A little masterpiece by @Vestralux, posted the day after the Republican Senators voted not to allow any witnesses in the president's trial.
She is responding to this statement by @codyroo: The problem with this is that we are teetering towards Oligarchy.
Yes. We are. But we've been teetering towards oligarchy since our founding. Since before our founding. We're a nation founded on a continental genocide—you know, so white folks could own land and plant crops and make money.
We're a nation that fought a CIVIL WAR because oligarchs wished to assert their so-called "sovereign right" to continue with the chattel slavery of living human beings—all in order to maintain economic power.
While the rest of the world has been orbiting the sun, we've been leaping to the whims and caprices of the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, the J.P. Morgans, and their like. As a result, we've become a kleptocracy.
When slavery was defeated, the Southern oligarchs created mass incarceration and the "free" labor of the prison colony. Today, its proliferation has become a privatized prison industry. Hey y'all, the more people we lock up, the richer we get! To include asylum seekers and children.
I could go on and on and on. But the point, I think, is that Americans have to wake up from our collective delusion that we were ever anything else. In fact, this is the dilemma of the entire human race as I see it: Will everyday people continue to permit the tyranny of oligarchs and kleptocrats and sociopaths—and therefore the continued annihilation of countless species, including our own(!), or will we dismantle those forces which perpetuate it?
This is why I think the rage and frustration you're feeling isn't just understandable, it's necessary. We all feel it. And we have to feel it in order to be inspired to do something.
Posted by @Cindy on 1/30/20
As a survivor, I do understand the knee jerk reactions to Kobe's death and how that can be at odds with those who adored him as an athlete. I used to think it was a curse to think of things from so many perspectives at once, but as I've aged, I've come to find it a blessing.
What Kobe did 20 +/- years ago was wrong. Period. However, he was far ahead of his time. Attitudes take ages to make a dent in mainstream thinking, much less in actions. Just 10 years prior, most had not ever even heard of the term spousal rape until the Bobbitt case, much less known there were laws about it. Neither were the terms date/acquaintance rape mainstream concepts. Most only recognized the Hollywood version-a physical beating utilized to force sex on an unwilling person. Consent wouldn't be a mainstream topic for years after Kobe's case. Even today, victims are routinely blamed by defense attorney's or judges. Back then, it was par for the course for Kobe's attorneys to do what they did. Being high profile, she dropped the criminal case. Kobe came out and apologized, and acknowledged that what he thought as a male was consent, was a far cry from what the female perspective of consent is. This was unheard of at the time. I knew my perpetrators, and above all else, I always wanted an admission of wrongdoing and an apology. At least when she went after him in the civil case, they kept it out of the spotlight, and settled. They could have played blame the victim round two, but they chose not to. That's not to say this didn't benefit Kobe as well, but his statement and apology let me believe there was consideration for the victim in these choices as well.
Kobe changed. He created his on court persona to handle the athletic and public aspects of his life, and returned to church in his private life. He understood his inability to control his power and adulation earlier, and took steps to see that it didn't happen again. He started whittling away at his Karmic debt he had created. He opened up sports programs for underprivileged youth. He backed women's sports. He had four daughters. He had to live with the fact that each one of them faced inequality in the world, and abuse at the hands of men just like himself, much less the serial perpetrators out there. While supporting her aspirations, he knew in his heart that even if his daughter became pro- his daughter would not have the opportunities he was shown as a male. He knows that as each daughter grows older, they'll find out about his transgressions as well. That's quite a price to pay in itself.
I've often wondered how my attackers coped over the years. They knew my family, so I had to come face to face with at least one of them for years after the incident. I was 12, they were 17-18. To my knowledge, none of them ever participated in another such event. The one most closely tied to my family went to college, married and had two daughters. Karma caught up to him. His girls were little when he took ill. He couldn't work, and his wife supported him until their daughters were grown and on their own. Then she left him to have a life for herself. How much of his illness was because he held in guilt and negative feelings? I know of many who claim that trauma or negativity has harmed their health. Of course I'll never know what was guilt, what was Karma. It's not my business to know. It's his Karmic debt not mine. I don't worry about other's debts-mortgages, car loans, etc. Karmic debt is no different. I'm not owed personally, it is the Universe/Karma that is owed. Whether the debt is repaid here on Earth or in the hereafter is not up to me, nor is it my cross to bear. Making it my worry only adds to my burdens unnecessarily. How someone treats you is their Karma. How you react is yours. I am actually friends with one of his grown daughters. No, I haven't told her. Never will. It's not about protecting him or avoiding the feelings roused by talking about the past. I simply do not want to be the kind of person who would put that kind of unnecessary burden on someone else. I don't want or need that kind of Karmic debt.
To err is human, to forgive Divine. This doesn't mean that you are spiritual or holy for forgiving. Forgiveness doesn't mean what was done was right or ok, or that we have to be friendly or in contact with those who have harmed us. It means we let go. Letting go means we control our lives instead of letting the past be in control-that is the divinity. How many people have we hurt because we were once hurt? How many have we not trusted? We are human, and made our own mistakes. We can't undo what we've done. None of us. Not all rapists are monsters. Some are people who made the mistake once, and like their victims, will carry the baggage of that mistake the rest of their lives.
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. -Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
posted by Jeanne on 02-02-2020:
A message for this darkness, and the light that will arise, in the spirit of tonight's meditation. Like Baba's dream, we can face this dark situation with open eyes and see more clearly a beautiful outcome:
"We were made to understand it would be
Terrible. Every small want, every niggling urge,
Every hate swollen to a kind of epic wind.
Livid, the land, and ravaged, like a rageful
Dream. The worst in us having taken over
And broken the rest utterly down.
A long age
Passed. When at last we knew how little
Would survive us—how little we had mended
Or built that was not now lost—something
Large and old awoke. And then our singing
Brought on a different manner of weather.
Then animals long believed gone crept down
From trees. We took new stock of one another.
We wept to be reminded of such color."
-- An Old Story by Tracy K. Smith
Wow! Jeanne hits another one out of the park! I might have to reread this everyday, to remind myself of who we are, and who we are dealing with:
@lynnventura the thing is he has the socialist label which makes him an easy target for the GOP. ?
Dear sweet beautiful @jovesta whose posts I have admired, and all of us who worry:
We must not worry ourselves with anything the GOP says. They are abusers and gas lighters. I have learned from the abusers in my earlier life to shut my ears to them and hang out with light workers.
Abusers will say anything ugly to win. The party that said a trial doesn't need witnesses. The party of child abusers, woman abusers, immigrant abusers and killers, racists, nazis. The party that locks up innocent children in cages and prisons. The party that looked the other way while a sixteen year old child died under their watch. The party that has sold their country to the Kremlin. The Party that is trying its hardest to break the Constitution. The Party that is going to drill in sacred land, national parks, the Arctic. The party that made animal cruelty legal. The party that is responsible, yes responsible for the coming loss of most if not all of the world's coastal cities and all of their history, not to mention untold loss of life from famine.
Come on, you care what they have to say about Bernie Sanders, a good man who has never wavered in his service and who wants our country to be more like Denmark?
We need to focus on winning, not on losing. We are stronger than they are. We are in the light. There are many more of us. They are aging out. We are expanding.
Posted by @luminata on 2/27/20 in New Wuhan Coronavirus:
All you lovely souls here - and how beautiful you all are!
Jeanne held a meditation/healing session on this new plague last night. I don't know of she's posted it yet, but knowing Jeanne, it will be posted, and I encourage those of you who could not attend live to join by watching when you can.
I scanned the last couple of pages here and feel a huge spike in panicky reactions. And yeah, I panicked about three weeks ago knowing many of my coworkers were attending a big sales meeting that included attendees from our China branch and potentially bringing this new virus back to the home office.
Plagues are scarey. They kill people - this one has the potential to kill lots of people. And the scariest aspect of all is there is really not much we can do about it. Truly, for a period of time, usually a year to 18 months, there is a free fall. People are going to die. ( yep, we all know we're going to die someday, right) Jobs are going to be lost. Accidents are going to happen. Money and goods(including food) are going to be scarce. Travel is going to be locked down.
And we've done all of this before.
Pandora opened her box untold years ago. Eve ate that apple. Yet we're here. We Are Here! And Hope stuck around after Pandora opened her box.
Counting the number of people with this new virus isn't going to change it. Trying to anticipate how many and who will die because of it won't change its course. Blaming incompetent governments for the way they are testing, or disseminating information about it won't make it go away.
Spirit has this one. Wherever you are, who ever you are, just know that we are in a period of change. Life is going to be different for awhile. Lessons will be learned. Hope is still with us.
Hope sees that the world will change for the better. I personally think we'll see a significant reduction in greenhouse gases- convert to a more work from home environment- move to a more local focus for our sustainability. These are GOOD things.
Yes, it's going to be messy. Lots of mess on the horizon. Personally, I am quite sure the trip I have planned in early April to see my son for the first time since December is going to be disrupted. That sucks. Truly sucks, hate it with a passion, will certainly throw a temper tantrum to beat any two year old's if/when that comes to pass. I suspect my job will be eliminated by the end of this year and the company I work for will not survive the next couple of years. For all I ( or to be quite honest at this point any one of you) know, I have this virus and could be on a respirator or dead in a month.
But, BUT(!) Spirit has got this. If I can't see my son in person- I wasn't meant to. If I lose my job or my life- it is for a reason.
Man proposes and God disposes. Life is what happens while you're making other plans. Shit in one hand, wish in the other and see which one fills up first(thanks to my Grandma W for that wonderfully colorful and apt description of how to navigate being a human).
We're in a tough spot. This is a pandemic with serious ramifications. Unless you can develop a vaccine ( and I feel there are people who read this site who can) then you're going to have to ride this. How you ride it is up to you. Panic isn't going to help you ride it.
What's helping me get through is:
Knowing we're in a crisis. I don't guess anymore that we are in it - counts and iffy government reporting won't change it.
I have food supplies for probably a month. I tend to keep a well stocked pantry even in normal times. I'm not going out and buying the whole store. Spend what extra money you have to stock in some canned goods.
Masks aren't going to help. Please don't buy into this and leave the masks and personal protective gear for our first line defenders.
Spend your Hope on supporting your local medical community in any way you can. Ask them what they need and give what you can to get it for them- this can be volunteering to organize community communication through e-mail or other electronic communication. Do they need food delivery, do they need people to cancel public meetings, do they need better personal protective gear. If you have money- contribute to your local hospital. Take some online classes in CPR - get yourself prepared to be the best nurse you can.
Let's shift our energy from looking anxiously at how bad this is going to be (personally and communally) to focusing on how we can fortify those who are in the fight already and will be in it for awhile.
We're here- the jeanie isn't going back in the bottle. No government is going to solve this. WE have to.
Love you all!
Posted by @journeywithme2 who works in a lab and has excellent understandings and knowledge about the spreading coronavirus/COVID-19 in reply to my thoughts and theories about COVID-19 potentially mutating between species and humans in new forms now .
She had posted this previous reply :
"I have already seen corona virus antibodies in previous bloodwork for auto-immune and infectious disease labs. There are several kinds of corona virus... COVID-19 is a novel virus, an emergent new strain of corona virus. We vaccinated for years with a live vaccine for canine corona virus - which had two types.. the upper respiratory one and the GI variation. We were having the discussion at work the other day about the fact that we may have already had and healed from COVID-19. It is a matter of speculation and food for thought... .and.. would be interesting to find out about ."
And replied to me with this...so many things to consider that I thought everyone should read it!
"most forms of virus are specific to species...the canine corona supposedly could not infect us..the antibodies found in bloodwork was the human common cold type. There are many kinds of corona virus that are specific to species...but as we have seen.. some have mutated and crossed species..here is a good summary of how many there are: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/types.html
It's not out of the realm of possibility. Some stories put out there say it originated in the "wet market" Others say it escaped the virology lab like SARS did in 2004 - " someone knows the Truth but they aren't talking"
"People around the world commonly get infected with human coronaviruses 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1.
Sometimes coronaviruses that infect animals can evolve and make people sick and become a new human coronavirus. Three recent examples of this are 2019-nCoV, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV."
Another thought I have too, is that humans are overloading and destroying the planet... and once things reach a tipping point Earth shrugs us off in great numbers. As the ice caps melt they are freeing up ancient microbes , virus and bacteria.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/melting-glaciers-liberate-ancient-microbes/
These would be illnesses that no one currently living has any immunity to.
Perhaps Covid -19 is a wake up call?
Just my idle speculations as I sip my morning coffee and wake up on my day off.."
And @coyote
Thank you for sharing @lovendures post above. For weeks I'd felt her panic and was concerned for her heart and health as she's such a great person and contributor so to read this where you pulled it al ltogether Lovendures just lifts my spirits and makes my heart sing!
So many others are just riding the rollercoaster now but am thrilled for your beautiful shared post!
This darn virus is getting into people in mind/ body/spirit and thats the first step of how illness begins. (I actually feel blessed that I have far bigger fish to fry and need to stay centered and grounded and stay happy and grateful for every day in every way) so love love love these great information or great positive emotions posts that you are all sharing on this thread ???
Oh... I am a veterinary technician of 30 years service and still going... the labs I referred too is the running of bloodwork - sorry about the "medicalese" that may have confused you. The veterinarian community generally study and care for 6 species canine,feline,equine,bovine,caprine,porcine and specialty practice with reptile,avian,amphibian etc. All study Zoonoses - transmission of diseases from animals to people - two most commonly known.. rabies, intestinal parasites, others like Leptospirosis are lesser known - our job is to educate the public on them and how to avoid them as well as treat patients that contract them. They also work in laboratories studying zoonoses :" A zoonosis is an infectious disease caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites that spread from non-human animals to humans. Major modern diseases such as Ebola virus disease and salmonellosis are zoonoses. " and in our agriculture and food animal productions.