What gun would Jesus choose?

It's now the afternoon of the April 23, 2014. Remember where you were when you heard the news that, as expected Georgia's governor signed the 'guns everywhere' bill. Here is a link to an Atlanta paper. Some changes were made. Churches would have to "opt in" to allow congregants to carry guns into their so-called "House of God." Humm, what gun would Jesus choose? And not even Georgia will allow guns on college campuses, at least the students. 'Better not be late to my lecture, a-hole!' However, thank God, parents can attend Parent-Teacher conferences in elementary schools armed to the teeth ('little lady, we're here because you flunked Johnny). Graduation rates in Georgia will soar.
A provision of the law forbids entities within the state from banning guns anywhere - bars (yeah, that's smart) and, get this, government buildings that do not pony up to provide building security (have fun getting that drivers license - what you gotta get a license?).
A most distressing aspect of this situation is that it's not just Republican Governor Nathan Deal who is wrong-headed here. His Democratic opponent supported Georgia House Bill 60. Jason Carter, former President Jimmy Carter's grandson supported the bill! Add this to Texas' Wendy Davis as the second prominent Democrat running for the governor's office who does not draw a line to differentiate themselves from the National Rifle Association's (NRA) insane anti-life political agenda. The other wing of this plane is the "Christian" right. Remember what George Carlin said, "Pre-born, you're precious. Pre-school, you're fucked." That sums up the Christian Right's anti-life agenda to me.
The Democratic Party is either too timid or too wrong-headed to see the dangers and the anti-life parties are flying us into the afterlife. Well, la te da, let's just all join hands and see if there is a heaven!
Add this to the great Cliven Bundy's "range war" standoff in Nevada where I have some land. Yeah, the Bureau of Land Management run it in my interest. Me and my other taxpayers. So, this rancher who hasn't even paid his tax-supported low rate on grazing rights runs his cattle in defiance of my federal agents (on land protected for desert tortoises 'and yeah, I'm for the tortoises'), now including various potential law-enforcement agencies. So in my law-abiding nation the government gives in. Am I missing the Democratic leaders declaim and act, or is the lawful governing power of the United States of America AWOL? People are not motivated to vote for you Democrats, no matter how far to the right you go! So buck up! Obama's elections demonstrated our power;  you can get the votes, too. 
I am unable to find how many "Oath Keeper" county sheriffs and other "law enforcement" personnel there are in Georgia. It's safe to assume there are many. The oath keepers pledge to refuse to enforce a wide range of laws relating to gun ownership, arsenals, survivalists predicting societal breakdown, etc. They openly state that they are going to "protect the Constitution" regardless of any order given by the federal government or, indeed, their own state's leaders. Absolutely no consequences are facing them from any level of governance within the US at this time. There are oath keepers within our military and National Guards as well. No effort to weed them out is under way.
A perfect storm is brewing within my country. Imagine a large armed group approaching the state offices of Georgia. It would be legal so no one would stop them. They could then seize the government while a potential battle erupts among law enforcement. If a right wing nut is in the White House, say Jeb Bush, perhaps the federal troops would not be called in on behalf of the people. An armed mob could stage a coup in the state. The coups could spread to other states with the propaganda arms of the religious right and Amerika's corporate media. The "Supreme Court," hell, I could easily see five of the nine making some kind of monarchical decree of legitimacy.
Far fetched? Are you willing to bet your life on it? Then be sure to include Georgia in your travel plans.
I have not traveled in Mexico for over a year now. I dearly love going there, the deeper into the country I go the more I love it. But I've read too many stories of violence and I don't risk it for now. A couple of years ago while driving around Austin, Texas I began to notice things that reminded me of Mexico - large numbers of beggars, people dressed in cheap clothes, a huge police presence, among other things. Now, I see these things everywhere I travel. My country is becoming poor and angry and armed. The political party called "the left" (ha!) is weak, disorganized, and is merely a group of people who believe that they, as individuals, are indispensable so they focus on whatever it takes to get elected - including attempts to accommodate anti-ObamaCare folks, gun nuts, and religious nuts.
I almost finished by saying there is no end in sight, but there is an end in sight. The United States is a derailed freight train and you and I, the entire world are in the way of the collision.
Today, April 23, '14, I am updating this blog to include a link to a most powerful essay. I found it on truthdig. Chris Hedges is the author and "The Rhetoric of Violence" needs no further introduction from me. Please, read it here.

The US is heading towards its own Ukraine/Russia-like crisis, only an all-American crisis!

Today, April 23, '14, I am updating this blog to include a link to a most powerful essay. I found it on truthdig. Chris Hedges is the author and "The Rhetoric of Violence" needs no further introduction from me. Please, read it here.
The state of Georgia in the United States has passed a "guns everywhere" law and the governor is expected to sign it into law any day. A provision of the law forbids entities within the state from banning guns anywhere - schools, churches, bars ...
I am unable to find how many "Oath Keeper" county sheriffs and other "law enforcement" personnel there are in the state. It's safe to assume there are many. The oath keepers pledge to refuse to enforce a wide range of laws relating to gun ownership, arsenals, survivalists predicting societal breakdown, etc. They openly state that they are going to "protect the Constitution" regardless of any order given by the federal government or, indeed, their own state's leaders. Absolutely no consequences are facing them from any level of governance within the US at this time. There are oath keepers within our military and National Guards as well. No effort to weed them out is under way.
A perfect storm is brewing within my country. Imagine a large armed group approaching the state offices of Georgia. It would be legal so no one would stop them. They could then seize the government while a potential battle erupts among law enforcement. If a right wing nut is in the White House, say Jeb Bush, perhaps the federal troops would not be called in on behalf of the people. An armed mob could stage a coup in the state. The coups could spread to other states with the propaganda arms of the religious right and Amerika's corporate media. The "Supreme Court," hell, I could easily see five of the nine making some kind of monarchical decree of legitimacy.
Far fetched? Are you willing to bet your life on it? Then be sure to include Georgia in your travel plans.
I have not traveled in Mexico for over a year now. I dearly love going there, the deeper into the country I go the more I love it. But I've read too many stories of violence and I don't risk it for now. A couple of years ago while driving around Austin, Texas I began to notice things that reminded me of Mexico - large numbers of beggars, people dressed in cheap clothes, a huge police presence, among other things. Now, I see these things everywhere I travel. My country is becoming poor and angry and armed. The political party called "the left" (ha!) is weak, disorganized, and is merely a group of people who believe that they, as individuals, are indispensable so they focus on whatever it takes to get elected - including attempts to accommodate anti-ObamaCare folks, gun nuts, and religious nuts.
I almost finished by saying there is no end in sight, but there is an end in sight. The United States is a derailed freight train and you and I, the entire world are in the way of the collision.

Unions are made from the inside out.

                             "Amazon workers look for justice from a business-friendly Supreme Court. A case involving payment for time spent waiting in line heads to the highest court. Isn't this what unions are for? "        

So reads the headline in this Salon article by Andrew Leonard. Yes, I thought, Amazon workers need to form a union or join an existing union and make it work. The larger the organized work force,  the more a scab worker has to learn before s/he becomes profitable, the more likely it is that workers can win.

Since most "journalism" today is only opinions cast into "reporting-type" formats, I was not surprised the Mr. Leonard's article turned from facts - the real grievances of Amazon workers - to opinion. But for God's sake, can't the opinions on an ostensibly left-leaning site be reasonable and fact-based?

No. Mr Leonard states as if written in stone that, "since there are no strong unions in the tech sector, workers have no alternative but to go the courts. And if they pursue their grievances to the ultimate level, they end up before a Supreme Court stacked with business-friendly justices."

So, Salon implies that unions are entities that are handed down to workers. They aren't created by workers. They aren't weak now, but only needing a strong, united, pissed-off work force to build them up. No, there is no alternative but to turn Mr. Roberts and Mr. Thomas, et al. You know, the way the Democratic Party allowed George W. to be elected by the Supreme Court instead of standing up for the People's franchise.

        

Tissue samples - universal health care

I just read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. What a wonderful book about the woman whose cells were the first to reproduce robustly outside the body. The afterward will now need updating after the ASSOCIATION FOR MOLECULAR PATHOLOGY ET AL. 
v. MYRIAD GENETICS, INC., ET AL Supreme court case. You can read about it here. Although the Court held that a company cannot patent human DNA and privacy laws will prevent releasing names of patients whose genetic material is used, doctors and hospitals can still keep and use materials excised from human beings. If new drugs and treatments are made from that mole the doctor cut off your body ... well, you'll likely never know nor will the profits be shared with you. Your cells become, in essence, part of the scientific commons, shared for the good of scientific research.
Well, what are you going to do when you need medical care? Deny the treatment to prevent your cells from being used?
I think it makes no sense that parts and pieces of us become the property of researchers if we can't benefit in some direct way - like having our tax dollars and drug profits be used to provide universal health care. Henrietta Lacks' cells (HeLa) have made billions of dollars for corporations, but her descendents couldn't afford to pay for health care.

Democrats let Republicans have the Supreme Court

Part 3
This is the third blog in a row in which I think of political events that somehow I managed to figure out, but Democrats apparently did not. No, they did, but they didn't have the will to fight.
I hardly have the energy to go on and on about the Supreme Court, a national disgrace that carries more weight than Constitution itself. The decision Bush v. Gore alone disqualifies those justices as political hacks. And Citizen's United? Money is speech? Corporations are people? The recent ruling that WE the People don't have "standing" to challenge the pervasive unwarranted use of spying techniques? Any common sense reading of the Constitution would convince an intelligent fifth grader otherwise. Is the Supreme Court dumber than a fifth grader? No, it is simply a giant turned evil.
I remember hearing decades ago that Republicans intended to put the Supreme Court into their back pocket, and now they have. Why didn't Democrats move aggressively to prevent this? Why did I see it coming, but they apparently did not? Does it matter that one could say, I've seen it coming ever since FDR? No, what matters is doing something about it and the Democrats failed.
Robert Bork was voted down because he had written and spoken so much that he had a track record easy for even a Democrat to oppose, so the game plan now for all Supreme Court nominees is to refuse to comment on anything. But, the Republicans know what they are getting, except for that one Obamacare surprise from Roberts! (gives one hope)
I could not believe my eyes and ears as I watched the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. I could not believe that such words were being broadcast into my home where I had young children to raise. And when Anita Hill was savaged in the name of getting Thomas's sure right-wing vote for a lifetime, I thought our nation had lost all justification for ongoing moral influence in the world - but that's a long list, eh Patrice Lumumba?
I'm saving the discussion of judicial review for another time. I'm talking about the Republican techniques used in building a Supreme Court which could, with a straight face, proclaim that in the 21st century PRE-9/11 world, the United States of America could not dare the luxury of counting votes or running a new, clean election.
Anyone still reading this post probably doesn't need me to go on about the appointments of the current Supreme Court, but I'd like to make sure to remind you that the Republicans have ALSO been refusing to approve lower court seats if a Democrat proposed the position. That the Bush administration purged many honest lawyers from the Justice Department for no good reason and replaced them with ill-educated hacks. The Republican Party has sucessfully stocked the legal system pool with party hacks who will become the only "logical" choices for future Supreme Court justices and Federal presecutors.
The Republicans stop at nothing to achieve their ends and the Democrats stop at the mere threat of a filibuster. Democrats pursue things one at a time. Republicans work all aspects of the system so they direct the course of debate even when they lose elections.
Democrats are linear. Republicans are global.

the Fourth Amendment is gone

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The Supreme Court agreed with the NSA that American citizens have no Fourth Amendment rights in this post-9/11 world. The War on Drugs eliminated the assumption that we the people have a right to be secure in our persons or houses. Now FISA takes care of the rest. 
If all the gun rights crowd gave a s*** about their Constitutional rights they would be "up in arms" -) over this. And then we would have an end to warrantless wiretapping and ...
Because, you see, the gun lobby is so powerful Congress trembles in its collective boots to bend over backwards for them. And the Supreme Court? It's actually a fully owned subsidiary of the NRA. So this is my secret political tactic - get the NRA to back your cause/bill/program. Gosh, fellers, I'll trade you the second for my first and fourth!

"Jesus was right, most Christians are wrong"

This blog is more like a Sunday School lesson. Sorry, but I just can’t say it better than Jesus Christ did.

Matthew, Chapter 23, verses 12 through 14:

“And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

The USA.

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

Wow, that so reminds me of George Carlin when he said something like, “You have a right to life, but not a right to live.”

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.”

Certain corporations and banks.

Verses 23- 28

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

The Supreme Court of the United States.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

Congress.

Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

The military/industrial complex.

Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”

Certain select parts of the CIA, the NSA, the FED and all other secret agencies of our government.

Like I said earlier in this blog series, you can’t convince those who have been listening to hateful sermons for years. This is for you – a person of common sense. Did not George W. exalt himself? Is not Obama humble in his dealings with Congress? Haven’t the “banksters” devoured widow’s houses. Haven’t we seen those who “… for a pretence make long prayer.”? Who is it who“… have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment mercy, and faith …”  I’d say it’s the Supreme Court. Supreme, ha!