Daydream on the Lawn (video and art and music)

While relaxing on a hot August afternoon in the flickering mosaic of shadows and sunlight on the grass beneath my cherry tree Sativa Sam appeared.  Sam's a cannabis gnome.  One of many such personalities who travel the planet and bless the marijuana harvests and make sure there's enough for everyone who wants it. 

Some growers will not harvest without Sam's blessing having first been made at the very beginning and again at the harvest. You can imagine this keeps him quite busy.  He told me he had all he could do just to keep on top of the growing situation in Oregon and was probably going to limit his activities to that state.  "I'm tired of traveling," he said. 

Well that was news. So I was surprised to see him show up and besides, I don't have anything to bless. But he said he likes to surprise people by just showing up and sharing what he had found at his last blessing stop.  

 While we shared a bowl from his stash he pointed out the painting on the lawn and suggested I make the video so I did. 

The soundtrack is a composition by Bill Canino titled "Pondering".

Enjoy:

Voting For Trump Or Clinton Continues The Legacy Of G.W. Bush and Barack Obama Another Eight Years

For as long as I can remember there has been either a Republican or a Democrat as President.  Those making the laws have also been mainly either Republican or Democrat.  There have been some who call themselves Independents.  I find such a designation to be misleading because all of these so called Independent candidates have been philosophically in line with the capitalist paradigm of the market which is represented by the words "Wall Street". This makes them essentially identical as far as the results they can accomplish are concerned. 

If you cannot remember that it was Wall Street Capitalists that struck the death blow to the U.S. economy you should not be voting, period!

It is the Republican, Democrat and Independent lawmakers that ran to the rescue of the bankers who damn near bankrupted the nation following capitalist principles of finance approved by Republican, Democratic and Independent lawmakers.  Bill Clinton stands accused for his roll in signing the law which gave the nations future to that notorious bunch of no good bastards who have come to be  referred to as 'Banksters'.  Now his wife wants your vote.  I am beside myself imagining the stupidity of a nation that could consider for more than a second Hillary Clinton as President of the United States. I just shake my head thinking of Trump, 'The Peoples Billionaire', and how that reflects on the average citizens knowledge of the history of financial depressions.  There's a little video here that explains the problem.

The internet is buzzing about the size of Donald Trumps Penis. The reason is that Candidate Trump played right into Rubio's ploy of subliminally insulting his manhood.  If you look at it that way Trump comes off looking as credible as Ben Carson.   Here's some mainstream reports revealing the man Trump who wants your vote. 

That Republicans are considering choosing this man to represent the nation should give sober minded Americans a time out to think about what it actually means.  The Republicans have produced a clown show and the Democrats have produced a con job.  Nero is fiddling, you don't have to dance.

So what can a sensible person do?  He or she can realize it is the capitalist principles of the Market and Wall Street that have been served by our Republican, Democratic and Independent  lawmakers and that those principles are the reason the U.S. has failed to serve its citizens faithfully.   In the video at this link is an example from 1929 of how Capitalism and the Banksters go about taking apart a nation.  These videos show how violent the grip of those who control the economy is.  

A sensible person will conclude it is the faithfulness to the needs of those 'Banksters' and Masters of Finance and Capital who hurt us the most and which has turned the American Dream into a nightmare on Main Street.  It is the Bankster sector of society which has stripped the value of everyday life from the hopes of those who live here in America.  These people need to be brought under democratic control and I do not mean the control of the
DNC,  I mean a Democracy of you and me, THE PEOPLE, the ones who eat and drink and mate and breathe air... you know... real people. Not the corporate assholes confirmed as people by a ruse of law that have turned the world into the way you see it now. If these people are legitimatized by law it means we are ruled by DEVILS!  

A sensible voter will not vote for a person whose life has been in service to those who have hurt America.  A sensible person will not vote for anyone who wishes to help these Masters of Finance.  You might want to ruminate on this piece of information about whom it is the Clinton foundation is benefiting.    Do you really want these people running your life and your world?

This election may be the last hurrah for everyone not in the top income brackets.   

I plan to vote for Jill Stein the Green Party Candidate.  You will notice that you may not see her covered in the political news in the same way that Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton are. There's a reason for that.  

Meet the FUGS; a vintage rock group from the 1960's

I wanted to share this insight with you.  It is a musical insight by a group you may never heard of.  They were called the Fugs. They made their mark in the Era first influenced by the Beats and Andy Warhol and the crazy emerging LSD scene that took over the artistic 'underground' of the lower east side of NY and also went on to influence an entire generation. 

They attempted and failed to exorcise the Pentagon of evil spirits.

The Fugs were the archetypal prophets of a society bent on self destruction.  They were the type of artist group that comes along once in a generation due to the needs of that generation.  In their art they took society by the balls and squeezed really hard. Many laughed and some wanted to help squeeze. SHOULD WE KEEP SQUEEZING?

The Verge has produced some photos of an artistic bushwhacking involving Donald Trump, the obnoxious Republican candidate for President.  You can see those statues which appeared like mushrooms overnight in cities across the nation.  Take a look if you dare.  The artists made the statue with no testicles and a very small penis.  


But, in a lighter tone their sarcasm comes through with a bite. Perhaps the most anguish a person can feel is when someone whom they love rejects them.  The Fugs recorded "Homemade Shit (my baby done left me)" to deal with such circumstances, which I encountered some time around 1969. 

I encountered the Fugs in the record department of a discount department store in 1969.  (around that time) I had never seen anything like that  but I had recently for the first time just taken acid and it and they blew my mind and opened up an entire new way of looking at the world around me and the reporting of the news.  Check them out.

You may find activism like this is needed today. 

There would be more links in this report but when I BING the Beat Generation, LSD and Andy Warhol BING tells me no dice, no can do.  Why the fuck is BING withholding these resources?  I'll leave that answer up to you. For the time being FUCK BING! 

If you have another search engine look up the beat generation, the Fugs, Andy Warhol and the LSD scene of the east village and lower eastside during the period of their popularity. It's a whole other way of looking at things.  See if some search engine allows you to get results on this topic. It's important.

Making Everyday Independence Day One State At A Time

Marijuana advocates have weathered a long hard storm of oppression. First there was a legal system dispensing outright lies. This produced a populace of docile receptors of information input from government experts.  It also produced an entire new class of criminals who were made criminals for their personal choices. The anti marijuana laws were an outright assault on the integrity of the individual when weighed against the priorities of the governments necessity to lie.  Downright scare tactics and deception were the rules when anti drug policy was peddled to the public.

The 'Rockefeller' drug laws were perhaps the harshest in the history of the so called civilized world.  I knew a young man whose father kicked him out of the house over this issue at that time.  I've heard stories from those years that parents, engulfed in the anti marijuana hysteria of the Rockefeller era, turned their kids into the police in the hopes that prison would straighten them out.  I can't document that, but this was the SPIRIT OF THE AGE back in 1970.

How times have changed.  This year five more states will decide by election day whether or not they can trust themselves to use marijuana.  This state of affairs must put a big smile on Willie Nelson's face.

I made the video below as a celebration of Freedom in Oregon for the 4th of July 2016.  Everyday is Independence Day here.

Anguish and Mystery (new video and art)

"Anguish and Mystery" is a short video made from art I made mostly in the last month or two.  It is accompanied by a soundtrack composed and performed by Bill Canino used here with permission.

The theme is one that fills my mind. Why is it the world is so screwed up?   Why does it appear that our lives are nothing more than seeds scattered by the wind against the backdrop of our own puny existence? Why does it seem that the more we try to fix  things the worse things become?  The political answers fail to make sense and the only thing people feel they can do is to vote for one side or the other.

So I'm left with questions.  In view of human history what right do we have to think we can finally get it right and fix the problem? Does our existence mean anything at all if we stumble through life like Albert and Costello and that's all we do?  Is it possible we will never understand each other?  Something to think about anyhow.



And yet the biblical command is to be fruitful and multiply. 

The beat keeps going on and on I guess.

Reunion: a spiritual inquiry (visionary art)

"Reunion: a spiritual inquiry".  Visionary digital art by David H. Roche contemplating the theme of 'being'. 

Inspired, in part, by the story of the 'Prodigal Son' told by Jesus  and recorded in the 15th chapter of Luke in the New Testament.

A soundtrack composed and performed by Bill Canino and used with permission complements the artwork quite well.



ENJOY

The Electoral Farce Of 2016

As it will come to be understood the Presidential election of 2016 was a stage play contrived by the RNC and DNC as a farce, with a bad plot and a cast of characters so unbelievable as to make you grip your sides to keep from hurting yourself while laughing at their comments. The purpose of this political theater was to maintain the illusion that Americans had a choice in selecting their leaders. It is up to you to decide why you were given Dumbos, Bozos and Carpetbaggers to make your selection from.  You may decide to not to decide.

True to form the RNC provided the most obnoxious and unsuitable candidates to select from.  Ben Carson is undoubtedly the most unsuitable candidate in any Presidential election in the history of the United States.  Carson wins the Stepin Fetchit / Buckwheat awards for showing up and smiling and comparing America to Nazi Germany.  Way to whip up the rabble Ben! Where do they get these people? I'm thinking someone left the loony-bin unattended. I'm thinking it was Reagan who opened the doors of the loony-bin in support of the drug industry.  As a highlight to his failed performance as a candidate Carson has endorsed Donald Trump for the office of President. He as taken upon himself the task of making the USA great once more.  I have no idea what he means and I'm not sure its a good idea.  Mediocre is okay with me.

Of course the RNC and their ilk chose the most reprehensible candidate available to them to run for President of the U.S. which is Donald Trump. The overall honor of the worst possible choice went to the Democrats who rigged their process to favor Hillary Clinton and then convinced themselves that everything is on the up and up by allowing her to run for President as a Democrat.  At least the Democrats were ready for battle while the Republicans were left wondering if they had heard their candidate describing his penis or if it had been a bad, really bad dream.

What is making things really embarrassing for the Republicans is that Donald Trump is really just like them minus the veneer of civilization that they cloak their intent with. They feel he is right, but cannot agree because  it would be politically incorrect. What the Republicans are seeing when they look at Trump and are aghast is that they recognize themselves in his sentiments.  When the RNC looks at Trump they are looking into a mirror. The Republicans have not been able to choose a value they can stick with. 

They chose the values of the religious right 4 decades ago and now are giving them up to maintain a voting edge in a world that rejects those values.


Now the Republicans have chosen a man to lead them who is able to insult a mother whose son died defending the nation. Trump can do this because Republicans are no longer mother friendly.  That is something mothers should think about the next time a Republican and or a Democrat wants to start a war. Just say "No more cannon fodder for you Republicans and Democrats." Just when you thought the nation could sink no lower than the Bush / Cheney years... UP POPS TRUMP!  Trump may well be remembered as the Archie Bunker of Presidential candidates.

Of course it takes two to tango.  Clinton is no angel, but she has a couple things going for her that mark her as superior to Trump.  1.  She is not a buffoon. 2.  She's on the side that always wins.  The sheer number of scandals that Hillary Clinton has been associated with but yet remained 'officially' un-tainted by, is enough to make an honest heart shiver.

While Trump is a bozo, a buffoon and a scandal Clinton is more dangerous to the public welfare.  She is like a cancer cell living among healthy cells, or a weasel in a henhouse. Everything she is involved with is tainted by her involvement.  She voted to begin the endless war in the middle east and then when it was dying down kick started it in Libya. Now she wishes to superintend the future she had a part in planning for America.

The people who have supported Hillary Clinton do not have your best interests at heart. Most of those supporting Hillary are for profit corporations whose allegiance is to themselves and their stockholders. Take a look.  Here is a very long list of rich donors who expect reciprocity from Hillary Clinton.  She won't let them down, that's why she is in the position she is in today she's never let those who give her money down.

POSTSCRIPT

The 2016 Presidential election is more like a joke, a staged farce.  The DNC is allowed to cheat and the fruits of their cheating are presented as the peoples choice. The RNC is allowed to produce a string of incompetent candidates and then the people are told they have a choice.  You really cannot be thinking you have a choice if you're choosing between two lies! Get real. The people who run this clown show want to keep you as believers.

The RNC raided the looney bin and while Sara Palins luster has worn off two more idiots were available.  The RNC produced Dr. Ben 'crazy talk' Carson and Donald 'dickhead' Trump.  These two outrageous imbeciles joined together to make a mockery of the GOP while lowering the caliber of political debate to a level found in grade school bathrooms.  It appears the RNC may have pee'd in it's own chili.

While some of the antics are funny it may be that there is a reason for the farcical treatment of a Presidential election during the most serious period in American history. Can it be all the hoopla is meant as a distraction?  A distraction from what? Could it be there are 'people' who are profiting from endless war?  If so you can bet Hillary Clinton is their 'Girl Friday'

I can't vote for Trump anymore than I could vote for David Duke. I can't vote for Clinton anymore than I could bring myself to vote for the Devil. (figure of speech). 

There is the Green Party.  What I like about their approach is that they want to produce solutions which make living in society easier for actual human beings rather than the 'corporate people' that are served by the RNC and the DNC.

I'm not optimistic about the chances human beings have to extract themselves from the problems the governments of the world have created.  Let's be clear it is those who make the laws who have created the present reality.  Unless you're happy with the current mess created by the current governments it might be the right time to consider an alternative to the capitalist endless war model of the economy that is at the root of all societies problems.  Pope Francis has spoken on the topic.  The question is out in the open and it's time for the discussion to go primetime. Is it possible the message of the Pope and the message of Eugene V. Debs go well together?  I find it interesting that Bernie's message hasn't moved from the foundational points that he maintained in his campaign.  Bernie's time may be in the future, this year the DNC and the RNC and their partisans have turned their back on him and the people have not yet been awakened.

The Mating Ritual Of Photons And The Hatching Of The Cosmic Egg (video and art)

The video began with a ceiling light and you can see what I managed to coax from it.

One More Unarmed American Gunned Down

I made the poster below as a sarcastic response to the justice system that has so far exonerated those who saw to it that Freddie Gray ended up dead.  Apparently I was not being sarcastic but I was being prophetic. This assault on the unarmed caregiver happened last Monday.  The reporting of the assault was delayed until Thursday.  What do you think that means? Why did the delay in reporting the shooting of a citizen by the Police occur? 


Edit:  This morning another delayed report of an attack on an American citizen appeared in my news feed.  This time in another Southern state, Texas. Read the AP article in the link and have it in mind next time some idiot says the U.S. is not a hot bed of racism.

This morning on my news feed was the story of an unarmed healthcare giver aiding a mentally ill patient and being shot by police in Florida while going about his work. Florida is a state in the Southern part of the U.S. Florida has a long history of racial animosity.  Whether or not this is part of the reason for an unarmed caregiver being gunned down is yet to be determined.  The news story is very disturbing.  It seems to me that this mans life was of no consequence to the shooter.  The unnamed cop fired three shots at him and was only able to hit the man once. At the very least he needs to be kicked off the force for being such a poor shot.  (sarcasm.)

As it turns out, Charles Kinsey, the victim of the police shooting, did not die.  Thankfully the unnamed officer was a piss poor shot. But the story get stranger and stranger.  After shooting Kinsey the shooter claims he was trying to shoot the other guy.  Even so after shooting the wrong guy they handcuff the victim and let him bleed on the street.  And then they don't arrest the guy who was armed with the toy truck. Does that sound like a good job of protecting and serving?

As I said. It was in sarcasm and also disgust I made the poster because of the inhumanity present in the circumstances that cost Freddie Gray his life. Today was a mindblower. I never thought a cop would actually shoot a man lying on his back with his hands in the air.  You learn something new every day.

For instance here  in a video address is Donald Trump praising the police.  I have never felt so certain that the man is addled as I am now after listening to his praise of police against the backdrop of the needless violence against the poor and disadvantaged people of color by the police which is documented almost daily in the mainstream news. Do you really want a country where minorities cannot go to work without being hunted down and shot? If so vote for Trump or Clinton. If not vote for Jill Stein.

Is there anything a black person can do to keep from being shot by the police?  The question needs to be asked.  This incident cannot be considered an aberration due to the present condition of American society. Maybe society will be moved to correct this.  It's time something happens because at the present time it is clear that society thinks that only Some Lives Matter. Maybe the media is at fault for reporting shootings like this. NOT!

Please do not follow the directions in the poster.  It may cost you your life.  I don't know how the problem can be solved, but I know the problem exists.  Somebody better solve it.


POSTSCRIPT:

I do know how to solve the problem of people gunning others down.  Problem is Americans have been trained from birth to reject the only solution that will work.  That solution is to love one another and to see to it that all are getting along okay.  Society is not like that. Society is the way we made it.  We can change our minds about how we feel about one another.  We can choose to learn how to love one another.  I doubt Donald Trump is willing to take the chance. I doubt America is willing to take the chance.  Hillary Clinton cares about Hillary Clinton.  That which will save the nation is a change in heart not a change in political direction.

FOLLOW-UP

In this link the shooter explains why he did what he did.  Do you think this is a made up story to remove him from responsibility for his actions?  I hope they drug test the shooter.  He shot the man and doesn't know why he shot him.  A drug test seems reasonable if the union allows it.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS

It is beginning to sound as if the police department has fingered one of its own.  They've promised that there will be no cover-up.  Why would they have to assure the people?  Well anyway it seems one of the boys in blue lied not sure when but the people in charge appear to be really pissed off at him.  He's been placed on administrative leave without pay.  That is unusual and it makes me think the cop may have done something he may be beginning to regret.  Hopefully the details will emerge. But if one remembers the death of Freddie Gray there was a quick assurance of impending justice.  So far all have walked.  So let's not think justice will be done until we see justice done.  People need to be careful not to be duped by slick tongued politicians.

While searching the news for topics on shooting by police I found this database titled killedbypolice.net in the news.  It has killings from todays date on it.  The database simply records the killings and where they happened. It is not a justified or unjustified killing database, simply a record of the people killed by police.  I have to tell you a good number of Americans are killed by the police. It's a sobering bunch of statistics. A good number of those Americans may have deserved to be shot.

Another troubling report on the shooting from the mother of the intended victim.  One can only imagine what went through her mind as she realized the police had targeted her son and when they shot Mr. Kinsey by mistake they were intending to shoot her son.  I'll leave you to your own thoughts on this. 

This is what we know.  1. Before the shooting the police were informed by the victim of the circumstances.  2.The police shot the victim.  3.After the shooting the police handcuffed the victim and left him in the street.  4.The victim was known by the police to be an innocent bystander. 5.The shooter has no idea why he shot the victim. 6.There are some things about the official narrative that do not make sense.

Not all citizens believe the shooting was a 'mistake' by a cop who could not shoot straight.  Some see something far more sinister.

"Rev. Anthony Evans, President of the National Black Church Initiative, says “here is yet another example of the police trying to cover up a bad shooting and want us to believe that the officer’s life in danger. There was no gun. The man was lying on the ground with his hands up and taking care of an autistic child. This is not only outrageous, but it constitutes that the police department from north to south and from east to west has a ‘shoot to kill order’ on black males anytime a call comes in. If this is not resolved, as of tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m., I will call for 50,000 protestors down in North Miami to shut the entire city down for one week.”

The Washington Post has published an analysis of the shooting video.  After listening to those make up reasons to make this a 'good' shooting I was left wondering.  Think about it. Since the cops were informed verbally by the one they say they were protecting that the patient was holding a toy on multiple times are we to assume the police have hearing problems as well as judgment and shooting problems? 

If there is a cover-up in this it will be interesting to see how it goes down.  Hopefully the majority of people will be able to see there is something wrong with this reality unfolding across the length and breadth of the nation.

The Miami Herald reports that the citizens in the area of the shooting are sick and tired of this kind of behavior by the police. They are frustrated and do not know how to protect themselves from being shot.  It's not just the rabble.  Politicians like U.S. Representative Frederica Wilson are getting concerned for the safety of black people on the streets of America.  I can't recall Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton condemning this alarming development in American society with any vigor.   

The pro gun group at bearing arms .com had the most damning commentary of the shooting of all that I've read so far. 

There is a growing suspicion that police department personnel fabricated evidence in this case in order to provoke the shooting.  If this turns out to be the case you know the Devil is in charge.

The organization Color of Change has produced a petition to fire the police officer who shot the medical technician.   You can sign it if you have a desire to sign it by clicking the highlighted portion.

This shooting may very well be the straw that breaks the camels back, so to speak, it may be a watershed moment. Americans may not only demand justice, but require it.  One thing is certain the present condition is intolerable in a nation of citizens who believe they are free to earn a living without being shot and then left in the road like garbage.

Some readers of Philly . Com have wondered if racial prejudice is a factor in the epidemic of black persons dying from police inflicted wounds. One Doctor who worked to save the police who were victims in Dallas had the following experience.

"The black, Harvard-trained trauma surgeon who frantically worked to save the lives of the policemen shot in Dallas said that he had been stopped various times by the police and once spread-eagled on the hood of a police car. He said he had been frightened that each of the encounters might end in his death. That is one dramatic example of the police harassment and mistreatment experienced by much of the black community."

In many areas of the country people are beginning to acknowledge that this plague of the shooting of black people by the police may have racial bias as an impetus. 

Hilton Napoleon, the lawyer for shooting victim Charles Kinsey, feels that the story the police have told to explain why they shot a man they thought to be innocent is not an accurate account of the events of this police shooting.  "Napoleon asks, “Why would they put [Kinsey] in handcuffs…if they really were trying to protect him?”

The attorney also reveals that the officers did not give Kinsey any medical attention after being shot in the leg last Monday.
“It is outrageous that they would suggest that they were shooting a clearly mentally ill individual who had autism … If they felt like they needed to protect my client why didn’t they put some type of bandage or pressure on the wound?”

Matthew Deitz, the attorney for the handicapped victim of the North Miami police shooting has asked the DOJ to investigate due to possible civil rights violations by the police officers.

The mother of the autistic patient targeted by police in North Miami speaks out.  She wonders what in the world possessed the police to target an obviously harmless individual.  She wonders how it is they could not determine he was no threat sitting there playing with his toy truck. 

The State of Maryland has found no reason to prosecute the remaining police officers regarding the circumstances surrounding the death of Freddie Gray from injuries sustained while in their custody it was reported today.  Freddie Gray is still very much dead.  No one was found to be responsible.  Sound familiar?

This report by Democracy Now provides a citizens perspective to the police action surrounding the death of Freddie Gray.  This clip reveals the voices of the people in Baltimore expressing their feelings about the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody.
As it turned out what was done to Freddie Gray was not a crime.  Maybe the laws can be changed so that in the future it will be a crime.

MEANWHILE

ABC news reports that in Portsmouth Virginia, the first degree murder trial of  Officer Stephen Rankin is beginning. The officer is charged with the premeditated murder of William Chapman II an unarmed teenager.

"In court documents, prosecutors allege Rankin killed Chapman "willfully, deliberately and with premeditation." Chapman's body was delivered to the medical examiner with handcuffs still bound behind his back, according to news reports at the time."

The victim is black and the shooter is white. This case is going before a jury. Every case is unique and a stand alone event at the moment it happens.  But eventually it becomes a statistic which then can be used to interpret the environment in which all the statistics are generated. Figures never lie, but sometimes liars figure.  

If I don't speak up when black people are being shot, how about me, a hearing handicapped person who may be seen as willfully disobeying a police officer I haven't heard which then justifies me being shot?  If there are not some definite restraints placed on the police that are enforced with the same vigor as those restraints placed on the non-police sector of society this could escalate and have a negative impact overall on society.  You think the handicapped do not have to fear the police.  Think again, in Florida again, a deaf man is shot 6 times in front of his son for  allegedly not obeying the police. 

I have some questions that must be answered if the average citizen is to feel he's been told the whole story.

1. What happened to the suicidal guy with the gun?  Is he still out there?  2.  Why didn't the cops pay attention when the man they claim they were assisting told them his companion had a toy truck?  3.  Will hearing experts be used in court to impeach any claims of failing to hear?  4. Why did the police handcuff the wounded victim when they understood in their heart of hearts he was not the man they intended to shoot? 5. Why did they leave him without medical assistance after claiming to have wrongfully shot him? 6. Why was there a delay of days before the announcement of unjustified violence against a black person? 7.  Why did the police begin immediately to offer a financial settlement with the victim? 8.  Was this an attempt to produce 'hush money'? 9.  Why is a police officer with such poor shooting skills and judgment allowed to carry a gun? If it turns out the officers are hearing handicapped to the extent it interferes with their job duties that presents another problem for the police department of North Miami to deal with. 

The above questions arise legitimately from the police and news accounts of this atrocity committed on the city streets. At the present time their response to this unjustified police shooting has raised suspicions among those who have have to show their black faces in public to go to work or school or to the store.  It also makes white people wonder what the hell has happened to this society.

I've spent 7 decades on the planet and it hasn't been this crazy since 1968.

The Golden Years Of The American Working Class

Note. After posting this article on the wonderful future the Golden Years hold for those of the working class I received this petition to sign. It seems a Conservative politician, Paul Ryan, is trying to make it more difficult for working class retirees.  The petition came to me from Credo. If you wish to sign it you can do so by clicking this sentence.  There is no way the activities of this man in his efforts to make life more difficult for those who need the most help can be considered humane or Christian without inverting the meanings of both words.

As an American retiree I am eligible to use the services made available by the government in association with its corporate partners for my healthcare needs. 

After putting their heads together the American government and the healthcare industry settled on Medicare as the answer to the healthcare needs of American retirees.  Medicare is free!  Bingo you're insured at no cost if you qualify.  But there's a problem which I discovered in real time. Medicare Part A claims to pay for Dr. visits.  Maybe in government speak they do. But I have in my hand a bill due for $35 for a doctors visit. Medicare Part A did not pay for my Dr. visit entirely.  The office visit was $180.  I'm happy that they paid the larger amount.

It's not all sunshine and daisies though. There is another part of Medicare that one must pay for. I pay $63.20 per month for this additional insurance. The doctor tells you what's wrong and then sends you to the people who are designated to fix your problems.

I was sent for a sonogram that cost $431.  Medicare paid $82.81 the insurance company paid $260.29 leaving me with a balance of $87.90 as my obligation.  If I spend a total of $3400 on my medical upkeep in a year I will receive free medical treatment from that point on until December 31 when I begin from scratch again.

These expenses are not world shaking expenses for some people. But let me put this in perspective and see how it works out.  My monthly income from Social Security is less than $1200 in addition to that I receive a stipend from the VA which is about $133 a month. 

Rent is my biggest expense. I pay $530 a month to live where I live.  But there are other expenses too. Internet is about $66.  Trash pick-up about $42.  House insurance about $31.  Electric $40 or $50. Health insurance $63.20.  Not included is a $100 a year for county taxes.   The total monthly expenses are about $770.

This leaves me with about $430 to  spend during the month.  Out of this I must buy household items, clothing, food for me and my family members. I have 4 cats which by themselves consume $100 of my income each month. If they need medical care I am their insurance provider and they are covered 100% with no out of pocket expenses whatsoever.

This kind of set up makes it a horrible experience for the retiree who accesses these benefits.  When the patient is not able to pay he receives threats from bill collectors demanding that he or she pay what they cannot pay.  If he does pay he must go without paying other bills or without necessary things like food.  Just before the hammer falls he receives shut off notices and more harassment.  Believe me this is the reality of many retirees among the American working class.

So back to the budget.   Subtract $100 from the remaining $430 and there is $330. My biggest additional expense is involved with the purchase of medicine.  My medicinal needs cost between $15 and $20 a day.  None of it is covered by my insurance.  So it is easy to see I go without my medicine a lot cause I just can't afford it.

From this it is evident what the American working class can look forward to in their golden years.  While the bills sit here looking at me this morning, yesterday I received a call from the hospital saying the Dr. had scheduled yet another sonogram, this time for my heart.  I had to decline knowing there was no way I could pay for the services.

It should be clear Medicare did pay a good amount.  But what is also evident is that even the little left to pay looks like a lot when you have $20 and two weeks to go before any more funds arrive and $12 of that has to go for cat food. 

Let this be a lesson to you.  If you are  of the working class and live in America and go to work every day and work all your life you will get you tired out, poor, sick and broke by the time you are old enough to enjoy your Golden Years. And if you have not been able to earn enough to make ends meet tough shit you should have worked harder and longer. If you don't believe me ask any conservative. You'll learn that society owes you nothing. That's how the conservative politician says "thank you for your service to the economy" to the working class citizen. Even though you contributed one third of your wages to the Federal Government and spent all you earned in American stores, conservatives argue the government owes the citizen nothing at all when it comes to meeting life's needs. I call Bullshit on that. What do you think?

Have a nice day and try not to get sick if you are a member of the working class because if you get sick you're screwed.

An Attempted Exorcism On The 4th Of July 2016

This blog post was inspired by the events of October21, 1967. 

"An Attempted Exorcism On The 4th Of July 2016"  is a political statement reflecting complete dissatisfaction with the cavalcade of BOZOS offered to the American people to choose from.  This election year has been a joke and it is turning into an insult. God only knows what comes after that.

As for the video I was sitting about 15 feet from the fireworks and used my camera in my phone.  I don't know where that Demon voice came from it just showed up.

So this video is a political farce just like this years selection of candidates to be President.  They give us an entire cast of BOZOS and one long time servant of the war and financial industries to vote for and then have the audacity to tell us we're free because we can vote. If you vote, stop your bitchin' of course you'll be fooled again.

An exorcism is needed don't you think?

Religion As The Deadly Sin ( a poem by David H. Roche)

Born to Trouble

Religion As The Deadly Sin

A tether on my spirit

hobbles on my feet,

blinders on my eyes

bitter when I eat.

I heard the Lord singing

and I wanted to dance;

but getting caught by religion

I lost my chance.

Now in my troubles whenever I pray

I cling to my treasures

of wood, stubble and hay;

turning my back on the Temple within

I chose religion...

that was my sin.

A tether on my spirit

hobbles on my feet,

blinders on my eyes

bitter when I eat.

The Spirit of Life
was removed from the throne
and in it's stead were built
temples of stone.

Temples of stone
instead of Spirit and bone;
I traded Spirit and Life
for temples of stone.

Poetry and art by David H. Roche (C) 2016

I kind of like this poem and am continuing to work on it changing this and that as you may have noticed.  Check back and see how it goes.

A Rose of Sharon on Marine Drive (video and photography)

While waiting for a ride I spied a Rose of Sharon bush between the sidewalk and the traffic.  It was pretty and inspiring.  I took some photos and made a little video.

ENJOY:

The Fellowship Of The Mystery: video and art

The fellowship of the mystery is how, in the 1st century, Paul of Tarsus describes the mystical / spiritual relationship that is the experience of the one enlightened by the knowledge of Christ.

For many Christ is the icon of the Christian faith. For me Christ is the icon of the Christian faith but more specifically Christ represents the source of all that is. I appeal to the works of another 1st century enlightened one, the writer of the Gospel of John, as seconding that idea.  In the opening verses of John, Christ is described as Logos.  Logos is translated as the 'Word' of God. 

Logos, however, is more than speech or simple language or the simple telling of a story.  In the meaning of the word Logos, chosen to describe the characteristics of Christ, there is more importantly the sense of a primordial intelligence which organizes creates and sustains existence and by so doing represents the key to understanding ones own place in the expanse of reality itself.  This needs to be understood clearly in order to catch a glimpse of what it means to enter into the fellowship of the mystery.  Without this knowledge being paramount I would not consider the Christian faith as holding meaning for me.


Here is the working definition of Logos which is the basis of faith in Christ because it reveals his eternal divine nature. 


Bible-researcher.com provides the following introduction to the meaning of Logos.

"The word λόγος (logos) in the prologue of John's Gospel is a word with a very interesting history in ancient theological writings. It is translated 'Word' in English versions, but this translation does not express everything that the term would have suggested to ancient readers.

For the benefit of students, on this page I have reproduced discussions of the term λόγος by four New Testament scholars: Marvin Vincent, Frederic Godet, Hugh Mackintosh, and John Campbell. Vincent, whose explanation I think will be found most helpful, briefly explains what the word meant in the context of theological discourse in the milieu of Hellenistic Judaism (especially after Philo), and he argues that John "used the term Logos with an intent to facilitate the passage from the current theories of his time to the pure gospel which he proclaimed." Godet and Mackintosh are largely in agreement with Vincent, and Campbell also agrees, though he evidently does not share the others' high view of Scripture. After these excerpts I add Wilhelm Nestle’s more general discussion of the philosophy of Philo from his revision of Zeller’s Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy.

My own opinion is that the contemporary Hellenistic understanding of logos in theological contexts (esp. in Philo) should not be discounted by those who wish to understand John's meaning. The contrasts between Philo and John, which the scholars here want to emphasize, should not obscure the fact that John is using a word which was already full of meaning for Jewish readers in his day. When he asserts that the logos became flesh he is indeed saying something that was never dreamt of by Philo or the Greek philosophers; but in all other respects it is their logos — the cosmic Mediator between God and the world, who is the personification of God's Truth and Wisdom — that John is referring to when he asserts that Christ is its incarnation.

M.D.M." 

Click here to read the entire article at bible-researcher.com.

ENJOY THE VIDEO!





By conceiving of Christ as the cosmic intelligence, beginning and sustainer of the universe in which all of reality is comprised a sense of true mystery and hope appears spontaneously.  Furthermore a sense of the kind intention of the source of our existence accompanies this knowledge.  In this way it does seem right to say that God did LOVE the world. In this way Christ IS the 'Light of the World'.

Jesus described the fellowship of the mystery in the Gospel of John.  Let me set the scene for you.  It was in the evening and Jesus and his disciples were walking and talking together about the Kingdom and his soon departure. His disciples had no idea through his entire sojourn with them what it was he had been trying to teach them.  But he left the following words for them to consider after his death.  You can read them in John 17:

¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.²⁰ Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
²¹ That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
²² And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
²³ I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

You may have noticed this is not the usual approach to understanding the spiritual nature of the relationship with Christ. Most explanations of the faith involve putting together bible texts which are designed to get the listener to be overcome with guilt and confess to a capital crime and then agree that Jesus was killed on his or her behalf to keep them from burning in hell.  If you agree to this state of affairs you are said to be 'saved'.

I didn't receive any lasting relief from that doctrine after decades of practice.  Frankly I have never done anything so bad I needed to be executed for. So having an innocent man get executed on my behalf just did not make sense.  It seemed like overkill to me.

Understanding Christ as the divine organizing principle of the universe and ourselves united since before birth by the predetermined will of God indelibly one with Christ as a basic truth of reality is much more assuring and meaningful to me. I've been called a heretic for my faith. But it's this faith or none, this makes sense to me.

What Jesus was teaching was about the Kingdom of God which as it turns out to be is an introduction to the spiritual nature of reality in general. We can think this way because Paul describes Christ as the sum of all spiritual knowledge in whom all things consist and are held together.  That sounds like Logos, doesn't it?

What stands out in my mind is that Jesus claims he was incarnated for the purpose of dispensing information about the Kingdom of God.  This means he came to dispense consciousness transforming information concerning ultimate reality which Jesus, in his teaching, always contrasted with mundane everyday reality. 

Ordinarily science and spiritually are seen to be by their various protagonists as mutually exclusive. I was blown away to discover that the new breakthroughs in physics and consciousness research present to the mind a state of affairs that readily accepts the spiritual notion of unity in Christ and that such a unity is reflected in reality itself.  I first encountered this new paradigm in the lectures of physicist Tom Campbell and immediately understood how agreeable this knowledge is with the knowledge of the meaning of Christ as Logos. (Note I have not heard Mr. Campbell make the same connections I did so do not attribute my ideas to him.) I simply found his ideas as complementary to the notion of Logos. Whether you have a spiritual or merely physical interest in the nature of reality Campbell's work is always edifying.

The heart of the Gospel of the Kingdom proclamation had as it's purpose revealing the unity of all that is represented by Christ as Logos. It is this unity which is described in the Gospel of the Kingdom.  In effect it is another way of thinking about oneself as well as another way of regarding the spiritual nature of life and reality in general.

By engaging ones consciousness with the knowledge of Christ as the 'light of the world' whose words are said to be 'spirit and life' one can encounter all kinds of calamity and endure it all. But let's be clear. Any redemptive power in the Gospel of the Kingdom resides in it's ability to communicate the reality of Logos to your understanding.

There is a story told about Jesus and his disciples.  Jesus and three of the disciples were caught in the middle of a storm and the disciples feared they would drown.  They asked Jesus to save them.  But they had to wake him up first. He was sound asleep in the midst of the gale.

Well Jesus wasn't all that pleased with being woken up as he had been working hard and needed the rest.  What did he say to his frightened disciples?  His words to them were:  "Where is your faith?"  I find this significant because faith is an attribute of consciousness, and consciousness is the fundamental matrix of reality.  If the disciples had understood, as the enlightened One, Christ, understood, they would have realized no matter what happened they were secure. For those who have the 'mind of Christ' to die and cease to exist is similar to the act of changing ones clothes.

This line of thinking only makes sense if one begins with the premise that reality has consciousness as its foundation.

Fare thee well.