Maybe not.

Of course, this is 1970 Ireland.  Small towns where everyone knows everyone.  The problem here and now is that people don’t trust one another like they used to — some for good reason, some for not.  Gossip and reality shows are the markers of the day, instead of what is real.

Could we unlearn this?  Could we do like the Irish and stand behind what we say and trust others to do the same?  For some, their word is *still* worth its weight in gold.  They mean what they say.

Continuing to amaze, Pope Francis apologized for the way Catholics treated the indigenous.  And let’s be honest, it was not just the Catholics, either.  The protestant churches also had their hand in coercive conversion of people. Bibles or bullets. People are led to their own spiritual path by God and no one has a right to interfere with that.  There is no one-size-fits-all with religion.  And all the bloodshed over religion throughout history….all mocking “thou shall not murder…” and the greed “thou shall not covet another’s possessions…”  nor worship idols (money, gold)….

So now Russia has once again been made a target for war.  Well, it makes sense, doesn’t it, if one needs to feed the Defense Monster.  And I’m no fan of Russia, let’s make that clear, but they are not the super power they once were.  Neither are we, in the sense that our jobs in the private sector have been disappeared, thanks to Clinton, Bush, and NAFTA.

When Russia was still the Soviet Union, its leaders had made the statement that capitalism only worked –that America only flourished– because of the middle class.  They accurately predicted that if the middle class disappeared, so would fairness in capitalism.  We can thank the overwhelming Defense budget and Wall St. raiders like Michael Milken, Martin Siegel, Dennis Levine, Ivan Boesky, et al, for the destruction of small businesses/small corporations that were pillars of the thriving middle class.

Greece has been a beacon in a dark time for their middle finger to the banksters and what used to be corporate raiders who are now country raiders, trying to destroy Greece’s democracy by destroying the economy to privatize public services with American corporations’ buyouts.  Good for them for seeing this for what it was and taking a very, very brave stance against it.  It means sacrifice on their part.

A little known fact is that this is exactly what they did to Iraq.  Most folks here are unaware of the thriving culture of Iraq before we invaded — the literacy rate was astounding — some where around 90%, if I recall correctly.  When we invaded, bombed their businesses, homes, utilities, etc., it was American corporations that went in and made huge amounts “rebuilding” Iraq.  They shut out Iraqi businesses from rebuilding their own country. Disaster capitalism.  And there were many corporate defense contractors involved.  The revolving door applies to the Defense dept., as well, as many who were generals and such have been hired by private contractors bidding on huge contracts for “rebuilding” countries after we bomb the hell out of them.

So now Russia is the next target, with China also on the horizon.  And don’t forget about our under the radar assistance in bombing the hell out of Yemen.  We have no business being there.

A couple of news reports on this:

The video below has awful acoustics, so you might need to listen a couple of times to hear what he’s saying.

Yep.

This war criminal who lied to get us into a war we had no business being, who put these soldiers in harms way and is directly responsible for their war injuries, including PTSD…charged them for the glory of his appearance.

And Jeb Bush thinks folks need to work longer hours.  Hello?  American workers have never been more productive

Now Jeb is saying that he meant part timers need to work full time hours.  Note that he does not say that people need to be paid a living wage.  He probably meant that folks need to work full time hours and be paid like they’re working part time in order to make the 1% even richer, er I mean, “make the economy grow”.  Pfft.

Oliver uses humor on this somber subject.  It’s another Libertarian/Ayn Rand/Milton Friedman scenario where people just keep paying and paying and paying.  And as always, it’s the ones who cannot afford high priced attorneys — the poor — who cannot get any relief.  Oliver states that even though debtors prisons were outlawed in the U.S., that is essentially what is happening here.

The major problem I have with this piece, as with other reports on racism, is that there is this collective blindness to the poor whites who are also put through this. I experienced this myself with a judge in the town I grew up in garnishing my wages.  All $200 of them.  If I earned $300 a month, it was a good one.  This was usury in every sense of the word.  And this judge had a good chunk of testimony off the record.

It’s not about race, but about the poor and criminalizing the poor.

The poor being one of the targets of the eugenics crowd, in the false belief that getting rid of the poor will eliminate poverty.   I mean, just typing that sentence makes me want to crack up laughing.  Seriously?  Getting rid of the poor will eliminate poverty?  Who will they force to work for below livable wages to make the stuff to sell? It’s stuff and nonsense that it is due to faulty genes and purely made-up hypothesis that does not pan out.

Here’s the video.  Warning! There are a graphic words at the end:

Press TV News has a long piece on the austerity measures in the UK.  I was thinking about this last night…and the first thought was, and I know this will sound incredibly stupid…boy, I’m glad that’s not happened here.  I know, I know, not thinking that through…with credit default swaps with millions of Americans losing their homes, no matter how much equity they had put into them; wages now deflating; and all the rest.  I think that is more stunning is how the Brits are coming out against it and remaining strong.  We’ve lost our will to stand up against this, I think.  As I posted in the prior blog on using spirituality as a Trojan Horse to usher in austerity, one of the tenets was to demoralize the people so much that they lose the will to fight for their rights and for equal treatment.  And it is more and more clear the more research I do that a moral high ground is definitely at the heart of this — whether it be eugenics or not.    And it is more clear that the Muslims are the new “Jews” of the new nazis.

A really good piece.  I have to hand it to the reporter.  It’s been so long since I’ve seen American news report like this that I’m a little taken aback:

A good debate on Greece and the financial disaster capitalism where opportunists seize on catastrophe, whether it be weather disasters, financial disasters, war, or some other circumstance where people are put off their guard by the events surrounding them.  They are in survival mode, and not able to think beyond getting their necessary needs met such as food, shelter, clothing.

Greece is an example of what can happen and how to handle it.  Perhaps they’re not as weak a people as the financial world would like to think?  The British guy on the video below was wringing his hands at the thought of Greece not being able to get financing now that they have voted “no” on more austerity.   Dr. Roberts asserts that banks will loan to Greece once again, after they have readjusted the debt to be more reasonable.