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Thank god somebody is following the story of Benton Harbor, Michigan. Rachel tells the story well, but it sounds so sinister. This could only happen in a developing country, a banana republic. But it is happening. If this bothers you, complain to the Justice Department, the FCC, the White House, your two U.S. Senators, and  your U.S. Representative. Let’s occupy Benton Harbor electronically by writing letters, posting to blogs, and sending positive energy to the people who got ripped off by these autocratic power mongers.

Read more about this issue: http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/13/10398925-the-silencing-of-benton-harbor-michigan

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God is so big and we are so small. It’s no wonder his creation scares us at times. People shake their fists at God in anger for the things he has allowed to happen. God perhaps looks back on us and wishes it could be easier on us. Nevertheless, he would still be full of optimism and confidence that our problems will heal and we will someday rejoin his dimension. Meanwhile, we are in this world, expecting more punishment, wrath, and mistreatment. There is nothing God can do about our attitude. We have to do that for ourselves.

Then sometimes, people get so jaded that they just want to scare somebody else. Here’s a hint about what the fear-makers are up to. You continue to insist to follow their every bowel movement, so at least know what they are up to. You watch them all the time, so you are asking them to set the tone of the conversation. Right now it has devolved to men sitting in judgment of women who use birth control.

Since you insist on following this stupid thread of conversation, you are now down in the fearmongers’ mudhole shooting brown liquids at them and each other. When you seek revenge, be sure to dig an extra grave for yourself. You get what you concentrate upon. You decide where to put your focus, and where you focus determines your level of happiness in life.

There’s another category of fear-mongers, and they are the seriously wounded ones. They have no way to earn an honest living, so they turn to crime, cults, gangs, and abuse. These people are created by the abuses of the simpleton fear-mongers. If we all worked together, we could lift up all those in poverty and feel good about it. As things stand, we believe the fear-mongers and fear them, and nobody can work together to help the meek and suffering. What choice do they have, but to turn to crime to survive?

As for God, I see the Lord sitting in supreme confidence, loving his creation, even the ungrateful ones. If you are jaded and tired of this life, reach out to a higher power. Remember, it is all between you and that inner companion that most people call God. It is real and there is a point of reconciliation. It is easier to do in this world, and since we have no scientific proof of what comes next, it might be more difficult. For atheist friends, instead of God, a being, think of it as a part of your own consciousness, perhaps your conscience.

I don’t want to be racist, immature, cruel, or stupid. I try to improve myself, be kinder to the people I meet, and make up for harms I have done in the past. It simply feels better to live this way. If I have hurt you in the past, please forgive me. I am recovering from lifetimes of abuse, trying to make sense of it too, just like most souls on earth.

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A note to my sisters: if you have a good husband, hang onto him. You would miss having a man who loves you more than anybody else in the world. The only reasons to end a marriage are abuse (physical, sexual, verbal, or abuse of substances) or if he is cheating. Other than that, it’s all small stuff.

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I want to talk about karma, so for my friends who don’t believe in karma, just think of it as a metaphor. Okay, what bad karma of the middle class caused all our troubles?

I bring up the issue of karma because perpetrators often rationalize their own misbehavior by imagining that their victims had bad karma. The perpetrator feels like a channel for delivering god’s vengeance, so they don’t feel bad about what they’ve done. This was the case in the religious group I was in, where they said the child abuse was the children’s own bad karma.

However, it is more likely that the perpetrators against the middle class are just ornery souls. They have a greedy hole that can never be filled. Although the world would be a lot better if they followed the golden rule, they are  not god’s vehicle for delivering justice. They are simply creating bad karma for themselves.

God does not repay abuse with more abuse. An act of abuse would be repaid with an opportunity to learn why the abuse was wrong, and if possible to make amends.

So the bottom line is, the middle class does not deserve the troubles, but since they are being heaped upon us, we are reduced to prayer. We can pray to get back everything these devils stole from us. We can pray for their souls, that they will reform themselves someday. But we cannot surrender to doubt, thinking that we somehow deserve abuse from greedy CEOs and other vulture capitalists.

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The Susan G. Komen organization reversed their idiotic decision to defund Planned Parenthood. That’s smart. However, in the process, we find out that the organization has gotten top-heavy, with most of your donations going to the one percent-style executives. Also, what is the fascination with finding a cure for cancer while ignoring prevention? Petro-chemicals are responsible for the cancer epidemic. When will we crack down on the chemical companies? They could make non-toxic chemicals, so let’s encourage them to do that before we all die of cancer.

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This is my second appeal to the liberal media to tune out the GOP primary. The event will be dark in February, since the next primary is February 28. Nothing newsworthy will happen between now and then. You could safely ignore the situation until the last week of the month.

It is time this news cycle ended. A few people may still find it interesting to hear about what might happen, who said what to whom, and to track the candidates’ every bowel movement, but many of us have already tuned out. Who cares? All the GOP candidates have miserable plans for mean things to do to each other, and to us, and we are just sick of hearing every detail.

Instead of hyperactive coverage of the GOP primary, please give us news about voter rights, unions, and bringing vulture capitalists to justice. I love all dozen or so of you liberal anchors on TV and radio: Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Al Sharpton, Keith Olbermann, Stephanie Miller, Randi Rhodes, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and everyone else. I am grateful to you. You have so much power. Please use it to put the spotlight on good, newsworthy news about how to build up the middle class and empower our country to do better.

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“The Financial Page: Private Inequity,” published in the January 30, 2012 edition of The New Yorker, said in 2004,

Wasserstein & Company bought the thriving mail-order fruit retailer Harry and David. The following year, Wasserstein and other investors took out more than a hundred million in dividends, paid for with borrowed money—covering their original investment plus a twenty-three per cent profit—and charged Harry and David millions in “management fees.” Last year, Harry and David defaulted on its debt and dumped its pension obligations. In other words, Wasserstein failed to improve the company’s performance, failed to meet its obligations to creditors, screwed its workers, and still made a profit. That’s not exactly how capitalism is supposed to work . . .

As if this weren’t galling enough, taxpayers are left on the hook. Interest payments on all that debt are tax-deductible; when pensions are dumped, a federal agency called the Pension Benefit Guarantey Corporation picks up the tab; and the money that the dealmakers earn is taxed at a much lower rate than normal income would be, thanks to the so-called “carried interest” loophole.

Sit down right now and write letters to your US Representative, two Senators, the Justice Department, and the White House, and tell them you object to the way Wasserstein & Company’s treated Harry and David.

http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

http://www.justice.gov/contact-us.html

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

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A right wing buddy of mine forwarded an inane chain letter touting Walmart as the model business plan, since they have opened so many stores and imported so much crap from China. Then the letter goes on to tell dirty lies about the United States Postal Service, Social Security, the secondary mortgage market, LBJ’s War on Poverty, Medicare, Medicade, and the Department of Energy. You may have seen this chain letter. It has probably been circulating since the time of Adam. Of course, I immediately wrote back to my friend and told him that I do not want to live in the Walmart version of America.

Later, I kept thinking about it. Sticking with the retail metaphor, I worked in a shop in Glendale, California for six years. We were an independent import shop, solely owned by my boss. She depended on us to run the shop when she traveled to buy inventory, so she paid us well. New employees started at $8.50 and could get raises up to $10 an hour. Plus, we earned a ten percent commission on all sales over $400 per day. When she was about to leave for a long trip, she would treat the sales staff to dinner at a restaurant near the shop. She invited us to holiday parties at her home. We all worked together as a team and wanted to make the store successful. Once I got that job, I kept it because it was a great place to work.

Could you get those benefits as an employee at Walmart? No! Do you want to look at a national monument, or look at specials on junk you don’t need in aisle five? Do you want a free and safe society, with a low crime rate, where people are invested in their communities? I say let’s run America like a really happening small business, where everyone cares about each other.

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As a longtime visitor and fan of the American South, I can tell you that the South’s greatest natural resources are paddlewheel boats and swamps. The steamboats are great. Mark Twain made them a symbol of the South, and that has been a blessing for more than a hundred years. For more about the old boats, visit my other website, Steamboats.com. As for the swamps, this is actually a great asset, and the basis for a new industry: farming friendly microbes for wetland remediation.

Wetland bioremediation is a “growing” field these days. It has accelerated since the Gulf oil spill a few years ago, with new products going onto the EPA list, going public, and doing their part to heal the earth. Although this is a good start, and the plan is beginning to pick up speed, we need trillions more friendly microbes to harmonize the environment.

Microbes are simply bacteria, but they are positive, friendly bacteria that act as enzymes to break down oil and organic waste. Picture microscopic, organic Pacman bubbles floating into a polluted zone. They swim around and “eat” the pollution, turning it into a harmless dust.

The South has warm weather and wetlands, which would be fertile grounds for growing crops of friendly microbes. They could use the microbes to treat oil pollution along the Gulf Coast, and sell the rest worldwide. The American South could become the bacteria basket to the world and be proud of it. They could throw out the old slogan “King Cotton,” and replace it with “Bacteria Basket,” fostering peace, harmony, love, and organic cures to the world.

How to get started? One business model is to research the products available and become a bioremediation contractor. Another idea is for municipalities to partner with bioremediation product producers to provide bacteria farmland. If you are just starting out in college, consider a degree in microbiology. Right now, most of the field is focused on fear of bad microbes, but it is gradually shifting to focus on the benefits of good microbes. Become a scientist! Learn the habits of microbes so you can lead this earth-saving new field. Microbes have the potential to reduce global warming and create a sustainable atmosphere. To learn more about bioremediation using natural, friendly bacteria, bookmark the Organic Cures blog.

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To find out more about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), log onto these pages at Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_IP_Act

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