LONDON (Reuters) - Leading banks have funded arms manufacturers, whose products include cluster bombs, to the tune of $5 billion in the past two years, despite an international accord to ban such weapons, a study said Thursday.The report by Profundo consultancy and several NGOs said the banks loaned money to companies whose products include cluster bombs or their components.

The top five loan providers were Bank of America, Citigroup , JP Morgan, Barclays and Goldman Sachs, the study said.
The researchers used publicly available information, such as that supplied by stock exchanges and financial databases, to produce their study.

According to the research, the banks have provided financing for diversified manufacturer Textron, aerospace and defense group Alliant Techsystems and defense contractor Lockheed Martin , all based in the United States.Cluster bombs, which open in mid-air and scatter a multitude of bomblets over a wide area, have killed and maimed tens of thousands of civilians, campaigners say.Nations agreed to outlaw cluster bombs in May 2008. The resulting convention will come into force when 30 countries have ratified it -- 23 have already done so.

Neither the United States nor Britain, where the top five loan providers are based, have yet ratified the treaty.


http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/i...

I'm going to use my experiences with a dental situation as a real life example of how it is to visit a dentist when you have insurance,lose all coverage and then what it's like going to a dentist on medical assistance.

If you need a dentist to pull a tooth ,and there are none that accept medicaid, in your county, You cannot get a tooth pulled.

If you get disability SSI and medical assistance, and you must pay out of pocket for a dentist,because recently medical assistance has drastically cut services, you are screwed because all the dentists in my area want cash UP FRONT before they even LOOK in your mouth. If you know the tooth is infected and can no longer be put off..Then a decision must be made. To either get an infected tooth pulled out and pay out of pocket or go two weeks without food or pay double on some bills and take 6 months to play catch up. Take days on the phone to seek out the cheapest dentist. In my area dentists who charge around $300.00 are the cheapest ones..

That fee is roughly half of my income.

I have healthy teeth,I brush 4 times a day,I do my own plaque scaling,and I have a professional water pik I got on sale for 15 bucks. But still can teeth get injured.


Here's my dentist story.

When I had blue cross before I got mixed up in that assemblies of god cult,and a millionaire pastor who pushed my ex and I into marriage when we were both vulnerable emotionally,Before that I was eating a date,and half of it was pitted the other half wasn't.I knocked a crack in two teeth biting it.

The two broken teeth looked like one messed up tooth,and the dentist I went to had trouble finding which one was messed up.One was crowned but it was the wrong tooth,So I went back to get another root canal and the one next to it got crowned for free,and that was it or so I thought.(if I was paying out of pocket back than I wonder would that dentist have been so kind if I was paying for it in full? With 1,800 bucks was laid out right there waiting for them?).

Anyway that crown cost me around 600 bucks in the year 2000 because blue cross paid some of the cost,my mom helped and I budgeted it in..I was not married yet.I HAD insurance.

Later long after losing my blue cross,after being manipulated into a marriage by a church with shit loads of money being extorted out of it's members based on a verse in Leviticus, after that a marriage failed anyway,I lost my blue cross coverage forever.

I had good coverage under my mom,I was a disabled child,and there was a rule that was that as long as I did not marry and my mom was alive I could be insured under her.

But there is no compassion in insurance companies, you cannot make a mistake,they are so risk aversive that profits are automatic for them now,they suck the money from healthy people that cost next to nothing for them to cover and as soon as they get a 'condition' the insurance plays games because the company is unwilling to pay the person for the whole reason they got insurance for to begin with. So basically the person is discarded as not profitable.The company denies them care,care they paid for already many times over in deductibles, fees and monthly payments for years..The insurance companies are basically slow motion thieves now. To them it does not matter if I have psych issues and was manipulated by a cult and bullied into a marriage I was not ready for. Blue cross does not want to have me back with my 'pre-existing conditions'. So I lost coverage and I regret it alot.I still feel really stupid for being dumb enough to get married,and to someone who was not good to me to boot. I lost almost everything .So much for the sanctity of marriage bullshit the right wingers foam over.Insurance companies really do punish marriage for the rest of your life.Especially if you are disabled.

Anyway,
A few years later,after the divorce..
I had no insurance at all for a time. With no insurance I had to have another tooth looked at on the upper jaw. I found out it was cracked on a microscopic level and it went undetected.The dentist I went to years earlier at the time I had blue cross and got the crowns didn't find the crack.. I found out that tooth was messed up years after the initial injury only because it had developed an abscess after 5 years of being an undetected crack.It was oozing pus ,I was in pain,and it was a mess.

The dentist told me it would cost me around 2,000 bucks out of pocket to root canal and crown the tooth,if I wanted to save it.It was 300-600 bucks as dental fees varied,if I self paid,to pull it out..That is the actual cost of a dental emergency that I faced in 2007. I had no option but to pull it out. I asked my mom to help me out.I cried when I was told how much it would cost.

A year or so after that I got back on medical assistance because I was losing it again.I needed help.

My medical assistance, when I first got it,it used to cover tooth pulling, but to get a tooth pulled, I had to bring up front,150 bucks and be ready to fork it over if the tooth broke during the pull or something.The medical assistance covered fillings,cleanings and 'simple extractions'.I got another tooth pulled because the filling kept falling out and luckily it was 'simple' and I kept my 150 bucks.

Now this same medical assistance has decided out of the blue this past July saying they'll cover for cleanings twice a year and nothing else.(they sent me notification of this late in mid-August,conveniently)

I have no more coverage for pulling of teeth anymore, not even teeth that are infected,that could kill me.If any tooth in my head gets injured ,I am screwed financially. Not only would I be trying to find a cheap dentist in a county that has NONE,trying to get the non existent cash that all the dentists out here demand to be paid out of pocket,up front..I'd have to deal with pain,and the threat of death if I take too long,and the kind of stress that could make suicide seem like a viable option.

Seems some "professionals" in the field of health care don't care.They don't care that in order to pay them what they demand, I will be forced to go without food and be flat broke half a month, I will have to pay doubled up bills and paying down on that would get me behind financially.It can easily take me 6 months or more to play catch up on the bills. I'd be forced to take money out of the food budget or transport or other expenses to pay this dentist who's car costs more than I get assistance wise for an entire year!

There is something very wrong here.


So theoretically if I get another tooth injury,if that gets infected,I find it will cost me 400 bucks for a pull,plus cab fare to and from the dentist,because $400 what the average dentist charges to pull a tooth out here,and that leaves me roughly 200 bucks for an entire month to live on..It is now IMPOSSIBLE for me to get to a dentist in a dire situation.

So no matter how well I tend to my teeth, if shit happens I am shit out of luck.

Poverty is a ticket to hell if you have a fragile body,and even the healthiest of bodies is terribly fragile.In this world all bodies are vulnerable.It can be hurt, it can get sick,it can overheat or freeze.There are millions of things go wrong with it.A fragile body is something that you must have to exist.To exist you have to feed a body,water it,clothe it,keep it warm, exercise it,tend to it's health and injuries,and do quite a lot to maintain it,that is just for flesh and bones,the mind too requires maintenance and help like the body does as well.I wish bodies could be made that did not need food, shelter,sleep or warmth just to exist.But that isn't the kind of bodies we have to work with is it? Life is dangerous, it is painful and it breaks and sickens our bodies. Life is risk.

Poverty is torment that serves no purpose.But in a pay to exist kind of scam it is a tool of the wealthy.Since we live in a selfish society that believes having more than enough money is the only legit ticket to " privileges" like not dying from an abscessed tooth,many without go without and die.When this already sick pay to exist situation is made worse by greed and abuse of power it becomes an inhuman burden to prop up the rich. Poverty is hell.Even with *cough* medical assistance.

And bottom line is NONE of us chose to be born, to have the bodies we have,the limits and weaknesses we have,we never got to pick out our own genetics,pick our birth parents, choose what kind of family we wanted to be raised in, or what town,and newborn babies have no say in what income their future parents would have.But the wealthy like to think they deserve to have more than they can ever use in 30,40,100 lifetimes because they won big on the birth lottery and we didn't hit the jackpot and have Rockefeller as a last name.Why should we accept financial abuse from the wealthy few and maintain their lives of luxury because we are not born rich,or in the social circles that give them opportunities most of us will never have like the rich take for granted?

We bear the costs of the rich peoples lifestyles.They just take from everyone and give close to nothing in return.That is an abusive relationship. We tolerate this lie drummed into us from day one that the rich are more deserving than ourselves because they are better because they have. Truth is,we all want to be healthy, feel safe,to not have to struggle day after day,to find meaning in our lives,to have enough,to grow, to take time to explore things,to learn,to be loved, to matter to others,feel joy,to count for something,even if we have nothing.

And the rich think it is they alone who deserve this.

And it seems to me people that have too much are never satisfied with what they have,so they take more ,take it from those who have less,and believe they are unworthy. The rich and corporate are like schoolyard bullies extorting lunch money from the smaller kids.

Financial abuse is wrong and it is evil.Sadly our culture tolerates too much abuse,including financial abuse.And it has to stop somewhere.The corporate bullies need dis-empowered until the Ceo and corporate executives all realize this 'corporation' they have only exists on paper and it is a servant that was designed to help ALL people live better lives..not an extortion racket for the so called 'owners' of said paper fiction called a "corporation" .

Being wealthy should not come at the expense of others well being.How this injustice happened to most of humanity and why it happened and why such lies and abuse is still tolerated by millions who have less I do not know.

But our culture thrives because of the misery foisted upon the lives of billions who go without, all so a few with more than they can ever consume will never suffer want. It's SICK! It's WRONG! But this practice by the wealthy and their tools the corporation go on keeping people afraid and abused,making them more willing to work more for less back.Greed never goes away when one over valued class of people gets away with exploiting and abusing the other classes for profit and to hold domination over how they live their lives. Every top must have a bottom.
If a society accepts as true the class based myth that some have a mandate to have authority over most.

Those on the right just love to brag about how self sufficient they are.Never realizing all the efforts and contributions countless OTHERS have made to make this fantasy the narcissist stands on his own two feet appear as reality to the narcissist....Right wing narcissist types believe they DO earn their keep,even if it is not doing anything useful at all,pushing paper around or only working two hours a day or less, or they inherited it all.They don't care because it is all about those appearances that create an expectation of entitlement in how OTHERS see and treat the narcissist.. .

The Narcissist thinks they are ENTITLED to the all the executive perks,benefits ,golden parachutes because of who they know,and who they are. All that posturing it is not a sign of greatness really but the sign of a fantasy perpetuated by belonging to corrupted clique of narcissists all about creating an appearance of greatness.

Being special and treated as such is the most important thing in the world to a narcissist. It is not how much good they could be doing by contributing to making life itself better on this miserable planet for all,because a narcissist isn't concerned with anyone else's well being-ever..

Narcissists are very jealous of anyone else around them with whatever it is THEY think they do not have, or what they might lose if it means it will become commonplace to have it.The idea of equality 'threatens' them. If THEY believe others have something they want but do not really have THEY still hate those others for having it.Because a narcissist has fantasies to feed.
The Narcissist thinks they always DESERVE the BEST,even if giving these narcissists the best, means most go without. The Narcissist does not care about you,me,anyone else.

A public option for health care infuriates those narcissistic executives and politicians and rich people that believe THEY are more deserving of the best that is out there than you or anyone else in this world is. Those who want universal health care must realize what they are up against.This is not LOGICAL and it's root does not make sense to a NON- narcissist. We are dealing with maybe 20% of the population at best who are narcissists,These people think that their perks are being given to you or anyone else without their consent.These are the actions of THREATENED NARCISSISTS,we are dealing with.

All these right winger narcissists have had countless fantasies of being pampered and valued above all others like you or everyone else in their heads for years.Narcissists are consumed by fantasies.Fantasies like acting as THE arbiter of everyone else's well being and who get what and how much they deserve.They have been grandiose in their own minds since they were kids,and they will manipulate behave in a ruthless way without a conscience to make some of those egotistical fantasies more "real".Even if others suffer and die.

The COST to everyone else to harbor a narcissists fantasy of entitlement is becoming too much to bear..Narcissists whether they have health care or not in real life will be outraged and think someone is trying to 'steal' from them,then they get to play victim if they get believed(death panels the ultimate victim role ,do ya think?).

The Narcissists fighting against public health care fear they will lose whatever special status they think they get and are terrified of becoming just another patient getting health care,without that oh so nice distinction of VIP on their case file.

And it outrages them with resentment and fear they might lose all the gratification and pampering that special VIP status gives these narcissistic pigs when they go to the doctor.
(In a best case scenario) A doctor is one person who will listen to the patient's pain,woes and takes an interest in helping,tries to ease the pain or fix the problems.A nurse is almost like a stand in caretaker catering to the patients needs as they arise. A nurse is almost like an echo of the always giving ,responding to the patient and responding to ease discomforts.

The narcissists among us do not want EVERYBODY having a good doctor that will take the time to make sure they are comfortable, or nurses to take care of them. Taking care of you or anyone else takes away the time the doctor and nurses should be making the narcissist comfortable!!

The Specter of SHARING health care so TERRIFIES them!! The narcissist cries for underneath the "who's gonna pay" ruse is really a cry of..What about MEEE!! My needs?? My status,and MEEE TOooo!!! WAh Wah wahhhh.

Narcissists are offended that a public option will erase their special deservedness, in the way they get treated while getting health care and the public option might destroy some of their cherished fantasies of having the best health care,so good others would ENVY them..And if there is nothing for others to envy,how can a narcissist be seen as more special and deserving than everyone else?
THEY believe deserve to GRAB all they can get,Because they believe they are entitled to do this,it is part of WHO they are the jealous greed..Narcissists are self absorbed manipulators and bullies oblivious other people or others well being because to a narcissist their suffering is far more worse than everyone else's suffering in the world .So they think they DESERVE to limit what others get in terms of care...The sense of entitlement most often is all about narcissism.THEY resent anyone else telling THEM what to do with what THEY think they deserve to have.

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"The word narcissism comes from the character made famous by the Greek poet Ovid, Narcissus, who fell in love with his own reflection. In the story, Echo falls in love with Narcissus and gets rejected. The story makes clear that Narcissus is only able to love himself and not others. Conversely, Echo completely loses herself in her love for Narcissus and has no sense of self at all. At the end of the story, Narcissus tells Echo, "I would die before I give you power over me." Echo responds, "I give you power over me." Both Narcissus and Echo die because their love is unattainable. Many of us cannot find a balance between ourselves and others."
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** In other words, We do not have to become ECHOES just to stand up for the public option for health care.The Democrats in their unwillingness to confront narcissism, and in their rush to compromise with narcissists ,risk becoming Echos for the narcissists plans. As the narcissists continue to take up more air time and disrupt and control talk time at town hall meetings,because they believe they are entitled to do so**
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"Contemporary practitioners, both clinical and organizational, are faced with the pervasive presence of narcissistic disorders in those who consult us.It is a disquieting encounter, because-even as we recognize that our work to understand and assist persons and organizations with narcissistic pathology has increased the reach and efficacy of our interventions, and the lessons of this work in turn have transformatively affected psychoanalytic theories-there are particular qualities to work with narcissism that are painful to work with analytically, perhaps in significant part because they militate against a defensive introduction of non-analytic methods into analytic work. It is in the nature of narcissistically organized persons, and perhaps also, I will argue, narcissistic organizations, to deny the reality of the other (i.e., the analyst), to wrench the analyst into playing a hated but necessary part in the patient's internal drama, to try to disable or destroy the analyst in the service of a soothing return to a narcissistic self-sufficiency, and to project into the analyst, with resentful hatred, a whole internal world of persecutory and toxic part-objects, as the first step toward eventual understanding, health, and wholeness."

http://www.bcgsearch.com/article/60709/609...

The entire market,wall street,and the feds are all Ponzi scams leading into one huge scam,the world market...And because we believe we suffer and die for that belief the Ponzi has us in it's trance..The movers and shakers of the money system are just a few assholes.There are many many,more of us a world full of(non-rich) people who have been financially abused by the over-wealthy to varying degrees,and many are just outright abused too.Because abuse,torture,domination,unwarranted obligation are things we are conditioned to accept.We learn in school to obey to believe a grade means something,and to accept punishment by these arbitrary standards.WE are broken inside after twelve years of social engineered conditioning,(school) until we are tamed to accept and even love the subservient roles and careers these marketplace manipulators foist upon us from day one and repeatedly tell us are so damn important to OUR well being,( for the rich and their life-style's well being, more accurately) and because we fuse who we are into what we do day after day in our minds it gradually becomes fused with the identity,and when most people act as if there is only one way to live,and this way of life none of us want but instead endure it implies deep down we are like bad children.And we cannot survive without a 'authority figure' reigning us in,that we NEED to be led by ruthless assholes and when we suffer or fall into hardship and cannot pay the already rich,more,we must tolerate being hassled and hounded by endless red tape or outright harassment and threats especially if it is certain kinds of debt like paying off the usury rates designed to keep us bound that are attached to the use of a credit card....Our human rights have been disregarded for centuries!As has human rights have been violated all over this world by certain kinds of soulless but insatiable characters(ruthless people)
http://www.cassiopaea.com/cassiopaea/psych...

These Assholes who manipulate us all will do it in any way they can get away with it.They use a velvet glove,mind fucking, social engineering or by force.Anything to hold onto the "economic dream".

Never should the means of survival like food,water,shelter,health care,etc. be withheld from anyone because of lack of decorated pieces of paper (money) Money is the blood of the Ponzi,the heart of the biggest lie ever bought..a lie invented to control people to extract their labor,and get away with many horrendous things. Money only means access to food etc. if you BELIEVE it has the power to buy these things.Hence the term and the 'index' called consumer CONfidence!!

(I for one have NO confidence in the value of money.)(But food is valuable,efforts are valuable,shelter is,so is heat,health care etc.all of that is valuable and it does not have to COST.) Money is and has always been a tool of oppression by the rich and the engineered scarcity of money allows the violation of human rights to continue on and on..Just STOP believing in the myth called money,and start SHARING your excess,there is enough if shared by enough people to survive here, and maybe even enough resources if it is taken from the few and given to the many, the means of production put in service of humanity instead of profit,and wealth redistributed we all can live well enough and have the time to live our lives and get to know each other again.Every person that loses faith in money can learn to live another way if that person can find others are walking away from the greatest scam ever sold the chances of freedom from financial abuse and violations of human rights looks ever more possible. Bottom line is we need each other,
http://www.nypost.com/seven/02272009/news/...
Not wasting our time pointlessly enriching the rich,by feeding an endless Ponzi scam which profits the rich only,our labor and time, is OURS. It is sad work for many is just to fill up the days of our lives with bullshit that keeps us bound to an ancient and fear ridden but clever and brutal lie.
http://www.namebase.org/richnote.html

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The box is full of salmon, and a man sits atop the box. Long ago this man hired armed guards to keep anyone from eating his fish. The many people who sit next to the empty river starve to death. But they do not die of starvation. They die of a belief. Everyone believes that the man atop the box owns the fish. The soldiers believe it, and they will kill to protect the illusion. The others believe it enough that they are willing to starve. But the truth is that there is a box, there is an emptied river, there is a man sitting atop the box, there are guns, and there are starving people.
http://www.ranprieur.com/readings/jensenbo...

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Capitalism is Organized Narcissism

We live in a society organized around private property, the right of private individuals and corporations to own the resources we all need in order to live. These resources, belonging to a small proportion of the top one percent of the population, include the natural products of the planet, what grows in the soil, the oceans and the forests, as well as all the products of human culture and history -- the techniques and knowledge and art we have created over the centuries. Even the techniques of nature encoded in the genes of plants and animals and the human body are now being swept up into the vaults of private corporations to be exploited to their financial benefit.

A society of private property is a society of deprivation. What is owned by a few is denied to the many. Obviously private property has to be defended by laws and their enforcement, that is, a state as the sole legitimate agent of violence. "No trespassing" signs are meaningless without an armed guard.


http://legacy.lclark.edu/~clayton/commenta...

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Since that first attack on horseback to slaughter and control others the world has never been free and it is not free now. We believe we are free, but we are not and never were. Our ignorance of everything real and factual keeps us believing something that simply is not true. We are more tightly controlled than ever and that control is becoming ever more brutal. Our choices are dwindling and the system itself is becoming impenetrable, making itself our eternal master. The system seeks only to protect and perpetuate itself, it is not interested in freedom or justice and if you simply break any of their rules, even the most unjust of them you'll quickly find that out. Freedom will not come until the corporate/state monopoly of control and the artifice of righteous violence in the name of good is understood and finally rejected. That is what is meant by "Knowledge is Power". Our knowledge of the truth is what will reduce the corrupt controllers to irrelevance, powerlessness and shame.
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/189921-T...


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I mean Corporations are wonderful things, but only if you own one. The corporate structure helps you to harness the work of a large number of people for your own power and profit. That's always been their purpose, and it’s all they were designed to do, no matter what corporate "culture" they push or what image they pay an agency to craft. So if any of this proves useful in helping you avoid the wage-slave trap, then I've done my job. As the saying goes, “I thought I wanted a career, but as it turns out I just wanted paychecks.”
http://deconsumption.typepad.com/deconsump...
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Curiously -- or maybe not -- all the old ideologies are conservative because they believe in work. Some of them, like Marxism and most brands of anarchism, believe in work all the more fiercely because they believe in so little else.
http://www.primitivism.com/abolition.htm
http://deoxy.org/revolt.htm
http://www.nypost.com/seven/02272009/news/...
http://www.counterpunch.org/thomson0306200...
https://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd

Disability and Debtors prisons
(revised)
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and other aspects of the safety net are being cut, but you aren't disabled, so it's not your problem -- right? Think again.

The government gave us (disabled people like me) our checks, and some-
times when they could afford it our families put us away from interfering with the smooth operation of their lives with that 'help'. We get our SSI,
subsidized housing, and we don't become burdens on relatives. And if we are
lucky, while they try to "manage us," we can get helped.

Relatives everywhere may be in for a rude awakening as SSI gets cut. Welfare and medicaid/medicare..Things will become unmanageable -- fast. Some relatives already balk
at having to help house and care for old parents. What will they do with their sisters or brothers
with mental illness, autism, retardation, brain damage, cancer, work-related injuries, war
damage, or wheelchairs? What if the money is just not there any more, or not enough to care for disabled family members? When government budget cuts dump the disabled on their
unprepared, untrained, unfunded, sometimes dysfunctional families, and the family budget just can't afford the care a disabled uncle, or father, or sister needs, what do you think will happen? What happens when the IOU's become worthless?
Masses of disabled people with no help and no money will be out in the street, avoiding abuse, guilty, depressed, un-cared for.
And the well off will scream something MUST be done! Fearful of being a burden or a victim, some on the street will kill themselves. The disabled will become easy scapegoats for
frustrated, bored, neglected, sociopath teens
and thugs. This will eventually cause an outrage, because people who are "normal" can't stand to
see and relate to a human being who's
handicapped up-close, in their own neighborhoods or homes -- they certainly don't want to admit they helped them die.

When the middle class become poor themselves, they will resent their disabled relatives rather than resent the wealthy, just like they resent poor already. Would there be a great turning away? I hope not.

When you have mental illness, for instance, and things get hairy at home ... your family can send you away to the hospital where "professionals" handle big problems if they have insurance or can pay. Most families can't do this now, but provided they can navigate the maze of SSI applications and bureaucracy while working double shifts they might get the state to do something.

But what if they can't get help anymore? What if families are barely able to handle their own dysfunctions are now homeless? Imagine what stressed out, overworked, dysfunctional families who have to deal with suicidal family members or PSTD vets home from Iraq all by themselves who can't get shelter or food will do.

Families living paycheck to paycheck, who cannot afford a disabled person's medication -- what would they do, watching their child or sister deteriorate into a psychosis? Or watching a loved one who needs dialysis, with no money or Medicaid to pay for it, horribly, painfully, pitifully, dying at home for want of an hour once a day on a machine in a doctor's office? Or those living with a person who is immobilized, unable to buy the medicine or have the state help them to control the pain so they can live? What would families do if suddenly cut off from help?

We are seeing this very thing unfold in California.

Would Futility of life laws become more tasty ... for a solution? Would that be "better" than denying the wealthy their fees,the bloated insurance companies thier co-pays and the credit companies their usuerious interest and the rich their stolen wealth gained on the blood-sweat-tears and broken dreams and lost happiness of billions?

What if on top of these burdens imposed on the lower classes by wealthy people who refuse to change thier decadent lifestyles pushing all these stressed-out families who are forced to deal with a loved one with disability issues, personally, all by themselves, all of a sudden?
How would they cope? What would their reactions be? Would they crack under the strains?

Get real! Families that can function or care will make a stink about it, because they still like the idea of the state helping them take care of the more difficult tasks of a child, mother, or other relative in their care who's living with a disability. Parents and relatives of disabled people like having the state take up the care and financial slack, so they can work without having to stop to tend to the routine crises that people go through when they are mentally ill or otherwise disabled.

Some families don't care, and would rather their disabled relatives be dead than have them live in THEIR home. And some dysfunctional families, or families with abuse histories or sociopath family members, will take their anger at the state out on the disabled family members.

They will be beaten, abused, starved, ignored -- don't pretend this will not happen. Mental illness and other kinds of disability can strike ANYONE down at ANY time.

No-one is immune to potential disability. It is scary more families will be forced to go into debt, much faster, much deeper,to fill up all those shiny new debtors prisons. So people can be forced to work for free, to work off obscene "interests" that never will get paid down, debts and interest caused by hospital bills from families struggling to pay what the state once paid.

The noose is closing in on the wage-slave system. Soon credit lords will create a never-ending excuse for the continuing debt slavery of the American people. Don't believe me? Why was the bankruptcy law changed for the poor, but not for corporations? Why have credit card companies been allowed by law to become more predatory, allowed to hike fees and charge hidden fees at a whim? It's almost as if they want people to STAY in debt. Almost as if.

Charging up the interest on debts will make sure that the debts people incur for medicine or medical emergencies are NEVER paid off. And when good Christian liberals too scared to throw away the Bible, unwilling to offend social Darwinists cry "Slavery is un Christian," they will have no place to turn in the Bible or in the law code -- because the Bible is OK with slavery, and so are the corporate ass-sucking cheap labor neocons.

The rich few are creating all the conditions it will take, for our system to become one of endless debt slavery. This is their reason for cutting SSI, for tort reform, for rewriting bankruptcy laws, for fucking with interest rates, etc. Medical debt and credit card debt will be a tool used to screw us all into slavery.

The illusion of the legitimacy of owing interest on a loan has created debt slavery. Usury is a sneaky slavery scam that is very effective in getting people to work for longer than it takes to repay the debt, long enough to pay the debt over and over again, for nothing in return. Debt slavery has kept generations of Indian families under the yoke of their masters, giving them free labor. If it works in India, it will work here.

Debt slavery is "legitimized" by playing a scam based in interest, a scam based in rationalizing why you owe more than you were given when you borrowed. This scam exploits things like basic human decency, misery, the puritan work ethic, desperation, desire, addiction, our self-sufficient pride, reinforcing our cultural denial over whatever non-existent work the rich do in gaining their wealth they lord over us.

It's insane, but it has been internalized so deeply it's often unquestioned, and there is no limit how much others can take and have from a society that deprives all to ensure the obscene power, leisure, and wealth of the few.

This scam exploits our honesty in deal-making, and the urge for repaying "kindness," and a blind gratefulness for help in a desperate situation, misdirected to those who help us in desperate times but only for a big fee that keeps us paying forever. That is a scam, and that (among other things) is how we are being exploited.

I fear a debt slavery scam will dupe us just as bad as it does in India and other places. How many people DARE to refuse to pay usury, the unconscionable interests on loans? How many people seek to improve their "lot in life," and when they work for long hours and that lot gets worse..I ask whom will risk everything for their kids?(quite a few I bet). How do you think slave recruiters in disaster areas can get desperate people hooked into slavery and human trafficking? What do you think is the bait they use, to lure people in? Misery, desperation, and the love of family and improving their lot in life? Not with fair wealth sharing and compassion in a community,but with JOBS.

How many Americans have the guts to refuse to pay those sudden interest hikes or hidden fees credit companies and other insurance companies put in the fine print, clauses and subclauses written to make sure you NEVER will think you can stand up against them? How many Americans refuse to pay taxes to a government that clearly, obviously, no longer represents us?
How many Americans facing a health crisis would march into a insurance company and stay there and demand to see the owner of that company and not leave until they meet with them?

Remember how Obama was going to investigate torture? and how Obama blew off the need for justice? That is NOT representation. With this rightward tilt even in the democrats with 60 votes still sucking up to the republicans ,allowing the church infiltration into state affairs, and corporate lobbyists paying big bucks to Congress, real people like you and I have no representation in our government any more. Yet we pay taxes out of fear,and corporations they hardly pay taxes at all. This is extortion without representation.

And cutting SIS,Welfare,Cutting off access to health care is just another way of closing the noose on the American people -- slowly, imperceptibly tightening the rope around our necks, while distracting us with non issues like Michael Jackson overload. What they've done and what they're doing creates situations that generate personal debts so huge they can never be paid off,in this"recession" .Because personal debts can no longer be defaulted (bankruptcy has been effectively killed). How else will our infinite debt be collected, except to send us to work in debt prison, or find ways for us to 'work it off' or avoid starvation through indentured servitude?

Ever wonder why the draft has not been revived, and the states are starved of funds? It's not racial, it's class-based. The rich have greased congressional palms to pass laws to set up the entire less than filthy rich country for a fall(all except the top 1 or 2% of the wealthiest) enabling the U.S. become a debt slave state.

What better way to dupe the over-obedient people already willing to pay half their yearly earnings to this government that doesn't represent them, without questioning how that money is spent. People who willingly carry and pay outrageous credit card debts to buy shit they don't need will never get to pay off their debts, but they pay without contest, without recourse. The addicted American consumer is ripe for accepting the chains of debt slavery, especially when the social safety net is gone.

Bird flu or some other engineered bio-weapon from Fort Dietrich will hit,health care will be a requirement many may not be able to afford, and nobody except the well-off or preferred people will have insurance either way. The poor and working classes will rush to emergency rooms to get help, because there is nowhere to turn and they'll be buried in debt, and soon it will dawn on them that they can't pay anything off.

Then comes the new "solution." If you work a year in debtors' prison, your debt is paid. Or maybe two years. And the fine print says you owe for your own upkeep in prison, where all your wages pay off hospital bills and you are set up to NEVER leave...

There may be an outcry for national health insurance, but by the time it's enacted, if ever, we will have become the institutional/slave/prison industry state. It is a perfect set-up for feeding the wealthy. Slave maintenance is very cost effective for the rich, much more cost effective than letting us be free to disobey and cause uprisings. People who don't go along with the "program to heal America" and pay up one way or the other, will mysteriously disappear and be found dead.


© by the author.

As long as Washington remains wedded to the illusion that market-based medicine will cure health care's woes, tens of billions of dollars a year will continue to vanish in waste, inefficiency, fraud, and in profits to companies that make money by denying care.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"It's horribly ironic," said Paul Menzel, a professor of philosophy at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash. The care of the poor once was supported by the wealthy and the insured, but now the opposite is happening, he said

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Although the "managed care" industry is quick to defend its actions with high-sounding justifications, their claims break down under examination. For example, can they really support the argument that the effects of "managed care" are necessary for the "good of society." What does this mean? Who should decide this? Can this be appropriately determined by the entity who stands to benefit the most from an economic definition of this "good"?

The systemic ethical problems in managed care require urgent correction in several areas: the monitoring of denials of care; the elimination of certain contracting arrangements with physicians; the requirement for full disclosures of financial arrangements, cost-cutting strategies, and consumer information; the development of open and reported grievance procedures; and the mandate of ethical guides and processes. How could the industry object? After all, this is just a way for "managed care" to apply its own processes of "quality management" and "outcome analysis" to itself?

Nothing less than the life and well-being of our society depends upon this. We have gone too far under our current system called "managed care." How much more harm and death must occur before we have the courage to do something about it?


Eye opening to say the least..Take some time reading this site! Click around!

http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dis...

http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dis...
/health/grips_health.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
III. ETHICS FROM THE FRONTLINES

I wish to begin by making a public confession: In the spring of 1987, as a physician, I caused the death of a man.

Although this was known to many people, I have not been taken before any court of law or called to account for this in any professional or public forum. In fact, just the opposite occurred: I was "rewarded" for this. It bought me an improved reputation in my job, and contributed to my advancement afterwards. Not only did I demonstrate I could indeed do what was expected of me, I exemplified the "good" company doctor: I saved a half million dollars!

Since that day, I have lived with this act, and many others, eating into my heart and soul. For me, a physician is a professional charged with the care, or healing, of his or her fellow human beings. The primary ethical norm is: do no harm. I did worse: I caused a death. Instead of using a clumsy, bloody weapon, I used the simplest, cleanest of tools: my words. The man died because I denied him a necessary operation to save his heart. I felt little pain or remorse at the time. The man's faceless distance soothed my conscience. Like a skilled soldier, I was trained for this moment. When any moral qualms arose, I was to remember: I am not denying care; I am only denying payment.

http://www.nomanagedcare.org/DrPeenotestim...

60 Million Persons in the US Negatively Affected By Someone Else's Pathology

How many people does pathology negatively affect?' We did a little math....There are 304 million persons in the U.S. 1 in 25 people will have the disorders associated with 'no conscience' which include anti-social personality disorder, sociopath, and psychopath. 304 million divided by 25 is 12.16 million have no conscience. Each anti social/psychopath will have approximately 5 partners who will be exposed to their pathology = 60.8 million people!

(This does not include the children negatively affected and since psychopaths are hypersexual they tend to have lots of children so we could certainly tack on about half that number for children based on 2.5 children per psychopath. And sadly, this does not include all the other forms of pathology related to Cluster B personality disorders that also negatively impact others such as Narcissistic Personality Disorder or Borderline Personality Disorder. Current stats say that narcissism affects approximately 1% of the population ...But if we begin even with just the statistics on 1 in 25 have no conscience and multiply that out to figure out how many wounded people are out there---it's a huge issue. )
The Institute's friend, Howard, who was trained in psychiatry, said "I consider this to be the country's number one public health issue." And with good reason---60 million people negatively impacted by someone else's extreme pathology. There is the emotional impact--the aftermath symptoms that leave 50% of the people with PTSD. That's about equal with the % of war vets who come home with PTSD from Iraq and other wars.

This emotional aftermath (with or without PTSD) causes treatable mental health symptoms like cognitive dissonance, intrusive thoughts, sleep disruptions, increase use of alcohol, concentration problems, flashbacks, and paranoia.The emotional aftermath affects the work environment causing almost 50% of the persons negatively affected to have to cut back from full time to part time, be demoted taking lesser money, or go on short term disability for aftermath symptoms causing MILLIONS of dollars in lost wages.

Snip


The aftermath also affects children who are then put into counseling, needs school-based services because of acting-out and behavioral problems, are distracted, suffer with declining grades, some will go on to have their own genetic transmission of their parent's personality disorder and others will be pseudo-affected---acting like the pathological but without the transmission but still requiring a lot of therapy to overcome their patterns. This doesn't include the abject neglect that kids go through when being 'watched' by the pathological--often malnourished, not on a schedule, not put to bed on time, exposed to high risk behavior (porn, drugs, lots of sexual partners, violence, other criminal types) and the child has a lot to over come. Since many of the personality disorders are parasitic by nature, they are also dead beats by nature not paying child support (even if they can afford to) causing another lag on the government services while children need Medicaid and other benefits.

Snip

(Are you furious yet?)

This cluster of pathologicals with impaired moral reasoning, high impulsivity and hyper sexuality are those most likely to practice high risk sexual behaviors and thus have resulting STDs that they willingly share with others causing public health concerns.
This high impulsivity and low responsibility results in DUIs, speeding tickets, and jacked up insurance rates.When we wonder if pathology and the lack of a national public awareness campaign is 'really' an issue we should consider that 'AT LEAST' 60 million people are being affected by someone else's pathology ---and pathology is increasing as more women have children with them and as more children are being raised by them, thus influenced by them.

www.saferelationshipsmagazine.com

BEIJING, May 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Children who are constantly bullied are at greater risk for developing psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations or delusions as they hit adolescence.

British researchers said Monday children who were consistently victimized by their peers at ages 8 or 10 were twice as likely to have psychotic symptoms by the time they hit adolescence. That risk was even greater if the bullying was particularly chronic or severe.

Researcher Andrea Schreier, PhD, of Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick in England, and colleagues said bullying -- especially when it is severe or chronic -- can have serious consequences for some children, and may even act as a trigger for people who are genetically predisposed to schizophrenia.

The study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, included more than 6,400 children in Bristol, England, who were evaluated annually from ages 7 to about 13.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/...


This study is not bullshit,Because what was shown in that study,it happened to me. I was misdiagnosed as schizophrenic for years,because by the time I lost it,(around age 13)psychiatry itself was still in denial about the effects of trauma and bullying on people's mental health.The shrinks gave me ever increasing doses of anti-psychotic drugs of different types and none"worked".Because I was not really schizophrenic, I was traumatized bullied for years until I just cracked up,the "hallucinations" were alters. It is amazing to me that people haven't figured out how abuse triggers mental illness and how being around abusive people and psychopaths authoritarian and narcissistic personality types actually harms people unfortunate enough to grow up or attend school and be around the toxic personality types. Certain personality types, behaviors and abuses they do to others and the bystander effect,the just world theory and enabling all combine into a very crazy making mix for those targeted by bullies.

We need to do something with the toxic people in our midst, the abusers,the bullies, control freaks,assholes and fake'alpha' types.
http://fact.on.ca/news/news0001/np000107.h...
They are who cause humanity to be so messed up.
The Inuit were onto something with the bullies/psychopaths in their midst. They would observe the person without a conscience, and one day the hunters would take this asshole on a hunting trip,push the tyrant bully into the ice and let him die there,and because they did not tolerate bullies in their culture their lives were more peaceful,and humane.Not perfect but BETTER off...without toxic bullies.
http://www.ranprieur.com/readings/american...
And interestingly primitive cultures have better outcomes from mental illness than"developed" nations.
http://books.google.com/books?id=2IoOAAAAQ...
Wonder why?
http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/official_cu...

http://ponerology.blogspot.com/2008/04/how...
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article....
Psychopaths make up just 4% of the total U.S. population, but the damage and devastation they wreak is extreme and widespread.

Psychopaths, also known as sociopaths, comprise 20-25% of the prison population, but 50% of those who have committed serious crimes. However, the majority of psychopaths are not violent—most are users, scam artists and shady businesspeople. There is some evidence that psychopaths may be overrepresented in the fields of business, politics and entertainment.

Read more: http://personalitydisorders.suite101.com/a...


Read about how eliminating bullies changed a culture in a babboon colony.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/13/science/...

Investments at the Bottom of the Social Pyramid Produce Results
Market Watch
Posted on October 27, 2008
Turns out that the best return on investment lies with the poor, not the rich.

A Moody's analysis earlier this year shows the government gets the biggest bang for its buck by spending increases. A whopping $1.73 increase in gross domestic product is returned for every dollar the Treasury spends by increasing food stamps, for example. This compares with a $1.02 return by a nonrefundable lump-sum tax rebate and a $1.26 return on a refundable lump-sum tax rebate, according to Moody's. Turns out that the best return on investment lies with the poor, not the rich.


http://www.nextbillion.net/news/investment...

THE FEDERAL RESERVE IS CANDID
The Federal Reserve itself is amazingly frank about this process. A booklet published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York tells us: "Currency cannot be redeemed, or exchanged, for Treasury gold or any other asset used as backing. The question of just what assets 'back' Federal Reserve notes has little but bookkeeping significance." Elsewhere in the same publication we are told: "Banks are creating money based on a borrower's promise to pay (the IOU). Banks create money by 'monetizing' the private debts of businesses and individuals."

In a booklet entitled Modern Money Mechanics, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago says: In the United States neither paper currency nor deposits have value as commodities. Intrinsically, a dollar bill is just a piece of paper. Deposits are merely book entries. Coins do have some intrinsic value as metal, but generally far less than their face amount. What, then, makes these instruments--checks, paper money, and coins--acceptable at face value in payment of all debts and for other monetary uses?
Mainly, it is the confidence people have that they will be able to exchange such money for other financial assets and real goods and services whenever they choose to do so. This partly is a matter of law; currency has been designated "legal tender" by the government--that is, it must be accepted.


*my comment*(in other words tthe BELIEF that paper can be exchanged for food or a house for instance. That's why CONSUMER CONfidence is such a big deal now)

In the fine print of a footnote in a bulletin of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, we find this surprisingly candid explanation: Modern monetary systems have a fiat base--literally money by decree--with depository institutions, acting as fiduciaries, creating obligations against themselves with the fiat base acting in part as reserves. The decree appears on the currency notes: "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private." While no individual could refuse to accept such money for debt repayment, exchange contracts could easily be composed to thwart its use in everyday commerce. However, a forceful explanation as to why money is accepted is that the federal government requires it as payment for tax liabilities. Anticipation of the need to clear this debt creates a demand for the pure fiat dollars.

MONEY WOULD VANISH WITHOUT DEBT

It is difficult for Americans to come to grips with the fact that their total money-supply is backed by nothing but debt, and it is even more mind boggling to visualize that, if everyone paid back all that was borrowed, there would be no money left in existence. That's right, there would not be one penny in circulation--all coins and all paper currency would be returned to bank vaults--and there would be not one dollar in any one's checking account. In short, all money would disappear.

http://www.globalallianceassnnew.org/html/...

*pouf*

Who benefits from all of this? Certainly not the average citizen. The only beneficiaries are the political scientists in Congress who enjoy the effect of unlimited revenue to perpetuate their power, and the monetary scientists within the banking cartel called the Federal Reserve System who have been able to harness the American people, without their knowing it, to the yoke of modern feudalism.

Bankers know how to create money out of thin air. In fact, banks are money factories. Banks exist to make money. You might think that banks are in business to provide services such as banking accounts and loans to their customers. It's true that banks provide essential financial services. However, the reason that the banks provide such services is that banks need money to use as raw material to create more money. Where does this money come from? It comes from customer deposits. In other words, it comes from the money you and I deposit into the bank.

Notice very carefully, banks "create" money. It's not simply that banks "earn" profits when they provide bank services and loans. Banks actually "create" new money that did not exist before.

Here is an example of how banks create money. You deposit $100,000 into a one-year Certificate of Deposit at 5% interest. The bank now can use your money to create loans.
The Federal Reserve sets the reserve rate for the bank from 3-10%. A 3% reserve rate means that the bank must keep 3% of the $100,000 on reserve and can loan the remaining 97%. A 10% reserve rate means that the bank must keep 10% of the $100,000 on reserve and can loan the remaining 90%. For our example, let's assume that the reserve rate is 10%. This allows the bank to loan $90,000 of your $100,000 deposit.

So, the bank makes Loan #1 of $90,000 and keeps $10,000 on reserve. This is the critical point where the bank creates money. According to the bank's balance sheet, the $90,000 loan to the borrower is also a $90,000 asset for the bank. By its own brand of money magic, the bank has created $90,000 out of thin air.

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Banks-Create...

The only thing backing up the 'market now is user confidence and theories in economists heads,and who's willing to bet on it.
We've been had people.Fuck the Fed!!!

Ten dirty tricks to prop up a massive fraud!
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/128241/1...

In Honor of this January, National Poverty Month..



Taken from the Sermon at Temple Israel of Hollywood speech...

The affluent nations, the “have” nations must join in the grand alliance to do something about this. And not only must we look abroad, we can look in our own nation. We will discover that there are some 10 million families that are considered poverty stricken families. These families have an average of four or five members, which means there are some 40 -- between 40 and 50 million of our brothers and sisters in this country who are poverty stricken. There they find themselves perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. And certainly if we are to be a great nation, we must solve this problem. Now there is nothing new about poverty. What is new that we now have the techniques and the resources to get rid of it.

Some years ago a thoughtful Englishman by the name of Malthus frightened the world by discussing the problem -- the joint problem of production and population. He reached the conclusion in a book that the world was moving toward universal famine because man’s population -- the population rather, was outrunning man’s capacity to produce. But it didn’t take many years after that for many other people to reveal that Malthus was wrong, that he grossly underestimated the resources of the world and the resourcefulness of man. It was Dr. Kirtley Mather, a Harvard geologist a few years ago who wrote a book entitled Enough and to Spare. He said in substance throughout that book that there is enough and to spare in this world for all men to have the basic necessities of life. It boils down to the question of whether men and women in this nation are willing to be concerned about the least of these. A great nation is a compassionate nation. Who are the least of these? The least of these are those who still find themselves smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in an affluent society. Who are the least of these? They are the thousands of individuals who see life as a long and desolate corridor with no exit sign. Who are the least of these? They are the little boys and little girls who grow up with clouds of inferiority floating in their little mental skies because they know that they are caught in conditions of economic deprivation. Who are the least of these? They are the individuals who are caught in the fatigue of despair. And somehow if we are to be a great nation, we must be concerned about the least of these, our brothers. And we’ve been in the mountain of indifference too long and ultimately we must be concerned about the least of these; we must be concerned about the poverty-stricken because our destinies are tied together. And somehow in the final analysis, as long as there is poverty in the world, nobody can be totally rich. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/m...


Taken from from MLK's speech "I've Been to the Mountaintop"...

It's all right to talk about "long white robes over yonder," in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here! It's all right to talk about "streets flowing with milk and honey," but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can't eat three square meals a day. It's all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God's preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.

Now the other thing we'll have to do is this: Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal. Now, we are poor people. Individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively -- that means all of us together -- collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that? After you leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Great Britain, West Germany, France, and I could name the others, the American Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than thirty billion dollars a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? That's power right there, if we know how to pool it.

We don't have to argue with anybody. We don't have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don't need any bricks and bottles. We don't need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, "God sent us by here, to say to you that you're not treating his children right. And we've come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God's children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you."

And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy -- what is the other bread? -- Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart's bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven't been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on town -- downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right.

But not only that, we've got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank. We want a "bank-in" movement in Memphis. Go by the savings and loan association. I'm not asking you something that we don't do ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We are telling you to follow what we are doing. Put your money there. You have six or seven black insurance companies here in the city of Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an "insurance-in."

Now these are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here.
Now, let me say as I move to my conclusion that we've got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in Memphis. We've got to see it through. And when we have our march, you need to be there. If it means leaving work, if it means leaving school -- be there. Be concerned about your brother. You may not be on strike. But either we go up together, or we go down together.

Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. One day a man came to Jesus, and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters of life. ..read more..

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/m...

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Here are my thoughts...

Dangerous Unselfishness,what a great noble, concept!! A concept scary as hell itself to those who have too much,who prefer security and things over freedom and facing the unknown honestly..To them they'd prefer we dare not speak it's name let alone embrace it.

But embracing this dangerous unselfishness is one way to forever keep power away from plunderers in suits like Enron..To disarm injustice and be sure no one sleeps in the cold and dies stuck to the pavement because no one cared..Caring isn't easy,it takes risk,it can be awkward frustrating, it hurts it doesn't make you rich or get you rewarded,but to me, I do it because I care it is right action,and in a world filled with corruption, right action is dangerous..

And,for me even though my income is below poverty level I still prefer being dangerously unselfish to hoarding up crap I don't need..When I feel burdened by things, I give my stuff away,why keep what I don't use around gathering dust for a "rainy day" that never arrives?

I wonder what would happen if we ALL learned how to be Dangerously unselfish here,than we on DU went out there offline,and taught all around us willing to embrace this liberating,equalizing dangerous world changing concept? Unburdened ourselves,and became Dangerously Unselfish?

I think Dangerous Unselfishness was a central part of MLK's dream being realized.A black president has made one mountain,racism crumble in a way it can never be the monster it was..But..
Are you ready to become dangerous enough to change the very foundations of ALL those mountains MLK referred to in his Temple speech,the first one I quoted from???

You dangerous enough to walk with me?

to those that give them more power(or money,sexual favors,gifts etc.),and those who threaten their place of power.
Otherwise you are invisible,basically.
Threaten them and you might find yourself in danger.
Or be rich enough to buy them,or close to them so you are considered part of their circle.All weilders of power build a circle of people to insulate themselves from others and hide within or use certain less valued members as patsies or to 'fall on the sword' for the big kahuna.

Look at who the riot police attack and what is not reported or is under reported. There you will see who is a threat.

Anarchists apparently scare the living shit out of the G8 and the more'capitalist' power mongers.They call out all sorts of police to keep them away from their clandestine meetings.

http://struggle.ws/a_news/an25_genoa.html

Food Not Bombs for instance threatens them because they GIVE AWAY food to homeless people. This is because having control over food and who has the"privlege" of eating or drinking is a way to control a population.

The most desperate threaten them because they have nothing to lose if they should mobilize.
People who believe death makes them a martyr threaten them because they cannot be cowed by death or threat of death or even torture.

These people threaten the authoritarian operations of this so called democracy.

Become a threat you will see.
An empire that is in any form authoritarian cannot tolerate a community with equality and sharing within it's owned and corporate lands.

They will destroy it.

That's why Abbie Hoffman's Free Store was firebombed.The hippies scared the shit out of the authoritarians. Like always.

Because of Stanley Milgram's results.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9...

Because of Bullies
http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/seria...

And Social engineering
http://hubpages.com/hub/What-is-social-eng...

There are many more reasons why people get it wrong when they put hope in the masses to be disobedient or to stand up against abusers of power.
Most people seem to have an OUTER locus of control and unable to lead themselves.The masses are also manipulated by power and authority and it's symbols and implicit threats.And most people hate to admit they are vulnerable to manipulation,which ironically makes people easier to manipulate.

We do not live in a democracy, it only has the appearance of one.

…There are only two possible ways in which a world of 10 billion people can be averted. Either the current birth rates must come down more quickly. Or the current death rates must go up. There is no other way. There are, of course, many ways in which the death rates can go up.
http://www.dieoff.org /
http://www.knowledgedrivenrevolution.com/A...
http://dprogram.net/population-control /
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Kissinger’s 1974 Plan for Food Control Genocide

by Joseph Brewda
Dec. 8, 1995

On Dec. 10, 1974, the U.S. National Security Council under Henry Kissinger completed a classified 200-page study, “National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests.” The study falsely claimed that population growth in the so-called Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs) was a grave threat to U.S. national security. Adopted as official policy in November 1975 by President Gerald Ford, NSSM 200 outlined a covert plan to reduce population growth in those countries through birth control, and also, implicitly, war and famine. Brent Scowcroft, who had by then replaced Kissinger as national security adviser (the same post Scowcroft was to hold in the Bush administration), was put in charge of implementing the plan. CIA Director George Bush was ordered to assist Scowcroft, as were the secretaries of state, treasury, defense, and agriculture.

The bogus arguments that Kissinger advanced were not original. One of his major sources was the Royal Commission on Population, which King George VI had created in 1944 “to consider what measures should be taken in the national interest to influence the future trend of population.” The commission found that Britain was gravely threatened by population growth in its colonies, since “a populous country has decided advantages over a sparsely-populated one for industrial production.” The combined effects of increasing population and industrialization in its colonies, it warned, “might be decisive in its effects on the prestige and influence of the West,” especially effecting “military strength and security.”


Food as a weapon

There were several measures that Kissinger advocated to deal with this alleged threat, most prominently, birth control and related population-reduction programs. He also warned that “population growth rates are likely to increase appreciably before they begin to decline,” even if such measures were adopted.

A second measure was curtailing food supplies to targeted states, in part to force compliance with birth control policies: “There is also some established precedent for taking account of family planning performance in appraisal of assistance requirements by AID and consultative groups. Since population growth is a major determinant of increases in food demand, allocation of scarce PL 480 resources should take account of what steps a country is taking in population control as well as food production. In these sensitive relations, however, it is important in style as well as substance to avoid the appearance of coercion.”

“Mandatory programs may be needed and we should be considering these possibilities now,” the document continued, adding, “Would food be considered an instrument of national power? ... Is the U.S. prepared to accept food rationing to help people who can't/won't control their population growth?
http://www.schillerinstitute.org/food_for_...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/a...
http://www.fdrs.org/food_as_a_weapon.html
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Look at the threats to our health in our food here right now ..Some of this is due to this "accidentally on purpose" game.Like the lack of inspections due to the de-funding of the FDA?USDA etc.,Then rampant greed of corporations ,and of course outright criminality,yet it is tolerated,even scuttled out of public view and the information about what is going on with our food is even sometimes repressed.Why? Control the world's food supply you control the world.
This barely scrapes the surface...We are being slowly murdered by the lifestyle we are accustomed to.And there is profits in misery,sickness and problems.

Melamine..
http://www.blogrunner.com/snapshot/t/refer... /
http://animohosting.com/main/melamine /
http://www.wattpoultry.com/Blogs.aspx?id=2...

It can get worse than Melamine when profiteers go looking for cheap sources of protien...
http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Process...

Pesticides..
http://www.who.int/foodsafety/chem/en /
http://www.consumersunion.org/food/organic...
http://www.sdearthtimes.com/et0996/et0996s...

Mad Cow..
http://www.mad-cow.org /

GM foods..
http://proliberty.com/observer/20060907.ht...
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/a...
http://ci-shift.com/jason-mccormick/blog/c...
http://afgen.com/clon49.html

PCB's Hormones etc.
http://extoxnet.orst.edu/faqs/foodcon/pcb....
http://environmentalchemistry.com/yogi/env...
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/rbgh_ho...
http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_rel...

Contamination..
http://www.cin.ba/Stories/P7_Food/?cid=492...
http://njaes.rutgers.edu/foodsafety/salmon...


Gutting of safety regulations and meaningless organic labels.
http://www.upc-online.org/organic/meaningl...
http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/foodorga...
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005...


Paying more for less food..
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/23/...
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-shri...

Drugs in food..
http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/u...
http://www.codexalimentarius.net/mrls/vetd...
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story....
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture...

Deliberate waste of food..for profit's sake...
http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagena...
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html...

Fake food
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1719516/bewa... /
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,...
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:Zq-y3v...

Make some more Poor!!
http://www.lahomelessblog.org/2008/06/cars...
http://www.newsandletters.org/Issues/2008/...
http://www.housingaright.org/articles-BB.h...
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/104338/t... /


Than kill the poor!!!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1999/11/23/...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/a...
http://chosenfast.com/2008/10/22/homeless-... /
http://www.alterinfos.org/spip.php?article...
http://books.google.com/books?id=qfnrMAg95...

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness".John Kenneth Galbraith

"A Conservative Government is an organized hypocrisy".
Benjamin Disraeli

Republicans want freedom FROM the human social contract that helps humanity live in relative peace together..The right wing wants to be able to bully,steal,pressure/control others,manipulate, lie,take advantage of others, never share,be greedy as they can, get something for nothing,and do it as much as they want to the least among us with NO consequences. They want power without responsibility obligation or even sharing of power.The "freedom" republicans defend are the freedoms of bad people who seek to abuse and manipulate other people with no consequences ..That is what the republicans are really SCARED of losing, now that the Dem's are in the House.. And it is a GOOD thing they fear us.The outside pressure progressives enact through limits and regulations on the behavior of conservatives,is necessary. Those external controls on their predatory and parasitism that is what republicans hate,about Democrats.They do not get it that progressive power limits the damage they can do to the social contract ,a nation and others lives all around them with those chronic conservative behaviors of greed bullying,theft and abuse of power.

Conservatism creates nothing ,it preys upon others creativity,and well being.Conservatives seek to the keep the authoritarian status quo the same.Conservatism is a greedy arrogant feudal belief system,it relies on perpetuating over-obedience to authority and an unjust social hierarchy.Conservatism encourages bullying, ignorance and blind faith,for that is the republican base..It relies on people believing humanity is evil 100% and that the weak and impoverished are inferior and thus are treated as lessors. This kind of hierarchical culture ultimately is anti-life,anti-love ,anti-compassion ,and anti- social contract.


"The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority".Stanley Milgram


Progressives and Democrats on the other hand, are not afraid of using power and resources to help others. Help with things like progressive taxes, gay people marrying,universal health care or homeless shelters in their neighborhoods.This is because liberals understand the importance of taking care of each other.They know it IS the essential essence of the human social contract they are upholding.The Progressives seek to LIMIT what abusers of power and wealth can get away with doing to others less able to defend themselves or each other.

The obligations we have as human beings to look out for each other and our well being if we are to live well and in peace together is a RESPONSIBILITY and obligation each person has in maintaining freedom for all.To have freedom for all,one must be willing to give to others to protect that freedom.So Democrats believe in innocence until proven guilty..The Democrats know when as many people as possible are freed from the burdens of poverty,health issues,domestic violence,are more educated,and more aware of others not like themselves are human too,and freeing as many as possible from the suffering and grinding despair of loneliness http://www.lifewatch-eap.com/poc/view_doc....
and ease the"human condition" .This is why we need each other and this contract,mutual well being and survival is why we created civilizations to begin with.

Compassion without "conservatism" brings more joy and freedom to all.Even conservatives but they'll NEVER admit it.

"To care for anyone else enough to make their problems one's own, is ever the beginning of one's real ethical development".Felix Adler: