Trump Tries To Normalize Putin - Impeachment March DC Summit 2

Our racist, lying, cheating, mentally ill president is now trying to normalize Russia's murderous autocrat. 

Trump thinks he can shoot someone on 5th Ave and not lose a vote.  And I am ashamed to say that there are a certain amount of really stupid Americans who make this true.

https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/23/politics/donald-trump-shoot-somebody-support/index.html

How about the mother of all marches and a general strike to greet Trump's pal?

World's Hearts Torn Apart

Minds programmed in fear
Cultures unconscious of love
World's Hearts Torn Apart

Haiku by John Randolph 7/15/2018

Haiku Works Through You - Book by John Randolph

https://www.balboapress.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-001167573

“Sacredness Of Life"

Behold breath divine
God's embraced by embracing
Sacredness Of Life

Writing haiku poems presents a bit of a paradox.  What one writes is limited to seventeen syllables typically in the form 5, 7, 5.   

Words themselves are limiting.  They can only refer to or point one to something or someone.  With words we attempt to represent “real” objects that never can be the object they represent i.e. the ink and paper describing the “Ruben Sandwich” on the menu can never taste the same as the real thing with the sauerkraut, corned beef, Swiss cheese and the 1000 island dressing on rye!

Although the analytical mind easily points to the limits of haiku, I nevertheless found something fascinating occurring as I spent more time writing.

The inspiration to write all of my haiku comes from something that is or was stirring inside of me.  That “stirring” (which was usually troubling thoughts or emotions) “called me” to write about it. 

In other words, I did not sit down to write a haiku.  Something stirred in me and called me to attempt to write about it.  Big difference.

Most times it took over an hour to take this undigested stirring and put it into haiku form.  Most times the stirring came from unsettling dreams or worries that filled my mind.  Most of the time these stirrings or disturbances came during the early morning hours.  More peaceful “stirrings” came in our hot tub or simply driving in the car.

What I write isn’t always “negative” or “heavy” or “troubling”.  I write about clouds, my wife, my dog, cool breezes and other mysteries of life and death. 

What I do know is that a shift in energy occurs within me every time I am able to write a haiku about something that was stirring within me. 

I also think that stepping back from something that is “undigested”, "stirring" in the body and/or “looping” in the mind and actually working with it – and trusting - resolves issues (or at least gives me a different perspective).  That is what the haiku process is for me.   

Does the right side of brain write the haiku using material held in the body that the left side of the brain isn’t incapable of digesting?  Or does the eventual languaging of the haiku come from or through one from outside of one’s self (Grace, God, Jesus, Spirit, etc.)?   

My guess is yes.  And whatever the cause is, it is magical!

So I say, give it a shot.  Like any other art form, it may take time.  And you may be surprised at the outcome.    

Finally please don't throw the baby out with the bath water if my haikus don't inspire you.  Write your own and in time you will be inspired!  

Please check out my "Haiku Works Through" facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Haiku-Works-Through-You-457403651394581/ 

Love and blessings to you all!

When The Problem Is Profitized The People Pay

Seriously you have to dig much deeper than Washington's illegal immigration propaganda to understand this ongoing scam. 

It is a vicious circle. 

The elite who run the countries where the undocumented come from are in cahoots with elite who run ours.

Both sides profit from this border merry-go-round. 

Profit from cheep labor, trade agreements, remittances, drug profits, political careers and billions for US border security industrial complex (that never quite gets the job done, no?) are the normalized status quo.

And the poor coming from the undocumented's countries are just as much in this insidious game as are the American taxpayers who pay for and suffer the consequences too.

Tell me.  Do you ever wonder why Washington does not directly address the leaders of the undocumented's countries and get down to solving this problem?

Washington gives billions in aid to all countries involved.  Washington has trade agreements with all countries involved.  Washington is supposedly friendly with all "democratic" countries involved.

Yet as a retired US Border Patrol/ICE agent and someone who has studied this problem for forty years, why in God's name has not one president ever gone to the leaders of the undocumented's countries and demanded that they solve this problem and take care of their own citizens?

All of us have to have enough courage to question the motivations of our own government. 

There is zero evidence that not only Washington, but any of the governments involved actually put the welfare of their own citizens first.  

    



            

Have The Courage To Listen To This - Noam Chompsky On Trump

Have The Courage To Listen To This

"One insane thing after another".

https://www.facebook.com/brandon.weber.author/videos/1885494718179689/UzpfSTEwOTE2OTg1Mzc3OjEwMTU1MjE1NDcyNTc1Mzc4/?hc_ref=ARRqsFvEJr60HZy84VOj3w4Ia2Ro4NzQ6xYpeD-_n5PqAuU9Jnnnr6f4-4BzPXlQeEA

The US Illegal Immigration "Problem": Who Pays The Price And Who Profits

Somewhere in our continuing, decades-old illegal immigration debate lies the ugly truth about this "problem".

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum....”
― Noam Chomsky,
The Common Good

I wonder if Noam Chomsky's "spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum...." applies to our political debate and Washington's narrative about illegal immigration?

I think it does.  Ask yourself - what is and has been Washington's narrative or "spectrum of acceptable opinion" about illegal immigration?  What is yours?  Isn't  the commonly held Democratic stance "let them all in"?  Isn't the commonly held Republican stance "kick - and keep them all out"?  Aren't they both as applicable as ever?     

Tell me how that is working for you America?

Could that ugly truth be that Washington's illegal immigration debate purposely does not address the actual causes of illegal immigration and therefore will never bring about actual solutions to the problem?  And aren't there billions of tax dollars being spent and billions of dollars being made as this problem remains the same?

I write with the hope that what I say might inspire others to think about what Washington and its politicians keep telling us all about illegal immigration.  I write from my twenty-six years of experience (1979-2005) as a US Border Patrol/ICE agent.

I have a bunch of illegal immigration questions for you .  When I write "this problem" I am referring to our illegal immigration issues in the US:

Who profits from this problem not being solved?
How much money is pumped back into Mexico's (Central America's, etc.) economy because of  this problem (and that of cartel drug profits too)?
How many political careers have been made because of or due to this problem?
How many US corporations at home and abroad profit from illegal labor and this problem?
How many billions of US tax dollars are annually pumped into the US border/drug enforcement industrial complex because of this problem?
How many people die (undocumented, documented and citizens) at home and abroad because of this problem?
Have you or someone you have known hired an undocumented person to work for you? (My answer is of course "yes").
Is it possible that the elite running the undocumented's government and the elite running the US government profit from this problem while citizen's from both countries pay the price?
Do you think that undocumented people would come here if they could make a decent wage at home?
Do you think "Trump's Wall" will stop illegal drugs and people from coming into the US?
Do you think that Mexico's economy would collapse if the US actually stopped illegal aliens and drugs?
Do you have any idea of how our own economic policies (NAFTA, CAFTA) exacerbate this problem? 
Do you know what the largest retail store is in Mexico?
Do you know what NAFTA did to Mexico's poorest corn farmers?
Do you know what the federal minimum wage is in Mexico? 
Do you know how many Mexican journalists are killed each year because of their reporting about narco violence or government corruption?
Do you know how many American corporations have factories in Mexico and depend upon Mexican labor?
Have you seen this story about US Border Patrol corruption?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApeabkCGDEU
Do you see any similarities between this problem and our 40+ year long, on going, failed "Drug War"?
Do you ever wonder why the US Bracero Program worked but then was stopped?
Do you know who really pays the price for this problem and who really profits from this problem? 
Do you think wealthy politicians have to stand in long emergency room lines or send their kids to over-crowded schools?
Have you considered the idea that our problem is actually a microcosm of a global problem that is  caused by a global disparity in wealth not unlike that in America?
Why do we seldom if ever hear Washington having highly publicized, emergency meetings with the presidents and leaders of the undocumented's countries in order to work out solutions to this problem? 
Why doesn't Washington sanction the undocumented's governments over this problem until they start taking care of their own citizens?

Because of this problem I saw a young undocumented man fall to his death as we were chasing him.  I also lost two collogues - friends -  while trying to enforce laws due to this problem.  I saw several people get seriously hurt and was almost seriously hurt myself - due to this problem.  I felt the insanity of chasing people around in fields while they were there putting food on American tables.  I saw massive fraud swept under Washington's rug because Reagan's "Amnesty" program needed to be politically successful.  

And yes due to this problem my wife and I enjoy the wonderful benefits of a wonderful government retirement program.  

And I still suffer from PTSD with recurring nightmares.  Nightmares that focus on the insanity of it all more than the actual danger of the work.

And yes, for a naïve and sensitive Southern California boy, this problem has forever changed his life.

PS If you want something to really challenge what you have been taught or told:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQvig0KvUaE  
     
Here is a study about how US and world war and economic exploitation have exacerbated the global immigration crisis:   
https://petras.lahaine.org/immigration-western-wars-and-imperial-exploitation/

US Border Patrol Overtime Abuse

Here is the truth about this.  Read all of the comments.
In 2014 the swept it under the rug again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApeabkCGDEU

http://twopesos-protestfortheundocumented.blogspot.com/2014/04/its-never-too-late-to-do-right-thing-us.html