2 January 2017. I’m NEVER Going to Do That Again… Until the Next Time…

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I usually stay out of FB disputes and comments. Well, tonight, I stumbled and fell. Some snot-nosed young idiot from SVS started in on “Marxism”. I shouldn’t have taken the bait… truly, I shouldn’t have. However, one of the comments taught me an old lesson once again… anyone associated with or supportive of SVS is always condescending of those not in that circle, and they get nasty if you disagree with them or their notions. To one, I was a “nutcase” who “didn’t legitimately acquire my information”. Therefore, do resist the urge to comment on their posts and commentary. It’ll be a total waste of time… they won’t listen, all that it’ll do is rile you to no good end, and they always “win”. I learnt my lesson again… at least, for the next year or two. It’s amazing… the youngest ones are the most bullheaded and set in their notions. I wonder… if we were the same way many moons ago (and we probably were), it speaks well of our elders that they didn’t kill us on the spot. I can see that’s the prudent course here… if you see the snotties posting idiocy… leave them be… they won’t listen and it won’t help them. They’re EDUCATED dontcha know… be good and keep it focused. For the kids surely don’t… you can smell their full nappies from here…

BMD

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2 January 2017. My New Year Wish For ALL Of You

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Well, it’s a new year… I’ll see my 63rd birthday, God willing. I wish all of you the best… my supporters, my followers, and even my foes. I wish that God’s sun and grace shine on all of you. I’ve been around long enough to know “what goes around, comes around”, and if you wish ill on anyone, the Good Lord hears it… not only hears it, but sees to it that you get it in some way or another. “What about the Donald Trumps of this world? They get away with it!” No… they don’t… there’s no one in the world who respects Trump (and those of his ilk). Fear? Yes. Hatred? Yes. Obsequity? Yes. However, such sorts never get a scrap of real respect or friendship… and they know it. They hurt people who discomfit them… yes… but no respect comes of it, I assure you.

If you want to spread evil, evil comes back on you, one way or another. If you try to spread good, the good will return to you, one way or another. All religions teach this. All people of good will and decency know this. So, as the postcard above wishes us, have HAPPINESS. Another year is upon us…

BMD

2 January 2017. American “Pro-Lifers”… How Can Such Pro-Death People Call Themselves Such?

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Look at the above… it illustrates the priorities of the leftist Scottish government and the priorities of the rightwing régime in Westminster. One can see similar priorities in the USA. The rightwing rants about “pro-life”, but is pro-capital punishment, pro-war, pro-militarised police, pro-government surveillance, anti-welfare, and anti-single-payer healthcare. It wants BOMBS… not BABY BOXES. Therefore, all those who voted Republican and claim to be “Pro-Life” are liars and hypocrites of the lowest possible sort. You can’t vote for bombs and be for babies. You can’t serve both God and Mammon. Holy Writ says so. You can’t square the circle. Get with the programme and get with HH… he wants a complete social safety-net… he wants families to have guaranteed paid holidays… he wants the state to subsidise those holidays… he wants the false capitalist structure gone. You may have HH or you may have the loudmouths amongst us who voted for Republican greedsters. That be the only choice… the only real choice facing Orthodox in the diaspora. Do we follow the Pro-Life phonies to death (both spiritual and physical) or do we follow our own leaders, who tell us that the only way out is to end the present evil politico-economic order?

Here’s the most telling part… the West’s rightwingers scream about how their countries are “under threat”. There’s no such situation, the USA hasn’t been safer in generations. The US Navy (along with its Anglosphere and Japanese allies) rules the waves and shall for the foreseeable future (it takes at least two generations to really build up a fleet, after all). Ergo, the American heartland is safe from foreign conventional invasion of any sort. The US Army and US Air Force aren’t as powerful (nor are they as powerful as their major possible adversaries), but they don’t need to be… they’re not the main bulwark of security as the Russian and Chinese armies are. The Anglosphere countries have always had their navies as the “senior service” unlike most Continental Eurasian countries, where the army has always been first. THERE IS NO THREAT TO THE USA AT ALL. Ergo, the Republican bleats to the contrary aren’t only lies, they’re mendacious and told in full knowledge that they’re untruths. Therefore… Pro-Lifers boost Republicans… Republicans are unrepentant liars… the Devil is the Father of Lies… you can see where this is going. The Pro-Life Movement is many things, but in its alliance with the Republicans, it certainly is NOT a godly force in our country.

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This is what our Church teaches… the Republicans (and their Pro-Life toadies) spit on it… do note the callous and spiteful blasphemy spouted by Boehner…

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Choose wisely… your immortal soul IS at stake…

BMD

2 January 2017. Now, Here’s a Read n’ Heed… Brian Eno on 2016/2017

2017

Andreas Walsh

2016

Andreas Walsh is a local painter who lives in the Hudson Valley south of me and north of NYC. The scene appears to be the Catskills… it may be the hilltop near the Buddhist monastery up the road from Woodstock…

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The consensus among most of my friends seems to be that 2016 was a terrible year, and the beginning of a long decline into something we don’t even want to imagine. Indeed, 2016 was a pretty rough year, but I wonder if it’s the end… not the beginning… of a long decline… or at least the beginning of the end… for I think we’ve been in decline for about 40 years, enduring a slow process of decivilisation, but not really quite noticing it until now. It reminds me of that thing about the frog placed in a pan of slowly heating water…

This decline includes the transition from secure employment to precarious employment, the destruction of unions and the shrinkage of workers’ rights, zero hour contracts, the dismantling of local government, a health service falling apart, an underfunded education system ruled by meaningless exam results and league tables, the increasingly acceptable stigmatisation of immigrants, knee-jerk nationalism, and the concentration of prejudice enabled by social media and the internet. This process of decivilisation grew out of an ideology that sneered at social generosity and championed a sort of righteous selfishness. (Thatcher: “Poverty is a personality defect”. Ayn Rand: “Altruism is evil”). The emphasis on unrestrained individualism had two effects:

• creating a huge amount of wealth
• funneling it into fewer and fewer hands.

Right now, the 62 richest people in the world are as wealthy as the bottom half of its population combined. The Thatcher/Reagan fantasy that all this wealth would “trickle down” and enrich everybody else simply hasn’t transpired. In fact, the reverse happened:

• the real wages of most people have declined for at least two decades
• their prospects (and the prospects for their children) look dimmer and dimmer.

No wonder people are angry, and turning away from business-as-usual government for solutions. When governments pay most attention to whomever has most money, the huge wealth inequalities we now see make a mockery of the idea of democracy. As George Monbiot said:

The pen may be mightier than the sword, but the purse is mightier than the pen.

Last year, people started waking up to this. A lot of them, in their anger, grabbed the nearest Trump-like object and hit the Establishment over the head with it. However, those were just the most conspicuous, media-tasty awakenings. Meanwhile, there’s been a quieter but equally powerful stirring… people are rethinking what democracy means, what society means, and what we need to do to make them work again. People are thinking hard, and, most importantly, thinking out loud, together. I think we underwent a mass disillusionment in 2016, and finally realised it’s time to jump out of the saucepan.

This is the start of something big. It’ll involve an engagement… not just tweets, and likes, and swipes, but thoughtful and creative social and political action too. It will involve realising that some things we’ve taken for granted… some semblance of truth in reporting, for example… can no longer be expected for free. If we want good reporting and good analysis, we’ll have to pay for it. That means MONEY… direct financial support for the publications and websites struggling to tell the non-corporate non-establishment side of the story. In the same way if we want happy and creative children, we need to take charge of education, not leave it to ideologues and bottom-liners. If we want social generosity, then, we must pay our taxes, and we must get rid of our tax havens. Moreover, if we want thoughtful politicians, we should stop supporting merely charismatic ones. Inequality eats away at the heart of a society, breeding disdain, resentment, envy, suspicion, bullying, arrogance, and callousness. If we want any decent kind of future we have to push away from that, and I think we’re starting to.

There’s so much to do, so many possibilities. 2017 should be a surprising year.

1 January 2017

Brian Eno

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