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Trump
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I dedicate my practice today to peace. We need more peace and love in the world.
I truly don't know the right response to Syria. I find dealing with ISIS easier than Assad (in my mind where I can solve all the world's problems, lol). But to carry through with such actions with no one else on the discussions or on board, and while China is visiting, ugh. I cannot get over how horrible of a speaker he is. Ugh again. And for good measure, he is in Florida for yet another long weekend. Ugh ugh ugh. The people of Syria are screaming for help. But how to help them.
Trump may just be the best thing that ever happened to the United States, and perhaps even the world. I can't, for a moment, even reasonably speculate how that is possible, but it doesn't take too much effort to recall a myriad of moments in my life when I would have sworn that there was no way that I could get out of a predicament, or that good could come out of my current situation - or even that I would possibly survive the situation that I found myself in. I was wrong in each of those cases.
So, a couple of quotes that have come to mind recently. This one is by Ajahn Brahm, "Letting go of the Controller, staying more with this moment and being open to the uncertainty of our future, releases us from the prison of fear. It allows us to respond to life's challenges with our own original wisdom and gets us out safely from many a sticky situation."
And another...longer...
The 17th century philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal once said, "All the troubles of man come from his not knowing how to sit still." In 1967, Israel was at war with Egypt, Syria and Jordan. In the midst of what became known as the Six Day War, a reporter asked former British prime minister Harold Macmillan what he thought about the problem in the Middle East.
Without hesitation, the then elder statesman answered, "There is no problem in the Middle East." The reporter was stunned. "What do you mean there is no problem in the Middle East?" the reporter demanded to know. "Don't you know there's a vicious war going on? Don't you realie that while we are speaking, bombs are falling from the sky, tanks are blowing each other up, and soldiers are being sprayed with bullets? Many people are dead or wounded. What do you mean, 'There is no problem in the Middle East'?"
The experienced statesman patiently explained, "Sir, a problem is something with a solution. There is no solution to the Middle East. Therefore, it can't be a problem.
Today, according to my limited understanding of life, the universe and everything, there is no solution to Trump. If that changes, I'll act. And I'll probably be happy I saved some of my limited energy for that day. There's a marked advantage in spending all one's energy trying to live to see tomorrow. I really have become aware of how much energy I've wasted throughout my life trying to fix things that while broken, were beyond my ability to fix.
Great reference to MacMillan.... That's when Politicians were 'serious' people, and one could rely on them, far moreso than today.
IMHO.
The one positive I see in Trump being president is that it is forcing people to look seriously at the things the government has supported and how losing that funding will impact our communities...and forcing people to start volunteering and donating to help fund them ourselves. A lot of people in the US like to want their cake and eat it too. They want US made goods and want people to be paid fairly but turn around and buy junk from sweatshops because it's cheap. If anything, this whole experience has made me and a lot of others REALLY stop to look at what we have what we need, and what we can do on a community level to support the things that really are important to us, and to back off the things that aren't. Perhaps if we didn't hoard so much junk we'd be willing to pay more for good products where workers are paid a fair wage and have less. We'd all be better off. I see much more of that line of thinking now than before. People are choosing to donate to Meals on Wheels (though that's largely because of half truths told by the media when there are places who really could use donations even more) and other programs, they are funding social justice agencies etc. It's forcing an examination that many people haven't done before, and I think that's a good thing.
It's true, i can't do anything about Trump in office. But I can do a lot to support the things he is cutting, I can help my neighbors, I can be more aware of what I am able to do instead of staying in my head thinking about all the things I can't do or the things I really know nothing about.
I despise the cutting of so many of the programs that people need, that make such a difference in lives. But. If we have no choice in that, we do have a choice to fund them ourselves,and that is what we are doing. Maybe we should, as smaller communities, as states, as a country at large, be putting more into the systems we want than we have been. Plus, most of those donations are tax deductible, so it decreases what the government gets to use in ways we disapprove of and we can focus on what is important to us and our communities instead.
We do still have Obamacare. And, I might add, it's not fully-funded. Some states can't afford to take on more low-income people. I think the next phase should be about beefing up the funding on the federal level, which means raising taxes in some manner. Of course, Trumpty-Dumpty isn't going to do that. But I don't think some people realize that the program was created basically with a wave of the hand, without creating a source of dedicated funds for it. It's simply adding to the national debt.
Tremendous!
The way the pendulum swings, I wouldn't be surprised if you guys end up with a Democratic Socialist next. You'll probably end up with a better single-payer healthcare system than we have.
I wouldn't be surprised if there were many socialists voting for dumpty just to get the alt-right momentum strong enough to swing their way. People are sick of the slow progression and business-as-usual politics we keep seeing. Two steps forward and a big one back. It reminds me of the line from Neil Youngs Rockin in the Free World... We got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand. Dumpty is putting the cards of all the haters bare on the table and is going all in. It is all about milking the last drops of oil but most everybody now knows we don't need it any more.
It sucks and even those of us outside the U.S. have to brace ourselves for whatever is to come (didn't take long for that false flag did it?) and hope for a pheonix to rise sooner rather than later. I find it rather odd that Assad was left to his own devices, refugees sent back and then 59 missiles doing very minor damage were sent in in response to people being gassed by perpetraters largely unconfirmed.
The light at the end of the tunnel is not burnt out. It's just been turned off due to a lack of funding which will register as not making sense soon. I just hope not too many of us are killed before then.
It's kind of funny to note how he's doing a good job pushing away both sides right now. All of his policies are awful to liberals. But a lot of his fans are really mad about his bombing Syria. Not because they care about Syria, but because Trump promised to get us out of middle east affairs and focus on America. So a lot of his voters are complaining that we shouldn't care about Arabs killing each other, we should only care about our job market (which is finally showing the signs of Trump's America now that he can't ride Obama's coattails as much and jobs growth was cut in half last month). Interesting to note how many dems/liberals are more on board with the "warning" to Syria than the repubs/conservatives are.
Of course, the stocks of Raytheon jumped up a good bit in the day after the missile launches, making many of the people who are against the strike plenty of money. Strange business, politics. I'm quite conflicted about what we should be doing about Syria. I think none of the answers is good or right. But it always seems we can and should do so much better with the amount of money we spend on war. How much of that money could go to developing education and social programs for people in countries where ISIS so easily recruits on promises? Desperate people will do whatever it takes to support their families, and giving them better options to lead a quiet family life is what most of them want. But it's pretty hard to offer that kind of support in Syria with a dictator who no doubt would destroy every thing put in place to help them. The people can't fight him. What to do? I find ISIS easier to solve than Syria. In my mind at least
It goes on to show that people all over the world are the same - they are sick of old leaders and put all their faith in a new leader. New leader tells them what they want to hear. After acquiring power, new leader is the same as the old leader. Same story the world over: the masses get fooled over and over and over. It is getting old, really.
Here, many of the people who have been cautiously approving of Trump's action in Syria are adamant Trump opposers in every other way, including Syrian refugees who absolutely fear and hate him for his immigration policies but at least some of whom are happy something was done to attempt to send a message of some sort. But that is because the democrats/liberals (again, not all of them) don't want war but thing we should do something to help the people there while the repubs/conservatives also don't want war but also don't want us to help anyone but ourselves.
If you think that Trump is the same as Obama, you couldn't be more wrong. In almost every possible way, lol.
You're right about Obama:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-president-barack-obama-bomb-map-drone-wars-strikes-20000-pakistan-middle-east-afghanistan-a7534851.html
Yes, I am quite aware of his drone strike history. Which is why I said "almost". I most certainly did not agree with all of Obama's policies. But I also leave room to understand that I don't have a clue what happens when a person steps into that role and I assume that foreign policies are much more difficult than we can ever fathom from our armchairs. It's easy to solve all the problems of the world when you aren't privy to the level of information that they are.
Trump supporters say the same thing, lol.
Please Donald don't bomb North Korea and set off a sequence of events that could be catastrophic.....
@Hozan. I share your sentiments. President Trump and a certain coterie on the general staff could make a very unwise decision. As we have made in our recent foreign adventures.
We (my family) were discussing the issue of this new POTUS, and came to the conclusion that he's a 'bit out of his depth'. (" and the prize for the Understatement of the Year goes to....")
Monarch of an financial empire, and rich beyond understanding he might be. But running a country Politically, and having to do business with all manner of foreign powers is a whole new, different and much more different ball-game altogether.
And as for his wife.....
So first Brexit...then Donald Trump....lets hope Sunday doesnt see Marine La Pen elected President in France on Sunday.....if she gets in its bye bye EU
And worse besides
Donald Trump has given La Pen his seal of approval. Need anymore be said?
Let's face it. You have a President who is a biased, prejudiced and discriminating person. And he's going along with what he believes made him popular, and elected him.
You guys just need to hang in there, and hope he's not really as utterly dumb as he sometimes sounds....
I think that the USA and Korea dancing a face-off and circling each other may actually convince both of them that pushing the button is not the greatest of ideas.
Lot of posturing going on there, like two cockerels in the farmyard....
So perhaps his bravado, dumb and ridiculous as many might think it is, may actually pay off...?
I go to bed wondering if we'll wake up to nukes having been dropped
The thing is it is pretty easy to cause a war on accident, and if anyone can manage that, it's Trump. I don't live in fear, I just go on with life. But I do wonder. I mean, by saying stupid stuff and doing stupid stuff outside of dropping bombs.
Even if North Korea got a missile off, it would ensure the obliteration of their country. Where it would go from there would be another story with China etc. But I think North Korea knows they would mostly cease to exist if they attacked the US or its allies. I shudder to think what that even means. They would not win a war with us, and it would take far less for us to wipe them off the map than for them to do extensive damage to us (which makes me sick to consider, truthfully). So in that vein, I do wonder if Trump's threats will cause Jong-un to shrink. But I don't know. The egos in both are so strong and irrational that I wouldn't doubt either or both will bring us to major war
I work with a mining engineer from Morocco. He tells me they have a saying about loud self important people, "The empty drum makes the most noise."
It almost looks like the carrier is going to get a surprise ambush. China and Russia have now both amassed troops on the border to North Korea and neither of them seem too fond of the States at the moment.
Marine La Pen made it to the "final" of the French presidential election today. Troubling times!
I have much to learn about international politics. I thought this WAS the big election and didn't realize there will be another.
8 were reduced to 2 today. Those final 2 face off in early May. Winner takes all. I fear La Pen can do it. No exaggeration to say the EU may well be in jeopardy as a union if she wins. She brings the dangerous views of the far right with her. Following Brexit and Trump I am preparing for the worst that she will win.
Between this and the North Korean stand off/crisis we are living in very volatile, unpredictable and dangerous times.
As a race we are destroying eachother and this beautiful planet we live on.
It's strange/interesting that there is such an upsurge of right-winged politics right now. I wonder why. I mean there are a million theories as to how Trump won, how Brexit happened etc. But I wonder what is going on on the deeper consciousness of people who are making these choices. It seems to me they are scared. But what of?
@karasti many people crave stimulation, even bad stuff makes them feel alive ... and not dead.
Treeleaf are organising this session, where no doubt Trump questions might be pertinent ...
http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?15261-ATTENTION-Special-Zazenkai-SUNDAY-April-30th-with-DAVID-LOY
I think this is a case of 'as it goes locally, it goes globally'. As the United States became more progressive and hurriedly strove to give the same rights to all, it left behind a large contingent that felt whip-lashed by the speed with which their world was changing. Fearful of the change and hostile toward the objects of that fear, they would do anything to stop it.
Too, the world quickly became global. As in 'blink of the eye' quick. I'm fifty-two years old and when I was in grade school there were probably one or two people in a thousand who knew how the French election was run. With the coverage of this election, an election that would have never been covered by US television thirty years ago, probably at least 30% of the people now know. Anyway, my point is simply that with a rapid change to a global perspective, nationalism was probably predictable (not that I predicted it)
@yagr indeed. I just don't understand that level of fear. To the point you want to change the entire world of millions of people just to feel better about what you are afraid of. I wish they could explain it, why they can't keep their lives and let others keep theirs. I am grateful that is not the type of world I was born into.
Funny stuff:
https://www.gofundme.com/melania-trumps-divorce-fund
Nothing.......it would seem a "Sheeple" mentality has taken over the flock...
I am not sure all people are equally able to do so. They are so driven by fear that they don't know anything else and it's been ingrained in them by family, religion and some aspects of society for a very long time. Being given permission to think for yourself and question everything about what is around you, I think, is a bit of a gift. It's easy to think we're all equally capable of the same things and in a sense we are, of course. But getting there is an adventure some don't feel capable of taking.
I have a hard time relating to, and dealing with, those kinds of people. But just like any other human, we do have common ground. And when you find it, so much can take place it's kind of amazing. It's our focus on our differences that continues to drive us apart. I have friends very different from me, and I still struggle with some of their beliefs. But I am more invested in learning about them and understanding because we have other things in common.
Trump fires the director of the FBI...the very person heading up the investigation into Trumps links with Russia......hmmm
Trump moving closer to achieving an authoritarian state?
I saw it on the news this morning... his anti-Obamacare health act was a disaster, and now this. I think that while he was voted in on a protest vote, most Americans who voted for him will by now be feeling pretty cheated.
Why would you expect an elitist, narcissistic billionaire to enact egalitarian, meritocratic policies once in office? It looked like Trump would be a disaster, and I think it is proving to be so.
Luckily there is the Atlantic Ocean between us and him.
Some who voted for him regret it. But his base is still pretty supportive and he is breaking fundraising records for the next election already. They think he is shaking things up and doing what he promised. We'll see what happens when the results of what he's doing play out over time. He is still largely riding on Obama's coattails. He has low overall support, less than 40%. But they are the same people who elected him because no one else could get their poop in a group to come up with a decent candidate to oppose him. They did an excellent job smearing Hillary. She wouldn't have been perfect by any means but at least we would have maintained what we had rather than going backwards.
Despite Trump thanking Comey for reassuring him that he's not under personal investigation, court Freedom of Information Act filings suggest otherwise. But as Trump continues to fire all those that oppose him and attempts to turn away from the checks and balances system we have in place for the exact purpose of dealing with a president like Trump, we'll see what happens. There are still far more good people that oppose him, and even other republicans are wary. I am just hoping there are enough of them to stand up for him when their lines in the sand are crossed, but career suicide is a reality for them and they aren't in the job to look out for anyone but themselves. So we shall see.
Looking at Europe now turning away from Right-wing ideology, I am tempted to say that we, Americans, are taking one for the West.
A part of me thinks it's all for the better in the long term. Now there is a real cause for people to care and to act. Hillary with all her elitist baggage and association with big money would not have rallied concerned citizens behind her in a positive sense as well as Trump is doing in the negative sense.
I think both the traditional Right and Left reached their obsolesence. Let us hope that once they annihilate one another, we shall have a new, sane and strong political center. This insane division of basically good people in this country needs to end.
Those interested in alternatives or as is happening currently, manipulating them, will ...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-democracy
Most of need to get out of our information bubbles with discernment ...
He is actually Doctor Evil's No. 2.
Can we just divide up American politics so that the Democrats are the good guys and the Republicans are the bad guys? It certainly seems that the Republicans embrace a lot of life-negative policies... the gun lobby, turning back obamacare, siding with climate change deniers, getting rid of good initiatives like Michelle Obama's reforms of school food, doing every little thing that corporate America desires.
It always seems to go two steps forward and one step back.
Plus a global community mindset (which we can't help but be headed towards now that we see each other a bit more clearly) is like a dandruff shampoo. At first it seems like it just makes things worse because it brings out all the flakes.
@Kerome there is little good in making blanket statements. There are a whole lot of Democrats who are entirely self-serving and in politics just to further their careers, just like any Republican. the politician who is in it for the people is a rare one no matter which label they put on it. My in-laws for example are republicans. We don't agree on a lot of points, and I'd never excuse their support for Trump in the name of a few things they agreed with while ignoring his blatant lack of care for half the people in the US. But as people, they are not bad guys. They are incredibly caring people who would do anything for anyone, and they often do.
Every single thing you brought up has a valid flip side (except climate change deniers). There are valid concerns on both sides of those issues, and it is often broken down into what works best for urban vs rural living areas. It is almost impossible to integrate them under one government, I think, because their needs and ways of life are just so vastly different that the support they need from their government is incredibly different.
Exactly so.
People are crazed by their tribe being attacked. There is only one way for a Buddhist to think politically, one way to eat, one way to not give a f#%k ...?
The Middle Way is aware of the extremes. Parts of us may be with those extremes. Part of us is at peace with the shades ...
and now back to the Trumping
RE: the italicized, I was going to create a separate thread for this, but it may as well go here.
Voter suppression on a massive scale has been going on since the Bush II elections. In the 2nd Bush election (Bush/Kerry), these efforts succeeded in turning the blue state I live in into a red state, by rigging the computers in all the Native American and rural Hispanic communities statewide. (It's a Hispanic state, with 9% Native American population, known to consistently vote Dem.) I keep mentioning this, because it's the one case of voter suppression I can speak from experience on, and it was proven in federal court, so we know it's not just some crank theory. If it happened in my state, it could have, and probably did, happen elsewhere. And rigged voting machines aren't the only tactics for voter suppression.
In my opinion, this is the greatest threat to our Democracy, and yet many voters are either unaware of the scale of the problem, or in denial. A Democratic Congress investigated this issue after the Bush elections, and found a variety of malfeasance in multiple states. This is part of the Congressional record. I think the Republicans are trying to use voter suppression to maintain the tax breaks Bush gave them, and now Trump is planning more of the same, at the expense of health care, the safety net for the poor, and ultimately, the nation's stability.
Republicans are even discussing privatizing or eliminating the Postal Service, and privatizing Social Security, to compensate for tax breaks for the wealthy. Imagine: the oft-ballyhooed "richest nation on Earth" can't afford a postal service or social security! They want to reduce the US to the level of a 3rd World nation on World Bank austerity programs.
When a Republican operative bragged on national radio that he was purging voter rolls during the last 2 months of the Trump campaign, an illegal act within 90 days of an election, per the Voting Rights Act, nobody flinched. Where are the Voting Rights Act police? Why does this law have no teeth?
Here's how the rigging of election computers works, as revealed in this testimony before members of Congress:
http://trustvote.org/voting-systems/problem/rigged-usa-elections-exposed/
Im not sitting on the fence here. I utterly reject trump and what he stands for. Today he pulled the US out of the Paris agreement on climate change. He is a petty, vindictive, small minded man and one man shouldnt have the power to influence the fate of the global population.
I have no doubt America is a great nation but it is being led by a........(insert word of choice).
Trump has to go.