Foggy Snow Day
Greetings and salutations from the sand, sun and surf of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and the great island of Nantucket! So good, as always, to be with you on quite a foggy morning here in Osterville, as we received roughly three inches of snow yesterday, whereupon, roughly 10 a.m., the snow, sung in that sad love song, turned to rain, and lucky for us it did, as we would have been given the 18 inches or so they are being blessed with just a little north of us, just a short drive up route 3 to Boston, 67 miles to precise. The great city will see upwards of 75 inches thus far this winter, and we just began February. Climate change, it’s not just a talking point digested at breakfast anymore, while we listen to naysayers on Bill Maher’s HBO gem of a show, “Real Time, with Bill Maher”, who spoke this past week out of their, well, you make up an appropriate noun, regarding the “lack of credible science” to prove or disprove what we ALL can clearly see out of our bloody window! How stupid are these people anyway? Do they think it’s a game or are they really that dim? The regression in intellectual, collective, acumen, in this nation, is frightening, and it is being played out not only here in the intellectual vacuum of most of the nation’s media, but in the very real, clear and present danger of the earth’s atmosphere warming, EXPONENTIALLY, a FACT whether or not these “functioning” IDIOT puppets believe it or not. But in “on the house that was built on sand,” as Michael Lewis put it, a gifted author who wrote the best selling novel, “The Big Short”, a must read, (boy I hate it when people say that don’t you?, like I don’t have enough books on my plate to digest) it’s all par for the course, as the book explains, in layman’s terms– as the book was partly “co-authored”, if you will, Michael, by insiders who truly understood the “house of cards” that was being built by the complicated derivatives market, intertwined with the sub-prime mortgage scam that every big bank and some insurance companies participated in, and when the predatory lending, bundled “investment products”, bundled together via complicated (MIT degree needed to understand) financial “derivatives”, or “credit default swaps”, those high stake bets on whether the “products”, all triple A rated, would survive or fail, all while the investment banks, such as Goldman Sachs, prompted many investors to take the risk, while they knew all along the “investments” were dogs with fleas, and would ultimately fail–truly explains what the hell is going on in the shadows of the very dark and crooked street called Wall. Since the crisis of 2008, the big banks have seen record profits, why? Because the Federal Reserve Bank lends these banks (”socialism for capitalists, capitalism for everybody else”, credit Michael Lewis on “Morning Joe” 2-2-2011) capital, or cash, at 0 percent interest, taking that money and lending it BACK to the government, or who or what ever else, at market rates. Corporate profits are also through the roof, while they complain about not having enough in the way of corporate loopholes, while crying out about the corporate tax rates, when many companies, such as GE or Exxon Mobile, paid nothing in taxes, NOTHING in fiscal year 2009–hence the newly elected puppets of the 112th congress, who will continue with the march towards their ULTIMATE goal, and that, my friends, is the (possible) very real and very scary shift in this country, moving from a democracy to a pure plutocracy, or rule by the wealthy–the old “tried and true” Oligarchy. Corporations can now search far and wide, taking full advantage of the seven oceans, and the countries that occupy their shores, looking for new slaves to exploit, finding cheap labor with NO real rights for workers, no REAL HUMAN RIGHTS at all, subjecting them to toxins we don’t even know about yet, in the worst working conditions you can possibly imagine. These vultures of the now global greenhouse that is “globalization” have set up shop in every country known to man and as the polar ice caps melt (both poles, as well as every glacier on planet earth)–warming the earth to the point where it is too warm to grow food, with all that melting of ancient ice directly causing the seas to rise by thirty feet, bringing unheard of storms and floods causing rampant refugees all over the world, and as giant wild fires burn out of control (as they did in areas surrounding Moscow this past summer, where the air was so unhealthy it caused wide spread illness), due to extreme droughts, and world wide panic ensues–we can ALL turn to one another and thank the likes of, say, the KOCH Brothers! David and Charles! Who have been polluting our rivers, streams, oceans, marshes and air for over thirty years now, right HERE in the good ‘ole USA! And that is being GENEROUS. As I listened to Michael speak, with clarity and conviction, only a few moments ago, I was struck by the speed at which all this is happening, almost as if it already happened, the crisis in the Middle East, and how, somehow, we might be getting the message that WE are all connected. Watching the LIVE feed coming over the airwaves of the now violent clashes, as Mubarak sends his goon squads out, dressed in civilian clothes, to stir up some more trouble, the crisis steps it up a notch in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez–in the ancient country of Egypt. What will happen next is any one’s guess, and I would not hazard one now. It is surreal to watch history unfold in perhaps the most ancient, one of them anyway, country in the world, dating back to 5000 B.C.. If those walls could talk, for how much has it changed?–when you have rampant poverty, corruption and blind dictatorships ruling a FAKE democratic system, a rigged democratic system, that was set up to “stabilize” the region, all in the name of perhaps mankind’s greatest scourge, OIL–yes, how much has it changed indeed, since the days of the Pharaohs, who never knew anything about the fortunes and follies that laid beneath their feet? How many men have to die for this black gold, this Texas tea? The Suez canal, the trading route that cuts 5000 extra miles off of ocean going freight, as the ships are able to pass through the narrow man-made canal, surrounded by desert on all sides, as opposed to the dangerous trip around the horn of Africa, the Suez Canal is vital to U.S. interests, hence the hesitation on the Obama administration to call the game, putting our friends in Israel in a difficult position, and having 22 other countries in the region on the verge of a similar revolution that seems to be gathering steam rather than petering itself out. I found it very interesting that Michael used the words, “a house built on sand,” for those words were used by another citizen of region, living not too far from where all of this is going down, a man who lived and walked this earth over 2011 years ago, when he said these words, “dig deep, do not build your house on sand, but find the bedrock, that will be your salvation.” He, of course, was not talking about things of this world, such as an actual house, rather, an introspective look at one’s own personal soul, taking a step back from the noise of this world, with it’s crazy, madcap sensory overload where not only can one not THINK clearly, but many also taking on an other’s sometimes warped and insane viewpoints, literally taking them as Gospel. And as one sheds those “beliefs”, that are just that, not reality, just simple thoughts that became a “belief”, nothing more, may one eventually find one’s own voice and adhere that quiet inner voice that ALWAYS speaks to the TRUTH of one’s BEING to that which really matters in the end, “LOVING OTHERS AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF.” That is all we really take in the end anyway. May GOD’s GRACE be upon Egypt in it’s hour of darkness and may LIGHT eternal shine down upon it’s people. Have a nice day folks and May GOD be with you all as well. PRESERVE THE WILDERNESS! Peace~M
