A FOLLOWER NOT A LEADER

WINDS OF CHANGE: changing the world we live in begins with you. To be effective requires being aware of your environment and staying informed about political, social, financial, and religious issues that impact our lives. This is the point where change begins.

IN CHRIST'S FOOTSTEPS
Johann Wagener 4-17-13

Catholic Traditionalists and Prosperity Gospel Preachers should get together and take a Bible class. These misguided souls have somehow interpreted Jesus's teaching to conform to their self interests and abandoned the true meanings of love, poverty, charity, humility, and sacrifice. 

If these people are upset with Francis, then he must be doing something right. 

Pope's foot-wash a final straw for traditionalists

 Pope Francis has won over many hearts and minds with his simple style and focus on serving the world’s poorest, but he has devastated traditionalist Catholics who adored his predecessor, Benedict XVI, for restoring much of the traditional pomp to the papacy.

Pope Francis says hypocrisy undermines Church’s credibility

Pope Francis on Sunday said clergy and Christians must not betray the word of God with their actions or they undermine the credibility of the Catholic Church

Pope Francis to priests: Practice what you preach

Pope Francis told priests on Sunday to practice what they preach, saying the church’s credibility was on the line.During a Mass to formally take possession of one of the Vatican basilicas in Rome, Francis said ordinary Catholics need to “see in our actions what they hear from our lips.”

Pope Francis to revolutionize running of church with new advisory panel

Pope Francis presaged a revolution in the running of the Catholic church when, at the weekend, he announced the formation of an eight-strong panel of cardinals from all parts of the world who are to advise him on governance and the reform of the Vatican.

The Italian church historian Alberto Melloni, writing in the Corriere della Sera, called it the “most important step in the history of the church for the past 10 centuries”. For the first time, a pope will be helped by a global panel of advisers who look certain to wrest power from the Roman Curia, the church’s central bureaucracy.

AN AMERICAN COUP D'ETAT

OXY-MORON a combination of contradictory or incongruous words or elements

 A BROKEN DEMOCRACY
Johann Wagener 4-16-13

America experienced a coup that was so well-orchestrated and executed no one hardly noticed. Those that did were summarily written off as “conspiracy nuts.”

Unlike what the gun rights fanatics would tell you, there were no shots fired, no riots in the streets, or anything else as overt as we see in other countries that take over governments.

While most Americans were glued to their flat screens raving over a goofy “reality” show or other mindless pastime this is what was going on in the “real” world.

These are the players;

·        The “too big to fire” Supreme Court

·        The “too big to fail” Corporations

·        The “too big to jail” criminals or 1 percenters.

It began with the Supreme Court electing President Bush. Even though Gore had won the national popular vote ( Bush 50,456,002, to Gore’s 50,999,897)  5 of these 9 unelected Justices decreed that the Florida recount which had Bush leading Gore by a mere 539 votes was unconstitutional and effectively shut it down.

Mimicking the behavior of a dictator these 5 unelected right-wing appointees literally stripped Americans of their vote and, in effect,  struck down the 1 person – 1 vote doctrine. They later trampled what was left of those rights in the Citizens United ruling.

Once the coup began it was reinforced with a series of other events;

The “puppeteers” that ran the Bush administration worked in the shadows and were extremely successful in castrating regulatory agencies that Americans believed were representing them. Wall Street was then able to run rampant and create an enormous bubble that, when it popped, sucked all the air out of the American economy which left the Middle Class decimated and held hostage to “big business.”

Bush and the cronies under him were able to convince Americans that the only way they could survive was to pay the ransom in the form of a bail out which they ironically referred to as a “stimulus.” This forced taxpayers to rescue and further enrich the very people that destroyed our economy and deemed themselves to be “too big to fail.”

Bush and his cronies parlayed this with 2 senseless wars  that cost Americans trillions of tax dollars and countless dead and injured.

The Bush legacy is a tragic and dismal one;

1) 9/11 happened on his watch.

2) He waged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, neither of which was directly related to 9/11. The “terrorists” were Saudi Arabian and Bin Laden was camped out mainly in Pakistan.

3) He created and oversaw the “great recession” and left the American taxpayer a huge deficit that devastated the middle class  and condemned future generations to more pain and suffering as a consequence.

Though no one said much about it was not pure coincidence that these series of disasters culminated shortly before the end of the Bush presidency. After dumping the entire mess into the next Presidents lap Bush went into a self-imposed exile, never be seen or referred to in political circles. 

Now that “corporations” that are made up of thousands of individuals; both American and Foreign, were deemed have the same rights as an individual American Citizen there is nothing standing in the way for a small group of wealthy individuals to transform this country into a plutocracy.

One needs to wonder what the outcome would have been had these 5 self-serving individuals not sabotaged the Bush/Gore election and the coup had failed. 

The Supreme Court . The Future of the Court . Landmark Cases . Bush v. Gore (2000) | PBS

TOP 10 SHOOTING GALLERIES

CROSS-HAIRS; used figuratively to describe someone or something being targeted

States with the Most Gun Violence

Johann Wagener 4-3-13

Thanks to the NRA and the Gun Lobby the country is fast becoming a shooting gallery.

 Each state has different sets of gun ownership laws. According to the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank that supports gun control, there appears to be a strong relationship between the strength of gun laws in the state and the amount of gun violence. In some states, gun violence exceeds the rest of the country by a wide margin. In Louisiana, between 2001 and 2010, there were 18.9 gun deaths for every 100,000 people, more than six times the rate in Hawaii, the state with the lowest violence. Based on the Center for American Progress report, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 10 states with the most gun violence.

Click here to see the states with the most gun violence

The states on this list with higher gun violence tend to have much less stringent gun laws than other states with less violence like New Jersey, Connecticut and Hawaii. For instance, none of the states on with the highest gun violence require permits for handgun purchases. In the 10 states with the lowest gun violence, seven have this requirement, including all six states with the lowest levels of gun violence. The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence gave seven of the 10 states an F for their gun control policies, with the remaining three receiving a D or D–.

RECOUNT? SERIOUSLY?

OXY-MORON a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (as cruel kindness); broadly : something (as a concept) that is made up of contradictory or incongruous elements

RECOUNT?
Johann Wagener 4-15-13

BUSH vs GORE? or MADURO vs CAPRILES?

When the Bush – Gore elections was too close to call and the votes in only 1 out of 50 states were in play rather than a recount the US left it up to 9 clowns to call the winner.

When someone in a country we don’t like wins an election we want them to do a 100% recount; otherwise it doesn’t count.

Seriously?

Nicolás Maduro is Venezuela's vote for Chávismo

THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT

RED LIGHT DISTRICT; a section of town usually devoted to illegal/immoral behavior.

LOBBYISTS and PIMPS

Johann Wagener 4-14-13

The labels are different but the modus operandi is the same. Both mange people that sell favors for money. A government that functions this way is nothing more than a brothel. 

Lobbyists 2012: Out of the Game or Under the Radar?

If Americans want to remain true to the principles set out by our Constitution the time has come to clean house. 

SIGN UP HERE; Represent.Us: The Campaign to pass the American Anti-Corruption Act

WORKING MAN TAKES OUT LAWYER-POLITICIAN

DEMOCRACY AT WORK
Johann Wagener 4-15-13

Unlike crony democracies working class people can actually become president.  Buying elections is not the rule but the exception. Being well connected and rich doesn't get someone a free pass.

Unfortunately this doesn't describe the United States but a country that the US claims is run by dictator(s) though they usually don't come to power via the popular vote not bought by the elite class or decided by a court

The headlines are a little deceiving claiming the victor was "hand picked" rather than elected by the majority of voters. But then that's what happens when you have a "free" press that is run by people that pander to their advertisers and political connections.

They are more or less a mouthpiece for the people in power and are compelled to deceive, lie, and spin  the news to fit the agenda. It's called propaganda when others do it.

Chavez's Hand-Picked Successor Ekes Out Victory

CONSPIRACY

Poverty Creation Industry
4-14-13

Here's one conspiracy that can't be so easily dismissed.

Poverty is human-made. It is created – knowingly and with scientific efficiency – by a vastly sophisticated industry that includes private companies, think tanks, media outlets, government policies, and more. This ‘Poverty Creation Industry’ is about the least talked about feature of our global economy and yet it is perhaps the greatest market force in the modern world. 

The richest 0.001% of the world control 30% of the financial wealth; the wealthiest 0.1% about 81%. So the rich are indeed extremely rich. More important than their static worth, though, are trends over time.

Over the last two centuries, global inequality has steadily increased. We know this because whilst ratios of absolute poverty have been decreasing over the last two centuries, the standard measure of inequality – the Gini coefficient – has risen from 43.0 in 1820 to 70.7 in 2002. (A score of 0 means everyone has exactly the same amount and 100 means one person controls everything.) This trend has been accelerating since 1980, when the latest round of 'free market' policies was put in place. It is being exacerbated still further in most countries by both the economic crisis and climate change.

What we find is a two-tier system comprised of, 1) a global mainstream economy where basic rules of fairness and transparency apply, and 2) a global shadow economy where fairness is an irrelevant concept, transparency a state to be avoided at all costs and the social contract is ignored.

This shadow economy has been steadily and systematically created through a series of very clear strategies. Its sole purpose is to provide a place above national tax laws, where profit and capital can be hoarded without limit. It is extremely popular with those who can afford to access it. It is vast. It is comprised of over 80 tax havens, innumerous trade agreements and legal frameworks, and employs a small army of people to lobby policymakers, provide legal defence, manage and buy-off elected officials.

Somewhere between $21 and $32 trillion – or 10%-15% of all privately held wealth – is hidden behind the great walls of secrecy. Of the 100 largest companies on the London Stock Exchange, 98 routinely use tax havens. Over half of all global tradeflows between and within them so that profits can be siphoned off untaxed.

It's Time to Shine a Light on the Poverty Creation Industry