It's Not About Race

It was raining here earlier. My mother called and she told me that it was snowing where she lives. She's forty miles from me. I was glad it wasn't snowing here. Rain is warmer.
After her call, it took ten minutes; the drops in the sky start to float and the world is transformed to an indistinct grey. All becomes the same, linked and inherent to the snow; the grey world. White-grey, grey-green, cloud-grey, frosted-grey. Grey pictures, black and white in color (I've included some from the perch). All is grey. All is related.

I see that Senator Obama won the South Carolina Primary Saturday. That is not surprising. But something must be or I wouldn't have brought it up. After the victory, I believe during the Senators victory speech, the chant in the background was "It's not about race." I don't think the Senator was comfortable with that... either. The Senator has tried hard to keep 'race' a non-issue. That is why I was surprised at the chant. Especially considering the overwhelming (80%) black support for Senator Obama in South Carolina. It was that support that won the state; Senator Obama only won about 25% of the white vote.
The victory doesn't bother me. Senator Obama is as appealing as any of the candidates. What bothers me is the chant. It was a lie: It was about race in South Carolina. It was about race when Oprah jumped into politics and endorsed Senator Obama. It was about race when those Obama supporters stood and chanted "It's not about race", or why else would they chant a denial to something that it wasn't about? And that is the bothersome part. Why deny the obvious?
Does America, or at least the South Carolina Obama supporter, fear the acknowledgment that we are still a racially divided natio (are we?)? I think what the South Carolina chanters were trying to express is the quality of Senator Obama's candidacy. That they were willing to vote for him for reason other then his being black. So will they accept a non racially bias defeat if non-black voters do not support the Senator and then claim that it's not about race?
I understand how voting for someone other than a white male (ie. a black male), is appealing to the 'black voter'. I could understand females supporting a female. Chinese supporting a Chinese, Catholics supporting Catholics etc. It is a credit and corroboration to the authenticity of Senator Obama's campaign that he can pull enough of the 'others' to be victorious. 'Others' being non-black voters. But let us not deny the obvious, so that when it doesn't favor our candidate, we aren't surprised, and possibly angry. Race is an everyday, major issue, and America being above it is the corresponding issue.
It's about gender too. It's about religion as well. Senator Kennedy jumped on the Obama band wagon today so now it's about the 'Kennedy' thing equally. Hell, it's about every dog and pony show you can think of, so don't try to tell me it's not about race. 80% is 80%. If Senator Obama does that well with any other segment of the population then it won't be about race.
The Obama campaign promises to illustrate not just how tolerant, mature, and evolved, but also how hypocritical we are as a nation. And I dare say it now- It is about race, and a myriad of other qualities that have nothing to do with race, but should Senator Obama lose, then 'race' will be a major issue. If he wins then history marches on; he's the first, there will be others. In the coming months, America will learn something about herself: we don't live in a grey world.

Red state, blue state,
Revealing me and you's state,
The State of affairs is nobody cares.
Just because they chant it, doesn't make it true.

Tomorrow, or maybe the next day, the blue of the sky will bust through the upper part of the grey world. The evergreens will be green in the sunlight. The yellow snowplow will reveal the shiny, wet, black pavement of my road. The white snow on the red skin of the Madrone tree will melt and reveal the colors of the world. red where it's red, white, black, green and dirty some places. It will all be there. UNDENIABLY!
The light of the truth, the grey, formless, who ya' gonna call gone, and all the colors of the world will return.
Be ready for it

The Stimulus Program

I cannot believe as the value of the dollar decreases, oil prices increase, the mortgage crisis deepens, the trade deficit balloons, and the average American worker is having their standard of living diminished, our leadership gives us the following short term temporary fix in the form of a tax rebate.

$150,000,000

Does that look like a big figure? Look at this one.

$2,000,000,000,000

Notice how it dwarfs your rebate? War expenses. In dollars only. The rebate looks like a faint hope to divert attention while the crooks get out of town. The next time the media runs stories on how much the war and its contractors are costing you, on oil profits this quarter, on how much money was stolen in the latest scandal that the Bush/Cheney boys were involved in, note the figure and see if you're getting your fair share.
Blackwater received $800 million in contracts, so far. Another $92 million contract has been awarded. How many Al Qaeda/Talibani/terrorists did we kill this week? I still say (The News 08Dec07) for the price of those enemies/per kill we'd be better off to contract them out to the Chinese, covertly paying them in laundered dollars mixed up in the opium trade channeled through Turkey and run by the very terrorists we'd be paying to have killed. I would arrange it so the bad guys would be financing their own hitmen, for a profit! Irony at it's best!
Hey, if that sounds crazy, confused, and in another world to you, it should; unless you live in the world of war profits, drug profits, politics, foreign aid and terrorism. Pretty confusing.
Like most of us, what I understand is a peoples will is not carried out, while their country's entrusted leaders prove untrustworthy. This 'stimulus package' they cough up is a diversion until their terms end and they can run out of town.

$200,000,000

Notice anything about this number? It's fifty million larger than the stimulus package. That's your daily Iraq bill. Two hundred million dollars a DAY! ......That is what the war in Iraq is costing the us and The United States today. We can't afford it. If we could suspend the war for three days we could triple the 'stimulus'! Wouldn't that be a nut. Instead of $300, you'd get $900! We can take a month off and get a $9k stimulus. Like Viagra!
The point is, are you kidding? After we quit trembling about terrorists, and weapons of mass destruction, the only reason to be in Iraq was for the oil, but fuel is through the ceiling so what the hell are we spending $200,000,000 a day for?

A $150,000,000 band-aid is not the cure for a $2,000,000,000,000 disease.

Educate, Educate, Educate!

Change we can believe in... Could I get a definitive explanation of what the term "change" means, so as to see if I can believe in it?
America will have a $726 billion trade deficit this year. Sixty three percent of it will be for oil. Oil.
The greatest transfer of wealth from one part of the world to another, circa 1970's: Thirty years later the transfer is still happening. Are we giving it all away? Yes. That's the impression I'm getting. That and America's wealth is being stolen by crooked politicians immersed in special interests.
Oil interests. Industrial interests. Defense and Weaponry interests. Poppy Interests. Growing up... wasn't 'special interests' just another term for bribe? Buying influence is Bribery. The practice is rampant in Washington; time to remove the Lobbyists.
Except, it could be America isn't really owned by Americans. Maybe... foreign interests and assets have bought our leaders and our sovereignty. In a country\world driven by profits, maybe the 1% of the American people who control 80% of the world's wealth don't necessarily have an affinity with being American first, and ultimately don't care about our well being as a nation or a society. That would help to explain our current state of affairs.
As Americans transfer their wealth for oil and cheap labor, the orchestrators of this tragedy, (those that profit the most) very well could be nation-less. Their only interest in America being to plunder her, ultimately making The American worker cheap labor, or possibly indentured labor, working for taxes and war debt. The dollar buys less, American labor is cheaper... Your wage doesn't change but everything is more expensive: Standards of living adjusted downward. Does it make you feel better to know the average Chinese is better off?
Somebody made money on the current mortgage crisis, does it offset your losses? Obviously the people don't 'run' America anymore, or George wouldn't be President. And it's not enough to have him rule for eight years, now he wants to lock us into Iraq for decades with long term commitments.
I don't want their oil; give me my Two Trillion back. How many mortgages would that buy here in America? Instead of destroying and rebuilding a country in the Middle East? And for what? I wasn't willing to spend Two Trillion dollars for Iraqi Democracy!
If the Iraqi people want democracy....let them fight and pay for it. Freedom isn't Free, remember? Teach them 'United we Stand'. Let them protect themselves! And foot the bill. I keep hearing, "we must win this war!" I thought this war was won?! While too many lose so much, a few steal more than they could ever spend for reasonable survival. A couple of trillion would go a long way towards fixing some of America's problems.
Oil Interests who profit in the transfer of wealth must not continue to dictate foreign policy and bankrupt the country.
The Problem is the same one we should have tackled in the Seventies. Oil. Greed. Windfall profits.
Alternative Fuel Sources...develop them, use them, sell them for a profit to the rest of the world!
Back to the 70s!

Change We Can Believe In?

In 1976, America was wrapping up the Vietnam era. Americans did not want to be Imperialists. The Americans losing sons sure as hell didn't feel like the profits justified the cost. The Communist threat wasn't scaring the citizenry any longer. Like Muhhammad Ali said, "Ain't no Vietnamese done nothing to me."

Have we killed many Al Qaeda recently?

The dollar is worth less. That means everything else is more expensive. When an Empire is faltering their money is worth less... That's change you can believe in. Doesn't matter whether you believe it or not though, the reality is as it is.

In 1976, Americans elected Jimmy Carter President. President Carter was a peace loving man. At the end of his Presidency it was said, "not one American soldier had died in armed conflict during his Presidency". It was also during his Presidency that the price of oil first jumped toward that dollar figure has now tripled. I think I read, 'thus began the greatest transfer of wealth in history from one part of the world to another.' ...That was change we can believe in.

It was cool to be Sheik, and Georgetown had a lot of rich middle eastern kids partying in the clubs, driving expensive sport cars, being cool. Students in America with money...

It was also During the Carter administration that 'the Islamic Revolution' started, and coincidentally The Shah of Iran (a longtime Western Ally was removed). Oil supplies were interrupted. Gas prices forced lifestyle adjustments for the poor. And the middle class groaned a little.

...The Iranian students in America were caught on the wrong side of the line and the party ended a little soon for them. Empires do disappear ...That's a change we can believe in!

It was also during the Carter administration that Iran's leader, The Ayatollah Khomeini declared America, 'the Great Satan'.

Our Sovereign Soil in Iran (the American Embassy in Tehran) was seized and the American employees were taken hostage. Held until Ronald Reagan took office, altogether over a year later. It was a superpower held powerless.

The hostage incident was a disgrace and embarassment to The United States. The Ayatollah allowing Iranian 'students' to seize our Embassy in Tehran and hold the hostages for a year was an act of war, and when the United States didn't step up and kick their ass, well, it made us look weak (looking weak is not particularly good for an empire, especially an Imperialistic Empire). Iran has been attacking the United States ever since. They have raised two generations of American flag burning, freedom Haters. They say that America is a spreading an evil that must be annihilated. In the mind of the 'Holier than Thou', there is no negotiating with that evil. And until Iran gets a taste of that can of 'whoop ass' that they've been begging for going on thirty years, they will continue to disrespect the United States time and time again! ...That's a change we can believe in.

Is the Surge really working? Or is it a Republican ploy to elect Sen. John McCain? Do that and waste more money and lives trying to save the world (and steal oil that's ruining the place anyway) ...A change we can believe in: Alternate fuel sources.

President Carter set up an Alternate fuel Commision, but funding was cut from the budget once his administration left office. Something about our Empire shrinking. There is always a grab for the money going on, and on the fringes of the Empire, on the borders, the grab is one way or the other; shrinking or enlarging, it's war ...That's a change we can believe in.

Revolution is a change we can believe in. It's the need for change, not necessarily the "Change". Historically change usually comes with the Guillotine a new branch of the Royal family. These day though, Saddam got the noose and Iraq a puppet government. Maybe, that's why Iran doesn't want to see America in the Middle East. Their own country's Islamic revolution just thirty years old... Bit too close for comfort.

Thirty years ago, we agreed, America does not want to be an Imperialistic, Gun Boat Diplomacy, Nuclear Threat of a nation that sees the world as an Empire to be conquered. That was a change we believed in in 1976. It is a change we still believe in in 2008. The difference in 2008 is: America must not walk out of the Middle East without giving The Iranian Revolutionary Guard that Bitch Slap! And we better elect a President who knows how to Deliver it!

(This is not a Hillary Clinton ad)

My Vision

...is much clearer then people realize; from my perch I see the world.
Aaahhhh.....but am I clairvoyant? Nothing special, like all computers of some sort I assimilate information and draw conclusions. Here's one; people in the California city in the valley where the two rivers meet don't think of it as low lying land. Like Bangladesh, or New Orleans, or some of the Gulf states, that valley is as susceptible to 'coastal flooding' as the coast. Additionally, unlike the coast (which has the sea rising on one side), the valley must deal with draining first. The valley city in question's official elevation is 17 feet above sea level. Is that the valley floor? I don't know, but the important measurement is the elevation of the riverBED. In other words: how many feet does the ocean have to rise before that river quits flowing? Or just becomes sluggish? Salt water is already invading the delta... Rivers flow downhill. It will not be a matter of channeling water, it will be a matter of drainage. That valley is an inland sea in the future. Who will see it? WE will! The future is now.
Those catastrophic climatic changes that will happen over fifty years due to a three degree rise in the earths temperature... well, we're already two degrees there; the last degree won't take the rest of those fifty years. Can I see this? Only because studies and scientists all over the world are pointing to the change. And some of the documented psychics foretold it happening around 2012-13. 'The world will end as we know it'. Which indicates to me that mankind will not end, but civilization might.
How you live, and whether you live, might come down to where you live in the near future. What's the near future? As long as I live must be considered the near future, so ok... fifty-four years, or 2061.
Now using my twisted mind to do some figuring (even if it takes until 2050) that valley is going to see a earth changing catastrophe in the near future! And believe me (which you don't) 2020 is a lot more likely as the outside date if global warming continues as it has. So far the warming rate is exceeding all expectations.
What am I stupid? Have I been looking into crystal balls? 12 years ain't that far away? Look at the rainfall records broken this year... records shattered all over the world, but that valley is exempt? Now is the time... Sell! Live there if you must, but take your money and re-invest out of the cities. Go somewhere you can buy land and pay cash. Somewhere safe in a mountains, where the weather is conducive to farming with a small town or city nearby. Do it now! Then, your Safe-haven will be waiting and paid for! Just rent till your retirement checks go to the bank.
Then, IF there is a catastrophe, or you have to wait ten years to retire, and don't want to give the entire 'baby boomer' generation a head start on you, you will already be set!

Of course I wouldn't be so Brazen as to tell you how to live, or what's good for you, or what you ought to do. And you'll be smart to remember; only a fool would take advice from a twisted mind seeing the world from a hermit's perch! I write this to everybody and once again am seen as the asshole wishing everybody to doom. DUM DA DUM DUM.