Voting is complex. Regardless of what the doubters say, voting is a human right. All people have the right to vote and we must defend that right completely. There are more people voting Independent this time around. I respect their position. You have the right to vote for who you want to. The election has been very contentious indeed. Both major candidates have weaknesses. Each man has interesting histories and stories involving the American experience. Yet, the Democratic and Republican parties for the most part are pro-corporate, pro-war, anti-peace movement involving the Israel/Palestine question, anti-civil liberties, and believe in the status quo on Big Oil. We still have challenges after the election in 2013. There are still extremists that want direct or proxy imperial wars to continue. These wars have been launched even before 2009. The war on our human freedoms is ever real. That is why dissent and protests against Big Brother spying are great avenues to pursue. Our democratic values ought not to be relinquished or eliminated, but authentic human freedoms should be greatly respected. In terms of foreign policy, I am opposed to torture. Even if John Yoo or other White House officials may support it doesn't mean that we should. No one has the right to be arrested, detained, and held uncharted indefinitely for any reason. That is immoral blatantly. State-sponsored murder is just as inhuman and immoral as corporate-sponsored murder. We don't need death squads either. Real American freedoms deal with religious freedom, the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the right to petition, the right of assembly, and the right to not have transparent freedoms to be eliminated at any circumstance. We have still advocate judicial fairness, due process, civil protections, and an end to the criminal War on Drugs. Bipartisan complicity have been involved in accelerating the status quo. The establishment wants to plan for 4 trillion dollars or more of domestic spending cuts. These cuts will involve vital programs from Medicaid, Medicare, etc. The GOP even wants more spending in the military industrial complex and corporate handouts. The Simpson-Bowles deficit cutting team wants corporate taxes to be cut. The Simpson/Bowles agenda plans to have cuts to Medicare in the billions, ending or capping home mortgage interest deductions (that deals with the middle class), raising the Social Security retirement age, cuting vital programs for the poor (like food stamps, welfare benefits, etc.). The privileged elite want this agenda obviously. In public discourse, it's even taboo to talk about social justice. Since the 1970's, America has been more reactionary and especially in the 1980's with the growth of neoliberalism. We don't need a duopoly controlling our system. The two party system wants to dismantle the economic, educational, and social safety net. This modern political system persists to continue the prison industrial complex and the evil global war on terror. It's hypocritical for the reactionaries to talking about voting freedom, but they advance voter suppression in America. That is why third party candidates should have more respect and recognition in society. Also, some (not all) in the alternative media have chosen their side. Alex Jones supports the Mormon Joel Skousen. Jones refuses to outright condemn Mormonism. Mormonism is a known false religion that tries to promote the idea that a God has many wives plus children. Randy Bott, a professor of religion at Brigham Young University had to apologize for making bigoted remarks about black people (since he's a Mormon and Mormonism until 1978 had a discriminatory policy). Brigham Young was a famous theocrat inside of Utah. Mormon elites had historical ties to the FBI and the CIA. Mormonism isn't to be blamed for all evils in the world, but we can't omit the crucial part that Mormonism plays in the global circumstances of world events. Regardless of what you think of him, Webster Tarpley has done an excellent job in exposing Mormonism's ties to politics. Mitt Romney is the living representation in my opinion of the 21st century Mormon. Romney is sophisticated, slick, and uses contradictory statements as a means to attempt to gain political power. Hypocrites like Joseph Smith and Mitt Romney are dangerous in 2010. Now, some reactionaries wants us to vote for him or Mitt Romney in 2012. We need political independence where personal freedoms and social justice is here to stay.
I don't believe that homeschoolers should be prosecuted
at all. Yet, many people in the European home education movement have suffered
incorrect policies indeed. One homeschooling father from Sweden and one German
mother cried since they were in exile. They refused to stop homeschooling, so
they had no choice to leave their respective nations. This doesn't mean as the
extremists promote that we need to destroy all forms of public education. It
means that we should have educational freedom in the world. Public, private,
and home schools all should be respected and defended. There is the Global Home
Education Conference or GHEC held in Berlin, Germany. This meeting brought
about 200 homeschooling leaders, policy makers, parents, human rights
activists, and pro-family forces. They came from the four corners of the world.
They want to unite as a means to promote the truth that parents have the right
to direct the education and upbringing of their children. Parental rights when
dealing with educating children are universally recognized nearly. Even the
controversial UN's "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" concedes
that: "...parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that
shall be given to their children,” as more than a few activists at the
conference have pointed out. Jonas Himmelstrand is the chairman of the GHEC and
he's the President of the ROHUS or the Swedish Home Education Association. He
lives in exile in Finland. He is a homeschooler refugee after the Uppsala municipality
adopted a restrictive view on homeschooling. This process began even before the
national government passed a law purporting to ban home education in 2010.
Himmelstrand left Sweden, because officials threatened his family with fines
and other retaliation by social services. He left. “We cannot live with the
fear of the threat that our children will be taken away,” Himmelstrand told
GHEC attendees, explaining his decision to escape from Sweden after the family
received a letter from social authorities calling the parents and child to a
meeting. “The moment we got that letter, we knew the move was close.”
Himmelstrand feels a huge relief while homeschooling his kids in Finland. He
knows dozens of other families that fled too and some are members of the ROHUS
board. Some live in the Finnish Aland Island. It is wrong to have this
persecution to go on. In Sweden, there was an appeals court victory in favor of
a Rabbi and his wife to educate their children. They must appeal to the Supreme
Administrative Court still. “If the Supreme Administrative Court agrees with
this permission, that’s going to create a conflict within Sweden where at least
the politicians are going to have to start thinking about it,” Himmelstrand
explained, careful not to sound too optimistic. “If not, we’re back to square
one.” It's fine to have social democratic principles. Yet, we need religious
freedom and educational freedom as well. One female German home educator and
civil rights activist named Dagmar Neubronner cried and promoted freedom. Other
bordering nations of Germany allow homeschooling. This is a common sense issue.
The right of education, homeschooling, and religious freedom are basic human
rights. It shouldn't be relinquished or ended at all.
Pro-austerity hysteria is part of the agenda of reactionaries. Even CNBC has people who worship the free market completely. You can't have unrestrained capitalism and constrained government in order to realize the Promised Land. It just doesn't work at all. The economist Paul Krugman has interesting pieces of information. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, former Council of Economic Advisers chair Christina D. Romer and countless other eminent economists who have studied the New Deal and recession recovery data since the 1930s have insights to the recession. More than 320 economists criticized the budget slash agenda of the reactionaries. The reality is that we have fiscal scare tactics and deficit hysteria in America. The austerity budget is a real threat that can harm the financial security of the poor and the middle class. As Krugman accurately pointed out, you need to handle mass unemployment beyond just obsessing with shaving a few billion dollars off government spending. Eliminating government spending too soon can hurt economic growth. That is why the Economic Policy Institute found that state and local austerity has deprived the economy of 2.3 million jobs over the past three years. You need public investments as providing the foundations on which business investment depends. So, the government and the private sector have to play roles in handling & growing the economy. In other words, you need massive economic growth first and then you can handle the debt or deficit long term. Since the 1970's, corporate interests have dominated much of our political and economic system. Even back in August 23, 1971, soon to be Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. (then a Richmond, Virginia attorney) drafted a confidential memorandum for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. This memo outlined a strategy for the corporate takeover of the dominant public institutions of American society. Wall Street is known to have responsibility for much of the economic problems that we witness presently as well. The massive corruption, deregulation, and wars caused our current financial crisis in August of 2007. There was the asset price bubble in the housing market. Many Fortune 500 companies have contributed significantly to the deficit by not paying adequate taxes at all. The super-rich have paid the lowest taxes in decades. In the 1940s, corporations paid 43 percent of all the federal income taxes collected in the U.S. In 2010, that percentage was only 8.9 percent. In 2010, the tax bill of General Electric, with reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion (and $5.1 billion from its operations in the United States), was: zero. Fundamentally, human beings have the right to advance economic justice. It is wrong to see further concentration of wealth into the hands of the corporate plutocracy. Even Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made critiques on capitalism for its exploitation in the elite's foundation of discrimination and racism. So, we should continue in the global struggle against poverty and exploitation. For exploitation isn't just the experience of my own people. It exists among all people and in every continent of the Earth. Dr. King made the profoundly accurate point on August 31, 1967 address to the National Conference for a New Politics in Chicago. He said the following: "...We have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifices. The fact is that capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor, both black and white, both here and abroad...The way to end poverty is to end the exploitation of the poor. Insure them a fair share of the government's services and the nation's resources. We must recognize that the problems of neither racial nor economic justice can be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power..." Poverty is complex and it isn’t to be blamed on the poor collectively. It's a whole system that must be transformed or radically changed in order for poverty to end. A national program calling for full employment, full education, full universal health care, to provide housing for human beings, and other rights are necessary in our age. Freedom is not won totally today, but freedom can be won completely in the future. Therefore, we shouldn't lose hope. We should have hope, inspiration, and love to carry forward with a strident focus on desiring justice for the entire world.
Hurricane Sandy gave us a lot of lessons. One lesson is that Nature is still more powerful than man. No matter our technological advancements and scientific achievements, Nature can easily destroy a huge part of our societal infrastructure. Sandy also harmed areas in Caribbean countries not just in America. Haiti experienced 54 deaths from the storm including 20 missing. There were 11 people killed in Haiti. It killed people in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas including Jamaica (plus Puerto Rico). A food crisis continues in Haiti and a developing cholera infestation exists in eastern Cuba. Thousands of homes have been damaged in Cuba. New cholera cases are still in Haiti. Also, our brothers and our sisters in Haiti have been sexually abused by UN peacekeepers, so I won't forget that. Some are trying to make the United Nations to combat the disease that have killed 7,564 people and infected 600,000. “This has not been a priority for the international community,” said Dan Beeton, of the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. “The UN could implement water and sanitation infrastructure that would eventually allow cholera to be eradicated for about the same cost it would take to allow UN troops to stay in Haiti for one year – about a billion dollars.” Cholera was introduced into Haiti by UN troops, who have been given another year’s mandate. The victims of the Hurricane deserve our solidarity and sympathy. There should be an allocation of resources from the local, state, and federal levels of government to assist the victims. It will take a long time for homes to be rebuilt, schools to grow, and for infrastructure to be reconstituted in America and other foreign places where Sandy struck, but the journey to rebuilt places must begin. New York City's metropolitan area has the most densely populated region in the USA. In NYC, the subway and commuter rail system has been damaged. People in the Northeast seek food and shelter including gasoline. Some of the poor in Staten Island suffered greatly. In numerous disasters, the rich receives help first and then later the middle class and the poor. Some from public housing projects are without water and electricity for lights or elevators. Some residents in poorer communities are using water from even open fire hydrants. Extremists and in my mind sick people have tried to blame the victims for the storm (and yell about self reliance). They tell the story that the government can't do everything. These critiques call the victims even irresponsible. This is a big piece of lies. The government can't do everything. Yet, the government can provide resources and give immediate relief to those that need it. It can be a foundation where homes, schools, businesses, transit, and infrastructure system can grow in affected areas. Millions of people are ready to work. Long term, we have to modernize our anti-storm and flood control system. I do believe in self reliance, but I also believe in using the common wealth as a means to assist the human race. The establishment gave 23 trillions to bailout Wall Street. The government can at least send billions of dollars to help people to get back on their feet. Proposals for the building of strategic storm barriers in and around the New York harbor—which would have prevented the catastrophic flooding—were rejected out of hand because of the estimated cost of $10 billion. This is nothing compared to the profits and bonuses of the banks and financial institutions headquartered in Manhattan. Hurricane Sandy proved that the modernization of our resources are needed and we need a real war on poverty in the world. The federal government has a great role in promoting the general welfare of America indeed.
It's easy to witness that modern popular music is like a Babylon, deceptive system. We have so much evidence to view it as anything other than a system filled with lies and distractions. That is why much of the music shown publicly (as opposed to real, talented, and inspiring music that's found today as well) is filled with amoral thinking and blatantly nihilism. Bread and circus has been a monotonous way in how the establishment tries to control society. In essence, we should never be theocrats or embrace a theocracy. Yet, we should have morality, a love of family, and a respect for righteousness. There are still movies that promote complex, esoteric ideals. One such movie is called "Cloud Atlas" that recently came out in 2012. "Cloud Atlas" is a science fiction and drama film. It was written and directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski (they were involved in the Matrix film franchise) including Tom Tykwer. The film has many similarities to the Matrix in that both try to find the truth or connections among reality. Each desire to create an intrepretation of what the future could be like based on the choices of the past made by human beings. The movie was adapted from the 2004 novel of the same name by David Mitchell. The movie "Cloud Atlas" is one of the most expensive independent films of all time. It includes an ensemble cast of numerous famous actors and actresses. The film wanted to see how acts made by individuals can impact other human beings in the past, present, and future. The film wanted to see how a killer can turn into a hero and an act of kindness can span centuries in order to inspire revolution. The movie is made of 6 interrelated and interwoven stories that take the viewer from the South Pacific in the 19th century to a distant, post-apocalyptic future. The film is not without controversy. Some feel that the film is wrong to protray Asian characters via non-Asian human beings. MANAA Vice President Miriam Nakamura-Quan asked, "If, in the making of this complex movie, the creators of Cloud Atlas can make creative leaps in time, place, characters, race and gender, why can't they also take a creative leap in the casting?" The film wants to promote the idea of reclaiming lost knowledge, reclaiming technology, and reclaiming what it deems as universal ideals. The 6 different time period comes from 1846 to 2346. The theme in each time period is the mark of some system of oppresssion against human beings. The 1846 talks about slavery and human trafficking where a Christian man saves the life of a good-hearted slave. There is the time period of sexuality issues as well. Halle Berry plays a journalist in the film too. There is a future time period where an oe world government knows as "Unanimity" rules with a technocratic iron fist. In the future, the Sonmi-451 character shows up. This entity is a genetically engineered clone taht works as an acolyte in the religion of the future.
By Timothy
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