Translate

Thursday, December 29, 2016

"The Secret Destiny of America


"The Secret Destiny of America", 
a book by Manly Palmer Hall

http://www.ascension-research.org/The_Secret_Destiny_of_America.html

Written in 1942 (after America entered WWII), this book addresses the continued role of the United States to spread democracy in the postwar era. Since, we now in America, have a corporate nationalist as our president elect, I thought it appropriate to offer a part of the book's introduction:

"... I dedicate this book to the proposition that American Democracy is part of a Universal Plan.

Our world is ruled by inflexible laws which control not only the motions of the heavenly bodies, but the consequences of human conduct.  These Universal motions, interpreted politically, are impelling human society out of a state of autocracy and tyranny to democracy and freedom.  This motion is inevitable, for the growth of humans is a gradual development of mind over matter, and the motion itself represents the natural and reasonable unfoldment of the potentials within human character.

Those who attempt to resist this motion destroy themselves. To cooperate with this motion, and to assist Nature in every possible way to the accomplishment of its inevitable purpose, is to survive.

Thousands of years before the beginning of the Christian era many enlightened thinkers discovered the will of God as expressed through Nature in the affairs of men. They made known their discoveries in terms of religions, philosophies, sciences, arts, and political systems. These first statements are now the admired monuments of ancient learning. Available to men of today, they are generally ignored.

Years of research among the records of olden peoples available in libraries, museums, and shrines of ancient cultures, has convinced me that there exists in the world today, and has existed for thousands of years, a body of enlightened humans united in what might be termed, an Order of the Quest. It is composed of those whose intellectual and spiritual perceptions have revealed to them that civilization has a Secret Destiny - secret, I say, because this high purpose is not realized by the many;  the great masses of peoples still live along without any knowledge whatsoever that they are part of a Universal Motion in time and space....

All of the great leaders of ancient times realized and taught that the establishment of a state of permanent peace among the nations depended not only upon the release of human ideals, but through properly trained and disciplined minds capable of interpreting these ideals in terms of the common good."

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

George Carlin: Circling the Drain -- Is it time to hit Reset, yet?




https://youtu.be/eVZMifGcW64

George Carlin, in this four minute clip of an interview, says that he found a very liberating position for his 'comic voice' - that of not really caring if the outcome for the human experiment was successful or not. He gives up on wanting a positive outcome, and that he was now rooting for the "comet".

He, also,  said that he loves and treasures individuals / that the whole universe can be seen in their eyes when he meets them. But, he cares not for the groups they identify with and belong to -- that people give up their value as individuals for the sake of the group.

He does not blame politicians for our woes. "You get what you deserve, and you deserve what you get". Remember, that in the Preamble, it says We The People -- not them, these or those. People who hate government are committing suicide, because it's about self-government.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/religion-iconoclasm-iconoclasts-doomsayers-doom_sayers-apocalypses-wmi101217_low.jpg


https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/death-human_nature-humanity-doomsayers-doom_sayers-prophets-wmi111130_low.jpg





Monday, December 26, 2016

Corporate Effective Tax Rates Are Lower Than Middle Class Rates

During our presidential campaign, I watched  little of the candidates' speeches. I preferred reading later what the opposing parties said about each other, and then what moderates thought. However, I did tune in for a few moments to one of Trump's debates with Clinton.
What I caught was him saying that he wanted to lower corporate taxes to 15% from 30%. What puzzles me is the fact that after deducting tax breaks, subsidies and loopholes, the average corporate tax rate is already below 15%. So, if you lower the statutory corporate tax rate to 15%, how low will the effective tax rate be?
No wonder Wall Street stocks started going up after election night. And now, with a capital gains tax cut as a 'stocking stuffer', it seems that there really is a Santa Claus.
p.s.- Why not eliminate all of the subsidies, loopholes, tax breaks, etcetera and then lower the ridiculously high statutory tax rates and have a "one size fits all" real and effective tax rate?

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/business/economy/03rates.html

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/money/2013/07/01/news/economy/corporate-tax-rate/index.html

http://www.ctj.org/corporatetaxdodgers/sorrystateofcorptaxes.php

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/05/22/wsj-argues-for-reducing-historically-low-corpor/194176

In other words, corporations will later on be averaging far less than the current 12% real tax rates after deductions and corporate benefits. The people who own the corporations will also be paying decreased amounts. This is called corporate welfare.

Social welfare is what the lower economic groups receive.

The middle class finances this, and is one of the reasons why the middle class is shrinking. Meanwhile, the federal deficit and national debt balloon, thus weakening our economic system. Bush and Obama both did this to us. [ Obama extended the Bush corporate reductions as political payoff to the Republicans in order to implement his health care program.]

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Matriarchal Figures of Fertility Goddesses

Prehistoric clay figurines of fertility goddesses 
are of mature matriarchal female figures 
representing the Earth Mother 
(and motherhood). 
Attached photos are of classical and of 
modern figures. 
Such figures are biologically correlated 
to higher 
reproductive success and yielding 
healthy children. 
Men are 'hard wired' to be most 
sexually attracted 
to mate with women with such 
proportions who 
exhibit traits of good health.

Classic:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ZNL9eEb220sMNq0yzOLfMuwJX8lGTb3Nj3JtxXoPTCC4z2BT4MEIPwAyfi8t8HPzQRwNYYGQDY3aR8iIzMe3ZIdNxCJvN0D6CgwDhVBaFPfoqIA9A26ZnyKlSs-iK8dguU13zS8DHw/s1600/astarte-moon-goddess-pagan-symbol.jpg


Modern:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAKo7bWcNutXB1YNVTaVSHaNxC_WXflpz-5920g_qrii5rmJ7blkja6OQPDGHMdKWzLXJehKx1GFt-WGjJQ_y7crtDmcCbXI7iQT_QiaqBmag3CW-OkjX0-e2u4xd5SeDUN8EzjIk8hzw/s1600/hourglass+with+thigh+gap.jpg

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

George Carlin: Circling the Drain Time


I like comedian George Carlin's take on global warming, environmental degradation, etcetera. Watch the following clip and see if you don't feel better after he puts things in their proper perspective:

"Carlin On Global Warming"
7 minute clip:
https://youtu.be/BB0aFPXr4n4

Does he confirm or deny the reality of global warming? Nope. But he does put the onus on who's responsible for deciding what's what. In short, we are responsible for whatever happens.
Comic:
http://frankandernest.com/cgi/view/display.pl?109-11-02
Comic:
http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/properties/fande/art_images/fa050820.jpg

George Carlin on "Things To Keep Us Apart and bring us together":
10 minute clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v2SWE15zms&sns=em

"A Serious Moment With George Carlin"
4 minute clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVZMifGcW64&sns=em

Proof of Heaven

A Dr. Alexander’s brain was attacked by a rare illness. The part of the brain that controls thought and emotion — and in essence makes us human — shut down completely. For seven days he lay in a coma. Then, as his doctors considered stopping treatment, Alexander’s eyes popped open. He had come back.]


This is part of what he had to say:

...."Seeing and hearing were not separate in this place where I now was. I could hear the visual beauty of the silvery bodies of those scintillating beings above, and I could see the surging, joyful perfection of what they sang. It seemed that you could not look at or listen to anything in this world without becoming a part of it — without joining with it in some mysterious way. Again, from my present perspective, I would suggest that you couldn’t look at anything in that world at all, for the word “at” itself implies a separation that did not exist there. Everything was distinct, yet everything was also a part of everything else, like the rich and intermingled designs on a Persian carpet ... or a butterfly’s wing.

It gets stranger still. 

For most of my journey, someone else was with me. A woman. She was young, and I remember what she looked like in complete detail. She had high cheekbones and deep-blue eyes. Golden brown tresses framed her lovely face. When first I saw her, we were riding along together on an intricately patterned surface, which after a moment I recognized as the wing of a butterfly. In fact, millions of butterflies were all around us — vast fluttering waves of them, dipping down into the woods and coming back up around us again. It was a river of life and color, moving through the air. The woman’s outfit was simple, like a peasant’s, but its colors — powder blue, indigo, and pastel orange-peach — had the same overwhelming, super-vivid aliveness that everything else had. She looked at me with a look that, if you saw it for five seconds, would make your whole life up to that point worth living, no matter what had happened in it so far. It was not a romantic look. It was not a look of friendship. It was a look that was somehow beyond all these, beyond all the different compartments of love we have down here on earth. It was something higher, holding all those other kinds of love within itself while at the same time being much bigger than all of them.

Without using any words, she spoke to me. The message went through me like a wind, and I instantly understood that it was true. I knew so in the same way that I knew that the world around us was real — was not some fantasy, passing and insubstantial.

The message had three parts, and if I had to translate them into earthly language, I’d say they ran something like this:
"You are loved and cherished, dearly, forever."
"You have nothing to fear."
"There is nothing you can do wrong."
The message flooded me with a vast and crazy sensation of relief. It was like being handed the rules to a game I’d been playing all my life without ever fully understanding it.
"We will show you many things here," the woman said, again, without actually using these words but by driving their conceptual essence directly into me. "But eventually, you will go back."
To this, I had only one question.
Back where?

A warm wind blew through, like the kind that spring up on the most perfect summer days, tossing the leaves of the trees and flowing past like heavenly water. A divine breeze. It changed everything, shifting the world around me into an even higher octave, a higher vibration.
Although I still had little language function, at least as we think of it on earth, I began wordlessly putting questions to this wind, and to the divine being that I sensed at work behind or within it.
Where is this place?
Who am I?
Why am I here?
Each time I silently put one of these questions out, the answer came instantly in an explosion of light, color, love, and beauty that blew through me like a crashing wave. What was important about these blasts was that they didn’t simply silence my questions by overwhelming them. They answered them, but in a way that bypassed language. Thoughts entered me directly. But it wasn’t thought like we experience on earth. It wasn’t vague, immaterial, or abstract. These thoughts were solid and immediate — hotter than fire and wetter than water — and as I received them I was able to instantly and effortlessly understand concepts that would have taken me years to fully grasp in my earthly life.
I continued moving forward and found myself entering an immense void, completely dark, infinite in size, yet also infinitely comforting. Pitch-black as it was, it was also brimming over with light: a light that seemed to come from a brilliant orb that I now sensed near me. The orb was a kind of “interpreter” between me and this vast presence surrounding me. It was as if I were being born into a larger world, and the universe itself was like a giant cosmic womb, and the orb (which I sensed was somehow connected with, or even identical to, the woman on the butterfly wing) was guiding me through it.

Later, when I was back, I found a quotation by the 17th-century Christian poet Henry Vaughan that came close to describing this magical place, this vast core that was the home of the Divine itself.
"There is, some say, in God a deep but dazzling darkness . . . "
That was it exactly: an inky darkness that was also full to brimming with light.....

.......Modern physics tells us that the universe is a unity — that it is undivided. Though we seem to live in a world of separation and difference, physics tells us that beneath the surface, every object and event in the universe is completely woven up with every other object and event. There is no true separation.
Before my experience these ideas were abstractions. Today they are realities. Not only is the universe defined by unity, it is also — I now know — defined by love. The universe as I experienced it in my coma is the same one that both Einstein and Jesus were speaking of in their (very) different ways.


http://www.ascension-research.org/Proof_of_Heaven.html

Friday, December 16, 2016

Amway Products In House No More

My family has been using Amway (short for American Way) products for forty years. They're great products. But, thanks to the same digital media that has fueled partisanship, I became aware of the religious right influence in Amway's ownership when I learned of Betsy DeVos' appointment as cabinet secretary for education. She is a strong proponent of school vouchers for religious purposes. This is an age old debate that decided long ago. If you want your kids to go to separate private schools, then you pay for the privilege. You don't get to steal money from the public coffers to fund your separatism.

Long story short: We called the Amway Customer Service and canceled out on them. When they very politely asked why, we simply informed them that we didn't want our dollars helping to fund Amway's pro-voucher stance. 

Dang! What other All American products and such will fall by the wayside. And this, after my always looking for the Made in the USA labels and marketing. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_voucher

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/us/politics/betsy-devos-trumps-education-pick-has-steered-money-from-public-schools.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_DeVos

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_DeVos

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amway

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Let the Twinkle of Mirth Abound on Earth



"The twinkle of mirth is needed on earth in many a situation in which mankind find them­selves. A happy, confident approach to any situation, even what appears to be quite a serious one, is of tremendous assistance to all concerned in bringing about a divinely just and satisfactory resolution thereof.
To possess a good sense of humor is to be greatly blessed; but if you are not so natur­ally blessed, you can always call to any of us and we shall be oh, so grateful for that call which will enable us to give you the sense of humor that is so much a part of the consciousness of the ascended host."

"Unaccountability is a word that does not apply to man’s use of God’s life. Everyone is always account­able to the cosmic law for the release of his energy (life) through his thought, feeling, spoken word and deed.
Of course Divine Love is the master presence and authority of the entire universe, and its law supersedes all others. However, as applied to those who will not use that Law of Love, the karmic law by its very nature must return to its sender the energy sent forth qualified by human shadow, and always gathering more of its kind with accumulated energy of the same qualification. At times retribution for the misuses of God’s life follows like a swift arrow that action which set the cause in motion and produces the effect of returning karma."

"The chalice of the heart is the generative point in man from which the gentle, Godlike feelings of Divine Love emanate; and these feelings qualify the thoughts, spoken words, and actions of each lifestream. You see, feelings account for the greatest per­centage of man’s qualification of his daily allotment of energy–about 90 percent; whereas thought uses only about 10 percent. As the individual release his feelings from his heart and solar plexus, often as on swift wings, they travel around the world fulfilling the law of the circle, and they never fail to return to their source!"

"Therefore, watch the feelings you allow to pass through your lifestream. For they are even more important than your thoughts. It is easy to test this truth. For instance, if there is a difference between your thoughts and your feelings, most of the time your feelings will win out, because they represent the greater pressure of energy that is acting. Do you see?
So while standing watchful guard over your feelings, be sure to restrain the unhappy mood; and as quickly as you are aware of its presence, turn your attention to something pleasant in your surroundings or, better still, to one of us, and thus change that mood instantly from that which distresses you to that which gives you Light and its joyous expression."

"So, to bring you divine illumination that emanates from above the stars and is sent from my heart to yours with a twinkle! again I say–
Let the twinkle of mirth
Abound on earth!
For joy is one of the virtues of Divine Love; and joy and mirth are vibrations that in your application of the Law assist you to attain much more quickly your daily as well as your ultimate victory. Such victory I AM express­ing–all ways."

http://www.summitlighthouse.org/a-twinkle-of-mirth/

Monday, December 12, 2016

The Donald: Much Too Much Media Coverage

During the 2016 election cycle, the "King  of Twitter" very astutely capitalized on that social medium which allows short snippets to speak volumes in a superficial way that appealed to the multitudes. Though I don't do Twitter, Facebook, etcetera, the media provided very thorough coverage of his clips of sarcasm and banality.  Thus, I could see how the professional entertainer tycoon was able to coax some people into believing in him.

At this point in time, however, I think it's time to start holding him accountable. Where he follows through on campaign promises, give him credit. Where he doesn't, don't. Also, do NOT click on "fluff pieces" (either pro or con) about him. It only encourages him and his minions in the wrong way. And for that, we have to hold ourselves accountable.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2016/jul/15/donald-trumps-top-10-campaign-promises/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/politics/i-will-give-you-everything-here-are-282-of-donald-trumps-campaign-promises/2016/11/24/01160678-b0f9-11e6-8616-52b15787add0_story.html

Silver Lining for Climate Change Future

"Climate change is an existential threat to the United States of America and to humanity as a whole, and time is running very short to undertake the necessary top-to-bottom overhaul of world society to stave it off.....Unlike previous existential threats — like Nazi Germany, for example — the really serious danger of climate change is far in the future, it will gather strength relatively slowly, and, above all, knowledge of it comes through a highly technical and abstract scientific process. "Armed men will invade and kill us all" is easy to understand and culturally familiar; "in 50 to 100 years climate feedbacks could spin out of control and do irreparable damage to the biosphere which supports human life" is not.
http://theweek.com/articles/665953/democrats-become-climate-crusaders?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_source=afternoon&utm_medium=12_12_16-article_1-665953

My Comment: When opportunity has been ignored, a challenge presents itself as conditions escalate. Effective international action to stave of excessive fossil fuel consumption is a lost opportunity from twenty years ago. Now that a fossil fuel growth proponent is the president elect, we shall now fail to meet the challenge. By 2037, the beginnings of the crisis will be upon us. That is unless the '4 Horsemen' intervene to both reduce overpopulation and consumption of industrial products, electricity, etcetera. Our new president's distorted ego may be the linchpin for such? Note: It is appropriate that his most staunch supporters are firm believers in the apocalypse. [Question: Are they right? Or will it be a case of a self fulfilling prophecy?]

FYI: Many people are under the mistaken assumption that reduction of CO2 emissions will correlate with a reduction of atmospheric CO2 levels. Not so. It would slow the rate of increase only. Why? The oceans' ability to absorb CO2 is steadily diminishing (correlates with increasing ocean acidification).
https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/2016/05/23/why-has-a-drop-in-global-co2-emissions-not-caused-co2-levels-in-the-atmosphere-to-stabilize/

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.livescience.com/50182-2014-co2-emissions-stabilized.html

Friday, December 9, 2016

Physical Manifestations of Mental Images and Misconceptions

Imagine sitting in a darkened movie theater watching the story of your life playing out on the giant screen as shown through a series of sequential highlighted moments. You first see yourself in heaven as a spirit choosing to incarnate into a particular situation where you will unavoidably create particular kinds of events that you need to learn from due to your personal misconceptions. You watch as childhood hurts unfold because of this. You see the images created by your misconceptions and errors in judgement manifest from your thoughts through your emotions into physical reality. As you become aware of your lifetime of interactions with others, you suddenly recall Shakespeare's quote:
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players...". 
Now your life takes on a deeper meaning. You now know that your soul is your own. You're the one in charge of how you react to situations. Then, you become aware of the misconceptions in your mental body and how that dictated how you emoted a physical response that was inappropriate.  

Sitting in the theater, you realize that the bright white bulb of the projector is like your spirit shining forth and focused through the film. The film is the matrix of your soul. The light shines thru it and finally manifests on the physical screen. And, you in the theater chair, are the "point of soul consciousness" observing this. And, now that you are aware of this, and that time and space is illusory, you realize that it is up to you to transform and transmute the wrong headedness of your misconceptions so that your life manifestations are more properly aligned with cosmic law.

Thursday, December 8, 2016

2016 Election: Levels of American Voters

By my way of thinking, there are five levels in categorizing Voters in the 2016 election.
There are:
1)people who voted against Trump 
2)people who voted for Clinton 
3)people who did not vote (or voted third party)
4)people who voted against Clinton 
5)people who voted for Trump.

The people who voted for Trump (because they especially liked him) are in a special category all unto themselves. To the degree that their liking of Trump was sincere and "not" based on hate, then I accept their view.

The people who voted for Trump because of anger, I can recognize their choice "to the degree" that they were sure of their facts (not conspiracy theories, fake news or irrational 'post truths'). 

For the people who didn't vote, I can hear the voice of my father echoing with "why vote for the bastards- you only encourage them". To the degree that you're if this ilk, then I respect your choice to not vote.

For those who especially liked Clinton, though I sympathize with your loss, she was not a very nice person, either. But, she was the safest choice and very highly qualified. Teapot dictators around the world are breathing a sigh of relief about now.

For people like me who voted against Trump by voting for Clinton, amongst other reasons, we realize that having one party in control of all three of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches is not a good idea. I shouldn't have to explain that. It was taught in high school civics classes as "voting split tickets" to balance power.

Note: If I had believed that Trump would balance our federal budget, I'd have voted for him. But, when he said he would lower the corporate tax rate to 15%, I knew he was still a corporate fat cat at heart. The highest they pay is about 30-35% before tax breaks, subsidies, etcetera leaving them in reality at an average of 15%. Whereas, I am on teacher retirement and social security, and I pay 25%, even after paying GPO/WEP penalty. [I would like to see America return to the graduated tax bracket system like we had in 1986 (adjusted for inflation)]

Federal Individual Income Tax Rates History:
http://taxfoundation.org/sites/default/files/docs/fed_individual_rate_history_nominal.pdf

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Mommy Daddy Issues: Inside Trump's Improbable Win


"....Donald Trump is now president-elect because his relentless, sometimes manic salesman’s pitch was able to pluck a string with Americans that no poll really managed to capture: The perpetual belief that a new character with a new story could deliver them something nobody else could, whether a trade victory over China, or a wall against Mexicans, or a return to a vision of America that seemed to be vanishing for good. And the more he cut loose, the more the media covered him, and the more people he reached...."

Read the original article excerpt from Politico Magazine:
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/11/donald-trump-wins-2016-214438

Note: While all of the political experts have nailed down the political and social truths surrounding Trump's win, one observation that I've made amongst my family and friends who passionately supported either Clinton or Trump have strong "mommy daddy" issues in their personal lives. Now, I'm not referencing the Mommy Daddy political issues divide first popularized in the 60s. I'm talking about visceral personal feelings towards one's own parents based on childhood hurts.

If reading this immediately stirs a defensive reaction, then you owe it to yourself to consider this factor in your own feelings. [With this in mind, I googled "voting based on mommy daddy issues". It's good reading that extends itself to a wide variety of areas other than politics.]

Monday, December 5, 2016

Post-truth: Untruthing Without Condemnation

'Post-truth' is the 2016 word of the year. It describes debate based on passion and emotion rather than reason and evidence. It's being critical without critical thinking skills. In short, it is active misinformation and the mainstay of fake news. 

Time was that we referred to these people as either intellectual idiots or much worse. But, we wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings in this day and age of 'safe spaces' now would we. And I suppose that post-truther is a more precise and gentile way of describing someone who's a huckster, shill, film-flam man, etcetera.

So, google 'post truth' and you'll hit a treasure trove of well written articles. 

Being critical versus critical thinking:
http://debatepedia.idebate.org/en/index.php/Being_critical_versus_critical_thinking

Wikipedia' entry on post-truth:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-truth_politics

Fake News?! Comic
http://cdn.app.theweek.com/editions/com.dennis.theweek.issue.issue799/data/48022_136deb273664e8d90ef2763b529e74d7/web.html

Friday, December 2, 2016

Super-sized Vehicles: Monoliths of a Bygone Era

When I walk through parking lots in my suburb, I often see oversized vehicles crowding others. As I walk by, I can see that almost all of them have never even been driven on a dirt road. Nor have they ever  likely hauled loads worthy of their tremendous hauling capacity. Mostly, they serve only to fulfill someone's vanity. Larger than life, these monoliths are phallic symbols to excessive resource consumption.
Note: I'm not referring to normal sized SUVs and such. I'm talking about those that outsize what would have been considered big twenty years ago.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyXnaDtCdJ5Df4ujHagdt23nJreKl7pmjBQBUD6XvAhuxsaUa9hdgqTEQDEYbyOTWtRKztFaoX9u09So6gfI1ZsY9K0ELlagejRIw637HWSvUofV0RKRN_VHrw2CgIf4E5nQcExhhPbh4/s1600/Monolith+1.jpg

Here is an example of what I mean:

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/inventory.nwmsrocks.com/25748-RP/data/03-1019x680.jpg