Corruption in Public Life

Corruption is an issue.  By corruption, I mean the subversion of the goals of Democracy  and Republicanism to preserve the freedoms and not inhibit the economy, without allowing the capitalists to damage the world in a blind pursuit of profit at any cost.  The mission is perpetuation and sustainability of our economy and thus our way of life, while assisting those in need.  This mission is the primary mission and the long term planning required is ongoing and intense.   So far as we can plan without the intervention of unforeseen events.....

The necessity of flexibility is seen as a survival tactic in politics and biology due to the unpredictable sequences of events that do appear, given the  histories of the worlds.  For a political system to be so encumbered with debt that flexibility in response to changing conditions is limited the system will eventually dissolve as it struggles with reality.  It's like the wave of revolutions that swept across the nations the past few years.  The finding of the future successful path is difficult, as some seek it through religion and others seek it through politics and economics.  A unified approach based on the secular Golden Rule would be enough to bring peace, but some of the world persists in the dark behavior that appeared after the great flood as the prior civilizations disappeared, leaving tattered bands of desperate humans to rebuild civilization.  The great religions of today appeared during these times, all proving to be a successful method of survival, all passionately defended by their believers.  Judging from the number of wars occurring today, the survival value of such behavior is questionable. 

My issue today is corruption, which brought down the Roman Empire and the Greeks who would kill Socrates, and other nations corrupted by prejudice and greed like Hitler's Germany, and some of the other bloody dictators of the 20th century.  The weakness of the Romanovs, the ravages of Stalin, the senseless wars over property and water rights.  Corruption caused the downfall of many and the deaths of many. 

Right now a huge issue is the IRS scandal, where they were targeting non-profit political adversaries of the administration, even narrowing it down to those without lawyers in order to shut them down.  This is damaging to the credibility of the government, particularly at a time when the IRS is planned to be used to collect for Obama Care, which is certainly a new tax on the populace.  So now taxes are political?  The health care charges will be administered politically?  That's like the local supervisor getting tax break on her property, one not available to others.  This is serious corruption.  This is      

I mentioned prior civilizations that were destroyed.  Evidence is mounting that about 11,650 BP, a comet or asteroid hit the Earth, which caused a tsunami that caused a permanent sea level rise as the ice age was ending, which was about the time of the disappearance of Atlantis, according to Plato.  A comet hit the Earth around 6,000 BP and the island of Thera exploded about 4000 BP, all of which were devastating to the world. 

The world has changed.  The sea levels have been rising for 18,000 years and have suddenly risen more in the last few decades, a phenomena labeled global warming.  Whether this acceleration in polar ice cap melting is human caused or not is a topic of discussion with little action taken either way.  I guess we will learn if this is non adaptive behavior or not.  The configuration of land was vastly different 18,000 years ago, with shallow equatorial seas extending across the oceans, forming land bridges and island chains in places that are now submerged under 450 feet of ocean water.  Millions of acres of land was once habitable but is now submerged like Krishna's city and Atlantis and Yonaguchi.  Those civilizations had 35,000 years in which to develop.  Are we going to last that long? 

I recently read a book, Uriel's Machine, by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, an impressive 466 pages long and indexed.  Uriel's Machine posits the idea that the early writings in our current civilizations were an attempt by survivors of the flood to educate the people in the celestial arts in order to perpetuate the knowledge necessary for successful agriculture.  The megalithic culture of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa built observatories like Stonehenge at strategic points, all evidence of an earlier, high civilization that existed before the end of the last ice age about 12,000 years ago.  This is an interesting theory that is backed up by interpretations of ancient documents and scientific evidence.  Other interpretations are possible, but I lean towards reading ancient writings as fact embellished by the telling.  The Megalithic Culture HAD to be of long term duration, if the celestial knowledge demonstrated by the  observatories were of human origin. 

Other writers think the pyramids at Giza are far older than previously thought and that they demonstrate a technical use rather than a religious use.  Perhaps during the last warm period 60,000 years ago, a civilization developed as is ours in the temperate zones, but died out as glaciers covered the land and obliterated most of the remains some 25,000 years ago.   Is monumental architecture featuring huge blocks of precisely cut stone standing on Holocene sands?

What does this have to do with corruption in public life?  The Holocene Civilization endured until natural disasters overcame it, submerging it beneath the seas all over the world, and leaving little trace in the 'temperate' areas of the world.  Maybe Krishna fled to the Andes bringing his harem of mtdna haplotype B with him or the distribution pattern of haplotype B indicates it could have spread from the Andes to Asia.  Evidence at Tiahuanaco and Puma Punku and other Andean sites indicates a prior civilization to the Incas and others now living there.  Whatever it was that took them out, it probably was not something they had control over. 

The Judeo Christian Bible blames sin on the deluge and the destruction of civilization to be rebuilt by the chosen ones but the real reason for the deluge was a strike from outer space.  Now the Megalithic builders knew how to sight in something approaching the Earth on a collision course and the Book of Enoch described a comet or meteorite hit that rained burning rocks down on everybody and made the sea crazy and killed many.  Again, they had no control over it even though they could see it coming. 

Now if we can get by all the corruption and declare the Golden Rule the law of the land and stop killing each other in the name of religion, maybe we can begin to take care of our planet.  All nations should allot money and personnel to set up an early warning system to detect asteroids and comets on a collision course with Earth.  Set up a means to deflect or destroy threatening astral bodies headed our way.  The issue of corruption in public life remains, as the mission of governments should be perpetuation and sustainability of the economies, while assisting those in need.  At this time, the whole world is in need of protection from preventable natural disasters like asteroid and comet strikes and if corruption gets in the way of achieving these goals, then it's time for a change.     

 

The secular Golden Rule:  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. 

 

Responsible Capitalism II

                                    Partial Solar Eclipse      Arizona

All governments do make work projects.  In ancient times, the use of surpluses created more population, which then must be employed creating, building, inventing, philosophizing....  What are our current make work projects?  I view a good make work project as one that has a chance to create something new, like the USA government funded research into computer technology after World War II, which with the help of world scientists has developed into our electronic communications and data storage and manipulation systems.  Wow!  What a return! 

Our government has built dams, bridges and highways, that benefitted agriculture and the growth of cities, a real boon for people and was money well spent that generated tax income and provided a living for people.  This was money well spent in the past but much of this infrastructure needs to be maintained, rather than expanded.  We need new make work projects. 

I see now that money could be used for military purposes in outer space.  We need a world militia out there, not a continuation of the hassling on Earth.  Why can't the world's military organizations contribute manpower and money to create an early warning system for asteroids and other dangers out there?  This early warning service cannot be religiousized or politicized or controlled by any other desire excepting that of to save the planet from another cataclysmic hit.  WE NEED TO COOPERATE.   

We need a world militia in outer space.  We need to establish world military outposts in orbit around Earth and on the Moon and on Mars.  Perhaps sensors could be located in orbit around Venus and in strategic places around the sun.  We are more naive than Aztecs waving hi to Cortez as he landed.  We need to protect ourselves. 

Maybe a lack of cooperation among groups will force a stronger economy to shoulder the burden of creating an early warning system, but a lack of total world cooperation will create problems for this project.  Sectarianism could cause failure of an important survival oriented initiative.  Can we quit fighting long enough to save our world?   

To counteract abuses of tax money spending, it is necessary to make sure that the voters retain the right to OK any debt incurrence, which would outlaw 'certificates of participation' that are nothing less than debt.  Gradually, the right of the voters to retain control over government indebtedness has been leached away here in Arizona, where debt remains supreme.  I think more debt has to meet some stringent criteria that would include solvency as number one.  Voting to 'raise the debt limit' on a Federal level is disgusting and a violation of the constitution.  The purpose of legislation is not to skip ahead of the law in a quasi legal runup of debt.  If the voter loses control of government debt, tyranny follows.   

Here in Arizona we have gigantic storm drains in a tiny town that has rain maybe every five years if at all.  The government sponsored union contract cost taxpayers $35 million on a dead end project that is not functional and that generates no income, but did give union construction jobs for a few months.  We cannot afford this kind of spending.  Here in Tucson, city politicians orchestrated the squandering of $230 million in tax money on expensive trips, architectural plans that were never built, and extended site preparation where nothing stands today.  This $230 million was supposed to fund projects that would attract people to the old town area.  Instead, a few self appointed elites skimmed off the money and now are raising parking rates downtown to raise more money. 

This is irresponsible government and certainly irresponsible capitalism, where the government forces taxes from the citizens and then squanders the money instead of returning it to the people in civic improvements.  It doesn't amuse me that big shots took free trips to Italy on taxpayer expense.  Now it's time to move on, they say.  Just forget we stole and got away with $230 million for them and their friends.  This is irresponsible because it causes a distrust of government and wastes precious resources.

To avoid decadence, we must maintain the infrastructure.  Tearing out good infrastructure to put in new is a waste of resources and that union tactic must be avoided.  Something that is hopelessly obsolete must be replaced.  Building more roads is counterproductive when you have enough.  It's time for the USA to recognize the limits to roadbuilding, as the Europeans have ages ago.   

As a nation and as a world we need to quit squandering our resources and focus on what is important.  On 31 May 2013 at 3pm where I live, a massive asteroid with a moon orbiting it passed by the Earth about 15 million kilometers away.  Today 1 June 2013 we are in the midst of a shockwave described on spaceweather.com

 "A G2-class (Kp=6) geomagnetic storm is in progress following the arrival of an interplanetary shock wave on May 31st. The source of the shock is not known; it might have been a minor CME that left the sun without drawing attention to itself."   

I've been following this asteroid which was first described as much smaller and on 30 May 2013 it was discovered to be twice as large and also had a 600 meter moon orbiting it.  This tells me that our detection systems are primitive and that research and development must be deployed to improve our detection systems.  We NEED to set up a defense system to prevent something like that asteroid from hitting the Earth again.  I think this asteroid set off that shock wave and the geomagnetic storm in progress.  It's obviously a traveling magnet.

 

We know so little.  We are like mice crossing the Interstate Highway and we don't even know how to watch for vehicles.   

  

 

IRS Abuse of Power and Obama Care

A truly chilling thought that the IRS is being used as a political tool, designed to harass and tax opponents.  Using taxes to harass those who disagree with you is reprehensible and shows a disregard for civil rights and being treated fairly in the marketplace by the government.  Search words are nice but politically slanted searches for potential targets for investigation or stalling of tax exempt status is social dynamite that undermines the government. I see stratification forming, based on control of tax decisions.  I never voted for any of these people who are taking so much power. 

Abuse of power by the IRS does not inspire confidence in the implementation of Obamacare and guarantees favoritism in 'exemptions' and other perks.  I think that using the IRS to 'collect' Obama care financial requirements is going to throw every incumbent who voted for it out of office.  It's ridiculous and un-American  to give an organization like the IRS power over the citizenry.  Head of the IRS is not even an elective office and they have the power to tax.  It's disgusting that the 'lawmakers' are exempt from the 'mandatory' Obamacare enrollment.  Why are they better than the rest of us?  We are developing a nasty little oligarchy based on the power to tax, voting themselves perks, benefits and exemptions from payments required of the people.  This looks like the destruction of my world as these greedy for money and power vote themselves higher than everybody else, thinking that the position will inspire respect instead of contempt.      

Now AG Holder feels justified in wiretapping the press in order to find a 'leak' that was actually internal.  Apparently he was after who received the information rather than who actually leaked it, which would have been an internal search of his own buddies.  So who is singing internally?  What was this 'secret' information?  AG Holder is acting like we would all be smithereens if he hadn't wiretapped the press.  And he actually expects people to believe him, even after Fast and Furious.   

Remember the ATF Fast and Furious gun scam providing cartels with high powered weapons against federal laws and the laws of the state of Arizona?  AG Holder protected those eventually labeled semi complicit in setting up Fast and Furious and did nothing until Mr. Issa issued a Contempt of Congress citation.  The Fast and Furious gunrunning resulted in the deaths of many, including a border patrol agent who was ambushed with one of the weapons.  Doesn't do much to inspire confidence. 

Now Mayor Bloomberg is allegedly using wall street terminals to snoop on clients and anybody else who uses the service, including the White House. This was evidently lucrative data sifting based on thought to be private data.  Possibly each data mine should share in the profits generated by the data.  Did they break privacy laws?  How did they get the data?  A hacker program?  Did Bloomberg get rich doing this?  I know that sweeping it under the rug is becoming cumbersome, since that rug has become a mountain of hypocrisy, elitism and vicious control by any means of the populace in all aspects of their lives.  Bloomberg does not respect privacy rights or any of the Bill of Rights.   

Like the Second Amendment rights Bloomberg wants to trample on.  I wonder what he thought about the 75,000 people who showed up for the NRA convention in Texas?  Was a representative of the government there taking names for potential IRS targets?  The hue and cry to destroy second amendment rights does not inspire confidence in the government, particularly in the throes of another scandal concerning abuse of government power.  We don't need more restrictions on firearms.  We need a government who is part of the law, not above it.  The lawless Boston bombers proved one thing about firearms.   I bet those people in Boston who had firearms felt more secure than the helpless hunkering in their houses.

The Bill of Rights was needed in order to ratify the Constitution because all agreed that our rights should be defined, in order to protect and guarantee our rights.  A lawless government based on raw power is not my government.  I saw vote out every politician who does not vote to halt Obamacare until the ramifications of the system are understood and the exemptions from it are nil.  Perhaps the lawmakers will bother to read the bill if it is actually applied to themselves.     

    

BOMBS ARE ALREADY ILLEGAL

Bombs are already illegal but terrorists don't care about that, much like the criminals who have guns will scoff at gun control attempts and take advantage of disarmed people and 'peaceful events'.  Imagine a homeowner defending himself against an AK or a bomb thrower with a cylinder handgun or a shotgun?  We live in a dangerous world and we need weapons to defend ourselves.   

So the gun control debate rages on, with ordinary people the target of restrictions on firearm possession and ammunition access at a time when the world is becoming more dangerous. 

The mental health aspect is being discussed, but in a peripheral manner.  In several cases, schools had data that would indicate that the shooter was deranged in some dangerous way, but this information was withheld.  Do privacy laws still hold when the information being concealed could lead to dangerous crimes?  Schools hold much information about students, but where to draw the line?  Should law enforcement notification and edification be required for expulsions from schools? 

I would like to see published the drug histories of the shooters, including blood tests.  Is there a common link or links to prescription drug use or illegal drug use? I read about a huge meth bust in Connecticut and that makes me wonder if the shooter had been using.  Why should I give up my gun rights because some drugged out mental case becomes murderous?  Why is this drug information being kept secret?

Another aspect of the gun control debate that is mostly ignored is the role and involvement of the legal system:  prosecution, sentencing and parole.  Lawyers are currently milking the system and the judges are allowing the delay and extension of cases that could be handled more expeditiously, while lawyers skim the cream off greatly extended cases.  Just say no might be a good idea for the judges who grant all that.  I think that punishments should be more direct and clear cut:  a crime using a gun is automatic x years imprisonment.  If the gun was fired, then x years more.  If somebody was killed or wounded, automatic execution.  No pleas of insanity:  you did that you get x.   No more living a lifetime on death row.  Remember McVeigh?  

Part of the problem is a lack of follow through after criminals are apprehended.  New York City has an excellent follow through rate, while Chicago does not and is now suffering violence.  Not to mention the open door policy, gangs and all the mayhem moving north.  Evidently taking away gun rights did not contain violent crime, but following up on punishments for crimes with guns is effective.  So they want to dilute my gun rights because they are not following up on punishments for violent crime?  No justice there.

It's interesting how many of the wealthy are for gun control, personified by Mayor Bloomberg.  The one percenters are not happy with just most of the wealth:  they want the masses to be relieved of their firearms as well.  It has been pointed out that none of the new legislation would have prevented those past tragedies.  Why not deal with the reality of what is provoking violence in our society?  What about bombs?   What is provoking violence?  One poor schmo went crazy because his home was foreclosed on and his utilities turned off.  He's dead now so he won't be telling his desperate story.  Why is flunking out of graduate school such a personal tragedy that somebody else needed to suffer?  What values are our young being taught?  School pressure is implicated in violence.  Is there a movement on to study school pressure as related to student debt?  Moneylenders who profited take heed!  The social results of some money making tactics are not worth the ultimate cost.  Schools will ultimately lose prestige over this debacle because they no longer provide a way to learn to earn a living and idealism does not pay debt.   I read that student debt is 30% in default and over 60% of college graduates are underemployed and most of the rest don't have a job.  If the wealthy have their way, they won't have a firearm either.      

Other recent murderers' families are being protected from scrutiny, which also avoids a public study of disfunctionality within the families of the shooters.  Other questions need to be answered, like were they on drugs and if so, then what were they on?  Why did the schools conceal information about the shooters?  Did local law enforcement conceal information about the shooters?  What is the track record of the prosecutor, judge and parole system as far as follow up on violent offenders?  Do the punishments fit the crimes on the books, or are the jails packed with minor offenders while the violent get lighter sentences or early release due to overcrowding?  In New York state, they let a murderer out of jail and he killed three more people.  Why was he let out?  In Texas, a killer gets out four years early and kills the chief warden in Colorado.  A clerical error!   Limiting possession of guns isn't going to address these questions and nor would it have prevented them.  Should a recent stabbing spree result in banning knives?  Banning the instrument of death will not fix the social problems exemplified by the senseless slayings.  Other means of death will be found. Look what happened in Boston.   

I feel for the grieving families that are allowing themselves to be trotted out by the politicians as a reason for gun control, believing they are in the right by wanting to curb gun rights in the aftermath of the mother who enabled the madman Lanza.  Mark Kelly is using Gabby Giffords as his poster woman for gun control and she truly is a courageous figure, but Laughner was a known mental case and had been expelled probably for threatening other students.  Why wasn't that reported?  Or was it reported and forgotten about?  Somebody didn't follow procedure.  Throughout history, there have been madmen and the larger the population, the more of them there are at any given time.  These are the people who should be identified and prevented from owning a gun, not the gigantic majority of normal people.  I deplore the politicians who use human distress for political purposes.     

The removal of effective weapon's rights from the possession of the common man has not been a harbinger of joy in the history of our known world.  We know our history and that will not happen here.