At no point has this discussion become uncivilized or disrespectful…
If every other place I pass through and read were like this, then maybe this would not be the only place I post anything at all…
Again thank you to you fellow members of differing nationalities and political stripes for showing you can be passionate about things while showing respect.
The "cogs and gears in my thought machine " analogy were lifted from one of his books.
Maybe it was mother night…
A very wise man…
Well fortunately neither one of us is advocating for a popular vote. I happen to think the electoral college is fine minus the states which stack the results with winner takes all.
Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act
H.R.4922
One Hundred Third Congress
of the
United States of America
CALEA, or the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, is a United States law that oversees telecommunication security which has now been expanded to Internet security. The FBI and FCC worked together to specify what is expected of wired and wireless ISPs. There are some fairly harsh federal penalties for noncompliance that became effective in May 2007.
In the spirit of protecting the United States, the mission is not to make life miserable and expensive for operators and thwart communications, but rather to give the FBI and homeland security tools to wiretap Internet conversation on a moment’s notice. It is in this spirit that we offer a simple CALEA solution.
While we suspect it would be a rare occurrence for a small ISP to receive a warrant to comply, larger ISPs may be asked routinely for this information, and it would be potentially devastating to national security should the means to monitor conversation not be available.
10/25/1994 Became Public Law No: 103-414.
10/25/1994 Signed by President.
10/18/1994 House Presented to President.
10/12/1994 Senate Message on Senate action sent to the House.
10/07/1994 Senate Passed Senate without amendment by Voice Vote. (consideration: CR S14660)
10/06/1994 Senate Received in the Senate, read twice.
10/05/1994-6:03pm House Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
10/05/1994-6:03pm House On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote.
10/05/1994-6:02pm House Considered as unfinished business. (consideration: CR H10917)
10/04/1994-8:51pm House At the conclusion of debate, the chair put the question on the motion to suspend the rules. Mr. Walker objected to the vote on the grounds that a quorum was not present. Further proceedings on the motion were postponed until Oct. 5. The point of no quorum was withdrawn.
10/04/1994-8:32pm House DEBATE - The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate.
10/04/1994-8:32pm House Considered under suspension of the rules. (consideration: CR H10773-10783)
10/04/1994-8:32pm House Mr. Brooks moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended.
10/04/1994 House Referred sequentially to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce for a period ending not later than Dec. 2, 1994 for consideration of such provisions of the bill and amendment as fall within the jurisdiction of that committee pursuant to clause 1(h), rule X.
10/04/1994 House Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Judiciary. H. Rept. 103-827, Part I.
09/29/1994 House Ordered to be Reported (Amended).
09/29/1994 House Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
08/17/1994 House Forwarded by Subcommittee to Full Committee.
Action By: House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights
08/17/1994 House Subcommittee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
Action By: House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights
08/11/1994 House Joint Hearings Held by the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights and by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Technology and the Law.
Action By: House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights
08/10/1994 House Referred to the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights.
Action By: Committee on the Judiciary
08/09/1994 House Referred to the House Committee on Judiciary.
08/09/1994 House Introduced in House
Yes, this group has been good at keeping this civil and educational. I want to write about where we are at this point in time from a historical perspective…
All democracies eventually fail because they are mob rule. The average life of a democracy is 150 years. Once the people learn that they can vote for themselves the whole pie, the government goes broke. ALL governments eventually default on their bond market. The founding fathers created a democratic republic instead of a democracy to put some distance between the mob and the treasury. The 17th amendment severely shortened this distance. Giving the vote to women also changed the nature of the electorate. Women tend to think more on short-term rewards.
So, we now live in an ill-fated democracy. Politicians buy votes with promises, to pay us with our own money.
Democracy is the counterweight of the tendency of the ruling class to work towards fascism.
To counter a tendency towards fascism, the founding fathers created a system where 3 branches shared power.
The more concentration of power, the more corruption.
They KNEW that the system was flawed. To stop endless infighting, they had to make one of the 3 the final arbiter. That fell to the supreme court. The terrible flaw was; the supreme court would ALWAYS find for more federal power.
This created the fight of; states right vs federal law. Even Abraham Lincoln said that the cause of the civil war was excessive taxes on the south.
The founding fathers knew that the system was imperfect but, they had no solution. They suggested a council of learned elders, wittengeld. They never did come to an arrangement that they were happy with.
So, politicians have made promises to get votes. The treasury is bankrupt. US GOV has already defaulted. It is buying it’s own bonds with wet-ink money. The ECB is doing the same thing. The BOJ has long done this. All of a sudden, MMT has risen up like a rich uncle who is going to fix all the problems. Ray Dalio has said that it is inevitable.
The problem stems from the fact that the bankers have used regulatory capture to pull all the money out of the lower loop and, into the upper loop. Wall Street spent $2 billion in D.C. This so-called money is stuck in the upper loop where it does no good. FED GOV is bankrupt BUT, 51% of Americans receive a check from GOV. Everybody from welfare people to defence contractors.
Given the choice to default to 150 million Americans OR default on the bond market, FED GOV is going to default and destroy the FED.
FED GOV is going to recapitalize the lower loop.
I won’t talk about politicians . It’s just too divisive.
Martin Armstrong is the history professor who has all the history of the world in a huge database that runs IA in real time.,
His program runs 30,000 variables.
His program has predicted just about everything. This is what he has to say about elections.
“Nero was not even in Rome during the Great Fire. He was the victim of fake news, and as I have written, he was the last of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Rome fell into civil war upon his death. We may see Trump become the last real person elected in the U.S. From here on out, it is going to get nasty in politics.”
This cite is NOT about any one person. Remember that.
Rodney King famously asked, “Can’t we all just get along?”
Reportedly, the answer is NO. Georgetown university has a report out that is clear as could be.
For a GREAT examination of historical cycles, read Strauss & Howe, Generational Turnings.
We are in the Fourth Turning.
Forget the politicians. This is about generational changes in society.
I agree, politics are a delicate matter. I have been thinking about this today as I was working, and I feel like the conclusion that I drew is that where the mess starts is when people start debating each other’s opinions. I feel we are all entitled to our opinions, and that we are even entitled to air them in a public forum if we can all do so civilly (and so far I feel like it is working). It really boils down to the simple fact that “I do not agree with your opinion” is not that same thing as “Your opinion is wrong.”
If people can maintain that basic level of respect, I think they can talk about anything - and come away with a new perspective and possibly new ideas to learn about. The discussion about Winner-take-all states led me to a better understanding of how the electoral college in this country actually functions, and for that I am grateful.
@trikebuilder57, your frustration at the current political landscape sent me to do some reading, and I found a sort of dense scholarly paper about political power that I thought was pretty interesting.
Its conclusion (or my interpretation from a laymans reading of it) suggests that the average voter does not have much policy clout, and the only reason that we get policies that are good for the common man, is that some elite or interest group also stands to gain. I had not really thought about that before - tending instead to see policy as zero-sum. But if you think about it, it makes sense that there would be big interests behind many of the policies that would help everyday people. It would also imply that this country will not fall apart unless that somehow served the interest of big-business, which I suspect it would not.
In the end, I think it is going to fall to the regular people to recognize that money has corrupted their values, and that we have all been led a little astray. I dont like to imagine it coming to some big bloody conclusion, more of a weary admission along the lines of "Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency? " I think we will get there, eventually.
So, let’s get right to the bottom of the problem.
General Douglas MacArthur warned in a speech to the Salvation Army, December 12, 1951, stating:
"History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline.
There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster."
What is the best system for teaching morality to the young? Maybe, homeschool but, that isn’t possible for many people.
What does that leave? Religion, of course. Russia is working mightily to bring the Coptic Christian church into all things mainstream.
Benjamin Franklin said. Our constitution is written for a moral people. Without morality, the constitution would be ripped asunder as a whale going through a fisherman’s net.
What about the corporation? It is immortal and immune from prosecution. It has no heart and no brain. It is a pile of money ceaselessly looking to grow larger. There is no morality written into it’s charter or by-laws. In a general sense, it’s officers have diluted responsibility and no moral imperatives.
The companies in the S&P 500 are $382 billion dollars in arrears at funding IN-HOUSE pensions. Do you think that they care for Joe six-pack, or the environment? The corporation may not be evil by design but, it is given every temptation and motivation to be evil.
Look around. Everything that you look at receives perverse incentives. How many millions of people do NOT understand a problem if not understanding ensures the continuation of a paycheck? Living a moral life is especially reprehensible for people who have no particular job skills.
Power corrupts and, attracts the already corrupted. It can come as no surprise that GOV attracts and supports corruption. Far too many people just can’t afford to be moral.
Smedley Darlington Butler
Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940) was a United States Marine Corps major general, the highest rank authorized at that time, and at the time of his death the most decorated Marine in U.S. history. During his 34-year career as a Marine, he participated in military actions in the Philippines, China, in Central America and the Caribbean during the Banana Wars, and France in World War I. Butler later became an outspoken critic of U.S. wars and their consequences. He also exposed an alleged plan to overthrow the U.S. government.
The only Marine to be awarded the Brevet Medal and two Medals of Honor .
During his Senate campaign, Butler spoke out forcefully about the veterans bonus. Veterans of World War I, many of whom had been out of work since the beginning of the Great Depression, sought immediate cash payment of Service Certificates granted to them eight years earlier via the World War Adjusted Compensation Act of 1924. Each Service Certificate, issued to a qualified veteran soldier, bore a face value equal to the soldier’s promised payment, plus compound interest. The problem was that the certificates (like bonds), matured 20 years from the date of original issuance, thus, under extant law, the Service Certificates could not be redeemed until 1945
The veterans made camp in the Anacostia flats while they awaited the congressional decision on whether or not to pay the bonus. The motion, known as the Patman bill, was decisively defeated, but the veterans stayed in their camp. Butler arrived with his young son Thomas, in mid-July the day before the official eviction by the Hoover administration. He walked through the camp and spoke to the veterans; he told them that they were fine soldiers and they had a right to lobby Congress just as much as any corporation. He and his son spent the night and ate with the men, and in the morning Butler gave a speech to the camping veterans. He instructed them to keep their sense of humor and cautioned them not to do anything that would cost public sympathy. On July 28, army cavalry units led by General Douglas MacArthur dispersed the Bonus Army by riding through it and using gas. During the conflict several veterans were killed or injured and Butler declared himself a “Hoover-for-Ex-President-Republican”.
I love this conversation that has enough religion and politics to make me uncomfortable, but enough gentleness and respect to keep me reading.
Some of us are intrigued by the interplay of faith and reason in the primary source documents of the religion of Jesus. Take a look at chapter 2 of the Acts of the Apostles (aka, The Book of Acts) in the New Testament. Interestingly, this rendition of the first public message that launched the Christian church has Peter appealing to reason. He grounds his argument in the logic of eyewitness testimony and shared sensory experience of his audience. Note verses 32-33.
When I get too wrapped up in my own logic and ideology, I find help in the wise counsel of a monk who said, “It is OK to have your opinions, just as long as you don’t think they are important!” A little humility goes a long way toward getting a respectful hearing. Grace & peace!
On my economics thread, I explain exactly why we are poor. Not here. BUT, here is a link to a great explanation of the manipulations that make the farmers poor.
You can see why I don’t waste my time arguing about politicians. I have my focus on much bigger things.
Not being involved but also not a-politic i have some brain waves to share…
My brain is neither left or right but i have a hand on both side… able to perform, sometimes even difficult, tasks…
Now the strange thing is that i also have 2 brain halves… and the left part is controlling the right side and vice versa…for me there is no doubt in my mind, life would be so difficult if anything would not work together…
This kind of yin-yang also apply’s on politic behavior…
I like both sides because together they make my life easy…
I think we are beyond left and right issues now.
The only ones left left arguing are the zealots who jockey for power.
Everyone knows we are in trouble and everyone has sense of how urgent it is we do something.
The goal is very clear and obvious.
We want to save as much of modern technological society and our freedoms as possible.
We also need to save as much of the natural world from destruction and prevent society from crumbling and splintering into the haves that will continue to prosper and enjoy life because they have the means and the have nots that are the fastest growing part of our society.
Here is today’s news from the Guardian, of course we know this already but we can forget about in a few minutes when we leave for work.
To ignore a problem is much less trouble than meeting it head on.
I love this quote!
Thank you so much for posting this humbling piece of advice.
It is my hope some solution comes from Driving on Wood . Some of you are off grid but are at risk to forest fire .
I do not think any of you have district heating .
FEMA mistakenly exposed personal information, including addresses and bank account information, of 2.3 million disaster victims
The victims affected include survivors of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and the 2017 California wildfires.
PANAMA CITY - The Florida Division of Emergency Management is appealing the end of a federal aid program that has placed families displaced by Hurricane Michael
More than 260 families will have to pay seasonal hotel rates or face eviction as early as Tuesday, as the Federal Emergency Management Agency winds down its Transitional Sheltering Assistance Program. FEMA agreed to extend the program another 60 days for only 17 out of 278 area families.
When asked why so few families were eligible for the extension, a FEMA spokeswoman wrote in an email, “to be eligible for the extension, households must have a realistic, feasible and practicable permanent housing plan with a confirmed successful implementation date within the 60 day period beyond April 8. We are still identifying all of those who are eligible for the extension.”
The email also stated that, “TSA is not a long-term or permanent housing solution for disaster survivors.”
Meanwhile in California’s Butte County, years of recovery — and millions of dollars — face the communities demolished by the Camp Fire. It’s been more five months since the blaze was contained, yet FEMA is only now constructing survivors’ long-promised housing units.
“We still have a lot of people displaced, living in hotels, or trailers, or whatever,” Steve Lambert, chair of the Butte County Board of Supervisors, told CBS News. “It’s going to be a couple years before we even get back to a point of any real building.”
“It’s unconscionable, quite frankly, that we are still sitting six months into this event and a disaster aid package has not been approved,” Mark Ghilarducci, the director of California’s Office of Emergency Services, tells CBS News.
“Disasters keep happening, people lives keep getting impacted, and yet there’s still no aid package. So it’s a little frustrating, as you can imagine.”
It has only been in the pass 150 years or less that the U.S.A .Government has had any Aid Package for Disaster Victims. Before that it was up to the Good Hearted, We The People of This Land that had plenty, helping other people in their time of need. This is the basic life walk, of the Beautiful teachings of Christ in the Bible. You will notice it is a Selfless Love being shown out of yourself to your fellow brothers or sisters of any tribe or race no matter who they are in their beliefs or walk in life here on this earth. There are no country lines of boundaries. Love your enemies is also included in His teachings. It is all about SELFLESS LOVE and MERCY not expecting any pay back of anything in return. Love Your Neighbor As Yourself. We would truely be a great nation if we All practiced this.
Many people do. I hope many more will also put it to practice in their lifestyle. They would be Blessed.
Bob
I like it Bob and I completely agree and support these very simple but true words.
I am an atheist but its so simple and obvious anyone can see that its true.
Just going to add this.
History has shown us moments of clarity that were ignored.
One such moment came from Charley Chaplin before the world went to war in 1939.
"Greed has posioned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.
We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in.
Machinery that gives us abundance has left us in want.
Our knowledge has made us cynincal.
Our cleverness, hard and unkind.
We think too much, and feel too little.
More than machinery, we need humanity.
More that cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness.
Without these qualities life will be violent, and all will be lost.
The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together.
The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men - cries out for universal brotherhood - for the unity of us all.
Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world - millions of despairing men, women, and little children - victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.
To those who can hear me, I say - do not despair.
The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress.
The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people.
And so long as men die, liberty will never perish. "
Reidenbach Mennonite Church
Reidenbach church members had a disagreement over using bottled gas or propane. One side, 43 percent of the membership, stayed with the Amos Martin group. The other 57 percent became the John J. Martin group. The Amos Martin church grew and now has members in Lancaster and Northumberland counties in Pennsylvania, and in Christian County, Kentucky.
A profound ecological development in 1974 and 1977 was the dramatic rise in fuel costs. Mennonites responded in a way similar to that of the general public. Many households turned to wood for fuel; at least three Mennonite-owned wood stove factories flourished for several years in Harrisonburg, Va. (Riteway, Sierra, and Shenandoah). Mennonites in Kansas and Ontario organized solar collector manufacturing concerns. With the drop of fuel prices in the mid-1980s, these businesses closed or greatly reduced their production. A recycling business, Earthkeepers, started in the mid-1970s at Eastern Mennonite College and continued uninterrupted by the erratic market cycle. The paper and glass recycling project is currently managed by a group of business students and enjoys excellent support in the community. Recycling has also been popular in other communities, often with the assistance and encouragement of local Mennonites. Earthkeepers Founding members say the name came from Genesis 2:15: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.”
