The Powers that Be are really confused about now

In Oakland the police disbanded an Occupy Oakland encampment. They also managed to shoot an Iraq war veteran. Acorn didn't shoot the veteran and the Communists didn't shoot the veteran, the Jews did not shoot the veteran, nope, the police shot the man and he hadn't done anything other than stand in the street. When these things happen, there are consequences.

YouTube - Occupy Phoenix:Veterans with AR15s keeping the occupation safe

Hundreds of marines and ex-marines have been discussing what happened on Reddit

How I feel, as a United States Marine, about what occurred in Oakland.

After the Oakland suppression occurred, the protesters returned the next day. Fearing more bad publicity the idiot of a mayor said that she was glad that everything worked out peacefully and that they could stay a little longer. Do you understand how stupid and laughable that sounds to everybody.

Today the media had articles all across the United States about how expensive it was to the poor cities and counties to have to have the police on overtime. They are appealing to people's pocketbook; but, people who are unemployed or barely employed don't really care and the police are happy to get the overtime.

I have no political affiliations, gave that once I saw how corrupt the system is. I conduct church on Sundays and am a pacifist. Anybody who has followed this blog or reads the older posts can see that I am clearly not a Communist or a member of Acorn or a hippy or stupid or unwilling to work. My salary had me in the top 5% income bracket for people who actually work for a living (as opposed to true income, trust funds for the elite). I am not a member of Occupy anything other than occupy yourself with service. I am however a student of history.

I mention the above because I want my reader to understand my position and I do have one. I believe that Jesus taught us to be good slaves. At the same time I understand the position of the Tea Partiers and Occupy movements. People are sheep and always have been, that is the vast majority of people. The majority just found out that they are sheep when they thought they were not and they don't like it. My job in life has always been the one of a sheepdog. Protect the sheep and make sure we are headed in the direction the shepherd is taking us. I don't like the shepherd, he is a hired hand and does not care about the sheep. They are bad shepherds. For those of you who know your bible, you will understand what I am saying.

Here is where the problem begins, I will not be a sheepdog for swine pretending to be shepherds. The sheepdog does not hate the sheep, they hate him; but, he does not hate them, his joy is in helping his shepherd; but, not when the shepherd harms the sheep wrongly. The police are supposed to be sheepdogs; but, some will act like predators. What happens when there are too many predators, you have no sheep and the shepherd dies too. Of course this is an analogy; but; it is God's analogy. The people who truly own everything have forgotten the basics. Sheep are sheep and sometimes they won't listen. What do you do when the sheepdogs don't listen also? You lose. That is what you do because you cannot get anything done.

I speak in parables, analogies and nonsense; but, what I say is true. I know my history. When plain speak fails to get attention and examples are ignored then history repeats itself. Life for many will soon be bad. You cannot ignore the sheep and sheepdogs no longer care what you think. You do not lead sheep to fields of thistles, even the sheepdog knows that. What happens when nobody listens, there are no shepherds. Don't hurt the sheep or it all goes bad for all.

This sounds familiar

I don't have much time to post; but, I read these two articles and they stated quite nicely things that I have posted on in the last two weeks. It is almost as if they had read my stuff and expanded on it. It means that others see the Occupy movement and the Tea Party movement in the same way and it is far from over.

Huffington Post - How the Legal System Was Deep-Sixed and Occupy Wall Street Swept the Land

Huffington POst - Occupy Wall Street as Seen Through Machiavelli's Lens

What is the point, it should be obvious. The government has legalized for the privledged what is illegal for anyone else. As it gets exposed more and more, rather than correct the problems, our politicians tell us that this is the way it should be for the "job creators". This is particularly amusing as the jobs they create are in other countries.

In Oakland the police have removed the Occupy Oakland people from their encampment (in an illegal manner by the way). They were given less rights than the homeless in violation of State Law. The police removed them; but, did not let them take their possessions and that is not legal in California. The police in Oakland also shot a Iraq vet with a plastic bullet in the head. What do you think would happen in court if that had been done during a homeless cleanup? It happened while people were chanting, "You are supposed to protect us". The police are supposed to protect and serve the citizens, not the powers that be.

The media just continues to lie. First they called the protesters Communists, then Anti-Jewish and now they all supposedly work for Acorn. Can you imagine how stupid that sounds to the protesters or the people that know them? I guess next week the media will say they are Nazi sympathizers. Throwing everything against the wall to see if something will stick merely shows desperation and exposes the insincerity of the media.

What a dweeb Rick Perry is

Lets be clear, I don't care who wins the election, this is not about them, it is about the process. The electoral process is one in which we vote for the best of the worst because we make the wrong choices along the way. Rick Perry should never have been a candidate for President, none of them should, they are all against the average person and they all believe in privilege, they all believe that a few should be allowed to avoid the law rather than benefit from what they have done for people who have earned it.

Mr. Perry talks about how "bold" he is; but, he is still their shill (as they say in Las Vegas (look up shill in WikiPedia). Rick Perry's message (according to CNBC is “I hope what they will see is that America's a fabulous country and it gives them the opportunity to go say your piece, go protest on the street. But at the end of the day America's about having the opportunity to take care of your family.” Is that what it is about, is America about ensuring that if you work hard you will have comfort, I don't see it for the Baby Boomers, I don't see it for me and I don't see it for those that are younger than me. I don't see it.

Go back and read all my posts, I am willing to give up for those that will live longer and that is what this is all about. It is about making the fight something about a group rather than the rules of the game. It is about making a privledged class by birth rather than by right, if we avoid both than we choose randomness and that nobody can succeed. What rule of life does that look like and why bother doing anything if we are penalized for success and not rewarded for sacrifice? Is that the world you wish to live in? Or is it only the world you wish to live in if you "win"?

Propaganda and Lies, how to know

A few decades ago an expert in propaganda spoke at my school. It was during the cold war and he was sent to teach us how to spot communist propaganda; but, all propaganda is the same, the methodology.

Today, I was reading the L.A. Times online and saw something funny. The top article in the section I saw said, "Student loans add to angst at Occupy Wall Street". Fair enough, it talked about how many of the protesters in their 20s were faced with student loan debts and no job prospects. The article right under it said, "Obama to reduce student loan debt payments". Isn't that nice.

The first article was published at 8:08 and the second at 8:11 and they were written by two different people. The one about how Obama is going to reduce payments, that was the first article; but, it showed up second. This is a case of problem, reaction and solution. It is an example of trying to buy people off. It would have been much easier for one person to write both stories, heck they were published at about the exact same time. I have to believe that the L.A. Times had an editor and knew they were both being published.

Anyways, one of the things we were taught was to look at how articles were grouped together. Let's say every time you read an article about a person, lets say Obama, every time you read an article about there is an article about prostitution next to it. This is a very subtle way of implying a connection when none exists. That is one of the tools of propaganda. I will not call it subliminal because you are aware of what the article says in a conscious manner, it is more conditioned response.

If I want you to find some food disgusting then every time I feed you the food, lets say tacos, I will put a foul smell in the air, lets say dead fish. I am attempting to get you to have what is called a Pavlovian response. In this case, they are attempting to buy off the Occupy Wall Street crowd by reducing their student loan payments. They are attempting to get us to believe that this is what they 20 somethings are really mad about; but, it isn't and it isn't going to work or change one darn thing. It is funny that this comes out the same day that the Oakland police and other cities began cracking down on the protesters. This is what you do to see if you can keep them from coming back, you throw them a cookie.

It is so pitiful watching the wealthy try and confuse those who have nothing and those who have lost everything. It doesn't work that way. Those in power never understood why they were in power, they thought it was because they knew how to manage people, it was not, it was so that they could help people grow in a civilized manner. It was never about keeping them down, it was about growing them properly. When the leadership no longer helps to grow a civilization then the civilization rises up and gets rid of the leaders or it dies along with it's leaders. It is very Darwinian, very Toynbee and very much nature.

The purpose of leaders is not greater rewards for those who give more, that should occur; but, should never be the leader's reason. A leader should always be a leader because he believes in his society more than his importance. We are corrupt because our leaders no longer believe that.

A population, a citizenship's purpose should always be to contribute to make the society closer and stronger and to choose leaders (if they have developed to that degree) that will look at the greater good rather than the good of just those who will get them elected. The citizenship is also corrupted. If we want a great society, then both the leadership and the people must be willing to give of themselves for the greater good of all.

Let's hear it for Pension Abuse

The Los Angeles Times had the following to say, "Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has grown increasingly bold — some say too aggressive — in his attempts to influence panels that guide the city's huge retirement funds."

Los Angeles Times - Villaraigosa puts teeth into his stand on pension funds

You should read the article, as always; but, here is the short. The Mayor appoints the majority of the people to the Pension Board, now mind you this is not City money, it is a trust fund. In the past the Mayor has appointed all sort of people to the Boards including the since convicted Elliot Broidy. Thes same Boards have lost millions and millions in "alternative investments".

The Los Angeles Times article said that a couple of Board members were removed for voting against the Mayor. This is an easy, if the Mayor's members vote on bad ideas, lose additional millions and are found guilty of anything then he has violated the trust and should be charged with such.

This is exactly the type of thing that is bothering both the Tea Party and the people of the Occupy movement. I hope everyone on the City Hall lawn reads about it.

A Slight Fever

I went to church yesterday and was find; but, by the time I got home I couldn't eat and developed a fever. Darn thing kept me up all night with the chills and the sweats. I still haven't slept and I trying to stay awake so I can sleep tonight. I say this by way of explaining if my writing isn't very good.

I was reading the news and came across more stupidity from the media. Occupy Wall Street and the others are not about seeking an answer, it is about identifying the unifying truth for most of us, we are not treated fairly and insiders run the show. It is not anti-capitalist (though some may be), it is not anti-government (though many are against our current form of government) and it is better to consider what it is about, what it is in favor of.

These protesters and most people in the country feel they have been cheated. They want to be treated fairly. They don't like privileged classes. I read an article today that talked about the 1% of income earners not be mostly in the financial industry. It completely misses the point, this is not about the 1% of people getting salaries more than others, it is about the 1% that own 90% of this country, the ones who control the government and the media, not the well paid CEO's that work for them.

Now here is the answer to why they will not listen, they know what this is all about, they understand it is about changing the system to be fair and open. If you have an oligarchy there is no reason they are going to like that, it means giving up unfair control. It is about making sure that people can have a reasonable lifestyle, with reasonable freedoms and a reasonable chance to get ahead and we don't have that.

There are two kinds of special treatment, one is earned and the other is inherited. Most people would agree that the war vet who lost a leg and stole some food should be treated better than Linsey Lohan for stealing jewelry. If Steve Jobs changed the world then maybe he deserves to be treated a little better at a restaurant. Still, if he had killed his wife then we probably wouldn't support him as much. What we see are people who are given special treatment and immunity from prosecution and conviction because they have the money.

I have never liked mobs. I don't like large groups of people who are not organized in a manner that they can be reasoned with. But I know history and I know what can happen when your citizenry becomes a mob. It means that they lack confidence in the basic system. There is a need to go back to fundamentals, to fundamental justice. There is a need to stop rewarding people for bad behaviour.

The issue is not the thousands in the occupy movement, it is the 37% that support them. The percentage of people that support the current system is about 30% and that is getting lower. Stop the next ten people you meet and ask them if they think the system treats them fairly. Ask them if they think the rich get special privledges.

Moammar Gadhafi

This post may upset some people. The United States has openly admitted to torturing it's enemies. How are Bush and Obama any different that Gadhafi? He tortured people and lived extravagently while the people of Libya were highly controlled.

Gadhafi was a horrible person who believed his own lies and he did terrible things to innocent people. We do not know how many people he had tortured or killed and never will. We will know how bad he was because whatever we discover, it will be worse. He was still human, he was still an emotional, self aware being. He was still human.

I saw the video of him in his last minutes, he was bloodied, confused and being driven around on the hood of a truck for all to see. They did not rip his eyes out, cut off his nose, tongue, eyes of more delicate parts. They shot him in the head. He was not tortured as he had done to so many others, beaten; but, not truly tortured, not the really bad stuff that takes days.

As I saw him being manhandled and carried away from the truck, as he wiped the blood from his face and you could tell he was alive, he looked confused. I bet he was. He did not hate Libya and he loved Libyans, he just believed his was the only way. As sick as it is he believed he was doing what was best for Libya. He was willing to die for it, he had hundred of millions and could have left the country; but, he didn't because he believed he was supposed to be in charge to protect the country from westerners.

I never liked the man, he was a horrible person and I don't seek to justify anything he did, I am pacifist and cannot justify anything he did nor would I even try. Yet, he was still a person, he was still a bundle of emotions and urges. He still felt pain and greed and loss and emptiness and fear and joy and love and anger. All the emotions you feel, he felt. The problem was that he either did not care what others felt or thought they did not feel the same emotions as he did. God made us all in his image, we are all as complex and complete as each other.

As I watched him being walked down the street, I wondered if he understood what he had done to others. I wondered if he understood that they felt even greater pain than he was feeling. I wondered if he finally understood and felt regret for having treated others so poorly and having forgot their humanity and pain. If he did then he would felt regret and guilt and we cannot find grace, we cannot find forgiveness in our own hearts until we feel guilt and regret and are then capable of knowing forgiveness. The innocent cannot understand grace, the guilty cannot understand it, only those who are saved can be guilty and understand innocence because they know they are not. That is salvation.

Did Gadhafi finally know his guilt, if so then we should pray for his soul. We all sin; but, it is through guilt that we find salvation and it is only found in grace. I wish him grace for he will need a lot of it, I cannot imagine living with such guilt for eternity, I could not wish that on any self-aware being. I cannot only wish salvation for all, for we are all human and flawed, imperfect.