CORRUPTION
Hal Pepinsky, pepinsky@indiana.edu, pepinsky.blogspot.com
July 21, 2010
Fights against corruption are inherently corrupt. Take Secretary Clinton’s latest diatribe against corruption in Afghanistan. As leadership of Goldman Sachs controlled her husband’s treasury secretariat, so Goldman Sachs veterans now predominate in President Obama’s White House and Treasury Department. Wisconsin Senator Russell Feingold refused to vote for the financial regulation bill Mr. Obama signs today, on grounds that Wall Street speculators (aka investors) have bought off the US government. Even the Supreme Court is in their pocket—witness the “conservative” Court’s overturning a hundred years of banning corporate contributions to state and national candidates for political office. And higher management in Wall Street are being paid gigantic bonuses for putting up with the current economic turmoil. For their part, all but 2 Senate Republicans held steadfastly against giving extensions of some $330 per week to those who have been out of a job longer than six months, on grounds that these unemployment checks might deter people from getting jobs. Happily, that bill will pass, barely. In the United States, it is who’s who that most counts, and the private corporate sector controls the politicians. Now isn’t that corruption? Secretary Clinton, who are you to preach? Love and peace--hal
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Secretary Clinton, you embarrass and endanger me
PRESSURE SELF-DESTROYS
Hal Pepinsky, pepinsky@indiana.edu, pepinsky.blogspot.com
July 20, 2010
Secretary Clinton, what are you thinking? You think that by throwing money at Pakistanis, they will love us? You think that by pressing Pakistani military to kill more Pakistanis at our behest that Pakistanis will be grateful? You think that by a more visible presence in Afghanistan you are legitimizing a government rather than making it more apparent that they are collaborators with present and former would-be colonizers, notably NATO?
I don’t know whom to be mad at for this insanity. You and my president are escalating enmity toward us and toward those we call our friends, especially among those we try to bribe and bully into compliance. That is sick--Vietnam compounded. I long for the day when my national government will practice twelve steps and repent of our addiction to knowing what others need to do for the greater human good. Only then will I feel that you have made our people safer. Let’s face it, before all others, we ourselves are sick. Love and peace--hal
Hal Pepinsky, pepinsky@indiana.edu, pepinsky.blogspot.com
July 20, 2010
Secretary Clinton, what are you thinking? You think that by throwing money at Pakistanis, they will love us? You think that by pressing Pakistani military to kill more Pakistanis at our behest that Pakistanis will be grateful? You think that by a more visible presence in Afghanistan you are legitimizing a government rather than making it more apparent that they are collaborators with present and former would-be colonizers, notably NATO?
I don’t know whom to be mad at for this insanity. You and my president are escalating enmity toward us and toward those we call our friends, especially among those we try to bribe and bully into compliance. That is sick--Vietnam compounded. I long for the day when my national government will practice twelve steps and repent of our addiction to knowing what others need to do for the greater human good. Only then will I feel that you have made our people safer. Let’s face it, before all others, we ourselves are sick. Love and peace--hal
Monday, July 5, 2010
check out democracynow.org 's interview with Michael Moore; followup to "hopefully"
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/5/michael_moore_on_his_life_his
I think Micheal Moore and I share hope--love and peace--hal
I think Micheal Moore and I share hope--love and peace--hal
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Hopefully
HOPEFULLY
Hal Pepinsky, pepinsky@indiana.edu, pepinsky.blogspot.com
Independence Day 2010
I struggle to imagine a better future for our heirs. It is abundantly clear, now as ever, that history cannot be reversed. As my late statistics mentor Les Wilkins taught me, life processes are stochastic. I’d go a step further and venture a guess that stochastic processes seldom repeat themselves. We might as well let go of making plans work to adapt to globally profound changes in the human condition. I’m sorry, President Obama, our national economic growth has peaked. Consumer confidence will no longer determine how many of us eat and sleep in relative personal security. Improving our capacity to kill without being killed will not increase our national security. Noblesse is never obliged forever. I confess that I declined to register to vote when I picked up my first Ohio driver’s license last week. I don’t want the hassle of being called to jury duty; I get no thrill out of getting to deliberate other people’s fates in secrecy.
So what’s there to be hopeful about? In my part of the world, counties outside major cities are largely depopulated. At farmer’s markets as even in news accounts, even in cities, people are moving toward growing food for themselves and their local communities. At the Worthington farmer’s market yesterday morning, cloth bags were for sale celebrating being a locavore. In native Americana and in intentional communities from the onset of European settlement thrive, and in our time, are multiplying.
These forms of development evolve in countless incubators, where people out of need or conviction invent new forms. I learned long ago that it is folly to strategize social change. I think Darwin is right in his stochastic theory that the most diverse species and ecosystems most survive. That is a law of nature, it is our karma. I see no point in moralizing or laying blame in any of our human conditions. I simply believe the super-rich as families and for-profit corporations will fail to survive. I’m hopeful.
On the sad side, the end times of belief in human exceptionalism will remain ugly. The poor will die and suffer first; the rich will most rapidly adapt (as former Communists did politically in Eastern Europe). It will become uglier. Because humanity has concentrated on increasing personal life expectancy, we as a species have become a plague of locusts on survival of species generally in our earthly ecosystem. I think we can only aggravate this loss and suffering by strategizing to reverse it. I am hopeful that our surviving heirs will come to live in a better place, personally and socially. It will surely be a humbler place for humanity. I remain hopeful.
Love and peace--Hal
Hal Pepinsky, pepinsky@indiana.edu, pepinsky.blogspot.com
Independence Day 2010
I struggle to imagine a better future for our heirs. It is abundantly clear, now as ever, that history cannot be reversed. As my late statistics mentor Les Wilkins taught me, life processes are stochastic. I’d go a step further and venture a guess that stochastic processes seldom repeat themselves. We might as well let go of making plans work to adapt to globally profound changes in the human condition. I’m sorry, President Obama, our national economic growth has peaked. Consumer confidence will no longer determine how many of us eat and sleep in relative personal security. Improving our capacity to kill without being killed will not increase our national security. Noblesse is never obliged forever. I confess that I declined to register to vote when I picked up my first Ohio driver’s license last week. I don’t want the hassle of being called to jury duty; I get no thrill out of getting to deliberate other people’s fates in secrecy.
So what’s there to be hopeful about? In my part of the world, counties outside major cities are largely depopulated. At farmer’s markets as even in news accounts, even in cities, people are moving toward growing food for themselves and their local communities. At the Worthington farmer’s market yesterday morning, cloth bags were for sale celebrating being a locavore. In native Americana and in intentional communities from the onset of European settlement thrive, and in our time, are multiplying.
These forms of development evolve in countless incubators, where people out of need or conviction invent new forms. I learned long ago that it is folly to strategize social change. I think Darwin is right in his stochastic theory that the most diverse species and ecosystems most survive. That is a law of nature, it is our karma. I see no point in moralizing or laying blame in any of our human conditions. I simply believe the super-rich as families and for-profit corporations will fail to survive. I’m hopeful.
On the sad side, the end times of belief in human exceptionalism will remain ugly. The poor will die and suffer first; the rich will most rapidly adapt (as former Communists did politically in Eastern Europe). It will become uglier. Because humanity has concentrated on increasing personal life expectancy, we as a species have become a plague of locusts on survival of species generally in our earthly ecosystem. I think we can only aggravate this loss and suffering by strategizing to reverse it. I am hopeful that our surviving heirs will come to live in a better place, personally and socially. It will surely be a humbler place for humanity. I remain hopeful.
Love and peace--Hal
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
