That's ok you were barely intelligible. LOL (I'm of course joking George!) Tell me this though. Where do you think we would be without a National security agency? Lies have always been the international currency. We lie to them (even our allies) and they lie to us (even our allies.) We work together only because we have to. The thing to remember is that we do work together. You seem to live in a black and white world. But the truth is our allegiances change with the day. So do our lies. How do I know this. Because it has been widely reported on. Reported by many sources. Putin has forgotten that because he is a complete fool. Intelligent and cunning, but never the less a fool. The countries he has screwed with have little trouble finding common cause against him....and they (US) own the world, he's just riding upon it.
If there be any I have yet to offend...be patient...I will seek you out in the obscurity to which you have withdrawn." :O}
It does seem much like a half formed plan that's been abandoned in full public view and no one seems the wiser as to whose plan. In any case the ball is differently in Bloomberg's court. Time to prove it or retract it. Unlike pols, news can't just ignore their mistakes and anything that they can't prove is a mistake to print...at lest we hope it is. A common saying: "The truth will out." Ever wonder why? ":O} The truth is always rooted in reality. Reality is in constant manifestation. The biggest most widely accepted lie ever told is just a fantasy, a small ugly little bird in the gears of the cosmos. What isn't part of the gears always gets ground. I have advice to offer!! Make sure you part of the constant manifestation and keep a bit of lube on hand... The Cosmos can be a bit of a tight squeeze at times even in the middle. I have come to love the middle for that is where all my favorite truths are born... At the center of all that is. An aspect about the lie we sometimes forget. Try to tell Mt. Everest a lie. exactly. Lies are only for people.While the animal kingdom is just stuffed full of deception, we alone own the lie. Truth belongs to all that is. But the lie always begins and ends with us. So just how special do we want to be? LOL Depends on how big a lie your willing to spend you precious time supporting. A lie only exists while it is believed AND repeated. One can forget all about truth and never lose it. But a lie needs constant recreation or it vanishes.. Truth needs constant burying or it emerges of it's own nature. As soon as the republicans stop telling us that the supreme court hearings were all on the level and fair to all...The truth screams in our faces. Truth is all we have to anchor us in reality. A lie any lie loosens our moorings and we begin to drift away from truth upon the sewage of lies we speak. One can not live a spiritual life if one tells lies. A lie Denys reality and reality is our only home.Therefore reality is our spiritual home. Lies are a much greater evil than most are willing to understand. Another movie example!! LOL "A man for all seasons." Becket has been made the head of the church of England for the sole purpose of granting the king an annulment. Once close the king assumed he would go along. But he can not. He's scared shitless but he cannot forswear himself of the duty he was forced by the king to accept. Becket's daughter pleads with him to give the so of a bitch what he wants. So with great paternal care he sits his daughter downs and explains. "I took an oath. When you take an oath you are giving your word. When you give your word your are placing your soul in the palm of your hand like so many grains of sand. Every time you break your word or tell a lie a bit of sand is lost from your hand. A bit of you leaves your heart behind. Until in the end you no longer hold anything of yourself that you may rely upon. You become lost to this world.
Like and respect the true bahstages that are in charge of the three lettered congregation of crooks and liars as much as you wish. Why not trust the torturing(and liking it) woman that heads the CIA? Sorry, I can't.
Now this is a BIG "What if," but it crossed the old noggin that, "what if this is a disinformation plant from the Trump juggernaut?" Trump disses China at any opportunity, this Bloomberg piece sure adds to the "Boo China!" weight of Trump's desires. Just an idea. Don't shoot the piano player.
Let me try to get this past you George. First we have the news which you cherry pick to reflect your views. Most of us do that. It's called confirmation bias. We believe far more readily that which supports what we think we already know. Then you have the view that the NSA is corrupt top to bottom with little good in it. YES? So how did you arrive at that view. I could not. I lack the information needed to know either what they are doing or why...And so do you. For the most part so does the press. Anything found in our press will reflect our nations need for secrecy as we do have some rather nasty enemies. My problem with your statement is that the NSA is comprised of USA citizens who at least at some point wanted to serve their country. Many have died trying to do that. And here you are defaming an entire agency. Men and woman whom you know next to nothing about as they are the secret service. You are not and I am not suppose to know what they are doing , but you know for a fact that they are evil men and women. George the simple truth is you have ZERO standing from which to make such a statement. There is plenty of evil in government to cripple the efforts of good men and women. But you and I are in no position to point a finger at any one. We do not know who in that agency might advocate an evil deed or who in that agency might be risking all to prevent them. Risking ALL to prevent evil. Yet your here branding them as evil because they tried to be of service to our country. Is there a "Good" NSA that they might of joined? Or did they have to join the one that now serves us? Do we have enemies we must always be prepared to meet? Are our enemies actively trying to do evil to the people of the world. Yes we do and yes there are.. Is there evil within that must be combated at all cost, yes there is. So who going to combat it? I can tell you that the policy wars within the NSA are constant. There is no easy way to determine how their duties can be best carried out. Now let's look at structure. Does the NSA rule our government? No they do not. Politicians do.. Most of what the NSA does is under political authority. They need permission to carry out their mission. So you've got the kids of a lot of sincere men and women crying all day if your view of their parents were to become popular. So how would you protect this country? The NSA is a bureaucracy. Like all bureaucracy's it will become corrupted over time and needs renovation periodically if it is to continue to do it's job as intended. Who can carry out these reforms? Who knows what needs reforming? Those who work for the NSA that also see a higher calling. The call to reform. But to do this they need the support of the people the support of the pols. I had to almost break arms HERE in this forums to convince people to vote Hilary as a means of containing what is after the civil war and Vietnam the worst thing this country has ever had offered to us, trummy. We are the corruption.We elect the corrupt routinely. There is nothing in government that at some level doesn't reflect the voter. You are that voter George. To take up cause against a bureaucracy is futile as they are controlled by the pols. They who work for the NSA do us a great service. Do they do great harm as well ?Of course they do! They obey the politicians we elect. Or help elect by not voting for the lesser evil. The NSA reflects us, our need to be wary of this world and our wish to have what we don't want others to have. Politics can never be any better than the people it serves. The people that create government to meet their perceived needs. In short, in my view your not helping George. You brand the good along with the bad. They don't deserve to be seen in this way. They are for the most part just men and women trying to do a difficult job while working under the moral morons we elect to rule over them. To be honest I am proud of those who choose to serve us. To try and preserve our way of life. They have my respect and gratitude. We can choose to fight or not to fight, but no one in the fight get to choose their own general. When we hand them corrupt leaders we can't blame them if they put them to a corrupt use. Be grateful that we started out with men and women who wanted nothing more that to serve us in their highest capacity. It was we who corrupted them along the way. Those who have resisted us often paid a high price. So give them the respect and honor they worked so hard to achieve. The fault lies not within the NSA nor our stars but within ourselves. We have no right to ask the government to be better than we ask them to be. To be any better than we are.
If we don't challenge all of us to be better than we are we are doomed. Of course, that's already true. So why try to improve, I see your point. I thimk. Why not read "The Puzzle Palace" by James Bamford? Or "The Shadow Factory" by the same author? While I'm on the subject of book learning I highly recommend "The Politics of Heroin" by Alfred W McCoy. Conformation Bias? Certainly affects me. No doubt. Do I see bogeymen behind almost all governmental edifices? Yes. How about my views on big business. Evil everywhere, that's their motto. By the way, big business owns all of the large organs of state security. Oops, what a strange thing to say. Not if you've read "The Gulag Archipelago" by Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn. All three volumes are a must. Then again, he left this country after living here for some years. Maybe he's just discontented in general? I'm certain that democracy no longer exists at all at the top of this beautiful country. Surely you can't disagree with a truth so plain to see?
if only I knew what you know I would completely change my mind. If only I read the books you've read then I could be considered well informed. Let's just stick with factual rather than suggestive arguments. I will accept you on the basis of your arguments without asking for credentials . Nor will I Offer any on my behalf. I'd like to look at the statement that democracy is dead. Did you vote? Was your vote counted? Were all votes counted and correctly tallied? Then how the hell can you say democracy is dead? By the way In a democracy there is no "At the top" The rich get one vote each. However advantaged they may be in supporting a candidate, they get one vote each. If we don't like the advantages they do have...We get one vote each to change things...use it. The premise of much of what you post "seems to be" The they are two powerful and we are top stupid to do anything about it. They are evil and we are good. The trouble with that is that your ideas would keep nearly everyone from voting if they shared them. For some there is a cold comfort to be had in watching evil triumphant. "You see we never had a chance, so trying harder would just be a waste of time." I consider this worse than treason. As they betray not only country but self as well. Your not altogether wrong. Like very nearly every country on Earth we have problems with corruption, with racism, with the abuse of women and young girls. We have yet to establish national standards of education that are protective, supportive and functional. That is produces a person who can actually think. If we teach them to think, they really don't need to know all that much..I don't. Is why I'm completely un-intimidated by someone's bibliography. Nothing you get from a book is going to back me down. If you have facts to offer I'd be more than willing to take a look...at those facts, not the books. I'm busy living my own life to chase books any more. Mind you I loved to read at one point did quite a bit...now I spend my time thinking and writing what I think so others can trow books at me. ":O} Now on to good and evil in our lives. "No man is good, save God." "God" in this case refers to the God/Man, Jesus. The rich or being rich does not an evil man make. What wealth does do is greatly increase what Catholics call "the Occasion for sin." Having "More" does seem to bread arrogance. Money like fame does seem to bring out and more publicly express what lies within a personality. But I'm sure we could find some poor guy in an ally every bit as demented as Trumppy. Public dementia we call "leadership". I wonder when the Republicans will start calling him, at his own insistence, "Great Leader, Dear Leader. I'm ok with that, so long as we give him a proper state funeral first. Evil is a choice. One that's made everyday by everyone. Good and evil is the measure of a man. Each choice has a consequence. Weather I cut my hair or let it grows has a consequence, but like my hair not a lasting one. Choices involving good and evil are irrevocable. We may indeed seek forgiveness, but we can never wipe out that choice. I often think that if there is a heaven your place will not be determined by your virtues but by what you've been forgiven. By what you sought forgiveness for. Perhaps my favorite quote in my whole life Is by Malcolm X He went on pilgrimage pursuing his Muslim faith. Seeking his origins in Africa and the Middle East. For him the trip brought revelation after revelation. He summed up the entire journey and his life in this way. "All praise be to Alla Only the mistakes were my own." Surely Malcolm is one who attained it.
Sure, reading books makes me less qualified in my opinions. Further suggested reading: "Blowback" 2001-The Costs and Consequences of American Empire by Chalmers Johnson. "The Sorrows of Empire," Chalmers Johnson 2005. "Nemesis" 2008 also by Chalmers Johnson. Mr Johnson was a respected American historian who wrote many, many books other than his series on the American Empire. Facts abound in his works. I've voted in every election since Richard Nixon's second campaign. Some say that voting removes all room for complaining about contemporary politics. I bitterly hold on to some illusion that my vote matters. Foolishly. Our former democracy is as dead as a door nail. Sure, a rich man gets one vote. So what? His dollars buy him far more influence than you seem to understand. Spirituality means NOTHING as far as the rich are concerned. Camels and eyes of needles I remember from somewhere. However, what they do to others is abundant evil. If you don't think your ability to change government is suppressed by the pure weight of riches that tells our "elected" "representatives" to jump as directed... dream on. Mixing spiritual with the political may lessen the sting of the political but it has no bearing upon the coast to coast evil which RULES this land. Does my opinion change one iota of the direction of this world? Of course not. The latest reports on the change in our direction of ultra capitalism needed to help humanity survive for more than fifty more years are not simply sobering. They also say that we are doomed. The little people's wonderful clear headedness on what we need to do to save ourselves will mean nothing to the monsters that hold the reins. And they think they'll save themselves from our common fate. Please, HURRY Mr Musk, Mars needs us! Will they regret their terrible use of power in their extra five years? Probably not.
we've been friends a long time George, so as yo friend I ask you to re-think this whole thing. Your allowing emotionalism to cloud your view of life. Your bitterness is plain and easy to understand. But bitterness on that account can not be allowed to rule over you. The world is what it is and no one asked your permission or mine to continue to be so. The world has no need of your or my approval. It could care less about your complaints. Here's the function of anger and bitterness as to the role they play in our lives. Their only purpose its to rob you of every moment of happiness. They serve no other function, they have no other purpose. Anger and bitterness are parasites.They contribute nothing to our well being. When you express anger and bitterness you contribute nothing to our well being.Neither has ever brought about the just resolution of any problem. You get angry with me because I refuse to except anger and bitter views that are not in accord with my most basic reality. I encourage you to read for any and every reason. But if what you read is not conducive to a clear view of the world you live in, if it does not elevate your sensibilities and form in you a desire to to gain an unobstructed view of humanity...then what good is it to you? Your choking George on knowledge you have used to harm your self and your interactions with me....oh! and probably the rest of the world.":O} What is really of the spirit can never be harmed by what men do. They can partake of that spirit as their natural right. Even in hell men can reach for the light should they wish to do so. But those who are in hell become trapped by a stubborn refusal to see the light everywhere still shining for those who wish to see it. I have had the pleasure of spending a fiery amount of time in several kinds of hell....but really hell is without distinction...it's always the same. It's hell. It's been said that hell is the impossibility of reason.I would say it is the track that hell runs upon, but the real train that runs though all hell is the refusal of faulty reason to transcend itself and become love of the other than... trade reason for a loving understanding of the work of the world. As I have said before this world has has a direction in which it always moves. It moves toward refinement. In creating and destroying it moves towards refinement. You do not love this world enough to understand it. I do. So if we are to grow closer one of us must change. But who needs a bitter unloving Daniel? Not nobody in this world. You need to come my way George. You need to leave bitterness behind you. You need your own personal connection to the light. This will never be found in anger, but in a just and moderate view of this world. You think yourself apart from the corruption in the is world. Your Not! You and I are the source of it's corruption. It arises from us! It arises every time I place my good over the good of all. Each time we do this we open a fresh new window upon our personal hell. I have been where you are and can tell you it is as dust. a dry and barren land that kills all satisfaction in life. But the light remains undiminished by my refusal to see it. You may take the words of my teacher quite literally when he instructs us with this insight. All the world is a prayer, whether I pray or no And the prayer I might have prayed God heard and knew as tho ---Allan W. Anderson I bring his words up now as it seems to me you have a choice to make....Or it will be made for you by habit. Remain concentrated upon the evils of this world, which are in fact many unto unending. Or look up and within. Babies are being born this very day, Babies! This very afternoon a nipple is being found This very evening eyes will open upon this world for the very first time in the history of light! This very night soft eyes are closing upon the darkness and receive mothers kiss. What was sewn into our beginnings will see us though that long night Where a fathers love is made of light and while we slumber is never out of sight. Your standing in the shadows Come by me Come into the light.
Lost in the darkness is the truth of my life. I see much of the evil that surrounds me but little beyond it. Just because I'm "hip" to the monsters and their monstrous works that surely doesn't help me out of the horror I see almost everywhere. My oldest friend just may have killed herself today. She lives in hell lately, but not the kind that's most often mine. Being of no real help feels awful. I'm afraid that I may harm her by doing the things I can think of. I'm afraid that anything I do from afar may lead to a "welfare check" by the police. People's welfare doesn't concern enough cops, disaster too often follows their "help." Maybe I should edit a lot of this post, sorry if it grabs you more than it should. Thanks for posting this video again, it really helps make me feel better.
I'm just so sorry You find your self is sorrow and fear for your friend. I take it that you are parted by distance. I would not hesitate to call her. People become fixated upon things in despair, Often a gentle word can help devolve the blockage. In any case it is often best that they not be left alone. As they like to say on the front lines..."let us pray."
An opinion can change the entire world, for he or she that holds it. You see the realm of the spirit as different from the realm of politics. It is not. All that is tangible takes it's root in nature and grows into the natural. The natural in compliance with the spirit is led to take firm root in the cosmic order. See the Sun. 93,000,000 miles away. 93,000,000 million miles! Yet every flower on earth turns to greet the day. All that connects them is the light. Yet even a flower can tell you where the sun shines brightest beneath light's gathering power seeds awaken in the dark earth. They know nothing of where they are, what they are to do. But there in the darkness of a warming earth they await for a divine call, they await the spring. All that is and moves received its essential nature in darkness That nature is to seek the light. As a baby seeks a nipple to empower it's life. We must try and understand not one but three worlds. The worlds of nature, of man. and the Divine that called us into being. There is a reason that primitive man called Earth mother and the heavens father. Theirs was a direct and visceral understanding of all life. "The Sun brings forth both good and evil into the light of day. The Superior man cultivates the good and curbs evil in accordance with the will of God who desires only good and not evil." "If we want to know what anyone is like we need only look upon who he bestows his care. The Sage cares for Superior men that he may teach all men though them." The body has inferior and Superior parts. We must not injure the Superior parts for the sake of the inferior parts. Within the mind there are inferior inclinations and Superior motivations. He who cultivates the Superior parts of his nature is a Superior man. He who cultivates the inferior parts of his nature is an inferior man. In this way we decide for ourselves, moment by moment who we are and who we will become. Politics is where good and evil come to meet, this is where we decide the fate of our world. Politic is not apart from the Spirit. It can serve or violate. Just we serve or violate our own natures. There is a unity in life that unites all under heaven. What can unify all the disparate and differentiated forms of life? In nature it is the Sun. In man's world it is the holy sage. In the heavens it is the creators hand moving within his creations that unites. The call is always the same. "Be who you are, be who I made you to be and you will be well and all manner of things shall be well. This is the only promise given. The only promise we need. Within that promise lies an undying love.
Thank you for your wise and kind words, Daniel. Yes, my oldest friend and I are many miles apart. I've called repeatedly and sincerely hope that she is "punishing" me by not answering. After a half hour of listening to my self alone on the phone yesterday I decided to hang up. I hope for the best.
I'm sure you don't need a nudge from me, but keep trying intermittently. Sometimes it's just a matter of catching someone in the right mood for us. In any case, sadly this is not in your hands. We may only wait to understand the outcome. To know our destiny.
She called me at 7 PM, whew! I go to bed at 11 AM or 12 PM. And get up at 9 till 10 PM--you might say I'm trying to avoid the day. Happy to say that she sounded much better tonight than a couple of days ago. She hung up on me after an hour of talking, but it's possible that her smart phone ran out of voltage. I called her back immediately and left a message, so I think we're copacetic. Thank you very much for asking!!
I rarely sleep before 3am and am up around 11pm. I'm not avoiding the day...I just don't like going to sleep. Once asleep I don't like waking up. There's got to be some deep rooted dysfunction in all this, but can't say what that might be, ":O}
trust your gut. If you think her fragile, stay close until her crisis has past. I think everyone has a black day in which we may be capable "Of some terrible crime." A crime against ourselves.... But it sounds like things have taken to righting of themselves. Always best to allow them a chance to regain equilibrium.And then reassessing the situation. I never know what I am to do. when others are in difficulties. I just try to stay close and hope my affection and concern can in some way tip the scales for them. In God's hands.
If I detailed the difficulties she faces and the desertion of her by her children we probably both would cry. I can no longer afford to rescue her from her situation, and it was of course not a complete rescue anyway. Maybe I should re-assess my finances? Yet having a little money in the bank makes me feel a lot more secure. This is a toughie. Maybe my security shouldn't come first? Maybe selfishness must be resisted at all times. Arrgh. Charlie Brown, you bahstage.