Go Play In The Traffic

Go Play In The Traffic

The President of the United States has encouraged Americans to gather together to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

Difference of Opinion

  

Stay Away From Church This Easter

Stay away from church this Easter.  Health experts agree, as this March 26, 2020 report by Democracy Now reveals. When an authority figure encourages large numbers of people to engage in risky behavior there is something very very wrong.  Bernie Sanders appears to agree.

Stay out of churches this Easter Sunday if you know and want to do whats good for you and your loved ones. You won't go to hell for skipping church this Easter Sunday, but you may get sick and die as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe at the present time if you do.  

This virus is not playing around, it's killed the American economy and now it's coming after Americans themselves.  Anyone who encourages you to congregate in large gatherings does not have your welfare at heart. You can apply that broadly.

The Celebration of the Resurrection cannot be separated from the original life present at the beginning.  You do not need to go to church to rejoice in the SPIRIT. It's more desirable than hanging out with a large number of sick people and ending up dead, I would imagine.

Do You See The Irony Now?

I was inspired to write this after watching the following MSNBC report of March 24, 2020 click the letters.

Thumb Down (political poster)

Thumb Down.  Whoopee we're all gonna die.

Democracy Now Reporting March 24, 2020

Yesterday and Today (poetry)

Commentary on headlines in the U.S.

Where are the tests? click

It is common knowledge widespread testing is unheard of in the for profit healthcare system Americans depend on for their very lives.

Americans are not able to easily be tested and the Trump Administration is not being much if any help.  I wonder, as many others must be wondering, if Americans will just literally lay down and die while the President continues to do nothing helpful while continuing to lie about COVID-19. He told us weeks ago it would miraculously vanish. Now, weeks later, it is generally understood that the President was lying about any miracles that might occur and the situation has not been addressed even as the pandemic spreads. Whatever God he is trusting in let him down. Even the mainstream media claims the response of the Trump Administration is outrageous and at the same time Republicans and Democrats try to make political 'hay' from the life and death crisis Americans have come to expect as the result of the Trump Administration policies.

It's Time For Bernie To Run On A Third Party Ticket

Americans are coming to understand neither the Republican or Democratic Parties offer the voter what the voter needs.  Nathan J. Robinson editor of Current Affairs, at highlighted link, gives a detailed panoramic exposure of the weaknesses associated with a Biden Presidency. This is done by exposing the personal character based liabilities of Biden himself.  (The link in the first sentence was added after originally posting.)

Today, March 12, 2020, as a result of the U.S. response to the corona virus Covid-19 Americans are coming face to face with the recognition that the Trump Administration is not leading them to the portal of a 'golden age' but instead to the door of a national mortuary for the elderly and infirm by his Administration's response in delaying test kits to track the pandemic threatening the globe.

As the disease is spreading undetected throughout America the response of the U.S. government has been detrimental to controlling the spread of the disease.  According to Vox "The U.S lags just about every developed country on testing for Covid-19 disease"

While the Republicans are making sure the testing is inadequate and late in arriving the Democrats are up to their tricks. Remember the Republicans are not the only ones who are fighting tooth and nail to keep Americans from having fully covered healthcare and educational opportunities, decent employment, decent housing etc. The Democrats have been of little help either.  In fact the Democrats have cooperated with the Republicans to make America the way it is today.  The Republicans needed that cooperation every step of the way and they got it. The Republicans demand, the Democrats give in and that is called bi-partisan and is considered good.  Business as usual you might say.

Why I don't know, because it has resulted in an unbearable status quo.  The status quo the Democrat Republican cooperation has created is squeezing the life out of Main Street Americans both economically and now with the Trump Administration's response to Covid-19, quite personally as their protocols are actively participating in delaying the control of the pandemic by failure to provide and commence adequate testing.

It is obvious to the casual observer that American elections are not secure from tampering.  The Democrats have been caught a number of critical times trying to keep the platform of Bernie Sanders from being known by all.  We saw it in 2016 and we are witnessing it again now. 

With the cards stacked against Bernie by the Republican and Democratic Parties it is evident that if Americans stand a chance of economic and social justice that Bernie is going to have to run as a third Party candidate. Bernie is going to have to take his show on the road and shake this nation to its senses with his vision. The Democrats and the Republicans have given you all their donors will allow you to have.  But Bernie's donors want you to have healthcare, education, housing, a living wage and a desirable quality of life.

After initially posting I came across this commentary, at the highlighted link, on the Jimmy Dore show which appears to be feeling the way I feel about all this.  Be sure to watch it and decide for yourself. On Friday the 13, Democracy Now provided even more comprehensive information, click the highlighted link.

Today! ... Tomorrow? (video art and poetry)

Today!...Tomorrow?

One of the results of using fossil fuels is burning down the house, so to speak.  

We were told a rise in global temperatures and a rise in sea level  would be some of the initial results of continuing to use fossil fuels. 

Responding quickly and intelligently to climate change was quickly understood to be the 'party pooper' of profitable consumer based societies. And beside that, we were having too much fun to think about doing anything about it until it became, some will say, "obvious" and others, "too late".  At that point all we did was argue about whether our science and our eyes could be trusted more than the words of our leader and those profiting from the situation.  Article by Eric Holthaus.

Ending the use of fossil fuels will require a reorganization of the priorities society has so far been operating under.
Profit must be made a subordinate value when compared to preserving the earth as a place to live and raise children and get old and die.  

Do you really feel we were born to self destruct chasing our every desire?  We chose to go the way of 'profit' as the supreme value. That choice has led us to the present place in time where we are forced to consider the reality of our extinction along with most of the rest of life on the planet. The irony is we did it willfully to ourselves. What a sorry bunch of choices we have made.  We can now choose to do what should have been done decades ago or sit down to the supper of fools.  "The Supper Of Fools" is a poem I wrote as a sarcastic appraisal of our consumer based society. 

Fossil fuels will kill us if given the chance.  

Killing off the earth for a buck or a lot of bucks just doesn't make sense unless one values what can be gained from doing it.  A few whose priorities do not include, life, health, peace or justice have decided to pursue profit no matter what the cost may be.  Rachel Frazin writing in The Hill wrote this on the topic.

We possess a strange state of mind when, so called, reasonable adults can argue that carbon dioxide continually added to the environment will not cause a problem eventually.  Even a child knows better than that. 

Yesterday While Walking (poetry)

Yesterday While Walking 

Yesterday while walking

I saw a frog become a heron

in two gulps,

the day before I had seen

a blackbird become a hawk

and fly away…

 

and in the mirror this morning

the image asked:

"what will you become

if life eats you today?"

© David H. Roche 2020

donald trump HAS BEEN IMPEACHED (poem, video, and art)

This morning while having coffee and watching Democracy Now there was some really disgusting news.  The National Archives and Records Administration has been used for partisan political purposes!  I hope you are equally disgusted.  According to this report from The Ring Of Fire you might be.  The Damage Report adds even more information.

The news often hits me like an uppercut to the solar plexus and takes my breath away.  

donald trump has been impeached,

a national consensus

has now been reached

to keep the past from being bleached 

placing democracy out of reach

a national consensus has made a breach

and donald trump IS NOW impeached!

Our love affair with fossil fuels will make fossil fools out of all of us.

Enjoy the video, poem and art

HAVE A NICE DAY

The Joys Of Privatized Healthcare

The Joys Of Privatized Healthcare

A Ralph Nader podcast on topic of Medicare for all.

Michael Moore "Sicko" 
  

I came upon the Ralph Nader program and the Michael Moore movie after posting this.  It goes right along with the views in my initial post, so I included it. Click on the yellow letters to hear the podcast and see the movie.

You're reading a replacement version.  Due to poor eyesight and no glasses I inadvertently deleted the original post and did not have a copy so I had to re-write it.

The gist of the post was that America is a democratic republic of the people, by the people and for the people.  With that being the case the American People have every expectation of being able to simply decide to give themselves Medicare for all.

Right now in America businesses are allowed to exploit the sickness and disease of Americans for the purpose of increasing personal and corporate wealth.  Medicare for all will put an end to this anti-human practice. Obviously those dependent on gaining wealth from disease and suffering are opposed to Medicare for all. That condition is the rock and hard place Americans find themselves between.

If Americans take the reality of a democratic republic seriously they can change life in America for the better.  When the People do that they can decide to use their tax money for things they need for themselves and their families. They can decide to give themselves fully paid healthcare and education.  They can remedy the problem of jobs that do not support a desirable quality of life. The People can, if and when they decide, have what they want because that's how a democratic republic works.  

For some reason the People seem to have lost sight of that essential feature of their government.  This forgetfulness is the basis of a needed reminder that a government devoted to the success of corporate interests will eventually make life for The People not worth living simply by allowing business to be conducted as usual.

Henry Thoreau had this to say.

"“There will never be a really free and enlightened state until the state comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived.”

― Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

Henry Thoreau's entire essay On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience is as relevant today as it was when it was written in the 1840's when the U.S. was conducting an illegal war in invading Mexico and taking half of its land. You can both listen to  and read the entire essay at the highlighted link. You'll likely find yourself  thinking "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

Further Still...The Visions Of Saint Psychedelia

The opening images are of a morning glory blossom.  After fiddling with the image a bit an idea arrived.

Further Still...The Visions Of Saint Psychedelia

Rendezvous: The Further Visions Of Saint Psychedelia (video and art)

Rendezvous: 

The Further Visions Of Saint Psychedelia

"Bad Karma" and "The Visions Of Saint Psychedelia" Two short videos and art

"Bad Karma" is a collection of individual works about the human responsibility and lack of it for addressing the approaching climate debacle.   At the highlighted link a climate change scientist takes on climate change skeptics. Denying reality ain't gonna cut it anymore.

Smokey Bear told us "Only you can prevent forest fires."  Today we are the only ones who can prevent climate catastrophe.  It's up to us and it's do or die.

"The Visions Of Saint Psychedelia"

9:30 November 30, 2019 (Poetry Meditation)

Below is a poem written with the intent of revealing what had occurred shortly after scattering seed on the lawn.  The grass was frozen and the bird feeders were empty because I had been running out of seed and had been trying to stretch it until I could get to the store.  I scattered the last of the seed and went inside.  By the time I was back to my coffee the birds were on the lawn. By writing the poem I was trying to make a picture of a moment with words instead of a camera.

9:30 November 30, 2019

At 7:44

on the last day of November

the temperature was

30 degrees,

at 9:30

the temperature

is 32 degrees.

In an ice blue sky

a cold sun shines

on red-winged blackbirds and doves

gleaning the last handfuls of seed and corn

from the dormant grass

on the last day of November. 

© David H. Roche

Revolutionary Ideas

The Republican and Democrat Blues (poetry and art)

The Republican and Democrat Blues

When both sides are lying

and voters are trying

the lesser evil to choose,

the dilemma they find

every time

is the Republican and Democrat blues.

And when election day comes

and it's all said and done

we always find to our surprise

that the winner's the one

who was the very best,

the best at telling lies.

© David H. Roche

The Question Of How To Pay For Medicare For All Answered

The Question Of How To Pay For Medicare For All Answered...and it's a simple answer.

Citizens of the U.S. are petitioning their government for fully paid healthcare so that when they get sick they don't have to worry about being able to pay the doctor.  Americans pay a lot more for medical care than most other nations and because healthcare is a for profit industry in the U.S. treating sickness is a means to making a few people very wealthy.  At this point in time both the Republican and Democratic Parties are officially opposed to helping Americans with this very real problem.  Smug politicians, Republican and Democrat alike, ask: "How are we going to pay for it?" with a  grin on their face and a donation in their treasury.

That's the logic that rules the day for Establishment politicians but it is not the logic one would find in a democratic republic.  If we were to consider the United States to be a democratic republic we could put forth the following argument and have the answer to where the money is going to come from to pay for Medicare for all.

Let's begin logically solving this problem from a small 'd' democratic point of view. 

To begin all the funds the government has to spend comes from taxes.  A democratic solution would reason this way.

1.  The taxpayers pay for everything the government decides to do.

2.  Medicare for all, as Bernie Sanders is promoting, could legitimately be understood as the taxpayers deciding to give everyone in society a really nice gift.

Do you see how the solution is apparent when it is  remembered the U.S. is a democratic republic that should be of some tangible benefit to those who invest it with authority to govern. So why won't we the People give ourselves this gift from the tax revenue we alone have contributed?  Ask yourself why we haven't made good use of the democratic principles inherent in our form of government.  You can readily see how those principles provide the answer to how to pay for Medicare for all. If we change our minds and begin thinking like small'd' democrats there is no limit to how many improvements can be made to society.

The reality of course is that the majority of Republican and Democratic lawmakers have given their allegiance to a class of non-voting, non-citizen donors who profit from disease and injuries whether there's peace or war.  The initiative to replace these worthless political hacks with people centered Progressive lawmakers is beginning already.  There's no reason conducive to a democratic republic that could argue against the idea of the taxpayers in a democratic republic themselves simply deciding to gift their fellow citizens with complete fully paid healthcare from the revenues of their own tax money.  In a democratic situation the people have the authority to make that decision.

So if we begin to talk about Medicare for all as if "Hey, it's our money, let's do it." enough minds might be changed to make it happen.  It just makes sense to look at it that way.

So how do you pay for Medicare for all?  Just start thinking and talking as if this were a democratic republic instead of a corporately owned business opportunity for a few filthy rich nere do wells. If you do that you can change the world.

November 2, 2019: a question of 'right' or 'wrong' or neither (Poetry)

November 2, 2019: a question of 'right' or 'wrong' or neither

When daylight was taking the place of the departing night

and coffee steamed in my cup

a squirrel climbed the birdfeeder to compete  with scrub jays and red-winged blackbirds

for peanuts and seeds in the front yard.

In the afternoon Not-Spot

returned from the bushes around the pond

with a small bird in his mouth

and dropped it at the bottom step.

 

Kali stepped from the porch to sniff.

She hasn't hunted in nine years. 

She sniffed and sniffed wrinkling her nose, her lips parted but she wasn't attempting to bite.

She appeared to be gathering information about the creature.

What she might learn

I doubt I'll ever know.

After picking it up the bird was motionless in my hand.

One leg appeared to be injured.

It's downy belly was the light brown of dried leaves,

its wings almost indigo.

I thought I saw it move slightly in my hand.

Placing it in a pet carrier with water it rested just a few minutes inside

out of the heat of the sun in the darkness.

Kali sat next to the carrier sniffing

and peering inside before laying down and keeping watch over it.

The bird began making a racket

and I took the carrier to the porch

and opened the door

hoping it could fly.

Zoom…it was gone like a dart. 

Kali and I watched. I was surprised,

I don't know what she thought.

Not-Spot sniffed at the concrete

where he had dropped the bird.

I was glad it had recovered,

but I couldn't scold Not-Spot.

He's a cat!

It was a bird!

What else was he supposed to do? 

If he did what he was meant to do

why did it feel so good 

to see the little bird fly away,

and was I  right to intervene?

Was right and wrong involved at all? 

Does it matter if the bird had lived or died?

As the evening grew darker than the day

a flicker arrived for suet,

chickadees appearing as hopping shadows

picked seed from the grass around the feeder and between the dead stalks of summers sunflowers until vanishing with the light.

Down the hall Kali and Not-Spot

are curled on the blankets

waiting for me to turn the lights off

and join them.