does. Really-- money is that important? It is to some.
After I saw this documentary, I had an urge to see Absolute Power, the 1997 film starring Clint Eastwood. It's a violent story, the kind I usually avoid, and like clockwork, it did lead to violent dreams that night. In the dream I saw that the bad guys could be recognized by a big bright red mark on their throats. Only some could see it though. In one case a man was assigned to be a protector, but the woman had the sixth sight that let her see the telltale markings. She then knew to run. It's a shame that real bad men don't have that kind of marking.
What makes Absolute Power so powerful is how well it illustrates what power tends to do as it makes someone feel immune to the rules. This doesn't just happen in politics, although it certainly showed up in Gasland 2 with our supposed elected representatives blocking the press from their public hearings. People worry about what Snowden has revealed so far about the government looking into who we call and our internet usage, but to me, it is far more serious when elected officials, put there by the people, can know that if what they are doing came out, they would have massive protests. They get away with it because not enough people care.
There is a particularly good quote in Absolute Power where one of the Secret Service agents explained why he could kill without conscience-- if it's the president it's all right. Anything is all right for the president. That kind of thinking ruins presidents and nations when its citizens lose track of real values...
To go along with this, we got a call last week from Rasmussen polling. Farm Boss was the one answering the questions. He said anytime it was where he might've answered favorable to Democrats or Obama, it flashed past so fast that his answer could not be recorded. If you've wondered why Rasmussen always ends up farther right than the rest, wonder no longer.
32 comments:
It is all so damn depressing...! I feel rather helpless. I try to make a difference, but it ALL feels so much bigger than me and anyone and everyone I know---it seems pretty hopeless. I think, for me, as I am dealing more and more with every day age and infirmity related problems---I don't have the energy for all that is wrong in this world that needs to be made right again. It's not an excuse---It is a fact of my life. I do the best I can, which isn't very good anymore, I'm sorry to say. ALL of this is by way of saying, I care, but have hardly any juice left to make a difference. And that's depressing, too!
I can relate to what you said, Naomi. We can't let it get us down because that's losing. Voting responsibly and donating to those who are working to make a difference is one way to help and then releasing it. It is though worrisome.
I do both of those things, but I'm having a lot of trouble with the third thing of releasing...Partly it's because there are so many other problems we are dealing with in our beloved country....It all seems totally overwhelming.
I do the best I can, under the circumstances---At least I hope I do.
Feeling compassion makes it tough and right now those who feel it for others are having the hardest time. I wish I had solutions but I can only hope it will be getting better soon.
Something more to look at and a book that sounds important-- geoengineering and is it a solution to the change coming. There is a book out called Earthmasters about what is being attempted and talked about but not so much politically where it needs to be as this is the kind of decision for what will be done that needs to be in the political arena-- an arena more mature than it currently seems to be for most of those in it.
Maybe that big one in Michigan can help them pay for all their social programs and get Detroit out of bankruptcy. Going from the richest city in the world to bankrupt in 50 years under Democrat rule. Margarett Thatcher had it right. Socialism only works until you run out of other people's money.
Robert Reich had more to say about what happened in Detroit. Some relates to people not wanting to support infrastructure; so they move right out of the cities where they continue to benefit from the city being there. It's not all about socialism (like libraries, highways, police, fire protection, schools, food inspection, etc.). Some is liking to be near a big city but to just go in and benefit from it being there while paying nothing. As for the impoverished in the cities, want them in your fancy suburbs? That might be one solution. Let the cities disappear and move everybody out to those select neighborhoods... Malls cover what people need now, right? And why should we pay taxes to support those services anyway?
There is plenty of blame to go around. The environmental rules of steel mining and the high cost of fuel had a part. And paying a UAW member with a 10th grade education $60 an hour to tighten bolts on an assembly line when people in Alabama would do it for $15 was not sustainable. The Japanese competition played a role. Detroit thought the US govt. would quash the completion like they did with Tucker and it did not happen. The Big 3 got to big for their own good and it collapsed around them. Similar to where our Federal Government is going.
I don't know if you have been to a mall lately but most are struggling. People shop online now. Big stores are in trouble.
In my city the Progressive City council is trying to do just what you say. They are putting low income housing all over town. So instead of having one or two bad neighborhoods we are going to bring values down all over town. The policies push people with money away and draw in people that do not pay taxes and use more services. Again not a sustainable plan.
It is funny the liberal crowd that wants everyone else to live sustainably cannot do it themselves.
There has been exploratory fracking in my area, they know the gas is there. Our local government has not yet decided whether to let them proceed or not. Gasland 1 was shown in my town and some people are trying to organize around the issue. Meanwhile in a neighbouring province they have said go ahead and frack and a local protest movement is building.
I understand where OldLady of the Hills is coming from, it is hard to get involved in stuff not happening in your own backyard. But when it is, then it is really important to get informed and find out what avenues of resistance are forming. We can't all be activist leaders, but we can be activist followers.
OldLady, don't berate yourself for not making a difference all by yourself. Get informed and get involved with other folks who are interested. We need each other to make a difference.
I agree, Annie and ingineer, what would you like to do-- keep everybody poor in a borough? Out of sight out of mind? Maybe if people were more familiar with the poor, like say those who live in the country and not near a development, they'd have more understanding for what is going on. Isolation isn't going to help fix the problem as you cannot actually isolate yourself so far that you won't be impacted by economic injustice and frankly unless you haven't paid attention, there has been economic injustice with a few gaining as the nation profits and the rest being pushed back from where they ever were. You can't just kill all the poor... or do some think that's the solution? Doubtless not the Christians among them, of course.............
The pensions are a big problem that government employees have managed to wangle but not sure what can be done about it. Sounds like Detroit might've come up with one answer-- twenty cents on the dollar? Fair?
How do you define economic injustice? What is the injustice? I say giving people "free" money that is just barely enough to survive on and putting them in government ran "free" housing is the injustice. If the government did not do so much to stifle jobs and opportunity then maybe there would be jobs available for the people that want to work and better themselves and their kids lives. For the people that do not want to work and want all the free stuff then let them be isolated and away from the people that do not want get robbed or beaten.
The politicians have promised these huge pensions to get votes and contributions from the unions and now there is no money to pay them. I am worried that will happen in California. The pensions offered particularly to police and fire fighters are astronomical. I took a State job because of the pension security. I could have made more in the private sector, but I have worked my entire life for a secure future and now that is in jeopardy. It is very frustrating.
ingineer, welcome to what happened to corporations years ago. Pensions that were promised disappeared and it became 401Ks or IRAs. Soon it'll be lucky if it's anything. I don't think that anybody, corporate or otherwise is entitled to retire at the full amount they made while working but that's what happened for awhile in Oregon. People retired early just to insure it. Now it means there won't be police or fire employees today to pay for the retirees. It didn't used to be that way with government pensions. I know because my mother-in-law was a teacher and the pension she received was not that large but enough to live on.
As for the free money to the poor... look around and see who really is getting it. The poor don't get nearly what you think or live nearly as well. Your problem is you don't personally know enough poor and you rely on the righties to tell you about what they also don't know.
If you don't want food stamps, welfare or public housing, were you suggesting starving? Churches maybe? Not sure what you think was a good idea. Such programs began because people were starving or standing in lines to get bread. Really you want that but don't worry about the subsidies for the oil companies, all the offshore tax shelters for the Romneys as they continue to rake in the money and pay zero or barely any tax?
You really don't have a clue who has gotten the money but you won't find out reading right wing sites. And you don't trust anybody else.
You are exactly right. Pensions were supposed to be enough to live on but not extravagant. Now we have cops and firemen retiring at 50 years old at $150,000 or more per year. And the politicians did it. But what do they care, they will be out of office on their own bloated retirement by the time the system implodes for the rest of us.
That was my point the Democrat leaders give bread crumbs to the poor but do not give them hope for the future to improve their lot in life. If most every poor person became successful and no longer needed the government to survive then they would not be beholden to the community organizers and politicians that hand out the bread crumbs.
The only thing that is really going to help this country is growing the economy and growing the pie that we all take a slice of. Continuing to stifle economic growth will only leave the nation in the same position as Detroit or Greece and that seems to be where our President thinks we should go. He has had 5 years and he has done nothing to really grow the economy only the debt.
So why not worry more about the tax scams that the rich can play, the banks misuse of their power, and less about the pennies the poor get?
As for blaming the government for pensions, that is state business and it's not just about government. It's about what the workers told their union they wanted to get. The reason corporations don't have pensions at all is no unions...
From what i can tell the federal deficit is improving under Obama. I've put up charts showing it; and the main reason it was ever higher under obama had been interest on an unpaid for war which is, of course, still ongoing. Anytime someone talks of cutting back on wars, the right goes ballistic. They also don't do anything for the veterans which is the area the left tends to be more active.
Racism is what killed Detroit. White people couldn't get out of there fast enough. They were in a scramble for status and prestige. The real estate people aided and abetted this white flight.Along with the whites went the wealth and investment in the city.
The same thing was happening to NYC, but they turned it around. Now everyone wants to live in the City,not in the burbs.
It seems incredible that people resent the so-called entitlements and aid to the poor that help to stabilize the economy in a place such as the one I live in. The teabaggers seem to just hate poor people and adore the rich, but the rich don't care about them. Once the teabaggers grasp that simple fact, we can start having sensible public policies that don't run up against the knee-jerk opposition of white resentnicks.
You can't talk about inequity in this country without putting the role of racism front and center.
Good point, Hattie. The communities that surround Detroit are some of the wealthiest in the nation with some of the most elaborate mansions. In Bloomfield Hills the average income is $200,000. Some cities have managed to block these communities from incorporating which happened in Tucson after losing two cities (Marana and Oro Valley) with the ability to take tax money from the city while benefiting from their proximity to it. They then blocked Casas Adobe because the reality is many of these 'cities' only formed to escape the city taxes.
Hattie, why did the white people want to leave? I will tell you a secret, many successful blacks also left. It was not so much about race as it was economics.
Yes NYC turned it around after years of Democrat rule, Giuliani a Republican cracked down on crime and cleaned the place up. And now people want to be there.
The fact that you call them teabaggers and resentnicks shows your prejudice towards people that think differently than you. What are sensible public policies? More of what caused Detroit to go bankrupt? I have no disdain for poor people, I used to be poor. I have disdain for lazy people.
I am curious what you think about racism on all of its levels because Hawaii has pretty widespread racism against white people.
Detroit itself used to be a rich city, so why did they chase off all the money?
Ingineer, have you ever noticed how today many cities move their boundaries way out? they do this because if they don't people form new communities, pay less taxes because they are not supporting the infrastructure of the city-- where they often go to work or to the theater etc. They want less taxes. Some want gated communities where they keep out everybody who isn't safe (you spell that colored for too many of them). Literally have you never been around bigotry? You have no clue it exists?
I remember when a town near to us had a real estate system that kept out all blacks. When my daughter attended that school they had one single black kid. I remember when a white and black couple in another nearby town had a cross burned on their yard (they got the message and moved). Your thinking is that there is no bigotry and hence it has nothing to do with our problems today? Black men are out of work more than white by percentages because they are lazy? *literally I am shaking my head*
How about when Farm Boss was asked if he minded working for a black boss? No bigotry there either? i swear it is as if people like you have blinders on. You see what you want and when your right wing network tells you it's all over and hence the Supreme Court could say we don't need affirmative action or voting protection for minorities, you nod and smile. Mostly it's white men who think women don't need protection and neither do minorities. White men are of course the ones who are endangered.......
I know bigotry exists. I also know that one race does not have a corner on the market. And I am tired of people constantly using it as an excuse. Did you know that white kids get hassled by the cops too, but they don't cry racism. It is just part of life.
Why have the Asians and Hispanics and Jews and Irish done so well then if the country is run by a bunch of white protestant racists? 98 percent of blacks voted for Obama because of his skin color. Most blacks are much more conservative than Obama but they voted for him anyway. The Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton crowd do a disservice to most black people that are just trying to get by. Much like Yassar Arafat lived the good life spending aid money while many Palestinians barely scraped by.
So women want equal treatment right up until they actually get treated like a man and then they want special treatment.
Clearly we won't agree on this, ingineer. I might ask though exactly what do women get when they are treated like a man that they don't like? That sounds really like a stereotype to me. Since men have most of the power in this country, not sure what you're worried about them getting.
Clearly we do not. In my experience women that make a big deal out of wanting to be treated equally have no problem getting out of doing something by crying or taking a bunch of time off from work because they are upset. They have no problem asking a man to lift something or reach something on a tall shelf. But if a man made a comment about it they would be the first the file a complaint.
Believe me, I work with some women that are just as capable or more capable than the men that work for me and they don't expect special treatment, but the ones that make the most noise about equality are the first ones that think they deserve to be treated differently. A woman will use her gender to get ahead in the work place and then if another woman comes along and does it they will complain about it.
More than half the country is female and they are better educated than men so they should be able to get along fine if they choose to.
Well what I am talking about here or was above were laws like those that let men get away with sexual abuse in the military because the very men who do it are the ones who decide if a crime happened. I am talking about laws like limiting abortion, something a man doesn't have to deal with, and men who say a woman cannot be trusted to make that decision, we the government will make it for her. I am talking about men who would vote for leaders, no matter what they might personally believe, who would do exactly that-- effectively ban all abortions.
Or vote for those who would make laws like banning gay and lesbian marriages justified because it would harm the marriage of the straights-- who get divorced so many times but that's not harming marriage. It's a lesbian marrying that does it.
I am talking about equal pay for equal work laws. Protection from abuse in the work place laws. A man might say he believed in that, but how did he vote? That tells us more about what he believes than talk which is cheap.
As for personal and job relationships, unless they involve something like the mayor of San Diego groping and kissing women who didn't want it, I was not talking about that. I don't even know the women you are talking about or that kind of woman; so can't logically talk about it. Women I know don't do that but they also don't want men making crude comments to them or touching them when they didn't ask for it! There should be legal protection from that-- or you don't agree with that either?
AND the military abuse has involved men as well as women being misused by other men and the military brass (mostly all men) punishing those who tell what happened by demotions or doing nothing to even investigate. AND now the Congress (mostly men) tries to block changes to the law to take investigation out of the hands of those who have every reason to cover up what happens or protect the aggressors.
It seems to me that a certain segment of white men have a LOT of resentment against women who aren't submissive, minorities, and the poor. What's going on with that!?
OK two different issues. I pretty much agree with your last post. So we do have some things in common. I do not think it is just white men that have a problem with people threatening their power. Look at Jessie Jackson. He said he was going to cut Obama's balls off because he was threatening to change the balance of power for the so called black leaders because Obama was not black enough. People in power do not want that power threatened.
As for the military, they should track down anybody that is truly guilty of sexual assault or covering it up and hang them from a yardarm. And if somebody is proven to make a false claim of assault they should be treated the same.
True. Power is addictive even when it gains nothing of real value for the person wanting it.
The Anthony Weiner latest fiasco is a good example. He wanted power and yet he kept right on doing what he was because it made him feel empowered. I sure wouldn't vote for him if I was in NYC, not after the latest revelation. He's an ego maniac and something isn't right up there and down there. If he gets in, I just hope the rest of America can quit hearing about him as he's just plain icky. His latest supposed promises to that young woman seem borderline actionable in a court. And sending the kind of photos he has sent to strangers is like streaking!
And the media is praising the wife as if it is something to be celebrated that she is standing by her powerful husband. The commentator on CNN talked about how Houma studied at the knee of Hillary Clinton who has maybe the most famous philandering husband ever. The hypocrisy of the left in dealing with this issue is amazing. Democrat Women that stand by their dirt bag husbands that treat women as if they were a piece of meat are something to be celebrated but a stay at home or working conservative wife is a fool.
MSNBC didn't take that stance, ingineer. Rachel tore into Weiner. I think a lot of people pity the wife. It's a tough situation where she has a baby with him and evidently didn't know what he was doing until she was pregnant. It means it's not just about her. But she's wrong. It's not just their business, not the kind of weirdo stuff he's been doing. This isn't a love affair like with Stanford. This is kink to say the least and maybe serious mental problems to take it further.
Sanford...
I watched the Today Show this morning and listened to CNN on the radio. It would make most women sick to hear what the female commentators said about the situation. The guy is scum.
Well, it's not the universal take from the left on this guy or on what his wife has done in trying to cover for him. Daily Beast has a writer who tore into them both. I think she was wrong to say it was just their business. This is a kinky thing at the very least for what he's done and the way he has abused his power, his own ego. I feel sorry for her but certainly don't admire her. She'd doing the best she can for her family as she sees it though. That doesn't make her right. Try MSNBC ;) I never listen to CNN. Just can't get into it anytime I try.
And it's not the take on the Daily Show-- John Oliver destroys Antony Weiner. Blaming lefties for condoning his behavior, is putting a few of them as if they are the only ones. And frankly CNN and Today show aren't really leftie shows but more those that don't want to be either-- hence being nothing!
That was pretty funny. I like that guy better than Jon Stewart.
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