I was Defeated

A friend of mine said to me recently, "Well , I guess you've turned it around, Brad." I thought about that for a moment. Compared to a year ago, circumstances are a lot better than last Thanksgiving. Compared to five years ago it's another world . It always is. So , I replied, " Yeah, but I feel like I've turned "it" around so many times that I'm dizzy. What are you gonna do? My brother says, You can never give up, even if it's chasing your own tail. Sooner or later you'll get a good bite and learn something."

Probably not to bite yourself, but the point is, never give up. It's seldom as bad as it seems. 

Ah, yes , It's turned around,...a year ago I felt like I had sacrificed forty months of hard work and sacrifice in the mountains, to return to Sacramento and take advantage of the real estate market, only to lose my money on a worthless piece of property. Eventually, I lost twenty thousand dollars on the property, plus six g in back taxes I had to pay, but in the end, it wasn't all my money, the property sold, and the plan came together at 4360 71st st. The end result made up for the floundering in the middle, although 20G 's a high price to learn a lesson, but the worse part was not losing the money, it was living the mistake.

Beating myself up mentally. Knowing what I gave up to return to Sacramento; the cabin and all I sacrificed to build it, well, it was like losing my stake, and one to the heart. Depression had me. I lost my faith. Lower I sank into the funk of "shoulda , woulda , coulda". Finally I started selling possessions and studying Chinese, trying to pump myself up for a foreign adventure and the effort to make old investments pay off. I was terrified. I was walking around with that stake in my heart and the black trying to defeat me. I booked a flight to China and canceled a flight to China. I wasn't ready. I was terrified, unhappy. Life was like the first days on the mountain again when all was uncertain and I was lost. Again I was humbled and I knew; Without Faith I was going nowhere. Without GOD, without the FORCE, without something to believe in, I was defeated. And although I had not given up, I had not the faith to act. I was deep in the black of my mind.

I was driven to my knees to beg for forgiveness for my arrogance, my sins, my short memory. I gave praise to Almighty God for all our previous success that I had squandered. And of course I asked for a break, pleaded my side a bit, and begged for things to "turn around". 

I'm not religious. I believe in THE FORCE. We can say GOD, though I believe it's more like Star Wars. I also know that, with effort, thought manifests into reality, but, whatever the reason, shortly thereafter, life got quickly better. My old house was purchased. The worthless property I had foolishly purchased a year earlier,.....SOLD. I was flush. I had work to occupy my time. I re-made the money I lost. And the very best part is/was I'm not living with a stake through my heart. All Glory be to GOD, that magical FORCE that need only be believed in to furnish faith and success,................................. Yeah, I'm lucky,

Death Smiles at Everyone

.........The best you can do is smile back. GLADIATOR

The earths population will reach 7 billion this week. That is seven times the number of people living just two hundred years ago. If we draw a timeline from the year 1800 to the year 2200, we're halfway there, and IMO, societal change and population are exploding at a rate that is unsustainable to make it to the year 2200; While human problems (population, food, water, religious, greed) all continue to expand at increased rates, the world keeps getting smaller. The bubble's going to burst. Nothing new here. All old news. We all can see the future to some extent.

Some want to change that future. Some like the idea of reducing the population . We only have to look at the Georgia Guide stones to understand some folks take the idea seriously and will act given the opportunity. And 2012, the end of the long calendar, is just around the corner. What a perfect time to create a world disaster that kills 95% of us and blame it on the stars. Scary. What did they call those"exercises" , red flag? 

I hope not. At least not until my birthday in 2061. I figure if I can stick around that long there won't be any need to see the disaster. I will have lived enough of it. Which brings us back to the world's exploding population and the effort to control/reduce it,....................there are places on earth that couldn't use another person, and other places empty, that only resilient, strong people could inhabit. It is the latter place from where the survivors will emerge.

I was in Oregon week before last looking for another piece of property. Nothing I can afford presented itself. Genius is 90% patience. Luck is even more important. Especially for those whom lack genius and patience. The Force will bring me to the future, and the spot. I just hope afternoon TV with Jerry Springer doesn't taint me before I find a new project to entertain myself. In ten months I'll have another 10% down but by then I could believe that everyone lives in the drama of "who's your daddy" and "with my sister" ? The next adventure starts as soon as an affordable mountain with power and water becomes available. Motorhome shopping is taking place now. I wonder if I can do it again. Don't think I won't try. Being poor, broke and hungry while I struggled to emerge from the mud was the most fun I've had in years. And the rainy season has just started. 

The 99%

The protests have begun. As the wealth of the average man is depleted, it is only natural then to question how the rich continue to flourish? When 1% of the people control and share 90% of the wealth, while 99% live on less than 10%, it is only natural for the 99% to want a bigger cut of the pie . When, in the true spirit of Socialism, the banks are bailed out and the financial system must be saved by the Peoples money, Then the reverse should be true also: The banks and financial systems should save the people with their money, and it shouldn't be called Socialism or Communism, it should be called " Profit sharing, Fair taxation, Benefits, Retirement". If you want to scream socialism you're too late; Bailing out the banks has already happened , the losses have been Socialized. The cost of ten years of profitable and destructive war already has been Socialized (profitable for the 1%, destructive for the rest of US), the cost of Plutocracy and our corrupt government already has been Socialized, so why do we allow the profits to be privatized? Absolute insanity! Slavery is what it equates to for the 99% It is time to recognize that Profits should also be Socialized. Socializing profits in the form of higher wages, benefits, and lower taxes, at the expense of the 1%'s profits, is absolutely the fair and reasonable solution to the inequitable current policies of Socializing losses and Privatizing profits. Otherwise, the 1% get to eat their cake and have ours too. Slavery. Goddamn maddening. The seeds of revolution are being sown, don't be afraid to be a true patriot; Recognize the plutocracy that is corrupting our lives and demand a government free of special interests. Recognize that despite what the Supreme Court says, Corporations are not WE THE PEOPLE and should not be treated as such when it comes to equal rights. We the people were forced to save the financial system, We the people should now force the financial system to save us. It's Socializing both sides of the coin, not just the one that's up. And it's not fair to scream "Socialist" when Socialistic loss sharing has been the policy of savior for the 1% all along. It's like Mao's cat, Who cares if it's white or black as long as it catches mice? Call it what you like, Whom wants to participate in a game you can only lose ? Support the 99%. Demand a fair cut. Demand American profits be invested in America and her people, not rat-holed in a bank overseas avoiding taxes or destroying other countries. Stop the Wars, Invest in America, Tax the profits of the 1%. The alternative is revolution. The seeds are sown and growing.

Bradman

PS. Life is wonderful, Hope all of you are too.

The Industrial War Machine

Recently I watched  the speaker of the house discuss the need to make cuts to entitlement programs, Social Security, Medicare and other services,  and noticed he didn't once talk about cutting defense spending. Absurd. It's been ten years since the "The War On Terror" began. Afghanistan, Iraq,  Libya, .....endless war. America's incessant military aggressiveness since has been a militia manufacturer's wet dream. These wars haven't been defensive; they've been lies, they've been maddening, they historically will be exposed as pure deceit and the catalyst of American demise, in addition to being offensive and Imperialistic.  And all while America has spent herself broke and been robbed blind by her leaders, whom now want to further betray the people. Enough! Stop the Goddamn Wars!

         Bombs are expensive.  WW2 Iron wrapped explosives are cheap, but guidance systems for modern bombs are around 20k, and the price goes up from that point depending on the bomb. Those Tomahawk cruise missiles that we fired/fire on Libya cost about 1 million to 1.5 million each. We know too well the price of what it costs to show up and fire a few. War isn't cheap and we have been waging it on other people's land for ten solid years. The question now  is, " America are you willing to relinquish your medical care  and Social Security in order to continue to wage war? , Are you willing to watch your country's infrastructure crumble while you destroy other countries with your money? Are you willing to work more, get less, and watch things continue to deteriorate across the board here at home, while your leaders play political games and don't even mention the wars when they discuss the debt problems?

       It is time for a cultural revolution America. It is time for some fundamental changes in our government that put in end to the plutocracy that grips our nations politics. The endless wars must end. Lobbyists and specials interest must be banned from corrupting the system of true democracy.  And the American people must be heard again. Stop the Wars. Reduce defense spending by at least 50%. Invest in building America, not destroying other countries.  Goddamn maddening watching special interests buy our politicians like rats at a pet store.

The Big Circle

In 1990 I bought my second house. It was a major fixer purchased for 73 thousand dollars. The property became my family home for 16 years. I sold it in 2006 for 272 thousand dollars. About three years after I sold it, in 2009, it was foreclosed upon. Since then it has been sold between banks, almost sold to a private investor in a deal that wasn't completed over unpaid liens, and finally ended up on an Internet auction where I bought it for $79,000. In 1990 I had to put $27,000 into the house just to make it livable. Thousands upon thousands more in the last twenty years, both by myself, and the owner I sold to, have been additionally invested in improvements to the property. Even in today's market I have to feel like it's a good buy, especially at 28% of what I sold it for just 54 months ago! Who'da thunk the world would change so much in a span of less than five years? And so again I own my old compound. After the cabin, and being an outlaw, and a year of helter-skelter in West Sacramento, I feel like Bilbo hobbit after his big adventure. It's good to be someplace comfortable, back in the compound. Ain't life wonderful. I haven't felt this good since I was in Hawaii. The property I bought last Spring sold and closed on Friday the thirteenth (May), too. Good-bye depression, hello something to do and cash in the bank. It's taken a year but the transition from the mountains is now complete. In time I will return to the mountains, and do it all again, there, too. I'm already looking for that avenue. I feel so very, very, grateful to have landed on my feet again. Like a cat, smelling like a rose. Isn't life wonderful? Soon it will be time to look for the next adventure. Anyway, I'm alive and it's all good, hope the same for all of you.

The Way It Is

The book Answering Back by David Coates has a very insightful summary of right-wing rottweiler techniques. “Here’s how to write like a conservative rottweiler:”

1. Straw men and Trojan horses Put together a straw-man liberal composed of several people with bizarre beliefs. Once you’ve labelled these people as “liberals”, you can accuse all liberals of holding the same bizarre beliefs. If anyone points out that very few liberals actually hold those beliefs, you claim that they nonetheless represent the essence of liberalism and that moderate liberals are merely a Trojan horse for your straw-man radicals.
2. Patriots and traitors Wrap everything you say in the American flag, speak lovingly of the old days when conservative policies made America a paradise, and then imply that one generation of liberal policies destroyed it. Cry a little to demonstrate your patriotism, preferably on TV.
3. Label the message, shoot the messenger Label any policy you dislike with as many “bad” tags as you can think of, like “activist” or “socialist”. Always present every discussion as no-middle-ground “freedom” vs “socialism” with socialism understood to be anything which might reduce inequality, increase taxes, or limit the political power the rich. Never simply disagree, but denigrate the person in medical terms, as an infection, a cancer, vermin which needs to be cut out or exterminated. Yet at the same time, exaggerate their power and prestige and present yourself as an oppressed and persecuted minority even when you visibly are not.
4. Blame the victim, demonize those who try to help Turn reality entirely on its head. Ignore the fact that the vast majority of wealth is inherited, not earned, and ignore the extremely low social mobility in America compared to all other industrialized nations. Blame poverty on the poor, unemployment on the jobless, and illness on the sick. This frees you from all moral obligations! Blame all social ills on previous liberal attempts to correct them.
5. Outflank the Republican party on the right Present Republican leadership in DC as closet liberals. Do not admit that the Bush administration was genuinely conservative. Continuously pull the Republican Party further from government-based solutions of any kind. This allows you to blame the failures of the Bush administration not on his conservative ideals, but on his betrayal of them! Turn so far to the right that not even Fox News would disseminate your ideas, because that will show how dominant the liberal media is — see, they even control Fox News…
6. Paint the immediate future in truly apocalyptic terms Treat Obama as the the source and embodiment of everything that is bad, blame him (and not Bush) for our present economic difficulties. Talk about a conspiracy of unspeakable evil bringing America to ruin by electing Obama. Get very close to inviting a private violent intervention by some hothead that might yet save us from this disaster.

There you have it folks! The right-wing rottweiler training program in a nutshell, an ingenious way to prevent calm, polite, and thoughtful discussion.

The Bi-partisan Policy Center Debt Reduction Task Force

Watching " American Perspectives" last weekend, I was thoroughly disgusted with the message that the Bi-partisan Policy Center Debt Reduction Task Force “ is propagating. Remember that name in red because it will be this committee that starts the next round of propaganda to fleece the average American of whatever they have left. The task force is preparing to make recommendations that Congress will swear they have to abide by because, " The debt belongs to everybody" (one of their lines) , or "Everybody has to make sacrifices" (another), and if you buy that bullshit , ( most people won’t be paying attention,) then you’ll be happy to know that they intend to make everybody pay! Everybody but the rich, of course. Concurrently, while they taunt the need for US all to step up and pay for the crimes of the last decade, out of the other sides of their mouths they're saying the Bush era tax cuts should not be allowed to expire because that would hamper job recovery . What a crock of shit! So while they recommend that the rich get richer ( it will be good for all of US), they also are recommending that Social security benefits be cut, the retirement age be lifted another two or three years, medicare be cut, and a 6.5 % consumption tax be enacted. A sales tax, the way I understand it, nationwide. (FYI -If enacted that would make California’s sales tax roughly 16%.) All measures that put the debt squarely on the backs of the people whom can least afford it, the decimated middle class and the poor. Proportionately, the task force recommendations would basically give the rich a free ride; Whom spends more, proportionately, of their income for the necessities of life? You can see why it was important to pick task force members at the end of their political career. Further screwing the average man is not going to be popular. It should be pretty obvious that with American business setting record quarterly profits, the idea that the average man should be responsible for the crimes of the last decade, and pay for them, is maddening! As our leaders attempt to saddle us with the debt of their crimes , before we let them steal the benefits we have paid for our entire working lives, I think we should heed George W. H. Bush’s words and “string them up“. (George was commenting , privately, on what the American people would do if they knew the truth. His words were "string us up", referring to himself and co-conspirators) None of their crimes were by accident. They should hang for them! The war on terror is the biggest deception in history! Our bankruptcy as a nation was no accident. As a people our restitution should not be either. Tell your leader, whichever liar is elected to represent you, that you want the banks and the industrial war machine to pay the debt America owes. The banks and the industrial war machine! . The business of America is business, according to George W., so let the cost of doing business (our debt) be paid by business. It’s the Rich that have profited over the last decade, it’s the rich that should now pay the bill. Make it clear America, that while the profits have been privatized, the losses need to be paid by the profiteers , Not Socialized among the people! . How many politicians will need to be strung up to make the point? Not many. We can start with the Bush’s , Cheney, the board of Haliburton etc.