This Truly is - - "The Lost Decade"

Wayne La Pierre says that “The only cure for a bad man with a gun is a good man with a gun”.   But apparently the NRA had felt funny about open carry into fast food places, and so backed off of that statement.  But then even farther right nuts criticized them for that and they apologized to that right wing group and reversed their position.  Of course when someone says “Did you hear about the shooting?” you have to ask “Which shooting?” because sometimes there are more than one of them in a day.  There was the shooting in that Christian university in Seattle where the guy was taken down by a “good guy with pepper spray” and not a gun.  The guy had to stop to reload and was grabbed.  The NRA would like to prevent scenarios like this from occurring with an endless supply of bullets.  Then there was the shooting of the two police officers in having a pizza lunch in Las Vegas, I believe.  It was a husband and wife far right group that was so strange they were kicked out of the Bundy group in Nevada.  One officer was gunned down while refilling his Coke, and the other officer was shot before he could get his gun out of his holster to return fire.  Then the husband and wife team continued on to the Wall Mart where a make bystander confronted the man- - (with a gun?) and the woman was right behind him and shot him dead.  And then we have today’s shooting at Reynolds High School just outside Portland where the shooter and another student ended up dead.  We won’t even talk about yesterday’s stand-off in Los Angeles.   2012 and 2013 were really bad years for mass shootings and I thought maybe 2014 would be a better year, but it doesn’t seem so.  Of course in June of 1992 the song "Cop Killer" by Iced T was in the news in the afternoon of the Rodney King verdict riots here in Los Angeles.  All the respectable people lined up to repudiate that song.  But today it just isn't a song about a Cop Killer but two cop killers- - who put a Swastica on the dead officer- - and also the "Don't Tread on me" flag, thus defame the founders of our country to agrandize their own Egoes.  Or could it be that if it's white guys doing it, it's OK, but if the same act or a lesser act is done by a black guy or a Moslem- - then it rates hours of coverage on FOX news.  Meanwhile there was a shrieking silence on this story by FOX news..

You know they used to speak of the period from 2000 to 2009 as “the lost decade” but in fact this decade we are in, the second one of this century, which is truly “the lost decade” and it is now nearly half way concluded, with little sign of change for years on end.  So let’s just review.  Back in late September of 2007 I wrote that blog post of “All Hope is Now Lost” or something where I conflated the deaths of Dad, and the Democratic Party.  At that time I quoted statements like all the candidates are promising there will be troops in Iraq till 2013, as if that were something to strive for.  Even now we hear of the “tragedy” of the fact we are pulling out of Afghanistan - - in two and a half years - - because “The Talliban who were there before will just all return to their former power as though we had never been there”.  People like Mc Cain still regard it as some horrible mistake to have withdrawn from Iraq.  But back in 2007 we were setting our sights on Iran, because the same sort of bellicose and aggressive statements were being made about Iran- - which in the case of Iraq, were a prelude to war, and this bothered me.  And there was a lot of talk from Nancy Pelosi and others how any investigation of the War Crimes or any wrong doings of the Bush Administration- - are off the table, and won’t be used as issues by any democrat in the upcoming campaign.  There is also the line about how “The Republicans need Major Giuliani because he’s the only person who can beat Hillary - -and the Democrats need Hillary because she’s the only person who can beat Giuliani.  In those days I still didn’t like Hillary because I feared that she “would pass laws against criticizing gays- - and she would micro-manage things like what’s in our food and drink”.  Of course on Days of our Lives they now have the death penalty for anyone who criticizes gays.   In the same way that this enormous hostility tword President Obama is explainable only because they don’t like “That Black man in the White House” so this who fanatical and rabid pro gay agenda is still driving the plot of Days of our Lives.  But I would remind you that to this day, Will Horton has not had so much as one conversation with Father Eric.  We now return to 2010 and the big news at the outset of the year was Citizen’s United.   This gave the tea party the ability for the first time to raise fantastic amounts of money to get republicans in congress.  Then they use their majority there to secure gerrymandered districts.  And these gerrymandered districts are used to thwart the majority of the American people.  Even though the democrats had a majority of voters of citizens voting for congressmen, the Republicans maintained their hold on the house.  And now everybody is saying that the Senate will go republican in 2015.  And having achieved that this Republican Senate can insure that only right wing justices get approved to get on the Supreme Court, and so the whole cycle starts over again.  Rush Limbaugh wants to deport the children of illegal aliens- - by just flying them into Mexico on a C5A and dumping them somewhere in Mexico to fend for themselves.  Of course you know how bad the gun situation has become.  And we hear that if the minimum wage is raised- - or energy regulations are passed- - it will spell doom to the economy.  You’d never know all stock market indexes are at or near new Highs.  You’d never know that the rich “have never had it go good”.   Rush speaks of Hillary Clinton being risk averse or something and “Doesn’t know how to make it on her own”.  You’d never know that Rush Limbaugh has had the same job for going on 26 years now in a secure time slot on nation wide radio- - at a salary that far exceeds anything Hillary Clinton could dream of.

We need to talk more about Private Bowe Bergdoll.  First of all there is a reality gap on FOX news and Hannity and company.  All of the tea baggers lined up to demand that Bergdoll be released - - and criticized the President for not securing his release, right up to the moment he WAS released.  Then there are the roomers on FOX news that there is a secret document stating that Bergdoll was in fact now a follower of Islam.  I have not seen a shred of evidence- from FOX news or anybody on that one.  No credible source said he was “bending” tword turning pro Islamic or pro Talliban.  All we heard that he was a “troubled soul’ and that “many people actually walk off base now and then in a battle zone because they can’t stand the pressure”.  And also the fact that he was promoted – Twice, during his capture.  The military wouldn’t have done that if they thought he was a traitor.  As to this bit about Improvized Explosive Devices becoming more accurate- - there is no causal connection except in Hannity’s mind.  Also there seems to be little is any causal connection between any deaths that occurred with the platoon went out on maneuvers as opposed to any other time.   All I heard that this platoon had an unusual number of screw-ups in it, and that the leadership wasn’t very good.   On the Stephanie Miller show, Chris LeBoy keeps saying “We really need to investigate”.   But FOX news hates facts- - of the sort that may be revealed in the event of an actual investigation.  If anything FOX news prefers “show trials” like this whole Bengazi hearing thing will most likely become.  But this hearing won’t impact the November election because it may not have started by them.

Jesus taught that sometimes the thing certain people complain about the most in others, is the very thing they are most guilty of themselves.  When something - - a movement - - or an evasion or justification of your own actions - - is based on a Lie- - that lie continues to eat at you and enslave you your whole life, whether you realize it or not.  Things based on lies should not be trusted, even if that turns out to be Rush Limbaugh, Shawn Hannity, or the Catholic Church.  Time and time again I have heard Hannity and Limbaugh say things like the progressives having a "master plan" that was scripted out by some genious a long time ago such as Sol Allinsky, Karl Marx or Bill Ayres- - and they have been "setting that master plan in motion" ever since.   Anybody who knows a leftists- - knows they are far too much "in the Now" to even conceive of such long term schemes or "timetables".  Perhaps the tea party should look in the mirror for the answer to that one.  There is talk about "How horrible it is to rat someone else out".  But if someone is an "obsessive Liar' for lack of a better term, they use the Lie like a self numbing drug;  And they have to have more and more of it - - much as the whoppers the Tea Party and FOX news tells without blinking today is something even the most rabid conservative would be terribly embarrased to admit he was even Thinking ten years ago.  If Dr Daniel Jonas is guilty of anything regarding a "briech of faith" with Nicole - - it is giving her Too Much Rope to hang herself.  The trouble with a Secret is that they are always found out- - and keeping the matter secret may no longer be in your control- - as in the case of Jennifer.  I would also say that to doubt a friend- - in terms of the lack of wisdom that friend is now showing- - is not a sign of disloyalty - - but actually the truest loyalty.   If I were Daniel I would say to her "I hope one reason why you trusted me is because you know I'm a straight shooter who does not compromise my moral principles, and if I tell you something either good or bad about yourself- - you can Believe It.  You can "Take it to the bank".   Were I to cheapen my own character just to somehow "accomodate" you- - in the end you would Disrespect me for doing THAT.   And as Eric Brady told you "You should be grateful that you are no longer "Burdoned" by the weight of this horrible secret you were schlepping around with you all the time".   (selah)  Today’s episode came on and they don’t seem to have left anything out.  I’m puzzled now with this new rift between Jennifer and Daniel, and between Kate and Samantha.  Both now frictions seem pointless and “idiopathic” if you know what I mean.  Like Rush says “They have to follow the soap opera script narrative no matter how absurd”.   How in the hell was Kate able to mend fences with Stephano.  I won’t go onto the problems with achieving that but the reasons are legion. 

Usually, movements or legends or crusades or whatever- - cults - - are based around one great man.  For instance - - if you were an admirer or men like George Washington.  Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison - - - George Patton - - you would start first with the lift of the Man Himself and work outward from there.  Then you have stories about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree, or Abraham Lincoln walking five miles (through three feet of snow, of course) to return an overdue library book, or whatever.   But of course in Christianity you start with certain ideas.   And I submit the very ones who started the Christian core beliefs- - are the very Sanhedrin – the Saducees- - who were the ones who are the ones ending up “self redeeming” with their own words.  Nobody has ever explained what happened to these Jewish Priests, the “Religious Establishment” after the Temple was destroyed.  All we are told was that “Temple Worship ended”.   It completely ended.  It is not a part of Judaism today and hasn’t been since the first century.  I told you that the theology of this “perfect redeemer who never sinned” existed as an Idea or Concept of the mind- - before such beliefs were ever attached to a human being.  But all they had was the Belief or desire, as some rationalization perhaps from their Priestly background getting squinty eyed studying the scriptures so much.  How does someone who is now a Nobody, make himself a Somebody again?  By believing in a Lie, of course.  They had the desire, but just as Mark Bove had to latch on to another "normal congregation" to do his particular style of "fishing for believers", so to- - the Jewish Temple Priests - - like Mrs Dietrickson in Double Indemnity, had the desire but not the means.  The Gnostics gave them the Means.  Particularly a Gnostic such as Marcion who was already "half-way there" to begin with.  The Gnostics had what these out of work Priests couldn't buy on their own - - believers- - - Disciples even.  All you had to do was to somehow "turn them".   It is my belief that people most obsessed with "snakes in their midst" and suspicious of outsiders "infiltrating their church" are in fact projecting on to others the very thing them themselves are Guilty of.  (Selah)

Now you see this reverse Principle coming back to life today.    For today one can say the same thing about President Obama’s “complete failure as a president”.  This notion is not the result of Obama’s performance in office.  If anything it is the cause of it.  All those congressmen met the night before the President was sworn in in January of 2009.  Rush Limbaugh several days before the President even assumed office said “I hope that President Obama fails”.   Now we hear things such as “If the President had tried to rescue Bowe Bergdoll and something went wrong- - like if he notified congress like they way they wanted - - who is to say that they would not have tried to sabotage the effort- - and in the process get Bergdoll killed by the Talliban before he was released.  They would have most certainly blamed the President for that.   On one hand their own candidate says “Capturing or killing Bin Laden is not that big a thing” and when the President actually accomplishes that feat they accuse the President of “Spiking the football” whenever the event is referred to.  In both the case of Christianity and President Obama you thus have first the conception or idea of an outcome- - and then move heaven and earth to “make it happen”.  And they are a lot more than Half Way There - - already.