12/17…..The Appendage of Tech to Body or The Appendage of Body to Tech (Found in Contact Lens iPhone screen)
—–My realities between real life and tech were becoming skewed. I didn’t need to live in any one place as I could communicate with my friends and family through email, text messages, social media, etc. Living in one spot felt inconvenient. Dedicating to a lover or a few friends in the “physically being with them sense” felt inconvenient, not efficient, and limiting. My attention span grew less. My anxieties and depressions increased. I couldn’t keep from thinking about my digital communications and social media and what I could be doing somewhere else that would make me happy. I often felt like I was just a fly buzzing around looking for the next poop stimulating adventure. There was too much distraction constantly swirling around in my head from my tech connections. I had trouble focusing on anything for too long and would grow impatient constantly and relied often on grandiose ideas that spurred out of nowhere and didn’t really focus on anything but my short-term well-being. It was harder for me to make new friends as the ease of digital friends and that world was much easier to handle and others were feeling and yearning for that comfort zone too. I started to feel more stress and anxiety around social situations that resulted in me wanting to take off and go live differently. And when those social outings went on for too long, anxiety and stress would take over about how I would end these outings and go back to my comfort zone of my social devices and digital world.
If you’re constantly trying to make yourself available to be exposed to people you want to be around, how do you turn it off and ever value people when in fact you are around them? The urge to connect always to “others” is never ending and it is easy to grow impatient in one’s presence when the looming desire and fantasy of other connections are waiting for you through your devices in social media. It is as addicting as anything else in our society. It is taking over our brains and attention and our focus and actually limiting those things too by the obsessive approach to connect with others but not actually really “connecting” with them. It’s weird.
11/17…..How to Hire Fake Family and Friends (Found in Reality Within the Reality and in A Social Misunderstanding)
—–A booming business in Japan has a product claimed to bring about an experience that surpasses reality. ‘More than real’ is the business theme and it means they provide life situations that include, ‘less concerns, misunderstanding and conflict’ as the clients can expect ‘better results from a more perfect, more clean version of reality.’ The business believes the word ‘real’ is misguided as things like Facebook which are ‘real’ have pictures and people in them who haven’t been paid to be there but everything is still presented to such an extent that it isn’t ‘real.’ The ideology behind the business of Family Romance is that the world is an unfair place which needs balance brought towards injustices. A woman with a boyfriend doesn’t need to hire a boyfriend as a man with a father doesn’t need to hire a father. Hiring out, a la carte, human interactions is becoming a new norm, and the demand is rapidly increasing…
11/17…..A 35 Year-Old Birthday Self Reflection (Found at KeatingBodyworks Wellness Practice)
—–Normally I don’t do birthday reflections but 35 is a very symbolic age for me. Particularly because being someone who used to be paid to play sports it was the age that you’d talk about in the way off future for contemplating retirement! Since giving up on my professional athletic pursuits many years ago, I’ve tried heavily to move in a direction in my life that hasn’t focused primarily on my physicality. I always wanted to be defined more than how my body performs, and my physical whims and desires. I wanted to be smarter, more balanced, and able to grasp emotional and intellectual intelligence, as relying on body just seemed shallow overall. However, you grow up knowing and learning and acting in whatever way was exposed to you, and the process over the years can at times be very slow as it’s hard to change directions where your body and mind naturally go for processing and reaction and maturity. Our lives go in direction of various energetic surges and then one day we wake up and think about where we’re at and how that’s either where we want to be or not. I’m happy that I’ve never sold myself out, even though there were moments when I almost didn’t see a way out and had trouble believing in myself, and gave into darkness. I feel like now I can see the horizon of a new level of existence that’s more honed around the deeper, more authentic aspects of life that I feel drawn to and want to incorporate. Trusting your gut instinct and keeping confidence in the dark valleys are hard but they are more likely to land you in eventual good spaces. And most importantly of all, surrounding yourself with positive people and those you admire and who are healthy is the best thing you could ever do. The people you surround yourself with reflect who you are more than most other things. Thank you to all of my friends for being that presence in my life. You know who you are. So here’s to the next era of life where a more authentic, emotionally processed and capable and mature person is trying to vehemently form. This is just the end of the beginning intro to life and not unlike a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. Now let’s swing upside down!
11/17…..The Inevitable Harm of Relationships with Psychopaths, Sociopaths, and Narcissists (Found in Psychopathic, Sociopathic, and Narcissist Behavior at KeatingBodyworks.wordpress.com)
—–This book is a phenomenal resource for helping victims of intense, psychological relationship abuse. It is appropriately titled, as women experience way more often than men the ill effects of these relationships. However, men can easily become victims too and women can just as aggressively display the manipulative traits of the low/no conscience psychopath, sociopath, and narcissist. They estimate that the victims from psychopathic behavior range in the hundreds of millions in the U.S. The traits of the psychopath and their victim create for a truly symbiotic abusive and traumatic disaster. The most common traits of psychopaths include being emotionally unintelligent, juvenile decision making skills, unable to process, being avoidant and devious in communication, using language that is contradictory, lack empathy-conscience-remorse-fear-sadness-disgust. They have manipulative, dysfunctional and aggravating behavior, are impulsivity with extreme highs and lows, are know-it-alls, lie, create drama and anger, change subjects dramatically, blame, irresponsible and parasitic in behavior, has abandonment issues and acts like a victim, projects behavior on others, causes confusion, gas lights. Common traits of victims are extraversion in themselves, high excitement seeking, values for relationship investment and being socially positive, sentimentality, attachment, competitiveness, concern and harm avoidance for all, cooperativeness, empathy, tolerance, friendliness, compassion, and supportiveness, believes in miracles, low impulsiveness. Initially victims were very self-confident, responsible, reliable, resourceful, goal-oriented, un-pretentious, humble, and fulfilled, and self-transcendent. The professionalism associated with the changing nature of the psychopath to use confusion, manipulations, and your vulnerabilities against you is the very nature of why this is so hard to spot. They do everything in a low conscious, reactionary state to manipulate power dynamics that favor them in every way while making it seem like they are doing exactly the opposite!
10/17…..The Sad Truth About Gun Violence in America and the Politicians and People Who Don’t Care About Your Life (Found in A Social Misunderstanding)
—–Other than the obvious fact that guns allow people to kill themselves and others much more easily here are other truths about guns in America.
Relative to the ratio of population and guns, America has 6 times as many firearm homicides as Canada and nearly 16 times as many as Germany. America has 4.4% of the world’s population but almost half of the civilian-owned guns around the world. There is more than one mass shooting for each day in America. States and developed countries with more guns have fewer gun-related deaths. The states with the most guns report the most suicides.
10/17…..The Santa Clause Mushroom: A Blunt Day with Amanita Muscaria (Found in High on Life: The Reality Within the Reality–Psychedelia)
—–The medicine was very direct. It wasn’t filling my mind up with a million things or making me focus solely on something very intensely like what can usually happen with many psychedelics. It wasn’t a numb feeling, just a nothingness feeling but it wasn’t like I felt like I was focusing on nothing but I guess nothingness was the focus of the plant. It felt primitive. It felt connective because of the simplicity. The normal distractions that fill up my mind weren’t there. It was easy to not “go there” and I was very much in my body and not in my brain. It felt relaxing to able to feel this “just being there” feeling. It felt wonderful to not have my mind racing in a million directions like it can easily do. It felt great to not have my mind so stimulated like it can be on other psychedelics. It felt great to be at ease. The plant was forcing me into ease. Forcing me into a simpler thought process and a simpler life orientation.
9/17…..Enlightenment Through Breakdown of Body and Tech (Found in Contact Lens iPhone screen)
—–The biggest feeling of dread came from having all my pictures and videos gone from my day. I had been posting on all the social networks of Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram what I was doing, where I had been, and what I was processing. I suddenly felt like nobody would care because they wouldn’t see a blip in their feed. I suddenly actually felt alone and like I hadn’t accomplished anything. I suddenly felt stupid for admitting to myself that I was feeling these things. How was I to go about my life without proving to others what I had done and what was important to me? It was an awkward moment and here I am descending this wonderful mountain in an utterly beautiful setting while suddenly feeling like what I was doing didn’t matter if it’s not expressed through tech.
We think we have these routines and we think we are defined by our bodies, our tech in our phones and social networking, but just like that it could change and we are left with a non-physically capable version of our isolated from tech selves. There really is no right or wrong for following linear positive energy streams that are easy to navigate. How can you really blame ourselves for doing that and wanting and believing in correct paths or answers, or in taking the path of least resistance? If anything, we are a cluster-fuck of energy going in all sorts of directions that have nothing to do with whether we are accepted or judged or however we are presenting ourselves as “living.” How are we really different from the man who is homeless sleeping in the street vs the Buddhist in the mountains vs our avatar on social networking…
9/17…..The Dogmatic Religious Practices of the Church of Social Justice (Found in A Social Misunderstanding)
—–Telling people what to do and how to live out their lives is endemic to dogmatic religion and activism. It’s not that my peers are the bosses of me, but that dogmatic activism creates an environment that encourages people to tell other people what to do. This is especially prominent on Facebook. Scrolling through my news feed sometimes feels like sliding into a pew to be blasted by a fragmented, frenzied sermon.
9/17…..Dennis McKenna, Psychedelic Fish, and Psilocybin/Magic Mushroom Therapy at Telluride Mushroom Festival (Found in High on Life: The Reality Within the Reality)
—–The more modern Maslov Hierarchy of Needs has been reorganized in a way that supports magic mushroom psilocybin psychedelic therapy. Self-actualization used to be at the top of the pyramid but it was replaced by self-transcendence. In psilocybin therapy, self-transcendence has been seen to be achieved through the PEAK experiences brought on by the psychedelic experience. It puts a priority at becoming better and catering to something bigger than the individual and how we can relate better to others. For most of the participants in the study they had a PEAK experience and fell away from the attachment of the illusion of their existing selves and emotionally processed in a way that led to authentic, positive change in a new re-organized direction.
7/17…..Intelligence = Awareness (Found in a Social Misunderstanding)
—–Two things come have come to mind lately playing a hypnotizing, thumpy, trance in my head. One is: intelligence equals awareness. If one’s intelligence doesn’t make you more aware then you’re probably only very smart to mostly yourself. And the other is a saying. The saying has always gone, “great minds think alike” but that is misleading and doesn’t really mean to include others, and promotes a dismissive personality. It is nice in various other ways for comfort, intimacy, ease of communication, getting rejuvenated, feeling comfort and security, etc. but in really hammering out what it means to be human and grow, having awareness, and getting along with each other through understanding each other, the saying should read, “great minds think unalike.
7/17…..Casual Psychedelic-er: A Day With San Pedro Cactus (Found in High on Life)
—–Looking down upon the tiny little beings of the human race really humbles humanity. How are we any different than any other living thing that’s just going about its day? We live in this infinite, massive, expansive universe and it is often so easy to feel like we are at the center of it all. We clearly are not, and although it is wise to have an insight of your ego and how you affect the world there is clearly a billion times more things that don’t involve you. We should not so easily get lost within ourselves being the center of the universe. It is a balancing act for sure but a lot of depression and stress and angst and anxiety in the modern human, especially the American, is a result of this imbalance and us taking too personally everything that’s happening in our lives. It is really not all about us, but likewise, we have to be happy with ourselves before we can be happy with what’s around us. You see, it’s not the easiest pickle to figure out.
What I’ve learned to love about psychedelic medicine and the San Pedro in this situation is how non-ordinary states of consciousness can be a positive force for living and dealing with ordinary states of “normal” day to day consciousness. Our brains need stimulation in non-ordinary ways too no different than our bodies need it and why we do workouts that cater to different muscles not too much used, which we then are sore from. If we are in an emotionally good place then we ARE in a good place. Emotional health is everything and contrary to popular belief regarding whatever politicians and laws tell us regarding the “War on Drugs,” psychedelics can dramatically benefit emotional well-being and leave us in a very healthy, light, calm, loving, accepting, efficient, and connective place.
6/17…..Mega Doses of The Utah Desert and LSD (Found in High on Life…)
—–During these first few hours every thought that is thought seems of absolute magnitude. It all seems so important and so meaningful and you’re thinking about things in ways you feel like you never have before, or it’s been very long since you have. The glee and joy and fascination of a child seems to come back to you. You find everything interesting. You find everything motivating. You want to uncover and figure out everything. You have raw powerful energy. Your brain is literally on display. What makes you human and a part of nature is being defined to you and it is the most fascinating thing ever. You feel grateful for the experience. How have you forgotten about such things? How have you ever veered from these magical insights and thoughts? How could you not have motivation and empowerment for everything you see all the time? The world can be such a wonderful place. Laughing takes over as it seems like some weird joke you play on yourself for somehow not experiencing life as it can be…
6/17…A Conversation with Death (Found in High on Life)
—–It is hard to live in a world that so easily puts people into boxes. You can’t help but compare yourself to commercials or succumb to people yelling at you to be better or people yelling at you with their ego or the whole world coming at you in a way where their existence is tied to controlling you into their own little whims and desires. It is EXHAUSTING and it’s easy to get bored with human endeavors overall and their supposed meaning.
We are all symbolically falling off that roof that you jumped off and it’s painful and people judge us, we judge ourselves, and we hurt others, and others hurt us, but that doesn’t mean that ying doesn’t need yang or vice versa. There are parts of us that come out in moments and life is overall painful. You look stupid most of the time, especially if you decide to engage
Let me live my life in a way where even if there’s blackness and nothingness at the end of it I still choose to be a positive minded Nilist. I don’t want to live in lonely fear. I don’t want to be thinking of a way out. I don’t want to be stuck in normalized cultural trances of acceptance and sense of worth and judgment. I need to face my life and know that I’m living it and trying the best I can with the energy and motivation that I have and that’s good enough.
We all make decisions in our many lives and there really is no way to tell which is right or not, or if that really means anything. We think we know based on what other people’s perceptions and judgements are but it has much more to do with other things than that. Don’t get stuck on silly details of perception or attachments or social norm achievements. That’s what will make you feel like you are worthless and alone in the end. More will always be demanded of you and the revolving cycle of not feeling good enough will keep showing up at your door if you entertain such societal demands and expectations. Every person is much greater than that and it’s okay for everyone to go through their own process. Be in your present moment most of the time.
5/17…..The Shortcomings of Liberals, Identity Politics, and Intersectionality (Found in A Social Misunderstanding)
—–If you don’t show up to every poorly planned collegiate protest, your silence is violence. If you show up and dare to speak to the media or any of the other attendees scowling at you from a safe space away, your privilege is showing.
That liberal identity politics and call-out culture both focus on disproportionate treatment rather than structural oppression exposes the policing and reformism at their root. Call-out culture mirrors the cultural of criminal punishment it has not yet escaped from.
Focusing our ire on people who receive privilege instead of people who dole it out is a losing strategy for ending oppression.
5/17…..Psychedelic Science 2017: Adam Andros Talk on Cognitive Liberty, Neurodiversity, and Non-Pathologizing Approaches to Mental Health (Found in A Social Misunderstanding)
—–Acceptance and reciprocity of intersectionality of thought is a means to an end to a true pursuit of happiness and healthy communities.
3/17…..Ecology and Conversation on Veganism, Thoughts About Life and Attachment and Remaining Open in Times of Posturing (found in A Radical Activist Future of Social Movements and A Social Misunderstanding)
—–People take on and become an –ism WAY more than an –ism becomes a piece of them (Vegan-ism in this example). People become ego identified with their -ism and due to this it seeks out and looks for division and opportunities to spread the agenda and to judge negatively if agreement doesn’t adhere to said –ism. Most of the time, it directly leads to quick division and forces sides to be taken and more conveniently puts people in boxes that really are far from defining them. It leaves bystanders feeling attacked when someone from that –ism starts to express themselves. When people feel attacked, they feel defensive, and when people feel defensive they don’t want to look at those issues. This is a lose lose situation as we are social apes and opportunities that are lost that relate to influencing and being influenced is a big losing venture for all.
In a very real sense, every –ism is a form of authoritarian-ism. If we really want people to come around to our –ism it needs to come from a place of freedom, dialogue, reciprocal communication about values and experiences, etc. And we also need to be honestly open to that our –ism may be wrong! We can’t be offended and grotesque feeling if people don’t agree with us. That will just lead to us spending more time within our echo chamber groups and our echo chamber heads. This usually does not pan out well for people and gives people a distorted view of reality…
2/17…Passive Activism in Choosing Banks, Credit, Purchases (Found in Passive Activism Strategies, Activist Tools)
—-We are at a point in time where privileged people giving up slightly their full-on conveniences in banks they bank with or credit cards they acquire or products they spend their money on will be what will create massive amounts of positive change in the world.
If you think that it’s wrong to put in unwanted, massive oil pipelines under indigenous lands that will poison those lands and those people and do harm to the environment than I urge you to speak your activism with your money, investments, credit, and purchases. Taking a month to align your finances to represent the change you want to see in the world is a small price to pay for people not living with the negative effects of DAPL and similar projects brought on by your actions with money.
Banks and credit lines directly or indirectly funding DAPL and such projects: Wells Fargo, BNP Paribas, Sun Trust, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho Bank, Citibank (Citigroup), TD Securities, Credit Agricole, Intense SanPaolo, ING Bank, Natixis, BayernLB, BBVA Securities, DNB Capital, ICBC London, SMBC Nikko Securities, Societe General, Royal Bank of Scotland, ABN Amro Capital, Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank), Citizens Bank, Comerica Bank, U.S. Bank, PNC Bank, Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Compass Bank, Credit Suisse, DNB Capital/ASA, Sumitomo Mitsui Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Origin Bank (formerly Community Trust), HSBC Bank.
2/17…Resist: The U.S. Feminist Equality Movement of 2017 (Found in DNC 2016 Forward: A Radical Activist Future of Social Movements)
—-Kindness is an asset. Just like everything else, it can be abused and used. But the genuine ability to be kind and to feel other’s hearts and want to make them shine is an asset. And I want to raise up people who are trying to do that. And I want to shove away all the hate in the world, coming from the right and left. I want to exist with a working desire to change myself along with the world, but I do not want to degrade myself into an unhappy person for the sake of something I cannot change alone.
2/17…Fighting Despair with Defiance, Embracing Radicalism, and Living in a Post Fact Age (Found in DNC 2016 Forward: A Radical Activist Future)
—-Take on Trump, take on government and community corruption. Turn being pissed into being a radical resistor and resort to action based on your natural gifts and passions. These are the best gifts to any resistance movement. Give all those around you strength and positive purpose to be a radical resistor. We all need to prescribe to what makes us tic naturally and having authentic, sustainable energy to take on hard things makes us win and creates a culture of resistance and solidarity and brings about the change we want to see in the world.
Stop being a boring ass liberal. Don’t take the common liberal stance of changing hearts and minds one person at a time. Liberals need to stop asking permission for protesting properly or getting permits. We need to ACT and do what’s right regardless of the supposed process involved that we’ve been told to cater to. Facts don’t mean anything anymore because anyone can find any alternative facts on the internet that speaks to their opinion of how they see the world. Trump realizes that facts don’t matter and only your ability to manipulate does. People being educated or concerned or aware of an injustice doesn’t by itself do jack shit most of the time. These things do nothing and will continue to give us people like Trump who do not prescribe to such things. Awareness needs to be translated into political resistance movements that have very strategic actions that can powerfully manipulate without asking for permission.
Frederick Douglass was quoted as saying that “power concedes nothing without a demand.” Trump and Co. only react to demands from actions that make their plans unviable and unpractical. Trumps team and corrupt authority will only reconsider when they are given no other option. That’s how cut throat assholes work. They need to be strong armed with some form of powerful demand that they can’t ignore…
1/17…The Utah Romance of Pollution, Mormons, Hunters, Hot Springs, Latinos, Nudists, Burners, Cannabis (Found in Rendezvous with Relations)
—-Then in the distance we heard nightmarish sounds. The sounds of squeaky laughter, out of control bush trekking, and total disregard for all space and time. Yes, it was children. And not like a few but what sounded like loads of them. There was no way out. We were naked in a state you could get cited for it, our cannabis was sitting in plain sight on the shore in a state you could get arrested for it; we were totally defenseless against these little crazy monsters that would at any moment appear from the bushes. Then, suddenly, they came and it was too late…
12/16…Unattachment in Love Leading to Healthy, Expansive, Empowering Love (Found at Keating Bodyworks in Wellness Coaching–Positive Processing)
—-Unattachment in love is purely the ability to love someone freely. Both people are able to come and go at will, without ever feeling like there is an expectation for a specific set of behaviors or timelines. Communication and expression and holding space and intersecting your empowered life with your partner’s empowered life and moving on from there is the foundation of unattachment love.
In order to truly love someone this way we have to first name and sit with our wounds; our fear of abandonment, rejection and whatever else we have been conditioned, since birth, to expect from a relationship. Once we can do this work for ourselves, it doesn’t suddenly end, but rather becomes easier to navigate unattachment. We understand that our feelings don’t have to do with the other person, but with ourselves.
Unattachment simply means that we are choosing to love in a mindful way.
11/16…San Pedro Cactus Brew. Using Medicinal Plants to Take Charge of Your Own Healing (Found in High on Life and Reality Within the Reality–Plant Teacher Healing)
–People commonly use San Pedro Cactus to confront a variety of ailments. These ailments include approaching anxiety, depression, addiction, trauma, stress, in a different, communicative, and efficient way. The medicine is used with intention setting to positively increase empathy, one’s connection to the world, one’s connection to oneself and others. It is used to tap into one’s life meaning and fulfillment and purpose and allows one to process more efficiently whatever it is that is on the mind and also things that weren’t realized were on the mind.
8/16…Defeating Trump and Trumpism. Corporate Rule as a Cause or Solution to Trumpism. The Fascism of the Two Major Political Parties (Found in DNC 2016 Forward: A Green Future)
—-Re-posted from right after the DNC. Seems very appropriate now and defines where the progressive movement, the left wing, normal positive people, and the Democrat Party needs to focus. I am thrilled at the movement that I see starting to already occur! People are waking up and starting to care and know that they need to act if they in fact want to live in a world without Trump and Trumpism and corporate rule.
…If we vote for Clinton we will be complicit in the election fraud and corporate rule over our lives. It will feed Trumpism, and the elections of 2018 and 2020 will be much of the same as more far right wing populous presidential and political opponents will emerge against Clinton and establishment Dems. Trumpism will be validated and an electrified base will vote her out. If Trump wins, progressives, democrats, most independents and some republicans will be united in making sure he’s a lame duck who gets impeached. If he does make it to 2018 or 2020 there will be massive movement uprisings and candidates like Bernie and Jill Stein will be recognized as correct pathways and what could have done away with Trump and Trumpism. If Stein were to win, or come close, the same would happen with empowering the mass liberal left movement. With the loss, the DNC would actually have to implement its “most progressive platform” in history rather than fighting tooth and nail against it as they’ve done against the Bernie movement. They would actually have to listen to and fight for people and being a large, united left wing they would actually cater to our individual freedoms vs corporate rule and have dramatically positive results like Bernie was showcasing. Opponents running against the interests of the people and standing for corporate rule would lose out in a heartbeat. The left wing populous movement will cut further into the center and right than the right wing populous movement going in the other direction, especially once the Democrats stop pinning themselves to corporate welfare which is the reason the right wing is having a populous movement at all. Bernie Sanders would have won this election hands down in a landslide against Donald Trump.
11/16…Standing Rock Native Space Holders. Masters of Dealing With Trauma (Found in A Social Misunderstanding)
—-The native leaders spoke of really introspective, peaceful approaches to life and their cause at large in a calm, casual manner that allowed for space and time for reflection and thought, and saying things from the heart. Some of the main messages of these leaders were that the native people are, “warriors of love and don’t have to be angry to be brave. Courage is the ability to overcome reactionary emotions. Fear, anger, and hate are not the strongest we can be. There needs to a big effort to keep from fear overtaking us.” Negative emotions can, “spread like wild fire. Many are watching us all the time including children and peers and we need to constantly be teaching them and showing others how to be. When we are united and standing against fear this actually puts fear into the hearts and minds of those who spread negativity and stand against us.” The strongest statement I connected to most of all was their view on resentment. “Resentment can have traumatizing effects. If we move beyond it our life is better. If we move beyond it the life of the one we felt resentment for who maybe wronged us, their life is also better.”
11/16…Ending Corporate Rule. The Plight of Our Generation (Found in A Social Misunderstanding)
—-There were full military, with their huge guns and about 50 vehicles and drones all standing guard in defense of defenseless people who are praying and seeking peace. I was in a group of mostly media members who were taking pictures and doing interviews at this spot. There was one point where it was projected on a loudspeaker that we would be arrested if we continued to trespass on the other side of the barricade. Continue to trespass on the other side of the barricade? Are you kidding me? Is this what is has become where we are trespassing by staying on our side of the fence and on the land we were invited to be on? This is basically what the native people have been putting up with for hundreds of years.
11/16…Corporate Soldiers Trash and Return Possessions of Water Protectors While 1000 Clergy Members Stand in Unity Against Oppression at Standing Rock (Found in A Social Misunderstanding)
—-Close to 1000 clergy people showed up and participated in a prayer ceremony of peace next to the barricaded corporate police blockade. It was remarkable to see so many faiths come together and agree on peace and standing as one in the face of what was happening at Standing Rock. Each congregation would say prayers in their own customs in a giant people ring, holding hands. I have not had the best experience with religion in my life standing for positive things and seeing this act of solidarity was so motivating and inspiring to know that there ARE religions in the world that can have peace with people who think differently than them and ultimately know that standing for peace and tolerance and the oppressed makes us all win. I was taken aback with emotion by these events. The ring looped in on itself too and, even though it took many hours, each person shook hands and/or hugged everyone else in the ring. I loved the connection created from this. It made me feel like everyone at this event today felt connected with everyone else and it led to really wonderful conversations throughout the day. The people here today are the true leaders in the world. What happened here today should be emulated all throughout the world.
11/16…Standing Rock! America 2016: A Police State Enforcing Corporate Rule and Privilege. (Found in A Social Misunderstanding)
—-Firing rubber bullets into a crowd was absolutely unnecessary as well. Nobody on the shore was doing anything and the few people that were on the bridge were walking off it. When people swam across the river the officers that sprayed pepper spray and/or rubber bullets would do it in such a way as out of nowhere and like they were in a gun slinger, quick draw shoot off. They would spray/shoot at them when everyone was just sitting in the water on the shore. It was as if it was a game where eventually the officers would become bored and decide that suddenly they would shoot some defenseless people in order to be entertained again. There were even a few officers so fired up from firing on peaceful protestors that they would lay down their arms and beat their chests as if they were a gorilla or in the NFL and getting ready for a big game.
10/16…Organized Info For Standing Rock resources for being informed, donating, helping out the cause, etc. (Found in A Social Misunderstanding)
10/16…Only Love is Real. The Rest is Based in Ignorance and Fear. Standing with Standing Rock, ND and the Water Protectors (Found in A Social Misunderstanding)
—-Bad things happen in the world. Good people are getting hurt that are standing for peace and it makes our hearts hurt and heavy. We can internalize this and become our supposed ‘enemy’ and become tempted to adhere to hatred, fear, and anger, but does this actually serve us? It may seem so in that short term moment as intense, negative feelings are easy to grab onto and exercise and feel powerful with, but ultimately it will turn us into what we hate and the cycle will forever fester within itself, ourselves, and only be perpetuated. Do we want to be possessed by such things, by emotions, and especially by these types of negative, short term reactionary feelings? How will that affect those and everything in your life around you? What kind of energy do you want to be spreading and influencing others with?
8/16…Hillary Clinton and Supporting Democrats; Pinning the Feminist Movement Against Itself and Holding Progressive Voters Hostage (Found in DNC 2016 Forward)
—-The last eight years have taught us some real lessons regarding the symbols of African Americans and feminist politicians coming to power in politics. We can now criticize bourgeois feminism and bourgeois African Americanism, neoliberal feminism and neoliberal African Americanism, imperial feminism and imperial African Americanism, militaristic or authoritative feminism and militaristic or authoritative African Americanism. As we move forward and critically engage in these conversations it will be very clear what we are talking about. We no longer have to be self-hating women or self-hating African Americans. We’re critical women, and critical African Americans and critical people who want socialist feminism, socialist black empowerment and authentic socialist empowerment for most people. The silver lining has presented itself.
8/16…The Movement at Hand. Book Review and Summation of Manning Marable’s ‘Malcolm X.’ (Found in A Racial Conversation)
—-Malcolm’s revolutionary vision confrontationally challenged white America to think and talk differently about race. Before any such term of “white privilege” existed Malcolm challenged whites to examine the policies and practices of racial discrimination and its destructive effects upon both its victims and promulgators. He was hopeful that whites could overcome centuries of negative socialization toward blacks and profoundly believed in the all important element of intersectionality where all movements are one and working together for justice. This was displayed by Malcolm moving beyond the U.S. government in terms of achieving racial justice. His work in Africa and around the world established a world movement for human rights. The United Nations and mass movements was what would influence nations. In an interesting note, the al-Qaeda terrorist network even finds common ground with these beliefs making sharp distinctions between mainstream African-American leaders like Barack Obama vs revolutionary leaders like Malcolm X. Obama being seen as a race traitor while leaders like Malcolm actually promoting the plight of his people. Not that being recognized by al-Qaeda is something to boast about but when there are shared values by Americans and al-Qaeda that is definitely something worth noting and going after.
8/16…The Democratic Party is Not What it Seems (Found in DNC 2016 Forward: A Green Future)
—-The Democratic party is where progressive politics go to die. Supporters of Bernie Sanders got a first-hand lesson in this. The views of Sanders were progressive because many of his ideas were taken right out of the Green Party Platform. Yes, Trump is scary but not enough to be distracted from what must happen which is to break up the two-party system for good. The erosion of the parties is happening and a true democracy is forming built upon the foundations of racial, economic, gender and social justice. A democracy that values humanity over profits. So far the only thing this election cycle has taught us is that we must keep organizing and vote for the future we want, not against the one we fear.
A key difference between Hillary and Donald Trump is that despite Trump’s rhetoric, Hillary has strong and deep ties to the corporate and military industrial complex. She has a skilled propaganda machine and has the funders and tools of war and economic suppression at her disposal.
It is only because the Republican Party is the “white man’s party” that the Democrats can be seen as more open and diverse. The American people cannot and should not expect adequate political representation from a party that was not created by them but only exists to assure that we have nowhere else to go. The Democratic Party has mastered this image, using people of color for their vote and then ultimately enacting policies that harm them.
Bill Clinton was known as America’s “first black President” but he moved the Democrats back to the center right, and he did it off the backs of African-American and Latino men and women in 1994 when he signed into law the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. In 1996, he signed into law welfare reform that gutted the safety net for poor and working families. He deregulated Wall Street, passed NAFTA and ushered in a modern era of free trade that has had disastrous results for countries and people all over the world.
By his side was Hillary Clinton who was also helping usher in rising mass incarceration rates under the Democratic president. Hillary was a trusted advisor as her labeling of black and brown people as “super predators” helped support these people getting racially profiled and locked up, and until recently, she was still taking money in donations from the same private prison corporations that benefitted from the incarceration of an entire generation of black and brown people in the first place. Barack Obama continued these legacies as well with endless war in drone use, a crackdown on whistle blowers, the failure to close Guantanamo Bay, an Affordable Care Act that still leaves millions of Americans without any form of healthcare as well as ushering in the most deportations of any president in American history. The Black lives matter movement spurred up as well due to his inaction of police brutality against people of color.
#demexit
#jillstein
#greenparty
8/16…Defeating Trump and Trumpism. Corporate Rule as a Cause or Solution to Trumpism. The Fascism of the Two Major Political Parties (Found in DNC 2016 Forward: A Green Future)
—-Is it more important to keep from fascism occurring or to lay the foundation to keep from fascism occurring? Both Republican and Democrats cater to forms of fascism. It is easy for us to point fingers at WWII movies and history textbooks and claim to know what fascism is. This is the kind of picture book fascism that we possibly label with a Trump candidate at first sight, however, it goes much deeper than that. Fascism is a form of authoritarian nationalism and authoritarian nationalism is defined by absolute obedience to authority at the expense of individual freedoms. Most of us are giving our absolute obedience to the Republicans and Democrats. Individual freedoms are being dramatically torn apart in direct and indirect ways by the two major political parties. Individual freedoms are quickly on the decline while corporate freedoms are on the rise. Corporate freedoms entail the massive incarceration of people in the “War on Drugs” and supporting for profit prisons. Individual freedoms are compromised by not supporting a livable minimum wage of $15 an hour. Corporate freedoms don’t support universal healthcare. Individual freedoms are compromised by supporting the TPP trade deal that makes it against the law to write laws that interfere with corporations and their profits and allows them to sue governments in secret tribunals if a government does anything to interfere with their ability to make money. Corporate freedoms don’t want to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn citizens united to get money out of politics. Individual freedoms are compromised by bailing out Wall Street while not bailing out students in the pending student debt crisis or making college affordable. Corporate freedoms don’t want green energy policies or a ban on fracking as they are not concerned about destruction to the environment. Individual freedoms are compromised when our local police are excessively militarized and when the money in our country largely goes to blowing up other countries with rampant drone warfare, racist imperialism and the military industrial complex that creates extremism like ISIS. Each one of these issues is immense in itself and the consistency is that corporations get what they want and people’s rights and freedoms are compromised. This disproportionately and negatively affects minorities and working and lower class people, which is pretty much all of us. Why are we so supportive of a political structure that is not catering to our interests and actually working against us and our individual freedoms? Do we want to be blindly obedient to political parties and a government that is blindly obedient to corporations, or do we want a party and government that stands for the environment and the 99%?
#demexit
#jillstein
#greenparty
7/16…DNC Post #6: Bernie Delegate Walkouts, Radicalism Discussions (Found in DNC 2016 Forward: A Green Future)
—-Democrats are already pointing fingers at Bernie supporters if Trump wins and Bernie supporters are already saying how Bernie could have steamrolled Trump based on the polls and that the Dems now have their own battle to fight. Right now the mass populous movement on the left is uniting against Trump and Hillary. They will not cater to extremism. They will not cater to not being talked to and they believe Hillary Clinton and Dems are above the system. Their vote will not be held hostage by a party that’s just assuming they will vote for them when, on paper, it is easy to see how they’ve actually worked against the interests of these same people on the left. A vote is an important thing and will only be throw to a candidate that speaks to people. If that vote isn’t catered to then that vote will not go to the presumed leftish candidate. Nobody is entitled to anybody’s vote. It is simple for what Hillary Clinton needs to do. She needs to come and meet her left base where they are at. She needs to speak genuinely to them and repair the awful relationship that has occurred up till this point. There is a sense that the Democratic political class is privileged and has no care for the common voter on the left. This is similar to white privilege. Why would Black people go along with what white culture wants them to do when they don’t have their interests at heart or authenticity to rely on? Privilege is privilege whether it’s political or racial. If nothing is done, millions upon millions of people on the left will not vote for Hillary Clinton.
The first step in repairing this relationship is that Hillary Clinton and establishment liberal democrats need to admit openly that there is a major problem to the current system. That the current system will not be the solution. That Bernie Sanders really started us on a pathway that we have no choice but to follow; an alarm that was sounded for things to more aggressively come if we don’t step up to the plate now to deal with the issues. The solutions are to go back to the basics of positive human interaction. We need to invest in each other authentically and we need to listen to each other. Electoral politics can be done authentically. All of us on the left need to move one step farther to the left than we already are. Moderates need to become liberals/Democrats, liberals/Democrats need to become progressives, progressives need to become revolutionaries, and we all need to work to undermine the whole world of the right. Pertaining to the left and common people and the working and poor and minority classes, what works for everybody is what works for everybody. Intersectionality needs to be a major emphasis. We all need to support each other’s movements and absolutely become more involved in movement work as we are only as strong as them. We need to lift up people who are responsible for social justice movements. If we don’t do this and give our vote to the status quo, corporations win, militarization wins, racism wins, fascism wins, the capitalist cliff gets closer. We have to direct our efforts instead to people power and we have to do it instantly. There are but a few months left for the Democratic Party to not be labeled as completely part of the problem. The ball is in their court.
#novoicenounity
#dncexit
#dnc
7/16…DNC Post #5: Blacks Lives Matter, Hillary’s Imperialism as Racism (Found in DNC 2016 Forward: A Green Future)
—-The racially oppressed live behind a veil of confusion. They are made to believe that their government is working for them. They are made to believe that because Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party have Black Lives Matter guest speakers at the convention then everything is getting better. The illusion is that Hillary and Democrats are working for them, that they are not being jailed at a rate four times as much as whites, that they are not getting harassed and murdered in repulsive numbers. Democrats and Clintons have largely been at the helm while all this has happened to their communities over the decades. There is outrage by Black people about white people resorting to white privileged mindsets for assuming that the black vote will automatically just go towards the left. White privileged neo-liberals are right about that. They know that minorities don’t truly have representation and voting Republican is not really an option. The Black and minority communities are being held hostage by the Democratic Party due to the fact that racism exists. The most vulnerable of all social issues is being used as a political weapon to communities most in need. But vote blue, we need to unify.
#blacklivesmatter
#dnc7/16…DNC Post #4: Militarism and Political Privilege (Found in DNC 2016 Forward: A Green Future)—-The Democratic Party thinks it knows what’s best for people and is riddled with entitled and elitist leaders. They’d rather cater to the right than to their base which is the whole liberal left wing. People on the left will not stand for this. They will not continue to support a candidate who represents a system that commits militarized atrocities throughout the world using basically an unlimited military budget and drone warfare and is obsessed with regime change to support their own corporate partners. When Sarah Silverman who is invited to speak at the DNC comes out with a message to ‘Bernie or Bust’ supporters with a condescending “You’re being ridiculous” it actually makes Bernie people dig in deeper and think, “No, you’re being ridiculous!” She earlier claimed that her heart makes her vote for Bernie but her mind makes her vote for Clinton. So being a militarized war monger is a trait associated with thinking with your head. Again, seems like the opposite.We’ve lost the ability to talk to one another. Everyone thinks they’re right and speaks to each other in condescending tones. When I catch glimpses of the DNC on TV I can’t help but think that our Democratic leaders are in a high school classroom trying to bully and manipulate and talk down to one another. This happens with all perspectives but the only major flaw I especially see in the Hillary camp is that these are people that are very much entrenched in their own system. They don’t get outside their box. They’ve been so comfortable in their places of power that they’ve lost the ability to empathize with the common person. Being out in the streets with people and their causes it is about a 9 to 1 ratio of Bernie to Hillary supporters. Within the confines of the walls of Democratic Party headquarters that ratio is flipped. There is a massive communication breakdown and the inside group has most of the power and is ignoring the other. The establishment Democrats will go down in their own flames before they allow themselves to be convinced that they’re wrong, and the sad part about it is that the common people will experience the brunt of the pain when this happens. Establishment Dems will continue leading their comfortable lives. It is ‘political privilege’ at its worst. When there’s no real motivation or consequence for those in privileged positions to do anything different or to do the right thing they will never deliver and do anything different.How would the event be if Bernie was the nominee? The fiercest protests at the DNC were people standing up against the racist ‘War on Drugs’, the TPP, ICE and deportation and immigration treatment, climate change and environmentalism inaction, lack of transparency and accountability in government, corruption, corporate welfare, police brutality and racism and unequal treatment for minorities and black lives matter issues, rampant militarism and drone warfare, mass incarceration, money in politics, among many other things. Improving these issues represent real progressive cause and real people empowerment. Not that all of these things would be magically fixed if Bernie was the nominee but there would be a raw and awesome power attached to these issues. There would be people power behind these issues. We would feel a grand unity and an accomplishment that the
7/16…DNC Post #3: Ignoring Your Parties Corruption is Condoning It (Found in DNC 2016 Forward: A Green Future)
—-During the Bernie march the good news was delivered that Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned. She would be finishing out the convention and then hired on Hillary’s own political team and given an “honorary” titled position. That’s not shady or anything but, hey, got to take your victories when you get them, even if it is mostly symbolic. One corrupt official has been removed from public office and that hopefully means one less corrupt official overall. Now Hillary’s election team has one more corrupt employee on it. The Hillary and Democratic strategy continues to show its true colors. To a true progressive, these situations keep adding fuel to the corrupt fire and perfectly sums up why we need to keep fighting. Politics is becoming exposed for its corrupt ways and when it gets recognized as such, that official just gets moved to the entourage of the candidate and given an honorary title, falling in the end, not too far from the influence of the original tree. No wonder Hillary activists don’t show up to progressive political rallies. How can they honestly believe in Hillary’s vision or the Democratic Party’s actions? That level of corruption is being noticed. Ignoring your party’s corruption is condoning it.
#feelthebern
#dncleaks7/16…DNC Post #2: Democrats Catering to Walls, Police, Trump (Found in DNC 2016 Forward: A Green Future)—-Philadelphia is littered with cops in militarized fashion and the stadium where the convention is being held is barricaded with a million maze like high fences and walls. Citizens have to walk through a literal maze of fences and barricades to move what would otherwise be about twenty feet in a forward direction. The park that is hosting the movement’s campers, which is right next to the convention stadium is completely quarantined off. There are hordes of cops throughout the park and helicopters are flying above at all times. Huge gangs of cops on horses and motorcycles, in bushes, etc. constantly assert their presence. It is unfortunate that Trump’s mindset and strategy to “make America safe again” is centered around walls and police, and Democrats seem to be taking a lesson from his campaign. The Trump effect is infiltrating its way into and becoming part of the demise of the Democratic Party. The police are already instigating confrontation overall. It’s amazing how much the oppressed has to hold its composure in the face of corrupt police who are baiting you to break a law. Once a law is broken or even walked up to a cop can do whatever they want. Who is watching the cops? Oh yeah, I almost forgot, nobody.With the current Democrat Party and Hillary at the helm we are seeing what a Democratic police state looks like vs that of the Republicans. It will still be extremely oppressive, it will still put up walls for people, it will still be corrupt and intimidate and easily resort to incarceration. It might not be the Republican, ignorant witch hunt, which definitely does count for something, but it still will be a system centered around oppression and instigating and perpetuating the divisiveness of the have and have nots. Is it truly the lesser of evils? Yes, technically, but it is still part of the overall evil that lurks in our country, that is running and ruining our country.
7/16…DNC Post #1: Journey for Bernie, Philly Ghettos, Energy Epicenter (Found in DNC 2016 Forward: A Green Future)
—-The Bernie movement is showing up to Philadelphia in an organized event to protest the benefits few always receive in the face of and vs the needs of the masses. They are protesting a political system and the Democratic party within that doesn’t stand for most people. They are protesting a system that gives corporate handouts to people who benefit from the suffering of the masses. They are protesting a system that profits off of student debt. They are protesting a system that profits off of incarcerated individuals and the racist ‘War on Drugs.’ They are protesting a system that doesn’t stand for minorities and the epidemic of police brutality on black lives. They are protesting a system that brings about more military destruction to the world and to our own communities by militarizing the police than any institution or government on earth. They are protesting a system that goes against union representation. They are protesting a system that doesn’t stand for practical environmentalism or actually taking firm action against climate change. They are protesting a system that treats corporations as people. They are protesting a system that allows unlimited money in politics and hence gives unlimited power to a small amount of wealthy individuals over massive people representation. They are protesting not being given a livable minimum wage. They are protesting a system that doesn’t bail out its citizens, it’s students, and the unemployed/underpaid but instead will bail out banks and shareholders and not hold them responsible or put them in jail for their actions. They are protesting the Democratic political party that would actually make amends and compromises to the corporatist and racist and sexist radical far right, appealing to the mirage that they’re centrist rather than appealing to their base or progressive, people centered values overall. They are protesting the Democratic political party that is putting its own power and rigged election process ahead of the power, will, and unity of the people.
#dnc
#feelthebern7/16…Liberal Panel in Utah Agrees They Won’t Be Wasting Time Supporting Hillary Clinton (Found in Obama, Sanders, Politics)
—-The party needs to get rid of its Democratic Party only mentality and be an umbrella organization that supports all of the left wing and the complete liberal agenda. It needs to bring all the movements on the left together for the strongest candidate possible. Consensus and compromise on the left will create the strongest political product moving forward. We need to stop catering to the right. We lose our base when we cater to the right and having centrist viewpoints doesn’t really gain from the right as much as it loses from the left.
What will become of the Democratic Party as it continues to hold people and local leaders hostage in favor of their chosen candidate? Currently the Democrats and Republicans have their own interests in mind. We need to vote beyond the politics of fear. We are allowing ourselves to be silenced and the lesser of two evils is paving the way for the greatest evil of all.
We assume the politics of Trump is far more outrageous than the politics of Hilary, however, Hilary and most neo-liberal Democrats are center-right on the political spectrum while Trump is a bit more to the right of them. There has to be more of a difference between the two candidates other than personality and speaking styles that should warrant that they are actually very different from one another.
The prevailing thought among Scott is that success comes in not being labeled as a progressive or Democrat but rather an independent. The symbol of being attached ultimately to the Democratic Party will not bode over well with Utah conservatives but being attached to an independent label will bring about heavy consideration.
7/16…The Rising Bernie Movement vs The Corrupt and Dilapidated Hilary and Trump Charade (Found in Sanders, Obama, Politics)
—-Trump will bring us catastrophic fascism and Hilary will bring us a neo-liberal disaster. We have more in common with what we lose vs what we gain with these candidates. It’s time to adapt and evolve America. We have this moment at our fingertips. Just reach out and take it. Imagine what it would be like to actually vote for people that stood up for the most of us and the environment? Not taking advantage of this opportunity is not worth it. You can’t invest in the idea that it will just probably come around again. You don’t know when it will come again and be this easy and obvious.
The Democrats have ignored the issues of poverty, police abuse, mass unemployment/meager wage employment. The levels of wealth inequality and environmental degradation is out of control. The Clinton policies of the 90s generated mass inequality, mass incarceration, the privatization of schools, Wall Street domination, etc. These neo-liberal policies helped create right wing populism that is ballooning in the country at the moment with the likes of Trump. Is Hilary really going to come to the rescue with the same neo-liberal strategies and policies and leadership that got us into this mess? Hardly a realistic solution.
Why not vote for democratic values that actually are democratic values rather than simply the name of Democrat? The Bernie movement is where this is at? Jill Stein and the Green Party is where this is at. Why not allow yourself to relish in voting, living a lifestyle, and standing for what you want rather than choosing the lesser of two evils. Both of which will lead you with similar mountains of problems and oppression.
We need a love warrior. We need someone who declares what side they are on. We need someone who takes a stand and does something about people’s suffering and has solidarity with poor and working people rather than just giving lip service to them. Jill Stein or Bernie joining the Green Party, if he doesn’t win the Democrat nomination, would actually destroy the two party destructive monopoly in the U.S. It’s an all star third option vs the two most unpopular presidential candidates in history. I’ll put my money on that third option any day.
We are being the ‘hope’ rather than just hoping for ‘hope.’ We are staying awake and being stimulated by a lifestyle revolving around a moral and spiritual cause. We are telling the truth about what is going on. We are willing to take action and go to jail to fight for justice as not doing so will continue to lead to insurmountable suffering. It is a great time to be alive. How will you be an actor in this grand play? What side will you be on?
#Feelthebern
#Jillnothill
7/16…Racist America Forcing the Issue of a Race War Supported by “un-Racist” Privileged Americans (Found in Sanders/Politics–A Racist Conversation)
—-The commonality of us all in this is that we all want to feel less uncomfortable. For the Black and minority communities that means not being disproportionally targeted for mass incarceration, harassment, and death by police who target them. For white communities comfort comes in the form of always being right and not having to think about the problems of race or thinking you are not contributing to the problem or that the world should simply be color blind. Two vastly different worlds of uncomfortableness. It’s going to be the people with privilege who stand up and fight for equality who have the opportunity to enact the most change. It’s an uncomfortable truth but not doing so will casually lead us into the race war that’s being sold to us.
Being comfortable at all coasts and not thinking about racism and privilege is public enemy number one. To the privileged and powerful, equality enforced will always feel like oppression.
Racist America is promoting a race war and bringing along with it people who are not racist but who can easily and passively believe (or doing nothing about) all the things their racist counterparts say or what is measured as racial oppression. Innocent people’s privilege is being used against them. The march towards the race war continues and the people most marching in that direction are the ones who don’t even realize they are marching there. Standing idle and saying you don’t believe in or know what to believe regarding white privilege will make privilege mindsets and racism grow more. Not taking a stand and researching what is actually going on will make it worse. Congrats, you’re part of the problem if you don’t take it upon yourself to really see, to really experience, to really research, to really do something about, to really listen to the people most affected about what is going on. It is easy for the system and status quo to win as doing nothing produces inequality.
The more time spent fighting against the realities of black and minority suppression and their mass incarceration and the very visible police brutality and killings that are taking place all throughout the country, the more time we will be, by association, perpetuating racism. In order for us to really combat racism it requires us to come in contact with people and listen to them and honor and respect what they are their communities are going through. It requires experience of interaction rather than knowledge of what is going on.
#blacklivesmatter
6/16…Inspirational Points From The People’s Summit and Bernie Movement (Found in Sanders and Politics)
—–1) Bernie Sanders is not the messiah. The movement is focused on the needs and empowerment of people. People who refuse to stand for injustice anymore.
2) We need to ask big to properly tackle the problems of crumbling infrastructure, money in politics, corporate welfare, climate change, militarization, neoliberal economic fantasies that fail the 99%, institutional racism in a justice system that has brought us back to the Jim Crow era. Asking for less than simply will not do.
3) Intersectionality is a must….
6/16…The Immediate Bernie Cause. Go to The DNC in Philly and Create as Many Activists and Organizers as Possible. The People’s Summit Message (Found In Obama, Sanders, Politics).
—-There is no way to interpret what is happening to Bernie right now as losing. We are winning in a resounding way! If Bernie had won the nomination we’d be exactly in the same position trying to figure out how to continue everything we’ve thus far created.
Realizing that your pain and despair and push in life is no different than your brother’s or sister’s next to you is power.
All of us who believe in this movement and Bernie Sanders and everything he stands for needs to make it to the DNC convention in Philly in later July to show their support for the cause.
It is our generations Woodstock and the Million Man March. It will be the coming together of all the movements. It will be a hodgepodge of intersectionality in action. It will be groups like “Black men for Bernie” and minorities of all colors not being afraid of Donald Trump or Hilary Clinton and being more afraid of what would happen if they had a hand in killing the energy of this movement and went along with either one of those leaders or people like them.
#stillsanders #bernieorbust #feeltheburn
5/16…Ralph Nader and Democratic Party Tyranny (Found in Obama, Sanders, Politics)
—–http://www.democracynow.org/2016/5/10/ralph_nader_sanders_should_stay_in
Full interview above, summary below:
Ralph Nader: “The two-party tyranny is so exclusionary, of ballot access barriers, keeping independent candidates from being on the debates, etc. What happens is that first an independent candidate has to surmount 50 state ballot access laws, some of them so draconian as to defy satire, like in North Carolina and Texas and California. The second thing they have to do is ward off all kinds of frivolous lawsuits, for example, by the Democratic Party. They confronted us with 24 lawsuits in 12 weeks in 2004 in various states to get us off the ballot, drain our resources, distract our focus. We won most of them. But it was a typical example of the workings of the two-party tyranny.
The only reason Hillary Clinton is ahead now in delegates is because of closed Democratic primaries and the superdelegates, who are her cronies, mostly in Congress. Primaries are paid by taxpayers; they should not be closed to independent voters. If the parties want to pay for their own primaries with their own private money, that’s one thing. But you don’t have taxpayer-supported official primaries that become the private preserve of closed primaries, Democrat or Republican. If independent voters could have voted in these primaries, as happened in open primaries, Bernie Sanders would be defeating Hillary Clinton.”
5/16…Be the Change You Want to See in The World. Volunteer for Progressive Candidates! (Found in Obama, Sanders, Politics)
—–Be the change you want to see in the world! Lets continue our movement in Utah!
There are many local candidates here in our state who are Bernie progressives, and are fighting hard battles that can be won, but only with the help of all of us. Each one of us putting in a little bit of time will far outweigh a few of us putting in a lot of time. One day? Two days? A few hours? It all adds up and will make a huge difference in the end. Sign up at the Google Volunteer Form: http://goo.gl/forms/x7alFx7nU2. We will most likely start canvassing starting the week of May 21st or May 28th.
There have been meetings happening all around with many of these candidates whom are running for various office positions. If you did not know, canvasing has the largest impact for local political races. I found out that on average, candidates can usually recruit 7-12 volunteers to help canvass, which takes roughly 1.5-2+ months worth of canvassing to cover an entire district. If we can get 150 volunteers, split into groups of 40-50 people, we can spend one Saturday or shorter weeknight shifts, covering an entire district for 2-3 different house districts. So, in one day, we could shave off months of work for these local campaigns. The quicker we can get canvassing data into the system, the quicker our candidates will have time to analyze the data and re-strategize their race if needed…
5/16…Hilary Clinton and Election Fraud (Found in A Social Misunderstanding)
—–“The United States spends substantially more time, money, and energy telling people to vote rather than ensuring the process in which they do so is just.
Our democracy lives on transparency, fairness, and justice, and when our elections are blatantly corrupted and fraudulent, that democracy dies. We can either stay silent and watch our country disintegrate or stand up and fight for our rights.
There was not any voter suppression disadvantaging Hillary Clinton. Always only negatively affecting Bernie Sanders.
When exit polls are way off, either the polls are wrong, electoral fraud was committed, or both.
The discrepancies favoring Clinton between exit polls and voting results, from lowest to highest during the primary season: -6.1%, -1.9%, 1.1%, 1.7%, 3.4%, 3.9%, 4.1%, 4.3%, 4.6%, 5.2%, 8%, 8.3%, 9.3%, 9.9%, 10%, 11.6%, 12.2%, and a whopping 14%…”
4/16…The Tranquilizing Drug of Gradualism Brought to You by The Media, Hilary Clinton, and the DNC (Found in Obama, Sanders, Politics)
—–“We have come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy…”
Martin Luther King Jr. spoke these words in 1963 when he was trying to convince the country that “It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.” There is a similar feeling in the air today. It is not a black issue, it is not a gay issue, it is not a women’s issue but it is an urgency of all people combined that stand to lose with the coming of Hilary Clinton and the DNC as they present themselves now. Inequality has been running rampant for many decades on end…
4/16…Neoliberalism: Do You Know What It Is? (Found in Obama, Sanders, Politics and Articles of Stimuli)
—-“Its anonymity is both a symptom and cause of its power. It has played a major role in a remarkable variety of crises: the financial meltdown of 2007‑8, the offshoring of wealth and power, of which the Panama Papers offer us merely a glimpse, the slow collapse of public health and education, resurgent child poverty, the epidemic of loneliness, the collapse of ecosystems, the rise of Donald Trump. But we respond to these crises as if they emerge in isolation, apparently unaware that they have all been either catalyzed or exacerbated by the same coherent philosophy; a philosophy that has – or had – a name. What greater power can there be than to operate namelessly?”
4/16…Bernie Minded Political Participating During the Day and Ayahuasca Indigenous Healing Ceremonies at Night (Found in Policis and High on Life)
—-As we come to terms more with who we are and what we participate in and learn more about indigenous cultures and take in their influence and the medicine of the Earth, we may find that we are not as enlightened or producing as much good as we think we are. Hence is the energy of the people standing up with the Bernie campaign and striving to go against the system and change it for the better. I look forward to seeing where this movement goes and also taking in more indigenous influence and looking at things more from the perspectives of people who truly value their connection to nature and each other. People who are consumed by promoting healing and pathways to enlightenment focused away from American consumerism, materialism, oppressive traditions, addicting and mind numbing drugs, short term attention spans, and gimmicky advertising and infomercial forms of communicating that easily take over our lives…
4/16…Growing Pains of Salt Lake, Progressive Divide, and The New Bad Words of the Left Wing (Found in Obama, Sanders, Politics)
—–For both sides of the political spectrum, the new bad word is “establishment.” This is making things a bit confusing because it can label older progressives who are not exactly jumping on the Bernie fandom as part of the establishment. The establishment being the system that has failed and is the enemy and holding the people back from rightfully gaining their voice and power in the political sphere. It is a group of people who want to keep things the same, go about business as usual, or at the most, continue with liberal gradualism, but be more conservative in their approach. New progressives see this as the threat and even sometimes define these old progressives as “The New Republicans” due to their keeping things as is, conservative nature. The new progressives want their generation and their new definition of progressives to be allowed in as the old establishment and guard has failed them no matter if they are older progressives or republicans. However, these new labels are not going unnoticed and, for example, for Hillary Rodham Clinton supporters to be called part of the establishment is absolutely insulting and instantly leads to inflammatory in-fighting in the left wing. The big issue that goes back and forth is what the real definition of progressive is and often the dialogue turns into a battle of who is proclaiming they are more progressive. It of often a very emotional and aggressive conversation that persists…
3/16…Voter Suppression, Establishment Politics, and Caucus Night in Salt Lake City, UT (Found in Sanders, Obama, Politics)
—–Establishment politics is accusing anyone who runs against them, or those that criticize the system, as instigators and part of the problem and that they have no business in politics. People are standing up and starting to do their part by being involved and simply voting and trying to challenge the powers that be. People will win if they keep doing the simple things. There is no way to stop the people even if the system is rigged as the people simply walking and exercising their rights will casually just walk over whatever is in their way. I am aghast and disgusted at the state of affairs with our voting process. I am terrified of the shitty system we have in place. I am horrified of establishment politics who perpetuate this system much in the same way that before I was scared of say Trump. What are our most front runner choices? A bully, racist asshole who is perpetuated by the media and wants to build a giant wall to keep America safe or a corrupt Democratic establishment politician that is supported by fake news, massive corporate financing, and the fake sense that we can vote? The system is broken and a new age is dawning. We ALL lose in dramatic fashion either way with establishment politics (Democrat or Republican) and with fascist rule in Trump. Now more than ever we have to stand with the values of Bernie Sanders and demand nothing less as he is the only candidate that truly stands for the interests of empowering common people. Our country and democracy is depending on us.
3/16…Bernie Sanders and White Privilege (Found in Obama, Sanders, Politics)
—–The Bernie campaign isn’t big news to non-whites in the same way that it is to middle/working class whites who are fresh to these new experiences of income inequality and have had more opportunities at various levels of equality before. America notices a lot more when whites are not getting jobs or being displaced or don’t have enough money to live on. I can’t help but feel that black sentiment is unsympathetic to this recent development and the situation that a lot of black communities feel isn’t anything more or less than what they’ve experienced before. Maybe unsympathetic is the wrong word…
3/16…5 Political Groups Yearning for Power, 4 Getting Representation Within 2 Parties, 1 Tribe Will Win (Found in Obama, Sanders, and Politics)
—-Until Americans stop getting distracted by the simple Republican versus Democratic small dramas both establishments represented in them will win in their overall goal which is moving America more steadily forward towards war, empire, corporate interests, bank interests, pharmaceutical interests, any big money investor that keeps buying politicians and having their will and profits catered to more than what is important and needed for the American people. A true opposition party is needed to counter the never changing American agenda for military and corporate empire and at this point in time we are seeing first hand the over arching negative affects of such policies on its citizens. The citizens are speaking up!
3/16…The World Left to Egos (Found in The Virtues of Ignoring)
—-“Jon!” I yell. “How many people have you unfollowed on your Facebook.”
“Oh most of them definitely. You think I have time to listen to what people are saying or thinking or want me to do for them? I run and organize campaigns for fucks sake. I don’t got time for people. I need people to focus on the message I’m putting out there.”
“Wait wait, I know I’m not really using Facebook as up to date as most people do but isn’t it a bit ironic that both of you post things that you want other people to see and participate in but in turn don’t listen or see what others are asking of you?”
2/16…..Citizens United and dark money gone bat shit crazy vs Bernie Sanders (Found in Obama, Sanders, Politics)
—-The movement is being centered around people and how good people can go about bringing about positive change. This doesn’t end with Bernie getting elected. It is more more intense and meaningful than that. It continues as it does even after the election. It is a lifestyle people are buying into as that is the only thing that will stand up to the dark money people and influence in politics and overall in everyday life. The movement will really continue with Bernie winning or not, but it would just be nice for it to come sooner than later with a win.
1/16…..Modern Day Racism (Found in A Racist Conversation)
—-Somehow conservative whites feel they are being attacked because society has become more equal in past decades and conservative leaders have manipulated people into this thinking and that losing their racial superiority has somehow been an unfair process in and of itself. In society’s attempt to make things more equal, limiting and taking power away from dominate groups, who once saw it as normal to oppress people, will forever be seen as an oppressive process to the dominate majority. Hence where the term ‘Reverse Racism’ and ‘All Lives Matter’ gets its gusto and the term ‘White Privilege’ goes largely unnoticed. Welcome to the world of modern racist and oppressive language. You might as well be saying ‘spic’, ‘bitch’, ‘wop’, (insert aggressive derogatory name here).
1/16…..The Awkward Position of the Hillary Campaign (Found in Obama, Sanders, Politics)
—-The awkward has taken place for Clinton supporters. Do they now still shout out for their candidate or do they listen to themselves from what they have been saying for many months regarding Bernie’s un-electability when the reality now seems to be pointing to how Hillary is the one that is ever more appearing to be unelectable? I really don’t see all of Clinton’s supporters laying down their campaign obviously so from here on out it will just be the grand irony among Clinton supporters.
1/16…..How Hillary Will Get Trump Elected President (Found in Obama, Sanders, Politics)
—-…Trump has come to power because he has said outlandish things on the Republican side that have gotten him unlimited press and made him the most aggressive and talked about candidate that stands for the far right base. The danger here is what happens when he wins the Republican nomination (which it’s looking likely he’ll do) and then turns to the hearts and minds of Democrats in their progressive base? Since Trump can say anything he wants, when does he start spouting Bernie Sanders’ language in response to Hillary like he did in the last debate and have progressive news sources praising him? He can say anything he wants! The right will still vote for him regardless (and no way in hell for Hillary) and now how much of the left could potentially vote for him too? Is it possible for him to get the base of the right and the left while Hillary muddles around in the unenthusiastic middle?…
12/15…The War on Drugs, Progressives, Why People Don’t Vote. (Found in A Social Misunderstanding)
—-When I wear my Bernie Sanders shirt in an all Black room, I get disgruntled looks but also an opening for conversation. Instead of instantly writing me off as a stupid white person who wears a Trump shirt or a slightly less stupid white person who wears a Hillary Clinton shirt, it’s like the Sanders shirt is a starting point for connection. I say things like “Bernie is the only option. His record and history is consistent that he would help your cause” and they say “yeah that’s where it needs to start but unfortunately that is the peak of the iceberg for someone who might cater to us. We’ve seen this before. What does this old white man or white people in general know about what most colored people in the U.S. have gone through?”
12/15…Addiction and Sex and Ejaculatory Release (Found at KeatingBodyworks.wordpress.com in Addiction)
–—The release? Why is this so important. Well imagine what release means when the common person thinks about coming home from a long day of duties or work. They sit down and watch tv and let it think and talk for them, they have a drink or many (alcohol). They might eat their favorite snack. I would say probably something usually with sugar in it. They might overeat at a meal. They might over-train in the gym. They might take some pain killers or other prescriptions drugs to help them relax or sleep. For the more illegal drug user, they’ll come home and take a huge bong rip of cannabis. They’ll inject themselves with some heroine or prefer to take any other form that creates a “release” type feeling that they think about all day and salivatingly look forward to. It’s what gets them through their day that they can look forward to the release. Sounds all too easy and all too much of a practical solution. However, unintended consequences arise.
11/15…A Winding Path (Found in Writing to Write and then to Write Some More)
—-A fly zigs around the house. Humans swap at it trying to predict its zagging often flailing about creating their own sense of zig. Bacteria and mold grows in the shower handles. We try to counteract it by spraying bleach. We cough at the poison. The march of life goes on in many directions. We want to predict. The fly just wants some poop.
11/15…The Awakening Dragon of the Bernie Sanders Campaign (Found in Obama, Sanders, Politics)
—-This is the beginning of the end of something no matter who gets elected. The 95-99% of lives will suck big time if a republican get elected. The 95-99% of lives will suck less if Hilary gets elected. The 95-99% will greatly improve if Bernie gets elected. What side do you want to be on? Keep waking up that dragon. We vitally need it to level out the playing field before getting caged in can only be overcome through using French Revolution guillotine, heads-chopped-off measures. Nobody wants that and by that time the level of instability will be so great it’ll lead to decades of turmoil. Which way will America go?
11/15…Common occurrences of being a minority in America and dealing with police (Found in Articles of Stimuli)
—-“…Undue power is given to these law enforcement individuals and if we as a community, country, people ignore how they treat people (mostly minorities), and not hold them accountable for their actions then we are ourselves participating in treating a people less than and racism overall…”
11/15…Tobacco/Nicotine: The, I guess if you like something enough you eventually put it up your butt, drug (Found in Holistic Health / Plant Teacher Healing)
—-The poison path with plants is explored. Therapeutic applications and dangers of tobacco.
11/15…..Confronting Homelessness in Utah and Abroad (Found in A Social Misunderstanding)
—-“I left the man and said goodbye. I ran back down the trail and he walked back to his tent. I couldn’t help but realize how different our lives were, yet how similar. If I had met that guy in a coffee shop or at a community meeting I would have instantly felt a connection and a desire to keep in touch and possibly work together. I still felt the connection but it was different. How do I go about helping this man? Do I simply just go up to the mountains again to chat and/or to see if he’s alright? What is the block I’m feeling where I’m at a loss for how to help him?”
10/15…Mindful Meditation with Ronald D. Siegel, Lecture 1 (Found in Mindful Meditation)
10/15…From ‘Party of Lincoln to party of racism. The unraveling of Nixon’s southern strategy in the 1960s (Found in Articles of Stimuli and Obama/Politics)
10/15…Distracted Distraction (Found in Contact Lens iphone screen)
9/15…The 35th Annual Telluride Mushroom Festival (Found in high on life: reality within reality)
9/15…A Doppelgangers View of Burning Man…(Found in high on life: reality within reality)
6/15…The Psychedelic Re-Emerging Healing World…(Found in high on life: reality within reality)
1/14…Standing in a pot line with Axelrod Beaverton…(Found in high on life: reality within reality)
12/12…Technologically Stupidly Advanced…(Found in Virtues of Ignoring)
11/12…Who’s afraid of Digital Natives…(Found in Articles of Stimuli)
11/12…The fear of a fearful life…(Found in Master Yoda)
11/12…A Bright Night in the U.S.A….(Found in Obama and Politics)
10/12…Sex, race, and Fema in the 2012 election…(Found in Obama and Politics)
10/12…Eaten by wolves with shittypants…(Found in The Virtues of Ignoring)
10/12…Moneyball the Sequel…(Found in Kinesthetically Pleasing)
9/12…SPAM…(Found in The Virtues of Ignoring)
9/12…Your brain on drugs (the drugs of reading that is)…(Found in Articles of Stimuli)
8/12…How games teach empathy…(Found in Educational Slaughterhouse)
8/12…Sit and think and think beyond…(Found in Writing to Write and Then to Write Some More)
8/12…The life of relative adventures…(Found in What is Over There?)
8/12…Reclaiming Travel by Ilan Stavans and Joshua Ellison…(Found in What is Over There?)
–Response to reclaiming travel
7/12…Suicide, 9/09…(Found in High on Life: The Reality Within the Reality)
7/12…(Writing to Write and Then to Write Some More)…The best plumber in Daly City
6/12…(Kinesthetically Pleasing)…King James the first, title that is
6/12…(High on Life: The Reality Within the Reality)…Poison ivy or bad coke
6/12…(Articles of Stimuli)…Why morning routines are creativity killers
The Avid Fan 
This site would be 1,000 times more awesome if you added your life theme background music playing. Just a top hat…”tse tse tse teeee tse tse teeee tse tse teee” Just sayin.
Dude, if only I knew how to do that!!! That would be so awesome. Way to actually spell it out as well. It took me a second to figure out what you were trying to say, haha