DOMA ENDS...and the Voting Rights Act is gutted! While hundreds die for a freedom we no longer own!

Today, as with all days came some good and some bad.  I want to record my dear friend's response to the end of DOMA:

 "I cried today for the first time in a long time after I heard about the Supreme Court’s ruling on DOMA.  Not because of how they ruled, but what Kennedy said in his ruling.

For the first time in my life my own government considers me a human being!  For years, even though I love my country, I NEVER trusted my government.  I remember all the pain, all the lies, all the disinterest, and now, after all the struggles we are recognized as human.

I remember back in the 1970's being arrested three times, twice in Jackson, Mi., and once in Hillsdale, Mi., because I was cross dressing.  It was against the law in Michigan even though I was under a doctor’s prescription.

I remember when I first got out to California in 1976 and getting robbed.  I remember meeting a guy named Tom Hayden who was a clerk at the Travel Lodge on the Wharf and him calling Grady at the Civic Center Hotel and him giving me a job cleaning rooms for 50 cents a room and cleaning hallways for my room rent.

I remember Grady and Tom being there for me when I had to sign those adoption papers.  I remember Harvey Milk putting his arms around me and holding me while I was crying my heart out.

I remember sitting in my office in shock on the day that little prick Dan White killed Harvey because he was gay and then killed George (Moscone) because George wouldn't condemn Harvey publicly.  White was kill Diane (Feinstein) as well but she wasn't in her office and the police tackled him before he had a chance to!

Harvey was the reason I ran for the U.S. House in 1980.

I remember Mike Brady, Tom (a different one), Paul, another Mike, Jim, and the list goes on, who all died of aids in the early 80's, along with Grady and Tom Hayden, while our President, Ronald Reagan, did nothing.  I remember holding Mike Brady’s hand while he was dying even though the nurses and doctors would touch him.

I remember the day in 1978 when Grady was attacked by 6 "good Christian boys" who wanted to beat up a faggot because he was the evil that was destroying our country.  I remember lying on the street bleeding to death because I stepped in to help Grady and I remember the police doing nothing.

I remember losing all my former friends to aids including my loving Stuart, while Jerry Falwell and his immoral majority were screaming at the top of their lungs that aids was Gods judgment of gays!

These are only a few of the things I remember about the last 40 years.  I remember my friend Paul Broussard who was beaten to death with a tire iron in the Montrose district of Houston by "4 good Christian boys" from Humble.

Even with all this pain and suffering over the years, progress has been made and today all the death and suffering has been worth it because the Supreme Court recognized GLBT's as human beings.

The children will not have to go through what I and many others have gone through to reach this milestone.  The children will be able to be free to love and marry the person they love without the vile hatred of the religious right because they have finally lost the war.

There will still be battles ahead but they'll be able to win them slowly, but win them they will.

The religious right will still thump on their Bibles and proclaim how righteous they are and how evil we are, but they will not stop the children’s love for each other.

They might still convince some with their hateful speech and dark hearts but they will never overcome love!!!"

 

One injustice ended today and another which we thought was fought and won nearly 50 years ago was struck down.  The voting rights act was taken back in states where the right to vote could not be changed without going to the Federal Government.  We all (all who lived through this so many years ago) know what will happen.  They are lining up in their state houses now to make voting difficult if not impossible for people of color, or women or gays or you name it.  How is this still free America?  It isn't.  So don't tell me our military are bravely dying in some foreign land for our freedom while the government here slowly contracts every freedom we have left!!!

Are you with me?

In America, surface always passes for substance!

"In America, where surface has always passed for substance, people always believe guys like Frank Dunning."  Stephen King, 11/22/63 (the title of his book)

This truth appeared "magically" in a Stephen King novel where substance always appears to be fluff and stuff.  "We hold these truths to be self-evident" can never be held to be self-evident as we no longer have truthful encounters on any subject, especially about those of deep substance.
How did we get to this place in time?  It's hard to say because we know so little about our real origins or the actual people who took us with them on that journey.  Did their journals contain actual events and real emotions or did they speculate as much as those who tend to give us what passes for truth today?  My guess must be as good as what I think I know and my guess is that those who came before us embellished on the stories of their lives as much and maybe even more than those currently "blogging" about what is happening at this moment to all of us through their eyes.

The one thing that Stephen King has taught me in all his writings is that there is more truth in fiction than in any history or biography.  This one small line in this novel about time-travel and what happens when you try to change the past speaks volumes about who we are right now, in this present age of change.  It seems to me that we have slowly become just what he claims, a people satisfied with the surface of any subject rather than it's substance.  And my guess about why is that we can speculate about the surface way more than we can about the substance.  Substance requires more of our intellect and will while surface, is that shiny stuff that catches our attention and keeps us from going any deeper.  That stuff sparkling on the surface could be many things---diving down means an element of risk taking that most of us would rather not brave.  The water is usually very dark below the surface and as a swimmer, I can tell you that swimming in dark water takes some courage simply because you don't know what else is swimming in that water or where a big rock might snag your head or your foot or what could be waiting on the bottom to keep you from coming back up.

Life is very much like swimming in a lake at night.  The moon reflects off the ripples.  The stars twinkle on the surface.  And most of us are happy just to take in the beauty on the surface because substance requires an effort that we are most often unwilling to make.  This applies to people as much as it does to the situations which on the surface seem innocuous.  We've become accustomed to accepting the rich and well-dressed among us as representative of  all of us.  Isn't that the American Dream?  Dream is the key-word here because only 1-2% of all Americans live like kings and queens.  Some are moving up the ladder but they will never get where the few are looking down on them from the surface.   All Americans dream but what they are dreaming about is just what's on the surface.  Their reality, their substance is in the depth of their lives lived bravely with their will and intellect in tact.

The "holier than thou" Church of the Lying SOBs?

The "holier than thou" Church of the Lying SOBs?

Want to take a guess who I'm talking about?  Just take a stab at it.  Unfortunately, if you are reading this you probably know to whom I am referring.   Republican Conservative Evangelicals.  The Republican part is probably a fairly new incarnation of the "holier than thou" Church of the Lying SOBs. 

The Chess Master

Lately I have come to see Mr. Obama as the Chess Master.  Carefully moving the hearts and minds of the people through silent manipulation of those who seek to take his king.  He moves his queen to his advantage as the power of his family takes the stage away from posers and fools who thought they had him cornered.  He wins the battle of the Political Conventions with two strong knights and the support of his intelligent and faithful bishop.   And all the time working with an army of pawns in every state in the Union, he removes any hint of opposition in the field of political battle.

Last night we might just have watched the most masterful move of all.  Rachael Maddow had a segment tonight where she described the six times in our history of televised debates where the incumbent President faced his challenger.  And in 5 of the 6 times, the incumbent was perceived if not proclaimed to have lost the first debate to his challenger.  The only incumbent in all those debates who was proclaimed the winner was President Clinton.  Now, the incumbent didn't necessarily lose the election, just the first debate.  Five times out of six, the challenger, like Mitt Romney, left the sitting President in his dust.  And I'm sure there was great rejoicing by the Romney team last night and today, but I'm wondering about the Chess Master.

Everyone who has commented on the debate has said how unlike himself was the President's performance--how slow and seemly reluctant to speak or challenge Mr. Romney.  He didn't look at Romney much, he didn't look at the camera much and he seemed to be thinking more than responding.  He was certainly not the man I have known for all these years and I could hear the disappointment in the voices of many who spoke of his failure to debate and his "obvious" loss to Mr. Romney.  But what if this was just another move by the Chess Master:  who knew how Romney would feel, thinking he had won, who knew that many would see weakness and charge in to challenge him as they approached the other debates?  What if the Chess Master was not himself on purpose?  What if the Chess Master wanted to be perceived as weak and unprepared so that Romney and his team would slack off as the other two debates approached.  I think his actions last night were deliberate.  History has shown that the first debate between an incumbent and a challenger has always (except once) gone to the challenger.  The only way for that to happen, as I see it, would be if Mr. Obama was making a chess move that would signify his win of the game in the end.  I think many people have underestimated Mr. Obama, and have lost the battle because they saw what he wanted them to see and not what was really happening.  Mark my words.  The Chess Master is only a few moves from Checkmate.   And when the game is over, I believe he will be victorious!  I wouldn't play chess with him and I don't think many people could and win the game.

Are you with me?

Capitalist Dreams

Spoken like a true Capitalist. Capitalist is just as dirty a word as Communist in my book. What they want is to keep their bottom line down--that would be those who work for them--the best way to keep profits up is to keep the # of workers down and those left, working harder for less. Those who actually do the work and make their success for them, THOSE who deserve to be paid a fair and living wage, to have health care and retirement programs through their employers and a decent amount of vacation days (time to recuperate from the long hours they work making HIS company successful).

Capitalists have all had help along the way and while a few give credit where credit is due, most want everyone to believe they did it all on their own. Like Romney. His claim to have made it on his own is ridiculous. When you come from a wealthy (at the time he grew up, they were--you don't go to private prep schools if you grew up like I did--no one in my family or my extended family of cousins crew up like that and I would say we were all raised in Middle Class families)....wealth and fame had come to his father and it brought advantages to Mitt that many people are not privy to nor would they even have thought it possible for them to be anything other than be comfortable unless struck by tragedy and unable to do much but survive. Doors open for those people that the rest of us don't even know exist! They get to go to the best schools, they get left out of the drafts, they get introduced to the right people and they get to borrow money from their parents (which is what Romney suggested that our kids do) Franklin Roosevelt saved the nation back then and put safety nets in place so that people wouldn't have to fear what happened to them would happen to their children. Social Security and now Medicare have been two of the most successful government programs ever created but Capitalist would have you believe that these kinds of social programs are actually Socialism with a capital S. Do you know what Capitalism has brought to this country---recession, after recession, one Great depression and a second almost Great depression (2008). And what were they telling all of us little people when they knew what was happening---they were all saying what John McCain said to us: "The fundamentals of our economy are strong"! It was BS, he knew it and they all knew it and suddenly when they couldn't lie their way out of it anymore--they told us the truth. The banks were going under because of poor or illegal practices, Wall Street was crashing for the same reasons and who was going to have to pay the freight? Not them----US! I'm tired of my tax dollars bailing out the Capitalists who are destroying this country from the inside. I'm tired of them blaming social programs when the truth is that without them, they would be going down even faster. Who buys their SHIT? WE DO and if we don't have the money to buy their SHIT, then how will they make ANY profits. We make their SHIT, then we buy their SHIT and they tell us to shut up and like it or THEY will fire our sorry ASSES (pardon my french). Every Capitalist and entrepreneur has gotten help from someone to get started. Their goods and services have been transported on public highways, paid for by US. They have gotten loans from the Small Business Administration (a government agency) or they got start up money from wealthy relatives, friends or business partners. NO ONE....and I mean NO ONE makes it on his own. And I'm tired of them putting down the people who are most responsible for their success. Did you see the debate? Romney seemed very happy at one point and very animated--what animated him at that moment, why, doing what he stated he liked to do best----FIRE PEOPLE. He looked right at Jim Lehr and told him PBS had to go, that he liked Big Bird and he even liked Jim but if he is elected President, he will have to get rid of that HUGE drain on the economy PBS. Jim had a sheepish smile on his face, the one everyone gets when their boss is telling them "Sorry, Jim---just business, nothing personal". PBS is such a small percentage of our annual budget that it's like a drop of water in the ocean. That is who the Capitalists are--who they will always be while they tell us we're fired or that we should still fear Communism (which is not now and I don't think ever was much of a threat). They want us to fear Communism so that we won't watch what they are doing behind the curtain. Who saved the country when it was gurgling down the drain---WE DID! It was our tax dollars that saved the Capitalists who had screwed up the country but didn't want us to know about it! They all want help from the government (which is us) when it comes to deregulation, lower taxes or no taxes--tariffs on foreign goods (that aren't ours) so they can make even larger profits--THOSE are what I call Entitlements. They use entitlement like it's a dirty word because they apply it to the social programs that help everyone else when they need it. But the real Entitlements (with a capital E) are those that the Capitalists get from the government including bailout dollars when they get in trouble. Real capitalism doesn't rely on government help. If a company fails, that's the FREE market at work! Or at least that's what they tell us, until it's one of their companies! Entitlement, as I've said before was always something that applied to Kings and Nobles, who were awarded lands and money based solely on their BIRTH. They were born into entitlement, they got what they believed they deserved while the peasants worked and starved and paid taxes and DIED! That is what the Capitalists in this country and probably everywhere by now believe--- they are entitled to get billions in profits AND government subsidies (our tax dollars). That's the problem.

Do you know that over the last 40 years (my generations working years) the pay for those at the top has increased by over 400% while the rest of us have been struggling from year to year because they told us they could only give us 3-4% increase in wages. I think it's time to crack down on these whiners who are behind this deep recession we are in and who are not lifting a finger to help the country get back on it's feet.

Then there's the Congress, whose leaders decided the night Mr. Obama was elected that he had to be a one term president and the way to do that was NOT WORK WITH HIM. So they haven't. Nothing got through the House except for fluff and stuff and the Senate filibustered everything to keep it from getting to the President's desk. The country is failing, the people need work, they need mortgage help, they need health care and food on their tables and the Republicans are saying we can't help you because we've got to stop Mr.Obama from helping you. Politics TRUMPS doing the right thing! And now they say Mr. Obama is a failed president--but not if you look at his record instead of listening to those who created the mess we're in. They made the mess (along with Bush--who they don't want to take the blame) and now they will do nothing to fix it---that, in my book, is no small thing---THAT is Tantamount to TREASON!

Most Capitalists are atheists like Ayn Rand. Of course, they are not really atheists---their GOD is MONEY! I sometimes wonder about the big Churches--looks like Money is their god too but I could never say that for sure--at least not as sure as I am about who (WHAT) Capitalists worship. They care nothing about the poor among us because they're like the royals of old who, when told the people have no bread to eat famously said----"Let them eat cake". So, they came and took the cake away from them and if these people aren't careful, there will be another revolution against the Oligarchs who run this country! I'd be careful if I were them about those lax gun laws too---but they won't because, they need to sell more to make more MONEY!

.

Kittens

A pretty little girl named Suzy was standing on the sidewalk in front of her home.
Next to her was a basket containing a number of tiny creatures; in her hand was a sign announcing FREE KITTENS.

Suddenly a line of big black cars pulled up beside her.  Out of the lead car stepped a tall, grinning man. "Hi there little girl, I'm Mitt Romney.  What do you have in the basket?" he asked.  "Kittens," little Suzy said.  "How old are they?" asked Romney.  Suzy replied, "They're so young, their eyes aren't even open yet."  "And what kind of kittens are they?"  "Republicans," answered Suzy with a smile.  Romney was delighted.

As soon as he returned to his car, he called his PR chief and told him about the little girl and the kittens.  Recognizing the perfect photo op, the two men agreed that the candidate should return the next day; and in front of the assembled media, have the girl talk about her discerning kittens.  

So the next day, Suzy was again standing on the sidewalk with her  basket of "FREE KITTENS," when another motorcade pulled up, this time followed by vans from FOX News, ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN.  Cameras and audio equipment were quickly set up, then Romney got out of his limo and walked over to little Suzy. 

"Hello, again," he said, "I'd love it if you would tell all my friends out there what kind of kittens you're giving away."  "Yes sir," Suzy said. "They're Democrats."  Taken by surprise, the candidate stammered, "But...but...yesterday, you told me they were Republicans."  Little Suzy smiled and said, "I know...but today, they have their eyes open ."

Are you with me?

Zen Sarcasm

No, I didn't write this but I love it!

Zen Sarcasm

1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I May not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me alone.
2 The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt or a leaky tire.
3. It's always darkest before dawn, so if you're going to steal your
neighbor's' newspaper, that's the time to do it.
4. Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be       promoted.
5. Always remember that you're unique. Just like everyone else.
6. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
7. If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car
payments.
8. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That
way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.
9. If at first you don't succeed...Skydiving is not for you.
10. Give a man a fish and       he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

And that's the truth!  Are you with me?