Wind Power

[H2O Man]

{1} Who Has Seen the Wind? (Yoko Ono)
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor i.
But when the trees bow down their heads
The wind is passing by.
Oh, wind, wind,
Wind, wind, wind. ;;;;

Who has seen your dream?
Only you and him.
But when the world gets bright and clear
You know that we were there.
Oh, world, world,
World, world, world.

John Lennon released his third single with the Plastic Ono Band on 2-21-70. It was "Instant Karma," which I consider one of his best efforts. It has an edge to it.

The flip side was Yoko Ono’s "Who Has Seen the Wind?" Though it went largely unnoticed – including her rather clever use of Christina Rossetta’s lines from the 1800s – I was thinking about it five minutes ago.

I was, when I remembered the song, reading some of DU:GD and GD-P. And I found myself thinking, "Some of these posts have an edge to the. Too bad every single one didn’t have a flip side, with a nice gentle breeze."

{2} President Lyndon B. Johnson’s June 7, 1966 message
"No American, young or old, must ever be denied the right to dissent. No minority must be muzzled. Opinion and protest are the life breath of democracy – even when it blows heavy.

"But I urge you never to dissent merely because someone asked you to or because someone else does. Please know why you protest. Know what it is you dissent from. And always try, when you do disagree, to offer a choice to the course that you disapprove. For dissent and protest must be the recourse of men who, in challenging the existing order, reason their way to a better order."

Few 45s from the 1960s sold less than LBJ’s cover of The Beatles’ "And Your Bird Can Sing." However, Johnson had a strange flip-side, and there are times where it seemed that he really could have been among the very greatest presidents, based on his compassion and insight. We could all probably benefit from grasping the message he communicated on that June day 43 years ago.

{3} Land of the Spotted Eagle, by Luther Standing Bear; 1933.
"Is not humanness a matter of heart and mind, and is it not evident in the form of relationship with other men? Is not kindness more powerful than arrogance, and truth not more powerful than the sword?"

I always liked that quote. And I hope that you do, too.

[rosesaylavee]

1. I think critique of policies should always be

accompanied by an alternative policy. Offering a working alternative has much better chance of changing whatever it is than just yelling or swearing. I try to imagine what I would do if on the receiving end of the yelling and swearing vs the offer of a practical alternative. I think I would look at the practical alternative and disregard the yelling/swearing. I don't think that is just me but a typical human's reaction. I think the yelling/swearing gets attention but it needs to be followed up with something more.

[H2O Man]

2. Right.

I agree. On one hand, the democratic party won the 2008 elections in a big way. And a significant part of the energy that led to those victories came from the democratic left and other people on the progressive left who do not identify themselves with the democratic party.

The country faces as severe of crises as people on DU, etc, have said for years. In fact, these problems pre-date the Bush-Cheney administration: the sad truth is that the Bush-Cheney years allowed the problems that our country was facing to flower, and we see the fruit today: the economic collapse, the wars, the fear and the hatred that saturates our culture.

Even with Obama in the office of the President, we still have a corrupt, broken system. Few institutions could be viewed as corrupt as the banking industry. I think that Congress is perhaps the only one that is just as bad. That doesn't mean, of course, that all Representatives and Senators are as criminal as the executives that give themselves huge bonuses, but many of them are. And more are closer to that, than they are to decent human beings and real leaders.

The chances of Obama "solving" our country's problems is, at best, relatively small. What is happening today is a direct consequence of yesterday, just as surely as yesterday was a direct consequence of the day before. The only thing that can bring about meaningful change is people -- and for people to change the "system" -- in other words, to make tomorrow better by changing today -- is for people to change.

There are many people who are invested in keeping things heading in the direction that they are. Just watching the evening news, and seeing some of the snakes in Congress and the business world provides plenty of evidence of this sad reality. Their motivation is easily understood -- when a billion dollars "disappear," it goes somewhere. And it isn't into the public's bank accounts.

Very few of our "leaders" are willing to sacrifice their own comfort to improve the tomorrows that are just around the corner. And relatively few speak publicly about the amount of sacrifice that is going to be required by the larger society. I would suggest that the democratic left lead by sacrificing fear and hatred. Instead, channel that same energy into creating the changes needed to make progressive change.

I understand that there are many good and decent people who are sincere in their beliefs that anger can be used in a positive way. But a reading of the GD and GD-P forums would seem a good illustration of the negative potential that anger has, and how it locks people into a frame that doesn't have room for identifying many options beyond "black and white."

This is, of course, just my opinion.

[JDPriestly]

5. Obama needs to start with absolute transparency.

It is the lack of transparency on the part of the architects of the bail-out that has caused the public uproar.

If someone had come forward early on and said, we are bailing out AIG. AIG will pass x amount of dollars through to foreign banks that it swindled and x amounts of dollars to this one or that one and here are the reasons the money will be used in this way . . . , people still would have protested and voiced their concerns. But, we would not feel that this is yet another attempt to hoodwink us.

By permitting the banks and AIG to receive money without making the process totally transparent, the Obama administration and Geithner and Summers and their friends have deprived the American people of the opportunity to be part of the process, at least to feel that we are part of the process.

Obama says he will be transparent, but he has to actually insist on transparency in every aspect of his administration. Eventually, when he and his administration have regained the trust of the American people that was lost by the horrible abuses of the Bush administration, then the standard of transparency may be relaxed just a bit.

But for now, Obama needs to demand utter transparency in every decision.

I am troubled because I read here on DU that negotiations regarding a health care plan are being conducted in private sessions in which health care insurance companies are taking a dominant role. Again -- the lack of transparency makes the Obama administration look hypocritical. Obama has to demand utter transparency in every aspect of government. The wheeling and dealing that gave rise to so much corruption during the Johnson administration and every subsequent administration has to stop. This is the internet age. The American people are better educated and better informed than ever before. Utter transparency must be Obama's watchword.

[rosesaylavee]

10. "just my opinion"

H2OMan, you are one of the very few here on DU that I agree with almost every single time you post anything. I don't follow boxing so we may have disagreements there that I don't know about. :P

[Gabi Hayes]

3. speaking of policies, do you recognize this? except for the coal, pretty damn good:

The first principle is that we can have an effective and comprehensive energy policy only if the government takes responsibility for it and if the people understand the seriousness of the challenge and are willing to make sacrifices.

The second principle is that healthy economic growth must continue. Only by saving energy can we maintain our standard of living and keep our people at work. An effective conservation program will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

The third principle is that we must protect the environment. Our energy problems have the same cause as our environmental problems -- wasteful use of resources. Conservation helps us solve both at once.

The fourth principle is that we must reduce our vulnerability to potentially devastating embargoes. We can protect ourselves from uncertain supplies by reducing our demand for oil, making the most of our abundant resources such as coal, and developing a strategic petroleum reserve.

The fifth principle is that we must be fair. Our solutions must ask equal sacrifices from every region, every class of people, every interest group. Industry will have to do its part to conserve, just as the consumers will. The energy producers deserve fair treatment, but we will not let the oil companies profiteer.

The sixth principle, and the cornerstone of our policy, is to reduce the demand through conservation. Our emphasis on conservation is a clear difference between this plan and others which merely encouraged crash production efforts. Conservation is the quickest, cheapest, most practical source of energy. Conservation is the only way we can buy a barrel of oil for a few dollars. It costs about $13 to waste it.

The seventh principle is that prices should generally reflect the true replacement costs of energy. We are only cheating ourselves if we make energy artificially cheap and use more than we can really afford.

The eighth principle is that government policies must be predictable and certain. Both consumers and producers need policies they can count on so they can plan ahead. This is one reason I am working with the Congress to create a new Department of Energy, to replace more than 50 different agencies that now have some control over energy.

The ninth principle is that we must conserve the fuels that are scarcest and make the most of those that are more plentiful. We can't continue to use oil and gas for 75 percent of our consumption when they make up seven percent of our domestic reserves. We need to shift to plentiful coal while taking care to protect the environment, and to apply stricter safety standards to nuclear energy.

The tenth principle is that we must start now to develop the new, unconventional sources of energy we will rely on in the next century.

These ten principles have guided the development of the policy I would describe to you and the Congress on Wednesday.

Our energy plan will also include a number of specific goals, to measure our progress toward a stable energy system.

These are the goals we set for 1985:

--Reduce the annual growth rate in our energy demand to less than two percent.

--Reduce gasoline consumption by ten percent below its current level.

--Cut in half the portion of United States oil which is imported, from a potential level of 16 million barrels to six million barrels a day.

--Establish a strategic petroleum reserve of one billion barrels, more than six months' supply.

--Increase our coal production by about two thirds to more than 1 billion tons a year.

--Insulate 90 percent of American homes and all new buildings.

--Use solar energy in more than two and one-half million houses.

We will monitor our progress toward these goals year by year. Our plan will call for stricter conservation measures if we fall behind.

[JDPriestly]

6. Jimmy Carter? Excellent.

[lonestarnot]

4. K & R OP and Responses!

Anger has had its way with me for too long! Some constructive, some not so much. :evilgrin:

[stevedeshazer]

7. I sure agree with you about the Plastic Ono Band

I loved "Instant Karma" (still do) but forgot about "Who Has Seen the Wind?".

Thanks for the reminder.

[bleever]

8. 'LBJ’s cover of The Beatles’ "And Your Bird Can Sing".'

LBJ did have a soft side and some compassion in his heart, to go with his other traits.

Thank you for this thoughtful post.

[Pastiche423]

9. K&R!

Especially for your post #2!

[Me.]

11. Thought Is The First Step In Creation

what you thought about 5 minutes ago may very well be the first step to somewhere else

[byronius]

12. K&R.

[fascisthunter]

13. I Really Really Appreciate This Quote:

{3} Land of the Spotted Eagle, by Luther Standing Bear; 1933.
"Is not humanness a matter of heart and mind, and is it not evident in the form of relationship with other men? Is not kindness more powerful than arrogance, and truth not more powerful than the sword?"