News...true or false

News is meant to be taken with a grain of salt. When it is heavy with the fear factors you need to sit back and ask yourself why someone is trying to scare you.

There will never be a time when we all get along if we continue to fall for news that is meant to manipulate us. i’ve just had a really pleasant experience with a guy i don’t know but who got my name off a bulk e-mail list. He claimed he was going to open my eyes and began sending me a series of highly inflammatory and downright untrue e-mails that he and his friends passed around amongst each other. 

After months and months of back and forth…probably at least a year of my shooting down everything he sent and linking to the truth…his relatives got involved and asked me to go easy on him. i tried to get him to stop but he wouldn’t and being me i couldn’t let so many lies parade as truth. The relatives pleaded with him to stop writing me and finally he did. 

About a month went by when last week i got an e-mail from him that was once again laden with lies...a really horrible one...so awful that it included gory pictures etc. i corrected it but before i could send it off he sent me a link to the truth. He had beaten me to it. He asked if finding the truth was what i had wanted him to do. i wrote him back saying i was thrilled to death to see him researching something before sending it on.

i don’t think he will fall for any of the BS any more because he woke up. Now he will do his due diligence  before sending on lies. If only more people would do this before hitting send we would have a lot less fear and a more informed populace.

The production of news for citizen consumption has been going on for a very very long time. Those events that in the past didn’t make the newspapers, gazettes, or town crier’s are rejected history. Producing the news is about sensationalizing, it is about constructing a world that is constantly on edge, crises are big sellers. Peddling the news isn’t about informing…its about making a profit.

Creating a constructed reality for newspapers, TV news, and internet sites takes international groups(5 corporations) that consolidate the worst of the world and present it in a daily format for your consumption… good news doesn’t sell. There is a regular rhythm to the news that relies on a fast paced production platform that cranks out alarming events and opinions for general citizen consumption. Those news events garnering the most attention are usually the least important.

Northern Waterthrush being banded this morning

According to Wikipedia “News propaganda is a type of news covertly packaged as credible news.” 

To repeat…news is meant to be taken with a grain of salt. When it is heavy with the fear factors you need to sit back and ask yourself why someone is trying to manipulate and scare you.

See ya next week

Our Dr. Bishop

The day started out beautifully…an early morning swim…languorous breakfast out on the deck overlooking the Caribbean. A visiting friend suggested we go get our Senior Citizens cards so we could enjoy some of the benefits of aging.

We showered, dressed and headed out to Human Services over by Vitraco Mall. We chatted, laughed, dropped cell calls in the dead zones along the way and arrived there in a jolly mood. Everyone we encountered helped us along the way to room 107 where Maria awaited our arrival.

Maria asked if we were the ones who had called earlier for information concerning paperwork we might need to bring. We answered in the affirmative and she guided us to her associate. The office they shared had a skylight with a lovely live tree reaching up to the light. Along the floor plants that were lovingly cared for radiated peace. For a government office this one was comfortable, welcoming and efficient.

In no time we were having our pictures taken and our new cards produced when a phone call changed the entire ambiance. Someone had called Maria to tell her Dr. Bishop had died in his office that morning.

Maria immediately went to work trying to verify the information…she asked us all to wait until we knew for sure that this wasn’t just a rumor. During the interim all five of us in the room talked about a man who had touched every single one of our lives.

To a person we all agreed he was humble, compassionate, modest, dedicated, conscientious and caring. He was our doctor. He had saved one of us in the room just the month before and she was heartbroken at the news when Maria confirmed it was not a rumor.

He had cared for our children, our husbands, our wives, our friends and us. He never rushed us in and out, he explained everything, showed us diagrams, drew pictures and spent as much time as we needed. He treated all of us the same. It didn’t matter who you were he respected all of us. He was our doctor.

To say we were all stunned by the news is an understatement. Dr. Bishop will be missed by the entire community. He touched so many lives in ways that will reverberate through out St. Croix for many years to come. Dr. Bishop we already miss you.

See ya next week.

Unreasonable Fear

The mind creates fear by listening to the stories it is told and reacting to physical trauma. All humans start out with a clear slate when they are born. Until something happens to an infant they have no reason to fear anything until it is learned. As babies gain awareness fear begins to develop.

Some people develop irrational fears over the course of their lifetimes and lists of some really crazy ones can be found all over the internet. What i want to address today is the Critical Voice that encourages you to fear. That voice that talks to you day in and day out and convinces you to be afraid. This voice that you can literally turn against you can also be turned off.

All of us have a voice that can promote irrational, angry, judgmental and cynical attitudes towards groups of other people, single individuals or local and international events. This voice warns us to beware while at the same time blocking out signals that there is nothing to fear. Some of us are more hard wired to look for and dwell on things that can be perceived as dangerous. If we listen to that Critical Voice and don’t challenge it there can be serious downsides to our lives and our nation. 

Fear is a very real tool that can be used to control the masses.

Fear of Ebola, Fear of Islam, Fear of Terrorism, Fear of Liberals or Fear of Conservatives are a few of the fears infecting our nation at present. These fears are very real to a lot of people but are they justified?

Fear of Liberals…they are commies, socialists, takers, dirty hippies, they will ruin America.

Fear of Conservatives…they are greedy, self interested, afraid of change, bigots and they will ruin America.

The below was found on a comment thread and i revised it to include both Conservatives and Liberals because both sides say this about the other side.

“Conservatives/Liberals are easily conned, easily manipulated, and utterly unwilling to admit when they are wrong. (Their obsession with constantly attempting to elicit “apologies” from Conservatives/Liberals is an offshoot of these strained thought processes.) Conservatives/Liberals, when confronted with bare-bones truth that contradicts their irrational world view, will scrunch their eyes shut, shake their heads, and chant “nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah” until whatever truth it is they find offensive “goes away”, rather than revise their thoughts and beliefs to conform to a truth that is slapping them in the face. They simply do not have the capacity to revise their thoughts and beliefs to conform to the truth before their very eyes if that truth contradicts the foundation of the beliefs they irrationally hold onto as a weapon in the constant struggle against their own insecurity.”

But is this comment true about either political persuasion…i don’t think so? If more of us could recognize the strengths of each side the fear of the other might be diminished.

Fear of Terrorism…Sean Cordry wrote a piece early this year where he states that each political group could learn something from the other. “Progressives might learn some things from conservatives about the danger of foreign and domestic threats. Conservatives, on the other hand, might learn something from progressives about tempered diplomacy and the power of social cooperation.” Personally i think there is room here for a more nuanced approach to the fear of terrorism. Does anyone really believe terrorism is more of a threat to their lives than getting in a car accident?

Fear of Islam…there are 1.3 billion Muslims and most are living calm, family oriented lives. Why is it that such a small percentage of wackos can lay claim to the whole religion? Fear of Muslims, Islam and Sharia law are all out of proportion to the real threat.

Fear of Ebola…the virus is mostly contained in west Africa with three cases so far in the US. Enterovirus on the other hand which attacks the respiratory tract is in 12 states and counting. Children from all over have been hospitalized needing critical care. Doctors on the front line have claimed they haven’t seen anything quite like this in their careers and yet you hardly hear anything about it because EBOLA FEARS are rampant. If i had a youngster i’d be much more concerned about my child contracting the enterovirus.

Check your fears…are they realistic, really an immediate threat or are you deluding yourself and/or being conned?

See ya next week.

Infrastructure investment

i was reading an opinion piece on Bloomberg the other day that was saying employees are not your customers. The author went through some math calculations she had dreamed up to prove that Ford wouldn’t have made money if all his employees made enough to buy his cars. 

What she failed to consider was that when an employee makes more money he/she can then afford to borrow. Borrowing money was not a consideration in her calculations.

Wage stagnation was supposed to change as more people got college degrees, health care costs were contained, and the economy improved...but this isn't happening. Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass claims that wage growth has been pushed down by powerful forces including by those that are harping austerity, austerity, austerity. Tecnological innovation and global competition makes it hard but he says government sponsored infrastructure projects would help.

i continue to find it absurd that paying wages so low that people have to go on food stamps to make ends meet is OK with conservatives. Why is a government handout under this kind of working circumstance acceptable? Why are taxpayers monetizing corporate profit?

The IMF(international Monetary Fund) advocates public government spending around the world in its latest World Economic Outlook. Usually an austerity heavy organization and normally very conservative the IMF has re-evaluated the benefits to an economy of government spending on infrastructure.

The IMF is now claiming that public infrastructure spending will reduce rather than increase government debt burdens. They claim that for every government dollar spent three are created in the economy. Three private dollars created for every one government dollar spent…think about that. 

The reality is that deferring infrastructure spending places a huge burden on future generations. It just warms the cockles of my heart that an institution(IMF) so bent upon austerity has come full circle and now believes that government infrastructure investment is good for the economy.

As Noam Chomsky said, “The modern concept of the Common Good that is being relentlessly driven into our heads demands that we focus on our own private gain, and suppress normal human emotions of solidarity, mutual support and concern for others.”

Wouldn’t the public sphere be a much better place if we started investing in it again?

i was in KMart yesterday and thought how nice it is to have

Halloween here with Christmas so close behind…haha

See ya next week

Not So Free Market

i found this quote and i’m really not sure if Mills actually said it…but i like it. 

“There are no natural laws that explain the distribution of wealth. If the distribution of wealth is man made, then it can be changed by man.” John Stuart Mills

Why is it that middle class people are taught to hate poor people, think they are lazy and don’t work? Why do they think it is solely the poor’s responsibility for failing to be comfortable financially?

 Why is it that the sinking middle class believe that if they had only worked harder, invested more and better, taken fewer vacations they would be sitting pretty? Why is it they never questioned their salaries, their bonuses, or how their particular job was valued by society? Why is it that some in society are paid astronomically and others are paid a mere pittance?

According to US census data from 2010 35% of the work force earns less than $25,000/year, 36% of the work force earns between $25,000 and $50,000. So together 66% of the work force makes less than $50,000/year.

66% keep that number in your head.

Why is it that making 300 times more than the lowest paid employee is acceptable? Why don't poor people get a million dollar bonus when they work hard all week and make profits for their companies?

Blaming the poor is a whole lot easier to do than really examining everybody’s worth, real worth, based upon wages, salary or yearly income. Why are so many people paid so little?

The “Not So Free Market” does not guarantee freedom for everyone. Part of the problem is that a true "Free Market" has never existed.  If the definition of a “Not So Free Market” is two individuals entering into a contract for the exchange of goods while each have at their disposal all the pertinent information necessary to complete the deal. Isn’t it obvious that this can never be the case because no one can ever have all the information they need. Most participants in an exchange seek an advantage where the transaction entered into is on their own terms. 

Pure “Not so Free Marketers” believe in unfettered capitalism without ever considering that the super-rich will not ever at some point in the future decide they have enough money and power. Plundering of all earths resources must be contemplated in terms of the “Not So Free Market” as a very real problem for human survival. The idea that continued growth is beneficial needs to be reconsidered.  Earth is finite and continued depletion will come to an end. Only through regulation can we can curb the trend to use up every available resource.

The mantra “Trust the Free Market” has been a rallying cry for many on the right…unfortunately it has failed to lessen inequality.  In fact the loosening of regulations has made inequality worse. Instead, since the 1980’s we have seen a steady trickle up of money rather than a steady trickle down. In 2012 the gap between the richest 1% and the other 99% has been the greatest since the 1920’s.

“I don’t think the free market is guided by human decency anymore than it is guided by human selfishness. I think it is guided by the bottom line(profits), which typically reinforces the selfish tendency in human beings. I think It takes human decency to prevent that bottom line from becoming the only measure for success or failure in society.”Ben

Artificial restrictions that were placed on society were not an aspect of the “Not So Free Market”…if the market had had its way workers would not have weekends off, eight hour days, employer health insurance or paid vacations. The "Not So Free Market" didn’t solve those problems, it was the workers that demanded it. Unfortunately today workers have been voting against their best interests and have given away a lot of their gains. The "Not So Free Market" won’t give them more money for hard work all it will do is demand that they work even more. The only ones who can manipulate the "Not So Free Market" are those with a lot of money. They can use their power and money to change the system in ways that benefit them.

“The history of unregulated capitalism is filled with unspeakable horror: vast inequality, robber barons, child labor, sweatshops, senior citizens starving to death, company towns, filth in our food and air and waterways, deadly medicine and union busting thugs, depressions and recessions.”Jonathan Brown 

Without government intervention these would still be our reality. Government regulation and taming the market is what has kept capitalism from imploding. 

Markets are always socially constructed, they are never “free”. They can’t exist with out government, judges, lawyers and police to ensure that contracts are enforceable, copyrights are adhered to, theft is prosecuted etc.,etc.,etc.

i don’t want to be called anti-capitalist. i’m not motivated by envy or anger towards the rich…what motivates me is a leveling of the playing field. Extreme inequality in wealth is not the product of merit or hard work…i know a lot of poor people that work really hard…and i know a lot of rich people that just invest. Inequality can be found just by studying the wages paid to the bulk of society.

Wanting to fix inequality doesn’t make me a Marxist or a Socialist, it makes me a realist. Wanting to fix something doesn’t mean discarding everything and starting fresh. It means tweaking it. i like regulations, there is nothing wrong with checks and balances. We need government…and we need more money to start trickling down instead of up. 

“There’s class warfare, all right, but its my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” Warren Buffet

See ya next week