California has a Super Majority of Dems in Both our State House and Assembly

Californians have elected a 2/3 majority in the Senate and a super majority in the state assembly. And as we’ve all heard, “as California goes so does the nation.” I think this, as much or more than the presidential election show that people are waking up to the fact that the Republicans are double talking southern strategists who protect the interest of the 1 percent and the 1 percent only. It is heartening. I believe this is what spirit was referring to in the summer when it gave me such high numbers for the assembly and senate in CA and maybe referring to the mid-term election. CA will be a petri dish for the nation. It has always been “conventional wisdom” to split the house and senate in order to, I guess, keep balance? But this strategy I think we are already seeing has been a stupid one with the new radical right wing Republican party. It may have worked when rational thought was still in vogue but alas now days it’s passe’ among Republicans as there are no longer any moderate ones.

I do want to go into some darker things about visions I have had about the backlash. As all my readers can see there are some seriously psychotic, nasty, delusional people who populate the far right. They seized control of the Republican party and in essence have dismantled it ,because lets face it, most people are not psychotic, nasty, delusional people who want to see others starve while the upper crust pick the bones of the dead from the rotting corpses after the self induced Rapture. 

Most people are reasonable – and it used to be that the Republican party (many years ago in a long lost time) were reasonable, normal people. They even did some amazing things like Lincoln who freed the slaves. They used to be a moderate party who just had different ideas on how to get things done but alas they have been highjacked by the birthers, tea-baggers, plutocrats and religious zealots who have EVERYTHING in COMMON with the Muslims zealots they are so “afraid” of, yet they believe exactly the same things – that women should be chattel, have no rights to their own bodies, and government should be a theocracy.

Yet somehow they don’t see the irony, or similarity between their desire to merge State with Church as those zealots in the Middle-East who started a similar movement back in the 70s and turned countries like Iran from moderate western leaning countries into theocracies that we now are horrified by. I ask these people why they believe merging Christianity with State business would be any better – that experiement was tried during the middle-ages and was an abysmal failure similar to what we have seen in the middle-east. Or the merger of the  made up, bizarre Nazi religion that was merged with their government.

THEOCRACY really DOESN’T WORK. Seriously, just look at the history.

Problem is most people who support a theocracy think that theocracy will be a theocracy that looks like their religion – but what if it isn’t? What if you were a Christian and had to convert to Buddhism – would that be OK?

Yeah, no, we all know the answer…

This is why the founding fathers seperated church and state. And those who say they were “Christian” should do a little digging into what those of us who read call “history” as it turns out most of them were occultists.

Yes, they believed in God (used as a general term for a higher being) but they weren’t all Christians – Ben Frankly I’m pretty sure was an atheist.

Controlling religious belief is what the COMMUNISTS did to their people. They would NOT ALLOW ANY RELIGION. They REQUIRED a belief in ATHEISM because of the statement by Marx that “Religion was the Opiate of the masses.” What the extreme right are proposing is in essence no different than what the Chinese do to their people (but on the other side of the same coin) by disallowing personal freedom to choose how many children to have. This is the same thing the right-wing Christians want to do – they just want to take the choice away on the opposite side. Ironically, both the far right’s ideas truly mirror the very things they are terrified of.

Government – at least in a DEMOCRACY – has no right to invade people’s bedrooms, privacy or lifestyle. I have a ministerial credential and have married Gay couples many times because I believe that being GAY IS COMPLETELY NATURAL and people shouldn’t be punished or disallowed rights that other people have because they fall in love differently than the majority. Just as being Wiccan, Buddhist, Mormon, a Spiritualist or whatever religious or non-religious persuasion one has – should not be discriminated against – nor should it be the business of the public or the government.

It states plainly in our BILL OF RIGHTS. We have the right to:  Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

So unless those rights impinge on the welfare of others than case closed. THE END. NO more discussion should be had – it is not the business of those who are straight to decide the fate of gay people anymore than it is the right of men to decide what women do with their bodies or for women to decide that male pattern baldness should be punishable by law. It’s all ABSOLUTELY ABSURD. There is NO MORAL arguement to be made – sorry folks on the right. Give me one actual MORAL arguement not the lame “God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve,” crap. Actually God did make Adam and Steve because 10 percent of all animals on this planet are homosexual. My beloved cat Geb was gay and lucky for him he wasn’t born human or he would have been made to feel like crap about himself for the way GOD made him.

You can’t have it both ways – God = all powerful and loving and God = makes mistakes and creates horrible suffering and evil. (And don’t try making the Devil argument he’s a later invention.) He’s an amalgamation of many other demonic figures, old Gods/Goddess and even the word Hell comes from the Ancient Goddess of the Hell Fires up in Scandinavia where souls crossed over into the next world. Maybe that was like heaven to them – it is REALLY REALLY COLD there. 

All I ask from the far right wingers is they stop watching their daily zombie diet of FOX News and just do some actual research using BOOKS and CREDIBLE sources. It’s not a coincidence that the more educated one is in the bible the more one sees inconsistencies and questions their religious beliefs. In fact many great theological scholars end up Agnostics and all the priests I knew back when I was quickly converted to Catholicism after my father’s death were openly so. 

However the urge to be ONE WITH GOD is absolutely and totally human and noble. I absolutely get the need to merge with this mysterious and beautiful force that is so beyond our understanding that we have hundreds of different interpretations of the same religion in each organized religion and in older religions like Hinduism there are thousands not to mention how abstract and esoteric the ideas get. 

I totally applaud the desire to be close to God/Creator/Goddess/Great Spirit/Life Force/Universe/Multivesre whatever you want to call it. I get it. I have it in excess. This is exactly why no one way works and why we should never NEVER judge or associate right/wrong or hatred with this SACRED FORCE.  We have to allow each soul to find his/her way to the Great One. 

As Rodney King said, “Can’t we all just get along.” I mean really. God has a plan for everyone and the truth is if you are judgmental and nasty for sure you don’t know it. In fact you are lost yourself. God doesn’t work through fear because fear is the opposite of love not hate. I say this because love brings compassion and understanding and fear brings intolerance, hatred and disconnection and the source of all love is GOD/SPIRIT/UNIVERSE/CREATOR/MULTIVERSE/PLACE YOUR WORD FOR IT HERE. 

I am heartened today by the fact that the stars (which reflect the Great Spirit’s plans for us) have been abided.

I however am not naive to the very strong and powerful forces of greed, selfishness and shortsightedness which fuel the motives of those who must feed their need to feel important by lording over other human beings – aka plutocrats (think of Trump as the inadvertent spokesman for their subconscious thoughts as he appears to be a walking Id.) These dark forces will rear their ugly heads again and we have a long way to go to correct the many years they’ve had to game the system. 

One must always be vigiliant against these forces everywhere. Lets not forget Germany was a Democracy before Hitler was elected.

And for those who said it couldn’t happen here (those I argued with as far back as HS) take heed – ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.

Many blessings and peace be with all of you,

Denise

The Pollster Interview

I talked to the inspector at our local polling place and according to him what happened to my husband and I has been happening all over LA and it is a CRIME. It involves FORGING a signature in order to get an “absentee ballot.” Luckily. I had mine and I surrendered it so I could vote as if the whole thing hadn’t happened. However I wouldn’t have been able to if it hadn’t happened to my husband first and then I talked to someone at the state.

Most people don’t know the laws and don’t realize how nefarious this is. When I talked to Poll workers at my local polling place they all confirmed that the absentee phenomena had been happening “all day” and was rampant. They were calling the county to complain, but as I informed them I made this mistake in 2000 when I called the county as the head of the local polling place to report illegal electioneering pamphlets left on a table next to legit voter information. I guess this is why spirit said, “it’s going to be close – even though it shouldn’t be.” Here’s the “shouldn’t be” part. The Republicans have pulled out all the evil dirty tricks all over this country to try to win.

Well all I can say is this time – YOU’RE GOING DOWN! We have this thing called the internet. One percenters you can’t control everyone through your zombie making machine known as FOX NEWS. This is over. And YOUR SHENANIGANS are OVER!

Everyone who has experienced voter intimidation, voter fraud, voter suppression I URGE YOU TO RISE UP! We don’t want to live in a THEOCRATIC PLUTOCRACY! And unless you do your part to stop this constant onslaught of BS from the FASCIST party we’ll be in serious trouble.

I have long felt we are headed for a civil war here our only way of avoiding this fate is to rise up PEACEFULLY and PROSECUTE those who are TRYING TO TAKE OUR RIGHTS AWAY!

The USSR used to exist. It was a communist state. It’s now a democracy. Germany is now a Democracy and not a Nazi state. Well, if we aren’t careful we could go from being a Democracy to a Fascist state. I am not being hyperbolic. It is something I have withheld (because I didn’t want to freak people out) since I was 12 years old. Since the rebirth of the Republican party via Ronald Reagan.

This coup has been a long and well thought out cancer within our government and I absolutely believe we could lose our Democracy or have to fight for it.

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! DO NOT BE DISSUADED! DO NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER!

MAKE YOUR VOICE COUNT! We are AMERICANS! Fair play is what we stand for not stealing elections!

They will not win.

And let’s not be wimps about making them pay for what they are doing and have done. When this is all over go to your representatives, take to the streets, DEMAND INVESTIGATIONS and PROSECUTIONS for those who are trying to take OUR RIGHTS AWAY. If not for yourself do it for your CHILDREN and your GRANDCHILDREN. It’s time we made our sacrifice. We have to ENGAGE!

Peace,

Denise

Hey Everyone an Update…

I am liberal in my personal beliefs, because I do believe in helping other people whenever I can, and I do believe all people are not given the same opportunities in life.  In order for everyone to fulfill their true potential we need to help one another not tear each other down or deride those who make less or are less fortunate. So for those of you who claim me to be a liberal you are right – any person of faith in God (in my opinion) has to be. Every religious book, every spiritual practice teaches us to help the needy, love our brother as ourselves – you know all those things the bible teaches that so many Christians seem to have exchanged for a love of money which BTW goes directly against all teachings in both books of the bible.

Ironically I would not consider myself to be part of any organized religion – they are all too politically motivated and (in my opinion) often separate us from our own connection to the divine. But they do provide a great jumping off point and for the vast majority of people they work very well – just not people like me who are more shamanistic in our approach to the Great Spirit.

For those who think my predictions are what I wish where true, nothing could be further from the truth. Obama is actually far more conservative than I would like him to be. I wish he did do the things that FOX accuses him of, like helping the needy more. I do like him and admire him for turning this economy around and for trying to stay very much in the middle because that’s where the majority of Americans are – in the middle.

As liberal as I am about helping those in need I am very conservative about my views on violent criminals. I don’t believe that people who commit violent crimes should be given a chances which amounts to an experiment on the innocent masses of all of us who are non-violent. I do think people who hurt themselves like drug addicts and the insane should be given treatment rather than prison.

It’s true I have predicted many events I did not wish to happen. I knew Ronald Reagan would win – although I was too young to have a real opinion about this. I knew he would win a second term, I knew George Bush would win and that Clinton would get two terms that George W would win the electoral college making him our president and Al Gore would win the popular vote. I would have preferred Al Gore as the winner. In fact I was very upset about this revelation but I still made that prediction.

I actually voted for Hillary Clinton in the primary so I am not an operative for Obama although I think he’s done an amazing job despite how things have gone. The truth is I am compassionate and due to my empathy which is the very thing I use to read events and people through, it’s impossible for me to root for people whose policies I know would mean the death, destruction and contribute to poverty for millions more people.

I want everyone to be happy, healthy, and secure. I want everyone to find love and peace and a connection to God however they can or if they choose to not find God but just peace. I hold no grudges even for those who have betrayed me at the deepest levels and I pray for those who have hatred in their heart that they may find peace and happiness. It is from this perspective that I am proud to say that I am a liberal. I want freedom – this is the root of the word liberal – freedom. Just as the word libertarian comes from that same root.

I have traveled around the world and seen 3rd world countries and European democracies. I know that when people are encouraged to do well in school and given free education, when they are given real vacation time and healthcare they not only have a better quality of life they are happier more productive people with tighter family units. It is actually our government that set up many of these governments after WWII and we not only gave them freedom – we gave them a better deal than we have been able to give ourselves.

I understand that there has been a media machine brainwashing people who don’t benefit from a plutocracy – toward believing they somehow they will benefit from it. I have also had the special privilege of growing up among the wealthy 1 percent in fact my father’s family was in that group before the market crash of 1929. My grandfather was a CEO of a kosher meat-packing company and was very wealthy. His children were all conservative Republicans. My father and my mother as well were Republicans. We moved into a Republican enclave shortly before my father died when I was ten and I saw the man behind the curtain that so many Americans have not until now.

I was raised Catholic after my father died because that was my mother’s religion and it was the Rabbi who performed my father’s funeral service who introduced us to a wonderful church. I studied the bible intensively and many other religious traditions (later on). My father had wanted to be a Rabbi and in fact my family is Levite which is in the Jewish faith is from the tribe of Levi – or a sort of priest caste.

I am absolutely pro religious freedom because I believe all religions are right and all religions are flawed due to our inability to understand the nature of God and human beings desire for power over their fellow human beings. I really resent the idea that I am an “operative of Obama” as I truly am not. If there were a Republican who reflected my values I would vote Republican, but not since before Nixon has their been one that I would consider (and of course I was a baby then so…). I certainly would have voted for Lincoln. I would have voted for Eisenhower. Never have the Republicans been so in the pocket of the plutocrats. I know the Democrats are not perfect – but I do believe they are at least following in the footsteps of our Forefathers spirit. Yes, they too have been bought and if it were up to me I would say give all people running for the presidency 100,000 of public money and no more and disallow them from any contributions from the public or the private sector. I think if they actually had to convince us based on their ideas (as they used to before TV) and had to listen to our collective voices we would restore this democratic-republic to its true state of balance. Until then we are in trouble.

And there are Republicans I admire like John McCain. I just don’t think he would have made the best president at that time. He however is someone who is true to his ideals and I believe a stand up person. I’m sure if I met George W at a party, I would love the guy but that’s not who I vote for. I vote for people who will help the less fortunate because I don’t want to live in a world where hundreds of children run up to me trying to sell pencils (like in Bali) just so they can eat when they should be in school. I don’t want to live in a world where there are old blind beggars because we (despite our immense wealth) won’t give them social security or medicare. I don’t want to walk down a street where my heart aches for the hordes of homeless people we saw during the 80s when I worked 80 hours a week and gave every desperate person I could whatever money I had on me.

I believe that money is not the holy grail. I believe our connection to God and the divine, love and kindness are the holy grail that life has to offer. And that goes beyond just helping out our own family, it means helping all of humanity, all the earth and all the creatures that God has made.

Call me what you will, but this is who I am and it can not be separated from my spirituality. I see what I see and often it isn’t what I want. But just because it doesn’t match up with what others want to believe doesn’t make it wrong. In fact there have been so many things I saw coming that I didn’t want to happen like the inevitability of the Iraq war and the lies that were at the core of  selling it to us. The fact that George W was going to win because (his astrology was a tad better than Gore’s at the time for winning) and it actually upset me because I could see the dark road we were about to head down and indeed that happened. But that didn’t stop me from telling people what was going to be.

I don’t control anything. I’m just a messenger. And yes the old expression, “don’t kill the messenger” applies here. Don’t mistake me for having any power over events – I don’t. And just because I say it, doesn’t make it happen. For whatever reason I just know and am told by spirit what will happen. I am as powerless and as powerful as every other human being on this planet.

Sure if I had my way I would wave a magic wand and give everyone peace, happiness and prosperity but I can’t do that. We have to do that together by being rational and looking at the truth even when it goes against what we are led to believe.

Many blessings,

Denise

In response to all the people who have been writing me for readings. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to do this either through a podcast or something so that I can do it for free. I don’t like charging people for what I feel is something sacred. And I do feel money can pervert the ability in some cases. I originally set my rates based on what the going prices were and the fact that I was on the fence about doing readings because I do have a tendency to really empathize with my clients and it can really disturb me if they are having troubles. So I had to stop for my own health and I have been making my living writing (not for this blog by the way) and I feel that is where I am heading. I am however training a woman with an exceptional gift to take on people who need help. She will be charging less. I may on occasion do readings when I’m not so bogged down and I’m still looking for an outlet. If I could do it for people who need it but not have to charge them that would be ideal but find a way to be sponsored. So I am also looking into doing spots on radio and podcasts and when I’m not so bogged down doing my own podcast where I can read people.

For those of you who are in a bad place and want people to pray for you post on the prayer page. The more we pray for one another the better the world will be. As I said in my Noory interview the next 30 years will see climatic and environmental changes taking out more people than anything else – and all that is related to that like the spread of diseases, quakes, all things of natural origin.

Yes, the middle east will be in turmoil for a long time. But I guess it wasn’t clear that I was saying I didn’t see us getting involved in any more wars over there for the time being. Perhaps 8-12 years away but for now their conflicts will stay regional except the wars we are already involved in. Eventually I feel we will be pulled back into war and that war which we will teeter on for the next decade will the one no one would ever wish for WWIII.

In fact the future is a stew of our collective decisions and there is still a chance to change this if we want to. I am conservative on my views of Islam – the moderates are fine but the zealots remind me of the ancient middle-aged views that created the death of millions of Europeans. But I’m also concerned about people who claim to be of any religion who think murdering others or controlling others is the key to the problems of the world. God’s ways our beyond our understanding and we have to remain humble to that and follow the moral compass given us by our Creator. We know hurting, killing, violating, stealing, cheating, betraying are all hurtful – morality is really simple – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And if you can’t relate to others or lack compassion for their circumstances take a moment to reflect on something in your own life – a time when you may have done or been in a similar situation and first forgive yourself for your failings and then do what you can to help the other person be the best person they can be in whatever small way you can.

So for those who think I’m just a “liberal” which I am. Think about this I don’t just believe in God I KNOW there is a GOD and I KNOW without a doubt that GOD is so far beyond our puny human minds that we have no business judging those who have been less fortunate than ourselves.

Blessings to all beings, may peace, happiness, love and prosperity be a reality for all who choose the path of kindness.

Owls, Spiders, Occupying Wallstreet

I want to thank the people who have gotten out of their homes and gotten together old school to try and affect change. Since Uranus has been in Aries I have been saying privately this is the age of revolutions. I can’t remember if I blogged about it. But probably didn’t because I try to stay positive for the most part on the blog.

I went to Maui and just got back. I really felt the need to reconnect with nature. The balance of the human world feels so off kilter and disturbed that to just remember the beauty of the Creator was much-needed as I felt a great disturbance in energy coming from Iran which I chose not to blog about, and rather wrote down in a private journal. I don’t want to scare anyone – just make people aware that it is my feeling the leader of that country is feeling under pressure to leave and he is a control freak and wants to stay in power at all costs. I think he is trying to bait the US into a war. I received this information in late September, but the feeling was so awful and scary I didn’t feel it was good to put this info out there. Now that it is somewhat known I only want to warn our government not to take the bait. He is using a technique similar to “death by police.” If he can’t have power than no one will – he’d be willing to destroy his own people in mass like some people do by shooting up a public place and getting the cops to kill them – they want to commit suicide, but they are too afraid to do so, and are so angry with the world they want to take out as many people as possible in a final grab for power. We must show great restraint here in dealing with Iran as the leader will try many things to get us to go to war as his power slips. However the people of Iran our currently on our side – they want democracy and we must remember that and not take his bait.

Now onto several other things. I’ve been reading this book called, “The Narcissism Epidemic.” I found it because I wanted to write an article for this blog about this very issue. The 80s notion of “greed is good” and the emphasis on fame and materialism is a disturbing turn in our collective consciousness. Ironically there has never been a more difficult time to actually achieve financial wealth and have real fame (not Facebook/Twitter “fame”) than right now. The American dream has been all but destroyed since the deregulation of corporate America. It’s become a case of feast or famine for most of us and we have been divided to the point where we believe we have no voice, and we have been fed the poisonous soma of vanity, materialism and unrealistic expectations. Although I don’t agree with every conclusion the authors draw from the data they have collected – I have felt for the past ten years (especially) that good manners and caring about others seems about as fashionable as bow ties and sensible shoes.  However it is through helping others that we find true connection, peace, love, a sense of purpose, even our true purpose itself rather than wasting time talking on cell phones, checking facebook every fifteen minutes and twittering about the sandwich we are eating – it’s best to just take in life and process it.

Being a writer and a visual artist as well (who often uses photography) I found that I was unable to be in the moment on a trip when I was behind the camera. I probably take 10 percent of the pictures that a normal person does on vacation because I want to be present – not a voyeur of my life. It seems we have become voyeurs of our lives in every sense – we are one step removed with little fish hooks out on the net, or via our phone, cell phone, etc. Yet we will be out to dinner with a good friend and talk to some random person who happens to call. This is why I never keep my cell phone on. I also don’t check my e-mail everyday – sorry about that – but I refuse to deny life for the sake of false connection. All of those devices leave us empty when we don’t control them. However they are also great when we do apply rules to them. I am a hermit – this is my nature. I need a LOT of time to myself. Some people are not. For them perhaps these tools are fantastic to meet up with friends and go to protests. I think these tools are only healthy (however) when used to actually connect and not when used as a substitute for connection which I fear has been happening to us more and more, leaving us isolated and headed toward delusion.

Delusion? Yes. In real life when you interact with friends they tell you when a hat looks stupid on you. They tease you when you talk to much. They call you on your BS. But when life becomes a monologue there is no one to call us on our stuff and we stop growing. I believe this is partially why NPD and those tendencies have grown to epidemic proportions and this is supported by loads of evidence.

NPD and narcissistic tendencies are not (as previously thought) due to many of the things once thought – they are often a result of delusion – yes, truly when you boil it down – not knowing ones strengths and weaknesses and we all have both – that’s what makes us, us. If we were all totally hot, had 200 IQs and sang like Mariah Carey – we’d be robots. Our weaknesses define us as much as our strengths and there is nothing wrong with weakness. Weaknesses are either things to avoid (like I’m a clutz so I don’t wear high heels or do anything requiring grace and balance – I once spilled hot coffee on my own head – it’s true). So what. I suck at a lot of things. I’m good at things, too. Just like everyone I have gifts and failings. Failings can sometimes be things we can work on to learn from like being a hermit – not always a good thing – but I work on it and often find I have fun leaving my house.

But to bring it all back to where I started the Wall Street occupation – I am so proud that people have gotten together and are actually demanding change. This is the great thing about the loss of materialism – once the cell phone, TV, computer and video games are turned off we find we are actually in a room with a lot of other people who have needs and are sharing this space with us. We are learning the lessons of our great-grandparents who often (unfortunately) had to die for better working conditions and simple basic human rights. They fought not just for their own dignity and well-being, but for the hope of a better future for their children and their children’s children. And then those kids forgot and began resenting other people for “getting” things that they didn’t – hate and racism, divide and conquer tore this country apart. Instead of recognizing the sacred spark of divinity in all living beings we traded democracy for capitalism where everything was a game – and the more unfair your advantage the better off you did.

Capitalism is not Democracy and Socialism is not Communism. Democracy is actually antithetical to an entirely “free market” because just like communism it doesn’t take into account human nature – people are greedy, people will game the system when they can and they will find ways to justify their despicable actions when caught doing anti-social things. Everyone is not a saint if they were capitalistic communism would have been a perfect system and as we have seen they are both abysmal failures.

And BTW communism is not the same as socialism. Almost all Western European countries are socialist democracies and nearly all have done better than we have. Our current financial spread is akin to a third world country – all the wealth is in 400 families’ hands. How is that honoring our forefathers belief that “all men are created equal,” and have the rights to, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” How can one purse anything but their next meal when they can’t find a job, have no money and what money they did invest was gamed against them and stolen by crooks with briefcases.

The biggest welfare recipients are corporations. What I want to know is if corporations are people than why do they have so many more rights than I do? They can move overseas and file taxes where its cheapest and not go to prison for fraud. Pretty awesome to be a corporation or as Mit Romney defended them a “person” – of course not a real person like me or you – a paper person where no rules apply except exemptions.

My prayers are with you OWLS and I think you should call yourselves that because owls are wise and represent messages from spirit. Those with owl medicine (such as myself) are unable to be fooled – can see through things, are psychic, clairvoyant and clairaudiant. So embrace the owl. It is not an evil symbol as some reader stated that whenever they saw an owl it was a bad omen – when you see an owl it can mean many things, but it is always a message from spirit. In most people’s cases they don’t usually get messages from spirit unless they are in trouble. Well this country – this world is in trouble so let the message be heard – Time for the spirit to usurp the material and for real change to come from us, the people – the place where true change has always arisen and always will.

Thanks be to the Great Spirit for this beautiful awakening,

Many blessings,

Denise

Oh, and don’t invest in the market unless your part of the one percent. The one percent will just find a way to steal your money. We need  a thousand times more trade, market, corporate and business regulations than we have. Unless you are on the inside –  you are on the outside watching the ball bounce across the numbers on a roulette wheel. Maybe someday when this is sorted, but not now. Don’t give them anymore of your money – PLEASE!!!

Obama & Flu Be Gone

I didn’t want to be too hard on Obama. But I really don’t think keeping the statis quo as it has been for the past 30 years is the right way to go. We are in this horrible mess because we need to truly change, destroy and rebuild our system. There are too many old bones rattling around slowing down the wheels of progress, too much power that corporations have and too much reliance on corporate self-policing.

Obama just needs to get in there and do some serious butt kicking the way old FDR did it back in the day. Granted Obama has more hurdles and a country ill informed, and the vast majority of Americans who don’t even understand the basics of the economy well enough to know they are being swindled and lied to by FOX news inc. and as someone mentioned the big start of all this happened during the Reagan administration, when double speak and calling the conservative corporate media “the liberal media” started and all kinds of saying the opposite of the truth to cover the truth began.

Obama has a huge (and rather terrifying) job of reforming a dying beast in front of him. He is an amazing and erudite man, gentile and compassionate. These are all great qualities which I respect in him. I just want him to feel free to be a warrior on behalf of our country and do what needs to be done by disassembling the corporatocracy and re-instating the democracy we are supposed to be.

Hey, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’m finally over the flu despite being barfed on twice this weekend by my lovely little daughter.

Many blessings to all you kind and good hearted people,

Denise

In Memory of Duane Jarvis & Our Broken Health Care System

On April 1^st we learned a 51 year old friend, Duane Jarvis, died of colon cancer. I knew him for years before his girlfriend told me he had a terrible, painful case of scoliosis and had spent much of his life in bad health and in pain. Yet, he was a gentle and sweet spirit who relished life and took every opportunity to be and do what his heart dictated. About eighteen months ago he was diagnosed with colon cancer. We found this out because his ex-wife in an effort to help him sent out e-mails to all his friends to help him with his mounting medical bills.

Now this man was no slouch. He worked all his life as a professional musician. But of course being a musician is not like working at Starbucks, there are no 401k plans with health and dental added. Yet, he contributed to the lineage of art so many of us love. He was Lucinda Williams guitar player and co-wrote some songs with her, played with Frank Black, Dwight Yoakam, Dave Alvin, John Prine, Michelle Shocked and many more. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/03/duane-jarvis-in.html  http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/04/duane-jarvis-dies-at-51-la-roots-music-singersongwriter-and-guitarist.html  One could say he made his mark in the music world and on all who knew him. Yet because the life of an artist is feast or famine, up, down and a hustle, he did not have adequate health care. And I’m sure with his medical history even if he wanted to purchase it, it would have been out of his ability to pay for it.

His friends pitched in to help save his life. But he lost his battle at 1:30 in the morning at a hospice with an ocean view, with a smile on his face. He never complained about his pain, his disease or his troubles.

Not only was this poor man fighting a horrible, painful, aggressive form of cancer, he had to worry about the financial cost to him and the loved ones he knew he would leave behind. It has been proven that cancer is made worse by stress and chances are good that if he had good medical care to begin with his colon cancer never would have gotten so out of control, claiming his life at the early age of 51.

For all out there who still believe each one of us should think only of ourselves, and not come together as a nation and take care of each other through a universal healthcare system, I ask do you listen to music? Do you read books, enjoy art, read magazines, watch movies or enjoy any form of art as a release, a way to wind down to reflect on your life in a different way? If you answered yes to any of those questions, then I’d like to burst your illusion that those in the arts, even the people you on the outside would deem successful, have the financial stability to pay for their healthcare. Yet we all enjoy the fruits of their work. Art attunes us with our soul, the universe, God, our spirit and each other. It aides compassion, encourages self-reflection and produces self-discovery. It is actually one of the only things we as Americans still make and export. Yet for more than 90% of professional artists of all kinds there is no safety net in this country (unlike other democratic, civilized places.)

Republicans will belly ache about personal responsibility, yet it costs more for us to foot the bill for radical treatment that could have been avoided due to prevention then footing the bill for radical treatment when someone cannot afford their care. And is it fair that after years of giving to the world these individuals and their families should be punished with outrageous bills because they don’t work for a corporation that gives them health insurance?

Our health care system is absurd. There is no reason corporations should pay for our health care and there is no reason people who are self-employed, whether in the arts or otherwise, should be punished with outrageous costs they often opt to avoid.

More than half of all Americans walk this tight rope every day, hoping and praying they don’t get sick because they can’t afford a trip to the doctor’s office let alone several hundred dollars a month to an insurance company who will then, often fight to make sure they pay as little as possible.

Our country has the highest infant mortality rate of any industrialized nations. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html

And our life expectancy is at #50 of all countries in the world, ranking well below all western European countries, Canada, Hong Kong, South Korea and Bosnia for God’s sake.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html

How could it possibly be that we are the wealthiest country in the world and yet we let ten percent of our population control about 70 percent of the wealth? How can anyone who is not in that top echelon actually abide this? Why is it that any rational human being who works and pays taxes is not absolutely outraged by this? And how is it that the Republicans have managed to sell us on the idea that our system is fine?

Oh, yeah, the amplified fear of communism (aka more aptly dictatorship) which is actually just faked for the benefit of those who don’t understand why there would literally have to be a civil war in our country for a dictatorship to occur although we did get just about as close as we could with the Bush administration with their tactic of not counting the votes. According to the Limbaugh’s of the world it appears going back to the tax code of 1993 which was a 36 percent tax for the wealthy 10 percent to a 3 percent increase at 39 percent is a communist plot and of course so is universal health care. Hmm, I wonder who benefits most from that position. Oh, yeah the rich like Limbaugh. So he’s basically arguing from an entirely selfish point of view but trying to sell it as some sort of great American ideal when it’s nothing but more money for his private planes, which by the way he has, I know someone who was picked up and taken to his mansion in Florida by one of them. (Yes, I do have all kinds of friends.)

As I pointed out in an earlier post, communism is not the same as democratic socialism. In communist countries where they took Marx & Lennon’s ideas and ran with them they all ultimately turned into dictatorships because there was no accountability written into their ideology. The notion that a group of people would take everyone’s stuff and then divide it up among all the people evenly is insane and of course was an open invitation for graft, power hungry dictators, and greedy buerocrats. This was beyond psychologically naive, it was ideologically irrational, unsound and irresponsible. No checks and balances, no elections, hell, with all of Marx’s good intentions of lifting up the poor, he may as well have slapped a “rape the people of this country here” sticker on whatever flag adopted those ideas.

As out of whack as the US has gotten with capitalism swallowing our Democracy through corporate lobbyists and special tax laws and loopholes for the wealthy who could pay their way into the halls of power, we still have the power to pull back the reigns on this out of control buggy. And as a people we obviously have started yelling, “whoa!” by ousting the Republicans who have for the past 30 years aligned themselves with corporations, big money and lobbyists in a much more extreme way than Democrats. 

But Democrats have to start really pulling the reigns back before we leap off the mountain here. And let’s get real; they aren’t all that much better than Republicans. They take money from special interests, lobbyists and play all the same games. There is just a bigger percentage of people who identify with the working/middle class in the Democratic party but that’s been drifting away over the past 20 years as well. Which is why Obama was and is such a breath of fresh air. He actually seems like he has, can you believe it, IDEALS! It’s been a long time since we’ve seen that in a politician.

In my humble opinion this form of out of control corporate capitalism is at odds with Democracy at this point in our history. There are laws that need to be put into place, such as, if you are an American company, your product should have to be made in America. As a private citizen if I wanted to go live in France I couldn’t because I’m not French. I’m American. So why is it that corporations started by Americans and incorporated here, can make their crap in China, and then put an office in Guam and avoid paying American taxes? If you ask me this behavior is anti-American and one of the big dark roots of the economic disaster America is finding itself in. All that talk about how unemployment wasn’t that bad during the Bush administration was B.S. Besides changing the rules on how unemployment statistics were reported to only reporting people on the unemployment rolls in the unemployed statistics and cutting unemployment benefits back to 6 months, I hardly think working part-time at Wal-Mart for the minimum wage while being taught how to get food stamps and welfare by the corporate douche bags at Wal-Mart qualifies as the kind of good manufacturing jobs we shipped overseas. You know, the ones where people actually got paid a living wage, one they could feed and clothe their families on.

Another point I’d like to make here is the big mistake of the 1970s when women entered the work force and ERA was not passed. What people didn’t get was paying women 70 cents to the dollar a man would make for the same job drove down wages to the point where now both parents have to work in order to support a family.

It’s the very same principle Lou Dobbs complains about with the Mexicans driving down wages and taking away jobs because they are willing to work for less. Well, guess who relaxed the boarder laws for this very reason? The Reagan administration. Yes, that’s right folks. Allowing illegal people to stream across the boarders was a way to modernize indentured servitude. Again the goal was to make the rich, richer without any consideration of the other 90% of Americans. I’m in no way blaming the Mexican people who have come here in search of a better life. Our country is a hodge-podge of people from all over the world who came here for the very same reason. As a matter of fact the way the Mexican people have been exploited and then demonized is very much akin to what happened to the Irish who came here as indentured servants. Their pay was a ticket on a ship to America and they spent years as slaves until working this off only to find there was tremendous animosity for them because they were poor, and often in desperate straights.

Enough of my blabbing. I just want to point out that history repeats itself. It mutates and grows new claws, but there are patterns. Unfortunately, these facts are not pointed out or even noted for people to consider. I hope to at least try to illuminate those who have been seeing things through the lens of FOX news. By the way I want to note here that numerologicaly FOX = 666 for those who are of the Christian faith.

Here’s how that works:

1    2  3  4   5  6   7  8  9

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I

J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R

S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

This is standard western numerology. As you can see FOX is spelled out under the number 6. Each letter has the value of 6.

I always wondered if Rupert Murdoch knew that and thought it was ironic or funny or if he saw himself as being in league with Mr. Satan. Or perhaps it’s all of the above. All I know is it’s dang ironic.

Best wishes and many blessings,

Denise

Answering Readers Questions…

I’m only going to answer one tonight because I’m under the weather. It comes from Mabochan:

mabochan
What is your take on the likelihood of martial law, the use of the expanded powers of the presidency, the FEMA concentration camps, and so forth?

This is a good question and one I’ve thought about a lot since the Reagan administration when the laws were changed. I think we’ve already seen the effect of the widening of the executive branch’s power. Guantanamo, torture, ignoring the Genova Convention, invading a sovereign nation are all perfect example of what happens when are checks and balances are not equally weighted.

It’s ironic that the Republican party claims to be the party of patriots when they have actually done the most damage to our constitution, chiseling away at the separation of church and state, the right to privacy, eliminating checks and balances, awarding veterans less help then veterans of previous wars and allowing American companies to export jobs while giving them tax breaks to do it. It is also rather ironic that they want to make boat loads of money in our economy, but not pay their fair share of taxes. That to me is unpatriotic as well.

In terms of martial law, we’ve seen it. Here in Los Angeles when the riots happened. And if we continue to be ignorant about the real agenda of the right wing, we will see this country continue to slide toward fascism. I use that term in the way Musolini meant it. He said of fascism, “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power.” It of course also has the added element of totalitarianism or dictatorship which our current president joked he’d like a whole lot better. I believe, honestly that there has been a coo going on over the past 20 years, slow and steady by this radical group of people who truly do want to take over our country and the world. I’ve been seeing that since I was a kid, (psychically I mean). We really have to be on guard because the people calling us (those who respect Democracy and want to make it better through discussion and healthy debate) treasonous, are actually the very people who are inacting treason. In psychology this is called projection. Problem is the way this coo has been evolving has been so behind the scenes until the 2000 and 2004 elections that many people didn’t see or believe it possible. Like the old saying, “never say never” once the collective consciousness feels invulnerable to treason, fascism, authoritarianism or as your question taps concentration camps, martial law, etc. we actually become open to the possibility, because we are no longer on guard against it.

If our country were to continue down the path its on (with George W) we would be nothing, but a banana republic with a third world economy. We are in a kind of war here, a war for the soul of our country. We have to win back our Democracy. Just as those right wing “Christians,” have co-opted Christianity as a shield to do whatever they want in the name of Christ, so have the right wing Republicans co-opted the word Democracy to sell us fascism. It’s a very scary time. And it is utterly important that all of us are engaged, informed and involved in the political process.

Best wishes and good luck.