Picture if You Will...

I did a little photo shoot out in Charleston of a boat drydock. These boats are in various sorts of repair/disrepair. Some, you can see in the photos, are far beyond repair. I found the place quite fascinating. They are bits and pieces of history. Things you don't often see. Click on the photo and check out my photos blog if you wanna see the rest of the pictures.

Good Morning

Make A Wish

Good Morning

Good Morning 2

Good Morning 3

I haven't been feeling all that creative since we've moved to Coos Bay. Or, maybe that part of me is taking a break. Or, maybe that part of me is growing or changing somehow.

One thing I know for sure is that I haven't been able to write much poetry down here. The words of a poem used to SLAM into my skull and demand to be written on the page. I barely write one line now. The poem I wrote about my work recently on this blog is more of an essay than a poem. I tried to force it into poem form. Shusli caught that, too.

There is definitely not a lot of culture in Coos Bay. There are no Greek Festivals, no Homowa celebrations, no Polish Festivals, not a whole lot of culture is celebrated down here. In fact, not a whole lot of anything is celebrated down here. They have a farmers market on Wednesdays in the early afternoon. The life force here is different compared to Portland. There isn't as much celebration of life by the community. At least nothing that I've noticed. "The Mill" casino has a few events, but it's a casino and we've been treated rather rudely there.

My creativity is still there. Some of it is in a different form, like helping the folks I care for at work.

I really like my work, too. It is an awesome job. I got a smile from a resident who is semi-comatose yesterday.

The ocean air here is nice. Our backyard is pretty cool, which is where those photos came from. I definitely don't feel a lack of creativity. There is a lack of culture here. It's kinda like the town is half asleep.

Oh, and y'all haven't forgotten about that child rapist defending, child rape victim/survivor hating democratic senator from Massachusetts, JAMES FAGAN, have ya?

And y'all still think that genocide and AIDS loving, gay hating, racist senator, Jesse Helms, is still the piece of shit that he was and in his dead memory, still is, right?

...the only...

I hear a lot of people say, "the only way this..." or "the only way that..."

"The only way" to achieve peace is to quote Gandhi a lot.

"The only way" to save the world is to bring down civilization.

"The only way" to eat an oreo...

"The only way" to salvation...

"The only" religion...

"The only..." A lot of folks seem to have the answer to many of the worlds problems. If we'd only listen to a few who have selected themselves as our personal saviors. Whether it be witnesses knocking on your door, non-Indians who have declared themselves savior of all Indians, anti-civs who say the only way to bring down civilization is to kill the right or at least large numbers of folks, peacenecks who say the only wat to peace is non-violence...there are a lot of folks out there who have the answer. The answers are not the same, but their answers are the only answers in their mind. Personally, I don't think so.

There are as many answers as there are people to think them up. There are more than that because many folks have more than one answer. Many folks could give a rats ass. But, if we are to survive the impending crash, the way I see it happening is if we share and care for each other, defend each other, and don't think that you are the holiest of all motherfuckers and have the only answer, because you don't. None of us do. We just need to be able to survive in a world where we have given all of our food, clothing, and shelter capability powers to folks we cannot see and use an economic system built on imagination.

There is no one answer. We are going to survive this up coming mess. It may be tough. Many may or may not die. We may or may not become closer as communities. The truth is, we just don't know. There are many things we can do. There are many things getting done. But what's more, there are no fucking saviors. You, are all born to save the world should you choose to do so. You are all equally endowed with the power to do so. You are NOT the only person with the power to do so. Look around you, there are a whole lotta folks with the same power you have. The choice is up to you whether or not you are going to use it.

Another Criminal Gets Away With a Long Life

Senator Jesse Helms as died. I don't know much about this fella, but I do know one thing:

When the U.S. signed the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1988 under genocidal war criminal Ronald Reagan's watch (40 years after it was drafted), the U.S. did so with exemptions. Those exemptions state that no U.S. citizen can be tried for the crime of genocide without express permission of the U.S. government. In other words, the exemptions state that U.S. law trumps international law. Basically, that is the same argument the Nazi's used at Nuremburg. One of the authors of the exemptions, known as "The Helms, Lugar, Hatch Exemptions," was, of course, Jesse Helms. So when you hear all over the news that the great Jesse Helms has died, I will remind you otherwise. He was a criminal who, sadly, did not live long enough for the U.S. citizenry to come to their senses, arrest and try him, and when he would have been found guilty...hanged him.

Allegations of Independence

Tomorrow the U.S. celebrates what they like to call "Independence Day," more commonly known as "July 4th." Folks in the states like to set off fireworks and start fires. Drunk and beligerent folks usually hurt themselves or others.

At work, the activities director, a woman, was putting up little U.S. flags all over the place. Decorations that looked like stiff pom poms with sparkly stars on the end; all red, white, and blue, of course. Wait a minute...! A woman?... What's a woman doing thinking she has independence? Women were considered more like property back then. Although women have the vote, and one ran for the democratic ticket for president, one is running for president, women still don't have "equal rights" in this nation. All women have now was gained by one helluva struggle that continued and continues far beyond a bunch of white males getting together and signing a document that gave propertied white males independence to protect their wealth.

As Indians, it wasn't mine and Shusli's independece they were fighting for. In fact, as the idealistic founding father, Thomas Jefferson put it, it was our extermination they were fighting for.

Black folks? PLEASE! Black folks were slaves. Not all of them at that time, but as time progressed and the conditions of black slavery worsened, it DEFINITELY wasn't the independence of black folks the "founding fathers" were allegedly fighting for.

Oddly, you can get the best fireworks from...Indians. Fireworks are mock warfare. Warfare...like Wounded Knee, Haditha, regime change, nuclear ambition, My Lai, Dresden, IBM...

Poor folks? WHAT THE FUCK? Founding father James Madison, and most of the rest of them, referred to the riff raff who weren't "propertied white males" as "beasts." Here in the land where equality is perpetually alleged to keep the "beasts" at bay (with their 253 channels and nothing to watch type "freedom"), the "beasts" far outnumber the masters, but the beasts have been carefully taught.

"...the ideals of the founding fathers..." are words often tossed about by many folks; left, right, up and down. Washington initially had to kill a bunch of his own troops because when they realized that they were fighting so wealthy folks didn't have to pay taxes to the king, they thought that was fucked up, and therefore had to be eliminated. Washington, upon leaving the white house, also robbed the national treasury. Alexander Hamilton wanted the government to be a kingdom and was only convinced otherwise when it was explained that the "beasts" would not have any authority in this nation.

The holiday, however, is usually good for sales. Folks in the U.S. like to buy stuff, and so businesses will put stuff on sale to encourage folks to buy more stuff. Stuff...that is what independence is all about, right?!

Starbucks On Every Corner...No More

The McDonald's of high end coffee, Starbucks, announced it will be closing 600 stores by the end of the year and only putting up 200 more the following fiscal year. The reason being, the poor economy. That means around 12,000 folks will be out of work...in this poor economy. That means the economy will be getting even poorer. Chili's, as you all know, has closed all but a couple of doors of their Willamette Valley restaurants. There are about 300 folks out of work beause of that.

I heard an NPR article yesterday that said small town USA is predicted to start draining. Why? The price of gas. The factories and businesses that originally built those towns are gone, most jobs having been shipped overseas by the corporations that owned them who wanted cheaper labor. So, most people in small towns commute long distances to work. With gas prices as high as they are with no sign of slowing down, folks are going to be moving into bigger towns and cities where there jobs are because they can't afford the commute.

The floods in the Midwest have brought corn production way down, and prices way up. Many products are made from corn syrup and other corn dirivitives. With prices skyrocketing there, that means food prices will go up. That may be pretty bad here, but imagine third world nations, as I've read on the TruthOut website, who will possibly be facing something close to, if not actual, famines. Imagine, as well, how horrible FEMA performed with Hurricane Katrina. The flood in the Midwest in '93 moved a whole lot of towns and FEMA did a lot of work actually taking care of the folks. FEMA under King Dick and co-King George is seemingly just an organization where the cronies of the King and co-King get to collect what looks like a legitimate paycheck. If they follow their clear and consistent pattern, the Midwest is fucked and the production levels of the farms there will not return to anywhere near the levels they once were.

Because of the collapsing economy, people are buying less with their credit cards, prompting banks to raise credit card interest rates, which will encourage more people to buy less with their credit cards.

Speaking of credit cards, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are basically built on credit. That means money is taken out of the economy but based on nothing. That has to be taken from somewhere...how about the infrastructure of this nation. Turns out there isn't enough money to repair roads and such here in the U.S. Not only that, the U.S., along with it's Middle East pitbull, Israel, plan on starting ANOTHER genocidal and illegal war with Iran. This, too, will take billions, and not long after that trillions out of our economy, but also slaughter many thousands, if not MILLIONS, of civlilian lives in an attempt to enrich the already overly wealthy oil corporations of this nation. That means...LESS INFRASTRUCTURE HERE.

Here in Coos Bay, we are already seeing small businesses go under. No doubt there are small businesses going under all over this nation. That means less jobs, less disposable income, more poverty, more foreclosures on homes, more banking problems, etc.

Although all of this may sound more horrifying than living in Stephen King's imagination, we are going to survive this as human beings. This brings up the question of HOW are we going to survive this? There will be no stopping gas and food prices from rising. What are we going to do about it?

Coyote and the Serpent Monster

I was working on a post about the impending war with Iran. I'm sure most of you know about Seymour Hersh's article titled, "Preparing the Battlefield" in this weeks New Yorker magazine. Basically it states that the U.S. is amping up covert military actions in Iran. The dems and republicans are in on it. The war is planned for when the co-King is an official "lame duck." Whoever starts in as head of the U.S. government, a genocidal organization, will continue the slaughter of Iranians because "we have to finish what we started even if it is illegal" attitude that the will indeed have. So there you go with that.

What I want to talk about, however, is "coercion."

Coercion is the use of force or intimidation to obtain compliance.

If I have to be forced, coerced, into believing a certain way, good chances are I'm not gonna go along with it. Coercion has always been a tool in the patterns that I've noticed into getting people to believe in authority. Coercion is a tool used to force people to submit to an alleged higher human form of authority. Religions do this. Religions exile folks to hurt them and coerce them into believing a certain way. Warfare is also used by religions. Peace organizations and anti-civ organizations I've seen exile folks for not submitting or bowing to an alleged higher human authority.

I am a part of the world. I am not the ONLY part of the world. If I was the ONLY part of the world then there would be no other existence. I would have to deny that other parts of the world existed. If those other parts of the world kept trying to prove they existed to me, I would feel the need to force them to exist as me because I would consider myself the only part of the world.

Force is a powerful tool. It comes in many forms: warefare, exile, rape, passive-aggressive, misogyny, classism, racism, etc. If you have to use the tool of coercion...why? Why do you have to force others to submit? Why do you submit to the forces of others? Do you wish to carry on that behavior? Can you change coercive situations you find yourself in? If you use coercion, how can you stop if you choose to? How does coercion benefit you? If you use coercion, how do you have to protect yourself because the use of coercion will create a lot of enemies who fight in many different forms?

I always leave this forum to discussion from anyone. More than anything, I just put ideas out there to be accepted or challenged. What if I'm wrong? I'd like to know.

Child Rapists and the Folks Who Protect Them

This article caught my eye a few days ago on the CNN website. The article is titled "Judge Orders Release of Abu Ghraib Child Rape Photos," by Greg Mitchell, for After Downing Street.org, dated 10-23-06. Here are a few tidbits. I saw this older article while looking for one about the fella following these quotes.

Here is an interesting quote in the article from rapist and torturer protector, Donald Rumsfeld:

"What is shown on the photographs and videos from Abu Ghraib prison that the Pentagon has blocked from release? One clue: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress last year, after viewing a large cache of unreleased images, "I mean, I looked at them last night, and they're hard to believe." They show acts "that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhumane," he added."

I remember Seymour Hersh talking about this issue. What was being done, to my understanding, is that contracted torturers for the U.S. government would take women who had male children and force them to watch their boys be raped by the American Contracted Torturer.

"In the same period, reporter Seymour Hersh, who helped uncover the scandal, said in a speech before an ACLU convention: "Some of the worse that happened that you don't know about, ok? Videos, there are women there. Some of you may have read they were passing letters, communications out to their men ... . The women were passing messages saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened.'

""Basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys/children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror it's going to come out.""

I wonder whatever happened to those videos and photos?

I found the above article while seeing out information on CNN about James Fagan, DEMOCRATIC representative in Massachusetts. See what he said on the YouTube video below.

This is the original article I found by Justin McCarthy for News Busters.org dated 06-26-08, and linked to from the CNN website, "Democratic Politician Promises to 'Rip Apart' Child Rape Victims; MSM Silent." Here's the first paragraph:

"If an elected official in the United States, at any level, promises to "rip apart" six year old rape victims, then describe in vivid detail how their lives would be ruined, one would assume such a statement would lead the news. But it did not."

Yes indeed, there are worse monsters than child rapists. Those are the monsters that protect them. Monsters like James Fagan and Donald Rumsfeld.

Now imagine, parents, your child is raped. You go to court, and James Fagan or someone like him, and there are many someone's like him, will further damage your child. But wait...not just your child...but EVERY CHILD as he defends their rapists and MAKES A LOT OF MONEY doing so. You see, that would have to be child rapists who go to trial and can afford an attorney such as Democratic Rep., James Fagan, from Massachusettes.

Those of you who are victim/survivors of child rape, imagine having to stare down an even worse demon than your rapist. A demon in human form who will "rip" you "apart" to make sure his client doesn't see a day in jail for his crime. Not only that, he is willing to "destroy" you and any semblance of life you may have afterwards. Folks like James Fagan will want to make it even worse in a PUBLIC FORUM. And yes...he is a DEMOCRAT. Feel like you can trust anyone in the government, now?

And of course, I don't think I need to mention the government and church organization supported child rapes.
................

In an unrelated topic, here are a couple of my dream guns, and I haven't even fired a rifle in YEARS!

The Mossberg 500 Tactical Cruiser Shotgun

The Barrett M107 50 cal. Long Range Rifle

Not that I'm much of a shooter. I just think these guns would be real fun!

Revolution?

Can you feel the tension in the air.

"The real Revolutionary is motivated by great feelings of Love."

Oil jumped to almost $142 a barrel. The stock market took another dump. The dollar is in a downward spiral. The mortgage crisis is bringing banks to their knees. Food prices are going up. Gas prices are going up. Corn will soon skyrocket. Jobs have been disappearing. Wages are stagnating. Small businesses are going under. This winter, millions of folks living in what is currently known as the United States will go cold because they can't afford the high price of oil.

The supreme court made a decision allowing folks to "keep their guns." I'm against disarmament especially when one group is outgunned by the other. Look what happened at Wounded Knee. That is U.S. and Israeli style, disarm the folks you wanna slaughter, then slaughter them. Chris Columbus used to do that. The folks were unarmed or less armed, disarm them completely, gather them on the beach, surround them, then hack them to pieces. So, I'm against disarmament. I have heard many stories of redneck types acting superior with their weaponry shooting at folks to terrorize them, but when they get shot back at, they run.

Mostly, though, folks like pointing their guns at each other instead of those that seriously deserve a bullet. You see, there are wealthy folks that use what they call legal means to get the military to attack other nations so the wealthy folks can steal their wealth. It is what the "founding fathers" of this nation wanted. A nation of the wealthy, by the wealthy, for the wealthy, with laws to protect the wealthy from the riff raff, and riff raff to keep other riff raff under control so they don't come after the wealthy. Then the wealthy are "free" to steal whatever they want from everyone. They "gave" us our education system so we could be "free" not to question this system. That is why there are so many stupid folks within the borders of what is currently known as the United States. Don't question your government because if you did, you'd actually know they are criminal and have been created to protect and amass great wealth for the wealthy, not protect and offer opportunity to the masses.

The wealthy hire goons to protect them, the FBI, the CIA, the Police, etc. These folks are there to "protect and serve," but not you. They are there to protect and serve the wealthy who own them with OUR TAX DOLLARS. The protect the wealthy from anyone who will question their wealth. The teach us, the American citizen (as it were), to SUBMIT TO AUTHORITY, and please...call submission "freedom."

As Shusli and I have been saying, there will be no Revolution here until the American people on more of a whole are suffering. This winter, many Americans won't be able to afford heat. Many more will be out of work. Many will lose their houses to the banks. All will have to pay high prices for food and gas.

The good news is, "Americans get to keep their guns." The bad news is, Americans point their guns at their fellow poor instead of the wealthy who are truly the ones "stealing their jobs" and creating suffering world wide so they can have more wealth.

People are motivated by Love. Love of the people means folks aren't gonna be happy their families aren't warm and are going hungry this winter. Love means they'll get angry. Love means they will want to do something to stop this wealth led suffering. Things are starting to smell a little more like Revolution everyday.

Second Childhood

I was put back in the Alzheimer Care Unit again, yesterday. There is one resident who uses what I believe is called a geri-chair (correct me if I'm wrong). It is a chair with a seat at one end and space for the person to move around inside. It has casters on the bottom and looks like a pvc cage. It has a broad base to prevent falling as it is used for folks who are fall risks. Basically, the chair allows folks who are fall risks to move around with limited supervision so CNA's and nurses and such can have time to care for the rest of the folks.

The fella using this chair had a tendency to get in the way of things. So, on about four occasions I made a deal with the fella. If he would sit in the seat, I would push him up and down the hallway once.

The first time he said, "It's a little cold in here, and kinda windy, too," or something to that extent. I asked if I was going too fast, and he said no. So we did this about four times throughout the day. I would have done it more, but there are other folks to take care of.

This brought up childhood memories of a friend of my father who had a son. This kid was a few years younger than me and he had some of the coolest toys, like this pedal car that was really fun. I used to push him up and down thier little culdesac. It was so much fun. When he would come over to our house, he would find something with wheels he could sit on and I would push him around. What a blast!

There was also a woman who loved everyone, grabbing hands of CNA's and nurses and kissing them. Another woman at lunch just loved and enjoyed the food. I was also called a "sheik." That was funny.

Now Wait a Minute

The U.S. controlled U.N. is further sanctioning Iran for crimes the IAEA says it has not committed. The Bank Melli is specifically being targeted because the U.S. is saying they are funding Iran's nuclear program, which IAEA inspectors say is being done for peaceful purposes. Of course, the IAEA isn't going along with the U.S. plan of genocide and resources theivery and is therefore being ignored since it is easier for the U.S. to control the U.N. No mention, of course, that the U.S. has the worlds largest stockpile of nuclear weapons and has actually used them, including DU, a war crime to my understanding. The U.S. is worried about Iran? Really? The IAEA said that Iran is NOT using their nuclear ambitions for weaponry. They are using it for energy purposes. The IAEA has even come out saying that even IF Iran was using their nuclear technology to create weapons, THE SOONEST they would have weapons grade plutonium would be in ten years.

Of course, in this article it is mentioned that under Ahmadinejad's orders, $75 billion dollars was removed from European banks last week because Iran new that the U.S. was going to impose sanctions through the U.N. I'm no economics expert, but one has to wonder what it does to an economy to suddenly have such a huge chunka change removed from its banks. It's not like that money wasn't doing anything. And with the global mortgage and banking crisis, one just has to wonder what it is doing to the European economy. Maybe nothing for all I know, but that is a huge chunka change.

I would suggest, that if the U.S. is following its clear and consistent patterns, that it is upset with Iran not handing over control of their oil the U.S. oil corporations. They are also upset with Iran because they have switched from the dollor to the Euro as their currency basis. That means that U.S. oil multi-billionaires are not making as much money as they actually could be, even though they are raking in record profits at the expense of the people of the world. Since Iran won't submit to U.S. rule like so many other nations, it has to be brought under control using a U.S. led war, which is actually terrorism under the dictionary and legal definition of the word.

So, thousands, if not millions of Iranian human beings living within the border of THEIR nation are slated for slaughter so U.S. oil billionaires can make more money since they don't seem to be making enough off of raping everyone worldwide at the moment.

Here is a photo of some of the folks slated to be slaughered for the Iranian government wanting to be free of U.S. control.

And this is the photo of the man guilty of conspiracy to commit genocide (using the Convention on...Genocide definition) wanting to slaughter Iranians. This photo does not include his whole administration who are also guilty, but he is indeed the pivot man and he CAN stop this, but won't. Afterall, it is his oil billionaire buddies who will be sending over more of our children to slaughter and be slaughered so they themselves will never have to pull the trigger:

And here is Exxon oil billionaire and CEO, Lee Raymond. He is one of those folks who is not only currently raking in billions off of the suffering you are doing at the gas pump, he is also raking in billions off of the suffering of Iraqi's and U.S. troops and citizen workers sent to that nation. He, too, will also be raking in much more money when co-King George starts a genocidal war with Iran.

You know, with the impending collapse, the least you think the genocidal U.S. government could do is stop killing people. But there again, as Derrick Jensen clearly points out in his book, "Endgame," civilization requires violence to sustain itself. People aren't just going to willingly give up their resources to other nations and therefore...they have to be taken by force.

OK, this is the real Lee Raymond, but that horseface bares a strong resemblance.

Angels and Messiahs

"...'Cause angels and messiahs Love
can come in many forms.
In the hallways of your projects
or the fat girl in your dorm.
And when you finally take the time
to see what they're about,
perhaps you find them lonely,
or their wisdom trips you out..."

--from Saul Williams' poem, "Talk To Strangers."

I used to be afraid of them
those and the other,
maybe scared that I'd become like them
or maybe they are more foreign
than someone from another country
who speaks a different language.
Maybe they seemed discarded and unloved.
Like maybe those places
are human trash cans.

But I've come to other understandings.
For there are treasures,
angels and messiahs,
passing us as strangers
everyday.

Until last week,
one woman hadn't opened her eyes
for months.
Though she lives in another world
her eyes are bright,
vibrant,
and often somewhere else.

I heard a conversation
between two different folks
with dimentia
each trying to interpret for the other
to me
using their own language.

I've met folks,
intelligent, beautiful, and clear minded
whose bodies are being peeled
ever so slowly from them,
whose wisdom,
does indeed,
trip me out.

I lift them from bed to wheelchair
wheelchair to bed
make sure they eat
sometimes feed a few.

"I'm going through my second childhood,"
one woman told me.
"I get my diaper changed.
Somebody wipes my ass.
I get fed."
We laugh at the tragedy
and secretly wonder
what it is all about.

These folks need constant care...

But this job about kills ya.
Constant shortages of staff
cuts orientations to pieces
and folks are often figuring out the perameters of the job
by the seat of their pants.

Stress levels so high
that many folks have walked away.

Folks who work doubles,
that's 16 hour days,
on a regular basis
and manage not to go insane...
or do they.

Only a handful of toughies stick it out
through all the insanity
of being short staffed,
short supplies,
things not working,
etc.,
and still,
at the end of the day,
these folks who depend on others
to remain alive
are still alive,
fed,
cared for,
Loved by the employees,
have eaten,
been changed and cleaned,
etc.
We somehow
make it through it all.

I can't imagine
a gang of thugs,
at times
cold hearted and murderous,
tough enough to knock you down
and kill you if they need,
and I can't imagine
any of them
tough enough
to wipe some adults ass
or deal with the types of messes
that need to be dealt with
in these situations.

Of course...
I can't imagine me
or anyone else in this profession
trying to stand down a gang of thugs
either...
except...
of course...
their mothers.

It ain't easy
it doesn't always work
but somehow,
for the most part,
it always works out.

Health care
is the best and worst job
you will ever have.

Nothing is more rewarding
than making a persons life a little better...
a little more liveable.
Nothing is worse
than the heavy stress level,
the massive amounts of work,
the constant need of a few,
the demands...

And the staff,
the workers,
are angels and messiahs, too.
And we have all come here
to push our way through
to some other life...
that, or
push someone to the dining room
in their wheel chair.

We pack up our "thank you's"
and our "fuck you's"
and walk to the time clock
as others pick up where we left off.

We wash it off in the shower
crash on the couch,
and sleep it off
like a bad drunk.

The kind of wheel chair I'd like to see every resident at my work have. Kind of evening the playing field, as it were.

Oil Gazillionaires Trying to Look Human While Enjoying Great Profits on the Edge of Slaughtering Iranians

Shusli and I heard a report on NPR of how oil gazillionaires who are enjoying record profits these days are starting an advertising campaign to show just how sweet and human their genocidal business is. They are putting up advertisings to show that through your 401K (should you have one) many folks are investing in the genocidal business of stealing other peoples resources.

I bet, however, that they won't be showing how folks like..."Chili's Restaurants" are going under. Nor will they be showing how Joe and Josephine Six Pack will not be travelling to grandma's house because they can't afford the gas. Nor will they be showing how RV parks in Coos Bay and other cities are going under. Nor will they be showing how food prices are effecting folks income and activities. Why won't they be showing these and many other horrible things happening to everyday folks? Because everyday folks aren't gazillionaires making massive profits off of their suffering. Like Madison said when he wrote "We the people..." he meant "We the wealthy white male elite." Madison, one of those idealistic founding fathers, called those who weren't wealthy white elite males..."beasts."

Israel has done military exercises to slaughter Iranians because Israel, of course, is the U.S. pitbull in the Middle East and would not exist were it not for U.S. money and the desire of U.S. oil corporations to steal other peoples wealth. This combined with a Nigerian attack on an oil rig, successfully shutting it down, and oil is again heading upwards. The higher price of oil, the more money gazillionaires make. The higher the price of gas, the higher the price of food. The higher the price of gas and food, the more suffering we at the bottom do. But we should all think of how sweet and wonderful these oil corporation gazillionaires are. I mean, after all, they haven't sent the military into our communities to slaughter us and steal our resources...yet.

I mean, the did do that to Indians, but, like the rest of you "beasts," Indians aren't considered humans either.

Oil gazillionaires! Love them, or they just might send in the military to put a gun to your families heads and steal everything you have. But you do, afterall, invest in their great gloriousness through your 401k, should the company you work for have not gone under because of high fuel and food prices and you are sitting on your ass out of a job.

Carrie

I have been wanting to delve into the classics lately, but have only gotten into classic movies I haven't seen.

Yesterday, Shusli asked if I had seen "Carrie," the classic movie based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. My answer was "no," of course.

We watched it last night, and the story and the cinematography was quite good. The beauty of the body, how folks can go insane... Great acting.

What caught me was the energy of the mother, played by Piper Laurie. The character just fundamental and psycho about her religion giving it no context into the outside world and used to justify her insanity and self-hatred.

Great film! If you haven't seen it like I hadn't, I suggest you do. Stephen King is an excellent writer and there have been many excellent movies made of his stuff, and a handful of pieces of shit. It is amazing to believe he has been writing since I was a kid

Besides the Crash

"Beligerently anti-intellectual" is how I've heard the folks of Coos Bay described. And, well, to a large extent, I'd have to say that is true.

But like in Portland, Shusli and I have found like minded folks here in this little podunk town.

However, when issues come home to roost, folks start wondering, folks start thinking, folks start talking.

Working as a nursing assistant, I have taken up my minimal smoking habit a notch, which still isn't bad. I smoke non-chemicalized tobacco blended by a blender at Rich's smoke shop in PDX. It is called girls blend and is cut for cigarettes and has a hint of vanilla. Unlike your grocery store cigarettes, it doesn't have a hundred chemicals in it (some illegal). The best conversations happen out back in that little covered area where all the smokers (residents, visitors, and employees alike), hang out, smoke a cigarette, and BS about our little world and beyond.

NEVER amongst the "beligerently anti-intellectual" types, have I heard conversations going beyond the latest TV show, what their significant others are doing, cars, etc. But since I've started working at this care center, the most interesting conversations (at least at this place) happen where the smokers hang out. Even folks whom you'd swear wouldn't know the world beyond their favorite TV show are talking about the price of gas, oil, the stock market crash, the banking and mortgage crisis, the bullshit of war, etc. You still hear about their favorite TV shows, etc., but more than that, you hear about these other issues. Now, these issues are effecting their lives directly and ordinary folks know that a possible disaster is happening and they want to know why or have a good reality based idea as to why the current gas hike is happening; why the current rate of local businesses are collapsing, why food prices are rising, etc. Your everyday Joe, the "belligerently anti-intellectual type," is actually talking about global issues because the global issues have come home to roost.

WORK

My job is the oddest I've had. It is the hardest working job I've ever had. It is the best and the worst job I have ever had, and that to me is fascinating and troubling at the same time.

I have never felt such intimate contact with the folks that I am helping. I get to see their smiles, become a part of their lives, and I think of the line from Saul Williams poem, "Talk to Strangers," " ...Jesus had a wife, and she was his messiah like that stranger may be yours, who holds a subtle knife that carves through worlds like magic doors..." Most of these folks are magic to me. But the work is hard, often a pain in the ass, emotionally and physically draining.

I have had a DEEP respect for the work that Shusli has done and does do as a nurse. I have had a good idea what folks like her do and how it takes a very special person to do that type of work. In just becoming involved in health care myself, that respect has reached a rather massive depth and richness. This work is hard and difficult and more often than not, unrewarding, and Shusli has been involved in it for years. Those involved in health care often wind up sacrificing their health for others. That is not good. Health care is a job you'll both Love and Hate, but more than likely you hate it for the most part. Health care professionals are unsung heroes. These folks should have a high standing in today's society. The only health care professionals that do are doctors, and doctors are often heartless assholes. It's the hands on folks that really deserve great praise.

Floods

I've been thinking about the Iowa Floods, besides just the devastation to city, infrustructure, and all the usual immediate things. I think in terms of part of the future collapse of alleged civilization.

HURRICANE KATRINA

As Shusli pointed out in her blog, Death and Conscience, in her post "Heckuva Job, FEMA!" I first learned of how the Federal Emergency Management Agency witheld important things such as foodstuffs, untensils, and many other physical items to assist those who suffered under Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast region. We also know that modular homes, besides many being contaminated, were witheld from helping citizens. We know that FEMA fudged the numbers of the dead like the U.S. always fudges with the numbers to make themselves look better (look at the numbers in Iraq, for instance).

Another thing FEMA helped further was the ethnic cleansing of New Orleans, better known as "Making the world a more profitable place for the already excessively wealthy." Blacks were "forcibly transferred," their public housing which came through unharmed was destroyed for GOLF COURSES (I wish I was kidding), poor folks and other "unsightlys" were criminally removed from the area by the U.S. government. This is what FEMA has become under the genocidal Bush administration. FEMA is now designed to take a disaster and make it much worse.

No doubt the Bush U.S. government organization known as FEMA will make conditions after the flooding much worse than they were during the flooding itself.

Life After the Oil Crash has many good articles about the impending disaster including facts about the loss of crops and what that will do to foods and biofuels in an already rapidly inflating economy where wages remain stagnant except for those of CEO's of major corporations.

Kunstler: Status Quo-OH

How A Midwest Flood Can Drag Down A Nation

UPDATE 1-Union Pacific enacts force majeure amid US floods

In Midwest Floods, a Broad Threat to Crops

Midwest Floods Push Grain Prices Higher, Weigh on Ethanol

In these articles you will find much good analysis for the future of food, grain prices, ethanol prices, the conditions upon life about to be imposed upon folks like you and me because of the fiasco known as "The Bush Administration," etc.

You should EXPECT the Bush administration's version of FEMA to make conditions worse should they follow thier clear and consistent patterns. Folks in the Midwest, folks like you and me (the not so privileged of the privileged), will suffer greatly. We on the periphery will suffer with higher prices and stagnating wages.

co-King George is safely away in Europe on what is being called his "farewell tour." I read today on Al Jazeera that he is BLASPHEMING Northern Ireland with his presence. Makes me wish the IRA didn't disarm... All of this on our tax dollars, the same tax dollars that will be used to make the current floods in the Midwest even worse. And we have King Dick and co-King George to thank for it. They will have gotten away with these crimes against humanity AND MANY OTHERS...FREE AND CLEAR!

APOLOGIES

(The puppy is sorry, and not guilty of genocide, the man on the right in the photo to the right says he is sorry and is guilty of genocide.)

Now, imagine if you will, in say, another 20 or thirty years, should this alleged civilization actually be able to maintain this bullshit order that much longer, you can probably expect something like this:

"I [bullshit leader's name here] apologize for the suffering caused to thousands of people by the flood in the Midwest in 2008."

Don't expect financial compensation. Don't expect apologies for governmental complicity and idiocity that will soon be making the conditions in the Midwest much worse. Don't expect apologies for intergenerational damages. DON'T EXPECT ANY FORM OF JUSTICE! DON'T EXPECT APOLOGIES FOR FEMA!

The Canadian governments apology to those who suffered through residential schools is not an apology for genocide. It is not an apology for the abuses. It is not an apology for the state sanctioned act of genocide. It is not an apology for stealing and occupying indigenous land. It is not an apology for the FORCED conditions of indigenous folks on the Native Reserves of that nation. There is no apology for the lack of justice. There is no apology for the forced poverty. There is no apology for current conditions. They are safely distanced and can say things like, "it wasn't me," or "it wasn't my ancestors."

However, if current patterns are followed in the 20 or 30 years to come, should this alleged civilization last that much longer, good chance that the best the victims of the floods in the Midwest and soon to be victims of FEMA (including the victims of FEMA after Hurricane Katrina), THE BEST they can expect from their government is a tax paid for lame ass apology.

I often have unfounded fantasies that the U.S. military will stop murdering innocent folks half way across the world for the ultra privileged in this nation, and turn those guns on the ultra privileged and help the common folks of this nation take everything back from those fucking theives that will steal it all from us until it collapses. At least I have that collapse to look forward to.

SPEAKING OF COLLAPSE!

Shusli informed me this morning that Wall Street took ANOTHER dump and dropped about 200 points today. The dollar is on its continued downward spiral. Oil is on its continued upward spiral. Riots all over Europe because of oil prices are causing heavy financial damages. Truckers in the U.S. are going under. Small businesses are going under because of oil prices. The illegal war in Iraq is costing us TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS in our tax money (which won't be going to victims of the Midwest Floods, but definitely to the salaries of FEMA execs and employees). The U.S. will soon be spending BILLIONS if not TRILLIONS in Bush's upcoming illegal war with Iran (not to mention the thousands of folks murdered, millions displaced and forced into poverty, pollutants from DU and other genocidal munitions, etc.). China has control of a large hunk of our economy. The U.S. government sold it to them.

Combine the factors of illegal war, dumping dollar, dumping stocks, dumping mortage rates, bank crises, natural disasters, the fact that a major hunk of control of the U.S. economy is in the hands of China, and I'd have to say the U.S. is more vulnerable than it ever has been.

Jim Craven, Blackfoot Solicitor General to the Traditional Government and Economics Head at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington, says we are undoubtedly headed to a global economic collapse. When it will happen and what it will look like is not exactly known. But it will happen.

COMMUNITY

(When a community gets together, you can accomplish ANYTHING!)

What I think might help is if we get together in our communities. I always think of how the Lost Boys of the Sudan stuck with each other, helped each other survive with whatever skills the inidividual had to help the group.

In Coquille, they are working on food sustainability.

Cuba is a great example of food sustainability. They have programs in place so folks can be fed sustainably.

Here, when folks can no longer get their food at the supermarket (see what is going on in Europe with the drivers strikes), most will not be able to feed themselves. Imagine, as those in Europe are feeling for REAL right now, that you go to the store and find no food on the shelves. How are you going to feed yourself and your family? What will you do?

FLOODS

The floods will recede, but the damages will be felt for decades. It may help in bringing communities together. It may bring folks closer and help each other. It may make folks aware that the U.S. government is not there to help them and is indeed the most DANGEROUS TERRORIST ORGANIZATION EVER TO HAVE EXISTED. It may motivate folks into action. Or, as is typical of the average publicly educated U.S. citizen, they will take it up the ass like a good victim. They will think that their government wouldn't do such a thing to them. They will become depressed. Their depression will lead to inaction and surrender to sources outside of themselves (like belief in religion), and they will believe they deserve it and there is nothing they can do about it.

But there is something they can do about it. They can force the issue should they get together and stop the stupid belief in the John Wayne style "Rugged Individualism." Nobody got where they are in life without help...NOBODY! If we all help each other, then help in getting the genocidal U.S. government off of our backs and bring in local governments to maintain the health, happiness, and well being of the people in good times and in bad, then we just may have a chance. There may be other probable solutions available that I'm not thinking of. ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS?

So, here we are, the U.S. government is collapsing, the Midwest is collapsing, there is a genocidal war going on in Iraq, there is a genocidal war about to begin against Iran, gas and food prices are going up, wages are staying the same (unless you are a major corporate head), etc.

In Europe, there are riots and strikes to FORCE their governments to pay attention to the conditions of life being forced upon them as the same thing happens there. Here, no such luck...yet.

Our governments are forcing us to suffer. In this nation, the U.S., the folks are, so far, taking it up the ass like good American citizens. They misname this "freedom." So far, a majority still have their 253 channels with nothing to watch. They still have cellphone service. They still have their MTV. They can still joyfully recreate because the food and gas prices have yet to make enough suffer, though more are everyday. Will the average U.S. citizen get off their ass and stop taking it up the ass? Only time will tell, and there ain't much of that left, either.

IN OTHER NEWS

In other news, Condaleeza Rice was misquoted by me as saying, "The co-King's dick is only this big, and I ain't talking about Dick Cheney," she was misquoted as saying. "I should know! Why do you think I look so pissed off all of the time? Why do you think I'm the cold hearted unempathetic asshole that I am?"

She was further misquoted as saying,"If your dick was this big, you'd be a genocidal criminal also. I mean, admit it, if your dick was this big, wouldn't you want to kill a lot of people for the injustice god dealt ya? I mean...C'MON!

"That's why he is slaughtering Iraqi's and why he wants to slaughter Iranians! It has NOTHING to do with oil. We've been telling you the truth that one time all along. At least there we've been honest.

"IT'S...ONLY...THIS...BIG!" she stressed with the hand gesture shown in the photo. "Why do you think I'm so fucking pissed off?! I wanna be the queen, but the co-King's dick is only this big." She used the hand gesture throughout this misquote.

"But what about the co-King's incerdible bulge displayed when he pretended to land that military jet on that aircraft carrier when he declared military operations in Iraq had come to an end?" the congressional delegation was misquoted as asking.

"IT WAS A CODPIECE," Rice was misquoted as saying. "Don't you remember the disco days when men would stuff their tight pants with socks and sausages to make their equipment look bigger?

"IT'S ONLY THIS BIG!" Rice stressed with her crawdad like claw gesture.

"Does anybody in here have a gun?" Rice was misquoted as asking. "I wanna kill somebody directly for a change. Like when King Dick (with a small one [gesture included]) tried to with that shotgun incident to the face."

The secret service refused to oblige her request which brought up questions from Rice about the size of their equipment and their guns being an extension of their small packages.