April 5, 2013

Well, we have to speak louder and more constantly and more repetitively:

Some ideas here, and let's be frank - it comes down to DE-PROGRAMMING.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022619428

April 5, 2013

Exactly. The WORDS are there.

But we've had WORDS handed down to us from on high before. And the problem persists. And the perpetrators are protected instead of the victims. And the conditions that allow for this kind of horror carry on as if there's just complete dismissal of the changing world the Church must recognize and minister unto - AS IT IS, and NOT as the Church would dictate it to be.

When Pope Francis starts recognizing the talent pool that constitutes at least 51% of the global population - that's still being flatly and uncompromisingly dismissed (women, that is) - THEN I'll believe we'll start to see meaningful change. The institution has to work with the world in which it finds itself. Now. Today. In THIS century. NOT back when, during Jesus's day, or Emperor Constantine's day, or any other day in the past. The world is changing. And the Catholic Church MUST change and grow with it if it expects to play a relevant role in THIS WORLD NOW.

You CANNOT fight or dispute evolution - even if you yourself don't believe in it. That does not make it go away or otherwise cease to exist. And if you continue to think that way, it will eventually be YOU that goes away or ceases to exist. Evolution itself will continue. Just ask the dinosaurs and the trilobites.

April 5, 2013

Welcome to DU, illegaloperation!

Glad you're here! No, we aren't forgetting him, but for at least some of us (like me), Miss Heidi has shown herself to be a wolf in sheep's clothing. I gave money to her campaign. And then I got kicked in the teeth by her when she made that arrogant statement against ANY changes or progress against gun violence, sitting there and stating on one of the Sunday talk shows a few weeks ago that any restriction on gun ownership was a non-starter. I called her office and told her staffer that, while I'm a Californian and she technically does not represent me, I still helped her get that job. MY MONEY went into her campaign. I did without several tanks of gas so I'd have more money to donate. MY CALIFORNIA MONEY went off to her state to help her campaign. So I figure I still own her ass. And AS one of her underwriters and financial sponsors, I expect something in return for that investment. And she failed BIGTIME.

I do not hesitate to call ANY rep's office from anywhere - if I helped them get into office, then I view them as MY reps, too. They want to be our leaders. Well, okay then, DAMMIT. Get off your asses and LEAD!!!!! And yes, if it means leading your own state out of the fucking Dark Ages, then DO IT. SOMEBODY'S gonna have to do it. Sooner or later every state in this union is going to have to wake up and realize, and accept - that we are in the 21st Century now. NOT the 13th. NOT the 6th. And that this is the Information Age, NOT the Bronze Age.

Btw - Please check my other thread here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022619428 - about a way we can realistically start fighting back.

April 5, 2013

Well, I'll wait and see. All we've had is talk so far, and an awful lot of covering-up.

Said she, a resident of the Los Angeles Archdiocese where our wonderful roger mahony presided, and covered up for molester priests all over the place.

As a mother, I won't take this one on faith. I won't be content with just encouraging words. I'll need to see action on this before I start standing up and cheering. This is easy stuff to make nice-sounding or powerful speeches about. Speeches, schmeeches. The hard stuff involves meeting this head-on, yanking the perpetrators OUT of action, and seeking actual justice, not just moving them out of range so people in the afflicted parish (hopefully) think something's been done and then promptly forget about it.

And it'll involve some systemic changes if this problem is really and seriously to be addressed. Pope Francis is going to have to revise a few policies about the priesthood to make this "promise" worth anything.

We'll see. We've heard all the nice talk and the reassuring words before. So far they've meant very little. We'll see.

April 5, 2013

Done!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022619428

And you're correct - more people should see ideas like this, not merely because they happen to be something I wrote up. I just really believe in this kind of counter-programming. You start with the slow and steady and constant drumbeat - just like the bad guys did. But you splice on - YOUR message.

Remember, dubya himself said his job was to "kind of catapult the propaganda." That's what their repeating and repeating and repeating and repeating their message, over and over again, through countless talking heads on cable TV, countless loudmouths (lout-mouths?) and bullies on the radio, countless representatives at the state, local, and national level parroting the same damn blast-faxed, focus-group-tested, pasteurize-processed and homogenized talking points.

Anyone remember back to the very grim days after the election in 2000? Remember how EVERYONE with an "r" by their name, whether in office or out, was saying the SAME DAMN WORDS OVER AND OVER AGAIN - under any and all circumstances where they found themselves with cameras and mics in their faces - "well, they counted. They counted again. And they counted a THIRD time..." I saw EVERYBODY rattling off that Chatty-Cathy-pull-her-string-and-hear-her-talk blather. They all got their marching orders. They all got in line. They all studied their scripts - that went out to EVERYBODY EVERYWHERE, either from the RNC directly OR from operatives in frank luntz's office or kkkarl rove's office or the American Enterprise Institute or the Heritage Foundation or the Cato Institute or any one of the multitude of other cockamamie organizations funding this low-key, under-the-radar HOSTILE TAKEOVER they've been working at since reagan's day.

Gotta hand it to 'em - they saw an opportunity and they damn well made the most of it!

So what I'm saying here is - WHY CAN'T WE????????

April 5, 2013

Thank you, and Welcome to DU, BrotherIvan!

Glad you're here! SO many of us here "get it." I just wish we could share that knowledge with more people outside of here. It's just so incredibly important to connect the dots!!!

I was just reading yet another article aimed at musicians and bands and band management (since I manage my kid's band). And again and again they make the same recommendation: BE MINDFUL OF THE "WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME."

For example, when you're trying to build a fan base, it's helpful to understand that most people go to the internet looking for something THEY want or need. Recommendations for a new restaurant. Tips on new music. The goods on the new movie. Where they can get something for free or cheap. What benefits them personally. What's in it for them. And the best advice always goes toward "Don't be about 'buy my album,' 'buy my concert tickets,' 'come to my show,' etc." The best advice always stresses "make them feel like YOU are THEIR fan!" Engage them in some way. Offer them something. What's in it for THEM?

Seems to me that's the key here - everyone's been programmed for years - indeed, BRAINWASHED - into thinking that TAX = BAD.

And if that's all you hear - "taxes bad, taxes bad, taxes bad," in all its many permutations, that's all you're going to think. You've heard the saying before - "garbage in, garbage out." Which is the Holy Writ of such outfits as Pox Noise and the whole limbaugh-and-clones madness. They pump NON-STOP GARBAGE into their listeners and viewers minds. They offer nothing BUT that same NON-STOP GARBAGE. They certainly don't offer any other view or different opinion or alternative outlook. So with nothing else for the listener or viewer to vibe upon, take in, kick around in his/her own mind, sit with, sleep on, or otherwise absorb, then what else is he/she to think or conclude or process, or trust? Indeed, in the truest sense, you are what you eat, literally AND figuratively. You are what you take in.

We are only beginning to deprogram America. For example, look how long it's taken for ANY OTHER VIEW than the NRA's to start breaking through on the gun violence issue? Look how long it's taken!!! Like all the other bad-guy entities out there, the NRA also has had DECADES of head-start on this. They've been allowed - by idiocy, naivete, and fear - to monopolize the conversation for FAR too long. Our side is seriously just now waking up. We have DECADES of catching up to do. And most of it starts with explaining why taxes are NOT bad.

The bad guys (and I label them as such because they ARE. What they do is bad, what they want is bad, what they believe in is by 'n' large bad, and what they want to do to America is BAD!) have succeeded in demonizing and undermining government, taxes, and everything that contributes to a beneficial collective that focuses on the greater good for all, rather than just a pinched selfish good-for-an-elite-few-who-already-have-it-disproportionally-good. Thank ronald reagan for that. "Government isn't the solution to the problem, it IS the problem." Okay. Tell that to the Hurricane Sandy survivors whose meager state coffers and services were instantly overwhelmed and only an entity as big as the feds could deal with what needed to be dealt with. God, I despise ronald reagan. Unfortunately, California foisted THAT seemingly-benign fiend upon the rest of an unsuspecting America, too.

April 1, 2013

There's a saying that sort of nails this as far as coast-to-coast trend-watching.

"As California goes, so goes the nation."

We started it all, unfortunately and HUGELY regretfully, with that fucking howard jarvis and Prop 13, which came two years before Supply-Side Monster ronald reagan took over and started us down the road toward political/fiscal Hell.

And that's what started the red tide flushing across the country from west to east. HORRIFYING. It empowered the nutcases and the selfish cheapskates and the IGMFU contingent much the same way as the teabaggers got their shot of adrenaline by the realization that there was a black guy in the Oval Office who wasn't the janitor.

We seem to have stepped over the shit-pile of Prop 13 somewhat here in California, FINALLY! It used to be the knee-jerk destruct button behind which the bad guys always took refuge - "Proposition 13!!! NO TAXES!!! Taxes BAAAAAAAAADDD!!!" crap they'd yell as though they were spring-loaded, every time a ballot measure came along, or someone in Sacramento proposed raising revenue to pay for stuff we actually and seriously do NEED...

Keith Olbermann used to call 'em the "Something For Nothing" crowd, and he was correct. These assholes haven't changed. They STILL want their benefits and their government-provided goodies and relief programs and FEMA and other stuff - but they just don't want to have to pay for any of it.

I think we have to further the push-back by starting a meme. What if, every time a statement was made about a necessary (or seemingly necessary) program that isn't around anymore or that's being threatened with being cut - that statement were to BEGIN with "well, because nobody wants to pay taxes..."?

"Well, because nobody wants to pay taxes, we have to cut costs and do things like canceling the White House tours..."

"Well, because nobody wants to pay taxes, those 30 school's are gonna have to close..."

"Well, because nobody wants to pay taxes, you can't drive over that bridge anymore and your commute to and from work has just increased by more than two hours..."

"Well, because nobody wants to pay taxes, that benefit check you were expecting is gonna be smaller..."

"Well, because nobody wants to pay taxes, you're gonna have to wait about 45 minutes after you call 911..."

"Well, because nobody wants to pay taxes, that military base in your county that generates all those jobs is gonna be closed..."

"Well, because nobody wants to pay taxes, those after-school programs (or elder-care programs) are coming to an end..."

You get the idea...

The bad guys have spent 30-40 YEARS demonizing the very IDEA of paying taxes. "Taxes BAAAAAAAAAADDD!" And the knee-jerker selfish short-sighted cheapskates who want it NOW and to hell with the ramifications in the future seize upon that and are then able to trash EVERYTHING that needs stimulus spending or infrastructure upkeep or disaster aid or or early-childhood assistance programs or disability benefits or whatever it is. THERE HAS BEEN NO CONNECTION MADE BETWEEN TAXES AND WHAT WE NEED THOSE TAXES TO UNDERWRITE. No connection has been made.

It's been completely and utterly short-sheeted. The very concept of "Tax RELIEF" was a VERY shrewd word-play. You combine the word for what you don't like - with a word that reinforces that thing you dislike. "Taxes" are perceived as bad. So you partner it with a word like "relief," as in - you need relief from taxes (because they're bad). "Taxes" are something you need relief or protection or rescue - FROM. They're awfully shrewd about this stuff, and all those big-ass "foundations" and "institutes" and "think tanks" they've founded and funded since the 70s and 80s - have been in place to think this policy through and develop it into something workable - that allows you to start changing the look of the political/social landscape. It allows you to reprogram and, in effect, brainwash the public into seeing things YOUR way.

And our side has done nothing about it until the last few years when some people on our side finally started waking up and taking this seriously. It's been SO frustrating!!!!!!! We here on DU have been talking about this for more than a decade. SOME others around us in this country are FINALLY starting to wake up and smell the coffee on this. FINALLY. Only 30 or 40 years behind, that's all.

So since our "leaders" on the left - SOME of whom are waking up to this reality - are, indeed, just getting started, WE who've understood this problem and have been on this tip-of-spear since at least the early 2000s should be TAKING THE LEAD.