2011/02/28 – Equal Money and Illegal Drugs

According to a Congressional Research Report [1], the biggest importer of marijuana and methamphetamine into the United States is the country of Mexico. The drug cartels which make all the money through this are engaged in a bloody and protracted war against the Mexican government who wants to close the shipping routes of the cartels, but it’s not so easy, as the cartels, or “drug trafficking organizations,” as law enforcement likes   them,  are flush with money and ammo, and have bribed their way into the good graces of certain politicians. They have even formed associations linking up in alliances that permits them to operate both in Mexico and America with a high level of efficiency.

The big story that’s being communicated through the media about these drug cartels is that nobody knows what to do about them. They are too well armed, too well-disciplined to break down. And they are, under the current money system.

Under an Equal Money System, there would be no need for drug cartels to exist, for they only exist out of the desire for big money. The desire for big money may still exist in human beings after EMS is installed, but the problems of drug trafficking would diminish because the grunts who do it to survive could turn away from it, and people would be able to discuss their addictions more sensibly. Equal Money will not support self-destructive behavior with human beings, because let’s face it, human beings love to destroy themselves, but  EMS can make access to drugs unsatisfying, problematic and exceedingly difficult to enjoy. Most of all, Equal Money can make drugs and the violent oppression it generates unnecessary. And that is something we’d like to see.

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[1] Cook, Colleen W., ed (October 16). “Mexico’s Drug Cartels” (PDF). CRS Report for Congress. Congresional Research Service. p. 7. Retrieved 2009-08-09.

2011/02/26 – My Boring Day

A moment of irritation came up today when I felt I was “being forced” into sharing myself with another, and Jesus, was it painful. I’ve always been an introspective person, keeping my counsel, as it were. Basic operating  procedure. I’ve been in plenty of relationships where I was never asked about what was really going on inside myself. Not that I would have told them anything if they did ask. And hardly anyone did, as if everyone in my world was just as self-absorbed as I was… so I was pretty happy about that. I just sat deep inside my mind and watched the wheels go ’round. I thought that was the way to play the game.

But today, relating the “boring” and “uninteresting” part of my day wasn’t something I entered into enthusiastically. I simply had a boring day where I did stuff. My partner wasn’t having that.  It didn’t matter what kind of day I thought I had, she wanted to know how I experienced myself through it. In seeing that there was no self-honest way to escape this “trap,” I could only relent and prepare myself to gut it out. Inside I was screaming, “Oh, my fucking God, this is so fucking BOOOOORING! I can’t believe she is making me write everything out….  Ostensibly, I  hate writing about boring stuff I do.” But it is really a very deep pattern I have created as a defense mechanism against criticism and blame, SF on the blame and projection there.  Revealing myself to others is still a huge point for me, but it’s slowly and definitely getting better.

2011/02/24 – My Compartments

It occurred recently that I have an interesting way of dealing with relationship by acts of compartmentalization within my mind. This is done as a defense mechanism where I can separate troublesome aspects of my life and relationships into separate “boxes” or “rooms” where I can keep them isolated and discrete. This has caused me a fair amount of pain and confusion in my life, as keeping everything orderly and manageable, because of the extreme separation involved. It leads one to live multiple lives at once, all of them false and desperate.

For example, if I were cheating on a woman with another woman, I had to come up with a cover story, an entire line of the most deceitful mendacity. And above all that, I cannot believe all the lies I lived!  Ways of being that weren’t even true. And yet, they were true because I lived them. Such are the ways of life.

The ways these compartments worked was that I categorized everything in my mind as either “good” or “bad” as it related to my desires being met or frustrated. My motivations and actions were also set in the same way. It was only very recently that I even knew what I was up to, because I didn’t have a valid set of criterion that allowed my to be honest with myself. I didn’t even know such a thing within self existed. Which why the concept of self-honesty was such a tremendous paradigm shift within my consciousness. I could be honest with myself. Who knew?

When I look back at the events in my life, it seems to me like a living, moving wave of rooms that I lived in for a while, each room containing more rooms where I kept parts of myself hidden from others. And myself. Each room  spilling into other rooms featuring different version of myself, filled with secrets, thoughts, memories, desires, disappointments, triumphs, projections, shame and glee. I used to believe that they were all valid aspects of myself. Now I see they were nothing but the useless and tattered remains of my projections, secrets and lies distilled in silent separation within the compartments of who I thought I was. I wonder if we all live like this, unaware of the true nature of our selves, leaving an interminable trail of rooms and secrets that follow and cover us like sizeless shadows onto our death. And who knows what happens after that.

I can only relate my deep appreciation that I stumbled across self-honesty and the process of self-perfection. Without these tools, I fear that I would have been consigned to wandering the endless compartments of my mind in confused illusion.

Thank

2011/02/22 – 800,000 Children of the Night

800,000 Children of the Night, by Darryl Thomas.

The Department of Justice estimates as many as 800,000 child prostitutes are on the nation’s streets, and the problem is growing. Children are sexually exploited and commoditized for money, a practice that will end forever under the Equal Money System.

2011/02/21 – US Foreign Policy, Incredibly Ironic, Part 2

Emily Z. sent me an email commenting on my blog, US Foreign Policy, An Incredibly Ironic Piece of Work (Feb, 12, 2011). I present it with her permission.

Okay, the last blog entry i read was about egypt, and what the ‘victory’ had actually accomplished. Your comments on the US and its likely role, and the quotes you used were on the money, but the overall message or tone i have to question. The first thing I thought of was Paulo Freire’s amazing Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Freire makes a great case for the need for hope in any social revolution or change movement.

“Hope” as defined by my trusty Oxford Dictionary states that it is, “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” I do not understand what power “feelings of expectation” possess in terms of some scheme of liberation.  Obama pandered to the American people on Hope. Do you remember how unimpressed I was with his prospects before he took office? His predictable failure to give an appropriate return on his promises show how there is always a great disappointment when hope and feelings of expectation fail to materialize. I had glanced at Freier’s book once several years ago, but it didn’t make much of an impact as Marcuse’s One Dimensional Man. That might have because I didn’t a working knowledge of Marxism for it to sink my teeth into Freier’s book. I don’t, in any case or for any reason, see the use of “hope.” It seems to be manipulation on people’s desires.

The line I recall goes something like “Hope is a natural, possible, and necessary impetus in the context of our unfinishedness” [...]

I don’t understand why hope is “necessary.” Hope is like wishing, isn’t it? What is the use of wishing?

But I think that if your goal is to inspire action and change whether on a very tiny local scale or a greater world stage, you need to examine the impact of an unrelenting cynical ‘reality’.I was watching Jon whatshisname on with the comedy news show on the comedy show, and he was sort of doing the same thing you were a little more exaggerated and it was good for a couple of genuine brief laughs, but in the long run, what is the message? How can we expect for change movements to happen if we fail to recognize the extraordinary success of a spontaneous populous rebellion such as the one that just took place. or even the one that took place at the polls in this country’s last presidential election.

I didn’t see my blog as “comedy,” nor how I depicted the situation in Egypt as something to laugh about. Am I cynical about the nature of global politics? Oh, definitely. Am I cynical about American involvement in supporting anti-democratic, authoritarians because it suits our own pathological agendas? You bet! I see no “success” in Egypt, as Mubarak left power but held on to the money while turning power over to the military and the former spy chief and torturer. I don’t think that’s the least bit funny. I also don’t think the situation can count as a success because the economic inequalities haven’t changed in the least. I mean, that was the point of the revolt – things in most Egyptians’ lives suck on ice. We will see if there are elections in the fall, but I doubt anything meaningful with come out of it.

If you have read Pedagogy of the Oppressed, I highly recommend you glance at it one day. It’s a seminal work in the education field and an important defense of liberal, radical philosophy in education and change movements.

I will take a look at it and see if a fresh reading will change my opinion. In any case, the latest news has the Egyptian military has been secretly detaining and torturing those it suspects of being involved in pro-democracy protests, according to testimony gathered by the British newspaper the Guardian. Meet the New Boss.

The next thing I have been wanting to address is the subject of equal money. Hell yeah of course i’m in favor of equal money, but what REALLY are you advocating?

I am advocating a system that takes care of us all instead of trying to exploit and kill us.

You say about Egypt they are not ready for equal money because they don’t even know about it, but what exactly is the it, and what is the plan of action to implementing change that will move us from here to there?

Egypt isn’t ready for Equal Money because they would have come to that conclusion on their own already. They aren’t ready because they thought by revolting so much they could get rid of Mubarak and their lives would be better. All they did was turn the army against them and they will justify every crackdown as necessary to keep the country “stable.” Mubarak was only part of the problem, the other parts being a tiny, Arab elite runs all the countries in the Middle East at the expense of the indigenous people, geopolitics and an inequitable money system. They haven’t done squat in those areas, nor have they seemed to organize themselves in any way to address them.

Or is there any plan of action or is it just a slogan?

The plan is to become involved politically. And, it is a slogan.

What brought me to these questions was an earlier blog entry where you referred to Malcolm and Farrakan (sp?) and sort of wrote off the entire population of African Americans with a comment about how black people had always just bought into the whole christian thing as a result of slavery and its debilitating cultural impact.

There is a growing number of black that are rejecting the Jesus doctrine as mind control, and that’s gratifying. But I don’t see where that view you claim I made is misleading or wrong or what you mean by “writing off the entire African-American population.” There is no comparison between Black Muslims in America (I’m speaking of the Nation of Islam) and Black  Christians (the high-end of estimates clock in at 50,ooo members).

You didn’t actually say all of that but that’s what I took away from what I read, and correct me if I am wrong. So….what this brought to mind was James Forman’s Black Manifesto. On May 4 of 1969, James Forman, who preceded Stokely Carmichael as Chairman of SNCC, disrupted the Sunday worship service of the Riverside Church of New York City to read the Black Manifesto. Forman’s Manifesto had been adopted on Ap;ril 26, 1969 by the National Black Economic Development Conference which met in Detroit. The Conference was called by the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, a coalition of representatives of ten Protestant denominations and some Jewish and Catholic groups that was recently formed to channel funds from the various denominations into poverty projects. The tone was reflective of the Black Power Movement and the text was dead on the money in terms of both demands and vision. And while there was some favorable talk about reparations at that time, the reaction of the churches was unanimously outraged and negative. You can probably google the text, but i’ve reprinted a couple of short paragraphs here:

TO THE WHITE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES AND THE JEWISH SYNAGOGUES IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL THE OTHER RACIST INSTITUTIONS
Black Manifesto
We the black people assembled in Detroit Michigan for the National Black Economjic Development Conference are fully aware that we have been forced to come together because racist white America has exploited our resources, our minds, our bodies, our labor. For centuries we have been forced to live as colonized people inside the United States, victimized by the most vicious, racist system in the world. We have helped to build the most industrial country in the world.
We are therefore demandiong of the white Christian Churches and Jewish Synagogues which are part and parcel of the system of capitalism, that they begin to pay reparations to black people in this country. We are demanding $500,000,000 from the Christian white churches and the Jwewish synagogues. This total comes to 15 dollars per nigger. This is a low estimate for we maintain there are probaly more than 30,000,000 black peolple in this country. $15 a nigger is not a large sum of money and we know that the churches and synagogues have a tremendous wealth and its membership, white America, has profited from and still exploits black peolple. We are aalso not unaware that the explointation of colored poeples around the world is aided and abetted by the white Christian churches and synagogues. The demand for $500,000,000 is not an idle resolution or empty words. Fifteen dollars for every black brother and sister in the United States is only a beginning of the reparations due us as people who have been exploited and degraded, brutalized, killed and persecuted. Underneath all of this exploitation, the racism of the country has produced a psychological effect upon us that we are beginning to shake off. We are no longer afraid to demand our full rights as a people in this decadent society.
He goes on to detail how the 500,000,000 will be spent, a list of 12 paragraphs, with the final one reading:
To implement these demands we must have a fearless leadership. We must have a leadership which is willing to batthe the church establishment to implement these demands. To win our demands we will ahve to declare war on the white Christian churches and synagogues and this means that we may have to fight the total government structure of this counttry. Let no one think that these demands will be met by our mere stating them. For the sake of the churches and synagogues, we hope that they have the wisdom to understand that these demands are modest and reasonable. But if the white Christians and Jews are not willing to meet our demands through peace and good will, then we declare war and we are prepared to fight by whatever means necessary….

So…what is the connection to your blog? Well, one, I want to make sure that your sweeping generalizations are actually informed by history and acknowledges the extent of some of the creative tactics and fearlessness of the leaders of the Black Power Movement, despite its complete undoing by the likes of J Edgar and Cointelpro.

But have a look at what happened to the Black Power Movement. Stokely Carmichael left the country to die of prostrate cancer in Guinea, claiming the CIA was somehow responsible. Malcolm and Martin were assassinated, Huey P. Newton was shot to death trying to get some crack, Angela Davis went to teach college, Eldridge Cleaver sold out and became in turns a car theif, a Moonie, a Mormon and a Republican. Bobbly Seale forswore politcal violence and was a Ben & Jerry’s spokesman. They may have been “fearless,” but they all failed by not working within the system to change it. Instead, they became irrelevant. Isn’t that the lesson the Egyptians should take in?

And I am curious as to whether related efforts for social and economic change, such as this one, have been studied for the purpose of informing strategy and implementation of whatever demands are being made in conjunction with the Equal Money campaign.

We have been working on formulating a concise political framework for the past two years and are close to establishing a non-profit called the Equal Life Foundation, which was set up to disseminate the practical points of the EMS, this blog being one of many reaching out over the internet to cause a big enough ripple to be noticed over time. A work in progress, but watch this space.

What are the leaders of the Equal Money Campaign or Movement willing to do to promote their system ( if it is actually a system).

We are willing to get involved politically, as I said. That’s the only way to change the system.

How much sacrifice will be considered okay in the interest of achieving your primary goals and outcomes?

As much as it takes. I have only this life to give. May it be enough.

2011/02/19 – The Necessity of a Global Government

The New World Order Bogeyman

We all have heard of the conspiracy theories about the New World Order and the mysterious brains of the Illuminati who intend to assert an authoritarian global government that will infringe on our personal liberties to the point of establishing a prison planet full of slaves like you and me forever and ever, Amen.

But if a global government could somehow be implemented, it would not necessarily be a bad thing, especially if it were appointed by democratic means. Such a world governance could give tremendous support for human beings in different ways.

1. The end of war. A world government would not permit that wars against itself. The United States budget for “defense” for 2010 clocked in at $533.8 billion. Just for one year. In 2009, it is estimated that the countries of the world spent over  $1.531 TRILLION in current dollars. [1] It’s a good bet to guess they spent at least that much last year and into the future. That money could go to parts of the world that need it under a global political-economic organization.

2. The end of selfish capitalism under a single currency. Stateless corporations would be no more. Pollution on a global scale would be finally addressed, and the exploitation of workers to make socks for the First World would be no more

3. Free Movement between countries. While most countries would still keep their traditional borders, freedom of movement from one part of the world to another would be allowed. The Internet operates globally without too much restraint. So shall it be with human beings to move freely across their home.

4. Equal Money. A single currency, the removal of the profit principle, and providing for the needs of everyone will be the benchmarks of the global government. Money will no longer buy elections through trickery and fraud, because the elite will no longer be permitted to exist as a privileged, separate class.

5. Effective Leadership. No longer will undeserving, self-serving political hacks be allowed to run for office by virtue of connections and wealth. People with an aptitude and a wish to serve others will be  the criterion by which government office chooses candidates for leadership. That alone will get rid of a lot of assholes in public office.

When the people finally lose their fear of a global political system,. and understand the principle behind it (radical equality), they will demand it through democratic processes  all over the world. It will happen.

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[1] http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending

2011/02/18 – Video Response: UK Firms Blamed for Food Price Hike

A small cadre of men are hoarding foodstuff and betting on the price of cocoa, driving the price up 150% in the last 18 months. Is this anyway to treat people?

 

2011/02/16 – Lost In the Funhouse

I quit smoking weed shortly after I entered process about 3 years ago. I haven’t missed it at all, something that continues to amaze me, since I absolutely enjoyed the experience of getting buzzed. Funny, I can’t remember the day or the moment when I decided to stop smoking weed. I just stopped. Maybe it was because I realized that I was placing a part of me or my mind outside myself into that burning stick of weed in my mouth. It was definitely an escape where I would play in the funhouse of my mind to my heart’s content. Being stoned is very solitary, for nobody can enter into your buzz on the same level as you are. Even if you are still sitting in a room full of stoners, nobody will be able to buzz with you as you are internally. Doing any kind of drug will cause a massive separation that will be difficult to bridge the gap.

I loved to burn. But I realized that I was entertaining and separating myself (and others) from myself  through the use of an external object. Before process I would have justified puffing through all kinds of fronts.

For instance, I would have said, “It’s harmless Nobody gets hurt,” or, “It helps me relax,” or, “I can quit any time.” You know, the usual ones that often work. But I quit, anyway. when I looked at it carefully. dope did not add any value to my  life at all. It just made things weird.

Be careful of justifying separation of any kind, especially through drugs.I look back on my life and it seems as if  I were locked in a box and didn’t even know it!  Thanks to common sense, I made it out of the Funhouse.

2011/02/14 – Dragged to Death by Friends and Family

Deputy: Drinking may have led to dragging death

CORSICANA, Texas — Three men have been charged with murder after authorities said a 24-year-old was dragged to his death by a strap attached from his neck to a pickup truck bumper.
Christopher Neal Beckham of Milford was found in a plowed field early Thursday. Hill County Chief Deputy Steve Girsh said it appeared a night of drinking and playing pool led to a dispute “that simply got out of hand.”
The victim’s brother, Marcus Alan Beckham of Milford, 25, Raymond Scott Harrington, 32, of Trinidad, Colo., and Raymond George Harrington, 23, of Granbury were arraigned Friday and held on bonds of $1 million each in the Hill County Jail.
Girsh said in a written statement that the victim’s injuries were consistent with being dragged and were pronounced on his face, upper body, neck and hands. Extreme cold also may have also played a role. When he was found, Christopher Beckham was wearing only a T-shirt, blue jeans and boots.

Read more here: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/7424895.html

© 2011 The Associated Press

2011/02/12 – US Foreign Policy. An Incredibly Ironic Piece of Work

 

So the Revolution was televised after all. Hell has frozen over and Hosni Mubarak has stepped down as the strongman… er, “President” of Egypt, after repeatedly telling the world to go screw, he was staying put and nothing would ever dislodge his grip on power. Until yesterday. Something happened and now Mr. Mubarak has stepped down. The entire blogosphere is bursting with exultant giddiness, trumpeting their posts with titles such as, “The Triumph of Leaderless Revolution,” “Listen to Egypt Roar,” “Toppling the Autocrat,” and ” Ain’t that Good News!” It appears the Egyptian people have “won.” Let’s see what they won.

1. Military Rule. This does not bode well. Anything named the “Supreme Council of the Armed Forces” can’t be a good thing, or even an improvement. While it seems that eroding military support for Mubarak may have contributed to his sudden departure., these guys will be instituting law and order soon enough.

2. A Spy Chief as President. Derisively called, “Mubarak’s Twin,” Omar Suleiman was instrumental in getting America into the Gulf War where Suleiman’s agents so viciously tortured a man into “confessing” that Iran had trained terrorists in the use of biological weapons, which the tortured subject later recanted as a forced confession.

3. A Poor Man’s Democracy. Corruption, poverty and scarcity will still be around for a long time.  It remains to be seen if the Muslim Brotherhood gets a shot at power in Egypt under military rule. You know which side the US and Israeli governments are hoping will come through. Oh, did I say corruption, poverty and scarcity will still be around?

3a. American politicians talking shit and invalidating the liberal democratic principles that they are sworn to uphold.

Florida GOP Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released a statement urging “the unequivocal rejection of any involvement by the Muslim Brotherhood and other extremists” in the transition of power.

Egyptians should reject those who “seek to exploit and hijack these events to gain power, oppress the Egyptian people, and do great harm to Egypt’s relationship with the United States, Israel, and other free nations,”[1]

That’s right, Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen. Democracy is only for those who know how to support anti-democratic dictators in a twisted game of geopolitics. You weren’t worried about the oppression of the Egyptian people while our country was supporting their dictator, you incredibly ironic piece of work.

4. Unintended Consequences. America looks like an hypocritical fool as a country constantly preaching democratic values to the world while supporting strongmen and autocrats around the world when it’s in our national interest. The world, not even mentioning your average Egyptian, ain’t gonna forget which side the United States was on.

5. Who the hell know what else will happen to these unfortunate people? They aren’t ready for the Equal Money system because the haven’t heard of it. What will likely happen until they do, is a replay of the other “revolutions” that made things worse for the people who wanted something better. That’s why revolutions never work, and why the Egyptian people will feel that they’ve been duped.

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[1] “Obama praises Egyptian revolution“

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/11/egypt.us.reaction/index.html

© 2011 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.